Andreas

I review every scenario by another author that I play, regardless of whether it was testing or a fully published one. I do not play a lot of scenarios by other authors, so you won't see many reviews from me. I encourage players in my briefings to review, giving them information about the Depot and my email address for direct feedback. So it is a case of do unto others as you would like to have done to thyself. More feedback would be nice, but I am realistic enough to not despair over it. Makes it all the nicer when the odd email comes in, or when someone takes the inordinate amount of time to post an AAR like Krautman just does.

Which isn't exactly a lot of money these days.

CMx2m1 - "Dancing Demon Monkeys of Doom Get Shagadelic", a cross-genre mix game based equally on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, minus the screaming woman. I had that title protected and sold it to BFC for one million dollars...

This is from MacUser:

Sig material. Thanks a lot for the laugh!

Great posts. Ah... Kampfwille. Brings back memories of translating all this stuff.

Michael is quite correct in many ways, and A.E.B.'s take on things, whilst enticing, is not really helpful. Oberst Frieser, author of 'The Myth of Blitzkrieg', (Blitzkrieg Legende) and current head of Section II (Age of World Wars) at the MGFA, the German army's office of military history, cites an article by Raudzen ("Blitzkrieg Ambiguities") with seven different interpretations of the word, and quite rightfully concludes that it is as good as useless and a "semantic trap". Therefore I would argue that A.E.B.'s idea that language changes, and one should go with the flow, in this case will not help the inquiry at all, precisely because unlike Borg Spotting, we do not all know what it means, since it has (and has always had) so many different meanings. Cooper falls into the trap BTW when he says that no such thing as Blitzkrieg existed, by defining it in one way that has little relation to the pre-war German term, i.e. "the new, revolutionary idea of war", before telling us that this did not exist. In Frieser's opinion, Blitzkrieg on the operational/tactical level is the application of the late-WW1 Stosstrupp tactics to an environment with mechanised and air warfare and radio-control. It's aim is unchanged from WW1 - to gain mobility in the depth of the enemy territory. Frieser debunks the idea that Germany had a strategic Blitzkrieg intention in 1939 or 1940, of winning wars quickly before the extent of lack of preparation could hurt the German war effort. He would therefore prefer the use of "Blitzoperation" or "Blitzfeldzug" (lightning campaign) instead of "Lightning War". Post-1940 however, his argument goes that the German leadership got so besotted by its success that they failed to understand this critical distinction. The failure to clearly differentiate between the two concepts then (i.e. believing that a Blitz campaign was equal to a short war) was Germany's undoing when it attacked the Soviet Union. Final note - the word can be traced back to 1935 at least, when it was used in the strategic sense in the German military publication "Deutsche Wehr". Then 1938 to an article in the "Militaer-Wochenblatt" outlining the operational concept. But mention before 1940 appears rare.

Do we really have to listen to this barely contained neo-nazi claptrap?

I think some form of equipment 'canon' or guidelines may be needed to ensure equipment attributes/settings are consistant across modules. For example, you would hope that the PzKpfwIV Ausf G has the same attribute settings in all modules in which it appears. This at least is required to prevent grognards rioting more often than they do now. </font>

I think some form of equipment 'canon' or guidelines may be needed to ensure equipment attributes/settings are consistant across modules. For example, you would hope that the PzKpfwIV Ausf G has the same attribute settings in all modules in which it appears. This at least is required to prevent grognards rioting more often than they do now. </font>

Except for BFC of course, unless their experience is somehow not REAL. But hey, they have only made money out of this and grown their enterprise from two guys to six over the last six or seven years or so, in the time producing the best wargames bar none for the computer, so what do they know? This is probably the point where an economics professor I once met would ask: "If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?" Or in our context - why are you not running the most successful grog-core wargames franchise for 20th century warfare out there? Two things: 1) It ain't retail, there is no Wal-Mart or shopping mall down the road that they have to compete with. Where exactly are you going to take your hard-earned money if you get pissed off at BFC and want to buy another wargame that delivers this amount of realism? 2) Steve has had his attitude for as long as I can recall. I can remember Steve participating in flame-wars about running HMGs, and I believe people told him then that he should not behave like that to his customers. So according to your REAL experience, BFC should no longer be around. Seems to me it is time for you to adjust your pre-conceptions to reality.

Except for BFC of course, unless their experience is somehow not REAL. But hey, they have only made money out of this and grown their enterprise from two guys to six over the last six or seven years or so, in the time producing the best wargames bar none for the computer, so what do they know? This is probably the point where an economics professor I once met would ask: "If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?" Or in our context - why are you not running the most successful grog-core wargames franchise for 20th century warfare out there? Two things: 1) It ain't retail, there is no Wal-Mart or shopping mall down the road that they have to compete with. Where exactly are you going to take your hard-earned money if you get pissed off at BFC and want to buy another wargame that delivers this amount of realism? 2) Steve has had his attitude for as long as I can recall. I can remember Steve participating in flame-wars about running HMGs, and I believe people told him then that he should not behave like that to his customers. So according to your REAL experience, BFC should no longer be around. Seems to me it is time for you to adjust your pre-conceptions to reality.

You must have missed the bit about accurate gut-feeling (there is such a thing) coming from years of experience in the industry. IOW - few to none of the people posting here have it for the games industry, so I doubt they are as much in tune with things as Steve and Charles. Regarding 'knowing' if people will open their wallets. 'Know' is such a harsh word. I guess that 'seriously expect' does quite well in most cases. I do not doubt that the commitment will be the same. The means to implement it will be radically different though, with much shorter lead times. I don't think it will lead to lower quality, and I never said I do, either. I do think it is a management challenge for BFC though, and I look forward to seeing what they do come up with to address it. Well, let me put it this way - I doubt that this is anymore likely than heaven falling on my head.

You must have missed the bit about accurate gut-feeling (there is such a thing) coming from years of experience in the industry. IOW - few to none of the people posting here have it for the games industry, so I doubt they are as much in tune with things as Steve and Charles. Regarding 'knowing' if people will open their wallets. 'Know' is such a harsh word. I guess that 'seriously expect' does quite well in most cases. I do not doubt that the commitment will be the same. The means to implement it will be radically different though, with much shorter lead times. I don't think it will lead to lower quality, and I never said I do, either. I do think it is a management challenge for BFC though, and I look forward to seeing what they do come up with to address it. Well, let me put it this way - I doubt that this is anymore likely than heaven falling on my head.

I am not sure if Steve has really said he 'knows' what the silent majority wants. But in any case, I would credit BFC with a good amount of gut feeling, based on their general approach and their record, and balanced by their enlightened self-interest. Probably comes with years in the industry. Regarding quality control of modules - that clearly could become a tricky issue, and will take BFC into somewhat unchartered waters in terms of team management, I guess, since even for not-so-obscure subjects such as e.g. Commonwealth TO&E, they may not have the inhouse expertise (at the moment) that could compete with JonS, John D. Salt, Dorosh, and Dandelion, to name but four (to be honest, I think anyone organisation would be challenged taking it up with them in a no-holds-barred grog competition). I'd be interested to see how they deal with that.

I am not sure if Steve has really said he 'knows' what the silent majority wants. But in any case, I would credit BFC with a good amount of gut feeling, based on their general approach and their record, and balanced by their enlightened self-interest. Probably comes with years in the industry. Regarding quality control of modules - that clearly could become a tricky issue, and will take BFC into somewhat unchartered waters in terms of team management, I guess, since even for not-so-obscure subjects such as e.g. Commonwealth TO&E, they may not have the inhouse expertise (at the moment) that could compete with JonS, John D. Salt, Dorosh, and Dandelion, to name but four (to be honest, I think anyone organisation would be challenged taking it up with them in a no-holds-barred grog competition). I'd be interested to see how they deal with that.

Arrrggghhh!!!!!!!!! Steve called the British in Normandy 'Oddball'. What other proof is required of the heinous US-centric anglophobe conspiracy that is BFC?!? We will never see Commonwealth forces again. Never, ever, mark me words guv'nor. We are doomed, doomed I say to play to the end of days with Yank accents and no happy diggers. I want an irate discussion with name-calling of no less than 457 posts on this very matter that I just presciently inferred from a throwaway comment by Steve, and I want it now. So Steve, how is day 1,984 of wargamer gurudom?

Arrrggghhh!!!!!!!!! Steve called the British in Normandy 'Oddball'. What other proof is required of the heinous US-centric anglophobe conspiracy that is BFC?!? We will never see Commonwealth forces again. Never, ever, mark me words guv'nor. We are doomed, doomed I say to play to the end of days with Yank accents and no happy diggers. I want an irate discussion with name-calling of no less than 457 posts on this very matter that I just presciently inferred from a throwaway comment by Steve, and I want it now. So Steve, how is day 1,984 of wargamer gurudom?

I think that is a very good point. With a modular approach BFC will be able to increase the utilisation rate of their staff on internal projects, and will be able to use beta-tester resrources where these beta testers know most (e.g. were I given the opportunity, I would feel far more comfortable working on a British Normandy module than on a US Tunisia module), again allowing work in parallel. It all makes sense to me.

I think that is a very good point. With a modular approach BFC will be able to increase the utilisation rate of their staff on internal projects, and will be able to use beta-tester resrources where these beta testers know most (e.g. were I given the opportunity, I would feel far more comfortable working on a British Normandy module than on a US Tunisia module), again allowing work in parallel. It all makes sense to me.

Kein Problem. As they say - flattery will get you anywhere. More please!

I did. Did not like it and started to make my own scenarios.

What's a random battle generator? Is Jim saying that my battles are not good enough for him?! Shock, horror, gasp!

The moment CMx2 appears I will shell out €6000 or so on a new rig (I am thinking high-end G5 with a nice 30" LCD screen), the only reason being that I want to play it in style. At the moment I still keep my five year old G4/400 around, just so that I can play CMBB/AK. I let a proper economist figure out what that indicates about my 'Willingness to Pay' for CMx2, and how it affects the market clearing price. [ June 03, 2005, 02:11 AM: Message edited by: Andreas ]

I think if BFC managed to model all this to your satisfaction, then they could sell out to the armies of the world and never work another day, just counting the money rolling in. But you would probably not get to play with it.