Lars

So weenie. Why not the .50 cal black powder? Oh common, just let me, got the hair trigger and everything. We could even leave the ramrod in.

Down at the docks, in a leotard and a frilly skirt, and assuming a pitch dark night with no moon, we could probably assess his value at $20 for one good hard shagging. 37mm, come back and let us know when you have at least $100 of "proof" in hand and we'll see about a reinstatement.

rleete, you bastage...

At the end of the war, Germany was still cranking out tanks and planes and making synthetic oil to run them on. If you don't allow Germany to build units due to losing some resource, the grogs will be out for your blood with example after example of how the Germans got around it. I think you're just going to have to accept the abstraction and let it go. The MPP hexes are just there to give you something to fight over, a little reward for doing it, and a reason to garrison the place after taking them. Unless you want to totally change the nature of the game, of course. But beware, it usually becomes a bean counter's nightmare. Where's the rubber? the electric? the tungsten? etc....

You can't give the US player a way to influence his entry. Otherwise he's jumping in as soon as possible. Historically, with the US unwilling to enter the European war even after all the German invasions, it's kinda hard to imagine some reason they would absent an direct attack. And without that, you don't really have a game. I think your best bet in your scenario is to posit some sort of Lusitania type event and go from there. Perhaps if the German player gets too successful with those subs it begins to draw the US in? Would be the only way I can see to bring back an element of risk of a US entry. And if the German player doesn't build subs he risks the UK build-up and invasion.

Well, the basic problem is this is a war game. One centered on the European theater. Any really rational strategy in the Far East followed by the historical participants would keep both the US and Japan out. Japan had other options than caving to the US over the embargo and the UK certainly had no need to pick another fight. In the end, the UK lost India because of it. But in the game, the Allied player needs to suck the US in for the MPPs or the game becomes wildly unbalanced. Or you have to come up with some deux ex machina to rebalance it. For instance, you could assume the UK would get a large contingent of ANZAC and Indian forces at some point if war with Japan was avoided, but you've still lost the key for the Allies, the industrial might of the US. There's no way to make up for it. US MPP's are underrepresented in the game as it is. So you'd have to throw in increased military Lend Lease to both Russia and UK. Plus a few ships to patrol the Atlantic. Plus one hell of a lot of gasoline. And the German player would have to sit and take it because declaring war on the US is patently stupid for him. And at the end of the day, what have we really accomplished? Maybe forced an early D-Day by the UK with those colonial forces before the German advantage gets too huge but if they don't win that one, it's game over. The subs alone are going to strangle the UK at some point. And then Churchill breaks out the anthrax. And Hitler breaks out the Tabun. And now we're really playing a game we don't want to play. At least, that's the way I see it playing out. Sure you could modeled what would happen if the Pacific war didn't happen (to some extent), but I'm not sure it would be any fun other than to the hardcore history grogs. It's just too great a change. An object lesson in one of Hitler's great mistakes. With all that said, what you have would be interesting as a scenario as it totally changes the UK strategy of playing not to lose until the US shows up.

Let's just say the woman now has a perfectly good sailboat on her finger.

That or 'Shari's husband, whatshisname'. </font>

But the US did not undertake those actions in order to enter WWII early. I guess it's just the way you phrased the question. Smacks of the loony Roosevelt conspiracy theories.

I thought that was the parole officer's job?

Do you really think it helped me?

Why the heck would the US do that? You'd think they'd be spending the chits to stay out. Perhaps you should modify the idea a bit. Make the Germans spend the points to get Japan to attack. Or perhaps US spends chits to keep Japan from attacking, allowing for increased start units (mostly naval) and MPPs when they are finally drawn in. You could have a random US declaration on Germany at some point as it is in SC, but the longer the delay in this case, the better it is for the US. Or perhaps if the German U-boat campaign gets to a certain level? The US was in a undeclared shooting war with them.

Can you still take your truck out and drive drunk on a frozen lake? I can. No cops, no roads, just miles and miles of ice, a twelve pack, and whipping a series of endless donuts till you hurl. Really, you Aussies are missing out. Minnesota is practically made for you.

Have you seen the prices of wedding rings lately? "But honey, diamonds are always flawed while cubic zirconium are always perfect!" Yeah, right, that'll fly... DeBeers is not my favorite person anymore. This has got to be one of Berli's better schemes...

Who cares as long as we get to cut him to pieces and throw him in the River of the Dead? Hopefully the Swan of Tuonela craps on his head this time.

Hmmm...weak, luke warm, ill-thought out but unfortunately the best of a bad bunch.. still it brings back memories of a better time when people wanted to "buy the world a coke"... *sniff* A shiny button to Lars Hurrah! </font>

Note to Self: Call dalem!!!

You only say that at good hot tub parties? </font>

"Nifty, Thrifty, Honda -Fifty'"

Why, when you go to a good hot tub party, around two o'clock in the morning some idjit always says, "Hey, I got a great idea!!! Let's stay up and drink all the booze!!!"? And why is that idjit always me? Sunrise ought to be outlawed. God's flashlight is what it is...urgh...

I realize that. Forgot the smiley. Been doing a quick check around and haven't found an incidence of a driver getting hit by sniper fire yet. Will keep looking. But we know the driver had to stick his head up sometime. Seen to many pics of them driving around like that for one of them not to get his head blown off in an ambush. And the bow gunner was usually an assistant driver. You don't end up short the bow gunner/assistant driver unless something happened to the original one. Question though, was the bow gunner usually kicked upstairs to replace the dead TC?

Well, he didn't develop that technique to hide from a 88 round.

Soddball is quite correct here. Firstly, if a round gets in and messes up a crew member it very likely causes damage to whatever system that crew member was manning. It's not like a roun gets into the crew compartment by magic... no... it has to smash through something. Once inside it usually does more damage in its attempt to exit (which in some cases it could do). Spalling is another story. That is the more likely case where someone gets incapcitated and the crew is still able to work around the problem given a little crew shuffling (if necessary). Another thing to consider is the average time a crew has to bail. I forget what it is, but it is measured in seconds. Like 5 or so. That means the crew is more likely to bail first, then figure out what to do. In CMx1 we did not allow crews to abandon and reman, therefore we generally kept the crew in the tank instead of doing the realistic thing which was likely to bail then reman. In CMx2 we are allowing bailing and remanning, so the likely thing you'll see in CMx2 is a hit, the crew hopping out, then perhaps going back in. Of course this is all situationally dependent, since if the driver was spared and the tank is still running he'd likely try to get to saftey first. That sort of thing. Oh... and keep in mind that many tank models do not allow pass through between compartments. Or at least not easily (i.e. turret has to be perfectly aligned). So if the driver is hit a bail out is likely necessary in any event. Steve </font>

When it's finished.

Actually I agree with John. A HQ unit is the one thing every country would have, even if they lacked everything else. No matter what's going on in Edwin's mind.