HolzemFrumFloppen

Whoa.... haven't tried this. Are you saying that by moving an air unit to one's force pool, you can re-deploy that same air unit to one of your allies' provinces? Are there any restrictions? Would love to know! Can't try it out right now since I'm still working late on a project. Thanks for this info.

Interestingly, HOI has all of the above characteristics you mention (micromanagement of resources, weather, linked techs, et. al.). What it doesn't have is a "turn-based" approach. However, I find this bashing of HOI's "real-time" approach rather comical. I slow the thing down to "Very Slow"; it's so darn slow that it might as well be turn-based. The only sense of urgency I get at this speed is the need to grab another beer during gameplay. And while I'm certain I'll evoke guffaws from other people on this board who have played HOI (and, interestingly, even from those who haven't played it), I myself haven't encountered any of these 'earth-shattering' bugs that people are talking about. Granted, I can't play HOI 8-12 hours every single day like some of the Paradox forum-hounds, so it's probably par for the course. But to date, I haven't had a single crash or anything out of the ordinary. As for historicity in HOI, I'm dumbfounded by the complaints of some HOI players that the game is out of control when it comes to historical precedent. I watch people post about how Finland should have more military units, or France have twice the amount of steel they start the campaign with, etc., etc.,.... and one hour later, they scream bloody ahistorical murder when they hear of someone else's game where Italy scoops up Spain in a powerful mechanized sweep. It's a paradox, in most cases. Those posters WANT an ahistorical situation for their chosen countries (or enemies), such as "more" of this or "less" of that, but then they DON'T want anything to deviate from world history when it doesn't fit in with their plans. If memory serves, SC went through EXACTLY the same "growing pains" when it was released. Go back in time to those early posts and you'll see some very interesting vitriol being passed around the board as regards Hubert's gem. Personally, I thought it was a great game right out of the box. But we've had FIVE patches so far and another is on the way. Some screamed that the game was "unfinished"; but was it? Heck no. Again, I thought it was fantastic from the get-go. The HOI forums gather a lot more "loose cannons", as it were, crying about the game's lack of this or that, blah blah blah. And even though there were some rather insane posts during SC's initial release, it was a lot calmer here than on the HOI boards. Why? Well, these boards are MUCH more akin to a FAMILY; the SC board is smaller, tighter, mostly due to Battlefront's marketing by word-of-mouth. But believe me, if SC's players -- potential or current -- equalled HOI's numbers, you'd have a malevolent mass here blowing its stack because of some ridiculous, minute, 'missing' feature. Count your blessings, folks. We've got two gems now: SC and HOI. Two different approaches to a gigantic conflict. More meat for the feast, I say. Enjoy it while you can.

Hmmmm... Just sounds like good advice to me.

Hehe.... There were LOTS of U.S. businesses that collaborated with fascism. What happened to them? Corporations you'll be familiar with today like DuPont, Ford, General Motors, ITT, owned factories in these enemy countries that produced fuel, tanks, and planes that wreaked havoc on Allied forces during World War II. After the war, instead of being prosecuted for treason (ha!), ITT collected $27 million from the U.S. government for war damages inflicted on its German plants by Allied bombings. General Motors collected $33 million. In fact, Allied pilots were given specific instructions to AVOID certain factories/plants since they were -- quite obviously -- American-owned enterprises. Many Germans caught on to this at the height of the bombing raids and would flock to those factories to avoid being killed in a raid. So, in this respect, I find HOI to be right on the money! (no irony intended). Raise your antennae whenever you hear money being discussed as it relates to WWII (or any war, for that matter). And don't be too surprised to find many economic relationships that go against whatever images you conjure up about one's own country and it's fight against an "enemy" (such as fascism, communism, terrorism, etc.). Remember that American newspapers were, in many cases, positively praising Hitler and his efforts to "revitalize" Germany. This is no surprise since the West viewed Hitler's Germany as a potentially powerful bulwark against Communism. It's no biggie, and I'm not trying to make a political criticism of the U.S. or the West in particular. I'm simply being realistic and, quite frankly, the idea that corporations (i.e., institutions that are CREATED to MAKE money) trade with an "enemy" doesn't blow my mind in any way like it does some people. Thus, I say it's no good (and no fun) being naive when it comes to these things. Money is it's own master, and ideology or war or patriotism or love-of-one's-country has very little to do with it.

Hehe... god, I love this board. Anyway.... no conflict whatsoever based on ANY graphics mod in SC. If you're having a problem, it is probably related to a savegame file not matching the proper version. Lots o' hints on this stuff in the SC Tech Forum. Hope this helps. - Holzem

Hmmmmm.... Not having played on a LAN, I didn't know that there were "new" screen layouts. I'll have a look at it and, time-permitting, issue an update to the Elite Edition. Thanks for the heads-up on this. - Holzem

Japinard: Hey! I just downloaded this one. I really like the subtle color changes, especially in the "earthy" colors. Excellent job! Regards, Holzem

What?? I've never heard of the "Janox Editor". Where did you hear about it? - Holzem

Hehe... That's why I started this thread. I knew there were folks here who would appreciate this "work of art." The guy had a shrewd sense of humor and I dug on it, too. - Holzem

Heavens... I thought I was the only one who knew about or remembered that one! A Poli-Sci major's dream game for its time.... running the small Latin American country of Chimerica (imaginary) was great fun. Glad to see someone else enjoyed that one. - Holzem

Hehe. I love you, man. - Holzem

I like it! Keep it coming, CVM. - Holzem

Then there are those members of this board that would get an F in an elementary etiquette course. On these ever-so-groggish boards, some members always seem to me like a pack of hounds dragging down some noble stag. Geez. It's a game , not a pre-nuptial agreement. Don't take it so seriously. Of course, then there's the Finnish Faction... that's a whole other story. - Holzem P.S.: Pleeeeeez Hubert!! For the love of god, pleeeez pleeeez pleez put the port of OooogaBoooga (off the coast of Madagascar, no less!) into the game since the Liverwurst deliveries that were taken in there during the period of June 11-12, 1942 practically turned the tide of the war!!!! God please make it so!!! Hubert!!! Are you listening????? I CAN'T TAKE IT!!!!! A Finnish dry-cleaner I know PERSONALLY told me it was so!!!!

No problemo. Glad you enjoyed them. - Holzem

Reep: Glad to see you on board! I've kept up with several thousand(!) of your posts at JP's Panzers as well as your stuff in the famed "Panzer's Weekly". Great to have your experience in this forum, dude. - Holzem P.S.: Be sure and pick up some killer mods for SC. My own mod, "SC Elite Edition", can be found here . The actual link to download is further down towards the middle of the page. Also check out JMBunnelle's excellent iconset which can be located here . My own icons (included in the "Elite Edition" download) use military symbology whereas JM's have graphic representations of actual tanks, planes, etc. Have fun and enjoy!

PL: I thought I recognized it, too. Sounded like the background sounds from one of the John Tiller Games (Panzer Campaigns.... or perhaps the Campaign Series).

Bill: Most definitely a "yea" on that one. I hate to sound (smell?) anal, but I often name many of my units that go up in experience or that I plan to use for specific attacks/invasions, etc. If this could be done, it would add some nice color to the game....even if they weren't the "historical" names. Random ones would be great (e.g., 7th Mountaineer Corps, XXII PanzerArmee, 1st Exiled Finnish Bakers Brigade, et. al.). - Holzem

Greets: Just a quick heads-up for some of the grogs out there. An enterprising fellow wargamer has apparently just completed a very interesting short indy film called: "The Problem With Mr. Darby". Watch this very cute 20-minute film for free. According to the filmmaker, it was "WWII/wargaming inspired" and he believes it would be appreciated by quite "a number of you in the wargaming community." Check it out at: The Problem With Mr. Darby (also at: Alternate Streaming/Download Site ) Sorry to sound like such an advertisement, but the d*mn thing is absolutely hilarious if you're a grog at heart. Give this guy a break (and some credit); watch this little film and giggle your ass off. Of course, it might just look like they filmed YOU at home. Hehe. - Holzem

JM: Sorry it took so long to respond. Negative. Haven't heard anything from him (nor seen any posts) in quite a while. I really dug on his Title Screen. Additionally.... very cool that you posted the mod-recap. Really helpful for all the players who missed out on some of the goodies the first time. So... what about you... any plans for future unit mods? - Holzem

Absolutely no negative effect installing the mods, and asbolutely no need for your PBEM partner to have the same mods. Only the graphics are altered and this has no effect on the game engine. Hope this helps.

Mud: I've got a PIII-500 box with that mobo (Intel 440BX -- hence, AGP 1.0), but I have a GF2-GTS(32MB) onboard (WinME, 512MB ram, DirectX 8.1). I was thinking of upgrading my card to a GF4-MX440 variant which I hear might give me a bit more graphics power. However, I worry about the AGP1.0 thing causing me problems. Are you in the same boat? I'm not too concerned over it since I've been playing the CMBB demo and it's been pretty smooth; it get a bit choppy scrolling in the Medium-sized scenario with the graphics set to high, though. I'd like to alleviate it if possible. Any input is always appreciated.

Schrullenhaft: Although I only quoted a portion of your post, it was a perfect explanation and just what I needed to know. Much obliged for the clear and concise information! Exactly! Although I never had any problems with CMBO whatsoever using this card, I believe the AGP 1.0 spec did cause me innumerable problems with OpenGL games. I had crash after crash after crash with lots of the FPS games out there (I know,...blasphemy!). However, once I updated my MoBo bios, I never had any crashes again. I used to use a GeForce Tweak Utility to force the card to use the AGP 1.0 spec, but that had mixed results. Again, flashing the BIOS with the latest updates gave me miraculous results. I think I might just give the MX440-variant a try, crossing my fingers that the AGP spec won't ruin it all for me. I'm thinking that it might just help run CMBB more smoothly and with more graphics goodies enabled. BTW... seen any good prices on these? BTW...why doesn't anyone ever mention the Geforce 3 cards as an option? Didn't they have improved performance as well? Once again, thanks a bunch for the ultra-clear information. It's greatly appreciated and I won't forget this. - Holzem

Schrullenhaft: Well...yet another post re: CMBB performance. For the most part, I was pretty happy with CMBB's performance on one of my systems that's gettin' kinda old. Intel PIII-500 512MB RAM Intel 440BX MoBo/Chipset ASUS 7700 Geforce2/GTS 32MB (AGP) WinME (gasp!) DirectX 8.1 Only when I set some of the graphic settings to extreme was it choppy beyond what I would like. However, my question isn't about updating a driver or something else to get some better performance. I'm a Detonator freak and have kept up with drivers, et.al. Here's the beef.... I like going to computer shows in my area where they sell lots of hardware pretty cheaply. Recently, I was looking at vidcards there and saw GeForce4 MX cards (I think some were Ti4400...or something like that) for dirt cheap. Maybe 40-79 bux in some cases. My own little ASUS GF2GTS set me back a couple a hundred in it's time and now I'm wondering whether one of these awfully cheap GF4MX cards of dubious brand would outperform my own card in a noticeable way. It would be cool to be able to gain a serious performance boost for 50 or 60 bux. However, I remain unsure as to whether or not it's just a dream. Any ideas? Any info would, as always, be greatly appreciated. - Holzem

Holy moly. Prepare for massive Peng-like threads lobbying for an entire CM game based on the Finnish counter-offensive of Tuesday-thru-Wednesday, Feb. 14-15, 1940, with special emphasis on the battle that took place between 3:30 and 3:45pm outside a small sandwich shop near Helsinki where two(!) Finnish Ski Troops single-handedly held off an entire Russian division by lobbing slices of bologna into the teeming, godless -- and, of course, unwashed -- Red masses, thoroughly trouncing them and sending them back to Moscow with their furry caps in hand. Man, oh, man.... I thought this place was safe. I was wrong. CVM ownz. Hehe.

Easy enough. Just press the "N" key on your keyboard. Per page 23 of the user manual: • N = Select the next active unit that has not yet moved Hope this helps. Comes in handy for me, too.