Desert Dave

LOL! It is the wiser one Who would heed the evident alchemy. Water is merely molecules, Atomic apart. It's a matter of using the circular shells As... stepping stones, I would suppose.

The SeaMonkey swims, Arm over arm, And, Charmingly, In Metaphysical waters! Deep, But not without Bismark rusting on the bottom. Meantime, Since ALL is... yep, subjective, And there are no Absolute "objects" in abound, I submit, It's best to listen for Approximate, approaching sounds. Like, SC2-Blitzkrieg! is due! And, soon! :cool:

JJ, Knew you would appreciate the new Weather schematic in SC2. It is one of the things you have been asking for since way back when. We'll have to create a new weather Zone for Ricks' Place there in Casablanca. Hmmm, it would probably need to be 90% chance for overcast, almost all the time. If not those "counter-clockwise cycles" of yours... then, surely, to faithfully account for Bogey's constantly rising clouds of cigarette smoke.

Iran does not occupy much space on the map as presently constituted... 3 full tiles, and 3 partial tiles, that's it. It has no cities or resources, and you might say that it is largely "decorative." However, it IS a sovereign nation, and a DoW would not go un-noticed in the east & west Capitals of the world. In the way of Diplomatic gain, or loss of prestige. I suppose you could undertake a determined campaign for Iran, and the Middle East, and have more room to maneuver in your planned dagger-thrust into south central Russia. As for Saudia Arabia ... that whole amorphous area that is composed of Palestine and Trans-Jordan and SA, is quite a bit larger on the SC2 map. Whereas, in SC1, it was about 11 hexes in total land mass, Here it is over 100 tiles. Now, what effect on strategic concerns or tactical game-play? Who knows? We'll have to play many, many games to see IF it matters much at all. My guess? It will. Say, if the Axis player really, REALLY wants 4 things: 1) Access to the Iraq's oil. 2) To cut-off the "Persian pipe-line" for Lend Lease shipments, by taking the port of Basra. 3) Threaten the Russians from another front, forcing them to re-deploy some forces to defend ALL those VERY rich resources in the area. 4) Just wants to be a "Rommel-like" nuisance who churns up the sands and causes all kinds of trouble for the UK, who can hardly afford to lose the Med base, especially Suez or Basra. I agree with all of those who suggest that this Theatre was greatly mis-appreciated by the German High Command. A HUGE opportunity was, almost casually kicked away. The British, as evidenced by their dedicated and intense defense of the Med as a whole... knew better.

Nope. You are wrong as 7-sided dice. I am... Efram Etwas. Since that name sounds like I might be chewing a match-stick and kicking clods around the field, I changed it. (... got to looking around on his computer, and found all sorts of strange stuff, no wonder, well... this site looked pretty mumbo-jumbo cool, everbody acting jake and all.) Immer? My brother? Recently led gently away... too bad, in one of those white coats, you know, where you tie the long sleeves tight behind the back? Sad day in the Etwas family, but, hey, it can happen to anyone. Any day. :eek: [ April 28, 2004, 10:28 PM: Message edited by: Desert Dave ]

Oooops :eek: Actually there are 5 zones. "Default" is all the rest, ie, Western Europe mostly. Surprised nobody caught that. Well, that's it. It's raining here, so I need to get at that fantastic! Editor so I can change some of the tiles around my house.

All right, you don't like the weather hanging there in your area? EDIT it. There are likely to be 4 Zones on the default map. 1) Arctic 2) North Afrika 3) Mediterranean 4) Eastern (ie, in Russia) For each zone you have the 4 seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Which CAN be finely edited for (... as in % chance of occurence): 1) Clear 2) Mud 3) Snow There are also "Secondary Weather Effects" which CAN be edited for: 1) Clear 2) Overcast 3) Storms In fact, the WHOLE land map can be edited. :cool: So, if you don't care for, or agree with the DEFAULT map, Then, you can edit it... tile... by... tile. And if that is not quite enough for you, then: You can edit your own Zones. Want to add a small zone, with unique ratings for both primary and secondary effects, say, for land tiles in and surrounding Bogart's Casablanca? Do it.

Great work, Edwin P! If I had you to organize my cluttered "home office" I could surely get my Electric Bill paid on time! Then I could see what I am actually typing! ___________ At night. Day-times are good. ___________ What? No, my home computer runs on high-mountain refined, octane mixtures. I have a specially made gas-can I keep handy for that. Doesn't yours? :eek: [ April 28, 2004, 12:54 PM: Message edited by: Desert Dave ]

Bill is telling you true. Better get ready. NOW, is not too early. For one startling indicator, here is a simple map comparison: In SC1 the distance from Moscow to the Ural Mountains and the East edge of the board was... 7 hexes. In SC2 the distance is... ~ 20 tiles! Now, does that sound like the happily marauding German player is going to have a happy-go-lucky time of it? Given that ONE HALF of the calender year you will likely have difficult mud & snow weather, where movement and combat is compromised? And given the wide open spaces which, as Sombra has suggested, will cause all sorts of supply problems? More CRITICAL cities that are almost out of reach, such as: Archangel. Archangel far to the north in that icy Arctic Zone, has a port which will receive Lend Lease from the USA (... remember, USA can assign MPPs as it chooses... a lot, or none at all, depending on how the strategic and economic situation is at the moment). As one of very many possible strategies, you might bypass Moscow, heading north by east, and slog your way up past Vologda and try to lay siege to Archangel. Interestingly, Basra in Iraq, at the tip of the Persian Gulf, is also a Lend Lease Port. This should provide additional incentive for the Axis player to reconsider his Mediterranean strategy, and the Allies would probably want to go all out to protect this vital area. I mention in passing... The Desert Fox has already noted this, and has fired off urgent! requests (... really, more like old-school demands! ) for more men and materiel, most especially... half-tracks, camo-netting and loads of scorpion-like 88s! :cool:

Then, Kuni Unusual, You are, IMHO, in the top 10 somewhere, at least. I am not playing SC1 right now, so that's out. I've already played 100s and 100s of those. My comeuppance will have to wait another day.

Sorry, don't know him... should I? All right, no more hiding in plain sight... I hereby challenge Kuni the Moon Roper, to a game of... SC2-Blitzkrieg, once it is released.

Fair enough Kuni Most Unusual, Who... pulls the very Moon down As though it were... merely some docile steer Fraught with doubt and fear, I will give you... two. But not in any order, 'cuz that would be impossible to do: Pzgndr, and Shaka of Carthage. Both, somewhere in the top 5, at least. _________________ Now, I do not include myself on any list, for the good and simple reason that I have not PUBLICLY proven any strategic or tactical worth. One day, oh, don't know where, and don't know when, but, then, I WILL challenge a few of the claimed famous and/or SC merciless. Whether they reach down and pick up the gauntlet remains to be seen.

Kuni, Either list you refer to, you are missing 3 or 4 that I know about who should surely be on there. Maybe even #1 or 2. They don't seek much fanfare, and they ain't inclined to make subjective lists, but, boy howdy, can they play! And play! The DAYLIGHTS outta the SC-fireworks night. :cool:

Bill is right on the money here... just one of VERY many of the supreme challenges will be: How many of these "elite" units can you afford, and keeping firm in mind how very extensive those front lines can be! Do you merely keep a "potent reserve" so that you can knock down any blitzing mech units? Or, do you make MOST of your forces... well equipped and VERY powerful? Depends, of course, on which side you are playing, and when. At least now, in this new SC2, you have many CHOICES as Strategic Commander, as to the strength, and make-up, and disposition of your forces. (... also keeping in mind the "build limits") No longer can you merely shove Uber units forward and bludgeon the opponent. A little more advance planning will be necessary. Much to be recommened in keeping "lesser" units in key areas, to soak up the blitzkriegs, and to turn it around and infiltrate all those areas where your opponent has opted for a relative FEW powerful units, at the expense of covering every possible break in the front lines. Simply put... there are MANY more possiblities now, and it will be MUCH more difficult to scheme up that... perfect storm! :cool:

Patience. All will be revealed in time. Sometimes, questions on this board are not immediately answered for the good and sufficient reason that Hubert hasn't completely indicated how certain game parameters will be implemented. Fully implemented. Partial answers are sometimes known. But, why provide... PARTIAL answers? That would only muck-up the works. Think about this, for a moment. How many other game-boards do you know about where so very many answers are so quickly provided? Best to do that... WHEN they are known. Sometimes... and keep in mind that we have a ways to go here, before full testing is under way... keep in mind that it is often better to have a gradual and more exacting process, Than it is to throw out all sorts of incomplete information, prematurely.

Just make two of the "lesser" and incidentally involved "major powers"... Minors. You can still edit the Minors to have any sort of OOB, and a consequent "political relationship" to all the other participants. They won't have the ability to "generate" industrial wealth, but simply provide them enough units and starting MPPs... so that they can have true historical impact, but, obviously, not a long-term effect in the same way that the Majors have. In the same way, those who are intent on making a Global WW2 game could make France and China "minor powers" (... putting aside two others such as, say - Iran and Iceland) and substitute Japan as a Major. (... though here I would tend to agree with Les the Sarge that it will be a true challenge to get a ~50 mile hex schematic to work for the Pacific theatre... however, why not just make those small islands like Tarawa TWO hexes... who is going to notice much or complain if the topography isn't strictly EXACT... the idea is to have FUN, not perfectly replicate every palm tree and sea shell) I'm telling you, there is NO END to the possible scenarios with this incredible! Editor that Hubert has VERY, VERY generously offered. :cool: Can anyone think of... ANY other game-maker who has done this? I can't. ____________________ Bill... we had a similar notion almost simultaneously... well, I am Welsh on one family side, so could be... some ancient connection there? Or, is Wales distant from your home in England? [ April 24, 2004, 01:02 PM: Message edited by: Desert Dave ]

One incidental thing occurred to me recently... and I mean to mostly just remind everyone that there ARE some advantages to using tiles... in those other games that allowed stacking, well, if you were using hexes, then you could STACK 2, or 3, units per hex. For example, in Advanced 3rd Reich, one of my personal favorites... you would have "3-3s" stacked with maybe a mixture of "4-6s." But here, with SC2-Blitzkrieg! and its clean design and "chess-like" approach, Since there is no undue clutter on the game board (... VERY easy to gaze all around on your fast growing Empire! and know EXACTLY what your dispositions are)... well, you can still apply sufficient pressure due to the innovative tile schematic. IOW, whereas before in the old design, you occasionally had 3 fronting hexes with 2 units each = 6 attacking units. Now, you potentially have 6 fronting tiles of 1 unit each = 6 attacking units. Hmmmmm. Similar WW2-GS game, same difference? Well, almost. Here you don't have to paw through cumbersome stacks and then go to the next one and try to keep in mind what was in those other stacks. A "4-6" luking underneath there somewhere? ________________ OK. There will be other, unique challenges. One challenge: as Moon & Steve have fairly and openly requested... how about some innovative solutions to what might be problematical areas? Might not be many problems, either, but this way Hubert can take any and all suggestions into serious account and give them due consideration. :cool:

Seems to me you BOTH are onto something here. :cool: Alright, you have to account for momentum, or otherwise known as... initiative. Currently, "plunder" is the one mechanism to mostly account for that... elan, or martial spirit that propelled the Germans deep into a stricken Russia. Accumulate enough surplus war materiel, and you are able to undertake a gargantuan effort, as Napoleon did when he stood in awe at the icy gates of Moscow. BUT. Where is that... "rude awakening," or the grit in the gears of the free-wheeling Panzers? Good to have a mechanism to help the Germans get the Mean Momentum Machine underway, but on the opposite side, what is there to blow the shrill whistle and call a halt? OK. There WILL be brakes on this initiative. 1) No more Uber units. Experience will be modeled in a different way so that it will NOT be so decisive. No longer will you be able to withstand countless blows from ineffectual Red recruits (... and, the tiles will help here, since there will be more angles of attack) 2) Germans may be accomplished at "the Blitz," but now that there are build limitations, there is decided need to secure the interior lines. Russia's force pool will have many, MANY Berserkers allowed... amassed infiltrations and partisan activity will likely blunt this forward thrust. A little. 3) Air Power will not be so obvious or decisive. 4) Somewhat compromised German Industrial Economy, in that there will be built-in limits (... which can be edited as a kind of "play balance tool for both HtH and solo play). 5) Winter effects. Well, there are other limiting factors, as well. But, that "river of supply" and the logistics in general could also be a way to "moderate" some of the unchecked momentum ? May not be a worrisome issue, once full play-testing is under way. But, it is something to keep in mind... as a way to insure that initiative does NOT last forever. At some point, the forward leaning Panzers (... or, the Shermans and T-34s later in the war) just... sputter, and run out of gas.

No end to your innovative suggestions!... good idea, and it would sure be VERY appropriate in a potential Pacific SC! where daring naval commanders such as Spruance would get more of their post dated due. Trouble is, THEN folks would want special Air commanders too. :eek: There is only so much space on the GS game board. _________________ OTOH, you could have HQs that are rated in MORE than one area, such as Kesselring maybe being higher rated in Air Ops? Or, Patton and Rommel higher rated in "mechanized warfare." But then, now that we are discussing offense and defense ratings for HQs, why not have logistics or risk-taking as variables? Among MANY others? See, there is no end to these potential HQ ratings, so I guess it would revert back to what Hubert wants, as is always the case. Me? I'd like to see naval HQs also serve as shore-based "naval stations" and any AF (... preferably with a good naval-bomber rating) within so many tiles of this HQ would have better Air to Sea combat and spotting abilities... but that's just me, ALWAYS trying to improve on the naval war.

A wise science-man never beats against the high winds created by a giant creature capable of biting a whole head off, that's fer sure... but, here, Major areas of research, and especially that GS game-changing new category of Naval Bombers should suffice.

This is a thoughtful solution, but the Air Fleets in SC are actually performing MANY functions, and not merely acting as "ground support units." They are recon, interceptors, CAP over HQ and other valuable targets, fighters on escort missions, and... also, tactical bombers, and now, should you research it, naval bombers as well. :cool: Not to say that "readiness" couldn't be effected, instead of strength point casualties, that remains to be seen. You seem to want separate functions, and if we had separate Air units, such as the abovementioned tactical or naval bombers, then you could easily limit and proscribe particular tasks to each kind of separate unit. I think KDG and pzgndr are correct in saying that you can selectively modify existing units and certain game parameters such as combat target data... to suit the MULTIPLE roles that the one Air unit has been designed to fulfill. The default game will surely have all of these many factors combined in close relationship, so that the Air Fleet performs as is expected. I wouldn't mind separate tactical and naval bombers, but at this scale, and given the restriction of one unit per tile (... good, eliminates that cumbersome stacking!), it would surely make the board a bit too cluttered. ____________________ Not to worry. You can remain faithful to "history" (... and thanks! to all the "history nuts" who help to insure that this can be so) and allow for "what-ifs" and ALSO have a tremendously replayable and plain and simply, an exciting game. These are hardly mutually exclusive. [ April 22, 2004, 10:57 AM: Message edited by: Desert Dave ]

Ken Follet novel of WW2 where a German agent (... played perfectly by Donald Sutherland in the movie by the same name) is sent to assassinate old cigar smoking so and so? [ April 21, 2004, 03:25 PM: Message edited by: Desert Dave ]

Polls are only snap-shots. Kind of like that one an astonished farmer once took, Back in the Black Forest ... When that ME-262 roared overhead. It was far, far away... before he even put the camera down.

Appreciate the question. But, as with ALL else, These are Hubert's design decisions. His alone. I am merely someone who helps in VERY small ways, mostly playing the game. I am glad to do it, I am honored to do it, and would NOT do it for any other game-maker out there. SC2-Blitzkrieg! is going to be the best he can make it, and, that is going to be... very, very good indeed. :cool:

I'll repeat what I mentioned in another thread; lost track of this one for a bit, or I would have put this here in the first place. ________________________________ There are depression tiles. There will be the Quattara Depression faithfully replicated. As with some other areas on the screenshots, you are not looking at the fully realized map. As for room to mech-maneuver and blitz and surround in the heated sands of North Afrika? There are 5 tiles from fortress Tobruk to the bottom of the game board. You and Les the Sarge among many others who really like this theatre of the war, are going to have a great old time re-enacting the exciting Desert campaign. So am I. ____________________ The whole Afrika Korps campaign is, aside from the Battle of the Atlantic, my favorite... as mentioned, I intend to create a separate smaller scaled campaign using that tremendous map editor. I hope some of you will do the same, but until that happens, at least we have MUCH more room for maneuver and can likely re-create many of those quick striking tactical blitzes. And counter thrusts. After all, neither side can afford to send too many units, given the demands on other fronts, so it should be VERY exciting down in the desert... with the rustling palm trees and the camo'd 88s. :cool: [ April 21, 2004, 11:48 AM: Message edited by: Desert Dave ]