Scorpion_sk

Agreed, HoI´s release was a disaster - and I gave up playing it in its initial condition - and have waited up to these days to start again - but they have gone light years in terms of patching up the game. And the C.O.R.E. initiative helps a lot. I do know that many, many people gave up on it because of its unfinished release state, and I fully acknowledge this fact. However, I just wanted to point out that right now, in its latest incarnation, with a good gaming group, it´s got great potential.

Les, you judged the book (HoI) by its cover way before it was released, saw the angry commotion because of its bug-ridden and ai-lacking release, and surprisingly enough that did nothing to sway your initial opinion - which was "I have played turn-based wargames for decades, and I have absolutely no desire to try a grand strategy game in real time with pausing" I can understand that predisposition is a very powerful thing, especially the older you get...but I really don´t know why you have to knock the game off other potential players? You really haven´t even tried it, all you have is your predisposition...so you are not qualified to review it. Again, you are qualified to say that you have absolutely no interest in it - but why say that it is a piece of crap when you really don´t know anything besides that you don´t like it? I think HoI really shines in multiplayer with enough players to represent the major powers. And with the recent patch and the efforts of the modding groups, it gives a good enough SP-experience. Granted, I only have a dozen or so years of wargaming under my belt, but still....

Yep, like I said, I´m looking forward to the customization possibilities for SC2. I agree that it´s best for the shipped game to be as good an ETO game as it can be, and let the modders handle the rest. About such modding efforts....Les, you commented that you are sceptical about whether such efforts will maintain historical accuracy.... Was SC:ET historically accurate? Were the production capabilities of the countries really accurate, in your opinion? (For example, is it accurate that if Germany annexes France, her military production almost doubles...?) Were the battles, with the "trench warfare effect" and über-airpower historically accurate...? If the answer is no, then I´m relieved, because then I will know that the developers of the new game are truly aiming to create an accurate representation of WW2 as well as a fun game - learning from the mistakes of the past is the greatest way to learn (don´t get me wrong, SC:ET was a very good and fun game, but historical accuracy wasn´t its strong suit). Ranting again...what I really meant to say that even though adding PTO to the game might not make justice to the actual conflict, it would probably still be fun as hell

Okay, then...that´s good. Oh, and I understand the tile part now - I didn´t know about it....

"Huge and beautifully rendered 120x38 2-D isometric tile map with a true-to-scale recreation of Europe (max custom map size of 256x256)" If the regular map is 120 hexes wide, you can add to it and create your own map based on the original, and stretch it in width all the way to Japan. You can also make it deeper than 38 hexes....but after that you´d need to use a proxy nation for Japan and all the other countries that you want to be involved in the Far East...it could work, but it´d be a lot of work. But I am sure someone will do it. It would be great, since the US would really have to think about its options...

Hm, yes, it´s always interesting to speculate the what-ifs of the war....and those are among the high points of interest of Grand Strategy games. Yes, if Mussolini hadn´t fooled around with Greece, and gotten his arse kicked there, Barbarossa would have begun on time, and would have stood a much greater chance at taking Moscow, and possibly the Caucasus too. This would have probably meant a very much longer war than it was.... Throw in the possibility of German Intelligence getting ahold of the Normandy Invasion plans and repelling it, or perhaps the chance of Rommel getting adequate supply and taking North Africa...yes, there are plenty of very realistic chances of Germany making things very tough for the allies. Perhaps, with many more things going their way, Germany could have beaten the allies in the actual war, and made the U.S. give up the war in Europe in the short term..... But in the long term, especially Soviet resistance and the ever-increasing industrial superiority of the U.S. would have probably been enough - IF the U.S. totally committed itself to overthrowing Germany, even if it would cost her hundreds of thousands more servicemen. And then there´s the A-Bomb....

Okay.... I really didn´t get this part.... The move to tiles was partially done to allow a minimum of three ground attacks on a unit, thus enabling Hubert to reduce air attack on ground units. Anyhow, it´s good that their numbers can be limited, but what about their capabilities? Can I modify the fleets´ ground attack values so that they´d just cause readiness loss most of the time? Or would I have to (can I even?) simply reduce their soft attack values to 0 or 1.... (My reasoning : I always had the best games in SCET when we played with my house rules, that stated that air fleets simply could not attack ground units. It was assumed that "air fleet" units included fighters only, and that the "strategic bombers"-unit included all the bombers, including tac air. It really revolutionized the gameplay....)

Yes, indeed, this was the problem that ultimately drove me away from SCET. Glad to see an SC II is being made, but I dread that it will fall to the same pit as its predecessor - that of ridiculous air power. I fully support the idea of air units only being able to affect a ground unit´s readiness only - this is a proven and safe solution. However, this should mainly apply to the regular corps and armies (because we´re talking about tens to hundreds of thousands of men - tactical air can only really hinder their mobility and supply) - fully armoured groups are, of course, hundreds of times more vulnerable to air casualties. I also think that the idea about HQ-attached CAS-units is ace. I think one of the worst problems with the ridiculous ground attack effectiveness was that the offending air units even gained easy experience from those ground attack missions - and after a while of this, even if the other side got its own air force together, it would be slaughtered in air-to-air combat from the same airmen that had been doing nothing but ground attack missions for so long....in other words, air fleets were super-units that could do it all....attack ground, air, escort or intercept...all at the same effectiveness (were all those planes in those air fleets fighter-bombers?) So....I hope that serious thought is put into this matter, or at least let it be heavily modifiable... Of course, I am still in ignorance about the actual current plans about SC2´s air power...would anyone care to enlighten me?

Heh heh, I pop in to the forum after so many months, and what do I see? People have finally admitted the problem about air units, as well as the whole combat system? Heh heh, I remember in my days how violently opposed most people were to my ideas - house rules - or any other suggestions about limiting air power. People were defending the flawlessness of the game et cetera... We have to just admit that there´s a lot about SC that is just fundamentally wrong. In my opinion, the game is unsalvageable - but I do believe that a somewhat similar, but MUCH more historical SC2 could be very nice. Perhaps we could just consider SC1 to be a "practise work" from Hubert, and allow him a year or three to develop the real game Not that SC wasn´t fun , but it just wasn´t enough in the end for me - it is too gamey.

LOL, here we go again... I advocated this thing in my time, and now, after having given up on the game, I find the same old discussion again.... My suggestion is still the same - disallow the usage of "air fleet" units against ground targets with a house rule. You will have to use "bomber" units to do this. This way, you won´t gain any experience from ground attacks to help you clean the skies and vice versa. And you can´t have a cheap "air fleet" to do everything for you....

All right. I guess it´s time to stop being just a paper general.... Signing in. Cannon fodder or a black horse? That remains to be seen....

So....the tournament games are NOT mirrored? That´s....interesting. No, the axis doesn´t always win, but the likelihoods of it winning are stronger.

Well, I think everyone now knows who not to play against. Oh, by the way, the way Rambo took the "weather" issue was quite hilarious.

Rambo - you seem like an arrogant fool and a whiner to beat. Europeans are poor socialists living in their third world countries? Now, that sure does make me respect you.... I assumed that the whole thing before was an act. Either I am mistaken about that, or you just don´t know when to quit. The fact is, we are tired of your yammering. And no, you don´t call the shots here. So, if it was an act, please drop it in due time. Seriously Zappsweden, I don´t have a clue why you play against him. Games are supposed to be fun.

Rambo, why do you WHINE and POUT like a 14-year old? (No offense to CVM who is an exception) I understood the "bragging act" as entertainment for you and others, but this is not fun. I have said it before: Air units are too decisive. Let me guess, Zappsweden built umpteen air fleets and zero strategic bombers and pounded the allies to oblivion? The same can happen the other way round if the allies get lucky with tech. I tried to suggest an alternative setup where only Strategic Bomber units are allowed to bomb ground units but noooo, people want it to be just like before because it is so well designed and balanced (NOT!), Historically the germans had 7 air fleets at the peak of their power. How many more do you think they could have built? Could they conceivably have doubled that number, like we see in most SC games? The U.S. is too weak, that´s a given. 300 MPP and an earlier entry are in order. Well, I made my historical mod, which can be DL´d from Otto´s. It throws you into a situation much closer to the reality : the OOBs are (hopefully) correct, the production capabilities are re-evaluated. But I think it´s a líttle too much for the SC community to swallow : I think people are a bit conservative here. However, we need more AAR´s like yours: perhaps people will start realizing that House Rules and modified scenarios are in order.

I take back what I said about the options, but there must be SOMETHING fishy going on. Perhaps not with the players, but then with the program....

Two options: a) Waltero lies, as do all others who have voiced their suspicions, and this Rambo character wins his game with his superb intelligence and knowledge of the game that makes everyone pale in comparison every single time against all comers, and all those surprising results in some of the battles are just consistent good luck or All those stunts pulled off by him aren´t succesful just because he is so skilled, and all the "random results" are not as random as they should be. Lacking first-had knowledge, I really cannot tell which it is.

The MPP capability of Italy is much, much larger than it historically should be in the original scenarios. In reality, think about Italy having 1/4 of the Greater German production in 1938. As it is, the capabilities of the two nations at the onset (if Italy would start the game as active) are about equal.

Rambo provides entertainment. He enjoys the attention and aggravating people. It´s an act, like he said. The act to make himself the "bad guy" like in Wrestling, the one everyone wants to see beat. The things he has said, can not be taken seriously. It´s like that "Ali G." show. Where the fun is in the people taking Ali for real and getting aggravated. But I have to say that this masquerade was a bit too low a trick, and I failed to see the point, as Brian was ready to play Rambo outside the tournament.....

It should be available at Otto´s now. Have a blast. I´ve given everything I can to SC, now I´ll try my hand with the much more detailed world of HoI modding.....

Sorry all, left for "home" for Christmas and but am back now. I´ll email it to Otto. I´m very glad and surprised that my little bit of madness interests some people. Perhaps I´ll work out some kind of a readme file for the thing before I send it..... Anyways, I noticed that I said that the U.S.S.R starts as active, but somehow forgot to type that Italy starts as active too (and should not engage in hostilities until just before the fall of France), or 1941, whichever comes first.... Right then....off to work one last time then, I think.....

Turns coming back with varying names? That´s ...bad. Well, only hear-say, so far.... But, I believe he only really plays TCP/IP anymore.

Additionally, the U.S.S.R start as active, and are not to engage in hostilities until the fall of France and Summer 1942, respectively More insanity I know, but the only way to correct the Italian OOB and to help out the (weakened) Soviets.

It´s done, after a great deal of time invested in research & implementation. I have completed my "Historical World War II scenario" about 5 minutes ago, and it´s 6 am..... Crazy I am..... Anyway, the point of the scenario is to provide a truly different type of game for SC - and it is intended for historicity freaks. The production values of the the major powers have been tweaked to the historical ratios of the production capabilities. This means that the US will be much stronger, as is Germany at the start, while Italy and and France have been toned down. This has been accomplished by tweaking with the ownership of the provinces (ie. Germany starts with the west coast french cities and the Italian colonial holdings, while the U.S. has some areas of the Caucasus and Sweden (Sweden being intended to remain "neutral and be left in peace for the war)) These provinces are intended to be left untouched by all other powers, with the exception of the Italian-German hexes, which the allies can take. The OOBs are tweaked to bring the forces to as close as the historical OOBs. Also, the germans start with 1 exp each. You will find that the sea is packed with naval units now, since the U.S. and U.K. navies are represented in full. The game is designed to be played so that only bomber units (including all bombers) should be able to attack ground units. If you disagree, it will still work out, but the air force ratios will be off. Of course, this scenario can only be played against a human. I realize that this scenario will be wacky indeed for all you more conservative SC players, but that´s ok.... I created the scenario mostly out of interest to study, and for my own fun. Still, if someone would like to host it, drop me a line.

LOL! I vaguely remember those...yes...from way back somewhere....ah...I´d like to see the movie Good one in any case.