John DiFool the 2nd

You can already do that, if you don't mind swapping files around from one player to another. Long story short, the last player for a given side saves the game as a PBEM game, sends it to an opposing player who then loads it as a regular multiplayer game, runs his countries and saves it and sends it to his next ally. Last player again saves it as PBEM and sends it back to the opposition. I believe it will even remember the passwords during all that.

That's already possible, via a workaround involving loading PBEM files in regular multiplayer mode. I don't think anyone has tried it yet however.

You're welcome, by the way (Hubert basically used an original idea of mine from years ago). So yeah, toot toot.

"Fatal error - attempt to access unpublished file by non-admin user" Wha?

It is possible to swap between players in PBEM by using a sort of workaround. When the Axis side (for ex.) finishes its turn and sends it to the Allies, the first Allied player loads it as a hotseat game, and once he is done he can save it (in hotseat) and send it to one of his Allies, who does the same. The last player for the Allies then loads it as a PBEM game; once he is ready to wrap the turn, he hits the end turn button, it is saved as PBEM, and he can send it back to the Axis. I believe the original passwords are still locked into the code, even if you have saved it as hotseat. I got this to work when I tested it (2 or so iterations ago), so anybody can confirm that it still works with the WWI engine if they wish. I've always wanted to do a 6-8 player mega-game using one of the monster WWII campaigns. Edit: found the old thread: note the exact instructions given (since you need to be aware of what folder it is in apparently). http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=91324

Of course the tradeoff is that manuever during naval battles becomes...strange. Ships will "pop out of warp" and suddenly appear in the middle of a scrum, and you get none of the cat and mouse aspect of a real naval battle. Increasing the number of turns (and thus making naval movement more to scale) would probably be a good idea-I've already mentioned elsewhere that your speed of advance in Russia is ultimately limited by how quickly you can build up your supply levels, which is always going to be +1/turn no matter how many action points you give your units. My advances into Russia in the WWI engine have always gone slower than historical for this reason. That makes for 2 good reasons to increase the number of turns per year.

That just proves the point-in that game the Axis will win easily. In that new U-boat wargame Steel Wolves, the main determinator of research progress isn't from the efforts of your dispassionate scientists in their ivory towers, but instead is mainly driven by political factors (read: you rarely get what you want). FWIW. I do agree (and have argued in the past) that the historical record shows that the various powers tended to get the advances they wanted once they truly committed to them, tho in some cases it took too long (c.f. the XXI U-boats which in SC terms represented a jump of 4 tech levels). The problem with the "breakthrough" subroutine is that it means you're going to get advances at a quicker pace overall, unless this has been compensated by lowered average gains per turn (I'm not sure it has). In the games I've run my side invariably has maxed out several categories by 1944. I'd scratch those sudden jumps of 75 points and make them more like triple/quadruple the base chance (5% base means a 15%-20% gain), which still means you'll get it 2-4 turns quicker.

Both Nupremal and Big Al have been silent lately on porting their magnum opuses to WWI-damned shame given the extra major country slots and new tech rules.

Yeah, I'd dump all army-sized units and go with all-corps.

Curious too-seems like a lot of the new features would be manna from heaven for a global mod.

I've played 'til Sept. '42 in my current game against the AI-one thing which was immediately noticeable soon after I invaded Russia was that, yes, your units can move a fair distance, and yes you get lots of MPPs as Germany (haven't nearly come close to buying everything out yet tho), but your time is much more limited to make substantial gains on anything approximating the historical timeline. There are like 3x as many towns, each of which requires a fairly substantial force to take. As a result I am way behind the German historical advance, only just now knocking on the door of Moscow and Leningrad, with Stalingrad a fair distance away still. I guess you can bypass some minor towns, leaving a minor unit behind to guard it, but many you need to maintain your supply push as they are crucial rail junctions. I think the time scale needs to be tweaked upwards significantly, giving you more turns (at reduced unit movement).

You guys using the new tech system, or the old one? I ask because this campaign started several weeks before the official release of the WW2 campaign, and perhaps Hubert hadn't put it in yet?

I just want to say that I am tickled pink that Hubert finally implemented my idea-it isn't exactly the same as what I came up with, and in fact owes more than a little to the diplomacy engine (which has operated on similar principles since the 1st SC2 game came out), but just want to express my thanks to him. <toast>

The above reminded me of this old Jonny Quest ep., which scared the holy bejeezus out of me when I was a kid (hint for cartoon and movie makers: NEVER show what the monster looks like in such a case!): The Invisible Monster http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9nRwWAggPk

Some areas are more variable and uncertain-radar for example, as compared to heavy tanks say.