Hyazinth von Strachwitz

@ Jersey John: I think it is clearly visible to most spectators who trying to have a normal discussion and who`s not. In my eyes you belong to the people who simply want to have a good discussion, i.e. clarifying details without unneccessary arguing. I made similar experiences with certain other people in this forum. There is a famous saying in Germany which might help you a bit: Don`t argue with fools, a neutral spectator won`t see the difference. If I see some people having a discussion in here, I try to add some facts/details. If certain other people enter, I abstain.. always the same nonsense. Esp. political discussions should be banned from that forum.. just my personal opinion. [ July 19, 2007, 05:11 AM: Message edited by: Hyazinth von Strachwitz ]

There are multiple reasons why Germany lost WW1.. and most of these are related to each other. - The german Kaiser fired Bismarck in 1888 and didn`t prolong Bismarck`s treaty system, i.e. with Russia - The fleet Build up & struggle for Colonies scared the UK and France, but was a massive mistake.. lots of ressources for almost nothing. Putting all the money, manpower & steel into the Army would have smashed the froggies most likely - The Schlieffen Plan was old and not updated to 1914 circumstances... originally the right wing of the attacking forces should outnumber the left flank 7:1, but it was just 3:1 in 1914 which was not enough (Marne Battle) - Moltke (Chief of the OHL in 1914) wasn`t as good as his uncle who commanded in 1866 and 1870/71 - Germany thought the Russian mobilization would take much longer, but it took the Russian just a few weeks. So some troops had to be redirected to the east; these troops where missing in the west - there was an Austrian traitor who told much about the Austrian military to Russia... this is why the K&k military was not as valuable as Germany thought (see Oberst Redl in Wikipedia) - the UK blocaded all naval traffic to Germany, and this was against international naval law. So Germany started to use U-Boats and attack merchant ships.. this brought the US in the war. Without the war entry of the US in late 1917 the result would have been different.. maybe armistice negotiations in 1919 or 1920. I`m pretty sure the list is much longer.. [ July 19, 2007, 04:19 AM: Message edited by: Hyazinth von Strachwitz ]

It isn`t really true that no one tried to kill Mr. Hitler before the tides of the war turned. According to german Wikipedia there have been 42 attempts to kill him, and some of them didn`t succeed because of some really strange incidents... this is why he believed it was "Providence" that he always survived. Everyone here knows the assassination attempt from 1944 with Rommel and Stauffenberg, but there were numerous more attempts... 2 of them already in 1939 shortly before the start of the war. One of these was VERY close.

I`d also dump the engineers... they are even more unrealistic than other unit. Here`s why: (1) Fighting while operating a concrete mixer Engineer have good fighting opportunites in this game, but Baugruppe Todt (who built the Atlantikwall) didn`t have any fighting skills at all. I think it`s simply impossible to deliver a good fight to an attacker while operating a concrete mixer. Engineers in modern warfare are capable of building a pontoon bridge or a barbed wire fence, but there are always platoon-sized and attached to bigger units.. there has never ever been a corps-sized pure Engineer unit in WW2. (2) Ressources Once you bought the Engineers, you get all fortifications for free.. doesn`t make sense at all, because a fortification will cost you concrete, steel and workforce. Buying the engineer unit can be understood as buying the people and the machines, but where is the raw material? And SC2 is a game of ressources, isn`t it? (3) Conclusion I would dump the engineer unit.. these units have never been corps-sized fighting units in reality. It should be possible to simply build fortifications without engineers... pick the tile, choose the fortication, get informed about the price and time, and then simply buy it if needed. This avoids big fortifications over hundreds of miles without any cost.

Bought CoH SE version these days. Although it`s a bit patriotic, it`s an amazing game. I like it... and I`m looking forward to any Axis Expansion packs.

One is missing one the list... not really an Action Movie, but one of the best at all in terms of acting: Bridge on the River Kwai..

@ Haudegen: I did ask that question earlier... it`s not yet figured out.

Concerning Mr. Hitler and chemical weapons: It is true that he was severly hurt by chemical weapons in WW1.. some people even say that he lost his mental health during that period. He was blind and in hospital for months. I think this is just a partial explanation.. in WW1 both sides noticed that chemical warfare hurts Attacker and Defender as well.. and the conquered land is toxicated and useless for german colonists. Concerning Dünkirchen: There are two main reason why the Wehrmacht didn´t finish off the british Forces: (1) Fat Goering promised Hitler he`ll wipe out the whole expeditionary force with the Luftwaffe, but that didn`t work out. (2) The Panzer divisions where exhausted and running out of fuel. One of them (equipped with Tank II and 38t) ran into a unit of Mathildas and was severly hurt, so Hitler stopped the attack. Sepp Dietrich, one old comrade from Hitler (took part in the 1923 coup) and Commander of a Waffen-SS Divison didn`t care about Hitler orders and attacked on one part of the beach head and made good progress.. he claimed afterwards that wiping out the beachhead would have been easy.. Does anyone remember the Panzergeneral Scenario Dunkirchen? It was like kicking ducklings in a pond....

@ Skrivebordsgeneralen: I made similar experiences... 36, 37 or 38 percent is nothing uncommon... seen that in Spain, Schweden and Finnland already.

@ Blashy: yes... at least a big part. And it`s difficult to reflect this in the game.

yes... Sierra.

But I still have a copy, Part I and Part II is still in my cupboard. Might be localized german versions (not quite sure, I`m at work at the moment). If anyone is interested, I can check. I liked the game (I`m very interested in the American Civil War), although it was a bit unbalanced in the later stages. I was never able to make the final Washington Scenario on the most difficult level, but maybe I played it in the wrong way. Anyway: it was a good game, but a programmer/game developer who wants to earn money has to do mainstream RTS stuff and not TBS.. look what happend to Master of Orion 3 and other TBS games.

I think that is a part of Battlefront`s strategy.. create a community which might not be as strong as other communities in terms of numbers, but way stronger in terms of loyalty

@ Moonslayer: I didn`t know the BI was available in the UK as well.. I thought it was a pure german thing. Did you ever play the expansion pack of BI2? It was amazing as well.. but BI3 was probably the best.. I loved the 20 Maps and the story.

Battle Isle - The Andosia War I bet most of you don`t know Battle Isle, but it`s a fantastic game and the spiritual predecessor of Panzer General.

I hope it`ll be available for owners of the german version..

@ Terif: I agree to your concerns.. Germany is way easier to invade. In the original Announcement for the Expansion Pack Hubert said there will be a revised map (slightly bigger 140x46 tiles). Therefore I think the new game will be somewhat different from the one we know right now.. a bigger map needs more ports and cities anyway. What do you think will change on the bigger map in comparison to the old 1.06 Fall Weiss? More coastline to protect, isn`t it?

Will there be a bigger map in the final version?

Okay, thanks for your efforts. Will a german basic version run with an english expansion pack? Basically I don`t have a problem with english (thks to people like Mr. Rambo I speaken der Englisch goot), but I have the german basic version.. and if I would need to buy the english basic version to get the expansion pack running, I would really need to think about buying it. Anyway: thank you very much for all the hours you work on that project.. hopefully the reward for you personally is acceptable.

@ Hubert: how about trying another one? The first one was really B/S.. try CDV, they do a lot of Wargames and I think some of the german localizations for the Combat Mission Games.. they are huge and professional.

Will there be a german localization?

Will there be a german localization?

@ Hubert: I have a few comments regarding Spain.. Spain was still weakened by the Civil War, but it was a dictatorship.. and before loosing the possibility to reign the country, Franco would have most likely entered the war in favor of the Axis. This gives two implications: (1) The spanish troops (except ships) are more powerful than the Italian Forces in 1940 or 1941.. while the Italians do not even have a HQ, the spanish forces have one... and Armor. This does not make any sense in my eyes.... the spanish forces should be less powerful in comparison to the italian. (2) In case Franco sees his country going to war anyway, he will join the Axis.. that means if the Allies invade Portugal, Spain should definitely join the Axis unless the Allies have moved them a lot in their direction via diplomacy.. i.e. if the diplo percentage is in favor the Allies, Spain would remain neutral. This would need a couple of hits, so it can be aesily countered by the Axis. (3) If the Axis gets Spain in via Diplo, the war is almost decided in the West.. by taking Gibraltar any Allied action in the Med is severely hindered, and the amercian invasion of North Africa is almost impossible. Even if the Allies do a successful D-Day, the Axis can still strike back from Spain by transporting german troops in from Italy.. I did that once, and it was good fun... Conclusion: Spain is a game cracker.. if the Axis have it, it is too valuable. A possible soluation can be to reduce the troop strength. Off topic concerning the Italian forces: I like the idea of giving more units to Italy (they had a lot of weak units), but the strength should be 5 and not 10 in the beginning.

@ Armuss: usually all people play on maxed out settings... it depends on how often you save and what strategy you use. When you save once a year or less, it gets difficult on maxed out settings..