Llyranor

Don't know about experience.

The early chapters of A Time of Trumpets are a pretty interesting read on how much information (or lack of information, which could be just as telling) was actually available to the Allies, through Ultra or otherwise, about an upcoming German offensive in the Ardennes. Of course, hindsight 20/20 etc.

Wow, Wrath likes TC2M. Maybe we're not sworn enemies after all!

Shut up, you're Mr Mathe Unfortunately, no campaign. Only battles. Apparently "allows you to simulate almost all the battles of the Empire between 1805-1814." There we go: "Comes with 10 historical battles including Haslach, Austerlitz, Eylau, Friedland, Campaign of Eckmul, Wagram, Moscowa (Borodino), Berezina, Hanau and La Rothi

Let's get it out of the way first. The game features pretty primitive 3D, blah blah blah. For those interested in an in-depth grand tactical wargame featuring high-level gameplay at the helm of a Napoleonic army, that may not matter. HistWar: Les Grognards is an indie game being made by French designer Jean-Michel Math

No war but class war.

Italy was fairly easy to unite as Milan, but we're still working towards the final steps of German unification under a Swiss iron fist. Maybe it's because we've been annexing nations left and right and we're hated throughout the world, but the game's been picking up as we've been engaged in one war after another against various different alliances. France, England, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Golden Horde, Ottoman - they all want us dead for some reason. We've been managing okay against most - it's mainly been France singlehandedly keeping us on our toes and fighting for our very survival (most of our wars with them has ended up with most of Switzerland under French occupation, though we eventually end up pushing them back and getting relatively neutral peace terms. The problem is when other opportunistic alliances declare war on us between our conflicts with France, giving us little time to recuperate. For the first time during our last war, though, we've been able to beat France back (though both sides have been bleeding quite heavily in resources and manpower) and even gotten favorable terms. We were planning on expanding North and East at some point, or maybe go explore the New World, but all that has been put indefinitely on hold until we realize our current main object: the full annexation of France. Those crappers have been making us sweat for too long; now they pay.

Heh, we stopped playing HoI2, awesome after it was, after 1) alanschu backstabbed us as Spain, that flaming piece of crap, and 2) stupid awful netcode that got us out of sync all the time. Just glad to see it hasn't been an issue with EU3. We also have EU:Rome still waiting to be played!

HoI3's already in the mail, but I think we'll pass on actually playing it until after a few patches. Speaking of sleep deprivation, it's been a few nights in a row where idiot has been going to bed at dawn because of EU3.

Europa Universalis III is seriously addictive, and actually works in co-op. Good fun as the Italian/Austrian/Swiss alliance works towards crushing stupid France.

Maybe the will get a 5-min cameo too.

At least VD's PR is entertaining, like when he goes off insulting the community of some gaming site interviewing him, rather than standard Bioware/Bethesda/Molyneux crap. As for me, I'll wait for the demo and impressions. We'll see about C&C, but what I've seen of the writing hasn't been too great, though that was before he got an editor or something. Who knows.

I ate Nick's heart and gained his powers.

I guess a cameo is an easy way to implement 'consequence' between the games without actually putting much effort into it.

Carth Onasi was an interesting, well-developed character.

The August previews have been doing a better job of showcasing what the game is about. More focus on reactive world/NPCs/'open story', less on gunplay/stealth. The latter are fine, but they'll get unfavorable comparisons to shooters/stealth games.

Re: Italian blunder in Balkans and German intervention, I just finished reading 'Greece and Crete 1941' by Buckley this week. Enjoyable read, and not too lengthy. Focuses mostly on the British/Anzacs. The critical weeks that delayed the Russian invasion must have been costly. Would the Axis have fared better if Germany didn't attack Russia? I don't have any exact sources, but I remember reading somewhere that Russia was planning on attacking Germany first as well (and at the start of the offensive, many units that were being mobilized to prepare for an attack were caught off-guard or something). In any case, even if that isn't right, once the Non-Aggression Pact is off, I doubt Russia would have just stood idly by. It might have lingered longer before getting involved in the war, but only to bolster its military might.

I had this prepared specifically for this occasion.

Well, I'm being moderated, so I have to be nice.

Darn it, not even sure if Canada is getting a retail copy of this. BB/FS don't have it listed on their site, and EB doesn't even know it exists. I wanted the physical manual! I might cave in and get the GG version, though I didn't preorder, so no extra sprites. I'll be playing with counters anyway! I'll be France, Nick will be UK, alanschu's replacement (WE FOUND SOMEONE ELSE, YOU PIECE OF CRAP) will be Spain. We'll try to keep the US out of the war. The game isn't that hardcore. A lot of things can also be automated. You just need half a brain and have more of an attention span than Morgoth.

That's funny, kind of like when people are trying to argue that Carth Onasi isn't an interesting, well-developed character. Those fools.

Woooo, a convert! Well, this and War in Russia were both made by Gary Grisby (as well as the upcoming War in the East - 2010). As for me, I'm holding out for now. It actually turns out to be cheaper than I thought given the standalone status, and I won't have to get WITP as well. The main obstacle is also one of time. For now, I'll be content just reading alanschu's AAR's, and maybe wait for some Matrix sale event. Plus, I'll be prioritizing HoI3! I'm literally buying a new PC for that game (which I've been procrastinating since forever). I will, however, likely be working on an AAR thread as well once the new Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge comes out.

Admiral's Edition is out [url="http://matrixgames.com/news/589/War.in.the.Pacific:.Admiral

You never played CoD4 mp with us, you jerk. (psst what's your PSN username?)

I've temporarily stepped down from my Obsidian CEO role to supervise the boxart revision.