Armchair Dragoons Forums
Wargaming => The Modern World => Topic started by: bob48 on November 06, 2018, 03:58:33 PM
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Where's OJD when you need him?
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Where's OJD when you need him?
He was in West Virginia, last we heard from him
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Aye, I realise he travels a lot with his job.
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Here I am. I've been in a funk for a few weeks, and not hitting any web site or doing any gaming. I'm starting to come out of it though.
What's up Bob. Birthday coming up soon. WTH! Where's the Birthday Cake emoji.
Well, this will have to do for now. :clown:
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No worries, Mike - I was just curious to see how you were getting on with it - especially the Italian Front.
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I'm going to have to take my gaming table in the living room down soon, it's sitting where the Christmas tree goes. I have the large table in the basement, but we'll have lots of kids here on Christmas day, and I know it'll get bumped and jumbled then. So, I'm going to start setting up one of the Italian scenarios using Vassal. There is a module for the entire Der Weltkrieg campaign. You can also choose to use just one of the maps it looks like.
You interested in giving it a try with me.
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Where's OJD when you need him?
He was in West Virginia, last we heard from him
Haven't been traveling too much this year. Won't even get Diamond status with Hilton. I was in Dover Delaware last week for 3 days, and in Huntington, WV this week. Got home about 5 this evening. It's only a 4 hr drive so not too bad.
With the time change, it's getting dark by about 5:30, feels like it should be 10 right now.
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Yep, I'll check I have the vassal mod (pretty sure I have) and let's see if we can get a game on the go.
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Sounds good Bob. I won't be home much tonight, have to go help make 600 pies from scratch. School fundraiser.
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No worries - same here for this weekend, got a few things happening, see how we're fixed for next week, bearing in mind the time difference :-)
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Bob, do you know which scenario you want to give a try/
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Dunno - bear in mind I don't have the specific stuff for the Italian front - I only have the EF game.
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There are 4 scenarios with IT; May 1915, May 1916, May 1917, and Oct 1917 (Caporetto).
Which side would you like, the back stabbing Italians, or the angelic Austrians with their German lackeys.
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lol
mama mia!
Austro-Hungarians please.
We'll need to give some thought about a suitable time given our 5 hour time difference.
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Bob, I promise I haven't forgotten about you. Even taken the week off, I've been busy.
I did get the Ottoman Front for my birthday. Just glancing at the scenario book, it seems to have by far the most number of scenarios. About 10.
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:bigthumb:
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Bob, can we use steam to chat. I'll be available most of the day tomorrow. I will have to go get Olivia mid afternoon from her shopping trip so she can go to work.
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Yes, Steam chat works fine for me - not too sure of the timing though, likely early evening for me. Keep a lookout and we'll play it by ear.
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Bob, you going to be around in the morning. If I see you on Steam we can chat for a bit and see about getting a game going.
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We'll be out for most of the morning, but maybe back around lunch time (our time, that is). I'll check out Steam when I can to see if your about.
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Well, Mike and I finally got onto Vassal with this, so at least we have made a start :)
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You're still ahead of the F-35 on the QE
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No great surprise there, then. :waah:
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It should make for some very riveting youtube streaming.
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...once we work out how to do it........................ ;D
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Fun fact, I proofed the entries in the all of the rule books from their previous iterations, and tied them all together for the final combined title. Mind you, Schroeder saw fit not to add that to the credits. It took a long time, and it was largely due to every single release had another version of what he called 'Duration Game' - these rarely matched from one title to the next - so effectively it was combing through all of the titles to weave them into a single entry schedule for the final tie it all together game.
I used to do his web site - but in my 'defence' I was not allowed to use anything but his old photographs -so I was not allowed access to the digital graphics that showed up on the Vassal module. I would have loved to have used those in developing the site- but it wasn't allowed, and in the end all it ever did was make it look like I couldn't design a web page or do graphics (he was still using some of my banners on the site that I put together really quickly (not some of my best work - but better than anything else they had.).
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and in the end all it ever did was make it look like I couldn't design a web page or do graphics
man, I hate it when you get handcuffed to the point that you end up looking incompetent
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:) Who knows -- it might just be that I might be incompetent in an entirely different way ( -to paraphrase Beavis and Butthead)... I got asked to review his book: Business in the Trenches -but I mean, really, I was aware that this same book was self-reviewed over at Good Reads (spoiler alert - said reviewer gave it 5 stars) - I politely declined. I mean I couldn't help thinking of hypothetical topics ...
EG: say you're stuck in a tough board meeting ... consider deploying gas to get out of a tough spot. Or things like that --- I mean it sort of seemed like --- Lessons for Businesses from Burnside's battle plan at Fredericksburg.... -or - if it ain't working ... why not... just keep doing it. . . (talk about feeling limited editorially speaking ...) :D
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Someone got all of the maps out on their table. No, no me.
https://twitter.com/Jordanmac55/status/1212835618738393089?s=09
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Someone got all of the maps out on their table. No, no me.
https://twitter.com/Jordanmac55/status/1212835618738393089?s=09 (https://twitter.com/Jordanmac55/status/1212835618738393089?s=09)
Stunning
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Very Impressive :bigthumb:
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https://twitter.com/Jordanmac55/status/1214321719671955456?s=19
https://twitter.com/Jordanmac55/status/1214324238296977409?s=19
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https://twitter.com/compassgamesllc/status/1214322587217600513?s=19
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Yea, I placed this in the wrong thread
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Someone doing a grand campaign. No me
https://twitter.com/Jordanmac55/status/1217507024956809216?s=19
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Impressive!
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BOB!!!!
BOB!!!!!
Ping me on Steam chat. I got something to show you!!!!!!
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Hey! This is a PG-13 site! :hehe:
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Which is why I'm not gong to show him here. :biggrin:
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BOB!!!!
BOB!!!!!
Ping me on Steam chat. I got something to show you!!!!!!
Will do
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Bob, I got the bugs worked out if you want to try again. I tested last night with Cyrano.
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Excellent, Mike - I should be on later so I'll give you a nudge if I see you on Steam :bigthumb:
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:bigthumb:
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Bob,
I'm working on the TTS module. I did have all of the Italian ID units done, but when I loaded them into TTS, I didn't like them. Almost done with the edits and will have them loaded soon. Then on to the Italian infantry brigades.
Anyways, I noticed that some units have red numbers for their strength-movement points, and other's have black. I don't see anything in the rules that the color makes a difference. Of course, I may have missed. Do you know if there difference. I took a quick peek at some Eastern Front counters and noticed the same thing.
Thanks
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I can't remember to be honest, but I'll dig the rules out and have a look.
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I've got the Italian infantry divisions and brigades done and loaded. I'm still not happy with them though. I started to work on the mountain divisions, and made some color and font changes. What do you think. On the mountain divisions, I made the color in the box darker. I think it's a close match to the counters. The max strength number in the top right on the MD counters is white, but I think I like the red better.
What do you all think.
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Red on green and green on red are both a little tougher on the eyes without a key line around the text
I think the counters look pretty good though, and almost a print ready design if you are working on something from scratch
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Yea, I agree, the white looks better in the top right.
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Yeah, the white is easier to read than the red.
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For the strength and movement numbers, I think I like the black the best. Or I need to go with a darker shade of red. I think the green blends in too much.
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Bob,
I'm working on the TTS module. I did have all of the Italian ID units done, but when I loaded them into TTS, I didn't like them. Almost done with the edits and will have them loaded soon. Then on to the Italian infantry brigades.
Anyways, I noticed that some units have red numbers for their strength-movement points, and other's have black. I don't see anything in the rules that the color makes a difference. Of course, I may have missed. Do you know if there difference. I took a quick peek at some Eastern Front counters and noticed the same thing.
Thanks
Mike, I've had a good look through the rules and I can't see anywhere that explains why some units have the values in red - so I'm baffled as to what this means.
It may be something to do with the individual game specific rules, so I'll check that when I get chance.
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Well, the SPW web site isn't working. Get a message that the account has been suspended.
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I cannot find anything about why different colors are used for units. I think I'm going to stick with black until I found out differently.
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Well, the SPW web site isn't working. Get a message that the account has been suspended.
I think there is a link from the Decision Games site.
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This is the response I received to the different color question from someone over on Consimworld forum.
no special reason for that. Just to inhance visibility.
I'm leaning to just making them all black.
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This is the response I received to the different color question from someone over on Consimworld forum.
no special reason for that. Just to inhance visibility.
I hope they noted that somewhere in the rules. That's confusing as hell to figure out while playing. A different color almost always denotes a different ability/value.
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The crazy thing is that red/green do NOT enhance visibility with each other....
(unless it was changing OUT of that combo to enhance vis)
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Nothing in the rules about it. Some units, especially the Austrian-Hungarian units will have different colors in the unit type boxes, but that denotes nationality, Austrian, Hungarian, Czech, etc. There are also replenishment units, and their strength/movement colors are white, and I'm leaving those as is.
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Well, that is a bit daft, but at least you have established that it does not denote some game function which we have overlooked.
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Here 's the answer from Dave Schroeder, the game designer.
he different colors are really just a representation of the different uniforms or status of different organizations within the military.
In the Italian units, infantry have red numbers and dark green symbol background (symbol), mountain troops have green numbers and dark green symbol, alpine troops have green numbers and white symbol, Arditi have black numbers and dark green symbol.
It's all an attempt to replicate the branch uniform color differences on the pieces. Gives the pieces a bit of the "flair" still left on WW1 uniforms.
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This was posted over at consimworld
dave schroeder - Sep 14, 2019 11:27 am (#12953 Total: 13039) BookmarkEmail to Friend
SPW Website
I am in the process of closing down the spwgame.com website. I have sent the rules files to Decision Games, and they will shortly take over the distribution of those files. I will keep the website up until DG is fully set up.
The videos on the game mechanics are available on youtube, so they will still be available for people to view.
Until I fully retire (maybe 3 years from now), I just do not have the time and energy that is needed for further developments. And I cannot justify what I am paying to maintain the website.
So, if you want to get something off of the website, please do so quickly.
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:(
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Don't expect much to make sense - the East Front game literally redid the countersheets, verbatim from the 3 titles it all combined (neverminding the fact that when republished it had become a singular title).
Why this might have been important? In the previous expansion title: Gorlice-Tarnow/Brusilov - the set up for (and I forgot which one it was) -required users to substitute HQ units with one designation for something else as outlined in the set up instructions.
Now the mind-fornicating aspect of this, is that this little detail was never outlined in the rules --- so a user could spend a long time searching for HQ units in your countermixes, that literally did not exist.
How or why do I know this? Well, aside from the fact that it never got documented - when these things were re-published back in 2012 I had done all of the counter-proofing and sorting out all of the different titles to make sure that with all of the various layers of 'Duration games' that existed (what this means is that every time a new title was released it included layered on rules to combine everything that existed at that time .... of course the problem was, was that prior to 2012 there did not appear to have been much of a plan to do this outside of simply slapping together another Duration game set of rules ... so that there were a multitude of slightly different entry schedules ... all for the same thing.
B)
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Looks like all of the rules are downloadable from here.
http://decisiongames.com/wpsite/e-rules/
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Nice find - glad DG saw fit to get rid of the password needed for rules download thing.
I mentioned about about some units being missing (I think in Gorlice-Tarnow/Brusilov) - and by extension the eastern front continuation games. I probably have the proof files for the countersets - which means I would be in a position to create the missing counters -but you'd have to then make them up ala print on demand.
I would just need a list of what you need. That and work out how to use .ai files (am not sure if I have the exact font set either ... so that might be an aesthetic issue).
Edited: Ojsdad and I were discussing this; I do have some space on my own site (Scenario Design Center -which mainly has John Tiller Software content) set aside for Der Weltkrieg. I didn't have the link handy at the time - and this is really only intended as a placeholder site (and it has been in this state for a number of years).
I understand that the SPW official site is now gone (I knew Mr Schroeder had said that he would drop support of it) - I was in charge of the SPW website (such as it were) for several years. The point in posting this link is not that I am saying this is done - but rather more that there is the potential to do this. I thought that I could do better than the site that was published (a lot better actually), so this is basically a blank canvass - but also one with a disclaimer- I have a project with Tiller that takes precedence to everything. I am not at all saying that I can do this immediately.
http://hist-sdc.com/spw/
Useless trivia -- that FT-17? It's the one from Western Front, which I worked into a favicon for my own site - I think I probably did something similar for the other tanks in the game as well.
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All the links on that side were never added - I did have an alternate index site however: http://hist-sdc.com/spw/index2.php
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https://twitter.com/chanceofgaming/status/1280674478872240134
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I've got the second one from the top :-)
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Bob, your idea about getting the strength values to change on the counter. I've got that to work. Next time I see you on line, I'll show you.
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Well done, Mike - I'll be interested to see that - it will save a lot of work and reduce stack size :bigthumb:
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https://twitter.com/chanceofgaming/status/1280674478872240134 (https://twitter.com/chanceofgaming/status/1280674478872240134)
What every gamer thinks
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Well done, Mike - I'll be interested to see that - it will save a lot of work and reduce stack size :bigthumb:
Awesome interactive counters Bob!!.. But beware, those mountain ranges will make your eyes scream!! >:D
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The maps are a little hard work.
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https://twitter.com/chanceofgaming/status/1280674478872240134
I can do better than that-- David Mitchell in an episode of Peep Show is in a Hobby Shop - he's standing in front of a shelf- and there behind him -with their nice spectral convergence of yellow to orange to red and back again (or is it vice versa) - is a about 5 of these titles.
Mind you I swear the episode where Mitchell's character self-publishes a self help book: Business Secrets of the Pharaohs is also a parody of Business in the Trenches... seems too coincidental..
-Switching Gears: OJsDad and I were talking - and while I was aware that the SPW website was going away soon, I hadn't realised that this had actually happened - which it has now. I had done the official SPW website for several years- and while I saved all of what I had - frankly it wasn't all that great of a site - I wanted to use digital images - as they were going to be clearer than photos and all that - and to that end, I am open to adding this on to a section of hist-sdc.com.
I haven't played the series since about 2008 ... spatial considerations ... I'd done the first few turns of Schlieffen Plan several times- and the entire Liege-Namur area is a bit of an interesting puzzle as it also involves timetables.
I thought the then version of Tannenberg was too scripted and therefore not conducive to replaying.... and was nearly to the point of starting Galicia when I had to pack things up - that one looked like it had a lot of possibilities - but I need to someday get back to that one.
Yes the maps thing has been an issue that I have read about numerous times, but the thing with this series is - effectively aside from some city hexes, effectively all terrain is via hexside. I don't actually know how else you do it - although I imagine there might be a way - at the time these were initially published (late 90's) - it was a time when graphics programs were not like something you just fire up a pc, laptop, or tablet and just go for it. I read a long time ago that Dave said something about Joe Youst- however, I mean if you go back far enough you can read all sorts of interesting things about the series- like the whopper that all of it was done, but just needed money to be published.
Well if that is so, then how is it that several years later (and by this I mean like 2001 - or so - on Consimworld) he's brainstorming techniques for a Panzers in France, and talking about playtesting, and actual development talk? Since that time nothing much changed- there's a WWII folder for the series on CSW- but - I mean, let's be honest, it's under development - maybe. WWI as a series out - well that's an accomplishment to be sure -it is something that Europa never achieved ... so I mean to be fair to Dave - it has been a big project.
Anyways- I might open up an area to this on Scenario Design Center... am happy to work with others who might want that - although as I got some other things in mind, it won't be a personal priority unless I get seriously back into WW I gaming -- who knows... I guess it could happen.
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Finally got the turncoat Italians and their British and French masters loaded. Took some time as I was having to figure out what to do with fortresses and supply markers. Now to get the Austrian-Hungarians and their allies the from the German Empire loaded.
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Great job, Mike :bigthumb:
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Thanks Bob
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Have you had a chance to do any more on this, Mike?
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Yes. I've got everything done but the last half of the Austrians. Hit a wall last week with work and being whipped, and kind of needed a distraction some this week so was playing They are Billions quite a bit. But I'm getting the itch now to get it going again. I'm scheduled Blucher tonight so hopefully tomorrow I can roll up my sleeves and knock it out.
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That's great, Mike - what you have done so far is very impressive :bigthumb:
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Well be battling soon enough my friend. If we can decide which side we're each plying. :P
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I'm really not bothered to be honest - we could always roll a D20.................... ::)
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All of the counters are loaded. Have to get the various player aids uploaded. Probably will not get those until tomorrow.
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All of the counters are loaded. Have to get the various player aids uploaded. Probably will not get those until tomorrow.
Slacker. ::)
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All of the counters are loaded. Have to get the various player aids uploaded. Probably will not get those until tomorrow.
Slacker. ::)
Done. Now I'm going to start taking what I have got, and build the scenarios.
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Great job OJD!
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:bigthumb:
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May 1915 scenario is ready. I found a few errors with units that I need to fix in both this setup and the master DW:IF module.
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Good stuff, Mike.
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Yes, that looks really good! :bigthumb:
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Looking good Mike
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Looking for someone to help me play test the first scenario this three day weekend.