Wargame of the Year 2006 - the results
eddys...@hotmail.com
1st place and winner of the Gold medal for Wargame of the Year 2006 :
Conquest of the Aegean : 100 points
2nd place and Silver medalist : Birth of America : 75 points
3rd place and Bronze medalist : The Operational Art of War 3 : 27
points
Honorable mentions go to :
4) Take Command - 2nd Manassas : 18 points
5) Air Assault Task Force : 14 points
5) Dominions 3 : 14 points
7) Distant Guns : 12 points
8) Hearts of Iron - Doomsday : 9 points
8) Air Campaigns of WWII - Defending the Reich : 9 points
10) Gary Grigsby's World at War - A World Divided : 6 points
10) Red Orchestra : 6 points
Congratulations to the winners - I'll send the winning developers a
message with their prize logo - may it feature proudly on their
website, they've earned it.
http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=4124492&a=32319414&f=
A thank you to all participants both for their input in points and in
giving the motivation for their choice and as promised : Arjuna will
provide one lucky winner with an autographed boxed copy of the upcoming
Panther Games title : Battles from the Bulge
I've already received confirmation from Mr. Beretta that he has
received my password protected result file in which every participant
was given a random number, so now it's up to Mr. Giftzwerg to post a
number between 1 and 37 inclusive right here :
The complete result file is of course available to all upon simple
request - just mail me.
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
Epi Watkins
eddys...@hotmail.com says...
> Hi,
>
> 1st place and winner of the Gold medal for Wargame of the Year 2006 :
> Conquest of the Aegean : 100 points
> 2nd place and Silver medalist : Birth of America : 75 points
> 3rd place and Bronze medalist : The Operational Art of War 3 : 27
> points
I didn't vote this year, because I think more than one deserves the top
spot.
--
Movie of the moment:
Little Miss Sunshine
It's a love story. Not romantic.
----
I so wish I was there:
http://moodaholic.com/photo/162
----
http://www.curlesneck.com
Epi
eddys...@hotmail.com
Epi Watkins schreef:
> In article <1168856176.3...@l53g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
> eddys...@hotmail.com says...
> > Hi,
> >
> > 1st place and winner of the Gold medal for Wargame of the Year 2006 :
> > Conquest of the Aegean : 100 points
> > 2nd place and Silver medalist : Birth of America : 75 points
> > 3rd place and Bronze medalist : The Operational Art of War 3 : 27
> > points
>
> I didn't vote this year, because I think more than one deserves the top
> spot.
Given the point spread I think it's fair to say that 2006 will be
remembered as the year of both Cota and BoA.
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
Giftzwerg
> I've already received confirmation from Mr. Beretta that he has
> received my password protected result file in which every participant
> was given a random number, so now it's up to Mr. Giftzwerg to post a
> number between 1 and 37 inclusive right here :
Twenty-one (21).
--
Giftzwerg
***
"The Colosseum in Rome was illuminated evening as part of Italy's
campaign for a global moratorium on the death penalty following the
bungled hanging of Saddam Hussein."
- AFP
"Uhm ... *bungled*? Are you suggesting Saddam is *still alive*!?"
- Giftzwerg
Vincenzo Beretta
OK, so now all we need is the password.
eddys...@hotmail.com
Vincenzo Beretta schreef:
> > Twenty-one (21).
>
> OK, so now all we need is the password.
Password : M4mx40&ippEz5nbv
Of course I already know who won by now but I'll let you make the
formal announcement to highten the tension :)
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
korri...@hotmail.com
eddys...@hotmail.com wrote:
> Of course I already know who won by now but I'll let you make the
> formal announcement to highten the tension :)
Wow, we only miss piano tunes and shining dresses and this could be the
Eurovision contest!!! :o)
Korrigan
eddys...@hotmail.com
korriga...@hotmail.com schreef:
And as usual we have to wait for the Italians to get their act together
:)
And while you're twiddling your thumbs here I've posted BoA's runner-up
status at both the AGEOD and Matrix forums :)
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
Vincenzo Beretta
> Eurovision contest!!! :o)
I provided them both, don't worry =)
Ralph
I'd like to thank everyone that voted for Operations Art of War III.
It's a real honor to be listed among the other great games released
last year,especially when the votes are by a demanding crowd like this
one.
It never would have happened without David Heaths's foresight, James
Mathews pushing the beta team and Danial McBride wrangling the scenario
evaluation team. That plus all the dedicated people that worked on the
beta teams, and all the suggestons from the forums and the newsgroup.
As a thanks, I'm going to share some of what's in the upcoming upgrade
to TOAW 3.1. I have to apologize for it being so delayed, the delay
wasn't planned and is totally my responsibility. There's a chance that
some of these might not make it, but it looks promising. There are also
some nice surprises for the scenario design crowd, and some
miscellaneous Elmer upgrades.
Without further ado, here is...
Something Old.
Editable equipment files, AKA BioEd support. Yes, you'll be able to
convert your old modified equipment files to TOAW III. This is better
support, in that you won't need to modify the executable, but will be
able to read the data in XML format. This means that scenarios like
Lord of the Rings will be playable in TOAW III.
Something new.
Crop circles. Optional range rings for people that can't count above
3<g>. It's handy for people that don't have hex-shaped eyeballs that
can see exaclty where 6 hexes distant is without using a ruler. I've
very quickly gotten addicted to switching between the terrain view and
the crop circle views.
Something borrowed (from SPWAW).
Holding down on the shift key will speed up movement and combat. For
people in a hurry<g>
Something blue.
Elmer tries to have his navy travel in fleets. It's pretty neat to
watch Two weeks in Normandy played by Elmer. He also tends to hang back
instead of crowding right next to the the shore line with his Navy.
Ralph Trickey
TOAW III Programmer
(Hoping to eventually get Oleg to part with his hard-earned money<g>)
Ralph
possibly have happened.
Ralph
Oleg Mastruko
wrote:
>Darn, all that and I forgot Norm Koger. Without him this couldn't
>possibly have happened.
LOL how could you forget Da Man? :o)
Oleg Mastruko
wrote:
>Ralph Trickey
>TOAW III Programmer
>
>(Hoping to eventually get Oleg to part with his hard-earned money<g>)
Fact is - I got a free journalist review copy from Matrix,
that's why I feel so bad whenever I have to badmouth this game :o)
Then again, that's what reviewers do - they occassionally
badmouth products they get for free :o)
Seriously, I respect the work you did on TOAW. (Un)fortunatelly,
my expectations were not met. I would be quite happy with next-to-no
changes to the main engine, and a bundle of well tested, upgraded
scenarios. We all know what we got so there's not much point repeating
it yet again - solid work from you + a 8 storey high pile, a mountain,
an avalanche of scenarios most of which are IMO, simply unplayable,
never tested, not to mention, never even attempting to use all the new
and "new" features.
That, to me, is half assed product, but congrats on the 3rd
place anyway ;o)
Ralph Trickey
news:ttpnq211vnh8vs4lp...@4ax.com...
> On 15 Jan 2007 08:39:00 -0800, "Ralph" <ralpht...@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>Ralph Trickey
>>TOAW III Programmer
>>
>>(Hoping to eventually get Oleg to part with his hard-earned money<g>)
>
> Fact is - I got a free journalist review copy from Matrix,
> that's why I feel so bad whenever I have to badmouth this game :o)
>
> Then again, that's what reviewers do - they occassionally
> badmouth products they get for free :o)
>
then...<grin>
Ralph
Pocus
us! I hope that 2007 will see us nominated with another game ;)
Philippe Malacher (Pocus).
<eddys...@hotmail.com> Wrote
eddys...@hotmail.com
Pocus schreef:
> On behalf of all the BOA team, thank you for your support and confidence in
> us! I hope that 2007 will see us nominated with another game ;)
Just one ? :)
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
eddys...@hotmail.com
Ralph Trickey schreef:
If you want a *real* challenge I would set my sights on Mario/Bloodstar
:)
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
Oleg Mastruko
<eddys...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>If you want a *real* challenge I would set my sights on Mario/Bloodstar
>:)
Mario loves TOAW, I think he has a copy already.
Anyhow, well, I DO buy games I play, regardless of the review
copies I might have gotten for free.
So, there's still hope for me buying TOAW3 :o) Bring McBride's
**updated** scenarios back on board, get some of the best other
scenario makers to update and **TEST** their work with the latest
features, get their seal of approval, and.... well, that's about it.
eddys...@hotmail.com
Oleg Mastruko schreef:
> On 16 Jan 2007 02:00:14 -0800, "eddys...@hotmail.com"
> <eddys...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >If you want a *real* challenge I would set my sights on Mario/Bloodstar
> >:)
>
> Mario loves TOAW, I think he has a copy already.
Yeah, he loves TOAW-COW, but hates TOAW3 because it "broke" his
favourite scenario (Fire in the East). Well that was the situation the
last time he posted about it in here - things might have changed 180
degrees by now as you never know with those "Crazy Croats" :)
> Anyhow, well, I DO buy games I play, regardless of the review
> copies I might have gotten for free.
You're a better man than me - I do feel guilty sometimes for all the
freebies, but not guilty enough to pull out the ol' CC.
> So, there's still hope for me buying TOAW3 :o) Bring McBride's
> **updated** scenarios back on board, get some of the best other
> scenario makers to update and **TEST** their work with the latest
> features, get their seal of approval, and.... well, that's about it.
That's all ? - should be finished by this afternoon then :)
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
Oleg Mastruko
<eddys...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> So, there's still hope for me buying TOAW3 :o) Bring McBride's
>> **updated** scenarios back on board, get some of the best other
>> scenario makers to update and **TEST** their work with the latest
>> features, get their seal of approval, and.... well, that's about it.
>
>That's all ? - should be finished by this afternoon then :)
I forgot one other thing - get the Belgian Space Program started
by next monday :o)
eddys...@hotmail.com
> Mario/Bloodstar
Well, I got kind of curious what was up with him - had expected him to
vote in here for Distant Activ^H^H^H Guns and went looking for him at
his favourite hangouts.
Seems like he's having a fine time at XTreme-Gamer :)
BTW, I will take that group with a grain of salt. I was active there
but not anymore. I will not post there anymore as that newsgroup is in
fact office of Matrix Games through Belgian carp fisher Eddy Sterckx
(same guy that accused Croatians as lazy but at least we are not
pedofils like them - Belgians). There is also a guy named Giftwerg,
literally eloquent but wraped in a Bush nazi flag all over. He in fact
uses that group to provoke any leftwing Americans and other into flame
wars. He also tried to insult me last time calling place I live
OSTEUROSTAN. That just back ups my theory about place where HE lives -
Fourth Reich or at least men like him who think so low on any place in
the world outside their backyard.
Not to mention that same clique of half witted men who actually tried
to sabotage Distant Guns all around Internet just because of it's copy
protection scheme, boycott it etc... So that group is null. Not to
mention that they will sabotage also Paradox and Battlefront because of
their e-License scheme - that means that only Matrix Games is beloved
on that newsgroup and they will find reason to spit on others. I was
long time regular there but boy no more.
LOL you said this well. It was nice passtime which got rather boring
with endless flamewars and amnesia of some participants to accept
stronger arguments when you hit them in the face with them. Then there
is trivialisation and generalisation and all in all - that group
influence is not that big. Yes, there are few OK people who have
opinion on wargames and I can say that I respect their opinion on
wargames but now this all mess have become a Matrix fanboy club with
Eddy as their troyan horse who will make up every their move. Before
that ng was very objective and now it is property of Matrix inc.
- -
It brightens my day that he hasn't changed one bit :)
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
eddys...@hotmail.com
> I forgot one other thing - get the Belgian Space Program started
> by next monday :o)
That's easy - we just hitch a ride with NASA :)
Just Google "Frank De Winne" and "Dirk Frimout"
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
JeF
eddys...@hotmail.com a écrit :
> Oleg Mastruko schreef:
>
> > I forgot one other thing - get the Belgian Space Program started
> > by next monday :o)
>
> That's easy - we just hitch a ride with NASA :)
In fact, only Frimout flew for NASA, on board of the Space Shuttle
Atlantis.
De Winne was an ESA astronaut and flew on board of Soyuz.
So we hitch a ride with anybody. Hopefully, applications in China and
India will start soon.
There was a proposal to send all of our ministers in orbit but there
was no room enough. :-)
JeF.
eddys...@hotmail.com
> So we hitch a ride with anybody.
Yeah, as if we'd care about who pays for the ride :)
> Hopefully, applications in China and India will start soon.
I heard North Korea has some rockets too :)
> There was a proposal to send all of our ministers in orbit but there
> was no room enough. :-)
I'd *pay* to get them into orbit - single fare ticket of course - and
notice no smiley here.
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
JeF
> I'd *pay* to get them into orbit
Thank God, (Gros) Louis and (Dikke) Jean-Luc are not there anymore. A
kilo of payload ain't cheap these days with the oil crisis. :-)
JeF.
eddys...@hotmail.com
JeF schreef:
> eddys...@hotmail.com a écrit :
> > I'd *pay* to get them into orbit
>
> Thank God, (Gros) Louis and (Dikke) Jean-Luc are not there anymore.
Not here anymore ? - check who's the current mayor of the town I live
in and the other one got kicked upstairs to the European Commission -
they cling to power and money like a fat fly to super-sticky flypaper.
> A
> kilo of payload ain't cheap these days with the oil crisis. :-)
I got a company fuel card - we can use that - do rockets fly on diesel
eddys...@hotmail.com
>
> Seriously, I respect the work you did on TOAW. (Un)fortunatelly,
> my expectations were not met. I would be quite happy with next-to-no
> changes to the main engine, and a bundle of well tested, upgraded
> scenarios. We all know what we got so there's not much point repeating
> it yet again - solid work from you + a 8 storey high pile, a mountain,
> an avalanche of scenarios most of which are IMO, simply unplayable,
> never tested, not to mention, never even attempting to use all the new
> and "new" features.
Well, I'll be .. look what got posted today by JamIAm
http://www.wargamer.com/forums/tm.asp?m=209155 - a thread titled
"Calling all TOAW 3 Scenario Designers"
"We are getting close to releasing the next patch for TOAW III, and
would like to take the opportunity to allow scenario designers the
chance to submit their completed TOAW III scenarios for inclusion in
the next patch. Unfortunately, we are not offering complimentary games
in exchange for newly submitted materials, and thus your only
recognition would be the glory of having your scenario included as an
"official" TOAW III scenario.
All submissions need to be sent to me at iamjamiam (at) yahoo (dot) com
and must include "TOAW III scenario submission" in the subject line.
The final judgement on whether the scenario will make it into the patch
will be made by the QA Team. Those scenarios that do not make the cut
for this patch will receive feedback on what to revise, and may be
resubmitted for inclusion in future patch releases. Scenario
submissions must be received by 20:00 GMT, January 26th, 2007 for
consideration in the next patch. "
- -
JamIAm is of course James Mathews - the lead beta guy for TOAW3
Mr. Mastruko might have to pull out the CC sooner than he'd anticipated
:)
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
eddys...@hotmail.com
> 1st place and winner of the Gold medal for Wargame of the Year 2006 :
> Conquest of the Aegean : 100 points
Arjuna posted a reaction on the COTA public forum
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/m.asp?m=1354404&mpage=1&key=
"It's great winning this award. The war-historical newsgroup is a bit
like one of those wild frontier bars. You know the one's where you walk
in slow to give you enough time to size up the clientel and where
you're on your guard just waiting for the wild brawl to break out. It's
a no holds barred kind of forum, where frank and open discussion can
sometimes be taken to the extreme. Users speak their mind there.
Sometimes they speak before engaging their mind but on the whole the
commentary there is well informed.
To secure the award in that environment is a great honour and one I
would like to share with all the Panther staff and especially the
Panther Prowlers, who deserve a good deal of the credit. They have put
in many hours of voluntary effort, made many wise-cracks and jibes to
keep tired eyes open and generally have been a great bunch of guys to
share this passion with. Salute"
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
Oleg Mastruko
<eddys...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>"We are getting close to releasing the next patch for TOAW III, and
>would like to take the opportunity to allow scenario designers the
>chance to submit their completed TOAW III scenarios for inclusion in
>the next patch. Unfortunately, we are not offering complimentary games
>in exchange for newly submitted materials, and thus your only
>recognition would be the glory of having your scenario included as an
>"official" TOAW III scenario.
>
>All submissions need to be sent to me at iamjamiam (at) yahoo (dot) com
>and must include "TOAW III scenario submission" in the subject line.
>The final judgement on whether the scenario will make it into the patch
>will be made by the QA Team. Those scenarios that do not make the cut
>for this patch will receive feedback on what to revise, and may be
>resubmitted for inclusion in future patch releases. Scenario
>submissions must be received by 20:00 GMT, January 26th, 2007 for
>consideration in the next patch. "
>
>JamIAm is of course James Mathews - the lead beta guy for TOAW3
Sceptic as I am I don't see this as great news, I see this post
is another way of saying:
"After Ralph and the rest of us fiddled with the engine yet
more, we'd like to wrap things up for the next patch but we found
ourselves again ignoring the scenario part, and with this desperate
call to arms, we hope to get another dozen or so untested, unpolished
scenarios by never-known scenario makers to fit the bill, so that we
can claim the next patch adds XY **brand new** scenarios".
This is NOT how the serious scenario selection is done - via
some sort of last minute public posts on web board(s). In serious
scenario selection you talk to serious scenario designers on a 1 to 1
basis, knowing like weeks in advance which scenarios will go in which
release, testing them rigorously regarding balance, new features yadda
yadda.
Anyhow, other than being apparently bad at getting, testing and
culling scenarios, I must add I see Jamiam as perfect gentleman, smart
commentator on the world of TOAW, and noblest PBEM opponent, I
remember him back from the "old days", and always enjoyed reading his
balanced and well informed posts even in most "flamey" threads on TOAW
boards.... (still he sucks at scenario QA ;o)
In all honesty, to be taken seriously, TOAW guys would first
need to PULL BACK couple dozen scenarios from the official TOAW 3
release: "OK; we are sorry for ever releasing this garbage, please
take this move means introduction of some reasonable standards for
scenario QA, thanks."
Oleg
Oleg Mastruko
<eddys...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Great stuff, but you need to start indigeneous (spelling?) space
program, exactly to stop the hated practice of "hitching the ride"
with Americans and the Russians :o)
eddys...@hotmail.com
Oleg Mastruko schreef:
So long as others pay for the ride we don't care who's flag is on the
outside of the spaceship :)
We can probably collect 5 billion euro by monday if we promise to shoot
our government into orbit so I can see no hurdles for starting a local
space program if somebody would be so kind as to sell us a rocket for
that price. Re-entry not required.
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
von Schmidt
Oleg Mastruko wrote:
(SNIP)
> Anyhow, other than being apparently bad at getting, testing and
> culling scenarios, I must add I see Jamiam as perfect gentleman, smart
> commentator on the world of TOAW, and noblest PBEM opponent, I
> remember him back from the "old days", and always enjoyed reading his
> balanced and well informed posts even in most "flamey" threads on TOAW
> boards.... (still he sucks at scenario QA ;o)
>
> In all honesty, to be taken seriously, TOAW guys would first
> need to PULL BACK couple dozen scenarios from the official TOAW 3
> release: "OK; we are sorry for ever releasing this garbage, please
> take this move means introduction of some reasonable standards for
> scenario QA, thanks."
>
> Oleg
Take a deep breath Oleg. At least Matrix are starting to make the
effort to improve the scen selection for TOAW3. They could just have
ignored our pleas and left it to the fan community, you know?
Every little step helps.
-von Schmidt