Euro Wars Antiques, For that Retro-Cold War feeling! Options

[CanRay]

Available at fine electronic retailers!

[tasti man LH]

...$11.95?! Damn...

Well, this thing is promising to give an overview of the Euro Wars, so naturally it would have more besides your standard gear PDF...

[Bull]

Yeah, it clocks in at 92 pages. 24 pages of background and history, the rest gear.

[Grak]

Is this one electronic Only or are we going to see it in print?

[Bull]

Electric only, though some of the gear was in Runner's Black Book 2074.

[Mantis]

Are they ever going to get the stuff from the printed Runner's Black book into a PDF format? I know people have been pushing for it but with 5th ed on the horizon ... Anyway, I'll be grabbing this. And can I say about time. I've been seeing the little blurbs for this book forever. I was starting to think it was all just a tease.

[Bull]

I don't know about the RBB stuff making it into PDF. It's been discussed, but one of the reasons they put some minor additional material into the print book was to give it some added value over buying just the PDFs.

Personally, I can see both sides of the coin. But thankfully it's not my call to make (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Bull

[Mantis]

Well for me the annoyance was that I bought all the PDFs as they came out. If I'd know I'd get all the PDF stuff and more if I waited for the print version, I would have done so. Anyway, old peeve. Lets not go into it.

[hermit]

I'll put up a detailed review later, but for now: Why does CGL hate maps so much?

[CanRay]

I'll put up a detailed review later, but for now: Why does CGL hate maps so much?

To quote Mungo at the budget meeting: "Mappz iz prizey."

[hermit]

Come on. It's five hours of Photoshop. I can make these maps myself.

[Larsine]

Come on. It's five hours of Photoshop. I can make these maps myself.

If it's that easy, then make them, put them on a website, and show us how briliant you are. And send them to Jason and suggest that he hires you.

[hermit]

Will he pay me? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) But a demo piece should be possible. Pre-Euroars Europe and a map with major troop movement of both phases. It really doesn't need brilliance.

Demo File 1 (3 hrs, based off GoogleMaps)

[lokii]

Regarding the thread title, it's "Euro War_ Antiques", right? Also, Retro-Cold War? The Euro Wars are hot wars.

This might be interesting to me, but how well is the known canon represented? Maybe somebody who knows German and has the ebook can tell me, if it matches this description: http://shadowhelix.de/Shadowhelix:Karten/P...riege#Recherche

Right, there is also a map there.

[hermit]

This might be interesting to me, but how well is the known canon represented? Maybe somebody who knows German and has the ebook can tell me, if it matches this description: http://shadowhelix.de/Shadowhelix:Karten/P...riege#Recherche

Well, here's my Review. I tried to look for these things. Also, your maps are about what I wanted to make, only fancier with google maps optics. Damn, you beat me to it before I even started (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

First observations: Aside from SR5, Parazoology 2 and Gun Haven 3, two very old files (Another Rainy Night and Artifacts Unbound) are mentioned as upcoming or partnered releases. This strikes me as bizarre. The writing is okay, if not mind-blowing, but there seem to be many errors from shifting and editing sentences over and over again. Proofing by someone who hasn't seen the document would have caught these, I think. It's average for CGL, though.

As for content: It tries to stay with what's canonically known, and expands a bit, filling in blanks. Unfortunatly, it also gets a couple of things wrong, and others are mixed up. I'll just list what I noticed. Granted, the Eurowars are mangled in canon, and the canon that exists is spread all over the place, but it would help to read up anyway (or ask a German writer for advice; I know that one who knows this part of SR history very well hangs at the writer boards). That's what writing for a legacy heavy system like Shadowrun is like.

• The status of NATO is confusing me. When was it disbanded? During the border wars ("The initial Belarusian attacks were ... to influence the Baltic states and the Ukraine ... along with proving their former NATO allies were unable to protect them.")? Was it still active during the Eurowars, as the mention of Turkey as a NATO member during the Jihad indicates? Canonically, NATO was dissolved as the UCAS withdrew all American troops from Europe (apparently, it inherited all foreign deployments) in 2032. This is not strictly the PDF's fault, but it doesn't anything to solve this paradox either.
• So Leopold Habsburg, the Emperor of Austria, and his suddenly effective army is back in canon. Unsure how I feel about this, but it amused an Austrian member of my circle of players. Still, I'd have liked if the file had stayed with Shadows of Europe instead, I think, but the thought of Austrian heavy armour divisions relieveing anyone remains amusing. The battle of Carinthia is entirely ignored, though. No trenches and chemical weapons deployed by MET 2000 as well as Euroforce and Jihadis, no blood magic cursed virus weapons from ORO corp (okay, I could do without that) ... at least it is mentioned that the Austrians frequently used Czech, Hungarian and Slovak troops as expendable bullet sponges. No troops employed by house Habsburg mentioned either.
• The Nightwraith strike was American in origin, not British? Or is this just supposed to be a random weird mention? It was said by Plan 9, after all, who knows way too much. And of course, the FMC saves the day on the Spanish front. Everything is better with highly annoying author sues.
• The King's Irish Hussars? 20 years after Northern Ireland had been absorbed into the United Republic of Ireland? Seriously? The regiment was renamed The Queen's Royal Hussars in 1993, and that name also circumvents awkwardness with regards to Norther Ireland, which stopped being a province of the Empire in Shadowrun in 2014.
• Commander von Essen. *cringe* That is just awful. Just pick any military figure you like from Wikipedia, okay? At least then it won't look like dialogue from Indiana Jones 3. Also, German naming convention actually is states and cities, but that's probably too complex or not grand enough and lacks the Great War ring, but seriously. And it's Oberst, not Commander (and usually, Germans have first names, too). Or was the ship to be called Archangel? Because the Church State only commissioned it's missile cruisers in Germany SB (2051). And it's Erzengel [insert name], FYI. That paragraph was entirely messed up anyway. Which base was irradiated? Which ship exploded? What the hell?
• The German capital during the Eurowars was Hannover, not Bonn. This is not Neuromancer!
• British occupation of/massive deployment in the United Netherlands was forgotten, too.
• The Caucus mountains. *facepalm*
• The South Asian leg of the Jihad is nearly completely ignored. Indian nuclear weapons deterred the Alliance to help Pakistan in Kashmere? The same bombs that were dropped on Pakistan? Well, I guess that gives them a certain right to feel upset. But the only non-European leg of the Jihad that gets any mention at certain length is Israel. Granted, it's the Eurowars, but the Jihad in Asia could have been mentioned at least. And that Israel largely owes it's existence to the Palestinians not buying into Jazzir's rhetoric and siding with them rather than the Jihad is conveniently forgotten either, despite other info from the same paragraph being in the file.
• While the warhammer-ish names of the Jihad units are funny, those were Arabs, Persians, Turks and Afghans, not Mountain Men, people who'd would call themselves by different names, speak different languages (that must have been a horrible toll on Jihad command), and had a lot of history to go by. Just because they're all Muslim doesn't mean they're all like the Sunni and Shia militias from south/central Iraq.
• Historicans look to conspiracy theorists to solve who actually killed Mullah Jazzir. Right. You have historical science figured out. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

I'm also a bit lost on how CGL handles shadowtalkers. Some characters acting out of character aside, this file has two posters who haven't been used anywhere else, with no introduction, no mention of a newbie invited, nothing. Who the hell is Matt Wrath? Who is Winternaut? And why are they allowed to post on Jackpoint?

Plan 9 is super annoying here. That is him being in character, I suppose, and as such not bad, but does he have to know everything? Never liked him as a know-it-all shadowtalker to begin with, but here it gets detracting from the text as such. Fianchetto never manages to sound like a European politican (no quoting any revered ancient works, for instance; also, he's way too naive and the wrong kind of arrogant) he comes across like a Washington pundit, which is Kay's hat. He was better in previous writings.
Also, I noticed Goat Foot sure has become a radical. Wasn't she supposed to be Islamic Renaissance? You know, moderate muslim feminist kind of thing? Is this author bias or intentional?

Also, if the author considers 1000 troops to liberate an island the size of New Hampshire heavy losses, they might want to look up the losses of American forces attacking Iwo Jima. 1000 is not much for a conventional landing operation against a dug in enemy roughly equivalent in size and capacity. And the Americans had air and sea surpremacy by that point of the Pacific War. Actually, that's pretty badass on part of the French, though I'm fairly sure that was not the author's intent. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

The gear part is okay, with a lot of old, some real-world, some derived equipment. A chance to push Runner's Blackbook or This Old Drone in a sidebar is wasted, but at least glancing over, none of the vehicles have terribly oput there stats or anything. The prices I mentioned in another thread already, but meh. Look it up there if you want to.

This gets 6/10. Mostly usable, some canon issues, missed opportunities and a few things that annoy me. -1 for lack of maps. And really, it's not rocket science. Still, you get some decent gear and a fairly decent text for your money. $11 is a bit high for a PDF, but it does have a shitload of artwork (making the lack of maps all the more painful, but meh).

[Larsine]

Will he pay me? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

In this business very few are paid until they have showed what they can do, be that writing, art, editing, proofreading or anything else.

[Bull]

Matt Wrath is a new poster. You'll see more of him in SR5.

As per Fastjacks request at the end of STorm Front, Jackpoint is bringing in some new blood for Shadowrun 5, and Matt and I think Winternaut are two of the first additions.

Wrath is also one of the NPCs that will be popping up in Season 5 of Missions.

[CanRay]

Regarding the thread title, it's "Euro War_ Antiques", right? Also, Retro-Cold War? The Euro Wars are hot wars.

Most of the equipment and tactics used were developed for when the Cold War heated up.

As no Nukes impacted, it was quite cold compared to what was expected.

[hermit]

As no Nukes impacted, it was quite cold compared to what was expected.

Well, except for Israel and Pakistan. And the Russians lost their modern subs in the Baltic Sea. The nukes only went off shortly before SoE (the radioactive tide in Pomorya). But yes.

Matt Wrath is a new poster. You'll see more of him in SR5.

As per Fastjacks request at the end of STorm Front, Jackpoint is bringing in some new blood for Shadowrun 5, and Matt and I think Winternaut are two of the first additions.

Wrath is also one of the NPCs that will be popping up in Season 5 of Missions.

I see. They appeared pretty suddenly, so I was a bit surprised. Before, all 'talkers were introduced by an Admin. Now, it seemed they were just regular guys nobody had ever heared about, like on old Shadowland.

[CanRay]

I see. They appeared pretty suddenly, so I was a bit surprised. Before, all 'talkers were introduced by an Admin. Now, it seemed they were just regular guys nobody had ever heared about, like on old Shadowland.

Just be glad I wasn't the one writing it or you'd see some really weird Shadowtalkers. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Stahlseele]

Just be glad I wasn't the one writing it or you'd see some really weird Shadowtalkers. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

your kind of weird would fly with that crowd.

[hermit]

It would fly with me.

[Sengir]

And of course, the FMC saves the day on the Spanish front.

*facepalm*

[Stahlseele]

It would fly with me.

*nods*
same here . .

[Critias]

Come on. It's five hours of Photoshop. I can make these maps myself.

In all seriousness, shoot Jason an email and tell him so. We could use another map guy.