What type of WWII fan are you?
 

The question is simple - what type of WWII fan are you?

I know some people here have been WWII fans/experts way before BF42 came out. And i know there are others that don't really care for WWII, they just like to play.

I wasn't interested in WWII untill BF42 came out, and i actually learned more about WWII from the game/ forum discussions then i remembered from the history lessons :p

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

Everything non-general, like the front armor thickness of a Tiger or the size of the Sherman tank cannon, I learned from these forums, and from some research into places linked to from these forums. Why? Because the info was relevant to FH and I wanted to know what could kill what. I'm no expert but I have a decent grasp of the war now, at least a lot more then I did in high school. Who said video games are no good?

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

i started looking into WW2 after i got hooked on Sudden Strike. So i had a ok understanding of WW2 before BF42. I have learned alot on these forums though. Like Ohioan said I actually learned more from games I've played then i have at school (i dont pay attenion there usually but still)

My history teacher is retarded. when we learned about WW2 in class i corrected him about a Tiger (he said it could go 50 mph...... dumbass) and after that he asked me questions about everything.

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I knew quite a bit about ww2 before playing FH (my dad is a ww2 junkie) but reading in forums and doing research after the fact taught me way more then any history class.

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

the forth one, never knew a thing till I bought BF1942/MOH/CoD.

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

I am interested in a lot of different subjects in history, and had read a lot about WWII before playing BF1942, but I wouldn't call myself an expert, especially compared to some on this forum. I have a better grasp of politics, economics, and overall strategy in WWII, and know less about the military hardware, aside from general trends in weapons development.

If the poll had an item that said "Knew a lot about WWII before playing BF42 - Not an expert" I would check that. I definitely learn a lot of new things reading the forums.

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

i was more of a World War One nut because my first war game was Red Baron II (ROCK ON!!!)

DoD bought me to WW2

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

I knew a few things about WWII ever since I started playing computer games about it (Silent Service II and Aces over Europe being the games I began with). Back then I started to read some books about the topic.
But here I learned a lot of new facts and that some people here are really experts on that topic :)

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

Im not interested only in WWII but in military conflict since the beginning of man.

This interest was first really raised when i found a book in the library about strategic mistakes in historical battles. It really showed in detail what weapons were used, why they were used and what advantage they had over the opponent, or why they failed. It went from the first human clubmen to modern age.

In this country when they start at school about WWII they automaticly start about the prosecution and destruction of jews, raids to obtain workers for the factories in germany ( german men were needed in the army ) and always what happend to Anne Frank.

To me this is not interesting, and has little to do with war. It is awefull what happend to these people, but not the worst that happened in history. For example : Most people now have no idea what happend to civilians if a city fell around dark age times and for hundreds of years after that. The slaughtering of unarmed and defenless city people could go on for days in the streets and in their own homes.....ofcourse they liked to torture people to death slowly for amusement and revenge, and what happend to wifes and daughters before they were killed you can imagine. However low regard the germans held for life, they don't measure up in cruelty to soldiers and mercenaries that were long before them. They never tell that in school.....Because WWII is better documented and there are photo's of it it seems more "real" then what happened longer ago.

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

Same here man. In my history class in high school we spent 1 day on WWI one day on WWII of which most of it was the holocaust.They only focus on the political aspects now, the war itself is now sidelined. Intead like to teach about the heroic woman and blacks that overcame prejudice in the evil white male US Army. They don't focus on the causes of the rise of the nazis (or even what national socialism actually is) which is what should be taught so as people can see the danger of people like hitler before they come to power or start a war. My own roomate doesn't know when WWII ended but he knows how many people died because of it he knows about the holocaust and the death of 11 million jews. He knows the germans beat the French and Polish but doesn't know the years or why the Germans did this.

Because of this method of teaching history people see an obsure array of people and events and have know idea how or why those people or events happened only the results of it.

I'm majoring in history right now, maybe after my military career i'll go back to school and become a teacher so that some of the future generations will actually have an idea of what happened in history.

And the poll should have said WWII nut. I'm not an expert but am definately a nut.

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

@Schpeztka
First time I heard of 11 million dead jews....
Most figures state something like 6 million

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Well, I had played quite a few WW2 themed games, like Close Combat series, B-17 The Mighty Eight and stuff like that. Years back I also did some modeling, mostly WW2 stuff, although being the little kid I was, I had no idea about the specifications of the vehicles.

I've also watched quite a few documents and read some books too, but yeah, stuff like tanks exact armor, ammunition count, gun lenght or that stuff I have hard time to remember.

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My interest started in my early years (!960'S) as my grandfathers had fought in WWI and WWII, so there was bits and pieces from their collections around the house. My interest grew as I started to build plastic kits. You would read books about the vehicles to try and model a particular type or mark. This all happened before public access to the internet. I suppose i've been waiting for years for something like BF1942/FH, that combines a level of accuracy with entertainment. The future looks brighter!

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

I started building WW2 model kits when I was 6 years old. I am now 42 years old and I still study it.

Back before computer games I sed to play 1/285th scale micro armor with Command Decision rules.

My strengths are armor and aircraft and weak on infantry weapons

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

My grandpa had a whole series of WOII documentary books.
The pictures in there got my attentention when I was under 7.
From there I played a lot with plastic soldiers, they had some really good and expensive ones with a lot of detail.

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

There's no 'Knew quite a bit about WWII before BF42, got more interested after playing' option.

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

Knew nothing about WWII,
Then I got DoD, then BF1942, CoD, Hdden and dangerous 2 etc etc etc
And reading about stuff on these forums
I know quite a bit about it now

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

BF 42 made me interested in WWII again....so yeah, I learnt a lot after I started playing it.

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

I knew a lot about politic in WWII before BF42 and MOHAA (my first WWII game) but I knew nothing about tanks, weapons and stuff like this, now I am trying to learn basic tanks (I called the T-34-85 the "nice tank" and since I am in a clan I can' t say "nice tank" spotted"), I know most of the weapons and airplanes but my knowledge won' t go further... I guess I just like to play WWII...

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I guess it depends ho you percieve yourself, I know nada about specifications, but knows a bit about history and equipment.

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I suppose I got more interested in WW2 when I got Panzer General, and tried to do maps for it, but bf1942 and to some extent FH and MOHAA grew the interest and knowledge especially about details. I voted 3, I wouldn't call myself an expert, because I haven't actually had the time to become one yet. I have read some books and watched TV-programs and films, and of course had a few lessons in school, although most of it I already knew from before.

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

"Achtung nice tank ahhhhhhhhhhhhh run he's going to kill us ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!"

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I've been interested in WWII for as long as i can remember...

I have read A LOT on events, personalities, etc....but so much on equipment factoids. You can ask me about pivotal battles, what happened & my theories on why...but not questions like "how many round per minute can the MP40 fire?" or "What's the muzzle velocity of the 75mm PaK40?"

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Well, up to ten years back you had to go to a liberary or a specialist bookstore to find out things.....

Although books still give more in depth info about something, because the author spend a lot of time doing the research for you and often are "insiders" in worlds you have no acces to or are unfamilair with, on internet you can find specific things faster and easier.

There is one drawback though : many info sites are unreliable sources. A site for example dedicated to how great a Tiger II really was is not a reliable site.....all weapons and vehicles had significant drawbacks and faults.....no design was ever perfect. A site is only a good site if it reveals those drawbacks too, and mentions sources of info if it is specific data that could only be known by people who designed, tested or worked with a weapon or vehicle.....

But it was never easier to get answers if you wanted to know something. Just type the right keywords in a search site engine.......

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

Well i played a little Close Combat, and that got me into WWII, but i didnt become a real nut (and realism freak) until playing Combat Mission.
oh and Luscious, how many rounds per minute COULD the mp40 fire?

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I must say I didn't know *** about armor penetration values, learning somehing new like that every day here.

On the other hand, I read the biggest Dutch documentation about the war. 6 Volumes about almost every aspect, industrial, political, cultural and even avout what happened in 'neutral' countries like Portugal. 2700 pages, and I'm still looking into it every now and then.

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

i was intrested in it just a little bit but when i played BF1942 i was like wow cool and then i joined this forum and now i know some stuff :)

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

Well my intrest and learning started way back way way way back. When the hot computer was an Apple IIGS baby and the idea of playing anything realistic was out of the question. Anyway my interst is not centered around just WWII but i would have to say I know a hell of alot about it, but my intersts range from military/political history from cave men to today.

Quote of today "Si vis pacem, para bellum"

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

WWII sucked me in, when i started to play Panzer General :) i was ~10, and then... Silent Hunter came :D

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

Panzer General :nodding:

Somehow that game kept me playing it for as long as 5 years, while i am tired of most games within a month, laying them aside to never touch them again.

It had many units that are still missing in FH :lol:

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

The *-General series was very nice :)
I still play Pacific Admiral sometimes because sea/air-battles, damn that was one difficult game.

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Damn, we got A LOT of experts in here! :rolleyes:

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Been interested in ww2 even before computer games started to come out. Early Squad leader and blitzkrieg boardgames. From there SSG computer wargames, and especially HPS sims 'tigers on the prowl' and 'panthers in the shadow' got me hooked. Close combat as well as a few other games are also on my shelves now. Lately i've been playing combat mission games alot, for those interested in tactical combat on larger scale i can really recommend these. And also now forgotten hope. For those really interested in ww2, i suggest you go check the combat mission forums on ww.battlefront.com. They know alot about ww2 there.

/Flunken

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

I've always been interested in WWII. I read a little here and there but I'm far from an expert.

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Ive done research after I started playing bf1942 and more so with FH, and ofcourse I can always ask Mark questions.

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I have been a wwII nut for a long time, i mean when i was 14 year old i could discuss why the wooden tail was so bad in the ME109 G6-R4 since the lead which was balancing the plane was put above the oiltank etc... clearly a nut, and i wouldnt play BF1942 if it was about some other "war". But i disliked "vanilla" after a time since it was a bit childish with the Tiger beeing the same as M10 and the main thing was the handgrenades who damaged the tanks....

So first i played soldier9 for the realism but now its mostly FH ;)

I like the WWII since there was soo many different tech"levels", it was the last war where cavalery was used and the first where jet-fighters prowled the skies.

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

There is also something to be said about how it was a relatively "balanced" war in many aspects. More fair and balanced, anyways, than any of the recent "US slaughters tens of thousands with vastly superior firepower" conflicts we have seen.

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Well, I've mainly known the general course of the war, as well as more specific stuff from the Finnish war effort, but the details of the "greater war" haven't been my strong point (nor is it now), but at least I've recently learned some specifics about certain battles from these forums and elsewhere. Always been a "fan" of WW2, and even read a lot of stuff about the Finnish wars while I was still like 10 years old.

What BF1942 did was revive my keen interest on WW2 tanks, and now I'm on a tank frenzy... :D At least I can visit some on display here at the garrison every day when I'm here (basically Monday to Friday) to quench the thirst a bit - but then again also getting more thirsty in the process... :lol:.

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

hmmm...i dont know if i would consider myself an expert, but i am an accredited military historian. just finished my MA in the History of Canadian Military Law, as well as an earlier degree in the Russo-German Conflict 1941 - 1945 (which was intensely fascinating...did my thesis on the effects of climate and terrain on russo-german tactics.)

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

Anyone play Hearts of Iron? A combo of patch v1.6 and CORE 8.0 finally makes for an excellent game.

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

I am currently in high school (grade 11)and in socials class we just finished doing WWI and we are just covering the post WWII era right now. The class is fairly detailed in how Hitler came to power and the various political things that went on involving Hitler and Chamberlain. I cant wait untill we get more into the bigger part of the war because then I will really be able to know whats going on in class. Also next year I am taking history and that class goes into thorough detail of the 20th century. I guess the socials program now is more detailed then it was before (I also live in Canada so I dont know how different the socials program here is different than the one in the US).

As to the poll I voted "Was always interested in WWII, but never went deep into it - Not an expert". I have loved the shows on the history chanel about WWII since I was 13 (I am now 16) so I guess I have know the basics about WWII but this forum and playing BF and FH have really increased my knowledge about WWII.

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

Very interested in WW2, but not a nut or expert. I don't know specific things like muzzle velocity, armor penetration, etc.

I'm now 14 and have been interested ever since I played MoH:AA, which I'm guessing is when I was 11.

And I agree on you guys saying that in class they don't teach about the military issues in WW2. It's all about, 'Hitler's bad' and 'Holocaust is bad.':rolleyes: Sheesh.

I know all of those are true, but they don't even teach about the war itself. Stupid teacher n00bs....

offtopic: btw, I just noticed that Killor got banned AGAIN.. What happened?:confused:

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

I'm not a total expert (if you wake me in the middel of the night to ask me the ticknes of a tigers side armor I would have a problem) but i know pretty much about ww2 and since there is no "i know much of ww2 but not every technical detail" i have to go with "Knew a lot about WWII before playing BF42 - I am a WWII expert".

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I was a total WWII nerd from when I was about ten till I was twelve, but thats some years back now so I can't remember too much anymore. Used to be able to name all these aircrafts, Ships and their specifications, but I've forgotten most of that now. Got really into after watching these mini-series called Winds of War and War and Remembrance, its the same storyline but War and Remembrance goes on after Pearl Harbor if I remember correctly. If anyone knows if I can find these as a DVD box set please drop me a line. Its too bad that whenever they teach about WWII in school its mostly just about the Holocaust. Off course this is something that has to be told, but they don't seem to devote enough lectures or time to the many other aspects of the war. I have taken history in both Norway and the States, and nobody talks about the 20 million russians that died or what he did with the Russian PoWs that returned after the war was over. They didn't exactly get the red carpet. If someone is really eager to read a whole lot about WWII I can recommend the Time-Life WWII series. This is what I read back when I was really interested. We never had the complete set, but if u can get a hold of it buy it. All the books are separated in to different aspects of the war and they have a lot of pics in them as well. Another book that I can recommend is this book called "Surprise Attack: Lightning strikes of the world's elite forces" by Peter Darman. This doesn't only cover WWII, but most of the books talks about battles that were fought during WWII. It has a lot of nice diagrams and maps in it as well and leaves no doubt that the germans were the bad guys, bad in the sense that they ran over everybody. Probably the most efficient military ever if u ask me.

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I didnt realy know anything till I bought Medal of Honor, and then BF1942. when BF1942 first came out, I didnt know what to think. I just accepted that every allied army in WWII had an Enfield rifle, and that the russians had only 2 types of tank.
Since then Ive played many mods for BF1942, mainly FH. I dont realy research into WWII, im not a total WWII nut who knows everything there is to know about the war from 1939 - 1945 and then some, I just pick up what I play from the games, and this forum is also informative.

Like now im playing BF:V, I knew nothing about Vietnam till I started playing that game, now I think I could write a book about it. Just from playing the game.

Re: What type of WWII fan are you?
 

I picked option 1, only because there was no middle ground. I consider someone like Stephen Ambrose as an expert. I would prefer to say i have a passion for all things WW2. Actually a passion for history in general, more so military, even more so WW2. From as far as i can recall it started with a little game called Defender Of The Crownon my C64:)

As for WW2 i think reading the background in my manual for the Atari ST Ver of lawrence hollands, Their Finest Hour:The Battle Of Britian got me hooked.

So to those idiots that say games are degenerating our youth, go try some first before comments are made!

Oh my second highest interest after WW2 would have to be the American Civil War.(Not bad for a Kiwi aye)

I would highly suggest anyone with a resonable (atleast) interest in WW2 to see if you can get the "Images Of War" books/folders. It's a Marshall Cavendish collection in association with the Imperial War Museum. Comes in 4 folders in 52 parts.
I got it years ago, you got sent 1 part every month. I still find myself going back to these sources. Each part focuses on a specific battle broken down into Background/Campaign/Eyewitness/Homefront. Oh you also got extras with each part eg: If it was about the battle of britain you would get a big poster with a Stuka on one side and a Spitfire on the other with various discriptions, a battle map, and a copy of a newspaper of the day.

Oh and ofcourse "The World At War" series on VHS and DVD.