Greetings Hawks, Friends and Veterans

6/22/08

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A Surge In Membership

Maybe the headline is a bit dramatic, but since our last Newsletter, we have had a good solid 5 members added to the Roster. I believe this is the biggest jump in membership between Newsletters for many a year. Crazy Horse hails from Germany, Foxhound from Poland, Sederman is Swedish, Snider our first Mexican Hawk and returning member Grenadier hails from the USA.

What has me excited about this recent crop of members is what it means for our club as far as building the future. Among them is our first Hawks Trivia winner, Crazy Horse, who is blazing his way into Rd 2 of the Championships. He is determined to build a more complex set of rules for the Swedish Campaign map collection. Our newest Master Map Maker, Foxhound started creating masterpieces from day one (Eylau being his first), and has almost instantly taken to our goal of balancing map aesthetics, realism, playability and fun. Sederman has already created and posted his ideas concerning personalized web pages for Hawks members (can be seen in Hawks Only Forum). Grenadier is hard at work both testing our DN beta mods and building DN maps. The point is, we have Hawks here who contribute, build and augment our club through their work. And this leads me to my second point…




Building Our Legacy With Your Help

There are a few Hawks, who if they left right now, will have already left their imprint on our club through lasting contributions. The foremost of these contributions is the all important and hallowed battle map. Not many can create to the standard necessary for publication so it is understandable that not everyone is in this category.

However, many also add to our wealth through other creative work; updating web pages, writing for the upcoming strategy book, making Tile Maps of our map collection, creating alternate campaign rules for our maps, making videos for YouTube, etc. I had said in my last Newsletter that I was going to issue a call for action. It got to cumbersome so I never sent it, however, one of the biggest issues from this unsent decree was the Tile Maps.

Most of our map collection has no revealing Tile Map (a picture that allows a guest to see what the map looks like from a bird’s eye view). I need help creating them, HOWEVER, I know that I will get volunteers from among the same people who are ALREADY doing a lot of work for the club; Leatherneck, Garnier, SirWilliam, Stu, Cheesy, GeX, Marengo, Foxhound, Grenadier, Daddio and Sederman. I don’t want any of these members to help me with Tile Maps. If I could get instead the rest of the club to make a couple Tile Maps each of the maps that are already published, can you imagine how much farther ahead we would be?

The club of course needs our dedicated players and field generals, and it is always good to take to the field with our true and loyal Hawks. But, our club is in a building stage right now; Garnier has done a fantastic job taking over the “Divided Nation” portion of the web site...uploading and formatting new screen shots pages. Stu has recently written his own thoughts on strategy in our Strategy Forum. What will YOU add to our club? What will YOU build? Hawks, the club needs your help.




The Championship is Underway!


Battle has already been joined, and most groups have already fought at least one if not all of their assigned conflicts for Round 1. The groups are exciting and mix new players with old. Perhaps the biggest upset of Round 1 is the 2 victories gained back to back by new member Crazy Horse over The Drake. Keep abreast of the latest reports at the EW Championship Forum;

http://mastersofthefield.freeforums.org/european-warfare-2008-f8.html



A Flury of New Maps

Between the recent surge in DN activity and new EW maps, the Hawks Club is witnessing possibly the greatest increase in quality battlefields ever in our history. It is almost too much to keep track of, the latest being beautiful DN maps by Garnier and Stu (Fredericksburg, Antietam, Second Manassas and a host of others) plus many new EW maps by Foxhound and Stu (Eylau, Hanau, Austerlitz and more). The collection is amazing, and with maps like these in our selection, our club’s reputation for variety and quality is assured.



Divided Nation

With his HDN V3 mod, Garnier has breathed new life into the AC/DN game. Using terrain to ones advantage, hiding in trees, behind rock walls, making use of trenches, etc, is a whole new dynamic for our battlefields. Yet, HDN V3 brings this reality to Hawks maps, as well as several other exciting elements. The Beta testing for the final version of this mod continues, though all map published from this point forward will be compatible with HDN V4. Garnier is now in charge of the “Divided Nation” section of our web site, bringing you fresh screen shots and presentation as well as a host of new maps. The Hawk Club is grateful for his dedication and attention.



To Our Guests

We have seen many a new face on our Forum recently, and some of them have even joined us in battle (MrGiggles, LaDuncella and Quintus Sertorius just recently). These are the rare and focused guests. But let me say to all the other recently interested visitors, Hawks are here to help you get set up and play, but it takes some work on your part to buy the game, install the mods (EW or DN) and be ready. Having troubles? Let us know. We would all love to see you on the field, so buy the games and come join in the epics.


See you on the field,

The Drake

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