A bug in the Combat Calendar has been fixed to properly display competitions being held on the last day of each month.

The Rebellion Tactics course is now online. Freshly re-HTMLed by me, it features the new unified news/graduate system. The course address is http://www.imperialacademy.org/rebtac/. The course professor is CM Predator.

The new, official, RECON Office has finally been completed. There has been many problems with getting this web site up. One of those was getting mail from CrystalTech, who my webmaster, Aylius "Judge" Khan believed would be the best choice - and I also believe that they are. Right now, there still needs to be some updates on the site, so please be patient. The new RECON Site can be found at: http://www.eh-recon.org/.

A new TFN fan film as been released, entitled "Brains and Steel." It's a homage to the fight scene between Westley and Inigo Montoya on the cliff top from "The Princess Bride." If you're a fan of the movie then its definitely worth the 58MB download.

You can find more info about the movie here:
http://www.theforce.net/theater/shortfilms/brains/index.shtml

Currently there is a competition from the RECON Office. It's a Web Hunt. This is something that all members of the Emperor's Hammer can take part in. It's homepage is at: http://www.ipgv.org/webhunt.htm Go check it out and have fun!

The RECON Office is compiling a list of the people that were in the Imperial Survey Corps (ISC). We intend to restart the ISC, but we don't have a current roster. If you were in the ISC and still wish to be, please send an e-mail Admiral Keiran Idanian with the subject, "ISC Member." Thank you!

I'll be posting progress on the new EH Database on my XO site at http://www.kawolski.com.

IWATS has passed 7,000 graduates as of today.

A rather well done fan feature of sorts, using the characters of South Park and (part of) the sound track from the Phantom Menace. The sabre parts are done in 3D are are very, very nice. The Park Wars site is at http://www.parkwars.com/. From here you can download the movie in Quicktime format (29MB for the high-quality version, 15MB for the low-quality one), trailers, view information about the characters, etc.

Warning - This movie does contain some coarse language.

Today the Logistics Office would like to publicly announce the official opening of the Imperial Historical Society, the IHS. The Imperial Historical Society is in charge of the compilation, analysing and contemplation of moments within the Emperor's Hammer history. These activities would be conducted in order to compile a thorough, and well discussed view of the Emperor's Hammer history without bias and to provide a source of valuable information to members of the Emperor's Hammer. The Imperial Historical Society is divided into two main divisions. The first has three sub units, each with four members, these are called Committees. Each Committee is appointed a task, each of which last around four weeks. The purpose of such tasks is as stated above. The second division consists of historians, which are situated in various places around the Emperor's Hammer tasked with collecting information for their area. We hope that the Imperial Historical Society will bring new light into the history of the Emperor's Hammer, and teach people about what happened before them.

Thus this brings us onto the fact of that the Imperial Historical Society is currently recruiting. We are looking for members to fill the three committees and appoint historians for ships and subgroups, there are no set requirements however we are looking for quite experienced members who have a thorough knowledge of the Emperor's Hammer. The longer your history and the more you know about the past of the Emperor's Hammer is of course a tremendous bonus. If you are interested please contact Vice Admiral Ramos Kanzco and Vice Admiral Xanos Goatham Zorrixor, thank you.

As posted on emperorshammer.org by Grand Admiral Ronin:

With the recent letter from LucasFilms to cease and desist using the "Imperial Icon" on Emperor's Hammer Gear, the Fleet Commander announces a NEW contest open to ALL Members of the Emperor's Hammer.  The contest will center on the design and posting of a new distinctly EH logo for possible use on EH Gear.

The requirements for this new EH Logo are posted as follows:

• The design can NOT infringe on any existing LucasFilms copyrights (that means you can't use existing Star Wars imagery, pics, logos, etc.

• The design shall be 600x600 dpi resolution

• The design shall have the basic design posted below and shall prominently feature our WWW site address - www.emperorshammer.org.

The idea here is to be creative and come up with ORIGINAL ideas...NO variants of the Imperial Icon please...:)

Please submit your images to the Fleet Commander (GA Ronin).  Due to the importance and prominence of this logo, the winner, as determined by Fleet Commander (GA Ronin), will be awarded a Grand Order of the Emperor (GOE) Medal !

Grand Admiral Ronin has updated the EH Imperial News Center with news on the latest command changes.

Well, I've finally gotten the Mr/Miss EH 2001 nomination rules up online at http://www.wam.umd.edu/~manesh/ehmrmiss2001.htm. I hope we get an exciting competition this year, as it has been the last two years.

As posted from...somewhere else:

We're continually looking for ways to improve our products and programs here at LucasArts. We've created a set of questions on Star Wars gaming and would really appreciate your feedback. It's a great opportunity to tell us what's most important to you about great Star Wars games and will only take about 5-10 minutes. To provide your feedback, please go to the following URL: http://www.surveyhost.net/swsurv-l. The survey will be live until midnight on April 8th, so visit now to make sure your voice is heard! Note: We will be posting a survey related to non-Star Wars games in the future. Only one survey per person please, any extra responses will be deleted. Thanks!

Ircle, the most popular Mac IRC client has been updated for the first time in about 2 years! This is the 'Carbonized' version and only runs on MacOs 9.0.1 and higher, with CarbobLib installed. Check it out at http://www.ircle.com

After downloading the beta of the Quake II Star Wars modification, I am sorry to say it will not work on Macintosh in its current state. Though the game files appear to be compatible, they are enabled by using BAT and EXE files. If any Mac coder wants to have a look at them and try to make a conversion (they seem to open as text files) you can get the conversion at http://www.3ddownloads.com/index.php3?directory=/telefragged/swtc/ The file to download is DM1.zip.

Pong meets Star Wars! Ever wonder what the classic trilogy would be like if Darth Vader and Luke played a game of Pong instead of saber duelling? For a chuckle or two, try SloppyDisk's PongWars. One or two players, and yes, you can shut the awful music off! You can download it and other Sloppydisk freeware at http://users.net66.com/~charlesmt/sloppydisk/

XWA TCC's are being sought. Interested applicants should contact TCC:Crix Madine ASAP.

Applications close Tuesday.

Last night my hosting provider messed up one of its network switches, and as a consequence, two of their class C's dont work anymore. As a result, my domain doesn't work, and therefore, i can't recieve any mail at io@absolutek.com.

UPDATE: The routing problems regarding my domain absolutek.com have been resolved. My email account "io@absolutek.com" will now work.

1. Ever wanted to ask the IO a question, but were too lazy to open your email client, or too affraid to ask non-anonymously? Well now you can "Ask The IO" questions about the EH, Internet, websites, and other related questions by going to the "Ask The IO" page.

2. Got a good idea for an IO Poll? Now you can submit your suggestions for consideration by going to the "Suggest An IO Poll" page.

Thanks go out to VA Ari for these two ideas! :-)

At the time being, please hold on making the TC/NC profile merging requests (as discussed in XO Report #4) until a solid procedure is put into place on how this will be accomplished.

The Emperor's Hammer: Images Archive (EH:IA) has been updated with all the backlogged image submissions I have recieved since the site was last updated. Please go check out the EH:IA, and if you have any images to submit, please send them to io@absolutek.com.

As will be discussed in XO Report #4:

Over time, the Naval Corps has become nothing more than a clone of the TIE Corps XWA wings with a different command structure. It has been under the agreement of GA Ronin, myself, and several other key commanding officers that the Naval Corps will completely close down when the new EH Database is activated.

As of right now, Echo Company is closed and any current Echo Company cadets completing training will automatically be assigned to a TIE Corps X-Wing Alliance wing. Eventually, all clones of TC members in the Naval Corps will be eliminated as well. Anyone who is not a clone is encouraged to start looking for a X-Wing Alliance wing (Sovereign Wing III, ISD Immortal, or ISD Vanguard) to transfer to.

Anyone "left behind" when the Naval Corps closes will automatically go to the reserves until they make a transfer request.

The future of the Naval Corps is being discussed behind closed doors at the moment.

Although slightly overdue, I've decided on the winner of last month's TIE Corps Commander's Award. Many congratulations to Wing IX and the ISD Relentless! Over the past several weeks pilots from the Wing have shown themselves to be some of the most active in the Fleet with some great competition participation and morale. Congrats to them, General Ricaud and Vice Admiral Andron :)

The Flight Office has been updated to reflect the TCCOM Award for February.

Following Rear Admiral Troutrooper's promotion to the position of CA:TAC2, the decision for his replacement as Colossus Commodore has been made. Many congratulations to Rear Admiral Mell, who comes highly recommended, and should prove to be a fine choice to lead the ship.

With the approval of Fleet Commander, VA Jarak, Commander of the TIE Corps Battlegroups is hereby promoted to the rank of Admiral. During the past six months as BGCOM, Jarak has proven himself to be an able and dedicated leader and thoroughly deserves this promotion. Congrats Jarak! :)

In addendum to the Tactical Office's order, if you are skipping missions on a regular basis, forcing the Tactical Officer to have to bring up your record again and again to remove battles you didn't fully complete, you will be sent to the HCI on charges of cheating, which results in many steep punishments.

We understand mistakes happen, but repeat offenders who feel they can abuse the system will face the consequences.

Recently, it has come to my attention that pilots have been simply playing 5/6 of a battle (or X-1/X) and submitting it, saying they skipped the last mission. According with the Tactical Manual, i have issued Tactical Order #001.

Tactical Order #001
Admiral StarLion

Persons having skipped a mission in a battle MUST fill out a legitimate bug report on that battle in order to receive credit for that battle.
If the Tactical Office discovers you are NOT doing so, the BSF's in question will be removed from your record, irregardless of previously completed entries for said battle.

(Quoted from: The Tactical Manual)
You may not skip more than one mission. You may NOT skip Free Missions. You may NOT skip a mission just because you do not want to fly it.

The Phoenix Engineers Team is proud to release it's first set of battle fixes! The following battles have been checked and cleared for dispersal.

TC-TIE 134
TC-TIE 148
TC-TIE 155
TC-TIE 156
TC-XvT 4
TC-XWA 3
FREE-TIE 148
IW-XW 2
IW-XW 7

After a week of XWA multiplayer battling with 84 other clubs, the EH earned its second BSC medal for fighting its way to 4th place! Congratulations go out to COL Dras Hempor who finished as 8th overall pilot, and CPT Lito Rendal who finished 10th, both earning their own personal BSC medals. Thanks to all who participated, bringing glory and honor to our club!

The Executive Officer Sector Admiral Kawolski has released the new EH Newsletter (#72) for public viewing!

Download mirrors:
4.3mb - Lite Version - Missing graphics/file submissions
http://thunder.prohosting.com/~surefire/nl72lite.zip
http://www.absolutek.com/nl72lite.zip

10mb - Full Version
http://thunder.prohosting.com/~surefire/nl72.zip
http://www.absolutek.com/nl72.zip

Online Version
http://www.absolutek.com/nl72/

With the moving of Admiral Havoc to CA:FO, the position of CA:TAC2 is open. I will be accepting applications for this position starting now. Please keep in mind the following things.

• A CA position is a Full Time position. You will be removed from all other positions, with extremely few exceptions.
• You will spend hours going over Beta Tester Reports, organizing them, sending files to the Tacticians for correcting or to me for placement on the board, and flying corrected battles yourself. Ideally, you should be expected to be able to fly 7 battles in approximately 2 to 2 1/2 weeks.
• It is REQUIRED that you own ALL major platforms (TIE,XvT,XWA).
• It is REQUIRED that you be able to handle repetitive work, such as filing reports, and managing the team.
• You MUST be able to answer email within an appropriate time (24/36 hrs at most).

Interested applicants should email Admiral StarLion with the subject of the email reading "CA:TAC2 Application"...any application without that subject will be ignored. If you try to ask me about it on IRC, your application will be ignored.
Applications will close March 10th.

Grand Admiral Ronin has updated the EH Imperial News Center with news on the latest command changes.

Yep, the Science Office is hiring again. I've decided to take on a Science Office Assistant to aid with news collection & misc duties. Primarily, the new SCOA's role will be to perform a daily check of several major gaming and editing news sites and to post details on any relevant items to the Science Office web site. Secondarily, the new SCOA will be asked to aid in various occasional duties such as patch testing, document reviewing & idea formulation.

The requirements for SCOA are as follows:
* Must be able to check several (6-12+) major web sites at least once a day.
* Must have a good command of the English language, able to type news items without typos or spelling errors.
* Must have a 24 hours email response time.
* Must be trustworthy and familiar with EH rules & regulations.
* Must have some familiarity with slicing terminology in at least one field or platform.

Applications should be emailed to Kermee@softhome.net, cc'ing darkhill@emperorshammer.ca with the subject of "SCOA Application". Applications should be sent no latter than Monday 12th March 2001, all applications will receive a confirmation of receipt. Please do not just list yourself as fulfilling the requirements but actually explain why you would make a better SCOA than someone else. Also note that bugging me on IRC about who has applied or what decisions have been made will not improve you chances.

It seems the updates I made to the ImperialAcademy.org domain have worked and are starting to filter through to the ISP-level. ISPs that now definitely work now include:

• @home
• BT Internet (UK)
• T-Online (Germany)
• AOL

Hopefully the changes should propogate through for everyone else and the domain will be working for everyone by Monday at the latest. Thanks for your patience in this matter.

LC Ford has been appointed Professor, TIE Tactics. The course will be up soon once some updates are made.

Two new interviews on Star Wars Battleground, featuring head designer of Ensemble Studios, Bruce Shelley. For those who don't know, Shelley was formerly at Microprose and designed Railway Tycoon and Civlization (only the best stategy sim of all time) with Sid Meier. Hopefully, the class of these games will shine through for Battleground.

Stomped.com interview
evilavatar.com interview

Grand Admiral Ronin has promoted Executive Officer High Admiral Kawolski to the rank of full Sector Admiral and 25% secondary owner of the Emperor's Hammer.

Congrats to the newly promoted and appointed Rear Admiral Woobee on his promo and taking over the ISD Grey Wolf. Rear Admiral Woobee will be able to faithfully carry on the duties of Commodore, and further the goals of the ASF, TC, and EH. Also of note, congrats to Major Marcin Szydlowski on his promo to the rank of Major! Major "Mike" serves as Commander of Crusader squadron Wing XIII ISD Grey Wolf.

As part of the Logistics Office's Project Distant Talon, we are looking for TIE Corps officers who would be interested in working on the history of their ship, wing, or squadron. This is a great way to show your pride! All levels of history are needed, and we'll provide training for you if you're interested but don't know where to start. If you're interested, please contact CM Krax Tarnisar at miner49er@excite.com.