Smolensk full game

[76mm]

I go to volcano and find the Smolensk download but as soon as I start unzipping the files I have to decide what to do. First I am asked to change the names of files then I have to choose whether to replace, skip or leave two versions. Argh!

Sounds like you're new at this...I assume you're talking about the graphic files? First you should back up all of your existing graphics files unless you want to reinstall the game if you don't like the Volcano mods (very unlikely!). Once you've backed up, then replace the contents of your various folders with the Volcano mods, overwriting the existing files. You shouldn't have to, and indeed shouldn't, change any file names or they will not work.

On top of that, I do not want balanced play. I want historical. If I want balanced play I would play chess. I have no qualm with art changes, I do not care. However, HPS patches the games for make play better but what does Volcano do? Everything I have seen so far, and I am probably wrong, seems to be they give Russian tanks more armor than they deserve so they stand up to German tanks better. They tweek the numbers on the units and the dice roll tables so really you are playing German on German or Russian on Russian. Seems like they are turning the game into a chess match.

Not sure where you got the impression that the volcano scenarios are mainly intended to increase balance; I can't access the Volcano site right now, but my recollection is that his mods are generally intended to make the games more "realistic", and they generally achieve that by lowering the quality of Soviet infantry, and maybe a few other things. They also use a "standardized" unit database so that the same type of unit will have the same ratings between all the games (ie, a T-34 will have the same ratings regardless of the game).