I'm trying to get the first Blitzkrieg anthology running on my netbook (Acer Aspire One GZ5, Windows XP, 1024x600). Neither of two shortcuts start, the logo loads up but the game doesn't actually run, it immediately quits. It doesn't create a config file either. I've tried the compatibility modes and such, also double clicking twice on the shortcut as mentioned in another thread but nothing makes it run. It's got me stumped.

Any suggestions?

Run as admin, turn off UAC, don't install in %:\Program Files%, disable anti-virus and firewall are just a few suggestions to start with.

Well it's on Windows XP so there is no UAC or run as admin. It is the administrator account. Its installed into the default V2 directory of GOG Games outside program files and the anti-virus/firewall is the same that I'm running on this Vista PC where it is running fine. I also tried lowering the screen resolution to see if that was causing problems and reinstalling twice but still no dice.

The worst part is that there is no error message so it's hard to try and troubleshoot. The map editor does load fine.

I recall having the same problem with the game "Galactic Civilizations II".
The default config system was loading a screen definition not compatible with by computer, and I had just a black screen or it was just going back to the desktop...
I do not know if it is the case for you with the 1024x600 default definition you have.
The workaround I had was to manually edit the game's config file, and find/replace the default screen resolution used in it

Pour blitzkrieg, the config.cfg file is located into "\Blitzkrieg I Anthology\Blitzkrieg\Run"
You can try by changing in it the resolution used into: 1024x600x32
Open config.cfg with notepad, and you should have the resolutions around the 25th line or so.

(...)
Type="8" InstantApply="1"><Var>1024x600x32</Var><Action>SetVideoMode</Action><Acti onFill>GetVideoModes</ActionFill><Default Type="8"><Var>1024x768x32</Var></Default><KeyName>GFX.Mode</KeyName>&l t;/item><item EditorType="3" Flags="49" Order="5" Type="8"
(...)

of course, copy the original before for reverting your changes if needed...
and try by launching blitzkrieg, not Rolling Thunders/BurningH (they have their own config.cfg)

Just tried with 800x600x32 which is supported by the game and my netbook and even changed the desktop resolution to 800x600 but it still doesn't work unfortunately. Maybe I'm underestimating the game engine but surely it would chuck out an error if it couldn't start for hardware reasons.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

I got the game running by plugging in an external monitor. Seems it needs a 1024 x 768 display for the menu as the in game resolution can be lowered but the menu won't scale. I tried renaming the video files so they wouldn't play at start up to see if that was the issue but I think its definitely the menu.