AZGungHo

ARGH!!! Now I won't see it till I'm back from Burma!! Oh well....no real harm done. Just keep one waiting for me Moon, and I hope all the rest of you guys have a ton of fun while I'm gone, and have some helpful AAR's waiting for me to read when I get back!

Don't tease us Cantona66!!

Hey Moon, I hadn't considered this, but if you don't release the game till the end of the month then I'll be out of the country, for 3 weeks, returning late March! Will the download link I have for my preorder still be good then?

Good question! And the jeopardy answer is...?

It all sounds good to me guys! But I've gotta have that AI, so please keep working on it!

No word yet that I've heard, but like everyone else I can hardly wait for that download notice to arrive!!!! :-)

I concur with and second SeaMonkey's wise remarks!!

I just pre-ordered and am wondering who else is on board?

Hey JJ, Well it's a long story about the Corps and the Raiders as you might imagine. It boils down to the basic philosophy of the Marines, which even today isn't completely comfortable with having "special forces" in the Corps, since ALL Marines are special! That's why now you are rotated into and out of their Special Forces units if you are a Marine. Back then they disbanded the Raiders in early 1944, saying the character of the war had changed and raiding units weren't needed anymore. Shortly there after they instituted Recon Companies, who did roughly the same work the Raiders were designed to do. All that attention from Hollywood didn't help either! You can read my late Father's restrained comments about all this here - the page title says a lot. http://www.usmcraiders.com/guillo.htm BTW - I'm still involved with the Raider Association, as a Chaplin and board member. Got to go to China last summer on a two week trip tracing Edson's travels there. It was AWESOME! Hope no one minds this little side trip - now back to the subject at hand!!

Quite a nightmare huh? I'm thinking about using the entire US Marine Corps as a massive raiding force, hitting and destroying towns, ports, resources, holding them for as long as possible, letting the Japanese or US Army troops hold and build up there if possible, pulling back out to sea if not. For those who don't know, my Dad was a US Marine Raider in WW2, and the Raiders weren't very well appreciated by the rest of the Corps. In a scenario like this, they might be just what the doctor ordered, only on a vastly larger scale! OH - and a true nightmare scenario looms in my mind - Germany, Russia AND Japan! Would that alignment be unstoppable? Imagine them ending up hold all (or almost all) of Europe, Asia, the Pacific and much of Africa. What could you do against that? And how long would it be before it all fell apart and you had a vast "civil war" between them?

If the Germans take France, and then Spain either joins them or they take it and Gibraltar, the US and Brits (if still around) can't get anywhere near Italy until and unless they recapture it. I would think Italy would join the Germans out of fear if for no other reason, and then the Germans could use them as occupation forces as their own forces do most of the fighting.

Oh, good point! I hadn't thought about Iceland but in this context that would be a real possibility. It would give the Germans a real chance to combat US control of the Atlantic, so it's reasonable to imagine they might have done it. I think reaction would have been even stronger to them intruding in the Caribbean. I'm thinking about a quasi WW1 situation where the Germans sink some US ships, maybe even civilians ships, and that gradually turns the tide of public opinion until they are demanding action be taken. US Navy defends against German Navy, Germany declares war, Russia also declares war as a good ally, we respond and the US is in it to win it!

I agree that the losses are often too high. But since this is supposed to represent low level opposition to the landing, I don't mind some casualties. But 40-50% is way too high I agree with you there. I've had it happen myself, not often and almost always at the worst possible time of course!

That's true - I was assuming US was in the war. I wonder if the US had been confronted by a combined German/Russia if the isolationist attitude would have weakened and changed? Plus if Russia takes on China, that would offend the very pro-China US. But I agree it probably would have taken something really bad to motivate most of the US population to become pro-war. Maybe threats by Hitler and/or Stalin? Perhaps that's how they justify US entry? Guess we'll find out soon enough.

I think the US would have to maintain a large Navy, but probably not anywhere near as many CV's as we had historically. That frees up lots of man power and material to build planes, tanks, and whatever else would be needed. I completely agree with Jersey John, hit a strategic spot, establish a defensible perimeter, fill it up with Air Power, and then drive forward. I'm thinking of a kind of ink spot strategy, where the spots appear, grow slowly, finally merging into a larger front, etc. Not easy against Russia and Germany, but it ought to be do able. Probably by a better player than me!! Can't wait to see how this works out.

I would think the US would also have to make even more air units, lots and lots of them to soften up if not kill out right all those Russians and Germans. You are right SeaMonkey, I would think you'd have to be very careful about where to invade, with the first aim being grabbing as many MPP's as possible to help you build up and wear down the Russians and Germans. And then there's nukes....?!?!

Lampcord, I was thinking the same thing about playing it first too! Imagine US Marines ALONGSIDE Japanese units invading the USSR's Far East! Or China aiding in the struggle against the USSR! Meanwhile, where can Germany be stopped in the East? Can they sweep the board, and then drive for India? Or invade the Western Hemisphere? The possibilities are nearly endless and I'm excited!!!

They did have their pact, but both Stalin and Hitler knew it couldn't last and both planned to end it, Hitler just beat him too it that's all. Historically both countries had a long history of distrust and dislike. However, if you postulate one of both of them dying, then maybe something like this could have happened. Either way, it's a great "What If" scenario to play with that's for sure. I know I'm looking forward to it!

My computer is 64 bit Windows 7, and it's running PDE, SC2 and SCPac just fine with no problems.

You mean we'll have to put the AI on trial for war crimes??? ;-)

Hey SeaMonkey - I'm trying to stand up, but my knees are knocking!!!

If you are postulating that Hitler was alive and in power, then there's no doubt that at some point he would have gone east and attacked Russia. Even if he had been smart enough to try and roll up Africa first, or invade England, or whatever. He was obsessed with Russia and Communism and sooner or later would have taken them on, unless he was taken out of power and/or out of this life. But if you imagine a German Africa and Turkey finally falling into line with Hitler, so that Germany could have invaded Russia from two different directions at the same time. If they could have taken the oil fields away from Russia, who knows what would have happened? But none of this was possible with Hitler, who would have declared war on the US with Pearl Harbor. Once the US is in the war, eventually it's going to end only one way. Without Hitler declaring war on the US, things get much more dicey for FDR. He clearly, and in my opinion rightly, wanted the US in the war, and Hitler made it easy for him. Without that happening, the US is at war with Japan, but not Germany? I suppose there's a thousand different scenarios you could draw from all this, and all of them share two things in common: They are fascinating to think about, and impossible to prove!! Which is part of fun of course!

Good one Rambo! I suspect that if he had died, Germany would have still gone to war, but probably much later as they planned to do before Hitler rushed things. Japan on the other hand was much more likely to have gone to war when they did since they were pressured by the boycotts and events in China and elsewhere. Who knows? We might have fought Japan first, and just as we were wrapping that one up had to turn around and deal with Germany. OR, with Japan going first and probably no pact with a Hitlerless Germany, would the US have gotten into the European war until much later, ala the First World War?

I agree too - getting the game right is the important thing, that makes the wait, however long, well worth it.

Hey FuChu, I'm using Windows 7 on my new computer and all the SC games seem to work just fine for me. Pacific, Patton Drives East, etc. are all running just the same as they did on Vista. Sorry for your problems.