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About to start SOE 39 - need advice/input pls


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Hi,

We are thinking of starting a PBEM of this campaign. Is there anything important that I should know such as:

"there is another version to be released this weekend so wait for that new version"

or

"you should definitely use some mod of the scenario"

or

"it is so unbalanced as to be unplayable - don't waste 40 hours of your time to discover this"

That sort of thing.

Also, which side has the advantage in the scenario using the latest version?

Thanks

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I would play it, it's kind of unbaleced, but it's still good to play. There will be no major patch very son, that's at least what we heard, and if you want to go for a mod try 1938 CBTS it's VERY diferent from SOE, but it's the best mod so far....

The advantage goes for the axis, but if you play it wrong, of course allies will get the advantage.... i play with any side, but if you want to have the inicial advantage, try the Axis...

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How is balance in the 1938 CBTS? Do you prefer it over the 39 SOE? Can you compare them pls?

Looking at the 38 CBTS thread it looks like a v4.1 is coming - and it looks like there might be a lot of script and other problems (no vichy, and some other things posted recently). So I guess this one isn't quite really ready yet?

Thanks

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I would play it, it's kind of unbaleced, but it's still good to play. The advantage goes for the axis, but if you play it wrong, of course allies will get the advantage.... i play with any side, but if you want to have the inicial advantage, try the Axis...

I disagree about the balance in this campaing. I changed my mind after playing it twice. Obviously the Axis have an initial adventage ( which is correct historicaly ), but still it is very dificult to win the war. Of course all depends on the players and long term strategic planning. Both sides have to be very careful. Try to conquer Russia or get to the Suez Canal - these are really tought tasks to accomplish. The balance is not always achieved along the historical lines ( for example the Red Army in 1941 is usually weak numerically, rather that poor in qualitive terms ), but the general result of a balance is quite similar to the history.

The campaign has also very cool decission events. For example if Germans don't sign amstice with Petain, France keeps on fighting from Algiers and when it finally gets defeated, Spanish entry to war on the side of Axis is guaranteed.

One word of advice - it may be a difficult campaingn for the beginners, because early mistakes in the war planning may result in premature disaster, like German defeat in January 1941 ;)

At the end of a day, it is a great scenario and you just need to get use to it after WWI warfare. It's time to unleash the Blitzkrieg!!! :mad:

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Start moving US units to Europe in 1939. They may get there in time for a 1944 invasion. It took all summer for an invasion fleet from the East coast of the US to reach Europe. Oh yeah, it spent so much time at sea it was spotted by the Axis.

Other than the fact that the US can't affect the outcome of the war in Europe (too little points and too long to get to Europe) it is a great scenario I really loved the map!

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I agree that US MMP output is very small and maybe it should grow steadily to the point that the US and UK could face the Axis after the fall of Soviet Union. Right now, if USRR is defeated, it means game over because US and GB with roughly 300MMPs' each cannot face Germany with more than 1000 MMPs'. Another idea would be some script that would increase quickly US industrial production after Soviet Union is defeated.

If the USSR is still in play, then the 300MMPs of the US industrial production is quite a lot actually. With that kind of cash, you can purchase almost each turn, a tank group or an air unit. It's worth remembering that, because quite often the US forces won't be engaged in any direct combat for some time, so there won't be a need to spent any cash on reinforcing of damaged units.

If it comes to the naval transport, I agree that it's slow, but the loops from East Coast to the Northern Atlantic may be quite helpful. The other thing is that the cost of transport is just too high and this should be changed.

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With IT research for the USA their income can be boosted up to 520 a

turn, though we are considering some other things to help the Allies here.

Please keep the feedback coming because now is the time to speak up

while we consider preparing changes for the next patch!

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The IT research is not really a solution, as that's something any major should use anyway.

Perhaps if you wanted to represent the US industry without adding any resources, you could just make the US start at a high level (3-5), which would "cap" their industrial power.

Personally I feel that the US in total should be about 3/4 of the total Axis income at the historical war entry date (with historical German progress) and this would be divided between the PTO and ETO, I don't know the exact ratio but if it was halved I'd say 450-ish MPP. This could be achieved with the industrial tech upgrade as I said earlier, level 4 I think.

Then the US could concentrate on researching other things for the most part, at least.

The real problem in my mind are pushover Polish and French campaign, units are missing in France even with the Army scale, units are at half strength, and they're all very bad in quality, the numerical French tank superiority divided between the corps doesn't show at all.

The morale scripts are a bit excessive there too. There's no way anyone's going to pay for sending the BEF there in these circumstances!

I think the Russians are missing some armies, as well all around from their 1939 setup.

Would it be a bad idea to just increase ship AP by 50% as well to make them match with transports and get around a bit faster?

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In my last game and my current one, Germany didn't keep it's pact with Russia and took all of Poland. I am informed that Stalin is really angry about this, but don't see anything happening. Shouldn't there be a large increase in Russian production as surely in this situation Stalin would have rushed war preparations?

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In my opinion the Red Army is too weak numerically at the beginning of the Operation Barbarossa. Usually when the Germans strike Soviet Union, they have not only qualitative, but also quantitative superiority. The map is huge and with Romanians and Bulgarians attacking from the south, some areas of USSR are usually practically undefended. The Soviets managed to stop Wehrmacht due to their ability to mobilize huge reserves, that were endlessly thrown against their seemingly unstoppable enemy. From June to November of 1941 Red Army formed 28 completely new armies. How many new armies were formed during this period of time by the OKW? Of course a lot of those armies were quickly overrun or destroyed in huge kessel battles, but their resistance eventually managed to exchaust the momentum of Barbarossa. I know that representing all of those units in the game would completely change the balance, but I'd suggest some script that would activate apperance of the five Soviet second echelon armies, that were previously invisible to the German intelligence ( in reality their deployment completely suprised German High Command ). Let's say that those units could be deployed near Smolensk after Germans manage to capture Minsk. They could be 8 strength and with no tech upgrades, nothing like the first calss Siberian Units, that appear at a later stage.

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In my last game and my current one, Germany didn't keep it's pact with Russia and took all of Poland. I am informed that Stalin is really angry about this, but don't see anything happening. Shouldn't there be a large increase in Russian production as surely in this situation Stalin would have rushed war preparations?

From the updated guide on our end are the following notes:

DE 600 - Germany: Should Germany Honor The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact?

• Event fires: When Poland surrenders.

• Cost of accepting: Nothing.

• Yes: Germany and the USSR share Polish territory between them.

• No: Germany annexes all Polish territory, and the USSR will swing slightly towards the Allies. Germany will also no longer be presented with DE 610 and DE 611.

• Note that whether or not Germany honors the Pact will affect the deployment locations of Soviet forces when the USSR enters the war.

The mobilization increase for the USSR if Germany says no is from 15-20%.

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