Bill101

John You're right that the French fleet didn't actually turn out to be of any direct use to the Axis, but the fact that Churchill worried about it and sent the Royal Navy to disarm or destroy it shows that it definitely was a strategic factor. Britain needed to remove one potential threat to its command of the seas. I wouldn't want to see any of the French fleet side with the Axis on the fall of France, but perhaps the allies could be presented with an option where they have to spend a few MPPs (or diplomacy chits) to get any French ships to side with them?

The Black Watch were the 42nd (Highlander) regiment. Shaka's right, in a British order of battle always take a British regiment to equal one battalion unless it says otherwise. Standard practice before the 20th century was to have one battalion on foreign service while a second battalion of the regiment would stay at home, inducting and training new recruits. Things changed a lot in the 20th century, especially during the first world war when some British regiments had so many battalions that if fielded together they could have formed a division, but that wasn't standard practice.

Interesting idea John, and not a bad one either, though I have a nagging doubt in my head about naval units, as the issue of which way the French fleet swung was very important in 1940. Also, the allied navies in the Med got a good boost from the significant proportion of the Italian fleet which joined them in 1943. Admittedly in real life this wasn't terribly needed at the time, but in a real life game of SC it could be!

How about "free" Italians? If I remember rightly there were about 5 pro-Mussolini divisions formed after Italy surrendered in 1943 (the word free is in inverted commas because fascism and freedom don't really go together). It's true that their quality was not always the best, but they certainly outnumbered the Free French of 1940. On the other hand, many Italians sided with the allies, causing a mini civil war within the world war. Maybe this is something we might want to mod in using the editor.

Hacker Hags? Who's he?

In SC1 the allies cannot reinforce their garrison in Gibraltar beyond strength 5 while Spain is neutral, because Gibraltar suffers from the 'surrounded unit effect'. However, given that as long as the Royal Navy control the seas they can get supplies through from the west, it would be good to be able to reinforce the garrison up to strength 8. I realise that this might not be easy to program in, but if possible it would be useful.

Yes please Kuni. Bill.run@ntlworld.com Thanks

I don't agree that SC is at a low ebb. For me it's never been better, but then most of my games are mods which are quite far removed from the 1939 scenario that some people seem to be stuck on. Try something different and you might be pleasantly surprised.

These were two great games, though I enjoyed the one where I was the allies the most because I was totally convinced that I had lost, yet managed to turn it around in just a couple of turns. The Earl had sunk all three of my British carriers, I'd lost Egypt and he had Iraq. I had a few RAF airfleets and the bomber around London, and 2 US HQs and 6 armies hovering in the Irish Sea. The Russians had fallen back to the river line that runs between SE of Moscow, down to Stalingrad and then west to Rostov. I'd placed a corps in Moscow just to slow the Germans down, while I prepared for the worst. At that moment I got the Siberians while partisans struck at the Axis supply lines - those partisans were the most vital allied unit in the whole game! British commandos had managed to cut off supply to Scandinavia, while other allied forces landed at Morroco while the Earl's Italians conquered Spain. With the Siberians the Russians went straight into the counterattack, with shockingly successful results. Axis unit after Axis unit went down. It was like the Schlieffen plan, with Russian forces rolling up his line from north to south. Meanwhile the Americans decided to land in France in a "it's now or never" type move, and the Earl evacuated Brest the next turn (the defenders were surrounded and down to strength 3, so it wasn't necessarily a bad move). Over succeeding turns the Americans got the upper hand in France with a lot of help from the RAF, and the Russian advance was slowed down but not halted in the Ukraine. It was amazing how quickly this game turned around, and it just goes to show that you should never give up until it really is clear that the enemy have won.

I think it's a good idea Brian.

I can think of a few strategic uses for paras even if they aren't very strong units compared to corps and armies. Sometimes capturing an unguarded hex can be more important than 'kicking ass'.

Shouldn't it depend on who liberates it? A liberation by non-Soviet forces is very unlikely but the possibility cannot be ruled out. Also, as the Poles had a very large and active resistance movement we cannot rule out the possibility of them liberating themselves in the right circumstances.

That was my idea Rambo!

Hi Vveed Good to hear from you too. I don't know, but perhaps the programmers would find a way to implement your suggestion, without us receiving two emails for every turn played. That would be the ideal solution anyway. I hope you do get some free time at some point. If you do, you know where to find me.

Hi Vveed, with regard to online notification, it might be easier if you were only informed if your opponent loaded the file more than once, otherwise we'd be getting lots and lots more emails than we currently do. Otherwise it potentially sounds a good solution. By the way, are we any closer to finishing our game?

Two thoughts: 1) The solution to cheating to get the right research result is simple - don't let the player see if they got any research breakthroughs at the end of their move, make them wait until they load up their next turn. It could be the first thing you get told, before you see the video. 2) I don't really worry about whether my opponents are cheating or not, and reloads could only make a big difference in turns where the player needs to knock out a key unit/country that turn. When people say that PBEM can't be used for competitive play, here's a suggestion - have a league where it's ok to reload! Not that I'd be interested in it, but if no one cared about reloads then it could work.

Good idea, but if this is introduced I'd like to have the option NOT to increment the turn number. Sorry to be fussy!

Cool!

Yes, I remember this and it was useful. Either this or something similar (e.g. off the top of my head, all moved units have a black ring around their base) would be good. Hubert?

Thanks for posting this Kurt. It's good to put faces to names. I've often wondered what a number of our regular players and forum users look like, especially as I have mental images of many. Maybe one day we'll have all our pictures somewhere!

Good idea Edwin. Alternatively, random starting positions for all three (within certain areas, of course) would work too. Whichever method is used, it would be better than the current standard set up. But then maybe we've all been doing it wrong in SC1. A house rule allowing the axis player to place their subs in a different position using the editor shouldn't be beyond us, but I'm not aware that anyone's done it. I'd never thought of it before now, but it's so easy really. [ April 27, 2004, 01:31 PM: Message edited by: Bill101 ]

Maybe the effect of the LRDG could be represented in the same way that Russian partisans affect Axis supply, though without a partisan unit actually appearing. For example, the LRDG, activated by the UK with a cost of MPPs, will have a % chance of reducing the resource value, and therefore the supply, of Axis held cities in North Africa. Or is this getting a bit too much? I'm not really sure just how effective the LRDG were without looking it up.

Dave LOL. My home is about 100 miles away, though I've probably got some Welsh ancestry, we're all a mixture aren't we. I just found the WWI scenario (see below). If you fancy a game of it just let me know. http://www.peachmountain.com/5star/SC_DOWNLOADS.asp#Section5

That's a very difficult problem, and the only answer I can see with a set up of 6 would be to make Italy and the USA minors as they came in later, and were to a certain degree equipped by the French anyway. Or, as I cannot see our American friends liking that, make Turkey a minor as they relied on German support, though really 8 majors would be much better if not essential to make a decent WWI scenario. Is there a WWI mod out for SC1? I'm getting the urge to play it...

One thing I've never understood is why in SC1 you can't rename a Corps or Army while it is in a troop transport.