Bill101

Hi Keen9876 Welcome to the forum! There's some good advice in your post, and in answer to your questions, snow will halve the effect of attacks, so winter is generally a good time for consolidation. Rain will prevent air attacks, and rough seas will prevent carriers from launching aircraft, and occasionally cause damage to ships. Dust storms in the desert act a bit like rain. I think I've covered everything! Bill

The AI can play itself if you press F3 before starting a game, then you can sit back and watch what happens, or alternatively go away and come back later to see the result. I'm honestly not too sure about what you're describing about the menu buttons. The Demos have limited options like that, but not the full game which I presume you're playing?

Thanks Xwormwood, I'd meant to answer that question too but forgot!

Hi Stevens44 With the WWI game (and more recent releases) there is no need for any toggling of the side menus anymore. The End Turn button should be on the top right, as per the first image here: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=107356 The AI should just be doing the same thing, but faster than we could physically do. My recommendation would generally be to firstly reconnoiter with any aircraft you have, to see if the defenders have hidden artillery support, or any potential reserves/weaknesses beyond their front line. When attacking, use your artillery first to weaken the defenders, then attack with units in place. Switch them for ones behind the line to complete the victory, but only attack with them if you feel confident of success because the switched units will be at lower efficiency and won't benefit from the Prepared Attack bonus. The reason for reconnoitering first before attacking is that if your attack succeeds and you decide to exploit it, this will avoid any nasty surprises when your unit advances into the enemy trenches and gets promptly hit by another enemy unit in a second line of trenches. I'm afraid not, my advice would be to only click to move/switch units when you're sure. Otherwise hover, or make sure you release only when ready. There should be several sets of Ottoman reinforcements arriving at Maidos and Khilid Bahr during the game. I've just tested it out, and in the first Ottoman turn, two regiments and one artillery unit should deploy at Maidos. More should come later. It should be tight, but the Entente have limited time too in which to win, so it's a case of trying to hold them, slow their advance, and bleed them of strength. My pleasure! Bill

Hi I've just checked the scripts and the decision is taken at the start of December 1940, and it requires Bristol to still be in Allied hands at that time. The raid itself doesn't take place until March 1942, though the engine does check for the UK still being Allied at that time for it still to fire. So in this unfortunate instance we are seeing what would have to be a rather long range raid, as I presume that the British fighting on from exile. Fixing it so that it only happens if the UK hasn't been invaded could unfortunately be a little tricky, and at least this way the UK player will get the raid that they paid for - and used up a Destroyer in. Unfortunately we haven't really got an easy way to give back to the UK the Campbeltown Destroyer if the UK is conquered, but to use it in the raid if it isn't. Bill

Agreed, and I'd be very surprised (and disappointed) if anyone here were to say that. SC has improved a lot over the last ten years, and will undoubtedly keep improving in the future too. It is discussions like this that lead to the improvements, so please continue. Bill

Hi Furchtlosundtrew I agree that a surprise attack on Italy by Austria-Hungary would be extremely unlikely. Not so in our WWII games though where attacking a neutral Italy with Allied forces in late 1939 is attempted quite frequently... and this was also in my mind when I was thinking about this (different war, but similar concepts, to a degree anyway). Just to explain my thinking behind the reason for the low starting levels in MPPs is as follows. Mobilization was worked out in advance, to pre-prepared timetables, so changes to the mobilization plans caused chaos and disruption, as happened to the Austro-Hungarians when they changed their mind as to where their Second Army would deploy. Changes to the mobilization plans in Britain, France, Germany or Russia would definitely have had the same effect, so if we were to give any of them some MPPs for use at the start of the game, this would prevent that disruption being realized. Admittedly the German Deployment Phase does avoid them having to suffer any disruption, but this is in place to allow for more flexibility in the opening phases of the war, to signify Germany having potentially adopted a different plan for war before 1914. I realize that this does help the Germans more than the other countries, but then France and Russia only face an enemy on one front to start with so there are less options available for them anyway (especially France) and Britain does have the decision on whether to deploy the BEF in the UK or France. I appreciate that an argument could be made for giving the Entente something to offset the German Deployment Phase, but I believe that the game is currently very finely balanced so I'd hesitate to make such a change. Bill

Hi Stevens44 Glad you're enjoying it! We are a little ahead of you, in the sense that if you download the latest Breakthrough patch, then you'll get both the 1939 Storm over Europe campaign, and also the 1870 Franco-Prussian War campaign. You can find it here: http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=266&Itemid=475 The others would be great, and if anyone is up for modding any of them then I would love to see them too. Bill

Stevens44, thanks for the link, that might come in handy at times!

Hi SC Global comes with four global campaigns, so none are quite as small as you're thinking of, but I would recommend starting with the 1939 World at War campaign as the tempo builds up over the course of the game, and you can always restart once you've learned a few things from it. Then try again and do better! Some of our other releases do contain smaller campaigns, but the Global one is for the bigger campaigns. Be sure to take a look at this thread too while learning the ropes. Even though it was mainly written with our WWI games in mind, the majority of the information in it will help you get a good grasp of how things work: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=107356 Bill

Hi Miguel You can find them all here: http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=26 Happy gaming! Bill

Hi Furchtlosundtrew I see what you're saying, and there is a system constraint in place which means that Italy will be pro-Entente right from the start, with the consequent spotting abilities that provides. However, Italy cannot actually see anything the Austro-Hungarians do unless Austro-Hungarian units go immediately adjacent to Italian resources or units. By keeping just two tiles away from any Italian resources or units, then the Austro-Hungarian navy cannot be seen by any Italians. It's true that on land the Austro-Hungarians will need to keep three tiles away to avoid being spotted, but that would only be the case near north-eastern Italy and that is exactly the place where Italian spies would have reported Austro-Hungarian movements, so I don't consider that to be unrealistic. Plus the Austro-Hungarians receive some Detachments prior to Italian war entry that they can use to watch Italian movements over the border, so it works both ways. One thing with the ability Italy has to move its units before entering the war is that it helps prevent surprise attacks by the opposing side on that country before it reaches a certain mobilization threshold. They start at low strength not just to represent Italy's lack of preparedness for war, but also so that the Italians face a dilemma as to how to spend their MPPs: on reinforcing their units or on research. The difference with the summer of 1914 is that then countries were so busy mobilizing that no thoughts were given to research, and it would result in countries like Britain, Germany, France etc being able to obtain research results even sooner than they should if we gave them more MPPs. Bill

Hi The typhus events do affect unit morale. Looking at the scripts it could be made more punishing than it is, but as it was a late entrant to the game I didn't want to take it too far. I think I'll increase it a bit though. The shell shortage is played out in a different way, as it's simply represented by the low level of production early in the game, and failure to research it will mean that your attacks will have significantly less artillery support than might have been wished for. The problem with shell production in 1915 was that although sufficient shells could be provided to launch attacks, supply could not keep up with the demand for the long drawn out battles that then ensued for weeks and even months. So it is possible to save up shells for a powerful bombardment (like the British did at Neuve Chappelle in March 1915) but keeping it going is the problem, with investment in Gas/Shell Production the solution. Bill

Hi Interesting thoughts and I can understand this to a degree. However, countries will, especially when their neighbours are at war, keep an eye on things going on nearby. This would involve reports from merchant ships and travellers, spying, patrols, and more underhand methods such as intercepting messages. Naval units would frequently be spotted by passing passenger ships and merchantmen, and would be lucky not to have someone report their passage - especially if they belong to a potentially hostile nation and are sailing somewhere they shouldn't be if they have peaceful intentions. A lot of this goes on all the time, and would be more pronounced during wartime, so the ability of neutral majors to be able to see movements on their borders and around their coasts doesn't strike me as unrealistic. With the Ottomans, because their subsidiary states in the Middle East start as neutral, the situation for them is actually harder than for the Italians and US. But for Italy, in 1915 they weren't the ones who were surprised by Austro-Hungarian movements. Instead, it was the active country, Austria-Hungary, that was wrong footed and had hardly any troops in the Trento-Trieste region when Italy entered the war. In fact, Austria-Hungary was so short of troops in the area that some had to keep entering and leaving the region in an attempt to con the Italians into thinking that the area was far more strongly defended than it was. If we turn to the USA, then the situation also argues in favour of an awareness of enemy movements near their coasts prior to entering the war. Like with Italy, their rise from neutrality to belligerence was a gradual process which began before they entered the war. If we turn to WWII then this is even more pronounced, as before the USA entered the war in December 1941 they had been taking on a more and more active role in the Battle of the Atlantic, using both land and naval forces to occupy important strategic locations (Greenland and Iceland) and even opening fire on the German navy. The ability to see enemy units on or near the borders also makes surprise invasions harder, as they should be because countries will generally mobilize in response to threats. One exception is of course the USSR in 1941, but to help represent that we have a good proportion of the Soviet army deploy in the western USSR only when they enter the war, thus reflecting Stalin's inability to face up to the impending invasion and change his deployments accordingly. I hope that helps explain things better. Bill

Hi Stevens44 Welcome to the forum! 1. Yes, you're right in your understanding that the games are distinct. 2. The hardcopy versions of the Pacific and Global Conflict games do come with printed manuals, while later ones such as Global Conflict Gold, Assault on Democracy and our WWI releases don't. However, all releases do come with pdf files of Manuals, and some also come with pdfs of Strategy Advice and other information. When installed, each game has a Manuals folder which will contain the relevant pdfs. 3. Yes, if your computer plays the demo ok then it is a good indication that the whole game will run fine too. Try them out first just to be sure. And if you get stuck with anything, we are here to help. Bill

This AAR has been nominated for Best AAR for January 2014 on the si-games site! http://www.si-games.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26944 This comes hot on the heels of Hyzainth von Strachwitz winning AAR of the year for his Strategic Command WWI Breakthrough! game: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fury-Software/233842800005900 Congratulations Michael, and thanks again for your support! Bill

Hi gkopchuk Welcome to the forum! A few thoughts are as follows: Researching Industrial Technology will increase your income, while Production Technology will making purchasing and maintaining them cheaper. Be careful to spend your income on what matters. For instance, if you lose any units conquering France, but won't need them until you invade the USSR, it's best to not buy them back until much nearer the time. Instead, spend your income on research and buying totally new units that will take longer to build. Focus your expenditure, as some things are important for 1941 in the USSR, especially more and better tanks and ground attack aircraft, while things like Anti-Aircraft Defense and Rockets can generally wait.With regard to your units' movement, I would recommend researching Motorization and upgrading key units with that, as it will increase their Action Points, which will be especially useful in the low supply areas. I hope this helps a bit. Bill

Hi nats Increasing the experience of the AI units will make them harder to beat up, and therefore give you more of a challenge. As to Gallipoli, the Entente forces were largely held at Krithia, so if you are easily getting past that - and it can be done, even in multiplayer as I've (bitterly!!) experienced - then the Entente are probably on their way to win. It's all about timing, concentration of force, and a bit of luck. Against the AI it is of course easier to achieve this combination! I suggest increasing the experience levels just slightly, even just to 0.5 or 1.0, as well as increasing the difficulty level (whose main impact is to increase the AI's income and spotting range) until you find a level that suits you. Bill

One of my favourite scenarios in Panzer General I was the invasion of southern France in 1944 - I used to love trying to do a bit better each time. It was impossible to win, but great fun trying! I totally agree with your philosophy, but I guess it depends on the availability of time too, and normally I will play to the end but just occasionally time constraints force the issue.

Great AAR, thanks guys, and it's good to see some unusual Allied strategies tried. Churchill would have been very pleased!

Hi nats Glad you found it, and point taken. To help you out, the briefing screens can also be seen while not playing by going to the Players Guide for the relevant campaign in the Manuals folder, as they are included at the end of those. Or alternatively by going to the BitMaps folder for each campaign, the image files are contained in there so they can be read and re-read at your leisure. For example, on my computer the pop up images for 1914 Call to Arms for WWI Breakthrough are here: C:\Program Files\Battlefront\Strategic Command WWI Breakthrough\Campaigns\_1914 Call To Arms\Media The exact location might be slightly different on yours, and it might be best to switch the view method in Windows Explorer to Thumbnails, as that will make spotting these ones easier. I hope this helps? Bill

It might have been released a few years ago, but it's still good to see not only that it is being played, but also that it is being enjoyed. 'There is a lot to love in Strategic Command: WWII Pacific Theater, a fun, gorgeous, epic turn-based strategy wargame'. http://www.peachmountain.com/5star/Strategic-Command-WWII-Pacific-Theater.aspx

Hi nats Trenches if vacated, or occupied by unit types that cannot occupy trenches, such as HQs, artillery, tanks and aircraft, will disappear as they required constant upkeep. Admittedly even uncared for trenches would retain some value, but to avoid cluttering up the map with trenches we decided to have them work this way, with unentrenched units benefiting from Ground Cover if outside trenches - which is roughly the equivalent of hastily prepared positions. Bill

I love your use of the word "Ouch" in the images! Is the UK supplying the maximum possible MPPs by convoy to the USSR? This amount can be adjusted in the Convoy screen.

Looks good, keep on advancing!