Bill101

I think it all depends on your opponent. If you play with someone who is very busy and only does a turn a week then obviously it's not going to be as exciting as you might wish. But if you find one who has roughly the same amount of free time as you, and better still at roughly the same time, then yes, as far as a gaming experience goes I think I've had some of the most exciting experiences playing SC by pbem. I've now been playing most of my opponents for many years now, and it's good to get to know each other a little and share some banter while we play.

Hi William One thing you'll find when you do start playing the Global game, or any other SC game, by PBEM, is that after a few games your gameplay will be a lot better. Massively so! I have always loved the multiplayer aspect in SC, in fact until this game I had never ever played online with anyone else, and there's a real thrill to it that just makes me keeping wanting to play more. Bill

Hi Steve Are you playing against the AI or in multiplayer? Only if you're playing the AI it will probably receive a few units to help it out, so that it can provide you with a good challenge.

The partisans don't necessarily need to be within 2 tiles of Leningrad to reduce Leningrad's supply level, because overall, Leningrad's supply level is dependent on a rail line operating at 50% efficiency coming from Germany via either Riga or Minsk. If you don't hold either of these places, or if you do but partisans have attacked them, or bombers have hit them, then supply in Leningrad will also be affected, due to the damage done to the rail infrastructure. Could this be the case here?

There still will be a lot of damage, but in the past the casualties were disproportionately larger the higher the tech level. This just balances it out quite nicely.

Hi Baron This will be changed with the Global release so that high tech units attacking each other will suffer similar casualty rates to low tech units attacking each other, all other things being equal of course. This is a useful improvement for those of us who don't like seeing our level 5 tanks destroyed in one turn by an attack from an enemy level 5 tank!

Have a good Christmas everyone!

The games use the same engine, but the actual scenarios differ enough to make both of them an enjoyable experience. The Global game provides a slightly different gaming experience, both are fun, but as you would expect, the Pacific Theater game covers that theater in more detail, plus it has numerous smaller scale scenarios covering individual campaigns, e.g. Iwo Jima, the battles for Burma, Okinawa, etc. I've been playing them both for some time now and I think that they're sufficiently different from each other that although there is some overlap, it isn't likely to make you think that buying one means you won't want the other. I know that I'm going to be playing both games for some time to come yet!

Hi Scott I've just tested this out in the latest patch and I think you must have been lucky in all your games, because my SNLF took casualties landing on the village at Wake, and an army took casualties landing on the fortress at Singapore. Bill

Thanks SeaMonkey. I'm the same actually, I'm really enjoying playtesting the Global game and it's going to be a great crack, while at the same time I'm itching to play yet another game of Op Z. I love playing as Japanese but there just aren't enough hours in the day at the moment!

Sounds great, and it looks like there's still some more serious fighting to come! Hubert deserves the credit for making the AI do so well in China, and it's good to see that you're not having everything your own way. We'll take a look at Borneo and Sarawak as those MPPs certainly do come in handy early in the game. Thanks for the report, and I look forward to the next instalment.

In the first beta versions we did have a US unit on Wake because I really did want to represent the stiff fighting that took place there. Unfortunately we found in tests that the Japanese didn't always take Wake on turn 1, and when they didn't it could easily be turned into a US strongpoint and this really upset the timetable for Japanese advances, especially for the AI. So, with some regret I had to remove the garrison of Wake. Fortunately the Japanese will frequently suffer landing casualties on taking the island, so they don't always capture it for free!

Agreed, don't let the USSR attack you, attack them first. One of the things I really enjoy late in the game is keeping a tally of T-34s that I've destroyed. Experienced tac bomber and fighter attacks can make mincemeat out of them in no time. Just as long as the US air force isn't present too!

Hi Bill I've sent you an email with some answers, you're basically on the right track but there are just a few factors to consider that will make your hunting either more or less successful. Bill

Hi Kantabricus The USSR will arrive very late on in the game unless you don't have the required garrisons in Manchuria. This is because Japan kept a very large army in Manchuria throughout the war to stop the Red Army from marching in and just taking the country from them. Throughout the game Japan therefore needs to keep units in or adjacent to Manchouli, Kiamusze, Yenki, Tsitsihar and Harbin, and from the 1st October 1944 Japan also needs units at 53,13 and 62,13. Of course, the Allies may invest in diplomacy in an attempt to bring the USSR in sooner, in which case the only counter you really have is diplomacy of your own. Massing air power in Manchuria for when the Soviets join can be very useful, and may enable you to make some inroads into Soviet territory (e.g. Vladivostock) or at least to destroy some of their key units, such as their tank units and HQs.

Thanks for the report SeaMonkey, I'll be interested to see how it ends up!

I had to open the editor for this bit! Once you've got your campaign open, you'll see that in the second row from the top of the screen in the editor there are various tools. Select the Draw one (it's the 8th from the left). Now if you select the various buttons that are 3 to its right (a green one, followed by a blue one etc) these allow you to edit various things on the map. The little grey one to the left of the lightning flash is to add units. Select this and the Add Unit box will appear. Select the unit you want and add it to its country. Note that you can't add units from one country into neutral territory belonging to another. Another thing is that if the build limit is zero or you have already deployed up to its limit, then you will need to increase that country's build limit. You can do this by selecting Campaign in the top row, followed by Edit Country Data; Edit Unit Build Data (in the bottom left of the screen that pops up). Hopefully it's self explanatory from there, but fire away with more questions if you get stuck!

Hi I would recommend starting off by making a fairly small and simple map with just a couple of countries in it, and then adding scripts in stages as you get a bit more familiar with how they work. Each script only relates to one country, so you would need a purchase script for each country involved. If you'd like the country to purchase different things in different years, then you will need a script per year, with those that start later (e.g. 1943) being above those that start first (e.g. 1940) in the script file. The reason being that the game engine will read downwards in the file until it finds one that meets its conditions. I'll be back with instructions on adding units in a bit...

Hi Calvin9 If you go to Options; Settings, there is an option for Video Acceleration that should speed up the AI a bit.

It is Skrivebordsgeneralen's first game though isn't it, and with your reputation I'm not surprised the allies are being a little cautious!

Hi Rintintin The AI reads the scripts downwards, so if you place the one dated 1941 above the one dated 1940 in the script file, then before 1941 only the 1940 script will be active, but after 1941 it will be just the 1941 one. It will only read one of them, so make sure they're in the right order and you may need to adjust the percentages accordingly. Regarding your second question, a solution might be to use the GV numbers that are in the scripts (at least all versions of SC from Patton Drives East onwards have this). You could use these to set the scripts so that in 50% of occasions Denmark declares war on Germany, and in the other 50% of occasions Benelux would do so. I hope that helps. Bill

From my own experience playtesting this game, I certainly don't think that you're going to find yourself refighting the same game over and over. Far from it in fact, because there are countless strategies to try out, plus what with having two main theatres it means that even if you do the same thing twice in one theatre, you and/or your opponent could be doing something totally different in the other. This is of course making our playtesting not only more interesting but also more demanding, and of course, fun!

I'm still trying to get over the estimated hour to do a turn mentioned in your previous post! I've started timing my Global turns, and they seem to vary from just under five minutes to perhaps a bit more than ten at peak times. But I've always been very quick with doing my turns, and I'm not including time spent watching the video in PBEM games, but unless someone is spending a lot of time thinking about it (and I don't tend to) then I cannot see a turn taking anywhere near an hour.

These new changes are great and will open up even more opportunities for gameplay and modding. Hubert's right about the Battle of the Atlantic too, it really is much more important than before, and great fun too!

If your air units can hit the city and reduce the defender's entrenchment before your ground troops attack then it will help. Do your units have HQ support? If not, that will be a big factor. There may be others too, such as if your units are in poor supply, or attacking across a river, or if the defenders have better weapons or are a better unit type than your attackers.