Timskorn

Yes, Russians have sat and defended to hold out for as long as possible, but have never had the numbers to attack. One problem I had, is that Russia has been stuck with IT 1 and Production 1 until recently despite heavy investment. On the flip side, I also invested heavily into air units/tech early in an attempt to keep in check and/or dominate Axis air in the east which was a new strategy for me. At best, I believe it only stalled the inevitable as it drained my ability to create enough ground forces for an offensive. I still believe it could be a viable strategy under the right circumstances. If you can dominate the air war there, you can keep Axis offensives in check until you build up your ground forces. Western Allies are still completely intact however, so I will play this one out a little longer.

I'm going to put it all on black at the casino. Let it ride baby!!!!!!!

Unfortunately DD, they want to give the money to people that will go buy big screen TV's and trips to Disneyland. Uncle Sam isn't going to give out free money without expecting something in return. In fact, Bush's initial proposal called for $800-$1600 rebates, but it would have excluded about 30 million poor Americans.

Hyazinth: Yes, and actually I just took a look at the recent GAO report for the US financial situation and it tells a pretty bleak future. From page 23: "By 2040, public debt is projected to be 128 percent of GDP, well above the World War II peak of 109 percent, and by 2080, debt is projected to approach 600 percent of GDP. At some point before the debt reaches such unprecedented levels, the world's financial markets would likely cease lending to the United States." ... "Avoiding the catastrophic consequences of this fiscal path will require action to bring program expenditures in line with available resources. How soon these actions are taken will greatly influence their ultimate impact on the Nation."

I'm going to pay down a bill with the free money. As most other Americans probably will. I'm just wondering why they don't give us all $2000. It's not like we actually have a budget anymore. $10 trillion in debt, what's another $500 billion? As much as they'd like me to put it back into a business, I need to straighten my own first. But before this gets off topic and moved, I would love to buy a new Battlefront game. Hasn't really been one in awhile though, besides Shock Force.

Nice! Yes, actually I'm sure I'll be able to fit you in. The tournament was meant for fun, to get a jump into WaW and isn't too structured. So if someone finds themselves without an opponent soon, I'd be more than happy to put you in. You could even be slotted in for the final match of the Veterans bracket. Whoever wins out of Canuck and Kman(or myself), could go on to face you as the last challenge. And based on your claim that you can destroy anyone, it should prove to be a good final match.

I think the Oval needs to be looked into more. Underrated.

Canuck, as of now you will play either myself or K-Man depending on who wins this round. We didn't get many signups for the Veteran bracket.

Unless its Pabst.

No hijacking the thread! Silencio! Vaminos!

Yeah, Russia is just getting taken piece by piece. Unfortunately I was never able to find a good time to mount an offensive, and with high Axis readiness (112%) for a lot of their defensive units near Moscow (and my units' lack of experience and any superior tech), attacking is suicide. They are entrenched with good leaders, experience and equal IT and AT tech as myself. I'd require at least a 3:1 ratio to actually succeed in a ground attack. Defensively, Russia can probably survive for another two years, but they will never be able to hurt the Axis again because offensives will never occur.

So far pretty stagnant throughout most of the globe. I'm beginning to see what Terif was mentioning in the other thread. There has been only moderate fighting in Russia. For the most part, our two main armies remain in trenches and unable to deal a decisive blow. Meanwhile, extra Axis forces are able to attack in southern Russia where we are weak. Italy was ill-planned and Allied forces begin their pullout. The lone Italian Army staved off the entire Allied military. Lots of medals and drinks and women for those chaps! Russia will be chipped away section by section, without any ability for either side to deliver a knock out blow militarily. So, for the most part, Axis forces have not taken many losses for a good two years and are probably amassing large armies with the extra MPP's. Will be interesting to see how this plays out!

I thought he did good in the new Rocky...considering. Looking forward to this one.

March 1943: Russians take some losses and pull back to their defensive lines behind the river north of Moscow. Russian aircraft plants roll out new fighter models in anticipation of Axis air in the Spring trying to break open a wedge in the lines. They will have a fight on their hands against level 4 fighters. For the most part, the Russian front has been stagnant. Axis have made some gains and inflicted some losses, but we're still in a good defensive position. We'll see what 1943 holds. With winter ebbing, Allied air will be able to crack open some Axis eggs in Italy. Allied forces are bottlenecked in the mountaines NE of Sicily where an Italian Army has been defending against a US tank group. British artillery, naval, air and US naval forces have concentrated on digging these guys out. Italy is a pain to fight in. Narrow fighting conditions and defensible mountains. The only good thing about it is that with naval superiority you have free reign to shell everything in sight. Rome is also very close to the fighting and vulnerable to capture once I can push up through the boot. UK navy takes a beating north of Norway. 1 strength cruiser weasels his way out, hopefully he can survive the pursuit. South of that fighting, intelligence reported a German cruiser all alone off the coast of Norway and two UK battleships were dispatched and sunk it to the bottom.

We both have some but we need to let more time pass before we can post them, otherwise we'll be giving away a lot of information. We're posting as it happens rather than giving an AAR all in one lump post. Has its drawbacks but hey, keeps readers coming back to the forum. Pics will arrive soon...

January 1943: Russians probe out of the lines north of Moscow, but it doesn't look like the Axis were hindered by the winter this year and are dug in real tight. Just some bloodied Russian noses was all that occurred in this attack. Mud hampers the Allies in Italy, but we finally take Sicily and more UK reinforcements head to the fight. US loses an Army but with air superiority, Allies will make good progress come the spring unless they keep truckin' reinforcements into Rome.

Russians start peeking their noses out as the snow sets in, hitting along the NW flank of the Axis lines near Moscow. In Italy, rains prevent the Allies from taking Sicily this turn, but the US has thrown their weight into the fight and have begun landing troops to help the UK.

Snow finally arrives in Russia. The situation in Voronezh looks bleak, but up north the Russians are strong and man the entire riverline north of Moscow. Air battles have gone back and forth vying for control. Axis got the upper hand, but with Russian air tech and numbers they made sure they didn't have free admission to hit us. Now with the UK landing in southern Italy, German air has been diverted to help Mussolini protect his homeland. Sicily itself is getting hammered by air, land and sea and should fall next turn. Intelligence reported the damaged Italian sub NW of Sicily, and a US Corp. was dispatched in an operation to land and take it out in port. The Allies have opened up the second front in the vulnerable underbelly of the Axis Empire.

Engine: CURRENT and/or NEW Synopsis: Context-sensitive feedback Design Summary: One of the #1 stumbling blocks for new players in a game, and even old players to a new game, is understanding the mechanics involved in the gameplay. For wargames especially, feedback is critical in helping players understand why they cannot perform certain functions. Why can't I reinforce? Why can't I upgrade a unit? Why can't I amphibious transport? Why is my unit out of supply? Why can't I op-move this unit? Simple explanations can go a long way in helping all players understand the game better. This is particularly crucial for new players who can be turned off by wargames because of even the simplest confusion. Two additions can go a long way in aiding new players in understanding and enjoying a wargame. One is to give simple and concise feedback on why a function is not currently available (Reinforcement, upgrade, op-move, etc) such as "Low Supply Level" (For reinforcements) or "Cannot Upgrade when adjacent to enemy unit", etc. And two, is to provide "First Time Use" pop-up help. When first using a type of unit or function, a pop-up box appears and explains the basics for the unit or function. The first time a player selects an HQ, for example, it can briefly explain its purpose and how critical they are for supplying troops. Or the first time your cities are bombed, convoys are hit, unit destroyed, etc. This option can be turned off under Options, or the pop-up box can have a selection box to "Turn Off Help" to permanently disable it. This is in lieu of a tutorial so people can just jump right in and play (which they typically do anyway!). Problem #1: For #1, lots of little things to add help text for and which might confuse a player if not described properly. Problem #2: For #2, may require quite a bit of programming to create pop-up boxes with options you can choose on it such as "Close" or "Turn Off Help", and to track and make sure the same help box doesn't keep popping up over and over everytime you select a unit.

Yes, another good idea powergmbh! And as you mention, that would help so another new unit would not be required for this. I think there's a lot of possibilities to make this work which is definitely a good thing. Ottosmops: This is another one of those things I think a lot of people wished was possible at times. I've found this most wanting when new tech has been researched and I have to manually upgrade almost every unit. I suppose the current setup is acceptable, considering most players probably want to retain full control over which units are reinforced/upgraded and when.

You can, but in my opinion it isn't worth it unless you know your opponent is going into Barbarossa weak (Ie, he has troops gobbling up minors at the time). Otherwise your garrison troops only stall him by a turn or two and feeds his air and ground units with experience.

Russian paratroopers are running suicide missions behind the lines looking to disrupt German soft targets. Commie weathermen were wrong on both drops, however, and the following turns showed clear skies for the Axis to rain bombs on them. Para's deal moderate damage to both a tac bomber and an HQ near Kharkov. The American and Royal Navy have joined together at Malta and have been hammering Italian positions in Southern Italy while disrupting their navy. The British begin the invasion of Italy in late September with US air and naval support.

Marty: I just took a look in the editor and we can't add attack value to an amphib transport, so this is probably hard coded in. But essentially you are right and this is something HC would have to do. Could keep it simple and just allow all land units with an attack value the ability to invade from sea, then just change their ratings on how effective they are. If you add a Marine unit, just make them the most effective at getting it done. Just not sure how time consuming this would be to add in.

John: True in that land units currently can turn into naval units, and a SF unit doesn't need a port…so these things are in place already. If it was a new unit that could turn into an amphib transport with the ability to attack and receive damage from all land units, it could also then disembark like a normal unit and be used on land. The problem here is, all amphib transports are currently the same so there would need to be a way to make an amphib Marine unit unique. If you went into the editor and changed amphib transport attack stats, and they could attack, then any unit that turns into an amphib transport will have this ability when we only want the Marine unit to. Lars: This is definitely another option, but it'd probably require hard code to force tiles to be off-limits to a certain side. SC2 supply rules would make attacking like this inefficient as well. You'd have a very ineffective unit stuck on an island waiting to die, unless you gave it the SF's ability to amphib off the island again. A Marine unit considered as naval would follow naval supply rules so couldn't be "cut off" after one turn.

Engine: CURRENT Synopsis: Creation of a new Marine unit capable of attacking land units that occupy a single tile from sea. Design Summary: To develop an effective way to allow single-tile invasions from sea a new unit with a new ability will need to be created. The Marine is a low-cost but specialized unit with the unique ability to attack an enemy position directly from sea. The Marine unit would differentiate itself from normal land units in that it wouldn't act as one. Instead, a Marine acts as a naval unit that can strike land targets from sea. It has a high attack factor but also low defense, making these assaults effective but costly. Against a well defended unit, multiple Marine units supported by naval and air would be required to be effective. Land units would need to have their naval defense ratings adjusted so they repel damage from sea, but which would affect all naval units in general. A BB shelling a land unit would then risk taking damage. Hard code may need to be required to help differentiate between a Marine attacking a land unit from sea, and a normal naval unit. Marine units would cost the same as a Corp., be as effective as a SF unit but take twice as long to train and is limited only to naval to land attacks. Since Marine units are actually a naval unit, they can never enter a land tile. In my opinion this is a good compromise. Marines clear the tile of enemy units and then you transport a normal land unit in to occupy it. They repair in port like ships, and do not need to "Transport" or "Amphib Transport" to move. Its assumed they are part of a naval task force moving them around. Problem #1: Will need to find a good way to differentiate a Marine unit from a Naval unit when attacking a land unit. Naval units only take damage from ports, cities and forts and that should remain so, but a Marine unit needs to take damage from an enemy unit as if it were attacking on land. Problem #2: Marines won't be able to actually enter a land tile unless hard code was added to allow naval units to also be land units. Or if there was a way that a Marine unit acted like an Amphib Transport AND a naval unit. This way they could attack from sea and also land on a clear tile. If not, the development time to create that duel ability probably wouldn't be worth it just for one unit.