Timskorn

I agree, the seasons add a lot to the game, particular the war in Russia as it should. As winter comes, as the Axis, you really have to press your attacks before you bog down. As Russia you pray for the winter to come to slow the Axis advance, and use that time to dig in and bring up reinforcements.

Yes, popup boxes would be a great future addition to SC2. Nothing huge, but something to briefly explain certain buttons and features.

Thanks for the reply Hubert. I know how well you patched up SC1, and if future patches mirror the effort done on SC1 we can expect some great stuff!

Sweet, thanks.

I won my game as the Allies in late 1944. Some possible AI issues I noticed. If these have been posted before, my apologies, but the more the better if Hubert is working on the AI. - Axis seemed to ignore North Africa completely. The Italians sent a few ships to challenge mine, but that was it. My initial forces formed in Alexandria were enough to take all of North Africa and land at the tip of the 'boot'. - Italian airforce was placed near Brest for almost entire length of the game. I was able to shell and hit it with AF, bringing it down to low strength, and they would continually bring it back up to 10 strength. Total waste of MPP's. - Axis forces didn't seem built up very well for Barbarossa, and their AI attacks were always peicemeal against my lines. Half of their forces were comprised of Italian and minor armies. They sent one Army division to Leningrad, unsupported. They also seemed to have way too many HQ units. - Once I arrived to Germany and the southern minor countries, the AI seemed to go Op-Move crazy. One turn they'd sent a tank group up north, the next turn they'd send it back south again. This was done multiple times with different units. -Axis subs seemed to work well. They escaped my detection for awhile, would retreat and eventually go hit the shipping lanes again. Seems really well done so far. With the US AI broken I'll probably be playing Allies until a patch comes out, and cranking difficulty way up (Hard, + experience bars). I know people will exclaim, "Use the editor!!" to fix things, which I may do in the future, but there are some things I expect to work out of the box so to speak. The two major ones being the US AI properly operating in England, and the Russian AI defending better (which I know Hubert is working on currently). The other things, like Italians working in North Africa more and the German AI barbarossa are still things I'd like to see improved, but they aren't gamebreakers.

Nice AAR guys, good to read. The winters are definitely harsh, even the mud can have a big effect if your airpower can't reach their targets. Unless you have a superior hand it's almost useless to attack in the dead of winter. Better to sit and regroup for the spring.

Biased towards allies? I just smoked the AI on Intermediate. Playing as Allies right now and it's late 1941 and everything is up in the air right now. UK is crippled, it's fleet alive but badly hit from the Battle of the Atlantic. The only bright spot is North Africa where I'm meeting early success driving west against the Italians. I've developed my main defensive line in Russia running along the Dniepr, setting up fortifications around Stalingrad and slowly getting level 3 heavy tanks up and running, building for a good summer offensive. If they break my lines at the Dniepr though, Stalingrad will be my last hope to hold off a Russian collapse.

Does this mean a patch for the full version is forthcoming??

Yep, and I'm okay with that. I'd rather it be more difficult than have the ability to easily sway countries. So I'm almost done with my first game on Intermediate. It was pretty easy, mainly because Russia only managed to create one decent defensive line and that was at Stalingrad. Rommel and Afrika Corps, along with two Italian armies, their navy and AF took Alexandria fairly early. You really have to get a lot of units there because of the supply issues. I fortified the coast of France with an Engineer but I don't see the Allies invading anytime soon, unfortunately. I have level 4 fighters and level 3 bombers hitting England, and I have about 3 subs, 2 BB's and 1 DD out in the Atlantic unchallenged and wreaking havoc ok UK supply. It's July 1944. I've noticed some mistakes the AI made (or maybe didn't, you tell me). In Russia, the AI didn't seem to try and hold a line. What I mean is, they moved units out of entrenchment for meager counter-attacks when they should stay put. In the middle-east, the last allied unit there was the HQ O'Connor. He was in the city across the canal east of Alexandria. I sent two Italian armies, 1 AF and an HQ to get him out. It took a good 5 turns or so, but what I didn't understand is why the AI kept re-plenishing his losses. It must have been a huge drain on the UK economy keeping this guy alive. It did hold up my Italian army for 5 turns, but it doesn't seem worth the MPP cost. I know this is the AI and it's going to do silly stuff, but I'm just making an observation. The US never seemed to get off the ground either. They had a couple bombers in England, and they have a few Army units and an HQ unit in England. But that's all I've seen so far. They haven't tried to land in NA yet, nor seem to be in a position to put much pressure on France. Will have to wait and see... I'm not sure how much has changed in regards to supply in SC2, but it feels "right". You can really see the effects of losing supply. At Stalingrad right now, for example, I have 2 HQ's nearby but my units on the front line can only get a max of 7 reinforcements and they also can't upgrade to newer models. Will be starting an Allies game soon and cranking it up to Hard.

Started a single-player game as the Axis, 1939, Intermediate setting (It's been a good 2 years since I played SC!). So far SC2 has been everything I've expected it to be. The delays in production are really nice, gives you a sense that you're planning an operation. One really cool touch is the changing skins depending on the environment. When Russia is covered in snow, your units don their snow uniforms and camo. When I dropped my infantry and tank divisions in North Africa they changed to desert camo. Diplomacy seems pretty tough so far. I had 5 chits in Sweden and for 5+ turns never had any increase. Spain the same thing later, but increased once by 11%. I easily turned Bulgaria early on. Sub Warfare has been touch and go, overall I've probably lost more MPP's reforming my sub groups than I have taking out shipping lanes. That's been my own fault though. Battle for Britain never cumulated into anything substantial. One reason was because I invested in a bomber too late, and by the time I could use it I had to transfer my air and HQ over to the Eastern front. I really like the new move-then-attack system, but it can also feel odd at times. For example, I can attack with a unit I haven't moved, retreat him back a tile and then move another unit in to his spot and attack with that as well. Seems overly mobile to be able to attack THEN move. I understand this was done, but typically in a forward advance. It just seems odd to be able to attack forward and then move backwards to let someone else in. The Engineer unit is a cool addition. The US just entered the war and now I'm preparing the shores of France with fortifications. I like that you can determine how many sides it protects, but I wish we had the opportunity to move the fortify window around. I'm trying to see which direction I want the fortification to face, but the window blocks my view. Elite Reinforcements and Upgrades add more than just their face value to the game. Doing either one takes up an entire turn for that unit, so to do both spends two whole turns before it can move out. Not complaining, in fact I like the additional choices we have to make. Do I keep moving forward, reinforce or upgrade its AT capability? SC2 has, so far, delivered everything I expected it to. I'm not a hardcore MP guy, so I can't speak from that perspective. The upgrades, diplomacy, expanded research, move rules, events, graphical enhancements all provide a varied strategic experience that should provide countless replayability...and did I mention the editor??? I want to get a few games in from both sides, and also some more operational battles before I can make a final verdict. So far, so good though.

People...download GetRight...continue where you left off...

Yeah it's working good now. 57/k a second and using GetRight.

Live in the Boston area and got my e-mail, but downloading at around 7kb/second. Don't worry if you haven't received your e-mail yet, chances are you won't be playing it tonight anyway!

Great, just getting outta work too. Wooo!

Giggity Giggity Giggity!

For marketing reasons as well, I think moving away from the 2D hex-based map will help remove the "Wargame" stigma that keeps casual players away. Most of my friends, all they see when they see hexes is "not fun". In their minds anything that uses hexes is probably too slow and complicated, and overall it just feels "stale". The new map style and 3D icons should go a ways to dispel that notion when people see screenshots. This game is definitely made for a niche audience, but it never hurts to get more customers.

7 hours of work left...hopefully I'm looking at 7 hours of SC2 when I get home...

Mine takes only a minute or two, max. I have a pretty high end system though.

The only possible problem I see with the editor is the liberal use of it. Will the community eventually settle on a specific mod, or will everyone be claiming that their version is the best one and it should be used competitively? I'm sure there will be a lot of people who play the full version a few times and then decide something needs to be fixed or changed.

They felt the Germans needed a headstart on developing their strategies.

It's cool to see that mods like this are already being done for the game. I can only imagine what will be available to us a year from now! On a related not, I really like the new perspective in SC2. At first it was a little awkward, but after a few play throughs I can't imagine going back to the old view. I don't come from a long history of hex-based wargaming so I like the current look. In the end I really don't care either way, as long as its fun.

Hopefully we'll see a full fledged American Civil War mod.

Yeah, it'd be nice to have Victory Locations on the map for Operational Scenarios. Give you clear, visible goals to shoot for. Or at least the option to place them in the editor...

The interface isn't that bad. It's not the greatest, but it's far from aggravating. Anyone ever play Victoria by Paradox? That is the type of interface that regularly affects your enjoyment no matter how long you've played it. Most UI's could be better, some are just downright atrocious.

Since we don't have the ability to build units in the demo, we have all the MPP's we want for diplomacy. I don't see how that would apply in the full game. You'd be hampering your military. Also it didn't seem that paratroopers were really THAT powerful. I had a misdrop in the D-Day scenario, lost a couple to German armor, plus they're pretty expensive to purchase in the theater campaign.