HankWWIIOnline

Think that already has been the case here for a long time.

Don't ever say "when" until it's ready. Valve did a wonderful job of that by waiting literally years before even mentioning they were working on Half-Life 2. Everyone assumed they were, but no news/screenshots/info was released so nobody thought about it. Suddenly, they announce it and doubled the surprise by saying it is coming out in 4 months. Hype can kill. I would rather Hubert take 2 years before mentioning anything about it, then one day say "SC2 is scheduled to release in 2 months" and then dump some screenshots on the web.

Unfortunately there just isn't enough variety to make playing a smaller country exclusively worth while. In HoI, that is a viable way to play the game. In SC, playing just Italy would get pretty boring. Watching Germany do all the fun stuff, and fight the big battles...nah.

I would recommend just buying SC. It is cheap, and in the history of games I have bought, has the biggest 'bang for the buck'. Playing PBEM games has kept me playing this game month after month, never tiring of it.

What about having a minimum strength reduction for planes? At L0, they can only bring units to strength 5. Anything more only effects readiness and entrenchment. With each Jet Level gained, the air unit can drop a target lower than 5. So a L4 Jet could drop a target unit down to 1 strength, L5 can destroy them.

Here is what I was thinking: 1941, Britain falls to the Axis. The next turn, Russia and the US join the Allies. Yes, Russia would certainly earn some early victories while the Axis player began sending troops back to the Eastern front. But it would be a challenge! At least have the 'option' to continue, as the Allied player. But that would require the US and Russia to immediately join. Also, the UK, even though surrendering to the Axis should allow any remaining units in the game to remain. In the PBEM game I played, he had sufficient naval forces to bring back to the Atlantic to cooperate with the US. As the Axis, I had only a half-strength sub and a full strength cruiser for the Germans and an only slightly bigger Italian navy. Consolidating remaining UK Naval forces with US forces would give the Axis navy a viable threat for some time. Would British troops elsewhere in the world have given up the fight against the Axis had Germany pulled off Sealion? I have pulled off Sealion agains the CP before in similar fashion, in a similar time frame. Russia and the US had joined the war, however, about 5 turns before I captured the UK. I held out as long as I could with my meager forces on the Eastern Front...but with little to no remaining opposition in the West I could send all my seasoned units to the Eastern Front AND buy a handful of new ones with the UK plunder. It didn't take me long to push the Russians back. Against a human player, beating back Russia may take more time. A two to three turn grace period after the fall of the UK may even it up a bit against Russia. The US could slowly build up, only having to really worry about the Axis navy. The US would have ample areas to invade, from the UK all the way down to Africa. An Axis player couldn't effectively defend such a wide area. I could just accept it and quit asking for more from Hubert. In all reality, most SC Sealions will rarely finish before BOTH the US and Russia join. So I suppose if you can pull it off then just accept the victory. My original thinking was, gameplay-wise the USSR and US were very close to joining the war anyway...but once the UK falls, they say "Nah, nevermind, we'll concede". [ February 19, 2003, 06:10 PM: Message edited by: HankWWIIOnline ]

I decided in my current PBEM game to go for Sealion against my opponent I regularly play against. By turn 47 I had won. He had sent almost all of his army/hq units to the Med and left the Free French and the Royal Navy to defend Britain. Needless to say, the invasion was quick. So quick that neither the US or the USSR had joined the war, and were around 60-75% readiness. Thus ending WWII in Europe. I would imagine the US would have immediately joined the war with the surrender of Britain. The USSR would inevitably join soon thereafter. My opponent had quite a large force in the Med still. At least two army divisions, a corp or two, two air units, a bomber unit and some a decent sized Navy both in the Med and still lurking in the Atlantic. Maybe more, but that is what I had caught a glimpse of. The Italians weren't doing so hot, bogged down in Greece and barely winning naval battles in the Med. I would have liked to have seen the game continue, as did my opponent just to see how this scenario would have played out. I think for gameplay purposes, both the USSR and the US should join immediately after the fall of Britain if they haven't already. I only had two army divisions and two corps on the Russian front. Call me optimistic, but I know if I was on the Allies in this scenario I would have liked to continue. Even though in SC there are many possibilities, is all lost if certain situations occur? Barring any foolish strategy's on my part after the fall of Britian, is it just totally impossible to come back as the Allies?

This should most definitely be an option, at most. HoI succeeds in this area because you can choose to stay historical, or go ahistorical. I think playing an ahistorical game of SC2 would be cool, but not all the time. One of the great things of SC is that the game does not have any event that seriously throws the game out of the lines of history. There are already options for countries to stay neutral, random or historical. Plus there is the awesome incentives of possibly getting Spain and/or Turkey to join on the Axis side. They are possible...but pretty difficult.

This should most definitely be an option, at most. HoI succeeds in this area because you can choose to stay historical, or go ahistorical. I think playing an ahistorical game of SC2 would be cool, but not all the time. One of the great things of SC is that the game does not have any event that seriously throws the game out of the lines of history. There are already options for countries to stay neutral, random or historical. Plus there is the awesome incentives of possibly getting Spain and/or Turkey to join on the Axis side. They are possible...but pretty difficult.

I would like easier access to my unit information. Right now you have to go to the Purchase screen to see what your attack/defense ratings are for a unit type. This could simply be displayed at the bottom of the screen with other unit information (Supply, experience, etc). I think there should be an option to see attack chance percentages. I think this would be useful to see the differences between being in certain terrains, at what readiness/supply, with what experience, etc. It could be a simple, rounded perecentage. You click on your unit, then you hover the mouse over the unit you want to attack and it displays a percentage over that unit. This would be nice for new players as well as old players who want to learn more about the chances of success. Again, this would need to be an option you can turn on and off. Portraits for your HQ units would be a nice touch too...

Interesting. Do people actually use this tactic often, or try to? I honestly don't see the fun in trying to crush the Germans early on. And if you fail, then the Germans can take you down even quicker. Sounds like a short game either way. I guess I enjoy a longer, more drawn out game.

So what is the purpose of the Dutch Gambit? End a game early and say 'I win'? Sounds like an early rush strategy so common in RTS's. [ February 04, 2003, 07:38 PM: Message edited by: HankWWIIOnline ]

In my current multiplayer game, I pulled all my forces off the stagnant Russian front to combat the Allies who were about to attack my poorly defended defenses at the Rhine. It was the Battle of the Bulge, essentially, but in 1943. Anyway, I happened to make a break in the Southern part of France and reached their capital. France surrendered...again. Humiliating, yes...but at this point it was unrealistic. The Americans had units attacking the Rhine, with a couple French units behind them including an HQ. When I grabbed Paris and France surrendered, these units disappeared and I took over the country again. While the game is a moot point at this stage, I still think it's a bit silly for France to be able to surrender again and lose their remaining units. They've been Free French this whole time, the Allies are banging on Germany's door...and they surrender! They would have actually had to march THROUGH the American lines to get to my units. "Well then, Yanks...that's it for us then. Good luck in the war!"

I'm in the 105th turn of a PBEM game. I'm playing as Axis, and I'm on the end of my rope. I've stagnated in Russia. I'm about 1 tile away from grabbing Moscow, but the Russians have level 5 AT tech and probably good IT tech. The Allies have hit the Rhine, where I have a long defense waiting. The only problem is they are mostly corp divisions, with little experience. All my grizzled troops are in Russia simply trying to hold their ground. Italy is getting invaded from the North and South. However, my ace in the hole recently has been my 4 L4 jets in Russia with full experience (And L2 range tech). I destroyed 2 Russian HQ's, which effectively kept them from doing anything against me. Each turn I destroyed a L5 Army division with little loss on my part, through the air. What I'm thinking is, in my situation the only hope that I have is destroying any enemy HQ that gets in my sights. I just redeployed my jets to the Western front, since I have access to bombing his HQ units there (Although they have a couple L3 aircraft there as well). So what is the consenses? Is it totally impossible for the Axis player to turn things around by now? Has anyone used Axis airpower to simply target enemy HQ's and effectively ruin their capability for staging offenses? The only problem I see is that I need at least 3 more air units to make this feasible, and had them a bit sooner. As it is now, the Allies are slowly outpacing me in troop quantity and tech research. But...once a player runs out of HQ's, they are done. But is this even a feasable idea? Or is it that in SC, if the Axis don't have the upper hand by turn 100, it's essentially over for them?

Yeah...but we ALL know Germany will be attacking Russia, unlike their historical counterparts. I guess forcing the player to always stay historical works if you want the same outcome everytime.