Bromley

Really? Doesn't fit with the way I understand supply rules, but I might be wrong. I'll have to consider German bombers more seriously if it's true.

Just did some Googling on the Hood/Titanic thing and I couldn't find the source research/article. It seems to be a fringe theory. There seems to have been an ABC article on it, but the link is down: http://204.202.137.113/sections/science/DailyNews/hmshood981208.html That is to say that both may well have been made from steel from the same source and that steel may well have been brittle when exposed to sudden shock, but I wasn't able to find anything to suggest that another source of steel would have saved either ship. It seems unlikely that both were from the same "production run" given the dates supplied by Lars. EDIT: The only quotable reference to that article that I could find is the following: http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/discus/messages/6937/6702.html?994989192 [ April 14, 2007, 09:02 AM: Message edited by: Bromley ]

I can see an (untested) argument that the HQ in Paris might be optimal. HQs don't have morale (readiness=strength), thus taking the sting out of air attacks and maximising your use of the city bonuses and your own entrenchement levels. I'm a DCR man though. I suspect Liam is as well but was trying to surprise Terif with a quick DCR assault whilst a chunk of Terif's forces were in Norway . EDIT: Ignore the bit about Terif's land forces being in Norway as they haven't said that.

IIRC from the last time this was talked about, there's no way to simulate two units in one. A suggestion was to make reinforcing carriers cheaper than usual, although again I'm not sure that the engine can handle different reinfocement %s for different units.

Another anti-engineer thought (not that it's necessarily necessary) would be to tie their constuction times to turns rather than months. You can justify that in terms of available light, road condition, etc. If not, they should be changed to weeks rather than months to enable you to easily figure out when they're due. The interesting thing for me from all this is why Terif did what he did with that fort east of the French mine. I'm stumped .

Iron Ranger's point about no US fleet transfer if the Allies DOW Spain is a good one. I've invaded Portugal when I knew that Spain wouldn't quite swing enough to join the Axis. You then get to build up, declare war and take Spain. All that's fair enough, but it seems a bit harsh for the US to also get its naval asset transfer.

Couldn't you make the case that Spainish forces (and command and control) was battle tested, whereas Italy's was not (excluding colonial actions)? Although an Axis Spain does help sew up Europe, that's all territory that now must be garrisoned against Allied invasion. If you diploed, that's not a problem as you get Spanish units to play with. However, diplo costs you heavily reducing German combat troops before Barbarossa. That slows down the advance in the East, which is where the game is won. If you invaded, the US gets a big increase to production, so D-Day is sooner, but then you get your ~40 MMPs/turn sooner than with diplo, get the plunder and save diplo chits. Your troops are more experienced and plentiful at the start of Barbarossa than if you had diploed, but you do miss out on the best minor army in the game. Including a vital air unit. And you need to use at least 2 units to garrison against invasion. So I see the invade/don't invade as just about as balanced as it can be. Reducing the number of Spanish troops might affect that balance, although probably not as the Germans go through them so easily anyway. I suppose reducing them might allow Germany to pile more into Egypt pre-Barbarossa though. If there was any historical case for creating a fortification in a strategic point in Spain, that might be a way to maintain/increase their staying power whilst reducing their troop numbers and so maintain the balance. Great Santini. (3) 40%. Applies if the Germans invade though, and the decision to do so seems pretty balanced to me. Therefore, the Allies risk wasting chits if the Germans pile in. But then if they don't invest, they risk not being able to hold back Spain until they have the US or USSR chits to guarantee it won't join. Lots of uncertainty, moves and counters with the Spanish diplo situation, which seems pretty good to me . (4) Romania. Not necessarily. If the Allies take a risk and invest in Spain immediately, then they can get a hit before the Axis invest chits to counter. Then the Axis player is faced with having to change his rough gameplan to a Spanish invasion and also has to invest chits in Romania and Hungary (both of which the Allies might have skillfully guessed and preempted). Hubert. Spain seems pretty balanced. If you think that the case for Axis invasion of Spain is too high then perhaps a free German diplo chit on Spain at the start and/or a fortification (only if there was a Eben Emal or El Alamain type location IRL though)? Possibly Spainish forces in the cities could be entrenched a level or two? EDITED one of the GS reference numbers. [ April 04, 2007, 05:23 PM: Message edited by: Bromley ]

Thanks. Will do .

The two are not unrelated . There's a 5-10% increase in Russian activation when you declare war on Yugoslavia. Russian readiness increases their MMPs per turn (i.e. they get their maximum MMPs multiplied by their readiness percentage). So they get something like 15-25 MMPs per turn from your attacking Yugoslavia, whereas you get ~20 but need a couple of garrison units. Try a game where you just concentrate on Russia. So usualy Poland, LC/Denmark & France. Don't attack Scandi countries (not worth it for the Germans) and, for this game, don't get distracted if the UK attacks Norway. Attack Russia in the first clear month in 1941 (probably May). Make sure that you don't anger Russia by placing more than 4 units in/adjacent to Konigsburg and 5 in/adjacent to Warsaw (for that and other advice, see the link): http://www.panzerliga.de/en/docs/lehrgang/lehrg_sc2_eng.php Choose whether you want to diplo Spain or not. If you do, pour the maximium into it. It's probably just a distraction for this game though. Get your INF up to max. Then AT, Air, LRA and HT are techs that you might invest in (don't forget to redeem your chits when you get to INF 3). Make sure you have enough German HQs. Each German HQ can attach 6 units, so keep roughly to that ratio. Make sure your HQs are in supply (take the supply value of the city and count down the movement points from the city square (i.e. supply=10 in a 10 city, 9 one square away, etc.) - your HQ needs to be in a square with a score of 1 or more). Keep your units as in supply as possible (although beware of enemy air units - if your HQs are near the front lines then try to put them on cities/mountains/forests. Reinforce your units frequently to keep readiness at maximum. If a units soft attack value is say 4 but it's readiness is only 25%, it will attack with the same power as a basic corps (i.e. not much ). There are various air tactics, but the simplest is to always use air first as this reduces morale (and hence readiness), thus reducing your casulaties when you ground attack. Ignore Africa for this game. Just defend Tobruk. You might want to try two chits in GLR for the Italians (to help fight off the Brits near Tobruk) and then buy another airfleet for them (don't bother with the HQ - as long as they don't get involved in air battles, Italian air units are just as good as German ones. Just make sure your upgraded Germans fly first and they'll then draw any interceptions. Ignore Leningrad. Just cut it off and leave a corps covering it as it can be a tough nut to crack. Read this post about partisans in Russia: http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=34;t=001961

I've just noticed in 1.05a that German ships with GLR 1 seem to have Soft & Tank values of 1[2] (as well as increased Naval attack & defence, Carrier attack and Strategic attack values). Their Italian colleagues with GLR 1 have the Naval, Carrier and Strategic value increases, but not the Soft & Tank ones. Is this as it should be?

Edit activation_3.txt. Where you see entries like this: ; Event for increased USSR activation: [snip] #ACTIVATION= [3,7] [2] You need to edit the activation variables down. If you reset them to [1,2] that should give you plenty of time. In theory [0,0] is what you want, but there's a chance that might cause problems (that's not based on any knowledge on my part as I've never edited them - I'm just risk averse ). There are other effects (i.e. increases in readiness when you declare war on minors), but they won't be a huge problem. One thing to remember though is you can easily beat the AI as it is, so switching off readiness increases will give you a cake walk game (as Russian industrial output is tied to their readiness level).

Best advice, in the absence of detailed instructions, is to do just what rambo says . Penetrate fast, concentrate on killing his units (most inexperienced players won't retreat far enough back fast enough, so you will be able to hit them before they're reinforced and high readiness). Take any cities on the way. Personally, as a strategic aim I'd go for Stalingrad and Grozny against inexperienced players. Then again, I've never played a Barby scenario . [ March 21, 2007, 02:21 PM: Message edited by: Bromley ]

It might be intentional and it's not really important, but there's something that's been bugging me about the mouth of the Volga. [130,19] looks like a marsh tile with a river in it, but it seems to be a depression. I've seen it before, but I always forget to test it. However, in a recent game, my FSJ could land anywhere along that coast of the Black Sea except for that depression square. This was in 1.05a (haven't tried 1.06), but I first noticed it back in something like 1.02.

tunatamaker. One thing to think about. If your teacher is using the editor to change the scenario, there's a good chance that he'll have seen this thread. Given that, if he's anything like the teachers that I had, he'll just flex the scenario in favour of the other side if he thinks you're "cheating" by getting someone else to tell you exactly what to do. General advice on the basis of what you've posted: a) His scenario looks like it'll have a lot of weak (i.e. strength 5) Soviet units, whereas you'll have fewer, full strength units. So make sure you focus on killing units in the first few turns. Or cutting them off so they can't operate away and you can kill them next go, although given the depth of his defence lines that's probably too difficult to be worth doing - depends how many paratroops he gives you. Order of importance of targets are something like air, tanks, armies, corps (although the important thing is just to kill units). I'll go back to some early advice that I gave and really advise against attacking Leningrad in force. It's too tough a target for the inexperienced. Just send a corps up there to cut it off and make sure he stays put. Use a Finnish corps to link Finland to the rest of your territory by skirting the eastern side of the lake.

Konigs, here are the locations in case you need them - a cut&paste from an earlier thread says, "IIRC they're the city and all the mainland mountain squares other than the northmost 3 and the southmost 2." ; Greek Partisans { #NAME= Greek Partisans #POPUP= Greek Partisans Disrupt Supply #FLAG= 1 #TYPE= 2 #AI= 0 #COUNTRY_ID= 20 #TRIGGER= 10 #PARTISAN_FLAG= 2 #ADD_UNIT= 0 #DISRUPTION_RANGE= 6 #MAP_POSITION= 95,25 #MAP_POSITION= 96,25 #MAP_POSITION= 96,26 #MAP_POSITION= 96,27 #MAP_POSITION= 97,25 #MAP_POSITION= 97,26 #MAP_POSITION= 98,28 #MAP_POSITION= 97,27 #MAP_POSITION= 99,27 }

Sounds like you might be running a previous version? I can't remember when it was added - 1.03?

Observations: 1. Your Romanian air should probably be reinforced. It won't be any good in air battles (actually, it might at first - Soviet air units are probably not upgraded), but it is almost as good as a German air unit for ground attack. 2. You've not surrounded the two southern armies, so they'll be able to operate to safety and reinforce. Unless you're trying to reach a particular goal, it's probably best make sure they're surrounded, even if that means not killing another unit (as long as that unit is surrounded ). 3. You passed up hitting the air unit in the north. That might be a mistake. BTW, don't run up there unless you've spotted it with another unit - it'll initiate a surprise encounter and, as it's an air unit, that'll mean it'll hit you and you won't hit it. 4. Your northern units attacked across a river, which will have reduced their attack power. U-boats don't reduce in supply each turn, so you can hide them somewhere unexpected (i.e. not on a convoy line). Sneak them out for a one/two turn attack and then hide them again, or save them up for a big anti-shipping attack (i.e. versus the US troops when they're heading for Europe).

Not sure that you can. There are a few things to remember (including that the below is not the full picture - just a simple version that should help you in your current situation ): 1. Attack with air units first, as they reduce enemy readiness. 2. Attack before moving where possible, as you get a 25% bonus. 3. However, move first if you'd otherwise be attacking across a river or from a marsh tile. Those situations reduce your attack power by 50%. 4. Move rear units up to switch ownership of rivers, as enemy-held rivers take more movement points to cross. 5. Protect your HQs and even more importantly your air. It's alright to leave an HQ near an enemy unit though if that unit is weak and will be attacking across a river. 6. Cutting off units will reduce their movement points to 50% (usually 1). As any tile which has 2+ of your units adjacent to will take an extra movement point to get to. So you can prevent enemy units from moving. 7. It will be easier to kill the cut-off enemy units next turn as their readiness will be very low. 8. Be aware that any unoccupied tiles adjacent to an enemy city will flip at the end of your turn, possibly allowing enemy units that you thought were surrounded to operate away. Here's a very quick first turn. Probably not a very good one , especially as I should have moved that corps from Warsaw NE rather than E (to prevent any attack against my air unit). I took the view that the HQs would likely take no damage in any attack from the weak armies adjacent to them. Again, that corps should have been placed east of the northern air unit to shield the HQ from that strength 10 unit. That southern HQ moved first, allowing me to attach the unattached army SSE of Warsaw. That northern enemy army (Strength 2) will be able to escape as Riga will flip the tile ownership NE of my panzer. I just decided that it was better to damage the air unit than kill the army. [ March 13, 2007, 03:56 AM: Message edited by: Bromley ]

Re. the email - not what I read in that locked "Who is framing me?" thread. Given the two threads that you posted re: Bio/rambo, it seemed likely that the email was part of that joke. Of course, there's nothing to say that it originated with you; that was just what I assumed. Maybe you, Bio and Rambo are all in on it and I'm the one falling for the joke .

Hey! I have credentials . - Fixed a Properties dialog bug that revealed partially hidden unit research levels under FoW (Bromley) - Fixed a bug that reduced Battleship/Cruiser attacks across river tiles (Bromley) - Fixed a fortification completion error that caused erroneous completion dates (Terif, Bromley) [Plus one other pretty interesting one that wasn't mentioned ] You're probably right. I don't have a problem with the jokes, although whoever set up the false BioWizard email a/c went too far IMO. I interpreted Kuni's post as an attempt to string it out. If I was wrong, I apologise to him.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. From his posts, I doubt that BioWizard did.

Another lock-it-up. Being a gullible sort, I have little patience for people who enjoy fishing. It's a bit too much like bullying.

Well, Bromley, The Man - manages to speak up,</font>

I'll answer for vveedd and say that the Channel Islands were much smaller scale than he's talking about. A quick google shows about 30,000 men (which was more than I'd guessed there were). So either you "zoom" the game in, in which case more supply centres would show and they'd be in supply in the Channel Islands, or you don't and they're too small to show. Personally, I have sympathy for what vveedd is saying. I just don't see it as a big enough problem for Hubert to devote time to.

Slitherine's "Commander - Europe at War".