Bromley

Likewise, I'm having exactly the same trouble. Any ideas?

That must be hard .

More question-spam from me. I pulled off a blinder in a MP game. I had mud on the first turn of my Benelux/France assault. So I took Benelux and lined everyone up just SW of Brussels to push on to the Paris line in my second turn. The Paris line moved up to meet me. On balance a mistake because it allowed my upgraded panzers to hit for 6 damage, but I can see why he did it as he nearly killed an army in the Ardennes. The second turn of the invasion started with the death from just one attack of a French army (str 6). The panzer used the three remaining movement points to slip around the line and get adjacent to Paris. This was only possible because I had not spotted the DCR in Paris, but hey, we all know it's there. The panzer took 5 damage in the surprise encounter, reducing it to 5, but the DCR went from 10 to 4. Throw in a few air attacks and another panzer, and there was just enough room for my FSJ to land in Paris. I had a look in the manual, but I couldn't find the surprise encounter rule. I know that it worked well for me in this case (as he was attacking I avoided the effect of his level 6 entrenchment), but what is the rule? Could/should it have gone horribly wrong for me and was I exceptionally lucky? Does it generate an attack by the surprising unit (I think yes) or the surprised unit?

Gut feeling = before. No point in diverting resources that should be in Russia or the Middle East. But the activation hit with the US is 16-30% (inc. Vichy declaration). What's that? Something like up to 50 MMP/turn for the US? Could be painful .

Thanks guys. I just did a quick hotseat. Something that might not be immediately apparent to people that haven't used fortifications much is that your ships can no longer pass through the canal when a fortification has been built. Also, I was mixed up when I said "to punish any naval bombardment". Unlike fortresses, fortifications have no Naval Defence figure. As your ground unit doesn't either, there's no risk to the enemy ships (i.e. free training). The facing might help keep the losses down though, so worth considering (especially if the extra 10 days necessary will happen anyway before your next turn start date).

Having now seen the destruction that even early game Allied access to the Baltic can do, I accept that I have to guard the canals in/near Denmark before D-Day. I was wondering about facings. I assume that you want them facing all sea squares to punish any naval bombardment, but do facings matter for air attacks? I'd have thought not, but you never know. (This mainly relates to the Danish canal fort, as the Kiel one faces the UK already).

I'm still getting used to this, but it occurs to me that you might be better off placing two chits in Romania rather than one in Romania, one in Hungary. Hungary will definitely join some time after Barbarossa: Start:80% + France:(3%-5%) + Declaration on USSR:(7%-10%). So that's 90% minimum, at which point I believe the activation level rises each turn. Romania will not necessarily join. It gets the same 10-15% increases, but starts at 75%. So it needs at least one diplo chit (7-10%) to guarantee >90%. By investing that second chit in Romania, you speed up the joining of Romania after Barbarossa, which as it has 50 MMP/turn and an air unit is good news. What do you guys think? Or do you invest more than 150 MMPs in the Balkans?

I didn't want to hijack the Jolly/Tao AAR, but I saw a couple of posts about Leningrad being a good target for the Axis. I often skip Leningrad, or at least leave it until later, depending on where the Russian defence lines in the centre and south are and my momentum on those fronts. I link Finland via the east side of the lake, so that's not an issue. Is it usually worth the struggle to get into Leningrad? Is the idea that your supply needs time to build in the centre/south, so you might as well take out Leningrad whilst you're waiting?

The biggest problem is that not everyone plays the game on the same machine every turn. How do you deal with the situation where a player is using two different installs of the game (one at home, one in the office)? The only sure-fire solution that I can think of (and I may well be wrong here) is for a Battlefront hosted server that games are uploaded/downloaded to/from from within the application. That way the server can verify how many times a file has been accessed and the issue of which install accessed it disappears. Anyone know what the odds of a BF server being available for this sort of thing? Files would only have to be kept on it until accessed (to keep size down, unaccessed files could be deleted after X weeks), so storage costs would (I assume) be almost zero. I've no idea about transfer/bandwidth costs or, perhaps more importantly, maintenance costs. A spin-off idea would be the ability to use a third party server for this sort of thing, i.e. Panzerliga (if they'd do it). EDIT: A related subject - the ability to replay the replay! [ January 09, 2007, 02:43 AM: Message edited by: Bromley ]

Just to clarify, you can do it at any time as long as the unit that you're trying to attach/detach has not moved. i.e. you can move the HQ, which might let you attach units that were not in range at the start of the turn. Also, the effect (AFAIK) is immediate. Certainly the Readiness stat as displayed of the units in question changes. You should probably use Auto-Assist rather than Manual as Auto-Assist means any unused slots get allocated at the [not sure if it's the end of your turn, the start of his or the end of his]. Whichever way, it's pretty useful, especially if like me you forget to check your HQ attachments every turn.

Thanks! I'm in the third league . That's the sort of continuity that I was looking for. Although it seems wierd that you're in the second league. I see why it's happening, but it doesn't seem right. Not important though. It's still the easiest place for me to find opponents.

I was a bit disappointed to see that the league resets every 6 months. I suppose they have the rank system, but it just doesn't give me the continuity that I like. Still, the best league in town, IMO. Useful paths for people new to the site: 1. Course/Strategic Command 2 Hints and tips on SC2 MP games from Terif. 2. Leagues/Single/Strategic Command 2 The current 6 month league, with a link to previous seasons' leagues. 3. Leagues/Find Opponents A couple of weeks into a league it's probably easiest to pick opponents by reviewing the league for people who match your needs - there's a very cool PBEM/online and English/German icon by each name which helps.

Nice :> . It looked to me like you could prevent any amphib moves into the fortifications because of your unit spacings, but I can see how having the line one back gives you flexibility.

Terif, thanks for the screenies. I've a couple of questions about your France defences. Why do you build in line with Paris rather than the line NW of Paris? Something to do with airfleet ranges from the UK? Also, I know you don't advocate building on the coast (free naval training), but is it worth the extra build times/garrison costs to build the kink near Bordeaux?

An option might be to give them an HQ with starting strength of 1 and reduce the starting strengths of their fleet units. Then they have to make a choice as to what they want. Any attempt to send a 1 strength HQ into NA is likely to end in failure.

Technically, the American Revolution was not starting a war as such. It was an insurrection. There must be loads of examples of those where the (if successful) locals are better off afterwards. IMO, in terms of world stability, the American Revolution was a disaster. A single democratic superpower in the 1900s might have been able to prevent a lot of the problems we've had since. Or not .

Nice hint on the Zukov Siberian transfer. I'd never have guessed.

Once again, thanks Terif for the info. I found out about the HQ strength/effectiveness after someone demonstrated it to my Allied desert forces. So I've started reinforcing Gamelin now, although perhaps he has little effect on the outcome.

Readiness of the defending unit is used to calculate how much damage they take when attacked. HQs don't have a visible readiness stat (their Rating is displayed instead), which would lead me to believe that they always have a default of 100%. However, I'm pretty sure I've seen their Strength number grey out after a few attacks, indicating that they might have hidden morale/readiness stats. Anyone know the answer?

Thanks guys. TaoJah. I'm still pretty new to engineers, having only used the Russian freebie before, but with the reduction in price I can see a few uses for them: Russia. No change here as the Russians can't buy an engineer, so have to wait for the freebie. Forward defence near Kharkov (or pos Moscow/Leningrad), otherwise standard Stalingrad. I was wondering if it's worth doing the Caucuses, but as the fortifications override mountains it'll almost never be worth it. UK. Might be worth completing the defensive line in the desert. Or trying to entice the Axis into a Sealion having fortified Manchester. US. Can't see why they'd ever use one. Axis. Whether you get the Germans to buy one or the Italians, possibilies seem to be Rome, canals/straits (Kiel, Denmark, Sicily), France (Terif says not actually on the beach though, as that's just target practice for the RN). I suspect that engineers for the Axis are more important if you take the aggressive route vs. Minors, as you'll need to defend against D-Day sooner. As always, this is for MP games. I've never tried it, but I suspect fortifying the border with Russia before Barbarossa would not be a winning strategy. Maybe in the later game if you see Barbarossa going pear-shaped, but planning on doing it earlier is probably a waste of MMPs that might turn the tide. [ December 29, 2006, 08:48 AM: Message edited by: Bromley ]

Rivers affect the attack strength of the attacking unit, whereas fortifications/terrain affect the defending part of that equation, so yes (AFAIK) they do both count. If you're right about the override, then that means that fortifying a mountain actually reduces the defensive bonuses (although as it allows you an immediate entrenchment of 3, it might still be worth it).

I was wondering if anyone knows how terrain bonuses and fortifications interact? Rivers are an easy one as they give an attack based modifier. But how does a fort on a mountain work? A mountain gives soft 2, hard 4 whereas a fortification gives soft 1, hard 3. Are they added together [3,7], is the best stat taken [2,4], does the fortification have no effect [2,4] or does the fortification overide the mountain [1,3]? Although the second and third options there look like they generate the same result, they wouldn't if the tile was marsh, where the equivalent stats would be [2,3] and [2,2]. The answer to that first question will likely also cover my follow-up question about air penalties in fortified marsh tiles.

Nice idea! Does that make D-Day much tougher? Or is the idea to get enough plunder and MMPs early so as to hurt the USSR so much that it doesn't matter? Do you get a decent amount of plunder from Spain because of it's starting units? I don't know how it's calculated, but I think initial unit strength feeds into it. Anything I'm missing (or just lain got wrong) on the pros & cons? Pros: * Training * No operation for that training * Unlikely to get bogged down and don't have to transport as well as operate to get into place for Barby * 40MMPs/turn * XXX plunder * Gibralter -> Med & S. Atlantic pretty safe * Algeria Cons: * Is Egypt possible before Barby? UK 20 MMPs/turn * 20-30% US activation (something like US 40-60 MMPs/turn) * US tranfers Pacific fleet

I'm not an expert, but with 1.04 the Axis always got Spain, so I'd save the Italians until GLR1 and then smash the British Med fleet. By that time Spain joined and Gibralter fell, so the Italians could police the Atlantic coast. Now in 1.05a it seems to me that the Italian fleet is going to be less useful, as Spain is harder to get onboard. If you take Egypt, you could send some/all of the fleet via the Cape to suppliment your German fleet builds guarding western France.

Terif. The thing I'm not sure about is whether it's the supply level at the beginning of the turn or the supply level if it were recalculated at the moment of death. From what you said I'd assume that it's the supply level at the beginning of the turn. So bombing a surrounded city to 3 and then killing the defending unit would allow a rebuild, whereas bombing the city to 3 and waiting until next turn will kill the unit permanently. If so, that's a lot of wasted effort in my games to date .