I/O Error

You see he's actually an Orc on loan from Warcraft III. Poor bastard has to file his tusks every day to pass inspection, just ain't right.

At this point partisans are ABSOLUTELY worthless. It takes a compeltely incompetent human player to really have serious problems with partisans. (Errr, that's not a dig at you ev, you know what I mean) Remember, partisans did a LOT of work against lines of communication and supply; that was the entire point of partisans! And none of that is modeled in the game. I'd like to see Russian or Yugoslav partisans drain the supplies of advancing Germans in Russia until they are killed off, something like that. Or an MPP drain just by existing, similar to U-Boats.

Personally I am VERY pleased with the results. At least for this election, I voted straight ticket Republican. (Domestically there is no way I'm accepting an income tax in my state of New Hampshire, and on the foreign I don't trust the Democrats) So all you Democratic supporters can go hang your heads in shame now, because SOME of us are very happy right now.

ev - I would say that I agree with you, but if the gamble IS successful you're looking at one HELL of a game decider. Personally I'm far too defensive minded, but this is a perfect strategy for the more aggressive players out there. I mean, most "uber-special plans" we see put forth tend to rely too much on luck, player skill and the enemy being clueless. This one only relies on luck, that's a lot better than most master strokes can say for themselves.

The latest version is 1.05, the TCP/IP patch. There was no updated PDF file. It's still the same ol' manual as before. Henri, I recommend you read the updated "SC version Changes.txt" file, that will bring this pointless discussion to an end rather quickly. (Far as I'm concerned, this sort of thing proves what Norse was saying, post count and member number mean NOTHING.)

Sorry, no. Your options are limited to TCP/IP (play via direct connection over the web) and PBEM (play by e-mail) Remember though, you will need to have the newest patch of the game installed. A server setup like Gamespy wouldn't make any sense, since Strategic Command is a two player only game. And nobody would just start up a game and hope that someone joined it in a timely fashion. If you want to find some people to play with, either ask here or better yet in the Opponent Finder forum.

You're a n00b to the game, your member number is unimportant. Fleet disbanding works just fine, unless they're taking that out in some (so far unannounced) future patch. Where the hell are you getting this idea that naval disbanding was taken out? :confused: And l33t is more or less a tortured derivative of the word "elite". Pronounced "leet". [ November 03, 2002, 05:50 PM: Message edited by: I/O Error ]

Hmmm... I like that, but wouldn't that only be possible for starting units? Also we don't use units as small as a division, and I don't know (speaking from ignorance) whether or not Corps and Army sized units were ever given nicknames like that.

Oi! What's with this deal of Molotov stuttering all the time and fawning over Stalin?! Unless I'm totally mistaken, the guy was a ROCK. I also feel that any kind of "raid" or early invasion on Brest would have been... most unlikely. However, cracking good read as usual! (Remember man, you asked me earlier to critique. )

Excellent material as usual, Carl.

Is anyone else confused? Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand how surrounding a city will change anything. (I've also never seen an Axis player GET to Moscow.

Let's try the not-so-friendly approach. So... after one turn of paying the paltry sum needed to reinforce to full strength, Germany possesses a real long range strategic bombing capability? Not QUITE supported by history in any way shape or form, let's just put it that way! The manual describes Air Fleets in this way: "In general, Air Fleets are normally made up of fighter, tactical bomber and transport wings all of which together comprised the normal day to day air operations throughout the war." Seems to me that Air Fleets is all the Germans should have at the beginning of the game, both from the standpoint of game balance AND that of history. Joy. So we're supposed to believe that the German went from Type IX boats to Type XXI boats with merely one added level of research? There is a fine line between trying to fix a problem in the game and absolutely screwing up reality and making the situation worse. You're toeing it. Ummm... I do pretty well against the AI and likewise when I'm playing Allies against other humans. (Or if I'm playing the Axis against humans, Russia eventually builds up their research programmes.) You are definitely overcompensating. The entire POINT of the Eastern Front is a period of rapid gains by the Germans, only eventually overturned by the Soviets. The Soviets are quite simply NOT supposed to have that much research potential at the beginning! Allied players are supposed to dread those first scrabble and claw years when playing at the Soviets. Many of your other suggestions are quite good, these are not. (IMHO) [ October 31, 2002, 03:44 AM: Message edited by: I/O Error ]

He really is biased towards graphics, but at least he's honest enough to admit that and discount graphical problems from his final score.

I agree completely. The idea of just strengthening your critical areas and not using a "defensive line" will just mean that German Panzers can surround you at will. With a line you can't be attacked by more than two units plus aircraft. With a concentration on cities, several units can all be attacked by three units plus aircraft every turn. (That and if you surround the city with defense, it's impossible to place units.)

I disagree quite strongly with the addition of four tech points to the USSR, I do not think that representative of history at all. Another point in industrial tech, maybe. But four points that can be thrown in anyplace, that just doesn't make much sense. I don't know about the Luftwaffe Heavy Bombers, what they called Heavy Bombers at that time really weren't. The other changes seem good!

Oh absolutely. Bleedin' Poles, worthless for anything anyway. At least a Prole can do an honest day's fighting! (actually, I didn't think I did too badly in Poland, considering.)

Proles, not Poles. (You know, like "plebians", or peasants)

The real trick is this: 1.) Fall back from the original positions ASAP, bringing whatever tattered remnants remain. 2.) Invest in Industrial Technology HEAVILY, at least as soon as you are able to. 3.) Keep pumping out Armies and Corps to stiffen your defensive line. I'm talking three or four lines of defense here, not just one! 4.) Counter-Attacking is usually a bad idea. You might wax a unit or two, but you WILL have left yourself open to further attacks in a weakened state. (Remember: in history, how were those early Soviet armies surrounded and slaughtered? That's right, they overextended and weakened themselves, and the Germans took their offensive tactics and shoved 'em RIGHT UP their ass. 5.) Do NOT worry about offensive units, not for a while. That's the major mistake most USSR players make, is trying to switch from Defensive tactics to Offensive too soon. Besides, tanks are simply too expensive and too inefficient to make good defensive units, which is what you need. Remember, time is on your side. All you need to do is outproduce the Axis players, and after a year or two you will have an OBSCENE amount of troops to play with, numbers the Axis can't match.

That happened to me once! I just SAT there, jaw agape as French armies marched in to the Low Countries. Ya know what's cool though? When you "liberate" that place, the ports and cities go up to 10 strength, not the usual 8 when you are the original aggressor. Very nice. My biggest blunder... *thinks* Christ, there's been so many. Probably my general failing at handling the RN. In the game above that Carl is talking about, the RN is mostly gutted. Italy owns the entire Med and even the North Sea fleet has suffered some pretty damn substantial losses.

*cough* "The historical dialectic as propounded by Marx and Lenin, and refined by the Great Comrade Stalin, has proven it's inevitable truth! Even now the Hitlerite invaders have been stopped and our armies prepare for the drive onto Berlin. Know that the Glorious Red Army of Workers and Peasants stands ready to defend the Rodina, Comrade General!"

The Swedish people will NEVER SURRENDER! I'm still somewhat proud of that little mini-campaign, despite my losses.

Oh, no question at all. I was able to retreat all of my units and form an excellent defensive line, so it's no shock whatsoever that you are having problems. I started up a quick 5 minute game against the AI last night to retest, and as expected I have ten times as many problems when they declare war on me first. Being able to hold onto those starting armies and air fleets is a real winner. I would have been one unhappy little commie had you been able to declare war first, no question. [ October 28, 2002, 08:10 PM: Message edited by: I/O Error ]

Oh yes, Carl's moves deserve some recognition. He almost fed me my own rifle on TWO occasions in Russia, but I got lucky both times. First: He moved a large collection of troops into Finland, and advanced on the heels of the Finnish troops. (don't ask me why I didn't expect this) Fortunately I spotted his panzer unit just before he attacked, so I swarmed up some tank units and Armies. I'm slightly advanced into Finland, but nobody's doing much. I've got too many guys for him to kill off and breakthrough, and my troops are too much CRAP peasant "soldiers" to engage with any great success. Second: He attempted a FULL SCALE amphib invasion of the entire coastline between East Prussia and Leningrad, including all of the annexed Baltic states. By blind stupid luck I spotted one of his transports on the coast, and so I swarmed (can the Red Army do anything else BUT swarm at this point?! ) loads of Corps units up north to just sit on the beachheads so he couldn't land. And I'm quite proud, I did that (barely) without weakening my main defensive line, which was the entire point of such a landing anyway. Who knows what the future holds! I do know he ain't getting nowheres in Russia (yet), and that's a fact. It's mid 1941 Comrade, where are the bold gains to show for it?! (Like I've said before, I have no humility and a lot of false bravado. )

Although my prejudices tend to idolize the mission-oriented nature of the Waffen SS, I don't think such distinctions would make too much sense in a game of such scale. I mean, the smallest ground unit we see is an entire Army CORPS, three whole divisions with all their support equipment and logisitical train. (or more!) I suppose you could make SS units in a mod by giving them a point of added experience or something, but that's about as close as we can get. You can't assign them special equipment, for instance, beause technology advances are global.