Wolfpack

To your PS...no. As for the first, it's not an official feature, but you can play that way I suppose. German player does his buys, moves his stuff, saves game. Sends e-mail with save to Italian player, who does the same, but ends turn. Send that file to the first Allied player, wash rinse repeat. Now if I just had the full version we could try it out. Wouldn't be that much fun to be the French, US, or Russian player in this one.

If you really want to stay awake, try to find Mini-Thins...strange name, and I've only seen them in gas stations, but I got some for finals one year. I opened the package and saw these little things about the size of a grain of rice. "What the hell, that won't do anything." I said as I popped about 5 of them. wow...I was awake for the next three days. I felt like I was having crack withdrawls or something. Probably looked like it too. I was shaking and twitching a lot. Kept me up though.

Sleep....BAH! Sleep is not important! I must prove myself so they'll send me an e-mail begging me to beta test the full game. I can stay awake all week...all month...all...zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Of course, it wouldn't be "Vichy" England in the sense that it would become neutral, they'd carry on the fight, and lose their North African possessions. But they'd remain in the war.

I agree with the carrier idea, but for the other, it could be that while air power may not be able to completely destroy a unit, it can cause it to completely lose all cohesion or render it completely combat ineffective, which, in this game would equal destruction. Edit - Of course, if a carrier is attacking another carrier, then of course, it could be destroyed while attacking. Edit 2 - Me can not form sentences complete [ May 27, 2002, 04:18 PM: Message edited by: Wolfpack ]

Definitely not any land or air units. No way they would be able to get across the Atlantic IMHO. I'm pretty sure most would fight to the last regardless.

Am I the only one that thinks that taking England shouldn't cause them to surrender? Granted, it's nice to see that fleet disappear, but shouldn't they retreat to Canada and continue the fight? It's not like all of the RN would just give up (especially since most of the times I've taken out England, they're still cruising around at nearly full strength.) I don't think it would unbalance the game to have them fall back, and would actually make it more interesting, since the Allies would have a decent head start toward the liberation, and Germany would be forced to leave a decent sized garrison force to defend. On a completely different note, and I think someone has already asked for this, would it be possible to add control shading to the jump map in the corner? It's just so bland and pretty much useless as is. It would be nice to be able to look up and see an overall picture of the progress of my armies there.

444 with the Germans and 141 with the Italians without having Romania, Bulgaria, or Hungary join up. Took out Low countries, then the Baltic, France, Spain, Yugoslavia, Sweden, Greece, Spain, Vichy, Alexandria, Gibralter, was almost through with Finland, and was preparing to head into Iraq. The Brits took the coastal city in Norway when I wasn't looking, and I didn't have time to get it back. Edit - Did it again, and while failing to get Spain or Greece, I did take Finland, Hungary, and Romania. Total 541 Germany 115 Italy [ May 27, 2002, 03:10 PM: Message edited by: Wolfpack ]

Actually the AI is implemented to play blind like you under FoW. One special rule is for sub hunting as you've encountered. Sub hunting (by Allied ships) is based on a small percentage chance that raiding activity has been accurately reported by the affected convoys to the capital ships. Even if they proceed to the area, it will still be at their disadvantage as they are surprised by your advantange as the Allied hunter usually suffers big losses under the first surprise encounter. If there are other Allied ships in the area, they now know your immediate position and attack en masse.... this may explain why you've felt that they know exactly where you are, where it is rather a process of hunt and discovery and hunt somemore. Hope that helps, Hubert</font>

Nope...I've had units that were in England disappear, so I don't think it's that...may be just a random thing.

Only reason I've played with it off is to see exactly what the AI is doing, and what's happening as I play. Like when I took out England, I wanted to see if the RN disappeared too (It does, which I think is a bit unrealistic, they should be sent to Canada IMHO. I doubt they would have just thrown up their hands and surrendered if England fell). Gives me a better idea of how the AI is doing, although it is impossible to use subs with it off, since the AI will mass a lot of ships to take them out since it knows where they are.

Valid arguement, but if Germany had done better (Taking out Russia, or knocking them beyond the Urals) Then I think that it could have gone on a lot longer before the manpower reserves were exhausted. With all of Europe under their control, there were men to be found, and I doubt the British and Americans would have just given up. America had plenty of manpower reserves, and would likely (Probably unsuccessfully) have tried to liberate Europe. I agree with R_Leete, 1948 would be plenty long enough, if there's no decision by then there probably won't be one.

I don't think you need a completely open timeline, but '46 may be cutting it a bit too close. Based on the demo games I've been playing PBEM, I don't think that'll be long enough. If the Germans can do well enough at the start, then they can definitely be competative past '46. And I know the next argument will be, "But the US would have just nuked them if it went later." Probably, but who's to say if the Germans had done well enough, that they wouldn't have been able to get their intercontinental missles and bombers into production? Or developed Nukes of their own? Like the poster above mentioned, if you're going to play "What if" you have to play it from all sides, not just the most convenient one. Now, if this is an issue with the code that can't be changed, I understand, but if it's something that can be changed without too terribly much hassle, then I think it needs to be changed.

Generally, I turn on FOW, with hexgrid, other options depend which side I'm playing. If Germany, I turn on all the options that hamper me (Partisans, free french, etc.) if the Allies, I turn those off and turn on War in Siberia. I usually set it intermediate and +1 or +2 depending on how lucky I feel.

I haven't really noticed a "bad" AI. It does a good job of shielding it's units from being destroyed, and masses it's attacks pretty well. It's not as aggressive as I'd like as the Germans and Italians, but that may change. It also has problems with using it's navy at all. Those things can and probably will be corrected before it gets out of the beta stage. On the plus side, I've had the AI flank my lines and move to take cities in my rear when playing as the Allies in France, where most games AI would just mindlessly throw units at my fortified cities. Besides, this game was set up I believe Hubert has said, to be balanced from a PBEM perspective, so obviously, it is going to be better played that way.

I accidentally opened SC twice when it lagged a bit, the first opened at 1024x786 and then the second opened also at default res. When i closed the second one, the first had switched to my normal desktop resoloution of 1152x864. It ran fine but all of the text options (End turn box, save PBEM box, ect) were screwed up. Not really a problem, although now that I know you can open two of them, I'll have something to do while I'm waiting for PBEM turns.

What? You got sleep in Basic? Our SGTs told us it was army policy to not allow sleep for 3 months! Said it would build character or something.

Sorry man, all I can get in before my mandatory 2 hours of sleep a night before work...us old folks have to keep our strength up.

Read my thread "America in trouble?" Lord, I have been averaging at least 10-12 games a night, and the first night I probably played at least 20. Just when I think I've tried every strategy I can in the time limit, I think of something new. When I hit that last turn, it never fails to happen exactly one turn before something big was about to go down. Early summer...hey, I'm in Texas, it's already early summer here...where's my game!?

Very interesting strategy, I admit I've never actually tried this one but I'm glad you've been able to point it out. Expect some adjustments for the final release Hubert</font>

I just tried out something after getting irritated by the Americans joining when I tried Sea Lion in my last game. So I conquer France and spend my loot on 2 air fleets and 3 tanks. I walked over the french after they pulled out of the northern line and gave me a clear shot to Paris, so I didn't spend a whole lot of money. I sent a small force (2 Italian armies, a German HQ, 2 corps, and 2 German armored units) to the Southeast to attack Yugoslavia and Greece, I massed 2 armored units, a HQ, and 2 armies on the west coast of France. As soon as I made sure everyone was up to full strength, I embarked them and made the trip to America using a southern loop to avoid the RN who was out hunting my sub. I got to the US coast, declared war, and unloaded all my units which immediately gained me quite a bit of extra MPPs. The invasion of the US went thusly: Turn 1 - Axis I unloaded one army on the mine north of Boston (1,17), an armored unit on the hex north of NY(2,18), another armor unit in the hex south of NY(2,20), my HQ in the hext to the SW of that(1,20), and my final army just south of Portsmouth(1,22). The northermost army moves into the mine at (0,18) and attacks Boston. The armored unit above Boston also attacks Boston and kills the unit there. I immediately operationally move two air fleets to the hexes I've captured in the north (1,17 and 0,17). The armored unit south of NY attacks the plane in Philadelphia and nearly knocks it out (Down to 2). The HQ does nothing and the southern army moves into the oil well to the NW (0,22). Losses are light, the first army that attacked Boston lost 3 points and the armored unit that killed the Boston garrison lost 1. Unfortunately I was unable to move into Boston this turn, but I am still up 30 MPPs. Turn 1 - US The unit in NY attacks the armored unit to the NW and does 2 damage while also sustaining 2. One US battleship turns tail and runs away to God knows where, while the second (Massachusets) moves north and bombards my air fleet causing 2 damage. The army in Washington and the army in Portsmouth attack my HQ unit and drop it to 3. There are no reinforcements because the US enters the war with 0 MPPs. Turn 2 - Axis My northern Army moves into the oil well to the south (0,19) and finishes off the air fleet in Portsmouth. After two air attacks on NY which bring his strength down to 4, the armored unit above NY moves into Boston and attacks NY dropping his army to 2, and the armored unit to the south of NY moves into Philadelphia and also attacks NY destroying the army there. Once again, I am unable to move in and take it, but he cannot reinforce it so I'm happy. I now bring two more air fleets over to help deal with the BB and Washington. Once again, my HQ remains in place as I receive replacements bringing it up to a strength of 8. The southern army moves up and I foolishly attack Washington which does 2 damage, but I am dropped to 4 in return. Turn 2 - US The army in Washington gets replacements while the army in Portsmouth comes out to try and knock out my southern army. They do no damage and take 2 themselves. The US BB once again bombards my air fleet bringing it down to 5. Because I control the land around the remaining US cities, they can build no units. Turn 3 - Axis Instead of wasting my air power on the ship, I turn the entire force on Washington and get it down to 1. This allows me to move an armored unit up to finish him off and my southern army is able to move in unopposed. US surrender. Now, as much fun as it would be to spring a surprise on a human like that, it's just not very realistic or enjoyable for them, although I'm sure a human would do a better job, they're hamstrung by the lack of space and quick loss of a lot of MPP sites. I know the map isn't going to receive any further modifications, but this strategy just should not work with a relatively weak force like this. Four possible solutions I can see would be: 1. Add another unit to defend the mines in the north, perhaps just a corps. 2. Prevent operational movement of air assets into a newly captured hex. This was really the deciding factor in my little blitz, being able to shuttle in fighters to places I captured that round let me mass a lot of air power immediately. Even a one turn delay in being able to do this could have had serious consequences on my attack. 3. Give the US their full allotment of MPPs on the turn that the Axis declares war on them. This would have at least let him reinforce his armies and again, set my invasion back a lot. 4. Give the Allies intelligence on German units within a certain range of the US shores. I would find this to be the most historical, but least desirable. Historical since the USN was passing exactly that kind of information to the UK while still neutral, but not as good because we already know how hard it is to hide subs, this would only make it more difficult. I don't know if any of these are possible within the game parameters, but something should really be done because as it is, with the small size of the US landmass, once the Germans get a force across undetected close to the US shores, it's just about over unless the Germans just have bad luck.

Well, I for one wasn't speaking about D-E-N-M-A-R-K I was talking about North G-E-R-M-A-N-Y. You know, the country just to the south that started the whole mess? Of course, since it's all gray when the game starts, then that's all that matters. Are you a Dane by chance?

How do you figure there's too much FOW? Because you can't see what's going on in Europe when you're playing the Brits? Or in England from the German side? I prefer that to a point...even though I just (within the last minute) got surprised by Sea Lion in my PBEM game. Still, I'd rather not know anything than be able to see everything. It helps me as much as it hurts me...as my opponent may soon find out.

What were the computer aid bonuses in that game? With it on default diff and +1 exp to the computer, I managed to lose France, but take Norway, Sweden, and begin an invasion of Germany in the North while they were occupied in the Balkans and Greece. I managed to take out 2 of their air fleets which they had unwisely positioned near the coast, and could possibly have done some real damage to them if the demo hadn't ended. BTW...what is the date for the last turn? I always forget to check, so I never get MPP figures.

hehe...pretty easy when you're playing both sides huh?