TaoJah

Does that help ? stationing units near the Spanish border ? I never heard of it ingame, but I think that's a great idea... Nothing that helps your diplomacy as a few armies near your borders, I'd think !

Yes, that French fleet is easy abusable with suicide missions :-( But still, you can defend Norway with 2 ships that can only be attacked from 2 hexes. I donno if it's a good choice. But if he didn't take Denmark, it becomes alot harder of course.

Out of curiosity : why Norway ? Can't that be stopped with the German fleet or would the cost be too high to stop the 35 points going to Britain ?

No, that's not the reason. When I end the game, the US also has thousands of MPPs even though I never destroyed a single American unit because the game is over before D-Day. Must be another reason.

I donno. Say there are some troops and a HQ around a city when the city is "cut off" and surroundered. Do you think that all those troops all of a sudden fall out of supply ? I don't think so... I don't buy this whole encriclement theory, sorry.

Yes, if you are the tech-leader, your intel will negate his intel. But it never lowers the base chance I think. So if the base chance if 5% and you're two advanced ahead of him, his chance becomes 7% (2 bonus because of your tech lead) UNLESS you got more intel then him. If you got 1 INTEL more then him, he'll have 6% chance. If you got 2 INTEL more then him, he'll have 5% chance. If you got 3 INTEL more then him, he'll still have 5% chance, because it only lowers the bonus, not the base percentages.

With Friends you mean Italy and German ? No, they don't have an effect on each other. I suppose the term "friendly" from the manual means "yours".

When calculating the chance of getting a research advance, he takes into account these things : - The normal percentage of succes (5% for level 1, 4% for level 2,...) - Then he checks if your enemie has a higher level in this research field then you. When he does, you get a 1% bonus percentage of success for each level he has higher then you. - That bonus percentage is lowered with 1 % for every level that your enemies INT is higher then yours. So if you're researching level 1 and your enemy already has level 3, you get 5% + 3% chance = 8%. When your enemy has INT level 1 and you have none, you only have 5% + 3% - 1 % = 7 %. When your enemie has INT level 1 and you have INT level 2, you got 5% + 3% + 1% = 9%. But INt has no effect on your research if your enemy has no advantage in a research field. So if he has Infantry 1 and you are researching Infantry 2, your INT does NOT give you a higher % of success. The easiest way to remember this is to call INT "spionage" : you can only learn somthing from an enemy if he knows more then you AND if your spionage netwerk is better then his.

i can't comment ont he bomber thingy (the game never gets to a point where he bombs me), but the defence of capitals is indeed still... shaky. He defends Paris, Stalingrad and Alexandria with a HQ. And yes, if you lure his troops away from their positions around Alexandria, he leaves it undefended :-( I reported the HQ-defence, but it wasn't changed. I didn't notice the Alexandria-thing while testing (probably because I always went to attack Alexandria head on early), but in my lastest two games, he came out of his defence positions around alexandria (probably because I took more time to go to Africa, first taking some minors) and always left Alexandria undefended :-( Will be patched, I guess.

This is not true. You do not get 5% + 5% + 5% if you take chits in three different techs, you get less. In fact you get 1 - ((1-0.05) * (1-0.05) * (1-0.05)) chance, being 1 - (0.95*0.95*0.95) = 1 - 0.857375 = 14.2625 %. You can not just add up the three chances of 5%. If that weems weird to you, look at it this way : you got a 50% chance to throw tails if you flip a coin, right ? Soooo... If you flip it twice, do you have a 100% chance to get a tail ? No, you only got a 75%, because in one out of four throws, you'll throw two heads... This is 1 - ((1-0.5) * (1-0.5)) = 1 - (0.5*0.5) = 1 - 0.25 = 0.75. The way to calculate this is not to add the chances of succes up, but to multiply the chances of failure (and subtract it from 1). 95% in tech advancement, 50% in coin flipping. Please don't ask me to explain it differently, because then I'll have to think about socks in drawers and I HATED those !

If you want ONE tech advancement, it's best to put all three chits in one tech. Then you got a 15% chance that you'll get the tech. If you put the chits in three different techs, you only got a 14,2625 to get a tech. Of course, on the positive side, in that 14,2625 % , there is a 0.7125% chance that you'll get TWO techs and a 0.0125 chance that you got three techs. My math is a bit rusty... Let's see if I can reconstruct this... If you have a 1/20 chance of success (5% to have an advancement) in each of three different experiments (chits in three different techs), then you have 20*20*20 outcomes (8000). Y Y Y N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N - 1 of them (YYY) gives three advancements (1/8000 = 0.0125%) - 57 (19 YYN + 19 YNY + 19 NNY) of them give 2 advancements (57 / 8000 = 0.7125%) - 1083 (19*19 YNN + 19*19 YNY + 19*19 NNY ) give 1 advancement (1083 / 8000 = 13.5375%) - the rest (19N *19 N *19 N) give no advancements (6859 / 8000 = 0.857375%)

The way they explained it to me is this... - Fort with 1 corer : defends against attacks coming from the hex across the corner (1 hex). - Fort with 1 line : defends against attacks coming from the hex across the line AND the two hexes across both corners (3 hexes). - Fort with 2 lines : defends against attacks coming from the two hexed across the line, the hex inbetween AND the two hexes across both side-corners (5 hexes). - Fort with 3 lines : defends against attacks coming from the three hexed across the line, the two hexes inbetween plus the two hexes across both side-corners (7 hexes). - Fort with 4 lines : defends against attacks coming from the four hexed across the line plus the four hexes in between (8 hexes).

The problem with heroes is that they're not real. Their status gets blow out of proportion, usually by people that never saw a real war or that live in a country that was never occupied by foreign forces. Take -for example- that famous picture of soldiers putting up the flag op top of the Bundestag in Germany. Did you know that they had to fake that pîcture because in the original one, one soldier was wearing three watches, a clear indication that he was a thief ? No, thanks, no "heroes" for me...

Well, if you want to attack Turkey,you got to be sure that you can cut it off from Russian reinforcements on the first turn. If you attack the eastern Turkisch city (don't remember the name), you can run with a mobility 2 tank all the way to the north and thus make it impossible for Russia to operate defence troops to Turkey. If you don't do this and you let him operate a Russian HQ and some troops in, you're in for a long fight there ! If you really want, you can abuse this by giving Russia the posibility to operate troops to the capital and then close it, so he can't operate them out again to defend -say- Moscow. That are 5 troops less to worry about, because they'll never leave the Turkish capital. Too cheesy for my taste, just saying.

Yes, if you take Turkey, those cities to 8 (well, at least they SHOULD, I haven't taken Turkey since version 1.0). And the Russian cities should go to 5 then. But that's not really needed to attack Russia from the South. I take 1 HQ, 2 panzers, 2 armies, 2 corps, 1 paratrooper, 3 German planes and 2 Italian planes to attack Russia from the South. I take the two cities north of Turkey (I don't bother with the oil fields) and place my HQ close to them so I get supply. Then I take Stalingrad and win the game.

But isn't that a 40% chance EVERY turn until "succes" ? So you got a 40% chance every turn that Russia annexes the Baltics.

Thanks, but no thanks : I don't do HvH.

No, because when do you stop playing Historically ? Historically, Germany lost, so somewhere you got to start playing a-historically. (well, in a sense, everyone plays it historical to a certain level : some go far with the historically and buy units historical, others -like me- play historically by, euh, starting in Germany) Everyone has fun in other ways : to me, the appeal of this game is to win at the realiest possible date against the AI (since the game doesn't give scores anymore).

1 turn per day isn't much... Or should I say "één beurt per dag is niet veel"

If you do a Sealion, there is a... - 100% chance that US gets 15-20% to Allied - 50% chance that the USSR gets 30-35% to Allied (I was surprised that it's this much and this often, I had the feeling it's less) - 10% chance that Spain gets 30-40% to Axis - 10% chance that Turkey gets 45-55% to Axis So, what happend to you was not exceptional. It's 100 * 50 * (100-10) * (100-10) = 100 * 50 * 90 * 90 = 40.500.000 in 100.000.000. So about 40% of the time, that is what will happen... Personally I don't like these randomness, the influence is simply too great. A 30-40% increase in the USSR is a BIG BIG BIG deal, so basically it's pure random how the game will be played. How the game unfolds has nothing to do with skill, planning or startegy, it's pure randomness.

Nice ideas ! Iraq splitting up is pretty realistic : it's gonne happen (and the sooner it happens, the sooner the violence there ends). I think a part will pretty quick become part of Iran, perhaps in return for their Curd-part joining the Iraq-Curds as one country. More likely then not, the Turkish Curds will try to join too. And yes, the Turkish will be rejected by the EU to join : the only people that want Turkey to join the EU are the US and the UK, because both of them want the EU to be powerless. And a EU with Turkey in it, will be a deeply divided EU that can not do anything, like the UK and the US want the EU to be. Also your idea of the UK splitting up is pretty realistic, except that the split line is a bit different then I imagine. IMHO the EU will split between the UK plus Eastern Europe (who both are holding the rest down) and the rest of Europe who want more integration (including the end of the US-puppy NATO).

By that time, the game is over. If you knock the UK out, you "just" have to take Moscow and Stalingrad and you won... Besides, those 25 Western Allies troops that you're talking about ? With the UK mainland conquered and the entire Italian navy together with the German navy in the Atlantic, D-Day isn't very impressive, I can tell you that !

Woohaa !!! I end the game in 1942 with just the units I started with (plus some Corps for garrison duty) teched up. Just the 2 HQ, 5 armies, 2 tanks, 3 airplanes and 6 corps. Why the heck do you need all those units ???

Well, here is the exact breakdown in the two groups, together with what I do with them on turn one. Group one. ........... 8th army (operate to 75,15) 14th army (operate to 75,16) 10th army (operate to 76,17) Rundstedt HQ (operate to 77,16) XI corps (upgrade to 1,1,1) XII corps (upgrade to 1,1,1) XXIII corps (operate to 78, 14) => attacks Denmark on turn 2. Luftflotte I (move to 82, 14) => attacks Denmark on turn 2. Luftflotte IV (move to 81, 17) => attacks Denmark on turn 2. Luftflotte III (upgrade to 1) => attacks Denmark on turn 2. Group two. .............. XIII Corps (moves to 89,15 just to draw fire) VIII Corps (moves to 86,18 just to draw fire) XVI Tank (moves to 89,15) 4th Army (attacks Polish army on 91,14) 3th Army (attacks Polish army on 91,14) XIX Tank (attacks Polish army on 91,14) II Corps (attacks Polish army on 91,14) And I never buy any extra troops (except some Corps to garrison things) : these are the only troops I use in the entire game. I put all my money in research (5 chits in Advanced infantry, 3 in Mobility, 5 in Advanced tanks) and constantly keep all troops at Strength 8 or more. For Sealion, I use the three planes to attack London (plus the Italian plane), I amphiby only the 3 armies from Brussels (defended by all three subs and the two cruisers) and land with the paratroopers in London. Next turn I move in the HQ and go to Manchester.

The minors are all fun and nice, but knocking the UK out is ALOT more rewarding IMHO... What I do this is this... One group (the two armies with no movement upgrade, one other army, a HQ, the three planes and the two corps in west Germany (that youy upgrade in turn one), goes to Benelux on turn one and takes it in turn two, then goes to France. This group does a Sealion and takes London and Manchester. The rest of your troops (a HQ, two armies, both tanks and the rest of the corps) stay in Poland and take it. As soon as Italy joins the war, you move that entire group (minus three corps to man Poland) to Italy, move it to Africa and take Egypt. This makes the UK surrender. From there on : the first group goes from the UK to the north of Poland and invades Russie there. The second group goes to the northeast, through Syria and invades Russia from the South. In the mean time you can pick up a few minors (Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Iraq, Iran), but the plan is to stay focussed on knocking out the UK somewhere in the winter of 1940 (there is no winter in the African desert). IMHO this has these advantages - you get more MPP from the UK and some minors then you get from just all the minors. - your Italian fleet can go to the Atlantic (you get Gibraltar when tht UK surrenders). - the US can't do a proper Sealion without the UK-mainland to start it from. - you can attack Russia from two sides : from the north and from the south. - Once you take Moscow and Stalingrad, the war is over and you won the game !!! [ November 24, 2006, 11:03 AM: Message edited by: TaoJah ]