Desert Dave

There are depression tiles. There will be the Quattara Depression faithfully replicated. As with some other areas on the screenshots, you are not looking at the fully realized map. As for room to mech-maneuver and blitz and surround in the heated sands of North Afrika? There are 5 tiles from fortress Tobruk to the bottom of the game board. You and Les the Sarge among many others who really like this theatre of the war, are going to have a great old time re-enacting the exciting Desert campaign. So am I.

That would be problematical for another reason. Naval units that stray... more than ONE tile away from a port, such as Scapa Flow in your example, will have an increased possibility of suffering weather damage from rough Seas during those mud and snow seasons. That could very well be... what? October through March or April? Of course, this is in addition to the supplies expended by extensive naval maneuvers distant from a port, as was the case with Original SC... where readiness would go down the longer you were at Sea. Subs would also risk wear & tear, though on a lesser scale, since they can run submerged. They can avoid some of the immediate brunt of the Storms and crashing wave action. So. It remains the case that you are playing the Cat & Mouse game, even with naval sorties that are intent on interceptions. :cool:

Sorry if my original explanation was vague or unclear. Even if you ONLY stationed a ground unit on Malta, you would still get that 10 % base chance for reducing the efficiency of Italian resources in Libya. This is posited as British submarine activity, interdiction by small patrolling craft which would include some destroyers, and also a (... less than full fleet) squadron of torpedo planes. As with much else in a "Grand Strategic" game, some tactical things are presumed and imagined, such as Artillery attachments to Infantry units. If the Afrika Korps is achieving certain success and bearing down on Alexandria, as Rommel was able to do historically, THEN you might want to switch to an Air Fleet instead of your ground unit. That way, the percentage chance of successfully interdicting would go UP... 1% for each AF factor that isn't otherwise engaged that turn. And, if that is a veteran Battle of Britain Spitfire group, then it may be quite experienced, say level 14. Then you would have: Base 10% no matter what unit is in Malta + 14% for the AF = 24% random CHANCE that the "Malta Effect" will come into play.

In SC2-Blitzkrieg! resources CAN be bombed no matter what you put there. Not only that, but some consideration is being given to having each resource factor that is reduced, say, from size 8 to 5... somehow costing more to repair. So that the amount you spend buying your Strat Bombers will be commensurate with the damage inflicted, though, not exactly so, since Allied bombers also concentrated on other intangible factors, such as reducing home-front morale... which is not a part of SC2. This will require that either Axis or Allied player give much more attention to researching Anti-Air Radar... yet another way in which you are provided CHOICES so that there can no longer remotely be ANY such thing as "cookie cutter" games. Safe to say that the new strategic bombing will be much more in line with historical actuality... you can trust that Hubert will improve this important area, just as with so many others. :cool:

The Axis player wishing to re-create Fortress Europa is going to have a whole new set of daunting challenges, and severe limitations, to include: 1) Build limits: since you can no longer build as many corps as you want, it is going to truly difficult to cover every invasion site, and not only in France. 2) Build delays: no longer can you simply and immediately place 3 or 4 corps when you first notice that the invasion is under way. Now you have to... anticipate! 3) Op Moves: the Allied player will likely bomb the French cities to the extent that they will be less than size 5. Now you will not be able to op-move units directly from the Eastern Front and place them where they are most needed. They'll have to arrive at or near the closest city and march to the invasion site. 4) Fortifications: you CAN build fortifications all around the coast of France, but what good is that if there aren't enough units to put in each and every one? If you do that, I am fairly confident that your Eastern front will have many holes for the T-34s and new mech units to blitz through, not to mention inadequate garrisons to prevent the partisans. 5) Macro-Economics: no longer will the German player have a lot of spare MPPs to simply and immediately gear up for EVERY threat that is presented. They will be hard pressed to apportion their (... by this late date... shrinking) available MPPs to meet these ever increasing pressures from the Allied player, whether it be in Italy, or Russia or France. And, there are several more troubling problems for the Axis Strategic Commander, which I'll leave for others to discover.

JJ, Well, I have a brother named Dan , but he isn't interested in war-gaming... he mostly likes Harleys and road trips to Black Hills of South Dakota and up along Hiway-One out in God's Country, California, but... Denmark is not high on his must-see list. Dave

JJ, you can set the alignment in the Editor... neutral, Axis or Allied. You can also set the controlling or "parent" for each country on the board. So, for Denmark, default setting might be... Neutral, with UK and Germany the "parent" Major Powers. You could change that schematic all around if you wanted to, and you can also Edit the default Armed Forces that Denmark will have when war is declared on them. Want them to have one Corps and one Cruiser? (... and one... Rockets :eek: ) So be it. Not that you'd want to create a little island monster out in the far north Pacific, necessarily, but you... could.

Good guess, and very nearly right. :cool: Stationing an air unit, either Air Fleet or Strat Bomber in Malta does have a unique and quite historical "effect." It reduces the size of Italian resources in North Afrika, IE, the cities and ports. Which in turn has an effect on both Op moves across the desert and across the Seas. Also on supply and thus, indirectly but consequently, on the readiness of the units located there. The larger the Air Squadron, the greater chance the "Malta Effect" will be enacted. If the AF or SB performs a mission or reacts in combat... OR If the AF or SB is reinforced or replaced in that turn, THEN This portion of the "Malta Effect" is reduced accordingly. The other part of the effect is to assume a "base chance" of 10% each turn that those Italian resources will be reduced. This represents submarine and other activities of "patrolling type" craft in and around the supply lanes from Italian mainland across to North Afrika. So, You have 10% for the base chance + 1% per EACH Air factor based at Malta, provided it is not otherwise engaged in some activity. Which might include deliberate sorties by the Axis player to keep that Air unit "busy" so that it couldn't add to the percentage chance of interdiction. And yes, Wolfpack, you are right on the money... controlling Malta did indeed cause all sorts of trouble for Italy/Axis in the Med Wars. It may prove to be well worth considering a possible sea invasion and/or airborne assault so to remove this stubborn, fortified threat to fragile supply lines. I suppose someone could station a ground unit on Malta, and you'd still get that base chance of 10%, but, given this new feature of... a better chance of interdiction by adding that valuable air unit... would you? [ April 20, 2004, 12:49 AM: Message edited by: Desert Dave ]

There's a hunting Moon out tonight. Breaking bright on the white-knifed Atlantic. And you notice, And there's this keen shiver All along the spine, The first night sighting! Of a sleek and feral... U-boot. The first U-boot of the hunting season. Could it be? One of Doenitz's best? That prowling silhouette... a Type 9? Aligned just right? In your frantic ASDIC mind? It's time! To settle an old, old score. As old as... back in the Swamp, Stricken again, By the alligator's roar. [ April 21, 2004, 12:06 PM: Message edited by: Desert Dave ]

So, We can ask the Atheist Engineers To forget the airfields. They can... what? Dig all the fox-holes?

At least. Then you have to consider some of the other less "hands-on tactical" possiblities that game designers have been, and are now investigating. Such as... area movement games. With or without card-based "special events" for combat results and historical variations. I can think of many area based board and computer games... that old stand-by, Axis & Allies for the quick fix, and... HoI comes to mind, but that is not typical since they are still trying to patch the Alpha version. :eek: Anyway, at least with SC 1 or 2, you still have those fairly intricate maneuverings in ~50 mile delineations, only...with tiles instead of hexes. Really, what difference? When you get right down to it? Other than... it's the way it always used to be? Why not give the new approach some serious consideration? You might find a whole lot of new possibilities. :cool: Hexes are ingrained in many wargamers thinking mostly because they were the "standard" way of looking at the world for so very long. Since Avalon Hill and GDW and some others did it, that makes it the ONLY way to do it? Since THEY did it, it is necessarily the BEST way to replicate WW2 or any other conflict? Here we have a beautifully simple "chess-like" game, which is recommended IF ONLY it removes those very cumbersome "stacks" of units. Well, no doubt, there are good arguments on all sides of this issue, and at the least... you are not shoving ONE HUGE MEGA UNIT from one area, say, like from Ruhr to Low Countries, and having to sit back and admire just how adroitly the AI re-enacts all those small combat routines.

The weather schematic as I have just described it is... complimentary, and not intrusive or definitive. The historical conquest of France happened in GOOD May-June weather of 1940. Can that happen the same way here? Maybe. Play testing will determine very much, and you can be convinced and satisfied that all aspects and features, proposed or surely implemented will be tested thoroughly and to within an inch of their life. I for one am VERY glad that weather will at least be a factor that must be considered when planning conquest campaigns. But, it is merely one factor among very many. :cool:

Not only that, but this new weather feature is going to upset many of those previous well-laid plans... for instance, all those quick knock-out blows delivered to the Low Countries. Not to say that now as Axis player you can't rush armor and air fleets over to the Western border of Germany and still TRY to annihilate Benelux (... the new geographic term for the two combined countries of Netherlands and Belgium) in the first couple of turns. It IS to say that the price to be paid will be higher. And the slogging-through will be slower. Who knows, those un-skirted Pz IIs and IIIs might even... get bogged down? Given that poor or bad weather WILL effect combat target data, and Air Ops and movement of ground units, it is going to be tougher to re-enact some of those "gamey" expeditions... IMO, hooray! There WAS a reason, several actually... for the historical Sitzkrieg. Those mud and snow months of November, December, January, February and March and maybe even April (... depending on the whims of Mother Nature, and/or the fickle AI) could prevent some of those anxious and ahistorical "gambits" we always used to see. The previous weather, in each specific Zone, will help determine the NEXT turn's weather. It is a dynamic process, and the new influencing factors affect the old and prevailing situation, and therefore you have to keep in mind what the conditions HAVE been, to have some success in predicting... what they MIGHT be. (... yep, Russia could come to be an icy, wicked winter nightmare! for unsuspecting Axis players :eek: ) Which is good. Very good. :cool: World War 2 was not fought on a table-top environment kept artificially clean and winter-wind free. At least not then. NOW! You are just going to have to adjust your grand strategies, and particular tactics to the weather conditions. Which only seems... natural.

Shaka, I have to agree wholeheartedly with you here. Concentration. WITHOUT stacking. I prefer the "chess-like" aspect of SC, where you have one unit per tile. You can very easily glance and see the "big picture" since you don't have all those units hidden in stacks, which you would have to take time to manipulate somehow to find out just what you have and where; and then... try to keep that firmly in mind while you proceed to examine all those other stacks. :eek: Additionally, no need for ground support units to be rated beyond their capabilities, as with Air Fleets currently constituted. Just two more very compelling reasons to give this new concept a fair chance.

Absolutely. :cool: Especially for those who like to play (... or have to occasionally play) solo games. Before, you merely had 15 possible combinations for "tweaking" the AI (... 5 levels of difficulty Xs 3 levels of computer experience). Now, you have, without exaggeration, thousands upon tens of thousands of combinations. [someone could no doubt calculate what that precise # is, but I can't and don't care to... all I know is what my eye & gut-instinct tells me, and it's... a LOT, though probably somewhat less than the # of Angels dancing on the head of a micro-dot... ] Obviously this is due to ALL the variables (... not only to the very important area of Industrial production tech AND Industrial Country modifier) and ALL those closely honed increments of change... in each category that can be edited. Edit... build limits, unit cost for each country, production delays as KDG has mentioned, along with research capabilities and resource data, and terrain defense and and and, You can easily see that the variables are numerous, and the possible outcomes predictably geometric to that. Upshot: there isn't anyone on the Planet who cannot finally PERFECTLY balance their SOLO game, playing either side, against the AI. Of course, the default game will be as finely balanced as can be humanly done. And this is not even to include the fact that the AI should be much better. Given that the Editor is VERY easy to use, everyone will quickly have their very own X-tremely PERSONALIZED game for competition with a friend, or for solo play... right at their dextrous fingertips. :cool:

Insofar as raiding by surface ships, and just how the "run-silent" feature will be implemented, and the spotting variables, I will hold off on saying anything further. Hubert is still deciding on some of the aspects of those, so... you know, in this instance it would be better if he reveals what he has decided, WHEN he has decided it. I am VERY enamored of this whole aspect of the naval game, and have long favored a much more detailed and consequential paradigm for The Battle of the North Atlantic ... as have many others. I've no doubt, those many others have some sway in the decision making, so keep on! Asking for whatever it is that you want. Raiders!! Me? I really, REALLY want to see them included. :cool:

No doubt CvM's campaigns will be great, and especially that Finnish-Soviet Winter War! My own favorite to try and model, will be the North Afrikan and Med campaign. Those new "mechanized" capabilities will make things VERY interesting. Though I am not very adept at map-making, the detailed instructions and clever tools provided are VERY intutive and simply handled. Still, I hope somebody else will take on this Afrika Korps project, since it'll probably be more... ummm, smoothly artistic than mine. My guess? There will be somewhere in the vicinity of... ~1,629 maps and campaigns within a month or two of release, so the problem won't be finding a particular campaign that you like, It will be... finding enough time to try out most of them.

No problemo Edwin P. True aficions of the WW2 GS genre, as you very caringly are, will have some kind of deep and pliable game to model and play all around with. A game that I am ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED will be... THE one I (... and thousands & thousands of others no doubt) have been waiting for... over 40 years! The Battle of the North Atlantic is going to be... a tin-can, torpedoes starboard! and now! ahead! :eek: Blow-out blast! :cool:

You are partly right. As presently constituted, there is a land connection between Finland and Sweden, but, as is apparent in the screenshot, not between Norway and Finland. The whole U-boot VS RN sub-hunters should be greatly improved, in that you have MUCH more room up along Norwegian coast to try and slip your subs and/or RAIDERS out above Scapa Flow and into the North Atlantic. Nothing like that very constricted space in the original map. The Wolfpacks should really be something to see! and can disrupt and cripple UK's economy, and, IMHO, the subs will truly be well worth investing in. :cool: And don't forget, there will be convoy routes that can be selected, so that - as both the Allied and Axis Admiral, you will have to seriously think about this whole tin-can campaign... a kind of ferocious Cat & Mouse game that will be epic! Especially considering the much larger size of the Atlantic. The thing is, with that fantastic editor, you can tweak ANY aspect of this game that you like. For instance, if you REALLY like that Naval Game, as I surely do, then you can slightly modify all target values and spotting ranges, and adjust "naval bombing" ratings for all sea-going powers, and modify unit's cost (... make the subs and cruisers a bit less expensive, and then you'll be able to afford more of them) And add the port of Trondheim or Narvik so the U-boots will have a staging base to intercept that icy cold Murmansk convoy run... maybe even put a squadron of naval torpedo bombers up there to keep the Brit Carriers honest... So that the Battle of the North Atlantic can then! be a critical aspect of the WW2 Grand Strategy, as it should be... hooray! :cool:

Yep, she's a beauty, ain't she? :cool: Reminds me of the time back in the day when I first laid shades on that '65 GTO sittin' in that there sales lot with pennants flapping all over the flip-flop place. Had that Goat-nose low down munching gears & bolts off the tarmac, raked up real steel cool nasty! she was. And when you would run yer hand on along that wood grain inset in the dash, yep, you may just as well have been sliding along slow through 10,000 year old Redwoods out in Gods' Country, Californ-I-A! Yep, that 19 & 65 model show-boat Goat was a rip roaring Beauty, no stray Cat could say nay or floy-floy jake, or otherwise... Just that like that new SC2 Editor we got whining on down the Pike, nose jutted out and down, oh, justa skootch... and eating up! those blurred white-lines on 'at Glory Road... :cool:

Yep, that's me too. I first began this great and satisfying hobby back in the early 1960s with some of those basic AH games such as D-Day, Waterloo, Stalingrad, and War at Sea. There are many of us here, such as pzgndr, who have also been ingrained in the old ways, such as 6-sided hexes for map topography, and stacking 4-6 Panzer counters on that breakthrough hex you have established on the Eastern Front! I see what you are saying, and I can't disagree with you, or with JJ. I too would rather see that breath-taking nude descending a glass staircase... in a Museum, or in that bachelor's pad I always keep innocently in mind. Some are in between, like rambo, who have done it both ways... board games and computer games. And there are those who have never had that tremendous pleasure of opening the box on a brand new game, and taking out and admiring the sturdy board for the first time, and lovingly handling all those interesting cardboard pieces. But, computers make it so you can avoid all the time-consuming set up that is necessarily involved, and even better... have those combat and supply and movement calculations done in a split electron second! Who really has time, given that there ARE other pressing concerns, such as keeping the boss or the wife or girl-friend happy and satisfied? Well, I have "adjusted" to this brave new world, and CAN now also appreciate all the different and challenging ways there are to play a war game. I will tell you this much... Hubert is one who remains faithful to the original spirit of war-gaming, and does everything he can think of to maintain proper military perspectives, and true relations to historical imperatives... while also providing an exciting game that is fun to play. Just ask some of those long-time players of SC on this forum, such as terif, and Zappsweden, and Dragonheart, or kurt88, to name only a very few of very many. Whether you are carefully painting your miniatures, or pushing little stacks of cardboard counters, or clicking with the mouse, you STILL are immersed in that fascinating "atmosphere" of WW2 grand strategy. Sometimes, as with me, the newer ways of doing things... takes some time... to get used to. I have done it the old way for over 40 years. But, I don't mind doing it the computerized way, because... you can always go back and set up a board game if you care to. It's actually good that we can have so many choices, and computer games CAN provide a lot of new and unusual approaches, and still include all of those original tactical decisions that every Strategic Commander has to make. As JJ and I have both suggested... you can toggle the "modern" icons off if you really don't like them, and there are times when I will play SC with the old military symbols. Main thing... enjoy EACH kind of game that is available, each in its own unique and compelling atmosphere. :cool: [ April 16, 2004, 10:13 AM: Message edited by: Desert Dave ]

Nor, at hitting the right buttons on the VERY EASILY understood interface. :eek: First post left Bill's name off of there, and I heard about it in 0.0007 seconds! _________________ But... it wasn't Bill who let me know about it, it was all of those who full well realize the tremendous amount of hard work Bill has put in on this project... a daunting task and he deserves immense credit, wait and see! :cool: [ April 16, 2004, 12:29 AM: Message edited by: Desert Dave ]

Me too. I am no Dave van Gogh or very adept at using map-maker type tools, but this is one that makes it accessible and easily understood. There are enough simple, easy to follow intructions in the SC2 Manual that Hubert and Bill are putting together, that it becomes VERY natural and intuitive. :cool:

Me too. I am no Dave van Gogh or very adept at using map-maker type tools, but this is one that makes it accessible and easily understood. There are enough simple, easy to follow intructions in the SC2 Manual that Hubert and are putting together, that it becomes VERY natural and intuitive. :cool:

Then, plain and simply, turn it... off. You can opt for a halo-base like you see beneath the surface ships, or, you can opt for no base at all! As with very much else concerning this astonishing! new Grand Strategy WW2 game... something... for EVERYBODY! :cool: