blackbellamy

strategic bombing was completely and utterly ineffective until the allies targeted the axis oil resources, specifically ploesti and the synthetic plants in austria and germany this didnt happen until late 44 until then all the strategic bombing initiative did was to kill hundreds of thousands of civilians, made some trains run late, and forced the germans to disperse their industries, which they did with their typical efficiency german industrial production, specifically airplane output, continued to increase nearly up until the end of the war all those ball bearing factories, rail marshalling yards, and other industrial complexes that got hit didn't affect the german capacity to wage war until their airplanes and tanks ran out of fuel american training time for bomber crews in 44 was reduced by a third in order to meet the demands of the heavy attrition sustained during the offensive - and this in a country with the largest fresh manpower reserves at that stage of the war i am amazed that it took the allies years to figure out that oil was the only resource that mattered if oil mattered in this game, the allies should forego any strat bombing until they have bases from which they can reach rumania, but unfortunately you don't need oil specific MPP's to rebuild your air and armor units

obviously you weren't using enough airpower cities are great reserves of manpower because that's where everyone flees to when they get surrounded look at warsaw in 39 - you think it fell to a ground attack? they bombed and shelled it for a couple of weeks instead

yes, i have also encountered the "half-hearted invasion syndrome" while playing the axis i was busy in russia, so busy that france was garrisoned by maybe 2 corps, so in early 42 the allies attempted to land in france they got about 5 units on shore, which i quickly contained by expeditious rail movement from the east they failed to take brest, and so the invasion was doomed as i mopped up the last allied units however, for the next two years the allies would continously try to invade france they would build 2 or 3 units and send them to the coast. i would block their landing by moving corps up to the shore, and then the allies would send the transports over to the opposite coast next turn, while i marched my corps there to prevent any landing there as well the allies were losing about 2 units a turn due to my air and sub activity, and they never managed to land more than one unit in france again, but it was not for lack of trying. i thought that maybe they would hang out a little bit, create a large force, and then try again in scale, but for the next two years they sent over 2 or 3 (max 4) units, which were quite easily dealt with

as the axis, you really don't need to spend any MPP's in the early game. the forces you have on hand should be handle anything short of the russian invasion. get industrial tech up first, as this will lower the cost of all your units, before investing in other techs, as they will make your units more expensive for example, if you know youre going for max jets, go get ind tech to 5, buy all the air fleets you're gonna need while theyre cheap, then research jets - your air fleets will get more expensive, but you already bought them while they were cheap

you don't have to engage the Royal Navy at all during the Norway campaign the RN doesn't come out immediately - there's a turn lag while you are spotted and reacted to - so all you have to do is put the Huns on transports, move them all up to the Norwegian coast, then declare war the next turn and land them all right away. the only naval protection i send is the one german submarine on the left flank of the invading force the RN sometimes shows up after the germans are on the shore, but that's their own doom, as my ground based air out of denmark send them all to the bottom a sufficient force to take norway is two armies, two corps, and an HQ, with some air fleets bombing out of denmark the nice thing is that once you take norway, the ports are close enough together that you can transport all your armies out of norway and into germany in one move, right in time for the french ( I usually do Poland, Denmark, Norway, and then France).

dude, i got the l33t haxx0r for you! open up the Editor (it's a l33t haxx0r utility, ships with the game, but don't tell anyone else, it's on the down low..shhhhh), then Edit Campaign Data, then enter "9999" in the country of your choice dude, you are now ready to rock the world with your l33t MPP's!!!!

Would it be possible to include "fuel" costs for certain unit types? I am speaking specifically of surface naval and air units. I frequently run into two particular situations: 1) The French 'suicide' their fleets against the Kriegsmarine or La Regia Marina. There is almost no downside to this, as a chance to become "Free" is only one in five, so it's much better to trade off the soon to be gone French for the German or Italian fleets. If there was a fuel cost associated with moving fleets, then the French player would be forced to spend MPP's on a naval raid _or_ reinforcing Paris. 2) The Luftflotte continues to strike with full strength well into the endgame. I have several times reduced Germany to only the German core cities. The problem becomes apparent when the Germans withdraw their Air Fleets into the interior and pound away at the invaders. There are usually 4-6 such fleets, and they're usually at Jet 5 with some long range action thrown in for good measure. Since the German Air Fleets tend to be around the longest, they accrue max experience. This results in at least two American/British armies being destroyed each turn, simply through air power. Air to air fights with Allied units result in the Allied air unit in either being wiped out totally, or reduced to a 1 or a 2. This uber-Luftflotte usually accounts for the fact that I have been unable to take any significant part of Germany with the western Allies, leaving the Russians to overrun all of Germany, and frequenly parts of France as well. I know that SC is not meant to model the war precisely, but is more of a beer and pretzels approach, leaning towards playablity and quick completion. However, if you could put in associated operational fuel costs for some units, then the game would force the player into making some tough choices, instead of pressing the "bomb them all to hell" button 5 times and watching enemy ground forces vanish. How about a small MPP cost every time you want to fly an Air Fleet, with the cost being proportional to the tech level of the Air Fleet? Maybe 5 MPP at tech 1, rising to 20 MPP at lv 5? Also, for surface naval units, a small MPP cost any time they are not in, or adjacent to, a friendly port? Thanks for your consideration, and hoping that this would be easy to implement.

CvM, I heard the Canadians are fond of the term 'The 51'st Staters'. It's funny people protest the term 'Wop', whereas 'Jap' and 'Kraut' are liberally sprinkled throughout this forum. Anyway, I think the more appropriate term would be "Dago" (if you're going to use historically accurate slurs), as I believe 'Wop' was used domestically by Americans, whereas "Dago" was more continental ('Dago' originated in Spain). As to the topic at hand, I have only played against the AI, and in each case, whether being the Axis or the Allies, I have made the Med my personal playground. If I am the Axis, the British fleet is wiped quickly, Egypt and Iraq fall in short order, Malta is assaulted, and eventually Gibraltar is taken and fortified to prevent any Yankee foolishness in that area. If I am the Allies, La Regia Marina is sunk, Libya and Iraq are taken, the Vichy's are kicked out of Africa, just in time for the Americans to arrive in Sicily. Soon after Rome falls, the Dagos (heh) conveniently disappear from Russia, and the Red Steamroller begins to grind towards Berlin. In short, the AI is incapable of creating any coherent strategy when dealing with the Med. Fighting in that theater requires complex coordination between the naval, air, and ground forces, and the AI is frequently frustrated by having it's naval elements destroyed very early on in the campaign. I noticed the AI is very likely to send fleets out on 'search and destroy' missions, so it's very easy to bait the AI into destruction by sending out one fleet, then drawing back to a Air Fleet reinforced Alexandria, where the combined naval and ground based air destroy the incoming Italians. It would probably be better for the Italians to keep their fleet safe unless they _must_ use it to support a ground invasion or to prevent one. Right now the AI fleets appear to be too aggressive (Case in point: Invade Norway while placing four Air Fleets in north Denmark. See the Royal Navy come out to engage the invasion force. See the Royal Navy get sunk by ground based air. A human player would never send the Royal Navy within ground based air range of Axis territory. The AI does it every time). [ August 06, 2002, 11:27 AM: Message edited by: blackbellamy ]

I've played several full games up to this point, and in each one I concentrated on research early on. Sometimes I got an increase early, sometimes I had to wait, but I think overall it adhered to statistical probability. Five points in one area gives you a 25% chance of improvement, so it's likely that with a couple of bad rolls you can go without an increase for a long while. I usually split my points 5,3, and 2 early on, and once I reach Industrial Tech 5 I go for a 4, 3, and 3 split. This method maxes me out on the important stuff by the endgame. [ August 06, 2002, 10:57 AM: Message edited by: blackbellamy ]

yeah, you have to remember that "entering" the war on one side or another for a minor is not the same as for a major power most of the minor countries were very reluctant to send any of their forces beyond a certain limit, and the forces they did send did not comprise the entirety of their armed forces sure it would be nice if the entier spanish army got on a boat and invaded russia along with the rest, but i don't think franco would have sent 100% of his forces out, leaving nothing for home defense and security

"fixed minor reorganizational issue with Allied AI once Germany surrenders" shouldn't the only thing that happenes at this point be the rendering of the allied victory screen ?

With the size of the hex being what it is, I'm pretty sure you can sail the Kriegsmarine, the Royal Navy, and La Regia Marina through the same hex and they wouldn't even see each other.

It doesn't actually hinder the AI directly as part of the setting, but it _does_ make the AI use Fog of War, so yes, the AI does have a harder time playing because it doesn't know where your forces are.

watchdog is just jealous cause he ain't got no disposable income like the rest of us, and he can't plop down twenty five bucks on a whim he has to wait for two years till the underdogs gets it that's too bad i don't want to see watchdog suffer let's all pitch in a dollar and buy watchdog his very own copy u take paypal, mr plug nickel?

Fortresses, shmortresses. You could take that whole thing out with a couple of gliders and the Otto Skorzeny unit.

Hubert, the loud volume of those who eagerly anticipate the game is only indicative of the perceived quality and value of your product. It will be done when it's done. They, and I will wait

legal gobbledygook aside, speaking from a strictly marketing perspective, the more moddable a game is the bigger it's appeal and longevity i understand hacking up the demo to extend play is not desirable from the perspective of the intellectual property owner, who relies on the profits from the full version, but after release, what possible harm can come from someone hacking the exe file to change some game mechanics like combat odds, or maybe AI behavior? the "vision" argument is not compelling to the consumer. the consumer is not interested in the author's vision of how the game is supposed to be played, or that something can't be changed because it will somehow ruin everything. the consumer is only interested in getting total enjoyment from the product, and anything hindering that is counterproductive. for examples check out major game software releases for the past three years. see how the most moddable ones are the most popular, and enjoy the most longevity? prohibiting the total modding of this product does nothing but set up an adversarial relationship with the consumers. it doesn't protect anything in the end.

Has anyone ever researched Heavy Bombers to the max and then tried strat bombing? Probably a _lot_ more effective than the crappy tech at the begining of the game.

There is nothing preventing those who wish to support the efforts of Mr. Carter from buying two or more copies of the game.

sure you can re-install you wouldn't be paying for the actual download you would be paying for the activation code

I more of a minimalist, and would much rather if Hubert got rid of all that clutter. I would prefer there to be just two counters, the Axis Army and the Allied Army, that the timeline 1939-1945 was compressed to a single turn, and that the European theater be represented by a single hex (of course the addition of the Pacific hex will be necessary in the expansion). Also, can the game be reduced to a single file, preferably one less than 40k in size? I don't think my C-64 can handle anything larger. Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks.

can you please include the Ekranoplan in the Soviet Air Fleet counters? http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JulianMoseley/ekranoplan.html please? lol

i think we should strive less for historical accuracy, in terms of which planes were more representative of a certain class, or what their combat performance was, but instead concentrate on which plane would look best on the counter or which planes have a certain "mystique"

"Shore bombardment will never actually destroy a unit" i've had the Brest garrison wiped out several times due to marauding UK/FF fleets while my air fleets were busy in Russia

without shore bombardment you are never going to invade places like Malta, or anywhere the defender can place corps along the entire shoreline, as there is no way to amphibiously land in an opposed hex sure you can blow the defender away with airfleets, but this would limit invasions to 6 hexes from friendly airbases i believe battleship/cruiser groups are too strong vs air attack in terms of caualties they inflict on the attacking air fleets during the battle of france i see the french player frequently place his brest fleets along the low country shoreline to inflict some shore bombardment damage, and the german player is forced to bomb them, with casualties to his air fleets which I feel are not commensurate with the damage dealt [ June 19, 2002, 10:01 AM: Message edited by: blackbellamy ]