Sol Invictus

It just seems to be to easy to get to max Jet tech by '42-'43. I find it disconcerting to hear the screams of jets this early in the war. All the other techs seem about right, but something just doesnt feel right about Jets. I really think that there should be a limit of 3 Research points that you can put in any Tech. I think this would give a more reasonable outcome for all nation's Tech advance.

I just looked again and noticed you didnt put a 3 after arnold on the e-mail address. It's david.arnold3@gte.net.

I dont have another ISP or e-mail address. It might be caused by the fact that another company just bought the local phone service of my ISP and they are also in the process of taking over their DSL service as well, but not before Aug. 30th. I was afraid this might cause a problem. Did you try to send me just a Test e-mail without any attachments? We might have to wait till after the new ISP takes over and everything gets sorted out. Try a few more times during the next few days and we will see what happens. Sorry for the trouble.

I agree, the British should take more of a hit when they lose Suez. As has been point out, there is no compelling reason to expend the blood and treasure in Africa, against the AI at least. It will be interesting to see the many things that happen in the Med between 2 humans.

I think it should be probable but not automatic.

Your wife is unfortunately a military genius.

I will be more than happy to take up arms against you shortly.

The srangest thing that the AI has done that I have seen is to send a couple of Russian Armies to the aid of Iraq. Not really strange but something I hadnt really expected. Well no, I guess the strangest/most unexpected thing was that America and England launched a major invasion of Brittany in late '41. Now that is a shock when your playing Germany.

I agree, the fighting in the East is a big, bloody blast. I played the Allies in my first game using defaults and FOW but will give the Axis +1 in my next game as I think this is appropriate. The only problem I have is that the Italians will also get the +1 advantage and this is certainly not appropriate. It might be a pain to program in a patch but it would be a very nice addition if we could assign an advantage to only certain countries. I guess this might be possible with the editor but dont really know.

In my current game as the Germans, as soon as I approached Moscow the Transfer happened. Dont know if it can be random from the time that the Germans approach Moscow or if it is automatic. Carl, In reality, I have the greatest respect for the fighting qualities of the WW2 era Finnish army. I was just wearing my Uncle Joe hat when I was slamming them. I was somewhat disturbed in my current game, playing Germany, beacause the Finns took about 6 months to declare war after German and Soviet hostilities commenced. Maybe it was because the Russians declared war first. I am happy to report that once they did become involved, Lenningrad fell soon after.

Well now the shoe is on the other foot and I'm fighting for the Fatherland. Same massive bloodletting. Do the Russians ever run out of men? I went after France after Poland and took them in May '40. Then I went for Norway and Yugoslavia. After that I thought I'd push my luck and went for Sweden and Greece. The U.S. didnt like my aggression and actually declared war on me a turn before the Russians and this all before I had actually taken Sweden. My first reaction was, I'm a dead man. after I took a large frink of beer and calmed myself I went about my task. I was making good progress in Russia but then I saw 3 U.S. and 2 English transports approaching Brest. I had 3 Corp and 1 Army without an HQ with 3 Airfleets holding France. Yikes! I barely was able to repell the invasion, in late '41 mind you. Good job AI. This caused my Russian timetable to be thrown askew. It's now late '42 and I have taken Suez with the italians and they have advanced to the Iraqi oilfields but havent taken them yet. the Russians have sent 2 Armies to help the Iraqi defense. I have taken Leningrad and I'm adjacent to Moscow and Stalingrad. The Russians are starting to show some economic strain and I think they are about to break but the constant pressure on my own troops doesnt give me much time to catch my breath and restore the strength of my Armies. We are like two punch-drunk fighters staggering toward a conclusion.

I like heavy tanks as the Axis and long-range aircraft as the Allies.

I was up till 4 am last night fighting for the Russian steppe.

Well I cant remember the details. Or maybe my mind just doesn't want to remember. I can tell you it was like stepping through the gates of hell. The blazing heat and swirling dust that an endless swarm of metal treads kicked up was mingled with the blood and screams of my valiant soldiers. The treacherous Axis armies betrayed us in the month of July 1941. Initially they made good progress with slashing penetrations through and around my stunned and overwhelmed soldiers. There was much panic and confusion at first and many units were cut off and destroyed. Far from bowing my countrymen, these setbacks only spurred them to greater efforts. My generals were ordered to retreat to defensible terrain and form a coherent line and this they did with alacrity. The heroic workers, which are the sinew of our great nation, produced the machines of war without regard to personal sacrifice. Odessa, that jewel on the Black sea, fell in a few weeks and it's twin on the Baltic, Riga, soon after. Initially I was forced to simply plug gaps with a corp here and there, trying to stem the deluge that had been released upon me. Minsk and Kiev held, with much loss to both sides. A line soon formed, the length of the entire front, and the Germans were unable to break it. The treacherous Finns declared war soon after the German invasion but their pathetic little army was no match for our fearless soldiers. We were able to steadily push them back to the gates of Helsinki and force them to welcome us as heroic liberators from their capitilist oppressors. Those swine Italians even had the nerve to send a tank army and 4 field armies against us. Things were grim from the winter of '41 till the Winter of '42. It was a series of endless attritional warfare all along the front with neither side gaining an advantage. Fortunately the capitalist dogs in the West launched an invasion of France in March '43 and took some pressure off of us. Ever so slowly, you could perceive a weakening of the Axis resolve. With my technicians able to improve our tank technology by 3 levels, it was soon time to unleash the pent-up hopes of my people in the form of a steel hurricane aimed at the invaders. By early '44, with British soldiers on the Italian mainland and large American armies rolling through France, the storm broke in the East as my armies sliced through the German defenses like a scythe. The Italians and other German minor allies melted like ice on the Russian steppes in July. I was able to cut off two large armies trying to defend Odessa and Riga. When the two armies were destroyed the collapse was general and it was a race to Berlin, which fell in Jan. '45. I can speak no more of these things, they have left an incureable wound in my soul.

They have one more in the N. Sea.

I certainly agree that the partisans shouldnt try to capture German cities.

I have wondered this as well.

I would agree that they should remain in their own country. I guess the threat of them going anywhere is an attempt to make the German utilize a somewhat larger force to combat them. I think if they were restricted to their country, they would indeed be a very minor irritant.

Well now that is strange. Maybe the AI is confused because there is no England to base to. I hope you just got extremely lucky and England isnt always such a pushover. I would think that a 20% success rate for Sea Lion would be a nice standard.

I'm playing the Allies at Intermediate and while there are occasions where the AI does something that I think is wrong, I'm impressed with it on the whole. While I have stopped the German drive well short of Moscow, I am having trouble launching my own counter-offensive, the germans are keeping constant pressure on me. I get the feeling the Axis are approaching the breaking point though. It's all coming down to me burying them under MPPs.

If you are talking both Yugo and Russian partisans then you are talking about very large forces that were needed to defend against them. Sure, in a game of this scale, it is hard to model them perfectly but just take them into consideration and have forces guarding the rear areas, like the Germans had to do. The Axis minors just love fighting partisans.

This is true, but it is a way to force the German player to commit sizeable forces to keep the partisan at bay, which is what actually happened. If you want Yugoslavia, be prepared to commit a garrison.

Sounds good.

That must be it. My valiant soldiers have given their all for the Motherland and held the Fascist dogs well away from the glorious heart of our beloved homeland.

I'm playing the Allies in the '39 campaign and have gotten to March '43 but I still have not seen any Siberian troops in the East. I didnt activate the War in Siberia option. Is anyone else missing those valuable soldiers?