Schutze

One of my biggest disagreements is the "concept" that one sub counter equates to a certain number of subs. This would be fine if subs acted in battle groups. But the fact is that a sub is a solitary hunter. Even in the day of the wolf pack they acted solitarily. Giving a RN battle group the chance to wipe out a 'fleet' of them at one stroke seems silly. For them, the subs, to be effective, you have to have at least half a dozen. If going with the 'concept', you've built over 600 subs. And they still die like lemmings. I think one sub should be one counter, at a suitable price. Next. Air units take too much damage from surface vessels, and air units are too powerful against surface vessels. One reason Seelowe was called off was because the Luftwaffe couldn't be certain that it could sink the RN heavies. Other air forces were far behind the Germans in the early years of the war in air-to-surface attacks. And there was certainly no way any surface squadron could destroy 1/5 of an attacking air fleet. Defending air units only get one chance to impede an opponent's air forces. Imagine how the Battle of Britain would have gone if after the first attack by German bombers, the rest attacked scott free till the next fortnight. The old phrase "It takes 3 years to build a ship" is still close to true. Raising or refurbishing ships in a fortnight is just plain wrong. After Jutland, most of the vessels that suffered serious damage on both sides were in drydock for 10 months to a year. Perhaps ship building time could be made more realistic, and units already under construction at the beginning of the war, like the Bismarck or Prince of Wales could come in at some scheduled date. The real satisfaction in the game is it's ease of play, and the fact that it's one of the very few in which one can even try to subjugate England. Forcing that surrender is enjoyable indeed. Perahps with some tweaking it could be made more desirable for those of us over 13 years of age.

I downloaded the demo last week, and have had quite a few goes at it. The game has some good points, then some points that irk me to no end. Then...there are questions I have that may help settle my problems. Aircraft versus surface vessels: Early WWII surface vessels had very poor defences against aircraft. Even the Bismarck who had a very large Flak outfit was crippled by a lowly Fairey Swordfish. The Brits were far behind the Germans in flak direction/control/number and quality of AA weapons Submarines versus surface vessels: Battleships and cruisers had nothing in the way of AS weapons. Is it a given that subs are taking damage from escorting destroyers? RAF raids on mainland Europe: Except for some harrassing attacks by fighter bomber units, the RAF discovered at the battle of Heligoland Bight that daylight raids on Europe were pure folly. The Germans were to discover the cost during the BOB. RAF night raids did nothing to hamper production other than displace workers from the homes they'd firebombed HQ's: I've yet to discover how these help, or how you can assign units to them. Help, please:) The cost of Subs: How can a submarine with a crew of 45, weighing in at a few hundred tonnes cost almost half as much as a battleship? Retaining experience: I've tried rebuilding units slowly, a point at a time and see no different result to just filling them up. All in all, I'm not certain I'll purchase this game. For me, it's a bit too close to Axis and Allies. Can anybody help here?