Bullwinkle

Actually the Persian God Mithras is the reason for the season, but so what? Have a great holiday celebration everyone!

Hey Jersey - I liked the Bullwinkle clip. Thanks for the entertainment! (there's never enough of that!)

Thanks for the "comeuppance" from all of you. I can see your point - I just didn't think that Russia would be capable of invasion so soon given the Stalin purges of '39 that depleted its officer corps. I am also skeptical of Polish coersion with the Soviets since they certainly don't like one another. Finally the Russian army behaved like the army of 1945, not the army of 1941. But that may not be programmable. Oh, and thanks Jersey - that cartoon had me laughing too!

I just downloaded it and tried playing under my old settings: Axis 0% Allies(AI)+2, FOW, WIS, French all on, everything else off. I used my here-to-fore winning stragegy of attacking France first through Holland. Well, I had just taken France after a tight battle when Russia attacks!!! It's May 1940 for Pete's Sake! Could the Russians attack at that early date historically??? I think not. Well the Poles teamed up with the Russians and I was destroyed before I could enter Poland. Funny thing is, a turn after Russia attacked, Finland joined in. Now where was the provocation for that? Don't you think that Finland would join if they felt that the Germans could realistically help them? Not when they haven't set foot on Russian soil, they can't. Anyway, so far I am NOT impressed with v1.06. I'm going to change the settings to the simplest and start from there in another quest to find the right set of options to give me a good, hard, competitive game. I'm sure the "right" combination exists.

For some reason, it worked today - I finally got the v1.06 download screen.

Each time I hit the download address for v1.06 I get the v1.05 and v1.04 download screen instead. What's wrong?

Question: Is V1.06 backward compatible with saved games from V1.05 and V1.04???

Question: Is V1.06 backward compatible with saved games from V1.05 and V1.04???

As an affecionado of the Eastern Front, this was one game I was anxiously waiting to get. For those who have never heard of it, it is a GRAND strategic game of the Russo/German war. You played as a top general for either side, ordering your subordinate generals to do this and that, occasionally having to placate either Stalin or Hitler while still trying to win the war. I love strategic games (90% of the games marked 'strategic' are really not) and a grand strategic game is even better - especially one that deals with both the military situation and personalities as well. Unfortunately this game was under development by Ubisoft (I think) and then taken over by another company who dropped it. Has anyone heard of it? Is there a ghost of a chance that it might be resurrected???

I think that all of this depends upon what settings you are using when playing against the AI. I play the Axis at 0% and the Allies (AI) at +2. I find that this provides a challenging game - the outcome of which usually depends upon when Russia & the US enter the fray. Under these settings I find that I have to hit France first, not Poland. If I go for France after Poland, I'm usually defeated as Britain lands its corps plus a Canadian army to help the French. After declaring war on the Low Countries and then taking France first, I go for Denmark afterwards while marching back to Poland. After taking Poland the time is usually ripe for Yugoslavia to act up and this is where the timing of the Russian entry becomes crucial. If I can get a good attack going on Yugoslavia before Russia comes in, I'll generally win the war but if Russia comes in sooner, it is usually lost - especially if the US comes in before Dec. '41. Any settings more challenging, say Axis at Expert with Allies at +2 is a sure win for the Allies. Try these settings and see how you fare.

I would like the settings to be retained from game to game. It gets tiring to have to click on the same settings every time...FOW, Hex Grid, Sound On...etc. I hope this will be easy to do. I know there have been many suggestions for V1.06 but the one I like best is the adaptation of the weather factor - particularly in Russia. I hope that can happen - and of course my old favorite - Extending the time of the game past May '46. I have one question for someone who can answer it - does V1.05 concern itself solely with multiplayer capability or are there also game improvments in this version?

One other thing - be sure that your aircraft in Canada have a HQ with them. Otherwise they aren't as effective.

Forget the BBs. Just use CVs and blast them by air. Canada provides an excellent aircraft carrier for your jets. Knock out the US airforce and then plaster the land units, having transports ready to drop in as soon as a space becomes available. With repeated bombings the US will weaken. Only bombers in Spain can hit the US. Forget that. Rockets can't as far as I know. I do know that rockets cannot be transported. The game automatically ends May, 1946 - don't ask my why, I've often lobbied for a longer time period. When I play the Axis I usually quit the game after defeating the UK. The rest is mop-up. In fact after defeating Russia, the UK is mop-up too. Hope this helps.

Excuse me, but I made a mistake in my post above. The techs I never research are heavy bombers, sonar, and gun laying. I really think Hubert should do something about these items to make them worthwhile.

I do it a different way. I start ASAP putting up to 2 units in Indus. Tech, then I upgrade Jets to a 1, then I.T. to a 3, etc. My goal is to have I.T. at 3, Jets at 2 and Long Range at 1. The reason is because aircraft are so devastating and necessary to ground assault. After I.T. gets to 5 I redistribute the points to focus upon Anti-aircraft (only if playing the Russian AI at +2), anti-tank & heavy tank. Sonar gets points when jets hit 5 if the U.S. is involved. Two items I never invest in is Long Range Aircraft and gun laying radar. I suggest that Hubert make these technologies worth investing in in the next update. Currently it just isn't worth it in my opinion.

This kid tried to bait me as he has done to all of you. I wouldn't bite and I suggest that procedure for everyone else. I'm a Viet Nam veteran and I've seen men suffer and die. I have been wargaming since 1957 (before Rambo was even born). There is no way that some boy is going to "get my goat" as he seems to have done with some of you. Sure he needs to grow up - but so do your sensitivities. What you resist, persists. What you accept, goes away.

Excuse me - a typo. France fell in May of 1940. Sorry.

Using my standard setup (see below) I decided to try this idea. France fell in May of 1942. I left the Eastern Front barren except for the garrison at Konigsberg. The Polish surrounded the town but never attacked. They also did not venture westwards past their border. From France it was easy to pick up Denmark on the way to Poland and to drop down to Yugoslavia while I was at it. All in plenty of time before Russia attacked in Jan. '42. It was an easy game - even with the US involved in '41. BTW - concerning the outlooks on WWII below, of course I do not agree with many of this guy's points - I think he's just trying to stir up controversy, but regarding D-Day, the Allies did have a better plan - to continue up the Italian Boot. Churchill was livid that after all that loss of life grinding up the boot, that when the Germans were finally finished (and they were) the US pulled out all of its troops for the D-Day bash. A pure waste of men and lives. By continuing up the boot we would have taken France from the south as well as obtained a grip on some of the eastern block nations which means that we would have deterred Communism to a greater extent than we did.

I've been experimenting around with different combinations of factors to provide a close, exciting game when playing the AI as the Axis. Here is what I've discovered (for me). Settings: Axis - Beginner (0%), Allies +2 Options turned on: FOW, Free French, & Scorched Earth. All countries are random. If the US gets in before '42 I will probably lose - especially if Russia gets in early too. I just won a squeaker when both Russia & the US didn't come in until 1942. If you're looking for a challenging game vs. the AI, try these settings - unless you're better than I am. Also I have not found any settings that can bring about a close game when I play the Allies. Even German -100% and Allies at 0 with all the options in the German's favor still brings on a definite Allied victory. Perhaps this can be deal with in version 1.06 (BTW what happened to version 1.05? Is it available?)

Speaking of predictions, Karl Marx himself predicted that Germany would take on the world in 3 world wars. They would lose the first two and win the third. Yikes!

Speaking of predictions, Karl Marx himself predicted that Germany would take on the world in 3 world wars. They would lose the first two and win the third. Yikes!

Since I don't have time to fight a living opponent, I rely upon the AI for interesting contests. I have been working on this for 2 months now - what settings give the greatest challenge for the Axis without being overwhelming? The setting of Axis Novice Allies +1 with all options on except WIS gives a good game, but it wasn't THAT challenging. So I used the same settings except a +2 for the Allies and found that to be too hard - at least on my first attempt. Does anyone have any suggestions to try?

If I recall my military history correctly, the HMS Victorious (a CV) was in the hunt for the Bismarck in 1941. So why isn't this carrier present in the game in 1939? I can't believe it was commissioned between '39 and '41 (but I could be wrong).

I've fooled around with this game for a while now. I finally found the formula for a nail-biting tense game where you couldn't tell who was going to win. At least in accordance with my playing level. Settings: V.1.04 All countries random, no options except WIS and FOW, Axis green, Allies +2 Sparing you the details, I was the Axis fighting the Russian bear for every hex along a sometimes static, sometimes fluid line. The Russians took Finland and invaded N. Africa along with the English. My panzers had just taken the Vichy government in Tunisia and were moving eastward with the support of the Italian Air Force. Meanwhile the English and Americans were just launching a massive invasion of Europe which was guarded only by my air force. In the midst of this global maelstrom, what happens? The damned gamed ends because it's May 1946!!!!! The end result was everyone sueing for peace. C'mon Hubert. Make this an open-ended game in version 1.05. I've saved this one just in case you can make it backward compatible.

I thought that Moscow was their capital, then the Eastern Urals and finally - perhaps - Stalingrad. Well in a game where I played the Axis (beginner) against the computer (Allies +1) Version 1.04. I took Moscow. The capital was moved to the Urals. I took the Urals. The capital was moved to Stalingrad. I took Stalingrad. And nothing happened. They just kept on fighting. Finally I pushed the Russians down into the oil fields of Ploesti and almost into Turkey. Finally they did throw in the towel. A similar thing once happened when in an earlier game I invaded England, took London and Manchester and they kept on fighting too! What's up with that? I thought that when the capital(s) was taken the country was finished. Any reason for this???