Edwin P.

DOW countries can pick their own setups? You mean, you declare war on turn 1, your opponent places the neutral nation's units on his turn and then you attack the DOW'd nation on on turn 2? Not practical with the current game engine if playing by Email. [ August 02, 2004, 08:21 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

The SC forum posted a response to the early game strategy of the UK player attempting to sink the Italian Fleet before France surrenders. It would be interesting if the Axis AI could, on occasion, effectively respond to such an attack by using air units to sink these ships and transports to block their movement from the area of attack. Currently, in games vs the SC1 AI the human Allied player can easily sink the Italian fleet without great risk. [ August 02, 2004, 12:32 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

I agree that heavy allied naval losses will doom an allied player. At the sametime, destroying the Italian fleet before France surrenders is a big plus. The key is that the Allied player has to be willing to call off his attack on the Italians if Paris falls to soon. Too often they carry on with the attack after France falls and find themselves trying to run past Axis Air Units operated to Sicily.

I agree that heavy allied naval losses will doom an allied player. At the sametime, destroying the Italian fleet before France surrenders is a big plus. The key is that the Allied player has to be willing to call off his attack on the Italians if Paris falls to soon. Too often they carry on with the attack after France falls and find themselves trying to run past Axis Air Units operated to Sicily.

Another thing, it would be nice if SC included diplomatic options that relected the current state of affairs. For example, if Germany attacks Vichy France, perhaps the following diplomatic appear for the UK: 1. Give Spain Military Aid 2. Allow UK to position units in Spain - ie UK units can enter Spain the Tiles surrounding Gibraltar but can't attack from these hexes until Spain is attacked. 3. Attempt to convince Spain to join the allies. 4. Counter/reduce Axis influence. 5. Gain Intelligence on Enemy units accross the border but in spotting range of Spanish Neutral Units. If Axis does not attack Vichy then options: 1,2, and 3 do not appear.

Interesting idea and nice balancing effect. The extra forces in Egypt given them a real chance to take Iraq and redeploy to defend Egypt before the Axis forces can reach Egypt in force. Also, with this advantage I would say that Germany can't attack Spain and/or Sweden as the resulting MPP bonus would be too great for the allies to overcome. [ August 01, 2004, 02:38 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

As pzgndr oulined SC2 will handle diplomacy in a manner that pleases everyone - with an option to turn it on or off. The key to an effective diplomacy system in my view is making it realistic while realizing that many persons have different views of what was historically possible given 20-20 hindsight and that a country's diplomatic position changes depending upon events (ie conquests of neighboring countries) and the current leadership in charge. Soviet Russia has, on occassion, used its influence to decide who would be acceptable as Prime Minister for Finland, during the last century. England decided who would be the Prime Minister of Egypt and on occasion countries would support various pretenders to the leadership roles in other countries. A diplomatic effort might first involve getting persons who favor your side into office and then persuading them to adopt policies favorable to you. Naturally, in diplomacy, nothing is certain. Also, in many cases a neutral country might be persuaded to provide assistance short of becoming a belligerant. Example - Use a diplomacy chit to convince Spain to provide intelligence on ship movements though the Straits of Gibraltar. Valuable intelligence for the Axis player. In my opinion diplomacy in SC2 should influence the following actions: 1. Affect the war readiness of a neutral 2. Convince a neutral to perform an action short of war. -------- Axis convinces Turkey to Annex Iraq to prevent allied control of Iraqi Oil. -------- UK convinces Turkey to allow UK ships free passage through the straits to the Black Sea. -------- Share Intelligence on Enemy units within spotting range of a city tile. 3. Convince a minor neutral country to prepare for an enemy invasion. -------- Sweden mobilizes an extra corps -------- Swedish units begin to entrench [ August 01, 2004, 09:35 AM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

Russian Units Perhaps add a random "Stalin Effect" to the Russian setup phase. IF you place too many units to the rear "Stalin" may arbitrarily order some of these units to guard the Russian Border with Germany or consider that those units in the rear prevent supplies from reaching the front, thus those units on the front have their readiness reduced. Just some really quick thoughts, but overall I like the concept of Russian deployment affecting US war readiness and the war readiness of Russia.

There are two issues here: Entrenchment of Minor Neutrals and Entrenchment of Neutral Major Powers 1. I agree that Major power nation units should not be able to entrench while neutral. 2. I would allow Minor Power units - such as those in Sweden and Spain and Norway to begin entrenching as a result of Allied Diplomatic Activity and Axis conquests of specific countries. Buy a chit and the specific neutral nation starts the entrenchment process for a period of say 6 months, after which the neutral nation units return to their normal non-entrenched status. For example: IF Axis Conquers Norway then Allies can expend a Diplomatic Chit on Sweden that convinces them to prepare for an Axis Invasion. (In addition: Allow the Allies can expend a 2nd Diplomatic Chit that will allow Swedes to deploy an additional Corps) - Swedish units enter entrenchments for 6 months. IF Axis Conquers Vichy France then Allies can expend a Diplomatic Chit on Spain that convinces their government to prepare for an Axis invasion - Spanish units enter entrenchment for 6 months. [ July 29, 2004, 03:46 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

Not if you can surprise your opponent, ie he thinks your fleet is in the Atlantic based on many games of experience.

Not if you can surprise your opponent, ie he thinks your fleet is in the Atlantic based on many games of experience.

I agree breaking the Italian fleet out into the Atlantic is a great tactic, all you have to do is bombard the port at Gibraltar to zero, so you ships can sail past the Garrison on the rock. Of course, its success depends on how many ships the Brits have lost in supporting their defense of France.

I agree breaking the Italian fleet out into the Atlantic is a great tactic, all you have to do is bombard the port at Gibraltar to zero, so you ships can sail past the Garrison on the rock. Of course, its success depends on how many ships the Brits have lost in supporting their defense of France.

Question - Have the playtesters been able to play a game (Human vs Human) even though some features are not finalized or not yet programmed into the current version? Ie mean - just to see if the Naval war is truely more interesting or if the switch to a larger map in Russia actually changes the balance of the game or if the battles in North Africa are more fluid. [ July 25, 2004, 01:07 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

Excellent summary DD. Much appreciated.

Many thanks for the summary, it is most useful.

In the event that your naval units are in another port when your country surrenders I think that 1 of 3 things will happen: 1. The 3rd party country will seize the ships (ie Spain/Turkey seizes the ships that are in its ports and addes them to their navy.) 2. The Crew gives up and goes home, after scuttling their ship. 3. The crew sets sail for an allied country that is still fighting.

I agree, SC2 with the hard and soft limits offers a simple and effective way to place on a nations force structure. In my view, this concept is fixed as part of the game design and players who want to see something added as an alternative option in this area should propose something simple and convince the designer that their "option" would enhance the game and its playability. Another alternative to consider, might be to say that the force limits might be based on X points of units, Corps = 1 point, Army = 2 points, Carrier = 4 Points. Therefore a nation can build 4 Corps OR 2 Armies OR 1 Carrier OR 2 Corps and 1 Army. This is a bit more flexible than the Hard and Soft limits by unit type. Still another idea, might be to allow the conquest of Oil Resources to increase the Force Limits of Specific types of units for specific countries. Ie Each Oil Resource controlled increases the Soft/Hard Limit for German Armor units by 1. This increases the importance of controlling specific resource hexes, especially for the Germans and Italians. Or say that if you field more Armor Units than your Force limit then each turn every Armor unit has a 10% to lose half its action points each turn, due to a fuel shortage. So a unit might have its movement reduced from 6 hexes to 3 hexes if it experiences a fuel shortage. [ July 23, 2004, 11:22 AM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

"Officially", Turkey did not allow the warships from the warring countries to use the Daranelles until it joined the war. However, it would be interesting if you could expend diplomatic chits for a chance to convince them to.

Pasive Minor Allies- ie Minor nations that allow your ships to transit their ports and be repaired there. Any attacks on ships in a Passive Allied Nation Port requires a declaration of war against that nation. Major Allied nation receives no production bonus from a Passive Minor Allied Nation. Also, If a Nation surrenders and has naval units in a Minor Allied Port, there is a 20% that those ships become units of that Minor Allied Nation. So: 1. True Neutral Nation 2. Passive Minor Ally 3. True Minor Nation Ally Example: UK ships could seek shelter in US ports while US is still neutral. If UK surrenders those ships have a 25% to become US Naval Units. Example: Turkey allows UK units to sail through the straits to the Black Sea. [ July 22, 2004, 11:33 AM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

I like this concept, espcially if the pop-ups are related to the current situation in Europe. [ July 22, 2004, 11:14 AM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

I don't think that the USSR was in much of a position to launch an aggressive strategy of World Conquest perior to WWII. They had just suffered through several years of famine and purged their officer corps. The army was not trusted by the political officers and the Soviet leadership was focused on avoiding any action that would anger Stalin, and lead to their exectution. Also, with the pre-war red hysteria in the US any Soviet expanision might have lead to a UK/Germany/USA alliance against Russia.

1. If a player withdraws from player during a multiplayer game can control of his nation be assigned to another player or to the AI? 2. Can you play as the UK/USA/France player and have the AI control the Russians? [ July 19, 2004, 04:11 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

At the least I would like to see the Naval AI become more aggressive at higher levels of player. What does this mean? Well, at intermediate or expert level AI the Italian navy will actively hunt down enemy ships in the Med if it can achieve 2:0 superiority. Now, I am not saying that the AI should see the location of enemy naval ships, but that it should know the number in the Mediterrean and execute a search - involving ships and Italian air units - based on this information. The Allied AI, if by some chance the Axis has obtained naval superiority in the Atlantic, will act to counter this and not blindly send out American transports to be sunk by waiting Axis subs. The UK AI will will decide what to do with the UK fleet in the Mediterrean (which in SC1 always stayed around Cairo), no longer leaving it to be sunk by the Italian fleet at its leisure. [ July 16, 2004, 06:56 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

I believe that this issue was covered in the SC Forum. As I recall the reason is due to laws in Germany (a market for SC and SC2) preventing the showing of certain symbols.