Flash Gordon

"I'd agree with that, except that I think IT dwarfs the other choices in significance to such an extent that there really isn't a choice. No German player in his right mind is going to ponder whether he should invest in IT or something else; in every game I've played, IT has been the first choice, and there's nothing else even in 2nd place." Exactly - investing in IT SHOULD be one of the first things that a player does in the game. And in real life, Germany should have geared up its industry to a wartime footing wayyy before it actually did - why? Because had it done so, the outcome of the war might have been different. We are all probably students of history to one extent or another and we can probably recite some of the mistakes that the Axis made during the WWII in terms of prosecuting the war. If the game LOCKS us into committing the same mistakes they made, it no longer becomes a game, it becomes a re-enactment engine. Plus, it also makes the chance of an Axis victory almost non-existent - realistic perhaps, but not much fun game-wise.

Er, no... ...the Battle of Britain was won by radar which acted as a force multiplier for the British. Basically, they were able to put their planes where and when they were the most needed. It was also won by the fact that the Luftwaffe switched from striking airfields to London, itself. Had they continued their attacks on the airfields, they would have achieved air superiority over Southern England. However, all that would have been moot because Germany did not have the naval resources at the time to pull off a cross-channel invasion. Flash

I like most of these suggestions but I don't like the idea of industrial technology being hardwired into the game. Having such things follow a historical (deterministic) path takes SC away from being a game to being a history replicator. One of Germany's big mistakes (there were several) in WWII is that it did not gear up its industry to a wartime footing until quite late in the war. There were many reasons why this was done. However, to force the player to follow this same path if playing Germany is too deterministic. If a person wants to invest in industry, fine, let them - that should be their choice and not the games. Investing in industry means that some sort of trade off is being made, i.e. you can't invest in something else or you can't produce more units this turn, etc. Making research a little slower across the board (it seems to advance too quickly in the game - in one game, the USAAF had level 4-5 jets in late '42) would address many of the strange things one sees in the game. I didn't realize that the ability of tanks to kill infantry did not increase as they got better. Historically, the role of tanks has been to kill infantry and protect friendly infantry from enemy tanks. Conversely, the role of infantry has been to seize real estate and protect tanks from infantry in built up areas where tanks are vulnerable. It would be nice if the combat system somehow took this into account. BTW - where is artillary in the game?

You have a PC AND a Mac?

Has anyone declared war on Switzerland?

How would you go about modeling supply lines in a game of this scale? I guess I could think of one but it would be a total headache. Also, partisan groups can't seem to "hide" very well, which was one of their strengths. Once they appear, they're just a regular unit.

SC2, like any good sequel, should deliver the same...but more. The basic formula in SC was sound. It just requires some tweaking. No doubt, some of these tweaks will go into the final 1.06 patch. The ones that would require extensive re-writing of the code, etc. will probably go into SC2. I'm just hoping that SC2 covers the entire world. THAT would be fun and would cover a lot of what ifs? Also, a bit more diplomacy would be cool - maybe a way in which to encourage countries that are friendly to you to enter the war on your side? Right now, with the random war entry, some strange things can happen. One example is the entry of Finland into the war on the side of the Axis. This seems to be triggered by the entry of the USSR into the war with a delay of a turn or two. This can cause strange things to happen. Once, I waited too long as the Axis and the USSR declared war and began to push into Germany. They had gotten as far as taking Poland when Finland suddenly declared war on them (and got destroyed in the process). A better diplomatic layer to the game would be nice if it can avoid weirdness like this (why on Earth would Finland enter a war like that?).

nah, you wont get it at any shops thought over there its the same :confused: only exclusively from mighty battlefront.com, okay shipping works of course if you got a credit card like some friends of mine[/QB]</font>

Is it not available in Germany?

What exactly is Eiffel? I know SC was written using it - is it some sort of programming language? What's it like?

Actually, I like that fact that research is dictated partially by chance. It makes the game interesting - you might be winning the war only to have your opponent literally pull off a Hail Mary and develop some super-duper weapon that wins it for him. However, with all things, if you play your cards right, you can minimize the effect that luck has on research, i.e. put all your resources in ONE field. And frankly, being involved in R & D myself, a lot of these things happen out of the blue. Progress in research does NOT follow a set schedule. A lot of times, you sweat, weep, scream in frustration and get nowhere and then one day, BANG, something wonderful happens. So I think R & D is SC is fairly "realistic" - my only gripe is that some advances seem to come really fast and some countries seem to have super duper scientists (Italy, being the best example).

Yes, the demo was too short. I played it obsessively, trying to win the war within the year it gave me . Finally, I broke down and bought the full game. The full game is just like the demo - except you have until May 1946 to win the war. It's well worth the $25. I got a LOT of enjoyment out of it (and still do).

I don't think partisans are completely useless. They serve to tie up troops that you have to keep garrisoned in certain regions if you want to avoid the headache that a partisan unit on the loose can cause. I think the game presents partisans in a fairly balanced way. It's just strange that only Yugoslavia and the USSR seem to have partisans - and apparently, USSR partisans stop operating once the USSR capitulates (I wish I knew that earlier because THEN I would have transferred my entire war machine to the west - as it was, in the first game that I defeated the USSR, I had a big chunk of my military still in the east becasue I was concerned about partisans running amuck).

Cheating like this (actually, cheating of any kind) is just plain sad. If someone wants to win that badly...well, I wish them a happy life.

For much of the war, the bulk of Germany's forces were EAST fighting the Red Army. [ November 05, 2002, 05:31 PM: Message edited by: Flash Gordon ]

Hopefully, the answer will be: YES

If you make an Axis invasion of North America impossible, you change Strategic Command from a game into a re-enactment machine. It SHOULD be possible. Only it should be extremely difficult and very unlikely. IF the Kriegsmarine and Italian Navy manage to overpower the Royal Navy and the US Atlantic Fleet and IF they are able to transport enough troops across the Atlantic to subdue the Canadian and US armies and IF they have enough troops to garrison their "colonial" possession sure, it should be possible. However getting to those IF's should be pretty difficult. Germany's navy was pretty weak at the beginning of the war (and this is reflected in the game) and Gibraltar and the Suez prevented the Italian navy from breaking out into the Atlantic. Plus, I don't think either side had adequate forms of transporting troops across large bodies of water. The invasion of England caused some headaches to the Wehrmacht because all they had were river barges which probably would have tipped over in the Channel. And the Kriegsmarine was pretty lukewarm to any idea of invading England. This is probably why every successful invasion of England in the game has to occur AFTER the USSR is subdued (and its resources plundered). Anyway, let's not take things too far. SC is an enjoyable game and I've had a lot of fun playing it and I will probably continue to do so. A lot of our suggestions to improve on SC will probably have to wait on SC2, otherwise, poor Hubert will be writing patches and upgrades for the rest of his life. I think one thing that could be done to prevent some of the more weird happenings in SC (which could possibly be used in SC2) are: Make the purchase of units cost both MMP's AND TIME, i.e. make it impossible to just "buy" an aircraft carrier or a battleship...the way it stands right now, you pay the MMP's (if you have them) and Voila! you have a battleship in two weeks. Hmmm...does anyone remember the system in that old game Empire where the production of certain units took a certain amount of time. An introduction of something like this would get rid of most of the "Invasion USA" situations because by the time that Germany has accumulated enough resources and industrial might to build such a naval armada capable of crossing the Atlantic and invading the USA, it would take forever to do so. -and- Go to a bigger map which would hopefully include more of Canada and the USA. It's difficult to conquer the USSR because of its vast size. The same should apply for Canada and the USA. If the Axis do manage to build a powerful navy, etc. and land troops on North America, bear in mind that they will probably be in for a lonnnggg struggle. -and- Allow the player to select when the war ends. This can be selected at the beginning of the game. Make the default May 1946 like it is right now but allow people to play around with it. It does get a little frustrating when you are in the middle of a good fight only to have peace be declared.

The tragic thing about those Red Army stragglers that formed up partisan groups was that when they managed to break out and reach their own lines, they were tossed into jails (and worse) because of Stalin's paranoia. Can you just imagine what those guys went through? Being over-run by the Wehrmacht, fighting their way back to their own lines...and then instead of having medals pinned on their chests, being treated like traitors?

I just find it weird that that Ottawa is on the east coast of Canada in the game. WTF?!?! It's also odd that both Canada and the USA just surrender when their capitols are taken. I'd imagine the governments of both countries would be shifted westward (much like how things work with England and the USSR). One can argue about the "authenticity" of cross-Atlantic invasions but one thing is certain...they sure are fun...but weird in the game. My hope is that SC2 will have a full world map and that the Japanese can be brought into the Axis fold in the game. A full world map would also allow for some interesting campaigns - like, for instance, a post-WWII war between Germany/Italy against Japan with the USA and Canada split into German and Japanese zones of occupation.

Hubert - where did you get those new symbols for the unit counters? They look very nice? Are they one of the downloadable mods or is this something from the upcoming patch?

Nice, very nice! I thought research went a little bit too fast in the game, myself (at one point, the US had level 4-5 jets in '42 which guaranteed them air superiority over Northern France until the LW and RA could catch up technologically). The Suez Canal should open up some nice possibilities. Finally, a real desert war!

Part of the gaminess is due to the fact that you "buy" units using MMP's that you save up. The game would be much better if instead of buying units, you put the MMP's towards certain aspects of industry within your country, i.e. instead of "buying" air-fleets, you put MMP's towards gearing up the air-craft industry of your country, which results in increased production of air-craft AS TIME GOES BY. It should be possible for any country to build up a massive air fleet or navy or whatever...but it should take time and not be instantaneous.

How did you get rockets within range of Gibraltar?!?!

Actually...is blockading in the scope of the game? I don't think I've ever parked a warship off the port of Malta for very long since the RAF keeps hammering it... Henri, the game is excellent - well worth the money spent. I've already had some marathon gaming sessions playing it. I'm not sure whether that's good or bad...it's like crack cocaine in electronic form and I'm only now just weening myself off of it. My only real gripes are the Suez Canal thing and that the AI is a little funny...the British seem very "cautious" in it (too cautious IMHO) while the Russians are pretty good. Hope you have fun with it. And historically, Malta was a tough nut to crack.

Historically, Malta was significant because the RAF and the Royal Navy were able to sortie from it to hit Italian shipping going to North Africa, shipping which was needed to feed the Italian/German offensive eastward. Unfortunately, because of the whole Suez thingy, the British forces in Alexandria aren't much of a threat so there really isn't any point in making a drive east so Malta loses its importance in the game - although it is annoying when you're sailing a newly repaired battleship by it and the RAF decides to bomb it . And it's impossible to blockade it and whittle it away since it can rebuild as fast as you can smash it when in reality, the Allies had a tough time getting supply convoys through to Malta. I should've tried V-2'ing Malta in the last game I played. I had developed Level 5 rockets and I was trying to use them to smash southern England - unfortunately, I learned a very expensive lesson. If you don't have air superiority, the Allies will bomb your nice, shiny rockets into scrap metal as fast as you can build them . Those rockets never got a shot off - they were bombed to pieces as soon as I built them. I should've transferred them all to Sicily. [ November 01, 2002, 12:33 AM: Message edited by: Flash Gordon ]