Andre Bolkonsky

Starfury, I'm looking forward to downloading your little gift. I've seen your work before, and it gets better with age. We'll find a weekend and hash out a full online game. Count on it. Hubert, SC might become the best game I've ever played, and I've played most all of them. The core system of 3rd Reich structure and Panzer General interface is brilliantly simplistic. Everytime I turn around, another friend from another place shows up. In that regard; I'd like to commend you for not letting your ego obstruct the efforts of guys like Starfury, Otto, and others who go to so much effort for the sheer love of the game. You'd be surprised how many games are diminished by the hubris of their developers; then again, since you seem to dodge that bullet, maybe you wouldn't. Keep up the good work, and let me know if I can lend a helping hand.

Great to see you around! I remember you very well from the CCIII forums, and saw you posting on this board. Contact me at Andre_Bolkonsky@hotmail.com for a little PBEM action, my friend.

Hi Panzinator, great to see you here. I appreciate you giving me the heads up on the game. I've enjoyed it so far. I agree with your points, but I've played the heavy assault to light assault unit sequence described above by Murks, and it does work better. You lose less troops, which saves cash and time from not having to dilute units through replacements. And I completely understand your points. There is probably a lot of good information buried on those 60-something pages; but there is so much BS in there it's awfully hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, as it were. We need to get a TCP/IP game going soon. Or PBEM if that suits your schedule better. You've got my email. Let me know. Thanks again for the heads up.

I just ordered a copy of SC, it arrived yesterday, and I think it is an excellent game. I have also suggested the game to several other gamers I know, all of whom have ordered their own copies. So, cheers to the game maker for doing things right. As a newbie, I was pleased to find a forum to discuss the game. I was looking for strats and insights into gameplay, perhaps some matches versus adult opponnents; however, it seems to be controlled by children. I feel like I'm suddenly in the middle of a pre-pubescent pissing match. Such things are hard to control, I know; but it is a reflection upon your community. I wish you the best of luck in resolving this issue, but I think you will find you will have a hard time maintaining profitable game dialogues while this continues.

For the amount of time the US army was actually in the field, they performed quite well. And, since that time, the US military has become an elite and unparalleled unit. Plus, it is no mystery that the great Kesselchract pincer encirclements at the onset of the Russian war captured hundreds of thouands of unarmed men. Forgive the United States army for equipping their soldiers, if you must. The US tactic has always been to send in a few well trained, well armed soldiers equipped with radios for the express purpose of serving as Foward Observers for artillery and air support. We found this a far superior tactic to taking peasants out of the field, giving every third one of them a rifle, and sending them across in waves screaming "Urra, Urra". And, to this day, the US tends to keep most of its weapons for its own use. As oppossed to Moscow's corrupt willingness to sell $150 million dollar subs to Columbian drug lords for $15 million in cold hard cash.

Bump My thanks, as a newbie, I found this post extremely helpful.

Considering Sgt. York was made in the opening stages of WWII as a virtual recruiting peice, maybe you can slide it into your list on a technicality. No?

Rambo, They have to land in Libya because the Axis have absolutely no way to put a force ashore anywhere else. The limitations on their ability to do a landing are so poor they are forced to take Crete with Paratroopers, and it was so costly they never dropped Paras en masse again. After that, you have to contend with the Quatarra Depression -- which only holy men, scorpions, and the SAS are wont to traverse -- which creates a massive bottleneck between Libya and Egypt proper. Third, you have to remember Monty is privelege to Ultra intercepts; and knows what Rommel will do before he does it. El Alamein was a total setup. There is simply no other way to attack Africa; and you have to remember Mussolini screwed this one up and started it. And the Italians are so stupid they issue dried pasta as a ration of choice in the desert. Hitler came in to save the day. Rommel, despite mulitple demands for a reorganization of the army forces involved never gained total control until it was simply too late to win. [ November 15, 2002, 03:04 AM: Message edited by: Andre Bolkonsky ]

A couple you left out. "Sargeant York"; greatest feel-good war movie ever. "In Harm's Way"; I cannot recommend it more highly, extremely well done, perfectly casted. A script so good even John Wayne can't screw it up.

By attacking the fleets at the spawn points, can I assume the French/UK fleets were waiting in position for the Italians to spawn, and then popped then on turn one? Or did you park over the spawn points and force battle that way? Just curious. Nice thread. I wish you had more details on your maneuvers.

Most of these have already been addressed, particularly the german myth of invincibility. So I'll take the leftovers. Yes and No . . . It depends on what era you are talking about. If you're talking about the Spanish Civil War, Poland and France; the Stuka is the meanest thing in the air, and is essentially a battlefeild sniper with a high explosive punch. But, by 1947, the US P-47 Thunderbolt was the meanest assault bomber in the air. The Germans called it the Hunter Bomber, and hated it about as much as we hated their high velocity 75's and 88's. And it was NOT an overrated threat. 5) I will agree with this, in part. Historically, Frankish and French army have always been considered the Creme de la creme of Europe. Throughout the Hundred Years war, the Isle de France around Paris was expanded to essentially the modern state of France we know now. During the Habsburg bid for power -- when Charles I controlled Spain, the wealth of the new world, and the Holy Roman Empire -- France stopped the Habsburgs from consolidating Europe under their control. And the armies of Louis XIV, and the engineering of men such as Vauban, made France a nation to be feared. However, when Napoleon was broken at Waterloo, it is like the desire of the French to make war evaporated. They have had moments, but have lost their love of conquest. ANd their own colonial wars following WWII were purely hypocritical and unsound attempts to hang onto past glory. 6) The goal is the Suez Canal, Check out a map sometime. Sure, England will destroy it; but this operation will deprive them of it. Egypt is the front door of India, the gateway to the oil rich kingdoms of Persia, and the back door to the Caucus mountains. Indeed, you'll remember an entire army group is dispatched from the Stalingrad campaign to peirce the Caucus and shut down Baku; and to link up with Rommel in Egypt. Needless to say, the collapse at Stalingrad prevented this outcome. But it is said the greatest feat of generalship of the war was the march of the Caucus army group back to the rapidly shrinking German lines while harried by Russian forces. 7) I will agree. Bravo, Victor Lazlo! 10) I completely and totally disagree with this statement. The entire key to the operation was pinning down major German forces while a beachhead was established. There was no way they could force their way onshore against elite resistance, so they had to trick themselves into position against a second line position. You want to call Patton the great stud, well, maybe. But he was the bait, because the Germans thought of him very highly. Patton called for an invasion at Pas de Calais, and the Germans (read that: Hitler) built his entire defense against Patton landing at Pas de Calais. And there were multiple intel ruses designed to support this theory. Hitler and others demanded all armor be kept in a central reserve and brought to bear upon the point of attack. That place was just behind the Pas de Calais. It was frozen in place, held in reserve, giving Bradley valuable time to expand his beachhead. Monty failed to take Caan (not surprisingly), but the ruse worked nonetheless. Rommel, who was well familiar with the Allied ability to interdict movement with tactical air power (see the comments on the P-47 above)had demanded the armor be kept close to the front lines in small packets to smash the landings on the beaches. And he was proven right. First, Hitler freezes the German army to await Patton's landing. Later, the US air force shuts down the German's ability to move en masse to block Allied advances. All the while, Bradley crawls onshore and cannot be gotten rid of. Indeed, it was Hitler's absolute fanaticism in his own correctness despite obviously being proven wrong that prompted Rommel to join the General's Bomb Plot following the Normandy landings. The end result is, beyond all hope, the invasion succeded. The second front was opened, and the West gets its share of the glory in beating Hitler. The Russians do the heavy lifting in the war; but without allied Air superiority, control of the Atlantic, and Murmansk convoys (Coupled with US engineering marvels that allow the Ural industrial move); russia falls like a stone.