Terif

Screenshots of the war : Royal Navy gathering at Gibraltar before the big clash with the italian navy: Middle of the battle – result: all italian ships (3 battleships, 2 cruisers, sub) and a transport destroyed: Axis starting an early Barbarossa – russians didn´t get much tech so far and have to fight against a technically superior enemy...nevertheless they beat back this attack against the fortressline at Kharkov:

In order to reestablish the connection to Spain, Axis assaults Vichy France and converts it in two turns with the help of one of his tanks. The other tank got operated into Madrid together with german HQ, airfleet and a couple of minor units - UK possesses no advanced anti-tank weapons, so it can only be attacked with air and carriers to at least keep its morale low. Since the tank can´t be destroyed, UK forces instead start killing the operated minor units around it...german HQ and airfleet that operated to Madrid are also under ground attack by UK forces coming from Bilbao - Valencia meanwhile got conquered too. Portugal gets convinced by some UK corps to join the allied cause, to open a harbour for the first arrival of US troops in Spain . Simultaneously Russia starts a major offensive at Kiev-Minsk area...Kiev gets conquered, the german army within destroyed - together with 2 corps protecting the city...Russia has to use its Paratroopers and let it jump into the swamps for the final kill - originally it was standing southwest of Odessa and intended to threaten Hungary and Bulgaria - but since Axis already saw them there, both capitals were most likely protected and so it got assigned to this now more important task .

The UK battleship shot at by spanish cruisers was actually a US luxus liner...as consequence USA declares war to Germany . In southern Russia a retreat gets ordered after the loss of an army + corps when the romanian oilfield got liberated by Axis...back to the fortification line at Kharkov. Nevertheless Odessa and Kiev are still in russian hands - a brave russian corps gets its last orders to stand and die in Kiev to protect the retreat. As now all german troops from Finland seemed to be operated into the south, Russian forces from Vologda and Archangelsk start a new offensive towards Leningrad-Finland, already reaching again the finish border... Meanwhile no news reach Berlin any more from Spain as all communications are down...British tanks and corps are already in the outskirts of Madrid - defender shot down to str 5 - while armies approach in the second wave. Next turn the conversion of Spain towards the allied cause should be complete . Sidenote: UK special forces start a commando raid against the german production center...occupying the empty Essen while bombers from Norway shoot the german mines into ruins.

The war continued - it is now April 19, 1942: Despite the loss of the russian task force, Finland operation proves to be a success: half a dozen russian units had been able to bind around 2 dozen axis units in the area for over half a year...among them the core of the german Wehrmacht and not only every single airfleet but also all 3 enemy tanks . So light russian forces were able to liberate after Kiev and Odessa now Smolensk and to conquer the romanian oilfields. It may soon be time to retreat as strong axis forces now operated to Minsk and Romania. In the Pripjet marshes there are already raging wild battles...only corps lost on each side so far, but as now the clear summer turns approach and Germany will be able to use its air again, Russia is already preparing their fortification lines around Kharkov for the save return of their defenders... Siberians did not arrive so far, but finally Russia catched up in Infantry Tech and got Level 3 last turn . But the biggest operation just started in the West: USA still neutral and at 86%, so british admirality in London prepared in secret during the last turns on their own the largest military operation in british history...millions of soldiers got loaded into amphibs and transports during the last months and sent to hidden positions in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, waiting for the signal to strike... At April 19, 1942, Operation „Sledgehammer“ begins...: The citizens of the brave fortress of Gibraltar are the first to notice the upcoming storm when suddenly out of the blue, thousands of Royal Airforce aircrafts darken the sky and a deep grumbling drown out all other sounds... Simultaneously over 2 million british soldiers land along the spanish coast, in the initial strike conquering the northern city of Bilbao and also cutting of the entire spanish peninsula from any european reinforcements...immediately british main forces move deep in the interior, approaching Madrid, while british battleships shield the landings around Bordeaux and Valencia....

Luck doesn´t determine who wins the game - it only determines which strategies to use . Of course you run into problems if you insist to use the same strategy every time no matter which circumstances. But luck/random factors can handicap just your prefered strategy...as long as you stay flesible and change it when necessary according to the situation, luck is no deciding factor in SC2 . Some tips (while Liam already stated some possibilites ): - Malta effect starts in August 1940, so if you send your troops before this time you will have full supply and the ability to operate in any case - if Tobruk (or other cities) is already reduced to zero, then just place your HQ in the fortress itself (here supply is always minimum 1 at the start of your turn) and it will have full supply so units up to 2 tiles away can be reinforced also to full strength. Your air can reach Alexandria from Tobruk and your units get their combat value mainly from HQ support, their own strength points and can also use the 25% readiness boost from attacking before moving, i.e. have minimum 75% readiness in battle, usually more. - Infantry weapons level 3 are nice to have but no game breaker if you don´t have it. If you don´t have it (but the enemy has...) you only should reduce/slow down your aggressive advancements (i.e. no spearheads too far into enemy territory), keep your units together and more rely on your air to decrease the enemies morale and readiness first before you attack. Then it doesn´t matter if you have IW 1,2 or 3. The enemy units will still be killed, you may need more own units to do that, but since you have lower tech your units are cheaper and should stay closer together, so you have those additional units . Summary: Don´t despair because of random/luck effects - just think how you can use the new situation to your advantage and which measures and strategies under these new premises are better or necessary now. Random/luck effects never determine for itself the outcome of the game, they force you to (re-) think about your strategies and never be lazy. If you do that, everything will become allright .

Yep, if you have Quantitiy you carefully have to choose when and where to strike - if you do it at the wrong place or time, your units will be killed by enemy Quality . Same the other way round: with few high Quality units you also have to choose the right spots and weather, otherwise they will be overrun by the numerical superior enemy - and for Quality/Quantity, circumstances for the right opportunity are clearly different...that´s where your abilities as commander come into play . Battle report - November 16, 1941: The russian expedition force in Finland - originally consisting of HQ, 1 tank, 1 airfleet and 4 armies - should cease to exist next turn since it is cut off from supply and also not reinforced any more - kamikaze orders have already been given . Nevertheless Axis show first signs of desperation as they send Bock and a spanish tank directly to the frontline to encounter russian combat units face to face northeast of Leningrad... Further south, Russia liberates Kiev and Odessa. Smolensk is next as russian forces from Moskov-Kiev approach from 3 sides. Syria has been integrated into the russian empire. First spanish unit bites the dust as it gets killed in the desert of spanish Morocco when the defenders of Tangier have to capitulate. USA at 67% readiness.

To have tech is nice and with the right investments will come sooner or later anyway, but not to have it is not the end of the world - unless you loose patience and do something stupid . Even with only IW 1 like Britain and Germany already start with, your armies can kill enemy units with 3 hits (attack value of 4) - if you have IW 3 this means you only need 2 hits, but without tech your units are cheaper, so in fact it´s not that much of a difference . Back to the battle: In Germany mothers and wifes have to say goodbye to their beloved ones as every man and child that can hold a weapon gets stuffed into train waggons and sent to Helsinki or Leningrad into the big battle there - that must have been expensive all those operation movements... . In November 1941 it is still clear weather for Axis up there (mud for Russia), so the largest part of the russian expedition forces will most likely die - but they will die as heroes, fighting successfully all those months against overwhelming odds...outteched, outnumbered and against all german, spanish, italian and romanian airfleets the enemy can muster...only one russian army lost so far in those battles, but more will soon follow with almost certainty . Several russian corps from Vologda try to help and cut the axis connection between Leningrad and their forces near Archangelsk several times, but now there is a solid enemy wall built behind the river north of Leningrad and the russian expedition forces are on their own... Since all german forces are busy in Finland and russian forces at Kharkov-Sevastopol now equipped with IW 2 + AT 2 weapons, Russia decides to go in the offensive: Kiev is under attack and the minor army in the citiy reduced to str 3 by several russian armies and corps, Odessa (also minor army within) gets surounded and cut off - first russian forces reach Romania... . In the Med, Royal Navy probes for empty cities, but all italian cities are defended by mercenaries - most italians got killed or imprisoned in Africa, so foreign forces from all over the axis world now have to defend the country...only Albania is empty and gets occupied immediately by british soldiers. In the Baltic the last russian str 1 cruiser sinks in battle against the german str 1 cruiser - 3 Royal Navy ships meanwhile are hammering the axis defenders of Denmark to open a seapath into the Baltic. [ April 13, 2007, 09:28 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

Yes luck influences every game - but only concerning which strategies to use and the decisions when or where to attack with your forces . Here the same: Spain joining means only Allies among other things will have to change their landing site for D-day - but for the goal to win the game it makes no difference as Axis had to spend a lot of mpps into diplo to convince it and Allies got the pacific fleet - this compensates for Axis getting Spain, especially as those diplo mpps couldn´t be used to produce units for Barbarossa and Germany is now extremely weak on the ground. Even more with Motor 2 as this tech makes units a lot more expensive . Tech it´s the same: when Russia was 2 techs behind in IW and AT, they simply had to play more defensively - on the bride side low tech means cheap and more units . As long as Russia doesn´t try a stupid counterattack with such a tech disadvantage, it has no real influence on the outcome of the game - only to the decission when and where to strike. I.e. Russia will have to sacrifice some space for time to catch up - which it now slowly but surely does . Finland: Here let´s see who cuts off who - Russian light forces start a cut off movement from Vologda of their own to cut off the two german corps near Archangel while the heavy combat forces in Finland move eastwards to catch them from the other side . Meantime Tirpitz battleship got sunk in the Baltic by allied bombers - only a str 1 german cruiser is all that´s left now from the once proud Kriegsmarine...exchanging salvoes with the last str 1 russian cruiser there...neither of them is able to really fight any more so let´s see which one sinks first... In the Mediterranean spanish cruisers sink a str 2 british battleship near Sicily - should be one of its last actions there. Irak gets conquered by russian paratroopers with the help of UK forces. Syria is next.

Yep, the fundamentals are not for nothing called fundamentals . Here in the second game the german Führer also made some basic (but not as deadly) mistakes like repairing/upgrading his fleet when the naval battle was already lost, sending lots of italians via amphibs into the desert to die without water and supply (=HQ missing + no city close by...) or to send his airfleets camping at the atlantic coast while attacking Brest... ...so Royal Navy had some juicy targets to practice their cannons on for several turns . Side effect was a destroyed german army in front of Brest before it finally got overrun by the huns. Spring 1941 saw a major naval battle around Gibraltar-Algier-Sicily. Italian navy researched and upgraded every ship to Gun Laying Radar level 1 but got overwhelmed by the numerically superior combined british fleet near Gibraltar. They tried to flee east towards their homeports, but only to encounter the egyptian fleet that moved full speed towards the battle and cut the italians off from their retreat possiblilities - they tried to use a corps transport to spot a save way home, only to loose them too . So 3 italian battleships, 2 cruisers and a sub are now rusting at the bottom of the sea... Meantime in western Africa several lonely italian armies and corps landed without HQ support or supply, declaring war to Tunis too but of course only scratching the defender (1 str point lost...). So O´Connor decided to land with his task force in western Africa and get rid of those buggers - at the end 3 italian armies and 4 corps went into british prison camps. Summer 41: Africa completely under british control except for spanish Marocco that is under attack now. Surprisingly Axis started a desperate attack against Russia very early in the last spring turn - russian soldiers were just having their tea, sent to them by their british friends and playing cards when they heard the patter of enemy feets... ...and so german invaders entered russian soil already in June 1941. Infantry Weapons 2, AT 2, Motor 2, Jet 2 on the german side, only IW 1 (5 chits) + AT 1 (IT 0) for Russia. In August 41 Germany already presents IW 3, AT 3. Franco received his first presents in February 40, reacting with a readiness increase towards Axis. Then in Summer 1940 Axis got 3 spanish diplo hits in a row despite 5 UK chits countering, followed by another one half a year later and a lucky last Axis hit in Spain caused it finally to join in July 1941 - after the turn Axis declared war to Russia (so in the allied turn diplo would have been blocked completely), they got the last hit so Spain jumped over 90% and joined. The russian front cities fall without much of a fight as to be expected - but russian forces repell an attack against Kharkov by destroying one of the invading corps when it came too close to the defence systems. Now it is August 1941: Finland under attack by Russia, but since Leningrad should fall next turn and german IW 3, AT 3 forces are defending Helsinki against the IW 1 russian units, most likely will hold as the bulk of the axis forces and all air is concentrated in the area. Finish HQ got reinforced to str 10 but nevertheless destroyed together with 2 finish corps. The last german cruiser and Tirpitz battleship also repaired: 13 cruiser str points in total and 5 battleship strenght points...but Tirpitz already shoot down to str 5 again and the cruiser just survived a bomber strike east of Helsinki at str 1 - together with the investments into the italian fleet, Axis poured many, many mpps into an already lost (naval) cause... Axis have a lot of open terrain in Russia since most corps are still in the production queue, but Iran is russian occupied, Iraq and Syria will follow shortly. Tech and diplo luck is with Axis, but on the battlefield it looks pretty grim... - Axis surounded by enemy territory from all sides, US readiness only in its 50s but Allies nevertheless already far superior in mpps and numbers... [ April 12, 2007, 09:13 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

Game as Allies: It is June 16, 1940 - 2 french armies in Maginot are still resisting the invaders while 2 others in front of Paris defend the fully entrenched tank unit in the city. An already heavily damaged but uncautious german army gets first reduced to str 1 by those french armies and finally killed by 3 airstrikes. German losses in France now 2 units: 1 army, 1 corps. Meanwhile the french fleet finishes its business in the Baltic, sinking sub and cruiser near Narvik. Now only 1 damaged cruiser hiding in Königsberg port remains (old mistake many players make: it got repaired several times, despite the bulk of the german fleet already sunk so it is not even a threat to the Royal Navy only costing german mpps and not a single one on the british side...) and the Atlantic sub, just raiding convois to Egypt... Game as Axis - June 2nd, 1940: No Royal Navy in the british channel...no ground forces built for defence...time to get the price... Italian air spotts an empty London, so german paratroopers catch the next planes and take the undefended city - british citizens reliefed about the near end of the war threw a welcome party on the streets, greeting with balloons and confetti the now in port arriving german HQ staff and endless columns of soldiers, disembarking from transports. Airfields around London get overhauled while german fighters land in their new bases of operation. Meanwhile Tobruk sees a massive buildup of a mixed Axis expedition force before moving towards Alexandria and the "German Afrika Korps" got officially established .

Yep, the allied commander showed in previous wars a habit not to protect his Norway expedition but instead to send his ships on anti-subwarfare duty in the Atlantic . So in this war it was time to make him pay the price and sink UK´s amphib army and corps (cut off cruiser will shortly follow when the ice melts away and storms calm down ), especially as at first he didn´t send the french fleet towards Norway - so only a lousy RN cruiser (now str 4), one french battleship and a carrier seem to be in the area In our mirror game with Liam Axis, german fleet commanders also heavily cursed their high command for a screwed up operation against Denmark that now is heavily defended and staying allied - so the combined anglo-french fleet just hunt them down in the Baltic...they try to hide near the swedish port, but it doesn´t help any more...a french battle line with 2 carriers behind them is just making short process with them .

@TaoJah: Yep, a less luck based research system could be useful - on the other side this would take away those emotional moments when you want to throw your computer out of the window because of getting no breakthrough or biting into your pillow... @Konigs: My Russia always sells in turn one rocket and intel research (useless for them) and so can already invest 2 chits into something more useful. Depending on the research advances Infrastructure also gets sold later if it didn´t hit so Russia can buy another IW chit instead . This way you get level 3 nearly guaranteed latest in 1941 - but even if you don´t have much techs till Barbarossa, Russia has enough cheap corps and space that it can trade for time .

I know, if you don´t get the expected results or the results you hoped for, it is quite natural to be angry at first - happens to me too when I have a streak of bad luck with tech or diplo...but as long as you don´t throw the towel in you always have the possibility to compensate for it and usually it will even out anyway later. Just take a step back, breath deep and continue to fight - main mistake many player do is starting to do crazy or desperate things and later to blame bad luck for the loss of the war while in reality their following decissions were the real cause .

First: 5 chits in IT instead of IW is certainly not the best choice Second: Chance for this to happen once (5 chits, 4 years, no success) would be 0.00000319 % = 1 game out of 31 million 356 thousand and 256 games Chance for it to happen twice: astronomically low... Sorry, but this only proves the selected awareness of humans concerning luck - I am pretty sure this event never really happened as described, only a result of selective memory :cool: - and if it did, it won´t happen again the next few million years in your games = you can now neglect this luck factor...

As a first measure I would recommend to read the SC2-Course at Panzerliga: here Or even better: to play a Human vs Human game against an axis opponent with a bit experience . Against the AI, the section about russian readiness is the most important one - Since you loose every game, I guess this is one of your main problems: Russian readiness increasing too fast because of neglecting the necessary border garrisons. If you do it right, Russia will not join before End of 1941 and Axis have enough time to prepare Barbarossa. Fall Weiss: Germany should start with conquering Poland in time (usually 3-4 turns needed), taking Low Countries and Denmark afterwards or in turn 2 and then conquering France till Spring/Summer 1940. After this Africa and Egypt are next - use your italian navy to clear the path to Africa for your transports/amphibs. Minimum required forces are german HQ + 2 armies + 2 corps...if Allies try to defend Egypt, then also 2-3 airfleets and if necessary additional 2-3 corps/armies, so you should have no problems conquering it, just keep your HQ in range of the cities or ports (a city/port at str 5 means your HQ can stay up to 4 clear tiles away from it to receive supply - each str point less reduces this by 1 tile). Now you have a good year to build up your forces for Barbarossa and can also choose to conquer some more countries (Tunis + Algier and e.g. Vichy + Spain if you diploed Hungary + Romania...) Since we are at diplomacy: Germany has 2 main options (without diplo, Allies will most likely influence Spain and the minors won´t join = bad): - influencing Spain (5+3 chits) in the hope to maybe convincing it to join - or at least force UK to counter it with 5 chits of their own - or to diplo Hungary + Romania, saves mpps and Axis have the option to conquer Spain/Vichy in 1940 Research: You should always keep it near maximum (=750mpps). First priority has Infantry Weapons tech: 3 chits minimum investment as soon as possible, if not at level 3 till end of 1940, then use more chits, if necessary 5 since this is the most important tech. Anti-tank is also important and should be next on the list, followed by anti-air. The rest (when research capacities are free) is up to you and your planed strategy . Some of the gravest mistakes many axis players make and that should be avoided are: 1) to battle for naval superiority without a greater goal behind it - i.e. attacking allied ships with airfleets (or even building bombers) and repairing their own ships after battles. This is extremely expensive and only useful if Axis want to clear the seapaths for a sealion or to starve Britain with subs – but against a good allied player who suspects that and knows how to react, it won´t work anyway.. . In any case such battles lead to very weak ground forces for Barbarossa and - depending on the extent of the investments into the naval warfare - Axis most likely looses the initiative in Russia. 2) frequent and unnecessary operating, transporting and building of amphibs during the mid game. This is also pretty expensive and uses up a lot of ressources. Before you operate a unit, think twice if it is really necessary or if it can´t simply walk instead or if it is really needed at its destination point and when . Use only as much units in a distant operation as necessary and not more. [ April 05, 2007, 10:57 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

@Bromley: The fortifications around the mine were more a try to build an eight world wonder than building it for war purposes...or you could say it was the work of some idle engineers that had nothing better to do any more Anyway, beeing able to build a lot of fortifications first seems to be not unhistorical (Key word: "Atlantic Wall") and more important at the moment helps the balance in the game: Space is limited in France and since in open terrain the attacker has a huge advantage in SC2, Allies simply could overrun it within 2-3 turns if there would not be enough fortifications as deterrent. Fortifications also force the enemy to think before encountering the enemy and to plan their attacks (including to use enough airpower first to weaken the enemy before the ground troops can attack..), instead of just moving forward and killing everything in the way like it was the case before engineers/fortifications became usable via the last patches .

If you make a custom mod and limit chits to 1, then you really have the luck factor back in the game as then it is in deed pure luck if you get your techs at the right time - only 3% chance for this chit to reach lv 3...simply luck when or if it fires . But in the standard Fall Weiss game you can compensate by increasing your investments. Together with the many turns and lots of random small events, luck nearly always evens out during the course of a game. The problem is only the psychological effect...or the regrettable fact that a lot of players just quit or go kamikaze if things don´t go in their favour instead of continuing to fight...where they would notice that it all evens out. In SC2 (same as SC1) there will always be ups and downs - luck only plays a role if someone just surrenders during the first down - otherwise it would even out later . In any case, compared to the effects of strategic decissions and therefore won/lost battles, the random effects influence on a game is nearly neglectable. It only changes the necessary strategies, but has no real influence on the outcome. Pretty much the same as surrendering because of loosing one or two units (like some players unfortunately did and do...) when in the game are units involved worth tens of thousands of mpps...compared to the overall forces such a loss is objectively more than unimportant, but often the psychological impact is devastating and leads to a (unnecessary) surrender - same as with luck: neglectable objective impact, only a huge psychological influence . A pretty good example/comparison for this psychological effect is waiting in a line before the cash point...you always seem to be unlucky and the lines left and right of you are always moving faster forward than yours...so in the end you leave your line to get into one of the faster moving ones...(=quitting the game to start a new one where you will have more "luck")...only to notice that now your old line is moving faster forward... ..even if the line is objectively not moving slower, it seems so because of selective perception - humans usually notice and remember the bad things much better than the good things - which was necessary in evolution to improve the learning curve, but is bad when playing a strategy game... . [ April 05, 2007, 10:03 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

So far and with V1.06 I have to say that luck fortunately plays no role in SC2 except if you role the dice by your own free will . Terif vs Terif: Chances to win with either side is 50/50 - it only depends on the strategies employed and if they are the right counter to the opponents currently used strategy . Especially research and having Infantry Weapons level 3 is not a matter of luck but of investing the proper amount of chits into it. Yes, if you only invest the minimum chits necessary (= 2 chits), then luck will decide if you get level 3 in time or not. But if you invest right (= don´t trust/hope for luck ) and buy enough chits (my standard investment is e.g. for Germany 3 chits as the first thing in 1939 and if it is not at level 3 end of 1940 then adding more chits (up to researching with 5 in the extreme), so you will nearly always have level 3 at the start of Barbarossa and so far in 99,9% of the games till end of 1941... For Russia the same: you will get a certain amount of research advances till Barbarossa, some players prefer to invest into economic techs first, but then they don´t have to wonder if they don´t have full combat techs at Barbarossas start - you can´t have both usually . As long as Russia goes IW and AT first and don´t try to save mpps by underinvesting into them (and trying luck...), it will also get the necessary techs in time. Even if you wouldn´t get the necessary techs or invest in the wrong order - lower combat techs also means cheaper units which offsets partially the disadvantage. But more important: if you are too inferior in tech, then simply don´t attack during this time ! If you do it despite, your fault . In SC2 both sides have enough space available to trade for time if necessary, so they can research, built up etc whatever necessary. From my observations research/diplo/combat luck makes no objective difference in the game as you can compensate everything by changing your plans accordingly. The main effect of such things is the psychological effect on the player - too many then just throw in the towel (either directly by quiting or by starting kamikaze moves respectively desperate, suicidal attacks). But this would not be necessary if they would just adapt to the situation and look for a way to compensate a certain disadvantage - but usually all random things even out in the long run anyway. E.g. without sufficient tech you only need to play for some time a bit more defensively so you can catch up, or swarm the enemy with your low tech but cheap units...look for the weak spots and attack there instead of getting slaughtered by silly attacks against the strong points, or use numerical superiority to offset the lower attack values...lots of possibilities . Lastly in SC2 a tech level difference makes no real difference in the game - supply, HQ command and readiness have a far greater influence on a battle and the right battle order and strategic decissions where to use your units and ressources determines who will win the game .

I can only agree with Bromley : As it is, Spain is pretty balanced - every strategy concerning it has its pros and cons. Getting it via Diplo is in no way a game breaker (and if UK counters also very unlikely...), only a slight advantage for Axis but offset by the pacific fleet for USA and the diplo chit costs necessary to pursuade Spain into joininig - often more expensive than the units Axis will get for it and all those mpps will be missing for Barbarossa . Axis have for Diplo 2 choices: - either diplo Spain to force UK to invest also 5 chits (if UK does, then it is very unlikely Spain joins Axis (which makes it the standard reaction), without counter-chits it most likely does) and to have a (very slight) change of convincing Spain into joining - or to diplo Hungary+Romania, so they will join earlier (which they usually do) and Axis have more mpps for Barbarossa as well as the possibility to conquer Spain/Vichy when they like Todays, veteran axis players use 3 main strategies concerning Spain: - either they leave it neutral throughout the game, concentrating on Russia - or they leave it only neutral till Barbarossa and then first leave Russia alone, concentrating on collecting the neutrals - or they diplo Hungary+Romania and conquer Spain+Vichy in 1940 All three strategies have their advantages and disadvantages and so far proved to be pretty much equal concerning the goal to win the war. Which one to choose only depends on the planed/prefered strategy and if Axis want to counter a certain allied strategy .

Yep, Axis engineers always get a lot of practice... - here a screenshot from a different game with some more fortifications

Yes, you can either deselect the victory conditions when you start a game (options -> advanced -> scripts -> victory)- this way you have an endless game. Or you can set in the editor a date of your choosing when you want the game to end.

Allied first D-day at Brussel – before german reinforcements arrive: and 2 weeks later: Winter 42: German forces preparing the assault against Rostov: German main forces approaching russian mountain fortress in the Urals... Allies advancing in France, with the spanish border reaching their maximum expansion... ...and the scenery 4 weeks later: Last russian offensive against Kazan after they slowly got grinded down near Kuybyshev: And end of the war after a bloody nose for the russian spearhead:

Here my rocket strategy was fun to play - but Axis endangered during 1941 as they were extremely weak on the ground and close to beeing overrun by Russia. Rockets are VERY expensive and together with the added costs of motorization 2, Germany never managed to build all airfleets, armies or tanks till the end of game ! Usually it has them already in 1942 and here end of 1943 still over half a dozen were missing and never built . War photographies from during the battles after the end of war in the allied turn after August 29, 1943: Russian invasion of Romania begins: Due to all the investments into rockets, there are insufficient ground forces – difficult times for Axis and allied all-time high: [ April 02, 2007, 04:28 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

So far I have to say IMHO Fall Weiss is nearly perfectly balanced - some players think there is an allied bias, others think an axis bias...in average it is balanced . At least my mirror games with both sides played have shown a pretty much perfect balance: in the ones played till the end, two of them even ended in exact the same turn with major victory for both my Axis and Allies, most of the mirror games ended around plus/minus 2-3 turns at the same time . In any case: Allies and Axis greatly differ in the strategies they can/have to use - simply cause Axis in general is the aggressor and Allies are the defenders - but from the chance to win with them, I think they are both equal in V1.06 .