Terif

AAR: Operation „Hinkelstein“ proved to be a big success, even with 30.000 men lost of the Paratroopers that jumped behind the frontline: subsequently the russian mountain fortresses got weared down by attacks from various directions and cut off from retreat possibilities, half of the russian defending units went into Axis POW camps...endless rows of war prisoners march north into their camps while victorious german Panzer units under Rommel move past by them towards the hot combat zone...at the end of the day only 3 russian HQs and 6 last russian units survived the brutal slaughter, the last UK bomber also had to bite the dust....the gates to Turkey and Iraq are wide open now... . Allied diplomats have already been received to negotiate about unconditional surrender of the Allied forces...

A few comments/corrections: - Western Allies and Russia beeing uncooperative concerns only their home countries, not conquered ones. I.e. if Russia conquers countries (be it in the Middle East, Balkan or Scandinavia), then UK and USA can use them too as supply points and for operating and these countries can also be connected to a UK capital to receive full supply. - Russia can still place new/rebuilt units in Caucasus even if it gets cut off, which makes it no real problem if Russia gets cut in two. Egyptian gambit: Like always it depends on the (Axis) opponent if it is a viable option – against an able player it is surely not....and certainly not against me since in future games I will not hestitate to Sealion England and put a quick end to the spook as now everyone is forwarned and knows what he has to expect when he tries to go this way . Just happened to Rambo who tried an improved Egyptian gambit after he read the AAR: built engineer as one of the first units, moved 2/3 of the Royal Navy to the Med/Egypt but kept a few ground units and some ships in England so all 3 cities were occupied...only this time my Axis just sealioned England immediately and so Allies were forced to surrender already in October 1940....and peace ruled in Europe again .

Since Ural has been built out to an at the moment impregnable fortress and Allies are still ahead in war production, Axis turns south first to conquer the ressource rich area... Spring 1943 now sees the largest gathering of forces in history around Caucasus on both sides: Millions of Axis soldiers, in more than 40 units narrow down the circle around Grozny where russian units established a heavily armed and entrenched 3 tile deep defence position. With the first summer turns the hell on earth got unleashed and the sky above the caucasian mountains get dark from fighters of both sides in the air... 9 Axis airfleets are battling against 8 allied ones (2 UK, 4 US, 2 russian), all sides fighting with Jets 3 and high LongRange....within the first days of this historic battle, tens of thousands of aircraft go down shattered on the ground between the soldiers on the ground, that are fighting for every inch of ground...ruins and explosions everywhere... After a bloody battle, Grozny falls to Axis and finally in June 1943 german high command decides the time is ready to start the final stage of operation „Hinkelstein“: Transport machines get loaded with the elite of the german forces, trained for this day since the last 4 years – and while every airfleet in combat shape provides aircover, russian soldiers get completely surprised by the 40.000 paratrooper landing behind the lines near Baku, annihilating a complete russian airfleet on the ground....soon after establishing connection with the ground forces outflanking the defenders in the mountains by going the clear tile route southeast, conquering an oilfield in the process and laying siege to Baku. Meantime in the Atlantic an equally large battle, but here at sea is looming ahead...US cruisers and carriers, demonstrating Gun Laying Radar level 2 and Anti-Sumarine Warfare level 3 sink one of the german guardian wolfpacks on the canadian convoy route...new built allied subs accompanied the fleet for spotting purposes....but Axis shipyards all over the coasts have been busy too...executing an extensive ship and sub building program during the last years of the war....since now it is clear from where the enemy is approaching, all italian and german fleets in their ports get called to battlestations, moving full speed towards the anticipated combat zone and prepare for battle...

@Taojah: Russia is never knocked out until the last of the 3 capitals falls - Urals are a very tough nut to crack with its mountains and even if Russia is reduced to Urals only, Allies are still outproducing Axis if they researched some IT (which they should have till then...) and Western Allies were not lazy. The deeper Axis moves into Russia, the more difficult it gets for them - that´s one of the reasons why it is not too bad if Russia gives up a large part of its territories before it starts striking back against the now scattered axis forces. In deed this is often the better choice than to start an overhasty counterattack and run into the open knife of a strong, concentrated and fully supplied Axis force...

Congratulations Liam - seems to have been one of the epic and glorious battles And a nice demonstration that a war/game is never over when Russia has to give up Stalingrad and everything west of it - usually at that point the real war just starts and any good axis player should be able to conquer Russia that far before the war really gets hot and the tide can turn... .

Russian commanders in the field get confused by the spelling babel of their offensive and shoot their cannons reverse too – so half of the russian main forces blow up themselves while german tanks remove the rest of the desorientated ones . In the second turn of the russian babel, Stalingrad gets conquered and the tank inside destroyed amongst others...a last ill advised russian offense from Kuybyshev with all they had left there ended in the total annihilation of the northern russian combat group: 3 german corps get destroyed, in return Russia looses tank, 4 armies and 2 corps....german forces break through and cross the river...cutting off further red forces...finally reaching 2 russian airfleets in the rear... one of them gets destroyed by a german army and corps, the other one barely survives at str 2. Russian main forces in the north nearly completely wiped out...german spearhead commanders report about more russian HQs than combat units around Kuybyshev .

AAR: September 1942 - The battle of Stalingrad starts after Rostov has been conquered the month before: German units just filled the pocket behind the river between Rostov and Stalingrad completely with units when Russia starts its counterattack supported by 2 UK airfleet and Jet level 2 russian fighters. With the help of 2 droped Paratroopers Russia destroys 2 german tanks + a corps and crosses the river between the enemy lines... The german response is devastating: all Paratroopers killed immediately, together with 2 russian armies and 3 corps. Heavy airbattles: 2 UK AFs and 3 russian ones on the allied side against the 9 Axis airfleets. Axis forces build a 2-3 tiles deep unit wall from Rostov till nearly Kuybyshev and Kasan in the north . [ February 25, 2007, 05:32 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

Airplanes have their advantages and disadvantages - key is to use them right as the attacker and as defender know how to counter them. E.g. both my Axis defence against western Allies with their absolute air superiority as well as my russian defence against Axis needs no airfleets and still makes the use of air much more expensive for the enemy than for my defending units . Since you are mainly playing the AI - here airfleets may in deed be king since the AI is only sitting at the wrong places with the wrong units just to be killed... . But an able human player can counter them. Experience is also not a real issue, makes them a bit more effective, but till you get such experience levels you first have to invest hundreds of mpps for the lost strength points till they get them...and 2 or 3 real airbattles and the experience is gone as well as for ground troops in ground battles . All in all, airfleets are just right how they are .

There are a lot of things Allies can do against those airplanes (BTW: they even start with more air than Axis...) . Airfleets only have a supportive role in SC2 and without sufficient ground forces are worth nothing - only when using them as part of the combined arms they have their value. In the end they are just as they should be (even pretty historic...) and certainly not overpowered - in fact, ground units are much more powerful and cost efficient than airfleets for itself. Not for nothing one of the biggest beginners mistake is to overestimate his air and trying only to win with them - till they get simply overrun by enemy ground forces . Airfleets are nice to have, but first priority is to have built sufficient ground troops before you can put money into air. Air is pretty expensive to maintain, another huge beginner mistake is to use them as anti-ship weapons...and then they wonder why they have no mpps left to build ground troops for Barbarossa... Summary: Airfleets are useful to prepare the battlefield before major offensives and for special operations - their main purpose is support of the ground forces. How it is now, they are pretty well balanced with the other branches of military service: buy too many compared to your other forces and you will simply be overrun, buy not enough if you have enhanced your other military and your ground troops will lack the necessary airsupport and pay dearly for it sooner or later. Just how it was in history and how it should be in the game .

AAR: Operation „Hammerschlag“ proves to be a huge success – even exceeding the most optimistic expectations of the general staff: Tales of the few survivors from Kharkov about what happened there, obviously set the remaining russian soldiers into a pure state of panic and they start to stampede into every direction, just to escape the slaughter.... After the general russian withdrawl from Gorky, Voronezh, Odessa and the mines, german units occupy the empty positions, destroy another 4 fortifications east of Kharkov and prepare for the final assault on Rostov.

AAR sequel: German fighters stationed near Odessa are just finished with their briefing for the coming summer offensive when US bombers were spotted over Istanbul, flying towards the romanian oilfields without figher escort...perfect last training opportunity for the german aces before the real combat and so they practice a bit at the US clay pigeons without having to fear own losses . At July 12, 1942 the german summer offensive operation „Hammerschlag“ starts: At dawn the russian soldiers - still sleeping in their beds at the fortress chain from Odessa to Kharkov – hear a tubby grumble in the air...when suddenly tens of thousands of dive bombers and fighters descend from the clouds and all hell breaks loose in the area between Odessa and Kharkov... After the ground bombardment by 9 airfleets, 2 dozen heavy german ground units positioned just outside enemy spotting range, simultaneously go into a full speed charge to overrun the demoralized survivors of the firestorm – in many big pockets including Kharkov, several russian armies, corps and even an engineer brigade surrender immediately, their fortifications get stormed and destroyed without much resistance. In Blitzkrieg tactic a big encirclement area around Odessa and Sevastopol is created by multiple fast Panzerarmies that push forward deep into enemy territory towards Rostov.

@Colin: This is something for Hubert - at least with the current system it is not possible...perhaps in SC3

AAR update: During winter 1941/42 both sides consolidated their positions: Allies integrated the last parts of Middle East into their territory. Meanwhile Axis liberated Istanbul - establishing there a defence perimeter – cleaned Leningrad from the last resistance, sinking both russian cruisers in the process and advanced deeper via Moskov into Russia, taking Archangel and Vologda in the icy north. In the Atlantic Axis fleets intensified their naval blockade of North America – not even canadian shipping comes through now, all 55 mpps destined for UK get sunk every turn by Axis wolfpacks. In spring 1942 strong russian forces probed the defences of Axis near Moskov, but retreated after a short skirmish. Obviously the russian commander learned from previous experiences and didn´t follow the withdrawing Axis sentinels into the prepared trap but instead retreated his troops immediately after the assault – otherwise it would have costed him his entire forces there . We are now in June/July 1942 and Summer offensive is about to start – both sides standing in full force against each other between Gorky in the north till Odessa in the south...

@Hellraiser: Just one note: My Axis DID take London - not the other way round - so this game could continue since otherwise it would have been game over for Allies. Anyway, in the future everyone now knows how to counter an Egypt gambit and the one who does it, has to expect Axis to use it against him if he still goes down this road. Emptying England is unhistoric, so as a result there is no reason Axis can´t also follow the equally unhistoric path of leaving London to Allies - which can be considered forcing a peace treaty on UK with leaving a part of the Isle under british administration, but so the exile government in Egypt won´t get any official support any more...in the end perhaps it is not that unhistoric at all.. . P.S: Scriping in general/Smolensk: Somewhere has to be the boundary/trigger, if not Smolensk then another city or territory and then this trigger would be avoided instead until the other side is ready. Egypt is a fine example - when the triggers got changed in one of the patches, only the places Axis avoid till they are ready got shifted to the new triggers... [ February 23, 2007, 03:11 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

The problem of UK with London still allied is they don´t get mpps (only 26/turn to be exact..) - i.e. can´t buy the 4-5 units Even if they would have done it before beeing cut off from convois, Axis only needs to send a few cleaners via Edinburgh or Manchester to make short process of them - without reinforcements or even HQ support they are only cannon fodder . But in the end it is good that this all-in Egypt move is not a really good idea in game terms and there exists this tried and tested counter. When the Egypt gambit came up in the forum, first comment was "gamey" (or let´s say unhistorical.. ) - but by leaving London to Allies - which falls in the same category - you can return the favour... If the Egypt gambit would work, it would put the game upside down and easily become the standard allied defence - which is fortunately not the case .

Barbarossa time in August 1941 with german units landing in England: The UK government conspiracy got revealed to public: Rebellion and civil war start to breed. The world trembles from the storm of protest, resulting in a political earthquake... While the brave british citizens believed in the rightousness of the war, trusting their leaders and working hard for the cause, their government betrayed the country: removing the entire Home Guard from their positions and transporting everything not nailed down secretely to Egypt, trying to establish a new capital there – leaving England defenceless against any threat... Getting aware of the nightmarish situation, monarchy recollects on its roots and so the Queen takes back leadership of the British Empire – in her inaugural speech she brands the traitors of the former government and all their followers: „....a back-stabbing treachery like this is unacceptable and unworthy of any member of the british government. These subjects commited high treason and as from this moment on: are banished and considered enemies of the state ! Anyone acting as an accessory or hiding them will also be prosecuted and die the same painful death when they are caught...they might feel save behind their fortress walls in Egypt, but they won´t be ! History is written on the sands of Egypt and these traitors are about to face the consequences of the whirlwind they have caused...may the wind strip the flesh of their bones...“ As consequence the traitors in Egypt get isolated and all connections cut off. Additionally the Queen negotiates a peace treaty with a german representative: similar to VichyFrance she hands over control of the British Isle and its military installations to Axis. Until the war is officially over, only the capital London and surrounding will remain under her direct control. All british colonies and allies follow the example, branding the war criminals in Egypt and freeze every support. And so they are now facing all alone the full power of the Axis...soon to be crushed into dust and buried in oblivion.... But when the crazy german Führer got briefed of the diplomatic success in England, he held a speech: „...We don´t want an easy victory and win without a real battle, let´s fight it to the end...“ and so London got occupied. The former traitors in Egypt were reinstated and deliveries of war materials from UK territories finally are flowing now to the exile government in Alexandria. In game terms: The clear counter against the Egypt gambit with leaving the British Isle undefended is in game terms: Axis will simply occupy the Isle but without allowing the capital to be moved to Egypt. Consequence is that UK in Egypt has effectively no income left as the convois will be shut down with Manchester port in Axis hands and the remaining units in Egypt will be eliminated sooner or later since they get nearly no new recruits or material any more and can´t be reinforced - when Alexandria falls UK lastly will completely surrender = game over. In other words: UK can´t leave the Isle empty or it will loose all income and lastly the war for sure. BTW: Just a few corps can´t prevent this reaction, they can easily be killed by a german task force. UK either has to leave a strong ground presence, or Royal Navy has to protect its home country so such a thing won´t happen. Here in this game my Axis only took London so the game could continue since it promises to be an interesting good and long battle in an unusual setting . Closing word: Allies have an advantage of around 200mpps/turn now, but Axis only have to fight a one front war in the east and can concentrate all forces there. UK already lost 4 battleships as well as 3 cruisers and suffered several hits to the rest of its fleet including heavily damaged carriers. All 4 french fleets decided to continue fighting as free french, but nevertheless Axis ships are ruling the Atlantic and all of the Med west of Greece now. The US convois got shut down, every merchant ship leaving a US port gets sunk by sub wolfpacks waiting for them in a screening belt around North America . USA is at least for now not able to send troops accross the Atlantic and the western coast of Europe remains a harbour of safety – only UK troops in Egypt so far. We are now in November/December 1941 - Axis main thrust in Russia is towards Moskov at the moment aiming to unite with the forces coming in from Finland. All of Europe is in Axis hands, all except for a tiny little village in Egypt . Between Greece and Tobruk Axis installed a minefield, guarded by 5 airfleets so no enemy ship can pass through unharmed....Meantime further south, both sides built thousands of miles of extensive fortification and bunker lines in the desert between Cairo and Tobruk...soon every square inch of the desert will be vanished under concrete...future generations will surely be astonished when visiting these incredible architectural structures...already nowadays considered the 8th Worldwunder .

The remaining UK ships are imprisoned/stationed around Egypt since they are cut off from the western Med and in the Atlantic the Axis fleet is waiting - only 2 ships a time could be sent there from the Red Sea and would be cannon fodder when arriving . At the moment Axis is boss on the sea except for the egyptian waters . Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq belong to the allied hemisphere and are/will soon be conquered by Russia. Except for Egypt the rest of Europe - including Scandinavia, Finland and northwestern Russia - is Axis. [ February 20, 2007, 04:41 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

Please check again (right click on the Para) if it really has supply 7 and no enemy units are nearby. Other factors like readiness or morale have no influence on its ability to jump. Only if it just jumped you can´t immediately prepare again but have to wait one turn.

No it is not - this is simply how it works in SC2. If you want to conquer the land behind a strait protected by a fleet, you can either destroy the ships with your own navy and/or air or you use paratroopers to jump behind after your air cleared the terrain behind the strait. In any case it is only a matter of using the proper and sufficient forces .

Since Kopenhagen has a land connection and is not an isle like Malta, it can be surrounded/cut off. A surrounded unit can only reinforce to max 5 and if you cut off Kopenhagen from its land connection with your ships, this counts as cut off/surrounded. But its no real problem: just move your ship away and it is not surrounded any more so you can reinforce it and then you can move another fleet in the strait to hold it.

If you tried to rightclick and amphib your unit and then it vanished I guess you accidently clicked on "disband" instead of "amphib" - creates exactly the described effect In case your HQ amphib got sunk: Units sunk at sea can never be rebuilt at reduced costs and will be removed from the game (if a unit is "destroyed" at land this only means it is not able to fight any more, but can be reorganized/refitted again - beeing sent to the bottom of the ocean on the other side means gone forever ). For normal combat units this has no effect on the numbers you can build, but with your valuable HQs you should be careful not to let them be sunk: here you have only a limited pool of leaders and once one is completely gone, he will never raise from the dead

1) You have cut off your unit by occupying the Denmark strait with a fleet so it can only reinforce to 5. If you remove the fleet, then it can reinforce to 8. 2) Your russian cruiser is within 2 tiles of Stockholm port (91,9) and therefore triggers the script. The description is still the old one from version 1.0 - range got changed to 2 tiles in the meantime (see CONDITION_POSITION). P.S.: When looking on a script: never trust the description - most of the scripts got changed since V1.0, but not always the description got updated during the process. So better look at the actual conditions .

Yep, LR Paras are dangerous - and that´s why it is an elementary rule for survival to always protect capitals in potential range So if you played against a player who knows what he is doing, either Munich or Berlin was occupied anyway and your Paras could have jumped only into imprisonment .

Paratroopers need supply of 7 (+not standing to an enemy unit) to be able to prepare for jump. Your Para must have been standing in a mountain, which means it had onla 8-2 = 6 supply.

In case Axis really are so crazy to start Barbarossa already in 1940, just don´t let your russian units be killed in a fruitless forward defence and if you have the slightest clue what you are doing your Allies will surely win the war... If Axis have the suicidal tendency to attack in 1940, move your units a bit further back than usual and establish your defence line where Axis runs out of steem - usually at Vologda-Stalingrad-Rostov and Leningrad-Moskov or behind the river north of Moskov. The first few months Axis have the superior firepower, but this will only last a few moments... Germanys only hope is that Russia starts a kamikaze-counterattack and/or leaves the important cities east of Moskov/Kharkov empty so they can kill most of the russian forces early while Axis is comparably strong and their forces in supply and advance fast eastwards. That means: never start such an unwise counterattack as Russia and don´t forget to protect your eastern cities against fast but light enemy spearheads ! Since Allies with such an early Barbarossa will outproduce Axis 2:1 or even 3:1 and more - as long as they don´t do something silly - it is only a matter of time till they will crush the Axis like a grapefruit...