Terif

December 14, 1941 - Winter: Last finish corps survives at str 1 thanks to snowy weather - in the baltic Gneisenau cruiser gets reduced to str 4 by the russian fleet. At Odessa a romanian army meets the russian ship cannons and also a russian corps uses the opportunity to give them some beeting.

November 16, 1941: Small naval battle near Helsinki in stormy weather. Mud - so russians slowed down, only one finish corps killed. Riga, Minsk, Kiev and Odessa abandoned and occupied by Axis. First Partisans near Leningrad.

But USSR is more aggressive and immediately Dows Finland. Finish corps and Mannerheim HQ wiped out in the initial onslaught by 4 russian armies, 2 tanks and an AF. USSR shows IW level 1, Anti-tank 1 and Heavy tanks 2.

Barbarossa starts in October 1941 - border cities undefended

Quiet phase, time to prepare for Barbarossa...USA at 35% readiness, Russia 73%

August 10, 1941: After the german surface fleet revealed its position at Gibraltar, the remaining british home fleet startet the sub hunt in the Atlantic: U-47 found raiding near Kanada, but dives against all attacks. Only slight losses to the surprise contact with a cruiser. Sidenote: I guess for Egypt the readiness triggers need to be reconsidered and improved in one of the next patches. Since otherwise either Axis will simply leave Cairo empty till USA joins to not increase its readiness, or there needs to be another house rule .

July 27, 1941: Italian battleship sunk and Royal Navy retreats towards Gibraltar for resupply. Except for one damaged battleship, the whole italian fleet is now at the ground of the mediteranean . 3 german surface ships reveal their positions and bombard Gibraltar - but they will come to late to save their italian comrades .

Game resumed - July 13, 1941: The weather is clear, so Royal Navy has its full firepower and sinks 2 italian spotter-transports near Algier . Sidenote: Sunk ships and land units at sea also can´t be bought back at reduced costs.

Yep, limiting the range of amphibs could do the trick (I don´t think the system will be changed ). In the Sealion case Axis will surely not only build ONE amphib, but they will do it either in different ports (one amphib from each of them) or simply build them in the baltic where no enemy ship can reach them anyway. Royal NavY can try to block certain landing spots, but Germany also has a fleet and some AFs ready. So it is no problem to kill 2-3 allied ships if necessary and clear the landing spots. So they will still be able to land enough units to conquer a city . [ April 18, 2006, 10:10 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

Depends on the opponent But if the axis player knows what he does, then Royal Navy will not be able to prevent Sealion in SC 2. If Axis wants England, then it can conquer it without too much problems. It will certainly need some turns to fight the way from London to Manchester, but since Axis can land reinforcements without any real danger, they will surely overwhelm the defenders with their superior ground forces. The only thing that prevents a Sealion, is in deed the readiness boost for USA and Russia. So logically Axis will wait till they are (nearly) in and THEN invade . With the current landing system, England has no chances to defend their island (or what should be an island) successfully. After the diplomatic threat is gone, Allies can only do one thing against it: building lots of ground units for defence. And they will have to start building them from the beginning if players start to do the Sealion tactic as standard . This can prevent a Sealion - but by doing so they will not have enough ressources to harm Axis elsewhere and the mid game will become a quiet phase. Historically the geographical position as island and their mighty fleet protected England against invasions. But with the current landing system, England is no real island any more since enemies can land their units without ships beeing able to interfere - and Royal Navy becomes obsolete as a protection force. And that´s the real bad thing. P.S.: if you want I can show you how to conduct a Sealion in SC 2 - Royal Navy will have no chance to interfere with the current landing system. As said before: only the diplomatic consequences prevent Sealion, not the fact that England is an isle and Royal Navy should be able (but is not in SC 2...) to protect it against naval invasions .

Blashy: What is bad about keeping your forces inland instead of placing them at the beaches so enemy planes can kill them for free ? To buy all necessary defenders instantly when needed is another story, here I can agree with you. But this issue has already been addressed in SC 2 with the production delay of several months. So Allies can´t wait if they see enemy transports at their coast, but have to built forces for defence in advance anyway. And blocking all landing spots is not possible anyway due to lack of units in SC 2. P.S.: keeping all land units away from the coast so they couldnt be bombarded wasn´t possible in SC 1 either - at least not against any able opponent .

Sorry, but England will not be able to spot enemy amphibious transports before they move and land to the coast since they simply embark in a port out of sighting range - and not in Antwerp . Amphibs have a range of 10 and even can move first a bit closer if necessary - one turn at sea doesn´t cost that much readiness. So they will embark at Bordeaux or much more likely in Kiel where no enemy can reach them. To send Royal Navy every turn to Bordeaux and Kiel to look for transports is also illusionary, even if it would work. For this the axis navy is simply too strong and will wipe them out one by one. You can do that perhaps 2-3 turns, but then it is good bye Royal Navy . Spotting amphibs in port is useless anyway since ships can´t attack them there, they only target the port instead of the transport. So sorry, no possibility for Royal Navy to interfere any invasion - same for any other navy in SC 2 . And to block the landing sites with ships, sorry...just can say: lol . Too much posssibilities to land and to leave the ships there as sitting ducks is also no good idea. At least not around England since if Axis wants to invade, they will surely not only send amphibs, but also some AFs - and a combat AF vs ship will still win the AF despite reduced attack values .

Yep, in SC 1 amphibious units had to wait one turn on the coast before beeing able to unload - in my opinion this was in deed the much better solution . So the invader first needed naval and air superiority like in reality and Royal Navy could be used to prevent a Sealion - in SC 2 allied ships are pretty much useless in this role. Only ground units can prevent a Sealion, but since Axis is much stronger on the ground... Besides, invasions of neutral countries could also be interfered by the enemy navy and would be risky. In SC 2 not possible - enemy ships or AFs can´t threaten any invasion if the invader doesn´t move into the blue, but first take a look around.

Can only agree with Hellraiser: As long as Rome and USA are not fixed, it will be required to forbid at least Rome gambit and DoW at USA by Allies. Hubert already mentioned that DoW possibility of friendly majors will be removed by a patch. Nevertheless Rome also needs to be at entrenchment 6 before this house rule can be removed. Neutral spotters/blockers are also a big problem and in no way outweight by the in deed very small transport costs or the possibility to do suicide by e.g. as Axis Dowing USA several years earlier before they would be at war and give them full ressources . So for my next games I will presumably use the following house rules to avoid these exploits: 1. no Allied Dow at USA allowed and Rome gambit forbidden (i.e. Allies DoW Italy and attack Rome in the first turn) 2. Italy, USA and USSR not allowed to move ships or transports away from its coast before beeing at war. Exception: Italian transports and ships from port to port.

Forgot to mention - we use the following house rules: 1. no blocking of neutrals and no neutrals blocking active powers (by purpose) 2. USA not allowed to move transports or ships away from its coast before going at war 3. USSR not allowed to move transports or ships in the baltic before beeing at war Blashy mentioned there is a cost of using neutrals (especially USA) to spot subs and block units. But reduced readiness due to staying long at see and since UK can´t supply the neutrals ships can easily be avoided by simply moving them back to their home country after finishing their task and disembark them. This way they can also reinforce their lost str points due to storms at sea and their country is still defended if the enenmy tries an invasion. Naturally the capital should never be left empty to avoid the enemy from declaring war and catching it by surprise . So the only real cost of using neutrals as blockers/spotters are the transport costs of 10% of the unit value which is not enough to keep anyone from doing it - therefore it needs house rules.

Yep - time to learn the war in practice But Hellraiser is right: Axis is better off not allowing Allies to keep Egypt. This will give them Syria, Iraq and Iran too - that Axis can conquer instead. Additionally they will surely not sit on their back if they have enough forces gathered there for defence, but conquer the italian parts of Africa too and then threaten the whole Med throuhout the game which will lead to a lot of ressources Axis will have to spend for guard units there. Sealion at the beginning of the game is no option for Axis as long as Egypt is allied, since this brings USA and Russia in - even after conquering Egypt the question remains if it is worth knocking out the last UK resort and bringing both heavy weights in the game - probably even during the operation when most of the axis forces are busy in England. @Blashy: Axis has more than enough time to conquer Egypt and still prepare for Barbarossa - as long as they don´t neglect their russian border units . I guess that´s what happened in your games, since with the proper garrisons at Königsberg and Warsaw, Russia will stay out of the war till around 1942 - if Axis needs till then to conquer Egypt, then they definitely did some things wrong . Many players will surely forget to keep the right amount of units - in 1941 there is an additional guard unit needed - at the russian border, just like in SC 1 at the beginning .

June 29, 1941: German and italian AFs operate to Sicily in the attempt to get Royal Navy before they can reach the save port of Gibraltar. On their way back, UK fleets discover an italian transport trying to block the escape - despite stormy weather it gets wiped out immediately .

June 1, 1941: Yes, german navy was obviously waiting for the returning fleet at Suez loop - with only 2 ships able to return per turn, they would have been sitting ducks. So admirality decided to let the fleet fight their way back via Malta . Italians get a few last hits from the UK defenders, but next turn it should be it for UK definately.

May 4, 1941: Only a last UK corps left defending Alexandria and the HQ sitting in Cairo - minor naval battle at Tobruk as an italian battleship enters port to attack UK fleet.

April 6, 1941: Yep, the end of Egypt: The last 3 UK corps kill the cut off german tank that broke through the defence line, but Alexandria garrison had to leave town after UK air failed to finish off the str 2 tank. So Egypt will fall next turn. Royal Navy retreats towards Malta, but finds a hungarian corps transport on the way to Tobruk - shot down to str 4.

February 23, 1941: Only 1 tank, 3 AFs and 2 HQs left of the once proud german Wehrmacht in Egypt. Italian´s take over the lead . But Allies are also broken and even can´t reinforce their units any more - army only to 5 reinforced due to lack of mpps...so the last days of the defenders have come and Allies prepare to evacuate.

Dezember 29, 1940: German Paratrooper eradicated - but UK forces are also at the end of their fighting capabilities...only a few corps and an army left. The last UK forces move forward through the gap and bravely attack a german AF positioned too close at the front.

December 1, 1940: Christmas gets closer, so Allies kill a german army to celebrate it...UK tank in action, but unfortunately now has good chances getting wiped out too. German tank down to str 3.

November 3, 1940: Yes, heavy battles every round - UK gets not enough mpps to repair all units . English army damage the by shore bombardement weakened german tank, so only a corps moves in the second attack spot instead of the allied tank and damages the Paratroopers. Meanwhile England gets overcrowded by the re-bought corps killed in Egypt - just another 3 arrived from the production queue together with the canadian one . But it´s too dangerous for immigrants to get back to Egypt with german subs somewhere in the Atlantic...

October 6, 1940: Yep, UK air was pretty battered after the non stop battles the last turn and got wiped out by 3 german airstrikes. Carriers also have to retreat due to heavy battle losses. Royal Navy stays and supports the defender with shore bombardment against german Paratroopers and HQs. German subs start raiding UK convois again - Partisans in France and Norway. Hungary joins Axis.