Terif

To take Malta is pretty simple: - first you need to hinder allied supply to Malta so it can´t be reinforced any more (and also not evacuated ) - to do this: bomb the fortress out of order with your italian ships and the port with AFs and/or ships - So the allied defender has only a supply of 1 left and can be killed by the up to 4 axis AFs from Sicily (2 turns to unentrench, then kill it)

Shore bombardment gives only 0.05 experience, so if you choose in the options to show experience as medals instead of the exact amount, then you will not see the experience until at least 7 bombardements - nevertheless ships still collect (a bit) experience.

@Blashy: Yep, outside rules will only be established based on player feedback - that´s why in Panzerliga there is a kind of test phase until July 1st, so players can get some experience with the game and judge if or which house rules are necessary or not to balance it . P.S. Editor can´t help with everything It doen´t change game mechanics and if you change gameplay to balance a scenario, then you will usually create a lot of unintended side effects that you will have to balance again...and there goes the circle . Besides, there will never be a static balance - it will change with time and playing experience and the developement of new strategies - just like in SC 1. So better not to go the way of babylonian confusion where everyone uses his own "balanced" mod where nobody besides him knows the rules and events included . So I guess in the end there will be in SC 2 a bidding system just like in SC 1. Then it is possible to use an official standard scenario where players know how it works (including scripts and all the events) and only add the necessary bonus mpps to balance it. Cause with bonus mpps it is much easier to create a balance as long as the base scenario is not too one sided - especially since it also highly depends on player experience if a scenario/bid is balanced. However, in SC2 version 1.0 there will certainly still be a lot of quirks and flaws with some things not working like originally intended - time will tell which and patches will patch them in the course of time, house rules will have to address them in the time between the patches and change with patch history... Like in SC 1, it will certainly need time and player feedback - not to forget Hubert´s work - to develope SC 2 to the point where it really will provide good and fair multiplayer games. E.g. at the moment it seems to be a bit luck based for a strategy game. Just to name production research or the reduced catch-up bonus, so research luck will make much more difference and sustain longer than in SC 1. No game is perfect in version 1.0. But it has a good potential and Hubert coding the necessary patches . [ April 11, 2006, 11:49 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

Ordered my version at Battlefront - sorry, no advantage for me . So nobody who looses in SC 2 vs me can complain I had a head start . P.S.: the german version was sent out last Friday and mostly arrived saturday at the ones who preordered it. But for HvsH competition games it is a bit early anyway since first there need to be some patches (and to find the right rules) to make it ready for fair games . Therefore Panzerliga started now only a provisional so called "wild League" until an official League will start at Juli 1st when players also got a chance to get used to the game . [ April 11, 2006, 04:40 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

Hi Fubarno, At the moment Panzerliga hosts SC 1 (league, scenarios, graphics etc.) and is ready to provide a league for SC 2. It will also host fan made mods, maps, scripts, etc...

FINLAND - Winter war commenced November 30, 1939 - 40% chance of entering the war for every turn after the Axis and the USSR are at war so long as the USA is still neutral, otherwise may enter once Axis forces near Leningrad (i.e axis unit next to Leningrad = also 40% chance to join each turn)

Different language versions are no problem as long as you have the latest patch. For the german version this is 1.07g.

Only a last short downtime to update the last parts of the forum and install some new features - already online again .

Hi Boron, welcome to SC At Panzerliga you can find a SC-course to introduce you into multiplayer games and you can also find more than enough opponents there SC-Basics Strategy manual

Yep, you have to enjoy the Guinness and stay, so never send men there you don´t want to enjoy the irish drinks and landscape forever . In case they really can´t bear any longer to stay, they have only the choice to put an end to their lives (=disbanding)and return home in their ghost form .

It is pretty simple: You can see before a combat the expected losses for you (attacker) and the defender. The real results will only differ by +-1. I.e. you have a chance of 1/3 to get either exactly the expected, a loss of +1 or a loss of -1 to the expected result. Important in tactical combat is to plan the right attack sequence and also take into consideration the actual results of the first combats to change plans/targets if necessary.

That means you have patch 1.07 = you are OK .

Socket expired has usually one of 4 causes: - you or your opponent are behind a router or firewall and they are not correct configurated (e.g. the right port is not open - SC uses port 6530). I.e. in the Firewall either port 6530 is open or the program SC is allowed host/server. The router also has to be open for SC. - you both use different versions of SC (newest english version is 1.07, german it is 1.07g; e.g. neither english 1.07 with german 1.07 will not work, nor 1.07 with 1.0...) But since it already worked before, the most likely is: - you entered the wrong IP number of your opponent where you were trying to connect. If SC shows different IP numbers, you have to try which one is the right one - or your (your opponents) internet provider is the cause, some providers sometimes can´t establish a connection to each other, but this would be player/provider specific and is very rare [ December 03, 2005, 02:44 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

It is not a good idea to attack Yugoslavia cause you will get it for free automatically after March 1941 with their coup. Yougoslavia is also in the russian influence sphere and therefore increases their war readiness usually around 20% (USA + 10%)if you attack it - you have no real benefit, but loose a lot by attacking it. For some basic informations concerning multiplayer strategies and tactics, I recommend to read the PL-course: Basics and strategy manual [ December 01, 2005, 08:06 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

- You need HQs for combat (especially for attacks) or your units are nearly worthless, so if your HQs get killed, your units can´t fight any more. Additionally HQs are limited (e.g. USA has only 4 of them, Russia also only a few high rated ones) - when they are dead, it´s game over. Experience shows, if LR is restricted, it usually creates a much more interesting game, especially since then the air can´t see and reach everything - so strategy matters much more than in a game without a limit (and where you are lucky to get high LR - (luck is also a much bigger factor then)). You restrict LR by simply selling the research chits after you reached the allowed level - but as said: if you use this rule is up to you and your opponent and what you agree upon. - no AA research: AA gives Germany an unbeatable advantage in the long run that Allies never can compensate, especially since it not only increases the defence of ressources and the units on it, but also it increases the combat values of AFs in aircombat when forcing an enemy intercept (Germany only has to research it once and has much more ressources to use it from). - don´t know about mods etc, cause I never installed one of them. [ November 30, 2005, 01:16 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

Standard settings in HvsH games are everything on except war in Siberia. All politics random. Standard rules today are: - no Dow + landing rule: i.e. you are not allowed to land with transports in major countries (USA, Russia, Italy) during the turn of the declaration of war - no Anti-Air (AA) research allowed - sometimes tech restrictions are used, especially a Long Range (LR) limit of level 2 is becoming standard now (to prevent HQs from beeing killed, unless you make a mistake) There are 2 leagues where you can find more than enough opponents: - Curry´s PBEM League and - Panzerliga with ATM 73 active players + many new ones

Q1: Here comes strategy and anti-strategies in - the fun in SC : You entrench behind rivers/swamps so either the enemy has to attack them at bad odds, or avoids them and go via the open spaces - but since you know where he is coming from, you can set up your main defence forces accordingly and e.g. concentrate reserves around Smolensk to kill all enemy units that manage to break through your lines at Kiev or Minsk (so it is not always better to go via the open corridor the enemy left open for you ). On the other side it is in deed the target to break through at the weak spots and if possible build pockets and cut off enemy forces...while the enemy is trying to avoid exactly this . Q2: Yep, a question for Edwin - but since the AI in generally attacks straight forward, you can among other things use the terrain against it (e.g. it attacks Maginot and also units behind rivers etc, without caring about terrain effects) and after a while you should know its strategies and be able to counter it. Q3: For once - in contrary to England - Germany has HQs to support its AFs. Each point HQ rating is equal to 1 strength point or 1 supply point, i.e. gives 3% readiness increase. So during the french campaign the german AFs are around 50% more effective in the airbombat as the english ones as long as England has no HQ (2 points expected losses vs 3 points). And if you play against the AI, then its AFs have additionally the experience bonus you choose. Q4: Yes, operating is expensive and should only be done if necessary - i.e. if time is critical, units are too far away or if you want to surprise your enemy respectively if you move your main front quickly from west to east and vice versa.

Concerning your next questions: Question 1: Experience is important, but not that important cause as you already noticed it gets lost with reinforcements and you can´t really plan it in real combat, so don´t worry about it. Only for the english carriers it is essential to build up experience. To reinforce point by point minimally saves experience losses, but since your unit can´t fight while reinforcing, it is much better to simply reinforce to maximum and use it for an additional battle instead - gives much more experience and since ressources are limited in SC you usually can´t afford to leave your valuable units idle anyway. Since strength influences the readiness in combat, a str 10 unit is better than a str 5 unit. Each strength point gives 3% higher readiness, means higher losses for the enemy and eventually lower losses for itself (+ it reduces the chance your unit gets destroyed ). Question 2: AFAIK AI difficulty only influences plunder from conquered countries (i.e. mpps). But since I haven´t played the AI since many years, this is more a question for e.g. Edwin P.

Sorry, this is not correct - every additional chit increases your chances by the same amount : With both Allies and Axis at the same tech level, each research chit gives you a chance of 5% to advance from level 0 to 1. I.e. if you invest 3 chits, then you have a chance of 3x5=15%; with 5 chits 5x5=25% chance each turn. For tech differences and higher tech levels, SC uses a normalized research system: - as long as you are equal or ahead in a tech area, your chance per chit is reduced by 1% for each researched tech level (5->4-3-2-1). I.e. from lv 1 to 2 you have only a chance of 4% per chit, 2 to 3 = 3% ...4 to 5 = 1% - if you are behind in tech, you get a catch-up bonus (spionage, learning etc.): then you have a base chance of 5% per chit plus 1% for each tech level difference. So in the extreme case: if you are at lv 0 and the enemy at lv 4, then you have a chance of 5+4=9% for each chit to reach the next level, while your opponent has only a chance of 1% - therefore its called catch-up effect - with 5 chits invested i.e. 45% chance for you only 5% chance for the enemy . BTW: if you want to be relatively sure to not be behind in a certain tech area, then you should invest at least 3 chits cause then you have a minimum chance of 3x6=18% per turn to catch-up if you are behind, i.e. in average after 5-6 turns you are equal again.

First there is a geographical trigger for the siberian army: if enough axis units approach Moskov (within 4 hexes) or one of the cities east of Moskov (Rostov, Stalingrad, Voronezh...etc - within 3 hexes), siberians can arrive. The closer the axis units are to the cities, the less units are necessary to trigger the siberians - and units near Moskov count more than near other cities. But after the geographical precondition is fullfilled, there is a check for the relative strength of both the axis and allied forces in Russia. If Allies are strong compared to Axis (and have a minimum number), then siberians dont arrive, even if Axis units are attacking/taking Moskov. The ratio is based on strengths, unit type (e.g. tanks count more than corps etc.), supply and other factors - so you can´t calculate it on the battlefield. But as a rule of thumbs you can say if Axis is ~1.5 : 1 superior vs Russia in the report screen Siberians will most likely transfer.

Only units in and 1 hex around the 2 cities at the border (Königsberg, Warsaw) count for the russian readiness - so with 3 hexes away you are save, but important is only to place them at least 2 hexes away from the 2 cities.

Yep, Romania doesn´t matter for russian readiness

@Hellraiser: Yes, it is exactly 2-6% each turn (i.e. 1-3% each half turn). At 90%+ it goes up 5% each half turn, Russia joins exactly with 100% (same as Italy and USA). That´s the reason why you can wait with moving your units in attack position vs Russia until readiness is at 87% or above. With 86% or lower, readiness can´t hit the 90% mark since the maximum readiness increase until the allied turn is 3% when ending the turn. So with 87%+ you move your units to the border and can safely attack Russia the next turn . Starting in January 1942 russian readiness jumps up much faster (up to around 15%/turn), so you can´t delay Barbarossa longer than spring 1942 and in this time frame you risk getting surprised by Russia if you are not careful . Declarations of war are independent of the natural russian readiness increase. Normal nations like Norway, Sweden, Vichy, Spain, Greece increase russian readiness 3-7%, i.e. in average 5%/DoW. [ November 17, 2005, 09:31 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

A Strategic Command course can be found at Panzerliga where also the basic stuff for SC multiplayer is explained: http://www.panzerliga.de/en/docs/lehrgang/lehrg_sc_grundlagen.php Here an excerpt concerning russian readiness: "To keep the Russian war readiness low at least one unit needs to be placed in one of the two border cities after Poland surrendered. From October 1940 on there should be 3 units stationed at the eastern border and that in the following manner: 1. The city of Königsberg must be occupied. 2. One of the two hexes southeast or northeast of Warschau needs to be occupied. 3. The last (third) unit can be placed anywhere at the 9 border hexes. But it must be stationed on German soil (not Rumanian) and exactly on the border (e.g. north of Königsberg) - not even one hex away. Units in Romania are irrelevant for the Russian war readiness. Actually you need the three units first when the allies (Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, possibly Spain) join, but we are no clairvoyants and they join randomly from November 1940 on (thus the units from October onwards). In the case that the Axis allies won't join for some reasons (i.e. Spain not neutral anymore) you need the 3 units latest in January 1941. Units stationed in Romania are irrelevant for the Russian war readiness. If there are not enough units at the border (or too many, but that will normally first happen shortly before Barbarossa, the German attack on Russia.) the Russian war readiness increases by 10% per turn. With sufficient units it increases by 0% ! From June 22 on the Russian war readiness increases by 2-6% randomly per turn independently from what you do - otherwise you would never have a war with Russia." BTW: Allies can´t do anything to bring in Russia earlier in the war (attacking Finland has also no effect), this is completely dependent on the axis actions. [ November 14, 2005, 02:54 PM: Message edited by: Terif ]

- at the russian border the nationality of the units doesn´t matter - allied declarations of war only reduces the US readiness directly. But if otherwise Axis would have attacked the country before Barbarossa, then they save the russian (+US) readiness increase they had suffered if Allies had not dowed it