Terif

Axis turn 6: German forces start surounding Paris - all AFs + bomber now in range, France should fall next turn . Italian forces destroy a UK battleship and reduce Warspite to str 3 - french retaliation expected, several subs spotted in the area.

Axis turn 5: As Allies had to notice they have not enough mpps/units without disbanding the bomber, so the second defence line in France is only partially completed. German tank forces break through and reach Paris on a broad front, 3 allied units destroyed, Ardennes conquered too. Northern France under german control. Paris will fall in probably 2 turns. - French battleship destroyed near Triest - UK ships damaged near Canada, the sub there will die next turn, another sub still hiding and raiding.

Allies turn 5: Allied navy (including a french task force) takes revenge and sinks a german battleship. The sub survives at str 3 by diving. French med units arrive in France to help the defenders - since Ireland starts allied, italian readiness will not be increased by an allied DoW and they can leave the Med empty for some turns. Now positions are occupied again by UK units . Without free french option the french Med units move to their home country to die in battle .

Allies turn 4: - new british reinforcements arrive in France (Bomber sold) - Graf Spee sunk

Axis turn 4: - Ardennes survives, but the french hex NW of it gets conquered, 2 new AFs built to support the further offensive, Manstein already in service. - Hood cruiser sunk by the atlantic subs, still all 4 subs in good shape and raiding.

Axis turn 3: - LC attacked and converted - german subs successful raiding in the Atlantic, 2 lonely UK ships that were disturbing got sunk, a last french cruiser survives the attack of a sub and the german cruiser. - Still all german ships in good combat shape

Allies turn 3: The french ships sacrificed their lives to spot the subs and protect the more valuable british fleets . The last 2 subs in the Atlantic sunk, the german cruiser surounded and heavily damaged - a horde of 12 british ships (including some str 1/2 ships ) + 2 carriers did their job . So all 4 german subs outside the baltic dead now, the cruiser will follow next turn. LC: German understrength corps SW of Brussel killed in return and replaced by a french one.

Like expected after these last crazy moves Allies surrender and want to restart. So next game started, same rules, same bid.

April 28, 1940: Paris falls like expected - attacked from 4 land sides - strangely Allies didn´t evacuate their last 3 UK corps and left them back near Paris for dying. 3 of the german AFs that were´nt needed attack Valiant battleship in front of Brussel - it survives at str 1.

March 31, 1940: Dalmatia prefers to attack aggessively instead of defending France, so one german tank is killed, but Allies loose 2 armies + 2 corps in return...2 units in front of the unentrenched Paris with the last french army in it. France will fall next turn and Italy join. Ireland abandoned.

March 3, 1940: Allies exchange their front units (i.e. no entrenchment) and abandon Ardennes, so german forces move deep into french territory: 2 tanks 2 hexes from Paris, Maginot supply cut off, many damaged allied units, french army next to Paris survives at str 1.

- Germany kills the french corps SW of Brussel, this time the german one survives the allied counterattack - since Allies moved 2 fresh armies to the front, they were not entrenched and german forces kill both in the next turn. 2 french hexes conquered, Elbow hex cut off. - Atlantic: 2 UK ships damaged to str 6, both subs lost after their last heroic attack

DP has Allies with bid 250 in 1:5:30. Standard rules: no Dow+landing in majors, no AA research. - Poland + LC surrender turn 2, Denmark turn 3. - Allies kill a german corps SW of Brussel with only 2 corps, 1 army (no french HQ), battleship + UK AF, the french corps survives in the next turn at str 1. - french battleship sunk near Canada, subs continue raiding - Allies attacked Ireland turn 1

German sub sunk in return, the second one damaged - only french ships nearby to be attacked by the sub . Sub in the Med also attacked and reduced to str 1. French defenders entrenching and waiting for the enemy - some british expeditionary forces occupy the empty hex SW of Brussel.

Axis turn 2: Denmark surrenders, preparing for LC. Subs hiding and raiding...

@Hellraiser: This is a matter of your priorities, how the other fronts look like and the overall situation . If Axis want, they can defend the Middle East, but then they will be in the defensive at the other fronts. It´s the old situation: there are several fronts and Axis will not be able to be strong everywhere if Allies play right - both sides have limited ressources. Where they use their ressources depends on their strategy and what the player thinks is necessary in the current situation . In the Middle East area the geographical situation is in favour of Russia, so Axis will have to use overproportionally more forces to fight in this area than anywhere else and will suffer high losses - usually there are more attractive theaters where they can use their limited ressources with better efficiency - but like always it depends on the situation and the opponents .

Allies preparing the defences and going on the sub hunt. Germany operated invasion forces west and will most likely conquer LC next turn - on the other side Poland therefore survived this turn. The polish defenders retreat in the marshes, cut off Königsberg and move towards Prague in the south. Second part with Desaix Allies

Second part of the mirror games with Desaix´s 3H Szenario. First part with Desaix Axis Options are: - No Free French - Minor historical House rules: no land on dow and no AA. We used 1/1/2/10 (Fr/Uk/US/USSR) bid system and used a 100 bid. That makes 100 mpps UK, 100 France, 200 USA, 3000 Russia. Turn 1: In this scenario Allies start with understrength units in the west, so no chance for a LC gambit or any other threat during the first turns. Additionally the german units in the east start with 1 experience so with a full scale attack Warsaw will usually fall within the first strike. Therefore Germany decides to use everything in Poland: Warsaw conquered, the last 3 polish survivors surrender. Denmark under attack.

2nd game – Dragonheart Axis: Briefing: - Dragonheart prefers to go through northern Poland and to operate Rundstedt west, so Poland is able to build a better defence line and surrendered a bit later in turn 4, Denmark T 3, LC T 2. - surprising move with the atlantic subs: Ireland corps moved to spot a british carrier, one sub got stoped by a cruiser, the other one damaged the carrier. The whole allied navy took revenge and immediately sunk both subs as retaliation. - Since Axis abandoned Ireland to spot the carrier, Ireland surrendered the next turn. - Allies had now a lot of (irish-) mpps and decided to go for a strong french defence this time: french and UK HQ built, heavy battles in France. Since Dragonheart knows how to counter a double HQ defence in France this was no problem for Axis and France fell end of June 1940, nevertheless Germany lost 2 tanks and 3 corps. Allies evacuated french HQ and 9 corps – all french armies had to die for their country . - mid game: no remarkable battles, the usual minors + Egypt conquered, all 3 minors joined early, Spain attacked March 1941. Yugoslavia late, only a few turns before Barbarossa. - Tech side: Allies had very lazy scientists, in August 1941 they catched up in LR (lv1) – their first tech advance at all – Germany already at lv 2 jets, UK researching jets with 5 chits...when Barbarossa started November 16, 1941, UK still had to fight with lv 0 jets vs lv 3 german jets !! Therefore western Allies had to delay D-day to first catch up a bit in jets... In April 1941 UK finally got jets 1, USA jets 2, June 41 UK jets 2. - So the first D-day started in July 1941 – Allies still in the disadvantage with now jets 2, LR 1 both USA and UK vs lv 3 german jets with LR 2. But they had no choice than to open a second front now to give Russia a necessary relief. - East: all border armies, both tanks, cruiser and an AF killed in the first strike in November 1941. Until Allies started D-day 1 Axis conquered Riga, Minsk, Kiev + Odessa, standing 2 hexes in front of Leningrad. - In the south/Middle East it looked better for Allies: Turkey got invaded immediately after Barbarossa. Axis decided to defend the turkish capital this time and operated units in – this weakened the defence of the Middle east, so Iraq and Beirut fell very fast (June 1942), 8 axis armies/corps + 4 turkish ones killed in the Blitzkrieg-style battles . An italian battleship got sunk in the Black Sea near Turkey, russian cruiser also lost. - Second half of 1942: 5 of the 9 german airfleets were busy in Turkey/Egypt when Allies invaded France, 4 in northern Russia. Russia got lv 2 jets in the meantime (4 chits) and therefore was able to stay in Iraq and fight with its 4 AFs against the 5 german jet lv3 ones. In August 1942 Germany got jets 4, USA+UK+Russia fortunately got just in time nearly simultaneously jets 3 after the german advance – due to Germany beeing ahead in jets (up to 3 levels...) + LR during the whole game, Axis already gained a huge advantage and was way ahead in units – the successful Middle East campaign changed at least the mpp situation in favour of Allies. Italy already researched AT 2, now Russia catched up to AT 1, Germany AT 1, HT 2. August/September 1942 important battles took place: - Leningrad lost, Finland joined Axis - Western Allies liberated LC, Brest, Bordeaux, french mine and cut off Spain near Marseilles - a last huge naval battle near Portugal takes place: the last 2 italian battleships destroyed, sub sunk, USA looses one battleship. The last surviving italian ship (cruiser) bombards russian forces near Sevastopol. - Germany operates half a dozen tanks (lv 2) and armies to the area around Marseilles/Spain. Heavy battles at the spanish border: Allies several times cut off the axis supply, axis forces reestablish it – british carriers can only occasionally take part in the battles since they lack the necessary LR, so finally Allies have to retreat from Marseilles and establish a defence line Bordeaux-Switzerland-LC. Winter42/Spring 43: - Germany moves all 9 AFs to Italy and strong ground forces including many armies/tanks. Axis units stay out of range of the carriers, so the 8 allied AFs (inferior in tech, lv 3 jets vs 4, LR 1 vs 2) have to fight alone and loose air superiority in a few large airbattles. Several US armies get destroyed – Axis also looses a lot of armies/tanks...-, in April 1943 the defence lines break, 3 allied AFs got lost vs only 1 german air and most of the allied strong ground units. When also a US HQ got killed, Allies had to retreat. They rescued as much as possible and used the rest of the units to delay the axis advance to enable evacuation. - In the southeast Russia used the time and the absence of german air to start an african campaign. 10 veteran units + 2 HQs from the Middle East wars liberated Suez, Alexandria and conquered Tobruk. - In northern Russia a second offensive was started with the other half of the russian strike forces. Russian forces entered Finland – killing some german corps in the process -Leningrad under attack. Mid 43: - in the West strength point losses of the AFs were severe for both sides. So Germany needed some turns to reinforce its air before it was able to use it again. Allies (5 AFs left) killed a second german AF in France before Germany withdrew the surviving 7 AFs towards Russia to help the besieged Leningrad. Also some axis ground units got killed near Brest and since the german air moved elsewhere Allies decided not to evacuate the city but to hold it as a bridgehead for the next D-day. USA, UK and Russia now catched up in jets (lv 4), Russia also in LR (lv 2), USA AT 2, Italy still ahead with AT 3. - After the conquering of Tobruk, Russia shifted all strong forces north and attacked Finland and Leningrad full scale. A german elite army defended Leningrad and survived 2 turns the attack of 3 ground units and 11 russian AFs (both times the remaining attacks redirected after the first 6 attacks all did minimum damage). German 3 star cruiser and some armies/corps in Finland killed instead. - Before the 3rd attack at Leningrad, the reinforced german air arrived to take part in the battle of Leningrad. End of the war (winter 1943): - The largest airbattle in history started in the area of Leningrad-Minsk accompanied by a russian ground offensive. 18 airfleets battled against each other – at the end of the day 3 german and 3 russian AFs bite the dust, but also several german armies/corps got killed and Leningrad was finally liberated. - During the decissive airbattle of Leningrad western Allies started the second D-day: 3 US armies, HQs and a dozen corps landed and liberated LC + France (including Bordeaux+Mine). Russian transports swarming the Med, looking for open cities. - After Axis lost the battle of Leningrad, they had to retreat to Riga-Minsk. After heavy losses in Finland and a russian breakthrough, the german HQ and the remaining armies started evacuation, the last cruiser protected Helsinki port to enable evacuation. Around christmas 1943 the german Oberkommando surrendered unconditionally. Both fronts were on the retreat, russian transports in the Med, most of the german armies and tanks destroyed, only 5 AFs (1 newly built) left, Axis inferior in numbers. Allied now had an mpp advantage of ~300 mpps/turn. Finland one turn before surrendering. This was an excellent and interesting game. Very well played by Dragonheart and he was several times very close to victory. Before D-day 1 it looked very dark for Allies, during D-day 1 they regained the advantage for half a year until they got crushed in the air- and ground battles in southern France. The allied mistake to start an attack at the wrong moment – combined with the axis good move to start a counter at the right time – costed Allies the frontline and most of their strong ground units, so they had to flee and evacuate. This was the second huge chance for Axis, fortunately the german Oberkommando didn´t recognize this opportunity to crush the allied resistance and after some months Allies had rebuilt their strength (with Middle East and Egypt they got enough mpps) and were able to launch the more successful D-day 2 while in the east the russian veterans crushed the core of the axis forces. Until nearly the end the game was open, Axis were still able and had enough veteran units to crush one Allied side and later the other one – the lost battle of Leningrad where they lost the core of their forces decided the fate of the Axis.

Hi CT, just correct one of my answers... or send me an e-mail or ICQ message if you want to make an appointment for a game .

Yep - the other thing is that transporting a unit costs mpps and is not cheap. So if you want to use the full supply by landing a unit, you first have to pay for it (+ here Italy has to come in early or you can´t place an army in the port anyway) . I.e. Axis have no advantage - only costs - by using the port if they plan the invasion correct .

Hmm, now for you it is a bug that a ship in Vichy ports is still there - before one of the last patches it was called a bug they disappeared...so it got changed to how it is now... hehe . Hubert can´t do it right for everyone obviously . Joke aside: Your ships will not surrender if they are in Vichy when France surrenders, that´s no bug, it is how it was supposed to be. Axis can leave a unit in Marseille (if they have so much time to move one there...), but they have no advantage from it, cause they can attack Marseilles from 4 sides anyway. So the problem is not to have not enough space but to have enough units ready - so the port doesn´t make a difference. Allies also don´t need the port in Algier to spot the invasion fleet, they have enough (and better..) hexes to place a ship for scouting purposes - in contrary, the port is in striking range of german air in Sicily, so it is a bad idea to leave a ship there . In the end: It is neither a bug, nor do any side have an advantage from it .

"Strategic Command Gold" is a kind of ´deluxe´ edition of SC (not a demo ) - released July 2004. It is distributed by the official Battlefront partner "Most wanted games": http://www.most-wanted-games.com/de/strategiccommand/index.htm It is a localised german version with new graphics, strategy guide and 22 new exclusive scenarios (+ old ones - you can´t download the exclusive scenarios). You can buy it in store or directly from MWG. So from what I have heard about it: - If you already own SC, It is not worth to buy it again for 30 euros. - But if you want to buy it anyway (don´t forget: it is in german), then most players said it is worth the 10 additional euros (the Gold version costs 30 euros vs 20 euros for the standard version) .

Hmm, reading the manual/updates can be useful sometimes : YUGOSLAVIA (revolt) - Yugoslavia has pro-Allied coup on March 26, 1941 - 10% chance each turn on or after this date - 25% chance each turn on or after this date if Greece has been attacked by Axis So you can´t influence it by your unit placement, USSR has also nothing to do with it - it only revolts usually before Barbarossa cause the more time is over, the more likely it is it already couped. The only thing you can do to influence the revolt is to attack Greece, this increases the chance of 10% to 25% each turn - but on the other side it increases US + USSR readiness too.

@ Iron Ranger: Yes, to create a more historical game or if you want the players to use a certain strategy you surely need other house rules. So there is nothing wrong with using the house rules you prefer in your games - like you already do . But to have a balanced game that both sides have the same chances to win, with as much available strategies as possible, there are in Fall Weiss ATM only the 3 mentioned rules necessary + an appropriate bid. If you want a more historical game or think you need additional limits/rules to increase the fun for you, just do it when your opponent agrees - additional rules fully depend on your preferences how you want to play the game and how you like it. Alternatively you can also use different scenarios for the fun games.