Terif

Yep - could be a useful restriction to have a game with more surprises and without the air beeing able to reach everything . If you want we can use this restriction to lv 2 LR in our future games.

Here the next set of games in mirror mode. We played with bid 275 in 1:5:30 (i.e. 275 mpps UK, 1375 USA, 8250 Russia). First game Dragonheart was Allies. Second game will start next week. DOW+Landing rule+AA rule. Briefing: - no breakthrough in Poland, LC surrendered turn 2, Denmark and Poland turn 3. - Allies used a corps defence for France to save mpps for an operation in the eastern Med. France fell June 30, 1940 after Paris survived the turn before at str 1. Several units escaped. - After France Malta AF battled with the german Luftwaffe in Sicily to be able to spot the invasion fleet for Algier. Malta AF survived air and naval bombardment at str 1. Axis hurried to conquer Vichy so the UK carriers could not arrive in time to interfere the invasion, so only UK battleships and cruisers attacked the italian transports near Algier, sunk a corps tp and damaged an army tp heavily – nevertheless Algier fell in axis hands. The next turn Allies moved aggressively towards Sicily, destroyed the italian sub and the damaged army near Algier but lost also a battleship to the german air. - Egypt: Allies sent strong reinforcements (the survivors of France...) to their colony: 3 AFs, Wavel HQ, half a dozen corps and also a cruiser. Fortunately they missed the opportunity to occupy Beirut since Axis conquered Vichy one turn earlier than expected. Italian battleships sunk the UK cruiser near Suez, an italian corps protected Beirut. After the UK air showed up, Germany immediately sent HQ + 4 AFs to help the italians. They came in time to save Beirut from falling and after some heavy battles and the loss of Alexandria, Allies had no choice than to disband their HQ and to sent their 3 AFs back to England. - After this everything went as usual: Skandinavia, Hungary + Romania joined March 16, 1941, Spain, preparing for Barbarossa. After the expensive losses in Egypt, Allies were not able to fight any more before Barbarossa and concentrated on research, same as Axis. Unfortunately Allies were more successful: until Barbarossa they developed Jets 1 and LR 2. Germany catched up in LR, but not in jets. - Barbarossa started February 8, 1942: A strong axis armada was standing at the border...units worth around 15.000 mpps entered Russia and destroyed everything in range. Only one AF escaped the slaughter. - Russia bought 5 additional AFs and lots of tanks/armies to counter the german invaders. So there were heavy battles in middle Russia and in Finland which had been attacked by Russia, but not as costly as in the last game. Since Russia concentrated its strong pieces and the AFs in the north, Axis started an offensive in the south, conquering Sevastopol and the mines near Rostov. - Tech area: After Barbarossa german scientists researched LR like crazy (reached level 4 with only 3 chits and no catch-up..), but neglected jets totally, not even executions and the threat of beeing thrown in gulags if they would not change priorities helped . The few allied scientists in contrary fully concentrated on jets: Russia developed lv 1 after 2 turns, USA lv 2. Some turns later Germany finally reached jets 1, but this was the signal for UK to develope lv 3 and Russia level 2...Germany needed until March 1943 (!) to reach jets lv 2 , but USA already developed lv 4 some turns ago (with 2 chits and no catch-up). Near the end when the war was already nearly over, Germany finally reached jets 3. After the war, the german scientists were executed as saboteurs and war criminals – they had 4 chits in Jets until some turns before Barbarossa and then even 5 chits + catch-up bonus (usually 2-3 levels behind) i.e. 35-40% chance each turn for the next level and this for nearly 2 years ! - West: D-day started shortly after Barbarossa. Due to the US jet advantage (lv 2 vs 0) Germany had to withdraw its air from France and fully concentrated on Russia (lv 1 jets vs 0, but only 6 russian AFs vs 11 german ones) while using a corps defence in France. Since western Allies invested most mpps into AFs (4 UK air, 3 US) and had not enough ground units, they were not able to gain ground in France for a long time, only to kill some corps each turn. - To disturb the allied offensive in France, the axis med fleet started an invasion of USA. Italian fleet bombarding US units near Washington, transport at the coast...in the following naval battle the italian commander underestimated the allied presence in the area: all 4 italian ships lost, only 2 UK ships sunk in return. This opened Allies the way into the Med and in the following months ships were bombarding Portugal, Gibraltar, Algier and Malta. Transports screening the Med for open cities – Axis had to divert a lot of mpps to protect them all with corps. - Allies built a lot of corps and sent them on commando missions to land and cut axis supply. One corps died near Oslo after it captured the mine, some in Denmark, 1 LC, 1 NE France and 2 in Algeria. End of 1942 finally ground reinforcements arrived for the front in France and Allies were able to liberate Bordeaux and Paris around christmas 1942. - In the meantime Axis had thrown Russia back to Caucasus and Ural, Stalingrad and Moskov conquered, Caucasus cut off, siberians arrived and mostly destroyed. Due to the strong russian air (7 AFs with siberians, jets 2 vs 1), many german armies got lost when they tried to cross the river NE of Moskov. Nevertheless in the end the last russian defenders had to capitulate. Russia surrendered July 4, 1943 (the new german independence day ). - Until the russian capitulation, Allies were pretty successful in the west, Liberated whole France except Marseille, turned immediately east, occupied LC, conquered Hamburg, Cologne and Essen. - When the axis veterans from Russia arrived, a heavy but short battle started. Within 2 months Axis reconquered 2 of the german cities and the mine + SW France including Bordeaux, killed most of the US armies and depleted the allied mpp stock. Axis lost many many tanks and armies in the process, but a nearly endless flood of them operated from the russian battlefields back to western Germany . When the allied carriers were not able any more for battles, Allies surrendered the turn after August 29, 1943. Total losses: Allies: 136 units Axis: 101 units Known techs at the end: Germany: LR 4, Jets 3, IT 2, AT 1 UK: LR 2, Jets 3 USA: Jets 4, AT 1 Russia: Jets 2, AT 1 [ December 28, 2004, 04:52 PM: Message edited by: Terif ]

@ Liam: Yep, the defensive feature of the AA is a good feature and until recently (as long as players mainly used it in this manner) AA was no problem. But now after there exists a working AA strategy that with some luck will give Axis an advantage Allies can´t compensate, and more and more players started using it, there is no other choice than to forbid AA (or to use a similar rule). The cat is now out of the bag and can´t be put in again, so when it is allowed to use AA, players would use it. There are other alternative rules thinkable (like forbidding to place fighters in cities/ressources), but they usually lead to other problems and are complicated to use in the game without breaking them unintentionally. Forbidding AA research is simple and easy to use and control in the game. That Allies have a slight advantage due to their starting level is IMHO a good effect since they are inferior anyway (therefore the bid to compensate the axis advantage). And Allies really have only a small advantage since they have not much cities to use it (usually only London and later Brest). So it has only a small effect. To play without AA for UK is not advisable cause then Sealion or to force allied intercepts to deplete their mpps would be too easy for Axis.

At the moment we are playing at Bid 275 in 1:5:30. The first game I won with Axis, the second one is scheduled next week . You can see the AA level of the enemy by selecting one of your AFs and move the cursor over an enemy port or city. Then you see the expected results and from them you can pretty exactly see the current AA level of the enemy (e.g. a str 8 port at AA 0 displays losses for the attacker of 1, at level 1 AA it shows 2).

OMG...a man possessed...It would have been better to not play this guy called Zapp, I wished I never had...The prize was now over one year of smack talk and smear campaigns...if one could only see in advance if someone can bear to loose when he plays... BTW: it´s not funny, it´s only stupid in the meantime...

Yep, bids are there to even out the axis advantage and always depend on the experience - and Dragonheart is now a very good player and improved his gameplay a lot in the last months...so the bids have to rise to a higher, appropriate level to balance the game again and to give Allies again the same chance to win as Axis .

War is over – Allies surrendered July 7, 1943. His 2nd win against me, my 7th lost game at all. Congratulations for Dragonheart, he played an excellent game that was a lot of fun . Allied battle record: - Allies risked a counterattack in France with their strong pieces on an already damaged tank...and lost: the tank survived 4 attacks at str 1. Germany crushed the first defence lines and so saved 2-4 turns in France. Therefore France fell quite early at June 6, 1940. Nevertheless Allies sunk the german sub that attacked at Brussel and saved 10 ground units + the 2 french med units, so it was not too bad. - Unfortunately Germany developed already fall 1940 LongRange lv 2 (UK: 5 chits in research, no tech). Shortly after, it also got jets. So Allies had no choice than to hide their units in the north and after Germany researched LR 3, in Ireland. - Germany made a border mistake that increased russian readiness by 10% and Hungary joined late. On the other side Axis gambled with the start of Barbarossa, were lucky and gained a turn. The low readiness increase of the Axis DoWs finally overcompensated the other effects: russian readiness 5% and US 16% below average. Barbarossa started end of November 1941 together with Spain. Finland joined immediately. - Western Allies immediately started D-day. In the meantime UK researched with 9 chits and catched up in LR (lv 3), but Germany was still ahead in jets: lv 3 vs UK + USA lv 2. Nevertheless they managed to kill some german AFs, to conquer Brest, Bordeaux and to liberate LC while Axis were busy in Spain and Russia and finally western Allies got also jets 3. - Since Dragonheart was used to a Turkey invasion AFTER Russia conqueres Finland, Allies used the surprise effect and attacked already in the 3rd turn of Barbarossa . And it was a full success: Axis had no units ready to operate into Turkey, so some turns later Turkey surrendered. Iraq needed a bit more time, but finally was liberated by the strong russian forces (3 HQs with up to 15 heavy units). Axis then built a straight defence line from Beirut to the SE – since german air arrived, Russia couldnt use its own air (jets 0 vs 3) any more. This way no breakthrough possible, but each turn Axis had to repair damages of around 150 mpps and the russian units were slowly but surely collecting experience. - After Spain was done and Russia had to retreat to Smolensk, Axis had a relieve. Most russian units were busy in the middle east too, so Axis started a counterattack in France with its elite units from Spain and Russia. The allied advance got stopped in July 1942 south of Bordeaux at the spanish border. After heavy battles against the superior german air and ground forces they had to retreat. The commanding structures (HQs) were able to reach the evacuation ports, but most of the US ground forces had to be sacrificed to protect their leaders to enable their escape. - From Mid 1942 until March 1943 Russia established and hold their defence lines SW of Smolensk. Germany killed each turn a russian corps or two, but in the deathtrap there also every 2nd or 3rd turn a german army or tank got lost . But in March 1943 a german tank survived 5 attacks at str 1 (all did minimum damage...) and Germany was able to overrun the damaged defenders. It finally conquered the russian central mine, Russia abandoned Smolensk and retreated to Kharkov. - At the same time (March 1943) a damaged german army in Beirut survived also at str 1 which saved Axis the middle east front for a while. But then Axis started a counterattack with 2 german tanks (meanwhile Germany had heavy tanks lv 3 !) and some german AFs, supported by italian forces. This gave Russia the opportunity to kill both tanks in return, to conquer Beirut and push Axis back into the sea. Some italian corps and a german army got destroyed in the fierce battles that followed and finally Axis retreated its surviving units. The Middle east was save now. - Russia grew quite strong – nevertheless, unbelievable but true: it got not a single tech until 1 turn before Allies surrendered...Russia researched with 5 chits for over 1.5 years and got nothing. Germany in contrary reached at least jets 3, LR 3, HT 3. This way it was not possible to launch a real counterattack since without airsupport and str 13 german tanks in key positions such an operation was hopeless. - For western Allies on the other side it looked really dark: After they left France, Germany pounded southern England with 8 AFs and moved all remaining naval forces to Brussel. Army and corps transports appeared at the english coast. In March 1943 the last big naval battle occured west of Norway: 4 allied ships got sunk, Axis lost 2 cruisers, 2 battleships and a sub. After the dust settled, only one US battleship was still alive and the entire axis navy had been destroyed. But this didn´t save England against the superior german AFs (8). Due to the german LR 3 Allies were not able to support the defenders around London with HQs (they had to stay out of range to avoid destruction) and finally in Mid 1943 London fell under the heavy air bombardements. - Russia started a last counterattack with all its strong pieces and the veterans from Iraq to help England. They were able to liberate Smolensk, but then there was no further advance possible against the technical way superior german forces – Germany 8 tech advances ahead of Russia...the russian air still had to hide in the mountains and without airsupport any offensive was doomed to fail – especially against lv 3 tanks entrenched in all key positions. - The end came fast: Within a few turns the german elite units killed the last 6 defending allied armies + half a dozen corps in England and reached Manchester. In July 1943, the turn before the last fortress would have fallen, Allies surrendered. It was a really interesting game and with a bit less bad luck in research for Allies (especially Russia...no tech after 1.5 years... ) it could still have gone the other way until nearly the end – with Turkey + Iraq Allies were equal to Axis in mpps/turn . Since it was a mirror game, we afterwards played the second part with Dragonheart now as Allies and bid 250 (1:5:20). And this game was a really crazy one : - Germany had excellent combat rolls, conquered Poland and LC turn 2, Denmark turn 3. Allies tried an aggressive french defence with HQ so they were able to kill 2 german tanks, but on the other side France fell early at May 26, 1940 and Allies were not able to save much. - Axis were very lucky with the minors too, they all joined at the first opportunity and russian readiness increase/turn was also below average so Barbarossa started not until February 1942 – only USA joined early . - This way Axis had plenty of mpps and invested heavily in research. And here it really got crazy: In October 1940 UK already had LR 2 and jets 1, Axis with 6 chits: nothing. In June 1941 Axis got the first advance – Germany researching with 10 chits. Winter 1941 Germany finally catched up to LR 2, still jets lv 0 (5 chits in jets) – immediately UK researched LR 3 . Until Barbarossa Germany got LR 3 too and also one jet level – naturally UK and USA researched jets 2 when Germany reached lv 1... after Barbarossa UK + USA got jets 3 simultaneously again, Russia researched jets 2 – Germany still at lv 1 with 5 chits...till the end. - Fortunately Axis had nearly endless mpps due to the good luck with minors and France, so the total inferiority in tech didn´t really matter. Western Allies used their jet and AA advantage to force intercepts (also during the whole year 1941: 2 airbattles each turn), but Germany had more than enough mpps to replace all losses. Western Allies on the other side this way had not enough mpps left to support an invasion and therefore D-day never came. - Russia probed a forward defence with lots of tanks + armies, built 4 additional AFs and researched nearly immediately jets lv 2. Extremely bloody battles occured in middle Russia with losses of around 2000 mpps and more each turn. So after 6 !! turns the war in the east was over – not much russian survivors, only the HQs were left, Russia lost 5 AFs in combat + 2 in turn 1, one AF survived. Moskov about to capitulate. Allies surrendered July 1942. Those were 2 really crazy games from the tech side – nevertheless it was a lot of fun with heavy and exciting battles. Dragonheart now really knows how to play the axis side – except for the border thing, a flawless and very good gameplay . [ December 11, 2004, 05:02 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

Yep, I totally agree. New rules only limit the possibilities for both sides. At the moment I can only see 3 necessary/useful rules: No Rome gambit, an AA rule and no landings in Russia. Everything else solely depends on the preferences of the players and their playing style. As Sombra already remarked: there will often be heavy and important battles at the spanish border, in Spain and near Gibraltar - at least between two good players with staying powers . Making Spain/Portugal neutral, only limits the possible strategies for D-day and the following turns. To balance a scenario so both sides have the chance to turn the tide several times and during a long time, you only need to adjust the bid. There will never be a balanced scenario or rule set for ALL players. It simply depends on the experience of the players (e.g. new players still can play the original 39 scenario without bids and often Allies will be in the advantage...for average-better players bids around 100-200 in 1:5:20 are also still appropriate...etc.). Bids always increased with experience and time during the last 2 years. With the improved axis gameplay of the top players now the ´old´ bid size is not high enough for them any more. But that doesn´t mean new rules are necessary, the solution is pretty simple: increase the bid size to an appropriate level and it is balanced again .

September 6, 1942: Stalingrad surounded from 4 sides. Allies surrender unconditionally after last kamikaze attacks in east and west. War is over.

September 1942: Approaching Stalingrad - only minor battles in Russia. West: - US reinforcements arrive in France, ground units now marching forward towards Paris and Bordeaux. - Finally allied naval forces arrive at Canada/USA to protect their coasts. After light battles, the italian navy retreats towards Portugal - some ships and a transport damaged.

August 23, 1942: Sevastopol, Voronezh and Vologda conquered. Russia disbanded the last 3 AFs and is entrenching its armies in the Ural mountains and around Stalingrad. West: - Allies killing some corps each turn, still 2 hexes away from Paris and Bordeaux, not enough ground units to move forward. - USA: 4 US armies/corps go into transports heading for France. One army transport gets intercepted by the italian navy and sunk in the following turn. Italian transport outside Canada - 2 defenders spotted, so no landings will be made.

August 1942: Rostov conquered, small russian counterattack at Sevastopol, so the fortress survives another turn since Germany has to deal with the attackers first. German tanks near Moskov move east - russian forces retreated after the loss of the capital. West: - german AF lost...killed by a UK carrier, US forces are marching towards Paris/Bordeaux. - Italian fleet still bombarding 4 US armies/corps in their homecountry as retaliation for the allied coastal bombardments in France

End of July 1942: German army lost near Moskov, russian capital conquered in return. Russian and german soldiers are standing face to face - watching each other across the rivers in north and south. Only Rostov and Sevastopol under attack - they should fall next turn. Russia shows AT lv 2. West: - US troops + HQ land in their bridgehead at Brest. - USA reaches jets lv 3 and is now ahead in technology. - italian transports at the US coast, several US armies and corps are standing at the ports, ready to embark towards Europe. Anti-tank lv 1 spotted. Italian cruisers and battleships bombard the US invasion forces before they can start to Europe.

July 1942: Sevastopol under siege...the first real ground battles around Moskov without losses for both sides. The german AFs attacked the russian ones directly and therefore were not able to support the operations on the ground. In the heavy airfights 2 of the 5 russian AFs get killed. All 4 nations are at the same jet level (lv 2). West: Allies finally liberate Brest. Axis forces retreat to Paris and Bordeaux.

June 1942: Axis conquers Leningrad, Smolensk, Kharkov and the mines north of Sevastopol. No airbattles any more, russian forces retreat without a fight and entrench behind the rivers in the east, only 1 german corps lost near Leningrad. Siberians arrive West: Still 3 airbattles each turn over Brest and carriers are training - USA reached jets lv 2. Besides this: everything´s quiet.

April 19, 1942 (4rd turn Barbarossa): Minsk and central mine conquered, german forces reach Leningrad - heavy airbattles in the neighbourhood with 4 russian AFs (jets lv 1). Russia also researched at least AT lv 1. Russian forces retreat without much fights, so they are still in good shape - many russian armies, no tanks spotted. Airbattles over Brest between 3 german AFs, 4 UK (lv 2 jets) and 2 US AFs.

2nd turn Barbarossa: Germany conquers Riga, Kiev and Odessa. Airbattles around Leningrad, 2nd russian cruiser sunk. Russia built 3 additional AFs. Minor airbattles in France, US AF in London forces intercepts.

Barbarossa starts in December 1941: All 9 border armies, cruiser, 2 AFs and both russian tanks destroyed or cut off. The 3rd AF survives 2 airstrikes. Germany shows jets 2, LR 2, AT 2. Everything quiet in the West, USA joined some turns ago. Allies DoWed Portugal and Iraq before Barbarossa. Greece surrenders to Germany.

The nationality or type of a unit doesn´t matter for russian readiness. So you can place in Romania up to 24 units and it has no effects on Russia...Romania has only 24 hexes, therefore the limit hehe .

Counterstrategies to a UK air + Monti + french HQ strategy: - for the ones that love the risk: they can try to force an early breakthrough and march through very fast to Paris. With 2 Hqs Allies have not much ground unit in France and only a thin defence line. So when they loose 1-2 units early, they can´t hold the defence lines any more and Germany can reach Paris very fast (here it is not unlikely that Paris falls in February/March 1940). This strategy can especially be used after failed allied counterattacks when their units are damaged and can so be killed. With their HQ supported french armies and 2 UK fighters, Germany will have high losses in this strategy. Loosing both tanks and a couple of armies is not unlikely. So it can also happen that the german forces get destroyed in the attempt. By aggressively moving forward, they provide a good target and can often be attacked from several sides and therefore be destroyed. This strategy is often used (especially by Rambo ) and as mentioned very risky since Allies will try to kill all german units that break through – so win percentage is perhaps 50/50 or lower... But the game will be decided within the first turns: either Paris falls, then Allies have lost and usually surrender, or Germany gets killed and surrenders. - my prefered counter and a save way to win against this allied strategy: Be defensive with your german units at the beginning until you have conquered Poland and Denmark. Even if you could kill a french army and move a unit into the gap: don´t do it ! It will only give Allies the opportunity to kill a german unit. An exception is the french Ardennes forest, but even this you will most likely loose since it can be attacked by 4 french armies + 2 UK AFs, so it is not worth risking a unit there – and for your air it is expensive too to kill the defender there. Better you use your air for Denmark, so it will fall in turn 3 – usually together with Poland. If you attack LC with a tank in the south, then operate a full str corps SW of Brussel, this will protect the tank and it will nearly always survive an allied counterattack. Usually Germany will loose this cannon fodder corps, but this doesn´t matter, they have enough ground units . If Germany already has a second HQ to support the tank, then it can stay south of Brussel, otherwise it can be a good idea to replace it with a cheap corps. Without HQ support Allies will most likely try to kill the tank. When Poland and Denmark surrendered, Germany can buy first 2 AFs and then Manstein. With 5 AFs it is possible to kill the french defender in the Ardennes – if not in the first try then during the next 1-2 turns (expected losses for the defender are 10-13 depending on the collected experience). This is the first step – since the coast is mostly heavily defended and also threatened by battleships and carriers, it is usually better to attack towards the french mine and to stay away from the coast. During the following process: - never send valuable armies in dangerous places where the enemy can attack them with 3+ armies and their 2 AFs, you will most likely loose them. Use either cheap corps as cannon fodder (expect to loose some of them) or the best defenders in the game: tanks. But if you send a tank, then make sure you have units ready to take revenge if you loose this tank and to kill the french attackers – they will be heavily damaged, so you can sacrifice a tank to conquer some additional hexes. But you need units (2nd tank, fast corps) to occupy the hexes after your counterattack. - place your HQs out of range of the UK air in England. HQs can support your units 5 hexes away, so place them 4-5 hexes away (east of the rhine, where they can´t be attacked by enemy air). Otherwise UK air will attack the HQs to force intercepts and this will be very expensive. Without HQs, Allies have to attack ground units and this is expensive for the UK air . - To be able to take a chance, place 2-3 AFs a bit further west, so they can reach the UK AFs around London. Often you will get a chance to destroy them: You can kill an AF outside London: with luck you only need 3 airbattles, but with 4 it is usually dead. So if the enemy AF just attacked, then force another intercept with one of your AFs that are out of range (=2 airbattles) and then you have your 2-3 AFs in range to kill the UK AF. Since Allies know this too, they often remove their air if Germany moves AFs in range – if not, then you can remove the AF by force . Can be that you first have to reinforce your air before you can kill the AF (your air should be strong enough (i.e. str 5+) to survive the battle (don´t forget the 2nd UK AF, either force it to intercept too, or use a strong air for your first direct attack cause it has to survive 2 airbattles), otherwise it makes not much sense). BTW: London provides AA and protection for the defender, so the London AF usually can´t be killed. Only if you noticed the air there did 2 airbattles in a row and had no opportunity to reinforce, then if you can force it intercepting and a third airbattle you can start dirct strikes and kill it – otherwise it will most likely survive and a failed attack is very expensive for the german air... - last but not least: when moving forward in France, try to keep a straight line and always take care of potential enemy counterattacks. At the end of your turn your units should be placed like if they would be the defenders. Try to avoid making early spearheads that can be attacked from 4 sides. Sometimes you can´t avoid it, then use cannon fodder corps or leave it open. At such places try to kill 2 enemy units in one strike, so the enemy can kill maximum one of your units, so you have one of the 2 hexes conquered in the end and your position improved. Especially during the first turns of the attack on France this is a danger that the enemy kills your front units. But France has only 5 armies, so after some turns Germany will have killed most of them and then the danger decreases. When the enemy has mainly corps left, then you don´t need to be so careful any more, and the advance will be much faster. So in the end: The first turns in France are hard and Germany has to defensive and always ready for enemy counterattacks. Advance will be slow. But when the enemy armies are killed and the first key hexes conquered (Ardennes...), front is widening, more ground units can be send into battle and the speed of advance will increase a lot – expecially since Allies are usually running out of defenders: UK needs all mpps for the airbattles, France can only buy 1 corps/turn. Since Germany can usually kill 1-2 units/turn, so sooner or later the allied defence will break like a card-house.

@aesopo: The ideal strategy in France depends like all strategies on the opponent and your own preferences . I prefer e.g. the long, good games. A quick victory makes me not much fun, so it is pointless for me to use a risky strategy at the beginning to reach either a fast victory or defeat. So I prefer and use in most games a long term strategy . Therefore I usually use a pure corps defence. I.e. no UK air, no french HQ. French air gets disbanded. Allies do only counterattack on the hex SW of Brussel with the landing units from England/Canada or if Germany sends a unit in a hex where it can be destroyed (e.g. either an understrength one or in a hex that can be attacked from 4 sides). So their corps can entrench and Germany needs a certain minimum time until they can reach Paris. Most corps come from France and England only sends as much units as are needed to fill the gaps. Therefore they can invest early in tech (sometimes I have up to 4 UK chits this way before France falls ). With a corps defence Germany usually needs at least until July 1940 to get Paris – and when it falls so early (for a corps defence, July is early ) that means Allies will have evacuated a lot of units (in average I evacuate ~10 units + 2 med units). If Germany makes mistakes in killing the corps it can also easily need a lot more time to conquer France, August/September is not unusual. In the end: Germany will only have slight losses and can train its units, but Allies can build up during France (so D-day will be very strong) and have also enough mpps to prepare and start operations during/after France in other areas of the european theater .

Hi Desaix, Yes I agree, "only Russia allowed to research AA" should be a good alternative . Long term it could cause problems, but it is unlikely and as you stated it depends on the axis strategy and is therefore possible to counter - so it´s a matter of strategy and a fair way. So yes, I will use and test this rule in my games . Edit: Just thought about it, when Russia is lucky and reaches high level AA it again gets unfair...so I would say, if Russia is allowed to research AA and the others not, then there should be a tech limit, i.e. maximum lv 2 AA. For ground defence this should be enough. Anyway, it is only an alternative to a total banning of AA research - it will depend on my opponent which rule we will use [ November 29, 2004, 03:47 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

Even after 2 years it is possible to learn new things about SC - in the future I will also use the Paris army to attack german corps at Maginot. With 1:3 it is worth it .

3 corps after October 1940 are enough (a unit in Warsaw has no effects, the other 3 are correct ). As Liam already said: 3-4 hexes away of the border is fine. Units in Romania are irrelevant, so there you can place as many units as you want. Russian readiness increases 1-3% each half turn and they prepare for war at 90% (i.e. then it increases 5%/half turn). So you are safe until 86% readiness. When russian readiness is at 87% or higher, then you have to move your units to the border. When Russia prepares for war at the end of the axis turn, then you have to attack in your next turn (you can also check the readiness: 95%+ = attack, 94%- = you can wait one turn). There is one exception: 1942 russian readiness increase is highly accelerating, so after December 1941 russian readiness will make large jumps and they will join very fast. So November/December is usually the last chance to move your units into position even if readiness is lower than 87%.

Zapp, in the last years I had the „pleasure“ to get you - and your behaviour towards me - know very well. I know this is not a serious question you ask to „discuss“ something, but you only ask to get new amunition for a new flamefest against me. Little history lesson (only a few people still remember how it started..): - our dispute started officially in September 2003. We played 50 games and it really got boring for me to play Zapp everyday where he used exactly the same strategy every time, hoping for the perfect rolls and surrendering and restarting whenever something didn´t go the way he wants. When I tried new strategies like the Spain gambit, then he surrendered immediately and wanted to restart. Additionally at that time my schedule changed (and I told him about it and that I don´t want to play everyday...), but I offered him to play again in 12 ! days since I had no time to play during the next time anyway. - 40 minutes later Zapp (at that time responsible for the Z-League) changed the league rules and challenged me. If I would not play him within the next 7 days and finish the game within this time, then I would loose my rank and he would be number 1. - I requested him to remove it. Here I probably reacted wrong and used the wrong words. If I would have known what would follow, I would have certainly reacted different – but I was angry and disappointed of him at that moment. The next week there was a public discussion about the new rule and also other members of the league demanded to change it. There was even a small voting about it until Zapp simply declared he doesn´t care about votes (since nearly everyone was against his rule change...), it is his league and he does with it what he wants. - That was the point where I voted with my feets and left the league – and other members did the same, so finally Z-League died. - Obviously Zapp was not able to get over this and also not about loosing nearly 50 games against me. So in the following months: - First he accused me of different things how I would have won my games against him (using bugs, flaws or simply things he didn´t know and that I didn´t explain to him before the game...etc.). There he also used the current carrier interception question – That´s one of his most loved methods: asking questions and then using the answer against the other one. If the answer doesn´t fit him, then he turns around the words in the mouth or simply ignore the parts he doesn´t like – so it finally fits as ammunition. - As this didn´t work and I also still had my saves to prove the truth if necessary, he changed to his new tactic of simply fabricating lies and other stories about me to damage my reputation. Somewhere between point 1 and 2 I promised not to play him ever again.... - The last step are his current one liners, little jokes and indirect peaks against me. During these process he got creative (something he should have been instead in playing the game...). One really effective method was to start and post simultaneously in different threads so nobody that didn´t read everything was able to follow our argument any more after a while. First he started a new fighting in one thread, continued it in another and finished it in the next one – so he was able to say he only asked an ´innocent´ question, he didn´t attack me and why I would not answer...He also proved his stalker qualities by following me in my threads where I was answering questions and also in my AARs at Panzerliga. He couldn´t read them since they were in german, but that didn´t hinder him to post his crap there too... As summary I can only say: I hope I will never meet such a possessed and lunatic person in real life. Via internet it is worse enough... And for Zapp: There is one thing you obviously forgot about SC and this forum: SC is a game we play in our spare time to have fun and we are players, not professionals. So I have neither the duty, nor the time to explain every player every little detail of the game. I love the game and I also like to explain other players the basics, write strategy threads, help threads.. etc – I have learned all the things I know by simply playing, learning from my faults, my opponents and by testing the things that made me curious. You are a player too and you are even playing SC longer than I do (just look when we both registered...). You had the same chances to learn and to develope strategies than I had. So if you loose, then don´t blame me for knowing/using things you didn´t know (so you call them „bugs“ or „gameys“). At that time everyone was learning how SC works (including russian readiness...), testing and developing different strategies...- it was simply a race who is ahead in knowledge and this made a lot of fun too, to discover all the little things in SC .