Terif

If no ground based air is in range you have to look for a weakly defended enemy city with port for your landing (so your troops will be supplied as soon as you have conquered it) - with one entrenched defender in it you may not get it the first turn, but the second (don´t forget to land also a HQ to support your troops so they have some punch in the second turn). Like in history if the enemy awaits you or an area is heavily defended: do not invade (or you will just get a bloody nose ). The coast is long enough - somewhere is always an open/only lightly defended spot.

War is over - unconditional Axis surrender in July 1942. Massive Normandy D-day in cooperation of all allied nations and simultaneous attack from every side proved successful . In Russia the war was extremely unbloody, main theatre was West and the french battlefield where millions of soldiers died or went into PoW camps - in June 1940 before the allied offensive Russia had only lost one single corps (at Leningrad) during the entire war...only increasing to 6 lost units (including 2 partisans) in the turn of the enemy surrender - russian mothers are proud of their sons and welcome them happily back home .

July 1942: Allied battle order disintegrates and soldiers from all allied nations leave position... disobeying any orders...spreading out to collect souvenirs for their families at home and look for anything valuable to loot...droping every caution...the race for the best plunder has begun... American marauders enter Spain while bombers level Madrid...Paris is liberated and plundered as well as the french mine. Russian forces in the south rush west, entering Romania and approaching Poland while in the north they have to pause for reinforcing after desperate german airstrikes at everything that moves... In the desert Alexandria is liberated, an italian battleshipgroup sunk by bombers, 3 russian armies compete in the race to plunder the treasures of Cairo...and block themselves in a trafic jam at Suez canal since neither of them wants the other one to reach and plunder Cairo first .

Just mistyped - it is meant sending the mpps to USSR of course (corrected it in above post) . But increasing US convoys to UK is also a standard measure (you can adjust mpps transfered via convoy in the convoy map).

I have pretty much the same error (tried both download mirrors - they don´t seem to be the problem) - perhaps you can test if switching your desktop resolution helps to narrow down the error. I wanted to play SC2 v1.07 in 1280x1024 (like I do in v1.06) which didnt work (either crash/freezing or directx error when clicking on the first unit) while my desktop was set at 1024x768 (SC2 v1.07 in 1024x768 worked). After I changed my desktop resolution to 1280x1024 it worked also in SC2 with 1280x1024 (but that is not the optimal solution as it is a bit inconvinient having to change desktop resolution every time you want to play and again after SC2 is closed ). [ September 16, 2007, 07:38 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

I have pretty much the same error (tried both download mirrors - they don´t seem to be the problem) - perhaps you can test if switching your desktop resolution helps to narrow down the error. I wanted to play SC2 v1.07 in 1280x1024 (like I do in v1.06) which didnt work (either crash/freezing or directx error when clicking on the first unit) while my desktop was set at 1024x768 (SC2 v1.07 in 1024x768 worked). After I changed my desktop resolution to 1280x1024 it worked also in SC2 with 1280x1024 (but that is not the optimal solution as it is a bit inconvinient having to change desktop resolution every time you want to play and again after SC2 is closed ). [ September 16, 2007, 07:38 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

With my USA I always research PT (usually till level 3/4). Russia also researches it - usually IW+AT first, but then IT and PT follow. Germany also could use PT - but here definitely combat techs have priority since it has to fight during the whole time. UK also can research PT if it intends to use the mpps for itself instead of leaving them to USA or sending them to USSR. So in the end PT is fine how it works now . [ September 16, 2007, 10:27 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

Yep, this game Allies launched a full scale D-day already in Spring 1942 – made possible by the aggressive Axis approach (conquering Sweden in 1940 as well as Spain/Vichy France before Barbarossa leads to very strong Allies much earlier than with a historical approach, which is the disadvantage of this strategy for Axis). And so Allies landed in Normandy with several million soldiers, destroying 5 german fortifications from Bordeaux till Paris in the process. 3 allied HQs together with 19 combat units got stationed around the liberated Brest-Bordeaux area with Spain cut off while UK air from England covered the landing. When strong german forces operated to Paris-Essen-Bordeaux, they entrenched and built a deep defense system to be ready for the enemy assault. In May 1942 the largest battle in history on french soil started...Germany seems to be looking for the decisive battle in the west as it is ahead there in ground tech (IW 3, AT2 vs USA IW1, AT1) and moves its main forces out of the protecting mountains in southern France and fortifications east of Paris to attack the allied forces on the entire frontline from the british channel till the spanish border...due to the prepared allied defense positions Allies have many damaged units, but the only total loss is the UK BEF army. German paratroopers jump behind the frontline towards allied air around Brest. The allied reaction is swift and deadly – Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt already had prepared for this scenario with Axis operating west to counter the invasion. So they now launched their combined strike to crush the evil axis empire with a massive multifront-offensive: Russian forces open the hostilities on 3 fronts: Paratroopers jump into Egypt after airstrikes prepared the battlefield, followed by heavy tanks lead by Zhukov...simultaneously Valutin and his task force leaves the fortification line at Kharkov, destroying the german defender of Kiev and moving towards Odessa to cut it off....in the northern part the main strike with 2 task forces and the bulk of the russian tanks around Konev and Voroshilov is directed towards cutting off the german forces around Leningrad – breaking its siege and relieving Leningrad in the process - and reaching their airbases with german LR 2, Jets 2 fighters south of it. British and american forces join the battle...tens of thousands of aircrafts darken the sky when their offensive starts rolling... June 14, 1942: Clash of the titans...in the open fields and roads of France the german vehicles just moving to the front are perfect targets for allied bombers, airfleets and carriers...after the slaughter allied ground forces round up the survivors for transfer into PoW camps....on this single day Germany lost 5 armies and 3 corps, all its Paratroopers cut off behind enemy lines, the core of the german Wehrmacht annihilated or cut off and its offensive capabilities destroyed....London, Moskow and Washington united in the celebration, declaring it the new liberation day that initiated the end of the war .

Sure the Gibraltar port gives also supply in North Africa - like all ports it provides supply to the tiles around it and ports are no open water so it is also no contradiction. Btw: as it was not Hubert that wrote the manual it is more of a guideline and you can´t take every word literally. It´s main focus is also to make it easier for new players to get into the game - therefore it often simplifies things.

Since Germany starts with PT 1 you can easily test this yourself (just upgrade one of your units or repair a damaged one): upgrading is not reduced and also reinforcing costs are not reduced by PT . Upgrading and reinforcing use the normal costs (without PT) as basis - which is good as this leads to PT beeing a choice and not a must have. It is the decision of the player if he plans for a long war or not. [ September 15, 2007, 10:33 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

Sorry, can´t play this weekend - but seems you didn´t hold it out long in SC2-retirement...the urge to play got you again .

Production Technology only reduces the initial base costs when buying a unit (e.g. a corps costs 95mpps instead of 100 with PT1). PT does not reduce reinforcement costs and also does not reduce costs for upgrading. That´s why researching PT is not the first choice (to get your investment of 100 mpps back, even if you got the tech advance you need to buy units for base costs of 2000 mpps - which means with upgrading more than 3000 mpps...). Therefore only for USA this may be a good investment if they plan for a longer war. Russia and Germany also can benefit - but have usually more important things to research. First priority for them has to be combat techs.

@Retributar: I guess you are speaking of a game vs an allied AI and destroying their amphibs/transports with the axis navy - yep, the AI doesn´t really protect its invasion fleets so for you as human player it is pretty easy to destroy it in the water. But that´s a problem of the AI and not USA/UK not being strong enough . Against a human player this is a different thing: if the allied player has only a slight clue of what he is doing, it never happens that the allied invasion fleet gets destroyed - allies just use their navy to screen and protect the amphibs/transports and/or move them under protection of their bombers. @Liam: Full scale D-Day in France is also a good option - but logically not in 1942 (here it is more a distraction as you said), at that time Axis is usually too powerful and can in deed drive them back into the ocean (which is quite historical). In 1943/44 this is a completely different story - no matter how Russia is doing. Later in the war USA and UK have built up a strong invasion force that is more than a match to the axis ground forces - especially as Allies then will have total air superiority over France (also quite historical). Fortifications can delay the conquest of France, but if Allies know how to crack fortifications (first airstrikes, then ground forces to take the demoralized defenders prisoner), then they will have no real problems getting through any fortification line . P.S.: USA IS very strong - but only later in the game when it has geared up for war. Nobody should expect them to be a military super power already in 1941/42 (quite historical as well..).

July 4th, 1943 - Victory day : The last surviving russian soldiers in Ural lay down their arms after a last bloody german offensive and Russia surrenders to the overwhelming Axis forces. In Poland german tanks from Berlin+Prague take the US paratroopers prisoner, infantry from Königsberg and Warsaw receive the capitulation of the remaining US forces in the area. Meanwhile in the Atlantic 6 axis subs begin to starve England out - no convoy comes through any more neither from Canada, USA nor Norway . Unfortunately Ireland that was empty the previous turns just got a british garrison force. Italian paratroopers land in Scotland and find it defended too - so Axis amphibious invasion forces positioned in the Atlantic have to change plans... New target destination for the amphibs: North America .

Standard is 10 percent points for each level - USA get 20 points and Germany 15 points (that´s why USA with its 180 base mpps gets 180 x 0.2 = 36 mpps/turn/level, Germany 110 x 0.15 = 16.5, UK 40 x 0.1 = 4... etc).

Industry tech increases the mpps collected from ressources in the original home territory. So a level IT for Russia increases their income by around 30 mpps/turn (depending on how many ressources got conquered by Germany), for USA it is exactly 36 mpps/turn. Germany 16.5 mpp/turn. Italy only gets max 8 mpps/turn and England only 4 mpps/turn...that´s why researching it for England or Italy makes no sense and Germany gets much more mpps from conquered ressources and since it can have max 750mpps in research there are much more important things (combat techs) to research for them. [ September 09, 2007, 02:09 PM: Message edited by: Terif ]

Actually...if units are cut off (without supply/HQ command), then they virtually surrender as soon as enemy forces come to take them prisoner (they don´t surrender to the wilderness if nobody is there to accept their capitulation... ). There is no surrender sign in the game (SC2 is representing the reality in an abstract way not only in this aspect :cool: ), but since when they are cut off they just don´t put up a real fight any more and can be taken prisoner without much effort you can consider this their surrender - and they also can´t be rebuild at reduced costs as they went into prison camps .

Yea, 4 german tank groups level 2 are defending the west - most of them positioned around Berlin and Prague - together with a dozen corps/armies . Extremely bloody battles in Caucasus - Germany looses around 20-30 army strength points each turn even if the units survive like 2 of my armies last turn at str 1 + 2...in the allied counter next turn another german Paratrooper and army will probably bite the dust . But in the Atlantic the Axis navy now rules the sea...german subs move to Ireland, Manchester and Scotland, sinking every merchant ship they can find while italian and german battleships target practice on US transports...one of them sunk west of Ireland...Atlantic transfer route closed .

If a unit is at supply 5 or higher when it gets destroyed, then it can be bought back at 60% cost and production also only takes half the time (e.g. a basic corps destroyed at supply 5 now costs only 60 mpps and needs 1.5 months for production).

Yep, UK tried a full Egypt defence and sent everything it had into this battle...but Axis was prepared and had 2 german HQs with appropriate troops and full airsupport to clear the desert from its rats...all british tank and army size forces destroyed after a bloody but short battle . Westafrica and Spain also fell to Axis after a larger naval battle around Gibraltar where 3 UK battleships and 2 cruisers got sunk. The german main forces were now already in Africa and transporting back would have been expensive...so the german Oberkommando decided to establish a land connection via Turkey and attack Russia from the southern flank directly into its Caucasian heart. In the west Allies conquered Scandinavia in the meantime, establishing their bomber bases in the southern part. End of 1942 also the combined allied fleet broke through into the Baltic after removing the guarding german cruiser unit in Kopenhagen port - air and bomber decimated the rest of the german Kriegsmarine (2 subs, 1 cruiser), only Tirpitz survived so far in Königsberg. German HQ in Finland tasted the allied LR 3 air and carriers until it retreated out of range - a full task force including tanks is there...awaiting any invaders...german bombers at Helsinki monitor the Baltic for amphibious transports while 6 high tech allied bombers raze Germany and Denmark to the ground. We are now in Spring 1943 - German forces sieging Ural - in a huge tank battle during the previous turns destroying the last russian tanks...just conquered the southern russian city there and 5 (rebuilt) german tanks arrive from the production queue ...Russia has only one city left with lots of entrenched troops around it. In the west 2 new naval battles occur: US subs near Portugal are under attack by italian cruisers, an allied cruiser near Bordeaux reduced to str 1 by Bismarck and italian battleships - neither of them should be able to escape as the allied main fleet is still in the Baltic - with the carriers just moving back via Kopenhagen towards the channel...meantime in the Atlantic axis subs start raiding convois...

No - victory conditions stay the same in WaW, lots of other things change

Just use your Windows Explorer. Unless you installed the game somewhere else, you will find the "Version Notes.txt" in the main directory under "C:\programs\Battlefront\Strategic Command 2 Blitzkrieg". Double click on it and you can read it . Same for the game scripts - just go into the campaign directory (e.g. 1939 Fall Weiss), there you find the different scripts (e.g. Victory scripts). They are pretty easy/self explanatory to read. [ September 01, 2007, 10:27 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

After 6 patches the manual is logically not up to date any more, so you should only read it together with the "Version Notes.txt" you find in your main directory where the patch changes are documented . To achieve victory there are 2 ways when using the standard settings: - either you achieve an early victory, i.e. you hold the necessary cities at the end of your turn (anytime from 1939 on) - or Stalemate victory conditions occur if neither side achieves an early victory before May 7th, 1947. Now the other possible victory conditions are checked so it can be determined which side won (to which extend) or if it was a draw Here the complete victory conditions for Fall Weiss (V1.06): - Axis Early Victory (Berlin, Rome, Warsaw, Paris, London, Moscow, Stalingrad, Cairo) - Axis Major Victory (Berlin, Rome, Warsaw, Paris, London, Moscow) - DATE= 1947/05/07 - Axis Minor Victory (Berlin, Rome, Warsaw, Paris, London) - DATE= 1947/05/07 - Axis Minor Victory (Berlin, Rome, Warsaw, Paris, Moscow) - DATE= 1947/05/07 - Allied (Early) Major Victory (Berlin, Rome, Warsaw, Paris, London, Moscow, Washington D.C.) - Allied Minor Victory (Paris, London, Moscow, Washington D.C.) - DATE= 1947/05/07 - everything else is a draw

Russia surrendered or not does not matter - only holding the key cities (no randomness involved). In your case it seems Cairo was missing for an early victory, so you only achieved the normal Axis victory when the game ended in May 1947. The victory conditions can be found in detail at the victory.txt scripts for each campaign: - Axis Early Victory (Berlin, Rome, Warsaw, Paris, London, Moscow, Stalingrad, Cairo) - Axis Major Victory (Berlin, Rome, Warsaw, Paris, London, Moscow) - DATE= 1947/05/07 - Axis Minor Victory (Berlin, Rome, Warsaw, Paris, London) - DATE= 1947/05/07 - Axis Minor Victory (Berlin, Rome, Warsaw, Paris, Moscow) - DATE= 1947/05/07

@targul: You can try to change the resolution (e.g. to 1280x1024 or lower), if this doesn´t help it is best to post in the tech support forum so Hubert can help you solve the problem .