Liam

After an early conquest of France, the British moved their imperial chess piece over Iraq drawing from them their material resource and the entirety of the MiddleEast until late well into '41 Churchill felt this the only way to compensate for the weakness in France the poor performance of the French Army. Regardless of the Political cost the UK occuppied both Norway and Sweden outright despite WorldWide Protest to devoid the resources their to the German War Machine. As Predicted and without warning the German Army crosses the Russian border and BlitzKriegs all the way to the Gates of Moscow and all the way to the Gates of Stalingrad... Meanwhile The People's General Field Marshall Zhukov recently promoted conquoring Finland moves into the Field there to push back the Huns! 6 Armored Armies, dozens of Corps and many many armies move foward with air power and katuyshas, the unprepared Germans in the Early Winter of '42 are freezing in their boots and some early success is taken, ground is retaken all over the map, but this is shortlived as the muddy weather soon sets in and German Aircraft can fly in clear skies... Meanwhile in the West the Allies prepare for D-Day a long awaited Second front, accumulating supplies, Leaders, Units... Tons of Allied Fighters and bombs reign down terror all over the Axis rear guard, but they're well entrenched behind their Atlantic Wall and there seems to be no hope of an immediate hope for Stalin! So in light of this and the grave situation, Commander Zhukov Pushes all of his Units foward, badly damaging many key and vital Axis Units. The Axis almost lose steam and are almost forced to pull back from the siege of Stalingrad, but then come back with a renewed vigor with the news off the Coast of the USA... U-Boat Aces rack up the kills, Brandy is served for the Axis Men at the front! Axis Subs raiding US and UK Commerce had planned an ultra top secret operation. To utterly cripple Allied Attempts to prepare for their D-Day and this is achieved by skimming off a good 30-45% of Allied shipping and even killing the most famous American Commander in Chief in the field... Though At the cost of the entire Axis Navy assuredly but the sacrifice by the Il Duce and the Fuhrer cannot be overlooked, all Americans Mourn... While IN port and preparing to embark for Europe, Dwight D. Eisenhower meets a dreadful fate. Sunk while he slept! Doctors say it was a painful death.. Americans will accept no less than the death of every floating Axis Vessel, right now as we speak, every thing that can float is being loaded with explosives, wadding off shore to ram the Migthy Goliaths of the Axis Navys to show them we will never Surrender, no on land, not at sea nor in the air, we shall Triumph.. Never has there been a greater Cause Kill Totals: 15 Axis 25 Reds Mostly Minor UK so no real dead 1 US HQ several ships on both sides, both navys still full power but not for long dozens and dozens of strengthpoints... MPPs in the middle, but as '42 winds down there is no more space in Russia and there must be a crippling blow in the West or Else it is EndGame

Where do I prevent popups for Partisans in USSR? I know in front of Riga, and on certain city hexes, but I'm not sure of the exact Tiles for the Prippets or the 2 for the Leningrad Partisans?

Weapons and Warfare Upgrade, is like SC Version 2.0 it will go over the top of your Blitzkrieg so you must keep your original Elicense and installation to run it, otherwise you'll have to pay the full price for both the SC2 and WAW it's only 25 for the update... It has a lot of new goodies and both SC2 vanilla and SC2 WAW are good... Just now you got tactical bombers, Artillery, AntiAir, Destroyers and an improved Map, better AI and a lot of other goodies... Welcome back, Join Panzerliga and get into the PBEMs we need some dudes to join man

All the Strategic Commands are a Collectors Item. The Interface-Graphics-feel is unlike any game on the market. And you do not need to be an expert to jump right in and play your first game, anyone can!

Worm, I tell you even if you were to give the AI the extras it deserves as you explain rather than scripted Cheat Units it's rather pointless as the only way to make the AI more intelligent is to do exactly that. All standard wargame AIs use cheating to win.. Because they just cannot keep up with your ability to learn the tactics and to compute the information beyond them. I played HOI2 DD, took me 5-6 games to conquor Europe as Italy and the AI is quite good in that game. Also I bought a new game, in 2 games I won... The thing is I find the competition more important than the game itself. More important than the history. Without it the game is boring and dull. I admit you're right finding opponents is just impossible, though Matchmaking Sites have become Elite and it's not impossible if people put the time into it. I recall Axis & Allies an older Head-To-Head IP game use to have a great level of Matchmaking on MSN Zone.. Plus their Leagues make for players not quiting on you. Though A&A could be finished in a night. Sadly SC2 WAW probably no way... Not unless you've got a good 5-8 hours I'm confidant that I could beat WAW in 1 game, the hardest settings! I wouldn't mind superior AI, or superior Matchmaking... perhaps in the future we'll be auto-plugged in to one another to play the minute we start up our games that or have an AI that is robotic and that can learn. Otherwise we will never find decent competition that last longer than weeks.

Yeah, there is some dissention in the ranks John. I think all the war games coming out now have torn some of the market away. Also the IP crowd which is a very very popular or at least prolific group are a bit scarce and some do not PBEM they do not like the speed of it. I am one to identify with that, at times PBEM puts people to sleep. Though with High Tech PCs, High Speed Connections, streamlining IP will be back. Like Arnie

I don't think I'd bother with this feature, personally I wouldn't want my BrainChild being ruined by the AI. I like to build my own Empire in other words. The Challenge I guess was important. To model a realistic AI or a challenging opponent that isn't human really isn't worth the price. Probably would cost more than the game itself! There were 3 Strategic games covering ETO released between '89 and '95 and Third Reich-COS-Storm Across Europe. I owned them all and just like Gary Grigsby's World At War. Got boring fast vs the AI By the way they finally made that MultiPlayer with a new Release, after ALL THIS TIME! And you have to spend MORE MONEY! What a bunch of Crap... Even still those games had a PC life of about 1 to 2 months before the AI was beaten, 1 week if you were an addict max! Once you learn 1 AI the next will even be easier. Some of these games I played once and won on the hardest settings So the challenge isn't in giving a dumb 2 year old Steriods to create a Giant. I'd prefer playing Play by Email or Play by Mail... The latter which is before my time. You see Strategic Command 1 was more like 1989 game interface aside from the IP aspect. That was modern. So it brought me back to the Genre. HOI was way way ahead of it's time but the RTS factor and the immense man hours and planning make MultiPlayer for it available but only for Diehards. The AI for HOI is not so good Though just like for any game I cannot see how they can be a challenge for anyone. After you learn the patterns the AI will take you will win every single time. Without Fail! We shouldn't make strides in AI technology. Most people discussing and debating this here have access to E-mail so MP play is available. Advanced AI is 20 or 30 years off this date... I'd say with the 100-200 PBEM opponents that you can then often schedule an appointment and IP them the last 2 hours of the match, why bother.. SC2 and SC2WAW are is good as it gets now. Features that need to be implemented are streamlining the IP capability of the game, streamlining it's interface, and enhancing it's Engine.. I know a lot of people disagree with me but when the only challenge is ignorance these days with AI techs I have abandoned them altogether other than to learn the "Games" I played hotseat quite often (in those days that was nearly all multiplayer you could ask for). In a single player game, Clash offered you a bit more than SC, SC2 or SC2 WAW: you could play the game till you felt that you would surely win and than change sides, letting the AI play your winnig side while you tried to rescue the mess which the AI left you on it side. I still can't understand why it is not possible to change player side in SC2. This is a real gift for every single player who can't or who don't want to play games against human player (as good as they may be). </font>

This is not meant to be offensive, but the particular article I found was somewhat informative. However it was a Layman's guide to SC/Commander. I would feel better served if a veteran of both titles was to comment on the details and features as this fellow hasn't put in the hours necessary to make a judgment call for "advanced wargaming" All in all the description of both titles is inaccurate unfulfilled and I could have ascertained as much looking at the screenshots or reviewing the on-line bulletin boards. I'd like a Very Very Advanced Player to write a Professional and edited piece on two of the most advanced and modern Strategic War Games in existence today. Hearts of Iron II does not fit into the category with it's RTS Feature and Province Style interface.

Yeah, Malta was interesting. That little Island was bombed into the Stone Age during WW2. Didn't make the target any more easy to take. Though the Axis could've had it... It just meant losing lives... Just like SC2 Though not the Sole Source of Supply in the med, Crete-Gibraltar both played their roles for resupply for ships and SeaZone Control. Western Central Meds... Crete could be a supply hinderance to the Allies... Also on top of it all The Retreat Rule is merely game mechanics. I do not think that SC2 with it's scale and many narrow ridges can afford a retreat. Now on the Eastern Front, that could be easily implemented. Sapped units, though would suffer a horrendous Morale hit unlike Strategic Command... Some of the units forced to take high casualties in WW2 never fought in the war effectively again. I don't mind retreat rebuild is a lot like it anyways. Both might work.. Though any Player with enough resources could at some point vaporize a strength 1 unit with SC air. I personally really liked Clash of Steele though it was SinglePlayer so that got dull after a month or two..

Alright the system is up to specification and beyond it. Are you using all the current drivers? You've not tampered with your video or audio drivers? Usually the most up to date are the best. You're using the latest or an up-to-date direct X? I'd try to fresh reinstall the game As this sounds as if your system is fine, might be a corrupt game file

find the most efficient method to kick the hell outta the AI it is linear and will usually-USUALLY do the same thing every time

publish your Specs and do you have a lot of spyware? and limited HardDisc Space?

Haven't been able to play CEAW and it really is a shortcoming that Matrix Games doesn't provide Demos to some of their best titles. This usually means to me that there games aren't trustworthy enough to spend 35-55 dollars on or MORE! Though Matrix has made some decent titles, I have Shoppers Anxiety on getting a title I'm not sure on what's inside. War games are not fun to experiment with financially. Buy 10-20 of them and you'll see disappointed sitting with just 1 out of the whole group! Now Strategic Command and I'll admit it, has it's shortcomings also. There are certain features that have yet to be implemented and game play could be better and simplified but I'm sure it would be beyond Battle Fronts Budget to do it. Their Graphics are some of the best. The Tile feature wasn't my first choice but it is like Civilization. I know I have played a lot of Strategic Command 2 and that makes me a bit less enthusiastic as a newcomer. However there is still a significant Community of SC2 Players but I do not see a significant community of CEAW players. I looked at in their Opponent Finder subject I see about 3 games organized a MONTH! This is the deathnail for CEAW for me, I would buy it if I could and I would get involved with it if I saw 20-30 games being started a month when I know for a fact SC2 even though is not as popular an IP game as SC1 many people still play weekly. Probably 10 plus game IP, many many many more PBEM... That I know of So CEAW has a lot of maturing to do before it will be compared to SC2 but has potential

The Germans made everything possible, they were the most highly insane organized nation of WW2. They didn't even have ballbearings at one point, they found substitutes no matter what... anything is possible and it is true though however unlikely open your mind. Whether worthwhile for the game, that's whole other story

That is one strategy, another is to a build an Atlantic Wall or two and send the invasion into the sea. I have done this quite a few times successfully and it has also failed. WAW has some unique options, that is more ways to get France, but it still is Wall Material and as far as an aggressive Sea Campaign for the Axis, that's all up to the Player's Preferences. Advanced Subs and BB-CV screens help protect them from Capitol ships and Destroyers... But Airpower is Supreme... LR especially. Not only that but the RN is larger so a determined Allied player will win the Atlantic but you can risk a SeaLion against him to keep him honest or be aggressive in other Theatres that require a Fleet... Or even Join up the Italians with the Kriegsmarine to create the RegiaKriegnautica

Lars I never argued a C-47 could carry a heavy Gun. In fact against it.. This is just an hotheaded debate. Jon should just add facts and drop it. He's insulting. But he insisted on insulting despite that with no real facts presented as you have. Just opinion... Whether or not a real army or Tank could ever be haulled in WW2 was not debated by myself...Though some lighter versions of Artillery/Tanks/Men and equipment could easily have been haulled. As was supply drops discussed, but dismissed by Jon. Did not 10,000 C-47s faciliate the The Normandy BeachHead? Or something like that... Not sure Anyway there is a lot we do not know.. Perhaps an idea like that could boost Supply to Brest/Caen to 6 or 7 rather than 5 the minimal P.S. I apologize to Jon if he takes my words personally but that's my way. Also I know for a fact if we played 100 games of SC he's be 0 and I'd be up a 100... And HOI or any other Wargame aside from Combat Mission too tactical for me!

I was not going to honor this with a response, but I never refered to the 82nd as a Brigade, it's a division. Which can mean up to 10,000 men. the 101st I believe is the brigade attached to the 82nd... And yes I have driven by the Museum a 100 times and done business there for it... and Yes the Germans did have tanks in Gliders ready to goto England. Are you deaf or blind? Or Both I.E. German gliders were of similar capacity. The Hamilcars, on the other hand, were designed to carry heavier loads, such as armoured Bren-carriers or Tetrarch tanks. The other advantage of the glider over the parachute, apart from the ability to carry heavier equipments, was that 15 or so men landed together, whereas 15 paratroopers could expect to be wildly dispersed after a drop. In the summer of 1943 Kenney used airlift to establish an Allied air base near Marlininan. After flying in all of the materials and equipment needed to build the base - using two and half ton trucks that had been sawn in half for C-47 transport - Kenney used the airfield at Tsili-Tsili as a staging base for an airborne attack on Nadzab. After a fierce strafing attack by B-25s, paratroops of the 503rd parachute infantry jumped over the airfield and took it within minutes. With Nadzab in Allied hands, General MacArthur launched a pincher attack on Lae that is credited with shortening the war in the Pacific by several months. Airlift continued to play a major role in the Southwest Pacific campaign for the remainder of the war. Fifth Air Force transports airlifted combat troops into new areas of operations, kept them supplied as they secured the area, and provided logistical support for the air units in the region. Hmmm enough equipment to build a Base? Weird Huh? I guess they just couldnt' do that nor transport such big trucks? -- http://members.aol.com/samblu82/wwII.html http://www.geocities.com/heythatslife/airborne.html So how'd they carry these things, DUhhhhhhh I dunno... In their ass... With 400 or 500 Gliders I suppose... That's enough to equal a very small unit. They didn't parachute in 88 Inch Guns but they probably could of... It's just not practical. Though consider the fact they could put up a few thousand Gliders, that's probably equal to a pretty small Unit THAT COULD capture an airfield, that could then land in the heavier troop carriers with weapondry. It's expensive transport, not very practical for heavier weapondry but limit the Corps to 1 AT 2 IW.. Not like Rifles are hard to carry Duhhhhh? Idiot P.S. Corps in SC2 are abstract, we do have ParaUnits and Commandos now in SC2 which would be more Divisional rather than Corpsized. Some the Corps in SC2 represent Garrison Sized units that may not be so true for the beginning of the war with the low techs but as it progresses and the tech does the units not upgraded are usually never fielded and often are posted as a Garrison Division all game. So lifting a Division is possible and happened in WW2. And there were many different sizes and shaped not all WW2 units carried heavy equipment. Specialized units for instance. I.E. Garrison, Para Units, Commandos, etc... Airlifting supplies happened and was a failure often but it happened.. Deny it? LOL read a real WW2 history book. From Stalingrad to Bastogne Good grief - just how stupid are you? These are not "HUGE HUGE" corps. They are utterly standard and normal. The Canadians had 2, the British had 4, the US had about 13, and the French had another 2. All roughly the same size. And this is at the end of the war, 1945, not the beginning. The best position any military was in to be able to do this. But no one can or will explain how all the artillery, vehicles, tanks, armoured cars, etc are going to be moved. I've given you the men and the smallish equipment. All I want is someone to explain all the stuff that will not fit into an aircraft without recourse to handwaving. I swear, it's more productive talking to a door frame than to you lot of know-nothing wannabes, with your uber-collection of commando comics, slapping each other on the back and telling each other how smart you are. The door frame is smarter than you lot. "82nd Airborne Brigade"? Give me a frigging break. Come back when you've read a book with more pages than it has pictures, kid. </font>

JonS how very insulting. Many Men thought that the Maginot Line was impregnable, and perhaps it was frontally. The fact no one ever truly tested the theory. Probably would've been costly though... It is certainly down to earth to say it would be very very hard, but impossible? Really, the Operational feature already in SC2 is completely ahistoric. Moving 5,000 tanks in 2 weeks and 1 million men with a few hundred MPPs. Though it's done and usually if not intelligently at the cost of the game... Few can afford that sort of movement without dying. We attempt to simulate what was possible not actually attempt to recreate it Though you feel strongly about what you feel. Perhaps you're partly right. Though it's not to be dismissed what else might be possible as the Germans went through the Ardenne and the Allies never imagined what Blitzkrieg was. That is History. We all want some level of realism but the option doesn't exist to attempt to have fun with some of those historical ideas used and or abandoned. Isn't that wrong? Perhaps we should see how disastrous a historical attempt at one of these ideas might've been with historical fact rather than put down the idea?

Okay Okay, we can see that airlifting a HUGE HUGE Corps might not be feesible in the early years of the war. Though as the war progressed the capability existed. The British had Thousands of Bombers didn't they? Or am I forgetting the mass production they underwent to Smash the Reich into Utter Submission!!! Also the Luftwaffe had TREMENDOUS airLUFT capacity they were going to drop a ton Gliders filled with men and Light Tanks-Vehicles all over the English CountrySide. It was that the Effort and the Mission was never undertaken. It is true what has been said where there is a will there is a way. Like the Dunkirk Makeshift Harbours then Evacuation. Following the D-Day LandBridges ferrying millions of various supplies troops vehicles to a small Beachhead to turn it into the liberation of France in a matter how long??? Unbelievable However indeed the cost was not cheap. Though the Size and scale of SC2 could include such things. It would however have to be with extensive Cost as otherwise it would be just another gamey option. SeaLion wouldn't dropped how many Germans on British Soil? That was 1940! How many troopers wouldn't caught British offguard using their own airfields? How many ports captured by Commandos to ferry in barges and such. Of course there are limitations on distance on any of this... I doubt that any WW2 Army aside from the American would have had the resources to do a Island hopping type situation like that of Pacific. The British may have been able to but their resources were tied up. The Japanese could do it but they also had a MASSIVE navy. Only the USA/Japan/UK had the Navy to do Massive joint Naval-Air Missions. All had very Large Airforces. The Germans were attempting the idea, but they got cold feet IMO and failed in the air. So all this is very hypothetical but feesible... They however did small Air Missions all over the Map. Small Supply Missions. Probably something more doable for Campaigns. Now for supplying cut off units, cut off supply chokepoints.. Depends on the area of Europe, what time of year, and the amount of money or planes rather going into it. Plus the experience-technology of the nation doing this... It is believable if you throw enough Toilet Paper at the outhouse you'll get some in.. But perhaps at a cost beyond the value?

Power: Your ideas have much merit. Simulating a Rear Area of supply is very advanced and would do away with a lot of the fear we have now of that tightening grip on the front of losing every unit due to lack of supply. It would be very very hard to incorporate and for some Nations with weak airpower would be maybe even easy to exploit. Though I find it far more intrigueing than Engineers and the construction of RR.. Airdrops did not successfully save many men in WW2 but they did attempt to.....it means that the intention was there, and the idea could be examined... one might even imagine a Deep Penetrating commando unit, supplied by air to keep the Motors going till it captures it's objective. It might make the supply nightmares on the map more workable

Jon: You might be right at times an airborne unit will face an obstacle but the point of an Airborne unit is that is Flies over it. I.E. why did our boys fly over the Atlantic Wall? Technically speaking most fixed fortifications are not the biggest stress to the airborne unit it's the other factors they deal with, as in SC and in real life, fortifications are generally not able to cover every angle.. That adds to their power in the field. in SC some of their purposes are Island Obstacles, rear area Special Targets, areas where land units movement is hindered and to bypass Forts Also: I know men of the 82nd Airborne and 101st Brigades and I know thousands of them. They are usually the toughest men. Like Marines-Commandos-etc... they are on that level and in SC they are also.. Why a whole corps is dedicated to their existence... Believe me 5,000 82nd Airborne men are equivelant to 20,000 regular Army... Lots of Rangers and lots of Special OPs in there. I know them personally and if you'd like a link I can give it to you to some of capable Killers in that unit over the past 50 years.. Like the SS StormTroopers, Russian Guard Units??, SAS etc... They pride themselves on their training, and they are not average.. Despite the poor performance of Paras in WW2 doesn't mean they couldn't have been employed properly, it is not the men's fault in Crete, Market Garden, D-Day that they were used so fruitlessly and most died. Had a Sea Lion been undergone you can imagine a vast majority of the troops opening up Airfields and Ports would've been Airborne and it would've been due to their special nature... So I do think it should be included and it has been since SC2's release and I'm not an idiot any my specifications are 110% precise and from real life, I worked for the 82nd Airborne and lived in it's home

not many corpsized units would be airlifted, but that's besides the point, size isn't the essence. Though a very powerful well trained Brigade may fight more like a Corps... The 82nd Airborne Brigade could've probably taken a lot of objectives due to it's very very high training and high capability to fight... And it was not the airborne aspect that made it so powerful, it's what followed and what it was capable of doing. I'll bet that German Paratroopers and American Paratroopers were equivelant roughly to 2 or 3 Regular Men in training, etc... Also should I mention that a Airborne unit is specialized and it doesn't have to worry about certian types of anti-personal measures that might otherwise kill a unit triple it's size like barbed wire-mines-bunkers, etc... There are lots of variables to consider The Airlifts at Stalingrad were extremely difficult, there were very few airfields available to the Axis in Stalingrad Pocket. It was Winter. Probably as many supplies ending up in Allied hands as Axis. A big failure by Goering again

In both cases, maybe pretty much right Iron. However the map doesn't include India and Canada wouldn't have enough MPPs ot support 1 Cruiser... You'd need to triple it's income or more to represent the rest of Empire and still would more or less do away with the Presence of England as a player at all. Stalin may not have had the capacity to fight but if Germany got mauled trying to do something like cross an Ocean, he might have pushed for concessions... Say for Instance chunks of Turkey-Romania, etc... He may have threatened with his Millions of Men. You don't really need any sort of skill when you've got millions of supplied soldiers vs an army that is got it's boots stuck in Anglian Mud... Who knows the disaster Sea Lion could've been. It was never performed, and the Axis of '40 were not the Allies of D-Day '44... Last time a Major Amphib occurred was in WW1 and it was a DISASTER

If you want the qualities of History, buy Hearts of Iron II the most detailed WW2 strategic/tactical/trade game in history currently released. Though there is 1 more title even more detailed supposedly coming for release. Strategic Command 2, and I should emphasize Strategic, was never meant to be a HUGELY MASSIVE tactical warfare game. Not that it doesn't present some joy and some level of maneuvering and neatness. The true depth of the game is it's simplicity and abstraction from reality. As even HOI2 is a RTS-RolePlaying game of WW2. Not a true Historic model, but the closest in History yet released for a PC. SC2 is so far the finest Strategic Release in a whole unique Genre. Games such as Third Reich, High Command, Etc.. None of these games are history, right now Rail Repair is handled by turn-based Economic Cost. It is represented. Every time you add in something you must weigh it's Balance. Grand Strategy requires a Great deal of Balance, why there was 6 patches to get the Original SC2 Vanilla some equality, as GamePlay is superior to History or Reality and that is why we play SC2. P.S. http://www.matrixgames.com/games/game.asp?gid=296 if you want true history this Matrix Game will be the most detailed game I believe next to HOI, it'll be finished when I'm grey [ December 06, 2007, 05:26 PM: Message edited by: Liam ]

You guys again are getting way of tract, because of the Massive Rail Network and the Strategic Implications of having Engineers, a unit meant to make, makeshift rail-barges-bridges-Clearing minds-antitank traps-etc...etc... a brigade more than an actual unit attached to every unit in any Major World War Power. Some more than others. Perhaps we should make Engineering a TECH instead and reflect the true historical aspect On top of all this as anyone thought of how much Havoc Partisans reaped upon Rails in WW2! In WW1 and WW2 they probably hammered more supply and transport Capacity that one than actual uprisings... Causing all sorts of Communication issues as well