Liam

Alright for all you MicroManaging fanatical Tile, Hexagon folk out there like myself... I have some info for you, that isn't biased by the magazine editors and Internet Publishers. Civ4 first off, requires a hell of a Machine. I would suggest 1 to 2 gig of Ram. Pent. 4 better than 3.0 definitely. High grade graphics card 128mg 3-d. This is a bare minimum, on-line play not yet tested so I can't comment. You can play with less but you'll have to have 3 or 4 countries Max or a Small semi-Small Map.. That's the Requirements... As far as the Tile Warefare, a little disorienting when your machine slows down and there are 100-200 cities worldwide, not a bad thing though. The Interface has lots and lots of improvements over Civ3.. A very similar chessmatch IMO. A little prettier graphics, a little prettier warfare... Not just 1 AxeMan Hacking hacking... To be honest with you I'm not smitten, I am more addicted to this than any other release since SC1 that's how bad the market is... Personally I'm a bit let down. I will finish a game or two, and believe me they take a few dozen hours and report back. You should honestly say that SC2 may be the game release of the year for IP anyways. Civ4 is definitely very advanced and has upteen new features I'll give it that though I'm not quite yet sold as I thought I should've been. I was expected to be blown away instead I'm mildly amused. any question ask

Blashy, error on defense of France. Unless the Maginot is a Girly Line, you made a wider gap. Also unless the Wermacht outnumbers the French why pull back turn one? Should've kept those frontline hexes entrenched and waited for the German Advance into the Ardenne, 1 turn before then pull back to the Capitol if you want to try an early French Retreat Strategy. Just thinking this as it seems the Wermacht greatly outnumbers the French and it's a weak strategy to give them more hexes to kill your units... Anyways have fun, and continue publishing AARs and images.

You guys should put this puppy for Download. The Write Protection is I know the worry most have. It's so easy to copy a file over and over and send it to all your pals. There are ways to secure it...

I bought the game, I am yet undecided on the interface it so far not yet going to join my perm list of beloved games. I got it at EB Stores. It was rushed but I will admit it's finished. They have an Army releasing this John, HC doesn't. Sid is a Gazillionare and can afford to push release dates you should get a autographed copy for such an outrage! Write the Publisher! Same with Ages of Empires III, but look what happened they waited so long, it is not much different than Empire Earth at this point and not quite as good. for 70 or so bucks I am not buying it.

By far, the top notch players which I do consider myself just luckily latching onto the last 5th place or so do need to play this game. We will exploit the hell out of it. If HC believes that the Bug Ironing Phaze is over because of his team he's sadly mistaken. Players like Terif, DH, Sombra, Rambo, HellRaiser, ZappSwede,Myself.... Players that have never been consistently beat outside of that group of players ever... In fact I haven't lost a match to another player aside the ones mentioned above in a couple years. These players are the backbone and staple diet of the SC High Strategic, Tactical, Exploitation Community. We push everything, every limit. I exploited the hell outta Anti-Tank, to the point Rambo lost 4 outta 5 games to me in 2 weeks. Rambo found out Rome Invasion. Terif found out AA along with Zapp along with IT exploits. Many other players like Iron Ranger, and Codename Condor are not present these days they taught me of the exploits in the Vichy ports... Me Rambo found exploits in Denmark, where you invisibly occuppy the Island Adjacent Hex moving away an enemies unit at times it triggers at times it doesn't. Absent Avatar and the newbie team from PanzerLiga found how to make France a BloodFest something never exploited in the old days now it's a staple diet for any Allied player wishing to end the game in 1 hour... SO much to do so much to learn... this game will have lots of playability... We will tweak it like a Whores Nipple till she screams her heart out these guys are just fondling the asscheeks beneath the pants ! I'm in no way comparing myself to some of the above, some of these guys are very very VERY good. They can found a bug in any thing and would be a great help. The difference between some of the Testers that have been chosen is this, they'd be beaten in the first match we played them. We'd play more, we'd exploit more, we'd explore more. That makes us more qualified and I garuantee you... Within 3 or 4 games none of the currrent Men would win one game against me. I'd found out every little nuisance, 1 simple defensive, MPP build strategy and viola.. There is much work to be done, before this release and after we'll do the rest and report to HC... The game will not be done till it's in the hands of proffessional players... Not to say that the others aren't SC Lovers, they are not SC Experts I do not consider myself an Expert but dedicated enough to beat experts. That's the difference. If you don't learn to exploit the other guy, he'll exploit you... Gameyness must be eradicated some of it anyways, SC2 should be HardCore...

ROFL, oh come on now, The Germans certianly aren't the worst my friends. Hell, first it was the Greeks. They wanted to conquor the World, Alexander had so much ambition he would've never stopped until every piece of real estate in the World was his.. Then it was the Romans. Then it was the Mongols. Then it was the Christians under their Spanish flag. Then the Brits... Finally the Germans wanted a piece of the cake but the Reds and the Americans were just too powerful for 'em. Plus they were contending with the old Empires of France<who like the Germans had a brief moment of Glory> and England who was starting to die out... Though ultimately what happened from Fritz Grand Plan USA and USSR become the Greatest Empires in the World. The end of Colonialism. The beginning of the Nuclear Age. After all of that, the greatest achievement the enduring of Capitolism of Communism, Socialism and Monarchy... "P.S. a Joke from my Girlfriend told by R.Miller.... "How come the Germans didn't get involved in the War in Iraq and Afganistan?" "It wasn't Grand Enough for them!"

Hold on a moment to add to the comments made in this thread. "The Russian Generals Knew but Stalin listened to Hitler?" Why not, he was greedy, perhaps he thought himself superior, both had an inferiority complex being short men with bad fathers and harsh lives. Stalin was busy soaking up the Baltics, Finland, Parts of Poland, and what else did he want? God knows where he would've stopped. He took 4 and half countries himself! Wasn't Persia and Mongolia nothing but Russian Puppets really anyways? He was much more Global than Hitler. The German Massed Armor wasn't the only point of which gave the Germans a decisive victory. Their troops practiced a lot, they were prepared for war. Their commanders were cutting edge and their equipment in some cases was inferior and other cases superior. What the Western Allies had which was superior was sitting on the assembly line, they never prepared. There were plenty of French and British who believed in Mass Armored Warfare but it seems the old hardliners prevailed. Bad Luck altogether for the Allies. So you must say the Germans altogether had great luck. Had there been 5 Xs as many Spitfires waiting in France. Had there been Matildas and Char1s in Massed formations of a thousand waiting for Blitzkrieg on the under end of the Ardenne Forest, what then? An armored punch right back through Belgium. Despite the awful Politics of the time, the appeasements years which all the Fools of Europe thought that the West would back down whenever Hitler whined about German BirthRight Land. They ended up making Italy, USSR and everyone else in the Baltic basically suckup to Hitler thinking that the West was divided and weak. They stood divided against aggression... That was what gave Hitler part of his momentum and of course no nation was prepared to handle full Blitzkrieg in the first 2 or 3 years. Only Stalin managed it and that was become he let the Germans Freeze to death and sprawl themselves over a Massive front. It is quite possible the Germans could've won, they had it in the bag really as mentioned, it was a mega-blunder they came to Russia's winter unprepared and they didn't take a true objective by the end of '41 and into the Summer of '42. They just spread even thinner. That was because Hitler was personally in charge and not that great a tactician or General, he never made beyond Corporal. Goering probably was a better choice... AND DO NOT THINK the Germans didn't pay in every campaign vs a real enemy. there were many thousands of casualties vs Poles and French. 50 or 100 thousand here or there. That is nothing to just laugh at. Plus a heavy toll in France to their Airforce, what 25%? Then when the real battle came and the Germans faced a formidable foe, the RAF they got smooshed. Also when they faced an enemy willing to pay 5 or 10 men for every one of theirs<Russia> they also got smooshed. War isn't about figures, doctrines, equipment, it's about winners. Blitzkrieg though revolutionary in the end was embraced, understood and conquored by the Allies. Rewinding things a little, had all the money spent on the Maginot Line been spent on updating France's Airforce, Army, Armored Forces...It's High Command.. I probably would guess they would cost the Germans more than they did. They had a hard time paying their troops! The Germans were very focused on making their troops happy. The general ideology, comradre<sp, etc... in the Wermacht, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine was far different, it was higher.. The Brits had more to fight for.. It wasn't till the French were defeated did they realize what a blunder it was and that their wall was meaningless and if they expected a Attrittion style WW1 battlefront they were in for a big suprise did things change. The Soviets on the other hand, they knew they were fighting for them lives I feel. They knew that they were dead if they didn't.. So they sacrificed themselves in wholesale. What can you do when 20 guys launch themselves at your Elite Platoon all holding Grenades self sacrificing themselves??? Any comparison to Iraq, Vietnam or Korea is a gross one. Hell, American Army wiped out Millions without raising a finger. By the time the 90s hit we mine as well of been Luke Skywalker and the Iraqi's hmmmm? bugs? I think we managed to lose somewhere in the range for 4 dead ROFL The only way they can kill Americans is if they send in 8 year old boys or women blowing themselves up. All really laymen discussion though. The real fact of War is that lay out the units. The Germans had more, they built it up, it was there and Europe was Ripe for the taking. Just like SC1 indicates

YEAH!!!!!! Finally the Reds can whoop rear in the The Russian Winters and also similarly the Luftwaffe won't be able to run round the clock bombing raids on Neutrals and England into Winter! D-Day will have to be done in good weather I'm happy about this aspect... any part of amphibious landings in with this Blashy? Not like you can unload an amphibious assualt in the icey waters of the Baltic, Norwegian Coastline? That's gotta be frozen most of the Winter and Spring

Let me guess, Hitler's Managers on the History Channel. Been watching that all weekend. </font>

LOL, winning streaks are meaningless! I have the longest losing streak in the game, but the fact is I never play an opponent anymore that I know I will beat. SC is already a bit old to play if you're winning, but it's really really boring if you play and know you're going to win.

This is all very true about Strategic Bombing. I don't believe Firebombing would have killed much of a corps or armored unit Folks. A few thousand men here or there maning Anti-Air and any entrenched in the city? Well, how many units actually entrenched in the heart of the city, don't they usually use the outskirts until the actual invasion unless of course there is a special circumstance? That means a Strategic Bombing Campaign would likely miss most units entrenched like a Square Box around the City and rarely do damage to it. PLUS, the Armies of WW2 weren't complete idiots, they knew to expect some bombing and they would hide their equipment in Forests, Caverns, Hills, Camouflaged... They wouldn't line it up in the Industrial sector of a street to be bombed. I was watching a show on Albert Speer, spoke of the US-RAF bombing of OIL refineries in German Occupied Europe, destroying 90% of their capability. The Germans had to employ 300 thousand or so workers<forced labor> to fix this situation. It would've been dire and critical. I wonder if the immediate outcome of this was a lack of industrial production or a shortage of fuel and Panzers/Trucks/airplanes and other various vehicles that lacked the ability to travel as freely. Lacked the ability to Train. Lacked the Ability to Fight ultimately reducing Effectiveness, hence my point You couldn't rebuild 90% of German Oil Production overnight could you? Something we don't simulate here... another similar situation was the bombing of German BallBearing Plants, ultimately the Germans replaced the parts with parts from Sweden and Switzerland but it cost some.....it was difficult a bit and their tanks suffered I am not speaking of any micromanagement I'm merely bringing up some interesting concepts about actual warfare and how it could easily be introduced. Oil, Raw Materials, Industry<cities> and ports are the other represented resources in SC as far as I can tell. Doesn't matter which you bomb unless you want to prevent certian actions and you want to gain experience in SC1. Very rarely done for any sort of Strategic Purpose. Meanwhile even on a HUGE Strategic Level in WW2, Strategic Bombing<as it was phrazed> I know my idea of destroyers was scraped as many people feel that Destroyer and a Battleship/Cruiser/Gunboat, etc... are pretty much on the same level. They're fleets broken up into fighting units with all these included. Actually Destroyers were great Escorts, often used especially for subhunting. Just the Right Size I still honestly feel they could be useful in conjuction with Subs, as a sort of surface Raider, fast, powerful, and duel role. Though a bit small maybe for this scale..

Rambo I got a new ICQ, Sent you a request it's: 275-544-174 We gotta finish our latest Installment

what HC saying is correct, rockets, bombs, whatever....cannot as easily target units. men, tanks, guns can be moved faster...they can scramble, occassionly being hit by certian forms of carpet bombing and strategic level bombing. If your focus was to hit the city not the unit then the unit should pretty much remain in tact the ocassional hit on men happening. Which would be accurate. Industry and resources are larger and sit still and can be targeted if done right usually, even those where often missed. Now how could V2 or V1 rockets be targeted on Ships, men, or tanks? Or anything else other than a "Huge" Industry or Resource Hex.... Historically that couldn't happen with those guidance systems... Maybe V-5s would have a chance of 1 in 5 of hitting men... That's a huge tile or hex... Bombers are slightly different, if you mean fighters, Dive-Bombers, Torpedo bombers, etc.. they were designed to hit specific units and ships, tanks, gun implacements, etc... Some were specially designed. Bombers even to some degree in WW2, heavy bombers, targeted these positions often with less effectiveness, however with the Allies and SOOOO MANY of them, that could be altered and said semi-effect...

You're missing some things. Wellington and Napoleon would be evenly matched...well, perhaps... Blucher lesser of the three men. Weather was a factor on the French especially. The French General would've been much more experienced.

Well, in SC1 in a typical game of Huge MPPs it was possible to have 3 units thick on the Eastern Front. That does feel sort of inaccurate. Add in Air and HQs, sometimes 4 5 hexes would be filled on most fronts. Makes congestion and tactical movements harder. Much better to have a larger Map. Will allow for much more tactical manuevers and strategies. Tanks sound great, remeber in history, they were powerful not because they had a cannon and MGs, it's because they could take it anywhere fast... That was their power... Mobility... Artillery for Stand Still fighting are superior to Armor but Artillery can't flank an enemy or can it In WW2 with the fast towing equipment of the Germans they even managed to outmanuever with their slowest of units. Mobility isn't just armor it's a cocept. Armor is as good an anti-personal weapon as it is a Destructive weapon. Alone it is very vulnerable, it needed to be covered with lots of other units but on the level this game is I'm certian that detachments of say Infantry, ATGs, support vehicles is a given... So Armor shouldn't be all too vulnerable on it's own just expensive...Well, German Armor was expensive odd another point-- Many say the German's big error was they thought too big with their Tanks, they couldn't afford to fuel or fix their Huge Tanks, whilst their staple Panzers 4s could've been built in greater # and were more feesible for the battlefield objectives where they failed. In the end though 3 Shermans blew up, 1 survived and killed the Tiger and since there was hell how many more Shermans there was no contest? Such is the case with all situations on the WW2 Battlefield. Numerical superiority was the staple of that war. The Reds showed that. Inferior in so many ways their equipment was more ideal for mud and cold. With this be reflected in SC2? Their Gear wasn't nearly as designed as well as the Germans the big flaw that would cost the Germans gravely! Difference between a weapon you can drop and pick back up and use

That isn't the only trigger Alexander. There are others. For instance, the ratio of Axis to Allied units. If the Axis have taken Smolensk or Rostov in combo with unit ratio can have to do with Siberians. Not that Siberians are all that important when you've got a major Bid going. Usually by the time Axis have reached these objectives the game is over anyways and the Siberians at best can slow the process. Though use the above if you like in hotseat and test forcing your opponent to trigger you by properly trading units keeping his experience down. Also leave open certian cities, especially Smolensk and there is quite a huge gap that tiggers around Moscow. It's been awhile since I've attacked USSR as usually by then game was over for them. Usually...

LOL I indorse this puppy as well. I will not play about 20 guys on this forum at all because it would take you 20 years to finish a game with them. Even Axis & Allies had that feature. Really really saved and you knew if your enemy didn't finish within a timely fashion he just lost the ability to maximize his abilities. Speed like skill is an ability we prize... Me and Rambo can finish a 1946 game virtually in one evening. Few else can boast this... Mostly because they sit there staring, ""duhhhhhhhhhh!""

I think if this is a strategic level wargame, one thing that has been overlooked, Generals or the General Staff? The names in SC1 weren't paid much attention to you just click to view 2 things, Rating/Experience. Reflection on the level of Rating has to do with the organization of the Armed Forces of that particular Nation which in my opinion is flawed in SC1 because you could buy Zhukov 1st rnd for Soviet Union or other such Quality Generals for the UK or the USA when historically these men found their Medals and Positions. Manstein was delegated to the East for Fall of France though his ideas were used. Historically Certian generals wouldn't even be available in the leader buy page till certian times and had events gone a certian way maybe not at all. So a lot on "Men", "Commanders", "Who set themselves apart", is highly dependant on the campaign and some luck. Patton may have been the best General in the World had he the opportunity to lead Army Group North through Leningrad and Conquor Moscow by Oct 1941? You never know my friends.. You see that's the beauty of history it's not all what you think.

do you really think Patton and the Western Allies would of stood a chance vs the Red Army? Highly doubtful, the Red Army whooped the Wermacht and it's supplied directly from the Continent, with France-Germany out of the picture the Japanese still to contend with the USA and UK would be too weak to fight the Soviets.

Hmm, if you're upgrading individual cities, seems it would be a hell of lot more simple to just make it universal. I personally like a bonus from a particular resource or for owning Real Estate, it gives meaning to those resources other than having them just as Point Earners.. You could figure something more simple than what have come up with here and people would go after objectives like Ploesti or the Caucasus Mountains as they did in history and similarly protect Steele from Sweden, and rape the hell out of all Minors that have any Raw Materials to be had. As you know Bombers were incapable of reaching a single oil field in SC1 strategically, nightbombing of cities was all that went on historically till what '42 or '43? Not until Bases were secure in N.Africa did Ploesti get hit so the real effect and real feel of damaging the enemies Panzer effectiveness/cost/speed of production/etc... Perhaps something like this. i.e. 1 turn delay if a Bombing run hits an Oil field on 1 Armored or OilConsuming unit. To me it sounds very simple, not micromanaging and gives me the feel.. I want to Bomb this guys Oil.. I want to bomb his Real Industry. I want to bomb his Rail<Industry Raw Material same thing> I want to because in the end he'll suffer if he does research AA and if he doesn't post units to protect these vital targets! Otherwise you can kill corps off all day long, I'll throw a thousand at you like SC1.. If there is no real loss why retreat, place 8-12 corps in France and D-Day will never realistically happen till they're killed off by air alone. They're cannonfodder and the same effect just unrealistically, the RAF, USAF didn't do damage nor did the Luftwaffe purely by bombing Units. The Allies staple was bombing Ports, cities, oil, Industry, Raw Materials. That was to cute off the arm of the Third Reich and in some minds it was very very intregal. Why send out 1500 tanks vs an enemy when you can send out 150 bombers and level his tank factories.

Yep, that is a challenge, you start facing a Russia that can kick your butt ASAP You better not screw up your fall of france campaign.

I'm certian you don't get many games Alexander What HR said is 110% correct, it would be a great blunder to give a game away. This is not WW2 this is SC.

Quite understandable, it's not like you need a gamey expert to run the Betas off how quickly we'll topple the other guy with HC's new design of SC2, we will figure that out and that'll be the fun of it. Plenty of the HotShots out there for betatesting the gamey strategies later. I'm sure we can come up with our own houserules, edits, tweaks so long as the functionality is good or above average. I look forward to the learning curb<First thing I'm doing is tossing the manual>

I know that the Germans had awesome recon aircraft that spotted just about everything the Reds had available.<it's remarkable look it up> Plus they were never discovered by the Reds. Says something about the Germans in general, they had good intel especially against the poor intel of the Russians. How couldn't the Reds have known? they must've been fast asleep to miss near 3 million men on their border!

Blashy, all things considered it is a bit of micromanaging. BUT! Not really in comparison with having oil as a resource available at all during WW2, why not just make it a Raw Material then and do away with oil wells altogether They are represented in some more Strategic Level Wargames... HOI was a bit anal, but Worlds at War made good use of them<these are just a few modern examples>, though the game's tactical edge lacked. You couldn't do much without oil, and in WW2 you couldn't either. I'm thinking why not. Now adays, why bother with capturing them at all, what are those regions really worth aside from an MPP count. Historically when Hitler's oil ran out so did his Panzer Thrusts. Historically Stalin had enough Cities to create a Million men for every Million he lost. Historically the Allies had the shipbuilding capacity to replace what the U-Boats ate. Not all that micromanaging, quite simple, we've got hedgerows my friend P.S. in SC1 Oil Wells never mattered. Noone ever made it a strategic objective to capture them or hold them really unless it was in the way. Whilst in WW2 much was done to bomb them, attack them and even plans in the USA to sabotage them. So it isn't totally off scale.