Liam

Loss Tally for the Axis: 32 Land Units 35 Russians since of the Axis Minor takedown by the Allies allover, this is more like about 20-25 Axis Land Units. Though the Axis may have killed nearly a 3rd more Russian Units, the Massive Russian Air Campaign, denying Ploesti Oil and the massive Russian counteroffensives nearly wiping off the map every German combat Unit has made this a uphill war... I went after him so to speak, thinking he did not have a right hand waiting for me and waited too long, he uppercut the German Forces...

In the end the cost is heavier for the Russians, but their goals is achieved, exchange man for man, tank for tank, MPP for MPP, attrittion warfare at it's worst for me... Leningrad fell, Moscow without a fight...but Stalingrad and the whole Don region is a minefield, greatest in History, 25ish units die on each side, dozens of strengthpoints per turn after the River's are crossed and the barbed wire is cut... No real MPP gains for the Axis, minimal losses for the Russians... Who've embark on a endless campaign to suck the life out of the Germans 1 way or the other! As you can see here, a great tactical victory means nothing in SC, it's about the bigger picture

Slowly and Steady constant Air Attack break up cohesion in the Russian Lines, but Hardened Elite Troops from the East fill the Gaps, causing endless Axis Casualties, it is slow and but empty Victory for the Axis

Indeed this a good match, but very difficult to crush a Player like Terif, he outmanuevered me in very important Battles, the first being in Scandanavia and then later he impressed me with his extreme preparation for my Ukraine Defenses...crushing them utterly! In our Mirror Match, you'll find a parrallel... Instead of Conquoring the World, as I usually do and split up my forces with constant operation and constant 6 front conflicts against Terif, and obviously Superior Opponent to myself when it comes to multiple operations and balancing I decided to focus my Axis like a Laserbeam, this helped some, but I am very broke and my Axis are going into 1943 with marginal victories, plus his Russian Defense have proven to be formidable, even abdominable... Sp?< Great Game Also Axis stand poised to Conquor the Kievan Pocket, Weather Saves them instead of the underteched Russians

Actually if you are not going to allow raiding you could make the ownership of Subs more universal. French had a lot, Italians are represented. The British and Americans both had them even if only the British employed in the Med... None of this is represented Surface Raiders could be abstractly represented this way... The developers may think this through

Kuniworth was actually a fair opponent! He was as tough as any here in SC1, he talks a lot but you ignore that aspect and realize he's just Kuniworth

Colin, glad you agree. I have met a few Axis who do not know how to Clean Africa.. If the UK Grabs it early, right after France, they have a chance to get if first and cloak it with the RN... as for your strategy, bleeding the Axis in Africa without taking the Enchilada hurts some due to the fact Egypt-Syria are essential readiness triggers for USA and USSR they can increase output 500-1000MPPs before that all Important 1941 stage... I wish you luck... Be cautious, and patient, the only thing stronger than Hellraiser, one of 3 or 4 guys I'm careful with on here!

You shouldn't be using such an ancient vs of Direct X Rambo, it probably isn't working because it's from ages ago... there is already 9.something plus plus 7 may not work with Today's OS's

Blashy, thing is that Terif hasn't taken a vacation, he's a focused Player. Like Federer is for Men's Tennis! Disciplined! The rest of us lack the same determination, will, and are not quite "thorough enough", we will have all to all hope for a time when Terif is off his game and luck really shines through with a perfectly played match... As I read JG's AAR, he didn't come close to winning. Noone has so far... So far I haven't met a SCer whose as versatile and has as many tricks up his sleeve as Terif. A Magician, until then, he's reigning champ... Noone on this boards has beat me in an a League of any kind match in a year but him So I know! P.S. Flashy stuff will not be Terif. You have to beat him with solid Strategy, solid Tactics, and you have perfect what he's already done 1st. then you might give him 'game' I'm trying, 50 more

Colin, seems to have a very aggressive UK North Africa strategy. I find this a completely useless Theatre lately unless the Limeys can contain the Axis, take Iraq-Algeria-Tunisia North Africa being a MPP Resource, deny to the Axis and launching Pad against Axis Belly Otherwise it sucks out UK Forces, unless the UK are dish out some serious Axis Casualties. Seems as though Hellraiser is Hellraising Europe, Speeding through it like a RaceCar Driver. This will mean he's an unstoppable juggernaut and it will require some very clever counter strategies Colin you've got your work cut out for you here!

I think I have come to the conclusion after losing about 100ish games, no one can beat the Master Jedi not even the Emperor himself!!! Avatar used some really aggressive French Strategy that was a flook in SC1...Flook means not a constant, a 1 or 2 time strategy not really utilizing much thought just a wham bam, hard to react to type strategy... Much like Rambo Sub Strategy! Now, DragonHeart who I've played and I believe it was Pfiefer, a player who I nearly took a draw with, played excellently but not aggressively enough to outwit the Master! I think I may have had chances to beat Terif if AT THE TIME, I knew what I knew now. Thing is Terif is learning exponentially while we're learning little bit by little bit. Rambo You cannot take retirement and expect to smash his strategies, he's evolving, beyond Yodl, he's Yodl on Crank!!! Last time I tried to Trump his Queen, he Trumped my King for trying, just to prove a POINT! I think if anyone has even given him a game lately, I'm one of the few... Proud the Marines! Lets face it Americans just aren't good enough to beat Germans! The only way we can win is if bring the Full USA into the game... and force Terif to play Axis! Thsi game is dwarfing our Production Capability Good Luck Partner, that peeshooter you've got better have a Scope to find a hole in Yodl's Armor Platted WeakSpot

There is an issue with SC2 IP play, which forces people to PBEM and prevents some IP play. You could streamline the Game a little with programming Units to move automatically, since a lot of the time, it's superflous to do this aspect... I.E. Corps at Brest will goto Warsaw, without any other player interaction. Cutting movement, with naval movement, or other such options this would speed things up... and other such automatic Ideas, like superlous Chit Investments... I.E. when 1 Diplomatic hit happens, automatically invests another for you... It might also be possible since Winter Months are particularly unproductive, to cut the amount of time they take. Not sure if this could be implemented but might encourage more to play IP play... Add some of your ideas and let's discuss it

Coastal Batteries would rock though you'd have to be cautious not to make them too powerful

Taking England doesn't mean anything really unless you get it "free." Meaning the Allies don't defend it. Taking Egypt is in my opinion good for Axis MPPs, but not a neccessity. You can do both if you're an able Axis Player by Fall of 1940, but you'll probably lose to the Russians if the UK knows how to use his ships vs your Amphibs.. oh and having a UK base in Africa is just an option and works quite well, links up a supply of 8 and Iraq-Syria, all of North Africa possibly.

Yeah, the longer that your Transports/Amphibious Units are sea, the more Supply they lose, storms increase the effects of their combat modifiers shrinking. That is why you usually want to launch in good weather or along coastlines Also poor weather, poor supply has to do with the damage a landing Amphib takes!!! SO becareful

I think the only reason CAs and BBs can bombard the hell outta land forces is that the Strategic Level demanded more use out of them then pure Naval Units where they have no use. There are rarely naval conflicts in SC2, as the Axis Navy is rather Pathetic, it is usually 1 or 2 big battles, and bababbooommm the UK has nothing else to do.. That or the Axis research Advanced Subs and the Royal Navy Runs... The way the game is geared now the Naval units almost act as Sea Zone Control Unit, Straight Control unit, etc... 1 effect definitely should be avoided is the feel, when one say the Warspite or Bismark, one tends to associate that unit purely with it's Original 1 BB floating around with some escorts and is the King of the Sea, then when someone sees it bombard Hamburg or bombard Liverpool or destroy the 8th Army or 5th Panzer you get a feel that it's unrealistic. Perhaps it would be better said Battlegroup Bismark, or Battlegroup Warspite... not losing the history but being a bit more accurate. In the MASSIVE SC terms, I think a Naval unit includes everything from Marines, Mines, Domilitionists, MiniSubs, MiniBoats, RiverBoats, on and on and on... They should even be able to carry a level of supply to adjacent Land units if they're able to kill them so easy But regardless it's a complex topic, and SC2 is a very very abstract sort of weapon with say Rommel HQ, being a supply base-Leadership Bonus Zone-Historical leader, etc... You should be able to assign your Commanders to your HQs and not be limited. And buying 4-9 level HQs should represent something else, like the amount of Horses, Motor Vehicles, Priority to that weapon Though in SC we all get the idea, just removing a script where CAs BBs kill land units entirely would be lovely PLUS, let us rebuild sunk transports, a lot of those men could jump ship or get saved!!!!!! at least a percentage chance

Battleships were the Behemoths of the sea, dreadnaughts before them. There were always usually Groups of Ships together when they expected to run into something "special." Of course in certian situations this wasn't the case. Battleship Groups were different for all nations, especially those with larger navys. I'm pretty sure Subs were not designed to attack battleships because they had a better job, commerce raiding. The ideology of the time. Early in the War there was no belief there was anything that could challenge Battleships, there were so many myths from WW1, but really a Battleship vs a Sub doesn't make much sense. I'm pretty sure a Battleship could outrun one pretty much, unless the Subs surfaced and if that happened it would be dead. The only way a Sub could hurt a Battleship is by a Sneak attack and that happened a lot in WW2. Dispelling the Myth along with Naval Airpower of the Abominable Ships. However once detected a Sub shouldn't have much capability vs a Battleship as the BB probably could call in resources at lot faster unless isolated!

The game was cut up into two Major Allied Strategies UK contain the Germans in the West by capturing Sweden, breakthrough into the Baltic and crush the entire German Supply line all the way through Finland-Russia and Northern Germany... The UK Slowly along with the USA built up very strong for this task, but month after month, the Superior Kriegsmarine stood strong and held off any hope of an Allied breakthrough there, plus tons of German Engineers erecting Fortified Walls all over... This made it very hard for a breakthrough, and UK Forces never laserbeamed on 1 position to finish and open up the Axis. The USA, was supposedly going to move into Normandy Break Out and capture Paris, and plenty of units were built up for this job, 8 Allied Air total along with 4 Carriers which never focused on on one location to cut a hole or two... This prevented any possibility and along with the great defeats in the East, plenty of German reinforcements were guaranteed to prevent any possible weakness in the Axis Lines, so basically the Axis were unbreakable... The Russians primary goal was to absorb all Axis forces, and a huge force was based in the Ukraine to defend this Bread Basket. Kiev-Kharkov was to be held at all costs. Millions of Russians posted at the front fought valiantly and held off several Axis assaults but in the end were cut down by endless Axis Bombing Missions, demoralizing and cutting off Communications... Making it a turkey shoot by the end of Fall of '41 Small Skirmishes all over the map meant nothing, divided Russians were vulnerable, the last stand, was much like Custer's Last Stand a bloody ordeal outnumbered 5 to 1 and surrounded

Currently, Strategic Command 2 is a WW2 lovers Must-Have... If you like Strategic primarily-mix with tactical interface then it's heroine... You will lose a lot of nights of sleep if you dedicate yourself to learning it and playing it with a group of people here... HOI is great, if you have a team of dedicated players, so you have to jump their forum and get involved, but HOI is way too complex to ever really get anything finished without planning for a 6 month stretch and without reading 500 pages. As far as I know now, this new Strategic Command-HOI combo has kicked off a craze, there are several smaller companies producing WW2 Genre Strategic games and a lot more producing tactical ones...however these are the Staples and these communities are tried and tested, Paradox and BattleFront are the Premier even though other companies may be bigger.

Indeed, this has been a bloody war, and the Morale boost from Iran-Portugal-France broke the back of German Morale fighting in the trenches in the Don Front, totally zapping their strength, heavy losses and taking Voronezh is going to be the DeathNail of the German Forces, Romanian Pilots jump out of their airplanes to surrender to the Russians after recieving Propaganda that they'd be spared if they did! The Entire Iraq Front is Crushed, the West is clear for The Allies, all the way to the German Border... Game is soon over 30 dead each German-Russian Land troops, and the Axis cannot as easily replace their losses or fast enough and transport them all over the map, so the game outcome is already printed... IW3 AT2 could not stop Terif for a whole year, his pure RifleMan on Horseback were superior in Mass! :eek:

Yes but even Terif has a weak point or two, Rambo. He just doesn't have as many as we do as I notice he's quite patient. Here I have exposed his only weakness, overly cautious! Though I'm too weak to exploit this Russians are strong but they are just ignoring the German ground forces, they have a MASSIVE region to retreat from and their Oilwells are not under threat yet... The Battle for Voronezh begins!!! Ironically this is quite a historical battle, so far 2 Russians bite the dust. More Engineers and an Army... Though the Soviet Relief Armies have decided to take target practice on my Starving Garrison in Iraq, this cost both sides bitterly, as fighting there now goes on over a Year, eating Resources on both sides equally. Rougly 25 Russian units have died, nearly as many German.. There is good news, it looks as though there may be a battle for Stalingrad or at least for the Don region, but on the flipside, the Allies will have Paris-Vichy by next turn and Spain will be next...onward to Germany There is no stopping him now, unless the Axis kill Russia! :mad:

Axis definitely have the air, but Allies in the West are advancing and in the East retreating and regrouping. The MiddleEast stands to fall without very good supply and the Russians need a place to beat up on the Germans The Rivers past Moscow-Kharkov are the frontline Combined Arms in the West crush through my French Barbed Wire, but an American Para gets tangled on it I think this the First Time I have taken Moscow vs Terif in any game.

It isn't that at all. Terif knows that he cannot give me time to breath or think, and must push my every error to break my concentration, morale and what not. Few players does as well as him and that throws a player off his game and off his control... In Denmark, didn't much matter to me, losing the Axis fleet so long as it pulled him from taking Territory, the Axis fleet diminished the Royal Navy a bit and is great in pounding the Russians in Finland-Leningrad-etc......but USA navy backs up any damage to the RN The Brits were weak on the ground though but they owned the vital Seas and arteries which cost me Finland as well as Sweden together. I expected this anyways, let him have it, I may have used my Axis Navy had I known that he had LR techs and he was going to use them, which is characteristic of him when you leave him a open door... It was error but not a gamebreaker Besides having a fighter in Iraq may not matter much, I only recently built them all and 1 or 2 in the Kharkov-Ukraine-Moscow Battle were very vitale in making it extra easy. I couldn't spare any for Caucasus front, and I had AA +2 which has bled it some... just not enough to prevent it from it's mission, besides with IT, The Russians are easily replacing those Bomber Points! Plus low tech units and Production to kick them out at rebate Basically it made me a rookie in this phaze because my late game is half is good as my early game as I usually lose to him by now. Though I am getting better and within about 20-30 more attempts he may have to actually fight... Terif has a strong grip on the tactical as well strategic, you better be Intuitive with this player.

Yes, this complete struggle has been quite epic for the Allies have pulled out unexpected moves. The Iranian Theatre of War has been a continual drain on Axis Forces. Russian Bear Bombers have leveled the Iraqi OilFields and Capitol in series of bombing Raids over the past year, rendering the use of it as a supply base/income center as useless. Turning the tide on the Axis there altogether! As for The Baltic, the Axis left Denmark completely undefended against possible Allied incursion so it was precision struck by Commandos and used as a valuable base to suck from the front lines hundreds of thousands of Axis Soldiers. Luckily no major breakthrough until recently exists and it is a rather tricky place for the Allies to get a foothold, right on the back door of the Germans. Regardless the loss of MPPs, the loss of all of Scandanavia has turned the tide for the West even without France. Which is now going to be next on the Agenda, with the Arrival of the American Troops. The Italian Navy was sent on a Suicide mission, their Dictator was liquidated and their Naval Forces sent on a Supposed useful mission, they performed as expected, less than stellar. However several turns were bought but not our expectations . Some damage to the Western troops but their Numbers increasing as is their resolve, they will soon open a gap inside of our weak Fortifications and weak garrisons. Moscow Front, could not be better explained. The Battle there has been brutal, a lot of Overzealous Axis troops ran out of their supplies and out of coordinated assualts on the city attempting to take it in a heartbeat, but failed. There was no cohesive attack made and foul weather has hindered air supply efforts... Costing the Axis Valuable units and the iniative, luckily the Russians held back and were unable to push forward, they were overly cautious though it was neither here nor there as time was on their side. Axis have made a A SECOND GREAT PUSH, on the Moscow defenders, as Kharkov front has been held, Russians not wanting to be caught out of their trenches without air support! In this Titanic Struggle for Moscow, the weakness in the Axis force arrangement has been discovered, too much air, not enough powerful land units and poorly arranged... The Axis did not have time due to Western Aggression and over deployment in the Mid East to rearrange for Moscow costing them the War more than likely here... " A Larger version of Stalingrad, with several Xs the Axis involved " let us see if Air Resupply and strong Axis reinforcements can turn the tide back, along with Rich Tech... Russians do not have much time to upgrade and their forces are a bit sore from some serious losses the previous year

That it had IR, but then I let him take the Baltic and I went too far into USSR too soon and now Urals are Building... SO this should get interesting real soon with a very powerful USSR for '42 Also the UK is moving in on Sweden and owns my the North On the Bright side, the Russians are nearly kicked out of the MiddleEast and The Ukraine will fall in '41, quite historical