Hyazinth von Strachwitz

Yes.. a very fascinating one. Just do the following: (1) Invade Iran from Russia with 5 U-Boats, 2 Carriers and 13 Corps (a HQ must not be attached) (2) Build a light chain of german corps from Teheran to Bagdad (3) All troops have to wistle Christmas melodies (4) Right click on the Iraqian oilfield and -hey presto- you can see some very compromsing photos of 2 Forum members you all know in an unmistakable backdoor situation....

I think there is a lot of work to be done.. and honestly I`m very grateful for every piece of work Hubert and his team is doing... there are very few games with so many patches and work after the publication.... so we all should say "thank you" for dedication Hubert and his is giving to this project. Okay, one can say that less patches would be necessary if SC2 would have worked proper from the first moment on, but I think the improvement of this game is an ongoing process. Many people formulate their wishes and ideas, and I`m pretty sure that Hubert reads all of them carefully... some of them can be realized in patches, some cannot... and some of them will be visible in SC3..

@ Hubert: did you read our posts in this thread: Wow. 1.06 patch is amazing! I think some of the posts adress similar problems..

A possible solution for a future patch could be to reduce unit strength by 1 for every turn with a supply value of 0... that solves the problem in the long run. And it is a bit more realistic... there are urban myths in military history about a german army who was encircled in a russian city and put on supply zero.. and got wiped out.

imo = in my opinion imho = in my humble opinion But what does "thanks" mean? Here`s a few more you might find helpful as well: afaik = as far as I know htaintbi = Hubert, the Articficial Intelligence needs to be improved rofl = rolling on floor laughing stfu = you might need that when having a quarrel with some forum members

Okay, you might not want to hear it, but here are my reflections on the AI behaviour. Needless to say, 1.06 is a big step ahead as usual.. but there are certain things I still do not understand.. but lets do it one by one. - the Allied Norway invasion script is great - the American Portugal invasion script is good, but there should be a HQ attached in the first round - when the American forces gather for the invasion of Spain from Lisbon to Madrid, they should make sure they capture Madrid in the first round.. otherwise german troops flood into spain and kill the Amerícans one by one.. esp. when the Americans advance without HQs and Air support. I killed 2 American Tanks and 3 Armies in the hills around Madrid which were on supply 0... makes it very expensive to buy them back... and it was far too easy. - Allied AI is still bombing Axis occupied ports from 10% down to 0% which is quite useless - the defense of the El Alamein Fortification is still inaccurate - Russian AI ist still operating troops without a cause.. one unit out of the city, another one in.. B/S Grande. I`m not a programmer, and I will never get one... but would it help to create so called Army Groups for large scale invasions and/or defenses in Russia? One Army group is a HQ, a fighter, a tank, an Army and 1-2 Corps... if these units take i.e. Portugal, they can operate from Lisbon and conquer Madrid in one turn.... and many more things.

Keep me posted... I`m ready for Beta testing.

*cough* Did I say anything wrong?

The maps seems to be very accurate... no major changes necessary. Just something smallish: there are two tiles between Gelnhausen and Hanau, one north of the railroad and one in the south.. the southern one can be a light wood tile in my eyes, but that is nothing serious in my eyes. Armor in Gelnhausen is right, and helicopters in Hanau also. The infantry and Air Cavalry in Fulda should be more or less in the city or directly attached to it.. between Gelnhausen and Fulda there were no german or american forces. What I wonder about: north of the Vogelsberg there is nothing.. area of Stadtallendorf. There is a major Bundeswehr site.. Panzerbatailon 63 (renamed into 143 in 1980). If that fits into good gameplay, I think it should be reflected. Apart from that: between Fulda and Wuerzbug I see a helicopter sign.. what city or military site does this reflect? Slightly north of that helicopter sign there is major Bundeswehr site.. Hammelburg (no, not Col. Kling!). There was the Panzerbatailon 354 as well as other support units. When fully manned, there was more than 10k military personnel, but just Army... no helicopters. [ February 22, 2007, 11:44 PM: Message edited by: Hyazinth von Strachwitz ]

Let me try to explain it like this.. When you follow the railroad from Fulda to Frankfurt, there are the following cities: Neuhof (approx. 10k residents) Flieden (same) Schluechtern (20k) Steinau (10k) Bad Soden - Salmuenster (15k) Waechtersbach (15k) Gelnhausen (10k; that where I live) Langenselbold (15k) Hanau (100k) Between Hanau and Frankfurt there are two different railroads, and the terrain is more open. The Bottleneck is from Schluechtern to Gelnhausen.. on both sides of this valley there are hills which are 98% covered by woods.. almost no movement possible. There are smaller villages a few miles away from the valley, but the roads are definitely not comfortable and easy to block. The Autobahn was done from Frankfurt to Bad Soden - Salmuenster in 1989... so from Salmuenster to the east the streets were normal "Landstrasse". Funny note: when you need a quick advance from Fulda to Frankfurt or vice versa, the Kinzig Valley is essential.. as the american troops advanced to Leipzig in Spring 45, they also needed to go through it. There were smaller skirmishes in almost all villages and cities in the valley during this time. Where I live the was a major tank blockade ("Panzergraben") which is still visible today.... it can be found on Google as well, when you know what you`re looking for.

If that is of any help to you: I live between Frankfurt and Fulda, and I can easily help you with the map.. There is a little river called Kinzig.. the distance from Schluechtern to Gelnhausen is a very tight "Bottleneck" called Kinzigtal (Kinzig valley)... I think that should be reflected in that map. My EMail is mkollmann@tullib.com Rgds

1.07 will come sooner or later... as the Poster in Mulder´s Office says: "I want to believe"...

I used to play all parts of Panzer General in the older days... as well as Blitzkrieg (RTS) and all of its derivatives.. and of course Return to Castle Wolfenstein.. gives you a very good atmosphere, esp. in Kugelstadt.

Basically I think that 1.05a is a very big step ahead from 1.00.... we are almost where we want to be. But there are a few smaller things I would wish for 1.06: - French Reunification script in case the Allies liberate France and Vichy France isn´t yet involved in the war or also liberated - Allied AI should attach HQs to their bombers and AFs in England while bombing France and Germany.. all planes in England work on lowered morale and readiness at the moment - the english engineer unit should not sit south of Alexandria having tea while Axis forces approach.. it should be in the El Alamein fortification - Russian AI (although greatly improved) is still operating wildly all through Russia.. i.e. it is removing a fresh army somewhere just to replace it with another similar unit.. waste of MPP - Imagine the following situation: english troops took Sicily and dig in... HQ, Army, Corps and AF... why does the AI put 25 Axis units to Italy? Seems a bit too much... and there is just one or two of them who can conduct attacks per turn.. [ January 15, 2007, 04:51 AM: Message edited by: Hyazinth von Strachwitz ]

As you say: it depends much on the situation in the Mid & South area.... The link to Finnland east of the Ladoga Lake is very vulnerable, because you just need a simple Corps to go through, and then all production in Finnland/Sweden/Norway goes down to 50%. I would suggest the following: if you have good momentum on the southern front, leave Leningrad as it is... and if you have to refresh your troops and halt anyway, then use the Airfleets to take it out... its usually worth it. I usually take it out.

I like the idea of garrison troops in Russia... not just a few finnish and hungarian Corps, I think of german front line troops... but how is the AI supposed to recognize that, i.e. to see the difference between useless auxiliary corps and high quality german troops? Basically I think it makes much sense if Germany has to leave a large garrison force deep in Russia..

@ arado: if you don`t like that feature (as I do), you can turn it off when starting the game... it is a scripted event.

@ TaoJah: Good to hear... I wonder what the real reason might be. Do you have any idea how we could help HC and his team with this issue?

Sounds like a good idea to me... but finally HC and his team has to decide.

@ Korut Zelva & Normal Dude: I made the same experiences... I finished a game yesterday, and USA had like 6750 MPPs left.. but almost no land units, tech not maxed out, no ships and so on.. I have an idea why this might not work out: once you destroy a unit and it doesn`t have supply, its name disappears from the list of units you can buy.. and I think the AI can only pick unit from this list... otherwise it would not make sense for the AI not to have all his land units and ship.. Do you think that`s possible?

@ Edwin P: Agreed.. but to program all the scripts and to the playtesting takes lot of time. I think most game developers wouldn`t put as much effort in patches as HC does... but I think all this is a kind of preparation for SC3..

Hopefully... if HC´s good work continues, we have a perfect game in version 1.08 or 1.09....

Sirs, at first I need to say I`m deeply impressed by the AI improvements in 1.05a... D-Day script, Algiers, Tunisia, Tobruk, France... that all seems very good to me. But there are two things I don`t understand.. maybe that helps for 1.06 (1) Allied Bombers in 1941/42 I play the Axis and hold France.. UK and American Bombers are working. But what I don`t understand: Why do they just bomb the ports from 1 down to 0? Doesn`t bring any benefit.. bombing ports is fine when you want top prevent an invasion, but once the ports are below 5, why bomb them twice a turn? In ealier versions the Bomber command shrunk Brest and Brussels down to zero... that did always cost me a lot of MPPs. That is a small step back. (2) Defense of Egypt I`m playing the axis as well.. Allied forces control Egypt, Tobruk, El Agheila and fight the Italians in Tripolis. The english and Commonwealth troops have 2 HQ, a bomber, a fighter, a tank and a couple of corps. I launch an amphib invasion from Greece with HQ, 1 army, 1 Corps, 2 Tanks and 2 Fighters... I take Tobruk and cut the supply line south of Tobruk so the Allied forces cannot operate back.. meanwhile the AF take Tripolis. So there are almost evenly matched forces.. AF have the sea supremacy, so any of my units close to the shores get bombarded. I decided to take out Alexandria first, because if Egypt surrendes, the commonwealth troops disappear. So I close in onto Alexandria.. just to find the Pioneer unit sitting next to the El Alamein Entrechment having their lunch.. and Alexandria was left unguarded.. I think there is room for improvements. Apart from that I love the new AI.

@ n0kn0k: Thanks for hosting that stuff.. the german publisher is awful.

One or two things concerning China.. Their currency reservers are around 1000 Billion Dollars... or in other words 1.000.000.000.000$... thats almost 4 times the yearly german government budget.. and it`s just their reserves. My brothers works over there as an architect.. after what he`s telling us, the things they are building over there are nothing but HUGE.... there isn`t just one big center like in many western countries, they have lots of major areas.. with unlimited cheap workforce.