Hyazinth von Strachwitz

@ vveedd: right.... I should have read the manual better.

Basically Anti Aircraft Radar can only spot Bomber Fleets, not low flying tactical Bombers and "Jagdbomber" (sorry I miss the english expression!)... for that reason the technology itself cannot provide that service. I would recommend that it should be possible to buy certain "Anti Aircraft equipment" consisting of small calibers like 20mm and 37mm vs. Airfleets and bigger guns vs. Strategic Bombers... to me it doesn`t make any sense that once you conquer a city and !hey presto! you get AA guns for free... and the same level in every city worldwide... I.e. I don`t want to protect Prague, but it should be possible to fortify each city individually against Aircraft attack, i.e. the player can buy 3 levels for each city from the beginning on. Anti Aircraft radar might improve the value once you bought it..

I will load up a few photos later that week...

@ DD and JJR: I`d say 60:40 in favor of Germany... we play in Dortmund, and this is a big advantage. Germany has never lost a game there... and won 10 out of 11 or so.

Yes, we did. I was in the stadium.... brilliant.

@ Williams: basically you are right, but the abstraction level in this game is too high... we all know that troops to Malta must come via ship, but since the supply ships theirselves are not modeled, the game cannot "play" it. I think it would be funnier to see all the supply convoys shipping over the Atlantic, but this is way too much micro management. Just bomb the infrastructure down to zero and it works...

@ Preusse: not really. Nebelwerfer were a formidable midrange anti-Infantry weapon... its range just a few miles. Rockets in SC2 really mean strategic rockets like the V1 and V2.. which only Germany had. Russia and the USA (Calliope Tanks) use rockets, but as tactical weapons. Keep in mind that in SC2 one hex represent 80km, and no Katyusha or Calliope system could fire further than 15km... following history strictly neither USA nor someone else except Germany must have Rockets... they are NOT artillery. Artillery is included in Korps and Armies.. and the rockets are useless on low levels, esp. for the attacker. They get powerful in later stages, but then the war is already decided in most cases.

Honestly I enjoy a good movie more than playing SC2 with the froggies not loosing France.. that is Science Fiction to me.

@ Rolend: Why I consider this as gamey? Yeah maybe Hitler should have done it. But SC2 works different than reality... one reason why the advance on Alexandria failed were the long supply lines, because the supply system in SC2 (capturing a city with supply level5) doesn`t work in reality. Bringing all the supplies to the middle East and capture Turkey from the southeast in two turns wouldn`t have worked in reality.. it is just exploiting the weakness of the game engine. Honestly it is isn`t really gamey, but I don`t like it... but that`s up to each player himself. In June 41 just 2 german divisions were occupied in northern Africa, but 67 on the eastern front.. when you deploy a third of your active fighting force in Africa as Germany, it isn´t really following the historic war path... but of course it is allowed What I just want to say: of course everyone is free in his actions, but I simply find the game too easy when the Axis plays that strategy against an unprepared Allied player... nothing else... just like in other threads: no DoW on Turkey in 1.02.... maybe later.

@ Blashy: yeah, but I can buy german level 0 garrisons for very few MPPs (Production tech) and use the Balkan troops as frontline troops... they don`t have the same punch as german 3/3/2 troops, but without HQs they get waxed by the russians on a regular basis.... and in the initials phase of the russian campaign you need every single bit of punch.. if you are deep into russia already, the game is decided in most cases anyway.

Back to original topic: I would appreciate it if there was a possibility to buy a HQ for the romanian/hungarian/bulgarian troops... I think it is a waste of MPPs to use armies as garrison troops.. and without a HQ they are useless in fighting the russians.

@ Colin: that is a good but gamey strategy I would use in HvH.... fortify the german border to Russia and clear the Middle East, than take Turkey and the Caucasus... games decided. I would like to make a full scale Barbarossa in spring but I never make it that far... too much minor collecting.

@ TaoJah: interesting move in France... but I prefer to play close to the real war path as long as possible... I want to replay the historic situation, but that doesn`t always work.

Agreed.... as soon as the Axis AI has reached a certain MPP level, it get´s very difficult.... but entertaining, and that`s the most important.

One of the keys is the exact amount of units.. in 1940 you just need to garrison Königsberg and Warzaw... in 1941 you need to occupy the hex east of Warzaw. But honestly I think late 1941 isn´t too bad... usually it happens earlier to me.

Just watch "Saving Private Ryan"... one american soldier chewing bubble gum kills 1500 german King Tiger Tanks with his fighting socks ("pls queue up in a row, I just have one shot left!").. and another 5.000-10.000 tanks flee as they see the stars and stripes banner... just like reality..

There is a town called Witten, and they might have a college as well... but this is a coincidence.

@ JJR: as far as I`m concerned there is no College named after him... if you find it let me know.

Settings: Maximum... 100%/+2 After playing a couple of times against the Allied AI in the past month, I tried the Axis AI version 1.02. Basically if you can stop the Wehrmacht before they reach Moscow the game is almost decided.. the AI cannot take Leningrad if you reinforce it every turn, and if you once stopped the Wehrmacht, it never gets pace again. If the western Allies start to scratch on France and Italy, the game is almost decided... But on the last weekend I found an interesting alternative by chance: I forgot to reinforce Leningrad once and they took it.... this frees a lot of units for a deeper advance into eastern Russia. In 43 the Germans reached the Ural just west of Sverdlovsk.. but I was able to stop them there. In the south they took Rostov, but I had a closed line of fortifications from Stalingrad to Maikop.. they didn`t get through it and lost a few units, because they were not fully reinforced and poorly supplied. So I was holding a line in the east with Germany occupying 80% of Russia... but having the Caucasus Russia had like 300MPP. In the south I took whole northern Africa. Invading Vichy France with a British Army group (HQ, 2 armies, 1 corps, 1 tank group) succeeded but brought Spain in the war... so the american troops I just landed in western France had to be redirected to Spain. That was a really entertaining episode... the spanish units were floating into southern France just to butchered by 3/3/2 american and english infantry. I took Spain with american troops and just wanted to establish a base in Vichy France, but there comes a massive onslaught of german troops redirected from Russia.. they killed my whole british Army group in Vichy France and threw the american out of Madrid. I was able to establish a defense line between Madrid and Gibraltar.. and it took me years to take Madrid back. The remainders of the british E.F. were taken to UK and refitted... I took Norway and Denmark with them. In 46 (yeah that late) I was able to threw the germans out of Northern spain (trapped a few tank groups there which were lost forever) and build a second british army group and took Paris back. In the East the lack of most german troops enabled me to take back Rostov, Voronezh, Kharkov and Moskow.. this trapped a large german group east of Moscow. I drained them out of supply and killed them one by one.. by that time the game was decided. As the game ended in May 47 I reached the german/russian border south of Riga... in the west I controlled almost all France. As the game ended I was able to see all german units... in the last turn the AI tried some kind of "Battle of the Bulge" and threw everything against my troops in France... killed 2 corps and one american tank group, but there were absolutely no troops in the east (except garrisons), so the game would have lasted another year or so. Of course it isn`t like playing HvH, but this was by far the most entertaining game against the AI I had since years... usually there is one big battle in the russian plains, and if you win it, the games is decided. But this game was a bit like reality.... I took Spain, I lost spain, I sat in front of the PC getting anxious with every russian city I lost... this game was very tight until I trapped the german army group in northern spain in may 46 so the AI had to take troops from the east, and the german frontline there collapsed. A few things I noticed during this game: (1) If the game tends to be long, IT and PT level 5 a necessary for Russia and US... I had like 850 MPP over years, and I needed them. This was simply a war of numbers. (2) US Bombers 5/5 rocks... kills a german city in one turn with almost no losses. Very good before you attack it with ground forces... it cannot reinforce. Anyway... that was very good fun.

Honestly I`m sure that we will see major improvements... I`m no programmer, but I can imagine that this is quite difficult... that process takes time. Thx for feedback.

@ DT: just imagine you were still in school.. you crush some bloke`s nose... it might appear that he sends his bigger brother to get you... Pretty same situation, isn`t it?

I played a few games vs. the AI in last days version 1.02. I played the Axis, and everytime the US invaded northern Africa via Algier. This invasion worked out pretty well everytime.. basically the scripting was good, coz they took the whole country in the first round of the invasion everytime. My whole italian army group (3 armies with IW3 and Mot2, a HQ and the AF) was busy elsewhere, so I was quite anxious what was going to happen. I was really engaged in Russia and I decided not to take troops away from there... so I thought "okay, I have to sacrifice vast parts of northern Africa" because I was´t able to occupy Tunesia.. I just directed the italian corps in Alexandria to Tobruk. But in the longer run I noticed 2 problems: (1) The american troops plundered the McDonalds in Algier, but didn`t not move their fat asses for more than a year... they didn`t even occupy Tunesia. (2) As I conquered Algeria back later in the game I noticed they had like 3-4 Armies and 1-2 corps sitting in the McDonalds in Algeria... but no HQ, so I could easily whack them with my Italians. Conclusion and suggestion: Honestly I`m really happy to notice something like a learning curve when watching the AI... but this needs to be improved. A script could be like: - Bring a HQ with you to tell all the armies to stay away from McDonalds - guard Algiers and Casablanca with corps - DoW Tunesia, conquer and guard it - Go for the Italian cities in Lybia.. I don`t know how difficult this is to implement... but as we say in Germany: a person is growing with the difficulty of the tasks it has to fulfill...

@ Major Spinello: Pressing to the Mid Eastern Oil Fields was on idea from Rommel whispered in Hitlers ears to get more ressources... nothing else. With Malta still being english and the need of the whole Italian fleet to get on supply convoy through, warfare another 2000 miles away is not possible. If the OKW would have wanted the DAK to take Egypt, they should have done it not half hearted. In May 43 250.000 german soldiers in Tunis surrendered to the Allied forces... just imagine these forces sitting in southern Itally fully supplied... and the DAK under Rommels command whacking Russians around Stalingrad in Fall Blau.... this is doing one thing right and leaving the other completely to achieve at least one goal. As the African campaign started in 41 it was just to help the italians.. but due to Rommels success it left the original intention.

Of course it`s not a broke.... but something to be improved. I still love that game (it´s designed for HvH anyway), but this belongs to the few things which annoy me.

Played my first 1.02 game yesterday.. almost bored me to death. I played Germany in the 39 Campaign....slow on purpose to see how it develops.. I finished in late 44 with HT4 (okay), IW3, PT1, AT1 (bull****!!!), Advanced Airplane 2 and LR1... NOTHING ELSE. For those guys who say they are easily maxed out on important techs I can simply say: okay, you were lucky. I put every MPP in HT and IW from the first moment on, and I reached HT Level 3 in earlier 43. You can say that this is bad luck, but I say I don`t like that system. 750 MPP sucks. I`m sure somehting will be done sooner or later... this is no fun.