Alex Koponen

Thank you.

Weather (mud) can reduce your action points, but why would it affect which square a unit can go into if all the squares have the same weather?

Most times in SC2 movement is predictable. You have so many action points and can move so far across terrain. However, sometimes a unit having enough action points cannot move to a particular square, even if adjacent because the computer does not allow it to move into that square. It appears to be when enemy units have some ZOC or something...but I haven't figured out the rules as to when and why this occurs. Any help?

While I agree with #1 and #2 I disagree with #3 and #4. Fleets during that time had a maximum speed of 27 to 33 knots and would often go much slower to save on fuel. Large ships didn't get much faster till nuclear power arrived. Though tech such as hydrofoils can speed smaller ships, smaller ships aren't aren't really represented in the game. Mountain units had special training to be effective in the mountains, they rarely had motorization and their supply chain would have been no faster than that of other units...thus they would be no faster (and since not motorized would often be slower) than other units on a strategic scale such as in SC2.

Eventually won...but due to successful invasions by USA and Brits. USSR was still busy keeping the Germans away from Stalingrad (massive fortifications built around it) and the Urals.

One good feature of the game is that the supply level of the unit that is removed due to combat makes a difference as to whether one gets the unit back cheaply, at normal cost or not at all (unit annihilated). However, one flaw with this plan is that when a totally surrounded defending unit is in a city, cut off (isolated) and then destroyed the unit cannot be annihilated because the city will have provided some support for the unit. When surrounded (survivors would have to cross enemy territory) whether from a city or not, so few survivors would make it that units could not be reformed on them. I interpret the ability to rebuild the unit (especially when at a discount) as having enough unit survivors to form the structure of the unit, new recruits filling it out. If the unit was totally cut off from the supply network the survivors wouldn't have been able to get back to reform the unit.

As an experiment I tried defending using the river from Riga to the marshes. Turns out Germany had motorization 2 and the only reason I didn't lose Moscow in August was because the Siberian troops arrived to save the day. The list of units that will be cheap to buy back continues to get longer, faster than I can buy them back. The only good news was that Smolensk was saved when the Germans didn't have a unit to move in after killing the defender and a Panzer scouting too far east above the Black Sea was cut off and annihilated...it won't be back.

Since I spent so much on naval tech research, subs and repair as well as leaving an HQ and 2 then 3 air in France, going was slow in the USSR. I didn't buy a German army or panzer unit until 1943. The USSR had better armor tech and weren't disadvantaged in air or inf numbers or tech. I couldn't finish off the USSR until early 1945. A few months later I took London. Italy actually beat Germany to Naval Gun tech 2...which cost had the downside of not being able to buy an HQ for too long. I lost Tobruk and nearly lost the next city. Once the HQ was in play Tobruk was recaptured, followed by taking Egypt...but the Italians were kept fully occupied in the Med. They did sink a number of British ships.

"IMO probably the best way to do it is to have fighters with a good anti-air capability, minimal anti-ground-unit, and zero anti-city/resource, tac air with a mediocre anti-air capability, good anti-ground and low anti-city/resource, and strat bombers with zero anti-air, mediocre/low anti-ground, and good anti-city/resource." I disagree. Heavy bombers were much better at defending themselves from fighters than medium bombers were. Thus tac air should have low anti-air and strat bombers should have mediocre anti-air. Since the panzers took such a pasting by heavy bombers after Normandy I'd give the Heavies mediocre, not low, anti-ground.

I recently won a game as the Axis where having mopped up the allied fleets I then saw the AI send wave after wave of transports into the German fleet to be sunk each summer. I had subs parked next to Manchester with German ships certainly visible to the allied fighters and bombers between Manchester and France. Yet more transports would be created and sent out to their doom. I ended up sinking 30 US ships & transports and nearly as many British ones. (At the end of the game one Canadian cruiser was under repair in Canada and the USSR still had the Black Sea cruisers...well till the USSR surrendered. I only lost one Italian BB and one German sub.) Anyway, I think the AI needs tweaking so that it doesn't make transports commit suicide.

There is no set order. However if tactical and strategic concerns are not immediate (say USA or USSR at start of campaign) it is helpful to work on Industrial Technology first to increase the income for later use. I personally have the USA get 5 or 6 chits in Industrial Technology and 5 chits in Intelligence (partially to prevent Axis from learning IT easier) before working on Production then on other techs. With the USSR I rarely get more than 3 chits in IT and Int and perhaps a chit or two in Production before switching to the more immediate need for Infantry Weapons then other combat techs. Other nations generally need combat techs right away...so I can only squeeze in the occasional Industrial or Production tech.

Just for the sake of accuracy... Portugal, Switzerland and Sweden weren't occupied. Also Monaco and perhaps one or two insignificant (in SC2 terms) other countries. One could argue that much of the USSR was occupied...or at least fought over.

I've also had the problem where the computer just sits there thinking...what has worked so far has been to CTRL-ALT-DEL out and restart the game at the autosave. But I would prefer to not have the problem to begin with.

I've also had the problem where the computer just sits there thinking...what has worked so far has been to CTRL-ALT-DEL out and restart the game at the autosave. But I would prefer to not have the problem to begin with.

Keep away from the border except for units protecting cities. You will lose them quickly but it is worth it to slow the enemy down. Let supply problems slow the axis. Use terrain (including fortifications) to your advantage. Defend locations such as Leningrad with corps because it is cheaper to reinforce corps than armies. If the choice is to reinforce units or buy new ones, reinforce your units...you can buy new ones later. Counterattack only when you can inflict far more damage than you take or can eliminate an enemy unit (preferably when those are out of supply). Avoid letting any of your units get out of supply.