Scook

So if you mind, you will matter? I feel a Black Hole coming on.

Yes, sorry. I pretty well speak in terms of playing against other people. After doing pvp, I have lost my taste for playing against the computer. Excuse me, fresh meat e-mail incomming.

Just say "NO!" to Free French zones.

SC is a very clean and simple system, not to say the game is simplistic. Diplomacy is very convoluted and murky, many countries may like or dislike what a country does, or may choose to ignore it. For now, making the costs a little more pricey, and making major powers an investment is a good thing. SC3 Diplomacy will be a discussion saved for when HC wants to even *think* of that reality.

Yes, with more mild climates the Axis have an advantage early (see two other threads about the weather). It also means the Allies have an easier time late in the game. Good or bad? Well, it allows the Axis the time and resources to become a rather powerful force. It makes the management of the Allies to somehow slow down that force until USA and USSR enter and use economics to turn the tide. Once Germany can start attacking your Frenchies, it is time to leave the Maginot behind, and maybe toss some British support in. March or April 1940 isn't too much to ask for then.

I thought Yodl would be bigger. Yes, judge him by his size, I did.

The ideas here for halving diplo influence are good. Spain, for example, takes 2-5 hits to become Axis, with 3.5 being the average. Making it take 6-7 diplo hits is a good thing. USSR and USA should have diplomacy, but definatly be treated separate from minors. Sincs this is the 1st foray into diplomacy, maybe raise the cost to 200 per chit for US/USSR on the Allied side, and 250 or 300 for the Axis side. I would hold any major changes for Strategic Command 3, World Destiny . While I am thinking of it, how random is the random number generator? Almost every game I play, either side will get one of the 5% (or is it 10%?) big number hits for a minor. With roughly 8-12 hits total per game, this number seems large.

This is like fighting with swords, you can mirror your oppenent, but he will do one thing you are not prepared for, blammo, game over.

As far as countries go, see the long Honch thread Ok I will save you some time, you are limited to 40 countries. I like the way your map is turning out, just a little bit more room and a smidgen more USA would be nice, but I think that will be SC3.

The tension in this thread can be cut with a knife. Lock it now before WW III breaks out.

I was thinking along the lines of levels of War activity. Pro Axis/Allied Level 1 - Half the resources are made available to that side. Pro Axis/Allied Level 2 - All the resources are made available to that side, but the minor remains neutral. Pro Axis/Allied Level 3 - The minor country becomes devoted to the cause, all resources are available, territorial rights are granted to the respective side, and minor troops are available. How to implement this, working on the idea. Maybe halve the amount for diplomatic gains, 50%-75% level 1, 76-99%, level 2, and 100%, level 3. This would give results for diplomacy, but not the game changing events like, for example, SPAIN, would give resources to use to the Axis cause fairly easily, but would take more MPP and luck to have join.

1) The plane you least want to intercept will be the most likely one to do so (I can't find the real answer, but this is how it feels to me, so use the manual settings) 2) Page 65 of the rulebook, "Note that operational movement of a unit results in a 25-40% loss of morale." 3) I would call it a bug. No good answer.

Is Europe the same scale as the original game? Your concept is coming out much better than what I have, but I wanted to put more USA on the map to show the Panama Canal (at least the crossing arrows). Oh, I can't tell, but I would go as far as the Samoan Islands in the SE section of the map. Thats the furthest naval base used for WWII purposes in that direction.

@TooJah I have that date for vs. human opponents. Real life opponents are much more tricksy than the AI.

With the current weather, you should be able to take out France by May, 1940. This should leave you quite a bit of time to conquer Africa, minors, while building your army up. @Aztecace Were you looking for a pvp game (different thread)? I can take Axis and show you anything I have learned so far, then you take the reigns and I can show you what Allies can do to counter a bit. You get some really good eye opening experiences playing against others.

Terif doesnt have time to dedicate twenty hours a day to SC/SC2 while chillin' in the Fortress of Solitude.

Both you, Liam, and Stalanist's Organist make very valid points for amphibious landings. The Soviets had tons of river barges that were fairly sea-worthy craft. Continually throughout the war they landed troops on the coastline of the Black Sea to keep the Germans on their toes. They did some landings in the Baltic, but not very many as mines, u-boats, etc. made the idea prohibitive in cost. I would have to believe the Soviets could make landings into Sweden, and even close to Germany, but to sustain supply to said landings once resistance was provided would make them only a sideshow, and not a sustainable threat. In the Black Sea, and any rivers attached, the Soviets could drop off 50,000 men almost at will. The Luftwaffe was too busy to hit everything, and the Germans liked to use their air to support ground troops. As for Germans and Sea Lion, there were not enough transports to land more than a few divisions at a time, and they were trying to get any usable craft shipped across land to the Atlantic for Sealion. Only country that truly had good landing craft (LST) is the USA, and could you imagine the US capturing the Azores so they could have a base to hit Africa? I would think truly Germany, France, USSR, and Italy (if you want reality) have a range of 2 for amphibs, Britain either 3-4 because of their logistics and sheer number of ships, and USA...well, the best used has a range of 700 miles, so is that 14 squares at Amphib tech 5?

We are playing a game built for PC computers. It is not a standardiezed platform, like Playstations and uhm, whatever the heck they are named. It is very possible because your computer doesn't allocate RAM in quite the same way at 90% of the computers out there that a problem may occur.

I am pretty sure the Americans were happy to have state of the art landing craft at Omaha Beach. Swimming ashore was tried (unintentionally) in the Pacific (Tarawa and the tides), and we discovered that's not so hot.

Thank you, that is the entire answer. Now numbers work out perfectly. Does the IT modifier work for your Allied minors, namely Hungary and Romania? It seems to me Germany gets more than 11 MPP from each IT increase.

I played a game vs. Rambo where I took back Britain in an unusual game. If you lose the home isle and can take it back, the UK is in much better shape than if you succesfully defend a SeaLion. The recaptued cities go back to level 10, and The captital in Africa means all cities down there are 8's or 10's, and you can build units in both Africa and Britain. @David12345 It can be impossible to hold both Africa and Britain from someone with skill. I would rather hold Gibralter and Britain to keep the pressure on the Axis, and take back Africa '42-'43. I generally don't sell out all the way with Spain, just drop the % for Germany if she maxes chits down to 17% (roughly a 1 in 6 chance), and buy a corps with the other 100. I sometimes take the HQ, armor, Army, aircraft and corps from Afrca to Britain, and leave the minor by herself, as the cost of those units is greater than the 20 mpp's you get. Choices choices choices. There is no real one way to do it. As Terif would say, know the game, and play your opponent. If you know what the opposition will do ahead of time, you are one step closer to winning.

@ Terif Then I have a problem matching the end of turn number for MPPs. I have taken all the values Germany owns on the map, then subtract what they won't get (ie: Norway & Sweden). I keep coming up with a difference of 10-11 MPPs per turn. This isn't much, but with 14.5 turns a year, this is most of an army or a corps. I can provide you with my Excel data, the save game I have, and a lengthy explanation of what I am looking for and looking at.

The only games I know that receive exstensive testing are online perpetual world type games. Even then, for example, Guild Wars has 'preview weekends' where they have new content live for special occasions. This is essentially playtesting on a large scale with the trade off of letting people see the new stuff. There is virtually no way play testers can think of everything people would do without a LOT of man hours spent testing. From this point on, see the Legend above.

I have spent hours in a self multi-play game to test the results. Terif is 100% spot on. I bow to your knowledge, and submit to your understanding of SC and SC2. Now I do have a question. MPP's that are cut off are still added to your total? I come up with a difference of 10-13 MPP's when I cut off Scandinavia, which is the difference if I leave Helsinki and Leningrad in the German MPP total. Subtracting those amounts make all numbers match up.

From my calculations, you get MPP for both owning the country, and getting the convoys. Since there is no diplo hit for taking Norway for either side, as Axis I prefer having it in my hands. This makes me lean towards gettins Sweden as a minor ally. When you take Leningrad (not if) the land link pumps up all the snowy countries. I remember a turn getting 80 MPP from my convoys from just Sweden and Norway. It was a serious blow having Kiel bombed, going from 500 MPP to around 400 a turn.