Big Al

This is an issue for any global wargame of ww2. Usually the easiest strategy is to slam Russia for the win. The Allies must be prepared and observe the Axis intensions and plan for it. Balancing a game of this size is much more difficult than you think. Not all players are equal and even when they are their skill level is different which can impact the game.

LW divisions were paper tigers. They had no real effective combat strength. The are listed on the build list if you want to build them. They would effectively be a garrison or a division without tech.

Mud and winter happen when they should and their effect on the Germans is pretty heavy. There is actually a tactic for the Germans and the Soviets to use during winter. I won't reveal it and let all of you figure it out.

In the war the Russians lost about 3-4x as many planes as the Germans even as late as 1944. They never ruled the skies by casualties, just by numbers. But repping a 3x advantage in planes is just not practical. So the idea is each air point for the Soviets really is 2 airpoints at 1/2 the cost. They take about twice as much damage thus it equals a 3-4x loss ratio with the Germans having the tech advantage. Worked out better than expected.

I just don't play with them, simple.

I put fleet counters on the table with Hubert. I have a system in mind that might work. But its for SC3. It takes time to get things right.

In AoC/AoD (except vanilla global) swamps are strong defensive positions. You try marching an army through a marsh with thousands of places for units to hide. If I put in vanilla SC2 Swamps Leningrad would be easily taken every time no matter the Soviets there. Pick a hex, blow it up, take it, next hex.

When Battlefront gives the command. Were fixing some final issues.

You will find the PvP playability and replayability of AoC very high. I tested 20 or so games myself and Im still learning the little nuances of Barbarossa 1941 as both sides. I'm still not done exploring. AoC came out better than I expected.

Just a side note for some who are saying "hey the Germans didn't do as good as historical". Ivanov found an error in the scenario that I missed. It is now corrected. I am very glad to see this scenario is balanced. Case Blue is the hardest to balance for play.

He has fog of war on

I already know how to cheat the system. Its one of the 1st things I did to figure out the cheaters. None of the proposed above solutions would work on PBEM. The only possible solution that could work involves a server that keeps tracks of reloads. Then if you play someone who keeps reloaded, well that's how you know.

They get "too" lucky. Things that are the normal usually start sliding off the scale of standard deviation. Most of the time the cheaters are 1st time opponents. I play poker for money and I can tell when I'm in a crooked game. Things aren't right. I've seen a vassal game for World in Flames where the other player was getting amazingly lucky in all the right spots. Or for SC2 your opponent always happens to be in the right spot with his naval units. Also even with what you are recommending cheating becomes harder but more efficient. I get my turn and figure out how many attacks I want to do. I just start attacking and watching the rolls. Now I see the sequence of all the rolls. Now I adjust my combats in order so the important ones get the +1 and not the -1. I'd do soak off attacks for the -1. I'd trade my crappy units attacking @ -1 for a lower expected value per MPP for my high power units with the +1 which will yield a higher expected value per MPP. Not to mention getting exactly what you want accomplished. Look if someone is going to cheat, they will find a way to cheat. No system is full proof unless your turn is one and done that's it.

If he did it that late he might be in trouble. His 1942 Spring decisions will be of vital importance.

As a technical note when did Jorg stop attacking in 1941 and hunker down for the winter?

I gotta agree with pzgndr here. If you are playing with someone who is cheating the best solution is not to play with them.

And there is extra scripting variables for better A.I.

Look up the definition of communism. Anyways lets get back to the AAR "Assault on Bureaucratic Totalitarianism" has a nice ring to it.

A.I. prepping for Winter beat down with their better units... muhahaha.

The Soviet Union wasn't even communist, it was a totalitarian regime. Closest country to ever get to true communism was Albania if my memory serves correctly. Just like the USA isn't a democracy, its a corporatocracy now.

If you have Norton or McAfee running in the background your PC will be way slower. Those two anti-virus that usually come with cable modem, DSL, or a prepackaged PC are not very good and huge hogs.

The size of the playing field is doubled not the physical map. As you know BF uses only the important theatres. What Im going to be doing is merging Storm Over Europe map with the new WaW Pacific. And I will have to do some minor stretching on the Pacific. USA down to Venezuela (Panama not shown) to the Urals and Persia. Pacific will be East side of South Africa, Ethiopia to West Coast USA and the bottom will be the top half of New Zealand to get an idea. I found the S. America and Western Africa maps in BF were never used and only slowed the game down. I might make what I call "an off map box" for those regions buts that's about it. Anyways that's the plan. Its well after AoD/AoC is out. So it will give 2 variations on the game for a full Global. It will play more like Master World in Flames.

The only other thing likely in development for AoD is Brute Force Ultimate. Its my mod. its going to be double the scale of Brute Force from SC2 Gold. So while it wont be a physical bigger map, it will be a more playable hex map.

You are right, but this is a wargame not history. I ran a game with Happycat and he did historical. A little less near Moscow, a little more near Rostov. The main key is that the Germans took all the key industrial areas. Now if the Germans were smart enough they hunkered down early enough for the Winter. The 42 summer totally depends on what both sides did in Winter and what the Germans do in Spring. I can't say more on the strategy otherwise I'd give it away. The replayability of AoC Barb41 is high, very high. I played 20ish games myself and Im still learning new strategies and counter strategies.

Its a variable, you can set to whatever you want. With 1 hex units were just blowing up and it was a tank trading war. It played more like Third Reich (3R) than SC2. 3R is unforgiving of mistakes. The strategy for AoC is very deep without the over complication of War in the East by Matrix. That's where the jewel is.