Big Al

You got the hot fix in the repository for Barb to Berlin also yes? Fixes some minor issues.

The hotfix should correct this issue.

that is correct Hubert.

There is a hotfix for Barbarossa to Berlin for some minor issues. Please be sure to use the patch and the hotfix until the next patch.

Do you all have the latest patch and hotfix?

Some things can be done others can't due to the engine and scripts. Others are a matter of game balance and what's best for game play. But the beauty of the system is that you can simply copy the scenario and modify it to your liking. That's what I did when I first bought SC. Finland is a tricky deal. If I make the front open the Soviets can overrun it. A Finnish A.I. is going to be hard pressed to advance no matter how I do it. But I got some ideas.

What's the turn?

The SC combat system is very different and I understand your points. I get it that a div has the same amount of strength as an corp. Its just how their game mechanics go and it feels different than it should be. One would think the comparisons would be like this Division 3 strength - attack 4, defense 4 = effective combat value 3x4 = 12 Corp 9 strength (3 divisions) - attack 4, defense 4 = effective combat value 9x4=36 SC doesn't look like that.

I don't know you can try that. Make sure the CGN is from 8/2/13 or later. Its in the download repository

Not sure what the reply meant but let me detail what I said more. A Russian division after 1941 was ~10k men - They fought in armies A German division was ~15k men - they fought in corps A USA division ~18k men - they found in corps A Japanese reinforced division ~20k men - they fought in armies So you can't equate a Russian division to a USA one. The USA one is far stronger as is a German or Japanese. The Italians were the same way. I think they had a handful of divisions that were up to European standard. The rest were incomplete or colonial. So you have to fudge it combine groups by the # of raw men. like 5 Russian divisions = 1 army = 1 corp of Germans -> 3 divisions Anyways that's how I did it.

Thanks for the 1st impressions. I like to hear the good and bad. I will address your bad and ugly points. Weak Finns - Very tough to write a good A.I. do deal with the Soviets as the Finns. I have some ideas for the next patch I might implement. Ship Bombardment - That's just the SC engine. Bill and I gave lots of feedback to Hubert for improvement. I've played wargames for ~30 years so I have seen many systems, what works and what doesn't. Panzergruppe Guderian - comprises of Guderian HQ, 24th Pz Corp, 46th Pz Corp, and 47th Pz Corp which is in the center of the starting offensive line next to Brest-Litovsk. The game is a corp/division level game. There are no armies for the Germans. Super Slavs - game engine doesn't have surrender in it. It is abstractly represented by loss of moral and readiness. Super Partisans - The partisan system has good points and flaws. So I understand your frustration. The best advice I can give you is garrison the towns and cities. Once they get in there you need an HQ and 3 infantry units to blast them out. But on the good side they units game experience. Leningrad SHOULD be a tough nut to crack lol. They probably railed or placed reinforcements there. Weather - The weather is random on how it comes. But it is modeled after how the weather really is in the area. Sometimes really strange things happen. German Mech units or Panzergrenadiers really didn't exist up till 1942. Thus why they are available then. A secondary reason is that we don't want the Germans pounding out all their tank type units early and obliterating the Soviets. Just as the Soviets didn't have tank armies available till 1942. Well that is another game issue there was some debate on since the game has light tanks. Thanks for the compliments. Play it with a person. You will find the strategies to be complex and far reaching. I play tested at least 20 games and I have still not figured out all the nuances of the game. Read my strategy section. And yes I will keep improving the scenario as long as Hubert lets me.

I had an issue removing the Western Allied Production from the game. So weird I couldn't find a simple solution then BAM it just hit me today and I implemented it after your post. I'm going to upload the cgn file in the repository.

Lemme check this.

You should try to do it by number of men. A Russian div is not the same as an American one. Or Italian African divs are not the same size as regular Italian divs

Didn't you know Italian subs have magical teleporting powers. That's just the internal mechanism picking a random sea tile away from the enemy. I never experienced it myself.

Hoping the new patch balances Barb41 more. Some feel its pro Soviet.

I uploaded it. Not sure how long it takes for Battlefront to approve.

Lovely. Sure.

http://www.lambtechinc.com/1941BtB.rar Pull it from there until Hubert can update the patch

No that's a BUG. I never removed it. I'll put up a link to a fixed CGN later today to the cgn. Not sure how it got erased.

#1 take your scenario and export the data #2 load the new patch #3 load the new WaW #4 save the WaW under a different name for editing #5 import the features you want so if its just terrain and resource do just that!

Looks nice. Curious how many forces the Soviets have?

Some gamers have commented to me that AoC is unbalanced. Some say its the Germans are too strong, some say its the Soviets. Like chess, AoC is a delicate balance of strategic concepts and tactical operations. Knowing what to do when and how to use your units is the key to playing it correctly. I purposely designed a steeper learning curve to challenge players. I have played over 20 games of AoC vs some very good opponents during beta. My main purpose was to debug the game and secondary to discover different strategies to both sides. I wanted to make sure what I conceptualized could work without exploitation by players. To assist some players that are finding the game unbalanced I am going to list the overall strategy one should take as the Axis or the Soviets. GERMANY - The Axis approach is of aggression, aggression, aggression. The main focus is to keep the Soviets off balance by pushing forward as hard as you can to destroy and entrap the Red Army. The elimination of forces will make the 1942 offensive easier. On the map there are 3 objectives the Germans can go for: Moscow, Leningrad, Rostov. As the Germans your main effort should be 2 of the 3. You should be able to take one of these objectives by the end of 1942... which is better than historical. If you focus on all 3 you will fall short as the Germans did. If you don't take any at least you should be in a good position to take 1 or 2 in 1942. Always keep an eye on you supply and manage your forces for maximum firepower. Protect your armored units by having plenty of infantry to support them. Try and not leave then in a spot where the Russians can hit them in the front line easily and destroy them. Their experience is GOLD in this game. When using armor your forces should be spread in small groups to put pressure on the enemy. If you mass all the armor up on one front, in 1941, the other locations will suffer and you won't be maximizing their power effectively. When winter approach you need to know when to stop attacking and set up defensive positions for maximum entrenchment and supply. If you don't a smart Soviet player will do a lot of harm to your forces. Usually October is when you should start setting up defenses in strongly defended positions. You can keep pressing very weak fronts with your units but do so on a small scale where you have room to fall back and you are taking little losses. Usually there is one spot on the line that the Soviets can't cover to allow this. After the 1941 winter...... In 1942 you need to be patient and make sure your forces get to maximum readiness. If you played your 1941 offensive correctly, and the winter, the Soviets should not be able to attack you without heavy losses. Maximum readiness is the key to 1942. This means NOT attacking as soon as the sun shines. This means waiting until your armor and infantry are fresh and 90% readiness or better. This might mean waiting till June 1942. In 1942 the advantage is yours of where to attack. You will have 2 or 3 objectives to go after from 1941. The Soviets don't know which. You can pick and chose where to fight and mass your forces to punch a hole and advance. By mid summer the Soviets should only have 1 armor(1942) for every 2 panzers you have in the field. If you manage to clear out 2 objectives you should have enough strength in 1943 to force a surrender before the weight of the Western Allies comes to bear. If by 1943 you have 0 or 1 objective you need to plan for the long game. Know when to cut your main offensive and go on the mobile defense. Fall back and protect armor. At this point in 1943 the Soviets will have more armor, planes, and men (although not better). Exchange land for time and use tanks to blunt offensives and delay their attacks. With the right balance you should score a victory by delaying and preventing them from reaching your capital. SOVIETS - 1941: The Soviet strategy is one of exchanging land for time and bleeding the enemy. You must delay as long as possible. I will go down a list of do's and don't to state how your defense will go. DO's #1 Garrison every resource ahead of time with an army to max entrenchment #2 Form defensive lines with good terrain and know when to retreat #3 Mass armor to form counter attacks in weak German positions #4 Build the 1942 armor ASAP #5 Counter attack as much as possible in the winter #6 Upgrade leaders for better supply DONT's #1 Garrison resources and run away to form a far rear line ignoring rivers and defensive terrain. All you will do is make an "experience in a box" for the Germans who attack isolated cities #2 Use armor as line defense unless you absolutely have to. #3 Stay in a defensive line too long. The Axis will surround and destroy you. This accelerates their advance and gives their units more experience. Anticipate when the line will break and fall back. If you have to sacrifice 1 unit as a speed bump to save 3 do so. #4 Sit back in the winter. Even with a full army in 1942 the Germans will destroy you early in the Spring. Winter 1941: When the first of the Winter effects hit the Axis you must attack all along the line. Hit positions as much as possible even if you take more losses. 2-1, 1-0 is acceptable. The goal is to drive the Axis readiness and moral down. The Germans are taking too many losses to recover all their units in the Winter. Doing damage to them at the expense of units hurts them more than it hurts you. You might feel taking 2-1 losses is suicidal but there is a benefit for 1942. The more you attack in the winter, the longer it takes the Germans to recover in 1942. The longer the recovery the shorter their 1942 offensive. The shorter the offensive the better chance you have of taking the offensive in 1943. In 1942, the Germans should wait until their readiness is in the 90's before conducting any operation. If the Soviets have not done anything during the winter the Germans will attack in the Spring. They will have an offensive that lasts from March/April till October/November. This is 6-8 months of German firepower bearing down on the Red Army. Performing a large winter offensive might deplete and drop your readiness down along with the Germans but they will be in no shape to attack you until June. With 1942 your production gets stronger and starts overtaking the Germans. In 1942 the Germans should select an objective to take so they can make a final push in 1943. Be ready to deploy your armor to the offensive area and look for opportunities to counter attack. You are mainly looking to blunt their assault using tank groups in force and slow/stop their 1942 offensive. If you can hold the Germans to 0 or 1 objectives till 1943 then you can start going on the offensive. You will use similar tactics the Germans did in 1941 but your main goal is advancement to their capital. Eventually your army will be so large that there Germans can't keep up. But they will delay you as much as they can. Western Allied action will start taking its toll on German industry in 1943. FOR BOTH SIDES - Technology: Always keep infantry, tank, and fighter tech maxed out all the time. Production technology is next on the list. After that you have options for what you can do. Game Time: AoC is a huge conflict on a single front with many variables. Do not expect to win the game in 1941 as either side. Plan for the long term and plan strategically. The quick kill doesn't work in this game for either side. USSR 1941/42 - Do not despair if you are getting beaten to a pulp in these years. If you play your strategy right your patience will pay off. 1943 and 1944 will bring lots of fun for the Soviets as they drive their army down toward Berlin. Germany 1943 - Defending in 1943/44 for Germany is an enormous challenge for any player. It is also a lot of fun in the SC2 system. You will find that playing defensive and losing will make you a better player at attacking. We learn more from our losses than victories.

Bill is a different scenario designer than I am. He made probably forgot AoC is a 1 level per research tech tree. You can only put one research level into a field at a time. Like all SC games I find infantry, tank, and air warfare are 100% a must have to keep up all the time. AoC is the same. I've been pushing to rewrite the research formula to be more linear and less random so balance occurs. Originally AoC had a slow upgrade on the tech of 1/2 point on a unit's attribute but too many people got confused so I kept it at 1 increase per attribute like all other SC2 games. As for AoC. Some believe it favors the Soviets. I think it is balanced. I have played over 20 games myself vs some very good players as either side. There are some issues with Soviet armor that I resolved for 1942 that should balance the game more during the next patch. I submitted the files not sure if the patch came out yet. There are some strategies to be employed by the Germans and the Soviets. I will go over them in a new strategy post I will make.

I see things aren't good for the Germans