The K Man

I would like to see an option added to the individual unit drop down where you can click (check off) "No Retreat." (Kind of like the "sleep" option.) This way if you have a unit that you just don't want to retreat for any reason ("Stand & Die" order) you have the option.

Noticed that a ship that occupies a land/sea square can now be attacked by a land unit. This is a change from the previous SC games. Just want to make sure it is suppose to be this way, and not a glitch. In the past, you could use the ships to block the Kerch pennisula so troops weren't passing thru to the Caucasus. Now I noticed I could use my corp that was in the area to attack that ship (as if it were in a nearby port.) Seems more realistic this way (that ships can not block the land/sea tiles. Just curious...(Still on 1.02, incase this was changed for 1.03.)

Thanks, Hubert. Kind of what I suspected. I probably like it better this way. Because on my mirror game, when I was thinking strategy as axis, I thought if I just go and destroy all the tanks (which are all 5 or above supply) the Russian player is going to be able to just buy back all 5 at a nice reduced price and have them for the fall push. Good decision on the frontline units.

So in the Storm over Europe campaign, when Germany attacks Russia, the Soviet Army's Mobilization will occur, where Russia will automaticly have 5 tank groups and 3 fighter groups placed near 3 cities. Most if not all are destroyed on Germanys first attack, the Russian units are all 5 supply or higher. Why are those not available next turn for Russia to buy back at the reduced amount? I was ready to buy back some of the tanks (looking for the * near the units just destroyed, and no such luck.) Is this something that has changed for Storm? Or are these special units, just not able to be bought back at the reduction?

Thanks, guys for the help on these questions. I'm sure alot will be by trial and error.

I would like to start off by saying thank you for another fine game for all involved in the making, testing and listening. In my opinion, this is the best one of the series. I have played them all, but this one is by far my favorite, even in the limited time I have had to play it. The best part of "The Great War" is the fact that you are getting two games in one. I played a little bit of the WWI campaign, and did enjoy that as well. But time being what it is, my time now goes to the Storm over Europe campaign. I can not speak for the AI, as I have only played human vs human, which is usually the best way to go. But of course the more you play, the more questions that seem to come up, so I figured I would take the time to make some notes here. Sorry for any that have been brought up before (that I have missed.) This is all regarding Storm over Europe. (And still on the 1.02 patch to finish out those games.) 1) I have seen the players guide and notes on playing WWII campaign in the Manual folders. Is there another guide that I am missing? That could answer some of my next questions. 2) How do you swap one unit with another (to flip locations)? Can that be done in the Storm game. I haven't figured it out, unless its a future game patch option. 3) Can Carriers do a recon search? Seems to give me the option, but when I click on a carrier, whether I move him or not I can not recon in the highlighted area where he could have moved. I can fly to the areas outside the highlighted range, but some times I'd like to recon maybe in the area right above me, and it won't allow it. 4) When you do a recon, what is the range of the recon area? If I fly to a city to see what is in it, am I only seeing that square or all the ones around it? Is there a difference between fighters and bombers (as far as recon flights?) 5) What is the HQ range for supporting a unit? With Germany it appears to be 7 squares away (depending on the terrain of course.) But I noticed in Russia, as I moved my HQ 9 squares away, that he still supported the unit even by my next turn. (Until I unattached the HQ off the unit, he was unable to "reattach" that unit 9 squares away.) Is that something new or just a glitch? (I use Auto assist on the HQ to attach units.) 6) Does the HQ supply work differently in this game? Before in Russia as long as I could count 10 spaces back to a city in Poland or Romania my HQ was in 10 supply. Now I notice the HQ is down to 8 fairly quickly, even when I can count back 10 to a city (not town.) Maybe it is the terrain, and I am miscounting. But just wondering if it works the same as the other games (PDE, WAW, etc.) 7) Rockets for Germany appear to be glorified Artillery in this one. Not V-2's like in prevous games. Although I haven't hit research level 2 (max) but on level 1 the range is still 2 squares. I do like the fact that they have been reduced and maxed out lower. (They were unrealisticly powerful in the older games.) But I did figure to go up to range 3 when I hit the level 1 tech hit. Are these not the V-2's of the previous games? 8) I know this has been discussed on the forum, but what are we trying to accomplish with the destroyer (allied) in the Norway port once Norway surrenders? It does take some $ to be able to remove him. And the allied player can just continue to reinforce him, since as long as it it there, no $ comes in on the convoy. I guess if that is the intent, then fine. I am just not a big fan of it. If the purpose is to reduce the convoy $ temporarily, then I'd rather see the port start at zero after surrender, and take 5 turns to be back up in operation. 9) Prior to the War in Russia, and in 1941, where are the units by Axis suppose to be for Russian Readiness not to jump up faster than normal? I saw the info in the manual about Warsaw and Konigsberg, and units near Tilsit and Siedlice. But do I need 2 units near each of those 4 cities in 41? I went in 41 from 31% readiness to 41, then like 60, before I started guessing at the extra units and got some message about Warsaw and Konigsberg where each had one unit at the time so I added a second to each city. That appeared to calm Russia, down until May/June where it spiked again. (Too many units on border?) I was trying to keep less than six near Tilsit and less than 8 near Siedlice. 10) This was also on the forum, but I do like the new tech system so far. I've had too many of those 5 tech Panthers or 5 tech Jets attacking my 1 tech units in 1941 in Russia. No fun. I don't think its too predictable, because most of these improvements in real life had some sort of time table of when it might be ready. There is your predictablility. 11) I would still like to have an option added to ground units to click on that they will not retreat (Stand and die orders.) There were certain units in Poland and France I did not want to move no matter what happened, but they did. I like having the retreat option, but would like to be able to change certain individual ones. 12) Shouldn't there be an option to go to the redsea/persian gulf near the bottom of the atlantic screen? Right now it is near France/Spain. Thats good if your coming from UK, and saves u the hassle of moving all the way down. (Although that all allows u to escape any u-boats on the way down, which I don't like.) But I was moving a transport from Canada to Middle east, and originally was going through Gibralta to get there, but changed my mind (due to Italian navy) and wanted to do the Africa loop to Redsea. But now to get there, I had to travel north to the Spain/France area to get in the loop to go south. Bit unrealistic I think. I guess the U-boats can get me on the way up (for my real trip down.) Thanks again for a job well done!!

Great pics! Thanks for sharing.

On the subject of retreating, if a unit is garrisoning a city, and is attacked, will it retreat from that city square? Same thing if a unit is in a fortification. Will it retreat or hold its ground? I guess if the workings of the game, are the defending unit would be destroyed on the attack, but instead will retreat, then I guess that is fine. But if the unit would still have some minimal strength left and then retreats, I'd rather have him stay defending the city, instead of allowing the attacking unit to occupy the city after I just retreated. I guess the question is, do you have the option to check off (no retreat) on a particular unit (stand and die orders?)

So, I'm assuming (since I don't see any) that there are no AA units in this campaign. I'm guessing that is due to the fact that you can upgrade your units with AA tech (if you have it.) Just wondering what you both think of the AA upgrades, if its worth upgrading the units and how the Tac bombers are fairing vs the enemy. Killing machines or more realistic in this game?

Great AAR (like the WWI one.) Thanks for all the pictures and details. I have read up to page five, so I'm sorry if this has been discussed after that, but I noticed on the tech pic, there was no upgrade to AT (antitank.) Is that true? I know this question has been raised, but I am also curious how Tac bombers will fair in this game. I didn't like how they were basicly "super weapons" in the WAW & PDE games. Are there as many decision events in this one as there is in Global? Thanks!

Thanks! I had tried playing with the permissions, but since I don't have a larger understanding of them, I had no luck (over the weekend.) Went back tonight, and really went crazy on any folders associated with PDE and WWI. Also changed the "sharing" and checked off "full control" here there and everywhere. It appears to be working now. PDE email attachment saved to the multiplayer email folder, and when saved within the game, also saved to that folder, so looks good. But don't ask me how I fixed it, because I really don't know. I'm still use to XP and that file system. This one (Win7) is going to take some getting use to. Of course when one problem goes away another crops up. While playing the game (PDE) and leaving to eat in the middle of a turn, I just shut of my monitor. I come back, and there is some kind of "segmentation error" on the screen. (I should have wrote down the exact error.) And the game closed. So I had to do a reload. I use to leave a game all the time with XP and no issues. Looks like I can't do that with Win7.

So I just purchased a new computer with windows 7. The WWI game appears to function okay. However with PDE when I try downloading an email turn, I could not locate the file at first. When I went to find the multiplayer folder, it did was not visible. So I remembered this thread and the run as admin. When I did the run as admin, I see the folder appear, but when I go to save it from the email it won t save to that folder. It probably has to do with windows 7 and permissions, but I don t understand why the wwi game works ok, but not pde. Right now I have to download to one folder, then cut and paste to the correct multiplayer folder. Any ideas on what I can do to fix this?

I also just noticed that the SC Blitz files are still on the C: drive. So even though I got the message that the license was unlicensed, (and I assumed the game uninstalled,) its still on this old computer. So just for the hell of it, I reloaded PDE (which files had actually gone away) and I can play the PDE. So for some reason the Blitz will not uninstall and unlicense. Will wait to hear back from Battlefront as I have opened up a ticket.

Having issues with the wonderful elicense. I assume the tech people are probably away for the long weekend. I had purchased a new computer and wanted to try out PDE, but after uninstalling both PDE and Blitzgrieg from my old notebook, and putting it on the new computer, I get the message that it is unable to install license. Error code 11. You have installed all the licenses you are entitled to. I then figured I would also uninstall and unlicense from old computer #2, so I can atleast put it on the new one. Well same message, and now I don't have it on any computers. I suppose there is nothing further I can do until the Tech people come back. Unless someone has any ideas...Thanks elicense.

I was able to download fine and activate it manually with no issues. However I am unable to start a game. The menu & music come up fine, but when I have clicked on new game or settings it just hangs there with the music playing. On new game it did say loading but been over 10 minutes now. 2nd attempt. I restarted my compter with no luck. All the other sc games such as global work fine. Any suggestions? (Running XP)

Checked out the map. Real nice job on that one. I wasn't sure if I'd buy this one or not but after looking at the map and the possibility of another WWII campaign, I could be sold. (Because you can never have enough WWII games.) Not to say I wouldn't play the WWI campaign, because it would be nice to play something different. But looking at that map also reminds me of Gary Grisby's War in Russia. (The big open spaces in Russia) Keep up the great work. Looking forward to this.

Thanks for the great AAR, Colin. Enjoyed reading it. Pics were nice to see as well.

I like your ideas Teutonkopf. I always thought the AA, ART, etc. would work better attached to the units. The battalians idea would work well (IMO.) Again similar to the carrier concept. That is basicly 2 units, that can do two separate operations...(if it wants.)

I am also glad that those units (AA, Art, AT) have been elimated for the global campaign. Its not that I don't like them, but I didn't really think they would fit for this scale. At first I was dissappointed to see them listed on the 1st screen shots. I would like to see them incorporated with the regular units (army, corps.) Either via tech increases or separate strengths (similar to the carrier idea in Pacific.) Looks great so far. Keep up the good work.

Best of luck for a "blitzkrieg" of a recovery! Get well soon...

Would it be because 1941 is the year of the real bad winter (larger than normal blizzards.) Don't know if the winter in 40 was as bad...

Dont most of your HQ's keep up with your troops as far as the command link goes? Since germany has a 6 space link, for the most part the HQ's are linked to my front line troops. The only time they are not is in some rough terrain.

What exactly is the difference between an "intelligence breakthru" and a normal intel hit? Are there different "odds" of hitting each one? Is there ways to improve the chance of hitting on an "intelligence breakthru"? Obviously the normal intel hit, more chits can improve your chances. Are they both the same? Due to my "more than occasional" extreme bad luck in getting intel hits, I would still like to see an option added to the game that would allow historical breakthru's that would occur automaticly around a certain date. You could still have the option of researching, and any hits there, would move up that historical date. Similar to the idea of diplomacy and countries. Hungary will join the axis around a particular date. May be before or after. If you get diplo hits, you can make it sooner than later. Granted you will have an idea, when techs are going to hit, but that could change based on the amount of hits you get.

I'd like to see the world map, the same scale as the other games (WAW, PDE, and Pacific.) I tried playing the world map campaign, and didn't like it because the scale of the map was so much smaller than what I was use to in WAW (Fall Weiss.) France was just so small, it seemed like the Germans were marching into Paris as they crossed the border.

Have to agree with HC on this one. If u motorize HQ's, that would really change the dynamics of the game in certain areas. HQ's carry the supplies, and that always takes awhile to catch up to the troops. I also agree with John that the HQ's do have to remain close enough to the cities to remain in supply. Yes in some cases the motorization won't make a difference as u wait for the conquered city to come back up to supply (for range of the HQ.) But it will make a difference in the initial spearhead into Russia, where the HQ's can be right behind the troops and increase there supply, hence having better or faster "kill" numbers. It would certainly help in the Lenigrad area. And if u can kill units quicker or with less strength loss, that will only get u deeper into Russia faster.