targul

Bought the game last night verses my better judgement. Played it a couple times. It is very interesting. It seriously needs weather to be competitive verses SC2. Hexes are a huge improvement over SC2 squares. I hate squares. Hated them in Tactics II and still do. Thank you Avalon Hill for inventing the hex. Convoys are much more fun. Leaders are actually better still expensive but not as bad as SC2. Not sure what they do since I dont have the rule book but still I like there system on that. AI seems very competent. Comparable to SC2 but I will require more play time to know if either is actually better. There system for techs is different but equivalent. Units are much less expensive but that is good since there is much more land to control. It has both Strategic and Tactical Bombers but since I have only had Tactical dont know the difference. The combat system is in many ways better then SC2 the pushing back of units is really fun. I would say the game can be as good as SC2 but not without weather. The lack of weather doesnt give the tactical feel of WWII. It has a great Russian winter but other then Russia there is no weather.

These hypothesis are IMHO wrong. Hitler was probably one of the best leaders in there history. I know it is politically incorrect to call Hitler a great leader but who else has taken a completely broken country in 8 years made it one the primer nations in the world. He did many things wrong but he also did many things right. He was first to develop the freeway his greatest curse on America. But this autobahn allowed for both civilian and military travel while giving the German people a job even in severe poverty. He was dedicated to the German peoples and there improvement and felt that they should lead the world. Like it or not it was his leadership that took Austria, Czech, Poland, France, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Yugoslavia, and Greece. He also took most of the Soviet Union. The generals where many times unwilling to attack but his orders made the attack and each time he was successful. Even his stand in the Winter of 41 was the correct one. 42 was wrong but by then it was over for the Reich. As you say he was outproduced in 40 but he still managed to conquer all of Europe both east and west. Anyone with the success Hitler had would have felt invinceable just as he did. Most never try. He did. Don't get me wrong I am not in support of all that Hitler did or stood for but I am a student of history and he was a unique and fasinating character. Actually, I feel that if Churchill had not taken command of England and been so stuborn the war would have ended quickly. I also believe Hitler would have then taken up arms verses his true enemy the Soviet Union who he truely hated almost as soon as he had peace with England.

Well that doesnt really answer the question. Can you keep the old game and additionally add the expansion? I like A3R way too much too lose it potentially forever if the author doesnt redo it. If you cannot keep both I will wait until A3R is redone before I buy the new expansion. I hate waiting but what I have I like what I may get I do not know if I will like or not.

Just spent sometime looking at the new game. Seems like it maybe interesting but I will wait for the patch and see if people still like it or think it belongs in the trash.

Removing the rockets from Russia would not be good unless they get the artillery they did have. I remain surprised there no arty for for Russia. Jim

Denmark is a thorn for the Axis. They want it but can easily be duped into losing focus by attacking too early. You MUST take Denmark in 1 turn and 1 turn only any delay can have serious consequenses on your fleet. It gives the French Navy something to do. This is a bad thing the French Navy should just disappear when Paris is captured not actually have any value in the war. I dont always but normally wait until Paris falls then I take both Denmark and Norway. This allows me control of the straights and enough air to keep those naughty British at bay or if they do try and prevent the landing in Norway it means they suffer real naval casualties. I very rarely commit the Axis fleet prior to France being gone. I bring back the Atlantic Sub and keep the other subs pinned up until France falls. The can then screen my Norway landings and be available to convoy hunting duties. Never forget though the British are a strange lot and many time scrafice good British troops by an early invasion of the German coast. You must keep at least a corp in that area to prevent there obtrusive behavior. Benelux is to me a much better target early in my opinion. It should still be taken decisively but a failure is not as bad as Denmark. Jim

Sorry Rambo but I simply cannot vote for you without a bribe. Just wanted you to know. I must be fair since all those running are cut from the same mold. The one who sends me the most goodies gets my vote. Bribes can be sent to .............. BTW, I do accept your veto though. Jim

Sorry Blashy I dont see it. There are 4 squares at top of France and 3 squares at bottom of France to defend that is identical. Only diffence is more stuff. Also if they do make the difference greater betwee Britan and France what about range of rockets? Rockets are rare for me to use now with more distance they would be become non-existant. Jim

I agree vveedd this map is the same size and with the same size map all the extra's are just too much. I certainly hope this map goes to the size of A3R. Wouldn't distrub me if it actually went to that map and then added the rails etc. I feel that concern for invasion with the additional port. I already find it easy for invasion at Brest adding an additional port will add to that problem unless map size is increased significantly. Anyway change is interesting and if it is not what I like I will simply go back to 1.06. But I am sure I will be delighted once I get a chance to play it. Jim

After putting sometime into this version of A3R I still find it amazingly fun but I am finding the AI very poor for the Axis. I am not sure the difficulty in teaching the AI to take Poland but it takes the normal one turn Axis defeat of Poland to a new high of about 5 months. Instead of the Air pounding Warsaw and then a tank freely moving in it wants to kill all the units in Poland which just takes forever. If the AI could be retrained I believe the Axis might stand a chance but with Poland still being alive when France starts that put the Axis in the whole. Jim

Having examined the costs I am agreeing with Liam on this tiny island. But I will try out Rambo's RRB at sometime just sounds like fun even if not really benefical. Jim

New map looks very crowded. I kinda like the clean look of the present one compared to the mess shown in this preview. Guess it is necessary for some of the new features but it might be better with a larger map to avoid the crowded look. Jim

I would suspect the AI would do that since they can capture any city including capitals. I had them capture Benelux in the regular version. Doubt that can be stopped without rewriting Partisan code. I just keep a corp in each capital so that doesnt happen anymore. Jim

Not sure why you continue to think the general population is unhappy with SC2. I have played and watch the boards of most of the WWII games and this one has the least complaints I have encountered. Having played it for over a month now I am extremely happy with the game. Well balanced, good AI and turn based. The mods I have tried are awesome. I really love Advanced Third Reich. I have played 2 PVP games. One with a friend and that one is fun. Played one with someone from the board which convinced me to never play this game PVP with anyone but a friend. Reason is people tend to play only to win. They do not recognize there is suppose to be a history related to their actions. That maybe fun for some but when I want to play a fantasy game I play Civ. The only improvement I would like to see would be reprecussions for ahistorical behavior so that those who do wish to avoid history must face some consequence for their actions. Anyway, of the over a hundred war games I own at the time this is the best and I am anxious for the expansion and really happy to see the developers are continuing to produce product for there old work. Jim

Why would you think that Vveedd? The original release is playable and moddable. They gave us a complete and good game. Now they are simply adding to that game with the first of what I hope will be many expansions. For me I am happy to see them continuing to support the game. These types of expansions allow them to continue to support the game and make it better and better. Jim

I am finding Malta to be impossible to take. Is there some trick to taking it? I have tried bombing the port to zero then bombing the unit. I thought closing the port would not allow Malta to add troops but each time I get them to about 4 and they grow back to 8 while the port is at zero. It does not allow airborne or amph assault. Please let me know how this island can be taken. Jim

The balance seems very good. This sort of increase would make the Axis too powerful I believe. Jim

I dont mind threads being closed when they are off topic. Better to close a thread then to argue endlessly over things we have no control over. I find some threads in other games get closed and people banned from the forum when they are discussing the game but find faults with the game under discussion. I believe that is not correct when it is a discussion about the game even if it is an issue where you are complaining about specific defects in the game. This game seems to have so few defects you rarely see any complaints on its quality though. Jim

I personnally like Industrial and Production Tech. I find the increase in funds and reduction in costs to be very benefical in the long run. Diplomacy is pretty iffy. Grabbing Spain is great as the Axis but costly; so difficult. Depends on strategy. I have found simply producing units without techs to be too expensive and not that much better then doing it with tech. This game is so much strategy and deciding your long term objectives. It is very difficult because one man's plan will simply not work for another. Jim

I have found the balance to be fairly accurate. Game plays well and historically. It is very close to the original version of 3rd Reich within the parimaeters of the game engine. I have completed 3 games so far.

As an American I salute all sides in the war. I lost 7 of 9 uncles in that war. Our family tree comes from an area of Poland that was both German and Russian. Five of those lost served in different armies. Three were Russian that died. Two where German and two where American. It was truly an international war for my family. I salute all who died and lived in all wars for those men give it all for their countries. Wars are just so stupid. A complete failure of the politicians result in war. As a combat disabled veteran I sincerely hope we will someday learn not to throw our good young men away in this way. But then where would I get these great war games from?

Yep he had an old version. Thanks

Friend and I are attempting to play via Email and we are constantly getting a file read error. When I initially sent him a German turn he had the error. I redid the turn and he then sent it to me and I now get the file read error. Any idea what maybe causing this? Thanks

Families seem to be military or not mostly. Mine is military. All 9 of my uncles fought in WWII and as far as I know all where in Europe. 7 died there 2 came home. My father is a veteran of Korea with a Battlefield commission to captain. He retired as a Sergeant Major. My brother have both servered in the two Iraq wars. One is retired from Navy. I servered for 15 years. Five years in Vietnam I hold the Silver Star, Bronze Star w/V, 3 purple hearts and a bunch of misc medals. The things we do when we are young you must pay for when you are old.

Sounds awesome. Never seen anything close to that. None of the old SPI titles or AVH titles did the whole theater in detail so should be very interesting. Having played Campaign in North Africa by SPI many times I really appreciate the Med.