Recently got the game!

[Flash Gordon]

Hi, all!

I recently got the game - I ordered it after playing the DEMO.

It's a lot of fun although there are some shortcomings. I was wondering if the developer(s) was eventually going to do a "World Theater" version of the game? I think that would be fun.

Some oddities - research is handled a bit strangely - R & D in real life involves constantly shoveling resources into research but not in this game. Also, I wish Atlantic and Mediterranean convoys had not been abstracted - basically, the only way to destroy those convoys are with subs but sometimes I ended up with an area SATURATED with surface vessels but the convoys still got through! However, I concede that this was probably a gameplay decision since that would've probably saturated the game board with merchant ships. The low number of MMP that the USA gets seems odd but I figure that some of that is going to the UK (in the form of lend-lease) and it probably also reflects the fact that the USA if also fighting against Imperial Japan.

So far, I've played three games as the Axis against the AI. In all cases, I started with the German attack against the Western Allies. Fog of War was on.

1st game (AI set at default) - the war ended in 1942 after the USSR maliciously broke our non-aggression pact and invaded, over-running Germany (Italy held on a bit longer) and liberating most of Europe (the British liberated Norway) by 1942. The US contribution to the war effort was a series of bombing raids against French and Dutch coastal targets - the beginning of the US strategic bombing campaign which turned out to be a drop in the bucket in the face of the Russian Bear. My mistake was thinking I could finish off the UK at my leisure and then engage the USSR. I got caught flat-footed by the invasion .

2nd game (AI set at one notch below default ) - this time, the game went the distance and ended in a stalemate with a negotiated peace. The Western Allies invaded France in '43 but were pushed back into the sea (my U-boat fleet also ended up getting destroyed wreaking havoc among the Allied landing craft before getting wacked by the US and Royal navies) and they invaded again in '44 and managed to get a foothold that I was in the process of whittling away when the game ended. Malta and Alexandria were over-run by the Italians leaving the Mediterrean Sea as an Axis pond and a gigantic Italian carrier fleet was laying seige to Gibraltar when the game ended. In the East, the game was close fought, with things going back and forth. I managed to capture a couple of cities and pushed Germany's border a bit eastwards but not by much. Basically, a stalemate. A strange thing that happened was that the USA developed jet technology very quickly (they had level 4 jets in '42!) and for a while, had COMPLETE air superiority over much of France until German and Italian technology caught up.

3rd game (AI set at two notches below default ) - Axis victory . The USSR fell in '44 leaving me to concentrate on the Western Allies. The Western Allies landed troops in France in '44 but I managed to beat them back (just) and push them back into the sea. Then I invaded, landing troops in Northern and Southern England. The game ended before I could finalize the conquest of Great Britain, though. Malta and Alexandria fell as did Gibraltar, allowing a gigantic Italian fleet to swarm out into the Atlantic. I was looking forward to engaging the US Navy with my Italian carrier fleet but the game ended before that could happen. The USSR fell in '44 after hard, bitter fighting. Anyway, playing with the AI at this low of a level is probably a 'cheat' - the only reason I did so was to see if I could actually do it.

The "funnest" game was #2 - there were some great back and forth battles on the Russian Front as I would advance then try to consolidate my forces only to have the USSR attack and drive me back again and again. #3 was more an exercise in "is it possible?" and #1 was a seal clubbing when I got caught flat-footed (won't happen again, that's for sure).

A very fun game and very addictive.

Are there plans for a sequal (covering the entire war) in the works? I would buy it in a flash .

[ October 27, 2002, 07:32 PM: Message edited by: Flash Gordon ]

[Carl G. E. von Mannerheim]

Why do you build up an Italian carrier fleet? It seems like a waste. I mainly use the italians as defense troops. However i use them to take egypt and greece. The rest of the war they are my anti partisan forces. HQ's are vital for the waps. Without them they are completely worthless.

Use their navy early to clear the med. Then, build armies and Hq's.

CvM

[Flash Gordon]

Hmmm...I began building up Italy's navy after the first game in which the Italian Navy wacked the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean Sea - at that point, the Italian Navy had nothing to do so I figured I might as well put them to good use in the Atlantic - unfortunately, you can't to the Atlantic without dealing with Gibraltar so that meant having at least one battle-ship to bombard it and having a ton of air-craft carriers to launch air-strikes against it. In the end, I also had to to park a German battleship and air-craft carrier on the west side of Gibraltar and hammer it from there as well.

So my expansion of the Italian Navy came about because I wanted to put it into action in the Atlantic and in order to do so, I had to kill of Gibraltar...which necessitated having a strong navy. Yeah - I know - sort of a self-circular argument.

I guess the main reason I did it was because it was fun .

[Tony Reale]

Originally posted by Carl Von Mannerheim:

Why do you build up an Italian carrier fleet? It seems like a waste. I mainly use the italians as defense troops. However i use them to take egypt and greece. The rest of the war they are my anti partisan forces. HQ's are vital for the waps. Without them they are completely worthless.

Use their navy early to clear the med. Then, build armies and Hq's.

CvM

If you are going to pick on us Italians, at pronounce it right. It's WOP, not waps. It stands for With Out Papers.

[Flash Gordon]

Oh yeah - I was using the Italians as anti-partisan troops and to garrison various cities in the USSR as well - but the thing is, in the games I played, Italy ended up getting level 5 industrial technology fairly early so it was able to spew those units out rather cheaply...leaving plenty of moolah left over to buy half a dozen air-craft carriers and some nice shiny jets.