v1.06 is a different animal. I don't like it - as yet.

[Bullwinkle]

I just downloaded it and tried playing under my old settings: Axis 0% Allies(AI)+2, FOW, WIS, French all on, everything else off.

I used my here-to-fore winning stragegy of attacking France first through Holland. Well, I had just taken France after a tight battle when Russia attacks!!! It's May 1940 for Pete's Sake! Could the Russians attack at that early date historically??? I think not.

Well the Poles teamed up with the Russians and I was destroyed before I could enter Poland.

Funny thing is, a turn after Russia attacked, Finland joined in. Now where was the provocation for that? Don't you think that Finland would join if they felt that the Germans could realistically help them? Not when they haven't set foot on Russian soil, they can't.

Anyway, so far I am NOT impressed with v1.06. I'm going to change the settings to the simplest and start from there in another quest to find the right set of options to give me a good, hard, competitive game. I'm sure the "right" combination exists.

[Andre Bolkonsky]

I don't understand your problem. From a historical perspective, the game responded properly to the situation you've described.

Germany has stripped its eastern border bare and become bogged down in France while Poland is still active. A foolish move, at best.

Russia, sensing an oppourtunity, moves in for the kill. Historically, it makes perfect sense, particularly since it proved so effective against a player willing to put the cart before the horse.

If that France-not-Poland strategy worked under the old version, then kudos to the design team for plugging that rat hole with enhanced game triggers.

Perhaps, your strategy is in greater need of tweaking than this patch.

[JerseyJohn]

"Natashia, look -- the Moose attacks France before Poland -- is this brilliance? Bolkonsky says no, says it's just dopeyness of Moose!"

"Aw Bullwinkle, how could you get it backwards like that?"

"I dunno, Rocky, maybe the map was upside down."

[ December 10, 2002, 01:58 AM: Message edited by: JerseyJohn ]

[Fubarno]

Damn! That Rocky and Bulwinkle shtick got me chuckling real good. Thanks and keep it up.

If I understand the errata of the 1.06 patch, not occupying Warsaw actually hightens the war reddiness of the USSR by 30%. This eliminates the gamey strategy of not finishing Poland off to prevent USSR from annexing the Baltic countries.

It seems more realistic to me to have Russia jump in early than for Germany to invade France first, before Poland, when they just declared war on Poland to start WW 2.

[Lord Flasheart]

I downloaded 1.06 last night and decided to

start a game to see how the changes played...

..this is 11.30pm...a bad time to start a SC

game..but thats besides the point. 8-)

Anyway, I play as the Allies , Difficulty Normal,

Experience 0.

Results.

The German AI takes 4 turns to conquer Poland.

The Poles seriously knacker 1 German Armour unit

(reduced to 2).

Meanwhile the French seeing an never before seen

opportunity, save up and buy a HQ and line it

behind their divisions on the border.

The battle for the Low countries begin...the

Germans are having a tough time chewing up the

French. The RAF & French Airfleets are not being

decimated..losses are about equal.

Time goes by (virtual and actual)...1942 and

the Axis have still not taken the Low Countries,

a sudden Axis attack via the soft underbelly

of France is massacred by the Allied Airpower

and Naval bombardment (2 German Infantry Divisions, 1 Armoured Division & 1 Italian Infantry Division.

The French are counter-attacking on the border

and begin to destroy 4 strength German divisions

in single attacks!

Russian mobilises for war....they buy

Zhukov turn 1.....the end for the Axis is not

pleasant.

Game ends Oct 1942...or 2.00am in realtime..wow

a quick SC game! 8-)

I like the new patch, The Battle for France is

actually worth fighting for.

Try another game tonight with more difficulty and

experience.

[pzgndr]

I'm sure the "right" combination exists.

Nope. The "right" thing to do is take care of Poland first and fulfill Germany's part of the Nazi-Soviet Pact bargain. Remember that minor detail of history? Stalin's reward for participating in this little scheme was occupation of Eastern Poland. Deny that to him, leave your back undefended, and then question why USSR attacks an apparently vulnerable Germany? This shouldn't be a problem.

[DeGaule]

Ouch !! Looks to me like you learned the hard way a lesson that many old "Third Reich" players learned soooo many years ago. : Germany cannot afford to get involve in a 2 front war that early in the WAR.

As or Russia...of course a ruthless murderer like Stalin would have attacked!! Why would he not ?? You offer him the dream of every Russian leader since the Tsar, a chance to dictate a new place for Russia In Europe and to plunder the rich industrial central european nations. If the AI now is actually reacting like this..wow this shows great promises.

Let face fact, in 1939-early40 the German war machine, while impressive was not up to the challenge of invading France and the Low-Countries while garding the eastern approached to Germany and the Russian army would probably have looked a lot better , attacking INTO a narrowing theater of operation such as the road to Germany then it did trying to defend the huge border that ran from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Narrower front means lesser time for redeployement, shorter and more dense line of communications that makes a centralised Army like the Red Army a lot easier to control. Add to tbat the fact that moving into the richer and more developped portion of Europe would allow for a certain amount of "living of the land" ...Sudenly Berlin look uch more naked doesnt'it?

[Wachtmeister]

I'm nearly complete with my 1st v.106 game, as Axis, and I think the changes, on the whole, make for a more realistic and challenging game against the AI. At +2 Allied experience bonus I have managed to defeat the USSR in late'44, but doubt that the UK and USA will fall before time runs out.

Agree with those who are glad to see the "France before Poland" strategy penalized, as it likely would have been historically. Not only did the German 1939/40 war machine lack the resources to hold in the east while attacking the Low Countries and France, they could have been set back or even defeated by a well coordinated Allied offensive in the West instead of the historical the "Phoney War" period from Fall '39 to Spring '40. Fortunately for Germany, the Allies were still fighting WWI when defense was King of the battle field. I believe that is why France and England start the game with a somewhat weaker than historical Order of Battle. The historical Allied OOB in the hands of a player with an understanding of combined arms doctrine and use of armor in concentration would give Germany a tough fight right from the start.

[Tuomas Seijavuori]

Okay, a new SC player here. I entered the wonderful world of SC at version 1.06. Not knowing of any "France 1st" or "don't touch Warsaw" tricks, I tried (twice) to play the Axis pretty historically until summer 1940, when I switched to a "Med 1st" strategy, just to see whether some historians were right. I was pleased with what I saw. SC works better than anything I've played before. I can't wait for the multiplayer experience.

However, I was taken completely by surprise by an USSR attack in June 1940. I only had a couple of armies guarding occupied Poland while I was busy bombing England and fighting in the Med. I had not attacked any neutral countries, because I had read that the USSR war readiness can go up.

I was surprised not only by the timing, but the capabilities of the Red Army. They seemed to know more about blitzkrieg than my panzer units... A single tank group broke through my lines in the south to Munich and from there all the way to Brussels (!) where it dug in tight and where it was supplied by sea, apparently. Boy, Guderian must have scratched his head when he saw that! Very aggressive AI that is. I like it, although I would have preferred a game where units were not the same for each country in the beginning of the war. I accept it was a limitation the designer chose.

My question is how do you suggest I try to lower the difficulty to make the game easier for me? The problem is the early USSR military power, I'd like to keep everything else on the default difficulty level. I saw a Syberia option, how strong is that? How non-historical do you consider it be? I was thinking of simply trying the Beginner level, but I didn't need any help in the Med or with the English. Maybe I'll just have to deploy more armies in the east to keep the hordes at bay...

[John DiFool]

Okay, how does one do this "picture" thing? I

just tried it, pasted the link into the "image"

popup box, but instead of the image I had (thought

I had) linked to, I just got one of those generic

little boxes with a "X" in it. :confused:

Does the file type have to be of a specific kind?

In this case it was a .jpg...

John DiFool

[ December 10, 2002, 08:06 PM: Message edited by: John DiFool ]

[jon_j_rambo]

Bullwinkle --- What kind of post-thread did you start? You don't have a clue. Patch 1.06 is AWESOME! It has added more strategy, GREAT playability, & is plain FUN.

Get a clue..."And Russia attacked me in '40"...GOOD, I'm glad they head-cracked your sorry set-up. Better put up a garrison.

I have no respect for countries that don't protect their borders. (Kind of like the USA today)

Rambo >>>>>>>>> the voice of Reason

[JerseyJohn]

John DiFool

"Okay, how does one do this "picture" thing?

I just tried it, pasted the link into the "image"

popup box, but instead of the image I had (thought I had) linked to, I just got one of those generic little boxes with a "X" in it.

Does the file type have to be of a specific kind?

In this case it was a .jpg..."

You didn't do anything wrong that I can see, and it should be a .jpg file; most likely the site you were linked to wasn't connecting to Battlefront. A lot of my early photos were disappearing and that's the only thing I could figure it as being.

One thing I do is clear the image line. After hitting image, I hit backspace so there's a clean line (not httml\\ nonsense) before pasting the location.

The full procedure I use is: right click on the image, click properties, highlight the entire linkage, hit control+c, go back to the forum, set up my posting, hit image in the appropriate spot, backspace as described above (don't hit delete on anything as you've got that link line waiting to be pasted), then I hit control+v and the line is written, hit ok and the image should be in your post. If you have an empty box, an X or some logo just erase it and find another image, that one isn't linking.

No doubt that's pretty much what you were doing if you got the X.

But there's a danger. You seem like an all right guy so I'll tell you about it.

Once you start pasting cartoons and pictures in your posts it becomes a sickness. After a while you'd rather not have them but they keep coming and coming and there's nothing you can do to stop them. Not all the time, but often enough. A lot of times you'll be writing something really brilliant and they just intrude on your thoughts -- Betty Boops and Dumbos and Frankensteins and even though you don't want the damn things distorting your very profound ideas they're always there inside your head and . . .. Sorry.

I'm feeling much better now.

Anyway, you've got to always let them know who's in control. You'll notice there's no image in this posting. Nor will there be, because it's me who controls it, not them.

Oh, they'd like to get in here, maybe Godzilla or Mothra or some other godforsaken thing, but this time they won't break through no matter what. Every now and then you just have to draw the line -- no sir, no Crusader Rabbit today!

Yessir, show them who's boss -- you either you have the power or they have it and . . ..

"Hi JJ, We were out walking with Mr. Ed and we thought we'd drop by and say hello. Daffy Duck and Porky Pig are right behind us and -- "

"Some other time, okay?"

"But we were all out walking right now and --"

"Look -- why don't you all go back to the farm and maybe later we'll --"

"Don't be ridiculous, JJ, we're here already!"

"No -- no, don't come into this damn post !"

"Too late, we're in already. Oh come on JJ, you act as though you aren't happy to see us. -- JJ, is something wrong? -- JJ, why are you weeping?"

"Willllburrrr, I think he's upset about something. Where are my oats, damn it!"

[ December 11, 2002, 12:47 PM: Message edited by: JerseyJohn ]