Suggestions

[SuperTed]

Bill,

Originally posted by Bill Macon:

Is there a limit to how many units a HQ can support?

Each HQ can have no more than 5 units attached at any given time.

Not sure what unit costs are for Russians and how things change with industrial research, so maybe all this works out in the long run.

The base costs are the same for all countries. However, the penalty for attaining new levels for research results in a production cost increase of 10% for the unit(s) it applies to. Also, every new level of industrial technology decreases the cost of production for each unit by 10%.

Further, the Soviet research levels start at:

Heavy Tanks-1

Rockets-1

Industrial Technology-1

A question about force pools. Are there any limits to how many units can be purchased?

Nope.

[Lars]

Originally posted by Yorick:

Someone posted something about buying Italian. I was lost on this for a little while until I noticed the Italian flag on the purchase menu. Click it and you can buy on the level 4 generals you want!

Yorick

Doh! Thanks Yorick.

Note to self: Do not allow the only Italian unit around to take Yugoslavia after the Germans do the dirty work. Italy had over 1000MPP and the Germans had squat.

[Tellu]

Hi

I downloaded the demo yesterday and now have plaeyed over 10 times already. Its great but some points need to be addressed.

1. Navies need to stack in harbours atleast. Preferably in other hexes too.

2. German Subs are useless as they are. They have no room to escape and they are detected far too easily. Also they have NO way to make it to Atlantic from German harbours since British Navy can totally block both paths. And there is no "Mid-Atlantic Gap" as other poster noted.

3. Why is Ardennes forest when for example Schwarzwald is not? IMO they should be both if one of them is.

4. Creation of Vichy France should be optional. Once I was counquering Algeria with Italians and almost made it but Vichy kicked in and my Italians were forced back to Tunisia. So it should be somehow possible to get Lebanon and Algeria from France.

5. If you intent going on with no stacking regardin land units then I strongly suggest downscaling the map. No-stacking needs room for manouvre. There is no room in this scale. Other option is go for stacking. I undestand if thats not possible because of the game mechanics(1 on 1 combat) but then downscaling of the map is more than needed.

[ May 23, 2002, 12:41 PM: Message edited by: Tellu ]

[Studtjr]

Hey, this is a great game and the first which seeks to reverse the trend by major game companies to produce unrealistic strategic-level war games (3D pieces and hopelessly out-of-scale maps).

One suggestion: the only aspect which differentiates Strategic Command from being a truly great game is the level of detail. The map and pieces are very simplified. It would really be neat to have more cities and terrain features displayed/labelled as well as greater information on the units themselves. (Understand that this may adversely increase system requirements. But perhaps maps can be created to display a greater scale or zoom function, with resulting increase in unit detail.)

This game is on the verge of becoming a truly entertaining, as well as instructional, model. Hope it becomes one.

. . in any case, I'll be purchasing one.

John (USMC)

[Tellu]

I played the demo some more and this is what I think added to earlier points which still stand.

The navies dont work as they are. All the navy types are too easy to hunt down and hammer to oblivion. Espcieally the subs but others too. They have nowhere to run or to hide. Stacking in harbour and giving the harbour defence bonus or something along those lines would help.

Its next to impossible to attack fortresses and cities well defended. For example Gibraltar and Alexandria. Even having 5-1 advantage didnt help defeating Gibraltar since every turn the Allies just bought it back in strengh. I understand such places are hard to attack IRL too but with time there should be no doubt of success since the defenders would run out weapons, ammo, food, water and men.

[Hubert Cater]

Fortified units will be tough, completely surrounding them will help as their max reinforcemnt will diminish, and keep an eye on their entrenchment value. With each attack this will drop and should make the subsequent attacks a bit more effective. Of course with each attack the defenders will gain in experinece and may offset the drop in entrenchment. Did I mention that it would be tough

[Compassion]

Originally posted by Tellu:

The navies dont work as they are. All the navy types are too easy to hunt down and hammer to oblivion. Espcieally the subs but others too.

They have nowhere to run or to hide. Stacking in harbour and giving the harbour defence bonus or something along those lines would help.

Agreed about the capital ships. SHould be able to get some kind of shore defense and a stacking limit (maybe based on harbor size?).

WIth the subs, however, I don't see much of a problem with the way things are. They are very potent offensive weapons that are dead ducks when defending... as it should be. I think that the only tweak that I'd do is not let them be suprised...

[Tellu]

I have no problem it being tough. I have problem with them being immune to attrition due always being on suply. So if I hit them from 10 to 4 theyll be back at 8 in next turn. So now I hit them 8 to 1 theyll be back at 8 next turn of that! Now there is the problem.

[Tellu]

Originally posted by Compassion:

WIth the subs, however, I don't see much of a problem with the way things are. They are very potent offensive weapons that are dead ducks when defending... as it should be. I think that the only tweak that I'd do is not let them be suprised...

The problem with the subs is there is no way one is going to survive in the Atlantic. Subs cost, what? IIRC 550. If and BIG if I get my sub as German to Atlantic its not going to last there. Within 3 turns it starts to raid convoys the Allies are going to hunt it down and sunk it with their superior surface forces. And thats a fact. Even with fog of war turned on the allies dont have the great area to cover they did IRL. Theyll bump in to my unfortunate sub soon enough.

How many turns did you manage to keep German sub alive in the Atlantic raiding convoys?

[DevilDog]

One thing I seemed to notice was when reinforcing the experience level for that unit went down. All well and good - this simulates the negative effect of conscripts/boots coming into a unit too fast for the experienced troops in the unit to assimilate properly.

So I tried reinforcing over several turns, in an attempt to lessen the effect on experience. It appeared to be identical to just maxing the unit out in one turn. I would recommend that if you only reinforce a unit 1-2 points per turn that it have less of a negative effect on experience than say doing the full 4-5 points all at once.

Not a huge deal either way, but it would be a good reward to the commander who takes the time to rotate units out of the line and slowly bring them back up to strength. The effects over a long war could be significant.

[Hubert Cater]

Originally posted by Tellu:

I have no problem it being tough. I have problem with them being immune to attrition due always being on suply. So if I hit them from 10 to 4 theyll be back at 8 in next turn. So now I hit them 8 to 1 theyll be back at 8 next turn of that! Now there is the problem.

If you occupy all the land hexes adjacent the fortified unit then they will only be able to reinforce to 5, that should help a bit.

[Tellu]

Originally posted by Hubert Cater:

If you occupy all the land hexes adjacent the fortified unit then they will only be able to reinforce to 5, that should help a bit.

Great! That should do it.

[ May 23, 2002, 07:43 PM: Message edited by: Tellu ]

[Compassion]

Originally posted by Tellu:

The problem with the subs is there is no way one is going to survive in the Atlantic. Subs cost, what? IIRC 550. If and BIG if I get my sub as German to Atlantic

Well, wait until the game comes out and as teh Germans you get to spread your wings and base out of France (and mebby spain).

its not going to last there. Within 3 turns it starts to raid convoys the Allies are going to hunt it down and sunk it with their superior surface forces. And thats a fact. Even with fog of war turned on the allies dont have the great area to cover they did IRL. Theyll bump in to my unfortunate sub soon enough.

Don't let them be so superior. YEs, early on one must be cautious with the Baltic fleet, but agressive use of the ITalian fleet in the Med can go a long way towards balancing things out as well as making sure that you put the hurt on the Allies early on so that they can't spend on fleet repairs/rebuilds. Aso , if you are going to stahd toe to toe in the West it would be a good thing to build up the Kriegsmarine.

On the other hand, you point about sub units being lost is taken .It might have been a ggood idea to differentiate between *combat* subs and *strategic* subs (for lack of better words) and perhaps have point allocation for interdiction type convoy raiding duty... and similarily, maybe the Allied player could reduce surface combat fleets by all0cating to a convoy escort box and let the computer do a die roll each turn for effect... I know, I keep cribbing from 3R, but it's just so ingrained... even caught myself typing SR in another thread when talking about Operational movement.

[ May 23, 2002, 08:10 PM: Message edited by: Compassion ]

[Tellu]

Originally posted by Compassion:

Yes thats fine but shoudlnt NEED to wait for the French bases. I should be able to send the subs out from Hamburg docks right to the mid-Atlantic.

I think one submarine type will do. What we need is sub not visible so easily to surface fleets and higher chance of escaping battle. Its now 25% plus 5%/level in adv sub tech. IMO it should be higher maybe around 60% and added by tech 10%/per level. This then should be reduced by enemy sonar tech. And subs should be able to pass through enemy fleet hexes without combat.

[John DiFool]

Originally posted by Lars:

Note to self: Do not allow the only Italian unit around to take Yugoslavia after the Germans do the dirty work. Italy had over 1000MPP and the Germans had squat.

This is a refreshing change from the situation in Clash of Steel, where the poor Italian could NEVER capture anything, and hence was a pauper the entire game no matter how successful the Axis was.

At least now they can share in the spoils, and if you are going for a strong Med push it is vital to let the Italians capture a lot of objective hexes.

(note also that CoS didn't let you trade resources either, tho SC also shares that non-feature...).

John DiFool

[rleete]

I heartily agree! This is my one unanswered niggle with the gameplay to date. It isn't so much that subs are ineffective, but that they're so easily found and destroyed. We've all heard the stories of Britain's lifeline threatened. This with what? 50 or so submarines? The two groups are almost always elimintaed long before they do any real harm, as the area is too small to hide in for long. Even the Italian subs are more effective in the course of the game. That's just wrong.

Maybe even give the Brits an extra surface ship fleet to help from overbalancing too much. The way it is now, I don't think I will ever purchase any additional subs. Much more cost effective to buy other units.

[Lars]

O.K. I just had an idea (I know, rare event).

How about The Chamberlain Option?

Basically England and France sell Poland down the river and stay random neutral like Russia does now, but Hitler gets a chance to keep on trucking to the east and try to carve out a little lebensraum.

What do you think?

[TimSmith]

After playing for the last couple of days perhaps 15 games divided between Axis and Allied side a couple of points.

1. My first impression of the subs where they where weak. But having successfully have them survive the entire year twice as Germans(not hiding them. key is to keep moving.) I think perhaps minor tweaking is all that is needed. I don't think subs should be suprised by surface units and should inflict a little more damage when they surprise a surface unit. A point about the northern edge is to wait until the other sub starts hitting the convoys that draws the Brits away and then move out. Also tried an air unit in Norway, that clears them out too.

2. Let player select which units to attach to an HQ. It seems very odd how the HQ attachs units now.

Tim

[Tellu]

Tim, Its not about that axis can get their subs to Atlantic. Its about the Allies ability to stop Germans doing it if they choose to. The Allies CAN block the acces to the ocean. Thats what is blatantly wrong.

And have you played against human opponent. Anyone who uses little cordination is surely going to hunt your subs out in notime.

[NightGaunt]

is there player controlled placement of units in:

the full war campaign.

also I would like the ability to place neutral units that join my side. Its irritating when the opponent will know exactly where every unit is, also some units are put in useless spots, the enemy simply moves around them and when the capital falls they die.

[pzgndr]

Idea for consideration. Change operational movement to strategic movement, and keep as is. Add new operational movement to give units not adjacent to enemy double action points to allow extended movement. Movement adjacent to enemy and combat would not be allowed during new operational movement. This would permit rapid relocations behind the lines without getting into long-range railroad redeployments to cities.

Do tank groups exert a zone of control in SC which affects movement and tracing of supply? It's not clear. If not, it needs to be considered.

[Desert Dave]

Congratulations Hubert, this game is more than I had expected. After 10 or so demo games I am particularly impressed with your AI -- it is the best I have seen in quite a while -- this makes for a VERY replayable game.

There are 3 areas that I would like to see improved at some point.

1) Naval War: These are very expensive units, and it seems as though they don't last very long. Especially the SURPRISE element. I have had several games where the Germans managed to build wolfpacks of 4-5 subs, and the Brits always seemed to lose most of their fleet by accidentally banging into one or another sub. This was final-doom, since the extremely weakened unit would be finished off the next turn. Perhaps less damage each contact would enable the crippled ship to return for repairs, thereby keeping the expense down a little. And, in general, it seems as though the ship to ship exchange results in too high damage.

2) North Afrika: The most disappointing by far. I appreciate that the scale is large, but I haven't yet seen any armor give and take, or ebb & flow of historic battles. I am guessing that one more hex row would do the trick. Couldn't we please extend the map one more row into the Med, from Tobruk to Palestine? This would not impinge on naval activities in the eastern Med very much, and would allow Rommel and Monty to get after it. As it is, Britain doesn't have much compelling reason to try and reinforce. Without invading on the far side, I have NEVER gotten remotely close to taking Alexandria.

3) Strategic Bombing: How about this? When attacking cities with units in them, Strat Bombers hit the production, and Air Fleets attack units? This could be on a random basis, where MOST of the damage from bombers would effect production MOST of the time (example... say, on one turn you would have 2 lost production points, and 0 or 1 casualty to units). If they attack units outside of cities, then of course that is different.

Otherwise, I have found this game to be excellent, and am looking forward to buying, AND recommending it. In your recent interview you spoke of future expanded SC, and that has me even more excited.

[Purple4Ever]

Peronally, I'd like to see 1-week turns, regardless of season.

My reasoning is mainly due to the MPP and production effects - and I believe it would allow for greater flexibility in preparing for major campaigns - Barbarossa for the Germans, Overlord for the Allies, etc.

More turns = more time to prepare (i.e., build up an invasion force).

For the sake of an example:

Germany controls 200 MPP worth of resource hexes.

During the Summer turns, this equates to 800 MPP/month (assuming 4-week months); 400 MPP/month during Spring and Fall; and 200 MPP during the Winter months.

Would resources and production be affected by a change of seasons?

Perhaps the current scheme was used as an abstraction for weather and thus the "campaign season"? I can understand that, since weather is not modelled, but why would it affect production?

[ May 24, 2002, 02:58 PM: Message edited by: Purple4Ever ]

[Achiles]

Well I have a suggestion in regards to ones allies. Allow the player to specifiy which nation the unit is going to be produced for. Ex. Germany builds a new army in Romania. Instead of being german this army should be romanian. Cya, bye!

[ May 24, 2002, 06:05 PM: Message edited by: Achiles ]

[Diceman]

Originally posted by Hubert Cater:

Thanks for the list guys, I'll look through and see what will be feasible before the final release.

Not sure what you guys mean by units being able to resupply when surrounded. As it is now, if a unit is completely cutoff from a supply source (remember HQ's, Cities and Fortifications all act as supply) then it will not be be able to reinforce. If a unit is completely surrounded on a city or a fortification then resupply will be limited and maxes out at a value = 5. It must be completely surrounded in the sense that it is surrounded by enemy units on all possible land hexes, if there is a friendly unit in the bunch then this limitation will not apply as it is not considered to be completely surrounded.

Hope that helps,

Hubert

I disagree with friendly units being allowed to keep each other in supply as long as they are adjacent to each other. This gives adjacent units the same power as an HQ. Also, if HQs are cut off there supply capability should be limited to one or two turns while cut off. Creating a cauldron with more than one unit in it should be a blessing, not a curse. Just my two cents.

Also, I agree that there should be less experience penalty overall rebuilding a unit slowly rather than rebuilding it quickly.

I also would like to see the ability to move units a bit at a time rather than the way it is now. I think I should be able to go back to a unit that has not expended all possible action points, rather than loose them once I click on another unit.

The ability to attack with multiple units at the same time would be good too.

You may also want to consider a sequel with the scale halved to 25 sq mile hexes.

Airborne would also be way cool.

Overall, a very enjoyable game. Thank you for bringing grand scale strategy to the world of windows.