Dave Mackey Posted December 16, 2003 Share Posted December 16, 2003 Hi, My name is David Mackey and I just downloaded the demo of Strategic Command and have been playing it for around an hour. Its great! However I must admit that I have not had much luch in my invasion of France. The blitzkrieg has quickly become the "they're slaughtering me and I don't want to attack anymore." I am a little confused on one point however. While I focus most of my troops in sweeping around rather than through the Siegfried line, I've several times desired to set up a defensive line of infantry in front of the Siegfried. But I find the French always attack me, never losing any troops and always inflicting heavy casualties. This seems somewhat unrealistic? What seems to be implied is that my men are standing within range of the enemies troops in the open and are being mowed down? Respectfully, David. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zappsweden Posted December 16, 2003 Share Posted December 16, 2003 If u play on very hard level, enemy has experience advantage. If u don't then u simply gotta you gotta rethink your strategy. Use HQ's for your front line units and attack with groun+air in a single hex trying to brreak their line. Strike him before he strikes you. Another important thing is the entrenchment+terrain thing. You gotta keep their trenches down by attacking them. Attack their weakest spot. If you have fresh unit behind the lines you can move away damaged units and attack with fresh one i.e keeping the attack a constant flow. By the way, are there any good Civil War PC games these days? [ December 16, 2003, 11:07 AM: Message edited by: zappsweden ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Mackey Posted December 16, 2003 Author Share Posted December 16, 2003 Yeah...I was playing on the hardest level. I'm not big for replayability, so if I beat it on normal I'm not likely to try hard next...I'll just leave the game alone...So I start on the hardest...But after I wrote that post I was able to break their lines and take France and was expanding but the demo doesn't have a save feature and I don't have all day to play. As far as good Civil War games go. I am an avid fan (and webmaster) of W.R. Hutsell's VGA Civil War Strategy Game (strategical) and EGA Civil War Battleset (tactical w/campaign mode). Adanac Command Studies offers a free Civil War game somewhat like SC that I never could get into but a lot of people seem to enjoy. As mentioned, Civil War Generals 2 is an excellent game and can be picked up for a few bucks. Besides that, there isn't much that I know of available right now...But in the near future keep your eyes open for Walker Boy Studio's War Between the States (www.walkerboystudio.com). Its a strategical and tactical level game and from its screenshots appears to be beautifully rendered. Also, to a lesser extent keep your eyes open for Mad Minute Games' new Civil War game which will be released sometime in the future...But Walker Boy Studio's game (I think) is the one to go with. Respectfully, David. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comrade Trapp Posted December 16, 2003 Share Posted December 16, 2003 civilwarsearchcom But after I wrote that post I was able to break their lines and take France and was expanding but the demo doesn't have a save feature and I don't have all day to play. You don't have to worry about playing all day, the demo ends soon after the Fall of France (I forget the exact date). Also, if you do end up buying the game (something I highly recommend), you will soon learn that you haven't really played SC until you've played against a human player. After you've played the AI a few times, it starts to get predictable and really is only good for practice once you start playing other people. Hope you buy the game so I can play you sometime. Comrade Trapp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les the Sarge 9-1 Posted December 16, 2003 Share Posted December 16, 2003 SC will of course only interest a person for so long if they tire of the experience easily. I have not yet even gone past the default difficulty level myself. I don't play the game incesantly, so I have not actually racked up that many total games played yet. But I yet still enjoy the game a lot. On tactics, you really have to plan out your offensive like as with chess, ie if you are not thinking 5 turns ahead, odds are your attack will be pot luck from turn two onwards. You need to attack with enough force to accomplish the goal in a finite amount of time. It depends on the objective too. I have learned that if you attack the Low Countries, plan on defeating them in 1 move, or plan to be dealing with the French response. With attacking France, plan on breaking the line in one move, or plan on it getting messy two turns later. This means your armour needs to be in the right place "before" the attack begins. It means you have to have air cover before and during the battle. You also have to be able to afford to keep the momentum. This means you will require follow up units, because the original attack forces will be depleted, and subject to return attacks on the opposing sides turn. As for replayability, hmm well if you only plan to play the game once ie beat the game, then say you beat the game, then I can't help you really. I expect to be playing SC right up till they release SC something else. And if a follow on version never appears, then it is very good I will be playing SC 5 years from now. SC has no limit on replayability. That is frankly a player limit in my opinion. Otherwise I would never play poker after winning finally, or playing ches after finally winning Movies are finite, good wargames are not. The demo though will never show you more than the merest fraction of the experience. And this game against a human is not even really the same thing. So until you have played a fan of the game, you can't say you have really played, regardles of beating it on the hardest setting. Our more humdrum players are much harder than the hardest setting eh SC for 25 bucks is a heck of a deal. But it will never be more than the player lets it be. Last night I had the thrill of watching my more or less EQ playing non wargamer buddy play the game a fulll evening unable to quit heheh. He almost made himself late for work this morning trying to get in a few extra turns A month from now he might move onto other things, but I suspect he will continue to want to play me when I visit. SC, it is all the game it needs to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pzgndr Posted December 16, 2003 Share Posted December 16, 2003 Yeah...I was playing on the hardest level. Slow down mate, normal settings are fine for learning this game. There are too many nuances that need to be understood, like use of HQs, supply, experience, etc. The AI will abuse you until you do figure out these things. Once you understand how the game is played and get a good feel for what happens over an entire campaign game, then ramp it up a notch or two for a challenge. Then play other people for a real challenge. This all takes time, but it's fun to learn. Also, check out the strategy stickie above for the Strategy Guide download. It will provide some useful insights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Friendly Fire Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 Guys, I think I am a fairly decent player, but I found the AI quite hard to take on at the highest difficulty level. This is simply because as Axis losses it is quite a disaster attacking with a -2 experience disadvantage (and those losses mean you don't get experience, and so the cycle continues). As Allies by the time the Russian Campaign rolls I seem to recall almost all Axis units, including air, are at 4 bar experience, and walk right over the map. I've since mostly given up playing the AI (too stupid), playing people is a lot more fun But I am curious, do others take on the AI with +2 experience, or do you find it silly like I did? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zappsweden Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 Originally posted by Friendly Fire: Guys, I think I am a fairly decent player, but I found the AI quite hard to take on at the highest difficulty level. This is simply because as Axis losses it is quite a disaster attacking with a -2 experience disadvantage (and those losses mean you don't get experience, and so the cycle continues). As Allies by the time the Russian Campaign rolls I seem to recall almost all Axis units, including air, are at 4 bar experience, and walk right over the map. I've since mostly given up playing the AI (too stupid), playing people is a lot more fun But I am curious, do others take on the AI with +2 experience, or do you find it silly like I did? You will win against the AI when u learn the tricks. For instance, you can force interception from malta when u are axis i.e causing a huge sum of lost MPP for UK throughout the game. You wont win in a 5 vs 5 army duel if he has +2 experience. You will win with using research better than the AI and using tricks. That is why I stopped playing the AI. I do not know how many tricks that are still there since there have been some patches. I would not go back to test it since I find it much more fun to play humans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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