Here's some odd ones. (long)

[benkarl]

My first game with the real program, normal difficulty, fog of war on. I start as Axis in 1939. I roll over Poland and reverse my forces to grab Denmark and invade Norway. I take Denmark and have positioned an invasion fleet off Norway waiting only for the Luftwaffe to get into position when it happens.

"France declares was on the Low Countries".

What...?

Its around January, IIRC, and they promptly anhiliate the garrison in Brussles and start pouring through in a reverse of the traditional German plan of attack as the Low Countries surrender to the French aggressors. The US is evidently mad because their chance of entering the war is now -5%.

As the defender of the Low Countries neutrality, I divert the Luftwaffe south to help throw back the French offensive. I hadn't spent my Polish loot yet and had some saved, so I set Rommel in place with some hastily raised armies to hold them off while I bring as much force as I can to bear. After a couple of turns, Rommel turns a hurried defense into a strong offense and the French are crushed. No sign of the BEF.

I thought it very strange to see this happen. I delayed my invasion of Norway to see if perhaps this would tilt them in my favor, but it didn't happen so I invaded anyway.

Another strange thing happened.

I went ahead with sealion and got lucky. I used subs for bait to draw some of the RN away from the beaches and sacrificed a cruiser to screen the invasion fleet and got ashore almost intact. I had some casualties but nothing serious. What was spectacularly lucky was that my landing forces came ashore next to Bomber Command, the Free French Air Force, and Montgomeries HQ. I had already taken out Fighter Command and another HQ during the 'Battle of Britain' phase. My armies wiped all three out on the landing turn with the help of the Luftwaffe. London fell next. Then I rolled over the rest of the british forces. It's a lot easier when they have no air cover or HQs. About the time I'm closing on their new capitol, first the Soviets and the Americans go to war with me. I rush Rommel east to organize a hasty defense around what little I can scrape up and he manages to hold at the cost of pretty much all my MPPs for a few turns. Meanwhile, I'm bracing for American forces in Western Europe, but they never come. In a couple more turns I finish the new British capitol off, but they don't surrender. I figure I have to take the third town, but don't actually get to. The next turn I wipe out some of their remaining units and position myself for the attack on the third town, but don't take it. They surrender at the end of the turn.

That's odd. I took their capital but they don't surrender and they don't make a new capitol? I'm assuming that they surrendered next turn because I took out a large chunk of their remaining forces (a tank unit and a corps, IIRC, leaving them two corps)...

Third odd thing:

Now that England has fallen, Gibralter is open and the RN is nowhere to be seen. I rush the Italian Navy into the Atlantic to face the expected American onslaught along with the remnants of the Kriegsmarine. I spend some of the English loot on a sub, part on a tank corps for Rommel and part moving the Luftwaffe east. Rommel fights back with the help of the Luftwaffe and, by the time I've put the Sealion forces on transports back to the mainland, has crushed their offensive. By the time they've operated in, I have a breakthrough in the south. I move the Spanish Army back to Spain to help defend against the Americans. I move the Italian Army into the Balkains to deal with Yugoslavia and, later, partisains. No Americans. By this time, I've got three battleships, a cruiser, a carrier and three subs screening against an attack. No Americans.

Over the next two years, I fight a touch and go campaign with the Russians. Damn partisans! I finally bring enough forces to bear to form up a reasonably solid front and drive towars moscow with the bulk while Rommel sweeps the south towards Stalingrad. I take Moscow. No Americans. I take their capital in the Urals. No Americans. Rommel takes Stalingrad as their third and final capital. STILL No Americans. By this time, It's 1943 and I've been watching them gain and spend MPPs for two years.

That's more or less where I stopped to go to bed (at 4am) last night. I did break down and look at what the Americans were doing. I saved my game and turned off Fog of War before shutting down for the night. (Sorry if you think the less of me, but I was dying to know.) The ENTIRE US is covered with Armies, with the exception of three HQs and an air wing. Canada plays host to two more US air wings. There are two Battleships. One of the air wings had the look of a jet.

There hadn't been so much as a probe from the US to test my strength. If they had sent those armies even a turn ago I'd be screwed because I have a light screen in the west while everything else is in Eastern Russia. What is the AI thinking?

I suspect it's a guaranteed win. With the rest of the map, I can outproduce him. It's mainly a factor of whittling down all those armies. I'll have to move most of my forces east and launch an invasion of Canada. Perhaps I'll let Rommel have that one. I'll need to establish naval superiority and then perhaps I can base the Luftwaffe there to pound the Americans. Or perhaps I need to research long range aircraft and build bombers. I guess I'll see...

[Sol Invictus]

Well now that is strange. Maybe the AI is confused because there is no England to base to. I hope you just got extremely lucky and England isnt always such a pushover. I would think that a 20% success rate for Sea Lion would be a nice standard.

[gorski]

FoW might just be too hard for the AI. I might just turn it off.

Gorski

[Titan]

Intersting benkarl,i did read in another post that destroying a large part of a nations army is also important before they will surrender even if you have there capital.I actually like that idea and would think it realistic.So that seems to be the situation you had in England.If Hitler did land in the UK during the war i could not imagine the Brits surrendering upon the capture of london.They would have fought tooth and nail right down to the bone.

In the early war years the US never had much of an Army anyway,especially up to 42 so would have expected them to do much anyay.But from what you tell me it seems that they where building up for something big,and with you committed in Russia it would have been a suprise if they attacked you in the west,but curiousty killed the cat there.

But all the same it will be interesting if they do launch the mother of all invasions

[benkarl]

Well, I didn't look until after Russia surrendered at that point it would have just been a matter of rushing stuff into place to fight him and with the plunder from taking Russia it wouldn't have been tough. At that point his window for a big surprise that would really hurt was gone. Even before I looked I had a naval screen there to allow me to prepare for landings if they had come but they never did. I suspect the fact that the AI only had two battleships kept it from attacking even though most of the transports would have gotten through anyway.

I just finished that game. The US never did anything. I turned my forces around, conquered all the minor powers who never joined a side and then took the US. I did it by taking Canada first to base air fleets out (max range and max jet technology so they were pretty potent). His air put up a bit of a fight but once they were gone, he never tried to rebuild. I started pumping carriers out, which share the jet and range technology, and basically chipped away at him until I got troops ashore and took Washington. He launched a couple of attacks on weak units and shuffled troops around/built new units to fill the holes I made if he could. Usually I made a hole and moved something in to keep him from reoccupying it. He just sat there and tried to wait out my attacks, but I kept bringing in carriers and chipping away at units until I eventually got Wshington. Ironically, it was September of 1945 when the US surrendered.

[Andrew H.]

That is interesting. As someone pointed out, the US was not really prepared for war at all at the beginning; they didn't start real military preparations until France fell (i.e., when Holland surrendered, the US went from having the 17th largest army to the 16th largest army). I suspect that, with France as the "aggressor," the US didn't start ramping up production until you got it mad, and it took a long time from there.

I know it's not always like that; I've suffered a mid-'42 D-Day while I was in the middle of fighting in Russia. I was playing on "Beginner," though, and although the US and the brits took half of France, I was able to take it back by engaging in some judicious retreats in the USSR.

[KevGaming]

I've noticed some really odd goings on with America.

I have 12 (yes that's correct!) U-Boot fleets plus a Cruiser guarding the approaches to Britain. Industrial Tech is great. A line of 9 subs stretches down from Canada to the middle of the Atlantic with no greater than two hex seperation, and the remaining subs and cruiser closer to Britain.

Now I have had two SECs with US transports (battleships have already been sunk) then nothing, but US armies keep turning up in Britain!

I have FoW on but may switch it off just to see what is happening.

Has anyone else noticed these stealth transports?

[ August 04, 2002, 05:45 AM: Message edited by: KevGaming ]

[Guest Mike]

The SEC's may be telling the US where the gaps in your line are to get a few armies through??

[KevGaming]

Hmmm... You may have a point there. Though the trailing group should catch them. Mibby was seeing things, as it was after 3am!