- Joined
- May 5, 2005
- Messages
- 8,886
Still working on my Germany game, although it sucks that I can't use panzerbattalions until I start a new game. Things are progressing well. The Western powers put up a scrappy fight and really pressed the attack. Like King Coltrane, I lost a city, but that didn't last long. Excellent choice to have the French armor broken down to the smallest level, as it best represents their poor deployment in relation to their opponent. As in WW2 global, I set up ME-109 traps to goad in the British bombers to thin their numbers. I'm guessing that late in the game they will be autoproduced like mad but for now I've wrecked 'em. The Fall of France and the Low Countries was right on time- May and June, although I'm still mopping up Marseilles and all that in late '40.
The conquest of Denmark has taken forever, mostly because I've been neglecting them. Finally finished them off in October 1940. The invasion of Norway is a disaster. I'll do better next time, but my forces were real beat up and had a lot of units wiped out. Once I had the ability to airlift, I took the Gebirgs troops out for use elsewhere and sent in a ton of artillery. Hopefully I can take Oslo finally and finish the job.
There's a lot of tradeoff in the Atlantic. I've lost a bunch of subs and destroyers, but have sent 6 British battleships, 2 battlecruisers, and two french BBs to the bottom. I've got my warships in the Channel and am using them to bombard Portsmouth. Not sure why, but it's very hard to damage aircraft on their airfields. I suppose it has to do with the high aircraft A/D values versus the low bombard values (2 or 3). Also, I have no idea how Sea Lion works. I didn't see any wonder in the Civilopedia using the special resource, and of course I'm still using v 1.1 so transports are a no-go.
The real gains have been in the East. If you're going to leave holes in the line, I'm going to exploit them.After Poland, I starting forces my way through the open sections and seized Minsk and Kiev. This caught the Soviet troops in a nice pocket. As the war in the West wound down, I could use more of my aircraft in the East. Because the Red Air Force can still defend cities, I use the Luftwaffe similar to how I used it in WW2 Global. That is, I use fast tank forces to concentrate only on cities, and therefore destroy their planes on the ground. With the culture border under control, I can then pound all their forces in the field with HE-111s and Ju-88s, before finishing them off with Stukas. It's especially nice of the Russians to oblige this method by sending all their high value rocket launchers and artillery units into bogs and forests where I can pick them off. At the end of 1940 I got Smolensk, and will have Odessa next turn. I'm not sure how much they have in Moskva but I'm going to make a dash for it. I got to get these guys quick 'cause I'm sure you gave them some nasty surprises like Siberian Wonders at the end of 1941.
Anyway, if you couldn't tell, I love the game. Even better than WW2 Global (which is excellent in its own right) because you've added all the special wonders that give everyone a historical variety of stuff. The battleship wonders are particularly nice, with their perfectly timed expiration. Looking forward to the civilopedia to be done to clear up on some of the game concepts. Also, why are the tank units company/battalion instead of battalion/regiment? Just curious, since my panzer companies (maybe, what 22 tanks?) are wiping out infantry regiments of thousands of men. I knew that German tankers were good but sheesh.
Great job and looking forward to more updates.
AnthonyBoscia, thank you very much for your great report and your very kind words about SOE.
I also used those gaps in the border-terrain to Russia, that´s why I made them.
As tests showed, Russia in 1940 with the dumbed down airforce, becomes an too early victim of the blitzkrieg. Those gaps were good to stop the AI, but not for a human player, who throws every unit through that gap. That´s why in the SOE betatest biq v1.2, I closed the gaps around Tarnopol. Now the Axis units with the wheeled flag, that are not upgraded by the AI, must take the route through the Baltic States or Romania, to fight in Russia (and the Russians, too).
In the early times of SOE, this scenario had a regimental setting. All infantry units were regiments (with their correct names) and all tanks had company size. The advantage was, that some of the special units, that were only produced in small numbers or small sized units could be adapted better in the game. On the other side with this setting , we ran into the MUA during gameplay in times when we didn´t know, that a MUA exists and the AI turntimes were astronomically high. That´s why some starting units were combined to divisions.
The tankcompanies in SOE are remainders of this setting. They can be upgraded to tankbataillons (for Germany at least since biq v1.2). There were voices who said in early WW 2, that a tank equals 300 men. With such a calculation a tank company can battle a foot regiment. But the real reason for tank companies is, that they allow to introduce tanks to the game, that were only produced in small numbers. The setting for SOE would have been much more easy and much less work, if limiting it to some core units in division or corps size, but the philosophy in SOE was, to use as many of the different units that were done by Wyrmshadow and other unit-creators, even if this complicates doing such a scenario a lot.
Sea lion at present is only a resource at the British coast to mark the land terrain that looks like sea.
AnthonyBoscia, I really enjoyed your report and this report -and also the reports of other gamers - help to improve the game.
The Russian cracked the line north of Lake Ladoga in two places, and destroyed the first line of defense and killed a division on the second line south of it. If they come at me seriously there is no way I can hold them off, and those garrison units for the cities north of Ladoga are pitiful.
This was not intended, but a great strategy! 
