Rocoteh -
An update on my 2.5 Regent game, as France -
up to Week 15, 1941
Where to begin? I'm still holding out against the Nazi onslaught, though just barely. France doesn't seem to have the capacity to build enough armor and artillery to hold off the Germans forever.
I have lost no cities to the Germans, although they came within an eyelash of taking Paris on Week 12 1941. The Germans pour armor (Panzer IIIe's) and an assortment of infantry units (HEAVILY laced with Romanians, Hungarians, and Bulgarians) from Belgium, southward into the forest just east of Verdun. In Verdun, I've stacked almost all my artillery, so when the Germans show up outside Verdun, I use the artillery to soften them up, and counterattack their attackers when conditions are favorable. On two occasions since my last post they have also launched frontal attacks against Strasbourg, but have made no headway. (I sure hope the Kronenbourg Brewery was undamaged!)
The Luftwaffe has long since destroyed my entire air fleet, and I'm always desperately building ground units to try to stem the tide, so I haven't been able to re-constitute my air forces.
The British briefly recaptured Antwerp from the Germans, but Germany took it back immediately.
The Germans have landed two contingents of paratroopers on Corsica, but I've been able to defeat them.
Italy is still sending the occasional armor units, plus the occasional paratrooper or marine against my southern cities. However, it's proven nothing more than a nuisance.
In the Med, the Americans took Cagliari from Italy on Week 16, 1940. The only action now in the Med is my "allies" sailing merrily about, doing nothing more hostile than bombarding Palermo mercilessly.
In Africa, I captured Bisciara from the Italians in Week 29 of 1940, and the British have taken all the other Italian holdings except Addis Abbaba, Tobruk, and Stanleyville.
There is A LOT of action in the Pacific. The Japanese razed Pt Moresby, they've captured Singapore and Hong Kong, and they have eliminated the Communist Chinese (razed Urumtsi in Week 45 1940, and captured the last city, Tian Shou, in Week 2, 1941). Japan has also captured Padang and Palembang.
Fakfak has changed hands several times - it's currently held by the Brits, who took it in Week 38 1941. Banjarmasin has also changed hands quite a bit, and the AMERICANS captured it in Week 8 1941!
The Japanese have taken most of the other Chinese cities, as well - the 'core' Chinese cities around Chengdu and Chungking, stretching westward to Lhasa and Khotan are still in Chinese hands, but Japan controls everything else.
The British declared war on the Soviets in Week 26 1940, and the Soviets promptly captured Damascus from me, razed Kirkuk, captured Kuwait, and took all of Persia except for Kabul. The Soviets also captured the three northernmost Swedish cities, between Week 48 and Week 50 1940.
In the head-scratcher department, THAILAND declared war on me in Week 31 1940. They sent a stack of infantry against Saigon and sailed their coastal defense ships southward, and that's the last I saw of them. After a couple of turns, the Brits made peace with them, and I'm too weak in Indochina to divide my forces to attack Thailand, so I let 'em go.
My strategy is to hold on in Europe as long as possible, although I don't think that will be much longer - I'll be surprised if I'm still in France at the end of 1941. The Germans made a big push against Paris in Week 12 1941, and I exhausted most of my armor, and split up my artillery, in holding them off. I also see another stack of 6 Panzer's waiting to cross the border from Belgium now, and there are a couple of infantry units still loose in the forests east of Verdun - I think I'll be hard-pressed to withstand the next attack.
Once my northern tier of cities (Verdun, Lille, and Paris) falls, I'll fall back to Bordeaux and Marseilles.
When/if the Germans kick me out of France altogether, my plan is to to try to assemble enough forces in north Africa to re-establish myself somewhere on the Continent - maybe in Italy, or even Spain. But I'll just have to see how it goes...
The wild-card in the whole situation is the Soviets. If/when the Soviets and Germans go to war, I'm thinking my lot will improve, since I won't be the sole focus of the German ground forces.
(Correction to my last post - I mentioned positioning all my bombers in Cherbourg - DUH! wrong city, wrong peninsula - I meant Brest.)
My impressions of 2.5 so far -
The AI seems to play the Axis very well, or at least pretty aggressively. The Japanese are simply rolling over the Chinese and the Italians are very aggressive, given their limited means. I'm not sure what to say about the Germans, since I've never played against them in Europe before.
The Allies seem very aggressive in the Pacific, but I sure wish they would channel some of that toward the Germans - the Brits and Americans evidently will simply not engage the Germans in any significant way. (Bombarding Antwerp turn after turn after turn doesn't count, in my book!)
I'll post more in a week or so.
ahahah your damn right you need a quad core 
