Best PC WWI/II game?

[Comrade Tribune]

The Dnieper River Line:

[Comrade Tribune]

Leningrad falls! I didn´t get to Moscow, but the scenario ends with an Axis Decisive Victory nevertheless. At the end of the day, with taking Leningrad, Egypt and even Iraq, I had at least done better than Adolf. (This was normal difficulty, there are still 4 higher difficulty levels to explore; with this patch, the quality of the game is now as it should be; I only wish they had implemented Pbem. )

[Kropotkin]

Yeah I've noticed the two manuals, too bad I don't have a printer as it's not that easy to read on the screen and underlining important stuff with my pen is all but impossible...

I'm playing a second game on easy and now everything is working out fine. A bit to fine actually as the germans didn't have the guts to attack the not so mighty soviets and they're sorry about that now when I opened up the third front to help out the two in Italy and France. The loser has drawn away all his airsupport from the east so now even the russian airforce can contribute.

It's summer '44 and Stalin is about to lanch the fall offensive from his lines in eastern Europe. At the same time there's confused and heavy fighting in and around Napoli. Meanwhile troops are swarming into a all but undefended french countryside.

[Comrade Tribune]

Heh; time to get the difficulty level up a notch.

[Comrade Tribune]

Originally posted by Sten Sture The link below has a bunch of After Action Reports on TAOW. http://www.warfarehq.com/After_Actio...eraction.shtml

I have TAOW, but somehow I was unimpressed. Can´t quite remember, why. Could it be the ai is bad? I seem to remember it ignored supply consideration, was therefore easy to beat, if you went around it in a wide arc, cutting its main supply line, something like that.

Perhaps I´ll give it another try.

[Comrade Tribune]

Starting the 1939 Blitzkrieg scenario anew; this time playing the Allies on Challenging. Ai did good, competent starting moves, taking Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg in Winter 1939. If it keeps the pressure up like this, France will not survive for long.

[Comrade Tribune]

Now AM I committed to the Defence of France, or what?

[Comrade Tribune]

Chaotic attritional fighting ensues...

Now if I only knew who is cutting off whom...

[Comrade Tribune]

Meanwhile, at the Egyptian border...

Most Italian troops in the area have surrendered. The Western Desert Force is taking Benghasi. Other British troops are blocking Tobruk. (We can´t take it just now, though, because the major offensive needed for that is not on budget.)

[Comrade Tribune]

Fall 1940: France is still clinging to life, but only just. Lots of British troops are ferried over the Channel to bolster the defences of the demoralized French. But now the Allies are speedily running out of money. Uh-oh.

[Kropotkin]

I've only managed a stalemate again. I noticed it was a grave misstake not to open up the eastern front much earlier. Germany had something like 400 burps so no matter how much weight my attacks had all of his forces re-emerged within a round. I'm must learn better attack-tactics. My defensive ability is doing fine but that's not gonna help me in a game with a time limit.

[Comrade Tribune]

Originally posted by Kropotkin
Germany had something like 400 burps so no matter how much weight my attacks had all of his forces re-emerged within a round.

There is a way around this, but it´s a secret.

No, it isn´t. 3 Strategies, in order of importance:

1) Empty his forcepool. Strike deep with Armour, put large clusters out of supply. Units eliminated while out of supply can not be immediately rebuilt. He can´t build anything if he has no units in his force pool. Read the manual, I told you so.

2) Generously use offensive options on more than one front. If you use lots of offensives, he will be forced to do same. Equalize spending power by giving lots of lend-lease to Russia, so everybody can throw the kitchen sink at the Germans. Counter-air at every opportunity; planes are expensive. Much of the German money comes from conquests, so take his conquests away -reconquer Minor Capitals. Especially kill the Axis Minors, Finns, Hungarians, Rumanians, and kill Italy; the German forcepool is not sufficient without Axis. Did you know that you can force Italy out of the war even without taking Rome? If you didn´t, read the manual.

3) Use Strategic Bombing. Over time it does make a difference. Also Strategic Bombing can soak off one 5-factor air per year, which is then not available to build. If you didn´t know this, it´s because you haven´t read the manual, yet.

Those are not the expert strategies. Those are the Rookie strategies. The expert strategies fill about 20 or so copies of the General (old wargaming mag). That´s why 3R is the Holy Grail of WWII strategy gaming. I wonder if there has ever been ANY other game for the PC -WWII or any other topic- where you could write 20 booklets full of strategies about.

[Comrade Tribune]

Winter 1940: The fate of France is looking grim. German Armour has reached the Seine, Italian troops are infiltrating the Alps, the Maginot line is in shambles. We are spending the last Francs on a desperate counter-offensive. Gloire! Patrie! Liberté!

[Comrade Tribune]

Spring/Summer 1941: Paris falls in Spring, and France is throwing in the towel. The BEF retreats to St. Nazaire. The British Economy suffers catastrophic losses from the U-boat menace. Germany invades and conquers Yugoslavia. Impressed by the German successes, Hungaria, Rumania, Bulgaria and Finland join the Axis.

On the plus side, British forces capture Tobruk. A large Italian taskforce, comprising about 1/3 of the entire Italian navy, is sunk near the coast of Sicily.

Apart from U-boat activity, the Germans are mostly ignoring Britain. This does not keep the Prime Minister from holding a poetic speech: "We will fight them at the beaches. We will fight them in the fields. We will never surrender!"

A few Strategic Bombers are being sent to Berlin, and damage the largest German gnome factory. Production of gnomes is drastically reduced in 1941. Enraged, Adolf Hitler makes a fateful decision: An entire German Airfleet is ordered back to the homeland "to defend the German race and its gnomes". This Airfleet will not be available for the impending 'Operation Barbarossa'. Goering is rumoured to have commented: 'I always knew that the man was mad.'

[DrSpike]

I think we should rename this thread Comrade Tribune's Fall of the 3rd Reich thread.