Posts made by maverick_76

I believe the quote was: “You have only to kick the door in and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down!” But you are right, that did play a role, but remember, Russia had more planes than all other nations combined and equaled the world’s forces in tanks, but because of bad officers, a surprise attack by Germany, and Stalin going almost catatonic for a week when the invasion happened attributed to the slaughter and capture of millions of Russian prisoners. Again Russia was extremely lucky that Germany did not invade Moscow because Hitler was more concerned about beating armies in the field rather than taking cities. And not to mention one thing Larry should include was the Russian backed Yugoslavia uprising in the Spring of 1941. That stalled Hitler’s plans by six weeks, allowing precious fair weather months to slip away from the Germans. Even though….Hitler’s mistake of not going straight for Moscow was the downfall of the first invasion, the second was because he wanted to stoke his ego by taking Stalingrad like an idiot. These mistakes were paramount to Russia not being taken over by Germany, believe me they were within an ace of capture. I think SgtBlitz is right that we should be allowed to correct these mistakes but set it up as it was so we have lots of decisions to make. And I still think that we need to have it where several allies should have to fall for an Axis victory, like Frnace, UK and Russia. Because in the real thing it was several Hitler blunders that caused Russia to stay in the fight, if we are flawless in our tactics we should be able to conquer Russia and then that would leave the UK and US to win the Europe front. But Larry should make the US a beast in the economy department, we equaled the entire world in steel production at the start of the war and were outproducing it by the end of the war, the US should have an income that should almost equal the Axis all by itself.

I forgot that the price was raised on carriers, price is going to be dependent on what exactly the incomes are for the nations in the game, that can be ironed out later. But classically carriers should have little defense without planes, so I do think it would be correct to make them defend at one as well as attack at one. Planes are the carrier’s strength, play to that by having to sacrifice your planes before your carrier because if it does take a hit I think they should not land. It makes it also imperative then to control islands in the pacific and make airbases for the planes that are in distress to land. Think about it, that is why the US systematically took out one island after another, because you need them  to land planes and for repair yards for ships and supply lines. This would force the player to attack islands and not just skip the ones with no IPC value, in real war that makes no sense.

Interesting, so far I have been either using my dining room table, which is about five feet by three feet, or a folding table, which is 2x4. I guess I’ll either buy 1 or two more of those folding tables or make due with my dining room table somehow.

Russia was not an immediate threat though, remember that Germany signed a non-aggression pact with Russia only breaking it when Germany did not have another threat on the European mainland. Hitler did not like amphibious warfare, which is why he left Britain alone, plus he felt they were already beat, little did he know……but yeah you could try and have Italy invade France, but really Italy is going to be needed to secure Africa and the oil rich Middle East. Until Germany attacked Russia, they won’t attack because Stalin was scared of the Germans, thus the reason for the pact and subsequent appeasement even in the face of an inevitable invasion, Russia was still trying to mend fences per se. Trust me, you want and need the money France will give you, might as well take it before you have to worry about Russia.

Sad but true……

I forgot to address your question, yes you should be able to ignore France but would be unwise. There are several reason to invade France early:
1. easy money- France was relatively weak having mostly men and artillery with no modern tanks to help defend, the only crown jewel being the Maginot Line, but we all know what happened there, :).
2. You don’t want a three front war! Two fronts is already considered a cardinal sin in battle, read Sun Zsu’s art of war or Hitler’s own Mein Kompf to see why you don’t want a two front war let alone a three front one!
3. Russia at the start was trying to appease Germany by slowing front line fortification and Hitler only attacked because Russia conquered territory that came very close to Romania and the Ploesti oil fields, Hitler’s only major supply of oil. If Larry wants to make a natural trigger to the game, allow Russia the opportunity to invade the middle east and take the bountiful amounts of oil away which Germany would need to meet requirements of one of their IPC bonus goals. naturally the German player would want to do a preemtive first strike before this allowing for the special first turn attack similar to Japan’s in AAP.
4. France would give vital IPC’s that would allow more buildup of troops to complete Leibensrabe, or living space for the German people, another IPC bonus for Germany.

This would give all the incentive in the world to take France as fast as possible to be able to set up an attack on a huge but ill prepared Russian Army. You would eliminate a natural enemy in France, make Britain the lone warrior against Germany and make it that much easier to concentrate on Russia.

Again if Larry wanted to do this right he would make it suicide if you left France open without taking it before your Russian invasion.

I like that idea, but since the US was so powerful by itself I think we have it end if two of the four are taken. If Larry wants to make the game accurate he should make the US almost as powerful by itself as the two Axis powers, making it imperative that the Axis focus on Asia, Europe and the Pacific to gain more income because that is exactly what they wanted to do, make it to where they could call the shots at the bargaining table. Germany would work on starving out Britain while conquering Russia. Japan would try to make itself economically self sufficient enough to where they could dictate or at least have a say in all matters in the East, accomplishing this by invading the British and French economic strongholds of South Asia and making Australia a non factor by either invading or starving it out as well. Also eliminating it’s long standing rival China in the process. Make the game real by having little economic incentive to invade Russia so if the Japan player does this it leaves her open from strong attacks by China, Britain (India) and ANZAC, not to mention the juggernaut, USA. Make that tactic virtually suicide, the Japanese commanders considered it, and decided against it because they would gain little and end up losing a lot, something their little economy could not afford to do.

I think you lower the defense, this stresses to have battle groups and patrol ships, no more lone carriers wandering around, that just is not accurate. Carriers always had either destroyers or cruisers or even battleships to defend them, I think lowering the defense makes people have to play more accurately or they will be punished like real life if you leave an expensive piece naked out in the open, I think that was the idea Larry had in making you have to go back to a friendly port for repairs, you can’t clog up the entire ocean by having one unit in each seazone, massing units is the best way to keep them alive, and allows other groups to try and out maneuver each other, thus the real cat and mouse game played in the oceans can really begin!

Actually Russia had the world’s largest army when Germany invaded in 1941. But because of the treaty they were ill prepared for a strike by the Germans and the Russians lost huge quantities of men and machines during the first few months of operation Barbarossa. In fact if Hitler had not swept South to conquer Kiev, moving much of his mobile force away from Moscow, we might have seen Russia get conquered by the Germans! i think to make this accurate, Germany should get a first turn special attack like Japan had in AAP. Russia had huge forces but they were decimated because of the swiftness of the Germans, also on the first chance to invade I think units that move more than one spot should be able to move until they run out of moves, regardless of how many times the unit is in battle. This can simulate the blitz that the Germans put on the Russians which allowed them to conquer an area twice the size of Germany in six weeks if I remember correctly. Basically make the game to where if Germany plays their cards right, Russia can be taken in 2-3 turns, but as I have said in another post, make the game to where more than one allied capital has to be taken for an Axis victory, thus eliminating the tendency for Axis players to focus on Russia from both sides, because once they are done with that, they have a whole other capital to worry about.

I like that idea, 2 hits but planes can’t land until repairs are made. This keep people from using it as a free hit like people do with battleships. I like that idea a lot, still forces you to try and keep your carrier out of harm’s way, but if it the only thing left and manages to get out of battle with damage, all you need are repairs and new planes to make it a killing machine again. Makes sense to me.

@WILD:

We have played on 1/2 a ping pong table before. I guess we’ll just have to take down the net now. :-D

YES, I have one of those. Great idea Bill! LOL at Brain Damaged, I’ll just convert my garage to the A&A room. Needs A/C though….

Personally I think the thing that makes this game so good is the fact that you can become cooperative with the Germans as you play with the Japanese. I feel that to make the game play more historically is to still have an incentive system like there was in AA50. Also to help with the Japanese tank push from the East, just make more territories in Russia and make them worthless (fact is that 90% of Russia’s economy was in Europe), and make it more appealing to the Japs by having India and South Asia be wealthy, thus forcing a IPC starved Japan player to have no choice but to push towards Australia or India for the best economic outcome. And finally the biggest thing: the Allies have to lose two nations to lose the game. Historically Germany missed taking Russia by sheer luck and Britain was a massive amphibious assault away from losing it as well. So I think it would be perfect to have Germany, Italy and Japan as the Axis and Britain, ANZAC and India together as one and also Russia and US as the allies. If any two of those fall the Axis win, no victory if Russia falls thus making it much more imperative for the Japan player again to push East and not West so that a quick victory is possible. What do you guys think about having to have two allied powers fall before victory for the Axis can be declared?

Yeah and to reflect that we want to see the defense of the carrier lowered to a one from three, because without planes the carrier is pretty defenseless. It doesn’t mean that it still can’t take a beating though.

I’m so excited about the new size but at the same time I’m thinking of where the heck I’m going to put this monstrosity. I’ll need to buy another dining room table!

@Brain:

The foghters already give them more defense than any other ship.

There is a reason why Aircraft carriers are the new flagship of navies and the battleship isn’t anymore. I think the Japanese Learned that the hard way when their Battleships, the Musashi and Yamoto, with 18 inch guns (world’s biggest at the time) were sunk by carrier groups with planes. That was when the world realized that carriers were the new ass kickers of the ocean.

I think the best way to cover blockhouses is to allow them to enhance your units. For instance if you have a blockhouse it’s sole purpose is to protect your infantry and artillery, basically raising their defense from 2 to 3, but each blockhouse can house just like a transport, 2 infantry or 2 artillery or one of each. If you have to buy them then they can be destroyed or at least damaged, lowering their unit capacity to 1 unit protected. This way you would have to buy a lot of blockhouses which would hamper your ability to build offensive units. I say make them cost 6, that seems like a fair price for what they can do for your defense. They take two hits to destroy, but I’m wondering if the units inside should perish with the blockhouse or should they survive? What do you guys think?

Carriers were actually built tough. If you think about it the ship is a floating road, these things have to withstand planes crashing on them. I think to make it even is lowering the defense of the carriers from three to one yet allowing 2 hits to sink, granted they were not as tough as battleships but they could definitely take a licking. Plus if they cost 18 and have no defense ability then 2 HPs are useful to protect your investment as well. I think a marriage of historical accuracy and better game playability is needed in this case, and 1-1-2-18 seems good to me.

Holy crap you have seen them! Man I have not seen that in a while, I wonder if it ever got released on DVD……

1-1-2-18 with two HPs is good.

And I lol’ed at all of you….