Remembering PRESTAGS

'The Principles of War' - interesting website

The Principles of War website - https://theprinciplesofwar.com/ 

Australian content and contributions

 

Hexes are awesome

I found this on the ABC (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-02/us-election-trump-biden-states-polling/12822296). The number of hexes show them number of college votes each state gets. it is a completely archaic system, but makes for a great War Game map. The Chump has Made Elections Great Again!

The Return of PRESTAGS?

I opened the latest Strategy and Tactics last week and the map reminded me of something!

Of course prettier, but structurally just like PRESTAGS. The leader counters are reminiscent, though again prettier.

The archer and artillery had similar factors, but the absence of skirmishers (on of my favourites) was noticeable.

The combat results table was different, but not completely so - more like an evolution.

The title of the magazine - Fight the Fall. It features two battles from the end of the Roman empire. Desperate times for everyone, but the empire no longer represented anything worth saving: much the way Spetz sees 21st century capitalist democracies.

Interesting new direction from Strategy and Tactics

The latest Strategy and Tactics games has cards. And not just a few cards, but more cards than counters. How interesting!

Note that me map is half size. The cards come in a nice sleeve - US player on one end and Activitista on the other.

The map really does not look like a wargame - almost more like an info graph from a reference book on the period. I like the way it teaches you a bit of history as you play - learn your presidents!

There seems to be an economic module - keep a war profitable and you can fight forever!

Being a period and part of the world where I have almost zero interest - except during the cricket season - I won;t set this one up. However, I welcome the inventiveness and wait from them to apply this to something I like.

Constantinople - Strategy and Tactics 318

Constantinople arrived in my mail box a couple of months ago in the traditional large Manila envelope with the "Do Not Bend" label that means "YES"! I was busy with dignity at the time so only had time to read the articles. (Good articles on the Thirty Year War and the Judean War of independence - that features at bit in the weekday masses of late.) However, the game is a solitaire game so I just had to give it a go. I mean - who keeps a wargame unpunched?

I like a game that is not just military. In this game, you can build improvements like fortresses and monasteries. These improve your future defence and your income - get those boys away from women and other distractions and they become quite useful.

Interestingly, in this game you can also improve yourself via cost times luck, you can increase the defence of your capital,  you military, popularity and statecraft. You lose it all if the Baliseus dies, it all goes back to the start again. But the era was like that, so fair enough. I really like the map of Constantinople in background.

By the roll of the dice, there are three barbarians active at the start of the scenario: The Lombards, the Syrians and the Mongols.

I have the Lombards covered with a general (Strategos) and a thematic army. (The provinces are replaced by themes in 7AD, and each has its own army that costs a motza if they move outside. Note the arrows - you know where the barbarians are going to go - the rules say "Generally, barbarians in the era kept to certain invasion paths". Makes for a perfect solitaire game - not much thought on how to move the bad guys - and where not to build your monasteries!

On the other side of the map, I have no-one! I'll have to rush the Emperor there! Probably Antioch first and then the Mongols. The fortresses (red hex lines) should buy me enough time!)

The maps and counters have a nice feel - I think this is a good game. I am disturbed by the artists understanding of Greece though - not even close! (Corinth is south of Athens, and far from Themopylea. I suggest the game designer meant Thebes are Argos!)

As different from my youth, technology today allows me now to watch the cricket while playing a board game!

I love the marriage between great board game design and portable cricket screens - they both move at about the same speed!

What is special about the white Militia Spearmen in SPARTAN?

New Game, New Rules, New Opportunities

One of the disadvantages of ATG is that you cannot stack the city count in one player's favour (like in EDEE) so it makes for a competitive 2 on 1.

Our last two attempts at 2 on 1 stopped early and with some frustration by the players. The Chardonnay swilling, bleeding heart liberal in me suggests that the format is not conducive to a relaxing, fun escape from dignity that it should be. So I propose a new format that will last a little longer and a novel scoring system. Very much the way John Michael Young thought when he devised PRESTAGS.

• Three AI+, not allied.
• Three humans not allied.
• King's peace until the last AI city falls, then on for young and old.
• Human may ally after the end of the King's peace (= no sharing tech before).
• When one human surrenders, they get 0 points, highest VP gets 3 points, other player gets 1 pt.
• Bonus point for the biggest kill, power, raw and oil rank - from the charts.
• What about strongest land unit, naval unit?
• Scores tallied over many games for bragging rights.

So I expect the game to play out this way

1. We all struggle with our AI for a few turns while we work ourselves out.
2. We crunch the AIs and get some valuable tech.
3. As the AIs falter, we start to reinforce our borders.
4. The last cities falls and we stare at each other for one turn and then it is on.
5. Lots of slugging as we get through Kursk like fortifications
6. Someone breaks through, or hopefully more than one
7. Someone throws in the towel
8. We tally points and start another

For example, this would get Mi'Lord a point

This would get El Magnifico a point

This would get Python a point

For the record, this game started with:

• XX Large
• 3 Humans + 3 AI+
• Stone Age
• Normal tech costs
• Full Country start
• Roads

Let me know how you find it!

Gamers View of the Battle of Marathon

I have long loved the simplicity of PRESTAGS: learn one - play them all - but have hated the way quality equates to stacking levels. it is so hard for a side to win when stacking levels are against them.

Marathon is an exception - while the Greeks have superior stacking, they cannot use it without being outflanked. History tells us they spread their centre and left their flank solid for fear of the Persian cavalry. However, the unexpected nature of their attack meant that the cavalry could not mount or deploy, so games tend not to show them.

The Field of Glory battle has a huge screen by comparison (and the problem of exciting computer games - sometimes you forget to move some pieces)

You can hover over the units to see what they all do

You can see how the the game is based on miniatures

Contact takes a few turns while the Persians decimate the ranks. (The Yellow 9 over the Greek line shows the damage.)

At contact, things look equal, with only a few units disrupted.

John Michael Young knows these hoplites will get quickly shot to pieces in  this game, so has a special rule that the archers cannot fire in the first turn. The results are telling - the Persians are 8 down on the panic level of 31 after the Greek charge.

After a few turns, the Greek centre routed off the field

However the wings are telling a the Persians crumble.

The flanks turn on the Persian centre and the Greeks just snatch victory by 60-49

 

The end

• 
• 
• 
• 

The PRESTAGS game was much shorter. The centre just held, but the right wing destroyed the Persians in front of them and turned on the flank. The left wing of the Greeks was mauled as the map allowed the Persians to play some archers and follow up with a Barbarian Infantry charge. Small comfort and the battle was lost.

In the final analysis, both are games and want to give either side a chance. The computer game is beautiful to look at and has lots of special units for you to study. It was a near victory for Greece in the end. If the Persians had a human player, they perhaps would win. I don't see how the Persians could beat a mildly competent Greek played in PRESTAGS, but perhaps a thin veneer of militia at the front and the archers behind could do it.

Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea - Summary

I restarted the scenario with my new learnings of what to do and what to avoid. This time I got quite close to a historical result - the Persians were largely driven off and the Western Empire is in shambles. This was not the result of any game balance - just the luck of the cards. The Visigoths got good cards and gave the Romans a civil war, rise of piracy and several civil disturbances. While they held Rome, they are now fatally weakened and will collapse next turn.

Having a number of settlements (not cities) away from the front make a big difference to your military strength, but these too are vulnerable to certain event cards. Keeping your treasure and cards intact for the combat period is also very important. The event cards are very significant - to the point where I feel I am a captain trying to sail a ship through a tricky gale of cards, rather than an emperor having a plan that has a few event speed bumps to negotiate.

The solitaire system makes for a very challenging game. However with only stylised cultural traits, it lacks the detail to give you the feel of being a late Roman Emperor. Good gaming for mates, but just a game rather than a simulation.

As an FMW game, I think it will be great. It does have the ability for us to play as allies against the AI, but I think it would get nasty quickly as we accidentally fire some event cards at each other. As the VP scale shows who is winning at each point, I think we would quickly slip into balance of power play.

Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea

My first thoughts were: "Hmmm, a bit light on". Where is the geographic features, where are the trade goods, where is Gaul, Brittania, The Black Sea or Persia, where are the phalanxes, legions or triremes? You are presented with a map of the Mediterranean, lots of little discs (50 each) and some intriguing playing cards.

The game is played in Epochs: Bronze Age, Iron Age, Age of Empires and Fall of Empires, and each Epoch lasts 2-4 turns. Definitely finishable on a Boyz Weekend. There are ten possible starting cultures, each with their own benefits. These benefits means that each player will play their own style of game.

The game is played for victory points which are awarded for a combination of culture, wealth, victory and luck of the card draw. At first glace, it appears to be a reboot of Civilization: there are wonders, cards, and cities are build by stacking armies, and who ever goes first gets clobbered. Also NO DICE!

However, the cards are used in a Yugioh (Dueling Monsters) style where they influence each other and provide a interesting variety of effects. However, they can also be used to aid in combat, so you can surprise by saving them for the big battle.

I have set up a solitaire scenario - divided Rome facing Visigoths and Persians. The invaders are controlled by the AI - a sheet of 50 odd priorities, miost of which do not apply, so it is pretty easy to use. And surprisingly hard to predict. The Visigoths didn't go to Rome first - they when to Iberia to get that gold, bypassing my Limitaini!

In the East, things got hairy with a huge barbarian invasion of a cusp in my empire making the Persians hard to get at.

While I cleaned up most of the Visigoth invasion, I forgot about the sea. Next turn, they were in Rome and with a lucky card draw, the eternal city fell.

And was looted

Now we need a PWWWW

GAS Time?

There was no turn this morning, so I was poking around a few sites on the web. I found this beauty:

This Peloponnesian was my introduction to the study of Ancient History. Up to that point, I would read bits, like the short paragraphs crafted by John Michael Young above each PRESTAGS battle or the articles in S&T. It start for me with this.

These photos were taken by a gamer who blogged about it - a best of all - they can read!

Better still they can read French.

This is a typical GMT game with beautiful maps and counters, like we are used to at FMWs.

It seems to have everyone you expect - from Pericles

to Spartans!

Of course, this is just a game, what about Gear. I noticed this in one of the photos - a dice throwing machine!

A perfect game for an FMW, you ask. No. I find this part mind blowing:

However, I cannot buy this for myself - because that would be selfish. Usually Deano of Pip would buy games like this for me. I need a new dog!

The reader will note that this post does not have large slabs of plagiarised text: it is 100% Pure Python.

Which Is My Favourite G-Shock?

This is a very hard question.

The starting place will have to be which is my favourite G-Shock model?

It is the GA-800 model (also GA-810 model).

A strong and clear three-hand analog watch face, with combination digital. The distinctive G-Shock design but with a smaller and cleaner look. Easy to read. Lots of built in functions, especially dual time which is an essential. 5 alarms. Super illuminator double LED light, and hand shift function. Tough as. Light in weight.

The G-Shock website describes this model as "the ultimate in timekeeping convenience" and it is.

Here are the specs:

Yes, this is currently my favourite model.

But which particular watch? I have eight of the GA-800 / GA-810.

These are all wonderful watches, and the each have particular associations and memories, including:

So which one is my favourite.

They are all awesome, but by a narrow margin it is the Black - Gold. Officially this is the G-Shock GA-810B-1A9 gold accent. It really is all class.

Here is an official Casio G-Shock shot, and a photo of mine.

Will I stop at 8 of this model. I don't know, because there are more to be had:

Python will whinge because he wants G-Shocks with backgrounds. So I have made two for him with my favourite watch.

 

G-Shocks and Hexes

Silly Python.

He wants hexes in posts about G-Shocks.

There is something he obviously doesn't realise.

<sigh>

Lots of G-Shocks come in hexagon shaped tins!

And there is a reason for this.

Look closely at the G-Shock. It is basically a round clock face in a ruggedised hexagon frame.

G-Shocks ARE hexes!!

 

What is it with watches?

Spetz' last post has me thinking. I throw out obsolete stuff with great abandon. However, I do not believe I have ever thrown out a watch. As John Michael Young would say: ' the great thing about Napoleon at Waterloo is that you can set it up in 10 minutes, an every game is different."

What John really wants us to ask, is why are watches special? Is it their beautiful mechanisms? Perhaps the cost friends and families went to to buy one for us? Or the fact that men in Australia were not allowed to wear jewellery until recently, and the watch was an exception? Or the humble service it provides us at a glance reminding us how much time we have left on a wargame before we have to race off to an appointment?

Although I never realised it. but all my watches have history:

I wore this one to work every day in the 90s.

In the noughties I became more managerial and my watch changed.

As a football coach, I need to move players off and on the field at set time to give everyone a fair run and have my best team on at the start and end of the game.

I was an early adopter of the smart watch. The Samsung Gear was great for this time, particularly for taking phone calls while playing tennis and pushing my fitness.

I had a brief foray into Apply Watches, but it was a sad experience. I broke two. I have never broken a watch before or since. I think the Apple Watch suit those who want to track their heart beat while sitting on a pile of cushions on the sofa watching porn.

However, my passion for smart watches did not abate, and I am very happy with the Samsung Gear 3; at least until the Chinese invade. To quote John Michael Young:

The Swiss, armed with pikes, halberds, and other pole-arms, had proven invincible, defeating many Austrian attempts to invade Switzerland. At Arbedo, however, the Swiss ran into the Milanese, unset the Italian Condottiere Carmagnola, with an army divided between mounted knights and bowmen.

That is not a watch...

It does not even tell time! (https://www.prestags.com/2019/06/fabulous-1980s-tech.html) This is a watch!

I sometimes wonder that if the Amish did not exist, Spetz would found them, with 1980's tech (enough to have Empire playing on a Mac Classic) and 1950's theology (only Catholics need apply). Just because the tech is old, it does not mean it is the height of good design - it was just the best we could do at the time. Just like counters and hex grid maps are pretty cool and still have a place in the mouse of one of the readers of this blog, they are not the final word on wargaming.

Just because you have the inferior Russian jets in this counter mix does not mean you ignore all possible future improvements. uyou play on and flan for the FUTURE, because the FUTURE is coming much sooner than the PAST!

Watches can show world maps, modern or old these days. Does it make them less virtuous? No, but they can and will get better. And if you want your watch to tell the time, and now just dumbly show it, you should be allowed to say "OK Google, what is the time?"

 

World at War - Operation Typhoon

I undertook a New Year's Resolution to write in this blog once a week. My resolution is clearly in tatters, but am I a quitter? If I fail, do I throw my hands in the air and curl into a ball? No!!! That is for the likes of Puti and The Chump. I grit my teeth so my tears do not impact my gasps and press on. Here is my February post!

World at War is a Strategy and Tactics offshoot that focuses solely on World War 2. Perhaps a bit boring at times, I took up the subscription last year after a stressful work project, it does contain a few gems.

Operation Typhoon is solitaire game of the final German advance on Moscow in 1941. As you advance towards Moscow, you roll a die to find our what is in each hex. The forest and clear hexes are easy with never more than two rifle divisions in a hex, but the cities and the fortresses are nasty.

The game requires you to form pockets and eat the Soviet army in bites. This was the dominant German doctrine at the time. You can see a pocket forming above. Stalin required all soviet units to break out of pockets. So when this pocket formed, the German 2nd Army faced a break out of 8 rifle divisions, 3 brigades and a Katusha rocket launcher. My units took some damage but held on. Closer to Moscow this is going to get nasty!

The counters are quite simple. All German units have the same movement according to their type. Soviet units just appear when the game system opts to hold a hex. Here are the best units on the map.

I am a quarter way across the map on my first turn. The Fuehrer will be pleased. What could go wrong?

Combat is simple. Each point gets a die roll, so the big Panzer division roll 7 dice each combat, and cause mayhem. I have found four die but I need to find more. While the sheer number of die rolls means you do not have Brendan Mahoney moments, it does make the game very noisy.

I'll have to finish the game quickly. Given what The Chump is up to, I might need to get the Iran solitaire game out quickly!

ATG game options

Whenever one of us falls on their sword, they must suggestion specifically how the next game will differ from the last. Which options will you change? Why? Do you expect it to make it harder or easier for the AI?

You must also specify how hard you want the AI to play and which powers we all should be:

We are allowed to try a mix of AI levels, so we have some truely comical experiences as well as some truely nasty ones!

Imperium Romanum III - An Updated Version. Is this Strategic PRESTAGS?

I remember Imperium Romanum from the old wargaming days (later period, 1985) and I have a copy which is currently out at storage. Actually it was called Imperium Romanum II (so was there a I?).

I have just noticed that Decision Games have released an updated version (this would be Imperium Romanum III, which is what it is being referred to on boardgamegeek).

It was originally West End Games, but that company (or its rights) were sold and have been through a few owners. I can't find any reference to Decision Games, but they must have the rights now if they are publishing an updated version of it.

The game is designed by Dr Albert A Nofi, one of the old SPI designers.

Here is the box cover for the version I have:

And a nice picture of my old version, map and counters, I found online:

The new updated version is US $140 plus shipping.

Here is the link to the relevant page at the Decision Games shop.

Here is the box for the new version (I actually prefer the old box, but maybe it's all the nice PRESTAGS era memories):

Some info about the game:

The map - gorgeous:

The map viewed in its three sections. Also note the small map sections on the top. These are Insert Boxes for narrow sea straights hexes.

The narrow sea straights sections are described in the rules thus:

The counters:

I am tempted.

VERY tempted.

But where and when will it be possible to set up the three maps?

On a Boys Weekend of course.

I have uploaded the Rules so Python can have a look and assess the suitability as a Boys Weekend game. I don't think it is overly complex, and there are many three player scenarios. Looking through the scenario book I can see the some scenarios only use part of the map, so it won't always be necessary to set up all three maps.

Download ImperiumRom-Rules_V3F

Here are the scenarios in a big book of scenarios which I have also uploaded. This really reminds me of PRESTAGS and all of the different scenarios. This might be Strategic PRESTAGS!

Download ImperiumRom3-Scenarios_V4F

Check out the scenarios:

And in case the rules and scenarios pdfs take too long to download through typepad here is a link to boardgamegeek where they can be downloaded.

The Game Sequence:

VERY  VERY tempted.

Ok, I'll get it.

The time is tomorrow!

The Mueller investigation gets too close. To deflect, The Chump declares that Iran has a nuclear bomb and must be stopped. Saudi Arabia will not miss an opportunity like this and calls for a coalition. NATO is called upon and under pressure from Saudi Arabia also joins the coalition. Russia claims there is no evidence of nuclear weapons in Iran, and Puti visits to declare support and to appear bare-chested on a camel! In an extraordinary coup, he offers to declare a Kurdish homeland and gets the Peshmerga on board. Then in the coup of all coups for Iran, the Shite government of Iraq declares for the Eurasian union!

The Iraqi army is not interested in this alliance and deserts en masse, leaving mostly militia in the country. Only an under-strength corps is left although volunteers are flooding in. The Syrians have no choice but to join the Eurasian union too although their army has still not recovered from the civil war.

With Syria in, and no one left neutral who might be offended, Israel declares for the coalition.

This is the latest Modern War simulation that looks at how things might go pear shaped fast in the middle east. The game postulate is that NATO and a coalition of Sunni states will take on Iran backed by an adventurist, ascendant Russia. It simulates corps sized forces with air support struggling with patchwork alliances across the middle east. You can see on the right the US Marine Corps ready to do Basrah again.

The coalition airforce is at the ready with cruise missiles to kick off with a Shock and Awe campaign to take total control of the skies. The combat tables slightly back their success, although the Russian anti-air capabilities will leave the airforce quite worn down after this. I'll left you know how it plays out shortly.

What is interesting in this game is that number of special forces (also right) both sides have, although the Russians seem to have more.

The western side of the map is most interesting. The Russians will be very tempted to take Turkey out fast. This will give them a rail corridor to Syria, that will be under pressure from Israel quickly. The Kurds at a bit of spice to this. They will never leave Kurdistan, but can attack out. Mostly they can damage Iraq and Armenia, but as they have aligned with the Russians in this scenario (a die roll before the game begins), they will mostly be a no go zone.

Spetz will be pleased to see that the game includes Russia's new fifth generation fighters, and they have the same strength as the US planes. Unfortunately, as NATO has far more planes, I suspect they will not last very long. They might do some damage first.

The wild card is the Islamist rebels, that can fight for both sides. You can see the remains of the Syrian rebels north of Dar az Zawi above. There are many such counters that can spawn in all sorts of inconvenient places.

The beauty of these classic war game board games is the level of realism built into the game systems. They let you reflect on the way the world is in a way ATG and Empire never do.

What were they thinking?

2017 was a very good year for me at the office. I had successfully brought my Manila posting to the originally requested outcome and received my best bonus ever for my development work. I had also written a product that falls into the top five best products I have ever written - largely unsung at the time, it has become a major selling feature late last year. In recognition of my hard work, I knew a deserved a lovely piece of crockery in the kitchen. Unfortunately, the kitchen is brimming with lovely pieces of crockery such that they have overflowed into the dining room cupboards, which are also now full. This left me on the horns of a dilemma, so I had to go with my third option (the second being membership to the art gallery, but when would I find the time!), a subscription to everything coming out of Strategy and Tactics press, at an eye watering US$1000 for two years.

Reviewing it now, I think it was a good decision - I had many evenings of pleasant reading and some great maps and counters to review. From top to bottom:

• the venerable Strategy and Tactics, now up to issue #314,
• Modern War, that provides interesting insights into the current tensions of the world, mostly from a military perspective, which you rarely find the in the news
• World at War, which tries to be S&T but for only World War 2, so perhaps the least interesting of the set, but perhaps the most believable of the games
• Strategy and Tactics Quarterly, the new kid on the block, with a lot of articles on just one topic, no games, but a poster.

A feast of new games, and the anticipation of finding room in the attic for 18 more in 2019. I have failed in one respect, I have not punched the counters of any of them last year. I resolve to so this year. Let the readers of this auspicious blog pausing their eating and spider hunting to hold me so accountable.

The observant would ask why there is a gap? The answer is simple: if a US Civil War game arrives in your mail box, there is a board room I know of where it can be swapped for a Scotch, for some people simply cannot have enough US Civil War games!

And the winner is

I think the best read of them was the Quarterly of Caesar, and how a Roman of modest means, but the highest ambition, can break into the Cursus Honorum. (The article on that was fascinating - young aristocrats were expected to move from government post to post building up an understanding of how the Roman state worked until they reached the role of consul. It gave the state a large pool of experienced leaders to fall back on in times of emergency, and something to consume the energies of the young. The article went to far as to suggest that Rome's resilience during the second Carthaginian War was due to this.) The poster showed Caesar's marches during the Gallic Wars and the Civil war, and is on my wall.

The magazine about Stalingrad was a close second. I do not read a lot of WW2 history, but had heard of this one (and watched the excellent "Enemy at the Gates" with Spetz). Stalingrad was never the objective of the the drive into the Caucasus. The original plan was to get close enough so Germany artillery could interdict the railway and interfere with Stalin's transfer of troops and oil. One of the reasons given for the diversion was that Hitler had become a drug addict. There was a doctor for the German elite who used to mix his own remedies for the wealthy who felt they had lost their vim. These remedies contained stimulants and narcotics. Hitler had appointed him as a personal physician at the time, and soon developed an obsession that a capture of Stalingrad would equate to a defeat of  Stalin.

It was matched with a World at War article where you can attempt to replay the the campaign. You have all that lovely oil to the south and boring Stalingrad to the north. However, the action chits you have to pull each turn keeps pulling you south. I like the action chit idea as it adds a lot of colour to otherwise boring Panzer corps and Guard armies.

An honourable mention goes the World War 3 Quarterly for all the bits that happened when I was little that nearly resulted in me not growing big. I am still reading that one.

Puti-phobia

Puti features in two of the Modern War series. There is much interest in his possible future actions, but the general consensus is that he is more interested with disrupting the US Hegemony to create a series of Russian based alliances, than territorial acquisitions. There is more fear about these alliances backfiring and drawing Russia into a war they did not intend and the US into it. This game, Puti Moves South, looks at the Stans south of Russia and north of Persia and Afghanistan. There is oil and gas there that mostly travels through Russia so disruption to that supply could draw in the Russian army. Interestingly with this game, at the start of each game you roll a die for each power to decide whether it is in the Russian Coalition or US/NATO aligned. Every game would be very different. The latest Modern War, The War on Terror, does the same in the Middle East. It means that every play of the game would be quite different. I think this is one of the games I should set up.

Rise of the Solitaire games

Six of these games are solitaire. I should set up a few this year. I have played a couple in the past, but the issue is that there is no marvellously clever play you can make to give you the game. You are grinding through taking objectives that weaken the strength of the enemy play system, while having some flexibility for random events. That said, I should try them as some game systems are brilliant. Perhaps there is a new John Michael Young other there.

The most intriguing of the game is submarine warfare in the Pacific. Unlikely the Atlantic, submarines featured in navel battles. This game lets you play as the Japanese or the US.

Perhaps this article is better named "What was I thinking?" I stand deprived of a new piece of crockery in my kitchen by pure obsession!

 

Tristan The Turnip

This is my friend Tristan the Turnip.

On the basis that we are all healthy enough to attend the Boys Weekend, I hope to bring Tristan.

Very special things will be done with Tristan if Thygo does not say "no" at least five times every hour.

Did Paul cancel his S&T subscription too early?

The other possibility is that she-who-must-be-obeyed advised him that he did not need any more American Civil War games. It is possible that a man can have enough American Civil War games? What if a man is no longer a man? Is this the game that finally reveals the unstoppable spirit of the south?

The force pools look pretty equal. The map looks pretty comprehensive. It also works with a bottle of single malt scotch!

It could be that the scope of play is more than Paul can imagine:

Perhaps Paul does not believe there is anything more to say on the American Civil War after S&T #43, or that Joseph Miranda cannot design a wargame.

Of course the true answer is that Paul does not like games where the Union wins by losing some battles at the start!

If work actually does suck, perhaps Paul needs a reward; a light. But more likely, he now prefers the punishment of work against the ambiguity of an unowned wargame!

Hard decisions

Paul insisted that I buy "To end all wars", so I have does so. I have joined a game at the club and find myself as the western entente. For first choice - how to defeat Germany in 6 weeks.

Striking due east is the obvious choice. Perhaps too obvious.

Sitting back in my fortresses and letting the dreaded Hun march over is not on. Most un-French and also likely to antagonise the Russians.

Marching through the Ardennes sounds much more like it. Very close to Napoleon's indirect march on Austria that forced the capitulation of Ulm in 1805.

WTF? Drive north through Belgium with 3 measly armies hoping to brush aside a hostile Belgian army and crash through 6 German armies near Koblenz. Sounds insane and pointless. Why not invade Spain too while I am at it.

I chose a march through the Ardennes!

Anticipation of endorphins - Steam status

Rome Total War-Barbarian Invasion

Here is a fun game that I have played on and off for years (it must be over 10 years old). Basically, you start as Rome in the fifth century, with awesome armies, a big empire...

and then the horde arrives

These are Vandals, but there are also Franks, Lombards, Celts, Huns, Goths, Parthians etc. There armies are huge, their generals are nearly unstoppable, and they move in such masses that victory in battle is rare.

The battles are PRESTAGS on steroids: spearman, swordsmen, archers, cavalry, leaders, each with their strengths and weaknesses that you can manoeuvre with God-like precision to take a flank, stiffen a front, or run away to right another day.

However, being the fifth, you have another problem. Christianity is taking root in the empire. So you have to choose to follow Constantine or Julian the Apostate. This means that there is massive unrest in the empire, cities frequently revolting if they do not like your religion. If you build a church in the city, the pagans revolt, if you move a heroic pagan general into a Christian city (to rebuild his battered armies), the Christians revolt. The only solution I have found to this is lots and lots and lots and lots of crucifixions of rebels.

Paul would be impressed to know that you can take Catholic Priests into battle:

While they are useless at battle, when they chant next to your soliders they fight better and the enemies are disheartened. They also speed conversions.

Finally, you are broke at the start. So broke that you cannot afford to pay your army (which means you get more revolts). I find that you have disband all your best troops early on, accept that you will lose a lot of cities quickly, and rebuild your economic infrastructure: road, ports, markets. Cities are fun to improve, but a bit repetitive, something that has been changed in later Total War games:

Your mission, should you play long enough (this is the first time I have completed this game - it takes  loooong time), it to reunite the key provinces of the Roman empire:

When you do, you get a short movie (5 seconds - a bit underwhelming) and the offer of one more turn!

Being so old, this game should run on anything and is still sold for about $10. So if you have nothing to do with the next three months of your life....

Wars of Napoleon: Great experiences but average game

The PBEM club I joined (to learn Alea Jacta Est so I could train the readers of this blog as agreed at the last Boys Weekend) are about to give up on Wars of Napoleon (covered in earlier blogs, and featured in my right column image that never changes). While the chrome is beautiful...

..and the historical detail of units entrancing ...

...and the historical events put you in the spirit of the times...

..the victory point and peace system is horribly broken. In the game where I was France and lost Paris, the English lost 8000 vps because a sign was wrong. In the current game where I am smashing France as Blucher, I cannot go the peace without a risk of a massive penalty:

With my new strategy of controlling the territory around my armies with cavalry brigades, I would like to have another go as France, but while the battles are fantastic, there is no satisfying way to win the game.

The rest of the club is very happy with Advanced Tactics Gold (also covered in other blogs), the Napoloeonic team are out looking for something better. The Wars of Succession looks interesting,  but we are annoyed that it brazen claims to be the same game as Wars of Napoleon without the defects. Why not fix the original!

So while I am grateful for nine months of intriguing gaming, I am annoyed that I cannot get a sense of completion from any of the campaigns.

There is my 50 year old rant. I want lots of turns that challenge. What do the rest of you want?

Coolness of Advanced Tactics Gold

Ever wonder when the next turn is coming? If you buy Advanced Tactics Gold through Steam, and "friend" your other players, you get a popup when they start playing so you can get into position for the turn. You can even put Steam on your phone so you can keep tabs when away from the laptop so you know to be ready in 20 minutes!

The game itself takes some practice to get control of and a very long time to master. The AI is a brutal teacher, as Thygo is finding out!

Early in the game you have to explore and take neutrals. Sounds familiar?

Then you have to take on the AI. So far, just the same.

Then you get pasted! Yep, the AI is that good. The AI can really hurt you, even when fighting a two front war.

... even after it has lost its capital to your ally!

So who is ready to play a modern adaptation of Empire?

 

First thoughts on Civilization VI

I have had a three games of Civilization VI - twice on warlord level to learn the system and once at prince level to get more challenge. In summary, it is a much easier game to win at but very entertaining all the way to the end.

Easier to win at because I won each game. However, each victory was a cultural victory. At the easier levels, you get more wonders and all the culture from them pushes you over the line. In the chart below you can see I am leading on all metrics except religion - I failed to prioritise founding a religion early enough - but cuulture is half way full while the rest are fingernails (see how much the Sumerian circle is filled in from the bottom on each case.

While a victory is a victory, you do not get a high score for a cultural victory.

Taking cities remains super tricky in this invocation of Civilization. However, as none of the AI opponents bother to upgrade their armies, it becomes straight-forwards from the Napoleonic era onwards.

What makes the game quite captivating is how many things you can do. Unlike previous Civ game, not every city builds the same enhancements. You tweak you city towards what you want to achieve: Arts and Culture in the centre near you capital, and Industry and Military towards the border, where you need them. Notice below my capital is far from the border so has a Colosseum, a Forbidden palace, and Entertainment district and the Theatre district, but the obligatory Ziggurat (cos I'm Sumerian).

There are now two research charts - civics and science, but they cross over a lot. What is super cool is that to get a step up on a research project, you get a practical exercise. if you can do that, you cut the research time in half. Force example, if you win a battle with a slinger, you get a leg up on archer. If you build three musket armies, you get a leg up on rifling. You can't possibly get all the leg ups, but you find yourself desperately looking for iron to mine, or a space port to build at certain times of the game. These sub-projects are fun, and often get you into trouble, which make things interesting.

Tip for new players: If you enter a village, you can get a bonus leg up. The Sumerians treat every barbarian encampment as a village, and there are no shortage of those, so Sumerians are a good power for your first game. You build a mobile army early and wander around the map hunting barbarians to get leg ups!

Also note down the bottom you can see where you are relative to everyone else. The English (Victoria) are trailing badly, but me taking their capital did not help!

There are also other project you can get into. You can collect books, art, relics and curios for your libraries and museums. I did not do much this last game as I did not want to win a cultural victory too quickly.

I was annoyed at not having a religion, so took the capital of someone who did and proselytised for them, but the game did not pay that. I think it should. After all, who owns Jerusalem!

The end comes suddenly (for a cultural victory). You are just about to make you next attack when a movie starts. (One of many nice animated sequences in the game. I paricularly love the "construction of a wonder" sequence.)

The chart shows that I pretty much lead from the Medieval period. Time to try a higher level of difficulty. I don't need to sleep!

Hearts of Iron 4 - First play through

With the absence of EDEE turns for a week, I have had a chance to give Hearts of Iron 4 (hereafter HOI) mu first run through. It is not my first attempt, but the first time I have not had a "you cannot be serious" moment  where the game system did the unexpected (like if an ally declares war on another major power and you are not ready and let them have at it and you have some units in that power, they are all wiped out if overrun. This is particularly annoying if it your prized airforce!) It is probably my eighth attempt, so I have got good value from by $50 purchase.

I always play my first HOI scenarios are Germany as I am used to the timetable: build industry, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Low Countries, France, Yugoslavia, Greece then USSR. However, while this variant of HOI appears to let you follow it, it keeps changing things around a bit, which is quite entertaining. This time around I was just about ready to invade Poland, when USSR started before me. "Interesting!", I thought, "If I wait for a bit, Britain and France will declare war and defend Poland." Which they did!

See the little explosion on the eastern border of Poland. Those are Soviet attacks. Note all my boys on the border.

It got better, as Britain and France move nearly 100 divisions into Poland (through the Baltic Sea). Nothing makes me happier than seeing enemies fight each other!

Then my ally, Mussolini, got big for himself and declared war against Yugoslavia. I did not want this, but when the allies declared war on Italy, I decided to take the change and just leave them in Poland (I lost half my fleet patrolling the Baltic Sea, but with airpower I prevailed. I removed my good units from the Polish border and made some new armies to march south and clean up Yugoslavia. I then noticed that there were only a couple of divisions left on the Maginot line, so managed to overrun them without having to violate Belgian neutrality and soon I had France with Italy's help.

Note how the Allies are still fighting in Poland, poor fools.

I then settled down to build but a USSR killing force and flooded the sea with submarines.

Annoyingly, Britain talked Netherlands into attacking me, which gave me a scary week while the panzers got on a train and returned from the east. Submarine warfare is better in other HOI games; this one gives you no feedback on how much damage you are causing; throughout the game I never saw the impact of my wolf packs. They sunk quite a few convoys, but never all of them, and no clue as to whether I had enough subs of should have more.

Eventually I was ready to take on USSR. They had ignored our Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and not given me any of Poland, so I had no compunction in declaring war. HOI4 as a really fun battle plan system. While you can move units, you can also delineate fronts and plan thrust points that give you a rather cool looking WW2 style map.

See the two arrows coming out of eastern Hungary. That's Rommel. (I do not waste him in Africa!) I told him to go wide and try to pocket the whole USSR western front while the rest of my forces held them in place. Up close, you get nice 3D is sprites that do the fighting. They are cute, but I hate how hard it is to find a plane to know if your airforce is winning or losing.

At this level you can get tricky. See I have two main thrusts with 20 ish divisions each and one with just one division to confuse. Then you press play and watch! (Everyone now and then you get like Hitler did and tell one particular division to do somewhere interesting, otherwise you enjoy the show.) When things do not work, you adjust the thrusts or move key units between armies, but this worked like a dream. I bagged over 200 division in Poland, and had overrun USSR all the way to the Urals by snowfall. Stalin surrendered.

This left England, and the game became a bit wonky then. To invade Britain, I needed air superiority, so I told all my factories to make fighters, and challenge Churchill for the control of the channel.

See all the little battle reports. If you zoom the picture, you will see the planes dogfighting - pretty, but annoying after awhile.

Anyway, I failed. While I was building tanks to conquer USSR, Churchill had been building Spitfires. Lots a lots of Spitfires - about 5000 to my paltry 1200 Foch Wolfes. Fine, I thought, I research my Me262 Komet and jet them out of the sky. I sent half my army off to help Japan clean up India, China and south-east Asia and put my white coats up in the finest rooms in the Reichstag.

A year and a half later, the Axis owned the world expect the Americas, Australia and little Britain, I now had 2000 Me 262s. I tried again, and again failed. I do not know what the Bris had that would take out my jet airforce, Daleks?

I then tried Wunderwaffen. First V2s, but something shot them down. A Patriot System 50 years ahead of time? Then Paul's favourite tactic, an atomic bomb.

The news paper was preceded by a cool animation, but really the cool is getting all the steps right to make one and launch it. And then 5 more bombs in case Churchill thought I only had one. Not only it Britain not surrender, but they continued to shoot down my next generation of Jets.

So it is 1947, I have had a lot of fun, it is clearly an Axis victory, but I still do not have boots on the ground in Britain. I was about to build a carrier force so that I could control the sea and land anywhere in the British Isles, but even that might not work. Instead, I have stopped, written this blog and I think I will now play as Neville Chamberlain so I can see what a bit of stiff upper lip is like.

What did you guys get up to this boring week?

Nasty start

Kansas and I were defeated by the AI in ATG last night. He managed to increase his production out of our reach and we had to fold. In our next game (you get through ATG games quite quickly), I am China (blue, centre) and he is Russia (purple, north, and we are trying to deal with the Arabs (aqua, east) and the Japanese (brown, west). The Japanese attacked me right away, but fortunately the Arabs are quiet. I have the benefit of militia, so I am not fighting, just flooding the front with Militia and infiltrating everywhere (aka Chinese offensive in the Korean War). However, when the Arabs get involved, I will be in serious trouble!

Kansas in trouble again

I think Paul used to have a rule: "Never play Python when he has cavalry." He needs to explain that rule to Kansas. This attack has gone three times better than I expected. My plan was just to shell the city so that it stopped producing. I have now cut the supply lines to the city and if he does not have some off map reinforcements, it is going to fall.

What is clever about ATG is that capturing an enemy city does not make me much stronger as the enemy populace refuses to make weapons of war. Thus you do not steam roller in this game. I have done well because while the Chinese strength is militia, the Confederate strength is in rangers - elite infantry. I can turn any flank I want, but I can't hold against a human wave attack. However, if the human wave has no ammunition, I am in with a strong chance. And if they lose this much of their army, its good night Kansas.

In the south I tried an experiment of putting a smaller number of rangers into armoured cars. This lets me concentrate on a small part of the line and then pour reinforcements through. That has gone very well and Kansas will lose badly here if he chooses to defend the centre.

Who wants to give it a go?

Python Magnus Omnia Vincit

Kansas has capitulated in Advanced Tactics Gold (Empire on Steroids).

You guys should give this a go. It is fun, easy to play, loads of options that gives lots of opportunity for asymmetric strategies and you get through turns really fast.

There is even a YouTube for people who cannot read.

 

It costs US$30. Perfect for a friend's birthday present: http://store.steampowered.com/app/310390/

My Indulgence

Let me humour myself and greet the readers of this blog. They may recall a set of analysis articles I wrote just over a year ago on the Australian designed World in Flames. Well, I indulged myself last weekend during the anniversary of D-Day sale and purchased the digital version. They have tried to remain as true to the game as possible, and I have to admit that I am impressed.

There is no AI, and the map is a bit more dense, and you are less motivated to study the rules (vs just trying things), but you can get through a few turns every evening and it is quite compelling. There is no PBEM feature, but no matter as my friends are illiterate, and it would not work that way with constant back and fro during the turns (air intercept and escort, advance and retreat after combat etc.). There are a number of players on line looking for competitors, but I have too many gaming commitments right now, so I just relax with a glass of wine when there are no PBEM turns and do a turn or two of this ((playing both sides).

Above is the start of WW2, the invasion of Poland. You get the same beautiful counters with nice detail on what they are, but you never knock them all over or have to clean them up because company is coming over!

But you have the whole world and it fits on one desk!

Even the parts you will never play on

 

 

Bigger than Jena Auerstedt!

Python Magnus has pulled off another stunning victory!

A French army of 130,000 (twice the size of Jena Auerstedt) met a Prussian army of 105,000 (slightly smaller than Jena Auerstedt) and won a crushing victory, but are now exhausted. We took five times the losses of Jena Auerstedt but inflicted almost three times the damage, or four times what we received. I have captured 7 battalions of artillery! There will be one more Prussian corps to locate, but I think they may be down for the count.

The Battle of Bitterfeld shall go into the history books as the greatest butchery battle of the Napoleonic era; one year before Jena Auerstedt!

Who wants to join be in a fun PBEM? (There is a free spot for Austria in one of the games.)

A nasty situation!

I have taken over from Austria-Hungary in 1805 in a PBEM to find myself in a disastrous situation:

Napoleon has captured Salzburg and Vienna and Ferdinand is retreating north with his army in disarray. To pour salt on my wounds, the Ogre of Europe is blogging about his victories, and my Archduke is agreeing with him http://thegeneralshq.org/discussions/won-game-2-aar-s#reply-5220! Any the Russians are asking my advice on what they should do!

But that is not the worst of it. My fool generals have split their forces and napoleon is in between them. He can destroy each piecemeal.

The lines show my plan of how to reunite my armies in Buda, but it will take some luck and forced marching (things Boney has in Spades!)

The French Army of Italy is chasing me out. If Boney moves south, I am done for!

 

I am two timing

We may have sworn a vow. We may have meant that there would be no other. But, a man has needs, and a wargamer is no different. And why can't I have another on the side. It's not like it means anything. PRESTAGS is still my first, but without a turn I am like a didgeridoo without a breath, a muslim without a prayer rug, and orthodox church without an orthodox Pope. I didn't want it to go this way, but there it is.

I have joined a PBEM as France playing Wars of Napoleon with The General's HQ club. There, I have said it. Now shoot me. Preferably with 12 pounders on the field of Austerlitz!

But now is the winter of our discontent! With 19th century armies, you do not march around in winter or you have 19th century starving stragglers. So for the first 12 turns, I just make plans.

I have spoken with my good ally King Charles IV of Spain, and we have divided up Europe in a more ambitious subdivision than Hitler and Mussolini ever dreamt of. (My dream is to have a Charles on the throne on England before long!) However, as long as he gets rid of Gibraltar, he will be my hero.

The game is being hosted by the Austrian player. I am being as nice to him as possible to start with since he will have to put up with my armies marching around his country and dissolving his Holy Roman Empire before long. I suspect he lives in Austria based on his timezone. I haven't got to know the rest of the players, but we are all polite and swearing we know nothing about the game but will do our best.

In the mean time I am sitting in Boulogne with a horde of flat bottomed boats waiting to get across the channel.

While I wait for spring, I build the forces I need for the coming summer of love. All of Europe is at peace with me apart from England, so I need to buy a fleet.

Or perhaps I need the Old Guard. They don't lose a battle until Leipzig in 1813 - 8 years from now.

Whatever I choose, these 5 minutes turns are not at all painful, so I have offered to be a stand in for another player in another game. No, I suppose I have a 45 minute EDEE turn to attend to. I could be half way across the map in that much time, not stuck in a stalemate!

Alea Jacta Est - First Experiences

The game is easy to play, but is tough to win at!

I had a go at the Sulla vs Marius vs Mithridates, most because Sulla has all the letters of Saul, a forerunner to Paul, and Marius sounds a bit like Python, if you say it quick. (Well, not really, but the regular reader will see the connection.) I also liked the historical period as the Roman army was transforming into a permanent, professional force and the power of the generals finally overwhelmed the power of the Senate.

Well, the game appears quite even from the broad strategic map. Marius owns Africa, bits of Spain and bits of Italy, Sulla owns bits if Italy and Greece, and Mithridates owns Asia Minor and bits of Greece. However, Sulla has a large veteran army. Once he gets rid of Mithridates, Marius had better watch out! In the meantime, Marius has four under-strength legions in Italy and a bit of time.

It did not start well for me on my first turn. I decided to clear some pirates from Sicily (as simple as dragging my fleet in Africa on top of them). This taught me the importance of planning - I discovered most of my fleet was transports. Doh! (Oh, in the graphics below, Marius leads the Populares - the assembly of the people should rule - and Sulla the Optimates - the best qualified should rule, where only rich landowners need apply.)

So, next turn I looked before I leaped, and sent Cinna into Rome with a large force of Italian Auxiliaries. Hurrah, I thought, the Eternal City is now mine!

Alas, not so. The following turn I moved off only to notice the Optimates flag was still flying. I only won a skirmish outside the walls. I had to fight my way into the city. Then I discover that the Italian allies are not so good at siege; Legions are the best. So I raised a legion in Pisae (as simple as clicking on the Eagle on the bottom left temple icon and dragging the legion 0n to my city). All good, except the legion needs to be trained, so really has to be left untouched for five turns. (You can move it after one, but it won't be very effective.) By the time it was ready, Cinna's army had run out of supplies (the green bars above your impedimenta units all turn red), and had to return to Capua. (I did take Rome the following year by co-ordinating the legion and the allies.)

So I had learned that siege was important. As a result, I sent Marius and his lieutenants off on a siege tour of Italy - one legion a piece. However, it is not a good idea to leave your legion out in the open without an impedimenta in winter time. Not only did I take some nasty attrition but....

Historically correct! Marius and Sulla never fought a battle because Marius died before Sulla returned to Italy. My foolishness just brought it forward. Anyway, Cinna accepted the acclamation of the legions, so I could play on.

Annoyingly, I completely underestimated what the Lusitanians (Spanish) were capable of. I had planned to just respond to deep incursions only, but then they destroyed my legion there and began to overrun the country.

With most of Italy conquered, I had the horrid surprise to see Sulla arrive having marched through Illyricum. I knew I was in trouble. I raised two new legions and collected the rest of my forces around Cinna - seven legions plus auxiliaries against four of Sulla's. No joy. Sulla was just too good. I wore his forces down somewhat, but then he reinforced (over the sea I think) and I found myself besieged in Roma. At this point the game crashed. (Annoying, but unlikely to impact a PBEM, and when I restarted, it was is the same position before the crash.)

Annoyingly, Sulla had left the back door in Greece wide open, so Mithridates was probably going to win the war.

Conclusions: Turns are quick and mobile. There are lots of opportunities to surprise your opponent. You do have to check before you attack that you will succeed- the army size is not a perfect predictor. There are lots of turns - 12 a year - so it will take a while to finish a game. Easy to make a move. Lots of interesting options to finesse the game. (I ignored economic growth this time was everything was too urgent.

Anyway, I surrender and will try again employing the lessons learned. Over to you, Paul and Thygs: throw the die if you dare!

Roman: Fair enough. All is lost. I surrender. The die is cast.
Asterix: Let this be a lesson for you. Now, return our bard and don't try anything like this again.

Driving in the outback

Can a General go in a straight line for two turns, only changing direction for coast lines and see no sign of civilisation?

Apparently yes.

First Experience of a "A World Divided"

Well as promised, I have had a look at "A World Divided", Thygo's choice for a PBEM. I think it would be a go-er.

Above you can see my second attempt at playing as Nazi Germany. (My second after reading the production rules, cos I totally stuffed those the first time around.) I have just formed Vichy France and have just found an unescorted convoy to attack. There has been a pro-Allied coup in Yugoslavia which troubles me greatly, but as it was announced with a cool video off the happy general who has deposed Prince Paul, I forgave it completely.

Combat is relatively straightforward - you move lots of your boys into their boys club house and roll a die. Well, although there actually are dice thrown in the game, you do not get to throw them, but you get told the bad news afterwards. (Note below that commander Brendan Mahoney was in charge of the air defence of the German infantry and could not do better than a two!)

The rules are complex on how combat is calculated, but it is inspired by scissor-paper-stone. Infantry is good against artillery which is good against armour which is good against infantry, and ditto for ships and planes. Getting certain combinations gives your bonuses, and I can see that this is where we will do a lot of learning as we play.

Your spies do help by giving your an overall view of what is happening to your entire armed services and your opponents:

You can see that with the Fall of France, although I took more losses in the battle above, I managed to destroy (second column) 25 infantry, 13 milita, 4 artillery, 3 flak, a fighter and two tactical bombers, although some of those were from Poland. The first column is interesting - these are damaged units. Effectively they lose a step, and then they run home and get repaired in the next production turn. So I can now see that for the first time in the game, the Wehrmacht is bigger than the allied forces:

(Well, except for the navy of course - the last row of air units represent carrier based aircraft.)

The second column in this display shows production, which is done as the standard spiral. Annoyingly, you do not just pay once to put a unit on the spiral and then happily wait for Christmas morning. You have to pay for it every turn it is on the spiral. This means that this turn, I will have to pause one of the goodies to pay for my various repairs.

You can see in window 1941 there is a paused armour and a heavy bomber. I think I have to pause the Bismark too, to get rid of the minus 1 next to the factory. The negative number next to the people symbol is not a problem (I think) as I have a big pool of young men willing to serve the fatherland. The little military icons at the bottom of each square shows when I would get something if I started building it now.

I can look at the value of each of my provinces from the province screen. Note that I have a bit of a partisan problem (right column) in Poland and the Low Countries, but as their race is inferior, it is not surprising that they do not know what is good for them.

The big trouble with this game is the huge number of options you have. If Paul were playing, it would be easier, I would just keep attacking him. As he is not, I am wonder what I need to do now to be able to deal with USSR and USA when they come knocking. So I am investing in my armed forces and in my airforce, so that I will at least be able to deal with the USSR.

As you can see, there are a lot more areas that I can research that I have the resources in research. The benefit of research is that it does not use manpower (in game terms) so once you have built your lot for the current recruiting pool, you put the rest into supplies and research. (Yes Paul, in this game you should buy supplies for your troops to fight with. However the game has a "ignore supplies" option just for you!)

Once interesting place you can spend your supplies on is intelligence and espionage.

The top row is your anti-espionage service, that keeps other spies at bay. Stalin's purge gives him a clear lead here. Next is the "SIGINT" rating, showing how much effort is going into knowing what the enemy will do, before they do it, giving you combat shifts. The remaining columns are just for espionage. Note Stalin's focus on what the Nazis are up to. These spies can steal research and can tell you what the other side is researching:

So what will I do next. Well, the great thing about the game rules (182 pages in PDF) is that 20 pages at the end is dedicated to what strategy each power might try. They suggest Germany can take Alexandria, if it really wants to, and if it does super research on torpedoes and subs, it can destroy the Western Alliance's shipping. Interesting.

This time, I am going to try my favourite WW2 Nazi strategy and take out Spain and then Gibraltar, to give me a Fascist Sea to play in. I look forward to Thygs coming on board so we can try different scenarios ourselves.

EDEE - Its all about the ecomomy

Although I do not have half the cities yet, I have flown an explorer through Paul's island looking for a TR city to nuke. (A strategy he taught me, although it is more to strike at the morale of the defenders than to reduce transports, for which the air force does a grand job.) What astonished me is all these low but useful cities producing nothing! Nilch! Nanda! Niente! Apart from Bakes Beans for the front.

Notice also the oil resource being ignored! In my empire, the oil resources are so heavily exploited that I could put every city under production. But I wait until they hit 100%, as they grow quickly below that level and slowly after.

Now Paul may claim that is a 105% city is only going to produce a plane every 11 turns, but multiply that by 30 and that is 3 planes a turn that Paul can only dream of.

The end is nigh. Might I suggest something different for a change: