1.7 questions and observations

[Maximeba]

1) Does anyone know what happens to the French if they decide against forming Vichy France? How severe is the penalty? It seems pretty easy for the Axis to get Vichy France as an ally. I know that the Vichy government was pro Axis, as they felt betrayed by the British, but didn't French troops in Africa help form the Free French Army that went to Europe? Maybe there should be two Vichys; one in mainland Europe and the other in Africa? That Vichy navy was sure a pain in the neck for the British!
2) Does anyone notice that when you use the instant or auto deploy for fleets that the game crashes, and you have to restart your computer as your computer is locked up?
3) One of the tactics I used against the Germans in Russia was buying paratroopers and dropping them behind units that had only 1 hex to retreat when they were attacked. I did see mighty panzer division disappear that first winter. Is this a good use of a highly trained unit that is going to get slaughtered on the counter attack? Ahhh... who cares about those Russian anyhow as we have plenty of troops.
4) I don't understand how interception works against strategic bombers? I was able to destroy Berlin and everything west of Berlin with bombers even though the Germans had fighters in the area.
5) Speaking of stratigic bombing, should the allies (US and Brits) be able to strategically bomb cities outside of Germany or Italy? Really should I be able to bomb Paris? I guess if I were the Vichy French in this case I would side with the Germans (it was such a beautiful city).
6) I'm still not a fan of the resource waste as written. I believe there should not be any waste until 1000 pps are reached, that way all countries have a shot at developing nuclear weapons.

These are some observations that were made in the first 150 turns of our first game. We started a second one; hopfully it will play out better for both sides.

Wes
Allies Forever

[gwgardner]

item 1) The French hold out in southern France, North Africa, and Syria, at reduced supply (since Paris is lost); however, in one game in 1.6, my French somehow were getting full supply after refusing Vichy (I never tracked down the new main supply source), but this doesn't always happen.

item 2) I think fixed in official 1.7

item 3) gamey tactic

item 4) interception is abstracted in the losses that strat bombers take; the actual fighter units can be positioned for offensive strikes against strat bombers; I don't believe fighter units intercept, otherwise.

item 5) good point, there should be some political penalty for bombing the occupied territories, at least Paris; did the Allies bomb industrial targets in the occupied countries?

item 6) you can still get above 1000 PPs; in my current solo game Germany has 1300 PPs saved up - it is taking losses occasionally due to wastage (I'm not spending because of the restricted OOB I'm using)

[Maximeba]

GW,
If I may call you that? As the Ally player I feal I'm forced into keeping the French in the war, if not they will become an Axis ally. In this current game I let Vichy France be formed just because that was history, but I will never let that happen again. In the previous game I had a devil of a time getting supplies accross the Atlantic because the Axis player received the entire French navy. They used the entire French navy, one or two at a time as raiders, which took months to eliminate the French navy. Then it was the German's turn to sacrifice their navy, which took months. As it turned out, Vichy France was the most important minor ally Germany had just because of her navy. I feel if the Axis played it out properly they would 1) sacrifice the entire French navy one or two units at a time in key sea zones. 2) I would then sacrifice French subs in same key sea zones after the French fleet were eliminated. 3 & 4) Repeat these two steps only with the German turns.

[Harbinger]

A very, very nice assessment of the capabilities of Vichy as an Axis minor. As the Western Allies, I agree that Vichy should be kept out of Axis hands at all costs.

[gwgardner]

That's a totally new one on me. I've never gotten the use of the French Navy after declaration of Vichy. Is that a variable occurence?

[Harbinger]

item 5) good point, there should be some political penalty for bombing the occupied territories, at least Paris;

I'm not sure but this may be moddable using the event engine. I think that if an event is created to make a continuous check for a condition to see if Paris is Axis controlled and then a check for the condition to see if Paris has been attacked, and then a check for the condition to see if the attacking unit is a Strategic Bomber unit, and then a check for a condition to see what nationality the air unit belongs to, it might fire off an event for a repercussion of loss of politcal strength or changing the entry level numbers for a neutral Vichy or something.

did the Allies bomb industrial targets in the occupied countries?

I think that they did, but I can't be sure. It seems that some sort of sabotage at least would have been carried out to deny the Nazis of the full use of such facilites.

[Maximeba]

GW,
Vichy France is a pro axis country and Dave used his political points to make Vichy France an ally. With that alliance came the navy. I did not see any political events fire, so I have to assume the navy comes with Vichy France. I wonder if I had scrapped the navy before the French surrender if the navy would still appear. I did do this with the air force to help keep the French in the game longer and an air unit did reappear in Vichy Africa. So I have to also assume that scrapping the navy would not help, that the navy would still fall into German hands.

[Moltke71]

Yes, the Allies bombed industrial targets in occupied countries; case in point, the Michelin factory.

[17russia]

ORIGINAL: Bismarck

Yes, the Allies bombed industrial targets in occupied countries; case in point, the Michelin factory.

The Allies bombed Poland, France, Norway and others.

[Tordenskiold]

About 4). I have done the same observations. None of my Polish or French fighters seems to intercept German attacks. Before I decided to control France myself I saw German attacks being intercepted by French fighters. It seems like fighters in human control nations does not intercept.