Who's the Toughest Long Campaign Choice?

[KG Erwin]

Alright, everyone loves the Germans, and I love the USMC, so, given the six selections, which would be the biggest challenge? The Brits would be hard, but they only face the Germans (am I wrong here? Wouldn't they be in the Pacific, too?).

I'm considering doing a Russian campaign, because, if one starts in June-July 1939, you could face either the Finnish or Japanese. The showdown with the fascist Huns starts a little later. I often wondered about these guys, and what kind of a core force I would purchase in 1939.

Any thoughts on this?

[KG Erwin]

Note: I'm getting game crashes after selecting a SOV core force for June 1939. I've never seen this peculiar game behavior before. Lemme delete and reset the steel.prf and see what happens.

Ok, reset the prf, and tried to choose long campaign, Russia June 39--this time the screen faded to black, but the music still played. I checked the Russian OOB, it is there, everything seems to be in place. This is truly bizarre.

Does my new PC now reject my playing as anyone other than the USMC? Hoo, boy. [X(] [&:]

[Huffy]

I tried to play British once...same thing....I just went back to the U.S. Army...
Huffy

[KG Erwin]

Huffy, the OOB Teams found that certain weapons slots were hard-coded, i.e., slot 93 for he generic rifle-grenades. Most nations now have formation slots designated for AI purchase only. Are some of these not meant to be tampered with from the old code? This game has many many quirks, and working with it was almost like altering the DNA of a breathing organism.

On the one hand are the quirks exhibited in Ubisoft's rushed-to-production SHII. Lots of promise, but lots of hard-to-track-down bugs. SPWaW is somewhat different, in that it has a Windows conversion of a DOS engine. It was buggy from day one, but if the original engine had them, then the Windows conversion obviously has them, too. Some changes in the program itself WERE made, and last issued with 8.3.

Now, let's go back to the newly-discovered long-campaign selection problem. I can pick German and USMC with no fade-out. The Russians are a no-go. Let me test the others, and see what we have.

[KG Erwin]

Ok, the Long WWII Campaigns also have hard-coded features (of course). You should generally not start until that country entered the war--that's sensible. Some countries even have theaters of war to select from, such as Britain, USA, Germany. Others do not-- the USMC, who faced Japan only. In other words, alternative history is not provided for --for the Russians, the best crash-proof long-campaign start is in June 1941, with the Great Patriotic War. This dashes my hopes of starting against the Japanese or Finns to start, and gain some exp/morale boosts before facing the German invaders. [:(]

[FlashfyreSP]

No problems here...started a Russian Long Campaign in January 1939, bought some forces, and went off to meet the Finns in Dec 1939. Tried the Japanese, and took my core force to greet the Russians in Sep 1939. Even got the Brits to shake hands with the Japanese in May 1942 after selecting a Jan 1939 start date. But they went off to find the Germans ok in May 1940 on the second try.

Could you have corrupted or modified OOBs for the Russians or any of the others?

[robot]

Gunny I started my Russian campaign in 1939 against the Finns also no problem. They dont face the Japs unless you select Japan in 1939 as your core. No problems with either start. Aftder they face the Finns they come back in at 1941 vs Germany. Japan has two battles against them in 1939.

[KG Erwin]

Robot & Flashfyre, I know you guys are right about starting as the Russkis in '39, but the program just shows signs of finickiness at times. I run it on XP in '98 compatibility mode, and it is usually stable.

As for OOB editing, several of my OOBs have changes in them--this shouldn't affect solo play at all.

Anyway, back to my originial question. Who's the most difficult to play as? Robot, I know you'd earlier mentioned the Brits as difficult to do well with. Do you still agree with that?

[Riun T]

Hey Gunny, Long time no talk to.Been outta action for a week and a half due to a nasty virus my date managed to pickup from Fuggen Kazaa lite, it gets into the windows authentication codes and scrubs your abbility to do windows updates, PAY HEED GUYS this foul little bugger corrupted enough windows 2000 pro files on me,even after getting threw winroute,ADaware,spybot,and AVG scans coming out the hew haw,... that I had to ghost 9/10's of C drive and reformat 20 of the 80 gigs I had, watch that U are still doing win updates on a regular bassis,anyway your original statement was asking what odd and tough long camps some of us have tried,I have'nt had any difficulty in starting a russin camp in early 39 either and a few times i've tried reselecting the nation in initial core purchase but i just automaticly don't start with any real amount of nations like India or the philipines except as support,its made for some real interesting fights.Later RT
P.S. i'm still playin ver8.2 which show up as 9.5 on its opening screen I figgure u guys are talkin 8.3 Eh?.

[KG Erwin]

Hi, Riun, sorry 'bout your luck. Recently my Dell was infected by a browser hijacker, which isn't a virus per se, but it took the better part of an evening to track the b*stard down and eliminate it. I use both Ad-aware and CrapCleaner--using these I was able to locate a suspicious dll file in my Windows directory--that was the culprit.

Please note that my pre-installed McAfee virus-scan couldn't track it down--I got rid of that worthless program entirely. (McAfee had a nasty habit of popping up and displaying "Please buy the upgrade!" while in the middle of another application.)

Instead, I use PC Pitstop's online virus scan--it's free.

[robot]

Yes Gunny im goin with the Brits as being toughest at this time. Still having tough time in Africa 1941 with them. But i have not started the Americans long yet as they dont come in till early 42. So will hold off judgement until I see how I do with them. I dont seem to have the problems with either the Japs or Russia and of course the Germans in the early years.

[KG Erwin]

Thanks, robot. One thing I noticed about the Russians is that they have the potential to purchase a very large (and relatively cheap) core force at the outset (20-25 light tanks and a horde of foot infantry). If it can be kept relatively intact, by 1943-44 one could indeed have an unstoppable juggernaut. I'm really gonna have to try it.

[Marten]

russians with mass of great tanks and millions of troops are easy to play till june 1943. they are getting better in 1944. facing germans most of the time.
germans are very easy with slight difficulties in 1941. lots of enemies and theatres to choose from.
brits are fun to play - great infantry (real queen of the battlefield), AVRE, matilda, firefly. lots of choices. italians early on, then germans.

for me most difficult side is japan - virtualy no tanks - almost infantry only. it's a pain to move them through the jungle, and fight allied tanks... [:@] they won't surrender, but they get chopped by hmg like a wheat. i like japanese flame tank though.

[robot]

Martin I love there flame tanks as well. And yes it is tough moving all the men across the country side. I have found very few intances where they move more then one hex at a time. They are tough tho and dont back down from a fight. My troops started in 1939 against the Russians and are now fighting the nation. Even here the terrain is tough and allows only one hex movement at a time. When you have 3 companies of men to move plus support. I believe the pacific part of the long campaign starts late 1941 i havent started that as yet.

Right now im in a battle that is an assault vs the nation. It is around turn seven and i still have not reached there mine field due too the slow movement of the infantry. See my aar in that section.

The Brits had a tough time against the germans in Europe and lost a lot of equipment in my first battle. I have not recovered from the battle as yet. Did not have enough replacement points to repair them all. And so far still have not been able to recover. They have went into each battle short on men and troops. I just finished a defend in north africa and was able to catch up most of the way but still short on tanks and recon. So to me so far the Brits are very tough.

[Marten]

as japs i'm using basic tactic of moving everything forward with bloodlust and madness in their eyes, but it's "steel panthers" game so there is no point in choosing them.
russians are quite alike, but instead of tons of infantry they have tons of armour, and instead of knee mortars they have massive artilery barrage. but general idea of using them is the same: close in and kill, kill KILL!!!
in the long run both of this nations are boring.
germans are something completly different: they are like king of the hill. all you have to do is to find a good place for 88's and wait for enemy. and their infantry has panzerfausts... damn!
deadly, but boring.
americans are infantry killers with m15 and stuarts, they have some problems with german tanks, their infantry is generaly well armed... but instant artilery and airpower is their key to success -> suppress and destroy. (when in doubt call an airstrike)
not to easy to play.

but brits... as I said before: they have great infantry (but not as psychotic as japanese or armed as german or us), decent tanks (but not as good as german and soviet), plenty of recon cars (gotta love it). you have to employ some clever tactics to win the battle, sometimes (against tigers) it's hide and seek game. firefly has the GUN, but it's still sherman... churchill is well armored but undreguned and slow... gamonds are thrown weapons... you have to mix them well as it is a key to victory.
great chelange and lot's of fun.

[Danny Boy]

The other determining factor for the Brits in a long campaign is that your core is going to take a pounding at the evacuation of the BEF and the morale etc will take some time to recover (well it used to be like that in SP). As I recollect, it is only through well fought battles in North Africa that you manage to gain credibility again. The trade off used to be that from June '44 onwards you could pretty much scythe through most any opposition so long as you had some decent armour support or air support.

Cheers!