map questions & others

[Atlantikwall]

1.) How is the Sahara considerd to be? Is it "impassible" or can you pass it (may be with only certain units)? Same with Himalaya Mts.?

2.) You have a "bidge" (my term) between Sicily and Southern Italy, but "only" a "narrow" between e.g. Danmark and Sweden? So to invade Sweden, you need transports, right (either naval or aerial)? And if there is a "bidge" between two countries, do the same advanatges apply for the defender as at a "narrow"?

3.) Is population constant in every country within the game, or not? Can resources be increased in a certain county? E.g. could more oil be exploited?

4.) What do the two numbers stand for in every county on the map? E.g. In Eastern Germany there is a "6" and a "70" in the starting stet-up of Spring 1940 szenario.

5.) Could you specify the (fighting) differnce of infanty and militia a little more?

6.) Is it written in the rulebook, under which conditins allied countries will enter directly in war with your enemies. I.e. when will Hungary, Romania & Bulgaria enter the war?

7.) Does your "odds calculator" for battles inculde a feature to change the "order-of-loss" (OOL)?

8.) Will the game have at least a german language rulebook and does the game appear officially in Europe at the same time?

[Joel Billings]

ORIGINAL: Atlantikwall

1.) How is the Sahara considerd to be? Is it "impassible" or can you pass it (may be with only certain units)? Same with Himalaya Mts.?

Yes it is impassable, as are the Himalayas.

2.) You have a "bidge" (my term) between Sicily and Southern Italy, but "only" a "narrow" between e.g. Danmark and Sweden? So to invade Sweden, you need transports, right (either naval or aerial)? And if there is a "bidge" between two countries, do the same advanatges apply for the defender as at a "narrow"?

The "bidge" is called a Ferry in the game. Units that control both areas may move over a Ferry. A Narrows (the two yellow arrows) is something that allows artillery and air units based next to a narrows to shoot at units that move through the narrows. You need to use transports to attack the land area in either case.

3.) Is population constant in every country within the game, or not? Can resources be increased in a certain county? E.g. could more oil be exploited?

Population is by region and does not change, however it only produces population if friendly owned (i.e. not conquered). You cannot increase resource centers, but you can capture them and use them. You can build factories.

4.) What do the two numbers stand for in every county on the map? E.g. In Eastern Germany there is a "6" and a "70" in the starting stet-up of Spring 1940 szenario.

The first number is the number of combat units (unless displaying supplies, in which case it would be the number of supplies in the region) and the second number is the strategic movement (rail or transport) capacity remaining in the area. These can be toggled off (although I never would).
5.) Could you specify the (fighting) differnce of infanty and militia a little more?

Militia takes 1 production point instead of 2 for infantry (both require 2 population points), however the best militia has an attack of 4 dice and a defense of 15 compared to decent infantry with an attack of 6 and 24 defense. Also, milita values cannot be increased through research (unlike infantry). Militia can help you take ground as they count along with infantry, armor, and paratroops when counting up the number of units after a battle to see who has to retreat. They are best as garrison troops fighting partisans, not very good in combat.
6.) Is it written in the rulebook, under which conditins allied countries will enter directly in war with your enemies. I.e. when will Hungary, Romania & Bulgaria enter the war?

Yes, there are trigger events. Trigger for the Axis Allies is attacking Yugoslavia (unless they are attacked by the Allies sooner.

7.) Does your "odds calculator" for battles inculde a feature to change the "order-of-loss" (OOL)?

Not sure what you mean, but combat is handled completely without player input.

8.) Will the game have at least a german language rulebook and does the game appear officially in Europe at the same time?

That is up to Matrix. It depends on the distribution that Matrix gets in Europe, but we do hope to localize the game into other languages and hope the distributor will localize the manual.

[Atlantikwall]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings

7.) Does your "odds calculator" for battles inculde a feature to change the "order-of-loss" (OOL)?

Not sure what you mean, but combat is handled completely without player input.

Thanks for the replies. The term OOL comes from the A&A bordgame. Let`s assume the US-fleet in Hawaii sea zone (acc, fgt, sub in Revised) is attacked in round 1 and the attacker scores two hits only. So the US-player can either decide to keep the more expensive acc (who hits on a roll on 3 on defence) or the the less expensive fgt (who hits better, namely on 4). Of course, the odds for round 2 of combat vary depending on what you keep.

But I continued reading, and I got the impression that combats are conducted in very different way.

But to make it short: let`s assume that you lost 5 units in an attack. Can you e.g. choose wheater you want a tank or a fighter to be removed or does the computer just report you what you lost (with no choice WHAT is lost)?

But propably you could post a screenshot of this "odds calculator" prior to combat and the following result of a combat to compare? And a own thread with a seperate explanation on how combats are conducted wouldn`t be bad at all[;)]!

[Joel Billings]

The combat is done by the computer. Firing units target specific defending units and this is all determined by the computer. No decisions are made once combat is begun. This makes the game good for PBEM play as there are no decisions to be made by the non-phasing player. The odds calculator gives you a rough idea of how many total hits will be scored by each side and whether the attacker is likely to conquer the territory. It is only an estimate as many die rolls come into play.