Help a keen noob please

[ski hiker]

First of all, let me congratulate matrix and 2by3 on this game. I have followed it's development for what seems like 2 years or so; and i must say that i think they have made a real winner of a game

Living in England i realised that this game would not be released on this side of the pond for some while, i opted for the DD.

Now, here is my question/poser. As a WW2 stratergy virgin i am at a loss as to how to get my head around the way combat is calculated and then resolved. I am in the process of reading the manual which I printed out and bound myself...best looking game manual I have ever had.

Can anybody offer me some tips on how best to decide what units i should be using for my attacks and defense. All the rules on combat modifiers etc. are a little confusing, but i do understand the philosophy behind them.[:(][:(][:(]

I have read all the various posted AAR's..particularly by Beckett [&o][&o][&o] and i get the impression that you really do need to understand these things if you are ever to get good at this game.

Till then I guess the Gerries will keep giving my Russkies a goog kickin'[&:][:D][;)]

Again, TOP GAME...even for a complete noob!

[Paul Vebber]

Combat in the game is based on rolling a number of dice equal to your "attack rating" and trying to equal or exceed the defending units evasion X durability. I've attached a table based on a "dice rolling" model I did that might come in handy to see what the chances are that a given number of dice will "make he roll".

Now the modifiers in general are pretty simple - Attackers get a -1, and defenders previously attacked that turn lose 1 from their evasion rating. Armor can reduce teh number of dice. Artillery gets a bonus range 2 attack and naval battels can be quite inscrutible withe teh dice rolling that goes on to see who gets engaged by whom and what range it will take place at.

In ground attacks, A mix of infantry and artillery will be your work horse. tansk - withthe ability to move two areas have exploiting breakthroughs and coming up fromt eh rear to blow through weakend aareas a stheir role. The "combat aalyzer" gives a pretty good idea of teh number of untis you can expect to lose and inflict ont eh enemy. I've been looking at the probaility of taking the area and it mostly seems right - but might get snakey in a few situations. I'm looking at that.

the big thing to consider is the probability swing between YOU rolling agianst the enemy defense - and teh Enemy rolling against you. That is where the table can be useful.

Its "simple in theory - but VERY complicated in execution. Teh answer "what do i atttack with what" is different for each country - andchanges over time based on the research direction you go in.

[ski hiker]

Paul,

Thanks for the reply.

The table does help....guess i just need to work the 'ole grey matter a little harder[:'(][:'(][:'(][:D].

Tonites the night when i stop experimenting and try and halt the Gerries once and for all.

By the way has anyone seen of or produced an IDIOTS guide to this game....perhaps this has been discussed previously and i have missed the postings.

Thanks......happy gaming y'all[;)]