What did you do today in World in Flames?

[paulderynck]

ORIGINAL: npilgaard

So I will now give it a second try (starting over from Jan/Feb '40), this time deploying heavily in the South, pretty much only screening in the North (German don't have many units available - Western Front needs to be uphold as well - and the extra INF is needed in the South to take care of the cities while the panzer advances), and waiting with the DoW until fine weather (hopefully in Mar/Apr) - it will slow Things Down a turn or two, but it is very important to gain a lot of ground during the first turn, while the reserves are face down and the MILs haven't arrived yet (hmm - forgot that the MILs can actually be built already the to Japan's DoW - perhaps better to let Japan wait as well then... )

How are you breaking the Pact garrison in 1940? Intentionally setting up the Russians too far away from the border?

[npilgaard]

Yes (Afterall, the '40 Barbarossa is the entire concept of that game, so I kind of have to do so )

Although it probably differs between playing groups I think it is fairly common to go for other strategies than the stuff-the-border one when playing Russia (in my experience at least).
If stuffing, Russia will be unable to use the time before Barbarossa do any other stuff than just, well, stuffing (i.e. no Persia or Manchuria etc.).
Also, it seems quite risky to have to withdraw to a better defensive position (river line etc.) during the winter 41/42 having only combined actions available (I was once caught like that, in the middle of the redeployment - but at least it forced the German player to DoW during the winter, though )
Stuffing also means building the units with the best garrison/cost ratio first, thus e.g. FTRs tend to be a lower priority (we often play without PiF (to avoid 'the great fighter race'), which means that Russia actually has a chance to challenge the Luftwaffe if building for it)

And since Japan sets up threatening the Russian player will likely move some units to Siberia (ideally a Japanese DoW right away in '39, but the availability of MILs for the Russians would then become a problem, so maybe better to just set up the Japanese in force near the Russian border and then synchronize DoW with Germany)

So all in all I don't think it is to unreasonable to set up the Russians further back - but of course it depends on playing style, and probably luck (i.e. wich Russian strategy the opponent will decide upon) as well

[Zorachus99]

I got a Netplay Barbarossa tested and working with a buddy.

Very exiting

[paulderynck]

ORIGINAL: npilgaard

Yes (Afterall, the '40 Barbarossa is the entire concept of that game, so I kind of have to do so )

Although it probably differs between playing groups I think it is fairly common to go for other strategies than the stuff-the-border one when playing Russia (in my experience at least).
If stuffing, Russia will be unable to use the time before Barbarossa do any other stuff than just, well, stuffing (i.e. no Persia or Manchuria etc.).
Also, it seems quite risky to have to withdraw to a better defensive position (river line etc.) during the winter 41/42 having only combined actions available (I was once caught like that, in the middle of the redeployment - but at least it forced the German player to DoW during the winter, though )
Stuffing also means building the units with the best garrison/cost ratio first, thus e.g. FTRs tend to be a lower priority (we often play without PiF (to avoid 'the great fighter race'), which means that Russia actually has a chance to challenge the Luftwaffe if building for it)

And since Japan sets up threatening the Russian player will likely move some units to Siberia (ideally a Japanese DoW right away in '39, but the availability of MILs for the Russians would then become a problem, so maybe better to just set up the Japanese in force near the Russian border and then synchronize DoW with Germany)

So all in all I don't think it is to unreasonable to set up the Russians further back - but of course it depends on playing style, and probably luck (i.e. wich Russian strategy the opponent will decide upon) as well

You've obviously played a lot and all that you say is true. One of the really big considerations in this regard is the optional USSR-Japan Peace, so since that option is not yet available, I may be the one needing additional education on potential strategies for MWiF. [&:]

[Klydon]

I have been dinking around here and there trying to learn the game, etc. After a couple of runs at Barbarossa and being annoyed at the HQ shortage, I decided to get going with a campaign game with almost all the optional rules except oil. I also wanted to experiment with a few strats for the Germans early in the war.

Germany open with the usual Poland activity and also launched an attack on Yugoslavia in concert with the Italians. (Little did I know this would cause some issues. The idea was to get the Italians some resources since I had planned on not having them declare for awhile in order to fix their battleship issues as they only start with 2). Long story short, the Italian mountain unit got to the resources pretty quick while the Germans pressed down hard from the north. Rumania was in to keep the Russians from grabbing land. Bad weather made this campaign drag a long, long time and it wasn't until Mar/April I managed to knock them out.

In the west, Denmark got overrun. I could do nothing with very bad weather rolls in Nov/Dec, Jan/Feb, and even Mar/April. May/June saw first the Netherlands and then Belgium just absolutely crushed. The bad news for the Germans was terrible die rolls on the attacks into Belgium disorganizing every unit in sight just about. I managed to keep the Allies off the river line. The French were strong with a double stack line and some units in behind. The BEF was on the Allied left.

I then got a chance to experience what happens when a offensive chit is used with the likes of Guderian in a land impulse. Double stacked French units in the neighborhood of 8-10 points were simply no match for 8 units doubled in combat power with strong Luftwaffe support. The French airforce was game, but had 2 of their 3 fighters shot down with the Germans also losing a fighter. The French line was just torn to pieces for the loss of something like 7 French units in 3 attacks. Guderian them promptly reorganized some aircraft to give the Germans an overwhelming air edge over the French.

First time I have ever really messed with an offensive chit like that and I have to say it was awesome.

[ess1]

Today I mailed cheque to FedEx U.K. for sum of £15.44 to cover cost of backup disc and FedEx admin. charges.
Invoice received some 14 days after receipt of parcel. Thought I had evaded clutches.

Pity backup was mentioned[:(]

Not played game or finished reading books. Gloss rather taken off.

[EUBanana]

Got up to the end of 1941 in a solitaire game.

The Axis just got hosed. Poland fell in 1 turn. A winter of building (INF for France at first, then MIL) and France was attacked in May/June 1940 as soon as weather permitted. The Netherlands fell immediately, Belgium took 2 impulses, but then there was an epic slogging match with high casualties on both sides. The French held out until the weather went bad, despite the front line being literally packed to the max with Jerries (they had a sizable reserve but all the disorganised guys at the front were blocking them).

Italy joined in but the Royal Navy parked carriers off of Italy and that was that pretty much. The oil rule was in play so reorging the Italian fleet for sorties was not easy and required Germany to pass up oil. Italy was buying the naval bombers and trying to use land based air but the British CVs always seemed to beat them. There was also 1 Hurricane at Malta pretty much from the get go. By summer 1941 there were 2 Hurricanes.

France survived until late summer 1941. Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis at the same time and quickly fell, Greece was invaded but held out on the hexes around Athens until France was Vichy'd and they surrendered (they were aligned to France).

Then the Soviets, who had been spamming INF from the beginning until there was no INF left to spam (and then they switched to armour) invaded Eastern Poland while the Wehrmacht was still railing back from France. They got as far as the eastern border of Germany before they were stopped.

Meanwhile Chiang and Mao were doing a number of the Japanese. There were quite frequent low-odds attacks on the part of the Chinese, for every Japanese unit took a goodly while to come back again when you include the transport time from the Home Islands, while the Chinese units arrived right there (sometimes 1 or 2 hexes behind the front). Chiang got as far as besieging Shanghai but couldn't take it due to defensive shore bombardment. Mao was deadlocked east of Sian but kept managing to destroy Japanese units here and there, so he was contributing. Japanese air seems to be totally useless. Attacking the Chinese in the mountains is hard. I think I messed up here because the Japanese troops around Changsha in the initial deployments had no command HQ so supply was difficult. I didnt have Nationalist attack weakness on.


I think Axis errors were the Germans buying a lot of synth oil (seemed like a good idea at the time, bought 2 of them in 1939, but this probably fatally denuded them of armour for France) and the Japanese losing too many units against the Chinese,and not using their HQ properly. I'm really not sure how Italy can beat the CW in the Med, carriers, even British ones > surface ships. Two of the better RN carriers in the Med made their lives horrible. Submarines were their only naval success, so they did clear out all the convoys from the Med at least but that was it.

Then with the Japanese fighting around Shanghai, the USSR in strength in Poland, and the Commonwealth ruling the Med, I left it there. Allied hostomping. I find attacking quite hard I guess! either that or I am way too free with attacking with low odds as Germany.

Oh, I also forgot about O-chits. [&:][:o] If Germany used one in 1940 they probably woulda beaten the French with it. Pretty major mistake!

[Zorachus99]

I'm a bit nervous because my soon-to-be opponent has been practicing his 'Spanish Gambit' with MWIF solitaire.

He had quite a bit to say about Foreign Troop Commitment, none of which is repeatable here.

[bwheatley]

Nothing because the NetPlay Server is down atm :'(

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: bwheatley

Nothing because the NetPlay Server is down atm :'(

You should update to version 1.0.4.1 if you haven't done so already. Also see the Monthly report for December 1st for how to correct the problem with accessing the Seeking Opponent database.

[bwheatley]

If you look at the screenshot that i'm using 1.0.4.1. We have been using it for a week or so already. This is actually a different issue then the prior reported "seeking opponent" issues. We were playing 8 hours ago before bedtime.

This stuff is my day job so have you been able to get into the Netplay forums via the game? We're trying to help here by drawing attention to the problem.

[abulbulian]

Please just give Bill vpn access to host so he can fix the problem. [:'(] He gets paid $150 per/hr to do this stuff as a day job and is willing to help for free. Although he's executive now, thus he'd probably delegate somebody else to fix it for him.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: bwheatley

If you look at the screenshot that i'm using 1.0.4.1. We have been using it for a week or so already. This is actually a different issue then the prior reported "seeking opponent" issues. We were playing 8 hours ago before bedtime.

This stuff is my day job so have you been able to get into the Netplay forums via the game? We're trying to help here by drawing attention to the problem.

Yes, there are a couple dozen possible reasons for that message being displayed.

I've augmented the message to provide more details. That'll be in version 1.0.5.0, available in the next couple of days.

EDIT: Mea culpa for not reading the Mad Except report as to the version number.

[abulbulian]

I believe the current issue w/NetPlay (MWiF forum) is a global one this time. I don't know of anybody that has been able to connect to the MWiF forum w/o an error. The issue must have started somewhere in the past 6-12 hrs, since Bill and I were playing last night and had to restart (game crashes) a few saves via the NetPlay/forum. All of which were successful restarts. We tried about 9am CST (-6 GMT) today and came across the issue.

Shannon, can you connect to the MWiF forum w/o issue via the game menu?

[paulderynck]

Looks like server up but data base down at the moment.

[abulbulian]

Correct, that is my experience as well.

[jzardos]

Yeah, feel ya bwheatley. [:(]
My friend and I can't play either because we have same NetPlay connect to database issue...
Makes me sad as was excited my friend just bought game because I told him we could play. Now he's pissed at me thinking he wasted $100 on game. Told him that they will fix it and game is worth it. [&:]

[bwheatley]

Shannon,

Could you please poke someone at slitherine? They say the servers up but something's wonky with it. Some sort of status would be nice. In our field (technology) these type of things happen but it's the recovery and how you handle the issue that is what builds customer loyalty.

Thank you. The games great, bugs and all that's why i had wanted to beta test it and did. That's why I paid for it and that's why i want to keep playing it.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: abulbulian

I believe the current issue w/NetPlay (MWiF forum) is a global one this time. I don't know of anybody that has been able to connect to the MWiF forum w/o an error. The issue must have started somewhere in the past 6-12 hrs, since Bill and I were playing last night and had to restart (game crashes) a few saves via the NetPlay/forum. All of which were successful restarts. We tried about 9am CST (-6 GMT) today and came across the issue.

Shannon, can you connect to the MWiF forum w/o issue via the game menu?

No I cannot. I hadn't tried for a couple of days so I do not know when this problem first occurred. I'll work with the Slitherine people to fix this.

[abulbulian]

Shannon, the problem first occurred between 3am CST and 9am CST on Dec 2. Bill and I were playing before 3am and had restart via NetPlay thus we know it was working. When we tried to resume our game around 9am CST (-6 GMT) at we started to see the issue posted on this thread. I offered my services to Pip at Slitherine to help with issue, but he said he wasn't qualified to handle it and would pass it on to another person.

Appears the issues still persists at the time of this post.