TCP/IP Game dave74 vs dave ferguson

[dave74]

windows firewall.

[Barthheart]

ORIGINAL: dave74


...(Seriously will the weather come to my aid, this is the furthest ive played!!)

...

Dave,

Yes winter will come to your aid... just hold on... I believe it comes about Nov and stays to late March. Large Eff reduction to the Axis and a small one to USSR. Large movement reduction for both.

I suggest retreating to behind rivers. This also makes him spend lots of oil to move his armour and mech. inf. If you're lucky he'll run out and that will also ground his airforce.

Good luck.

[dave74]

thanks for the tips bartheart!! i was wondering what the effects of winter would be s i havent looked at the pdf manual too much (waiting for my box copy)

[Canuck_jp]

Would you really have to turn it off?  Isn't there a window pops up that asks if you would like to keep blocking so and so program?  Usually it does that whenever a program tries to connect to the internet.

[dave74]

yeah, that would work - but if you are trying to host a game you wont be able to if our experience is anything to go by.

[Dave Ferguson]

IIRC I played the last session with Dave74 with my Windows firewall on, but with the 'don't allow exceptions' box off.
In the exceptions tab I added the commander program and ticked its box. This allows your local computer to host the next session of the game. This is important because we have found that the best way of closing a session is to have the player who wants to close save the game during his turn, CEAW promps you to enter a filename. then he shuts the game down. the other player sees the game jump back to the main menu.
 
When you start the next session the player who saved MUST be the host and the other player 'joins' when the game is up and running which can take a few mins, after which the hosting player completes his turn and hits 'end' control then passes to the other player.
 
This all works with windows firewall but it might be different for others, the key thing is to host you have to allow the commander program through your firewall, at least when you are playing.
 
The Last Session
I would agree with Dave74's summary of the gameplay. I am mainly a operational level gamer and adjusting to the strategic level has been difficult, especially because i was expecting campaigns to be resolved in historical time, no way can this be, a human opponent can put up a fierce and agressive defence, delaying the outcome several turns, if a collapse comes it happens quickly. This is true of both france and russia in this game.
 
I found the naval play interesting but frustrating as the U-boats are so fragile that they are both soon sunk, as soon as you attack a convoy it is bye bye sub as the allied navies jump on it . Every naval unit can sink subs and does so at every opportunity. The germans probably wont have the points to build new subs as there are not enough to go around with the enormous casualties. You will find it difficult just to keep up with losses never mind building expensive stuff and spending a tiny amount on research, and commanders? waay too expensive.
 
My initial thoughts are that the shipped scenarios are balanced for play v the AI and not against a human opponent, which will play MUCH better than the AI, maybe unbalancing the scenario. We will have to wait for our game to finish before the final analysis but this just screams 'we need a scenario editor'.
 
Another session today and as the axis The BIG decision i have to make is, do i go on the strategic defensive now when i havn't even captured kiev [:(]
 
dave

[cptracks]

I haven't played against a live opponent yet. So far I found that the uboats are fragile alone but can do wonderful things in a pack of several.

[dave74]

Todays Update -

Well i would say the russian winter has helped me as it did in real life, but the axis have continued to put pressure on and i think kiev will fall in the next turn (we ended this session in march '42). My russian troops seem very fragile, sometimes i take a 6 point hit inflicting only 1 or sometimes zero in return!! again, probably realistic for the early part of the war.

I attempted a 3 way mainland invasion of europe attacking northern france, western france and sicily (i mopped up the last itatlian units in africa in the first couple of turns). Apart from sicily which fell after a spirited defence, the results were disasterous, all my troops were destroyed.

I wil not invade peicemeal again, but my efforts were to try and use up axis production and manpower more than to take territory, so i can say at least these actions have contributed.

America has joined the war now, but i cannot divulge at this moment what schemes are being planned (In case the axis leadership are reading[;)]).

Going back to the russian front, the axis are making steady progress, but all this is costing manpower, which is something i have in abundance and moscow is still a distance from the front lines...


Overall another enjoyable session, i hear all the gripes on the forum about the ai, but player v player this game is excellent. Again i would say that the axis possible had the edge in this session. I am hopeful things will turn around son though...

Can anyone tell me if manpower does eventually run out, i havent read the manual yet as i am waiting for my postal copy.

thanks, dave

[targul]

Thanks for the update.  I have refused TCP/IP due to your problems but I never use Firewalls exactly for this reason. When I had them you just had problems constantly.  I have been firewall free for 14 years now gave it up with smoking.

[dave74]

Our problems were because of firewall, the only other issue i can see is that the game does not like you having other programmes open at the same time.

[Dave Ferguson]

todays Update, Axis version
 
Another 4 hours of roller coaster gaming with carnage everywhere. I reckon I won this round despite the shock of seeing FOUR simultaneous invasions. The shock was so great I just sat there for 15mins thinking s***, how do I survive this. Well I did by frantically moving troops and using the Italian garrison units lurking in the centre of France, luckily the Brits could not capture a port and without one they can't escape and are eventually dead meat. Even so how did they manage to put 8 corps including an armoured one into France in late 41? and then several more corps into Sicily. That lot was more than the entire british army in WW2!.
 
The russian winter bit hard but I managed to contain his offensive and even counter attacked here and there. Towards the end I noticed a weakening russian resistence and more garrison units appearing in the line, this of course might just be a gigantic bluff.
 
I am still scrambling to keep pace with losses and only managed to build a couple of new units, plus the manpower situation is desperate  and I will run out well before 1945. The Italians are much better off on manpower but I can't transfer production points to them and all their potential will be lost when they surrender. Despite capturing some resources and several cities/ports in russia I don't see any increase in German war production, still hovering just above 100 points per turn. Hopefully the labs will soon deliver results, especially in the economy.
 
Overall the game is addictive and there might be a late night session later, hopefully my opponent will be the worse for drink [:)]
 
Dave
 
ps there is no port in Cherburg?