TCP/IP Game dave74 vs dave ferguson

[dave74]

Dave ferguson and i tried to start a tcp/iP game yesterday but we could not get it to work. We did manage to get a game going today, and it was definately worth it.

I played as the allies against daves axis. Poland fell (suprise?) after 4 turns but i did manage to destroy 1 corps. Axis u-boats started sinking quite a lot of my pp's enroute across the pond.

So far, playedout as would the ai vs any player. Then came the battle for the low countries and france starting in Jan '40. Dave very sportingly attacked both belgium and holland at the same time, allowing me to push some units into belgium. i had also sent a lot of uk troops into france.

The battle we have had since then has been brilliant. Both sides were pulling damaged units of the line and moving new ones up. Some units on both sides were destroyed as the axis eventually pushed me back to france. I used my carriers and battleships to attack axis units on the coast which inflicted a lot of damage.

Eventually i destroyed 1 sub and badly damaged the other. i also sneakily attacked the german battleship with my carriers badly damaging it.

Italy joined the axis and france had to issue half conscription then full conscription due to massive casualties. I attacked torbruk with my african based troops and was succesful in taking that. I also managed to sink the itatlian battleships in the med.

The axis strategy then changed, they started to attack the maginot line as well as the belgium/france border. I could no longer build units and keep present ones up to scratch This coupled with my low quality manpower resulted in my line collapsing.

Paris eventualy fell in january '41. This is were we finished this afternoons session. The casualties were over 3 million allied troops and over 2 million axis troops. We also lost over 4,000 tanks between us and over 2,000 planes!!!.

To sum up - THIS IS THE WAY TO PLAY THIS GAME!

In my opinion this game is ideally suited for internet play. We played for 5 hours in real time and got in over a year of game time, action packed all the way.

I would like to hear daves side of it, but i would recommend this to everyone.

(Battle is joined again tomorrow hopefully!)

[Dave Ferguson]

A brilliant experience which left me exhausted and in shock. Things went well at the start with the u-boats massacreing the convoys, until they were caught by allied navies that is. Dave74's account says it all, except I did not know he was running out of manpower. Morale was low at this point and I was staring at the horror of a 2 front war with hardly any troops in Poland. then the French resistance dissolved in a couple of turns. The Italians tried to get to Paris first to grab the spoils but did not quite make it. Horror, was it a german unit that took Paris, if not i am in real trouble??

So here i am sitting among mile upon mile of carnage and trying to develop a plan to get enough stuff to the east front and build some more panzers to replace the 2 corps wiped out in France. All my units suffered large casualties so nothing much is going to happen for the next few months, I hope!.

We managed 24 turns with a lot happening in each turn and could have gone on all evening if common sense and other priorities had not intervened.

TCP-IP is the BEST way to play CEAW, you must try it.

Dave

ps aircraft carriers are the spawn of the devil

[Dave Ferguson]

we continued to the eve of Barbarossa this evening, when we finally got the game to work that is, it took 45 minutes and a couple of reboots etc etc befor we could start. What is needed is a step by step guide to playing this way, an idiots guide in fact. What I can find on the various forums does not describe precisely what you have to do.
 
Dave

[targul]

I have posted for games for days for email or Internet so far no luck in finding anyone interested. Still hoping since game looks perfect for that media.

[Dave Ferguson]

Your problem might be:
 
No one is interested [:(]
 
Connecting computers is a problem not covered adequately in the manual [:(]
 
Anyone playing a TCP game is so immersed in it they have time for nothing else [:)]
 
I belong to the third category but have had problems with connecting which IMO would put off all but the most determined gamers.
 
Dave

[IainMcNeil]

Can you specify what sort of problems you had? Does it need more explanation or are there bugs that need fixing?

[JudgeDredd]

Targul

I'm not a big PBEM buff, but if you really want to have a go, I'll throw in. I have seen your post before, but left you to someone elses mercy...but seeing as you're still looking...

I would probably only commit to 1 turn per night (although it would depend on the circumstances - but it would be a minimum of 1 turn per night)

If your willing to progress slowly then I'll go with you.

Also, I haven't read the manual (I hate PDFs and I'm waiting on my box versioN) so I'm a bit of a "flounderer" at the moment...but I'll let you hone your skills on me.

I don't mind what nation to play

[dave74]

Iain,

I think one problem may be that having microsoft messenger open to chat during the game and switching from the game may cause crashes. But there is no in game chat, so you need to communicate somehow to confirm when the game is ending etc.

[JudgeDredd]

Seems to me the game is not very ALT-TAB friendly at all, from my own experiences....that's one reason why I haven't even used the manual as reference yet...first time I alt-tabbed out of it I got serious refresh problems....never did it again.

[Dave Ferguson]

ORIGINAL: Iain McNeil

Can you specify what sort of problems you had? Does it need more explanation or are there bugs that need fixing?

Both players had the others IP address so that was no problem
I was playing the axis 1939 so I set up the scenario options and chose TCP

The connection screen appeared with my IP filled in

I pressed the host button and waited

nothing happened even though my opponent was trying to join

We retried several times with no luck, nearly a hours frustration!

So we tried a different way with my opponent Hosting, I then selected the scenario options and attempted to join, it worked!!

So we then had 5 hours of intensive gameplay and ended to preserve sanity. Later on in the evening we attempted to resume and it took 45 minutes to get going.

The problem is none of the procedures are documented in the manual, you are just left to your own determination and in my present game we are having to establish a reliable procedure pretty much by guesswork. We are resuming the game today and hopefully it will not take 45 minutes to start.

There are some threads on the subject but the advice there is not clear, for example to continue a game you have to select the appropriate save file but it is not mentioned how you do that

What is needed is a idiots step by step guide. Never presume that the user knows stuff that you take for granted

Dave

ps IMO if you can get it going this is the best way to play CEAW

[IainMcNeil]

What sort of firewalls do you both have? E.g. You probably would not be able to host if you are on a LAN behind a firewall. Some firewalls will prevent you hosting games without a lot of complicated set-up proceedures. There are ways around this but it requires things like the game to have a dedictaed server and clever code to fool your firewall, as it is trying to stop someone else connecting to you - that's its job

[Dave Ferguson]

I am running a firewall so Dave74 cant be cos he can host. As firewalls are common this pretty much negates TCP play which is not your fault but takes away the best way to play the game. PBEm is OK but a pain with filenames and no replay of your opponents turn.
 
I suppose you could temporary turn of your firewall until the connection is established and then switch it on again.
 
Whatever the issues with firewalls there is still no user guide in the manual
 
Dave

[dave74]

dave,

you can tell your firewall to allow 'commander' only. That way your firewall still work on everything else.

[Dave Ferguson]

I am running windows firewall and cant find 'commander'

[IainMcNeil]

I'm going to put together some help on this. We'll also investigate the PBEM issues.

[targul]

I also found the Alt Tab to be touchy.  Many times it will freeze up my machine.  No other game does that but this one is very sensitive to change.  Just wish the AI was as sensitive and would react to things happening on the map.
 
I have tried one email game and it seems near impossible also.  Eachtime my opponent received corrupted files.  Game has no controls for email and simply doesnt tell you what to do.  
 
Havent had a chance to try the Internet but I am hearing the horror stories. 
 
I may need to put this away until after the patch.  Game doesnt seem ready yet and since they dont respond to our queries or keep us updated on there plans this maybe another no go game.  Too bad it has great potential but it obviously was not tested adequately for multiplayer or AI activity.

[IainMcNeil]

I don't understand what you mean about not responding? The internet problems seem to be related to NAT firewalls - you can't host any games through a NAT. Can you send us a corrupted save game file? We've never had this reported. info@slitherine.co.uk.

[Dave Ferguson]

dave74 will be posting a update of our game session this afternoon, watch this space!
 

[dave74]

I think we have been a bit harsh saying that we cannot get tcp/ip to work. It turns out that we did not have our firewalls turned off. With these turned off we connected immediatley.

In todays session the axis launched barbarossa. My new soviet line was pushed back, reformed and is now (its only october!!) faltering slightly, ok faltering a lot!. I am hoping for snow!. (Seriously will the weather come to my aid, this is the furthest ive played!!)

UK troops seem to have secured africa and all axis shipping would seem to be destroyed, with the exception of a badly damaged italian sub - i cannot see the axis using resources on fleets with the amount of divisions we have both destroyed.

I have launched an assault on the french coast as i have a lot of pp's as the uk as a
result of all of my convoys getting through. I am hoping that the axis will not have enough quality troops in this theatre.

To sum up, The axis is pushing me back in russia, but if the russians hold unitl america joins i should be able to open up a second front in europe which will be to much for them.

I would say that the first session (French campaign) was a strategical allied victory, but todays session was a strategical axis victory as my line in russia is barely holding at the moment.

Great game so far. Just dont open up any other programes in the background and remember to take your firewall off!!

[MorningDew]

ORIGINAL: dave74
Great game so far. Just dont open up any other programes in the background and remember to take your firewall off!!

When you say Firewall, do you mean Windows Firewall or such? Or a Firewall/router?