Matrix Games Forums

I feel kind of foolish even posting this, but.....I'm happy to see so many people playing this game, so I'm hoping I can get some advice and/or help. The problem, basicaly? I WANT to like this game.....but I just can't get into it.

I'm not a newbie when it comes to WWII games. Since I have my degrees in History, I play almost every game that comes out. I bought this game new 'back in the day' (and for anyone who missed the oh-so-fun days of trying to get things working in DOS, this one caused me fits!), and thought I knew what I was getting into. After all, I had played heavily around on the Eastern Front with Clash of Steel (boy, I wish I could get THAT to work on my modern PC!) and High Command, among others, and the richness of the detail really apealed to me.

It did'nt take long before I got overwhelmed, though. Well, that was 10 years ago -- I was just a high school teenager at the time. Recently, needing a a break from Pacific War's Matrix Edition (another game I bought and loved back in the day) and UV, I noticed the remake of this game and thought I would check it out.

I'm happy to see the bugs have been fixed, but the same issues/complaints/problems I had all those years ago are still here.

The's game just too complicated. I've read the manual three times and poured several hours into it, from both sides, but I can't do anything near what happened historicaly. In the Sec 41 as Germany, I can hardly take any land in Russia before the Russians stop me. I can't figure out why when I have overwheleming strength, rotate in fresh units, and have them supplied, and it's good weather.

The factories confuse me. Do I want to mess around in them? What should I do or change? How can I get the better units to the front that both sides need?

I wish the AI was smarter. I want to assign some parts of the front to the AI and pertend I'm a Army Commander and just focus on one small area of the war, but the AI is too stupid to conduct the rest of the war in a good manner and I find I have to take over everything.

The graphics were awfull even back in DOS days. It's hard to spot and reconize all of the units, the terrian, and the other important things on the map.

The movement and combat orders seem to be shoddy at best. It's very hard to tell a stack of units to move to one hex and attack the enemy units there and actually have them DO it, even if well supplied and moraled. They just won't move for some reason.

I could go on, but those are just the major issues that come to the top of my head.

Don't get me wrong, I'm willing to sink more time into this game and give it another chance. I WANT to like this game. But it seems I'm missing something that is preventing me from doing so.

Please help.

Start playing as a German in campaign 41.

Practise your plotting of movement. Ensure no one gets in anothers way. Use those panzers to plot 5 hexes...so as to surround and KILL the russian hordes.

Perhaps group your airplanes into 4-6 groups...with plenty of fighter cover(minimum of 4 per HQ).

I remember High Command with favour too or was it HQ. I have saved a 5.25 disk drive so as to be able to inslall the game on my 350 pii. Have yet to install the disk drive.mmm

If you have done the reading...you may have noticed that version 1.0 which i was using last May 2002....has many covert rules to assist the computer. ie. it is a dud game to play against the computer. YOU LOSE ... EvErYtImE !!

41 Campaign is difficult. I have now played it 3 times against humans till like Mar 42. I won as germany once(enemy gave up). I gave up once. My current game appears to be a game in motion...at least till Dec 42.

Practise using rail-tran and air-tran. It does help to use the mouse. One might want to transfer production to PZIIIh and FW190A as soon as available.

I find map not so bad. remember to zoom and UNzoom it vai the map icon in middle at bottom.

The russians simulate lack of command in early part of game till like nov 41. Sometimes they will not move or follow orders. When they do, they rarely attack in concert with other armys. This is why i say to start playing as German. At least it tends to do what you order it to do. Remember that during plot, only one unit can occupy a hex as at a moment of plot. Use the 0 (wait) command to avoid overstacking.

The above should give you an idea of starting.

Rather than complicated....i think of it as just undocumented. As it is undocumented for both sides, it does give each side a chance.

Cheers.