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From the inital AARs I see Japan being crushed early, conquering Hawaii and invading Russia.

Meanwhile in the latest 2 AARs Russia blocks the Axis invasion.

Perhaps the Axis made the wrong choices in production and deployment, but it seems that perhaps Germany is a little too weak or perhaps Russia a bit too strong in the early game.

Any thoughts?

LOL, I was just going to add a post about Russia. So far with the current AARs Japan seems to be doing better but what the heck is happening with Russia? Counter-Attacks on a front wide basis in 1941 seem a bit much. [X(]

The German player is the hardest player to play. It's also easy to get distracted by the Western Front, North Africa, U-boat war, etc. When you hit the SU, you have to hit hard, driving in two areas deep on the first move, fixing rails, and railroading infantry to the front immediately (3 month turns, remember, so this part is abstract). You must kill lots of Soviet troops early on. This takes lots of good units and lots of supplies. Not easy, but it can be done. For a long time the feeling was the SU was too weak, maybe things have moved to far the other way, but I wouldn't judge it by a game or two. Remember there are more tests going on then the ones you get to see.

I will post some screenshots for you guys this weekend showing human v. human games where the Germans are taking it to the Soviets with good success (you can see one posted in my historical variation thread below).

The invasion of undefended Italy in "Jupiter" was huge. Until that point, I felt my defenses were going to completely crumble and doubted my ability to stop the Germans. After that point, everything changed.

Not sure what you mean by "front" in your comment, but certainly several Soviet fronts were involved in counterattacks from Leningrad to Moscow in Winter 41, and the Soviets counterattacked the length of the East Front in Winter 42 -- only 4 turns difference by W@W standards and very reasonable if the German player makes mistakes. In "Akula", my view is that the German player erred by not attacking the Soviets at the earliest possible opportunity, because the Soviet production strategy made them wide-open for attack for about four turns.

But, I do understand you guys can't see all this just from an AAR. [:D]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings

The German player is the hardest player to play. It's also easy to get distracted by the Western Front, North Africa, U-boat war, etc. When you hit the SU, you have to hit hard, driving in two areas deep on the first move, fixing rails, and railroading infantry to the front immediately (3 month turns, remember, so this part is abstract). You must kill lots of Soviet troops early on. This takes lots of good units and lots of supplies. Not easy, but it can be done. For a long time the feeling was the SU was too weak, maybe things have moved to far the other way, but I wouldn't judge it by a game or two. Remember there are more tests going on then the ones you get to see.

totally understand Joel and I know there are a lot of tests going on. Just fun chatting while we wait. Um...any potential ship date? (he sneaks in quietly)

As promised, some screenshots from some Germany v. Soviet PBEMs: The first two are from one game, the second two from another. In the first one, the Germans have only 3 factories and 33 supply left. For those worried about the AI, note that in each game, the Japanese AI has elected to take advantage of Soviet weakness and invade.