Slitherine

I've finished all scenarios

To play quibbles:
Planes crashing to fuel loss. Nonsense mechanic.
Heavy Flak popping up like weeds. Their Hard/Soft defenses need cutting except 88's.

Game Function Quibbles (I expect many are planned)
Refuel and END TURN buttons need to be placed further away from another.
Core Group needs a HOME PAGE ala PG2 so players can visit their units.
Can't edit unit names (or I'm missing how)
Too much prestige post-victory, in game awards seems good so far.
Need a Commanders page, editable name etc.

Poland: Seemed tough on 1st play through and will seem so to newbs. 2nd, 3rd earned DECISIVE victories.

Norway: Probably the toughest scenario of all. Each playing has ended in defeat. Unclear how Kerensky sailed adjacent to northern ports the RN starts adjacent to Narvik and Bodo blocked by 'ZOC' All said and done historically the German's 'los't as they were evicted from Narvik and took it by default after the fall of France.

Problems. Allied Navy should start off-map the Norway invasion was complete surprise to Allies. In addition to Brit troops at Narvik should be French Mountain troops there and more Brits off Trondheim. All should arrive Turn 2. A massive Norwegian Arty piece or pieces should start south of Oslo to engage German Fleet. German fleet needs Battlecruiser unit. Norway should start with no on map troops and need build them on Turn 1. German Para should all start adjacent or over an Allied airfield as landed at dawn to give Germany operating fields day 1. Also Narvik should be only objective in North.

Naval support too strong vs. Land, Air vs. ship too weak, AA too strong.

Finally beat Narvik! About the 4th try.

France Pt1
Interesting situation in that Allies finally have free mobile forces. As usual the no inf but loads of ATG guns/AA guns defense mars endgame.

France Pt2
Very interesting and very historical feel. Allies look stacked, do some damage than vanish like smoke. Germans then race about grabbing victory cities until......As usual the no inf but loads of ATG guns/AA guns defense mars endgame.

Sealion
Whatever that is, other than vs. Poles my methodical 'reduce everything' offense never gets decisive victories nor can I even visualize how one does. (Not a game flaw per se, but mine)

Greece
The first easy scenario. Allies fold quickly. Athenian bottleneck slows me down tremendously. Since I don't want Paras in my core I don't see away around quickly eliminating the bottleneck.

Brest-Litovsk
Good balanced battle. As usual the no Inf but loads of ATG guns/AA guns defense mars endgame.

Kiev
Got a DECISIVE VICTORY on 2nd play. Marred by startup area too small to fit all CORE air units so my Ju88 sat out battle. Southern airfields should be open to air at start (if they were I missed it, I looked)

Moscow
What's with all the mud, if failure ends the campaign it will be lost on luck as endless mud turns prevent movement and successful attacks. Also after the rains and a few days of mud the ground froze in late Oct. allowing free movement till the snows came. At least Ju88 was back.

General obs. AA guns inflict losses at far above historical levels. All the great AA shoots were late war events 70-90% losses too high.

Alt+N to rename units. Undocumented hotkey.

I did what with who and where? lol

Norway is a pain in the ass, probably the two most important things you need to get a win out of that scenario is paratroopers(definitive scenario for abusing bad weather invulnerability) and moving units adjacent to enemy cities at any cost to prevent the inevitable unit flood.

Kerensky
Someone stated they moved close to Narvik. I assumed it was you as you play at and therefore do the Impossible.


All reviews in, all scenarios played at least twice (2nd Moscow started but not yet completed). Several early ones played 3-4 times each.
Managed not to lose any CORE units till France Pt1. Managed not to crash any air units from fuel loss on 2nd full play through. Still hate fuel rules for air.

Overall I really enjoyed the game.

Visuals will need major overhauls, game looks to be on cutting edge of 1996 graphics. Higher Zoom.

Reinforcement pool (would have allowed my Ju88 to enter on a later turn) needed to mass buy and store units.

More unit & commander background Home Pages ala PG2. These give a RPG feeling and allow players to observe and get to know their CORE units which become quite survivable with experience.

CORE tended towards:
4 Arty; 1x 105, 1x 150, 1x 170, 1x Sturmpanzer aka 150mm SP IG.
6-8 INF/HW with an occasional 1x Pioniere. Some Paras drop in on Narvik, rarely leave alive, never build them again.
6-8 tanks 50% MkIII/MkIV
1 SP AA

Air takes time to build up
2-4 Bf109
1 Bf110
1 Ju87
1 Ju88

Thanks for some GREAT feedback! I really hope that we'll have more feedback like this in the future. Game rules are important, but I think most players will not even notice some of the more obscure nuances in the rules. Scenarios, on the other hand, are very important for fun play, and your observations are very useful to improve them.

One conclusion which I made is that the AI purchase choices should be tweaked, because this is a problem in many scens. We'll also make some other tweaks. For example, the weather in Moscow should be tweaked a little bit I think.

I've finished all scenarios. 93 play through in red.

To play quibbles:
Planes crashing to fuel loss. Nonsense mechanic.
Heavy Flak popping up like weeds. Their Hard/Soft defenses need cutting except 88's. This was present but less annoying

Game Function Quibbles (I expect many are planned)
Refuel and END TURN buttons need to be placed further away from another. YES
Core Group needs a HOME PAGE ala PG2 so players can visit their units. YES
Can't edit unit names (or I'm missing how) Kerensky set me straight: alt-N
Too much prestige post-victory, in game awards seems good so far. Not an issue in long game
Need a Commanders page, editable name etc. YES
A limit on German tank types might be helpful as all BEST tank Core forces are very a-historical.

Poland: Seemed tough on 1st play through and will seem so to newbs. 2nd, 3rd earned DECISIVE victories. Amazing failed at decisive 1st try, got it on 2nd!

Norway: Probably the toughest scenario of all. Each playing has ended in defeat. Unclear how Kerensky sailed adjacent to northern ports the RN starts adjacent to Narvik and Bodo blocked by 'ZOC' All said and done historically the German's 'lost as they were evicted from Narvik and took it by default after the fall of France.

Problems. Allied Navy should start off-map the Norway invasion was complete surprise to Allies. In addition to Brit troops at Narvik should be French Mountain troops there and more Brits off Trondheim. All should arrive Turn 2. A massive Norwegian Arty piece or pieces should start south of Oslo to engage German Fleet. German fleet needs Battlecruiser unit. Norway should start with no on map troops and need build them on Turn 1. German Para should all start adjacent or over an Allied airfield as landed at dawn to give Germany operating fields day 1. Also Narvik should be only objective in North.
Brits sank 2 transborts off Bodo, one survivor landed and dead by turn 3. Looked grim but RN sailed south removing its gunnery allowing mass para assault to take objectives. RN wiped out by air naval assets. Flak and plane attacks on ships went well. Gained victory, 1st try.

Naval support too strong vs. Land, Air vs. ship too weak, AA too strong.

Finally beat Narvik! About the 4th try.

Arggggh...now names added found out no Narvik or Bodo but Trondheim and Namsos are northern objectives. Puts Allies in more favorable light, this info. Sigh!

France Pt1
Interesting situation in that Allies finally have free mobile forces. As usual the no inf but loads of ATG guns/AA guns defense mars endgame. About the same.

France Pt2
Very interesting and very historical feel. Allies look stacked, do some damage than vanish like smoke. Germans then race about grabbing victory cities until......As usual the no inf but loads of ATG guns/AA guns defense mars endgame. Lost much of Core killed or weakened. Allies did their usual tough at 1st then melted away. Still tough as was very poor on Prestige till end game.

Sealion
Whatever that is, other than vs. Poles my methodical 'reduce everything' offense never gets decisive victories nor can I even visualize how one does. (Not a game flaw per se, but mine) Nope didn't get one yet.

Greece
The first easy scenario. Allies fold quickly. Athenian bottleneck slows me down tremendously. Since I don't want Paras in my core I don't see away around quickly eliminating the bottleneck. Used Para that had survived from Norway and took south and cleaned up North which for some reason was tougher. South seemed weaker too.

Brest-Litovsk
Good balanced battle. As usual the no Inf but loads of ATG guns/AA guns defense mars endgame. Pretty much the same

Kiev
Got a DECISIVE VICTORY on 2nd play. Marred by startup area too small to fit all CORE air units so my Ju88 sat out battle. Southern airfields should be open to air at start (if they were I missed it, I looked) Same results same airfield problems, my force was 5x Bf109, 1x Do217, 1x Bf110, 1x Ju87R.

Moscow
What's with all the mud, if failure ends the campaign it will be lost on luck as endless mud turns prevent movement and successful attacks. Also after the rains and a few days of mud the ground froze in late Oct. allowing free movement till the snows came. At least Ju88 was back. Much easier as I got good weather, though lost battle when rain grounded LW on last turn. But camp. continued so no gripes....would have liked 1 more turn!

Stalingrad. too easy as Red AF small, my force equipped with MkIVG's. Only sheer size was an obstacle but got victory, Russ need more of everything. Was stymied by a KVI with no ammo that refused to doe despite full Korps and LW attacks over 10 turns. Port bug annoying.

Kursk was way too easy, no Red AF, small map, not enough Reds. Foeced to split Core into 3 fronts though made the start interesting. No Elephants yet it appears or Hs129's.

Moscow '43 again light on Red AF. Battle relatively easy, some pesky KVI's about but vaporized by my Panthers and Tigers. Won Decisive Victory.