Old Avalon Hill 3rd Reich Solitare Player - 1st Impressions

[rkr1958]

1. Old Avalon Hill 3rd Reich Solitare Player - Old player in both long ago (mid 70's to early 80's) and old in age (49).

2. I much enjoyed my first full game of CEaW. I played both sides (hotseat) with fog of war and oil rules in place. The axis lost decisively - German conquered in late 1943 & the Italians in January of 1944. I either did a wonderful job as the allies or a cruddy one as the axis. I suspect it's the later

3. I really enjoyed the naval aspect of CEaW. Compared to the abstraction of naval warfare in AH 3rd Reich the naval warfare in CEaW is a game to itself with profound impact on the conduct and outcome of the overall war. I squandered the German navy in a successful but costly invasion of Norway and the Italian navy in trying to reinforce North Africa. I used the German U-boats too boldly and they were easily destroyed by the British navy early in the war.

4. In AH 3rd Reich I used airpower and paratroopers to take Norway in one 3-month turn (not historical but effective). In CEaW the British and French navies ganged up on the axis invasion force and the battleship task force supporting it. Again, the axis were successful but lost their battleship task force.

5. The axis conquered Yugoslavia fairly quickly - 3 or 4 turns; however, Greece took a year. Also, the entire Italian navy was lost in the battle of Greece. The issue was that I could only bring one land unit to bear on an attach again Athens. In AH 3rd Reich I used two or three exploiting armor units with adequate airpower to capture Athens and conquer Greece. In retrospect I guess my major in CEaW was the absence of air support (which was tied up in Russia).

6. The axis got to the gates of Moscow and almost took it. Moscow in my game was equivalent to the historically battle of Stalingrad. After the collapse of the forces trying to take Moscow, the Germans was pretty much in full retreat in Russia for the rest of the game.

7. The troubles in Russia and lost of the German navy allowed for a uncontested invasion of France. Cherbourg fail on the first turn of the invasion and Paris on turn three or four. The German's ran out of oil at a crucial time in Russia and during the Western Allies invasion of France. It took less than a year for the Western Allies to capture Berlin after the invasion of France.

8. One thing I like very much in CEaW was the explicit way that troops had to be transported (e.g., U.S. to the U.K. or U.K. to Egypt) versus the abstract way this was handled in AH 3rd Reich. However, I found out that I could transport troops directly from the U.S. and "invade" French and even Italian coastal hexes. Shouldn't U.S. troops have to first be deployed to the U.K. before being sent to battle?

9. Anyway, I had a very enjoyable game. I now plan to play two games - one as the axis versus the allied A.I. and one as the allies versus the axis A.I.

10. I know I've got a lot more learning to do to play CEaW decently. I've also got to unlearn tactics that I use to use in AH 3rd Reich that don't work very well or are disasterous in CEaW.

11. Thanks again for a great game and one that's truly, "One more Turn Before Bed".

[shawkhan]

C:EAW is a great deal of fun to play, that is for sure.
1.You do have to be careful of oil when playing the Axis. Use rail transport for axis armor, motorized and even air units(easy to overlook this one).
2.Taking Greece should require 2-3 turns at most. You can take Athens with two units. Use naval transport to invade from the coast. Use BBs to bombard as well. Airpower saves time, even fighters can help.
3.U-boats need to be conserved and used en masse where they can help, against the Murmansk convoys (use 6 to surround them) and to whittle away at the British navy wherever possible. The AI does an excellent job of convoying so you have to be cautious.

[Ryben]

What´s the point of playing solo? I´ve tried but it´s not very fun since it´s hard to surprise yourself. You could lose track of some units due the fog of war but you always know when and where you´ll attack and what kind of units do you exactly need to purchase,

[lesthesarge]

What´s the point of playing solo? I´ve tried but it´s not very fun since it´s hard to surprise yourself. You could lose track of some units due the fog of war but you always know when and where you´ll attack and what kind of units do you exactly need to purchase,

The "fun" of solo, is the knowing means every move you make needs to be nearly perfect from a logic point of view

I like solo over playing a f**king moron referred to as the AI opponent And in most wargames the AI is just that, a mental midget.

[rkr1958]

What´s the point of playing solo? I´ve tried but it´s not very fun since it´s hard to surprise yourself. You could lose track of some units due the fog of war but you always know when and where you´ll attack and what kind of units do you exactly need to purchase,

Each to their own. You just have to be "honest" when playing both sides. Growing up I owned and played a lot of AH board wargames (3rd Reich, Squad Leader & Cross of Iron, Victory in the Pacific, War at Sea, France 1940, Stalingrad, Guns of August, 1776, Fortress Europa, Panzer Leader, Panzer Blitz (?) and others). The majority of games I played were WW-II and solitaire. For me it was exploring history in an entertaining way.

Getting back to my second game of CEaW in which I player the axis against the allied AI. I conquered France by May of 1940, which was amazing historical. I was having great success in the Atlantic with subs and BB. Took Yugoslavia and Greece quickly. The Italians took the Suez canal, Port Said, Syria, and the oil fields in Iraq. The axis invaded Russia in the Spring of 1941 and were making great progress with strong forces. Then it happen ... the axis ran out of oil and all went south after that. It was frustrating not being able to move all the mechanized, armor & air units that were available. Even though the axis took Leningrad & Moscow and made a run at the oil fields north of Turkey, their attack collapsed beginning in the South. Without enough oil to effectively counterattack the axis army in Russia was surrounded and destroyed. A big lesson learned for me was that oil management needs to be a top priority. With oil off I would have easily kick the AI's butt. However, with my mismanagement of oil as the axis, the AI kicked mine. I was impressed by how methodical the AI was in attacking, surrounding and destroying pockets of enemy troops.

[rkr1958]

And by the way ... this is really for the Marketeers at Slitherine ... It was an article at pcworld.com that mentioned the release of CEaW for the MAC that got my interest in this game. I own a PC and not a MAC so I did a google on CEaW and came across your website and this game. Until then I've never heard of either. I purchased the game that night and been enjoying it every since. I'm not a big gamer (don't really have the time) but I can find 30-minutes or so a night to play this one. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the 30-minutes a night has been turning into a couple of hours a night. However, when the Holidays are over and I go back to work and my son goes back to school I'm sure I'll be down to 30-minutes every other night or so. One thing I really like about this game is being able to save at any time during your turn. Thanks for an enjoyable game!

[IainMcNeil]

Thanks - we're glad you are enjoying the game! Make sure you let your friends know about it