Slitherine

Last weekend I was afraid I couldn't play this game because my wife had to babysit and I had to accompany here. But I installed the game there and in the end it was I who was sitting with two kids on my knees and both kids were fascinated by the game. The oldest, 8 years old, insisted of playing the game against me and as he wanted to defend his country the only option was to play the Low Countries scenario as a hot seat game. Also a first for my as I only have played campaigns. I explained how the game was played but on a few questions of him I didn't have an answer. So I will post it here:

As he wanted to purchase new units right away he noticed that all units had a red background. I explained that the red meant it wasn't possible to buy, he had first to loose some units, there were not enough unit slots. Well, after a few turn he had those losses and was able to buy a unit. After that some units had a green background and others a red one. You haven't got enough money (prestige) to buy those. You first have to earn that with conquering cities and airfields. So he bought a Dutch unit. But as the only Dutch city, Maastricht, was now in German hands he could nowhere place that unit, nor a Luxemburg or a Britsh unit. So his question was why don't those units have a red background?

You still can buy the units and have them in reserve, you just can't deploy them. You can probably deploy it later if you take a city back with a unit of the proper nationality. Of course you could as well just buy the unit then and deploy it instantly so it doesn't make much sense but it's certainly possible. So in brief it is possible for you to buy the unit and keep it in reserve so it isn't marked as unavailable. If buying it is useful or not is entirely another topic.

Tarrak wrote:You still can buy the units and have them in reserve, you just can't deploy them. You can probably deploy it later if you take a city back with a unit of the proper nationality. Of course you could as well just buy the unit then and deploy it instantly so it doesn't make much sense but it's certainly possible. So in brief it is possible for you to buy the unit and keep it in reserve so it isn't marked as unavailable. If buying it is useful or not is entirely another topic.

Thanks for answering this, Tarrak. But I assume when a city is first conquered by the Germans and then retaken by an Allied unit the city will get the flag of that Allied Unit? If so it will make perfect sense to have a British unit in reserve. But not a Luxembourg or a Dutch unit. The first cities that will be attacked are Maastricht, Liege and Luxembourg. Most likely the only Dutch unit and the only Luxembourg unit will die. If a city will get it's original flag then a British unit can't be placed.

The city will get the flag of the conquering unit. If you retake a former dutch city with a British unit it will become a British city. So yes in that particular scenario you will have a problem deploying Dutch units for example but keep in mind this scenario wasn't designed for multiplayer in the first place so, while playable in multiplayer, it's not optimal for it.

100% correct for this scenario, but just to be complete, the scenario designer chooses if units can only be bought in cities with their own flag, or in any 'allied' city. There is a selection box in the editor that can be toggled to set this option.

So it is possible to modify scenarios so that any nationality can be purchased in cities with allied flags, in your case it would then be possible to purchase a Dutch unit in a French city. So it depends on the scenario designer; During Afrika Korps you can purchase both German and Italian units as long as the city/airfield flag is either Italian or German.