Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: toawfan
If I stack transport helicopters, does not increase how far airborne units can move by helicopter?

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ORIGINAL: toawfan
"You will give me Larry's secret battle plans, even if it's an AAR in a zip file 7 MB long." -- A "conversation" that my NATO special forces had just outside the presidential palace in Baghdad when Larry dropped his briefcase and ran for cover.

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ORIGINAL: 1_Lzard
Looks good to me, Larry!

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ORIGINAL: Odenathus

Said it before and probably will again, but Larry is a very experienced player. Given that the Russians are going to get an initial shock bonus that probably magnified his earlier successes in the other game. I'm not claiming that it's a balanced scenario, but you do need to consider the relative strengths of the two players in addition to the actual hardware on the ground, supply levels, etc.

NATO's air superiority should start having an increasing effect as the war goes on, and it will limit the Russian's use of airmobile forces to the first few turns, whereas NATO will still be able to use these assets all throughout the scenario.

Still trying to work out how to install a second version of TOAW that I can upgrade to 3.4 separately from my existing file. Bob kindly posted a screenshot of his TOAW files with some renamed, but I'm too stupid to understand what he's done, goddamnit.

quote:

ORIGINAL: toawfan
Is there a stacking penalty in this scenario? I no longer see the light to the left of some pretty large stacks. Is that a bug in the new patch or by design by Mark in this scenario?

quote:

ORIGINAL: toawfan
I'm sorry, guys, but I'm gonna go on a major rant here after my third consecutive turn of really getting screwed on this combat planner, turn burn or whatever you want to call it. I've never studied a learning curve as hard as I have on this game, even reading the manual three times, to be so snakebit by arbitrary "rules" that nobody seems able to explain in a simple fashion.

Here's the rant I just sent to Larry after turn 7:

I really, really, really, really got screwed in this round. Only got one turn. Definitely had a whole lot of turn that should have been left. Didn't even finish my other combats. Air is completely hung out to dry with almost nothing set for air superiority. I'm screwed royally now. Nothing was set on ignore losses; nobody attacked who was short on movement points; not a single battle lit up more than one icon in the planner.

And the sad thing is that I'm making decent gains; I have the right ideas on strategy; some risky experiments are working and will spread you thinly in Turkey.

I just don't understand at all how you are able to move so deeply into enemy territory. I tried three airborne missions and they were all shot dead before they even got halfway to their destination. I don't understand how to play this part of the game, I guess. Unless it is due to having zero air superiority because I never get the chance to set my air when a turn ends in just one combat. Is that how you can waltz in deep behind my lines and why I get shot down before they've even closed the airplane door?

quote:

ORIGINAL: toawfan
I still want to keep going. I feel like the turn burn is a cheat. I don't even know how to prevent it. I didn't even set any attacks that lit up more than one icon in the battle planner.

You will punish me so badly by leaving units hanging defenseless for three turns in a row and having zero air superiority for three rounds that I think I'm toast in about a dozen turns. You killed all 75 jets at one airport that was surrounded by defenders and you did it strictly by air and not with ground forces because of no AS.

I'm angry at rules that I don't understand and that no one seems able to explain. Bob Cross has posted all kinds of stuff trying to help others in the past; the manual talks all about it -- and none of those teachings is accurately reflecting what is happening with this turn burn. I'm hoping it's just something about this scenario because if this kind of arbitrary stuff happens all the time in games, then I will probably shelve TOAW. Please assure me that it seems to just be this particular scenario because I know you've been burned the same way in the past few rounds.

I don't know what all the point is about showing you how much turn is left, having stars to show you how much combat is planned, having an attack planner that shows only 1 icon lit -- and none of it means a thing. This was so bad that I didn't even get to make all my combat moves. I wanted to resolve a few minor battles and see if I could push farther, knowing there was no possible way that my entire turn would end.

I'm putting this rant on the AAR and let the flame wars begin. I may be very new at this game, but I've paid my dues on the learning curve. I've read everything on the forums that I possibly can. You've given me all kinds of tips. I've read the manual all the way through three times and I read the "What's new" for the second time.

Let's see how long I can last and how much farther I can go because I still pushed you back and made progress even with all this stacked against me -- another reason to believe the scenario gives too much juice to Russia.