OK, so I’d played a few short (relatively) games before, to get a feel for HoI, and now I was ready to play one for real.
** 1936 **
So I choose the USA, a nation with the prospect of six years of peace ahead of it (1936-1941), to practice my research development, diplomacy, and to build my dream military from scratch. Mostly Marines, of course (USMC, 1981-1990), with just enough Navy to transport them around. A bit of Army to protect the homeland, in case Mexico invades or something.
Everything started off quite well, actually. It took a bit of time to figure out the research system, since its basically undocumented, but I eventually got a good enough handle on it to create a basic military. Though I never did figure out how to develop Marines, so I settled on building a bunch of horse cavalry. Not much in the way of military utility, but they certainly are entertaining. I looked forward to seeing if I could do better with them against tanks than the Poles did. I put Patton in charge, since he was basically an old horse soldier.
** 1938 **
Then came 1938, and war in Europe. [Has anyone ever played a game where the AI started the war in any other year? I’ve played three (3) games so far, and the AI attacked every time in 1938. I realise that N<30, so it was not a statistically significant sample, but still, that seems a bit like a trend.]
Germany and Italy attack France, and the victorious Italians blow through the French defences, and reach Paris before the Germans, just like in real life (err…not). [They seemed to do this in every game I played, as well.]
France is gone - no Vichy France this time.
** 1939 **
Next, the Bad Guys turned their attention to the poor CCCP. In 1939, the Germans and Slovakians smash their way into Mother Russia, and by 1940 they had reached the Urals. [Also occurred in every game I played.]
So in 1940, when the United Kingdom asked me to join their alliance, I accepted, and went to war against the Axis. [For some reason, however, the game did not seem to realise I was at war, and I kept receiving no longer relevant historical events like “Lend-Lease”.]
** 1940 **
So now America is at war, and I have to decide where to send my troops. Since for some reason the United Kingdom has decided not to build any armies, the once-again victorious Italians have taken Egypt and the Suez Canal. I therefore decide that North Africa would be my destination, and ship the US Army off to Palestine, where they succeed in blocking the Italian advance. They are actually fighting on both sides, since the Bulgarians have conquered Turkey, and are moving south against me.
Things start to go fairly well at this point. I’ve noticed that the Japanese, who I’m at war with, have made no aggressive moves against me in the Pacific, so I completely remove my forces there. EVERYTHING. There is not one US soldier or sailor in the entire Pacific Theatre of Operations (PTO). The Japanese must have thought it was a trap, because they never advanced an inch [Also occurred in every game.].
I decide that the best way to slow the Italian advance is to choke off their naval supply with my submarines. So I take my entire pre-war submarine force, combine it into a single unit, move it to Malta, and give it to England as an “expeditionary force”. I assume that the British will use it to attack the Italians. No such luck. Once given, they never move anywhere. Ever. I actually give a few different types of expeditionary forces to the British, in the way of experimentation, but none of them ever get moved an inch – so I take them all back. I guess it was a misprint, and I had actually given the Brits “Sedentary Forces”.
** 1941 **
Now it’s about 1941, and I’m frantic to prevent the Soviets from falling to the Slovakians. [Yes, that’s right. For reasons beyond comprehension, the three (3) Slovakian divisions have been assigned control of 75% of Russia. The other two times I played it was the Rumanians. Never the Germans.]
Since the Soviets have not joined the Allies’ alliance, I cannot see into Russia to find out what is happening. [Since the Soviets start the game allied with Mongolia, and two alliances cannot combine, the Soviets rarely if ever seem to join the Allies – as they did in real life.]
I did notice at this point that though the Axis made it to the Urals by 1940, since 1940 they have gained very little ground. So I think I have some breathing room. Time to eliminate some of the contestants.
** 1942, 1943 **
Divide et Impera. My first victim is obviously going to be the Italians. So in 1942, I land my Army (to which I’ve added armour and mech divisions, but still mostly cavalry) in Morocco, and march to Tunisia – crushing all Italian resistance along the way. Then I cross to Sicily in 1943, take it, and begin to move up the boot. In late 1943, the Italians are defeated, and I install a puppet regime. Victory!
** 1944 **
Now its time for the Liberation of France, 1944. My armies have fought their way up the entire length of Italy, and begin to move into France. Since there is not a single German unit in France, I advance fairly quickly, liberating Paris with ease. France is revived, and is again part of the Allies!
As Nationalist Spain is - as always - a full Axis ally, I hold the line at the German border, divert my armies south, and pound into Spain. Spain collapses quickly to my cavalry spearheads. Much to my surprise, control of Spain goes to England, despite the fact that there is not a single British soldier anywhere in my force. Or for that matter, anywhere at all. The United Kingdom has not produced a single ground unit in the war.
So its late 1944, the Germans are pressing on the French border, I’m outnumbered 4-1, there is no British Army, and I’m in desperate need of allies. I’m basically fighting the Germans alone, since the Soviets are doing who knows what. So I decide to take control of the Italian military, to gain some badly needed troops. I exercise my diplomatic muscles, and success!, I’m now in charge of the Italian Army. Sort of.
** 1945 **
Quickly, I begin to rush the remaining Italian units to the front. Much to my surprise, they move themselves back to where they started. Huh? I thought I was in control? Guess again! The Italians, despite granting me control of their military, seem to have other ideas. Every time I move an Italian unit, it reverses course, and moves back to its start point. There will be no help from Italy.
How about help from the French? I’ve liberated their country a year ago, so I’m hoping to see some material support. Nothing. Evidently the French believe I’m doing such a good job, I can finish up on my own. The French have adopted the British “strategy” of refusing to build ground units. They do seem to have a single air unit, which buzzes around furiously, doing no doubt heroic deeds. But that seems to be about it.
So what’s the status at the front? The entire German army is bearing down on my poor Americans, but I’m holding out – barely – in the Maginot line. There is still no British Army, still no French Army, and the Italians still will not move. At this point, a significant event occurs – the game crashes to the desktop.
** 2002 **
The timing couldn’t be better. I had been staying over for the weekend at the Great Wall Sheraton in Beijing, and it was just time for their free breakfast buffet to begin. Excellent country, China, I highly recommend it. Wonderful people, really good beer (try Yanjing beer, if you’re in Beijing), and the hotel breakfast buffet is just great. And the Chinese software developers I was there to see really knew their stuff. I was very impressed with the high quality of their development work, and of their highly professional level of their quality assurance testing. Excellent trip, all in all.
Later that day, I got on a plane for home, and – all praise to PC power adapters for airplanes – played a really good, fifteen hour game of EU2.
** 1936 **
So I choose the USA, a nation with the prospect of six years of peace ahead of it (1936-1941), to practice my research development, diplomacy, and to build my dream military from scratch. Mostly Marines, of course (USMC, 1981-1990), with just enough Navy to transport them around. A bit of Army to protect the homeland, in case Mexico invades or something.
Everything started off quite well, actually. It took a bit of time to figure out the research system, since its basically undocumented, but I eventually got a good enough handle on it to create a basic military. Though I never did figure out how to develop Marines, so I settled on building a bunch of horse cavalry. Not much in the way of military utility, but they certainly are entertaining. I looked forward to seeing if I could do better with them against tanks than the Poles did. I put Patton in charge, since he was basically an old horse soldier.
** 1938 **
Then came 1938, and war in Europe. [Has anyone ever played a game where the AI started the war in any other year? I’ve played three (3) games so far, and the AI attacked every time in 1938. I realise that N<30, so it was not a statistically significant sample, but still, that seems a bit like a trend.]
Germany and Italy attack France, and the victorious Italians blow through the French defences, and reach Paris before the Germans, just like in real life (err…not). [They seemed to do this in every game I played, as well.]
France is gone - no Vichy France this time.
** 1939 **
Next, the Bad Guys turned their attention to the poor CCCP. In 1939, the Germans and Slovakians smash their way into Mother Russia, and by 1940 they had reached the Urals. [Also occurred in every game I played.]
So in 1940, when the United Kingdom asked me to join their alliance, I accepted, and went to war against the Axis. [For some reason, however, the game did not seem to realise I was at war, and I kept receiving no longer relevant historical events like “Lend-Lease”.]
** 1940 **
So now America is at war, and I have to decide where to send my troops. Since for some reason the United Kingdom has decided not to build any armies, the once-again victorious Italians have taken Egypt and the Suez Canal. I therefore decide that North Africa would be my destination, and ship the US Army off to Palestine, where they succeed in blocking the Italian advance. They are actually fighting on both sides, since the Bulgarians have conquered Turkey, and are moving south against me.
Things start to go fairly well at this point. I’ve noticed that the Japanese, who I’m at war with, have made no aggressive moves against me in the Pacific, so I completely remove my forces there. EVERYTHING. There is not one US soldier or sailor in the entire Pacific Theatre of Operations (PTO). The Japanese must have thought it was a trap, because they never advanced an inch [Also occurred in every game.].
I decide that the best way to slow the Italian advance is to choke off their naval supply with my submarines. So I take my entire pre-war submarine force, combine it into a single unit, move it to Malta, and give it to England as an “expeditionary force”. I assume that the British will use it to attack the Italians. No such luck. Once given, they never move anywhere. Ever. I actually give a few different types of expeditionary forces to the British, in the way of experimentation, but none of them ever get moved an inch – so I take them all back. I guess it was a misprint, and I had actually given the Brits “Sedentary Forces”.
** 1941 **
Now it’s about 1941, and I’m frantic to prevent the Soviets from falling to the Slovakians. [Yes, that’s right. For reasons beyond comprehension, the three (3) Slovakian divisions have been assigned control of 75% of Russia. The other two times I played it was the Rumanians. Never the Germans.]
Since the Soviets have not joined the Allies’ alliance, I cannot see into Russia to find out what is happening. [Since the Soviets start the game allied with Mongolia, and two alliances cannot combine, the Soviets rarely if ever seem to join the Allies – as they did in real life.]
I did notice at this point that though the Axis made it to the Urals by 1940, since 1940 they have gained very little ground. So I think I have some breathing room. Time to eliminate some of the contestants.
** 1942, 1943 **
Divide et Impera. My first victim is obviously going to be the Italians. So in 1942, I land my Army (to which I’ve added armour and mech divisions, but still mostly cavalry) in Morocco, and march to Tunisia – crushing all Italian resistance along the way. Then I cross to Sicily in 1943, take it, and begin to move up the boot. In late 1943, the Italians are defeated, and I install a puppet regime. Victory!
** 1944 **
Now its time for the Liberation of France, 1944. My armies have fought their way up the entire length of Italy, and begin to move into France. Since there is not a single German unit in France, I advance fairly quickly, liberating Paris with ease. France is revived, and is again part of the Allies!
As Nationalist Spain is - as always - a full Axis ally, I hold the line at the German border, divert my armies south, and pound into Spain. Spain collapses quickly to my cavalry spearheads. Much to my surprise, control of Spain goes to England, despite the fact that there is not a single British soldier anywhere in my force. Or for that matter, anywhere at all. The United Kingdom has not produced a single ground unit in the war.
So its late 1944, the Germans are pressing on the French border, I’m outnumbered 4-1, there is no British Army, and I’m in desperate need of allies. I’m basically fighting the Germans alone, since the Soviets are doing who knows what. So I decide to take control of the Italian military, to gain some badly needed troops. I exercise my diplomatic muscles, and success!, I’m now in charge of the Italian Army. Sort of.
** 1945 **
Quickly, I begin to rush the remaining Italian units to the front. Much to my surprise, they move themselves back to where they started. Huh? I thought I was in control? Guess again! The Italians, despite granting me control of their military, seem to have other ideas. Every time I move an Italian unit, it reverses course, and moves back to its start point. There will be no help from Italy.
How about help from the French? I’ve liberated their country a year ago, so I’m hoping to see some material support. Nothing. Evidently the French believe I’m doing such a good job, I can finish up on my own. The French have adopted the British “strategy” of refusing to build ground units. They do seem to have a single air unit, which buzzes around furiously, doing no doubt heroic deeds. But that seems to be about it.
So what’s the status at the front? The entire German army is bearing down on my poor Americans, but I’m holding out – barely – in the Maginot line. There is still no British Army, still no French Army, and the Italians still will not move. At this point, a significant event occurs – the game crashes to the desktop.
** 2002 **
The timing couldn’t be better. I had been staying over for the weekend at the Great Wall Sheraton in Beijing, and it was just time for their free breakfast buffet to begin. Excellent country, China, I highly recommend it. Wonderful people, really good beer (try Yanjing beer, if you’re in Beijing), and the hotel breakfast buffet is just great. And the Chinese software developers I was there to see really knew their stuff. I was very impressed with the high quality of their development work, and of their highly professional level of their quality assurance testing. Excellent trip, all in all.
Later that day, I got on a plane for home, and – all praise to PC power adapters for airplanes – played a really good, fifteen hour game of EU2.
