Well major you have gone off on your normal blame everyone else tangent like normal. Even your allies had had enough of you blaming everyone else, so cut it out.
This is not a blame game for anyone. I think nolan is just frustrated that you pour blame on him when you shouldnt. This is about learning for all. Im sharing information with others such as Joel, Jh, BB, Gunny and so on. This is so other players can read what happened in our games as its the only one to reach 44. They can see whats worked, what hasnt, what strategies a may or may not work. No point repeating plans that already failed.
At then end of the day major, dont read my posts, No one forcing you to.
My post was a factual non proganada non boasting post on the facts of the game. This is so others player who may be playing these nations can read and see the errors or successes of others so there not repeated or can be emulated. You know so people can actualy learn and improve, or do you object to that as well. your the first person to criticse some one becuase of there lack of experience in game. So let people learn.
So please dont come here and start blaming me and carrying in like a child.
The only part of your posts which made any sense was the airpower in the west. This can have some inpact but not the impact your decribing, not against a german player who was more then prepared for it anyway. As ive said many times to faced not more the 60% of the luftwaffe at any one time with the rest in france or helping my minors. So i tried to keep it realistic from my side with large airforces and large tank and infantry forces in france for the whole game.
Another apsect which Nolan hit on was our huge forces. The Axis as a team worked very hard together to maximise our manpower use fully. So spain, Italy tried to build as many infantry as possible to which to fight the UK/US in africa and to asist in Russia. Lets look at the numbers.
Germany had over 240 Infantry it self. Italy added about 80+ Divisions and Spain about 40+. These are just the forces in Russia from the major powers. Add on top of this Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian and thats another 60+ divisions. So thats around 440 Infantry divisions alone, add on this tanks from all parties as well. So how you ever thought 300 infantry was ever going to hold is beyond me, espicaly when in 1943 all these division are fully teched.
On top of this Italy and Spain could field about 150 Divisions in Africa and Persia, which has nolan said suprised him greatly at our strength in numbers. Add another 100 infantry protecting the west with at games end 18 Panzers positioned to defend all beaches. That 18 tanks divisions that never saw action in the east. Also there would still be the same forces in Russia as there is no and perhaps more. Most of those 150 divisions in Ethiopia and Persia would hav been on beaches in the med/libya. There is no need for 100 more divisions in the med, what you need 250 divisions in the med, what a joke. If Nolan hadnt invaded ethiopia and persia there would have been over 500 axis divisions in Russia another 70 division on top of what your facing at our peak strength.
This is pure maths, you do not have the numbers. It required 120 Uk divisions in Russia to hold, which bacisly made up the difference of 300 Russian and 440 Axis divisions in the east. In hindsight it seems a figure of about 400 infantry with the same tanks and aircraft that you currently have is what is needed. Maybe you spend to much on transport planes and bombers in the early years. Maybe it better to wait till after 1943 to build these once the ground war is stable. But how this would be done i do not know as im no expert on russia. But its clearly a case of not enough forces. When the Axis ifthey wanted to can field 500 Divisions in Russia, 100 in africa and 100 in france and you have less then 300 divisions on the russian front, well you dont have to be a genius to figure out your in serious trouble.
Now Germany gets very little help from its allies in terms of tech, they do nothing i need. All italy does is infantry and they will continue to co-ordinate our techs wether allied or not in 36. Even in our current games in DD the axis will have 43 infantry in 42 as thats they way we have planned it. Of course spain and italy are strengthened by joining early with there techs. Assume they didnt join until 1939 after war, its now 4 years past that point and they would have all the major techs of infantry/armour that they have now. They would also have the same size forces as that was our plan to maximise our manpower and just roll the dice and hope we didnt run out which we didnt. Our manpower grew faster then we used it. In my opinion if i play russia in the future i would use the plan of having a much larger infantry army at the start of war with perhaps less IC with the same airforce and tanks.
That is similar to what i do as germany, i maximise the forces i can build for russia, i dont bother with IC has it takes to long to get the benifit from it. Its even more important now in DD as all your techs, slider and minsiters affect your serial builds so germany with these big builds will have even more forces come 1941. So if russia sits there and builds lots of factories, good luck to you as your gonna get spanked.
As for this current sunday game well it was a very close and hard fought operation so far. First we had Paris with lvl 9 forts, which took a few months to destroy with the whole french army there. That alone took 70 Hungairan manpower. Then we had the many failed assults on gibralter and alexandria which cost us dearly. The allies where crowing how they had beaten us and they had NEARLY. The axis only had time for last ditch all out assult on both targets before time would run out. Luckly for us we just won both of these battles. It only turned into a route once we had brocken through. Also the Allies had equal number of forces in Egypt and Africa as the axis if not more. So to say we massive out numbered them is wrong. It was a situation which favoured the allies and we had been given a few bloody noses, only a huge last effort got victory. Had we failed the med would still be open.
Another fact, Italy had only 6 Tansports in which to mve German 7 Hungairan forces to africa. But we were able to move our forces unhindered. If your going to allow your enemy to move where they please you have no right to complain after they belt you in that same area, you allowed it to happen.
Joel is in the position that basicaly he should be in 41, getting the crap kicked out of him. Russia is ment to nearly collapse in 41 and only a good effort will prevent that. Hopefully joel will be able to hold and set himself up for a good fight in 42 and beyond. But it is my ipinion and not advnice (make sure you read this major MY OPINION) that the USSR spends way to much on IC and not enough on acutaly military forces to defend themselves with. I think of it as like build IC as UK in the first year its sucide. 2 years IC as russia is more then enough any more and your hopping the germans dont crush you in the first year to give you time to recover.
On the issue or persia, there is no grounds here for complaining. The allies do not start with persia as an ally in 36. They deliberalty brought them into there alliance to get the advantage of strategic redploying from Africa to India quickly. You cannot now cry becuase it has been lost and now the axis are using it for there advantage. Its absurd to think the allies can use persia to there advantage but the axis must be forbidden from doing the same. If the allies abandon Persia then russia suffers. Jh already said it was a mistake and hopefully the allies can fix it. Until then its just tough luck you cant have your cake and eat it as well.
Another point i think alot of people seem to be worried about is TC. They wont build more units to go over there TC. My opinion is #$@* the TC im going to build every unit i need and more. At a few times in Russia my TC was like 1400/600. This however barly had any effect on my offensives, i prefer numbers. It is also alot easier to go massively over your TC is your playing on the defensive. Some thing to keep in mind for the future.
Anyway i think joel will recover, bad wether is just around the corner.
) about the large Axis forces deployed outside the USSR in the flexi game. One of the things that surprised me in the game was the huge reserves the Axis were able to deploy outside the USSR against the Allies. In no way were the Axis stretched by the war in the East against the Red Army (and the best of the British). When Patton 1st Army Group (only 10 divs then) first deployed into Africa/Mid East in mid 1941 I was taken aback by the masses of troops the Axis were able and willing to deploy against Allied counter attacks in the area. But as I said at the time better the Axis fighting the Allies in the Mid East and Africa than sending more of their troops to fight on the East front.
