Too bad you are bleeding dry also.
A true war of attrition.
No decisive battles, just a long gridlock.
Me likes!
Nail-biting stuff! Seems like the Axis war machine is starting to lose a lot of it's momentum. Perhaps the turning point approaches after this new crisis is resolved?
On an AAR-related note: very hard fighting, being pushed back slowly but steadily. But hey! It's October! Any time now the mud and snow will come to your rescue, right?!?
This is the first time with HOI3 that I've seen the AI actually recover a situation. In my previous game (ok back with 1.3) once I stopped them, there was a period of stalemate, then their front buckled and that was it. Well this time the stalemate occurs, there's a juicy Soviet winter offensive to come, a back and forth set of battles all summer of 1942, and (about a year ahead), a fresh crisis brews in both the Ukraine and at Moscow.
In part I've achieved this by fiddling in the save game files to compensate for the production AI getting confused (as per the supply post above), but it does indicate just how close HOI3 is now to really living up to its potential.
Excellent stuff, very good updates, especially the one regarding the defence of Leningrad. Very bloody, intense fighting. Heartening to see such a strong showing from the USSR, hopefully you can continue to do well against the Axis advance. Oh, and...My wish is for you to send me a PM forthwith containing your bank details!
Seeing how loki100 has mentioned several times he's self-employed, and the general state of the world economy being piss-poor (not, perhaps, the best time to be self-employed), I doubt that is going to be the windfall you're hoping for.
well that was more or less the answer I was going to give - like Ireland I'd be happy to communalise my debts ... . Of course the real trade off to being self-employed is I no longer have to take part in, or any interest in, organisational game playing ... well worth the occasional cash flow crisis.
I must commend you on your selection of photos: I'm sure you put a lot of time into finding the right ones, but you make it look easy - period and story-appropriate pictures that really enhance the writing. The Tigers, the SU-76s and... Oh my God! Is that a woman straddling a soldier behind that Maxim machinegun in the last picture?!**I do apologize. I really do.
I've found a good set of sources from a Soviet perspective ... it helps if you can transliterate cyrillic (thats really all that is needed), but it means you have much more than pictures from a German viewpoint (that since their archives were captured are much more widely available). There is also a bit of fitting text to pictures as well - doing it this way does allow, shall we say, a little bit of poetic license, more than relying on in-game screenshots for the maps etc.
Best regard it as either (a) she knows I've got a major manpower shortage a brewing, so is doing her proletarian duty to produce the next generation of tank drivers or (b) and more likely - first aid? Anyway from the aforementioned site, I've got a few more to entertain you ... including different photographs of Soviet traffic policewomen (I know you like that sort of thing).
The "Battle of ..." events have definitely improved the game: those defined as 'decisive battles' by propangandists on both sides during the war had a big effect, and they had these effects exactly there as portrayed in the game: the home front. Not so much directly on the fighting capabilities.
Well done that man! (and PI)
I agree, at first they irritated me. The text had nothing to do with the game etc. Now I like them, it tends to pop at the sort of iconic battle where you can imagine the good news being trumpeted by any propoganda press (so my victory at Leningrad) or circulating by rumour and feeding into an overall feeling of low morale (loss of Odessa, the Velikie Luki battles etc). As you say its good that for the most part they are indirect, affecting the home front etc.
(playing UK atm) Mr. Churchill hope the bear and the eagle will destroy each other!
In this one, Mr Churchill is holed up in the Shetlands ... judging by today's weather in Glasgow he's running the risk of being blown across to Norway