From: "Michael W.J. Powers Subject: Computerized games: High Command, my review I paid $60 for it, I've been off a while, so you're going to hear it (if you would be so kind). High Command, my review. While the delete all moves deal can be annoying, I've never had to do that much to crush the computer so it isn't really a problem. The A.I. is pathetic, I've never even been threatened by the computer, a real let down (whereas Conflict: Middle East I've never been able to manage at all against anything more than competant Arabs). Even once I tried to force an historic game by moving the French army west (!) to encourage a German steamroller, but no, it sent a few stacks of armor that lost anyway! France cannot fall against the computerized Germany. Declare war on the U.S.S.R. (if you're Axis) in '39, no problem. I don't like the lack of Allied movement until Germany starts the whole thing. It's so frustrating to be the Allies against a computer Axis and sit and wait for the war to start. Once I waited until 1941! I don't know who wrote the manual, but they surely have never actually seen the game. So many errors. I once considered annotating the errors but I realized that I didn't have enough Post Its to mark nearly every page. In addition, the manual's description of combat, diplomatic, and intelligence resolution is confusing at best. I tried computing probabilities of event (diplomatic now) before hand, and the modifiers that have such warnings in the book are inconsequential! For example, if Germany and the Soviet Union enact the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact the probability of Spain's favorable reaction to Axis diplomacy is reduced by one hundredth of Poland's economic value. So what, that's 20/100! Two tenths of one percent! Massive diplomatic outlays, also, have negligable results. If a nation pours 10-20 economic points into a minor SOMETHING should be forced (ref A3R). Also the minor are ten times more likely to respond to the computer than the player. There is no scale of units in play. What is a point of infantry? A division? A corps? A platoon? The complete mouse interface is a drag. The function keys should do something. There are (and this is my biggest gripe) NO COMBINED ARMS EFFORTS! There is an air phase, a naval phase, a ground phase, another air phase, than another naval phase. Wasn't that part of the genius of De Gaulle and Guderian, tethering the air forces to the ground? Wasn't that Mountbatten's breakthrough, combining naval action and ground invasion? It surely isn't shown in the game. Finally, it's annoying to have to allocate half of a nation's economic points to economic growth to avoid suffering SEVERE depressions (when the manual says a point or two of loss it lies). Only half of the points should be available, the other half assumed to go to growth. Oh, and only being able to move 99.9 points of oil and minerals to an industry site is a pain, especially in the U.S. "(various things mumbled incoherently)" -My Bloody Valentine Michael William John Powers fia4@catcc.bitnet p.s. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy playing High Command. A serious consim it is not, though. p.p.s. Don't even get me started about the troubles reconfiguring my system to take High Command... From: O'Hara Walter Subject: Re: Computerized games Much stuff on High Command deleted here: Couldn't agree more.... in point of fact, I just was playing this as the Axis player the other night and was badly disappointed with how quickly I won. I invaded Poland, Denmark, France and the Low Countries in Sept. of 39. I was at the gates of Paris in one turn, I took it (and France) one turn later. Ditto with Poland. At this stage, without diplomatic investment, Italy comes into the Axis. It took me until Summer of 40 to succesfully mount Operation Sea Lion and then I had England quickly thereafter. All this with very little loss. The one thing that dragged the conflict on and on was the limitation placed on naval actions by Gibraltar. I couldn't attack it without attacking Spain (which I still wanted to come in on my side as an ally), so I just concentrated on bombing/invading the UK with whatever I had. I spent a lot of EP's on diplomacy/intelligence between 39 and 40 to influence Spain to jump in, but nothing happened. Ditto with Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia and others. What's the point? With England falling so quickly the game was over, so I went back to the turn previous and declared war on the US. The game was still over after I took the last Brit city. So I went back and declared war on the US AND the USSR and the game continues. The worst part of the manual is the production phase... how in the world do you figure this out? I tried, God knows I tried, to produce a large Airborne unit to assist in SeeLowe, but every time I tried to flood a factory with the requisite components it still said it didn't have enough to make the unit I needed the next turn. I got hang of virtually every other aspect of this game system, but Diplomacy and Production really stink on hot ice. Hoping 3rd Reich on the PC is somewhat better.... Walt PS: I also enjoy playing High Command, but didn't like some elements of it.