This is excellent. Reminds me of an old game I had on my Atari 800 called Eastern Front by Chris Crawford. Considered ground breaking in it's time. Strangely it came in a huge green and white box classed as Public Domain even though you paid for it. I'm usually not good at these sort of games. Too intense for me but so far I'm coping though already lost once. I'm starting to get the hang of it though.
After more than 50 games today I re discovered the Race to the Meuse scenario. While I can beat almost always the AI in the full campaign scenario with either side, today I lost 4 games in a row against Monty, and got a draw in the end (barely). EPIC. I must revisit my strategies because the 1 less day in the fast scenario makes you really hope for a additional armour breakthrough movement, and without it you are screwed. After so many games I can say it's one of the best games I ever played. So easy to learn, so deep but in particular so FUN. I love the fact you can think about your next move for hours, but you can actually take your turn in less than 10 seconds. The fact that almost nothing is so polished and slick is just the icing on the cake. I still have to see what happen after the 23 December....and no two games are equal...if you have any interest whatsoever in war boardgames, don't look any further.
Are you saying you manage to play 50 complete games in a single dsy? The short campaign? How long is a game taking you then? Not that I timed myself but I'm sure it takes around 30 mins if I'm going fast in short campaign - much more on the full one!
LOL no! I meant globally since I got the game. Yesterday I played the full campaign and made it to 26 December with Allies...took around 4 brain melting hours. I must activated the 'grognard mode' AI somehow because since some games the AI became really nasty and it's beating me hard. I lost like 5 games in 50 before, now it's damn hard, don't know why....but I love this.
Oh that's OK then! I know I'm getting old but didn't think I had slowed down THAT much in my internal processing speed
Best place to make suggestions is our forums http://www.shenandoah-studio.com/Forum/. As for the game size, we have a lot of Retina art, the map takes up quite a lot of space.
Were pretty sure there arent, but we havent yet heard back from Apple on the specifics of the issue.
He's not lying, zoom in on some of the buildings as far as you can. I have been playing the game since day 1 and only did this t'other day. It's actually astonishing I'm still playing, very few iOS games hold my attention beyond a few days or a week.
Member Gregorit from the official Shenandoah forums has posted some tips and tricks, thought I would share them here: Gregorit BoB Tip #1: Time Passages One thing I've noticed is people not paying attention to their end-of-day activation timing. What does that mean? Simply, if you're not paying attention, your opponent could get a 'double impulse' which could be quite problematic. From 12/16 to 12/22 the Germans go first at the start of each day. Assuming that the game ends on their move half the time between 12/16 and 12/21, the Germans will get to go TWICE in a row. This is particularly devastating when the Allies have no northern shoulder reinforcements, i.e., 12/19 and 12/21. If a hole gets blown in the Allied line at the end of 12/18 and 12/20, a shrewd Nazi will be pouring through when dawn breaks the next day! Setting up for this move is important, of course, and even preparation doesn't guarantee the Germans will get the last move. Here is where study of the "Time Passages" table comes in handy; my own rule of thumb is to plan for the double impulse when you have an hour or less in the day. (Your German clock says 1700 hours, for those of you insistent on staying on military time.) From the other side of the table, the Allies should be well aware that the initiative shifts on 12/23 so the end of 12/22 is the PERFECT time to try to breach a river line. Last activation of 12/22, cross the river. If given the choice, go into the roughest terrain possible with an elite infantry because you will need to DEFEND that bridgehead! At the start of the next day, your battered river-crossers will take replacements and you should send in another elite unit so that you can hold the breach with two defenders. I've provided examples of both sides being able to take advantage of the end-of-day situation - your mission is to know leverage this knowledge and find some new tactics that can swing the battle. Good hunting! Gregorit BoB Tip #2: Stopping the Unsupplied Meuse Win It has come to my attention that some view it as unethical to win in this game by controlling a space west of the Meuse without having a line of supply. To that I say "Tough Luck". It may be fixed in the next update, it may not be, but either way, if you want to win NOW you need to be able to defend against it. I personally like the gambit as it allows the Germans to go all-out for an early win which seems more in tune with OKW's original intentions. (Grinding out a long game win by picking off stray Allied units with mega-tank stacks is the real crime but that's a tale best left for another day.) Here are my thoughts on stopping the 12/19 "Unsupplied German across the Meuse Win", there are some ways that Allied crybabies can hold back the Nazis from this most "despicable" of wins: 1) Make sure that the Germans can't get a unit across the Meuse on 12/19. That means on 12/17, you need only ensure that the Germans don't get a two-space move (or combat breakthrough). To even threaten to win, they need to reach the Meuse on 12/18, their usual target is Huy. Defending with 2 or 3 steps in Tros Pont on 12/17 is often sufficient against even the craftiest of Krauts. Just be careful not to defend in Werbomont on 12/17 as an easy breakthrough will put German panzers in Huy or Oufeet. 2) Make sure you have defenders behind the Meuse in place at the end of 12/18. Three steps minimum, please. There's still a good chance the river-assaulting tanks will wrest control of Hingeon or Wanzon so have your reserves ready. A useful gimmick I've seen is for the Allies to defend Verviers with THREE units on 12/17, this 'pushes' the 12/18 reinforcement to Liege where it is better situated to defend or counterattack along the Meuse. 3) Finally, if you can't prevent the initial moves or follow-up attacks, don't even try to defend with a two step unit in the open/rough; you should instead have a counterattcking force in place. It needs to be able to reach both Hingeon and Wanze which generally means stationing a mixed armor/infantry force in Wanze. More armor is better, of course. The Allies don't get any reinforcements in Liege or Verviers on 12/19 so don't count on help coming in from Eisenhower. You've been warned, I will breach the Meuse and take the win if you choose to pretend it can't happen. Here's a bonus for you math hounds: Applying the binomial distribution to the combat rules, here's a snapshot of the likelihood of unit with a "To Hit" value of 5, like an elite German armor, inflicting a specific number of hits. For example, a full strength 1st SS (seven strength), is likely to inflict more than four or more hits a surprising 49% of the time. (That's the result of adding the chances of hitting four, five, six, and seven times.) http://www.shenandoah-studio.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=183&start=10
Nice one Emos, I had never considered an unsupplied win, seems a bloody obvious tactic now. I have been seeing a lot of triple stacks on Verviers too, now I know why
I still think its a bit of an exploit myself and the developers mentioned it'll be fixed in the update I believe. However he did provide a reasonable argument to keep that exploit in place! I am getting better on how to use the terrain features of the map, Trois Point is a definite speedbump for the Axis if the Allies can hold on to it in the early game. I also thought I was the only sneaky person who knew about "shoving" reinforcements to better locations
Yeah there are many nuances to BotB that continue to keep me captivated! For example, djflippy just performed a move on me that caught me off guard: My 9th Inf was dug in at Spa looking across the R Ambleve river at her forces massed in Malmedy, daring one of them to make a costly river assault. She obliges by sending the 3rd FJ across to attack AND sends an armor brigade up thru Eupen and cuts across into Spa! Blew my mind, I was "wow that was really incredible"! Fortunately my GIs held back the attack but it was something new I learned
I'm playing multiplayer a lot (it's a fantastic async game) but I still enjoy A LOT single player. AI is very human like, often it's easy (expecially taking advantage of the soon to be patched exploits) but sometimes it's damn hard (and sometimes I still lose). The thing that strikes me more is that no two games are equal....after so many games I still pay attention to every move, nothing is automatic. And Axis and Allies play VERY different. The ONLY thing I would like added is that tapping on the VP you could see the VP thresholds. For everything else, the game is just perfect.
Gregorit tip #3: The Countdown Clock In the 1965 movie there's a opening scene where a German commander is being 'onboarded' to the Wacht am Rhein offensive and he is shown a big clock that indicates that he has 50 hours to achieve his objectives after which point the offensive's chance of victory declines significantly. Well, in this game, the strategic player is also 'under the clock': He must carefully watch the VP "clock" as that tells him whether he is winning or losing. The accumulated VPs might be sufficient for a win on one day but not the next so the players have to ALWAYS pay attention to the VPs. Some key things to think about: * Know your VP cities and how much they are worth. Add those under Nazi control them to the German score to get a feel for where the turn will end. * Units can be worth 2-7 VP - attack or protect them accordingly! * Make your tactical decisions for the turn based on the situation: If the Germans have reached the VP threshold, the Allies need to capture cities/towns back or kill German units of sufficient strength. (VP = strength points originally had). If the Germans are close, make sure you don't let them kill Allied units! Once you know you can survive the turn, start thinking about what you need next turn and the associated VP thresholds. * The VP clock constantly ticks but, unlike the one in the movie, it can go backwards with the elimination of German units. But the wise Allied player will not kill Germans worth 5 VP if the result is losing Allied units worth 7VP the same turn and the loss of a town like Bastogne which yields 2 VP per turn. * Both players need to protect their weakened divisions, do not leave them in a position where they can be eliminated with average luck. Taking it to the next level requires a constant eye on the VP clock - once the players pass the point where the Germans can score an early victory, December 19th, it is critical that EVERY move you make is aligned with the cadence set by the iPad Bulge clock. Rbeyma tip #1: The La Roche Corridor After 20-30 games under my belt I think I've noticed a pattern that will help fledgling Field Marshals. Too often I see panzer stacks bash into Bastogne or up to the Meuse in the North and are easily contained afterwards by the Allies. The Germans need to use their panzers to threaten multiple things at once, and force the Allies to spread out early in the game. Turns 17-20 are critical for this, and one avenue of advance that I utilize to success as the Germans but never seem to have to defend is the La Roche corridor. As long as you are careful to keep a chain together so that you aren't put out of supply, this opens up so much opportunity to attain VPs. Dinant, Marche, and Givet are all open for the taking, and more importantly, exiting the map to the West is poosible here as well. Whenever an Allied player stacks his defense high around Liege and Verviers I go this route. As a side benefit, it becomes easier to envelop Bastogne if you have some infantry penetration to the south. Once you get a stack of panzers in La Roche, suddenly the Allies have a hard time defending this area of the board.
I think I know why Apple is so overcautious. Some time ago (2011) they had "overlooked" some Neo-Nazi music and the "Horst-Wessels-Lied" in the german iTunes store ---> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/8286331/Apple-removes-Nazi-anthem-from-iTunes-store.html# What a shame... Embarassing... And what goes for original WWII footage: Almost every week you have some documentaries about WWII in german TV, wether it is about the "Seewölfe", "Tiger Panzer", "Luftwaffe", "Wehrmacht" etc., etc. So, that cannot be a problem...
I'm no expert but maybe those documentaries could be considered educational and BotB just a game, therefor not able to show the footage. Those that make censorship decisions can be myopic, I have learnt more from BotB than any WW2 doc in years.
"Lied" being German for "song". Yesterday's review of BotB in the Washington Post said: "The simulation overwhelms with a majestic musical score, chatter from the troops, songs from the period ...". That could be a big oops. I'm wondering if Shenandoah ran this past any German speakers before it got submitted to Apple.
There are some games available here in Germany, where you can find original WWII footage as I can remember. I think it was CoD I or II and some others, but I am not sure. Songs are o.k. if they are not restricted by german law. I researched a little bit and found a list of songs, which are not allowed: Forbidden NS-Songs (prosecutable according to german § 86a StGB): Spoiler "Die Fahne hoch! Die Reihen fest geschlossen! SA marschiert..." (so called HORST-WESSEL-LIED) Melody of Horst-Wessel-Lied, under circumstances prominent parts of it,too! "Brüder in Zechen und Gruben, Brüder ihr hinter dem Pflug...Einst kommt der Tag der Rache, einmal da werden wir frei! Schaffendes Deutschland erwache, brich deine Ketten entzwei!" "Durch Groß-Berlin marschieren wir... SA marschiert, die Straße frei..." "Es stehet in Deutschland die eiserne Schar, die kämpfet für Freiheit..." "Es zittern die morschen Knochen... SA marschiert, die Straße frei..." "Ihr Sturmsoldaten jung und alt..." "Siehst Du im Osten Morgenrot...Volk ans Gewehr!" "Sturm, Sturm" (Deutschland erwache) "Wir sind die Sturmkolonnen......wir sind die Sturmkolonnen der Hitlerdiktatur!..." "Hakenkreuz" I cannot assure that this are all restricted songs, there could be more. Maybe this helps in the future. BTW: The "Panzerlied" which was performed in the Movie "Battle of the Bulge" is permitted. It is still used by the "Bundeswehr" (Germany) and the "Bundesheer" (Austria) *Version of 1955 --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzerlied
