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Chuck_D
Aug 25, 2003
Fired up GT Mius Front last night and started my second battle as the Germans at Malinovka. The soviets attacked from the north and south in a pincer movement. My first battle - from the southern thrust - was fought to a draw as I my troops were positioned to pour fire into a small ravine that the majority of the enemy forces used for their route of advance. The second battle - from the north - was one of utter decimation. I had 3 companies of mixed infantry - infantry, some light howitzers, MGs, mortars, and some pioneers. What I didn't have was air cover. The Russians did, though, and the VVS had a field day. At least 10 Il-2s buzzed around the battlefield for a good half hour dropping bombs, firing rockets, and generally laying waste to everything. Final result was a total defeat with 85% manpower losses and 100% territory losses.

At one point, I tried to rush a Marder (my only AFV) across a bridge to shore up my crumbling right flank. It had to cross a wooden bridge over a pond which naturally collapsed just before it reached the far side, immobilizing it. One after another, the Sturmoviks swooped in and blew it to pieces. Cool to watch, but crushing...

A couple questions that I'm hoping someone here can answer:

1. Do pioneers serve any actual purpose in the game other than being a simple infantry unit? I don't see any real way for them to work with mines, or cut wires, blow up bunkers, or anything that pioneers would normally do, so... what are they good for?

2. Why on earth does the game completely undo my deployment when I end the deployment phase? When I hit that button, I can watch the game shuffle all my units around as the percentage counter ticks up to 100. In the second battle above, it moved nearly all of my guns into ridiculously ineffective positions with most of them dug in facing the wrong way.

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ZombieLenin
Sep 6, 2009

"Democracy for the insignificant minority, democracy for the rich--that is the democracy of capitalist society." VI Lenin


[/quote]
DC:B is a great game. I think I would like it more if it covered the whole war, or at least until 1943.

Popete
Oct 6, 2009

This will make sure you don't suggest to the KDz
That he should grow greens instead of crushing on MCs

Grimey Drawer

Gewehr 43 posted:


1. Do pioneers serve any actual purpose in the game other than being a simple infantry unit? I don't see any real way for them to work with mines, or cut wires, blow up bunkers, or anything that pioneers would normally do, so... what are they good for?


I believe pioneers allow your forces to entrench faster on the strategic map, but in battle they function as regular infantry. Not %100 sure about that though.

Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

ZombieLenin posted:

DC:B is a great game. I think I would like it more if it covered the whole war, or at least until 1943.

Nah, a big part of what makes all the DC games so good is that while the basic gameplay system is simple and relatively easy to learn, each map has a specific ruleset that reflects the specific circumstances of each Campaign. For example if you tried to play DC:B into 1943 then the fact that logistics is a big deal for the Germans but a non-issue for the Russians would just by itself cause balance to break down entirely.

Phi230
Feb 2, 2016

by Fluffdaddy

Popete posted:

I believe pioneers allow your forces to entrench faster on the strategic map, but in battle they function as regular infantry. Not %100 sure about that though.

They can clear mines during battle

ZombieLenin
Sep 6, 2009

"Democracy for the insignificant minority, democracy for the rich--that is the democracy of capitalist society." VI Lenin


[/quote]

Alchenar posted:

Nah, a big part of what makes all the DC games so good is that while the basic gameplay system is simple and relatively easy to learn, each map has a specific ruleset that reflects the specific circumstances of each Campaign. For example if you tried to play DC:B into 1943 then the fact that logistics is a big deal for the Germans but a non-issue for the Russians would just by itself cause balance to break down entirely.

Oh, I am not saying you could cleanly flop a 3 hear campaign into the engine without significant changes.

Though really what I want is a game like WiTE with the operational constraints via the relationships and decisions in DC:B.

Drone
Aug 22, 2003

Incredible machine
:smug:


I feel like it's been a hot minute since anyone has asked: what are the grognard gaming options for mobile? I know about the John Tiller stuff for Android but beyond that...?

Galaga Galaxian
Apr 23, 2009

What a childish tactic!
Don't you think you should put more thought into your battleplan?!


williammiller, NWS Admin posted:

Oct[sic] 21, 2018: Greetings! An interim Dev Update here, or perhaps more of a 'special treat' for all you carrier fans out there...

Below is a combined top-view montage of a number of historic (i.e. real world) carriers created in RTW2 by one of our intrepid Beta Team members.

Please note that these were created in the current Alpha version of RTW2, and later iterations of the game may provide some differences/changes/improvements in these designs shown below.


:fap:

Baloogan
Dec 5, 2004
Fun Shoe
god thats hot

Ivan Shitskin
Nov 29, 2002

BrutalistMcDonalds posted:

According to WW2 Soviet doctrine, have your battalion commander do the scouting

I know that high level commanders went out scouting in real life even in the US Army. I have a book about the 29th Infantry Division in Normandy, and it talked about how even the divisional commander would sometimes brazenly walk out in front of the lines looking for Germans, and his staffers would have to tell him to get out of the drat road in full view of everyone.

Pirate Radar
Apr 18, 2008

You're not my Ruthie!
You're not my Debbie!
You're not my Sherry!
gently caress yeeeeeees RTW2

Stairmaster
Jun 8, 2012

the typo clearly means that they're a month ahead of schedule

Phi230
Feb 2, 2016

by Fluffdaddy
It's a message! A secret message!

Deptfordx
Dec 23, 2013

ZombieLenin posted:

I just read D-Day Through German Eyes and it has me this close to dropping $110 on CM: Normandy.

As someone who has already given Battlefront hundreds of dollars—someone please talk me out of it.

Catching up from the past few pages.

FYI, that book is apparently widely considered to be a fake, as is indeed the other books from this publisher.

For example here's an r/Askhistorians take on them.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/6r3s0g/what_is_the_opinion_on_the_last_panther_and_dday/

Deptfordx fucked around with this message at 13:29 on Sep 23, 2018

HerpicleOmnicron5
May 31, 2013

How did this smug dummkopf ever make general?


Hey, I saw people saying UBoot worried them because it looked a bit too simplistic. Take a look here.

Key points:
-Doing everything manual is indeed possible, if they've missed anything out, it should be possible to mod it in.
-There will be 'story missions' - they let you opt in to taking part in the historical operations, if the appropriate conditions are met.
-There is a tech tree, and you can make general strategic level decisions - such as building La Roche, or deploying 'milk cow' sub tenders. Basically, during a campaign you occasionally have control of HQ staff instead of just your u-boat.
-You can also promote your own captain to the HQ staff, and then play as whoever gets promoted - either one of the officers, or a new captain.
-At different points in the war, your rules of engagement will be different, including the prize rules whereby you have to check a merchant vessel's papers and approve the sinking and all that good stuff.
-The devs keep debating on the ability to rescue survivors.
-You can scavenge food and supplies from wrecks and surrendered enemy ships, as well as replenishing from the milk cows.

I'm really hoping they stick the landing, because this just sounds better and better - almost implausibly so.

Galaga Galaxian
Apr 23, 2009

What a childish tactic!
Don't you think you should put more thought into your battleplan?!


Having to follow Prize Rules early on could be pretty cool for adding tension to early war "Happy Times".

skooma512
Feb 8, 2012

You couldn't grok my race car, but you dug the roadside blur.
How do you check the papers?

Galaga Galaxian
Apr 23, 2009

What a childish tactic!
Don't you think you should put more thought into your battleplan?!


Gameplay wise or how it worked historically?

That video showed sending over a party to investigate a missing/derelict U-boat, and mentioning that the officer's skills could effect the outcome. So I could see the same boarding mechanics working on merchant searches.

Phi230
Feb 2, 2016

by Fluffdaddy
Papers, Please esque minigame would be cool

uPen
Jan 25, 2010

Zu Rodina!
Papers Please but also a Catalina is going to murder you if you're not fast enough.

ZombieLenin
Sep 6, 2009

"Democracy for the insignificant minority, democracy for the rich--that is the democracy of capitalist society." VI Lenin


[/quote]

uPen posted:

Papers Please but also a Catalina is going to murder you if you're not fast enough.

Only if its after 1941.

Edit

D-Day through German Eyes. Interesting; my first steps would be to look for the people in those stories and see if they actually existed.

There are very specific names, units, and locations mentioned in those books. Is there, in-fact, record of their service, POW status, and their post-war status?

I believe everyone “featured” in the book were reported to have been captured either June 6th through 9th or during Operation Cobra.

Of course, even if they do exist, and were captured, it will not prove or disprove the veracity of the published narrative, but thats the first step I would take.

Most of the critique actually seems to be aimed at the other book the publisher released.

PS. Outlandish narratives of war experience should not, alone, be evidence the entire book was false. In fact, there are a lot of war memoirs that feature exaggerated recollections.

ZombieLenin fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Sep 23, 2018

pedro0930
Oct 15, 2012
I recently bought Rule the Waves, I don't know much about early 20th century naval development so it's been pretty fun reading up on them. Is there a way to reliably use torpedo? It seems even when I close to range and slow down my ship still takes ages to fire even against disabled ship. I also can't get my destroyer squadron to engage even with flotilla attack order.

Any other tips and tricks are appreciated as well.

uPen
Jan 25, 2010

Zu Rodina!
If you click into your flagship squadron orders you can order a flotilla attack which will tell your destroyers to try to engage with torpedoes. Other than that early torpedoes suck and more often than not they don't get launched and also don't hit.

Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

ZombieLenin posted:


D-Day through German Eyes. Interesting; my first steps would be to look for the people in those stories and see if they actually existed.

There are very specific names, units, and locations mentioned in those books. Is there, in-fact, record of their service, POW status, and their post-war status?

I believe everyone “featured” in the book were reported to have been captured either June 6th through 9th or during Operation Cobra.

Of course, even if they do exist, and were captured, it will not prove or disprove the veracity of the published narrative, but thats the first step I would take.

Most of the critique actually seems to be aimed at the other book the publisher released.

PS. Outlandish narratives of war experience should not, alone, be evidence the entire book was false. In fact, there are a lot of war memoirs that feature exaggerated recollections.

All of the narratives felt authentic (apart from the wonder weapon guy), if blurred by time and unreliable narrators wanting to make themselves look good. But there's still some revelations; for example across both volumes the interviewer notes that there's only one soldier he speaks to who actually has the insight to admit that Germany was in the wrong and the German army was occupying France. If not literally factually accurate on events, I think you still get an authentic viewpoint into the German soldier's perspective from the book.

What really struck me was how so many of the accounts go 'the fight was going okay for a bit but then we got hit by a phosphorous airstrike and everyone burned to death'.

dtkozl
Dec 17, 2001

ultima ratio regum
Anything written in english or german before they opened the russian archives can safely be considered extremely biased propaganda at this point.

Dark_Swordmaster
Oct 31, 2011

Galaga Galaxian posted:

Gameplay wise or how it worked historically?

That video showed sending over a party to investigate a missing/derelict U-boat, and mentioning that the officer's skills could effect the outcome. So I could see the same boarding mechanics working on merchant searches.

How did it work? Show up, check their papers, then politely say, "Okay, we're going to sink you. You can't get away so you should start abandoning ship?"

ZombieLenin
Sep 6, 2009

"Democracy for the insignificant minority, democracy for the rich--that is the democracy of capitalist society." VI Lenin


[/quote]

Alchenar posted:

All of the narratives felt authentic (apart from the wonder weapon guy), if blurred by time and unreliable narrators wanting to make themselves look good. But there's still some revelations; for example across both volumes the interviewer notes that there's only one soldier he speaks to who actually has the insight to admit that Germany was in the wrong and the German army was occupying France. If not literally factually accurate on events, I think you still get an authentic viewpoint into the German soldier's perspective from the book.

What really struck me was how so many of the accounts go 'the fight was going okay for a bit but then we got hit by a phosphorous airstrike and everyone burned to death'.

Funny you mention the Goliath guy. I mean, the Goliath was a very real weapon, but he was the first person I thought of when it was mentioned the book was possibly fake.

I am absolutely not an historian of D-day; however, when reading the book I thought, “I have never read that Goliaths were present at D-day, or that any of the beaches had special bunkers purpose built for them.”

Edit

The “United Europe” thing also struck me, not in the sense it made the book seem false, but in the sense that I had no idea Nazi propaganda painting a “United Europe” under Germany had so much traction with the rank and file German soldiers.

This is mostly because many of the German officers who wrote memoirs, possibly to relieve themselves of the terrible sense of responsibility for the war, and for German war crimes, write about how they knew it was all bullshit, but one did their duty.

Double edit

I read a lot of these for my own dissertation (in Political Theory) about the social character of memory, and how memory at a social level operates such that the past is always in service of people’s identity in the present.

ZombieLenin fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Sep 24, 2018

Galaga Galaxian
Apr 23, 2009

What a childish tactic!
Don't you think you should put more thought into your battleplan?!


Dark_Swordmaster posted:

How did it work? Show up, check their papers, then politely say, "Okay, we're going to sink you. You can't get away so you should start abandoning ship?"

Pretty much. The belligerent is required to approach a ship and order it to stop for a search (this could include neutral ships). They would then inspect the ship's papers (manifests, contracts, list of stops, etc) and inspect the cargo directly. If it was provable the ship was transporting war material or other aid to the enemy, the belligerent is allowed to either take control of the merchant with a prize crew or scuttle it via demo charges/torpedoes/gunfire. However, the belligerent must see to the safety of the merchant's crew (traditionally by disembarking the crew onto the belligerent's own vessel). Of course, if the vessel refused to stop for a search, it could be attacked normally.

These rules were mostly written for the age of sail, you can see how this is wildly impractical for a submarine, especially the requirement about ensuring the merchant crew's safety.

Galaga Galaxian fucked around with this message at 00:49 on Sep 24, 2018

Kickass Harpsichord
Dec 3, 2009

pedro0930 posted:

I recently bought Rule the Waves, I don't know much about early 20th century naval development so it's been pretty fun reading up on them. Is there a way to reliably use torpedo? It seems even when I close to range and slow down my ship still takes ages to fire even against disabled ship. I also can't get my destroyer squadron to engage even with flotilla attack order.

Any other tips and tricks are appreciated as well.

What time frame are we talking here? If you're engaging in the early years when torpedoes are super terrible, you will very seldom see torpedo launches. By the time you have lots of good torps in the late game, your destroyers will be firing huge spreads of them regularly.

wide stance
Jan 28, 2011

If there's more than one way to do a job, and one of those ways will result in disaster, then he will do it that way.

Alchenar posted:

All of the narratives felt authentic (apart from the wonder weapon guy), if blurred by time and unreliable narrators wanting to make themselves look good. But there's still some revelations; for example across both volumes the interviewer notes that there's only one soldier he speaks to who actually has the insight to admit that Germany was in the wrong and the German army was occupying France. If not literally factually accurate on events, I think you still get an authentic viewpoint into the German soldier's perspective from the book.

What really struck me was how so many of the accounts go 'the fight was going okay for a bit but then we got hit by a phosphorous airstrike and everyone burned to death'.

For me, the thing most fishy about D-Day through German Eyes were German grunts referring to the M4 as "Shermans" as quoted during the battle.

The name wasn't really a thing until postwar, let alone be on the tongue of enemy soldiers. Might be an editing/translation thing however.

Hunterhr
Jan 4, 2007

And The Beast, Satan said unto the LORD, "You Fucking Suck" and juked him out of his goddamn shoes
Give me footnotes/endnotes or give me death.

Popete
Oct 6, 2009

This will make sure you don't suggest to the KDz
That he should grow greens instead of crushing on MCs

Grimey Drawer

Galaga Galaxian posted:

Pretty much. The belligerent is required to approach a ship and order it to stop for a search (this could include neutral ships). They would then inspect the ship's papers (manifests, contracts, list of stops, etc) and inspect the cargo directly. If it was provable the ship was transporting war material or other aid to the enemy, the belligerent is allowed to either take control of the merchant with a prize crew or scuttle it via demo charges/torpedoes/gunfire. However, the belligerent must see to the safety of the merchant's crew (traditionally by disembarking the crew onto the belligerent's own vessel). Of course, if the vessel refused to stop for a search, it could be attacked normally.

These rules were mostly written for the age of sail, you can see how this is wildly impractical for a submarine, especially the requirement about ensuring the merchant crew's safety.

I remember watching a documentary recently about the Battle of the Atlantic and in the early parts of the war Germany did to a degree offer merchant crews to board lifeboats and in some cases even towed them close to land where they could safely make their way to shore.

For instance this is form the Wikipedia page for the sinking of Aris (Greek Steam Merchant) in 1939.

quote:

At 18.05 hours on 12 October 1939 U-37 tried to stop the unescorted and neutral Aris about 150 miles west of Achill Head, but she did not stop and used the radio because they had transported war materials to Britain according to the master. The crew abandoned ship in two lifeboats after a round hit the funnel at 18.20 hours. At 19.45 hours, the U-boat fired one G7a torpedo which passed underneath the keel. She was sunk by a second torpedo after shells fired into the waterline did not sink the ship. The U-boat then towed the lifeboats 80 miles towards the coast of Ireland before leaving the area. The survivors were picked up by the Danish motor merchant Sicilien and landed at Stornoway.

Later in the war though as convoys were escorted in large numbers this practice obviously stopped.

Early in the war it wasn't always practiced either, some captains and senior Uboat commanders forbade rescuing of crew as it would put the Uboat in a vulnerable position.

In fact the famous Laconia Incident in which a Uboat with survivors on it's deck from the sinking of a British troop ship were attacked by a B-24 killing many of the Laconia survivors and forcing the Uboat to submerge and abandon the survivors. This was a turning point for Uboat command and forbiding rescuing of sunk ships via the Laconia Order.

quote:

The event changed the general attitude of Germany's naval personnel towards rescuing stranded Allied seamen. The commanders of the Kriegsmarine (German navy) were shortly issued the "Laconia Order" by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, which specifically forbade any such attempt, thus helping to usher in unrestricted submarine warfare for the rest of the war. Neither the US pilots nor their commander were punished or investigated, and the matter was quietly forgotten by the US military.

Jobbo_Fett
Mar 7, 2014

Slava Ukrayini

Clapping Larry

ZombieLenin posted:

Funny you mention the Goliath guy. I mean, the Goliath was a very real weapon, but he was the first person I thought of when it was mentioned the book was possibly fake.

I am absolutely not an historian of D-day; however, when reading the book I thought, “I have never read that Goliaths were present at D-day, or that any of the beaches had special bunkers purpose built for them.”

Edit

The “United Europe” thing also struck me, not in the sense it made the book seem false, but in the sense that I had no idea Nazi propaganda painting a “United Europe” under Germany had so much traction with the rank and file German soldiers.

This is mostly because many of the German officers who wrote memoirs, possibly to relieve themselves of the terrible sense of responsibility for the war, and for German war crimes, write about how they knew it was all bullshit, but one did their duty.

Double edit

I read a lot of these for my own dissertation (in Political Theory) about the social character of memory, and how memory at a social level operates such that the past is always in service of people’s identity in the present.

You should read "Soldaten: On fighting, killing, and dying". Then, as a thought experiment, question why the authors chose the selected interviews and excerpts over all the other potential candidates, and how that affects the main topic of the book.

For the Goliath, theres at least one famous photo of a goliath + GIs on a beach. Hard to tell if it was used in combat, but it seems unlikely that they would've dragged it there for a photo op. The tracks didnt work well in the sand, iirc.

And the united europe is kind of a thing, yeah, but, unless im mistaken, is more about it being "united" (re: Conquered) by Germany.

pedro0930
Oct 15, 2012

Kickass Harpsichord posted:

What time frame are we talking here? If you're engaging in the early years when torpedoes are super terrible, you will very seldom see torpedo launches. By the time you have lots of good torps in the late game, your destroyers will be firing huge spreads of them regularly.

It's very much the earlier part of the game. Now that I actually finished one playthrough I see torpedoes are deadly and I see plenty of launch if the situation is right.

I managed to win a small war early on against Italy, but by 1912 my ships are just so badly outgunned. My opponenet's are coming out with BB that has literally over 10000 tons more displacement than the largest ship I can build. I guess I should've focused on light force instead of trying to compete in the 20th century naval arm race.

Galaga Galaxian
Apr 23, 2009

What a childish tactic!
Don't you think you should put more thought into your battleplan?!


pedro0930 posted:

It's very much the earlier part of the game. Now that I actually finished one playthrough I see torpedoes are deadly and I see plenty of launch if the situation is right.

I managed to win a small war early on against Italy, but by 1912 my ships are just so badly outgunned. My opponenet's are coming out with BB that has literally over 10000 tons more displacement than the largest ship I can build. I guess I should've focused on light force instead of trying to compete in the 20th century naval arm race.

You can always build in foreign yards. Just hope they don't confiscate your toys. What nation are you playing? That can drastically effect things.

Also, if you have archives access, you can always poke through my old Rule the Waves thread. At least I think it needs archives access.

Galaga Galaxian fucked around with this message at 07:15 on Sep 24, 2018

Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

wide stance posted:

For me, the thing most fishy about D-Day through German Eyes were German grunts referring to the M4 as "Shermans" as quoted during the battle.

The name wasn't really a thing until postwar, let alone be on the tongue of enemy soldiers. Might be an editing/translation thing however.

All the interviews took place in the 50/60's. The guy went back and tracked down people he'd met while doing his propaganda tour of the Atlantic Wall.

ZombieLenin posted:

Funny you mention the Goliath guy. I mean, the Goliath was a very real weapon, but he was the first person I thought of when it was mentioned the book was possibly fake.

I am absolutely not an historian of D-day; however, when reading the book I thought, “I have never read that Goliaths were present at D-day, or that any of the beaches had special bunkers purpose built for them.”

Edit

The “United Europe” thing also struck me, not in the sense it made the book seem false, but in the sense that I had no idea Nazi propaganda painting a “United Europe” under Germany had so much traction with the rank and file German soldiers.

This is mostly because many of the German officers who wrote memoirs, possibly to relieve themselves of the terrible sense of responsibility for the war, and for German war crimes, write about how they knew it was all bullshit, but one did their duty.

Double edit

I read a lot of these for my own dissertation (in Political Theory) about the social character of memory, and how memory at a social level operates such that the past is always in service of people’s identity in the present.

Oh I'm not talking about Goliath guy (that's entirely plausible, they were in production from 1943), I'm talking about the secret superweapon guy in Vol 2 who claims he was in a special mortar unit that had a fuel-air bomb but they just got attacked moments before they were about to strike the staging locations for Operation Cobra.

Class Warcraft
Apr 27, 2006


Alchenar posted:

All of the narratives felt authentic (apart from the wonder weapon guy), if blurred by time and unreliable narrators wanting to make themselves look good. But there's still some revelations; for example across both volumes the interviewer notes that there's only one soldier he speaks to who actually has the insight to admit that Germany was in the wrong and the German army was occupying France. If not literally factually accurate on events, I think you still get an authentic viewpoint into the German soldier's perspective from the book.

What really struck me was how so many of the accounts go 'the fight was going okay for a bit but then we got hit by a phosphorous airstrike and everyone burned to death'.

ZombieLenin posted:

Funny you mention the Goliath guy. I mean, the Goliath was a very real weapon, but he was the first person I thought of when it was mentioned the book was possibly fake.

I am absolutely not an historian of D-day; however, when reading the book I thought, “I have never read that Goliaths were present at D-day, or that any of the beaches had special bunkers purpose built for them.”

Edit

The “United Europe” thing also struck me, not in the sense it made the book seem false, but in the sense that I had no idea Nazi propaganda painting a “United Europe” under Germany had so much traction with the rank and file German soldiers.

This is mostly because many of the German officers who wrote memoirs, possibly to relieve themselves of the terrible sense of responsibility for the war, and for German war crimes, write about how they knew it was all bullshit, but one did their duty.

Double edit

I read a lot of these for my own dissertation (in Political Theory) about the social character of memory, and how memory at a social level operates such that the past is always in service of people’s identity in the present.



I haven't read the book y'all are talking about but I have read several memoirs of various Germans who either fought or commanded troops in WW2 and it was pretty common for them try to recast the entire conflict by appealing to anti-communist sentiments that flourished during the 50's/60's as the Cold War took off. Like "yeah, things got a bit out of hand, but in the end it was all just a noble crusade to stop communism!"

von Manstein, for example, lays the blame at Hitler's feet for whole thing mess all the while coming up with excuses and arguments for why they had to go out and conquer all of Europe. Oh, and of course he pretty much glosses over the millions of warcrimes committed around him and under his command.

Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

Class Warcraft posted:

I haven't read the book y'all are talking about but I have read several memoirs of various Germans who either fought or commanded troops in WW2 and it was pretty common for them try to recast the entire conflict by appealing to anti-communist sentiments that flourished during the 50's/60's as the Cold War took off. Like "yeah, things got a bit out of hand, but in the end it was all just a noble crusade to stop communism!"

von Manstein, for example, lays the blame at Hitler's feet for whole thing mess all the while coming up with excuses and arguments for why they had to go out and conquer all of Europe. Oh, and of course he pretty much glosses over the millions of warcrimes committed around him and under his command.

Actually many of the interviewees in this book admit on reflection (remember the interview happens in the 50/60's) "Yeah we know now this was nonsense, but at the time we really did buy into the United Europe propaganda". The interviewer, who was a German propaganda writer during the war, actually reflects that he'd completely forgotten about the United Europe line and that nobody refers to it anymore.

I suppose the other interesting point that emerges from the book is that the guy who clearly bought least into the propaganda was the guy who was responsible for writing much of it.

Kickass Harpsichord
Dec 3, 2009

pedro0930 posted:

I managed to win a small war early on against Italy, but by 1912 my ships are just so badly outgunned. My opponenet's are coming out with BB that has literally over 10000 tons more displacement than the largest ship I can build. I guess I should've focused on light force instead of trying to compete in the 20th century naval arm race.

As Galaga Galaxian said, you can build in foreign yards, or it may be an issue of prioritizing dockyard expansion. At least in the early game, I prioritize dockyard expansion over almost anything else, which is probably unnecessary, but I always have the opposite problem from you (namely, I have to restrain myself from building ridiculous 52,000-ton monsters when everyone else is still on 34,000-tonners). A happy medium might be aggressively expanding your yards until you can make 30 or 35,000-ton warships and then letting private industry do the rest.

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Lum_
Jun 5, 2006

Drone posted:

I feel like it's been a hot minute since anyone has asked: what are the grognard gaming options for mobile? I know about the John Tiller stuff for Android but beyond that...?

As you no doubt gathered from the lack of response, very little. More for tablets because the phone just isn't a really good platform for strategy gaming. For example, this one is a mobile clone of Hearts of Iron 2 (it was a prototype they passed on) (it's not very good)

https://www.pockettactics.com/reviews/review-strategy-tactics-world-war-ii/

Probably the best are the Hexwar series but they're still not that good.

https://www.hexwar.com/games/?download_category=iphone-ipod

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