D-Plus Three and Counting

Two and a half hours of sleep last night, then *SPROING!* wide awake. I put a pot of coffee on and booted up some Steel Panthers: World at War. Jon and I discovered that when playing solitaire battles against the computer, most times the Axis side gets cheated out of points. This doesn't make much sense since a Meeting Engagement should be between two equal forces, quantity/quality-wise. I tried a USMC v. Japan engagement and the Japs got a third of the points for purchase. I fixed it by setting the Preferences to the same point totals and bought the Japanese equipment myself...then I cleaned their clock honestly with good ol' Detroit steel and Parris Island grit. Gotta try Germans v. Soviets later to see whether I get a fairer fight than the last few times I played.

Before we figured this out, Jon and I did our customary random selections for both sides and conditions; we played the Czechs getting assaulted by Republican Spain in 1946. We were expecting lotsa killer German-bought equipment to come at us, but all we faced were light artillery, cavalry and bicycle units! We swatted them aside and were disappointed to see that that was all the computer had bought. It's a great game, and should be even more enjoyable now that we know what the bugs are.

Update: Hey, it sure helps to read the manual included as PDF files! I discovered the new Overrun (Alt+O) and Melee (Alt+M) commands: for crushing the enemy in the same hex using armor or infantry, respectively. I love the sound of Tommies squished under the treads of my Panzers! I did an Afrika Korps meeting engagement; I gotta buy for him next time because all I encountered were armored cars and dogfaces. You never forget how much fun 88s are in the direct fire role!