Hiya,

I came to the Rolling Thunder site, cause I was looking for a big huge space game. When I got to the front page, the picture of the panzer Mk.VI immediately got my attention!

I love panzers. I like jagdpanzers also...

So ignoring the space game, I started to skim through the game description for Victory! Downloaded the rules, and have spent the last four days going over them (I haven't even clicked on the space game yet - go figure).

To me; looks like this is an operational level wargame, set in the WWII era, using an approximation of the european theater for the battleground (Am I far off the mark?).


Couple of questions, if you would please:

- Since the turns are not processed simultaneously, and one must wait 15 days before having another one processed; what is keeping people from ganging up on one country and hitting them multiple times before they get to react?

I've played some PBEM games where turns don't get done untill everybody has filed. Gang ups do occur, and this is one big downer. But in Victory!, if I understand the sequencing, people can get two turns on you even. And this would just utterly devestate a position. I'm aware of the need for alliances, obviously, but if one could not achieve this in the begining, then the game would be a short one for that individual country.


- Since revenue is calculated by the amount of industry and agricultural developement in each province; then the larger countries would have a dicidedly huge advantage over some of the smaller ones. I've counted over 100 provinces in some of the eastern countries, while I have seen some other countries with 10 provinces and less. There must be quite a lot of people who would want these countries, I suppose. How long has anyone waited (to be placed) before recieving one of their top 3 country choices in a game?


Thanks for your time.
Krysia's Krusader

Hi!

Here are some answers:

That is your problem. You have to do some diplomacy to be sure that everybody around you has no time or/and no reason to "take care" of your provinces. You have to find very soon some partners and good total allies. Your total allies are especially important to get information of attack on your provinces and forces before you submit the next turn.



1.) It is always a risk ta accept somebody as an total ally. Last time I made my decision on a couple of emails and i was right. Sometime my decisions are wrong..... then the game is sometimes short but extremely interesting.


The game has a good balance. Of course there are some countries which are more difficult to play then others. The money is a little bit difference but some positions will need more money than others because of the infrastructure they need. More important are the resources and they are well balanced. Nevertheless every country has a resource problem (e.g. Iceland has not oil, northern Russia is short in food ...... most of the countries are short in light metals). The real amount of resources is a function of the IMDL. If you find a large resource potential on the map that does not mean that you will find a large IMDL.
With Persia, USA, Canada and the Russian positions you will have a lot of work with the logistics. The same is true for Iceland, Ireland and Great Britain if you work with large naval distances. A good diplomacy and intelligence is critical for small countries, they may not loose to many provinces with the first blow of their enemy. (If you like to have a short and extremely interesting game choose Switzerland.) Good positions for beginners are medium size countries with a low number of neighbors. (e.g. Sweden, Spain, Morocco, Italy, .... ).


Michael

Diplomacy is a big factor in the early going for most nations. Nations with a lot of neighbors, Germany for example, will usually find their diplomatic efforts to be a deciding factor as it is rare for a nation to withstand multiple attackers for long. Determined and skilled players can, however, hold their ground for quite some time and a key battle or two can even things up fairly quickly.

The processing system for Victory! really drives you toward having at least 1 Total Ally so you can take advantage of the shared intelligence system. Initially all turns will process on or very close to the first day of a turn cycle and you can see situations where one nation will get in two turns before you can respond. Once nations start to spread out though, this phenomenon is greatly reduced (i.e. if your enemy processes on Day 2 of a turn cycle and you process on Day 5 then you'll always alternate turns as long as you both get your turns in on time. If you are processing on the same day, the processing order is random and you can see one nation getting two turns processed before another nation has one.). Intelligence sharing will be a prime driving force in spreading out turns but avoiding same-day processing is a good one as well. It will often work to your advantage but it will be to your disadvantage just as often and not knowing which it will be complicates your planning a great deal.

All in all, Victory! can be a brutal game in the early going as it is first and foremost a combat game. Combat begins on turn 3 and never really stops. If you are not advancing and gaining ground in Victory! then you need to get things turned around soon. Defeating (or allying with) your immediate neighbors is the focus in the early going. Later on you end up fighting the nations (alliances) that have survived the early bloodletting and things just get more interesting

Starting industrial and resource production is the same for all nations for the most part (a little variation here and there). Long term prospects may be better for some nations than others but you start on a pretty even footing. Development of your own industrial and resource capacity is a factor but most of your growth program will involve taking over the industrial/resource capacity of your neighbors and adding it to your own Nation size has pros and cons each way. The larger nations are more difficult to conquer as they usually can trade territory for time - the downside is that they are more difficult to run from a logistical standpoing (i.e. expect to do a lot of railing of production and resources just to manage your own country). The smaller nations are more vulnerable to attack as they usually can't afford to lose any territory at all but they are usually a lot easier to run (i.e. you can organize many of the smaller nations into a single AIC network and avoid a lot of logistics until you start to expand).

The most popular nations tend to be the smaller to mid-size ones with few neighbors (Portugal and Spain are good examples). Island nations can be popular as well as they tend to be a lot more surviveable in the early going (although they are more difficult to grow as well). The larger nations (Persia, the Russians, etc.) aren't as popular due to the logistics of running those nations. When you add pre-game alliances to the mix, of course, it throws a lot of general conventions out the window as those players often try to get a certain combination of nations and the individual pros and cons of a given nation are not as important.

Generally most folks will get one of their top three choices although there is no guarantee. If those choices are all popular nations (and popular tends to shift a bit from game to game) then the chances can be poor. The best bet is always to list all the nations that you'd be willing to play when you submit a registration - that gives the best odds of getting into a given game.

Note that I am also on the verge of setting up the next Victory! game (# 74) so if you are interested in getting into this one - email me a registration asap. If you have any further questions - ask them here or email me them as well.

Take care and good gaming!

Russ

Michael and Russ:

Thanks for both of your answers!

You've managed to pretty well address what I was getting at.

Then, I suppose, from trying to read between all the lines of your answers; that even though some nations have more provinces than others, not all of them will have an IMDL and or, ADL level. Hence the starting amount of revenue will be pretty well equal concerning all nations. I'm refering to section 5.4, Chapter B, in the rules folder I downloaded.


Okay. I'll e-mail a set-up request...

Krysia's Krusader

Exactly, and in fact the bigger nations will have a lot of ZERO population provinces and thus no revenue or production.

Welcome to the game!

I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do. In this time of watercooled multigigahertz graphical supercharged computers a 'simple' game as Vic! is still great fun to play. Only a few computer games come close.

Just don't surrender, ever...

Enjoy!