World War II Scenario

[Caesar the Great]

after a renewed post-AP exam obsession with civ 2 I have found myself playing the world war 2 scenario...

i tried playing as both the allies and russians but i couldn't conquer all the objectives and i can't see what i've been doing wrong...

right now i'm finishing up as the russians, i have 41 of the 69 objectives, the axis are almost finished off, the allies are almost untouched... i've built over 150 tanks throughout the game, never was able to get robotics

i don't know what i'm doing wrong, i turn my sciences off, leave 80% tax 20% lux, the first turns in the game are spent walling the cities near the axis, building factories and around 30 engineers to get railroads up to the far east cities... i constantly demand tribute from all the minor civs, steal techs from the axis, build frieghts... i have about 20 cities building tanks, a few bombers, some diplomats, but i just seem to run out of turns... what am i doing wrong? should i go for britain first, switch to a different gov? go for nukes?

[H Tower]

i don't think you can switch government in that scenario

[Fearless_Mage]

i find it really easy, wit hthe russians get every single cities t oproduce 1 tank, and there you've got a massive army. also get some transports and take out the frence, that will allow you to get the axis in a pincer movement.

[La Fayette]

CtG
If you wish to learn lessons about how to win ww2 scenario, you might find it interesting to read my thread 'Arriba...', which describes how we managed to win the war playing the French, the Neutrals, the Spaniards and the Turks.
I have just given the thread a bump, so you can find it on top of this forum.
I can't resist one piece of advice in the meantime: if you are playing the Russians, your most powerful weapon is the
vet spy.
If you need a tech (eg Robotics), please don't research it,... build a vet spy and steal it .

[Thoth]

You can switch governments in the WW2 scenario, but only when you discover/steal a more advanced government. You cannot switch otherwise.

[La Fayette]

Here is some more advice in order to win ww2 with the Russians:

1) Early game:
You can guess that the Axis is going to attack you with mighty forces. You don't care loosing a few cities, since you have so many, but you should try to make the attack costly for the Axis (which means walls, barracks, vet Alpine troops and non vet fighters, since airports are costly and some fighters should be able to become vet by attacking engineers). Don't build tanks now: the Alpine are just as strong in defence and much cheaper (you wish the panzers to die in front of your alpine troops behind walls, that's all).

2) Mid game:
You mention 30 engineers. Try to build more than 100 instead, then a fat city (size 20+) in the east and another one in the west, with a railroad link between them. Your freight deliveries will be rewarding.
Science at zero, of course, at least as soon as you have discovered espionage. Don't try to attack yet, but don't forget to celebrate after having built enough roads and MP in every city (you can easily check whether the time has come by setting your luxuries to 60% and counting how many cities are ready to celebrate next turn).

3) Late midgame:
Have you got a nice cash-flow (and a few strong industrial cities in the Oural)? Then the time has come. You build 20 tanks and 20 vet spies (main tasks: sabotaging enemy units + stealing useful techs) and you choose city#1. After that, it is mostly building your big army like a snowball (I loose 1 tank and 1 spy , I build 3 of each in the meantime) and rolling over the Axis.

4) Late game:
The beginning of the end is when you get howies. Your main problem is then to have enough engineers close by to build a RR to the city you are planning to attack (howies are so much more efficient with a RR ).

[Scouse Gits]

Listen to La Fayette - he has got this scenario dead to rights...

SG[1]

[Thoth]

LaFayette's strategey seems sound to me.

I have also had decent results playing as the Democratic Russian nation. You'll need to steal/beg/trade Democracy (switch immediately!), then get your cities celebrating while your engineers slap roads and railroads everywhere. I haven't come close to any records with this strat, but it does work if you have experience in waging war as a Democracy. The total war flag is set for the WWII scenario, so there is no senate interference.

[debeest]

A minor (or not) point: tanks are much more powerful than alpine troops, even on defense. Same defensive strength, but tanks have 3 HP rather than 2, which makes for a huge difference in terms of winning battles.

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by debeest
A minor (or not) point: tanks are much more powerful than alpine troops, even on defense. Same defensive strength, but tanks have 3 HP rather than 2, which makes for a huge difference in terms of winning battles.

Of course, this is not a minor point at all: winning battles is very important when you wish to win the war.
Thank you debeest.
Still, IIRC my vet alpine behind walls won most of their battles against attacking panzers. Do you remember what the odds are?

[Thoth]

Alpine troops are significantly cheaper to build than tanks. 50 shields vs 80. If you're rushbuying, that's 75g saved. It's been awhile since I played the WWII scenario, but I seem to recall that cash is pretty tight in the early game.