Poll. Maps and scenarios editor

Some games unfortunately take a few days to get going in terms of players joining. And after day 5, nobody would want to join. Maybe we should pause games from starting for 1-3 days, or until it's half-full, unless the host chooses otherwise.

Diabolical wrote:

but the winter conditions gave the Soviets just enough of an edge to survive long enough for the factories in the east to successfully bring about a massive number of tanks to the front.

the factories were evacuated as the German forces advanced, i.e. in summer and autumn. The winter in 1941 was early, the first frosts were in October. And they only helped the Germans to attack in off-road conditions. The really severe frosts, which incidentally plagued not only the Germans, came only in November-December. Well, we must understand that it is impossible to fully evacuate and bring to production the entire huge plants in a few months. It was a titanic work. As for the front and the victory under Moscow, it was determined by the transfer of large reserves from the Far East and Siberia, after receiving foreign intelligence reliable data that Japan did not enter the war in the near future (yes, such a threat over the USSR constantly hung, in 1939 there were already major military clashes with Japan - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Khalkhin_Gol )

Lukenick wrote:

Some games unfortunately take a few days to get going in terms of players joining. And after day 5, nobody would want to join. Maybe we should pause games from starting for 1-3 days, or until it's half-full, unless the host chooses otherwise.

ronon_ wrote:

As for the front and the victory under Moscow, it was determined by the transfer of large reserves from the Far East and Siberia, after receiving foreign intelligence reliable data that Japan did not enter the war in the near future (yes, such a threat over the USSR constantly hung, in 1939 there were already major military clashes with Japan -

I stand by my statement, that Moscow would have fallen and been made into a secondary capital for Germany to command an empire that would have steadily spread across the steppes and Siberia to meet up with a reinvigorated Japan while more German forces would have streamed down into the Middle East, supplanting Britain's control over much of their overseas empire. If Moscow fell, then all of the United Kingdom and it's Imperial underlings would be next, except maybe for Canada....and that only if a negotiated armistice were signed between USA, Japan, and Germany.

In other words, the Russian winter saved the world from an Axis victory. THAT, you can credit our Almighty God for. And though the devil is considered the "lord of the air", in actuality, only God can control the wind and the seas. And though the weather is often left to operate on it's own — naturally — God intervenes where he will and it's very likely that he intervened on the part of the Russian winter. Though that act would save one godless nation from another godless nation in the nearer future, that same act's longer-term reciprocal effect would save the world — as a whole — from universal totalitarianism.

Today, the majority of the world can — and should — thank God for our continued freedoms from tyranny. Sure, it rears its ugly head hear and there, and there are totalitarian regimes in disparate places. But thanks to God's divine intervention in the Christianized parts of the world — mainly by and through America (though not exclusively) — morality and justice are spread throughout much (if not most) of the world.

For those nitpickers who'd try to say that things aren't so good as I espouse them to be, I would say only that, unfortunately, thanks to our own failing morals as a people, many in the "west" — including America — are falling from grace, as it were, and we are giving up our place as champions for God. We are losing God's hedge of protection by turning away from him; by embracing sin-filled lives, full of violence, immoralities, perversions, and lawlessness....all kinds of sinful acts through rampant sexual sins, wanton societally-sanctioned murderings of children via abortions, widespread vitriolic hatred of law enforcement, and — most of all — a modern phenomenon of a patent rejection of God and his ways in many (if not most) public forums....along with many other lawless and godless behaviors,

Anyway, had God not intervened in WWII, nobody would be free, today. The Church would be persecuted fully, just as the Jews were, and so too would be Islam, Hinduism, and various others of the world's religions. Only state-shinto-styled worship would be permitted, with Hirohito, Hitler....and maybe Mussolini....as it's founding gods. Imagine if Hitler were today-revered as a deity...his body lying in state in a glass coffin on display — like Lenin's — but with mandated worship by a modern world-wide Nazi Party.

I, for one, am very very glad that we don't live in that world. Aren't you?

Diabolical wrote:

ronon_ wrote:

In other words, the Russian winter saved the world from an Axis victory.

nevertheless, this is a historical fact, 18 well-equipped and trained divisions were redeployed near Moscow in autumn 41 and played a decisive role in saving the capital.

There is a legend in favor of a religious background that during the days of the German offensive against Moscow, Stalin allegedly ordered to raise the plane with the icon of the Virgin Mary over the defensive positions. According to the legend, it was the image of the Mother of God that allowed us to change the course of events in our favor.

The alternative story is very interesting, but has no relation to reality. And in fact, the victory consisted of many bricks. But in what I am absolutely sure, the main role in it was played by the soldiers. The losses on the eastern front were huge on both sides, and it was this price that was paid for the victory in the battle and the war.

By the way, why did winter and frosts not prevent the Germans from stopping the Soviet counteroffensive near Moscow? But then, after all, the USSR could have crushed the Nazis as early as 41, taking advantage of their helplessness before the frost).

So if we are talking about frosts (or rather about slush and impassable mud that delayed the onset before the onset of frosts), I would say about the breakdown of the blitzkrieg, about the wrong planning and over-evaluation / underestimation of the forces by the Germans. Yes, the Russians were at home and this helped them fight. What's so surprising about that? What does the divine intervention? It looks like an attempt by the previously invincible German generals to justify the defeat of force majeure circumstances only.

Hm, the German generals probably would not "blame" God, though maybe "providence"...or rather, misfortune. Were they true God-fearing men, they never would have condoned the SS or the Nazi Party or their atrocities...nor their own atrocities.

Anyway, there's always an argument for "What if?" That doesn't negate the reality that God does intervene in the events of man. Sure, the soldiers (either side, depending on your point of view) played their part, but when God acts....he acts.

So true is that principle that, when facing a vastly superior force in the Midianite and Amalekite armies, God had Gideon reduce the size of his army to just 300 men, so that, when God gave the enemy into their hands, the men of Israel would not be able to take credit for the resounding victory. They rightly gave God the glory and His name was in the minds of the soldiers as they won a battle at night....the enemy soldiers slaying each other out of mass confusion at the hands of the Lord!

The details of that event are recorded in Judges chapter 6 of the Bible. It's an example how God makes a habit of doing amazing things with little or no help. He often takes the weakest among us, and uses them to perform great miracles or to make them champions in his name. Another wonderful example is how he takes a helpless victim* and makes him a prince — a Prime Minister, in essence — second in power only to Pharaoh in all of Egypt. He takes all of us sinners and makes us saints, if only we accept his Lordship over our lives.

It is no big thing for the God of the universe, who takes an interest even in the lives of individual men, such as you and me, to cause a winter snap to turn the tide of war. Is it any wonder that the Russian army would even want to take credit for the weather? I would hope none of them really thought the victory was truly theirs...for it was the Lords!

Oh, how I love to sing a song of victory!

So here's the refrain from one of the songs my music group did in Church, yesterday...."Victory in Jesus"

O Victory in Jesus, my savior forever.

He sought me and he bought me, with his redeeming blood.

He loved me ere I knew him, and all my love is due him.

He plunged me to victory! ...beneath the cleansing flood.

*The events of Joseph, son of Jacob, and how he came to become second in command over all in Egypt, save for the Pharaoh, himself, are recorded in Genesis 37, 39-41. The events that led to that are then resolved in the following chapters, but those first few chapters tell of how God takes a young man, rejected by his brothers and sold into slavery, would rise to save many peoples, namely the Egyptians, but also his own family, despite their treachery, and also that of anyone who would come seeking food during one of the worst famines ever to hit that era.

I must agree to Ronon that Nazi Germany's Operation Barbarossa was doomed from the beginning even if the Germans had taken Moscow. However, can we still see the amazing Kremlin today if the Russians hadn't been so efficient just at that moment and Stalin hadn't chickened out which allowed his generals to assume full command of the army? Can we remember the atrocities of the Nazis and at least sympathize with the Slavs, Jews and others if we had hailed the Nazis as martyrs who almost overthrew the oppressive Communist regime? It was unity of the Russians for their country and not for their government, yes. It was the lack of preparedness for the winter from the Germans, yes. It was a stroke of luck that Stalin, for once, allowed his competent generals like Zhukov to control the situation unlike Hitler, yes. However, could all these coincidences happen without "some other being" guiding the process? Could Moscow be saved if Hitler decides to let Italy deal with their own matters and aim for Moscow instead of the Caucasus? Could Russia be as united if it wasn't for the atrocities of the Nazis? You may argue that if there was a God, then why wouldn't He intervene in the Holocaust? The genocide? However, it was this exact thing that saved many Germans as well as Russians. Sure, Germany could've lost less people, but would they be the industrial giant we see today, or would they be the Prussian militarists they had practiced for centuries? It was exactly the loss of both world wars and the Cold War which made Germany repent and became one of the most peaceful countries today, and it all came from the decisive yet bloody battles of Moscow, Stalingrad, and Leningrad. It may seem ironic, but without conquest, there can be no liberation. Without failure, there cannot be growth. Without a dictatorship fighting another, we may never know the true extent of the horrors of dictatorships which leads to us all advocating for a better society through democracy.

I apologize for not splitting this into paragraphs. I got carried away.

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and please

I ask Bitro to allow create new games on new historical map - 1944: Endgame

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war-play wrote:

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I don't believe it.

In this case I ask Bitro to make more historical maps as 1944: Endgame for selfmake.

Believe it. The complexity of a map editor interface being made simple and reliable for consumer use would be a large undertaking. This is unlikely to come to fruition anytime soon.

I agree to a difficult and unreliable map editor !

I'm fine without a map editor because it seems like Bytro is making more community suggested maps as events. I'd like to see some more permanent maps, though. I've suggested some maps before sooooo ) please?

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