Red October v.2.0 playtest

[techumseh]

I've sent version 2 of Red October to my playtesters. If anyone has any comments or questions about the scenario, please post them here. Hopefully in a couple of weeks, it will be ready to ship!

A couple of screenies: here, the Bolsheviks take the offensive against Kolchak's White forces in Siberia.

[techumseh]

And here the Spartakists begin the revolution in Germany. In the meantime, the Freikorps, armed with flamethrowers and armoured cars, counterattack against the revolutionaries and the Poles.

[techumseh]

Main changes from v.1.0:

1. More productive terrain, esp. Railbed. More food helps keep cities growing. Not historical, but helps with one of the problems of the scenario - loss of cities due to repeat combat. Other effects changed the balance and had to be compensated for, ie:

a. more German unit production, meaning more deserters to be dispatched by the Polish and Spartakist uprisings, so these were strengthened.
b. more money for the Bolsheviks. A more involved tech tree requires more research (therefore less cash) for better units and key wonders. I put trade at end of tech tree.

2. New tech tree for Bolsheviks. Still pretty basic, but requires choices, as each new unit, key wonders and certain events all have a specific technology to be researched. The Rev. Military Coun. tech, a prereq for Red Army, can't be researched until Sept 1919. NEP can't be researched until the Kulak Rising tech is given on turn 30. The Nationalists can't talk until the Bolsheviks research National Policy. Shock Tactics can't be researched until the Red Terror wonder is built. Researching NEP ends peasant revolts. Sailors are obsolete but are buildable in Petrograd at the start.

3. Simplified and reworked the events. New events for Spartakist Revolution, Yudenich Offensive simplified, Kolchak's reinforcements now either west or east of Omsk, not both. Czech Legion revolt now limited to eastern Russia and central Siberia (as far as Irkutsk). Much stronger Japanese intervention east of Irkutsk. Entente landings now have aircraft, as does Denikin.

4. Consolidated the unit mix. Eliminated redundant units: revolutionary, agitator, battleship, destroyer, Mk V tank. Added Spartakist, Red Finn, Reichswehr, Ehrhardt ac., CHEKA Shock. Changed Finn to White Finn, and Handley-Page bomber to D.H.9a.

5. New terrain and units. Thanks be to Gareth.

[EZRhino]

I can't wait! The original Red October was the very first ToT scenario I ever played

[Blue Lion]

This scenario looks great, so the machine gunner-units occupy to much place in my eyes. Here the map looks overcrowded.

Do the train-units only move on rails?

[GhostOfDisco]

Any chance we can playas the Whites or the Poles?

[techumseh]

@Blue Lion - the west front units don't see much action; they're intended to keep the Entente and Central Powers separated. The Central Powers west front units are homed to Koln and Essen, so if the Spartakists (Bolshevik) capture those cities, the front units are lost. That leaves the French free to enter western Germany, which is historical. It's a bit crowded, but oh well...

Yes, the Armoured Train units have to stay on the tracks.

@GhostofDisco - No, sadly. I may make a White version at some point, but it the events will have to be entirely redone. There's not much point doing the scenario from anyone else's perspective; they're external to the main struggle.

@EZRhino - I hope it's worth the wait.

[McMonkey]

Looking good. Now I am glad that I have not played the original. Looking forward to playing this new improved version soon

[Jerec]

Originally posted by McMonkey
Looking good. Now I am glad that I have not played the original. Looking forward to playing this new improved version soon

Ditto.

[Harry Tuttle]

Definitely something to look forward too

[curtsibling]

Would have liked to play as the Whites and teach those damn those Reds!

PS
The commie biplane looks cool, too!

[Cyrion]

Kronstadt

I haven't started testing it in earnest, but I have looked a bit at the Kronstadt event, and found something, I guess...

Here is the event triggered on turn 40:

@IF
TURN
turn=40
@THEN
CHANGETERRAIN
terraintype=6
maprect
34,20,34,20,34,20,34,20
GIVETECHNOLOGY
receiver=Bolsheviks
technology=26
@ENDIF

And here is the changeterrain triggered by the destruction of barbarians Kronstadt by anybody:

@IF
UNITKILLED
unit=Kronstadt
attacker=ANYBODY
defender=Barbarians
@THEN
CHANGETERRAIN
terraintype=10
maprect
@ENDIF

As you see, the maprect coordinates are lacking, which means that the program should have a hard time knowing which square to change...

Don't know if that's the solution to the problem, but nonetheless...

And could you please explain what would prevent the the Entente Cruisers from destroying the Bolshevik Kronstadt as easily as the barbarian one? The fact that it is on ocean instead of tundra (and so would, according to Bocco's sheet, have its real hit points instead of just 1)??

[Ecthy]

Techumseh, your scenarios look really nice. Too bad they're for TOT and not for MGE.

Is there any particular reason for this?

[techumseh]

Re: Kronstadt

Originally posted by Cyrion
I haven't started testing it in earnest, but I have looked a bit at the Kronstadt event, and found something, I guess...

Here is the event triggered on turn 40:

@IF
TURN
turn=40
@THEN
CHANGETERRAIN
terraintype=6
maprect
34,20,34,20,34,20,34,20
GIVETECHNOLOGY
receiver=Bolsheviks
technology=26
@ENDIF

And here is the changeterrain triggered by the destruction of barbarians Kronstadt by anybody:

@IF
UNITKILLED
unit=Kronstadt
attacker=ANYBODY
defender=Barbarians
@THEN
CHANGETERRAIN
terraintype=10
maprect
@ENDIF

As you see, the maprect coordinates are lacking, which means that the program should have a hard time knowing which square to change...

Don't know if that's the solution to the problem, but nonetheless...

And could you please explain what would prevent the the Entente Cruisers from destroying the Bolshevik Kronstadt as easily as the barbarian one? The fact that it is on ocean instead of tundra (and so would, according to Bocco's sheet, have its real hit points instead of just 1)??

Thanks, Cyrion. I found that when I went back to work on those events again after sending you the files. Did you get the new events with the Kronstadt "fix"?

The new events use a workaround. Following the Anarchist inspired revolt by the Kronstadt sailors, the Bolsheviks launched a desperate attack on the island fortress across temporary ice. So the event that creates the anarchist fort unit also changes the terrain from ocean to tundra - for one turn. The Reds have one chance to recapture the fortress with a ground attack.

If they fail to do so, the events now create the Entente fleet and a new Entente-controlled fort on ocean terrain, plus British ground forces. So if the Bolheviks control Kronstadt, the fleet will not appear.

[techumseh]

Originally posted by Ecthy
Techumseh, your scenarios look really nice. Too bad they're for TOT and not for MGE.

Is there any particular reason for this?

Thanks Ecthy. To be blunt, I couldn't really make these scenarios using MGE. In particular, the events would be impossible. ToT has over 3 times as much events space, with far more complexity. For example, you can make events that have a series of triggers, not just one. And a single event can create up to 255 units, whereas in MGE you need one event to create one unit. And you can turn events on and off, and so on.

There are 18 extra unit slots in ToT, and more technology slots as well. You can make units unbribable and/or invisible. Terrain can be made impassible. In the Russian Civil War, where armoured trains were a key weapon, it was impossible using MGE to keep the trains on the rails. I was able to solve that problem with ToT by using making off-rail terrain impassible to trains.

Units can be larger and use far more colors than the MGE palette. You can add video files to your events. Sounds can be stereo.

And there are lots of other things that make scenario design easier. You can assign a different sound to each unit - phalanxes don't have to sound like legions anymore. And you can limit specific technologies to specific civs. Same for units. And on and on....