The Distant Rumblings of War!

[PietH]

I'm playing a game as the allies now. Now I get the change to winter file message, but not the change to summer file message for some reason. All files load though.

Should the existing Lancasters automatically change to the B17, when going from winter '42 to summer '43? It has a lower attack strenght than the Lancaster.

In the whole meditarenean, i can not build ships. Is that on purpose? I noticed it before, playing as the germans.

Plus the atlantic ocean is BIG. Takes more then half a year to cross by boat. And bombers have no way of hopping to mainland Britain.

[curtsibling]

PietH, cheers for the update!

It is the two-engine Wellingtons that update to the B-17, as the Lancaster is always buildable...

That outlines two more things I was thinking of changing! I am going to give the four-engine bombers better range...
And increase the naval units movements by a big degree. I might make naval units weaker, so they can still fight
one another, but not go on a rampage on the coasts!

One thing I am going to do also, is rebalance the forces on the initial setup. Mostly the German and Russian sides.
I think Germany is having trouble getting to Moscow Stalingrad and Leningrad...I want the first turns to be easy,
but getting harder, and then toughest near the winter of 1941...

On other news, I got the units and events evolving sensibly, and this involved dropping the Hetzer and Coelian...
I certain wish to use the Coelian at some point, perhaps in a remake of my old MGE scen, Soviet Steel!

I'll make some changes with bombers and ships today!

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by curtsibling
I might make naval units weaker, so they can still fight

Be cautious while doing that: if the ship's defense is lowered by a respectable amount, they might become easy targets for airplanes... (but with a higher movement, they would spend less time vulnerable at sea... )

[PietH]

Ah yes, silly me, it's the wellingtons that upgrade.

From the sideline, playing as the allies, the Germans didn't have much trouble getting to Leningrad and Moscow. At some point I thought Moscow was going to fall. But on the southern front they get nowhere near Stalingrad. Making it too easy in the beginning might cost the soviets leningrad and Moscow too easily.

From what I learned, playing as the germans, the southern front could use more airpower. Maybe if you just add a few extra bombers and stukas in the starting line up, near Odessa, the advance might be quicker and further in the first summer.

I think the naval bombardments are fine as they are, not too powerfull. When ships do manage to kill units on land, they are usually damaged enough not to repeat the same move. At least, on the level I'm playing (the recommended one).

[curtsibling]

What I have doe is to rearrange the layout of units - I ended up not touching the USSR lineup.
What I done with the Germans is to make their stacks consist of 2-4 assualt gun units, four
grenadiers or SS, and two tanks each. With airpower, I moved many of the stukas and Ju88s to
nearby cities or airbases. Based on your recommendations, I will add a few more stukas to
the Southern area, perhaps based at Debrecen...

I will leave the ships attack stats as they are, and only increase the movement.
Indeed, after an attack ships are usually damaged, and that ends their rampage!

[PietH]

I must say that playing as the allies, conquering Europe isn't the hardest game. The Germans don't put up much of a fight, since they have all their armies tied up in the east. But it seems to me that the battle in the east turns to a standing war after 1942. The Germans don't advance, and the Russians are not capable of regaining much ground.

Ghost of Disco posted a picture of a map at the end of 1943, and mine looks more or less the same (bit less advanced). It shows the Russians still pushed back towards Leningrad, Moscow and Sevastopol. And even though Germany's industry is occupied by the allies, they still can't dent the German defences in the east.

Would it be a good suggestion to increase the number of armor given to the russians, so they can slowly build up strenght and advance to the west?

[curtsibling]

Interesting point!

What could be done is to make the Russian units progressively cheaper...And more powerful...!

[Jerec]

Originally posted by curtsibling
I think Germany is having trouble getting to Moscow Stalingrad and Leningrad...I want the first turns to be easy,
but getting harder, and then toughest near the winter of 1941...

I played a small game as the Italians up to mid 1942. Very nice game, I must admit, and sorry for not reporting sooner. In my game, the German AI was knocking at the gates of Moscow. It was literally bashing 3-4 units per turn against the fortification units in the Russian capital, and not getting anywhere. The Russians lost a dozen Red Armies in Moscow, but their two (?) fortification units held.

As the Italians, Mussolini got very ticked off when Hitler presumed to take over the African offensive. Il Duce promptly funneled in huge amounts of Mot. Infantry, tanks, infantry, artillery, bombers and fighters to the Egyptian front and made the Italian lake a reality. By the beginning of winter in '42 I had conquered all of Egypt and Israel/Lebanon, including the ex-Vichy cities in that area. My troops were knocking on the Middle East oilfields when I stopped playing.

One complaint- must there be so many Matildas? I killed 1-2 of those irritating iron coffins each turn, and they just kept on coming until all Egypt was under my control! I only encountered 1 Churchill in the whole Middle East!

Oh, and the batch files worked like a charm.

[fairline]

Originally posted by curtsibling
Marder -> Wespe -> Hummel

Why do you have a tank hunter (the Marder) upgrading to SP artillery (Wespe) Curt? Also, the Wespe and Hummel both appeared in '43 and served alongside each other until the end of the War. Each Pz Div arty regt had units of Wespe (10.5cm sp) and Hummel (15cm).

A better progression for SP arty would be:

Bison -> Grille -> Hummel

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by fairline


Why do you have a tank hunter (the Marder) upgrading to SP artillery (Wespe) Curt? Also, the Wespe and Hummel both appeared in '43 and served alongside each other until the end of the War. Each Pz Div arty regt had units of Wespe (10.5cm sp) and Hummel (15cm).

A better progression for SP arty would be:

Bison -> Grille -> Hummel

Fairline, I agree!
I have changed that aspect recently!
I noticed the nonsensical nature of that upgrade too.

I had almost the same progression you suggested, but
I will change it now to include the Bison SP gun. I made
the Marder II into a generic assault gun/tank killer unit.

This unit is buildable by all, and evolves into a generic
tank killer based on the M10 Wolverine type...

...

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Jerec


I played a small game as the Italians up to mid 1942. Very nice game, I must admit, and sorry for not reporting sooner. In my game, the German AI was knocking at the gates of Moscow. It was literally bashing 3-4 units per turn against the fortification units in the Russian capital, and not getting anywhere. The Russians lost a dozen Red Armies in Moscow, but their two (?) fortification units held.

As the Italians, Mussolini got very ticked off when Hitler presumed to take over the African offensive. Il Duce promptly funneled in huge amounts of Mot. Infantry, tanks, infantry, artillery, bombers and fighters to the Egyptian front and made the Italian lake a reality. By the beginning of winter in '42 I had conquered all of Egypt and Israel/Lebanon, including the ex-Vichy cities in that area. My troops were knocking on the Middle East oilfields when I stopped playing.

One complaint- must there be so many Matildas? I killed 1-2 of those irritating iron coffins each turn, and they just kept on coming until all Egypt was under my control! I only encountered 1 Churchill in the whole Middle East!

Oh, and the batch files worked like a charm.

Thanks for the report, Jerec -
And no worries, there is never any rush -

Sounds like you had a good war -
Musso will be able to blackmail Adolf with that oil!

And your feedback about Africa is useful! Cheers!
I will re-balance the Allied units in the early stages,
to make sure there is not swamping of Brit tanks!

PS
I am glad you go the batches to work OK!

[curtsibling]

@fairline:

BTW, old chap - Did you have any luck with those people?
(I know you have been busy lately with Charlie the Great!)

[PietH]

So when are the new files coming online?

[curtsibling]

Soon, old chap!

I am working on a unit evolution file, which lists each unit 11 times, so I can streamline the stat changes
over the course of the scenario. And also can evolve things like strengthening the Soviet and Allied units.

This might take a day or two - I have these on the wiki ASAP!

[PietH]

Finished my game as the allies. Finished off the Fins in late '44, ended up occupying Finland, down to Narva, Smolensk, Kursk to Krasnoperekopsk and the whole meditarenean. Over all a little less exiting as previous games I played, since the Germans don't put up much of a fight in the west.

At one point the situation got complicated in Greece, with me fighting the Italians and the Germans, and the germans and Italians fighting each other.

I like the 'small invasion' techs idea, but I doubt if the 2 or 3 infantry will have an impact on a city with a fortified AA in it, or any fortified unit for that matter.