The Distant Rumblings of War!

[GhostOfDisco]

Well, I've taken all I can of Eastern Europe and liberated/conquered Romania (depending on how you view the government) and am on my way to free Norway!

Once I eliminate the Third Reich, I think I'll try and give the scenario another go as the Finns.

[AGRICOLA]

@Ciaran

Please don't worry about it. I'm using your winter rules with no modifications and have been able to tweak most cities so that there is no food shortage.

Is there any chance that the Radio tech could either be given or made researchable? I've been looking for possible 1942 emplyment for Stukas in the parts of the Middle East and the Soviet Union where cities are a long way apart, in some instances beyond ferry range. Engineers able to build airstrips wouild help.

I know that the Radio tech is used as a Twice Removed tech but have no idea how much work would be involved in using one of the NOT USED techs for Twice Removed. If it is a lot, then forget about it, I'll disband the Stukas to IRB more StuG III's. I don't want to attempt a Channel crossing with fewer than 40 StuG III's as the British are bound to put up a helluva fight.

[curtsibling]

It should not be too much of a trouble to switch 'Rad' for 'Pla'...
I can make that a priority update!

Luckily, at this stage, the 'twice removed' tech is easy to change...

The 'once removed' tech is not!
I'm glad I made 'Radio' the 'twice removed' part...

*phew*

[PietH]

Scheisse, those german fortified motorised troops are a b!tch. I'm losing more sextons then I'm producing at the moment, and that's a first in playing D7. So those 100+ extra troops were a welcome addition to the D-Day invasion force. I managed to blitzkrieg my way to Berlin, that I took in october '44. Link established between the forces in France and Italy. Now broadening my front and going for the Wonders of the World cities Hamburg, Munich and hopefully Kiev and Helsinki.

In a surprise move, october '44 also saw the fall of Leningrad. First time I've seen that happen (when not playing as the germans).

Still a long way to go:

[curtsibling]

Cool! Sounds like quite a nice little war going on there!

Seems like the Axis AI are trying harder to get to the big objective cities...

Good luck with the final assault...See you at the victory parade!

[AGRICOLA]

The game is at the end of June 1942

A. After a winter of no fighting, here is what happened in the first 3 months of the summer of 1942:

April
---Britain invaded. England, Scotland and Wales conquered.
---3 Soviet cities captured
---Egypt and Palestine conquered.

May
---Ireland invaded, Belfast captured. British Home Islands conquered.
---5 Soviet cities captured.
---Jordan, Lebanon and Syria conquered.

June
---4 Soviet cities captured, including Baku. Forces are in place to take the remaining 3 cities in July, thereby destroying the Soviet civ.
---Invasion convoy departed Plymouth for Gibraltar. It carries attack and garrison units as well as 2 Workers to re-found Gib and found Ceuta. These bases will deny the Allies access to the Med.
---Afrika Korps has reached its objectives in the eastern Med.



B. OKW Plans

Following the rapid victories in Britain, the Soviet Union and Middle East the OKW has formulated the following future objectives.

OPERATION FELIX
The Mediterranean is to be closed off to enemy naval forces by the capture of Gibraltar. The amphibious force will sail from Plymouth in June 1942. It will carry adequate ground forces and include 2 workers to found new German bases. Escort will be provided by a CA and Ju-88’s.

OPERATION VIKING
Task forces to invade Iceland, Canada and the USA will sail from Glasgow in September 1942 and from Dundee in February 1943. All will land in April 1943.
Escort will be provided by CA’s, CV’s and FW-190 a/c. The ground forces will be drawn from the units already in Britain. A crash program to build the necessary air and naval escorts has been ordered.


There will be an immediate reassignment of operational objectives on the Ostfront and in the Middle East.

--- AG North will complete the conquest of the Soviet Union and then move its units to western Europe.

--- AG South and AG Caucasus will combine into AG East, with Iran, Iraq and the Persian Gulf as its objectives. Its units will then move to western Europe.

--- Afrika Korps will cease offensive operations immediately and will begin to transfer its units to the central and western Mediterranean.




C. COMMENTS

Airborne/Fallschirmjaeger D stats seem somewhat high. These were light infantry, not armored infantry and their D values should be lower than those of regular infantry which could call on artillery and some armor support. At Anzio, two battalions of Darby’s Rangers were rapidly eliminated by German Panzers and infantry. Elite light infantry, no matter how good is no match for armor.


I think that the A/D numbers for German Army ( A/D = 9/6, 70 shields ) and Panzergrenadiers ( A/D = 6/6, 120 shields ) should be reversed. Otherwise there is no reason either to research the Panzergrenadier tech or build the units.


The following is self explanatory:

UNITS THAT WERE NOT BUILT
Waffen SS – Started with 4. Too expensive for stats.
Schutzen – Started with 8. Too expensive for stats.
Bf-109 – Started with 39. Enough.
Destroyer – Started with 5. Never in action.
Cruiser – Started with 3. Never in action.
Heavy cruiser - Started with 2. Enough.
Field gun – Started with 17. Disbanded as useless because Mv=1.
Pz III – Started with 10. No reason to build more.
Pz IV – Started with 7. No reason to build more.


UNITS THAT WERE BUILT
StuGIII – 140+ – Primary attack unit
Axis Troops – 100+ – Happiness troops
Ju-88 – 11+ – Protect stacks. Kill Partisans in USSR
Transport – 10+ – Mobility
Ju-87 – 2 – Multiple attack a/c
FW-190 – 30+ - Convoy protection
Carrier – 3 – Convoy protection, Fighter and Stuka transport in Med.


Invasion of Britain
The appearance of US airborne units if Britain is invaded seems unrealistic, especially in 1942 when the US had no active airborne divisions until the autumn. The first one did not enter combat until the invasion of Sicily.

I’m not complaining about this event causing undue difficulty for players because, with the tactics I used, the spawned units were eliminated for the loss of one StuG III (bad dice roll). Rather, I am questioning whether even a strong invasion force of 50+ StuG III’s and 30+ Infantry landing at Southampton and Grimsby should have so little trouble in capturing the main Home Island in one turn.

The most difficult defence to overcome is one where units are spawned as soon as a city is captured, such as Soviet Partisans from 1942 onwards. Of course, it is possible and prudent to suppress such spawning by blocking spawning sites, especially ones with a defensive bonus. Nevertheless, such spawning forces the attacker’s units to use up their movement in either suppressing spawning or, subsequently, eliminating spawned units. This is guaranteed to slow the attacker’s advance from a Blitzkrieg to a crawl.

I realize that giving the Allies the tech for Partisans is a no go. There is no way that the population of British Middle East cities would have any inclination to become Partisans and go die for a bunch of cursed infidels. May I suggest that, rather than a massive spawn of historically questionable units, that it might be both historically more accurate and defensively more effective to have a separate spawning event for each city in the British isles. The sequence of events might be as follows:

1. If a city is lost, Churchill issues a patriotic call to arms to the population of the city. Because the name of the city is known, it can be included in the popup message for a touch of added realism.
2. Using RANDOMIZE, Partisans and few other units are spawned not only within the city’s ZOC but also outside it, especially on terrain with a D bonus. This creates major problems for any attempt by the Germans either to block spawning or to advance..
3. This would also be the time to spawn Fortresses in random cities.
4. Of course, the present spawning events could be retained to create extra problems for the Germans on the following turn
5. The events files are relatively small so events space should not be a problem. I think that there is space to use the same approach for German homeland cities as well.


Unfortunately, I now have to discontinue this game and return to playtesting the second half of RFTOT. I intend to return to Dictator 7 and play the Soviets. I haven't had a chance to get my jollies from a thorough scorched earth strategy since Red Front 1.4 .

P.S. Control-N is not used for fighter traps because they use 2-turn a/c. I'm happy to bend most rules, but Control-N is too much of an outright cheat for me.

Here's the situation map at the end of June, 1942. The German city in NW Spain is Corunna, a U-boat base.

[curtsibling]

Incredible performance, AGRICOLA!

I am about to head out for the night, but I will get a proper answer posted up as soon as I am back!

[GhostOfDisco]

Originally posted by AGRICOLA
There is no way that the population of British Middle East cities would have any inclination to become Partisans and go die for a bunch of cursed infidels.

Well, if they knew (or were led to believe) that Nazi ideology did not count Arabs among the Master Race...

However, perhaps the quandary could be answered by using CivCity to make all the Mideast Allied cities owned by one of the Axis powers - that way Partisans would not be spawned when the Allies lose those cities. Though, given the numerous Axis powers that could take the cities (both Italy and Germany could claim British North Africa, for example), there might be some problems with this option...

[PietH]

Originally posted by curtsibling
Incredible performance, AGRICOLA!

You can say that again

[curtsibling]

Great work, AGRICOLA!
Good data/feedback, and on the basis of it, I will draw up a new list of updates needed...

In relation to AGRICOLA's post, I will look at creating a more specific capture event series for UK cities.

And if it works well, I can institute it for German cities too.

My TODO list now stands as this:

*Retain aircraft ranges in winter, but half the A/D stats.

*Fine-tune the economies and improvement mixes of the civs.

*Increase the riot factor, making happiness improvements relevant.

*Increase artillery moves to two, make later SP arty more attractive.

*Add some backwater airbases to facilitate air unit movements.

Anything else needed changed?
Let me know and I will add this to the list!

[PietH]

I must say that the riot factor is not something I like. i enjoy this scenario a lot because it focusses on strategic military play. I have enough trouble as it is to get my industry in full gear, cranking out the right units. Fiddling around with luxury settings and building happiness improvements doesn't add to the fun of the game imo.

It would also mean building in special tricks so that cities you capture from the german occupation don't riot on you. When taking a city a lot of improvements are razed. Western European cities should be overjoyed when captured by the allies, not turn to riot.

One other thing I'm still thinking about is how to force a player to use a wider range of units. Like Agricola, I build a very narrow range of units, since they do the job best. Differing the attacking capacity against different units would mean your forces would have to consist of more different units. For example, say mobile artillery would be effective against motorised troops, but not against paratroopers (arty turns city into rubble, which is better defendable for troops). But tanks would be more effective against paratroopers, but not motorised troops. That way your attacking force would have to consist of not only mobile arty.

Something like that.

[curtsibling]

Good advice, PieH!

I will leave the riot factor as is - The last thing I want is to affect the fun factor...!

I am going to review all the units for a final brush up, and
edit the strengths and roles, that way it might make going
for various units worthwhile...I might also streamline the
process of getting to more advanced units...!

[AGRICOLA]

Originally posted by curtsibling
Anything else needed changed?
Let me know and I will add this to the list!

Don't forget the evil first turn money bug. $$

[curtsibling]

Once I get the new tech tree done, and make the other edits, can I sling you the SCN file, AGRICOLA?

[AGRICOLA]

Yo. Fer sure. Deffinnittevelly. Sling away at your convenience.


Regarding British spawning in response to an invasion, you may want to spawn a 2 turn a/c with stacks of high D ground units. On stackable terrain, this should drive even the most intrepid field marshal to apoplexy, especially if the stack sits on a road square.


Regrettably, I know of no way to model the flaming oil that the British were prepared to use in 1940.