The Eurasian Wars!

[PietH]

OK, thanks for the clarification. WRT, the MS paint thingy, that I have mastered by now. I even posted pics here before. But yesterday it wouldn't let me upload a jpg file, that was withing the right margins. Maybe I chose the wrong option or something.

[AGRICOLA]

The scen played flawlessly throughout.

The Russians, Chinese and Japanese capitulated in Feb 1944.


COMMENTS

With spawning 1.5 Engineers per turn, the Trans Siberian RR reached Chita in Feb ‘44. The South Asian RR reached Hong Kong. From this, it appears that the rate of spawning Engineers is about right for Germany.


By the end of 1942, after Science was set to 0%, the German economy began to produce monthly surpluses of 2000 gold. The surpluses increased steadily as more cities were captured and reached 11,000+ gold per month by the end of the scen. In addition, significant income was gained from the sale of unneeded improvement in newly captured cities. I have no suggestions on how to reduce this extremely generous income.


The amphib invasion of Siberia worked out rather well. The Siberian Korps captured the Japanese home islands as well as Harbin and all Russian cities east of it. I estimate that this strategy shortened the scen by at least 4-5 months.


SUGGESTIONS

I found the Russian and Japanese air forces to be weaker than they were historically.

In my game the Russians never got the tech for the IL-2 Shturmovik. I checked the aircraft’s history and found that the original version of the a/c was already in service in 1941. It was not successful because it lacked a rear gunner. The classic IL-2, complete with rear gunner, entered sevice in 1942 and the Russians apparently built more than 40,000 of the various versions of the Shturmovik.

In the Germany version of the scen, I would suggest that the Russians could start the scen with with the requisite tech and that Shturmoviks be spawned at a rate of 5 vet a/c per month. Also, because the Shturmoviks were heavily armored, perhaps their D could be increased to 3.

In the Russian version, everything except the D could remain as is.


The Japanese might be beefed up by spawning some Vals every month.

[curtsibling]

Nice work, AGRICOLA!
I place the laurels of CIV-victory on your head and hand you a virtual mead!

The feedback you (and others!) provide is helping me put the definitive version of EW
together at the moment - I had some delays due to apps I had to fill for job-hunting,
etc - But I plan to get the latest update out for Friday, so stay tuned!

Your wise suggestions for the IL2 are noted - Cheers!
I also was concerned that the 'flying infantryman' did not appear during my blitz of
the Eastfront. I will make it available to the Sovs from turn one in German events,
researchable otherwise - Spawning IL2s in Moscow/Lenigrad/Rostov is good too!

The D boost is already implemented...The Japanese events and tweaks are next!

[curtsibling]

AGRICOLA - Would you like me to re-instate the Airbase (renamed) into some strategic cities?

Perhaps one per civ, in a specialised city?

[AGRICOLA]

Embarrassingly, after I made such a fuss about finding an airbase, it played no role in the outcome of the scen. The scen ended on the same turn as the first repaired aircraft were ready to leave Guiyang. They were too far away to take part in the final action in central Asia in Feb '44.

Because of this, I do not think that there is a pressing need for an airbase anywhere.


I'm trying out the scen as Russia. The game is in Oct 1941. Here's what's happened and a few comments.

In addition to the initially planned capture of the vital cities of Stockholm and Chengdu, the Russians have captured only Helsinki and Chungking. I don't see much additional offensive action before Nov 1942 when the attack unit of choice will become available. Even after the capture of Chengdu, Russian science research is painfully slow . . . . 4 turns per tech. I have pared down to 7 the number of techs that absolutely must be obtained.

I am very impressed with the power of the German Operation Barbarossa. The original Russian front line of Riga - L'vov - Kishinev - Odessa is holding, thanks to a dozen or so vet T-34's in each city. They are chewing up 50+ enemy units per month. They can continue to hold until decent attack units can be built. This is much worse than what I encountered in the German version of the scen.

My biggest disappointment has been in the performance of the Red Air Force in general and the Shturmovik in particular. The Shturmovik is certainly no world class ground attack airplane or super tank killer. I've resigned myself to playing with a minimal air force.

The Japanese sank a good part of their northern fleet in futile attacks on Vladivostok. However, an invasion of their home islands is on hold until the Russians get a good unit for attacking cities.

The only change I made to the scen was to spawn 2 Engineers per turn. To start with one Engineer and spawn an additional one every 2.5 turns is totally inadequate for a country as large as Russia. Also, I see no way of obtaining the tech for building RR's until the end of '43. Any possibility of giving them the tech at the start of the scen?

You may want to correct the spelling of 'Captial' and 'Cylde' Shipyards in RULES.

[AGRICOLA]

I accordance with your changes, improved Shturmovik from D=2 to D=3.

[curtsibling]

Such silly typos I make!
That is the result of late night scenario engineering!

I am glad the Axis is giving you such brutal enjoyment on the Eastfront.
There should be plenty of German enemies spawning each turn...
It seems that event is working OK!

PS
If you think the soviet fighters/bombers could be beefed yp, let me know,
I am totally flexible about suggestions - Easpicially from master-playtesters!



PPS
Been very busy with my comic inking last week - And I am looking to get the
update for EW out this week for sure! So much to do, only one of me! I have
to seriously look into cloning!

[curtsibling]

My final choice about the Stalingrad battle is as follows!

I am going to keep the tech-based breakout for the Germans, but also
will add additional events for city captures too, this will follow Agricola's
suggestions and also represent tactical captures and encirclements of
the city...This daring method can end the siege quickly.

For the more masochistic among us, The tech-research will represent
the stubborn (nay, insane) tactic that Hitler used, to slug it out and
hold firm...while flying in 200 tons a day of vital ammo/war supplies!

I like to give tons of options, and this will make the rule/events far easier
to retro-engineer! I also like the idea of choosing what tactical to follow...
Naturally, I will make the Soviet attacks more brutal for the Axis events...
As the Soviets you just have to stop the advance with far less units!

PS
Bombers and AA units will be added to stacks for all events...!

[GhostOfDisco]

Well, I started playing as the Allies, and while I was able to liberate France and (most of) Italy (save Trieste)m I could not break out into Germany- I could take Brussels (and one time Cologne), but the Germans than took me back and at times threatened Paris - I decided to play as the Japanese.

Diverting from history, I decided to "strike north" and attack Russia. Vladvistok fell after a good amount of coastal bombardment (including the Yamato) and I soon initiated a blitzkrieg tactic where my small amount of armor and large amount of planes played a major role (the Val dive bomber must be noted for playing a pivotal role in my strategy.) So far, I'm at Dec 1941 and I've made it as far as Novosibirsk. Just like the historical blitzkrieg, the infantry is having a hard time catching up with the armor and aerial spearheads, but since there really isn't much resistance (the Chinese have attacked a little, and Stalin has sent one unit of T-34s, a few fighters and exactly two bombers, I think) it's not that big a setback.

I am wondering; you mentioned in an earlier post that you were still working on the final version of Ostfront. Is that so and if so, when will it come out? I am eager to try the next version of that scenario (hopefully there I'll do better as the Allies on the Western Front!)

And a gift of sorts, here's a Chinese P-40 I modified. I caught an episode of "Dogfights" involving the Flying Tigers and I thought "Curt's Chinese P-40s don't have the right camo scheme." Well, the one in the current game might not be inaccurate, but still, I know they used this type of camouflage:

[techumseh]

Where can I find the latest version?

[AGRICOLA]

My Russia game is in Feb 1943. The German homeland, China, most of the Japanese home islands and a bit of Indo China have been conquered. Progress is significantly slower than when playing Germany. The main reason for the difference is that the Russian infantry has A/D=4/4whereas the German is 5/5. This makes a big difference if there are hundreds of enemy units to destroy.

Also, Russia has a 2-front war from the beginning whereas Germany can fight on one front at a time. The best Russian units are needed to withstand the German onslaught while, at the same time, considerable resources have to be diverted to the far east where Guards units are ideal for attacking the poorly equipped Chinese and Japanese in China, an area serviced by few roads. Guards are by far the most useful units that one can build in the remote Siberian cities that lack road access.

Thanks to 17-20 T-34’s in each of the 4 front line cities, the Russians managed to hold the Riga - L’vov – Kishinev - Odessa line from June ’41 until Sept ’42, when the Russians had amasses the strength to go on the offensive. During the stalemate the Germans lost between 40+ and 85+ units each turn in attacks on the Russian cities. This period was a bit of a nailbiter. Several times all defending T-34’s were looking very, very sick by the time the German attacks ended.

IMHO, the Russian offensive in Sept 1942 was a classic. With RR-building engineers leading the way and SU-122’s blasting all opposition, Zhukov’s right hook from Riga => Konigsberg => Warsaw => Budapest => Belgrade => Bucharest encircled 40+ German units and eliminated most of them. The final westward thrusts captured Danzig, Breslau and Vienna. During September, the Germans lost 300+ units, 40%+ of their OOB. These losses left the German industrial heartland almost undefended.


COMMENTS:

1. I don’t think that either he Japanese or the Italians can be played with any realistic hope of success. These civs are never able to build advanced ground attack a/c like the Mosquito/Typhoon, Do-335 and Sturmovik; powerful ground units that ignore City Walls like the Hellcat, Jagdpanther and JSU-152; or almost unkillable defensive units like the Pershing, Tiger and T-34 (fortified vet T-34’s can reliably destroy attacking Lancasters, even on terrain with no D bonus). The Italians and Japanese have to wage war with dated and weak generic units like 2-turn Bombers, Assault Guns with D=1 and defensive units with only 1 or 2 Hit Points.

Against the AI, these civs might achieve limited success but major expansion is most unlikely.


2. I love the Russian Guards units which captured all of China and are advancing into SE Asia, BUT I can’t help wondering whether Mv=3 and all-terrain capability aren’t a bit too much. These guys are running around at 12squares/turn across the Himalayas, in the deserts of central Asia and in the trackless jungles of SE Asia. That’s farther than a/c can move.


3. Despite spawning 2 Engineers/turn, the Trans Siberian RR from Kiev to Urgal was not completed until May 1942. By January 1943 the TSRR ran from Amsterdam to Vladivostok and there were spur lines to Leningrad, Moscow, Seoul and Hong Kong. A limited amount of terrain improvement had been completed. Also, by 1943, the available number of Engineers was definitely the limiting factor in how fast the Red Army could advance.

From this I would suggest that 2 Engineers/turn is not an excessive spawning rate for a country as vast as Russia. The same spawning rate would likely be appropriate for the Allies and their sprawling empire.


4. The scen has played flawlessly and the Russian EVENTS seem to have worked correctly. This is as far as I’m going with the Russians because:
- 80 shiny, brand new JSU-152’s are ready to invade Britain within a couple of turns. All that is needed is a bit of time for adequate transports to move from the Baltic shipyards to Bremen.
- Meanwhile, 60 SU-122’s will complete the conquest of continental Europe.
- The 4 home island cities that remain in Japanese hands will be captured by April ’43.
- Science (currently tech/2 turns) will be turned off in April ’43 when the Yak-9 tech is discovered. Increasing taxes from 20 to 80%, selling Universities and Libraries and changing all Einsteins to bean counters will produce enough income to IRB 50+ units/turn . . . . if I don’t get bored with the tedious IRB process.
- In other words, Russia is now so powerful that the rest of the scen is a piece of cake.



Good scen! I'm on to giving the Allies a go. I intend to rile up the Russian bear to see if the Allies can take on the rest of the world. After all, wasn’t Winston an imperialist at heart?


Here are three screenshots from Zhukov’s great offensive in Sept 1942.

.

[curtsibling]

Where can I find the latest version?

Drop me an email, and I will send you the latest goods!
(that goes for everyone else too!)

[curtsibling]

@Agricola!

That looks like the ultimate battle! Glad the Russians were fun to try, and now that I have
rebuilt my network system at home, I can get back on schedule for getting the new update
for Friday! I'll add your suggestions about engineer spawn rates into the Commie events!

[curtsibling]

@Agricola!

That looks like the ultimate battle! Glad the Russians were fun to try, and now that I have
rebuilt my network system at home, I can get back on schedule for getting the new update
for Friday! I'll add your suggestions about engineer spawn rates into the Commie events!

PS
The Gaurd mover rate is an error! (sorry! ) The move should be 1, but the 3xmove
is intended for the German rule set - To make these guys a real bane in the neck!

[AGRICOLA]

@Ciaran

I’ve played a bit of the first turn of EA WARS – Allies and taken an in-depth look at Allied possibilities. This included:

Freed up a significant number of shields in Home Island cities.
Decided which cities are indefensible and began appropriate actions.
Maximized the Science rate.
Figured out the composition of an effective Air Force that avoids extra unhappiness.

Decided on initial Allied action.
Was thwarted by $@#*&%?/ peacenik Senate.

Looked into possibility of capturing the UN in Madrid.
Was thwarted by $@#*&%?/ peacenik Senate.

Looked into getting Russia or China to attack Neutrals.
Was thwarted by $@#*&%?/ peacenik leaders who claimed “No contact”

Screamed $@#*&%?/.


What do you say to

A. Moving the UN wonder to London?

OR

B. Making War Democracy (Communism) the Allied form of government?


In order to avoid making the scen much easier, I'm moving the UN to London. In desperate times even peacenik democracies must be able to take desperate actions for self-preservation.


P.S. The Rules_Allied files is labelled "GERMAN RULES" at the top of the file.