Extra Pack Finalization Project (Part 3)

[Wernazuma III]

Eddin, I tend to agree with you. Anyone with another opinion? Otherwise I'll change the gov. preferences for the dutch.

[hoevenpe]

Sounds good to me as a Dutchman...

I can't wait playing as 'William of Orange'... That 'Bismarck' guy is getting a hard time...

[Killerdaffy]

Mossad

Originally posted by Solomyr
i might be mistaken, but i thought that some spying ability could be given to regular units, specifically to look at a city. i can't check this because i forgot my civ3 disk in at school and i am now at home

can someone check this, if it's possible, we might be able to upgrade a marine into the Mossad agent. of course, this makes the golden age modern, so i vote to have Golda as the leader, just for equality

I just tried it: It actually works! I gave a settler the recon ability and a range of two. You might even give him air bombardment abilities, even though I haven't tested that yet. Would he get intercepted by a fighter, though??

I'm not sure whether the Marine would be the best unit to replace. I was thinking more along the lines of the civ2 spy, something like an explorer with recon and bombardment abilities...

[Fresno]

Originally posted by Wernazuma III
Eddin, I tend to agree with you. Anyone with another opinion? Otherwise I'll change the gov. preferences for the dutch.

I completely agree with you about the republic.
BTW, I would like the Netherlands to become a republic again, also in real life.

Further, I've got a question about the city-names. We've added a lot of colonial Dutch cities, but shouldn't we also (or maybe instead) add some early Flemish towns? I mean, the Dutch and the Flemings are traditionally the same people, with the same language, the same culture and the same medieval history.

I could go further into this, and add some more historical information about Dutch and Belgians, but for now I hope this will do.

[Eli]

Golda as a leader??? I'd rather play with the Arabs than with the Hebrews in this case.

Maybe we can make a swordsman spy?(not realistic, but I'll agree to everything to make sure Golda stays out )

[Wernazuma III]

Eli: Beside the fact that you obviousky don't like Golda, I thinkwe can remove her anyway (she was no general after all...).
Although I'd like a Civ-story from you playing the Arabs

And please no Spy-swordsman-settler, this really wouldn't add anything but unbalance.

[Trifna]

mmm... anyone already mentioned that Betlehem was not a big city or anything? It is well known because Jesus was born there. Am I wrong?

[Graeme the mad]

I think we need lots more kmodern SU and think the hebrews have an oppurtunity to have one.
Modern Israel has I believe some of the best tanks in the world so the hebrew SU could replace the modern armour (possibly +2 attack and +1 defense) - I could find out the name of the good Israeli tank if someone else doesn't know it.

WE NEED MODERN UNITS

[Killerdaffy]

Hebrew UU

The name should be Merkava then (was mentioned somewhere above). Wouldn't it make sense to have it use one less resource (e.g. no aluminum), reflecting the ability of the Israeli Army to get large supplies from the US when needed?

[Gholam]

PLEASE not Golda, her actions got us into the fine mess of October '73 (way too many blame intelligence for that ****up, but the truth of the matter is, intelligence warned her and she didn't heed those warnings - mobilization is costly, and can destabilize political situation in the region).

The current IDF Main Battle Tank is Merkava Mk.3, with Mk.4 supposed to become operational soon.

[Fresno]

Nobody reacted to my question about the Flemings. I really hope they will be included as Dutch.

Don't forget Belgium used to be called 'Spanish Netherlands' under the Spanish rule and 'Austrian Netherlands' under the Austrian rule.

[Wernazuma III]

Fresno: I'm not sure. It's a possibility, but such things are always a sensible topic (see polish/german discussion). I'd like to hear more opinions.

[Fresno]

I understand that. I'm keen to see what other people think about it.

I have very strong feelings about this. Maybe because half of my family is Flemish.

[Wernazuma III]

So, everyone: Shall I change the Hebrew UU to Merkava. Personally, I don't mind? Please suggest the values we could give the Mercava

[Gholam]

Merkava series of main battle tanks. I'm writing this summary from memory, so correct me if I'm wrong.

Development started in late 60s, when England refused to sell Israel Chieftain MBT's. Project was directed by Maj.Gen. Israel Tal, himself an armored corps officer. Top emphasis was crew protection and tactical mobility (ability to move under fire) as opposed to strategic mobility (ability to move quickly from one place to another). The resulting tank weighted 56 tons, powered by a 900hp diesel engine, resulting in max speed of 46 km/h (on roads). In addition, the rear hatch originally designed for safer crew evacuation (if you evacuate through hatches on top, you're going right into enemy fire, and if you go through hatches on tank's bottom, you often have to crawl through burning diesel fuel that has spilled out of the tank) turned out to be an effective way to transport infantry (up to ten men, at the cost of ammunition carried) or wounded. Armament consisted of a 105mm rifled cannon (based on British L7), a license-manufactured 7.62mm FN MAG machine gun coaxial with it, two more MAGs on flexible mounts on top of turret, a 60mm mortar operated by loader, and an optional remote-controlled M2HB .50cal machine gun on top of turret, above the cannon. It was also equipped with an extremely effective automatic firefighting system - of the 50 Merkava tanks knocked out during clashes with Syria in Lebanon in 1982, not one burned, and only 9 crew members were killed (only seven tanks were complete losses, the rest were repaired). However, it was found that protection is not enough to counter the 125mm smoothbore cannon used by USSR-made T-72 and later tanks, and a new version of Merkava was put into production, named Merkava Mk.2 (english translation - in hebrew, it's Merkava Siman Shtaim, which translates as Mertava Mark Two), featuring improved armor protection.

In 1989, Merkava Mk.3 went operational. Although name suggest a further modification of the original design, it's an almost completely new tank, featuring a 120mm smoothbore gun (a modified Rheinmetall design, similar to the M256 gun used on M1A1 Abrams MBT) modular armor (meaning that repairing damaged modules is extremely simple - you just take them off and put on new ones), a new 1200hp diesel engine (resulting in top speed of 55km/h on roads), and numerious other changes, mostly to crew protection, increasing weight to 61 tons. Price went up (in 1989 prices) from $1.8 million for Mk.2 to $2.3 million for Mk.3 (which is still very cheap - unit replacement cost for M1A1 Abrams is $4.3 million, M1A2 Abrams is $6 million, Leclerc runs approximately $10 million).

Scheme of Merkava Mk.3's turret armor modules:


Links with info on Merkava (various models)

FAS.org Military Analysis Network
Army Technology Industry Projects


Suggested stats: 28.20.2, perhaps 15-20% lower cost than regular modern armor.