Tales from the 2194 PBEM game

[Marko]

February 1942
The United States broadcast:

The heavy fighting around Washington DC continues. Several cities go from hand to hand during last few weeks.

Liberated: New York, Boston, Miami, Toronto, Quebec.

Japanese losses: Light Tank, Field Artillery, Motorized Infantry, 2 Cruisers, 2 Submarines.

[Xin Yu]

Japan has evacuated coastal cities like New York, Boston, and Miami. Only Toronto has a mobile infantry unit. Hand to hand battles could be happend there?

[dizepam]

February 1942

BBC Broadcast:

After destroying completely Rommel's Afrika Korps, the British armies made a raid on europe to debilitate Germany's industry. The following cities were taken in a combination of air raids and paratroopers attacks:
Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Paris, Lyon and Tolouse. The city of Tunis was also taken consolidating Britsh positions in North Africa.
New Dehli is still holding on, also New Zealand and London are holding. Canada is lost. Britain's only hope resides in North Africa and Middle East.
Total German losses: 45 units.

[Xin Yu]

Hey, that's an opponent!

[Allard HS]

Sounds cool! Anyone wishes to start a new PBEM game? For a non-ww2 scenario? (not that I have anything against them).

[RobRoy]

Attaboy Dizepam! Do not go gently into that good night.

Allard - I might be interested in a PBEM game, for a non-WWII scenario (not that there's anything wrong with those). But I'm having trouble identifying an appropriate candidate. So many of the good scenarios were designed to be played from the perspective of just one civ, and might be hopelessly unbalanced with multiple human players. Another problem is that, while each turn would be considerably shorter than the average WWII scenario, there are often many, many more turns. Some possibilities that might offer several "playable" civs include: Fall of Rome, Justinian, End of the Bronze Age, Colonie3, Hellas, Vikings, the new "Modern Age", and Cross & Crescent. But those all have lots of turns. Mongols3, DAROE, Fading Lights, and the upcoming Imperium Romanum might also be interesting, but we might have to do some tweaking or even discourage the playing of the target civ. Did you have any specific candidates in mind? Also, it might be possible to try some scenarios as stardard internet games - or perhaps they could start that way and become PBEM games when things get too complicated (if that's possible).

Xin Yu & company - which events file did you use for the 2194 game? The Japanese, since you started? Or did you all decide not to use one? Sorry if I missed that discussion.

[dizepam]

Xin Yu: you're rigth, Britain started to late. But you must remember that this scenario is very unbalanced. I only got paratroopers this turn, just as an example. I didn't make any big mistake, in my opinion. What happened was that i only had control of australia and british isles during one turn and of canada during two turns. There was little i could do to save them (maybe i should have pillaged the roads). Britain is a little more strong only in north africa and middle east (strong fleet in the mediterrean, lots of armor and spitfires and lack of immediat threat from Germany).The Axis, on the other hand starts with plenty of troops on all fronts.

[klesh]

Holy Crap dizepam!!!

I was waiting for you to mount an offensive. I was very lightly defending the homecities because I had to fight very hard in Russia. All the events give the Soviet free AA, Light Tanks and Bombers. I had to send a great deal of troops to the East. Nice work on the raid though...fantsastic job!

I made a very desperate raid on Plymouth the first turn. I used nearly all of my bombers and fighters and lots of stukas to open up the city for a paradrop. I sent in 4 AA's on a freighter to prevent RAF counterattack. landed a few more fallscrimjagers as well. London is the only city w/ anti-tank defenses, so I sent 2 freighters of PzKwIV's over on turn 2 and used fighters to ZOC my way around London and take the rest of the British Isles. You would have lost London this last turn except you pillaged the rails...best thing you could've done. I hadn't gotten the 105 Wespe unit which ing. anti-tank defenses so I was planning to assault London w/ Field Artilley. But the Fld. Art. only has 1 move.
I agree that things should be done to modify this scenario. Xin and I were able to attack the Soviet before he had a turn to defend. The Soviet only recieves units if the attacker is Germany. The Imperial Marines along the RR are quite good. Though they must work quickly because Japan has no real defensive unit aside from the AA Battery.
The key to this is techs...In this game the Axis were able to take cites, and therefore science, away from the Allies before they could build their war-winning units. Had the Soviet had T-34's, I would have never taken Moscow. The war would have gone totally defensive. England is researching "Commandos" from the start. That will be their first tech regardless of choice. Churchill tanks in England would've certainly slowed my push.
My problem was indeed the Med. Germany can't attack on every front. There isn't enough production to resupply 3 fronts at once. I hoped to stall the British in North Afrika and resupply or invade when the units became available. That will be in the near future. I had decent defenses along the coast, looks like you hopped right over them I sure hope I'll be able to retake those cities next turn...try to salvage what production I can. I can't wait to get my turn!

Achtung! The Invasion has begun!

[Xin Yu]

Dizepam: I suggest that you replay turn 1 and try to take as many German cities as you can. You can air raid then occupy 10-15 German cities from North and South, including Hamburg and Rome. Many German units supported by those cities will be disbanded and you can sell the improvements for big cash. Also by occupying all German coastal cities you effectively blocked German's way to invade England.

[Mao]

quote: Originally posted by Allard HS on 01-10-2001 07:34 AM Sounds cool! Anyone wishes to start a new PBEM game? For a non-ww2 scenario? (not that I have anything against them).

How about Sparta by Alex the Mag?

[techumseh]

A year or two ago, I modified Jesus Munoz's "Thirty Years War" for multi-player. It was a little slow, but with double movement it would be lots of fun. It has 120 turns. The civs are: Imperialist (Austria), Protestants (north German states), France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, and Poland.
[This message has been edited by techumseh (edited January 10, 2001).]

[Xin Yu]

We used German events.txt file and allies advantage rules.txt file.

Several things need to be set up when we do this again.
First, every civ needs to be passworded. The AI civs can be passworded in the first turn by the players immediately before them.
Secondly, players should always end their turns by pressing Ctrl-N. If not, the AI would take over the civ before it goes to the next player and mess up with everything (units are all out of city and productions are all changed).
Thirdly, a specific build order '@BUILD' should be added to every player's setup. The build order for a city maybe changed if it is in disorder when a nearby city is taken by another civ. A specific build order may help the AI to decide what to build. I suggest putting anti-tanks and barracks in the list. However I don't know if 'anti-tank' or the original name 'city walls' should be used.

Britain did the right thing. Just too late. Now, US has only 30 some units and 6 cities (the newly 'liberated' cities like New York, etc. are not counted since they don't have productivity and will be lost to Japan immediately), the Soviet has 30 some units and 5 cities. They will not be able to cover their losses in a war of attrition. Soon they'll all be wiped out. Similarly, the British has 20-30 units in London and Northern Europe with only 3 cities. It will not be able to send reinforcement there from the Middle East thus the units there will be eliminated soon. Same story for New Zealand. By mid 1942 Britain will be fighting alone in the Middle East.
[This message has been edited by Xin Yu (edited January 10, 2001).]

[klesh]

So where are we at with this? I am dying to expell the British intrusion into Europe. WHo's turn is it now?

------------------
I am the Ukrainian Anti-Pope!
Automatic Kleshnikov 2001

[Xin Yu]

I'm still waiting for VietMinh to send me the file.

[Xin Yu]

March 1942 Japan broadcast: The war is over and hunting has begun. Washinton DC finally falls and our troops are advaning towards Alaska. The US has lost all its territory except some air and naval bases in central and north America. The US now only has a total of 5 cities and 20 units. Japanese prisoners were freed from US concentration camps and were seeking justice. We will send our imperial army to hunt down the US war criminals who escaped to South America. We urge the Neutral government to hand over those Americans, or we will have to declare war on the Neuturals.

The Soviet Union is now down to 2 cities and less than 30 units. We still haven't seen its T-34 tanks in battles. Will it appear when we take our final assault in April?

In India, we finally took Dehli. The imperial army will advance via land and the sea towards the middle east.