Lightning Tourney Rd. 1: Marshall Art vs. MrQuiet (Global Glory 3.0)

[Marshall Art]

Fall 1944 - Japan happily awaits Allied soldiers to run into sharpened bamboo sticks since this is the only weapon left to defend the Island. Germany sends out fighters and subs plus the remainder of its Navy to attack an Allied fleet in the North Sea, causing surprisingly high damage. Sweden and Romania were good Allies but now they must defend themselves as all troops are needed to defend the motherland. Russian superiority in Artillery numbers puts the Red Army into a great advantage on the battlefields despite even tech levels.

[MrQuiet]

Allies Fall44

As 44 Ends Russia advances into barely garrisoned minors.
All sub fleets have been hunted down and damaged except for 1 last fleet in the Atlantic which is currently out of torpedoes.

German Production hits a all time low of 12 while Japan remains at zero.
Allies on the other hand are full steam ahead and producing war materials faster than they can be shipped to the front.

[Marshall Art]

Axis Winter 1945 - no news from Japan, the lone transport our dockyards could produce was bombed to pieces right away. Going back to plan B - bamboo sticks...

Germany conducts more strategic withdrawals to reduce the number of places to be garrisoned. The hope is that with significant air cover Allied advance will be slowed down or at least it will become a bloodbath the Allies will not sustain for too long...

[MrQuiet]

Allies Winter 45

Here we are in the last year of this dreadfull war.
Italy decides it has had enough and lays down its arms, although still allowing German troops to be stationed in N. Italy.[:-]

The noose is squeezed tighter around Germany.
Germany is now at production level 6.

Japan is given one last chance to surrender or feel the wrath of a super weapon like they can not imagine.

[Marshall Art]

Spring 1945 - Germany takes a last stand, will the trenches hold one more turn? Spies reported that an Atomic bomb was tested successfully. Japan defies defeat. However all the Allies need to do is wait for a German surrender an Hirohito will follow.

[MrQuiet]

We have decided to wait one more season to see if diplomatic resolution can be obtained before committing so many young lives to the ultimate price.

Meanwhile majar air carnage took place over Germany showing that jets can be defeated by supiorior numbers.
Germany sits on a production value of 3 but has many pop points to spend this turn due to so many damaged but not destroyed air units.

A nuke was succesfully dropped in Nagisauki (no idea how to spell that) but Japan has not submitted surrender yet.
Looks like they will need a second demonstration.

[Marshall Art]

One last chance for a QPP as Summer 1945 will be the last turn unless the Allies go into the battle drunk from a pre-victory party. Despite substantial losses the Allied air fleets remain superior in numbers, allowing them to prepare the ground for a final push into Germany. Still a couple of fighters are still defending the ground troops awaiting the onslaught. Bored Japanese units plunder Shanghai (again) after recapture from WA troops.

[MrQuiet]

Allies Summer45

The end has befallen.
Soviets take E Germany
2nd A-bomb falls in Japan.

No victiory screen popped up though[:(]

[MrQuiet]

Allies Fall45

Japan Surrenders.
Going back to the 1.02 Read Me it appears the A Bomb does not work if Japan and Russia are not at war.

Japanese a-bomb surrender: this rule has been changed, so that now the a-bomb must actually be successfully dropped on Japan to induce surrender. The Japanese VP threshold for surrender is also reduced from 10 to 7.
IF
( the a-bomb is dropped on a factory in a non-zero population Japanese nationality region
AND causes a double hit
AND at the end of that same turn the Japanese VPs is below 7
AND Japan at war with Russia
)
OR
( the US has the bomb
AND Japan has no regions with both a working factory and non-zero population
AND at the end of the turn the Japanese VPs is below 7
AND Japan at war with Russia
)
THEN
Japan surrenders.

This did cost me a extra season but I think its good and makes A Bomb strategy a little less of a no-brainer.


Now going back to the following post by WH: He says that a bug was introduced in 1.02 that causes Victory Level to be determined one season late

ORIGINAL: WanderingHead

ORIGINAL: MrQuiet
I just figured the person who wrote the manual was not the person who coded the game and they somehow got comunications crossed on when victory level is decided.

No, this is definitely not the case. Having looked at the code, I can say that I unintentionally changed it when I fixed the "continue game" option. My oopsie. First time, I think, that I've had the displeasure of identifying a bug I myself put in a released version .

If that is the only problem then that should be easy enough to fix it back. It would still progress to the next season, but I can subtract 1 season in computing the victory level.

I am going to adjust victory scoreing accordingly for all games using 1.02 in this tournament and the others.
So far it only effects this game and Sandeman vs Sgt Rice, but it will no doubt effect the 2 vs 2 games that have started in 1.02.

[MrQuiet]

To be changed to DV

[Marshall Art]

Congratulations [&o] MrQuiet for a great game - I was surprised that despite me not reaching the first treshold the result was still a substantive victory  in Fall 1945 - it should have been a DV anyway as the result should shift one in favour of the Allies. Maybe I am wrong but it seems this could be looked at again if those victory conditions work correctly, in addition to the above mentioned bug.

Some after-game thoughts, hope some will find them of value -

GG changes seem mostly work well, as far as can tell from this game and 1-2 other PBEMs. Only game-relevant bug known (US-Jap. resource gift) was fixed already. With the additional resources I image Japan could have been a tougher opponent in this game...

I particularly like the enhancements of the US-Jap. trade relations depending on Jap. treatment of China. However, US reaction should also depend on Jap. bombing CHN resorces and possibly infrastructure, too. Instead of bombing factories the CHN economy can also be strangled by bombing resources which is not punished at this point.

Due to a flawed Axis attack (my fault alone [:@]) I did not have the chance to take a look at the Russian surrender rule, or any of the other new rules concerning India or Australia. Which leads me to another point: in GG the Axis player can push the point of attack vs. Russia and even more on the US late into 1942/43, but at a high cost of both Allied powers being well prepared in all places being likely first-strike targets.

The transport capacity changes make good sense, although IMO Japan suffers most under this change as the WA can easier build trannies to make up for the lower capacity.

What I am (still) unhappy about is the fact that Allied moves can render Italy and its fleet more a burden than a help for the Axis. There should not be any reinforcement of Malta allowed unless at least reducing US WR as a trade-off or some other event, e.g. increased Italian forces. Most of all, there should be no way Italy enters the war before France is defeated.

The max. range modifier for aircraft is a hefty penalty particularly for bombing runs or against equal air forces. The German Luftwaffe kept up with the WA long into 1944 in this game. At least in part I attribute this to the Allied hesitance to engage them at max. range over Germany, with only minor superiority in numbers and about technological parity.

My particular interest will go to my first PBEM UV 2.1 game, with the changes to Artillery and supression rules.

[MrQuiet]

Thanks Marshall Art for a very good game.
Your release of the swarm of 11 U-boat fleets late in the war was quite a well executed surprise.

My feedback on Global Glory Mod is that I did like it as the Allies.
The noticeable changes to me was

#1 Max Air Range Penalty
Great improvement even though it seemed to work more against me than my opponent.
I am big on air power (control the sky and you win the game) and this certainly levels things nicely bringing down the offensive power of the mighty air fleets. It hurts air asw the most though (due to rolling less dice) but I can live with that.
Marshall Art is correct in his assesment that I was reluctant to take on the luftwaff at max air range which makes defending fighters seem more powerfull, just the boost they needed since the attacker decides where the fights happen and supperior numbers alone will not decide outcome.

#2 Factorys in the Dutch East Indies
WA start the first turn very short on supply, maybe 20-25 on map, and none in Hawaii.
Later turns though see those factorys in the Dutch East Indies crank out supplies every turn until Japan comes a knocking. Very nice for WA player. After Japan does its thing though I really dont forsee them ever getting used again.

#3 USA Strat Move
I forget the year it starts but it is so nice as USA to be able to send defensive units to Hawaii and Midway.

#4 Heavy Bomber Costing 5
I think this was a great change making WA feel a little more sting when HBs are damaged.
I have not played axis in this mod yet so no comment from that prospective.

#5 Fighter cost 3
The only change I really noticed from this new cost is that not all damaged fighters return on the next turn. It certainly does not discourage a player from building them (well maybe Japan) as you just will not win a global war without air cover.

#6 Artillary changes
Its nice to now see in 1.02 that artillary will target random units in range 2 combat instead of just targeting artillary.

#7 A Bomb rule
I think it works good even though its not intuitive that Japan and Russia have to be at war for A Bombs to work. Japan has to be below production 7 which I still think is to high. I have never had a opponent yet who had Japan Production over 1 or 2 in the final seasons.

#8 Transport Capacity Rules
I like em.
But like everyone else I think they hurt Japan the most and to make up for this Japan should start with more transports.

Dont know about the surrender rules for SU India Austr since my opponent did not push to hard on any of them there never was the risk of them to surrender.

So my game ballance suggestions are only
1) give Japan about 4 or 5 more starting transports

2) Let Japan be the only country with fighters costing only 2 (weren't zeros made out of very light material with no armor protection?) Half of Japans production has to be used for supply so I doubt they are going to run away in fighter production.

3) Change Japan A bomb surrender to less than 2 or 3 production.

[MrQuiet]

Score
 
Allied DV
axis +0
allies +30
 
Marshall Art (axis)
Quick Play  23turns = 11.5pts
Screen Shots 25turns = 12.5pts
Total Score  =  24pts
 
MrQuiet (allies)
Quick Play  10turns = 5pts
Screen Shots  25turns = 12.5pts
Total Score  =  47.5pts