Quesstions/Comments on v 1.2

[Alex Gilbert]

Hi. I was taking the weekend to explore the 1.2 update. Having played through a game, I really like the changes to trench construction. I think this makes them a much more important part of the game, as it is now possible to generate high density trenches in a few months. I also think that the damage statistics on the naval display help tremendously. Overall, I think this is an excellent improvement to an already enjoyable game.

A couple of questions I had though:

1. After conquering Italy, I could not move several German and Austrian corps out. This was definitely not present in the earlier release. I am not sure if this was meant to reflect the need to garrison Italy, or reflects the bug of being unable to move corps out of conquered territory that was noted earlier in relation to the surrender of A-H.

2. Related to this, there are no longer any corps removed for garrison duties after France or Italy surrenders. In the former version, there were, I believe, 6 corps removed for garrison after France surrendered, not sure about Italy. I did not conquer Russia, so I do not know if corps are removed for Russian garrison. Again, was this a designed change?

3. I have noted in some cases that for artillery to use gas, they must load it one turn, and then wait until next turn to use it. I have checked the supply of the hex, which was 100%, so I do not think that was a problem. Is this as designed? If so, I actually like this a lot, as it reflects the time needed to organize stocks of the gas and send it to the proper units.

Again, a very nice improvement to a very good game.

Thanks.
Alex

[Venator]

Having conquered the Ottomans, I do not appear to have had to leave a garrison force. Is this intended?
 
I second the trench construction comment above - trenches are now very useful. The naval tweaks have helped too.
 
On AI strategies: if the AI is the central powers, more often than not in my experience, they do not declare war on Belgium/Luxembourg. This is a suicide strategy for them as their main thrust is still into France and they are easily contained allowing spare British and French troops to launch amphibious assaults willy-nilly. I think this CP strategy would be better either dropped or heavily modified so that they go against Russia heavily and just hold on the western front.

[GJK]

ORIGINAL: Alex Gilbert

3. I have noted in some cases that for artillery to use gas, they must load it one turn, and then wait until next turn to use it. I have checked the supply of the hex, which was 100%, so I do not think that was a problem. Is this as designed? If so, I actually like this a lot, as it reflects the time needed to organize stocks of the gas and send it to the proper units.

Perhaps the first time that a side uses gas it should take 2 months (a turn) to get it loaded, but I would think that once they start, the supplies for it should be readily available (and it may be in the game, I haven't checked).

[hjaco]

I haven't checked this in 1.2 but in previous versions you could load and fire in same impulse so you have to report this as a bug.

[bis9170]

ORIGINAL: hjaco

I haven't checked this in 1.2 but in previous versions you could load and fire in same impulse so you have to report this as a bug.

I would assume so too. After all, we're talking about each turn equating to two months. I know getting the gas shells from The Factory to The Front takes some time, but come on now...! [:'(]
Cheers,
//TB

[SMK-at-work]

I haven't had that problem with gas - I used up to "Y" vs the AI over the weekend and was able to loa and fire in 1 impulse in all cases.
 
It might seem a bit strange....but did you actually have a hex to shoot at?  You can load gas away from the front just like other ammo so the unit is ready to fire but has nothing to fire at.

[FrankHunter]

1. After conquering Italy, I could not move several German and Austrian corps out. This was definitely not present in the earlier release. I am not sure if this was meant to reflect the need to garrison Italy, or reflects the bug of being unable to move corps out of conquered territory that was noted earlier in relation to the surrender of A-H.

This is a bug in the beta, but I got a saved game for it and have now fixed it.

2. Related to this, there are no longer any corps removed for garrison duties after France or Italy surrenders. In the former version, there were, I believe, 6 corps removed for garrison after France surrendered, not sure about Italy. I did not conquer Russia, so I do not know if corps are removed for Russian garrison. Again, was this a designed change?

The garrisons for countries other than Russia was missing from the beta.  Its been changed so that you lose the garrison troops just for one year and then they enter as regular reinforcements.

3. I have noted in some cases that for artillery to use gas, they must load it one turn, and then wait until next turn to use it. I have checked the supply of the hex, which was 100%, so I do not think that was a problem. Is this as designed? If so, I actually like this a lot, as it reflects the time needed to organize stocks of the gas and send it to the proper units.

I have looked for this but couldn't find it.  I had no problems firing gas on the same impulse I loaded.

[hjaco]

2. Related to this, there are no longer any corps removed for garrison duties after France or Italy surrenders. In the former version, there were, I believe, 6 corps removed for garrison after France surrendered, not sure about Italy. I did not conquer Russia, so I do not know if corps are removed for Russian garrison. Again, was this a designed change?

The garrisons for countries other than Russia was missing from the beta. Its been changed so that you lose the garrison troops just for one year and then they enter as regular reinforcements.

I am confused to what rules currently are supposed to be in effect regarding garrisons ? Is the only change supposed to be a cut down in time before releasing any garrison (i.e. 6 turns) ?

Well you are the designer and this is obviously your choice but may I ask what got you to change this ?

Personally I think it highly improbable that German would have removed their more than one million man garrison from the occupied territories in the east within one year after termination of hostilities with Russia. After all lebensraum for their Empire was what they went to war for.

[FrankHunter]

I am confused to what rules currently are supposed to be in effect regarding garrisons ? Is the only change supposed to be a cut down in time before releasing any garrison (i.e. 6 turns) ?

That is the only change, yes. 

Because of the ensuing chaos in Russia even a year after Russia surrendered I can see why you'd think that those troops should be there longer.

What about the other surrenders, such as northern France, northern Italy, Romania etc? 

Perhaps it should depend on whether there's a civil war involved?  After all, if the Kerensky gov't had surrendered and there was no civil war would the Germans have required a million troops to stay on the eastern front for more than a year?

[hjaco]

Secure transport of food was a prime concern for the occupation forces especially so in the Ukraine at that time in the war. Even then some German food transports going through AH was plundered or "requisitioned" by AH.

That desperation will not necessarily be the case in most GOA games but I think the premise is still valid. The vast expanse of occupied territory would have demanded forces to uphold law an order etc.

Not so in the west where culture and infrastructure would have made it much easier for Germany to integrate.

In essence I think a garrison would be needed in the east in any case where as in any other situation a year of garrison could seem sufficient and regarding minors the territory to control would be of limited size.

[James Ward]

I think the garrision should never come back.
Since you can't liberate a country once it's conquered you lose all of their corps counters forever. Permenantly removing some for garrision is a good balancer.
I think getting the garrisions back will give the CP a big advantage in a long game.

[hjaco]

One thing came to my mind.

What about linking garrison units to occupied cities i.e. instead of arbitrary removing them from the map let them be in the occupied cities with one each with the requirement of leaving at least one corps behind in each city for the necessary time duration.

As it is now there is an awkward maneuvering about to get enough lower class Corps in place before conquest.

Another consideration. Apparently a 1 SP German Corps is just as good for gaming purposes as a 24 SP German Corps ?

[Alex Gilbert]

Thanks for the reply, Frank.

Regarding the delay in using gas, I can not reproduce it myself, so perhaps I was just missing something (like a target) at that point.

Alex

[StkNRdr]

Frank,
 
Just an FYI on graphics.  It is nice to have the larger map but on a 4:3 aspect monitor all resolutions other than 1024 X 768 cut off either a portion or the entire bottom text box, therefore seeing the makeup of units or battle results are affected.  I have turned on the Hide Taskbar feature but it still does not show the whole text box.  Am I the only one with this problem?  My monitor will do up to 2048 X 1536.

[FrankHunter]

I don't see that problem myself on other resolutions.  I'd be interested to know if others do.

[Walloc]

I have same problem as StkNRdr too.
In any resolution if i keep the task bar on, i have too move the GoA window up so i can see buttom of window.

Kind regards,

Rasmus

[TheHellPatrol]

Same here at 1024x768 on widescreen...i have to remove the taskbar and a little is still cutoff...been that way since release.

[TheBlackhorse]

If you have large fonts selected then the bottom of the text will be cut off at the bottom of the game screen window.

[StkNRdr]

I checked and large fonts was turned on.  To further test, I switched back to Normal (96dpi), including a reboot and the 1600 X 1200 still has none of the text box showing.  The 1280 X 1024 will show all but part of the final line of the text box IF I hide the taskbar and move the window up as far as I can.

[alaric318]

ORIGINAL: FrankHunter

1. After conquering Italy, I could not move several German and Austrian corps out. This was definitely not present in the earlier release. I am not sure if this was meant to reflect the need to garrison Italy, or reflects the bug of being unable to move corps out of conquered territory that was noted earlier in relation to the surrender of A-H.

This is a bug in the beta, but I got a saved game for it and have now fixed it.

greetings, it is fixed at 1.02 or will be fixed at 1.03, it seems that 1.02 have not go official, thinking about buy the game, not sure when and want to know if troops comited to conquer nations will be bug on conquered of a surrendered enemy,
thanks for any and all advice,

best regards,

murat30.