ORIGINAL: redmarkus4
Hi. I have just posted my first attempt at a historical scenario (War in the East 2) at the AT scenario bank; Divisional level, 7 days per turn, with a 95% historical setup (including the command structure for both sides, but excluding the Korps level as it added too many layers). I've even used all the historical German unit names and included the names of key commanders. IT NOW NEEDS THE COMMUNITY TO HELP WITH EDITS AND IMPROVEMENTS - ESPECIALLY THE EVENTS ENGINE, AS I'M USELESS AT THAT.
Of course, the AI will create new units with non-historical names over time, but that's only a minor annoyance. I've played it through to Sept 1941 as both sides against the AI and the front line was almost exactly as it was historically.
Putting together a divisional level scenario that covers the entire Russian front for the entire war is quite an ambitious way to jump into the editor. My hat's off to you. I had a quick look and had some comments and thoughts:
- If you more than double the number of units and triple the number of turns in a year. You may consider either (a) making the map larger or (b) making the units move less per turn. With the current map, it is 24 hexes from jump off to Moscow, the Germans can set a leisurely pace of about 1 hex per turn and get there before the winter. An easy way to scale would be to add x and y hexes to the map and then re-draw. You would have to get a good historic source.
- I would look at the combination of the number of HQ's, HQ range, and the size of the map. With current settings, HQ's give full support to units 5 hexes away and then things taper off from there. The SU is a bit of a funnel. Once you get past the marshes, you can get really good coverage with 6 HQ. Any more than this and you are wasting pp that could be used for research. A couple of potential solutions would be to: (1) make a bigger map; (2) reduce the HQ range; (3) reduce to HQ cost so they cannot be effectively harvested.
- I think the starting position greatly favors the Germans. Both sides were increased, though though most of the Soviet increase is likely to be lost quickly. A significant force is SW of AG South and should always be cut off on the first turn by a decent German player. By turn 3, I think the Germans will be in much stronger relative shape that the previous version.
- Minor point - you over mechanize the motor divisions. They have 5 trucks and 5 half tracks. A smart player will use this excess transport to also mechanize the regular troops.
- If you make significant changes to the scenario, production and how it changes over time, becomes important. I did not dig into this. However, your initial oob with determine if the first 6 months of the war runs well. Your production levels will determine how well the rest of the war runs. Production is tricky because you have to set the amount and determine the location. I also noticed you added a lot of low value production centers. You may want this but it does add more complexity to the player (instead of 4 sheets of a lot of towns, you might add larger production centers on the map edge).
In the end, if you want to do a divisional level scenario, I would:
- Start with a new map
- Start with a clean set of events
- Develop your production plan for each side
- Populate your oob.
Happy to help. Send me a note if interested.
A game designer needs to make some fundamental decisions about what scale is going to apply to his game, and then stick to it. But, as above, that only governs starting positions and strengths....after that it's afree-for-all.