sPzAbt653 - Soviet AI for FITE

[anthonykevinluke]

Hi sPzAbt653,

Apologies for asking on the forums but I noted with great interest your comment on the thread below "Help for a Potential player", that you had developed a Soviet AI for FITE. I was wondering/hoping that you would be willing to provide a copy of your FITE with this Soviet AI, as like yourself, I have very little time for PBEM and mostly play 'Elmer'. If you are able to provide it that would be outstanding, if not, then I understand anyway. For your consideration, many thanks.

Tony

[Sker]

I am very interested about that too.

[Panama Red]

Make that me three !!!

[sPzAbt653]

I made alot of changes to the original, some to increase the solitaire playability
(in my opinion), some from suggestions on the forums concerning balance.
Certainly there is nothing wrong with the original, I think it is great.
Here's a list of some of the changes:

~
Some unit colors have been changed.

Most 'Army' withdrawals changed to the individual unit withdrawals.

Most withdrawals give notification one turn ahead.

German infantry regiments have been combined into their respective
divisions. These can then be broken down if desired.

German supply collapses at the beginning of September, turn 22. The German player must manage supply thru use of supply depot units.

Partizan units won't appear and German security forces (Security divisions and MP units) will be withdrawn during the game to reflect partisan activity. No prior notification of these units' withdrawals is given. 'Operation Bagration' Theatre Option Partizans will still appear.

Soviet production is 200% on turn 48, 150% on turn 78, and 150% on turn 352.

German Order of Battle expanded (i.e., historical Tiger battalions, SS
Panzer Grenadier Divisions, Herman Goering Division, 3SS Panzer Corps). Most of these units arrive late in the game.

Added the 3rd entry of LAH and Das Reich.

There are less German rail repair units and automatic rail repair ability
has been increased. German 'Bautrupp' (Rail Repair) units are restricted
to rail movement only. Keep them near important railheads.

German Panzer Regiments that are destroyed will reconstitute.

As in the original version, around turn 150, 'late' version German Panzer
Regiments will start to appear. The 'early' version Panzer Regiments will
automatically withdraw shortly thereafter.

Soviet Militia units withdraw on turn 82, Fort Regions units stay in the
game and will reconstitute.

Removed Turk Air Force until/if Turkey enters the war. The Turk entry
trigger for Axis occupation of Cherkessy (230,236) was moved east to
Makhatjkala (279,246). Sevastopol (152,235) must still also be occupied.

Most supply points have been removed from cities. This prevents the
unrealistic occurance of surrounded cities staying in full supply
indefinately. If surrounded and attacked these locations will not hold out
for long. Supply depots have been added to some cities to reflect local
stockpiles. Some Northern and Southern ports have retained their supply
points as the PO has difficulty with keeping surrounded ports supplied.
~

As you can see it is now not the same FitE that everyone knows, and I did not ask permission to make these changes to the original. Maybe in the future it will be made possible to transfer objective tracks from one scenario to another.

If there is any further interest in this, I will contact the designers to inquire about the possibility of posting this somewhere for others to download.

[Panama Red]

sPzAbt653:
Thank you and I hope other's get to enjoy your FitE "AI" scenario too since this is to good a scenario to restrict to just Head to Head or PBEM.
 
Panama Red

[Silvanski]

Interesting project!
I myself haven't tried dealing with a FitE PO ...so far.

[cesteman]

yes please ask!

[sPzAbt653]

Permission granted. The oob and changes, and the event list and changes have been approved by the original FitE team. Rick Kesler has designed a new map to increase the flow/playability. (We all need to send the finest gifts in the land to him straightaway!). Sweden, Turkey and Iran have been squeezed out, full Finland has been squeezed in. This allows us to try some things in Finland, always a tough front to contend with. With all that's being done, it was recommended to change the name, so 'Fire in the East, v653, Soviet PO' has been changed to 'Directive 21'. To clarify, Fire in the East is a PBEM scenario. Directive 21 is the Soviet PO version. Playtesting with the original v653 is ongoing so that we can get feedback from players with different styles (thanks guys). In addition to changes listed in the above post, currently we are combining the panzer division regiments into Kamfgruppes. Not a major change, just this way there are now 3 fairly equal KG's for each Pz Division. HQ, engineer and recon units are still solo, but the 'Kradschutz' battalions have been incorporated into the 'Aufklar' battalions (apologies to those of you that like to break up these units into 6 ants, now you can only get 3!). There will be Theater Options for the panzer division refits (pick a TO, the corresponding KG's are shipped to Paderborn for refit, the new ones arrive). For those who know about the Il-4 issue, no worries, Elmer doesn't play that way!

Once the current changes are complete, if anyone else has an interest to playtest, we will post here when the time is right. At that point we will be tweaking objective track 1, and adding in objective tracks 2 and 3.

Anyone with experience in this scenario, feel free to post ideas. Just keep in mind that this version is solely for the Axis side to be run by a human player against the Soviet side being run by Elmer. So some ideas that apply to the pbem version will not be applicable.

Many thanks to Soeren Gaun, Kristian Kristensen and Stefan Kristensen for their interest, support and good will. These guys are what scenario design is all about, and I throw roses to their feet when they walk!

[Silvanski]

Great news. I'd be more than happy to put my dime in when needed

[Curtis Lemay]

I once had a screwy idea on how to get the PO programmed for some of these monster scenarios. I was only half serious, but it might one day be taken seriously. The idea was to make a game of it. It could even be done via team play. Two teams, one for each side, would program the PO objectives for their respective side (each team member getting a section of their side's force to program). All the files would then be collected and turned over to a moderator, who would (probably using the F4/F5 feature) combine all the objectives into one combined scenario file. The scenario would then be played in PO vs PO mode. Better programmers win. Sort of like a 1-turn WEGO.

But, the bonus would be that, after this process was over, the scenario would have had both sides PO programmed.

[Menschenfresser]

I'll put my dime in for PT when available.
 

[cesteman]

The line is getting long now for people willing to help [:)] Good news for all of us. Cheers!

[Singleton Mosby]

This is just amazing! FITE against AI would just be great. Where and when can I download this new version?

[rhinobones]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653
Anyone with experience in this scenario, feel free to post ideas. Just keep in mind that this version is solely for the Axis side to be run by a human player against the Soviet side being run by Elmer. So some ideas that apply to the pbem version will not be applicable.

Suggest you start off the game with a German Theater Option which offers the choice of playing either a historical or alternative game. The alternative option is intended to go give solitaire players the ability to experience a variety of Soviet, environmental, situational and resource variables that gives the scenario a taste of something different from game to game. The historical option . . . well, same old soup.

If the player selects the alternative Theater Option, I would suggest the following variables:

1. First Move. Make the Germans (Force 1) static in Turn 1. Give the turn 1 Soviets a 50% chance (or whatever % you like) of moving first, otherwise, the Germans move first in turn 2 and the game proceeds as usual. This is intended give the German player a variety of operational problems to solve in order to conduct a successful invasion.
2. Objective Tacks. Use all three Soviet objective tracks. Add event variables so that Tracks 1, 2 and 3 are selected randomly. Then, add events to randomly switch to an alternative, or stay on the original Objective Track. Cascade events so that the possibility of changing tracks is at least three deep. This will give the German player an opponent that is both difficult to defend/attack against and unpredictable in purpose.
3. Weather. Make this as wide as possible. Use event probabilities to make frozen rivers in August and heat waves in February. Anything is possible and this scenario should take advantage of the variability of nature.
4. Units. Create events and develop probabilities to add a few Soviet and German formations to the battle. To increase suspense, some surprise Soviet formations will increase the pressure on the Germans while a few missing German formations might cause the aggressor to plan alternative strategies.
5. Reinforcements. Reduce and/or eliminate the ability of units to reconstitute and absorb reinforcements.
6. Victory Points. Suggest that you refrain from using Victory Points and instead use destruction of HQs, Supply Units and production cities to increase/decrease the resource.

Just a few suggestions for a solitaire Fire in the East scenario. Have a few more if you want to write.

Regards, RhinoBones

[cesteman]

ORIGINAL: Singleton Mosby

This is just amazing! FITE against AI would just be great. Where and when can I download this new version?

The version were talking abouot involves adding an AI to the game. Nothing has been officially released yet. As for the current version without the AI I suggest you PM SPZABT653 as to where you can download it. He might send it to you. Cheers.

[sPzAbt653]

I'll put my dime in for PT when available.

Thanks Zach.

The line is getting long now for people willing to help

Good, yes. The more different playing styles we have input from, the better. We can't take into account for every possible strategy (especially crazy stuff), but the scale of the scenario, the room to work with, and the number of units will make it interesting.

Where and when can I download this new version?

As I said in post #8, not ready yet.

Just a few suggestions for a solitaire Fire in the East scenario.

Mr. Bones, thanks for the 6 points. Post more of them, or pm me if you like. We'd like to have everybody's input while we are working on it, to cut down on the number of 'aftermarket versions'. Here's my thoughts on your thoughts:

1. Good idea but I don't think it fits into our Ying-Yang category. More complexity added for the same initial result, as the Soviets were on all levels unable to defend the frontier. However, in conjunction with a possible option for early Soviet mobilization ....

2. Done, in theory you are right there with what is intended.

3. Frozen rivers in August and heat waves in February? I'll have to think about this tonight at the pub.

4. Being the pro-German that I am, I wouldn't be inclined to remove formations from them. Conversely, I'd love to add an option for maximum German deployment (sorry Elmer). For the Soviets, once we see how many unit slots we can free up, the call will go out to all Soviet OOB experts to give us some 'extra' formations.

5. You can expand on this idea, fill me in a little more.

6. In going up against Elmer, it's difficult to have priority assigned to certain objectives or units, as he doesn't recognize that protection of these important targets is ... important. The main function of victory points in this scenario is to monitor the loss rates, and the main goal remains to hold Berlin at the end.

Thanks for the input and the chance to reply. Please re-reply if I got something wrong!

Steve

[cesteman]

SPZABT653 you already know this but if I can be of any help however small please let me know I'll be glad to give my input whether it's research or play testing. Cheers!

[rhinobones]

Item 6. You don’t need Victory Points . . . Berlin and the intermediate objectives leading up to Berlin is all you really need. Loss penalties will still be calculated relative losses. If you really think that Victory Points are important, you can always make some off map Victory Point hexes for the purpose of using them in the loss calculations.

Item 5. One of my personal problems with many scenarios is the seemingly endless stream of reinforcements, replacements and reconstituted units. Units in some scenarios are like a bad Sci-Fi flick . . . every time the unit/monster is killed it is reanimated . . . over and over. Would be nice if the destruction of unit XX really is the end of unit XX. Any replacements in the pools could then be redirected to the remaining units.

I have often thought that one of the greatest blunders in war game design has been the assignment of “points” for the capture/destruction of various geographical areas or units. There has to be (and is) a better way of determining the victor other than assigning arbitrary points. Utah Beach, 40 Victory Points . . . really? I’m sure that’s exactly how Eisenhower knew the Allies were winning the war.

Regards, RhinoBones

[sPzAbt653]

Hello Mr. Bones,

Victory points - I hadn't checked what effect switching the map would have on them so I just did, apparently it wipes them all clean. So your idea is in place, now you just have to make sure I don't decide to add them in! Loss calculations are always nice to see, and players do like to see what level of victory they have as the scenario progresses.

So, to add VP for the loss of production cities can be done by adding one event to each occupation event that is already in place, as it only happens once. I think I'm too lazy to add a recurring VP reward for each HQ and supply unit that is destroyed, if that's what you mean. We certainly can consider it. Can you give a more detailed schedule of what you think is appropriate? I have no idea. I could guess, while I'm drinking this Beck's, that we could give the Soviets 4,000 points at start, and figure to divide the number of Soviet hq's by 2,000 to arrive at a VP value for each of them, then give 1,000 points divided among the production cities ....

[rhinobones]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653
. . . while I'm drinking this Beck's . . .

Now, this is a man who knows how to enjoy life, and a little bit of TOAW.

Regards, RhinoBones