Ostfront II

[Captain Cruft]

Ostfront re-implementation

I have decided to re-implement my Ostfront scenario. While the current version is fun it is lacking in numerous ways. Not the least of which is I always felt it was too small.

Ostfront II will feature:

300x300 map (10km per hex) - covering a much larger area including all of Finland and Black Sea.
Many more units, including naval but more generic (i.e less named units).
Simplified SFTypes, but retaining the focus on individual planes and AFVs.
Buildable/destructible rail, with separate types for both sides (as per reality with the different gauges).
More extensive but hopefully more understandable production and infrastructure system.
Whole war at one week per turn.

Don't expect anything soon.

[Barthheart]

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

Ostfront re-implementation

...
Buildable/destructible rail, with separate types for both sides (as per reality with the different gauges).
...

I'll be really interested to see this. Can we know your secret?

[Captain Cruft]

Here's a test scenario which illustrates it.

The only limitation is that the rail is not directional, but I think that's OK, at least for my purposes.

[Captain Cruft]

You will need to make two graphics files ostfront\plain\rail.png and ostfront\plain\railnot.png in order to see it. As per this attachment.

[Barthheart]

Cool. Thanks.

[03_walk_alot]

Captain
 
Am Interested in this! Have time on my hands if you need help testing anything
would be glad to help.
 
Giacomo

[Captain Cruft]

It will be a long time before any testing takes place. You could play around with the existing scenario and let me know what you think though. The basics will be the same.

[Jeffrey H.]

Ooh. Sounds impressive.
 
[&o]
 

[Captain Cruft]

Map

I have done 10 columns of the base map in about one day. There are 300 to do, so that's at least a man-month to start with ...

A few things to note:-

Murmansk and Archangelsk are on the map. Arctic convoys won't be though.
Lend-lease will also come in from Persia (via Astrakhan) and the Far East (mechanism to be decided).

The top-left corner is Norway.
The bottom right-hand corner is Baku.

Gratuitous screenshot:-

[Bombur]

Great, I´m a volunteer for playtesting....

[Captain Cruft]

Jolly good.

I am interested in whether people think the term "Railhead" is confusing. Perhaps I should call these "Supply Depot" or something instead? Anyone who has played the scenario feel free to comment good or bad.

[Jeffrey H.]

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

Jolly good.

I am interested in whether people think the term "Railhead" is confusing. Perhaps I should call these "Supply Depot" or something instead? Anyone who has played the scenario feel free to comment good or bad.

I never had any problem wit hthe term 'railhead'. IF you understand that the rail gauges were different and that in order for one country to use it's rolling stock transport capacity, they had to tear up the pther countires rail lines and reset the gauges, the phrase just fell into place.

Even if you consider a new rail line being layed, it's made in segments ahead of the existing rail line and the lead segment is called a railhead.

The fact that it's also a supply point is something a little more abstract. However playing the old board wargames makes the connection between the two intuitive.

[Grymme]

how are you making the different railroads. A possibility would be to make an turnchecked event that changes rulewar 32 (which type of road engineers build) every turn.

German turn - engineers build western railroad
Soviet turn - engineers build eastern railroad.

A similar event could be used to change the movement depending on whoose turn it is. On german turn german type railway is good. On soviet turn only soviet railway is good.

Just a suggestion.

Good luck. Ostrfront I is one of the most ambitious scenario atempts so far.

[Captain Cruft]

I did consider doing it that way before, but rejected it for reasons now forgotten. Possibly something to do with preventing rail from being built on any hex.

What I actually did was implement Rail as a LocType. This allows you to restrict it to a defined network of hexes with the appropriate LandscapeType. See the test scenario attached above.

Another screenshot from near Murmansk gives some idea what this rail network looks like. Note also the shallow water (light blue) which I may use with river patrol boats and the like, and the "minor roads" (the whitish lines). These form 99% of the roads in Russia, are unpaved and will be useless when the mud comes and not hugely rapid at any time.

Note: Urban hexes will have built-in rail capability. I didn't want to clutter the graphics up ...

[Captain Cruft]

Here's Oslo, for what it's worth.

The map is going to take absolutely ages.

[british exil]

Is a german HQ with train as their transport mode able to travel across the russian tracks or do they need to "purchase" new trains?
Perhaps hindering them to provide sufficient supply to the units moving ahead.

[Captain Cruft]

HQs will not have trains as their transport mode. Rail movement is (mostly) just used for production and supply movement and transfers, not actual unit movement. Supply movement is quite limited off the rail lines. See the existing Ostfront scenario for how this works ...

The process of gauge conversion for each hex will be implemented as:-

1) Destroy Russian rail LocType
2) Build German rail LocType.

Or vice versa when the Ruskies are on the offensive later.

I am thinking of tweaking the parameters with a view to having a ballpark rate of conversion of one hex per rail line per turn.

Turns will now be 3 or 4 days each I have decided rather than one week. So there will be 400 odd turns in total.

[british exil]

phew. 400 turns! Killer scenario

[Captain Cruft]

Yep. Definitely not for the faint-hearted [:)]

That's if I ever finish it ... LOL

[Jeffrey H.]

So, IIRC a typical supply situation would be city-->rail-->railhead/depot-->truck-->dump-->--truck-->units
 
Something like that ?