Matrix Games Forums

Looks very nice-

I understand and agree with the rationale that a Mussolini Mandated Offensive should end as it did- complete UK victory destroying basically the entire Italian 10th Army. The dynamic element of the NA Campaign is very hard to simulate without very restrictive "idiot rules" . No sane Axis would attempt to advance with the 10th Army, Graziani certainly didn't want to. No sane UK player would yank much of his force away at the very moment the Allies were about to take Tripoli prior to the arrival of the DAK, and send them to Greece. And so on. Again at this scale, there are about 2 Italian Corps versus a Brit Mech Corp and a Commonwealth Inf Corp with the DAK being really only a Mech Corp in it's entirety. Certainly not all the units in the standard game- but NA is FUN- so what the heck.

My issue- and I've saved in Nov 1940 so I'll try both a DAK "Yes" and a "No" - is that the DAK is buzzsawed down before it can do anything. I'm building it up and the UK grinds it down every turn around 100 to 150 PP worth. I'm going to keep it near Tripoli and have the UK come to me- to see if that makes any difference. Two maxed out UK mech armor units are very difficult to deal with, and again with 4-6 air units...

But I'm certainly not complaining. I did a slightly different route with Spain- and your historical analysis is good. Franco was extremely good at getting the maximum out of Hitler without committing much (if anything)in return.

I'm not certain how this would be possible in the current game- the Logistics ain't bad- but huge chunks of the map simply couldn't support much activity given how minimal the infrastructure was. Malta wasn't really much of an issue, the Axis could and did run convoys around it (and the UK spent a great deal of resources keeping it supplied), It was the complete lack of any port or port maintenance and construction forces on the Axis side. If the Axis had the resources to actually turn Benghazi or Tobruk (or even Sidi Barani)into a functioning port, their logistics issues would have been a fraction of what they were. That they had to truck everything from Tripoli, which was easier to interdict from Malta, was due to their, for them typical, sloppy logistics planning.

Compare that to what the US committed in the Pacific for a "relatively" minor campaign, MacArthurs New Guinea Offensive, the ESB
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineer_ ... ed_States)
Each Brigade was a behemoth of Amphibious, construction and logistics capability, I think they had over 8000 personnel and 200+ Ships and Small Craft and these monsters were (nominally) provisional!
Anyway- thanks again for the Mod

Restarted.
During the start I chose, more-or-less inadvertently the Break Pact with Stalin Option right after Poland. The Result is that USSR declared war June 22. I believe this slows down the USA entry (US 45% right now). I'd imagine also alters how the AI scripts the Soviets- I think the AI does have a bit of the historical Soviet forward deployment that, together with Stalin's abysmal leadership, lead to the destruction of the bulk of the Soviet European Forces within the first 3 months of the war. I think I see more Soviet Units but am not certain if that's your scripting or predicated by the event. I'll fight this game out just because it's unusual (for me).

North Africa
So DAK Triggered in Feb and incurred the following losses per turn by UK airstrikes alone: (all losses in Steps)
Note I transferred 1 additional German fighter to NA Aircraft Tech is Axis (1) and UK also (1)- I think
Feb 41: Fighters 6/ PP 78
Mar 41: Fighters 8/ Arty 1 / PP 104 plus Arty Total PP122
Apr 41: Arty 1 PP 18- for some reason the UK air didn't do much this turn
May 41: Fighters 6/ Inf 6 converted Fighters to lvl 2 air this turn PP71 +67 PP138
Jun 41: Fighters 6/ Recce 2 (4 destroyed by ground combat) PP71
Jul 41 Fighters 6/ (Recce 2 destroyed by ground combat) PP71

So the DAK "budget" for the critical Pre-Barbarossa turns from Feb through May was:
DAK 700 PP
Losses just to UK air
PP 420
So a lot. If the UK is prosecuting a good Naval War, in this game it is in the Atlantic and not so great in the Med. The Italians should be spending much of their PP on naval related stuff.
In any event an interesting game- thanks again

As the Axis have you invested in Anti-Aircraft Defense? It can be a difference maker especially if the Allies have massed their Air in North Africa. Also I wonder if the AI would split their air capability between Europe & North Africa if their was a Battle for Britain (Air War) as their historically was and you were ordering bomber raids across the channel throughout the fall.

Having an issue getting the mod to work properly. Ive saved it in the user/my games folder and the matrix games folder and every time I load the mod it just boots the standard 1939 scenario. Please advise. Also tried opening and saving in editor and both nations are still inactive

Which 2 nations are inactive? Are you referring to Finland and Romania?

Version 6.0 is near ready for release after initial play testing.

I am very happy with the inclusion of Divisions albeit at a limited capacity. Germany and USSR each have the highest capacity to build these new unit types; USSR can field 30 divisions and German can field 20 divisions in total.

There are literally 100's of changes I have made since beginning, too many to mention here. I created the mod to "overlap" the default campaign, so all fixes made by Hubert/Bill are also up to date as I've used the most recent default campaign as a base in this update. The overlapping of the default campaign does allow me to recreate the mod in about 90 minutes after each developer update, hence why I update with so many versions and make such rapid changes.

Anyways here is a list of some changes from the "default" campaign. I am not going to tediously list the 100's of minor changes or new scripts however.

Major Changes:

New Unit Structure and Bitmaps (3-D only)
Reduced Diplomacy Chit Effectiveness
Lowered Effectiveness of Bombing Ground Units
Decreased German Homeland MPP
German Economy more dependent on foreign trade
Research Progression Levels Decreased
Increased Reinforcement Cost of Surface Vessels (except UK/USA)
Increased HQ Air Defense
Reduced strength of French Navy
Strengthen North Africa Opponent (AI)

Summary List of New Yes/No Decisions:

Germany Decision Events
Schwerer Gustav Gun
German Naval Strategy
Civil Aid To Spain
Spanish Blue Division
Hitler Meets With Franco
Portugal German Relations
Swiss Banking System
Purchase Raw Materials From Portugal
Development Of Spanish Mines
Spain Repays Debt From Civil War
Treaty Of Friendship With Turkey
Claudius Agreement
Vichy Collaboration Policy
Fall Blau
An Alliance With Greece
Germany Strengthens DAK
Offensive In The Ardennes
Purchase War Materials From Switzerland
Non Aggression Pact: Lutzow to USSR
Transfer Troops Through Sweden
Coal Exports To Italy
Pursue Greek Axis Relations
Oil Exports to Italy
Recover Gold From Switzerland
Deliver Modern Tanks to Romania
Fortify Romania
Seize Besserabia

UK Decision Events
UK Naval Strategy
Chase Graf Spee
Anglo-Portuguese Alliance
Blockade American Imports To Spain
Reaction To The Blue Division
Send Arms To Portugal
Lend Lease To Turkey
Pressure Switzerland
Pressure Portugal
Switzerland Ends Axis Relations
Turkish Blockade
Training Norwegian And Danish Forces In Sweden
Malta Garrison
Greece Ends Economic Ties With Germany
Support Greece
Irish Neutrality

Italy Decision Events
Civil Aid To Spain
Letter From Franco
Aircraft Delivery To Sweden
Rush Troops To Tripoli
Sale Of Naval Assets
Investment In Aircraft Industry
Offensive Into Egypt
Submarine Base At Bordeaux

USA Decision Events
Lend Lease To Turkey
Commitments To Turkish War Entry
Aircraft Delivery To Sweden
Swedish Convoy
Lend Lease To Saudi Arabia

USSR Decision Events
Stalingrad Workers
Jointly Pressure Turkey
Construction of Petropavlovsk

Very impressive mod, Crispy!

Took a look at the latest and played it through 1942. Very impressed with what you've done with the additional events and some of the other changes. Excellent work overall.

The only thing that was a bit of a surprise was the way you changed North Africa. I was playing as the Axis for my test and have to ask if the Allied AI gets additional units or advantages even when set to the non-advantaged game settings? Those 13 Strength British units were a bit of a surprise even for reinforced Italians and the British AI seemed to be able to keep up with losses and expand its forces better than I would have expected.

Keep up the great work!

Regards,

- Erik

Thanks Erik! I'm glad you liked and thanks for giving it a try.

The Allied AI advantage in North Africa has been brought up a few times, and in response is scaled back in the next version. For example the early Allied counter offensive units will not have such a large experience advantage, and I have replaced the early Tank Corps with a Tank Division. This should have a bit more historical feel, and hopefully will catch less Axis players so off guard.

Understood - thanks Crispy. Was this an advantage only if the Allies were played by the AI or would it also show up in a PBEM game?

The AI had these advantages only. The AI advantage will still exist, it will just not be so overwhelming.

waiting for the update to give this a try!

looks great!

Tigercub

ORIGINAL: tigercub

waiting for the update to give this a try!

looks great!

Tigercub

I will try to upload V6.0 tonight. I've really enjoyed it so far! It has a very different feel to it then my previous versions that's for sure.

Version 6.02 uploaded.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8jtu3xy8nh5tj ... 2.zip?dl=0

installed ready for action!

ORIGINAL: tigercub

installed ready for action!

Thanks Tigercub!

I am looking forward to playing my first PBEM of SC3! Take it easy on me [:D]

There is a bug with the 1.03.04 Beta which doesn't read localization scripts (change unit name). This should be fixed by next developer update and unit names corrected. i.e. Brigade = Division

Version 6.03 uploaded.

- Mainly amendments to combat stats of USSR Divisions & Mech. Divisions.


https://www.dropbox.com/s/14mi8pbmt00ng ... 3.zip?dl=0

Are you going to add more events for the united kingdom? because I feel like you could expand and add more events for Canada because we played a pretty big role and we supplied a lot of resources to the uk and we tried a lot of pilots here in Canada from the UK and America. Just thought it would be cool, keep up the great work!

ORIGINAL: tog34

Are you going to add more events for the united kingdom? because I feel like you could expand and add more events for Canada because we played a pretty big role and we supplied a lot of resources to the uk and we tried a lot of pilots here in Canada from the UK and America. Just thought it would be cool, keep up the great work!

Are there any events in particular that you would like to see, or suggestions how they could play out? I agree there is the potential to add more for Canada, their minor status is a bit hindering however as to direction of the Decision Events.

Version 6.04 uploaded.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/su88gsvgxe0xf ... 4.zip?dl=0

No fixes necessary, just some balancing tweaks in favor of Axis (Allied AI stomped me last game).

Also is there anyone who would like to make new NATO Counters? [:D]