First impressions Lehnartsson based on build 8

[BillRunacre]

1) I have received some suggestions on this and will see what I can do when I get a chance.

2) The UK and France has an opportunity to support the Finns, and it would get very complicated if Germany could get involved too.

[Lehnardtsson]

curious situation :
It is may 1944.
Axis (I) lost the atlantic war early 1943, so basically US + Uk should be rich.
I conquered all middle east rather easely (??) and joined my troops still in the Caucasus.
The caucasus was indeed abandoned by URSS, they left cities in front of me... (?? - probably to defend Moscow and Stalingrad)
end of 1943 I managed indeed to be one hex of Stalingrad, one hex of Moscow - 8 months after situation is similar nothing new (but my caucasus + African troops will help me)
In finland with my garrison I conquered most of the area but now I am facing 3 HQ + about 20 units (why is russia investing so much there????)

[sPzAbt653]

Curious, mine was different - I faced very little in Finland/N. Russia but Rommel and Italians were totally blocked at the Caucasus.

[Hubert Cater]

In fact as an active boardgame player operate move happens before everything else
In SC you can during your turn conquer territory and then operate move with another unit in the recently conquered area - moreover you can even "conquer" more territory after strat move when there is no enemy close
somehow I found it curious but it is not a bug

This is actually one of the purposeful hallmarks of the SC game series, going back 15 years now, whereby a player is not as restricted by "phases" as you would be in board games or when board games were first ported to PCs so many years ago.

Idea is to give players much more flexibility and freedom to conduct their turns any way they see fit, but of course within reason [:)]

[Lehnardtsson]

Things have changed :
early june 1944 about 20 or 30 units landed in France, hopefully ports were well garrisonned and remained controlled a few turns.
But now we are july 1945, we still fight around a Lille - Paris line (an recently in Vichy France, since it joined the allies : I conquered it by taking Vichy which was not garrisonned [&:])
Please remember I fully stopped the atlantic war early 1943..... so june 1944- july 1945 to make Overlord and taking paris, this is really long.... - by the way Holland - Belgium and northern Germany are absolutely not defended, the AI should try to make a second overlord there
In russia little changes, I now own Moscow and Stalingrad, russian counter attacks are limited, I cannot conquer more since I need to transfer troops to the west
Africa/middle east is still 100% Axis excepted Vichy northern Africa which is still neutral

so general comments :
- is it normal that Vichy in northern afrca remains neutral whereas French Vichy joined the allies and has been conquered so easely by Axis?
- Allies AI seems poor since I did little to limit convoys and even if Overlord was well made (30 units in one turn) it took 1 year to take Paris

[BillRunacre]

- is it normal that Vichy in northern afrca remains neutral whereas French Vichy joined the allies and has been conquered so easely by Axis?

There are scripts to swing the Vichy territories towards the Allies once France has been liberated, but they aren't reactive against Axis successes because the Vichy authorities felt very weak and powerless to do much against Axis aggression.

[Hubert Cater]

ORIGINAL: Lehnardtsson

Things have changed :
early june 1944 about 20 or 30 units landed in France, hopefully ports were well garrisonned and remained controlled a few turns.
But now we are july 1945, we still fight around a Lille - Paris line (an recently in Vichy France, since it joined the allies : I conquered it by taking Vichy which was not garrisonned [&:])
Please remember I fully stopped the atlantic war early 1943..... so june 1944- july 1945 to make Overlord and taking paris, this is really long.... - by the way Holland - Belgium and northern Germany are absolutely not defended, the AI should try to make a second overlord there
In russia little changes, I now own Moscow and Stalingrad, russian counter attacks are limited, I cannot conquer more since I need to transfer troops to the west
Africa/middle east is still 100% Axis excepted Vichy northern Africa which is still neutral

so general comments :
- is it normal that Vichy in northern afrca remains neutral whereas French Vichy joined the allies and has been conquered so easely by Axis?
- Allies AI seems poor since I did little to limit convoys and even if Overlord was well made (30 units in one turn) it took 1 year to take Paris

1) For the landings in France I'm actually very glad to hear it is successfully surprising and landing 30 units. I just wanted to mention this since just to get the AI that far and consistent in the area of D-Day was quite a lot of work so it is nice to hear it is performing as expected [:)]

That being said, the idea of having the AI land in other less defended areas is a good one, and while I don't disagree in that would be very nice there are some considerations that need to be taken into account.

For example how would the AI know for sure those areas are lightly defended or even not garrisoned without cheating, under FoW, is a bit of a challenge. I think even a human player, playing against another human player, would be challenged with this and the extra risks and distances and protection required to ensure a successful landing would be considerable. It is not to say it would be impossible but it would be a tremendous amount of work and testing to ensure it got it right and didn't do a poor job. Just ensuring a proper screen with a naval flotilla and having the AI know when to change landing positions, if it is suddenly a bad idea to continue with its original goal positions, is a much bigger task.

Often when we do try these riskier strategies and tests, if the AI is not overly successful the feedback was that it was a very poor move on the part of the AI which is more often than not one of the main reasons I've scripted the AI to generally play it much more safely.

Generally speaking, historically there was a reason the Allies landed in northern France and it mirrors a lot of the reasons the AI does so as well.

But if there is time to try a few different landing strategies I'll be happy to do so, it is always just one of those things of so much to do and so little time.

2) For the AI struggling to reach Paris after landing so many units I'd be curious to see the situation in France to get a better idea of what might be happening. For example if you transferred a near equal amount of Axis defenders from the eastern front to impede the Allied advance then what you've reported would make sense.

But again, there will be adjustments in place for the next build that should improve the Allied AI so I would be curious how those play out in the next build before thinking about it too much further.

[Ason]

I also had the same thing happen in France when I played on Beginner. The Allies tried to land in France 3 times, 1943,1944,1945 but failed all the time, they only got a couple of hexes.
I think the biggest problem is the fact that you can send all the units you need from the eastern front without any consequences. I could send a force equal to or greater than the allies without problems, I basically didn't lose any territory in the east because the soviets didn't do anything, they just waited for me to advance which I of course didn't do.

If the Soviets would be more numerous and more aggressive we would have to be more careful of which units we send and as a result both the allies and soviets would probably have a better chance of advancing..

The invasion looked nice though only problem was most US units had much lower upgrades than the germans. Maybe make it so they won't do an invasion until they atleast have about the same upgrades in infantry warfare.
my units had level 3 and they were level 0 and 1.

[Lehnardtsson]

one map "error" there should be a road/railroad line in the hex between Strasbourg Mulhouse crossing the Rhine up to to railroad going from Stuttgart to Zürich
keep in mind the "Colmar Pocket" that remained German until february 1945 because of one bridge
without that road it is impossible

question
-is there any script to promote "one last blitzkrieg" - Fürher proposing to gather several tanks to launch one counter offensive?
-is there a script to create "city fortersses like Breslau and Königsberg?


I must admit that allies AI is sending me paratroopers behind my lines and that's really annoying
russian AI remains rather passive

[BillRunacre]

ORIGINAL: Lehnardtsson

question
-is there any script to promote "one last blitzkrieg" - Fürher proposing to gather several tanks to launch one counter offensive?
-is there a script to create "city fortersses like Breslau and Königsberg?

In terms of the game engine, the first is technically possible, but the second isn't as we can't change a resource type during the game.

The first is currently up to players to organise, i.e. to cobble together a few units for a counter-attack, while the second will rely on positioning a good unit in a key location like Breslau or elsewhere and hope that the bulk of the Red Army bypasses them and heads for Berlin.

[crispy131313]

ORIGINAL: Bill Runacre

ORIGINAL: Lehnardtsson

question
-is there any script to promote "one last blitzkrieg" - Fürher proposing to gather several tanks to launch one counter offensive?
-is there a script to create "city fortersses like Breslau and Königsberg?

In terms of the game engine, the first is technically possible, but the second isn't as we can't change a resource type during the game.

The first is currently up to players to organise, i.e. to cobble together a few units for a counter-attack, while the second will rely on positioning a good unit in a key location like Breslau or elsewhere and hope that the bulk of the Red Army bypasses them and heads for Berlin.

I've scripted this final offensive, I think the key to an event like this is to do so at a crippling cost (very high MPP) so that it is not an automatic yes.

[Lehnardtsson]

A few suggestions :
an event to promote flak in every city of Germany? (everyone including children had to be "Luftwaffenhelfer")
an event to transfert units from flak to Wehrmacht? (Göring Spende : the divisions were raised from 200,000–250,000 Luftwaffe ground, support and other excess personnel)
an event to create "hidden industrial" centers (hidden MPP - you cannot bomb them) for Germany?
an event to transfer unit currently in "school" earlier but at half strenght? (some last stand measure...)

A few map bugs in Germany :
Nuremburg should be Nuremberg or Nürnberg
Poznan should be Posen

[HyazinthvonStrachwitz]

Poznan belongs to Poland when the game starts, so it must not have a German name.

I think the engine is not capable of name changes in midst of the campaign.

[Lehnardtsson]

is it me or the action "switch position" with shift button is no more available?

[sPzAbt653]

It's not just you. [:(]

[BillRunacre]

You're right, the swap function appears to have stopped working.

[Lehnardtsson]

-how do you escape from Kreta? I sent paratroopers + amphibious, but then I cannot prepare again nor make transport inside the port....???
-basically Metz is Also annexed by Germany as Strasbourg and Mulhouse after French defeat
- i found supply too easy with the DAK

[xwormwood]

ORIGINAL: Lehnardtsson

-how do you escape from Kreta? I sent paratroopers + amphibious, but then I cannot prepare again nor make transport inside the port....???

Take a look on the Harbor. If i remember correctly you need at least a strength 5 harbor to be able to create a transport.

Amphib operations and probably paratrooper actions will need enough supply, and this is again connected to your harbor.

[Lehnardtsson]

right thank you , a few turns later I could escape

[Hubert Cater]

ORIGINAL: Bill Runacre

You're right, the swap function appears to have stopped working.

This is now fixed.