653H Mod

[sPzAbt653]

There are still two Italian armies left in North Africa

There are some Armies in 653H. It is generally a hinderance/handicap. There are some .txt doc's in the zip, but not everything is covered as it takes a long time to type, and that is generally boring. But for example, France has some Armies, and they can't hold a line because of it. Greece has Armies, because when I gave them corps they were impossible to beat. UK has a 'WDF' Army [this one and both Italian armies won't rebuild].

[sPzAbt653]

For breakthroughs, higher attack values, more action points and/or more units with double attack, I guess...

Well, I can see that you are into it, so ...
You are correct in what you say above, but there are a few other considerations:
Your spearheads rely on vulnerable HQ's being nearby to provide supply. Since HQ's can't hold the line, this means that any breakthrough needs to be three hexes wide.
For an encirclement to be successful, all supply generating locations within the pocket need to be captured. Otherwise, the surrounded force can replace to some extent, which extends their survival and prolongs the encircling force's exposure. This isn't practical on a map where supply generating locations are placed every two-three hexes. Additionally, HQ's within a pocket need no supply at all to provide a level or replacement.
Old boardgames that use similar mechanics also include rules that unsupplied units cannot move or attack, or both. In SC3 there are reduced capabilities, but surrounded units can still move and attack, which makes it more difficult to sustain a successful encirclement.

That's enough for now [;)]

[Hartmann]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

I NEED THOSE SEXY AIRPLANE COUNTERS ASAP!

Maybe I'll make a tutorial on how to grab them from the 653H files. I'll think about it.

Thanks for sharing those sprites - I already extracted them from the zip and have them showing up in my game. However it seems you did not include counters for the Soviets too? Or did I miss a file somewhere?

[sPzAbt653]

I just checked the zip to be sure, and yes, the Soviets are in there. You should see specific icons for fighters, tactical bombers, heavy bombers, along with guards corps and tank armies. Are your air units all showing up as those sideways eights ?

[Hartmann]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

I just checked the zip to be sure, and yes, the Soviets are in there. You should see specific icons for fighters, tactical bombers, heavy bombers, along with guards corps and tank armies. Are your air units all showing up as those sideways eights ?

Yes, they show up as "infinity" signs still - all other countries seem to be fine. I'll check the zip again if I somehow missed the files for the Soviets.

[Hartmann]

Ok, I know what it is - the folder "Major_6" seems to be missing in the bitmap folder of your zip.

[steelwarrior]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

For breakthroughs, higher attack values, more action points and/or more units with double attack, I guess...

Well, I can see that you are into it, so ...
You are correct in what you say above, but there are a few other considerations:
Your spearheads rely on vulnerable HQ's being nearby to provide supply. Since HQ's can't hold the line, this means that any breakthrough needs to be three hexes wide.
For an encirclement to be successful, all supply generating locations within the pocket need to be captured. Otherwise, the surrounded force can replace to some extent, which extends their survival and prolongs the encircling force's exposure. This isn't practical on a map where supply generating locations are placed every two-three hexes. Additionally, HQ's within a pocket need no supply at all to provide a level or replacement.
Old boardgames that use similar mechanics also include rules that unsupplied units cannot move or attack, or both. In SC3 there are reduced capabilities, but surrounded units can still move and attack, which makes it more difficult to sustain a successful encirclement.

That's enough for now [;)]

Thanks for your effort - will give you a feedback once I played a full campaign ;-D

[Radar8717]

Excellent scenario. Fun and challenging on Intermediate with no computer advantages.

Blitzkrieg is possible! Don't understand the comments about comparisons to getting bogged
down like WW1 and layers of defending units. Are they playing the same game?

Poland surrendered in 2 turns. Invaded Benelux and France with 6 panzer korps. Occupied
Paris in mid June 1940, France surrendered couple of turns later. The ground campaigns
are going historical with your increased number of ground units and historical OOB.

The strange thing is the U-Boats are unopposed in the Atlantic with no Destroyers in your
OOB; the Kriegsmarine has yet to see any enemy vessels, so there is no need to do much
until running out of supply requiring a return to a port.
Is this WAD? Convoy raiding is very easy! Naval part gets boring. Have played through 1940.

Shouldn't the basic Russian unit be an army and not a corps? Most strategic eastern front
games simulate this: German corps versus Russian armies and it works very well.

Looking forward to your next updated version. Your graphics are a big improvement! Thanks

[sPzAbt653]

ORIGINAL: Hartmann

Ok, I know what it is - the folder "Major_6" seems to be missing in the bitmap folder of your zip.

But Major 6 isn't used [:(]
Major 4 is the USSR.

[sPzAbt653]

Blitzkrieg is possible! Don't understand the comments about comparisons to getting bogged down like WW1 and layers of defending units. Are they playing the same game?

Obviously not, and I stated so above, and they haven't returned, so who knows what they were on about.

there is no need to do much until running out of supply requiring a return to a port.

No need to return to port, you can raid just as well with no supply [;)]

U-Boats are unopposed in the Atlantic with no Destroyers in your
OOB;

I do not know enough about the AI scripts to know if 'no destroyers' affects things. However, playing as the Allies works out very historically. That is, until the Allies improve their techs, the U-Boots have fun.

Shouldn't the basic Russian unit be an army and not a corps?

Tried it once [I didn't want to increase unit count] and saw quickly that it didn't work. The Soviets would be able to field about 60 armies tops, and while a good human player might be able to pull it off, the computer was no challenge. Corps play very historical, with the opening phases the Allied/Soviet player is getting their weak corps overrun everywhere, middle phase finds the Axis slowed by so many corps, final phase the Soviets can stop the Axis with a double line and then pick areas to use Artillery and Tanks to fight back.

[sPzAbt653]

And a word about unit count. Except for the Soviets, there are actually less units. In the stock campaign there are many double units [armies and their corps represented], and build limits are often higher than historical. So the Soviets are the only real concern for those afeared of a high unit count, and what you will find is that when the Eastern Front is at its' widest you need those units, but when the front shortens as you get into Germany and Romania you have too many units. So here's the thing - no need to move them all !

I've played this at least 15 or more times all the way thru, that's a pretty good sample. The only thing I would consider an issue would be the Italians. They had a lot of corps that they needed to defend their extended homeland coastlines, plus their occupied areas in Yugoslavia and Greece. When I play the Axis side they are still hard pressed to cover everything even with historic numbers [because they didn't keep entire corps in one area, they spread the components out]. But the issue is the computer, when it plays the Axis it takes all these Italian corps and spreads them into France and Russia. Well, I look at it as a bit of an unintended advantage for the computer [:D]

[Hartmann]

Ah, I see ... your sprites are actually there in the folder on my system too - still for some reason they don't show in my game (regardless of zoom level).

[Rosseau]

Yes, I have same issue with the Soviet sprites. However, I did manual install and didn't just copy all folders over.

[sPzAbt653]

Well this sucks. I'm sorry guys, I have no idea what the issue is. If you can't figure it out within a reasonable amount of time, we'll post something in the tech section to see if someone knows.

[IslandInland]

Thanks for the mod, sPzAbt653.

I played it for a bit last night and enjoyed it. I much prefer the all corps set up and the more accurate OOB over the base game.

I'm working on a scenario of my own but it won't be anywhere near as ambitious as yours. [:)]

[Hartmann]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

Well this sucks. I'm sorry guys, I have no idea what the issue is. If you can't figure it out within a reasonable amount of time, we'll post something in the tech section to see if someone knows.

What I really find strange is that while your modded files are in place in the folder (and the old folders backed up), the game still shows the vanilla sprites for the Soviets. How can this even be? It's as if the game is loading these sprites from somewhere else ...

Another idea: For one zoom level you kept the old sprites (infinity signs for aircraft). Could it be that the game uses those for all zoom levels for the Soviets?

But then again, I guess the modded Soviet counters work fine in your own game, don't they?

[sPzAbt653]

Yes, they work fine here [:(]

It's as if the game is loading these sprites from somewhere else ...

Wanna hear a funny story ? I've changed some of the scripts, and on one occasion some of the scripted events were firing as if from the original campaign. Well, I double-triple checked everything and couldn't see what the problem was. Turns out it was reading from the Recycle Bin, an older version that was uninstalled [X(]

Just for giggles, here are the two Soviet png's that are used. If you like, please delete the same two files from your 'Major 4' folder, then add these two back in [just to be sure that what you have now isn't somehow corrupted].

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nnkp0zo2o61b1 ... m.zip?dl=0

[sPzAbt653]

For one zoom level you kept the old sprites

Yes, I did one and it looked horrible so I decided that for the middle zoom it wasn't really necessary for some icons. So, Air Icons are original at the middle level, but some others are as they are in the low zoom.

[Hartmann]

It's not a problem of corrupted files - at least I just tried with the new files the result being the same.

[Hubert Cater]

ORIGINAL: Hartmann

Ah, I see ... your sprites are actually there in the folder on my system too - still for some reason they don't show in my game (regardless of zoom level).

Just in case the installation understanding here is incorrect as I've just tested this mod on my end, all you need to do is simply paste the mod into the users documents folder for the game as shown by sPzAbt653 in post #2 of this thread.

After that there is really nothing else to do as it is a self contained mod that has its own set of bitmaps and other changes that don't interfere with the base game as is, i.e. no need to backup the old bitmaps folders or graphics files and overwrite them anywhere else as the mod understands to only load its own files.

If it still doesn't work after this, please let me know as I just wanted to make sure we are all on the same page first before investigating any further.

Thanks,
Hubert