Next War 1979 - Expanded (Beta 1.0) play testers needed

[mussey]

Another teaser:

Out of all the changes I've created, the addition of US 2nd Fleet and the freedom to deploy reaction forces such as 82nd Airborne, 2nd Marines, UK Airborne and Marines, are the most stunning. Once war begins, where would they deploy? Various options here include Central or Southern Europe, though the most immediate would be Norway or Denmark. I think deployment to Denmark will be too little too late, thus Norway is most probable.

Norway is huge covering many miles of rugged coastline. Do they support Norwegian forces around Narvik, or Oslo anticipating Soviet invasion from the Baltic? Or maybe somewhere in between like Trondheim? This is fascinating...

This pic shows where these reaction forces are currently staging:

[mussey]

Big picture:

[CaptainMaxwell]

Aarrghh...

stupid forum ate my post. Long story short, I am Austrian, I don't like what you have done to them. If you you are interested, PM me. I should by able to rectify that.
Plus some other stuff that I am too lazy to repeat...

[cathar1244]

Servus Maxwell

Do you have good online sources that describe the Austrian border fortifications and which battalions were to man them in case of war?

Cheers

[mussey]

ORIGINAL: CaptainMaxwell

Aarrghh...

stupid forum ate my post. Long story short, I am Austrian, I don't like what you have done to them. If you you are interested, PM me. I should by able to rectify that.
Plus some other stuff that I am too lazy to repeat...

Any good info you have would greatly benefit the 1979 scenario. Post here on this thread so that others can benefit as well. The locations of the Fortress units would be most helpful, and anything else as well.

[cathar1244]

Mussey,

Just wanted to congratulate your map work with Scandinavia. Extending an existing map is different than creating a map from scratch, and it can easily look subtly wrong in relation to the original map. Your map work looks great.

Cheers

[Hellen_slith]

Hello, I hope this feedback is not too basic, but on Turn 1 (the Option turn), Polish Army is able to move. I was used to Turn 1 being no WP can move or changes to deployment (due to the Tension or Sudden options)... just wasn't sure if they were supposed to be able to move on T1, if that was some new or if I am remembering wrong.

Also, is there a graphics package that makes some of the WP colors more "Warsaw Pactish"? ... E.g., Polish are green now and look like US forces look like in the old version. Some of the unit colors are a bit confusing to me. Hard to unlearn the old reds and maroons, and feels weird having green WP units.

Anyway, thanks again for all you do!

[mussey]

ORIGINAL: Hellen_slith

Hello, I hope this feedback is not too basic, but on Turn 1 (the Option turn), Polish Army is able to move. I was used to Turn 1 being no WP can move or changes to deployment (due to the Tension or Sudden options)... just wasn't sure if they were supposed to be able to move on T1, if that was some new or if I am remembering wrong.

Also, is there a graphics package that makes some of the WP colors more "Warsaw Pactish"? ... E.g., Polish are green now and look like US forces look like in the old version. Some of the unit colors are a bit confusing to me. Hard to unlearn the old reds and maroons, and feels weird having green WP units.

Anyway, thanks again for all you do!

Thanks for the feedback Hellen. I will need to correct the Events Editor to ensure this. Good catch. Was there any other such anomalies with 1st turn movement?

With generous help from Cathar, an icon color (.col file) is being put together and will be available upon final release. This should be soon. I overhauled much of the naval units and am doing final play testing now.

Let me know if you find anything else!

[Hellen_slith]

Wow, that's great, the color thing was really confusing ...

As of the other Turn 1 issue: there was also a Polish Naval Air Fighter (I forgot exactly which it named) but it is in the very next formation as above. Also movable. I can post of screen shot of it, too (when I get on that computer.) Thanks again for cool update, looking forward to it!

[Hellen_slith]

Another observation (looking at NATO forces on their turn 2 in "Tension" mode) ....

The entire Italian army is already mobilized (same for French / Belg / Dutch / looks like all of NATO). If memory serves, in the original version, the Italians don't mobilized until like turns 5 or 6 (?) maybe earlier if Austria is invaded, and even then not all forces. Seems like the French were a bit later, and def. in the original the Danes are not ready at all at turn 2.

Anyway, not sure if that was by design (b/c of the added WP forces) or if it might be a bit too early for NATO to have all those forces ready to move on turn 2 (tension mode.) Just thought you might want to pull back NATO mobilization ... noticed in events the time frame accounted for re: REFORGER and thought, all those forces could not possibly ready to move that quick, even if they already there.

Thanks again for the great scene!

[Hellen_slith]

Not sure if this is right or not, but the NATO units Alouette IIs have a "bombardment range" in the unit detail, but there is not a "range" button in the screen that lets you set the range. I think those should have range option?

Looks like it might be all of those, the ones I've looked at so far all are missing the option to set range.

Some range would help there around Lubeck, looks like WP sure has a lot of tanks pointed at Lubeck

[mussey]

ORIGINAL: Hellen_slith

Not sure if this is right or not, but the NATO units Alouette IIs have a "bombardment range" in the unit detail, but there is not a "range" button in the screen that lets you set the range. I think those should have range option?

Looks like it might be all of those, the ones I've looked at so far all are missing the option to set range.

Some range would help there around Lubeck, looks like WP sure has a lot of tanks pointed at Lubeck

I corrected all helicopter units recently because I confused helicopter attack with heli transport (my eyes have a heck of a time distinguishing those symbols). That unit along with others should be either a heli recon or attack icon symbol. You should see a fix on final rollout.

Looks like WP is amassing for attack!

[Hellen_slith]

Great! Ya, I saw a few more ... looks like it was all the Attack and Recon helicopters that were missing the range. Not sure if you saw it, you might look at Belgium I Corps, it has a Transport Helicopter unit in there that also looks like it might need range, not sure.

Thanks again! Looks like its going to be a fun scenario!

[sapper32]

Hey guys im not sure if you have updated the units in this scenario but ive noticed that the British 16th Parachute brigade appears after a few turns however this formation was disbanded in 1976? The para battalions attatched were put into 5th Infantry Brigade minus one which was stationed in Ulster, Also 3rd Airmobile division isn't correct only 24 Brigade was airmobile don't think the 9th Brigade stayed active after 1965 and as mentioned earlier in the post 5 Brigade was UK based for out of area operations, British 3rd Division was an Armoured division from 1976 based in Germany as part of BR I Corps.

Ian

[mussey]

ORIGINAL: sapper32

Hey guys im not sure if you have updated the units in this scenario but ive noticed that the British 16th Parachute brigade appears after a few turns however this formation was disbanded in 1976? The para battalions attatched were put into 5th Infantry Brigade minus one which was stationed in Ulster, Also 3rd Airmobile division isn't correct only 24 Brigade was airmobile don't think the 9th Brigade stayed active after 1965 and as mentioned earlier in the post 5 Brigade was UK based for out of area operations, British 3rd Division was an Armoured division from 1976 based in Germany as part of BR I Corps.

Ian

Yes, an enormous amount of change was made to the orbat. If you could, download the beta and see what you think. The British and especially the French went through a big change in the late 1970's that are reflected in Expanded.

[Hellen_slith]

Hello, I started a hot seat game, "Sudden War" option, did not choose to invade Austria.

Turn 2, I was able to attack Austrian airfields w/ WP SCUDs and at least some aircraft (only tried some Czech aircraft that were close by.) Found that I could also attack ground targets with air units.

Never thought of trying that before, so I tried it. Haven't resolved combat, will probably just waste ammo. But thought I would try it. If I do any damage, I will try to attrite them to death

[Hellen_slith]

Yep, it worked. Could not attack Austrians w/ ranged equipment set to range 0, but could w/ range 1.

SCUDs, Air, and Arty all doing damage on those peaceable Austrians.

Let's see how much I can soften them up ...

[mussey]

ORIGINAL: Hellen_slith

Yep, it worked. Could not attack Austrians w/ ranged equipment set to range 0, but could w/ range 1.

SCUDs, Air, and Arty all doing damage on those peaceable Austrians.

Let's see how much I can soften them up ...

In the Original game, air strikes were taking place before a declaration of war (of which I could not find a solution in Events ). Also, air movement/transport can take place over neutrals and forbidden hexes...

[Hellen_slith]

ah, I see ... OK, well, I think I'll really try to get some moves in today. Going to post an AAR, so hope to post a few more screenshots. Fun game! Thanks again!

[cathar1244]

In the Original game, air strikes were taking place before a declaration of war (of which I could not find a solution in Events

It might be possible to have all air and artillery units deploy as reinforcements once the declaration of war event occurs. Probably still possible for players to get gamey, though. May be a thing for a house rule.

Cheers