Please post here for questions and discussion about scenario design and general game modding. The graphics and scenarios are easily modifiable. Discuss your experiements in this area and get tips and advice!
You may not be aware but Franco was prepared early on to join Germany fully, when it appeared axis victory was assured, IOW as far as Franco was concerend, it would have been a win win for him. Hitler however, didnt really press the issue not wanting to cut Spain in for a 'piece of the action' so to speak. And why should he? He was on a roll and didnt really see Spains help was needed. Once Germany began to suffer set-backs however, Franco changed his mind on the full-alliance issue and the window-of-opportunity was closed.
Your making no sense. You just argued my point. I have two setups in Franco's Alliance. One for those who want the option to attack Spain to help close the Med. Its called the standard campaign and is basically setup like the original game in reguards to Spain. And the other is named Franco's Alliance. As the name suggests Spain is a frozen ally of Germany similar to Finland in this scenario. Spain will unfreeze and join the Axis when certain conditions are met, just like Finland does when Leningrad is taken. These conditions are the Fall of London, Moscow or Gibraltar. So while Spain acts as a pro-Axis nation during most of the game, Franco will actually fully commit once he thinks the Axis are winning the war. I think it was a cool and realistic political event to add to this game. However if you don't like it just because you can't declar war on friendly then there is the standard campaign. That's why I included it because I knew this option wasn't for everyone.
For those who have been playing Franco's Alliance they will have already gotten use to never attacking Spain and will be right at home when WAW A World Divided comes out. Those who always take Spain just because they could, will probably get upset over the lose of the old easy tactic to close the Med. Its those players who are playing the game like it's RISK with no reguard to the actual politics of nations. That's what I mean by Metagaming.
Jesse LeBreton, AKA Lebatron
Development team- GG's WAW A World Divided
Well, against my better judgement I made a seperate folder to try out your 'Anti-Strategy' Mod. Here are some of the things I noticed.
Setup-Standard Game(Sorry none of those artifical straightjackets this time)
Difficulty-Challengeing Supply rules etc.
Playing Germany-All others AI.
I use my normal Standard opening Moves in the west, Denmark Low countries France etc-Turn One. Turn 2 sees prep for Norway, Yugo build-up for Spain etc. First thing I noticed was partisans take more work to suppress, even in countries were they really were not very active (ie norway). Anyhow, while takeing care of Spain and Gibralter in the west, I move down thro the balkans to secure Greece(whose primary purpose is stageing are for Ops against Egypt. Im sure the logistics have been changed as well, germany Runs of of RP easily secureing all these objectives, in the regular game its still tight but it can be done, maybe its the challenging setting weighing in. Hard to say. RP crunch more noticeable in your Mod.
Phase 2. The War in the Atlantic
This is where it starts to get hard. Accomplishing all this takes takes time and I never make a 41 Barbarossa. Re-deployment is a bugger as well as fighting off the British half-hearted attempts to fight near the Pillars of Hercules. One the technology side of things to have any hope at all, takeing a lead in U-boat tech is very important. I work on other techs but priority is to get the U-boats up to speed 10-4-4 etc is the imediate goal, (10-5-5) later on. In the west putting every spare RP towards not only building U-boat tech but building the subs themselves and getting them out into the Atlantic, tho most are based in Gibralter at first. Of course by this time the WA are beginning there British Isles build up-the only thing that can stop it, Un-restricted U-boat warfare. If done properly(which I always do) a sizeable *advanced* fleet of U-boats is killing WA transports-with great effect. Eventually, you can surround Britain with a U-boat blockade they cant break. This limits the size of there annoying Air Raids and helps keep Troop requirements in the west to an absolute minimum. Once this point reached, around 1943, +-, you can pretty much ignore the British. The WA are not very agressive in the West and are easily contained.
The War in the East. I was looking to see what if any effect your mod would have on the way Japan fights it war. Well, it does, but its not imediately apparent. Suffice to say that with regular WaW, the Japaneese AI fare poorly against the AI WA. What I do notice is Japan survives Longer and (generally) seems to put up more of a fight. Its still frustrateing as heck to see 4 Jap. capeable of marching in a un-defended India (maybe they were out of supplies). But India was there for the takeing but they wouldnt advance-frustrateing to watch [:)] . Japan can now fight into 46-even 47 but no longer. China seems a little more agreesive(slightly), it appears imo the attacking a little more vigorously and as usual, the Japaneese dont really do all that much about it. Long story short-Japan overall last longer and fights somewhat better.
The war in the East.....the other East. Even though I always seem to never attack Russia when *I* am good and ready, time is of the essence so I attack as soon as.....most of my Africa\Med\ME campaign is done. In fact I am usually still moveing the last of my forces as the battle begins but no matter. Its off to Russia and things proced more or less in the normal manner. When you start to move towards Moscow you can see better use of troops and attacks from the AI-nothing great but better than normal. Lenningrad isnt too hard to get them to strip troops from and do a quick and dirty blitz. Moscow, However which is easy to capture in reg WaW is a noticeably harder. The AI puts more resources into guarding it. By 44-45 its a time of try to build up forces-inflict whatever losses as possible and look for a knockout blow chance. In the West the WA airraid as usual but are pretty much cut off from America. Here is where I have made the same mistake several times. The AI still does its usual abandon Scotland thing it always does in 44-45 and by that time even with the War in the East takeing a ton of resources I can usuually afford to expand Germanys transports to at least 6 total so I usually invade and stage in a Large force to finish off Britain once and for all. Only problem is, its the wrong move. Britain presents neglible threat so redirecting the 30 units needed to push the allied Forces out of Britain takes them away growing the forces in the east. While I dont take losses while reduceing Britain on the Eastern front, I dont *expand* the force level and thats killer, as I soon see. Takeing out britain in fact, does little to help in the war in east-in fact, it hinders it at a crucial moment. While Britain is being overrun, the usual dance in the east continues, but w/o more forces comeing in steady, its noticeable. Your AI is much less hesitant to strike out now when it feels it can advance in Russis. This is where I really noticed the AI changes as much as anywhere else. Even with the forces recalled from a freshly conquered Britain, the AI at this point has begun to strike out and it does attack and gain ground, not overly quickly or anything at this point-but they attack and inflict serious losses in attrition battles. Again even with Europe secured, I simply dont have enough men to hold them off. I begin to fall back west, and its at this point you really begin to see the AI play properly. With regular WaW, Russia is not a hard attacker, even when they have a clear advantage. The AI often attacks..advances...stops and rests for a year or so, building sporadically at best. Giveing you plenty of time to rebuild and go on the attack again Also they make lots of bonehead moves that allow you to outmanuver them. In this mod the AI tends to build up(when it can) a much more broad and consistent line of defence that is very hard to break thro. If you do, the counterattack always finishes off any advanceing units easily. Ive played plenty of AI matches where the Russia could have finished me off anytime it wanted, but just sat and vegetated. Not here, once the AI sees it has a clear advantage it moves forward agressively and attacks at every quarter and does not stop, for anything. IOW they fight like you would expect them too. They simply roll over the german army in the east till they hit West Germany. This while scenario takes a while to play itself out tho, the AI does not start rolling west in 44 or 45 even. Usually theres lots of back and forth, but once the advantage is theres, they move west aggressively, this is not something you can expect of WaW regular AI. At times you can play it and from where they stop if it wasnt a comp playing you would think they were ready to declare a cease-fire.
So there you are. AI definately improved overall, Japan, Russia (China?) noticeablely better in many respects. US\Britain Still weak and ineffective in the the Isles\Battle of the Atlantic. Have not tryed *against* Germany with this mod yet, so cant say it its any better, I know in WaW they play a Bloodly awful match so well see.....
I have been playing the game for about a month and i am debating on upgrading it to Francos V2.4 version. I guess the questions I have is it worth it. Do people who play PBEM games use Francos or stay with the official release versions.
Its not hard to update it to Franco 2.4 and yes people will play you using this version. All you got to do is ask. Several of the regulars will play you using it. Take my suggestion and copy the game to a new folder and use that one to update to Franco's Alliance. In this way, you will have both versions to PBEM with. Optional rules are just that and you can agree to use them or not. The map changes, new victory cities, and new limits on amphib potential, just to name a few, make it a much improved design. The new game coming out soon has these changes so you can get a feel now for the new version by playing my mod.
Jesse LeBreton, AKA Lebatron
Development team- GG's WAW A World Divided
