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(BP) "Better Prepared" v1.05.45
1941-1945 Grand Campaign

*PATCH 1.05.45 Totally redone new version with this latest patch. Patch had quite many
important generic data changes which didin't work with old mod. Now they will!

This UNOFFICIAL modification allows slightly better setup for the Axis. The Germany
had a bit more time to prepare for the Operation Barbarossa.

This situation assumes that the Germany didin't do the same pre-steps
it historically did. Other fronts went differently and allowed more time for the Axis.
The Operation Barbarossa has been prepared better, allowing some formations to be
ready at morning of 22. June 1941.

ATTENTION: What this mod really does, is that it saves quite few troublesome AP
points by allowing better OOB at start. It also allows a bit stronger start for the
Axis. Not by adding unbalancing units/power, but allowing existing units to be used
1 turn earlier. This mod helps with problematic airwar until it gets fixed. If you feel that
original campaign is too hard and/or you want better chances for German success,
try this out.

CHANGES:

Positional changes
- 2nd Armee starts under OKH (less weight for AGC)
- 106 and 110 Infantry Divisions are now located at XXXXII HQ.
- Romanian 3rd and 4th Army are now under Army Group Antonescu (less weight for AGS)
- Carpathian Army group and 2nd Hungary Army are now under Army Group Antonescu
(less weight for AGS)
- L Korps had time to move to better position at East.
- Army Group South now starts 1 hex more east on railroad.
- 16 Panzer Division had time to move a bit more east.

Early activations
- XXXV Korps (2nd Armee) is now active and starts east of Warsov
- XIV Panzer Korps is now active and starts a bit more east.
- SS LAH is now active and belongs to XIV Panzer Korps.
- 16 Motorized Division is now active and belongs to XXXXVIII Panzer Korps
- 25 Motorized Division is now active and belongs to III Panzer Korps

Poweradds
Current version 1.05.45 STILL has kinda broken airwar. Luftwaffe has real problems to
survive against the Red Juggernaut. I've researched this thing a bit and found proper
hotfix until airwar is fixed.

- Added 50x BF109F-2 Fighters in German pool. This might help Luftwaffe to survive
over the first winter.

NOTES: 1.05.45 adds a lot of nice improvements for this excellent game. However,
AirWar still lacking behind.

** V1.05.42 1) Rule Change - In order for an air unit to participate in a daylight
airfield attack mission, it must have flown no more than half of its available miles.

This patch basically reduced average 5500 Soviet casualties at 1st turn down to
4000-4500. This means that Germans have even more hard time than before. After
played 1.05.45 now 4 days, I can say that Germans still needs help and those
50 fighters are just a minor fix and will stay in this mod.

INSTALL:
UNZIP files to ...\dat\scen

DOWNLOAD:
- NEW 1.05.45 Version: http://www.mediafire.com/?0f43bjft610aezb

- OLD Version http://www.mediafire.com/?b2lybry9kkn1ey1
I recommend to not download this, if you patched your game with latest patch!

All constructive feedback is always welcome!
Have fun!

Thanks for this scenario, just started playing it.

It would take a heck of an alternate universe for Hungarians to operate under Rumanian leadership, but other than that I don't think the changes are outside of the realms of possibility. The biggest grumble SU players will have is that the extra forces released in the south make holding the Lvov mega pocket a certainty.

To even things up you could consider relocating some of the Soviets in the area to make the Lvov gambit a little harder than it is at the moment.

Just downloaded and opened it up for a look see. Looks good. Thank you!

ORIGINAL: BigAnorak

It would take a heck of an alternate universe for Hungarians to operate under Rumanian leadership, but other than that I don't think the changes are outside of the realms of possibility. The biggest grumble SU players will have is that the extra forces released in the south make holding the Lvov mega pocket a certainty.

To even things up you could consider relocating some of the Soviets in the area to make the Lvov gambit a little harder than it is at the moment.

You have good points up here. First of all, I belive that the human nature has shown, that two enemy can be friends if
threatened by even bigger and more dangerous enemy. This mod is made to give slight advantage to the Axis, not
to make just another balanced campaign. There are a lot of good AAR:s up here and even with the most experienced
Axis player, it rarely ends on Axis complete victory. The game already heavily favors Russia as it should. This mod
is purposely made to change that a bit. Not by adding unbalancing power, but just allowing some units to be used
a bit more early and fix that airwar thing. I belive luftwaffe needs even more power to survive, but I wanted to be
conservative at start to see how things goes.

Lvov pocket. There has been a lot of talk about it. My personal opinnion is, that while the engine heavily favors Russia
and numbers too. Then human player adds its own experience on it (even AI performs better than real STAVKA did).
The Russia wont make the same very bad mistakes than Stalin did. They suffered horrible casualties by not preparing
upcoming German Assault. There was a lot of information it is coming, but Stalin didin't belive it. When it came, Stalin
didin't even give permission for frontline to answer on fire. Later on he gave permission to start fighting back, but in
that time it was late. After he realized all these mistakes, Stalin was ready to resign and leaved Moscow for a week!
All this time the Red Army was basically without any real leadership. It took almost 2 weeks after Stalin was talked
back to his position and the fight begin. Then other mistakes "hold at all cost" happened. Human player or even AI
wont repeat these mistakes. So Lvov pocket is there to help atleast some of those gains Germans made at the
beginning. Its a cheap and unhistoric way but its there. Current Russia is still very powerful and doesn't need any
help. Even with this mod, there are very small chances you can beat the Russia. This mod however gives a slightly
better chances.

thanks for the mode... I am playing against ai.. re learning game now after some time off...
Playing under the newest beta(1.542).. which limits airbase attacks by range ... will see

Thanks freeboy. Can you please let me know if current version has better airbalance and
fighter adds can be removed. I am going to start a new game by myself, after official
release comes in.

well, I never have any version but an old beta, then finally had time to play.. so I did not finess the g1 airwar turn, just launched as much a2a.. ended with slightly over 3k red air killed... hard for me to addreess where the game is verses vesions I nevered played.. BUT, given my desire to play an alternate history version... more but poorer axis troops and more arms... this will help me to decide how much help to give, and what to change for player vs ai.. against a human my scenario probably would not get much play..
anyway.. that is a future goal and I am having great fun re learning .. much is the but reading thepatch notes and the forums wow.. lots of bickering over the first winter,
I hope to take Lenningrad in N, encircle and force surrender 2.5 million and another 2.5 destroyed by 05..42.. we will see...
I also am reading the manual.. good to see such detail in a game.. even more than in WITP ae.. and thats a monster... 
Wite treads a fine line between abstracted combat split in weeks, and the maintaining of armies.. hq supplies rails etc etc...
 
Again if you have specific questions about the airware I will happily respond either here in pm.. love to test stuff like this.
cheers
M aka freeboy 

interesting changes.. and hard to tell if the 41 'winter success', was due to  1.5 changes or poor ai or your adds.. or all three?
thanks again...
 

I have been testing this mod for 4 days now and I can confirm it works just fine with latest 1.05.45 patch.
Updated some info text.

How much did you test Freeboy? What do you think, does this mod need something else or perhaps some
fixes?

Howdy.

Just maded a totally new version. This one uses new 1.05.45 patch generic data. There were quite many important
changes in patch, so this was needed. Download this new patch if you you patched your game.

If for some reason, you didin't, then use older version.

Have fun!

I'd be interested in playing this mod in a campaign; if anyone is interested, let me know via PM.

ORIGINAL: von altair

Howdy.

Just maded a totally new version. This one uses new 1.05.45 patch generic data. There were quite many important
changes in patch, so this was needed. Download this new patch if you you patched your game.

If for some reason, you didin't, then use older version.

Have fun!

Hi,
I just downloaded the 1.05.04 version and am wondering if you are (or are planning on) working on a new version in light of the 1.06.06 patch? I haven't had a chance to play the current version yet, but I'm looking forward to giving it a whirl. I suspect that, in view of the further changes that have been made to the airwar the Luftwaffe is going to need more help to remain competitive into 1943 - after which it pretty well went south anyway.

Thanks for all of your work [&o],
Ron

Thanks for your opinnion morleron1 !

I would do a new version. First I need to have some knowledge about current balance before doing anything. There is no point to mod something if it is fine already. A lot has been changed since 1.05.45 and my current game with latest patch is only at turn 7...

I would be glad to hear people opinnions about current airwar balance. IMHO land warfare is very well balanced.

Cheers
Altair

That sounds reasonable. I'll let you know what I think of it in a while. Unfortunately, my testing will be either solitaire or against the AI as my schedule is too random to commit to a PBEM right now.

Thanks,
Ron

I just read your ideas and think in genral you have reason to want to give a better time to the german. Although my very first experiance facing them had me in shock..albiet its with a newer patch. The germans flat out blitzed the north passig and taking riga and had powerful crossings onver the divina and was in position to take minsk on turn two easy. Actualy i was impressed becasue i face an historical emergancy but one turn earlyer. I stablaised the situation but trashed the game because i freaked out with overloaded front hqs.my next game the ai played total conservative and suprise me there too. i think the ai at least has been trained to try different methods. with that said tho..i think you are taking the wrong aproach to get a more historical and surely fun german blitkreig feel. i just tested it amd feel//a;biet with inexperiance with this game the same result can come from a better understanding of the actuall russian deployment in the war!.By the way pg 4 blizted to dvina pronto in your version this time. Frogive my presummption because i share your frustration with germans. The russiaqn deploment on june 22 in the erea of the bialstoc salient was far weaker then then was once believed..most of its artllery had been withdrawn to the smolenks erea. And reinforcment of to blulge was stoped as soon as zhukov became chief of staff. Not only that the Armys beleived to be on the frontier by halder both in the western front and north western front had were actually deplyed behind the dnepr. To add insult to this the northwestern front was orderd to with draw to the dvina line by timoshenko the night before the assault began. It is no wonder then that the germans using mass concentration and airforce and blitzkrieg did its wonders. The exeption was the ukrain wich was very powerfully deployed and thus a normal fight when we get in that quagmire. your criticizm of the luftwaffe is right on the money..its pretty lame so far. In short i think all games deploy the northwestern fron far to powerful..at least at the boarder. Thaks for the read. oh yeah..they need to fix brest. took a month to take that town!

Hello, is this scenario compatible with the newest patch? Public Beta 1.09.01 ?

You probably will be able to play this scen with newest patch however there were many changes in various elements that won't be present here. I doubt it is worth playing it. Also it is pure fantasy scenario.

For instance

- Carpathian Army group and 2nd Hungary Army are now under Army Group Antonescu

In summer 1941, on few occasions Romanian and Slovak troops met Hungarians and it ended with regular firefights. After that Germans put lot of effort that theirs sectors are far away from each other. Hungarians would had never agree being subordinate to Rumanians.

Thanks for the advice and info