More Nuts and Bolts

[Michael T]

I have a question. Unrelated to mods. Or pretty graphics. So if that offends, no offence intended.

If a player who is only interested in mechanics at this point (not disregarding improvement in graphics at a later point in time, after core functions have been well tested) is allowed to ask a question or two on actual game play.

Maybe I will be banned for such questions. We will see.

How do leaders influence the game?
How are they rated?
How many for each Nation?
Perhaps an example or two, names and rankings?

Again sorry the thread is not about graphics. My bad.

[sPzAbt653]

I agree with some of what you have said, and have said as much myself in another thread in the general forum here:
tm.asp?m=4644779
but to be fair you have been a bit harsh [although I am more offended by welk's over the top meant to be positive comments that are a big yawn and waste of all of our time].

My comment here is this one is in early development, so give it a chance. It seems like Al [fuzzypup - terrible name for a professional!] is trying to put together an honest effort. Those of us that don't contribute our time helping in the Beta should wait to see what develops before passing a judgement, I think [:)]

[Michael T]

Maybe harsh, yeah. I see that. But I was so over the other stuff. Anyway I am very positive about this game.

[AlvaroSousa]

How do leaders influence the game?
Generals are attached to HQs and affect units within the movement range of the HQ. A unit is attached to its closest HQ. A general influences combat ability, retreats, intensity, and surrender

How are they rated?
Generals have 3 traits:
Combat - how well they fight
Mobility - how well they blitz
Tenacity - how often they surrender and how intense the battle will be.

How many for each Nation?
As many as you want to mod. But I made enough that players can use. The better the general, the exponentially more the cost to put him in play.

Perhaps an example or two, names and rankings?
I try and rate them based on other games and some of what I read about them. Clearly it is subjective for many generals. So let's take 3 generals.
Rommel - C7, M7, T6 .... some think he was great but really he wasn't that great at commanding a lot of units. He was more a divisional commander. As a German general he was slightly above the average.
Montgomery - C6, M4, T4.... some think he was good but he messed up so many operations he is barely competent at anything.
Mitsuru Ushijima - C7, M3, T9.... The Japanese general who defended Okinawa. 77k Japanese soliders ~71k were killed = Tenacity 9 he just doesn't surrender.
Erich von Manstein - C9, M9, T5... Literally the most brilliant general of the war. But his tenacity is average.

ALL of them are subjective by the books I read. You can change them all you want in the editor if you feel my ratings are inaccurate.



The HQ-General system is very simple. I don't have anything complex. But there is some choice in where you place generals.

Say you have a position that you really want held. Put a high tenacity general there.
Say you need a river line broken. Put a high mobility general there
Say you want to delay the enemy defending put a decent combat, low tenacity general there.

A unit not in range of an HQ gets a subordinate general in command which is a default. Countries have different subordinate generals that others.

As for my forum name.... I had it well before I created games... they didnt let me change it.

[Michael T]

Thanks for that info. So am I right in that each nation has a list of available General's. And there is a cost associated with 'activating' them?

I like the sound of this.

My last question for the day.
What then is the process of transferring said General between HQ's?

Say for example I have Rommel in North Africa but then decide he is needed in the Caucasus? Is there a delay and/or cost?

Thanks again. I appreciate your attention to these questions.

[Zovs]

A unit is attached to its closest HQ.

Can the player override this? Can I manually assign and in un assign or is it automatic?

Can Generals have another trait? Influence comes to mind, Rommel, Patton and Zhukov would be high in the influence category.

[AlvaroSousa]

You can always swap a General for another general in the pool or for a free subordinate. It costs points though.

Usually this isn't an issue as you can just rail the HQ somewhere else and change its name.

Generals do not have specific traits, they are pretty straight forward.

Late in the war people start to accumulate command points because they already got their generals out.

[Michael T]

I guess once you get to the Pacific you might have Admirals?

[Fred98]

ORIGINAL: fuzzypup

You can always swap a General for another general in the pool or for a free subordinate. It costs points though.

Fabulous thank you!

ORIGINAL: fuzzypup

Generals do not have specific traits, they are pretty straight forward.

So what is the benefit of swapping Generals?

[AlvaroSousa]

Say you have some crappy general in North Africa and you don't want to transport HQs around.

[Michael T]

This is just some random thoughts. But I have always liked the idea of some random good or bad stuff happening to Generals. Like an event generator for certain things. good and bad, with historical precedents.

Some examples.

Soviet player loses Kiev to early, so some random General is shot (Stalin is unpleased)
Germans capture Moscow, German General in the HQ covering Moscow gets a promotion (some better stats)
UK loses are too high so some random UK General is made the scapegoat and is demoted (removed from list)

I like that kind of thing. Yet to see it though. Just a thought.

[wodin]

Decisive Campaigns Barbarossa is probably closest you'll get.

ORIGINAL: Michael T

This is just some random thoughts. But I have always liked the idea of some random good or bad stuff happening to Generals. Like an event generator for certain things. good and bad, with historical precedents.

Some examples.

Soviet player loses Kiev to early, so some random General is shot (Stalin is unpleased)
Germans capture Moscow, German General in the HQ covering Moscow gets a promotion (some better stats)
UK loses are too high so some random UK General is made the scapegoat and is demoted (removed from list)

I like that kind of thing. Yet to see it though. Just a thought.

[Michael T]

@Wodin, Yes I have played that game. I even did a few AAR's.

However in this case I mean in the context of a grand strategic game like Warplan.

[Michael T]

Anyway moving on.

How about supply in Russia for the Axis forces. Does the supply system for Warplan model the extra logistical difficulties faced by the Axis armies in that theatre?
Bad roads or lack of roads entirely, rail conversion etc. How is this kind of thing modelled? I assume abstractly.
Any details on this subject available yet?

[AlvaroSousa]

The generals thing is on my thought list. Hard to do without it being a hindrance.

As for Russian supply lines....

Germany and Russia have Scorched Earth turned on for their countries. This means all rail will be destroyed as their land is taken over.
The game rebuilds railways at 1 hexes per turn at the end of broken tracks.

For the Germans this becomes a problem because they can outrun their rail system.
If the Germans don't have some units in the read it can lead to partisans destroying a vital crossroads of rail.

It's simple enough to make you think but not overwhelming or leading to players having to keep a full army back just to kill partisan units messing up their rail.

Partisans just damage rail in the game which affects resources and supplies. So if a partisan hits an unguarded resource that player doesn't get that production as it is no longer on an undamaged rail.

[Michael T]

Sounds ok. The question will be if the rate of repair is enough. I guess the testers will be commenting on that eventually.
Thanks for the info.

[Plainian]

ORIGINAL: Michael T

Sounds ok. The question will be if the rate of repair is enough. I guess the testers will be commenting on that eventually.
Thanks for the info.

It does sound like a very nice "design for effect" to show the war in Russia as being different. Only one variable to tweak though.

[AlvaroSousa]

Yes the rail repair can be adjusted within the editor. There are a lot of variables in the game that can be adjusted. Recently I changed two that impact how movement and combat perform. Both help the A.I. play better and keep the play balanced.