Game skipping turns

[havoc1371]

I am PBEM and just ended an Axis January turn. I don't remember the exact date, but the Afrika Korps was formed two turns ago. Next move from my opponent, and the game jumped to March 24, 1941! I was trying to bring in Yugoslavia and was at 77%. Suddenly its the end of March and they coup, wasting all my efforts. Anyone else experience the game skipping turns? Not my imagination; my opponent agrees it suddenly jumped about two months.

[Hubert Cater]

Hi Havoc,

There are 21 day turn lengths in the Winter, and looking at the turn dates for around that time it should look like this:

1941/1/20 Allies
1941/2/10 Axis
1941/3/3 Allies
1941/3/24 Axis

Does this then explain things for what you've seen on your end?
Hubert

[havoc1371]

No, because the gaps are wider. My turns recently went Nov 16, 1939, then Dec 8, 1939 (22 days), Dec 30, 1939 (22 days), I didn't track a Jan 40 turn, so I'm wondering if I missed one, but I don't think I did, but my last Axis turn date was Feb 10, 1940 (42 days). Next turn is now Mar 23, 1940, which is a 41 day gap. Why would winter turns be longer when there are already penalties in place for weather? Armies don't stop marching and ships don't stop sailing because the sun goes down earlier. Makes it difficult to plan builds when the turn lengths are out of whack. The game turns should be a consistent measurement of historical time.

[Hubert Cater]

This is correct, as these are the turn length breakdowns for War in Europe (e.g. it varies per season):



This does not mean this is the length from your turn to the next turn, but in between each turn for each side, so to go from Nov 16, 1939, then Dec 8, 1939 is correct, as seen below:

1939/11/16 Axis
1939/11/27 Allies
1939/12/8 Axis
1939/12/19 Allies

Turn lengths are just shorter in WiE during the Winter months as a design decision, but if it is not preferred a customized campaign with adjusted turn lengths is possible. However, it will potentially add a number of turns to each year, extra MPPs and could throw off the balance, so adjustments may be needed to compensate.

[havoc1371]

Why the randomness of turns? Makes it hard to plan for production, diplomacy, etc. Our turns War in Europe are 22 days per turn, with 41 days for winter turns so far, so double what your picture shows.

[havoc1371]

So the picture turn rate is per player.

[Hubert Cater]

It was just a design decision where more occurs during the warmer late spring, summer and early fall months and to elongate and have more of those turns, with less during the early winter, winter and early spring months sort of thing.

Also not saying that we are not open to change, but it has been this way for the European Theater version of the game for close to 20 years and seems to have worked out well overall, with seemingly more pros than cons etc.

[Elessar2]

There were substantial numbers of winter offensives tho, and I'm not sure why the Med's calendar should depend on Russia's. Combined with the defense bonuses in snow/blizzard, winter basically doesn't exist in these games. And another issue is that, since in Vanilla MPP income isn't normalized, you get meager amounts of income at precisely the time you need to rebuild your forces.