ModAAR: American Front, a CSA v USA WIP mod

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: Sigizmund

Very want to try it in MP when beta version is out [;)]

Thanks! I hope to have a Beta out before the end of next month. I want to get this done and out there.

[Bufo]

Still very excited for this release, been watching throughout the year!

[dragan22k]

I ran into this thread yesterday and couldn't stop reading it. As a fan of Turtledove and the 191 series I am also very excited and looking forward to this. Keep up the great work!

[ObeseMonkey]

This looks great, excited to see what becomes of it. Big fan of 191. There is a great mod for Operational Art of War 4 that covers this (implements a lot of what if events well). But it’s a mega one which I rarely have time to play. Can see this becoming a favourite!

[FOARP]

Soft-coding Part 8 - Units Names

Not a glamourous, but a necessary part of the game, is naming the units.

CSA
For the CSA I tried to give a link to the states for all the army units. Infantry regiments (i.e., garrisons) have names like "32nd Texas Scouts". Brigades (i.e., detachments) are called after southern university sports teams and other southern-themed nick-names like "36th (Tarheels)". Divisions are assumed to be big enough to be Confederate (i.e., not state-formed) units and so have more generic names like "19th CSA Inf. (Res.)", whilst corps are just identified by Roman numerals. Artillery follows the state theme (so, yes, there will be a Richmond Howitzers with a Jake Featherston in its ranks).

For the CS Navy I've taken the simple step of naming dreadnoughts after the states, battle-cruisers after CS generals, cruisers after southern port cities, destroyers after southern rivers, and subs after fish native to the south (yes, there will be a CS submarine called "Bonefish").

CS air units are named similarly to British ones. I am assuming that there is a CS army air corps and a navy air corps as well. The army units use numbers (e.g., 2nd CSAAC (Pursuit)) and the navy units use letters (e.g., C Sqdn CSNAC (Recon)).

USA

The US is assumed to be much more bland, given that it is a close federal unit, though there are some colour names. To distinguish unit levels smaller ones are called "1st, 2nd, 3rd.." whilst larger ones are called "1., 2., 3. .." in the German fashion. Corps are simply given Roman numerals. Warships are simply given historical USN names with all the southern names deleted.

Canada

Canadian Regiments, Brigades, Divisions etc. are named after historical units (e.g., "Fort Garry Horse", "Sherbrooke Hussars"). Canada does not have a navy (the British Royal navy defends the Canadian coastline) except for its Great Lakes fleet which are pre-dreadnoughts named after Canadian cities with the exception of one named "Wolfe" and escorting destroyers named after historical Canadian destroyers (e.g., Restigouche). Canadian air units are named after historical Canadian air units.

Mexico

Lower-level Mexican army units are named for regiments of the Mexican-American war or for localities. Higher-level units are named either after points of the compass (taking the lead from the División del Norte) or after the kind of units that you might expect a tin-pot dictatorship to have (e.g., "tax troops" and military police units). The Mexican Navy is named after Mexican emperors or port-cities.

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: dragan22k

I ran into this thread yesterday and couldn't stop reading it. As a fan of Turtledove and the 191 series I am also very excited and looking forward to this. Keep up the great work!

Thanks Dragan! Hope everyone doesn't mind the long breaks in my working on this. I'm always thinking about it - especially as it is so close to being basically a playable scenario!

[Sigizmund]

I can't wait to play it too. But I have a question if basic scenario will be (alt)historical is it possible to make one more that will be balanced for MP? And how it will be easier to do? Something like increased CSA production or Canada buff?

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: Sigizmund

I can't wait to play it too. But I have a question if basic scenario will be (alt)historical is it possible to make one more that will be balanced for MP? And how it will be easier to do? Something like increased CSA production or Canada buff?

MP and PP maluses/bonuses can be applied using a chosen event. It should be possible to implement a simple "Do you want to start with a handicap?" event for the US that also tells the CS/Canadian player that the US has been nerfed.

Not something I'm going to do in the initial release but doable anyway.

[FOARP]

Soft-coding Part 9a - Blockades

Hello again. Today we're going to be looking at something I've been working on for a while now, which is how to implement blockades into the struggle for control of North America between the Entente (including the CSA) and the Central Powers (including the USA).

In the base game blockades can be enforced to lower the morale of your adversaries by putting your ships, submarines, and mines on or next to certain locations to block shipping and trade there. Do enough of this and you can force your enemies to surrender, winning the game. This mechanism is separate to the convoy mechanism, where convoys are represented as lines on the map that add MPP from the source country to the destination unless interdicted.

One of the problems I originally had with using the blockade mechanism from the base game was accounting for changes of fortune in the war on land - it made no sense to blockade a port when the port had already been captured. I tried to make the naval war relevant through use of the convoy mechanism but the convoys could only credibly carry a small amount of MPP such that the player might ignore the naval war all together.

I've been able to address this by making specific blockade hexes linked to specific cities, such that the morale-reduction won't happen if the city is captured by the side that is trying to blockade it. As in the example picture, blockade hexes that are linked this way say explicitly which city they are linked to so the player will know not to try to blockade the blockade positions of cities that have already fallen. The one exception to this are the blockade positions I've marked "Sea Control", which will reduce the morale of the target country so long as it is still in the fight and still holds its capital city.

Since blockading should only help win the war, not win the war by itself, I've reduced the amount of morale points each blockade position occupied reduces morale each turn from 20 to 10 compared to the base game.

There are 29 different blockade zones on the map:
- Philadelphia (6 US blockade hexes)
- New York (6 US blockade hexes)
- Boston (5 US blockade hexes)
- San Diego (4 US blockade hexes located off Baja California)
- Los Angeles (4 US blockade hexes)
- San Francisco (4 US blockade hexes)
- Seattle (1 US blockade hex at the entrance to Puget Sound)
- Lake Superior (1 US sea control hex)
- Lake Michigan (1 US sea control hex)
- Lake Erie (1 US sea control hex)
- Lake Ontario (1 US sea control hex)
- St. Johns (3 UK blockade hexes off Newfoundland)
- Sargasso Sea (4 UK sea control hexes off Bermuda)
- Kingston (2 UK blockade hexes off the coast of Jamaica)
- Sandwich Islands (3 UK sea control hexes off Hawaii)
- Halifax (3 Canadian blockade hexes off Nova Scotia)
- Quebec City (4 Canadian blockade hexes on the St. Lawrence)
- Vancouver (3 Canadian blockade hexes in the Strait of Juan de Fuca)
- Prince Rupert (1 Canadian blockade hex)
- Lake Superior (1 Canadian sea control hex)
- Lake Huron (1 Canadian sea control hex)
- Lake Ontario (1 Canadian sea control hex)
- Norfolk VA (3 CSA blockade hexes off the Virginia coast)
- Wilmington, NC (3 CSA blockade hexes off the North Carolina coast)
- Charleston (3 CSA blockade hexes off the South Carolina coast)
- Savannah (3 CSA blockade hexes off the coast of Georgia)
- Miami (4 CSA blockade hexes in various channels in the Bahamas)
- Havana (3 blockade hexes in the Florida Strait)
- Guaymas (3 blockade hexes at the entrance to the Sea of Cortez)

Of 84 blockade hexes, 34 of them are against the US, and the remaining 50 are against the Entente (12 the UK, 15 Canada, 22 the CSA) meaning that the Entente are more vulnerable to blockade, which is fitting given that in the books the British, and to a lesser extent the Canadians and Confederates, are brought low in large part by US-German sea power.

[FOARP]

Soft-coding Part 9b - Tweaks

I've made some further tweaks to the game based on play testing:

1) Garrisons have been made unbuildable and static - I was originally planning to use them as regiment-sized units to cover the large fronts of this war, but they proved too fiddly and their inability to dig-in is hard-coded into the game. Infantry Brigades (AKA detachments) and Cavalry Brigades will instead cover the gaps. Garrisons will be provided at the start in important cities (e.g., state capitals) and fortresses behind the lines, each having one just to stop ninja-like blitzes capturing them without a fight.

3) I've made Lake Ontario and Lake Erie a bit larger so there's more room to manoeuvre on them.

4) I've tweaks the graphics quite a lot, giving the US new plane graphics (German-style planes in "Green Gray" with USAAC roundels), adding Mexican roundels to their planes etc. This took a long time to do!

5) I've given Mexico a -30% MPP "corruption" nerf, and the CSA a -20% "racism" nerf for better balance.

5) I've added Brazil to the game - they can provide a dreadnought and destroyer to whichever side woos them.

Tasks still left to complete:
1) Implement Quebec as a releasable nation.

2) Implement victory events.

[Sigizmund]

I want to join testing [&o]

[FOARP]

Soft-coding Part 10 - Quebec

A quick one today - I've added Quebec into the game as a releasable nation. To release Quebec the US must capture Quebec City, Trois Rivieres, and Montreal, and the US will then get a decision whether or not to support Quebec independence. If the US takes the relevant MPP cost, Quebec is released and three Quebec army units are formed (two infantry divisions and a brigade).

Since Quebec makes up so much of Canada, and since the independence mechanism used by the game is fairly buggy (it ought to allow you to not kick out all the Canadian and US army units but there doesn't seem to be any way of doing this) I've restricted the area liberated by the US decision to support Quebec independence to only Quebec City itself - Quebec will annex the rest of the province after the victory against Canada. Allowing all the Canadian units to be kicked out of Quebec by the event seemed to give the US player way too big an advantage. It is also more realistic that the US would not simply hand over control of the province to nationalists in one go.

I'm also going to have some minor events to simulate the conscription crisis in Quebec. In the books all of Canada is subject to conscription, but I doubt this would have been uncontroversial in Quebec so some events like the historical Easter Riots should take place.

[Bufo]

Do all the Great Lakes have NM control zones? Excited to see that things are all coming together.

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: Bufo

Do all the Great Lakes have NM control zones? Excited to see that things are all coming together.

Thanks. Yeah, finally have some time to work on this.

All the Great Lakes have at least one control zone. Michigan and Erie have no, or no major, Canadian ports on them, so they only have US control zones on them (i.e., zones which Canadian warships can be parked on/near to lower US morale). Superior has both Thunder Bay and Duluth as ports on it, so it has both US and Canadian control zones on it. Similarly Lake Ontario has both Toronto and Rochester on it and so has both US and Canadian zones. Huron has only a Canadian zone - whilst there are some US ports it's obviously more important for Canada.

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: Sigizmund

I want to join testing [&o]

Thanks. I've been working on this more than two years now so I'm really looking forward to getting something out there that people can at least play around with. I'll DM you when I have something testable.

[FOARP]

Soft-coding Part 11 - US victory events

Hello again. The last few days I've been working on a series of events that will fire if the Entente powers reduce below 1% national morale. These are:

UK
If UK morale dips below 1% the UK surrenders and the US gets to annex Newfoundland (including Labrador), the Bahamas, Bermuda, and the Sandwich Islands (AKA Hawaii). Canadian and CSA morale is also lowered.

Canada
If Canadian morale goes below 1% the US annexes the whole of Canada except Quebec which is released as a independent, US-dominated minor power. It also triggers an event that significantly lowers CSA and UK morale.

CSA
If Confederate morale falls below 1% then the US annexes Northern Virginia, Kentucky, Sequoyah (AKA Oklahoma), Western Texas (AKA the US state of "Houston"), and a chunk of Northern Sonara.

Picture: Western Texas post-US annexation

[FOARP]

Soft-coding Part 12 - Entente Victory

Whilst the books give clear guidance as to what the territorial demands of the USA were after winning the Great War, there is almost nothing in the books about what the Entente side wants.

I've assumed that a victorious CSA would want to take back West Virginia and would also have wanted the two thinly-populated western states of New Mexico and Arizona. Whilst the books do describe sympathisers in neighbouring states in the mid-west (e.g., in Missouri) annexing all or parts of these states sounds like too big a bite to take. Similarly I don't see Canada doing more than taking territory that had previously been disputed with the US - in this case the disputed zone of the Oregon dispute west of the Columbia river. Mexico is distinctly described as a second-rate power but if they're on the side of the Entente they should at least get something, so they claim San Diego, Imperial, and Riverside counties in Southern California, as these are either thinly populated or have large Spanish-speaking populations.

What do you think?

Picture: the new border in Southern California.

[OldCrowBalthazor]

Been following this mod for ages..keep up the good work. I like featuring Mods for the SC games on my YouTube channel. When you look like you are getting close to release.I would like to give this a go in an PBEM match in the future.

cheers.[8D]

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: OldCrowBalthazor

Been following this mod for ages..keep up the good work. I like featuring Mods for the SC games on my YouTube channel. When you look like you are getting close to release.I would like to give this a go in an PBEM match in the future.

cheers.[8D]

Thanks OCB. Yup, will definitely get in touch when it's close to release.

[Jazon]

Keep it going!
We are all waiting for release!