Just got back from a spot of skiing (winter down here in Oz) so I have just sat down and decided that it was time to bring my German Emperor V1.9 game to a timely close.
It was a decisive victory for Germany but it was marred by the Italians constantly declaring war on me after a ROP disagreement at the bottom of Sicily. The Soviets were wiped out by me.
Unfortunately the Japanese seemed to completely collapse after conquering the Asian continental landmass. They were fought to a standstill on the Indian/Burmese border. They never challenged a single Soviet unit. Their archipelago battles were all eventually lost and the US took the two cities on Kyuushu in the home islands. The US had then island hopped onto the main island when I called it a game. I had actually begun the invasion of the Dutch east indies with 66 Pz III's spread out and attacking the islands all at once. The idea was to then gift South East Asia to the Japs and resume my plans to take the Americas. I then realised that there was no hope of the Japanese actually holding onto my gifts. My second realisation was that although I could hold them myself I no longer had the inclination.
Despite that I learnt some valuable lessons and thought I could make a few suggestions. In deciding to provide a little feedback I discovered that Circumpolar has nicely wrapped up a lot of ideas that I found in my own playtest.
- For some reason which i have not been able to determine, the Soviet AI auto-production of Soviet militia never started.
ditto for my game. At no point did any militia appear and my spies showed than none were ever produced upto the end of my game in mid 1943. In fact Soviet tech advances were very very slow. the first generation Yak didn't show up until 1942! The T-34 appeared just as the game ended which was rather disappointing.
- Give Sydney in Australia more shield boni. In reality it should be a much more important industrial center than Canberra. For the same reason, the autoproduction of ANZAC infantry should be moved there
Although a minor point I concur - Sydney was the largest city in Australia in WWII and almost all major troop convoys departed from there first. Canberra was just a minor municipal backwater back then despite being the capital.
Regarding units:
- In general, more of the early units should be made obsolete by new developments. Otherwise the production menu becomes totally cluttered later in the game. And it is somewhat unrealistic that e. g. Germany should still build Panzer IIIs when for the same cost Panzer IVs or even Panthers are available.
I found that I had 160 odd Pz III's by wars end. Not being able to upgrade them to IV's was a little frustrating. I built the other Panzers to enjoy using them and basically became reckless with my throw-away Pz III's. I am aware that the III was still produced throughout the war but perhaps an upgrade option should be available as many Panzer III units were requipped during the war.
- German Me-410 (F) should be eliminated. This plane is quite useless in stats compared to the other fighters, and in reality it was never produced in significant numbers. Since it does not have a particular unit graphic there is also no loss of "flavor" here.
Agreed. I didn't really want to use a "generic" looking unit and the stats meant that it was not enticing.
- German He-219 does have pretty strong stats, giving a much stronger role than in reality. I suggest toning these stats down or dropping the plane altogether, and instead offer a beefed up, upgraded version of Me-109 or a FW-190 with longer range.
Perhaps instead of the He-219 a Ta-152 (the high altitude interceptor version of the 190) could be introduced. Use the same stats as the 219 but slightly recolour a version of the 190.
On that note I found myself wishing that the Ju 188 wasn't the "generic" bomber image. Perhaps it could be changed to a recoloured Ju 88 image as well?
- German SS Panzer 1944 should be renamed simply "Königstiger", in order to make it easier to differentiate from SS Panzer 1943 in the build menu.
Agreed. I rather stupidly found myself wondering when the King Tiger was going to turn up for me to build. Impressed by the Panzer 43 stats I built quite a few and later on the same with the Panzer 44. I recognised the tank but dismissed it as just a damn good looking unit. It wasn't until I read the civilopedia a few turns later that I realised that I had achieved the ability to build these monsters. Perhaps renaming them with their more well recognised names? Or you could just tell me to read the pedia more completely eh?
- Combat engineer is not necessary, should be dropped.
I never built them so I support eliminating them.
- Brits always build too many Blackburn Skua, too many to reflect their actual usefulness in real life. I suggest to reduce their bombardment strength.
For the first two and a half years that seemed to be the primary bomber for the UK-AI. Even once Halifaxs/Lancasters show up I still seem to get attacked by them! Being so cheap I can't see how you could change that though so it isn't really a big issue.
Auto-production in Britain: Edinburgh should not auto-produce a British Tank brigade, as it becomes obsolete fast, but rather a Worker instead of London, which should auto-produce a Spitfire, to make the Air Battle of Britain more difficult for the Germans.
I agree with this idea. The Commonwealth forces after a while run out of air support. Noting their small size and limited use of wartime resources/manpower producing a Spit every 2 or 3 turns couldn't hurt!
I found myself stockpiling the outdated British tank units as the "Waffen SS British Free Corps" then sending them on suicide missions against impossible targets in russia to ease my sadistic tendancies.
Additionally I have found in my travels through the civilopedia that the Japanese Zero (A6M?) is annotated as a Banshee in the title of the pedia despite the text being correct. I have spotted a few other mistitles in the pedia that escape me at the moment but I will let you know when I remember them.
As strange as it may seem I am holding off on a 2.0 game. I will play 1.9 on Demi next since I am really hanging out for the expanded map version (2.1?). Good things take time so I will improve my skills on 1.9. V2.1 promises plenty of room to manoeuvre for the giant Karkhov and Kursk tank battles I dream of seeing! I suppose the aircraft range stats will be reworked for that map as well Roc?