There doesn't seem to be a way around it yet, Bengal. As much as we dog on the AI, it is capable of all kinds of superpowers, like rebasing units without rebase, sacrificing captured unis without sacrifice, etc.
Here's a few recent updates on the scenario in general.
The first of the gamebreakers was the usual American reluctance to participate in Civ III European wars. This was fixed with a vengeance, and Operation REFORGER is downright scary at this point. As the Soviet player, you will be in constant aggrevated fear of NATO air power, which is great. There's some variation on how the AI handles it game by game, which is nice. We'll see how the computer handles the long game as far as convoys go. Typically, the AI only invades with a few guys at a time which is easily handled by a human player on the continent. But this corresponds pretty well with the historical reality. If the US player fails to help rebuff the Soviet advance early in the game, then it will be nearly impossible to save West Germany with follow-on forces. Then the game will develop into a fight for peripherals.
The second gamebreaker started as more forces were added to the scenario. The Soviet Army, on turn one at the outbreak of World War III, would run away. I mean, run away from the inter-German border as fast as their tracks could carry them. In a war where speed of advance is everything, this was kind of a problem. Turns out, of course, that they were taking their maxim of 'avoid strongpoints, exploit weakpoints' a little too far. They were avoiding the Federal Republic and trying to invade other areas with few units. First Italy, then Greece and Turkey, and finally Norway. Not looking good for the Norwegian player when the entire 11.5 million strong Soviet Army is headed directly for your border. To fix this, first we have some artificial boundaries through areas like Karelia that limit Soviet movement. You (and the AI) can still utilize transports to get people around but directly reinforcing the Murmansk Oblast and invading Finalnd are not options. Second, NATO forces in Germany are not entirely ready at their border positions. Reasons for this will be expanded on in the storyline, but follow-on forces from the Low Countries are not yet in place. So there will be plot points on this, but the real reason is to thin the line on the border to encourage the Soviet AI to attack. Once the fight is underway, both sides reinforce the battle well.
The Irish have been combined with Austria and Switzerland to become the aptly named Eurpoean Neutrals. The Arab Maghreb Union has been folded into the Arab Leagure. This gives the Arab League a lot of territory on the map. The Arab Leagure, as well as Egypt, Iran, and Iraq, have critical oil reserves, while most European powers have none. The UK is an exception, with a single oil resource in Scotland, mainly to simulate North Sea drilling. Since everything other than wide-eyed conscripts requires petroleum, you are going to have to get your diplomats to play very nice. The U.S. and Canada have only limited amounts for their own use and trade purposes. The Soviet Union has no problem with petrol (unlike Red Storm Rising) but it will have to see about trade with its allies.
This leads to another area, which is the tech tree. It is nice to have a clean, concise tree after the crowded mini-eras of the Worldwide game. Each 'era' has a different concentration: World Revolution, Mobilization, Diplomacy, and World Events. The U.S.S.R. and the DDR are stuck in era 1 but will find all their needs met there. Eras two and three give you the option to pursue military or diplomatic goals. Military goals start with things like advanced reserve activation, but eventually lead to bigger prizes. For the big countries, like the U.S., your ultimate goal is wartime production. For smaller states, you have to trade to get access to National Resources so you can import weapons and retrain your troops. For instance, the Turks can get M60A1s or the West Germans can get MLRS (which they were in the process of doing at the time). Under diplomacy, the player can get access to expanded options. Merchant Marine allows you to charter civilian vessels, which is essential for maritime nations since they all have a dearth of military sealift capability. International Trade Agreement allows trade over sea squares, giving you access to American and Canadian resources. Of course, military alliances falls under this era, too. So, will you race to get better units, or beeline to military alliances to get these neutrals into the fight? The fourth era is for the US-UK, and primarily concerns the Pacific. Each tech will have a little story on how the war is developing there. As you progress, more forces become available as they redeploy from across the world. This will work in conjunction with the 'Staff Only' units and will be primarily naval in character. The tech tree will also serve to keep everyone in their respective eras for the purposes of maintaining separate graphics, like advisors and cities.
The removal of Ireland and Maghreb gives room for two new civs: Cuba, and the Caribbean States. I'm working on incorporating a storyline here, but essentially a Cuban-backed Guyanan guerilla war will be infiltrating Venezuela. There'll be plenty of room for the U.S. to screw up here and get embroiled. Might even lead to a full fledged invasion of Cuba which would as disasterous to the Americas as it would to the European war. Much more to come on this. I have a bunch of info on the Soviet expansion of Cuban forces during this era that I need to sift through.
Losing the ability to use Steph's excellent editor is a real disaster, so I might try Civ3MM to see what it can do. I've also started on adding graphics and sounds. There's a bunch of custom sounds being added, but again I got to thank Ares for saving me a bunch of work in this area. There's also another project I'm working on...not essential to the game but it would be a nice addition. It's very time consuming and has a big learning curve...I'd love to keep at it but it takes away from the time I need to work on the game proper. So we'll see.
Anyway, hope this long-winded update is worth a read. I plan to get a lot done in the next couple weeks...my primary motivation in making this is that I want to play it!
Belaruskaya SSR is very important for the Soviet player, as home to the Group of Tank Armies...the Western Strategic Direction's knockout punch. I wanted to put Brest in but the spacing is difficult. In the map, it should be NNW of Lutsk, east of Warsaw, and SSE of Bialystok. When I tried this, though, it was right on the border (next to that aluminum can) and really played hell with the international border. In the end I took it out, and I think the border came out well. Baranovichi was chosen more for its geographical location than its size. The unit there is 28th Tank Division at Slonim, and the unit next to it is 6th Guards Tank Division at Grodno. Nearby in Minsk is the famous 120th Guards Motorized-Rifle Division.
if my computer (2HB RAM) allows...
