WW2-Global

Hyperborean,

Thank you for a very interesting report.

"The Americans sent an even larger SOD this time (I counted at least 95 divisions), and they made multiple airdrops in the forests of Labrador. They could have attacked me from all directions, and I was really looking forward to this game's biggest battle. However, the AI started to act in the usual way: the SOD broke up into smaller groups, and they just moved in random ways instead of attacking me with everything they had." Hyperborean

AI is really predictable. That is a great weakness.

"I guess I could seize this moment to attack the cities, but right now I'm far more interested in a battle of annihilation." Hyperborean

A good idea.

"It remains to see if the Allies will make a counter-attack against Halifax. If they do I'll be ready, but if they don't I'll send my troops forward within a couple of weeks, and perhaps I'll coordinate it with an offensive in Labrador. I have circa 100 divisions in Labrador, and 50 in Halifax. I think that should be enough for a nice little offensive."
Hyperborean

I agree!

"The good news is that the Japanese have conquered almost all of India without razing a city (so far)." Hyperborean

I think I have placed wonders in most of those cities.

On the comparison of the forces :

AI are building far to many machine-gunners. I will remove them in version 2.0.

"When I defeated the Soviet Union Finland had only Helsinki, 5 infantry divisions and 6 machine-gunners left. After I have given them Tampere, Vaasa, Kemi, Kuopio, Petsamo, Murmansk, Kem, Arkhangelsk, Hammerfest, Narvik, Trondheim and Luleå they have become my second most valuable ally after Japan." Hyperborean

That is interesting.

Thank you and welcome back with more reports.

Rocoteh

New Report from the frontlines:
Our Spying Uboot saw a lot of naval action near Iceland until it was destroyed. However it seems that the Soviets were unsuccessfull in conquering Iceland since it is still green on my map now.
With a lot of troops freed at the eastern front Operation Weserübung finally becomes successfull.
The French made a major tank attack near Lyon destroying all of the Italian forces there but not being able to defeat our German 88s. In the Med sea Italy took Cyprus and launched an amphibious attack on Turkey [edited rules, less fortresses there].
The Japanese are doing ok, With the Chunking and Hainan at their hands, while the Chinese are still holding out in Canton. During the Axis-Russian wars no city was taken.

Turn 46
The Turks are launching an attack near Grosny. The Fins took Hammerfest but failed in conquering Narwik. However they softened the defenses there. Italy failed again on Marsaille. Their assault in Turkey seems to fail soon. The whole Atlantic ocean is swarmed by the US Navy. The Soviet attack seems to have triggered something. The British are quite.
Istambul and Lyon become part of the Reich. I decided against helping the Italians in Turkey with the Luftwaffe. They will be crushed soon.

IarnGreiper,

"Our Spying Uboot saw a lot of naval action near Iceland until it was destroyed. However it seems that the Soviets were unsuccessfull in conquering Iceland since it is still green on my map now." IarnGreiper

Yes I can think that. AI is not the master of amphibious attacks!

"The French made a major tank attack near Lyon destroying all of the Italian forces there but not being able to defeat our German 88s." IarnGreiper

I am considering to increase the cost for the German 88 and the Waffen SS infantry.

"I decided against helping the Italians in Turkey with the Luftwaffe. They will be crushed soon." Iarn Greiper

That is probably a good move.

Thank you and welcome back with more reports.

Rocoteh

Rocoteh I would suggest to remove the SS as produceable unit and make them auto produced.

IarnGreiper said:

Rocoteh I would suggest to remove the SS as produceable unit and make them auto produced.

Click to expand...

IarnGreiper,

With regard to SS Infantry I am considering that.
You will still be able to produce SS 1943 and SS 1944 Panzer divisions
though. Note that there is a extra-cost in shields for these units.
(Compared to the regular Panther unit for the example.)

Rocoteh

I was unclear, I solely meant SS infantry.

IarnGreiper said:

I was unclear, I solely meant SS infantry.

Click to expand...

IarnGreiper,

No, you was not unclear.
I added the comments on SS Panzer units, since these have
been proposed as auto-produced units several times earlier in the
thread.

Rocoteh

Report for turns 47-49:
Still stiff frontlines in France. Both sides take some losses. US Navy intercepts Russian invasion force at Narvik. Thank you Uncle Sam! Soviets invaded Finland. Fortunately we could use our armored reserves at Norway to push them back to Murmansk. Gurev joined the Reich after heavy tank battles in the region. Unfortunately we lost some Panzer III divisions. Turks and Italy ended with a draw and a cease fire after both countries suffeed horrible losses. However the Luftwaffe made a quick end to the remaining Turkish forces during week 49. Our Panzer divisions took advantage of the undefended cities and blitzed from Istambul to Damaskus in a single week. The Japanese managed to liberate Nanning and split China in half.

weeks 50,51
China managed to invade north Thailand and grabbed two cities there. Our German Reich is pushing into Persia from the Grosny. In southern Russia everything is well, too. However the siege on Leningrad was abandoned because it seems fruitless. The city shrinked to size 1 however.

week 52 We made signifcant gains in the middle east, however the British hit us with a counter offensive in Persia.

January 1940, the Russian front froze (literally). All action takes place around Persia, with the involvement of Soviets, Germany, GB and China (both kinds of them). Persia ceised to exist. Marseille finally joined the Reich. Week 3, Russia declared war on Germany (again).

IarnGreiper,

Thank you for the report.
It will be very interesting to follow how this playtest with its
extreme early Barbarossa turns out.

Welcome back with more reports.

Rocoteh

Germany - v 1.9 - Sid - Week 10, 1942

Cities taken since week 5: Quebec, Montreal, Augusta, Aden, Abidjan, Havanna, Panama City, Managua.
I destroyed 30 planes on the ground when I took Montreal. My biggest victory so far. However, the counter-attack was one of the worst ever. I had placed circa 10 panzers, 4 German 88 and 4 infantry divisions to heal in Montreal, expecting that the numbers should be enough to deter the AI from attacking the city. I was wrong, they threw everything they had at me. It was painful to see division after division destroyed. I thought I was going to lose Montreal, but the AI ran out of units just when my last division was destroyed, and I only had the artillery left. Good to see that the margins are on my side for a change. The AI counter-attacks are pretty fierce. The Matildas and the US marines are very tough units, both defensively and offensively. I have almost run out of panzers because of them. I still have plenty of infantry, so there is no worry, but I need to ship more panzers over the Atlantic quickly. I have found a use of the transport planes. They can only take one infantry division, but if you have a fleet of transport planes you can quickly move a considerable force over the Atlantic. Currently I'm using them in Africa.
After I had taken Panama thanks to the amphibious assault of the infantry, I crossed the border to Mexico. This caused them to ask me to leave their territory, but this is my "seit fünf uhr heute morgen schiessen wir zurück" excuse, so I declared war on them, and for some reason the Mexicans declared war on the Americans in the same turn. I guess it may have had something to do with a sub-incident. Since the Americans have a ROP with Mexico they started fighting each other immediately, and I could take Managua, where the defenses had been weakened by the American attacks.
I think I will halt the offensive for a while until I get more panzers. In Labrador the Luftwaffe continues to bomb the Americans. This is going to take a while.

Hyperborean,

Thank you for the report.

"I had placed circa 10 panzers, 4 German 88 and 4 infantry divisions to heal in Montreal, expecting that the numbers should be enough to deter the AI from attacking the city. I was wrong, they threw everything they had at me. It was painful to see division after division destroyed. I thought I was going to lose Montreal, but the AI ran out of units just when my last division was destroyed, and I only had the artillery left. Good to see that the margins are on my side for a change. The AI counter-attacks are pretty fierce. The Matildas and the US marines are very tough units, both defensively and offensively." Hyperborean

Its positive that AI sometimes can be a challenge.

"After I had taken Panama thanks to the amphibious assault of the infantry, I crossed the border to Mexico. This caused them to ask me to leave their territory, but this is my "seit fünf uhr heute morgen schiessen wir zurück" excuse, so I declared war on them, and for some reason the Mexicans declared war on the Americans in the same turn. I guess it may have had something to do with a sub-incident. Since the Americans have a ROP with Mexico they started fighting each other immediately, and I could take Managua, where the defenses had been weakened by the American attacks." Hyperborean

It seems like you have managed to secure your positions in North America.
Will be very interesting to follow if AI have used most of its offensive power,
or if there will be new counterattacks.

Thank you and welcome back with more reports.

Rocoteh

New report from the frontlines: In Febrauary (4-8) 1940 the French defense slowly crumbled after they made some ill-prepared counter attacks on my defensive positions. So eventually they ran out of divisions. The British are quiet but have sent some transports south. Our intelligence was unable to discover their origin. Their only action against me have been some bombing runs on Paris which inflicted heavy damage on infrastructure there. The Soviets remain a mystery. They declare war on an almost weekly basis, but beg for peace soon afterwards. However the hard winter in Russia made the HQ decide not to bother with theri northernmost cities. The cost/gain ratio does not seem resonable. British India is a much more rewarding target. While we advanced in France mile by mile by artillery gains, our panzers run through India. The British are unable to adapt their tactiics on our kind of warfare. They send in their planes too close to our panzer spearheads, getting them annihilated on the ground. Sometimes they try to counteratteck on undefended cities since we have not enough infantry divisions to adequately occupy every city we run over (most have been bound in the France theatre and we don t draft at the moment). However they are catched by the Luftwaffe and our armed reinforcements before they can do any harm. This is true Blitzkrieg.
update for early March. French forces finally collapsed. As we mobbed up their remaining forces in northern Spain one plane on a recon mission reported a British force at the gates of Madrid and Valencia as well as half of the US Navy in the street of Gibraltar. In the follwing week Valencia fell to the Brits. After the Portugese decline our kind request for the right of passage, we had to take that right by force. Lisbon was just a training mission for our elite troops. We crushed Gibraltar in the same week catching the British airforce on ground as expected. Even with their support cut, the british managed to conquer Madrid for a few days. only to get pounded by our forces from north, west and south. Valencia was ill defended it the shaken British defenders healing there were quickly dispatched. Although Spain was fighting the same enemies as we are, the HQ decided to end their misarble state and let them become part of the Reich. We are sure their fate will be more prosperous on our side especially with that huge US fleet out there. In the gulf of Biscaya our Uboot forces intercepted three weekly defended British transports.

In India our advance slowed down as the British are now featuring Matilda tanks. In contrast to the Spanish theatre of war we totally lack artillery there. I wish they had invented those foolish flamethrowers instead.

Sidenote: GB going for Land 40 is a huge change of pace, in my other games the had flamethrowers which were a waste of resources.
Soem units are named odd, "Panzer ii" should be "Panzer II", "Kempfpanzer" should be "Kampfpanzer"

IarnGreiper,

Thank you for the report.

"New report from the frontlines: In Febrauary (4-8) 1940 the French defense slowly crumbled after they made some ill-prepared counter attacks on my defensive positions. So eventually they ran out of divisions." IarnGreiper

That is realistic.

"The Soviets remain a mystery. They declare war on an almost weekly basis, but beg for peace soon afterwards." IarnGreiper

Strange!

"The British are unable to adapt their tactiics on our kind of warfare. They send in their planes too close to our panzer spearheads, getting them annihilated on the ground. Sometimes they try to counteratteck on undefended cities since we have not enough infantry divisions to adequately occupy every city we run over (most have been bound in the France theatre and we don t draft at the moment). However they are catched by the Luftwaffe and our armed reinforcements before they can do any harm. This is true Blitzkrieg." IarnGreiper

Yes I agree.
Looking forward to follow how this playtest turns out.


Welcome back.

Rocoteh

Will dropping draft cause more problems for AI than the human player?
Comments on that are welcome.

Hello Rocoteh, will you answered my report I made a few edits and additions at my post above.

In regards of the Russian AI: Maybe this is because there are no units in easter Europe, which is tempting but fruitless for the AI.

On drafting. I would suggest giving a test without draft a chance.

IarnGreiper said:

Hello Rocoteh, will you answered my report I made a few edits and additions at my post above.

In regards of the Russian AI: Maybe this is because there are no units in easter Europe, which is tempting but fruitless for the AI.

On drafting. I would suggest giving a test without draft a chance.

Click to expand...

"Soem units are named odd, "Panzer ii" should be "Panzer II", "Kempfpanzer" should be "Kampfpanzer" IarnGreiper

IarnGreiper,

It seems like you improve your positions very fast.

I am aware of Panzer II and Kampfpanzer.
Where have you found "Panzer ii" and "Kempfpanzer"?

September 1939 there existed a Kempf Panzerdivision.
Some units have also been named for example xx = NATO symbol
for division, and iii = regiment.
Maybe you misinterpreted the above.

Rocoteh

Shame on me, you are right.

Implemented changes in version 2.0, old map:

1. Armies and leaders have been removed.

2. You can no longer steal techs.

3. All armoured units now cost more to build.

4. You no longer build Machinegun units. The same holds true
for flamethrowers.

5. Cost for Paratrooper plane increased to 300 shields.

6. Cost for German 88 increased to 300 shields.

7. SS Infantry units can no longer be build instead
Ruhr Wonder now produce SS Infantry with frequency 20.

8. Draft will be removed.

9. Cost for Japanese SNLF units increased to 500 shields.

10. Cost in turns for building railroads doubled.

11. Railroads in India removed.

12. Temples will generate happiness +2 and Cathedrals will generate
happiness +3.

13. The most important change! Trade flags removed from harbours
and airports. This mean that you no longer can trade overseas and
by air. Resources placed in major powers so that they still can produce
tanks, air units and naval units in their homelands.
The effect of this is that load time will drop with 90%!
Waiting time between turns also reduced.
Credits for this to El Justo who achieved this very important
breakthrough to reduce load tome.

Edit. More changes:

14. Improvement Granary removed. The reason is that I think population
grows to fast in the scenario.

15. Improvement Movie Palace added. Happiness +2.

16. German wonders now also increase production.

17. Removed 10 cities in Africa and Amman in the Middle East.

Those who have followed WW2-Global for some time can see that
the scenario never before have been changed in such a drastic way
one version to the next version.

18. Most of the railroads in China have been removed.

19. 10 artillery units have been added to Soviets Order of Battle.

20. Removed British airfield in France.

21. Added Canary Islands.

22. Added a new multi-wonder system invented by Civinator
to stop AI razing cities.

Rocoteh

IarnGreiper said:

Shame on me, you are right.

Click to expand...

IarnGreiper,

No problem.

NATO symbols are only known to a few people.
I will not use them in version 2.1 (huge map).

Rocoteh

I overall like the changes on 2.0.

I personally would like draft to be completely removed. With the reduced number of tanks in the game infantry zerg should not become an even larger factor.

Can the SS infantry be build be Berlin instead? I feel Berlin more fitting for the most indoctrinated troops of the Third Reich. And I think if Germany is loosing they should be producing SS until their last breath.

IarnGreiper said:

I overall like the changes on 2.0.

I personally would like draft to be completely removed. With the reduced number of tanks in the game infantry zerg should not become an even larger factor.

Can the SS infantry be build be Berlin instead? I feel Berlin more fitting for the most indoctrinated troops of the Third Reich. And I think if Germany is loosing they should be producing SS until their last breath.

Click to expand...

IarnGreiper,

Moving SS auto-production to Berlin is a good idea.
I will implement it.

Its possible I will remove draft in version 2.0 already. I will make
one more of analyse of this problem before I decide.
2 more changes have been done. I will soon edit the previous post.

Rocoteh