PRE 1937

1937 - 1939

1940 - 1941

1942 - 1945

Miscellaneous

ALTERNATIVE CITIES SET

There is an alternate city set called Acities.bmp which can be swapped with Cities.bmp. This set departs from the traditional concept of cities and represents them with geometric shapes just like any ordinary atlas would. What it loses in visual appeal it makes up with its ability to give  you a crystal-clear strategic overview.


CHANGES IN VERSION 3.0

This is probably the final revision to DST.  It might look similar to 2.0 but a lot of fine-tuning has gone into this version. Many techs, spawn events/locations and unit roles have been adjusted to vastly improve AI behavior.  The following are the more obvious changes made:

a. I have incorporated the event algorithm that allows spawning of  merchant marine vessels pre-loaded with marines. It has worked wonders to simulate the Allied island hopping counter-offensive of 1944. (Hither to, one of the problems inherent in any ocean type scenario was the AI's reluctance to load its sea transport vessels. In version 2.0, this was partially solved by spawning the marines and merchant marines on single-tiled island cities but the solution was not very efficient and led to invincible islands with dozens of troops.)

b. Several fixes to the map.

    In China, Fort Bayard was given to the French and the island of Hainan was added. 

    The ability to build sea units was removed from several cities. 

    Reduced Burma to a proper size, with two cities instead of three. Consequently Mandalay is now further south and easier to reach.

    All the Japanese(P) listening posts and Allied troop loading islands have been removed.

c. Several improvements to the map

    Added several important Japanese anchorage towns such as TawiTawi, Lingga, Staring Bay and Lae.

    Other towns that were prominant in WWII battles, like Imphal have also been added. Amchitka was replaced by Kiska.

    Beefed up infrastrucutre of cities in New Zeland and Indonesia.

f.  Research Adjustments:

    The Betty G4M Bomber and SBD Dauntless have been pushed further back in the tech tree to track history.

    The Research Rate has been slowed down by 10 percent.

    You won't be able research Kamikaze until the Carrier Era - Kamikaze doesn't make sense if you haven't even lost a single battleship. So its now impossible to get the Blindfire Radar and Long Lance Wonders (i.e. +3 ship movement) at the same time.

e. Unit Changes:

    Helldiver is no longer available to the British as they never used it. But I have added the B-24 Liberator in place of the B-25 Mitchell so the RAF can build a heavy bomber.

    Sub Hunter (i.e. Destroyer Escourt) has taken over the Buffalo Fighter slot.

    Changed the graphics for some subs and a few battleships.

f. Removal of negotiations, meaning  negotiated peace is no longer part of the objectives.

g. Wonders:

    The Lend Lease wonder will now upgrade all out-dated British aircraft to the improved American versions.

    Blood Bank wonder has been changed to Henderson Airfield and is pre-built on Guadalcanal.

h. The U.S. is now no longer unassailable. All the U.S. Army Reserve units in Hawaii and stateside will disband once MacArthur abandons the Philippines - because events will now render the Army Reserve unit obsolete, causing the AI to disband them.  Using the same mechanism, Chungking will now be protected until Burma is taken .

i. The jumpstart saved games have been changed to scenario files to reduce the chance of sneak attacks by the Allies.

j. Added a game concepts section in the civpedia menu.


CHANGES IN EARLIER VERSIONS

The primary changes have revolved around the Allies. These changes are not very noticeable at first if you have played earlier versions but it has taken more time to figure them out and test them than it took to make the scenario in the first place. They have a very big impact on improving the AI counter-attack in the second half of the game and in general the challenge of achieving the winning conditions has been hiked up several levels.

a. Removed/shifted techs to let Allies reach the end of their tech tree and the priority of AI researched items has been reassigned.

b. The British have now got four public schools at the start and the 'Rikken Institute' wonder has been given to the British as 'Ultra Decryptions'.

c. Made several Allied units and wonders cheaper and certain free Allied units are now veteran.

d. New system (that works) to create Allied transports with marines on them.

e. AI is no longer allowed to offer you ceasefires without offering concessions.

f. The British will no longer shift their commander-in-chief to New Zealand.

g. Dutch submarines will now feature in the scenario.

h. Many units' home city have been set to none to allow fighting to continue after cities fall, like in the Philippines.

i. Allies will still get their war techs by 1942 even if you don't attack them. 

There have been some changes to the Japanese side:

a. Yamato and Nagato BBs more expensive now.

b. Two Nagato battleships have been replaced by WWI battleships to represent the older Fuso-class ships.

c. Free Colonial Infantry to ease the unrealistic manpower shortage.

d. Sinking of Kongo battlecruisers no longer triggers 'Carrier Era'.

e. Nagato units never become obsolete.

f. The shields of Japanese carriers have been moved inward so they don't leave trials even when there are aircraft aboard.

Some other changes:

a. Missing railroad square from fast saves added back.

b. New Caledonia is now an objective.

c. Several negotiation entries have been customized so the scenario has less of a plain civ2 feel.

d. Terrain under Vientiane has been changed to grassland from jungle to make it possible to capture without wasting 10 artillery.

e. Chinese and Dutch can now build the CL Tankette and P-38 has been removed.

f. Attacking Russia will also result in the Oil Embargo.

g. This readme you are reading now.


CREDITS

Unfortunately my XP machine has robbed me of many of my creative tools  including my Adobe Photoshop and this scenario has much less new material as opposed to its predecessors. Unlike before, I did not make many new icons and units. Much of the graphics is MacGyvered from existing material.

a. The traditional city set was put together by Eivind from elements originally created by Curt Sibling

b. The beautiful terrain2 set is taken from BKA's A World At War

c. Units are taken with some editing from various sources. The initials of the original artists have been left intact.

d. The map was adapted from Insurgent's Nippon scenario.

I also would like to give thanks for constructive suggestions given by Eivind and especially Agricola.  


USEFUL LINKS

HyperWar Pacific War Articles

TheWar Against Japan - American Military History Chapter 23

Pacific Naval Battles in World War II

Why Japan Really Lost The War

Naval Encyclopedia of World War 2

Japanese Aircraft Carriers

World War II History - Pacific Theatre 

Dutch East Indies 1941-1942 Website

Singapore during WWII


MUSINGS

As with Zweiter WeltKrieg (ZWK) my other WWII scenario in the series,  Dainichi Sekai Taisen (yes, you'll probably just refer to it as DST)  embodies the economic and political aspects of the day and does not focus exclusively on military strategy. So the player will not be artificially constrained into taking exactly the same path as the Japanese did in history. However, the inherent historical constraints and goals are still there. Japan has a bigger military capacity at the onset but is hard pressed to replace casualties because of her inferior economy and industrial base. At the same time, the Allied forces will only grow from strength to strength once military conflict is ignited. If you should want to attack the U.S. in 1937 instead of in Dec42 or use tactics that provoke a U.S. sneak attack on yourself, you  are free to do so. Notwithstanding the fact that you won't even have dive bombers at that stage or that it robs you of the opportunity to play the Pearl Harbor Gambit, you are free to do so.

Another thing I want to discuss is the ship movement allowance, a common gripe against earlier versions. Yes, based on the scale of the map, ships should technically be able to traverse greater distances per turn. However, I cannot increase the ship's movement further because

a. I cannot have ships racing past carrier's screening aircraft and sinking the carrier.

b. I don't want transports and ships in general zipping from port to port without becoming vulnerable to interception in the open seas. Ships need to be caught in the open for a carrier scenario to be playable.

c. I want to limit the number of times a ship can conduct shore bombardment per turn.

d. I need the impact of the 'carrier era', which also captures a crisis of low fuel supplies for the Japanese, to be material.

The alternative is to double the number of turns so that each turn is a fortnight. Then the ship moves will be to scale, but do you really want to play for 200 turns?


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