Barbarossa: The War in the East 1941-1945

[Rocoteh]

I'm trying to set up a Barbarossa PBEM game with my friend. I played my first turn and sent the file to him. He says he's getting the following load error when he tries to load up the game on his end:

text\Pedialcons.txt ANIMNAME_PRTO_I16

Do you know what this error is and is there anyway to fix this? I'm dying to play against another human.

Thanks!

P.S. This is a very addictive scenario.

jymkata,

He has probably placed Barbarossa in the scenario-folder of Civ 3
instead of the scenario-folder of Conquests.

Its a common mistake.

Rocoteh

 

[Will_518]

i have 1.1 version of the senario, how do i upgrade to 1.3?

I downloaded the map file, then when i play it the game displays:
FILE NOT FOUND
"Art\units\Wirbelwind\Wirbelwind.ini"

I currently have version1.1 of the art files, was more files added for 1.3? how can i just download the added ones?

 

[Rocoteh]

i have 1.1 version of the senario, how do i upgrade to 1.3?

I downloaded the map file, then when i play it the game displays:
FILE NOT FOUND
"Art\units\Wirbelwind\Wirbelwind.ini"

I currently have version1.1 of the art files, was more files added for 1.3? how can i just download the added ones?

Will_158

If you download BRB 1.2 Art& Text, version 1.3 will work.

Rocoteh

 

[Albert Einstain]

Just an update: I am at turn 22 for Germans. I have actually saved every turn at his end before next turn is done by computer. Maybe I will publish some of that later - if somebody is interested.
I would like to say couple of words about the balance of the game. Looks that Soviet too weak, at least on Gen Maj level. I managed to capture Leningrad on the turn 17 and Moskva on the turn 20. Since it never happend in reality and I am probably not better Strategy man than Hittler Generals, I think that need to do something to enforce Soviet attacks. It was too easy till now! Now I just captured Donetsk and next turns I plan to attack Rostov-Stalingrad (capital now)-Astrahan. This willl probably take 7-10 turns, but if I succeed (and it is very high chance that I will), the war will be actually over, since without Oil they will fail to manage the Tank war.
Another thing that may affect the game is that roads always passable as roads, unrelated to the month of the year. This was not true in the reality. Actually the main reason that Germans did not succeed in 1941 to capture much more was lack of maneur they had due to problems with fuel supply, and bad roads, hardly passable durin g Autumn and winter. Maybe Civ3 has some means to simulate that?

 

[jbfballrb]

about the Russians being weak:
in actuality, the German generals were smart enough to have beaten the Russians before winter. if it were not for Hitler and Mussolini, the Germans could have won Barbarossa before winter set in. Hitler was too obsessive about the Ukraine and Leningrad. he may still have won, if he had not had to save the Italians in Greece, which delayed Barbarossa til June.

 

[M60A3TTS]

about the Russians being weak:
in actuality, the German generals were smart enough to have beaten the Russians before winter. if it were not for Hitler and Mussolini, the Germans could have won Barbarossa before winter set in. Hitler was too obsessive about the Ukraine and Leningrad. he may still have won, if he had not had to save the Italians in Greece, which delayed Barbarossa til June.

B.H. Liddell Hart would disagree. From The German Generals Talk:

"Hitler had already reckoned with that committment when the invasion of Greece was inserted in the 1941 programme, as a preliminary to the invasion of Russia. The decisive factor in the change of the timing was the unexpected coup d'etat in Yugoslavia that took place on March 27th...

Hitler was so incensed by the upsetting news as to decide, the same day, to stage an overwhelming offensive against Yugoslavia. The additional forces, land and air, required for such a stroke, involved greater committment than the Greek campaign alone would have done, and thus impelled Hitler to take his fuller and more fateful decision to put off the intended start of the attack on Russia."

 

[Panzeh]

The German generals, just like Hitler, had their flights of fancy, and Barbarossa was one of them. The plan was too ambitious to work and they were lucky to get as close as they did.

 

[ComradeDavo]

Just an update: I am at turn 22 for Germans. I have actually saved every turn at his end before next turn is done by computer. Maybe I will publish some of that later - if somebody is interested.
I would like to say couple of words about the balance of the game. Looks that Soviet too weak, at least on Gen Maj level. I managed to capture Leningrad on the turn 17 and Moskva on the turn 20. Since it never happend in reality and I am probably not better Strategy man than Hittler Generals, I think that need to do something to enforce Soviet attacks. It was too easy till now! Now I just captured Donetsk and next turns I plan to attack Rostov-Stalingrad (capital now)-Astrahan. This willl probably take 7-10 turns, but if I succeed (and it is very high chance that I will), the war will be actually over, since without Oil they will fail to manage the Tank war.
Another thing that may affect the game is that roads always passable as roads, unrelated to the month of the year. This was not true in the reality. Actually the main reason that Germans did not succeed in 1941 to capture much more was lack of maneur they had due to problems with fuel supply, and bad roads, hardly passable durin g Autumn and winter. Maybe Civ3 has some means to simulate that?

It seems pretty balanced for human on human games. Perhaps when playing AI it would be good to bolster the Soviet defenses in Moscow and Leningrad? Maybe some garrisons around Leningrad and more units in each of them. Do you use corps for AI games though? I think it's ok to use them multiplayer, but the AI's lack of tatical ability means I don't use them when playing the AI (in this scenario).

When playing as Soviets vs the AI I find that it seems to be balanced, the problem I find is that when playing as Germany the computer doesn't know where and when to reinforce it's forces, it doesn't really have a concepy of keeping units in reserve so as soon as you crush it's frontline units it's easy to go capture it's cities.

 

[Albert Einstain]

It seems pretty balanced for human on human games. Perhaps when playing AI it would be good to bolster the Soviet defenses in Moscow and Leningrad? Maybe some garrisons around Leningrad and more units in each of them. Do you use corps for AI games though? I think it's ok to use them multiplayer, but the AI's lack of tatical ability means I don't use them when playing the AI (in this scenario).

When playing as Soviets vs the AI I find that it seems to be balanced, the problem I find is that when playing as Germany the computer doesn't know where and when to reinforce it's forces, it doesn't really have a concepy of keeping units in reserve so as soon as you crush it's frontline units it's easy to go capture it's cities.

I would like to note the following:
1. Unfortunatelly I am not playing human on human games. THerefore all my notes about playing with computer.
2. Defences arround Lenindrad and Moskva won't help at all. Playing German first I crashed Soviet Air forces and had captured many their aritilery. Having definite force in the air and in artillery will crash any passive defences.
3. The real problem is that AI is REALLY stupid. It does not try avoid the losses as far as I see. In reality Soviets went out of many cities before Germans did attack to save the divisions for future battles. When I am going to close the ring arround couple of cities, AI send there more troops, which is very stupid, in reality need to pull of the forces. Historically Soviets did such mistake only once, in Kiev area August-September 1941, 5 armies was catched in the trap.
4. AI does not understand the idea of force concentration on the narrow front. It try to attack any place hunting for easy targets. This can not bring success to AI in the long term. I am not sure how and if it is possible to change that.
5. Another problem in realism (causing problems in the game balance) is the fact that at least as Germany I can produce too many divisions. Let us take Tank divisions for example (since game is simulating war start at the division level). In august 1942 Germany accepted the following Tank production plan PER MONTH to achieve in 1944:
1) Leopard - 150 tanks
2) Panther - 600 tanks
3) Tiger - 50 tanks
------------------------
800 tanks per month.
Since each tank division in 1944 should have 400 tanks, we are talking about 2 divisions PER MONTH (1 division in 2 weeks == 2 turns) for the WHOLE Germany of ALL types of tanks. For 1941 Germans has around 200 tanks per month production, having 200 tanks in each tank division. This means 1 Tank division 1 in 4 turns for the whole Germany. In this case Berlin can produce T-III tank division each turn + 1 Soviet Tank Brigade (Tankograd?) + Warsaw T-III tank division each turn + 4-6 cities can produce T-III tank division in 3-4 turns. This means for 1941 (excluding Tankograd bug) that Germany could produce arround 15 Tank divisions per month (instead of 1 in reality)! To keep the scenario historically right need to reduce Germany tank division production at least 20 times (since 1 Tank division per month is for whole germany, not only for the East Front). I am quite sure that the same picture could be found on Soviet side. Probably it should be impossible to produce tanks, it should be done by small wonders only. Probably you should have Tank Factory in the city to produce Tanks, and it should have much higher price and time to produce. Maybe in this case AI will change its tactics too.

 

[Albert Einstain]

about the Russians being weak:
in actuality, the German generals were smart enough to have beaten the Russians before winter. if it were not for Hitler and Mussolini, the Germans could have won Barbarossa before winter set in. Hitler was too obsessive about the Ukraine and Leningrad. he may still have won, if he had not had to save the Italians in Greece, which delayed Barbarossa til June.

Leningrad had around 30 percent of Soviet military industry, it was huge economical reason to be obsessive about it. The same thing about Ukraine, for exampe Kharkov Tank Factory could produce more tanks per year that the whole Germany army had in 1941 (as far as I remember 4000).

 

[jbfballrb]

right, but if he had put more power towards Moscow, those could both have become moot

 

[oVerboost]

Very nice scenario

 

[Stools]

I keep getting this message:

Missing Entry in "Text\Pediaicons.txt": Animname_PTRO_GID41

I've completely reinstalled the game and had played other scenarios just fine...

What am I doing wrong?

 

[ComradeDavo]

I would like to note the following:
1. Unfortunatelly I am not playing human on human games. THerefore all my notes about playing with computer.
2. Defences arround Lenindrad and Moskva won't help at all. Playing German first I crashed Soviet Air forces and had captured many their aritilery. Having definite force in the air and in artillery will crash any passive defences.
3. The real problem is that AI is REALLY stupid. It does not try avoid the losses as far as I see. In reality Soviets went out of many cities before Germans did attack to save the divisions for future battles. When I am going to close the ring arround couple of cities, AI send there more troops, which is very stupid, in reality need to pull of the forces. Historically Soviets did such mistake only once, in Kiev area August-September 1941, 5 armies was catched in the trap.
4. AI does not understand the idea of force concentration on the narrow front. It try to attack any place hunting for easy targets. This can not bring success to AI in the long term. I am not sure how and if it is possible to change that.
5. Another problem in realism (causing problems in the game balance) is the fact that at least as Germany I can produce too many divisions. Let us take Tank divisions for example (since game is simulating war start at the division level). In august 1942 Germany accepted the following Tank production plan PER MONTH to achieve in 1944:
1) Leopard - 150 tanks
2) Panther - 600 tanks
3) Tiger - 50 tanks
------------------------
800 tanks per month.
Since each tank division in 1944 should have 400 tanks, we are talking about 2 divisions PER MONTH (1 division in 2 weeks == 2 turns) for the WHOLE Germany of ALL types of tanks. For 1941 Germans has around 200 tanks per month production, having 200 tanks in each tank division. This means 1 Tank division 1 in 4 turns for the whole Germany. In this case Berlin can produce T-III tank division each turn + 1 Soviet Tank Brigade (Tankograd?) + Warsaw T-III tank division each turn + 4-6 cities can produce T-III tank division in 3-4 turns. This means for 1941 (excluding Tankograd bug) that Germany could produce arround 15 Tank divisions per month (instead of 1 in reality)! To keep the scenario historically right need to reduce Germany tank division production at least 20 times (since 1 Tank division per month is for whole germany, not only for the East Front). I am quite sure that the same picture could be found on Soviet side. Probably it should be impossible to produce tanks, it should be done by small wonders only. Probably you should have Tank Factory in the city to produce Tanks, and it should have much higher price and time to produce. Maybe in this case AI will change its tactics too.

Intresting points. I agree that Tank factorys could be a good solution

Regarding the extra defenses around cities (your 2nd point)- what about some immobile anti-aircraft being placed along with the garrison units? It could help a little. And perhaps the units should all be given elite status at start, to help counteract damage done by artillery and air.

 

[Albert Einstain]

Regarding the extra defenses around cities (your 2nd point)- what about some immobile anti-aircraft being placed along with the garrison units? It could help a little. And perhaps the units should all be given elite status at start, to help counteract damage done by artillery and air.

Anti-aircraft is very good idea. BTW, maybe need to give some AA ability to the regular divisions, since it is hard to force AI to play right with its AA units.
I still think that even AA wont help much there. This will delay that attack maximum 1 turn. In my game I had 3 garnisons in the fortress against me near the Moskva, just 3 artillery make them red, then I need exactly 1 Tank division to crash them. But I brought there 12 tank divisions and 3 motorized infantry. More then half of Tank divisions where elite, all of the in the full force. No passive defence can handle that!

 

[ComradeDavo]

Anti-aircraft is very good idea. BTW, maybe need to give some AA ability to the regular divisions, since it is hard to force AI to play right with its AA units.
I still think that even AA wont help much there. This will delay that attack maximum 1 turn. In my game I had 3 garnisons in the fortress against me near the Moskva, just 3 artillery make them red, then I need exactly 1 Tank division to crash them. But I brought there 12 tank divisions and 3 motorized infantry. More then half of Tank divisions where elite, all of the in the full force. No passive defence can handle that!

Maybe a version needs to be made specifically for playing as the Germans vs AI, where (to countreract AI stupidity) the area around Moskva, Leningrad and Stalingrad (and possiably Sversterpool as well) are packed with garrison units. Like 10 immobile infrantry on each square or something, with artillery and AA as well. Just because it seems whenever playing as the Germans it is too easy once you reach those cities to capture them, so they need alot more immobile units there to represent how historically fierce the Soviet resistence was.

 

[Albert Einstain]

Maybe a version needs to be made specifically for playing as the Germans vs AI, where (to countreract AI stupidity) the area around Moskva, Leningrad and Stalingrad (and possiably Sversterpool as well) are packed with garrison units. Like 10 immobile infrantry on each square or something, with artillery and AA as well. Just because it seems whenever playing as the Germans it is too easy once you reach those cities to capture them, so they need alot more immobile units there to represent how historically fierce the Soviet resistence was.

Maybe the right solution is not MANY units, but 1 immobile Corp/Army (maybe with increased capacity) with Artillery and infantry with HUGE number of healthpoints... with AA units inside two. This may work. But anyway it will be just matter of time too take that. How to explain to the AI that need to attack not lost cities, but enemy attacking mobile forces, even if they are much stronger, that bombing should be concentrated on the attackers with counter-attack right after that. Actually the single place where AI fights good in my game was Pinsk region. Many infantry/tanks/artillery on the mountin closing the road. This was hard to get.

 

[Rocoteh]

Just an update: I am at turn 22 for Germans. I have actually saved every turn at his end before next turn is done by computer. Maybe I will publish some of that later - if somebody is interested.
I would like to say couple of words about the balance of the game. Looks that Soviet too weak, at least on Gen Maj level. I managed to capture Leningrad on the turn 17 and Moskva on the turn 20. Since it never happend in reality and I am probably not better Strategy man than Hittler Generals, I think that need to do something to enforce Soviet attacks. It was too easy till now! Now I just captured Donetsk and next turns I plan to attack Rostov-Stalingrad (capital now)-Astrahan. This willl probably take 7-10 turns, but if I succeed (and it is very high chance that I will), the war will be actually over, since without Oil they will fail to manage the Tank war.
Another thing that may affect the game is that roads always passable as roads, unrelated to the month of the year. This was not true in the reality. Actually the main reason that Germans did not succeed in 1941 to capture much more was lack of maneur they had due to problems with fuel supply, and bad roads, hardly passable durin g Autumn and winter. Maybe Civ3 has some means to simulate that?

Albert Einstain,

The best solution would probably be 3 versions:
One human versus human and two AI versions.

On supply, weather and command and control:
There are no way to simulate that within the current game-engine.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Very nice scenario

oVerboost,

Thank you.

Welcome back with more comments on it.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

I keep getting this message:

Missing Entry in "Text\Pediaicons.txt": Animname_PTRO_GID41

I've completely reinstalled the game and had played other scenarios just fine...

What am I doing wrong?

Stools,

The reason is probably that you have placed the downloaded files
in the scenario folder of Civ3 instead of the scenario folder of Conquests.
Its a common mistake.

Rocoteh