Fortress Europe

[McMonkey]

I have just finished the events changes and other changes. I will e-mail them over to you now in case you want to play with them, although that would mean starting over AGAIN! The major changes I have made it to swap some of the U-Boat events from the Med to the North Atlantic, fixed and added to the move unit events, removed the bottleneck terrain from SE of Bardia, reduced the Malta garrison and added a few more Allied units to north Africa. Its really up to you if you carry on with your current game, or start again. You could always add the new events and just run the save through the delevent application (drag and drop). I believe that will work ok. The new rules should work fine too. Whatever you choose to do I hope you enjoy it and the AI is gentle with you

 

[JPetroski]

A little progress report from turn 14 (February, 1942):

I will try not to spoil the game’s secrets, but this is an AAR of sorts so if you want to be completely surprised, don’t read on!

Spoiler :

Completed Research (in order): War Bonds, Propaganda, Bomber Command, High Velocity Gun, and Tank Brigades.

Researching: Royal Artillery

I have managed to hold Malta and have built its defenses to the point where it should hold indefinitely. It is now time to transform the unsinkable aircraft carrier into an offensive base of operations!

Tobruk fell on turn 3, and the 8th Army has been hard-pressed to prevent the Afrika Korps from extending any further. I have held the line SE of Bardia, but at great cost. I have found it very difficult to increase my strength there, as each reinforcement need be immediately flung into the fray. The good news is that I have a good amount of fighter cover, with more reinforcements arriving every few turns. I am hoping the Luftwaffe’s bombers are on their last legs so I can turn my fighter bombers against the Afrika Korps’ panzers.

In the Atlantic, I am grouping my ships into massive convoys. The first one was a tremendous success, with 8 out of 9 Lend Lease ships arriving safely. Unfortunately, their escorts took a beating on the round trip and are currently refitting in Philadelphia. It should be at least several turns before I can attempt another crossing.

I’m supplementing my income with bombing raids. My initial bomber force was annihilated over Germany and the north seas, although many did find their targets first. I have since rebuilt Bomber Command stronger than ever, and have about five new squadrons reporting every three turns. Unfortunately, the Luftwaffe is more than capable of keeping pace for now. I need escort fighters badly!

I believe I have reached the point where Bomber Command can keep the Empire financially afloat, however the Battle of the Atlantic must be waged for a very practical reason: getting the American armies safely to England, where they can do something! If I don’t keep up the pressure on the U-Boats every turn, I have no doubt they will make it impossible to stage a successful invasion of the continent.

Further, I’m not sure conclusions can be drawn on the economic status, because the situation in Africa compels me to spend all available funds on rush-building new units. Although I’m in no danger of economic collapse, if I don’t massively bomb targets every few turns, I fear I’ll lose Suez (and the game) for certain!

My overall strategy is thus: Aggressively bomb Germany to provide the funds to build up a force large enough to take the offensive in Africa. I have no idea how long this will take, but I had better accomplish it within 1942, or I don’t know how I’ll ever finish the scenario.

This scenario is very addicting – great job!

 

[Tanelorn]

Is there a download link for this somewhere, maybe?

 

[McMonkey]

Thanks for the feedback John. Very encouraging. If the scenario does prove to be too difficult I can always increase the amount of Allied event generated units, but lets see how it plays out. I wanted it to be tough from the start. I wanted North Africa, the Atlantic and the Air War over Germany to be the main theatres of war to begin with. Hopefully as the game progresses the Allies financial position will improve and they will build up enough forces to push the Axis out of Africa.

Once this is achieved an Allied loss will be averted. Then the challenge will be to achieve all the victory conditions within the time frame. I'm hoping that after the initial desperate battle the rest of the scenario will be a fight against time and not one long mopping up operation. By the time the Allies have cleared the Italian peninsula as far as Rome (which will make D-Day possible) they should have built up a large enough force in Britain to attack Fortress Europe head on! We shall see how it goes, but so far, so good

 

[McMonkey]

Is there a download link for this somewhere, maybe?

At the moment I have just e-mailed it to Jo Petreski and given a copy to a work collegue. If you would like to help playtest it I can send you the files too. I don't want to release it until I'm sure it is working properly.

 

[JPetroski]

Good times indeed

Spoiler :

I'm pretty sure I can turn the tide in Africa without events help. I just have to be willing to sustain massive bomber losses. I struck 14 targets over two turns and made enough cash to incrementally rush build a very good unit in every N. African and Middle Eastern city. If I can do this every other turn, I should be able to commence an offensive within a few months.

I understand some people will probably think it is strange that bombing gives you money, but I think it's the best way possible to make the air war actually relevant. It's a lot of fun going on these raids

Committing to building (and losing) so many bombers has the nice side effect of forcing the Battle of the Atlantic because, once again, there won't be very many British land units available. I need to transport the Americans over to handle much of the planned Continental landings.

As far as bugs go... The only major problem I'm noticing is the Germans and Russians really like attacking those superbunkers. I do believe there is a point where they will stop, although I'm not certain what it is.

 

[McMonkey]

I would be very interested to find out what stats would be (if they are possible) to prevent the AI from attacking a virtually indestructible unit. I'm sure Fortress Europe will work fine without solving this, but it would just tidy up this one aesthetic loose end! Any ideas guys.

These are the current stats:

Strongpoint, nil, 1, 0.,0, 8a,99d, 12h,3f, 1,0, 0, no, 010100000000001

 

[JPetroski]

I could have sworn that in other scenarios, they've used 9,9 for hp/fp... Dunno if that would do it, but the Germans tend to attack Lyon every first turn, so it'd be a relatively "quick" test.

 

[McMonkey]

I'll give it a go!

 

[Hans99]

Two more questions:

- The germans attack the french at the very first turn, is this on purpose? As far as i know vichy french was taken in a fast action in november 1942 and not 1941... ?

- I lost malta at the very first turn, could'nt even build up defenses. after that spanish luftwaffe bombers took gibraltar in a rush. What's up with that spanish luftwaffe bombers ?

- Luftwaffe and wehrmacht suffered a hard defeat at turn 2 near tobruk, i really like the north african theatre.

- Sweden is gone :/

- Damn 255 city limit...

 

[JPetroski]

Turn 30...

Spoiler :

I managed to launch a massive desert offensive, capturing Benghazi around 24, and not a moment too soon, as Malta fell the very next turn. I had thought the defenses were strong enough, but the Germans through everything at it in one last, desperate attempt to forestall disaster in the Mediterranean. I hope it was a case of too little, too late.

The British 8th Army has since driven across Libya and is poised to take Tripoli within a few turns. Meanwhile, the American armies are embroiled in a slogging match with what appears to be an endless supply of heavy German armor.

I sent a second convoy of 19 lend lease ships out, but only 9 arrived safely.

My bombers are taking massive losses and I have yet to build a significant force in England.

I'm curious to see just how much trouble the Germans give me in Africa, and what happens after that. It will probably be a few days before I find out, as the turns are very long at this stage in the game!

All in all, great fun, and I have yet to meet any major gamebreaking problems.

 

[McMonkey]

- The germans attack the french at the very first turn, is this on purpose? As far as i know vichy french was taken in a fast action in november 1942 and not 1941... ?

The Vichy French are the Barbarians. I don't think there is a way to prevent the AI Axis from attacking the barbarians. However each Metropolitran Vichy French city has a Strongpoint that is indestructible so the Axis will not be able to take over until North Africa is invaded by the Allies. Unfortunately it looks a bit messy to have the Axis bombing their supposed allies. That's one of the reasons I have been trying to find a set of stats where the AI doesn't bother attacking the Strongpoints. If I can't find a solution its not a massive issue, it would just look better without this!

- I lost malta at the very first turn, could'nt even build up defenses. after that spanish luftwaffe bombers took gibraltar in a rush. What's up with that spanish luftwaffe bombers ?

Wow, I have never lost Malta on my first turn in any of my playtests. Sometimes the AA and RAF give the Luftwaffe a battering, sometimes the defenders are almost annihilated, but I have never seen the city fall on turn one. Good to know it is possible!

The Luftwaffe Bombers are crewed by German personnel but are under Spanish military control. This is so that they have a base city (Seville) and once captured Gibraltar will be under Spanish control with German military assistance.

- Luftwaffe and wehrmacht suffered a hard defeat at turn 2 near tobruk, i really like the north african theatre.

I think its working well. I'm going to crack on with my playtest today and see if I can capture Benghazi!

- Sweden is gone :/

Unfortunately the maximum city limit meant I had to make some hard decisions. I got rid of Sweden and Portugal as they were not going to play a part in this scenario. If there were more city slots and events space I would have included them. I thought it was more important to add cities like Ortona, El Alamein, Mareth and Mersa Matruh which will be central to the Allies war. I may make one or two other minor changes before the final version is released!

 

[McMonkey]

Turn 30...

Very interesting developments. I'm glad the game is throwing up some surprises for you. Hopefully I will be able to catch up with you by the end of today and we can compare our progress.

 

[clightning]

Astonishing interesting method and effect of Strategic Bombing
Regarding to the need of escort fighters, is it because Spitfire is short leg, or because she doesn't have a decent D factor?

 

[McMonkey]

The spitfires range is too short to be of much use as an escort. The later US Fighter (Mustang) will be able to go in with the Bombers.

 

[JPetroski]

Astonishing interesting method and effect of Strategic Bombing
Regarding to the need of escort fighters, is it because Spitfire is short leg, or because she doesn't have a decent D factor?

The Spits are very short legged. To be honest though, I find them less effective in the air to air role than hurricanes (fighter bombers). It might be an idea to give the Spits a few extra defense points if you've noticed the same.

 

[McMonkey]

I tend to agree, lets try 8 defence and see how that goes (same increase for the US Fighter). I was also thinking of giving the Transport a movement rate of 10 which will allow it to keep up with the Atlantic convoys and will also allow it to go from Mersa Matruh to the sea square next to Tobruk in one turn! There are a few other minor tweaks such as ditching Turkish Infantry and using the Generic Infantry (which looks almost identical) unit that also represents the Finns, Hungarians, Romanians etc... Any ideas what I could use this extra slot for? I was thinking about the Me163 Komet but as this wasn't a particularly successful design I thought another Allied unit would be better. Perhaps the Mosquito or Beaufighter. Ideas welcome.

 

[JPetroski]

Given the stackable terrain and help the AI gets, having a bomber that could attack multiple times per turn would be extremely helpful. The mossie could fit that bill quite nicely as it was one of the more difficult planes to intercept.

Assuming it is a little less strong than the heavies, I don't think it would very often attack more than 2 units per turn before having to retire.

 

[McMonkey]

Interesting, although all of the other aircraft have to spend a turn in the air after they attack giving the enemy a chance to retaliate. I will have a play with this idea and see how it goes, though in theory I quite like it. It could be called RAF Medium Bomber. I will put it on the tech tree so it arrives around about May 1942. Any suggestions for its speed (move rate) and other stats?

I'm still open top any other suggestions.

 

[JPetroski]

Interesting, although all of the other aircraft have to spend a turn in the air after they attack giving the enemy a chance to retaliate. I will have a play with this idea and see how it goes, though in theory I quite like it. It could be called RAF Medium Bomber. I will put it on the tech tree so it arrives around about May 1942. Any suggestions for its speed (move rate) and other stats?

I'm still open top any other suggestions.

I don't know about the other stats, though I suppose you could keep its movement rate relatively short to keep it balanced.

One thing I really like about this scenario is the balance of the units, though, so if this skews that I think you're almost better off just leaving the extra unit out of it. Worth a test though, IMO.