WW2-Global Equuleus's Fall Gelb Mod

[Simon Darkshade]

Make the German battleships available through autoproducers. Reduce offence and defence in appropriate proportions to their numbers and foibles.
Have an appropriately low AA number.

Brigades for all nations should have slightly smaller A/D with the big change coming in hit points. If the transport system could also be reworked so some ships can take only brigades and light units, all the better.

Indian Regiments were badged after battalions, previously. If British Indian Infantry were to be described as battalions and have appropriate stat adjustments, the previous system would fit. They would need to be backed up by full strength Indian Divisions, British Divisions and regular British Brigades. The mix is up to you, but the Indian Army Divisions should have greater capabilities than the Indian Army Battalions and the British Infantry Brigades based there. It is a difficult mix to simulate.

Mines may help the fleet in being; terrain is the ideal. I have previously sealed off Hamburg from the Atlantic and pulled all the preplaced destroyers out of Bremen. The German torpedo boats could also be changed to DEs rather than fully blown German 1939 destroyers.

Naval:

AoI innovations - convoys, treasure
SoE trade zone innovations
HoF innovations - treasure units from Canada to Britain/Gibraltar

I'd add another autoproduced resource in Canada that can be turned in production...this would only work for a British Empire human player.
Atlantic victory points.

Terrain could get a look in, with trade lanes being necessary, therefore concentrating both Allies and Axis. Terrain can also help simulate a fleet in being, as well as channel forces into areas where conflict will occur.

Preplaced KM subs in the Med, along with a nascent Fliegerkorps X.

The Pacific is beginning to have a nice smattering of little islands, but could have a few more. The Japanese may need a bit of a hand up, but not so much as to artificially create a monster.

More preplaced submarines, submarine autoproducers and greater submarine range. If the US is already a belligerent in 1940, then adjustments need to be made.

I'd have a look at some of the trading notions in World 2004...I distantly recall a system of trading resources to build units on licence.

Heavy cruiser, light cruiser, destroyer and destroyer escort shipyards in each major power, making their particular national type of that unit for the first part of the scenario. Combined with capital ship autoproduction, and for humans, preplaced hulks, somethings can be increased.

Ask some questions of the SoE chaps to see if they've got anything they may give hints on if you ask very nicely; not to steal their little innovations, but to seek their thoughts.

The AI can only be pushed so far, but it is interesting to know what can be done. Obviously the ideal WW2 game is multiplayer, but that would take eons unless the Allies and Axis were in adjacent rooms and chronic insomniacs.

 

[Equuleus]

The problem with victory locations is it may have an unintended effects.
Like EVERY one running to victory locations.
It may throw a wrench into the already limited naval AI.

 

[Equuleus]

1.7 Rleased
Changes
1.7
Added Nuuk,Paramaribo,Luanda,Iwo Jima, and Phuket.
Cut Cuyabaya,Goyas,Manaus,Huambo,Nampula, and Mongalla.
Added forest around Cochrane to limit population also did the same in Norway.
Added forest around Leningrad to increase production.
Cut barracks from Dunkirk.
Added more war triggers to keep Germany at war with Russia.
Redid air orbat in China.
Added British Mines From Hamburg to Bremen.
Moved Taipei.
Gave Iceland to Norway/Denmark and put US and British Air bases there.
Hindenburg Class now needs sea 1944 tech.

I will do the naval/convoy/brigade changes in the next version.

 

[Equuleus]

I just did a mini play test of 1.7
Findings.
The German AI sends about half its army to the east.
A possible solution is to add German security divisions in each German City.

On week 2 the Luftwaffe attacked with a massive bombing raid.
They lost 18 bombers and I lost 2 fighters.
Possible solutions.
Get rid of Radar towers in the UK.
Increase range of the German fighters.
Give fighters the bombard flag.

@all.
Please share your ideas on these 2 problems.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

Different types of fighters, such as the Me-110, could have their numbers put up. Bombarding fighters will probably be the ideal.
The AI does seem terminally incapable of correct air technique, though.

Security divisions plus immobile AA...flak towers as a later option.

 

[Equuleus]

I may not change the fighters to bombarding because the AI will waste all of its fighters in bombing raids making their air defense much weaker.

 

[Equuleus]

I just did a play test as France with the following modifications.
German security divisions in German cities & most fighters with the bombard flag.

The German AI did much better normal.
Week 1
Germans took all the cities in the Low countries except Brussels.
Germans also almost took Dunkirk.
Did not bomb me with fighters.
Week 2.
The AI used its air power in a semi competent way!
They bombed Strasbourg very hard and almost took the city! Only 1 artillery was left in the city.

 

[Equuleus]

I just has 2 ideas.
1.Get rid of all luxury and strategic resources.
I think this might cut the turn time down drastically.

2.Make fighters have equal defense to attack so bombing fighters are not at such a disadvantage.

What do you guys think of these ideas?

 

[Civinator]

I just has 2 ideas.
1.Get rid of all luxury and strategic resources.
I think this might cut the turn time down drastically.

2.Make fighters have equal defense to attack so bombing fighters are not at such a disadvantage.

What do you guys think of these ideas?

to 1: Have you stopped the gain in Loading/turntime yet? Don´t forget, the luxury and strategic resources are some kind of triggers, too (especially for autoproduced units, as here the maximum intervall in the editor is 100 turns).

to 2: A lot of Rocoteh´s good unit stats still have these settings.

 

[BadKharma]

Fighters on a bombing mission should be at a disadvantage they cant manuever normally because of high wing loading (bombload).

Removing strategic and luxury resources will not drastically reduce turn times and as Civinator pointed out they can trigger AI aggression so if you want Germany to eventually attack Russia they can be a trigger.

 

[Civinator]

...and as Civinator pointed out they can trigger AI aggression so if you want Germany to eventually attack Russia they can be a trigger.

Yes, this... and to have the correct late battleship at the correct place in the correct time.

 

[Equuleus]

@All
I can use some feedback on the following issues.

1.I am thinking of cutting Australia & Canada off from trade with the rest of the world and giving them a more unique line of units with Canada & ANZAC resources.
Do you have any suggestions on possible unique units for the Aussies and Canadians.
EDIT: Maybe the same for South Africa.


2.What do you think about letting India make obsolete biplanes?

3.I am most likely going to cut the American airbase out in China and let the Chinese make American planes after 1941 at 2-3 times the normal cost.
What do you think of this idea?
After 1945 I was thinking of letting the Chinese communists make expensive Soviet stuff.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

1. There are some units that could be made, on the land and air. Perhaps even sea for Canada.

For Australia, you have the AC1 Sentinel tank, the AC3 variant infantry tank with a 25 pounder, AC4 with a 17 pounder, Dingo Scout Car, Rhino Heavy Armoured Car, CAC Wirraway, CAC Boomerang, Bathurst class corvettes
Canada: Ram tank, Grizzly tanks, Skink AA tanks, Kangaroo APC, Sexton SP 25 pounder, Flower class corvettes, River class frigates

Cutting them off would be more of a detriment than a benefit, though, considering the large Canadian production of war goods, and the substantial war industry in Australia; it would also cut off the possibility of simulating the addition of US and UK production and supplies.

2. No.

3. No to the ChiComms; probably yes to the airbase, given that the AI will not use it well.

 

[Equuleus]

1.8
Most fighters have bombard flag.
Added German Infantry Brigades in most German cities.
1st armored Division moved back to the UK.
Dunquerque renamed Dunkirk.
Corsica renamed Ajaccio.
Added 1 Fortress in Strasbourg.
Added Axis Minors Panzer IIIe.
Bangkok Wonder auto produces Thailand Infantry every 6 turns.
Changed British Militia Division to British Infantry Brigade. Changed German Security Division to German Infantry Brigade.
Changed Japan Militia Division to Japanese Infantry Brigade.
Added India resource in Colombo.
Gurkha Infantry changed to Gurkha Infantry Regiment.
Added Colonial Infantry Brigade,British India Infantry Brigade,Italian Infantry Brigade,U.S. Infantry Brigade,French Infantry Brigade
Added Kuching & Berbera.
Cut Caluula.
Poised Japan on Rabaul & Guadalcanal.
Cut trade in Algiers and put oil in France.
Cut trade in Tripoli and put oil in Italy.
Redid several ORBATs with the new Brigade units.
Britain resource in Ireland.
Canada does not make comandos.
London,New York,Königsberg,Nagasaki,Venice,Brest,and Tallinn make DDs.

The no raze patch is HIGHLY recommended with this scenario.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=194794

Disclaimer.
The no raze patch works with civ complete, but if you installed conquests over vanilla civ 3 the patch does not work. If you install a "no CD patch" then the no raze patch works with conquests installed over vanilla civ 3.
Since the legality of a "no CD patch" is in question I will not encourage or give instruction of how to locate a "no CD patch".
I take no responsibility if you download a "no CD patch" and you get a virus or something.

 

[Equuleus]

NOTICE.
If you DLed 1.8 before I posted this, DL again.
The the file I posted had a bug or 2.
The bugs are now fixed please re DL the file.

 

[BadKharma]

3.I am most likely going to cut the American airbase out in China and let the Chinese make American planes after 1941 at 2-3 times the normal cost.
What do you think of this idea?
After 1945 I was thinking of letting the Chinese communists make expensive Soviet stuff.

During WWII the chinese Air Force purchased and used both US and Russian equipment. The main aircraft they purchased from the US was the lancer the predecessor to the thunderbolt.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

Right, I'll have a gander at this one - some of those changes are quite interesting.

Other areas that could be overhauled are artillery and the RN cruiser situation.

Of course, the ultimate would be setting up a war trigger for the Italians, Japanese and even implementing some sort of Vichy French arrangement.

Good thing about this little mod of a scenario is the willingness to change and try new ideas.

Right, initial thoughts:

Why destroy the entire of South America? Brazil and Argentina in particular can have a role to play if worked right, and the others provide a nice area on the map without doing anyone harm. Now there is a big empty space - whilst it may make modding sense, it is a crude way of going about freeing up city space.

And Mexico as well!

I'd merge Chile with Colombia/Venezuela/Peru, merge Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia and keep Brazil/Uruguay.

Keep Mexico separate; I thought of merging it with Brazil

For Brazil et al the following can go: Teffe, Manaus, Carajas, Goyas; keeping Cuyabaya and Puerto Acre to stimulate jungle war.
Campeche in Mexico can go
I'd make ABP a bit fascist friendly, so as to potential spawn conflict. Brazil can lean towards the Allies, with the CCVP leaning neutral.

I definitely think that destroying everything south of the Rio Grande is a mistake.

There is a bit of space for extra civs with the removal of Poland; Thailand could be enveloped in Japan...

The South Pacific is improved, but still has room.
Makin could go in.
There can be something done on the coast of New Guinea - prepositioning Japanese troops, adding the island of Bougainville, and some airbases/cities to get the hopping going.

Kuching could be renamed Brunei if you were so inclined.

The DEI could do with some preplaced Japanese troops - at least some advancing through the jungles.

Indochina - Maybe add a city or airbase halfway between Hanoi and Saigon on the coast. It can accomodate Japanese bombers.

I might suggest removing unit types from the labels of RAF squadrons, for example - as they may be able to upgrade. Just a thought.

 

[Equuleus]

Opps that was a personal version I posted with south America cut out.

I will post the correct version ASAP.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

Some little changes I've been thinking of:

- Removing Kano (British) in northern Nigeria, Bulgan (Soviet) in Mongolia, Kobya in NE Siberia, Ojmjakon in NE Siberia, Chulkovo in Central Siberia
(I have added in Coventry, Aberdeen, Durban, changed the US Base to Southampton, changed Cardiff to Bristol, and gave the US a few airbases - in my own experiments, I have not seen the US, or even Poland for that matter, use city bases in Great Britain very well)
- Changing the Sub Hunter for a Destroyer Escort unit, or DE
- Changing the RIN sloops to DEs, and thus making their labelling somewhat simpler
- Invisible autoproducer city for U-Boats in the North Atlantic? Something to increase their traffic
- Make Crete British; it could stimulate intervention in Greece, or at least action in that part of the theatre of operations. Love Rhodes, by the way.
- Halifax, Quebec and St. John all autoproducing convoys - the question is, how do we get them to be worth something
- Remove the domination factor as a victory condition.
- Give Bearn an airwing
- Remove the Garrisons from Radar Towers in Great Britain, unless they are there to stimulate Luftwaffe attack
- A bit more defensive infrastructure in place in SW Britain - the AI will not build it, but there was a lot of it due to concerns over Mythical Oceanic Cat.
- Some RAF fighter airfields
- Include British Airborne Divisions (or Regiments)

For Artillery:

I have changed the basic Artillery Unit to 'Field Artillery Regiment' to reflect its role; Heavy Artillery to 'Heavy Artillery Regiment'. The US 155mm gun and 203mm howitzer graphics are very good, and gave me the thought that they could be rebadged as US Artillery Brigades, or the like, taking the roles of Heavy and Superheavy.

The Field-Medium-Heavy-Superheavy division of arty is something that would be fitting for this time period. The following calibre categories spring to mind:
Field: 105
Medium: 155
Heavy: 8"
Superheavy: 240mm

Unfortunately, there is not a huge amount of arty graphics out there, but there are some that can be used.

RN cruiser situation:

Currently, there are 10 different cruiser types/classes/unit categories. This is a bit off reality.
Belfast and Southamptons can be merged as Southamptons, or Towns
Perths and Leanders are very similar, with the only difference coming in machinery and therefore the number of funnels. They could be merged, or kept separate.
Adelaide is a single cruiser of the old Town class - it could be swapped to become an obsolete/1900 CL. This is a bit of a downgrade, but there is only a single unit.
Leanders and Arethusas are fine as separate classes.

The four next classes are where it gets interesting
The C and D classes could be combined
The E class was rather different, and much later than its predecessors, but could be combined with the Hawkins/Cavendish; they could be left alone.

Classes that are absent:

County class CA
Crown Colony CL (a slightly smaller town)
Dido CL (an AA cruiser type)
Minotaur class CL

(Tiger class CL (very modified Minotaurs, and probably beyond our scope))

The following two classes were on the books, but not followed through with:
Neptune class CL
Admiral class CA


Whilst it could be contended that these can be represented with the generic types already present in the game, it can be replied that in the interests of flavour and accuracy great efforts can and should be made so that the great powers may have a historically accurate choice.

The other steps that should be followed are national naming conventions (HMS XX CL, or in the case of the US, USS XX CL-XX); and the correct position of RN fleet units, particularly the cruisers.

Increasing the speed of transports has helped the IJA and IJN in the Pacific for me previously.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

Opps that was a personal version I posted with south America cut out.

I will post the correct version ASAP.

And I've just spent the better part of an hour and a half fixing her.

Luckily, I have not made any major changes, save those to Britain; they can be replicated on the proper one.