WW2-Global

[WVCivnut]

Ending Week 50,1939 -- British and German forces.

 

[Rocoteh]

Germany - v 1.9 - Sid - Week 46, 1940

Moscow has fallen! And I have destroyed all the fortifications around Moscow. New Russian capital: Novosibirsk. I was a bit unsure where I should send Luftwaffe and my artillery next, so I have split them up in three groups. I'm currently attacking the Russians in Finland, in the Ural and in Sibiria. And I'm also trying to take as much of Persia as I can before the Japanese do. I'm beginning to understand why the Japanese are having such success, they have lots of Marine SNFL everywhere, I spotted 25 of them as they passed my borders on their way west, and the latest news is that they have taken Basra. They have also razed Batang and conquered Lhasa. In East Asia they are less successful. The border to the Soviet union remains intact, as usual. And they have taken Panay in the Philippines, but lost Palembang on Sumatra to the British.
I'm having a race with the Japanese right now, trying to take the ME before they do, and it's not going so well for me, partly because I'm I haven't finished building the railroad line to Central Asia yet. I can't keep up at their speed. I really wish I had some of their marines. It's a better unit than anything I have. I lost my first SS army when I tried to storm on a city on a hill. And the French have been building up a fleet of destroyer flotillas in the Mediterranean. They just sunk three of my u-boats, so I have decided to leave the Mediterranean, and just guard Gibraltar instead.

Hyperborean,

Thank you for the report.
I do not think Russia will able to launch any strong counterattacks now.
You should be able to knock it out.

I am surprised that Japan-AI have managed to conquer so large areas.

It will be interesting to see where you choose to go from here.
Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Hornblower]

Rocoteh,

My two cents worth on the armies and air issue:
As has been said before at length by many... I agree that armies are only of benefit to the human player and that the AI doesn't know how to use them. If they disappear in 2.0 I don't believe that it will hurt the scenario.
As far as lethal land bombardment for air I am a little torn as well.
I thoroughly enjoy destroying an enemy SOD with my airforce and employing different types in the attack to suit the threat. Lethal bombardment as sea goes without saying. A successful attack from the air at sea ends in a ship on the bottom.
The case for removing lethal bombardment on land:
On land even a Gulf War style 100 day attack will never get rid of the enemy on the ground. You still need troops to knock out the enemy ground troops. Therefore lethal land bombardment (LLB) is not realistic.
The case for keeping LLB:
It is fun!
The comprimise:
Have only specific units with LLB. Stukas, Typhoons and divebombers of that description could have LLB to display their tank-killing role however the attack strength could be scaled back to represent the smaller bomb load. The heavy bombers could have their attacks scaled up to represent their strategic carpet bombing role but without the accuracy and subsequent LLB of the smaller divebombers. To sum it up. If you want to take care of enemy SOD's from the air then you will need to use combined bomber operations of heavies to soften up and then use the divebombers to cleanup once they are redlined.
Perhaps with that solution you will keep most of the crowd happy.

 

[Rocoteh]

WVCivnut,

Thank you for the report.

The West Front is soon secure.
Do you intend to build up and then go for Russia after that Spain have
been occupied?

I can see from the unit-stats included that AI still build to many machine-gun units.
Maybe the MG-units should be dropped. I welcome feed back on that issue.

The Royal Navy is still strong, but it seems that there are no new produced
units so far.

It seems like you have to build up your panzer-forces before you
attack Soviet.

Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Rocoteh,

My two cents worth on the armies and air issue:
As has been said before at length by many... I agree that armies are only of benefit to the human player and that the AI doesn't know how to use them. If they disappear in 2.0 I don't believe that it will hurt the scenario.
As far as lethal land bombardment for air I am a little torn as well.
I thoroughly enjoy destroying an enemy SOD with my airforce and employing different types in the attack to suit the threat. Lethal bombardment as sea goes without saying. A successful attack from the air at sea ends in a ship on the bottom.
The case for removing lethal bombardment on land:
On land even a Gulf War style 100 day attack will never get rid of the enemy on the ground. You still need troops to knock out the enemy ground troops. Therefore lethal land bombardment (LLB) is not realistic.
The case for keeping LLB:
It is fun!
The comprimise:
Have only specific units with LLB. Stukas, Typhoons and divebombers of that description could have LLB to display their tank-killing role however the attack strength could be scaled back to represent the smaller bomb load. The heavy bombers could have their attacks scaled up to represent their strategic carpet bombing role but without the accuracy and subsequent LLB of the smaller divebombers. To sum it up. If you want to take care of enemy SOD's from the air then you will need to use combined bomber operations of heavies to soften up and then use the divebombers to cleanup once they are redlined.
Perhaps with that solution you will keep most of the crowd happy.

Hornblower,

I think the solution you propose sounds very good.

When I work with version 2.0 I will probably change the stats in
the directions proposed. It will give both dive-bombers and heavy
bombers more realistic roles.

Rocoteh

 

[WVCivnut]

WVCivnut,

Thank you for the report.

The West Front is soon secure.
Do you intend to build up and then go for Russia after that Spain have
been occupied?

Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh

I think I'll keep the Russian bear sleeping. They seem very docile and content. My plan now is to drop some 88's and Elite forces into England and start island hopping in the Med.

Do infantry have amphibious attack ability in this version?

 

[Rocoteh]

I think I'll keep the Russian bear sleeping. They seem very docile and content. My plan now is to drop some 88's and Elite forces into England and start island hopping in the Med.

Do infantry have amphibious attack ability in this version?

WVCivnut,

Yes it have.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

First report - Germany 1.9 Emperor (from the save game)

Overall, the German situation is going very well. Poland fell in two turns. Then Holland and Belgium. I took my time in France, about 6-8 turns. I was mopping up unit carefully, minimizing my loses. Also grabbed Yugoslavia. The sea battles against UK initially took a toll on my units. Any units I was leaving at sea would be attacked by a massive fleet of BB. So instead, I always make sure to return to port instead. From time to time, a stack will be in range and pay the price in lots of sunken British/USA units. I'm holding the Western front well. I won't try to invade the bristish isles until I truly control the sea. I'm building new BB units in order to prepare for operation sea lion.

Right at the end of the campaign against continental France, I noticed that some Russian units were now inside my borders due to the expansion of my borders. I asked Stalin to remove his units, he declared war. Hehehe. Barbarosa is starting early, it's not even 1940 yet. I was able to plant a spy prior to declaration of war, which is very usefull in order to get a feel for their OOB. In my first turn, I blitz against the airfields in order to destroy the maximum amount of air units. I don't want to deal with all those fighters later on.

The game is still in very early stages, and my war against Russia has just begun. I raised all the cities on my eastern border, don't want to slow down my advance. I'll only keep the size 4 and more, if they're not all clustered together. My loses are minimal and I'm popping up a lot of leaders during combat. I had to draft some infantry in order to help clean up all the russian garrison (0-3). Nice design there Rocotech. It definitively slows down the offensive. On the other side, it's a great opportunity to gain experience with those conscript infantry.

Even though Germany has a big edge on quality of units, there's a lot of Russian units. They are building a lot of the heavy machine gun infantry for defense. Those are tough defenders.

For the air war, the Me-110 is a great unit. It's has a nice balance of factors (6-(18)-8) so it's a great first bomber candidate. If there's an interceptor, I usually win the air fight. If there is no interceptor, I can then follow up with the heavy bombers to soften the defense.

Also, I think it's a great design to have arty unit with defensive factor, which implies that you can't capture them. It actually force the player to build those units, instead of capturing them.

DarthCycle,

Thank you for the report.

On Sea Lion.
Its a good idea to prepare for the invasion since the British forces are
quite strong. In early versions of WW2-Global it was easy to invade
Britain and defeat it fast.

An early invasion of Russia like this can be hard. It will be interesting
to follow how it turns out.

Its not good that AI still build a lot of machine-gun units.

Yes, ME-110 should be a very good unit to produce. At least early
in the war.

Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[DarthCycle]

Considering the very good design of your scenario so far, I had a feeling that Sea Lion is going to be tough. It seems that it's going to require the use of combined arms: control of the air in order to be able to use my bombers to soften defenders, control of the sea in order to be able to load/unload troops to maintain a flow of reinforcements and evacuate the damaged unit, and obviously, lots of powerfull ground unit. It should be fun though, if I get there. I still have Russia to deal with before.

The war against Russia is going to be tough. The last few attacks were not successfull, thanks to the various fortress units Russia has. Especially those (0-70). I had a nasty surprise in Leningrad. Looks like there at least 3 of them. My air attack are not going well either because they damage either air or naval units first. So I often have to destroy those units first before I can even begin to damage the ground units. I can't say I'm very pleased with this, but as you mentionned earlier, that's part of the game system, not your scenario. Because of this, I adjusted my production schedule and I now have quite a few heavy arty units in the queue. They should help. I also concentrated all my air units to be able to attack in the same defending square in a turn. So far, I had separed my air power into two wings of bombers in different area (one in NW of Russia, one in SE of Russia) but this won't work anymore.

For 1940, I will write down the OOB of Germany and Russia (at the end of each turn) to see how it evolves through the war. It should also give me a good indication if my offensive is working or not.

 

[Rocoteh]

DarthCycle,

"Considering the very good design of your scenario so far, I had a feeling that Sea Lion is going to be tough. It seems that it's going to require the use of combined arms: control of the air in order to be able to use my bombers to soften defenders, control of the sea in order to be able to load/unload troops to maintain a flow of reinforcements and evacuate the damaged unit, and obviously, lots of powerfull ground unit. It should be fun though, if I get there. I still have Russia to deal with before" DarthCycle

Yes, its best to deal with Russia first, since their forces will grow fast.

"Especially those (0-70). I had a nasty surprise in Leningrad. Looks like there at least 3 of them. My air attack are not going well either because they damage either air or naval units first. So I often have to destroy those units first before I can even begin to damage the ground units. I can't say I'm very pleased with this, but as you mentionned earlier, that's part of the game system, not your scenario."
DarthCycle

That is correct.

"For 1940, I will write down the OOB of Germany and Russia (at the end of each turn) to see how it evolves through the war. It should also give me a good indication if my offensive is working or not." DarthCycle

That is a very good idea. I use to do that myself, when I have time to play Civ.

Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[ComradeDavo]

It's been awhile since I played this scenario, but now I have a better computer (so not too long a loading time) and I finally got round to d/ling 1.9 - first impression is that it seems to have been improved quite a bit since I last played, good work Rocoteh

I will post a game report when i have played a few turns!

 

[Rocoteh]

It's been awhile since I played this scenario, but now I have a better computer (so not too long a loading time) and I finally got round to d/ling 1.9 - first impression is that it seems to have been improved quite a bit since I last played, good work Rocoteh

I will post a game report when i have played a few turns!

ComradeDavo,

Thank you. I am glad to hear that.

Looking forward to read the playtest-report and your comments.
As mentioned earlier, my goal is that WW2-Global 2.0 (360x306)
shall be the best scenario I have made so far.

Rocoteh

 

[eaglefox]

the problem is that countries like russia produce massive amounts of troops. if planes lose their LLB, then i fear germany can't even win operation barbarossa. i think its fairly evenly matched right now. first of all, russia wasn't as far ahead in terms of production of tanks and other heavy equipment in the war as it is in the game. if you want to remove LLB for aircrafts, then you should also scale down the russian production. they produce too much, and the luftwaffe is extremely crucial when it comes to beating them.

 

[WVCivnut]

Turns 15 and 16 report.

Production: 14 city improvements, 5 Panzer IIIe, 1 Security Inf, 1 Me110, and 3 workers. Drafted 8 Inf -- the max.

Captured La Coruna, Barcelona, Madrid (Spain eliminated), Valencia, Gibraltar (4 planes destroyed on the ground), and Lisbon.

Losses: 2 subs, 6 Inf, 4 Panzer IIIes, 2 He111, 1 Panzer II, 1 Lt Tank Div, and 1 Me109.

Attacked British fleet -- sank 4 Light Cruisers, 5 DDs, and 2 transports.

Spy missions noted on JPEG. Spy in Russia now.

 

[WVCivnut]

Soviet Military as of the end of 1939.

 

[WVCivnut]

Turns 17 and 18 report.

Production: 16 city improvements, 3 Panzer IIIe, 3 88s, 1 Ju87B, 2 transports and 4 workers. Drafted 8 Inf -- the max.

Captured Trondheim (Norway eliminated) and Crete (Greece eliminated).

Losses: 7 subs, 1 Inf, 1 DD, and 1 Me109.

Attacked British and US fleets -- sank 4 Light Cruisers, 1 Hv Cruiser, 12 DDs, and 4 subs and 3 transports.

Preparing for invasion of England.

Spys in Italy and Turkey.

 

[Hyperborean]

I can see from the unit-stats included that AI still build to many machine-gun units.
Maybe the MG-units should be dropped. I welcome feed back on that issue.

Yeah, I have noticed that the AI has a tendency to build lots of them. I haven't included them in my stats, since they aren't offensive, but the Russians for instance still have over 50 MG units while the number of T-26 now are down to 10.
Perhaps they could be made more expensive? But I wouldn't mind to see them go. I don't build them myself, I have over 50 German 88 now, and if I need extra defenses anywhere I use the infantry. On the other hand: if they are removed then the defense of the cities will become much weaker, and this may affect the balance of the game. For example: I don't think the Finns would have much of a chance against the Russians if they had no machine-gunners. Their infantry is too weak to stand against the Russian onslaught alone. I think the MG units are mainly a blessing for the smaller AI civs when fighting the larger ones. If you remove the machine-gunners you have to compensate by making the infantry stronger for minor nations.

Germany - v 1.9 - Sid - Week 1, 1941

Persia eliminated. No more Russians in Europe. Finland has been liberated by the Wehrmacht. I'm currently engaging the Norwegians in Scandinavia, and I'm about to declare war on Sweden. The Norwegians had almost 40 infantry divisions, and I have only half that force in Scandinavia. But thanks to the combined efforts of Luftwaffe and the artillery Norway has only a fraction of their forces left now. Hammerfest is mine. Narvik is about to fall. I'm going to give some cities back to Finland, but not until I have built some improvements. Finland has no access to the Atlantic thanks to my mine fields, but maybe they will build a fleet if I give them Arkhangelsk, Kem and Murmansk?
The cities in Ural are mine, but Siberia is a bit tougher, I haven't made any advances there yet. There are lots of defenders, especially machine-gunners.
I invaded the ME after I had taken Persia, but I forgot to put strong defenders in Tabriz, so the British took it from me after I had taken Damascus from the French. I turned back to retake it, and left three panzers in need of healing in Damascus. However, the British took that city too, and then the Japanese took it in the following turn, so I'm not very likely to get it back now. The Japanese also razed Bagdad and Amman. It looks like they will win the race to take the ME. If Japan wants Africa so badly they can have it, I was planning to give it to the Italians anyway, but I really want Suez, I have more use of that city than the Japanese, it's not very likely they will ever have reason to move a fleet into the Mediterranean, but I have lots of reasons to be able to move my ships into the Indian ocean. I'm a bit over-extended at this front right now, so I have decided to let the Japanese move on, and if they should lose any city I will be there to claim it for the Reich.
The Japanese have also razed Ulan Bator, it's the first time I see any Japanese activity at that front. And in North Africa the Italians have lost their last city. They lasted for over a year, which is impressive. And the Italian East Africa remains intact. Japan still haven't conquered southern India.
If I fail to take the Suez canal I have to compensate and attack Turkey, Yugoslavia and Greece instead, before I initiate Operation Seelöwe. I have six carriers stationed in Bergen, together with 10 transports (plus 5 in Amsterdam, and 2 in Barcelona).
And now that I no longer have Russian tanks swarming over my borders I'm becoming reluctant to use the SS armies in the war. It's not much of a challenge to attack a poorly defended city with 4 SS armies. It feels like cheating. Perhaps I should pull them back and use them as reserves or something. I don't need them anymore.
I'm in control of the Atlantic, but the British and the French are constantly building new destroyer flotillas to challenge me. It would be easier for them if they just gave up. They take a few of my u-boats, but I have plenty of them left, and new ones are being built all the time. I sunk an american carrier outside Boston. Half of my u-boats are patrolling the Northamerican coastline, the other half is... well, here and there. Mainly around Britain, and near Gibraltar.

And I think Hornblower's idea is great. It should open for a greater diversity in the airforces, and more specialized air units. It's definitely worth a try.
As it is now, I use everything I have to bomb the cities, even fighters if the bombers fail to take out the city-defenders. And that is perhaps not so realistic. But my fighters haven't had much to do. There have been a few attacks from the RAF over my coastal cities, and a couple of attacks from the French airforce after I took Spain, and some air raids by the Russian airforce in the first weeks of the war. But those attacks are rare. And I only place fighters in cities where I can expect an attack. The attacks never cause much damage anyway, so it's only worth the effort if the cities are attacked repeatedly.

 

[Rocoteh]

the problem is that countries like russia produce massive amounts of troops. if planes lose their LLB, then i fear germany can't even win operation barbarossa. i think its fairly evenly matched right now. first of all, russia wasn't as far ahead in terms of production of tanks and other heavy equipment in the war as it is in the game. if you want to remove LLB for aircrafts, then you should also scale down the russian production. they produce too much, and the luftwaffe is extremely crucial when it comes to beating them.

eaglefox,

I will try to find a balance.
The problems with regular versions (at least up to version 1.8) though
seemed to be (based on playtest-reports) that it was to easy to
defeat Soviet.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Turns 17 and 18 report.

Production: 16 city improvements, 3 Panzer IIIe, 3 88s, 1 Ju87B, 2 transports and 4 workers. Drafted 8 Inf -- the max.

Captured Trondheim (Norway eliminated) and Crete (Greece eliminated).

Losses: 7 subs, 1 Inf, 1 DD, and 1 Me109.

Attacked British and US fleets -- sank 4 Light Cruisers, 1 Hv Cruiser, 12 DDs, and 4 subs and 3 transports.

Preparing for invasion of England.

Spys in Italy and Turkey.

WVCivnut,

Thank you for the reports and stats.

It will be interesting to follw how the invasion of England
turns out.

As mentioned earlier its possible I will remove machine-gun
units in version 2.0. I do not like that AI mass-produces them.

Welcome back with more reports.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Hyperborean,

Thank you for the report.

"Yeah, I have noticed that the AI has a tendency to build lots of them. I haven't included them in my stats, since they aren't offensive, but the Russians for instance still have over 50 MG units while the number of T-26 now are down to 10.
Perhaps they could be made more expensive? But I wouldn't mind to see them go. I don't build them myself, I have over 50 German 88 now, and if I need extra defenses anywhere I use the infantry. On the other hand: if they are removed then the defense of the cities will become much weaker, and this may affect the balance of the game. For example: I don't think the Finns would have much of a chance against the Russians if they had no machine-gunners. Their infantry is too weak to stand against the Russian onslaught alone. I think the MG units are mainly a blessing for the smaller AI civs when fighting the larger ones. If you remove the machine-gunners you have to compensate by making the infantry stronger for minor nations."
Hyperborean

I think your analyse is correct. Will look over the production cost stats
to see what can be done.

"I'm going to give some cities back to Finland, but not until I have built some improvements. Finland has no access to the Atlantic thanks to my mine fields, but maybe they will build a fleet if I give them Arkhangelsk, Kem and Murmansk?"
Hyperborean

It sounds like a good idea.

"The Japanese also razed Bagdad and Amman."

I have to add more wonders to stop city-razing.

"And in North Africa the Italians have lost their last city. They lasted for over a year, which is impressive. And the Italian East Africa remains intact."
Hyperborean

Yes, I agree.

"And now that I no longer have Russian tanks swarming over my borders I'm becoming reluctant to use the SS armies in the war. It's not much of a challenge to attack a poorly defended city with 4 SS armies. It feels like cheating." Hyperborean

One more reason to remove armies.

Any plans on how to advance further from these positions?

Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh