WW2-Global

[Rocoteh]

Rocoteh - Downloaded and started a British game. Two great improvements - the number of fixed units on the British coast should make it extremely difficult to invade the British isles (at least for the AI - even a human player will have to bring more assets or risk the Royal Navy to go north.

Even better are the new graphics for destroyers - I can now more easily tell the owner of the destroyers with the darker background color.

Too early for a playtest report - initial impression is that Britain will be much stronger - expect major battles for Turkey.

Bob1475,

Thank you for the comments.

My intention was that Britain really should be hard to invade.

It was obvious from 1.3-playtests that Operation Sealion had become
an overrun attack. The current situation should be much more
realistic and interesting.

Welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[warmwaffles]

I agree plus ROCO you added a LOT more units

 

[Rocoteh]

Saves downloaded and game running. Kinda funny to be first to send report

week 36
It's good that u removed Prague, now there is plenty of cattle for every city, BUT I did notice a major bug; Germanys capitol was Bucharest!!!
Blitzkrieg starts, Luftwaffe bombs Warsaw, which is taken by my panzers. losses: panzer and 3 bombers. Next targets:
Danzig - captured for losses of 1 SS-inf. and 1 Panzer
Copenhagen - captured for losses of 1 inf.
Amsterdam - captured for losses of 1 inf.
Brussels - captured for no losses
Clearing dutch and belgian inf. from Benelux - lost 2 inf. and 1 Hungarian inf.
Belgrade - captured for losses of 4 Panzers
Paris campaing - My inf. armies made breaktrough NE of Paris, and rest of my army moves in and prepares to coming attack. Some overanxious Panzer-leaders even attack paris! Losses - 1 inf and. 1 panzer
DW on Norway, my U-Boats sunk their fleet at the coast; lost 1 U-boat

So far seems good, now waiting for AI's counterattack
more coming soon....

andis-1,

Thank you for reporting the capitol-bug.

I will soon upload a new version.

On the report: So far a very good start.

Welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Downloading right now... So far i've checked the biq file and it looks good
Thanx for credits.

mircea74,

Thank you.

Looking forward to reports and comments from you.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

I agree plus ROCO you added a LOT more units

"Hey Roco that review will be in a lot latter but here is the begging"
Drivebymaster

Drivebymaster,

Thank you for the report.

Yes, many units have been added. I hope a majority of
players will like it.

Welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Bob1475,

"Early weeks of war are mainly battles with the Uboats. Although we lost a lot of destroyers we have managed to get them under control and now have an effective blockade and kill one sub each week trying to break out"
Bob1475

That is very interesting!

"Germany took Poland in week 39, burned Amsterdam in week 37, took Brussels and eventually burned Paris (week 45). Our expeditionary force on the continent was sacrificed in the defense of Paris" Bob1475

It seems impossible to stop AI from city-razing 100%.

"France also took three westernmost cities from Turkey although now at peace" Bob1475

A surprise.

"Just as the year ends we see a force of five infantry from Finland appear near Meshed! Must be a ROP with the Russians. Have never seen the Finns this far South!" Bob1475

Strange!

"In the Far East the Japanese have been very agressive and threw everthing at Hong Kong which fell in week 42! The Japanese are all the way to Hanoi already! In addition they have taken the two southern parts of the Phillipines and Timor and Fakfak and Sarmi! In fact they launched an attack on Port Moresby! No signs of the Americans yet alhtough they were active in the Med. Did you give the Japanese any help(forward stationing of units?) or is it perhaps that the Chinese now fight on two fronts with the Thais? Another reason for India to shift out of development and into units. In any event Japan is certainly far ahead of anything I have seen before" Bob1475

This is very interesting!
Japan initial forces is now stronger due to a large number of Special Fortress
units that have been added. Ice prevent US navy from the Arctic move
reported in playtests.

"One disturbing thing is that my cities keep trying to build marines! If this represents AI thinking the higher cost does not seem to stop the AI from building. Did see one Italian marine" Bob1475

I agree: This is very disturbing. I will work to find a solution for it.

"No signs of the Russians yet." Bob1475

Their initial position is much harder in 1.4.

Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Bob1475: With the exception of Paris being razed, events in Europe in my first 1.4 game(as Spain) were identical to yours. I am wondering if Amsterdam has a Wonder??? It got razed on the very first turn! I agree with you on Japan, the Chinese took a Thailand city and Japan took Foochow and Wuhan in the first 3-4 turns; I am betting the Chinese have thrown all their power to the south to launch that attack on Thailand and it just opens the way for Japan to beat them down.

Rocoteh: The new version works fine so far; I noticed Spain can't build flak but I didn't search to find the reason, could be I am missing a resource. I will be starting a second game as China,Finland or maybe just once try a real power like Germany. I have specifically avoided Great Britain since in every game I have been in they have just kicked major Axis behind! I am afraid it would be too easy... Oh, and some of us were way ahead of you on the Polish Issue; I gifted them a city in North Africa in my France game to keep them alive!

Spain game followed the usual pattern; it was disturbing to see the Italian navy go on it's death ride west of Gibralter. This game seemed particularly bad for them, I think they lost most of their battleships and the French BBs survived. French AI was hiding it's ships in ports quite well too. Then the US fleet showed up. Compared to Turkey, Spain will by far be the hardest civ to play. I had people hitting me up for tribute every other turn at least. I had my ships observing the Allied fleets in the Atlantic from La Coruna and it was apparent to me just how impossible it was going to be for me to do much of anything for a long, long time. I could do some damage but I know in the end it would be over fast. I was holding off and building up until Germany took most of mainland France; that usually takes a while.

A question: Why did you drop the defense on the DD units from 9 back to 8? I asked you to increase it and you did in 1.3 to 9; I didn't see anyone complain about that. I don't think it makes a huge difference overall, and 8 is what I sugested in the first place, I am just curious.

Sasebo,

Thank you.

On Amsterdam: You are right, there is no wonder there.
It seems like I have to add more wonders in the next version.

On Thailand and China: If you are correct changes must be made.

Spain and flak: Yes, iron is needed.

Britain to easy to play. That was a surprise!

On DD-units: The reason is that DD-units now have been splitted
into: DestroyerWW1, Destroyer1939 and Destroyer1941.
All stats were recalculated when I made this.

Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Adler17]

Playtest report: Germany, Emperor level, 1.4, turn 1, Week 36:

At first I recommend to male all Uboats elite. The German Uboat crews were very well trained by Dönitz when war broke out.
My Poland campaign runs excellent. I conquered Danzig with Marines after bombing the town with planes. The Polish navy is sunk mostly due to Uboats. But CL Köln, Leipzig and a S-Boat were sucessfull. Now I am taking out the Polish infantry with my infantry. No!!! It hang up. These damn localization bugs. I had already trouble to start the scenario. Leader industrial ages.ini is missing because in the German version the files are translated!!! .
So I reload the game and could destroy the Polish for the loss of 3 inf, 1 SS and 1 Rumanian inf.
After this revenge for Gleiwitz I deal with Japan selling them rubber, oil and Aluminium. I get 700 GP, 158 GP per turn and spice and silks. Incense, wine, 100 GP and 3 GP/ turn are traded with Italy for coal, furs and dyes.

That´s for now.

Adler

 

[Rocoteh]

Playtest report: Germany, Emperor level, 1.4, turn 1, Week 36:

At first I recommend to male all Uboats elite. The German Uboat crews were very well trained by Dönitz when war broke out.
My Poland campaign runs excellent. I conquered Danzig with Marines after bombing the town with planes. The Polish navy is sunk mostly due to Uboats. But CL Köln, Leipzig and a S-Boat were sucessfull. Now I am taking out the Polish infantry with my infantry. No!!! It hang up. These damn localization bugs. I had already trouble to start the scenario. Leader industrial ages.ini is missing because in the German version the files are translated!!! .
So I reload the game and could destroy the Polish for the loss of 3 inf, 1 SS and 1 Rumanian inf.
After this revenge for Gleiwitz I deal with Japan selling them rubber, oil and Aluminium. I get 700 GP, 158 GP per turn and spice and silks. Incense, wine, 100 GP and 3 GP/ turn are traded with Italy for coal, furs and dyes.

That´s for now.

Adler

Adler,

Thank you for the report.

I will look over the whole U-boat issue when more playtests
have been done.

Welcome back.

Also: Version 1.5 with the German capitol-bug corrected have
been released. Thank you andis-1 for reporting the bug.
New saves for 1.5 will soon be up for download at Post 3.

Rocoteh

 

[KristiB]

I don't think I've ever seen Alder suggest something that takes German strength anything other than up...

Here's an excerpt from an article I've read about German Uboats...

"According to Professor Jurgen Rowher, who has made exhaustive studies of the subject, 1156 U-boats were contructed during WWII. Of these only 863 were in operational use. The remainder were either undergoing final fitting, in training or some form of transit to active U-boat flotilla.

Furthering these figures, observations to the following were made:

25 Uboats attacked and at least damaged 20 or more ships
36 Uboats attacked and at least damaged between 11 and 19 ships
70 Uboats attacked and at least damaged between 6 and 10 ships
190 Uboats attacked and at least damaged between 1 and 5 ships

Given these figures, 73% of Uboats constructed during the Second World War (including all 1170 Uboats - whether frontline or training machines) achieved no success whatsoever against the enemy."

Let Roco do with that what he will, but I'd strongly suggest against making Uboats all elite. Barracks/Harbors are designed to, at BEST, put out veteren troops and NO amount of training substitues for actual combat. I'd suggest leaving them as conscripts as Roco's original order of battle did.

 

[mircea74]

I agree with KristiB, U-Boats are powerful enough as they are now. Perhaps some of the existing U-Boats could be elites to be more realistic (and i believe a few of them are already elites).

 

[Rocoteh]

Comment on the U-boat issue:

I think and hope that the current balance should work well .

Thus when there have been many playtests from people playing
Britain I will look over the balance once more.

Again: I think current stats are relevant.

Rocoteh

 

[Bob1475]

Rocoteh - I have seen US naval forces head north from the East Coast. Reviewing the map I see no blockage that would prevent crossing to the Pacific - same for north of Russia - an error perhaps?

 

[Rocoteh]

Rocoteh - I have seen US naval forces head north from the East Coast. Reviewing the map I see no blockage that would prevent crossing to the Pacific - same for north of Russia - an error perhaps?

Bob1475,

They will be stopped by Ice near Alaska.

Rocoteh

 

[antoine]

Great Britain Emperor 1.4 week 46 1939 (turn 10)

- conquered all Turkey, Spain and Lisbon. SU just declared war on me, moving troops to Turkey. Germans wants Turkey too...

- Big battle for Honk-Kong, thing the situation is hopeless for GB since I've only seen Japaneese navy in Pacific. May be there is a problem with US Navy.
Where are they ? Can't find them ! I'v seen a lot of US boats in Atlantic, often going North and after that going for Europe.


- With very heavy Allies naval concentrations in Atlantic and North Sea, Axis navy has been completly wiped out.

- No city razed

- France is a lot more aggressive

- Hope US Navy is coming to save me in SE Asia

- GB is very fun to play, a lot of things to do, and a very high industrial potential.

 

[Adler17]

I had to restart my game due to the fact I erased my save games to a PC trouble. So here is my playtest again. But before I want to comment my suggestions on Uboats: In 1939 when war began the crews were excellent trained to form the best submarine flotilla on this planet. The training was hard but they felt as elite so the hard training was not the worst. These few crews were responsible for the sinking of many allied ships. Although I agree with the figures KristiB is posting his conclusions are wrong: At the very beginning of the war Germany had few Uboats. Most of the boats being completed were not built before 1943. There were 200+ type XXI boats completed but only 1 was on combat patrol. And since summer 1943 the losses of Uboats were high. It was common that 30+ boats were sunk a month by sinking 10 or so enemy ships. So the total figures are not correct to be used for 1939. And in this days the Uboat crews were excellent trained.

Playtest report:
I attacked the Polish fleet in the North sea by Uboats, a Ju 88 and Sboats. Latter sink 2 Polish DD, one is sunk by a Uboat. In the Baltic I sank the Polish ships with my CL and Uboats.
Otsus. I have Otsus??? Aren´t these Japanese boats???. They are good but I think type IX boats would have fit better.
The Polish Army Pomorze (the one defending Danzig) is bombed and finally destroyed by infantry. I lost 1 inf. Another one is lost by attacking the troops north off Warsaw, but also these polish forces are history. The Luftwaffe flies heavy attacks on the Polish main army south off Warsaw. I finish the rest with infantry. I lose 2 Hungarian inf and one German.
The next I did was trading the very same as before, except that I didn´t give the Japanese my Aluminium. The I changed the production lines in every of my cities. There I found another bug: I am able to build type XXI boats! If these boats were available in 1939 Germany would have won the war. So I won´t build them. However I will wait for 1943 or 44 technology to do so.

Tomorrow I will post further comments.

Adler

 

[Adler17]

Antoine, are the Uboats a too big thread for you?

Adler

 

[allin1joe]

America -- 1.4

After looking over all the changes, I conclude that the Pacific is lost. So, I pull all my destroyers and most of my subs into Manila, only sacrificing a few to destroy the fleet by Wake. Everytime Manila grows, I draft an infantry. I have also re-based a couple of fighters in an attempt to keep Manila secure until I can build up.

My navy has been seperated into 8 fleets on the West Coast(and Hawaii) and 4 on the East (including a fleet at Panama). Each fleet has at least 1 Battleship at the lead. They have been placed in strategic locations in an attempt to stop any sneak attacks by the Japanese. I figure it will be at least a year before I can do anything anywhere, and my mainland is lightly defended until then. Last thing I need is a transport with Marines showing up unexpected.

As for my build up, turn 1 had every domestic city build a worker. Turn 2 had the larger cities building workers, while the smaller ones switched over to infrastructure. I also dealt the French rubber I believe for 45GPT (a discount since they would have given me 60) in an attempt to keep them competitive vs the Germans. Including that, I am making 60GPT with research at 60%. Banks and Universities are top building priorities right now(after necessary Aqueducts/Hospitals of course) in an attempt to improve both figures.

On turn 4 I believe, I spot a Japanese fleet with transport heading down my Phillipines island chain. Since Japanese AI seems to love Davao, I figure that is where they are heading (not big enough to draft yet, and completely undefended). So, I gift it to the British Japanese took it the next turn.

My strategy will be similar here as it was in 1.3. After infrastructure is complete, build Marines like crazy and take Mexico. This time however, I will have to draft Infantry to back that up, as well as build some heavy artillery. I like the new stats on the Marines as a war stack has to comprise other units now. Very well done here.

 

[andis-1]

One disturbing thing is that my cities keep trying to build marines! Bob1475

There is one easy solution; go to preferenses, you'll see there option "allways build previously built unit". Click it on, and then AI won't change unit production to marine

 

[mircea74]

I have briefly looked over the changes and here's what i think:

1. Destroyer Flotilla and S-Boat Flotilla have bombardment way too high (higher than a Battleship). One can build tons of S-Boats as they're cheap and use it as naval artillery. And i thought S-Boats were supposed to be very fast, high on attack and low on defense.

2. US Marines are reduced too much. At 14.10.2 The 1939 variant are useless now and the 1942 version comes too late and are weak too for that period. I think they should have very good stats but also very high price (or auto-produced in low numbers).

3. HMG's should be much better in defense in my opinion. There are tons of choices on offense for every nation but little options for good defense. I find it a bit unbalanced now. At every technological stage the best available defensive unit should have a defense value comparable with the attack value of the best offensive unit.

4. Germans' 88's are too cheap. At 22 defense they are the best defender for a long time . Also i think their air defense could be better.

5. Soviet MRD is now useless. Should be tougher or cheaper.

6. Overall tanks are too powerful in defense. They should be used as offensive weapons only and be vulnerable on defense. Infantry and antitanks would be more appropriate for this job and should have better defense than tanks. This would also allow escorting infantry to be the first unit attacked in a stack by the enemy.

7. I believe the capacity of 2 for an army was a better option in v1.3. Makes the game more challenging for humans. Leaders appear quite often. In my 1.3 soviet game i have around 15 armies mid 1941.

I also noticed a small bug: Britain have a german infantry in Malta.