WW2-Global

[warmwaffles]

for a corporation to just "lose" the source code for a game this big is crazy talk. I believe that its sitting somewhere on their hard drives on one of their servers, and is just taking up space until they decide that it is no longer useful in anyway and backs it up to a DVD or CD and then just simply deletes the crap on the HDD.

IMO they wont release any sort of API mapping or anything until they feel that they made the most amount of money and that they can't make anymore and then release it possibly.

Till then we are stuck trying to get by with dumb work arounds...well not dumb but rather crafty work arounds that are being used because of poor programmers

 

[Simon Darkshade]

Similarly, I do not believe it has been lost; rather, it is simply very low or even no priority. I do think that no further official patches or modifications will be issued whatsoever, with any Civ priority no firmly on the fourth installment.

This is a company having recently gone through a lot of mess, and having many more recent and higher priority games and projects - GTA, for example. Therefore, it is not really worth their while to even bother replying from the relevant departments.

It may be bad PR to some small sectors to enfore their intellectual property, but it will not significantly impact the overall market, either present customers or those who move in for future installments.

Inquiry could be couched in a less demonstrative manner.

It is vexing, because the methods being employed to avoid razing are not working for a certain portion of the time. It may turn out that the best option is to go ahead with the no raze patch, and leave the full implementation of it up to the individual player. It is a case of Scylla and Charybydis, and up to the decision of the individual mod maker.

In my recent forays into the game, razing did not enter as a factor due to unspecified reasons; I like to think of it as chance and good fortune.

Once again, Great Britain on Deity. I decided to implement a conventional approach this time, as well as dabble with some ground forces.
A standard beginning - hitting the German and Italian fleets until they are destroyed, deploying troops and aircraft to Norway and securing the British Isles and approaches against any possibility of invasion. The latter is the least troublesome, given the AIs profligate waste of their fleet and the protection provided by the RAF and RN.

The Japanese hit Hong Kong and took Indochina before the midpoint of 1940.
A force has been sent to meet them off Singapore; given their haphazard employment of the IJN fleet, a holding victory should not be a problem. After that, the move will be made to seize a Pacific base, and combine Bomber Command interdiction with carrier raids and submarine blockade. I usually find 6 carriers with fighters, strike bombers and fighterbombers sufficient to hold down Japan, even without resorting to cutting their transport routes (which is something I avoid, given the AIs limitations), guarded by 4 QEs, two battlecruisers, and to be reinforced by a pair each of KGVs and Lions.

The Americans are assisting with this, given a large amount of battleships and carrier power, as well as US Marines assaulting Formosa of all places.

Italy really has one shot - the Regia Marina - given the somewhat inferior statistics on their units. A holding action in the Western Desert is combined with heavy carrier and airstrikes, battleship and heavy cruiser bombardment until a convoy of transports carrying Armoured Divisions, Indian, South African, British and ANZAC Infantry Divisions allows the sweeping up of Italian North Africa.

Germany has finally conducted a decent invasion of France, following on from the Low Countries, Denmark and Poland, and is currently hitting Yugoslavia in mid-late 1940. If they go into Greece, an expeditionary force will be sent to hit them. The U-Boats have been a disappointment as usual. I shall try to precipitate a Soviet-German war so that the Germans can try to work a Barbarossa, and at the least be occupied.

Air Defence of Great Britain has been prioritized on the Spitfire and AA Battery combination, with Hurricane backup ferried across from Canada on a regular basis. The bomber force is husbanded carefully and used en masse against coastal traffic and forces in the field; once the Mosquito and Beaufighter enter service, these sweeps should have even greater impact.

In the long term, large amounts of Lancasters will be built up, and applied in a concentrated manner on cities and troop concentrations.

Royal Marines, Commandos, Paratroopers and British Infantry Divisions are being mustered in gradual but significant numbers, along with copious artillery and infantry and cruiser tanks. When D-Day comes (not until late 1943 under current plans), they will be inserted in two pincers - one in Denmark, and one in Northern Netherlands on the German border. They will advance under a creeping barrage of heavy bombers for the Ruhr before striking for Berlin.

The US AI contribution in the west so far has consisted of battleship bombardment and carrier strikes on occupied France.

 

[krwhitinglaw]

It's week 30, 1942

1. Australia. Development coming along well. Southeastern corner is almost fully developed as to city improvements. Lots of workers busy across the continent. All but 2 cities have all the basic worker improvements completed (I don't count RRs or jungle-clearing as "basic" improvements - I consider those "advanced" improvements). The bulk of my workers are now beginning the RR net construction.

2. Jungle-clearing. I have a group of about 230 workers (it increases every turn with additional workers being built - eventually it will be 250 which will allow me to clear jungle in 2 turns, then place a RR and either mine or irrigation in the cleared space) clearing jungle. They've finished with the Malaysian peninsula and are starting on SE Asia. Next they'll move into India.

3. RRs. I've linked from Pusan all the way to Capetown (single line) with a spur running from Suez across the North African coast to Casablanca. Every other city in the Middle-east and Turkey and all the way through my holdings in Asia is linked and teams of workers are building RRs every turn around my cities in India, China and Manchuria to increase production. My African workers will continue linking cities until Africa is fully RRd up (only a portion of workers are doing this - the indigenously built workers are carrying out terrain enhancements and southern Africa is almost entirely improved). They will move north from there.

4. Africa. Fully conquered. The fleet that came around the horn from Australia arrived just in time to take the last 2 cities on the gold coast and is now, fully loaded up, heading north to attack the Spanish city on the Atlantic coast (this fleet has 6 shokakus and 1 escort carrier, loaded with 12 Ki-84 fighter squadrons and 20 Grace DB squadrons). It also has 2 Yamatos, a BBC2, and 1 old BB - along with 9 CAs and a large assortment of smaller ships. It has 5 transports and 7 marine divisions - the rest are infantry, artillery and tanks.

5. Med. I took Turkey in 2 turns. An amphibius landing on southern coastal city opened the road network up to my army of 150+ divisions which surged north, took Ankara and then took the city just north on the Black Sea coast, then positioned to take the remaining 2 mountain cities the next turn. A second amphibius attack took Istanbul. The Turkish fleet was destroyed by combined land-based air from Nicosia (which also supported the landings - over 150 squadrons there) and fleet action by my Med. fleet - which also supported the Istanbul attack. This fleet then turned and took Greece in 1 turn with 2 amphib landings, then moved up the adriatic and took Yugoslavia in 2 turns - landing on coast city then funneling tanks and mobile arty through to the North. I managed to beat all my allies to the prizes here though they did all declare war in interim turn. The fleet and air force has now gathered off the Eastern coast of Spain and will take the 2 coastal cities on the same turn as my african/atlantic fleet takes the Atlantic coastal city. I'm hoping to get all of Spain before Germany intervenes. The Med fleet is almost identical in size with the african/atlantic fleet and will combine with it after Spain falls to carry out a Japanese Sealion (12 Shokakus, 11 BBs, 15 CAs, and 11 fully-loaded transports - it will be interesting to see how that goes down).

6. The bulk of my land forces (over 250 combat divisions and over 150 heavy arty, mobile arty and flak) are now gathered in garrison on the RR outside of Baghdad. If the Russians say boo we'll attack. All of my border cities with Russia have a minimum of 4 infantry divisions, 2 heavy arty brigades, 4 flak, 1 Nate fighter squadron in the air, and a radar tower supporting. Of course, I'm really counting on the RR mobility to counter anything the Russians do, but I want their first move to be painful.

7. Tech tree. We are in our 3d section of 1945 tech.

8. North America. A. Here, the three fronts have begun to coalesce as we advance. In the US South, my Carib force has done great work. They have advanced north up the coast, and have taken all the cities through Richmond (with my 5 marine divisions, that puts DC in reach). My huge Betty bomber force based in Jacksonville (combined with the carrier air of my original battlefleet presently laying off of NY) has pounded Pittsburgh, DC, Philly, Nashville, Little Rock, Houston, Dallas and Austin down to pops of 1. It has also cut the road network entirely around DC (trying to cut US import ability for construction) and NY (since I can't directly attack NY due to the SAM bug, I destroyed its roads, hoping that would reduce its construction options). It also destroyed all the roads leading to oil in Texas and Oklahoma. I don't know if I've effected their construction options with these moves, but I have noticed a decided falling off of new tank divisions appearing (I don't know how to check their order of battle like some of you apparently do - is that an espionage option? I've rarely done anything with espionage so advice would be useful).

8.B. On the southwestern coast I've taken Fresno and Reno, defeated repeated counterattacks, and driven to the east and taken Pheonix, Tuscon and Austin (I'm very close to linking this force up with my Carib forces who've advanced west to New orleans). In the NW, I finally took Great Falls (destroying over 20 divisions there - mostly marines but including some paratroopers and infantry), took Boise, and have taken Bismark, Omaha and Milwaukee. Thise force will split and one group, the smaller, will clear Cheyenne, Salt Lake and Denver - the larger will take Chicago and plunge into the midwest. In Canada, I've taken York Factory and Cochrane - Toronto is next. All told, I've destroyed over 250 US divisions - about 50 tank units but they were thrown at me piecemeal so they were reasonably easy to defeat. They've often outnumbered me, but my total dominance of the air has made all the difference. Since their first large air attacks on my fleet off Vancouver, I've never seen more than 1 bomber at a time and they've always been shot down. I keep running into CAP and losing bombers as I advance, but almost always single squadrons and I destroy it with the following raids and they're finished in the air as to that city. The Pacific fleet is on its way through Panama to link up with the original fleet off NY. My ferrying system (combined with rush construction of infantry in north america) has finally worked enough to provide me with major offensive land power and I consider all danger of real defeat in North America is over. It's just a matter of time.

9. Victory conditions. It appears I will win before completing my conquests. I've got 47 percent of the land and 59 percent of the pop so I will probably win a domination victory before I can conquer all the US or England or take on the Soviets. Is there a way to disable the dominance victory condition to allow the game to continue?

Kelly Whiting

 

[Simon Darkshade]

Not in the game itself; you have to remove the option in the victory conditions in the biq before loading.

 

[Adler17]

Unfortunately this isn't about bugs, it's about piracy, and potential for piracy. That's something we take that very seriously.

I wouldn't hold your breath for an official statement...just take my word on it and don't move forward with this.

-jason

Jason,

In all other cases you are right. However how could PC Games magazine publish a no CD patch without the officials agreeing to it? I can not think about making that on their own! And if they agreed they agreed for all other user to use the No CD patch, too. As long as they have a legal copy.
Nevertheless I won't distribute the patch directly.

Adler

This is my last contact with Jason.

Adler

 

[leonidas 1982]

It's week 30, 1942

1(I don't know how to check their order of battle like some of you apparently do - is that an espionage option? I've rarely done anything with espionage so advice would be useful).

Kelly Whiting

yes its an espionage option you need to succesfully plant a spy, its in espionage screen. Then if you go to your militiary advisor he'll give you their order of battle. I only attempt to plant spy when already at war with a nation as you are often caught and they will declare if you are.

 

[Rocoteh]

Kelly Whiting,

Thank you for the report.

"Japan Update - Emperor

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's week 30, 1942

1. Australia. Development coming along well. Southeastern corner is almost fully developed as to city improvements. Lots of workers busy across the continent. All but 2 cities have all the basic worker improvements completed (I don't count RRs or jungle-clearing as "basic" improvements - I consider those "advanced" improvements). The bulk of my workers are now beginning the RR net construction.

2. Jungle-clearing. I have a group of about 230 workers (it increases every turn with additional workers being built - eventually it will be 250 which will allow me to clear jungle in 2 turns, then place a RR and either mine or irrigation in the cleared space) clearing jungle. They've finished with the Malaysian peninsula and are starting on SE Asia. Next they'll move into India."
Kelly Whiting

As mentioned earlier it will still be possible to clear jungle in version 2.5.

"3. RRs. I've linked from Pusan all the way to Capetown (single line) with a spur running from Suez across the North African coast to Casablanca. Every other city in the Middle-east and Turkey and all the way through my holdings in Asia is linked and teams of workers are building RRs every turn around my cities in India, China and Manchuria to increase production. My African workers will continue linking cities until Africa is fully RRd up (only a portion of workers are doing this - the indigenously built workers are carrying out terrain enhancements and southern Africa is almost entirely improved). They will move north from there.

4. Africa. Fully conquered. The fleet that came around the horn from Australia arrived just in time to take the last 2 cities on the gold coast and is now, fully loaded up, heading north to attack the Spanish city on the Atlantic coast (this fleet has 6 shokakus and 1 escort carrier, loaded with 12 Ki-84 fighter squadrons and 20 Grace DB squadrons). It also has 2 Yamatos, a BBC2, and 1 old BB - along with 9 CAs and a large assortment of smaller ships. It has 5 transports and 7 marine divisions - the rest are infantry, artillery and tanks."
Kelly Whiting

I think no one have achieved so good results earlier in a Japan playtest.

"5. Med. I took Turkey in 2 turns. An amphibius landing on southern coastal city opened the road network up to my army of 150+ divisions which surged north, took Ankara and then took the city just north on the Black Sea coast, then positioned to take the remaining 2 mountain cities the next turn. A second amphibius attack took Istanbul. The Turkish fleet was destroyed by combined land-based air from Nicosia (which also supported the landings - over 150 squadrons there) and fleet action by my Med. fleet - which also supported the Istanbul attack. This fleet then turned and took Greece in 1 turn with 2 amphib landings, then moved up the adriatic and took Yugoslavia in 2 turns - landing on coast city then funneling tanks and mobile arty through to the North. I managed to beat all my allies to the prizes here though they did all declare war in interim turn. The fleet and air force has now gathered off the Eastern coast of Spain and will take the 2 coastal cities on the same turn as my african/atlantic fleet takes the Atlantic coastal city. I'm hoping to get all of Spain before Germany intervenes. The Med fleet is almost identical in size with the african/atlantic fleet and will combine with it after Spain falls to carry out a Japanese Sealion (12 Shokakus, 11 BBs, 15 CAs, and 11 fully-loaded transports - it will be interesting to see how that goes down)."
Kelly Whiting

A Japanese Sealion!
For sure that will be interesting to follow.

"6. The bulk of my land forces (over 250 combat divisions and over 150 heavy arty, mobile arty and flak) are now gathered in garrison on the RR outside of Baghdad. If the Russians say boo we'll attack. All of my border cities with Russia have a minimum of 4 infantry divisions, 2 heavy arty brigades, 4 flak, 1 Nate fighter squadron in the air, and a radar tower supporting. Of course, I'm really counting on the RR mobility to counter anything the Russians do, but I want their first move to be painful.

7. Tech tree. We are in our 3d section of 1945 tech."
Kelly Whiting

There will probably be an attack from Russia soon.

"8. North America. A. Here, the three fronts have begun to coalesce as we advance. In the US South, my Carib force has done great work. They have advanced north up the coast, and have taken all the cities through Richmond (with my 5 marine divisions, that puts DC in reach). My huge Betty bomber force based in Jacksonville (combined with the carrier air of my original battlefleet presently laying off of NY) has pounded Pittsburgh, DC, Philly, Nashville, Little Rock, Houston, Dallas and Austin down to pops of 1. It has also cut the road network entirely around DC (trying to cut US import ability for construction) and NY (since I can't directly attack NY due to the SAM bug, I destroyed its roads, hoping that would reduce its construction options). It also destroyed all the roads leading to oil in Texas and Oklahoma. I don't know if I've effected their construction options with these moves, but I have noticed a decided falling off of new tank divisions appearing (I don't know how to check their order of battle like some of you apparently do - is that an espionage option? I've rarely done anything with espionage so advice would be useful)."
Kelly Whiting

Yes its an espionage option.

"8.B. On the southwestern coast I've taken Fresno and Reno, defeated repeated counterattacks, and driven to the east and taken Pheonix, Tuscon and Austin (I'm very close to linking this force up with my Carib forces who've advanced west to New orleans). In the NW, I finally took Great Falls (destroying over 20 divisions there - mostly marines but including some paratroopers and infantry), took Boise, and have taken Bismark, Omaha and Milwaukee. Thise force will split and one group, the smaller, will clear Cheyenne, Salt Lake and Denver - the larger will take Chicago and plunge into the midwest. In Canada, I've taken York Factory and Cochrane - Toronto is next. All told, I've destroyed over 250 US divisions - about 50 tank units but they were thrown at me piecemeal so they were reasonably easy to defeat. They've often outnumbered me, but my total dominance of the air has made all the difference. Since their first large air attacks on my fleet off Vancouver, I've never seen more than 1 bomber at a time and they've always been shot down. I keep running into CAP and losing bombers as I advance, but almost always single squadrons and I destroy it with the following raids and they're finished in the air as to that city. The Pacific fleet is on its way through Panama to link up with the original fleet off NY. My ferrying system (combined with rush construction of infantry in north america) has finally worked enough to provide me with major offensive land power and I consider all danger of real defeat in North America is over. It's just a matter of time."
Kelly Whiting

It seems like US-AI will seldom or never build a large airforce.
As mentioned eaelier this is very hard to direct with the editor.
"Build Often" Air units have already been flagged there.

"9. Victory conditions. It appears I will win before completing my conquests. I've got 47 percent of the land and 59 percent of the pop so I will probably win a domination victory before I can conquer all the US or England or take on the Soviets. Is there a way to disable the dominance victory condition to allow the game to continue?"
Kelly Whiting

With regard to a saved game there is nothing one can do.
You must change the rules with the editor before you start a playtest.

Thank you for the report and welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Adler,

I appreciate that you have tried to get info on the "no-raze" patch
issue from Firaxis.
Thank you.

Probably Firaxis want Civ 3 just to fade away.

Rocoteh

 

[Simon Darkshade]

And now, a continuing report from the echo chamber.
Britain Deity November 1940-May 1942
Early 1942 and the American AI has launched a limited Operation Sledgehammer, landing near the Spanish border in some numbers, supported by battleships and carriers. They had previously engaged in harrassment bombardments and small scale raids, but came up with a dozen marines, more than double that in infantry and what seems to be quite a few Shermans.
I have stayed out of Western Europe, apart from staging operations from Norway. The Mediterranean has been a busy theatre of operations.
The rollback of Italian North Africa has once more been completed with the application of overwhelming force in localized areas. Rather than invade Sicily this time, I have chosen to blockade the Italian peninsula and subject it to constant aerial bombardment for the moment.
The 8th Army has made a transition from North Africa to Greece, where the Germans eventually invaded in mid 1941. Supported by 4 carriers and the big guns of the Mediterranean Fleet, they have held the Germans for quite some time; Athens has changed hands four times thus far.
I decided on this rather peripheral strategy to divert German attention from the British Isles, where the Luftwaffe had been trying to make a few visits, and to hold back their full numbers from the Soviet Union.
In December 1940, the Germans invaded the USSR. It was a piecemeal attack, the usual kind, but seems to have met with some luck, and the two have been grinding each other down ever since.
This suits my purposes, as I am at war with them both; the Soviet situation followed the attempts of a spy to steal plans.
My planned invasion of NW Europe is still on for mid 1943, and with the classic foibles of the AI, should work with close to contemptuous ease.

France has fought on with her fleet from North Africa, proving quite useful in the Atlantic, and eventually in the Far East with some unnamed new battleships - I like to think of them as Richelieu and Jean Bart.

The Pacific has been the theatre of greatest predictability. The IJN has been worn down by cruiser attacks, knocked down by battleship bombardment when Force Z finally arrived mid 1941, and put down by carriers in the manner described in the last installment.

The Battle of Singapore was where the IJA was stopped on land, by Australian, Canadian, British and Indian divisions supported by a risky redeployment of 4 Spitfires and 8 Hurricanes from Canada and Britain. Gunfire from the sea has been a very useful factor in the advance up the Malayan Peninsula and into Thailand.

The Americans have started bombing Japanese China from Formosa, and have landed several times on the Japanese Home Islands in limited force raids. If they stage a Pacific counterpart to their Atlantic Sledgehammer, then they may well roll over most of Japan, which has been hit heavily for some time.

 

[I_batman]

Rocoteh, not sure you have been following one of the other threads, but I believe I have found a way to alter unit shield costs to above the 1000 shield limit found within the Conquests editor.
I have tested this on a limited basis within a naval sandbox biq I built, and so far the AI handled it fine. I upped the shield cost of a carrier to 1800 shields, and the AI built the unit based on the 1800 cost, and the value showed as 1800 in the Civpedia.

Is that something of interest to you for your next version?
I will state that it is not a trivial thing to alter, but looks to be possible.
If I am correct, the upper limit is a little over 65000. (256 x 256).

It involves altering the biq with a hex editor after you have made all your changes with the Conquests editor.

BTW, this would have absolutely ZERO legal ramifications. No hacking of the source code is involved.

 

[bobtdwarf]

I disagree; in May 1940 the German armor was outnumbered by the total British and French armor, and it was outclassed by the French armor. Just because the French did not use their armor effectively is not a reason to eliminate it from the scenario.

What you say is true. However, they did not really put them in divisional units such as would be represented BY the tank unit in the game, therefore an argument can be made for it' elimination. A better compromise position would be to reduce the amount of French armor at the start to reflect the limited mass tank units the French did have at the beginning.

Otherwise you are giving the French credit for a tactical doctrine they did not use and artificially enhance their performance from the real life one.

 

[Yui108]

Why can't we trade techs?

 

[Simon Darkshade]

I dare say it is to do with game balance, and particularly units.

 

[krwhitinglaw]

Is there a way to allow a player to "name" units upon their creation? I think there must be since in normal civ III when an elite unit produces a leader there is an option for renaming it. If that could be added, it would allow players to construct forces that they could name within some reasonable historical paramaters - so instead of 3 YamatoCs, you could have the Yamato, Musashi and Shinano - or whatever. If that is a change that could be made, it would be very cool.

Kelly Whiting

 

[Uncle_Ted]

Is there a way to allow a player to "name" units upon their creation? I think there must be since in normal civ III when an elite unit produces a leader there is an option for renaming it. If that could be added, it would allow players to construct forces that they could name within some reasonable historical paramaters - so instead of 3 YamatoCs, you could have the Yamato, Musashi and Shinano - or whatever. If that is a change that could be made, it would be very cool.

Kelly Whiting

There is an option in the preferences to display additional unit buttons (or something like that); activating it will give you a button in the lower center of the sceen labeled "ABC" -- that lets you rename individual units.

Example in this post:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=5558695&postcount=7289

 

[Sasebo]

Is there a way to allow a player to "name" units upon their creation? I think there must be since in normal civ III when an elite unit produces a leader there is an option for renaming it. If that could be added, it would allow players to construct forces that they could name within some reasonable historical paramaters - so instead of 3 YamatoCs, you could have the Yamato, Musashi and Shinano - or whatever. If that is a change that could be made, it would be very cool.

Kelly Whiting

Yes Uncle Ted is correct, it's one of the advanced unit action buttons you can activate on the preferences screen. While you are there activate color blind help as well if you haven't already, that option is way useful.

I can't figure you out, you don't know that, or about the enemy units list once you have a spy in the country on the Military Advisor screen(It also shows what government they are in, which in other scenarios can be very useful), yet you seem to kick enormous butt. I am in some awe of your Japanese position, what level are you playing on? Doesn't matter, I am boggled by the idea of 250 workers in one stack. I imagine it must attract all sorts of AI attention. What a juicy target!

I'm playing a Japan playtest myself; I know I tend to be silly with building up my cities infrastructure, but I had no idea it slows me down so much!

I think I am playing an earlier version, it's been a while since I last posted in here. I might be playing 1.8 or something: Japan,Sid, Week 41, 1940.

Japan is great fun since you end up fighting all over the place. I have units stretching from Anadyr in the Soviet Far East to Darwin, Austrailia. I eliminated Comm. China and the Dutch so far. Germany finished off Yugoslavia. Kuala Lumpur and Kunming fell this last turn, and China's last two cities are going to fall fairly soon. The Himalayas are acting as a huge rampart, keeping me and the UK from doing much harm to each other. My tanks can't cross, and his infantry just slogs around not accomplishing much. Took the Soviet Far Eastern coastal cities with the exception of that big one in the big bay north of Hokkaido. Heading there now though. Have a couple task forces aimed at Hawaii now, since my spies show it is ridiculously weak, just two defenders!

I am slowly chewing up the Soviet cities east of the big lake; the Soviets have yet to deploy the T-34, which will probably slow me down considerably when it shows up. Germany has not developed Panzer IIIgs yet either though. First one that does is probably going to go on a tear,especially if it is the Soviets. We HAVE taken a decent number of cities off them though, so maybe we can keep pushing. Following the numbers of Soviet units(I have spies in every major country), they are are down to 58 tank and 85 mech divisions -- we are chewing them up pretty good. Germany has 97 Panzer IIIe and seems to be holding steady or slowly increasing, a good sign. Germany has taken Sochi this past turn, and is trading Liepaja and Brest-Litovsk with the russians. They hold the other cities in that line in front of the fortified cities, Odessa and Sevastopol are cut off.

I did all this with my mighty army of 40 Chi-Ha and 7 SNLF. Air power is a big,big deal, and though I still plan on getting up to 2 groups of ten artillery, it is not worth as much with the distances involved. You need to move your firepower constantly. In this game at least, the US and UK both have very large numbers of both bombers & fighters. I think if you don't challenge them on their home ground, they build enough. Too many for my taste. Once you hit their soil though they switch to ground units to evict you from the area. Given how badly they tend to use airpower, mostly, that's probably not a bad idea. I'm sure I am going to be having more of a problem with the UK air at least when I start moving into India, they are nibbling now, but for the most part the lack of carriers is limiting their options. The Shokakus are Godly!

Ah, I should add the air & naval numbers, just for a reference. 12 Yamato, 30 CA C2, 7 Shokaku and 30+ Otsu. Loads of Older types as well, all original CV and BB units are still around. UK and US have I think 3-4 Carriers between them, and 40+ BBs. What they are doing is a mystery though, I never see them. I took a detour techwise to get the Otsu first, and I am really missing not having the Zero yet. Still 16 turns away. Don't get me wrong though, the Otsuas are worth a lot. I'll have to do a crash building program when I get the tech. The Nates have been doing all right for now, but I need the Zeros soon. 24 Vals, 40+ Kates, and around 35+ Nates are the bulk of my air force. Kates are simply amazing, and the Vals are hard hitters when they come into range.

Planning to keep driving into USSR as long as the T-34 doesn't show up, and maybe not even then; soviets are a major long term threat. Every time I have a peace treaty with them they build up like crazy. Germany does a bit too, but it isn't really equal. Will be able to finish Siberia for sure, no tanks there. Once China falls I need to figure out how I am going to crack into India. I've seen UK tanks around the last China cities, so I know there are some roads. Not looking forward to going up against the UK Cap and hordes of Matildas(they have like 140+ now). UK and US are loaded for bear, can't tell you how irritating it is to compare my seven lousy marines with the US's 75. UNFAIR! I have a small number of cities dedicated to producing ground units to keep pushing south as well. I had sooo many turns where my knickers were hanging in the breeze down there. Left the cities empty, I was so thin, just to keep attacking. Got away with it too, so far. Darwin started as a raid to grab a few workers, and I ended up taking the city. looking at the position, it is almost pefectly placed to be a trap for the UK forces. Going to chew them up there, while I try to get Moresby, Hawaii,and maybe the Solomons.

See? I just can't focus on one front; right from the start you expand, and it just keeps going. Just getting units to the front can be quite a chore.

Not being able to kill ground units with air has been very nice at times, but it has slowed down the advance a lot. China would have been a breeze with lethal land bombard.

I don't think I am ever going to get near the results Kelly Whiting has gotten,but I will keep pushing. It's still fun Rocoteh!

 

[hoffman44]

I have never seen ai make a first strike in civ 3. Although generally in standard epic games i would be ahead of ai by nuclear age. I am interested has anyone ever seen ai make a first strike?

Yes i have, though not against me against another AI, i was playing a large continent game on monarch, the two AI's both had 1 huge continent to them selves, and i has a Australia sized island.
Then one declared war on another then a few turns latter they started nuking each other. With tons of ICBMs.
I teamed up with one of them and was able to take half a continent virtually unopposed.

 

[Adler17]

Adler,

I appreciate that you have tried to get info on the "no-raze" patch
issue from Firaxis.
Thank you.

Probably Firaxis want Civ 3 just to fade away.

Rocoteh

That is also my impression. They have made their money with Civ III and want the people buy Civ IV despite of the flaws. Thus they try to stop civ III by making no support and try to stop the community of enhencing the game- instead of making Civ IV better!

Adler

 

[krwhitinglaw]

Sasebo: I've been playing strategy and role-playing games for over 30 years. I also am a West Point graduate, with a major in Strategic and Diplomatic History and spent a fair number of years in the Army (which, while in and of itself doesn't guarrantee competence at war-gaming - can, if you pay attention and learn, provide the basic tools necessary to understand how to win wars which can be transferred conceptually to war-gaming). I've been playing Civ III for many years and a lot (I only play one other game, a role-playing game, as often as Civ III - and I don't play any other computer games). I love these games and spend a great deal of time planning and thinking through my options. Once I find a game that I enjoy, I tend to focus on it and play it and only it for years - I've always been that way. So when it comes to strategy games, I have a lot of experience at playing them and calculating ways to win. My present Japan game is on Emporer level. I plan on playing Germany next.

Now, that doesn't answer why I often miss in-game tools and options. Well, mainly because I don't make many changes to my play-style once I've figured out how to do something. I rarely do new things or look through the variety of options to make the playing easier. It's a technology thing. I use technology - and find it extremely cool - but I'm not really interested in how it works (so, for instance, modifying code and things are so far beyond me that my eyes glaze over when you guys start talking about it - I won't ever change the victory conditions in the game "editor" since I believe that requires me to do things outside of the in-game windows and I worry I'll screw the whole thing up). Now having said that, once I find out about something and figure out how to do it - THEN I kick myself for an idiot for not having noticed it earlier. I did find the "naming" option in the advanced unit options screen last night and employed it and find the ability to actually name my units extremely cool though limited in this game given the number of units already in existence and the advanced state of the game - but I will use it in future (after years of playing Civ III I had never seen this option). I also checked the US order of battle and they are screwed (I had planted a spy with them some time ago but never had the $$ to do anything with him and didn't realize he would show me the order of battle on the military advisor's screen - it's the kind of idiotic mistake I often make in this kind of game). This ability is HUGE and will make my planning and operations much more effective (again, I've been playing civ III for years and never used this ability).

In any event, I enjoy myself.

Kelly Whiting

 

[krwhitinglaw]

Rocoteh: There's a SAM missile battery bug in Detroit too.

Sasebo: I agree fully with your comments about playing Japan - they're why I chose to play them in the first game I played. The strategic and operational problems confronting Japan are a wealth of fun to try and overcome. The limited, though not too limited, quality of units combined with the fact that enemies are in all directions, combined with the necessity to dominate the sea - which in turn requires domination of the air, the widespread theatres and large distances, the limited transport available early on. All of that makes playing Japan dicey and exciting.

I also agree with your comments on the units you mentioned. The Otsu submarines are fantastic. They are the equivalent of a heavy cruiser in offensive punch, have six hit points, can move six spaces, can see enemy submarines, and are cheap to build. I have well over 150 of them scattered around the globe. They are great units for scouting and for intercepting and shattering enemy offensive fleet actions prior to engagement by your main fleet.

The Vals you mentioned are my sentimental favorites among the aircraft. I love the animation for them. One of my favorite shows as a kid was Black Sheep Squadron - and the white single-engine aircraft with the red rising sun on the wings and fuselage brings back memories. The Kates are better aircraft of course (higher bombardment and much better range as well as much higher defense score if intercepted) and the sound for them is simply the best in the game that I have seen for aircraft. I love their animation as well. The Grace DBs you get later are far more ffective than the Kates, but not nearly so cool in animation. The Judy's have better numbers than the Vals, though, and this is unscientific, they appear, even with their better bombardment numbers, to do less damage and fail to hit more often than the Vals (I know that's an illusion - but it sure seems that way). I have actually planned and fought battles in such a way as to maximize the participation of my Vals. Stupid - I know - but still, it's fun for me.

The Nates - I moved to Zeros as fast as I could for the obvious numbers. But they served for me early in the game and did the job reasonably well. I lost some of them intercepting US aircraft targetting my carrier task force, but they intercepted and that's what I needed. I've deployed all my surviving Nates into defensive CAP mode in my border cities with Russia. My Zeros, and the even better Ki-84s, are now fully deployed and cover my actual offensive actions and my fleets. Their much greater range, combined with their better numbers, makes them extremely useful.

I also agree on the Shokakus (I've built 18 of them) - though I would note that I have very rarely used their great speed because I won't leave them uncovered by capital ship protection.

The Chi-Ha tanks are so-so I guess. I used them like crazy of course when they were the best mobile units I could build (I've got well over 150 divisions of them). The Chi-Nu's you can build later are much, much better. They not only have better numbers, they can actually attack twice while the Chi-Ha's are limited to once - even with a movement of 2.

Agreed on the Marines - it took me a while to learn what SNLF stood for - but they are awesome units. I've only lost 1 division of them during the game and they've been the spearhead in all of my amphib actions (of which there have been dozens) and occassionally on land as well. Their high hit points and multiple attacks when combined with their high offensive attack score makes them great units. I wish Japan could build them instead of waiting for Tokyo to produce one every few months.

I would advise targeting technology to get to the Betty bombers. The Peggys are better of course, though you get them much later, but the Bettys, with their enormous range, and reasonably high bombardment score - were the single most significant air units for me in this game. They held Panama when the US threw 35+ divisions of marines and paratroopers at it and I had 4 ground units there. They have shattered my enemies cities and ground units over and over again - and while they suffer from CAP, if you have enough of them, you can even the score with the following waves (cool animation for them too as an added bonus).

Kelly Whiting