CATS2010

In late March 1940 I sail the Heemskerck from Amsterdam to Bristol after the invasion of Netherlands. I would have expected the ship to remain in Bristol after the Netherland surrender as historically she was towed to Portsmouth and completed there. I have noticed it seems a bit random as to whether ships of countries that surrender (located in allied ports) remain in service with the Allies or not. The vessels of the Dutch East Indies seem to remain in Allied colours after the fall of the DEI so long as they're not in a DEI port. I think there is a strong case for the Heemskerck to remain as an allied vessel after the fall of Netherland if she has been sailed to England. What do you think?

Hi, If AoD ever comes off the back burner, I have one more small fix for you. I have found I can't invade the Maldives as there is nothing to land on! I only noticed the anomaly when the UK surrendered while the USA had a ship in the port of Addu Atoll. When I sunk it, the port remained allied. I sent a landing craft to it but couldn't land. Cheers, Bill

Here is another possible improvement: After the axis defeats Canada, it needs to immediately garrison Vancouver or the USA invades and occupies the west coast of Canada. Presently one can only operate units from say Quebec as far as Edmonton and then use the East Canada to West Canada loop to transfer to Calgary and finally operate from there to Vancouver. Why shouldn't it be possible to operate directly from Quebec to Vancouver? After all, it's permitted to operate from say Brest to Vladivostock which is twice the distance. Regards

As we are talking about fixes and improvements, I have discovered a way of handicapping the UK and almost ensuring an Axis victory. It requires Germany to invade the UK, taking London and, after the UK government transfers to Manchester, taking Glasgow. This results in the British convoys being cut. Then you surround Manchester but never take it. With the AI as your opposition, the UK government never relocates to Australia or Canada and seems to have little income. Not sure if you can do the same thing with a live opponent. Perhaps the Decision Event when triggered, needs to take effect next turn regardless of whether Manchester is taken or not. Another thing I noticed which seems a little odd, is that when the US drops its first A-bomb on Hiroshima all Japans convoys get blocked for months, when there are multiple other ports that Japan could use. Maybe it would be better to have alternate ports that convoys could go to if the primary port is destroyed. This should apply to the UK, US, Germany and USSR as well. If it's easier, convoys from different countries could use different ports. i.e. convoys from Canada use Glasgow, Australia uses Liverpool etc. If I think of anything else I will add it here. Thanks for a great game.

Hi Bill, thank you for promp and detailed reply. Perhaps an easy fix would be to delay the decision event to say Sep 41 after the return of the Campbeltown from the Royal Netherlands Navy, afterall the reason for the raid was I believe, to stop the Germans from using the dry dock at St Nazaire for servicing the Tirpitz. Perhaps one of the forums historians can confirm a date when the decision was taken to proceed with Operation Chariot. Anyway I understand that modifications on the Campbeltown didn't start till Jan 42 so the Decision event could be left till then, in which case it would not fire in my game as Bristol fell long before that. Regards, Bill

I am enjoying AOD very much but am a little puzzled why the Campbeltown Raid is still proceeding in Mar 42 when in my game the Axis has already conquered the UK & Gibraltar. The reason & means to conduct the raid are both now gone so I would have expected this script not to run.

Apologies if this subject has been raised before but I haven't seen any discussion on it. I have found I can have raiders at sea for years without them having to return to port. They occasionally loose a little strength to the odd storm but unless they meet another warship they seem to be able to remain at sea indefinitely. This would appear to be a little unrealistic. What do other forum members think?

Further to partisan units in Russia, I have noticed in V1.02 that after the defeat of the Soviet Union by Germany, all the partisans in the occupied USSR disappear, yet this did not happen in V1.01. All other partisans in China, India etc are still active post defeat in V1.02. Has anyone seen this?

Hi Hubert, Thanks for solving the mystery. It begs the question however, why the ships in loops are not counted? As ships can disappear into loops for up to 6 turns it is quite difficult to keep track of allied naval strength. Would it be possible to count ships in transfer loops in a future revision? Thanks again for your quick response

Hi Hubert, Thank you for taking the time to reply. I am running v1.01 AoD and have not made any mods to the downloaded files. The date is Nov 15 1946 and the USA naval strength is reported as 3. When I push the "end turn" button, the AI does it thing and 3 USA navy vessels appear off the east coast of Japan. Dec 14 1946 and its my turn so I attack the USA navy ships & 2 or 3 more appear. Maybe there is a problem with the reported USA naval strength in the previous move, and the AI isn't creating 11 new ships. Anyway, if you want to investigate futher, I am happy to send you the saved file before the miraculous event and you can see it for yourself as the AI appears to create 11 new ships every time. I am pleased you are prepared to look at the Darwin railway thing as it would make a difference to defence of Australia.

I have been enjoying playing AOD for the first time and have yet to complete my first game. I thought I may have found an anomaly with the AI in that, according to the military strength reports, the USA navy strength increased from 3 to 14 in 1 turn and a number of the new ships were created off the coast of Japan! My next thought was to consult the manual, but it seems to contradict itself. On page 84 it says "While friendly information will always be available, some enemy information will be hidden when the game is played with the fog of war option selected." As I play with fog of war option selected, this would explain the miraculous addition of 11 ships and even more amazing, the creation of at least some of those ships at sea! Then on page 85 it says "New! This graph includes all units, even those that cannot be seen under Fog of War,". The AI seems to be playing by the first statement, so you cannot trust military strength reports for the enemy, therefore the page 85 statement quoted above should be removed from the manual. On a completely different subject, I notice on the map of Australia, a railway line is shown from Alice Springs to Darwin. This line was only completed in 2004. During WWII the railway from Darwin to Alice Springs was only built as far as Larrimah, 500km south of Darwin, leaving a 1000km gap to the southern rail head at Alice Springs. During the war, supplies were transported by road between the two railheads, which would have been a real problem if Australia had been invaded via Darwin by Japan (The most likely invasion route). This railway line should be partially removed to reflect the reality at that time. Finally, I think AOD is a brilliant game and I congratulate the creators on doing a fine job.

Happy to send the saved file before France surrendered but you'll need to give instruction on how to save it to an email. You're on the right track with morale. For some reason it had dropped from a high of 126% on 20th July 41 (liberation of Brussels)to 4% 0n 29 March 42 despite allied (including French) successes.

Thank you for at least considering a change in the future, maybe.

On 14 Sept 1941 the Brits with the help of the USSR take Berlin after previously taken Munich. On 28 Sept 1941 Germany surrenders. France having never been defeated, re-equips and moves on Milan. (The Italians are still fighting on). The Soviets withdraw their forces to the far East and declare war on Japan on 9 Nov 1941. Meanwhile, the British forces including the French and Canadian Tank Groups move south and eventually on the same date take Venice. On 1 Mar 1942 the the French Tank Group finally takes Milan meeting the rest of the French forces approaching from the West. 29 March 1942 I reenforce the French and British and move the British forces that don't require reenforcement south ready for an attack on Rome. I then give the AI its turn. 12 April 1942 it come up with "France Surrenders", then "France plunders 280MPP" and finally "Allies Lirerate France". Didn't see that one coming! France (an Ally) surrenders to themselves and I loose all my French forces. That's certainly a new and novel way of France getting out of a fight! Any thoughts?

Ok, so you have answered my first question, although if the war doesn't play out as the real one did (and that's the point of the game isn't it?), then the US does come in to play and then the land based transfer arrows detract from the game. Now how about an answer to my second and third questions about the sea based transfer arrows.

The choice to split the map through the middle of the USA has always seemed bizarre to me. This split gives an unfair advantage to the USA in that to defeat the USA one has to attack it from both the east and west coasts. All other countries can be defeated by an attack on just one front. Why wasn't the map split done down the international date line so no country is split and therefore no unfair advantage. All land based transfer arrows would be eliminated. While you're at how about making the sea based transfer arrows fairer. Currently axis units that come through the Panama canal have to travel south across the equator before they can go north to the west coast! Why are the sea based transfer arrows exclusive to either allies or axis anyway? Why not make avaiable to either side just like reality?

Thanks for your explanations. I would have thought if the Free French can overthrow the government of Vichy France it would be capable of overthrowing the collaborators in Bordeaux, Nantes/Brest and allow easier supply to my army in Paris. I have now abandoned the game and restarted with the new knowledge of French morale.

Thanks for the explanation guys, I guess I have to keep my French corps in Marseilles to keep the Italians out in future. Funny thing happened next though. I moved my isolated BEF army into the still unoccupied Paris. Gave the AI its turn and the following messages came up in turn: "Allies liberate France", "Vichy France Overthrown by Free French", "Vichy France joins Allies","Free French Govt in Exile Formed in London". Why would the Free French Govt form in London when they have overthrown Vichy France? Why does France still remain split? Why do the ports/cities of Bordeaux and Brest/Nantes remain under axis control even though the Allies have Liberated France and the nearest Axis forces are north of Paris?

I find very strange that Italy can defeat France without taking Paris. It is 21 July 1940 and the allies have a French HQ (Gamelin) in Paris strength 10 partially surrounded by two French armies, a French corps and a Polish corps, the BEF army and the 1st FAF fighters. Italy has taken Marseilles the previous month. French morale has dropped to 0 after being at 24% the previous turn. I then give the AI its turn and the French do not loose any more forces and the French HQ holds firm in Paris. Suddenly the message flashes up "Vichy French Government Installed". It doesn't seem right that the French can hold out so long and then suddenly surrender especially after destroying (with the help of the Brits) 3 German tank groups, 2 armies and a corps. I would have thought they would have been pretty proud! Just had to vent!

I am presently playing Allied AI 1939: Alliance of Evil and for the first time am in a position to defeat the USA, however I cannot move my Soviet forces from the west coast to the east. The unit either disappears or are spat back out on the west coast with the message "Loop Fail". Units place on the "to Mexico" arrow don't go anywhere! I am using V1.04 and I never had any trouble with this feature when I was using V1.01. Does anyone else have this problem and is there a fix?