Bill101

The enemy's thrust on Saarlouis has been repulsed!! French units couldn't retreat quick enough when we launched our counterattack. Even our cavalry were unable to keep pace with the speed at which some of the French retreated! But many were too slow to get away, and French casualties have risen considerably over the last few days. So, what will Napoleon III do now, maintain his forces near the border, or retire on Metz and await developments? In the meantime, the Crown Prince's 3rd Army have captured the fortress of Bitche, and are now advancing south towards Strasbourg.

One thing to bear in mind in the discussion is that a Chinese Tank Group will not have the same combat capability as a British or US one serving in South East Asia or the Pacific. Nor for that matter will a Japanese Tank Group, as they have slightly lower combat values in this game.

Hi Eisenhammer I have taken your suggestions on board and added/rerouted all the rivers you've mentioned, ready for a patch. The changes you made didn't actually mess up any scripts, but what happens in the editor is that if you change features on the map, then some or all of the scripts will need to be rechecked to ensure that they still work with the new changes. You can add them in your side, but you would need to save the campaign with a new name, and then when you save it having made the changes, select no to check the scripts. Hit the Update* button, it might take a few minutes but it will then be able to save again, and then get playing with your new changes in place!

Thanks, we'll take a look at that.

Hi You are right in thinking that 2(4) means that current entrenchment is 2 with a maximum value of 4. This is dependent on your research into Trench Warfare, where at level 0 a trench has a maximum entrenchment value of 1. This is what is showing on the trench when you look at its properties, but with research (and/or entrenching on resources) the maximum can surpass that. It is probably therefore best to view what's in the properties screen as the base entrenchment value without any bonuses added from research, the terrain, or the resource you may be occupying. I hope that makes more sense? Bill

Hi numdydar I've checked the scripts and this will happen if the Allies still hold Cairo, but capturing that will end it. For the Diplomacy, one thing you can do is to view the Reports in game. These will show some of the things your opponent has been up to, not only unit purchases but also research and how much it has been investing in diplomacy. True, it doesn't show you in what countries the diplomacy has been invested, but you can at least gauge the scale of its investments from it.

Our forces are now marching to the sound of the guns!! The Crown Prince is making up for his late start and has now fully isolated Bitche. Would the new French commanders like to make a fight for it? Meanwhile, our scouts report a huge concentration of French forces in front of Metz. We are aware of 8 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry division and some artillery. Are we building up to the first great big clash of the war?

Interesting thoughts numdydar, thanks, and I just want to explain about the Dutch East Indies, as they are neutral because up until 1941 their oil is important to the Japanese economy, and they are providing Japan with income via a convoy. Their neutrality also limits the forces the Allies can build up in the area prior to Japan going to war with the UK and USA. Thus a new front opens up, literally, for both sides when Japan takes the war to the Pacific.

The French are defending their frontier!!! Well, that is a surprise, are they mad? Is Napoleon III dreaming of repeating the victories of his late uncle again? He must know that it all ended badly at Waterloo, with the arrival of the Prussian army. The battle of Sarreguemines is on, as we batter two French divisions. Because we only have our lead elements present, we might not be able to force a decision here for the moment, and the enemy will have time to fall back should they so wish. It depends on their courage of course! Von Moltke also provides us with some advice this turn:

Here is the situation at the start of August, before starting my turn: Worth and Froeschwiller are now in my hands, and the fortress of Bitche will soon be isolated. During my turn we are surprised to locate some more French units, a cavalry division at Puttelange and an infantry division near Saar-Union. Now, what are they up to? The Crown Prince has finally arrived to take command of our 3rd Army, and we are in even more exalted company as the High Command arrives:

Hi Michel If there are any adjustments you can suggest to the Assault on Democracy's map of France then please do so. Thanks Bill

Please do keep us updated, and not just you of course, for we appreciate all feedback to help ensure balance is as good as can be. It will certainly be interesting to see how the Japanese fare once the war widens to the Pacific and beyond, as that will cost a lot in MPPs.

Eleven more divisions deploy for battle this turn, so we now have more than forty units in the field! This gives us more units than the French now, and we have another seventeen due to complete their mobilization before the end of August. First sight of the enemy has been made, as our cavalry reconnaissance reports an enemy infantry division near the fortress of Bitche. We have a decision to make this turn:

And could easily end up regretting their aggressive posture if it isn't done with care!! I speak from bitter experience.

It is the 29th July and both von Steinmetz who commands our 1st Army at Trier, and Friederich Karl who commands the 2nd Army are now in the field, organizing their forces and ordering them all to march in one direction: the border with France! But it is the troops belonging to our 3rd Army, under the command of the Crown Prince, who are the first to enter France. The first French towns are now in our hands: Lauterbourg and Wissembourg, with no sign of even a single French soldier to oppose us. In fact, there's no sign of the Crown Prince yet actually taking up his command, but I'm sure he'll be along soon! Froeschwiller is a little to the west of our lead infantry division.

Hi Gustophus The first thing to do is to change all the settings in the campaign.ini file that is within your new campaign's folder to: #CUSTOM_BITMAPS= 1 #CUSTOM_INTERFACE= 1 #CUSTOM_SOUND= 1 #CUSTOM_LOCALIZATION= 1 This will enable you to amend any of these things, in your campaign. Now open up your campaign's localization.txt file, and also the main game's localization.txt file that is within the game's main folder. Copy over the lines from the latter that you will need in the former. For instance, if you want a new country, select a country name that you won't be using (e.g. Poland) and copy that line over to your campaign's localization.txt file. The change it to read: #POLAND= Viet Minh The next time you open up your campaign (you won't notice any changes you make to this while you're in the campaign) you'll see that Poland is now called Viet Minh! The next stage will be to copy over all the relevant files from the game's Bitmaps folder into your campaign's Bitmaps folder (you'll probably need to create one if you haven't already). You can then edit these in a painting program. It might pay to look at the file structure of the campaigns that come with AoD before venturing too far, as putting files in the right place is crucial. There is a Help function within the editor, and of course this forum for questions when you get stuck! Good luck! Bill

The artillery is both included as a divisional asset, and also included at army level so that concentrations of artillery can be used.

We'll get Paris's weather zone fixed, thanks for reporting that. In China, are you able to use the engineers to make strong positions in order to buy time and make the Japanese suffer when they attack? I generally wouldn't suggest going for the fortification type that takes the longest to build. I'd also recommend switching Xue's HQ setting to Manual or Auto-Assist so that you can make sure he's controlling the units that most matter. Pending another being bought and arriving to fight alongside him, if possible.

Hi Sanderz I just want to clarify something in the discussion on supply and resources. The supply of a town or city will fall from 10 to 5 if it is cut off from a friendly Major's Capital, Industrial Center or a Primary Supply Center, even without the presence of 4 enemy units adjacent to it. Correction: supply will fall to 3 if cut off from any of the above, unless the town or city is connected to a Secondary Supply Center, in which case it will only fall to 5. If the town or city is a friendly Major's Capital, Industrial Center or a Primary Supply Cente then its supply value will not fall due to being cut off, but the besieging rule will work on it. This besieging rules doesn't apply to forts in these scenarios because they are deemed to have a stock of supplies and munitions within them. We also exempted Capitals, because otherwise such a reduction could have impacts elsewhere which would require some significant engine changes to prevent. Plus once the enemy is near a capital a decisive battle usually occurs, so it will only be on rare occasions when it applies. Plus as administrative centers they may have more potential for resisting - which is why your idea of them only losing strength every other turn is an attractive one. Bill

Yes and no, because the Prussian artillery integral to their divisions being better, Prussian divisions are better than French ones unless the French ones are equipped with Chassepots. The Chassepot is an equalizer. French units without Chassepots do not therefore do so well, and as new units have to be formed to fight the invader, the French player will be faced with the decision as to whether to expend income on equipping units with Chassepots, or with fielding more units and upgrading them later. If there is enough income later to do so! At the start, the French units are more experienced due to their being a large number of long service troops in the ranks, so all in all, a French division equipped with Chassepots is slightly better than a Prussian one. Except, that their leaders are worse. Take that into account and France faces a difficult situation!

Please don't delete the original Global Conflict, as you need that installed to play any of the expansions.

While our forces are continuing to mobilize, and in my case, move up to the frontier, I will just mention that while the Prussians are very powerful, they do need to be careful all the same. Battles are brutal, and casualties can be very high, so an ill planned move by one of the three Prussian armies could easily result in the French winning one or two battles. This might not win them the war, at least not on its own, but an over confident and rash Prussian general may soon be a dead Prussian general! Fortunately, my Prussian cavalry are better at scouting than their French counterparts, so this does give me an edge in the campaign, and hopefully it'll help me avoid getting into any nasty scrapes.

Hi Sanderz With Operational Movement, if you say yes to paying it and then look around the map for where to move the unit to, you can just cancel the Operational Movement by right clicking anywhere on the map. Left clicking moves the unit, while right clicking cancels the Op Move.

Yes, unless the Allies have also carried out any strategic bombing then that will be the Malta effect. It is random, so it will be best to stay close to your HQs until supply improves - and repair them asap if they are damaged.

The war is commencing and von Moltke has some advice for us: Here is the situation at the end of the first turn. It is the 25th July 1870 and every turn covers one day. Our armies are mobilizing and plenty more units will be deploying for battle in the next week, so that by early August we should be in a position to cross the French border in strength. Shown below are our current dispositions, along with potential objectives in France: Turns are very quick to play and it is our intention to provide updates every few days in campaign time, sometimes more frequently when the action heats up!