Bill101

I had a game versus the Entente AI yesterday and won a Major Victory, but it was hard. I have played it before in PBEM a few times and am pretty sure that the Germans won a victory at least once, but cannot remember exactly what they captured. It is a tough scenario for them to win, but both sides have a low income so will struggle to repair losses.

Thanks Ivanov, I'll have another look at this because that does sound a little odd.

Hi Amadeus Vichy is formed by a TERRITORY script, and the script doesn't require that the new capital be a Capital City, i.e. it can use a town. But when designing countries in the editor, Capital Cities have to be used for all existing countries.

Agreed, congratulations to everyone for taking part and especially to Dragon for winning. I enjoyed following the AARs!

Yes, the mines will ultimately go back up to their maximum values, though obviously under Axis occupation they won't work as effectively. I don't think the script about the relocation should be triggered by the capture. I'll look into that, though was the Decision only taken the previous turn or was it, as I suspect, some turns before?

Hi Ivanov I have checked the scripts for the French mines near the Spanish border and they should only fire if Loos or Briey are captured (respectively, i.e. one resource script fires for each location). Is this definitely not happening ok? What the relocation of industry represents in both campaigns is of key technical staff and machinery, possibly including more of the workforce too but they aren't as essential. Hence the mines remain in their original location and will, if liberated, provide income to France or the USSR respectively. But not without delay due to scorched earth. In Storm over Europe when the USSR is presented with the Decision to transfer industry, if they say yes then there should be a supply script which damages the Ukrainian industry, to represent the dislocation caused by this. However, on reviewing it there is a small error which would prevent this script from firing so we'll get that corrected. So I'm glad you've mentioned this and that does need fixing. Bill

Hi everyone The deadline for entering will be Wednesday the 25th November, so that games should be able to get underway by the following weekend. But if anyone joins later then they will be put on the reserve list, so that if anyone drops out then they may get a chance to play too. As to which patch to play, it won't matter too much for at least the first round, and then a decision will have to be made depending on whether or not we have the next patch out by then. Billl

The way I understand it they do negate each other, in which case it is the one who puts the most pressure on the country who will be able to sway it towards their side.

I like the fighting spirit!

I know that a turn played on 1.03 can be loaded up and played on 1.031, but after that it can no longer be played on 1.03.

Thanks! This should be introduced in the next patch, Germany would automatically suffer a penalty of 50 National Morale points per turn, rising to 75 if Holland is conquered by the Entente. Going from memory I'm pretty sure that diplomatic pressure was put on the Dutch by the British government, so rather than have Blockade trigger points, I decided to opt for that option here as a way of stopping food imports via Holland to Germany. One of my reasons being to ensure that Entente diplomacy could play a significant role in the game.

Hi Ludi From my side it's really a case of working out a clear mechanism that would cater for varied circumstances while also being fairly straightforward to implement, and also be better than the current set up. The current set up does have the advantage of being clear cut, i.e. the result cannot be argued about, even if the details of how it was attained can, such as whether the National Morale penalty/bonus of various events are set at the right levels. SC has evolved a lot in the last ten years and will continue to do so, so even if an implementation of something more subtle isn't immediately around the corner it may come with time! They are always my favourite games. I remember a PBEM of Fate of Nations I played earlier in the year, where the Central Powers won it in what was literally the last turn, and just by the skin of their teeth too. I'm pretty sure that the scripts will always fire at the end of the turn of the Major that has dropped to zero, so they will be able to fire off a last blast before pulling out of the war. I'll have a think about this, because you're right in that the more stringent the blockade, the more annoyed the US could be. Ukraine certainly does boost Germany's NM, providing it has a pro-Central Powers leaning. I hadn't included Romania but will investigate that. This pretty much matches my experience too actually. I find it a tough nut which is sometimes cracked. Agreed on this being a fascinating thread, and it's great to read the last comments, thanks!

Hi Sharkman I'm certainly thinking about it! Questions in my mind are what it would represent in real terms, the game mechanics (i.e. would it be a one-off payment or something ongoing), and whether it adds anything if both sides can do it, i.e. would it just delay the inevitable. An alternative, which would be a lot easier to implement, would be to just increase the MPP/National Morale offset of the original Decisions, i.e. doubling the cost for double the benefit. It's one I'll mull over, like a lot of the other ideas in this great thread. Bill

It might pay to experiment, because resource_level_sprites.bmp does appear to have the ability to show different colours per nation, but I'm not sure without testing it out where these show in the game. But this may well be the file to try! However, resource_strength_sprites.bmp (the file I looked at earlier) doesn't have enough options to allow Majors to have more than one colour per side. It all depends on exactly where and how these show up in the game.

I've been reading von Lettow-Vorbeck's account of the campaign along with Edward Paice's Tip and Run, and the force sizes involved are incredibly small. Brigades and battalions would generally be the appropriate scale.

Not for each Major, but the colour for the side itself could be changed, e.g. the Entente's colour could be changed.

To clarify regarding Ludi's post, the results of diplomatic efforts are worked out independently of events that could affect it, such as the blockade or unrestricted attacks. As to the Victory Conditions, they work on a "first past the post" system and while I agree that taking into account other factors could make them feel more correct, at the same time the current set of Victory Conditions are rather complicated to work through so adding in extra factors will take some careful thought. One thing that is a bit hard to take into account is the ebb and flow of battle, i.e. whether someone is retreating or advancing at a certain point in time. We can have something that takes into account the control of a location, e.g. if the Germans hold Verdun, but if the frontline crosses the frontier so that the French hold some of Germany while the Germans hold some French territory, it could get a bit messy. Plus the situation in the east would need to be taken into account. I'll give this some thought, but a simpler solution might be to introduce a Score like we used to have at the end of SC1, so that while Cpl Steiner would be shown as the victor, the score would show that it was a very close run thing indeed, and far from being a clear cut victory.

To answer Peter's question I've just been taking a look at the scripts and if the blockade is imposed in full, i.e. every single trigger point is used, it would inflict 290 National Morale point losses on Germany per turn. If nothing else happened during the game, this would take 156 turns to reduce Germany into submission. The USA has a 2% chance per turn the blockade is imposed, no matter how much or how little, of complaining, and this would swing the US 1-2% away from joining the Entente. It may be that this isn't enough and the % chance can be increased. Though I've just had another idea relating to Germany's National Morale that might be worth considering. At the moment there are National Morale penalties to Germany if Holland isn't pro-Central Powers and neutral. What is lacking is a National Morale bonus to Germany when this is the case, and this would offset the blockade more while also raising the importance of imports via a neutral Holland, thus making diplomatic efforts by both sides in Holland probably the most important of the game.

Florence Green, who served in the Women's Royal Air Force is still alive, at the ripe old age of 110: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Green

Von Lettow-Vorbeck's campaign in East Africa... interesting idea!

At the moment it needs to have some testing done because I've spent a lot of time on scripts relating to various things and if they don't work properly then the details of what they relate to could well change quite significantly, so nearer the time for release it might be more appropriate.

Ok, thanks, I've made a number of changes that will provide the Ottomans with a bit more protection in this area.

Thanks, you've soundly won the game and I've found the reason for the victory screen not kicking in. I'll get working on a solution now.

Hi Sharkman Historically, the British spent much of the war considering a landing in this area because they saw, like you, the impact on Ottoman communications and supply in the Middle East that such a landing would have. Leaving the historic background to one side, before I start implementing any solutions, can I ask if this is happening in games against the AI or in multiplayer? I can see how the resupply is an issue, but Railguns, Airships and Bombers can all reduce the supply of a resource and if used right could make this strategy a painful one for the perpetrator. The only problem for the Ottomans being that they don't tend to have these weapons early on. Landing the unit near Karaman costs over 100 MPPs, and I wonder if were there a possibility of finding an enemy unit already at the target location whether it would change your decision to invest in this move?

Those locations are triggers for unrestricted warfare and will act as such for submarines too if they are placed there. The only way to avoid this is either not to opt to use unrestricted, or to avoid these locations.