Bill101

What's happening is that they are able to assist their ally to defend their country, but they won't be able to advance from France into Germany without declaring war on Germany.

Hi Templer I'm glad you're enjoying it! If you press the L key on your keyboard it should show them again.

Hi Alaric In the WWII campaign National Morale won't have the same really important role as it does in the WWI campaigns. For example, capturing towns and cities in WWI is far more important to National Morale than it is in 1939 Storm over Europe, so Russia's NM won't fall by as much in 1939 Storm over Europe as it would in a 1914 campaign. Generally, WWII was more about total conquest so we have modified the settings accordingly. I hope this helps. Bill

Hi Dalt I think what we need to know here in order to be able to help is how you've created your mod. The best way to make a mod of the main campaign is to: Open up the campaign and choose File and Save As. Give it a new name and you now have a copy of the campaign you can edit. Is this what you need to know? Bill

Agreed, though this is something I've been contemplating over the last few weeks based on my own gaming experience, as I have a number of PBEM games on the go too. That said, there are alternatives to capping the tech at level 3, such as modifying the actual benefits of increases per level. No final decision has been made yet but this subject is on my mind.

Thanks, knowing that has finalized my decision to order a copy!

Ok thanks, it's good to know. I'll go hunting for a copy now!

What theaters does it cover, i.e. is it just Europe or does it give good information on Africa, the Middle East, China even? I'd also be interested to know the level of unit information, because from a scenario designer's point of view, so many maps are lacking in that sort of important information.

Agreed. That's a very large income which is why I've suggested capping IT at level 3 in the other thread. There's only so much industrial mobilization that could go on. Glad to hear it, as now it's out I'm also having a lot of fun playing it!

I probably wouldn't pull back from the Abbeville-Amiens line unless it were really essential, because as long as you're there you can threaten Le Havre. Capturing Le Havre does cause the British a bit of a problem because they'll then be obliged to use the next port along, Cherbourg, for sending troops to France. Once the British are relying on Cherbourg I usually find that they are effectively divided by geography from the French forces further south. Putting a lot of chits in Trench Warfare early on really will help you to consolidate your positions, wherever they might be, and if you can take the triangle Le Havre-Rouen-Caen then Paris will almost be within your striking range. It certainly tends to make the Entente rather nervous! I wouldn't, but I have to admit that I've always smashed through Belgium and into France as fast as possible, as frequently I am not stopped until my forces are near Paris, sometimes with my spearheads to the west of Paris when a mixture of the enemy and a lack of supplies will probably bring my advance to a halt. For a while anyway!

I still recall my first ever PBEM game of SC1 with a mixture of fondness and embarrassment, because I played as the Allies and lost so badly that I think I only destroyed one German unit in the whole game! :eek: But I really learned so much from it that I went straight back into battle after that and was soon doing much better. All tech does have a decreasing chance of progression the higher the level, but I have been considering for a little while capping Industrial Technology at level 3 in future due to the difference it can make to the balance of the game. Reading this thread is inclining me more and more to that conclusion!

The chance is indeed remote, but if one side or the other want to invest a lot of MPPs into this then it can be done. The real deciding factor is whether it's worth the investment, because every penny spent on diplomacy in this area could probably be better spent either on diplomacy elsewhere, or on more weapons of war. I did bring Switzerland onto my side in one game, but I'm really not sure that it was worth all the effort involved because where I'd assumed that it would give me a good opportunity to strike into France, I really struggled to make any headway. Providing the French hold the Fortress of Belfort, then the only other way into France via Switzerland is in the Besançon-Geneva area. But a few Entente units there can easily hold any advance up. If France is already on the verge of collapse then bringing Switzerland could well be their tipping point, but if France is at that stage then the extra units you've deprived yourself of to do it may well have done it anyway.

You are 100% correct about "marathon instead of sprint thinking". Though at the start I think the Germans do need to act fast and boldly. Grab as much French territory as possible and if you've captured enough before you have to halt then you've a very good chance of winning the war. There are lots of different opinions on whether or not the Schlieffen plan could have worked. It is also said that the Germans knew that it wouldn't knock France out of the war, but they hoped that it would give them a good and strong position in France, from which to either consolidate and slowly batter down the French, or to bring them to the negotiating table. Who knows, maybe if French fighting spirit had been like it was in 1940 then it might well have worked, but the France of 1914 was a whole different matter...

Thanks for the link! I've been enjoying the ANZAC series on youtube over the last few weeks, and if you've not seen it I strongly recommend it. Just search for ANZAC episode and you'll find it.

I always invest in the divers or torpedo boats. You need a little luck, but very occasionally they will cause a lot of damage to an enemy ship. Causing trouble in India, well that depends on my mood at the time!

I still enjoyed the book, but you're right that the actual campaigns aren't really covered compared with the social themes. But they were an eye opener for me given the paucity of information on Serbia in most books on the war. A British woman, Flora Sandes, did serve as a sergeant in the Serbian army and published one or maybe more books on her time there. I think that one might be available on the internet archive page.

Hi CSS I'm a little confused, should one or more of the references to WWI in the above, be WWII?

Ah well, that's good news. I was looking into this when I saw that you've fixed this, so I'm glad.

Hi Bossy If I've understood you correctly, yes, but my head is spinning a little too!!! The facing of the trenches is important, so providing all the units have trenches facing towards the enemy, the front line will be continuous.

Ok, thanks. I'll have to run some tests and see what can be done. Thanks for mentioning this.

Hi Cantona It's probably the case that this was only introduced with the WWI engine, but territory scripts certainly can now create countries. If you look at the main WWI campaigns you'll see that quite a lot of new countries are set to be created by territory scripts, linked in with Decision events. Give it a go and let us know whether or not this fixes it.

Agreed, that would be the easiest solution and I'll put this on my list.

Which port is it, a strength 5 one or a strength 10 one?

Is he not taking damage as he pounds the port? It should be the case, and if not then we can bump up the port defence stats. I generally find it a little painful to do this, and not necessarily worth the cost depending on the situation.

Perhaps replace the surrender_1 script with a territory script? Without testing it I'm not sure whether that will work, but it's worth a go.