Narayan Sengupta

Kuniworth, Thanks. I'll take a look. Night, Are you saying that this campaign is easier than the stock Fall Weiss campaign? When are you invading England? I can probably make the existing corps more entrenched, and maybe add some more Allied units, but then I have to worry about balance in the other direction. Still, I appreciate all of the feedback. I'm going to be making some revisions. Thanks, Narayan

That's astounding Bill! Wow. Narayan

Thanks Carl. Please e-mail me your campaigns. I would like to host them at my site if you don't mind. Narayan newfrontiers@mindspring.com

Hi Carl, I have been working on a WWI campaign for several weeks. Yet again, I see that you have already made a masterpiece! I have been working on a Unit_Sprite.bmp and slight map upgrade. But I would like to have anyone who plays my campaign work with your campaign and your fantastic graphics work. So what I was thinking is creating a zip that would include my campaign file, a few bmps, and then have any players download your graphics. They would then install my Unit_Sprites for my campaign or yours as they wish. What do you think? Narayan

Hi Kuniworth, You have done your research very well. When you say 2000 MPPs, you mean including already purchased units? Thank you, Narayan

Thanks! Narayan [ July 24, 2003, 02:29 PM: Message edited by: Narayan Sengupta ]

Hi Kuniworth, Are these numbers specific for my campaign or the other campaigns? I don't want to mess around too much with play-balance. Narayan

Night, That's good. This kind of discussion helps, especially since you are being nice about it. Part of the aforementioned problems might be offset by doing another Carl trick and setting certain American or Canadian MPP hexes as occupied by someone else? Narayan

Logan, Please send them to me too. newfrontiers@mindspring.com. Carl, What is the link to your website? I'll add a link to it from mine. Narayan

CvM, I have been starting a WWI graphics mod, but yours are probably much better since I'm pretty bad with graphics. Would you mind if I took a look at yours? If not, then where would I find them? Thanks, Narayan

Thanks for the feedback Gentlemen, Kuniworth, I'll look into the MPP for Russia. Tony, I have no idea why it would be incompatible with 1.07. If it is for any reason, then please let me know. Bill, Thank you for your kind offer to exchange ideas. I have done all of those except for adding land units to Egypt. Hadn't even thought of that. That's a great idea. I may do that in future updates of this campaign. I did add more units to the British Mediterranean fleet outside of Alexandria and elsewhere, however. Narayan

Here are some details: Many units are under construction, and are represented as such by being very much understrength. It is your job to build them up if you feel it necessary, or to leave them to languish and never be completed as often happened during the war when priorities changed. There are also older units (many older battleships, for example), and they are also understrength (typically in around 5 or 6 strength). The French OOB is now much more accurate, since I have added all of the Armies that were actually present at the outbreak of the war, General Bilotte, three French Air Wings, and a small reserve armor corps representing the three DLMs - the world's first armored divisions. But all of the French armies are rated at between 2 to 4 representing how understrength they were when the war broke out. It is up to you to try to make them up to full strength in time for the German onslaught. Chances are you won't. Instead of being able to delay the German AI indefinitely (I can usually do it for a year or more with the stock campaign), France will probably fall within a historically consistent six weeks. Ditto with Poland. Its units have been decreased in strength, also to reflect issues in mobilization. Good luck holding on to Poland for more than two turns. I have also done this with the other nations that are activated. I have added just about every ship that was either commissioned or under construction in September, 1939. So the Bismarck, Tirpitz and Graf Zeppelin are all represented, but at varying strengths (4, 2, 1 respectively) representing where they were in the construction cycle. Germany: Bismarck, Tirpitz, Graf Zeppelin*, Scharnhorst, Gniesenau, Prinz Eugen, Hipper/Blucher, Graf Spee and several submarines (nine wolf packs in all of varying strength under construction), more air units, more land units. France: Bearn, Jean Bart, Lorraine, Bretagne, and several other battleships and one submarine, Armies 1 through 9, General Bilotte, etc. UK: Prince of Wales, King George V, Howe, Anson, Duke of York, Rodney, Nelson, Repulse, Renown, Hood, Malaya, Queen Elizabeth, Valiant, Warspite, Barham, Revenge, Royal Oak, Resolution, Ramillies, Royal Sovereign, Illustrious, Eagle, Hermes, Furious, Ark Royal, Victorious, Courageous, various other battleships and carriers, Fighter Commands 10 through 13, etc.

Hi Everyone, I don't know if I ever notified you all about this one or not, but it's a revision of Hubert Cater's excellent "1939 Fall Weiss", but with a lot more units... I completed it back in April, 2003 and have been meaning to tell you all about it, but it has somehow slipped my mind. "1939 Fall Weiss Revisted" Campaign is an upgrade to the excellent stock "1939 Fall Weiss Campaign" by Hubert Cater. I have used references such as the "Atlas of World War II", "Jane's Fighting Ships", "Hitler's Luftwaffe" and many more to add units that were historically correct. I really hope you like it. If you do, then please let me know. Narayan [ July 21, 2003, 06:31 PM: Message edited by: Narayan Sengupta ]

Night and Shaka, You're right. Not all of the problems can be overcome, but many can simply with suggestions from the great minds that are here. After reading your feedback on Roman Legions, I'm thinking that Napoleonic may be possible after all, something that I wasn't all that sure about before. I'll still have to turn Germany into France to take advantage of the alliances and better generals. Narayan

Thanks Carl! BTW, I may need one or two play-testers, in case anyone is interested. Narayan

Edwin, Thanks for the further information. That is good to know. Shaka, Thanks for the encouragement. Night, Shaka is right. I do realize that there are constraints, but it's still fun to try to work within them since Hubert has done such an oustanding job with Strategic Command. And if these constrained mods help make you guys happy, then maybe that might give Hubert some ideas for future work that he might consider. Narayan

HI Carl, Yes, absolutely, based on your 1962 Cold War campaign. I have also been working on a WWI campaign for a while (on and off), but am finally making some decent progress now that I got two additional books. Narayan

Oak, That's not possible, but it's a good idea. Edwin, What happens on subsequent turns? And what prevents the ancient Roman player from buying those? Thank you, Narayan

Hello Everyone, I have been toying with the idea of creating an expansion pack for SC that would allow wars from the period of the French Revolution through the Franco-Prussian War. Using Carl Von Mannerheim's idea, Germany would stand in for France. So that part is easy. Armor would become Cavalry. The problem is the following classes: Carriers Tac Air Bombers Rockets I can't decide how the players or AI would handle those within the context of the above mentioned era. Any thoughts? I just can't see how it would be doable.

>> DESIGN NOTES >> This campaign has taken almost one month to make. Play-testing took much longer than anticipated, even while spending hours on weekends and way too late at night. But I am pleased with the result, and hope that you will be too. This campaign is more difficult as the Allied powers - at least for the conquest of Europe. But then, who knows? Interestingly, the Soviet AI had almost exactly the predicted results against me for a long time, until finally I was able to start to turn the tide as NATO. It never even occured to me that the Cold War could be modeled using Hubert Cater's excellent Strategic Command, though I really wanted to do this, until I saw Carl Von Mannerheim's "1962 Red October" Cold War campaign. [Note: If you like this campaign, then please see his too. It is really terrific!] The problem that I was running into is that using the Campaign Editor, it is impossible to make the USSR fight the other Allies, which was the basis for the Cold War. What Carl Von Mannerheim did that I found ingenious is that he simply set Germany to substitute for the USSR. He also set some of the minor countries to be American or British so that they help depict political friendliness and allocate resource points accordingly. I followed his lead and did the same. So I made Spain, Turkey, Norway and Italy all green (American). Israel and Denmark are blue (France) and the rest - Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Canada, Greece, etc., are tan (British). Spain and Turkey were originally tan the way I had them set up, but after play-testing, I decided that it was more realistic to have them be American. All of the nations of Eastern Europe, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Albania, Yugoslavia, Syria and Iraq are all red (USSR). Note that I was not able to change the real owner according to the game engine. So even though Turkey starts out American, if it gets captured by the USSR and then liberated by the US, it will go back to being tan (British). The campaign starts in 1939 (substituting for 1985), of course, since the game engine currently only allows WWII dates, and this gives you the maximum amount of time to play. I have checked the campaign for play-balance, and it appears to be well-balanced. In fact, the first couple of turns, I found that the resource point totals for both sides was almost exactly the same.

Jim, Thank you for your very kind words. Let us hope that the campaign can live up to your expectations. I think that Radovan Nesic's icons that he is working on for this campaign will make this much more interesting - since my icon work is very poor. Carl, Actually, your fantastic campaign is what inspired me to do this. What follows are the design notes from the Readme.txt file included with the campaign. Warm regards to both of you. Narayan

>> THE UNITS >> I have added just about every aircraft carrier, battleship, battlecruiser, cruiser, destroyer, nuclear or diesel submarine that was in service in 1985. I have added land units and air units for all of the countries involved, as appropriate. So even Algeria, for example, has armies and an air fleet. At the start of this campaign, there are approximately 65 NATO and 60 Warsaw Pact naval units - some representing up to 10 ships each - giving approximately 250 ships total. There are approximately 40 air units at the start of the campaign. You'll also get strategic bombers, tactical air forces representing F-16s, F-15s, Mirages, Tornados, MiG-23s, MiG-25s, MiG-27s, B-52s, Vulcans and more. And there are probably about 130 land units to start off with. Even the Pershing IIs and SS-12bs are represented here. The list of naval units includes the following and more...: NOTE that notation such as "Trafalagar x 4" means that there are 4 Trafalagar class submarines represented. I have done this for submarines, destroyers (represented by cruiser class units) and selected light cruisers. I have also represented ASW carriers as cruisers (e.g. Vittorio Veneto, Jeanne d'Arc, Moscow). The "x" number is going by memory, since it is difficult to toggle back and forth between the game and here for documentation, so it may not be exact. Albania (Alb.): several submarines Algeria (Alg.): Romeo x 2 Belgium (Bel.): - Bulgaria (Bulg.): Romeo x 2 Canada: Iroquios x 4 Denmark (Den.): Ula x 3 E. Germany (E. Ger.): - Egypt (Egy.): Whiskey x 6, Romeo x 6 France: Clemanceau, Foch, Suffren, Colbert, Duquesne, Jeanne d'Arc, Tourville, Rubis x 4, Agosta x 4, Daphne x 4 Greece: Type 1200 x 4 Israel (Isr.): several submarines Italy (It.): Garibaldi, Vittorio Veneto, Andrea Doria, Caio Duilio, Audace, Animoso, Enrico Toti x 4, Sauro x 4 Libya (Lib.): Foxtrot x 6 Netherlands (Neth.): Tromp x 2, Zwaardvis x 4 Norway (Nor.): Kobben x 5 Poland (Pol.): Kilo x 2 Spain (Sp.): Dedalo, Agosta x 4, Delfin x 4 Syria (Syr.): Romeo x 2 Turkey (Tur.): Type 1300 x 4 UK: Illustrious, Ark Royal, Invincible, London, Sheffield x 6, Antrim, Glamorgan, Type 82 x 3, Type 42 x 4, Swiftsure x 4, Valiant x 4, Trafalagar x 4, Oberon x5 USA: Vinson, Nimitz, Kennedy, Kitty Hawk, Forrestal, Tarawa, Iowa, New Jersey, Long Beach, Leahy, Bainbridge, California, Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Truxtun, Belknap, Ticonderoga, Adams x 5, Coontz x 5, Spruance x 3, Kidd x 5, Los Angeles x 10, Permit x 4, Sturgeon x 8 USSR (Sov.): Kiev, Baku, Moscow, Leningrad, Kirov, Frunze, Slava, Sverdlov x 3, , Kynda, Kresta I, Kresta II, Kara x 4, Kashin x 3, Udaloy x 3, Sovremeny, Echo I x 10, Echo II x 10, Charlie I x 10, Charlie II x 10, November x 8, Victor I x 8, Victor II x 8, Victor III x 10, Oscar x 2, Mike x 1, Sierra x 1, Akula x 1, Alpha x 4, Romeo x 10, Foxtrot x 6, Tango x 5, Kilo x 10, Juliett x 10 W. Germany (W. Ger.): Hamburg x 4, T206 x 10

>> OVERVIEW >> "1985 Red Inferno Resurgent USA" Campaign is a frightening depiction of the Cold War that echoes Sir John Hackett's "The Third World War" as well as Tom Clancey's "Red Storm Rising". I have used references such as the "The Cold War - A Military History", "Atlas of American History", "The Enclyopedia of World Sea Power", and other sources on Cold War History to make this campaign as historically accurate as I know how to do at this point. Many units are understrength, depicting typical peace-time combat strengths and OOBs that are usually brought up to strength during combat. It is your job to build them up if you feel it necessary. Ships vary considerably in strength, not because they are under construction, as I did in my most recent "1939 Fall Weiss Revisited", but because ships of different navies vary considerably, and it was the best way to show this. A 3500 ton cruiser just isn't as good as an 11000 one.

Here is one screen shot. Start of Cold War General Campaign (player is NATO). There are many screen shots and notes, etc., here for both NATO and Warsaw Pact versions of this campaign (actually two campaigns): Cold War Campaign - NATO view Cold War Campaign (Warsaw Pact view) Special thanks to Hubert for his guidance and feedback on this long project. Narayan

Hi Everyone, In case anyone is interested, I have been working on this for several months. It's two campaigns. I haven't released yet it for a number of reasons, but I should be releasing it as soon as the icons get upgraded, which we are working on right now. Narayan