Honch

The problem was twofold: 1. I replaced the rockets tech with the atomic bomb. Even at level 0 you can build a rocket. I needed to model the system so that it took alot of time and mpps to get a bomb. You shouldn't be able to build one if you are level 0. 2. At level one, if you drop a bomb on a resource, there is only a 10% chance that any unit also in the tile would see damage, that was not realistic. Therefore, I gave everyone level 5 bomb tech which would maximize the damage to units and resources in any tile that was hit. I then changed the MPPs required to build the bomb and the production delay to represent the research of the bomb. Only the USA can realistically build one or more before 1945. Germany, the UK and USSR have an outside chance if they seriously damage their war effort. It works well.

Uploaded and ready to go!

OK, I'm done. Version 5 of my Expanded Scenario will be uploaded to cmmods today: It includes: 1. Theatres of War: North America in the West to Siam and Vladivostok in the East. Iceland in the North to South Africa in the South. 2. Historical OOBs. (Based on WIF OOBs) 3. Addition of minor cities as a terrain type. 4. Many more historical events such as creation of the Reich "puppet" states, Waffen SS, Hitler Youth, Volksgrenadiers and British Home Guard militias, Warsaw uprising, Brazil corps, Chindits, Free Greek, Free French and Free Poles, Axis surface raiders, Vienna Conference territorial annexations and many more. 5. The Atomic Bomb. 6. Adjustements to research, production delays and unit attributes to give historical balance. 7. Addition of more countries, ports and cities. 8. Timskorn's and Normal Dude's AI scripts. ...and much more.

In my "Honch Expanded Scenario on cmmods" I have done the following to try and make a Sealion less likely and more difficult. (more realistic) 1. The UK begins with one full strength RAF, another one arrives in January 1940 and a third in July 1940. 2. I have added fortifications along the extreme South East tip of the UK representing the White Cliffs of Dover and pre-exisitng defenses there. 3. I have increased UK starting anti-aircraft tech to 2 and given 2 points to London, Chatham and the port of Southhampton which I added. 4. An event script adds four 1/2 strength corps (home gaurd) upon a Sealion landing near London. 5. Axis amphibs are reduced to 3 action points. 6. I added the HQ Freyburg at the start which should add some readiness to the RAF. Are these fair adjustments?

Its not just the odds. If he gets lucky with advanced aircraft and his 3 AF are over 90% morale and readiness after the fall of France they just ravage anything in the UK. You can't often have land units or RN units in the South. Another option would be to have anti-aircraft tech apply to ALL tiles, even empty ones. There would be an anti-aircraft check on every tile that the AF passes over. This would better represent the advances in radar that the UK relied upon.

Whatever I try I always fail in stopping Sealion by a competent PBEM opponent. What are some of the strategies others use to stop a Sealion? I have reduced Axis amphibs to 3 action points but I think that having amphibs spend one turn at sea before being able to unload would help. The RN could then be useful. Right now its not. Also, the RAF has to be better reflected. A few attacks by the Luftwaffe high morale planes and the RAF and any land units in Southern England are toast. Historically, the RAF always maintained high morale. There should be a 25% morale and readiness bonus for fighting over home territory.

The bitmap for the mechanized infantry is in the template files. They just copied it over the regular infantry bitmap or whatever bitmap they are using to represent the mech infantry. They may have done away with engineers or something to make room for mech infantry.

An error in the game causes us to restart. How many segmentation violations do we have to suffer through before the problem is fixed?

A question for Hubert or any other scripting experts: I have noticed that the CONDITION POSITION lines for some of the scripts seem to be overly restrictive. For example, the Sealion scripts typically read: x,y (being London) (1,1) (1,1) (2) By my understanding, this will trigger an increase in activation for USSR, USA etc. if a minimum of one Axis unit and a maximum of one Axis unit is one tile away from London. Shouldn't the line maybe be broadened to be a minimum of one Axis unit but a maximum of 99 (basically no maximum) within 0 to 1 tiles of London? My reasoning is that with the original script, if there are two Axis units one hex away from London or the Axis have one unit IN London, the event will not trigger. I have noticed this on many of the original event scripts.

First Half November 1939, mud and storms: Germany sweeps Denmark off of the map. I also position an army on a transport off of Oslo awaiting the paratroopers to finish their training. Italy conquers British Somaliland easily while a stalemate has ensued at El Alemein. I destroy another French army but the mud stops me from consolidating my gains. I take another breather to upgrade my units for the attack into Belgium while I bomb Brussels again. The RN breaks the Italian naval blockade of the Med and destroys 2 cruiser fleets! I think its time for the Italian navy to retire. His attacks are ineffectual in Belgium and France. Second half November 1939: More of the same, a French corps dead, some dogfights but the mud is hampering all movement. Germany gets advanced aircraft. Italians move back to Addis Ababba in time to see the British expeditionary force marching in from Khartoum. The Italian fleet goes home in the med to lick its wounds. Italians seize Mombasa,thats probably as far as they will go. My poor Italian fleet can't get back to Massawa in the Red Sea as the RN is hounding it. RAF from Aden is striking the Italian garrison in Berbera.

Well, my first email game has started with my bro using Honch Expanded Scenario Version 4. Here is the AAR: First week Sept 1939: Germans push into Poland and attack everything that moves. Cracow is surrounded but couldn't blast the defender to 0. German luftwaffe destroys the tiny Polish navy in Danzig. Italy decides to mass on the French border while slowly building up in Libya. East African forces march towards British Somaliland and Kenyan border to get in postion. Italy decides to blockade the central Med. Polish retreat to form a perimeter around Warsaw as best they can. RN and French navies seen lurking around North Sea. Second Week September 1939: Cracow and Poznan fall. Warsaw is hammered but holds out. Italy ready to pounce. The poor French can't transport their Syrian corps past the Italian blockade. Boo Hoo. The British are up to something, the BEF and RAF have landed and the RN is off the coast of Belgium. My poor u-boat got stopped in the North Sea and was hit hard. Third Week September 1939: Warsaw falls and Poland divided. I pounce on a French BB in the North Sea and sink em. I may have left the Kriegsmarine overexposed in the process. Another U-Boat gets caught in the North Sea. Damn! Whats the good of running silent anyway? Whats this? The Allies have attacked Belgium and taken Brussels. USA and Spain pissed off. Third Week September 1939: Hasty moves to put German troops back on the Seigfried line. I move into Luxembourg and start to bomb the Allies in Belgium. He sinks a U-Boat in the North Sea but I extract the Kriegsmarine from further harm. First half October 1939: Reinforcing my troops in the West and my navy. Wow, now thats balls! Allies invade Netherlands but stopped short of Amsterdam. Italy and USA choked. Italy ready to come in. Second half October 1939, mud and storms: I kill a French army in Holland and get my Panzers in place. Continued dogfights over Belgium. I activate the Dutch Waffen SS! Cool. Italy storms British Somaliland and smacks the British there. She also enters Kenya and sinks an Indian tranport trying to sneak past Massawa bringing Indian troops to Egypt. Italy advances cautiously into Egypt but El Alemein is manned. Italy captures Nice and attacks Marseilles but the British are there as well. Whats going on? The French abandon the Maginot and turn South against Italy and North against Holland. The French Navy hammers a few Italian ships near Corsica and Malta. Some fighting near El Alemain and the RN pounds the Italian armour in Sidi Barrani. Should I commit the Italian navy? I can see the Indians reinforcing Aden. Thats it so far.

Hubert: How did you make these bombers unable to be moved operationally out of their own countries? Is this in the game engine itself? I have added a US bomber as a Caribbean naval screen and a UK bomber as a West African naval screen but I need to cement them into those areas as you did.

Who owned Goa? Portugal?

Kuni: Yes maybe I will try that.

Kuni: Oh well, I will try and think of another solution. Major: Sorry, the Swiss gotta go. There is no way for me to get rid of Vichy French-West Africa. If I combine it with Algeria or Morrocco and the Free French try and take Dakar as they did in the war it will activate all of Morrocco or Algeria along with it. This is not realistic. I need to keep these colonies independent. (I may be able to merge Morroco and Algeria into Vichy North Africa though, let me mull this over) The Swiss just don't play as important a role in my campaigns to justify a country slot. I will definately add them back if Hubert gives us more slots in the future. I also want to add Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania back in as minors, make Siam, Communist China and South Africa minors and maybe add off-map tiles for Australia and New Zealand.

A question for everyone: In recent games without house rules, the neutral Italians have put naval blockades across the central med not allowing UK or French ships to pass through. I was thinking of adding a script to increase Greek and Yugo activation to Allies if the Italians have alot of ships near Crete/Greece etc. Would this be a fair compromise?

Kuni: Are you sure about this? According to the script info the free unit check will work as long as the units are on "friendly" territory. Honch.

Kuniworth: I basically just added free unit scripts for each of those countries. Upon surrender to the Allies (whether USSR or whomever) there will be a one time check on each of their units to see if they transfer to the transfer country. I set up the Romanian and Bulgarian units to switch to USSR and the Hungarian and Italian to USA. I don't see why this wouldn't work except in remote cases where the USA or UK conquered Romania or Bulgaria or the USSR conquered Italy etc.

You would need two minor nations: 1. Make one the Ukraine SSR with the capital of Kiev and alternate capitals of Rostov etc. Make its allied parent the USSR but you would then need the same activations as for the USSR. (Alot of work copying scripts) 2. Upon surrender (capture of Kiev and the other cities) a surrender script would transfer all territory to the new Ukraine nation. You would also need to have an activation script to 100% activate the country to Germany or all German units will be booted out of the new nation. (eg. Vichy France)

Yes you can but it will make all sea tiles unpassable! Yikes!

Can anyone provide a bitmap of the Chinese Nationalist flag?

With Blashy making a great new mod I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware that my mod already includes alot of his ideas, namely: 1. Subs are harder to hit. 2. Its harder for subs to hit capital ships. 3. The combat effectiveness of Italian, Romanian, Bulgarian and most third world minor's units are reduced but their costs are also reduced. 4. US starting tech and OOB is increased and some production delays for the USA are reduced. (This is the best we can do to represent US industrial might) 5. More units are automatically added via scripts and the production queues for historical accuracy. 6. HQs and armies have increased defense values. As well: 6. Addition of minor cities as a terrain type. 7. Atomic bomb. 8. Major map changes to include Africa, Middle East and Indian theatres. 9. Millions of man hours of other changes and tweaks.

Crete script fixed. I have also added some supply scripts to damage the German, Italian and Spanish economies (if Axis) if certain cities, namely, Kuwait, Cairo, Rostov and Baku are in Allied hands. This will give an abstracted feel for oil shortages. The only way to add the Warsaw uprising is through a supply script. No actual partisans or units can be added.

Next version underway: 1. Adding China, Siberia, French Indo-China, Malaya/Singapore, Dutch East Indies. 2. Adding a script to have China revert to USSR after defeat of Japan. (Chinese Communist) 3. Adding scripts to have Italy, Romania and Hungary switch sides to Allies upon their conquest. 4. Adding a script for the Warsaw uprising. 5. Moving Madagascar to its rightful spot instead of abstracting it. 6. Adding Vladivostok. The Siberian reserves will appear there at various times (instead of all at once) and then need to be railed to Russia. Vladivostok will be the final capital for USSR. The USSR will, therefore, never surrender. (But will be very limited in production after Novosobirisk falls) 7. Blacking out of Switzerland.