New unit types in Axis Triumphant Scenario

[mcaryf1]

I was asked in a post on the AOD forum about unit types I considered for my Axis Triumphant scenario. I think it best if I post about it in this forum as Axis Triumphant is not currently developed as an AOD scenario.

The following is a list of the major features in Axis Triumphant including the various unit types which are created mainly by utilising minor country units or modifying existing ones e.g. Special Forces become infantry divisions and anti-tank units become tank divisions in capabilities although I have not yet developed new symbols for them.

Additional Unit Types

Land & Air

Instant militia units (most minor countries plus USSR garrisons)

Infantry Divisions (all countries SF units)

Tank Divisions (major and a few minor countries A/T units)

Mustard Gas shells (for use by Allies, rail guns)

Mustard Gas Bombs (for use by Allies rockets)

Nerve Gas shells (for use by Germans rail guns)

Nerve Gas Bombs (for use by Germans rockets)

Biological warfare unit (used by Japan rail guns and rockets)

Very Long Range recce planes various types (USA, UK, Japan via minors)

Extremely Long Range recce over sea (Japanese Emily units)

Big Wing Fighters (2 strikes, 3 intercepts for use by Allies)

Big wing TAC (2 strikes for use by Allies)

Fighter Bomber units (Germany, UK and US via minors' fighters)

Kamikaze Fighters (Japan via Thailand)

Kamikaze Bombers (Japan via Thailand)

Player deployable A-Bombs (US only via teched up rocket)

Atomic Bombs are extremely expensive highly destructive units

Naval Mine clearing engineers (2 strikes major countries engineers)

AA Divisions (range 2, hits 2 all major countries)

Static offensive fortress units (Axis AI via Bulgarian units)

Japan has many poor quality Chinese mercenary units (actually Thai units)

Germany has Osttruppen “volunteer” units (via Baltic States)

Major country HQs are very expensive but some can be acquired via events

Major country HQs can control more units over longer ranges (not all the same)

Many countries’ units differ in their combat ratings and relative costs

Naval

CVLs (US and UK – one strike general purpose CV)

CVEs (Japan, US and UK one strike CV in both land attack and anti-sub variants)

Older style BBs (UK and US provided by Canada and Philippines, some in mothballs)

Note all BB units get 2 strikes but modern ones have much higher tech potential

Heavy Cruiser Squadrons (Japanese CAs with 2 strikes – Kongos and Long Lance)

DD Flotilla (instantly re-buildable units, only 1/3 deemed to be destroyed)

SS Flotilla (instantly re-buildable units, only 1/3 deemed to be destroyed)

DEs (cheaper and quicker to build for UK, US and Japan anti-sub role)

PT Boats (small attack or suicide craft for US and Japan)

Japanese submarines that carry aircraft (extra spotting range)

Kaiten submarines (cheap expendable subs for Japan via Thailand)

Anti-submarine nets (Finland historic to block Baltic access from Leningrad)

Naval mines (deployable by Germany, Italy, UK and Japan via minors)

Minesweepers (deployable by UK (Iceland), Italy (Libya) and Japan (Pakistan))

Rocket firing landing craft (2 strike amphibious units)

Extra long range amphibious assault (Allies and Japan via expensive research)

Some Free French naval and air units can be deployed prior to liberation

High evasion (up to 80%) transports - very few liners used as transports were intercepted in WW2

All naval units have 20 percentage points of evasion divided between offence and defence

Economic Data

You should play with hard build limits on or the map can become too cluttered

Turns are seasonal, 14 days elapsed (28 in winter months) and simultaneous

Oil wells yield 4 MPP per strength point – oil is the critical resource as it really was

A number of “factory” cities generate units for the owner e.g Baku generates HQs

Germany, USSR and USA get extra oil fields, Germany’s is synthetic oil plant

Japan/China has extra (historic) mines explaining why Japan wants to occupy China

Finland has nickel mine in far North (historic)

Many units are much more expensive to reflect the real WW2 cost relativities

Naval units take historic times to build e.g. modern BBs are 4 years.

Amphibious and transport costs largely included in other payments e.g. research

Re-build times and costs heavily reduced for many units deemed not fully destroyed

USSR gets an extra alternative capital

USSR gets a “National Redoubt” beyond the Ural Mountains plus forces in it

Most US Lend Lease aid to USSR goes via the Far East (historical)

Tonnage War costs impact all major powers except China and France

Chinese aid convoys can be interdicted near Calcutta

Malta supply convoys from Alexandria or Gib can be interdicted

Allied supply routes to the Mid-East can be interdicted in the Indian Ocean

Western Allies get opportunities to send special convoys to USSR e.g PQ17

Germany can force a temporary armistice on USSR if Allies do not send enough aid

Hitler can send economic aid to Mussolini if Italy’s situation is bad

Map, Political and Victory Changes

Additional towns in France, Calais and Caen, to facilitate AI Allied invasion

Extra port and fortress at St Nazaire to facilitate Axis defence

Additional town in Algeria to provide supply for AI Operation Torch

Extra port in Finland/Baltic in case AI blocks its own ports with mines

Road link to Tromso so Tirpitz can be rebuilt /repaired there

Extra port by Kiel Canal to prevent Allied subs diving through canal into Baltic

Additional towns in Dutch East Indies to facilitate AI (Allied) invasion

Extra towns/cities in Russia – Kirov and Saratov to help AI withdraw if Moscow falls

Additional towns/ports as bases for Germans in Northern Norway and Finland

Allied refuelling port near Archangel (historic)

Allied naval base at Addu Atoll in Indian Ocean (historic)

Additional naval base in Ceylon (historic)

Midway reduced in size (realistic)

Soviet Far East reception port and rail link for Convoys

(Not historic but was needed otherwise IJN can interdict too easily)

Created Libya (was Tibet) – needed some minor units for Italians

Italian convoy route from Libya – can be interdicted by Allies

North Atlantic area used for convoys significantly increased in size by zigzag

Thailand becomes Japanese minor ally to provide units – virtually historic

Philippine exile capital in USA to provide USA with a source for minor units

Pakistan created from part of India to give Axis access to units if they conquer India

Axis AI can win by conquering USSR, China and India – invading USA is too hard!

Morale will have an effect on level of victory attainable

If you have any questions about the historic justification for the inclusion of any of these units or other changes please ask and I will explain my reasons.

I covered my thoughts with respect to omitting helicopters and submarine missiles (the Germans did develop them) in my post on the AOD forum.

Regards

Mike

[mathiasbw]

hi mike,

yes, the japanese sentoku subs are also on my units list

e.g. the german u-511 and uss barb have used rockets/rocket thrower.

but why no japanese gas arty, it was used against china.

the new units have new graphics? but without animations for nuclear explosion and gas on the map? and subs firing on land units or send out planes from sentokus is not possible?

mathias

[mcaryf1]

Hi Mathias

At present I have concentrated on using this scenario as a way to see whether the game's mechanics can function reasonably well with different unit characteristics. Whether you choose to regard the Japanese WMD units as firing bacteriological, chemical or gas shells probably does not impact that. A true implementation would need to include the impact of weather on these types of weapons and ideally any use of nuclear weapons should convert the locations targeted into impassable areas but I have not yet devised a way to do those things. As it is my "nuclear weapons" will typically destroy any unit in open ground but cities give some chances of unit survival and the city itself recovers its productive capacity in the normal way.

However, my experience is that nuclear weapons can have an impact on the game and as I mentioned in a previous post I have seen an Allied AI defeat an Axis AI by invading Japan after a barrage with nuclear armed rockets. The AI seems to be less effective at deploying Rail Guns as WMD and they sometimes seem to end up on sidings.

As I expect to port the scenario to AOD I decided that I would not try to develop the graphical look of the scenario further, e.g. mushroom clouds, until I understand what different options might be availble with that variant of the game engine.

By the way one other addition I forgot to mention was the creation of ports and some naval activities in the Black Sea. Initially the Russians are the only ones with naval units there but the Axis did really bring small submarines overland to contest that sea and there were amphibious assaults and naval evacuations of trapped forces which are now possibilities in the scenario.

Regards

Mike

[mcaryf1]

I should have added a comment re rocket and plane equipped subs. You can simulate this by providing rocket units with very long ranges and conceptually these are either ICBMs (a bit too early) or notionally rockets launched from undetected subs.

With respect to planes, there would never have been enough planes carried by subs to create much damage. The planned mission to close the Panama Canal could be implemented with a DE triggered if a Japanese sub unit approached within a certain distance of the canal. I chose not to implement this as I thought the AI would not understand it and anyway a proper implementation of naval operating ranges would mean that this would just have been an inconvenience and more a disruption to trade than naval operations.

Regards

Mike

[mathiasbw]

hi mike,

only with the source code you can add mushroom clouds or yellow smoke for chemical wpns? contaminated tiles are also important (nuclear/chemical/biological).

further wishes of my many wishes are chinese tunnel warfare/japanese cave warfare = very strong resistance and entrenchment,

natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, vulcano eruptions, floods) = effects on units, roads, tracks, towns...also human made floods like in the netherlands.

is that possible?

mathias

[mcaryf1]

Hi Mathias

You probably need to address some of those issues to Hubert and his colleagues as I just use the editor to make different units etc. If you look in the bitmaps folder you can see a group of "explosion" sprites. I guess you could make changes to those for a mushroom or gas cloud but the effect is very fleeting and I do not know how the game engine decides what explosion effect to use.

With respect to natural disasters or man made disasters such as the raid on the dams, you could create the effects through strength and supply decision events and you could display associated images but again you would need to modify the game engine if, for example, you wanted to change the type or look of a tile. In my scenario once the Axis has captured Egypt Malta is subjected to a series of random strength point losses to represent Axis bombing raids so it is costly for the Allies to attempt to maintain a presence on the island. If you wanted to simulate Vesuvius erupting you could do something similar. Ideally I would have liked to create the effect of continuing strength point losses for units placed on a city struck by nuclear weapons. However, since I wanted the player to be able to choose any location as a potential nuclear target I could not use DEs with fixed values. Perhaps if Hubert introduced a facility for DEs to somehow pick up location parameters from the players then it would be possible. Such a facility would also be useful for laying naval minefields. At present you can effectively only deploy them after the game has commenced near to one of your own ports so they are essentially a defensive tactic. In my scenario the Axis AI has a random probability of adding new naval minefields in the Bordeaux area if an Allied naval presence is detected there but of course it can only do that so long as it possesses Bordeaux.

Regards

Mike