39-41_Spanish Civil War!

[Retributar]

I was surprised to see this item in the lineup!,...and after playing it for about 15 turn's, i am quite pleased with it!.

1st-off!, the Vente'/Large-Map-Size is most welcome to myself!, hence...in this situation is the greater gamble for determining the final outcome of a campaign!.

Of course, the 'Spanish Civil War' is not as high-tech as the 'War in Europe',...but, nevertheless...was a 'Blast' to play so far to this point!.

***CONCLUSION!!!..."We NEED More Large-Map-Games!".***

[rjh1971]

About large map games/campaigns whenever I play them the AI seems to take forever, I have a piv at 2,8Mhz and 1,5gb ram with 256 mbvideo card, it's not brand new but I think it's enough for running the game.

Is there any issue I don't know that can make the AI think and execute its turn faster, there were some nice mods with SC2 that could only be played by email since the AI took forever. The AI in the Spanish Civil War also takes its time.

I played some turns of this scenario and I have to say it's brilliant, kudos to the designers.

I would appreciate any help, bty Quiepo de Llano is spelled "Queipo de Llano" he is the leader placed in Seville.

Thanks.

[n0kn0k]

I believe you can turn off AI animation to speed it up a bit.

However the greater the number of forces, the more AI time it will need.

Unless you cut down on the intelligence of the AI, which you obviously don't want to do.

[Bill101]

Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you've been enjoying playing this!

rjh1971: You appear to be right on the spelling of Queipo de Llano - I've had it in my head for years that it was Quiepo! I'll get it changed. Thanks!

[rjh1971]

Glad to be helpful.

[J P Wagner]

Actually I have been considering reducing the force pool in my Russian Civil War scenario because of the length of AI turns. I attribute some of it due to the fact that I have not completed scripting, but the original set up and re-enforcemnt pool is quite large. Now that I need to redo these pools for the WaW conversion, I'm probably going to reduce the troops on all sides and see if it makes for a better gaming experience.....

[Retributar]

The "Spanish Civil War" on my computer doesn't take an 'Inordinate' amount of time, in-fact, the time it takes really is no problem at all!.

I am running a 3.3Ghz Computer, so i don't know if that has any bearing on it?.

[Bylandt]

Yes, the Spanish Civil War scenario is very good. Actually, it's the best thing that came with the WaW expansion. Very well researched and implemented. And both sides are fun to play.

Great work, Bill.

[rjh1971]

Originally posted by n0kn0k:

I believe you can turn off AI animation to speed it up a bit.

...

Where do you do this? I did not find that option in the game. Is it an option you turn on/off in the Editor?

Might be a dumb question but couldn't find it. Thanks for your help.

[Hubert Cater]

This is described in the WaW Manual and can be achieved by using the F3 key on your keyboard. Once this key is selected you should notice in the upper left hand corner the following text:

F3 - DEBUGANIMATION

It can always be turned on again by simply pressing F3 a second time.

[rjh1971]

Thanks Hubert, great game and support :cool:

Keep it up

[Hubert Cater]

Your welcome and I'm very glad you are enjoying the game

[Karhu]

Just like to add my thanks for this great scenario. Thoroughly enjoy playing it, it makes a nice change from the usual full map and yet is more strategic than the other smaller scenarios.

One question, though. As the Republicans, after I got infantry weapon research I was not able to upgrade the units I already had, only the ones I built after that. Is that how it's supposed to work, or am I missing a trick?

And I'd like to put in a request for the Winter War as the next senario

Thanks again for a job well done.

[Bill101]

Hi Karhu

I'm glad you're enjoying playing it too.

The Republicans start the war with a large number of hastily formed militia columns that can gain experience but not upgrades, so the upgrades will only apply to newer units.

I had to find a way to represent the problem the Republicans faced of having to hold the front line with their militia while at the same time building up a regular army of their own in the rear. The plan is that you can hold the enemy for a while with columns but in the long run if you don't build more and more brigades and divisions (and upgrade them too) then victory will almost certainly be impossible.

By the spring of 1937 the militias were giving way to militarised units, a process that was speeded up by the denial to militia units of new weapons unless they agreed to become part of the new Popular Army.

[ November 03, 2007, 12:27 AM: Message edited by: Bill101 ]

[Karhu]

Cheers Bill,

It seems you've come up with a very elegant solution to reflect the situation on the ground.

I've just started playing a second game as the Bad Guys, and I've found I'm not able to operate units from northern Spain to the south, even though I have a railway connection through Jerez, Huelva and Cadiz. Is there some Anarchist sabotaging going on that I don't know about?

[Bill101]

You could call it sabotage, but the real cause is a slight error in laying railroads by the railway engineer - i.e. me!

There were quite a few issues with the railways and this one only came to light in playtesting after the release version was made. There is another problem at Guadix (if I remember correctly, I can easily check) where the Republicans can operate one way but not the other. I hope to fix these shortly.

[Karhu]

Bill,

No worries, I'll go with sabotage by Anarchist railway workers any day - at least the Republic has a shout of a chance of doing something in the south that way.

BTW, I've only just noticed the Poland scenario, which looks fun too. Which scenarios are you planning to turn your hand to next? (hint hint, Winter War, hint hint)

[jon_j_rambo]

Huh? What's the Spanish Civil War? Republicans fought in it?

[Ottosmops]

Yeah, their leaders were Ernest Hemingway, Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman.

They were supported by the communists and massacred occasionally Christians.

I leave it to JerseyJohn to explain the details.

BTW

Good to see you are free again. How did you do in Folsom Prison?

[ November 04, 2007, 09:31 AM: Message edited by: Ottosmops ]

[Karhu]

Bill, one thing about the Poland scenario: even after I took all the towns necessary for a major victory (with the Germans, they beat the Russians to it), the game just carried on regardless instead of finishing.

Otherwise it played out very nicely.

[Bill101]

Thanks for letting me know Karhu, I'll take a look to see why it might have continued after they were all taken.

Update 8th Nov:: I've had a look and I wonder whether you'd conquered Poland before the 20th September? That was when I'd set the victory conditions to kick in for an Axis Major Victory (I'll be changing it to the 1st September now) which hopefully explains why the game didn't end even though you'd effectively won the game.

[ November 08, 2007, 09:33 AM: Message edited by: Bill101 ]

[Karhu]

Bill,

Yes, it was the 18th.

Thanks for putting this scenario together. Like the Spanish civil war, it's an underplayed campaign generally and a very interesting one to switch sides with.

The main problems with the AI (I played expert level but 0% bonus) seemed to be that it often didn't finish a unit off when it had the chance, and as the Poles it didn't use any of its engineers to build anything. It did try local counterattacks, though.

I played the scenario again as the Poles, but it ended with 5 or 6 turns to go with the message "Brave Polish Defence". Did the German and Soviet high commands just give up before full time and shoot all their generals, or what?

[Bill101]

LOL, basically we had to give the Polish player a chance to feel good about themselves!

I guess we could have made it so that it lasted a bit longer, but if the Axis haven't achieved their objectives within a given time then they don't deserve any laurels. The down side is that the game can end at an interesting moment, I'll give this a bit more thought to see if there's a solution.

[JerseyJohn]

Originally posted by Ottosmops:

Yeah, their leaders were Ernest Hemingway, Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman.

They were supported by the communists and massacred occasionally Christians.

I leave it to JerseyJohn to explain the details. ...

Appreciated Ottosmops. I'd love to if I knew the details, but alas, I don't.

Never cared as much for Hemingway's novel For Whom The Bell Tolls as I did for most of his other works, especially the great short stories, don't really know why, a lot of people think it's great. I'm sure I'm missing something -- maybe it was the sexual fantasy the woman was having of doing it while firing a .50 cal water cooled machinegun. -- :eek: -- Saw the movie too long ago to remember much about it. Mainly I've always felt Hemingway and some of his friends were having an adventure in Spain while hundreds of thousands were dying for one cause or the other. Possibly I'm being unfair to them, but I don't think so.

Bill101 mentioned Poland and I have to add the past few months I've been very interested in Spain and Poland during the period between the world wars. Haven't drawn many conclusions about any of it but some interesting books I've found are:

Bitter Glory: Poland and its Fate 1918-1939

Richard M. Watt

Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles under German Occupation 1939-1944 Richard C. Lukas

Hitler and Spain: The Nazi Role in the Spanish Civil War Robert H. Whealey

And several interesting books on Franco and the Spanish Civil War.

[ November 11, 2007, 02:40 PM: Message edited by: JerseyJohn ]

[Bill101]

Originally posted by JerseyJohn:

Never cared as much for Hemingway's novel For Whom The Bell Tolls as I did for most of his other works, especially the great short stories, don't really know why, a lot of people think it's great.

Bill101 mentioned Poland and I have to add the past few months I've been very interested in Spain and Poland during the period between the world wars. Haven't drawn many conclusions about any of it but some interesting books I've found are:

Bitter Glory: Poland and its Fate 1918-1939

Richard M. Watt

Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles under German Occupation 1939-1944 Richard C. Lukas

Hitler and Spain: The Nazi Role in the Spanish Civil War Robert H. Whealey

And several interesting books on Franco and the Spanish Civil War.

Hi John

Long time no hear from! Hope you're well.

Bitter Glory is pretty good, but the main books I used in preparing the Poland scenario were:

Zaloga and Madej's The Polish Campaign 1939.

François de Lannoy’s La Campagne de Pologne (in French but with a ton of never previously published photos and some good maps).

Kennedy's The German Campaign in Poland.

Books used to prepare the Spanish Civil War campaign are too numerous to mention, I've got two massive box loads in the garage, but the official series produced by the Servicio Histórico Militar were the most useful, particularly for their excellent maps.

As an introduction to the war, I'd recommend either of Antony Beevor's books on the subject (his most recent one, Battle for Spain is just an improved and expanded version of his earlier The Spanish Civil War) and for period flavour George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. The latter really is a must!

Esmond Romilly's Boadilla is a great account of the fighting around Madrid in the autumn of 1936. Romilly (Winston Churchill's nephew) was serving with a small number of British volunteers in a German battalion of the International Brigade, and it is a classic account of warfare which would be enjoyed by just about anyone interested in military history. Married to Jessica Mitford (one of the famous Mitford sisters) he later died serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941. His is one book you won't regret reading.