03-09-2004 23:14									#31
	Re: A tank geek speaks... Remove this text

quote: Originally posted by fairline The British had a confusing array of designations for their tanks. First off, all tanks had an 'Axx' designation; the Matilda II was an A12 and the Comet was an A34 as Curt has it. Confusingly, tanks were also classed as 'infantry tanks' (close support tanks with heavy armour and slow speed like the Matilda and Churchill, which equipped the Army Tank Brigades), 'cruiser tanks' ( fast with poorer armour to equip the armoured divisions, examples being the Cruiser Mks I - IV, Crusader and Cromwell) and 'light tanks' which were poorly-armed recce vehicles. As a result, the Matilda II was also termed 'Infantry tank Mk II' as well as 'A12'. The Cromwell was also known as 'Cruiser tank, Mk VIII' or A27M. The Comet was termed 'Cruiser tank, Comet' as well as A34. Confused?

Gadzooks!

It's more than what the humble Tommy could get his head around!

	10-09-2004 00:04									#32
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

NEW ZIP IS UP FOR GRABS!

Yep - The tweaking just never stops!
After some advice form the master-playtester, Agricola:
I have added the following changes!

*Tweaked the unit values for all bombers, combat is fairer.
*The anti-tank gun now is a decent defence unit - Beware!
*Artillery now is useful, coming in normal and heavy flavours.
*Unit graphics tweaked to make all aircraft canopies blue.
*Added city walls to Hanzong, to prevent destruction.
*Added a pip of unit movement to all ships.
*Tech paradigm now is 22 - Better flow of techs.
*The scenario now ends in 1947.

Try it and see!

Get the new version here!

	10-09-2004 11:54									#33
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I will definitely give it a try

	10-09-2004 16:44									#34
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Some new unpleasant diplomatic surprises await the player in this newest incarnation!



I am now caught in a massive battle -
After invading the USA and Canada as the 3rd Reich, those evil (OK I am evil too)
soviets attacked my almost undefended East European flank, despite a full alliance!

Damn them and those commie Sturmoviks!

They were at war with Japan over the new Indian city capture
event and perhaps Stalin seen the way the wind was blowing!

And while I scrabble all the forces I can together,
the attack on the Americas is getting tough...

This is the ultimate struggle - wish me luck!

	11-09-2004 06:19									#35
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Looks great, Curt! Would you mind if I used the updated map for WW79?

	11-09-2004 06:51									#36
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I would be delighted, please do!

	11-09-2004 22:38									#37
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And there have been a few new graphic and text changes since yesterday, small cosmetics -

But worth a download for the changes like a nice new panel backdrop and burning city unrest icon!

Check the link on the 1st post...

	13-09-2004 21:57									#38
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I made a little bug with the icon that controls the appearance of the ctrl-G grid.

I had put in a white square that made the grid hard to use.

This issue was broguht to my attention by Agricola,
who is kindly testing-out Dictator to the max!

So for all ctrl-G users, here is the fixed icon file with the CIV2 standard grid.

Attachment: icons.bmp
This has been downloaded 8 time(s).

	13-09-2004 22:55									#39
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Hey Curt, my good man! Follow this here link to access a PBEM (playtest?) at CDG of your fine work!

And: Keep up this bloody fine work!

	13-09-2004 23:10									#40
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I am going to download and play this one- I really liked the Dictator I have already played.

	06-10-2004 13:14									#41
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Finally got round to playing this beast and it is very good, exactly my type of WWII scenario and I might I add the best global WWII scenario I have come across yet.

Not overly complicated in terms of units and cities - at the start giving the player some space to settle in. Plenty of flexibility because of research and events do not constrain the player except for crucial points like when the Japs, US and Russia join in the battle.

The geo-political constraints of the time (I only played up to mid 42) are well captured in the terrain attributes and unit stats as well as the layout of the map. The constraints on building new units overseas and unhappiness was well executed for the British. I also liked the concept of generic plus empire specific units. I found the Germans very well behaved, trying to bomb Britain and taking greece, bulgaria and then bombing Malta.

I will have a fuller set of nitpicks later but for the time being:

I think the (initial? there is some mention of super)battleships and generic bombers are a tad weak on the attack.

I didn't have to build any Flak city improvements and I survived the Battle of Britain pretty easily. Also most of the time a bomber can't even kill a destroyer. As for the battleships, well they sometimes can't even kill an AA gun during bombardment.

Didn't Lebenon belong to the French?
Did Japan own Rabau from the beginning?

The Axis presence in Lybia at the beginning was too weak and I wiped them out easily. Could put a AA gun or too there at the beginning to give the Axis time to build up in Africa.

Airlift as a concept is probably too advanced for this era. There wasn't any airlifting of equipment as we know it today except for a few German gigant 8-engined transporters which could carry a tank/88mm with a rocket-assisted launch. Everything went by ship in those days.

Last edited by kobayashi on 06-10-2004 at 18:23

	06-10-2004 20:02									#42
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Apr 1943 and the germans and russians still at peace - continental europe is sewned up into an impregneble fortress. Seems that it is a bit dicey to depend on a singular make aggression event - why not make it a repeating event using recieved technology directly.

	06-10-2004 20:38									#43
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quote: Originally posted by kobayashi Apr 1943 and the germans and russians still at peace - continental europe is sewned up into an impregneble fortress. Seems that it is a bit dicey to depend on a singular make aggression event - why not make it a repeating event using recieved technology directly.

nope. I activated cheat and they still haven't researched Barbarosa Plan, even though they could have researched i a year ago. Maybe attractiveness of 7,-2 is not enough.

	06-10-2004 21:01									#44
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

In my playtests the German AI is a bit odd.

He either goes for the Barbarossa plan early or waits until 1944-45.

Remember - In Dictator, after 1940 all bets are off, and anythign can happen...

PS
The late war Eastern front battle is far more entertaining...
What with Me262 jets and JS2s trundling around!

	07-10-2004 05:13									#45
	Full PM-box? Change here!

quote: Originally posted by kobayashi Airlift as a concept is probably too advanced for this era. There wasn't any airlifting of equipment as we know it today except for a few German gigant 8-engined transporters which could carry a tank/88mm with a rocket-assisted launch. Everything went by ship in those days.

Yes, airlifts are an anachronism in this scen. The only thing I like about them is that they speed up the play.

I can speak only of playing Germany. Once it conquers North and Central America and gets their cities organized (mid '43), nearly half of German productive capacity is overseas.

If it were not for airlifts, the player would have to run 2 freighter chains between America and Europe to handle the volume of traffic. That requires considerable shuffling of freighters back and forth each turn, an exercise that gets to be a bit of a bore.

Actually, in the early 40's, getting a unit from America to Europe in one month by was not unreasonable.

However, as you point out, getting a Tiger tank from Chicago to Kathmandu in a month would have required a major logistical miracle in the early 40's.

	07-10-2004 13:39									#46
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Ah!
Bit I know if I cut airbases from the scen, people would moan - "Where are the airlifts?"

These are the times when the CIV2 engine limits us.
You can't please everyone universally!

	07-10-2004 15:17									#47
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quote: Originally posted by curtsibling Bit I know if I cut airbases from the scen, people would moan - "Where are the airlifts?"

Pardon me curt, but I do not moan about trivial things like airlifts. . . . I whine piteously, bang my fist on the keyboard and send profane e-mails to the author.

	07-10-2004 16:53									#48
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Ohoi!

I don't mean you, Mr Agricola!

Your input is one of the main reasons that Dictator was up and running!



Well - Any future update will have to wait till my current scen projects are complete!

	07-10-2004 17:09									#49
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Jeez curt, that was meant to be an out and out smartass joke.

	07-10-2004 18:29									#50
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quote: Originally posted by AGRICOLA If it were not for airlifts, the player would have to run 2 freighter chains between America and Europe to handle the volume of traffic. That requires considerable shuffling of freighters back and forth each turn, an exercise that gets to be a bit of a bore.

ah but wasn't that what the Atlantic War was all about. Imagine if they had the capability to airlift eveything from detroit to England. U-boats would just be white elephants. If it happened the other way round, the Germans would have to do the same in reverse, use Cuba or something as their pre-invasion base.

back to the game. I went back to early 43 and changed the Germans research goal and started again from there. I'm in early 44 now and the B-29 bombing Europe is working like a charm, they be using the US base in iceland I presume but thats fine by me.

Love the way you made the small coastal towns into non-seaside cities. Makes the game much more realistic.

	07-10-2004 18:40									#51
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Cheers - I thought it would be a bit much to have unimportant cities churn out Super Battleships!

	07-10-2004 18:41									#52
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quote: Originally posted by AGRICOLA Jeez curt, that was meant to be an out and out smartass joke.

Heh!

Kinda hard to tell with the typed word!

	08-10-2004 19:19									#53
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I lost India to the Japs in 45 and at one point the Germans were in control of Plymouth after attacking it with abut twenty aircraft (at the same time their progress in Russia suddenly came to a halt so I guess some good came out of that).

I managed to survive somehow till 1946 when the D-Day event occured. Here's my observation - It seems to be an overpowering event and the German AI didn't have a chance. If you ever get round to tweaking D3 a bit more, how about putting some fortress squares on the landing zone so that the German AI will want occupy those spots and stop the unit spawns. At the same time the Allied player/s would have to dislodge the german units inorder to allow the landing to start/continue.

oh wait there were fortress' there in the beginning excpet for the airfield. Americans must have pillaged them. oh well scratch that idea.

V2 missiles seem to only want to attack superbattleships. If they were made dirt cheap but less powerful, they might be used more as a mass damaging weapon rather than like an exocet missile. Just a suggestion.

One other minor point, some addiitonal unit obsolescence might be worth looking into (battleship-superbattleship, early tanks obsolete with tank dev4 etc.)

Anyway I it seems I have not played very well but I've enjoyed myself so I am going to try again - as the Japanese.

Last edited by kobayashi on 08-10-2004 at 20:42

	08-10-2004 20:51									#54
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Cheers, kobayashi!

Many of the problems involved with retiring units appeared because of the spread of techs in the scen.

Because of MGE's tech tree, and the way I had to balance the units between the civs,
It is like a like house of cards, one unit removed affects the whole.

Luckily the problem will not exist in ToT, as the Dictator version for that is looking good,
and the tech tree is happily streamlined with no unit distribution problems.

When I get back to making an update for this one, I will without doubt address these issues!

	09-10-2004 11:03									#55
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As Japs, it seems there are no reprecussions from attacking the Commonwealth. I took Vancouver and had two years to build up for an attack on the U.S. The British didn't even bat an eyelid. But when I finally did attack San Francisco (even with about 10 capital ships it was touch and go) everyone declared war on me.

	09-10-2004 13:30									#56
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Did you use the 'Pacific war plan?'

.

	09-10-2004 16:04									#57
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quote: Originally posted by curtsibling Did you use the 'Pacific war plan?' .

It's mid 44 already and its not even one of the research choices yet. Japs economy is very hard to manage until you figure it all out and you get a new tech every five turns or so and most of them are useless.

Basically what I did was ignore the British completely and while I was cleaning up china, I began to move most of my fleet across the pacific to canada, keeping two carriers and one island with an airfield as a air chain to ferry zero's across. When the cruisers and cargo ships got there I attacked Vancouver.

When a second batch of new battleships were built, these got there about a year later and it took another year or so to take all the west coast cities.

	10-10-2004 12:59									#58
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and here I am again with more observations, this time about the jap aircraft

1. bomber Att 24, Def2, mov 6x2 cost 100
2. Val Att 12, Def2, mov 6x2 cost 90

3. Zero Att 24, Def24, mov 8x2 cost 90 (plus fighter flag)
4. Toni Att 24, Def32, mov 8x2 cost 110 (plus fighter flag)

seems to me there is no reason to build anything but fighters.

Last edited by kobayashi on 10-10-2004 at 13:06