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AGRICOLA
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Canadian bush & Florida
Feb 2003
time: 00:37
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I don't think that the Chinese are tough enough yet. Unless Patine has seriously reinforced Urumchi, Lhasa and Kashgar, the Chinese civ will be destroyed on Turn 2.
I still think that a dozen or more defenders in the major Chinese cities would not be too many and that their D's should be increased (maybe change the terrain under Chinese cities). Right now the 6-7 Chinese defenders are easy prey for Japanese aircraft, 105mm Howies and, to some extent, vet Hohei Butai. Perhaps events could be used to reinforce the Chinese every turn.
Considering the lack of decent roads in China and the non-mechanized nature of the Japanese army, the Chinese should not lose more than 3 major cities per turn.
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Sarsstock
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So the fishing's that good from Great Bear to Hudson Bay eh? Maybe I'll have to check it out next summer, as all of my favorite fishing spots these days in Ontario have been pretty dead this summer.
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AGRICOLA
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Canadian bush & Florida
Feb 2003
time: 00:37
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Apologies to Patine for going completely OT.
@Sarsstock
Go for it if you can. It is virgin fishing to all intents and purposes because of the expense of getting there.
Reasonably sized lakes and all rivers, even the very fast ones, have lake trout, the dominant species. Throw back any that don't fight like wildcats. These are fish with large heads and skinny bodies which have fallen behind on the power curve and are starving. They are not fit for eating.
Some of the rivers in the eastern part have arctic char, by far the best game fish that I have encountered, both for fight and taste. It looks like a big cousin of the speckled trout in Ontario except that the big males turn red like salmon in spawning season.
The much lauded greyling is a big disappointment. Even with ultra light tackle it is too small to pose much of a challenge. It also makes for lousy eating . . . . not much flavor and mushy consistency.
Last edited by AGRICOLA on 02-09-2005 at 18:53
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AGRICOLA
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Canadian bush & Florida
Feb 2003
time: 00:37
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Please hold it a bit if you can. The first 6 turns take a VERY long time to play because of the need to plan 3-4 turns ahead, IRB Japanese units and moving them to where they are going to be needed, building engineers and starting RR building, arranging extensive chaining of carriers so that the Pearl Harbor aircraft can get to the Singapore area ASAP, moving howies and tanks from home island cities onto the mainland and AA units from the mainland to homeland cities, pillaging all airfields on isolated islands and transporting isolated units back to cities etc. etc. etc. I'm doing well to complete one turn per day.
I'm just finishing April '42. China and India have been eliminated, most of the East Indies are in Japanese hands, Darwin was just captured and the main invasion of Australia begins in June.
Without going into any details, I have questions about the relative costs of units, Alice Springs as an objective city, the Doolittle popup, the defensive strength of Allied units, the behaviour of AI units and so on.
Sorry to be so slow but I'm trying to check out as many aspects of the scen as I can.
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Patine
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Edmonton, Canada
Mar 2002
time: 22:37
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Well, first off, thanks for a response. As for India and China, I think I might give them each a few more cities (I don't think I've hit my limit yet) and less roads; that may make them more of a challenge. About your questions, I'll wait to hear them in full, but two I think I get: I probably shouldn't have made Alice Springs an actual objective; and, there is supposed to be a Doolittle Raid with that poppup; a carrier and four B-25's are supposed to be generated off Tokyo Harbour, the the event orders the bombers to attack Tokyo. Either the AI ignored the order, or you had a naval unit on the spawning square at the time. BTW, I've moved Yellowknife, Edmonton, and Calgary; they'll be adjusted in the next update.
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Sarsstock
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Perhaps another solution to helping China survive longer is more emphasis on the "Burma Road", the road which the allies used to supply China from Burma. Perhaps the events text could generate Chinese infantry in Burma and direct them into China to represent the vital flow of goods along the road. The Japanese capture of cities like Kunming would effectivley end this flow of goods...
.... just a thought.
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AGRICOLA
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Canadian bush & Florida
Feb 2003
time: 00:37
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For some of the following comments, I'm greatly indebted to lessons I've learned from communicating with Kobayashi and playing his scenario, Dainichi Sekai Taisen.
There is a problem in EOTRS in that Japan can conquer too much, too fast and too easily. I attribute this to too many roads and RR's and to too much money.
A. The road/RR network in Asia and to some extent in Australia and America is much too highly developed. It permits Japan to wage Blitzkrieg in terrain where that should not be possible.
In 1941, the overall road/RR system in SE Asia was primitive, discontinuous and incapable of carrying heavy traffic. I think that there should be no RR's in India (they would have been wrecked by the retreating British), no roads connecting India and Burma; no roads leading east out of Burma to China and Indochina; no road between Thailand and Malaya; Indochina should have very limited roads and most of China's road/RR system should be dismantled.
Kashgar, Urumchi, Kathmandu, Thimphu and Lhasa should have no road connections to the outside world. Kashgar and Urumchi likely had only caravan trails leading to them. The last three cities are on rivers which can be used as roads (is Lhasa on a river?), very unlikely in high mountains where rivers form deep gorges. Limit the use of rivers as roads by putting in some ocean squares (lakes) along straight stretches of river so that any attacker is forced to make slow detours through the mountains.
All roads should follow the easiest routes, avoiding mountains and hills (i.e. crooked as hell). Eliminate most road sections which cross a river. Bridges are expensive to build and easy to blow up. The locals probably used ferries or forded the river.
Excepting the Kyonsong-Vladivostok RR, the existing RR system in Japan, Korea and Manchuria looks OK and a RR may extend as far west as Peking. Beyond that, there should be only limited roads in China. I have no idea if the far eastern Soviet cities had road access or had to be supplied by sea. Also, consider reducing the road networks around cities.
The problem with RR's in India and Australia is that if 30-40 Japanese Howies reach Dhaka or 60-70 reach Perth, it's immediate curtains for that country.
North America also appears to be overendowed with roads. I'm not sure whether there was a road between Vancouver and Prince George in '41 but AFAIK there was no road between Prince George and Juneau. I'm also not certain whether the 3 Alaskan cities had road connections. Even now, the Edmonton-Yellowknife road uses a ferry in summer and ice bridge in winter. I'm guessing, but I'll bet that 70 Howies landed in Tijuana (Neutral and likely lightly defended) could make mincemeat of most of the continental US cities in one turn. Japan definitely CAN make such a landing in mid '43.
To sum up, try to make sure that the Japanese cannot conquer unrealistically large areas in one turn. Make them work for it.
From here on, there is considerable spoiler information. I really don't know why I bother saying this . . . . whenever I see such a warning, the spoiler is invariably the first thing I read. 
B. Japan is much too rich. The following quote is from the Dec '41 (first turn) Operational Summary:
"Sold all Running Water for 2,240 MY (million yen);, all Sewer Systems for 2,400 MY, all Universities for 1,760 MY and all Libraries for 4,240 MY. Sold all Granaries for 2,820 MY after capturing the Chinese Population Growth wonder. Gained a total of 13,460 MY from sales and 1,200 MY (first turn money bug) from capturing enemy cities. Disbanded 55 units to build others and to free up shields."
By setting science to 20%, disbanding another ~100 unneeded units and intensive IRB, by March '42 Japan had 51 Engineers, 98 Howies and 23 Landing Craft, much of what it needs for a war of rapid conquest. It starts the scen with more than enough aircraft and naval units.
Unfortunately, this is only the beginning of what is possible. March was a lean month with less than 2,000 MY net income. Net income doubled in April, when India was captured, Indian city improvements sold off and the first freights from SE Asia delivered to the home islands. May net income was ~3000 MY. The capture of Australia in June ensured more than adequate income for the rest of the scen. All Australian cities were captured except Sydney. The Sydney garrison was eliminated and whatever units are produced or spawned will continue to be killed but the city will be allowed to remain in American hands. Sydney is to be the "Trading City" for the Empire. Most built freights will be destined for Sydney because it is a large port city and it has distance, ocean voyage and, especially, enemy city delivery bonuses.
Eight freights accompanied the invasion force; both for their unique ability to "lead" attack units through enemy ZOC and for immediate delivery. These freights from the 7 homeland cities and Canton, each earned 608 MY when delivered to Sydney. This is the maximum possible return due to the limit imposed by the flask cost of the tech being researched. There are presently 35 freights waiting to be shipped to Australia and a further 49 u/c. There should be no difficulty in delivering at least a dozen every turn.
This problem is going to be difficult to fix short of making it impossible to build freights.
C. Most Australian cities appear to be too large. IIRC, in '41 the country's population was only around 10 million, much of it rural. Industry was extremely limited. Sydney should not be size 16 when Tokyo is size 17. Reducing Sydney to size 6 or 7 would make it much less attractive as a Trading City. The others could be similarly reduced. You can easily use events to make up for the decrease in local production.
The shield production of Chinese, Indian, Australian and some SE Asian cities seems unrealistically high. None of the colonial powers encouraged local industry when they could make fortunes supplying manufactured goods. Maybe take a look at what would happen if plains produced no shields. Reducing the road networks around cities would also decrease the amount of trade.
In China, India and SE Asia there should be farmland not just around cities but nearly everywhere there is flat ground. This would model the ever-present rice paddies and the intensive cultivation in this part of the world.
D. There are inconsistencies in some units.
30-knot naval units have Mv 11-14 when 10-knot (on a good day) freighters have Mv 15.
The cost of Battleships, Fuso-class BB's and Yamato-class BB's is 160 shields. I assume that Battleships are meant to be equivalent to the American South Dakota and/or Iowa class ships. Both the Iowas and the Yamatos were far superior to the Fusos (for the life of me I don't see why the Japanese would want to research and build these vessels whose design dates back to the 20's). It would make sense to increase the cost of the Iowas to 300 shields and the Yamatos to 350, if only to reflect the increased tonnage of steel needed to build them.
I don't understand the cost structure of the following Japanese ground units.
Hohei Butai, A/D = 8/2, ignore city walls and cost 50 shields.
Kantogun Hohei, A/D = 4/4, cost 70 shields.
Senpaku Hohei, A/D = 7/3, make amphibious assaults and cost 80 shields.
IMHO, the Hohei Butai are the most powerful and useful and should cost 80 shields, the Senpakus might be worth 60 or 70 (IMO, attacks by units Marine which cannot ignore city walls are suicidal . . . . there are better ways) and the Kantogun boys aren't worth a shield more than 50. If a high D is needed, I would build 88mm AA, A/D = 2/6 (x2 vs. aircraft) for 80 shields.
One of the things which contributes to the excessive speed of Japanese advance is the low cost (40 shields) of Engineers. Depending on how much or little you change the road/RR systems etc., increasing the unit cost to 80 or 120 shields would slow things down a bit by making IRB considerably more expensive.
The Kihei are a fun unit to have but the ability to move 24 squares (~2000 km) through the Himalayas in one turn seems a bit unlikely.
E. Miscellaneous
City Fortifications should be added to Perth, Adelaide, Alice Springs, Melbourne and Brisbane. There is a risk that some of the OBJECTIVE cities can be destroyed when attacked. Alice Springs, a dusty, one kangaroo town is not a good OBJECTIVE city and should be replaced by Adelaide.
The freights spawned in Cuttack should be homed to that city.
Changing Japanese color to white is an excellent idea. It is now much easier to distinguish it from the US.
There is no problem with the Doolittle popup except that, if it is to be a surprise raid, the popup might be eliminated. As it was, the bombers did not attack Tokyo but did attack Niigata a couple of turns later when an American force landed and attacked the city. I might add that moving 2 extra AA units into that city during the first turn paid very handsome dividends for the Japanese.
There is the chronic problem that all scens have with the way the AI handles naval units in general and carriers in particular. If a player does nothing in response to popups announcing the presence of enemy task forces, not much happens and the task forces seem to wander around aimlessly. I wonder if some version of area GOTO in events night help.
I'm really interested in seeing what you have dreamed up in events 2 - 6 and will continue playing and reporting to the bitter end. 
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Sarsstock
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Well I for one am looking forward to it, the original version was quite fun as it was in my opinion. Also, if its okay with you Patrick I might take another shot at designing the Yamato, I think I could have made her look more seamless, larger and much more intimidating.
I'm also really looking forward to are those cities Curt had mentioned me might cook up for this project, I believe they were the Thai Dutch style but I could be wrong .
Last edited by Sarsstock on 10-09-2005 at 21:44
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Sarsstock
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Speaking of Curt, have you thought about maybe adding some sort of custom technology icons, along the lines of the ones Curt used on Dictator and other projects?
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24-08-2005 06:30
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