Tales from the 2194 PBEM game

klesh · December 22, 2000, 19:16

From the files of the German High Command:

quote:

4:15 am, shores of the Channel

The men are prepared to assault the coast. Sealion is proceeding according to plan. Boats are loaded, fighters scrambled and bombers are up. They will never know what hit them...

quote:

7:04 pm, Somewhere on the Eastern Front

The fighting continues into the night. The Soviets are just throwing themselves in front of our panzers. However, the chilling temperatures are most unfavorable for armord warfare. I should hope we can end this theatre quickly. I have seen many brothers in arms fall in these past weeks, the ferocity of the Soviet defense is immeasureable. Their armor capacity is far less than expected though.

quote:

12:00 noon Somewhere in the North Atlantic

The crewmen are fighting tremendously. We have sighted and sunk several British convoys...soon we will starve them off that island. The wolfpack strategy works wonders for the effectiveness of our craft.

Xin Yu · December 23, 2000, 01:59

December 1941, Japanese broadcasting:

We have occupied the Pearl Harbor, Midway, Guam in the Pacific theater. We have occupied Vladivostok in Siberia. Those victories secured the Japan homeland.

In the Chinese front we occupied Kunming. In India/Southeast Asia we occupied Calcutta, Rangoon, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Padang, Tarakan, Surabaya, Ambon, Hongkong, Manila, Davao, Rabaul, Port Moresby. We destroyed an US AFB East of Port Moresby.

We also establised a beachhead in Australia at Darwin.

A total of 19 cities occupied, one destroyed.

Casualty:
Japan: Imperial Infantry 5, Field Artillery 1, A6M2 Zero 6, Bomber 15, destroyer 1, cruiser 1,submarine 1.
American: G.I. 7, AA Battery 3, Motorized Infantry 2, Fighter 14, Bomber 2, Destroyer 10, Cruiser 6, Freighter 1, Battleship 4, Submarine 3, Aircraft Carrier 1, Freight 3.
Soviet: Red Army 5, Partisan 2, AA battery 1, Light tank 1, Motorized Infantry 2, Fighter 1, Bomber 1, Destroyer 3, Cruiser 1, Freighter 2, Battleship 1.
British: Infantry 11, AA battery 2, Field Artillery 1, Motorized Infantry 2, Fighter 5, Destroyer 5, Cruiser 1, Battleship 3.
Chinese: Nationalist Army 8, Engineers 2, AA battery 1, Field Artillery 2, Me262 Jet fighter 1 (must be a joke!)

Total casualty:
Japan 30
American 56
Soviet 20
British 30
Chinese 13 (excluding the Jet fighter)

Marko · December 24, 2000, 00:15

December 1941

The United States broadcast:

We were unprovokedly attacked by the evil empire of Japan! Most of our Pacific fleet was destroyed and strongpoints occupied. On the same time pirating German submarines have sank all unarmed and peaceful freighters on Atlantic.

These crimes will not remain without punishment. All the might of America will rise against invaders!

Losses:

Japan - Bomber, 2 Destroyers, Submarine, Freighter
Germany - 4 Submarines
United States - 2 Fighters

klesh · December 27, 2000, 19:23

January 1942

After hearing word of the initial Japanese victories across the Pacific, the will and fighting spirit of the German troops increased. The cold Soviet January was bonechilling, but they pushed on. Through the blizzard of snow one of the men shouted "there it is!" We saw them through our fieldglasses... the spires of the Kremlin. Those days were terrible. Fierce firefights took place on every streetcorner. The SS Stormtroopers proved invaluable with their MP 40's as they pushed the Red Guard out of the capital. The fighting lasted for weeks, but finally the last defenders gave up. The Panzer battalions poured their armor into the city square and we all celebrated Christmas in Moscow! We sang "I'm dreaming of a Red Christmas" in our best Bing Crosby impressions. It was a joyus time.
The Red Army fought valiently on other parts of the Eastern front. They were able to outflank some of our positions and achieve breakthroughs. However, thanks to the armament industry we were able to send fresh troops to seal the gaps in the line and finish off their little adventure. All cities that had fallen to Soviet counter attack were promptly re-captured.
Strategic oil reserves were captured in the Caucausus mountain region as Baku became another victim of the blitzkrieg.
Across the Channel, the Brits are down to their last city. PzKwIV's were delivered to the beachead at Plymouth and they pushed their way across the island. Starving and without ammunition, the poor citizens of London do not fare well.
The U-boats continue their tenacious patrolling of the icy north Atlantic. They have put a serious dent into the shipping toward Britain, and they will soon pull the noose tight enough to strangle the last city on the island.
With the Japanese across the Urals at Sverdlovsk, the two nations prepare for a celebratory dinner in Moscow to mark the start of the New World Order.

[This message has been edited by Field Marshal Klesh (edited December 28, 2000).]

Smash · December 27, 2000, 22:22

Won't this get out of hand early?
I'm thinkin with Japan and Germany going first,controlled by experienced humans,this game may be over before it can get started.Maybe a 1 turn "grace" to start for a little preparation?

Marko · December 28, 2000, 02:59

January 1942
The United States broadcast:

The darkest time of all American history began when Japanese bombers, launched from carriers, made their surprise attack over sleeping country. This was followed by invasion of ground forces supported by battleships. Our defence systems which building was started after attack on Pearl Harbor were overrun. City after city fell under the terror of Japanese militarists. Enemy was stopped at last at the gates of White House just before they could reach to the Atlantic coast.
In order to push Japanese army away from the Washington headquarters launched a counterattack with last remaining Light Tanks division supported by infantry. After complicated maneuvering and fierce battles our small army destroyed 4 enemy tank divisions and liberated 8 cities before running out of fuel.

Liberated: Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minneapolis, Bismarck, Omaha, St. Louis, Cleveland, Dallas.

Losses:
Germany: Wehrmacht;
Japan: 4 Light Tanks, 3 Submarines, Destroyer, A6M2 Zero;
United States: G.I.

Xin Yu · December 29, 2000, 01:32

January 1941 Japanese broadcasting: Out troops have made impressive progress in all fronts. The ground troops' advancing speed was so fast that we have lost contact temporarily with them. That has caused delay in this news broadcast.

In the Northern Pacific front, our Imperial Navy and army launched another brilliant surprising attack against the American continent. Our battleships and cruisers bombarded the coast of Los Angeles, followed by our bombers and A6M2 Zeros. The air raid soon spreaded to other US cities: San Francisco, Salt Lake city, Pheonix, Denver, Albaqurque, Huston, Dallas, New Orleans, St. Louis, .... When our ground troops landed in Los Angeles, they immediately advanced to those cities to pillage the industrial areas. The headquarter gave them the command to secure San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and Los Angeles. The first two cities have wonders critical to the Americans (The FDR's new deal counts for a police station in all cities, the Hoover's dam counts for a power plant in all cities), and the last one is our beach head for landing in the United States. However, our ground troops think they can advance further ahead into the enemy territory. So they went, and they have captured more cities: Omaha, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland, .... They only regret that they could not take New Orleans, which had already been emptied by our AM Zeros. A Neutral freight was on the way and due to our agreement with the Neutrals we could not attack it. After many battles our troops were tired and they have run out of gasoline so they could not reach the Atlantic Ocean. The cities they captured also have not been secured due to short of landing units. Our reinforcement will arrive in Feburary and we will launch an attack to capture more cities while secure the ones we already have.

In the Southern Pacific front, our troops captured all Australia. Southeast of Australia there are sill a couple of islands in the British's hands (like, the New Zealand). Our troops will regroup and attack again. It is estimated that by March we will destroy all British and American forces in this area.

In the India front, we have captured several cities but stopped in front of Dehli. Our assaulting weapons could not reach the front due to bad road condition so we have to wait for a couple of more months to drive the British out of this part of the world and liberate the Indian people.

In the Russian front, our Imperial army made a heroic advance along the Siberia Railroad all the way to Sverdlovsk, the back door of Moscow. The sons of Japan were so determined that they have prepared never come back alive. For each city they captured, they sold the anti-tanks and used the Russian citizens as human shields. This means, should the Soviet Union try to take back the cities, they will destroy them instead. This will delay any possible advance for the Soviet towards Manchuria and China and allow us to concentrate our efforts in the American front.

We are delighted to know that our ally, the Germany, has captured Moscow in Europe. The Soviet is now down to a dozen cities and should have no strength to reach Manchuria in the near future.

The war is almost over.
[This message has been edited by Xin Yu (edited December 28, 2000).]

Mao · December 29, 2000, 03:02

Gee...and I thought this would take a while...

I call Xin on my side next game!

Xin Yu · January 7, 2001, 02:56

Feburary 1942 Japan broadcasting:

American front: the imperial army has occupied all of the American continent except Washington DC and Alaska. The imperial army also occupied all of Canada except Vancouver and a small island east of the continent.

Soviet front: the imperial army has occupied Stalingrad, Leningrad, and several other cities. Murmansk is destroyed.

Hahaha

Cal · January 7, 2001, 03:17

You're incredible, Xin Yu...

------------------
The strategically impaired,
-Cal

Xin Yu · January 7, 2001, 22:09

Thanks Cal. Japanese has too many units. Thus it has an air/navy superiority against the US and a ground superiority against the Soviet. Speed is the key. If I let the Soviet and the US keep 30 cities each for several turns then their weapons will be too tough for me. I think the Soviet is the easiest to play under our setting while the other civs are sort of equal. Japan/Germany move first and gain advantages from it. However if either the Soviet or the US can hold on for 3 turns then the balance will shift to the Allied side. British is actually the key here: it has good navy and air units and can destroy Germany's productivity to help the other two nations. The US and the Soviet just need to pillage the roads and set up bomber/AA combos to delay the Axis' advance till good weapons are available.
Fortunately the Soviet and the US lost too quickly and the Britain did not do much damage to German.

Jim Winchell · January 8, 2001, 09:15

In honor of Xin Yu's overwhelming victory, I have changed "gold" to "yen" in my default label.txt.

kent-jo · January 8, 2001, 11:47

Xin Yu: Are you a military General or somthing?

Do you ever lose a war? I have yet to hear about some one killing of Xin Yu.

Shaka Naldur · January 8, 2001, 14:53

hey guys!

the game it sounds really interesting
why don´t you make the sav file available for download?

or at least send me a sav file to see how is the game going

klesh · January 8, 2001, 17:03

Savegame sent to Marko.

German Broadcast:

After the astounding back door assault by the Japanese Imperial Marines, the Panzer divisions removed the last remnants of Soviet resistance from the European Continent. In the process, the city of Kallinin was destroyed, but in its place is the new City of Kleshnikov, the first of the German re-settlement programs. A lone Red Navy Battleship stands severly wounded in the Baltic Sea, the crew is contemplating scuttling the craft.
Our mighty Fallschrimjagers made a valiant paradrop upon Iceland, quickly subduing the garrison. While transports delivered supplies to the beseiging SeaLion forces that are starving London to it's knees. The British are truly desperate as they pillaged roads and rails leading to the city. The Organization Todt has been shipped across the channel to combat this technique. Soon London will fall.
The War's last true front exists in North Afrika. The Afrika Korps were stalling the British 8th army while the Armament Industry's production was focused toward the Soviets and British Ilses. Preparations are being made to assault the desert with our new Panther (PzKwV)tanks, whilst fortifications are being thrown up along the Med. to prevent a pre-emtive strike (88's and AA Batteries).
The Fatherland has it's Leibesraum, it seems the War is ours! We shall begin talks with the Japanese to discuss the policy toward our enemies.

Shaka: Each player sets a Password for his/her Civ, so a posted savegame would be worthless unless players are willing to give away their passwords. I agree that this concept is really cool. Another PBEM game could be in order after this one. Though modifications to the scenario may have to be made to weaken the Axis a bit.

------------------
I am the Ukrainian Anti-Pope!
Automatic Kleshnikov 2001
[This message has been edited by Field Marshal Klesh (edited January 08, 2001).]

Marko · January 9, 2001, 14:44

February 1942
The United States broadcast:

The heavy fighting around Washington DC continues. Several cities go from hand to hand during last few weeks.

Liberated: New York, Boston, Miami, Toronto, Quebec.

Japanese losses: Light Tank, Field Artillery, Motorized Infantry, 2 Cruisers, 2 Submarines.

Xin Yu · January 9, 2001, 17:39

Japan has evacuated coastal cities like New York, Boston, and Miami. Only Toronto has a mobile infantry unit. Hand to hand battles could be happend there?

dizepam · January 9, 2001, 21:20

February 1942

BBC Broadcast:

After destroying completely Rommel's Afrika Korps, the British armies made a raid on europe to debilitate Germany's industry. The following cities were taken in a combination of air raids and paratroopers attacks:
Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Paris, Lyon and Tolouse. The city of Tunis was also taken consolidating Britsh positions in North Africa.
New Dehli is still holding on, also New Zealand and London are holding. Canada is lost. Britain's only hope resides in North Africa and Middle East.
Total German losses: 45 units.

Xin Yu · January 9, 2001, 21:57

Hey, that's an opponent!

Allard HS · January 10, 2001, 08:34

Sounds cool! Anyone wishes to start a new PBEM game? For a non-ww2 scenario? (not that I have anything against them).

RobRoy · January 10, 2001, 11:03

Attaboy Dizepam! Do not go gently into that good night.

Allard - I might be interested in a PBEM game, for a non-WWII scenario (not that there's anything wrong with those). But I'm having trouble identifying an appropriate candidate. So many of the good scenarios were designed to be played from the perspective of just one civ, and might be hopelessly unbalanced with multiple human players. Another problem is that, while each turn would be considerably shorter than the average WWII scenario, there are often many, many more turns. Some possibilities that might offer several "playable" civs include: Fall of Rome, Justinian, End of the Bronze Age, Colonie3, Hellas, Vikings, the new "Modern Age", and Cross & Crescent. But those all have lots of turns. Mongols3, DAROE, Fading Lights, and the upcoming Imperium Romanum might also be interesting, but we might have to do some tweaking or even discourage the playing of the target civ. Did you have any specific candidates in mind? Also, it might be possible to try some scenarios as stardard internet games - or perhaps they could start that way and become PBEM games when things get too complicated (if that's possible).

Xin Yu & company - which events file did you use for the 2194 game? The Japanese, since you started? Or did you all decide not to use one? Sorry if I missed that discussion.

dizepam · January 10, 2001, 15:06

Xin Yu: you're rigth, Britain started to late. But you must remember that this scenario is very unbalanced. I only got paratroopers this turn, just as an example. I didn't make any big mistake, in my opinion. What happened was that i only had control of australia and british isles during one turn and of canada during two turns. There was little i could do to save them (maybe i should have pillaged the roads). Britain is a little more strong only in north africa and middle east (strong fleet in the mediterrean, lots of armor and spitfires and lack of immediat threat from Germany).The Axis, on the other hand starts with plenty of troops on all fronts.

klesh · January 10, 2001, 17:08

Holy Crap dizepam!!!

I was waiting for you to mount an offensive. I was very lightly defending the homecities because I had to fight very hard in Russia. All the events give the Soviet free AA, Light Tanks and Bombers. I had to send a great deal of troops to the East. Nice work on the raid though...fantsastic job!

I made a very desperate raid on Plymouth the first turn. I used nearly all of my bombers and fighters and lots of stukas to open up the city for a paradrop. I sent in 4 AA's on a freighter to prevent RAF counterattack. landed a few more fallscrimjagers as well. London is the only city w/ anti-tank defenses, so I sent 2 freighters of PzKwIV's over on turn 2 and used fighters to ZOC my way around London and take the rest of the British Isles. You would have lost London this last turn except you pillaged the rails...best thing you could've done. I hadn't gotten the 105 Wespe unit which ing. anti-tank defenses so I was planning to assault London w/ Field Artilley. But the Fld. Art. only has 1 move.

I agree that things should be done to modify this scenario. Xin and I were able to attack the Soviet before he had a turn to defend. The Soviet only recieves units if the attacker is Germany. The Imperial Marines along the RR are quite good. Though they must work quickly because Japan has no real defensive unit aside from the AA Battery.
The key to this is techs...In this game the Axis were able to take cites, and therefore science, away from the Allies before they could build their war-winning units. Had the Soviet had T-34's, I would have never taken Moscow. The war would have gone totally defensive. England is researching "Commandos" from the start. That will be their first tech regardless of choice. Churchill tanks in England would've certainly slowed my push.
My problem was indeed the Med. Germany can't attack on every front. There isn't enough production to resupply 3 fronts at once. I hoped to stall the British in North Afrika and resupply or invade when the units became available. That will be in the near future. I had decent defenses along the coast, looks like you hopped right over them

I sure hope I'll be able to retake those cities next turn...try to salvage what production I can. I can't wait to get my turn!

Achtung! The Invasion has begun!

Xin Yu · January 10, 2001, 20:30

Dizepam: I suggest that you replay turn 1 and try to take as many German cities as you can. You can air raid then occupy 10-15 German cities from North and South, including Hamburg and Rome. Many German units supported by those cities will be disbanded and you can sell the improvements for big cash. Also by occupying all German coastal cities you effectively blocked German's way to invade England.

Mao · January 10, 2001, 23:26

quote:

Originally posted by Allard HS on 01-10-2001 07:34 AM
Sounds cool! Anyone wishes to start a new PBEM game? For a non-ww2 scenario? (not that I have anything against them).

How about Sparta by Alex the Mag?

techumseh · January 11, 2001, 01:07

A year or two ago, I modified Jesus Munoz's "Thirty Years War" for multi-player. It was a little slow, but with double movement it would be lots of fun. It has 120 turns. The civs are: Imperialist (Austria), Protestants (north German states), France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, and Poland.
[This message has been edited by techumseh (edited January 10, 2001).]

Xin Yu · January 11, 2001, 01:09

We used German events.txt file and allies advantage rules.txt file.

Several things need to be set up when we do this again.
First, every civ needs to be passworded. The AI civs can be passworded in the first turn by the players immediately before them.
Secondly, players should always end their turns by pressing Ctrl-N. If not, the AI would take over the civ before it goes to the next player and mess up with everything (units are all out of city and productions are all changed).
Thirdly, a specific build order '@BUILD' should be added to every player's setup. The build order for a city maybe changed if it is in disorder when a nearby city is taken by another civ. A specific build order may help the AI to decide what to build. I suggest putting anti-tanks and barracks in the list. However I don't know if 'anti-tank' or the original name 'city walls' should be used.

Britain did the right thing. Just too late. Now, US has only 30 some units and 6 cities (the newly 'liberated' cities like New York, etc. are not counted since they don't have productivity and will be lost to Japan immediately), the Soviet has 30 some units and 5 cities. They will not be able to cover their losses in a war of attrition. Soon they'll all be wiped out. Similarly, the British has 20-30 units in London and Northern Europe with only 3 cities. It will not be able to send reinforcement there from the Middle East thus the units there will be eliminated soon. Same story for New Zealand. By mid 1942 Britain will be fighting alone in the Middle East.
[This message has been edited by Xin Yu (edited January 10, 2001).]

klesh · January 15, 2001, 17:48

So where are we at with this? I am dying to expell the British intrusion into Europe. WHo's turn is it now?

------------------
I am the Ukrainian Anti-Pope!
Automatic Kleshnikov 2001

Xin Yu · January 15, 2001, 17:53

I'm still waiting for VietMinh to send me the file.

Xin Yu · January 16, 2001, 15:21

March 1942 Japan broadcast: The war is over and hunting has begun. Washinton DC finally falls and our troops are advaning towards Alaska. The US has lost all its territory except some air and naval bases in central and north America. The US now only has a total of 5 cities and 20 units. Japanese prisoners were freed from US concentration camps and were seeking justice. We will send our imperial army to hunt down the US war criminals who escaped to South America. We urge the Neutral government to hand over those Americans, or we will have to declare war on the Neuturals.

The Soviet Union is now down to 2 cities and less than 30 units. We still haven't seen its T-34 tanks in battles. Will it appear when we take our final assault in April?

In India, we finally took Dehli. The imperial army will advance via land and the sea towards the middle east.