2194 Days Gigamap Playtest

[academia]

Why? We are the land of the free and the home of the brave. We desire peace and prosperity

[Pavlov]

Well done Pap! Look forward to meeting you.

You guys are so fast, I'll play tomorrow.

[Darius871]

Despite what the Soviets believed our intentions to be, we did not want to attack or be in a war with the Soviet Union. We were actually hoping for a continued peace.

Bullshit, what the hell were you doing with 40 divisions in Harbin? Defense?

We feel that the Soviets made a huge blunder by attacking, they should have concentrated their efforts on defending their borders.

Are you joking? If you had attacked first then all the units I lost would have disappeared anyway. I thought I might as well kill a few units and sell a few factories before mine are destroyed anyway.

[Pap1723]

Bullshit, what the hell were you doing with 40 divisions in Harbin? Defense?

Ok, so maybe this was the turn I was planning on attacking during

And I really don't think you had a bad move at all, it was one hell of a move actually, I just had to say something to save face

Great turn though, really had me scared shitless when I was loading up my turn, I lost at least 1 Field Artillery division from each one of those cities, and your attack caused all of my cities that I rush built Industrial Ports in to change to Coastal Batteries.

Pap

[Darius871]

I just wish those bunkers had held out though; I planned to abandon my cities but continually raid you from them on land and in the air, but you were too smart for that.

Btw don't you use lazyciv?

[Pap1723]

Nope, but after that I am going to start!

Pap

[Darius871]

Pap, with the new version you can copy and paste production orders, so you can still use it in this turn.

[Pavlov]

*AG North takes Archangelsk. Hitler congratulated them on a job well done. Stalin can look forward to facing two armygroups on his northern flank.

*Voronez taken and Saratov destroyed. AG Center dig in for the inevitable counterattack.

*In a surprising move (well it was surprising to me anyway) a panzergroup captured Sevastopol. The attack involved many fighters, stukas and other classified units. Among the destroyed Soviet units was a rocketlauncher, a vehicle the German soldiers has grown to hate.

*Afrika Korps push on, this month taking Bushire. German reconplanes are now flying over Pakistan. Also officers of the Afrika Korps have been flown to AG Center and AG South to act as specialists on desert warfare.

*Sunk that annoying battleship.

[Choke]

War Declared
His Excellency President Chiang Kai-Shek has announced that in response to the unprovoked stab in the back dealt by the Russian imperialists to the Empire of Japan the Republic of China can no longer live in peace with Russia. Therefore a state of war now exists between the Russian autocrat Stalin and the Republic of China. When it was announced that President Chiang had declared war on the Russian aggressors the Anglo-American imperialists declared war on the Republic of China. General Song is quoted as saying "We were willing to let the Americans live in peace with us but this ridiculous action has obliterated any bit of sympathy I felt toward the Americans. We will raise Los Angeles, we will leave no stone unturned, man, woman and child, none will survive the wrath of the Imperial Japanese and Republican Chinese Air Forces working in tandem."

Successful Attacks Carried Out
A series of offensives has been launched against British India and the Russian colonies of Kazahkstan and Mongolia. Bombers annihilated Russian forces outside of Alma Ata, Ulan Bator and Cita while infantry moved into positions outside those cities. Further Dhaka was captured.

edited to reflect what actually happened

[Pavlov]

The Führer has announced his happiness over Chinas attack on Russia. He wishes them the best of luck in the struggle against communism and British imperialism.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
I still haven't heard any opinions on my avatar, people.

[Choke]

Here the situation in India is shown:



Here the situation in Kazahkstan:


And finally the situation in Mongolia:

[Choke]

President Chiang congradulates the Fuhrer on his recent victories in Russia and hopes Chinese and German troops will soon get drunk together in India and eastern Russia.

OOC: Pavlov, log on to MSN.

[academia]

General Song is quoted as saying "We were willing to let the Americans live in peace with us but this ridiculous action has obliterated any bit of sympathy I felt toward the Americans. We will raise Los Angeles, we will leave no stone unturned, man, woman and child, none will survive the wrath of the Imperial Japanese and Republican Chinese Air Forces working in tandem."

General Song: I know you are talking, but all I hear is "blah blah blah"

[Darius871]

Heavily mechanized Chinese forces and heavy bombers launching a blitzkrieg against Russia and Britain... *sigh* No offense to Choke or Pap, but I would like to suggest that in both of the new version's games the American player play out the Chinese turns, and that they serve no purpose whatsoever other than gobbling up some Japanese units, as was realistic. Read: I won't participate in a game where that isn't the case.

[academia]

Read: I won't participate in a game where that isn't the case.

Do you quit Darius???

[academia]

Choke:
It seems you played your turn... but you didn´t post it...

[Choke]

OK, I did forget to post and Darius, those pictures are faked, they are a joke I will have to post later, I have to go to work now.

[Pavlov]

But Darius, wasn't it obvious? Mechanized infantry getting to Irkutsk before you spot them? Not bloody likely.

Choke's just messing with your head.

[Darius871]

I wasn't talking about this game, I meant the new ones.

Oh and goddam you choke, lol.

Btw Pavlov, which avy would you like me to comment on? You've had 3 in 24 hrs! Personally I liked the one where Zlatan was standing in front of the crowd.

[Darius871]

Honestly though Choke, that was one of the funniest things I've seen all week.

[Choke]

here's the turn

[Pavlov]

Originally posted by Darius871
Btw Pavlov, which avy would you like me to comment on? You've had 3 in 24 hrs! Personally I liked the one where Zlatan was standing in front of the crowd.

Uhhh, the current one. Could you recognize Zlatan from the pic number 2? Personally I thought it was a bit hard, that's why I added all those quotes. Do you know who Zlatan is? *just curious*

Oh and good thing you're not considering quitting, wouldn't want to lose such a dangerous enemy. (Well, I would like to defeat you, but that's another thing )

[Darius871]

Dangerous enemy? I have nothing but infantry left in every city! I'm just more bold a player than most, that doesn't mean I'm good!

Anyway I just knew who he was from the quotes. Is he a soccer player or something?

"Uhhh, the current one."

No, the current one is just his face. I meant the one where he was standing.

[tanelorn]

What a great scenario! I am thrilled, to say the least.

Some suggestions on single-play:
I've been single-playing v0.3 and v0.6 for a while and a funny thing happened:

Playing v0.6 as the Americans, the Soviets and the British attacked me on turn no2, after I refused them American specific technologies.
The AI traded techs liberally, so the British ended up producing soviet armor in N.Africa and Canada.
The Japanese attacked the Soviets in Siberia and the Axis sued for peace.
This really ruined single-play.
It had not happened to me as J.Stalin (nickname, "steel") in v0.3 perhaps because noone wanted to talk to me and avoided negotiations.

I added the no negotiations event (anybody) in the events files, patched it with the .bat, so it is fixed.
I guess that negotiations were left in to represent Lend-Lease, but this would give everyone the wrong units. Couldn't negotiations be used to cheat in PBEM?

Lend lease might be represented (in single-play) by a "subtracting a sum from the U.S and giving it to UK/USSR" event or by creating generic units in Murmansk and Liverpool, via events.

[tanelorn]

One more thing, I was not happy with the ricfields in Greenland and the poles, so I tried covering them with pollution, which I replaced with the glacier gaphic.
I got the idea from Lebensraum1939 (it was used for desert, there).
Since glaciers are non-productive and no real cities are located next to them, it only affects the game visually (pollution nullifies production).
Moreover, since glaciers are far away from cities, the AI won't attempt to clean the pollution.
I left some ricefields in the picture and the description box, to prove it can be done. Pollution can be renamed to glacier or something.
Problem: Won't the temperature rise as a result of the pollution?
It is already a no-polution scenario, BUT temperatures will rise, nontheless, if this scheme is implemented in a .sav, (.net, .hot). Believe me, I tried it. I think it has to be embedded in the .scn. I'll provide a link on how they did it in Lebensraum.

[tanelorn]

Another point, about the Soviets. It was very satisfactory to play as Stalin myself, but when the AI took over the USSR, the Russians were crushed during the Russian winter (noone has done this since the Mongol conquest in the 13thc. that actually took advantage of the weather itself).
Since the Soviets already get seasonal unit graphics, would it be too much to ask slightly higher defence stats for the Red Army infantry during winter months (Phases 1,3,5,7,9). This would be a real challenge for the Axis player and would force him to attack during the spring/summer season. Realistic, don't you think?

[tanelorn]

Then I had yet another idea about this issue.
I took the chance to change some things, just to prove my point. Hope you don't mind.
Just for argument's sake:
Realise that by replacing an entire terrain type with the pollution graphic, you get an extra terrain type to do with as you wish (provided that the terrain you replace is non-productive, i.e. desert or glacier).
The following proposal is not without disadvantages though.
.The idea
Remember the winter/summer terrains in Red Front?
What if you had a seasonal terrain that depicted extremely low winter temperatures (in northern USSR, Canada/Alaska and Terra del fuego in Argentina?
In winter months it would have high movement cost, minimal food producton and negative defence bonus. This way the Axis would be slowed down and weakened when attacking in the north (and to be fair, the Russians would starve). It would revert to normal grassland half a year later.
.How to do it
You may replace desert terrain with a northern plains or so terrain. Place pollution (painted/renamed desert) over regular deserts. These retain their move/def stats, but produce nothing. Have two sets of Terrain1 graphics (W/S terrain) to use with the batch file, as you do with the units.gif and rotate between them as Terrain1 during file swaps. Give the winter terrain diffrent stats in the respective rules.txt, of course. That's it!
.How to save time
Instead of clicking incessantly, you could use mapcopy to export the map. Use mapedit to convert it to bitmap. Flood fill/colour replace the areas involved (with Paint, PSP, whatever). Mapedit it back to .mp and use mapcopy again to import it to the .scn or sav (You already knew that I guess). Done.
.Results/Problems
I tried and tested it, it works. I included the picture to prove it. The picture shows both Axis and Soviets as AI. Barbarossa is checked.
-Unfortunately pollution conceals railroads. I suppose they are covered with sand. RR's are still useable, nontheless, though I am not so sure the train station improvement works for polluted squares.
-Desert oilfields show as winter oilfields, because polluting them would deny their benefits.
-AI engineers might attempt to clean them. Putting the pollution/desert graphic over ocean squares solves this, but this way deserts are impassable. Hex-editing engineer abilities might do, but I am not sure the AI will follow suit, even then.
-Winterized units blend with the winter terrain somewhat, making ambushes slightly more feasible, against/amongst human opponents.

One more thing: Where is Finland? They did get some of the best Axis equipment btw.

I have some ideas on enhancing the Chinese position too, but I haven't checked if it works yet.
I'll send you the altered files if you want, to have a look at.
Is it a bit too much, perhaps? Tell me what you think.

[Pavlov]

Originally posted by Darius871
Dangerous enemy? I have nothing but infantry left in every city! I'm just more bold a player than most, that doesn't mean I'm good!

Anyway I just knew who he was from the quotes. Is he a soccer player or something?

"Uhhh, the current one."

No, the current one is just his face. I meant the one where he was standing.

You look like you need a lesson in taking praise.

Yep, Zlatan plays for Ajax, one of the best Swedish footballers right now.

What I meant to ask was, which is better, this one or the other Zlatan-picture?

And Tanelorn's suggestion about pollution/glacier is very good. Some of his other ideas are excellent too.

[tanelorn]

this is the picture

[academia]

Question:
During an incursion of a B-17 bomber in north africa, I spotted a AA outside a city!!!
Is that legal in this game?? Can we move the AA units??