GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Discuss and post your mods and scenarios here for others to download.

Moderator: Vic

Post Reply
User avatar
ernieschwitz
Posts: 4240
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:46 pm
Location: Denmark

GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by ernieschwitz »

GD 1938 is New and Improved

Introduction
Once apon a time I had a dream to build a wargame, that would work for the whole world, and be set during the 2nd world war. This dream was born out of playing games like Rise and Decline of the Third Reich, by Avalon Hill, and other such games. So I made a wargame of my own. It was HUGE, and I was the only one playing it - sadly. The along came the Peoples Tactics game by Vic, which I picked up rather late, but I started designing for it.

I made a little scenario, I still have it, which can be said to be the first roots of GD 1938. The first version of the GD 1938 game was for Advanced Tactics: World War II, and it was a kind of cross between other scenarios and wasn´t really a game in its own rights. This has changed, with this the newest version of GD 1938, which is still in developement, but probably will be ready for its first spin this Monday.

Changes
Bombur and I have worked very hard, in each our ways to make GD 1938, a unique and intersting scenario, that is replayable, again, again and again.

The first BIG change was made because GD 1938 was running into Memory issues with some players. It was simply too big, in the sense that it had 55 regimes, and they were all eating up alot of memory each. Also there were some issues with the way people had to remember that coup cards were useless, once a regime had been conquered, and the same went for diplomatic researches. These concepts were thrown to the wind, and something new was thouught up.

Faux Regimes & Diplomacy
Instead of regimes, BWheatley and I came up with the idea of making so called "Faux regimes". What these are is hard to describe without getting technical, but I will try. Instead of using a regime for each nation, an areaslot was used instead. This meant that all nations are marked out by areaslots. The Minor regimes, were then diveded into four independent regimes, that were used only to show where borders were. (Mathematics has a theory that four colors is really all you need to color a map and still get to show all the countries). These regimes (the four colored ones) were then set to sleep and dip.blocked. They no cannot be declared war on, and neither can they be woken up, or entered into alliance with or anything else.

So with these "faux regimes" in place, something had to be done about taking over them diplomatically. For this I took a page out of Heart of Iron II and III. I made a large matrix that contained all the nations, and assigned them values, which represented their current relationship to each major regime. Then i made another similar matrix, and made a list of which direction, and how fast these nations were moving towards an alliance with each major regime. And then it was time for a function that could influence them diplomatically. Which when got over a certain level (800) would cause a chance to become part of that regime (1000-level/2 percent).

Also something had to be done regarding war with these minors. Obviously someone had to control them if they were attacked, and attacking had to be worked out. The answer, was an algorithm, checking the best friend of the attacked nation, and letting them take over the country. This would for instance put Germany to war with France, when Poland was attacked.

So the "Faux regimes" were born, and declaring war on these minor nations, can only be done via action card, and diplomacy is too handled via action card.

Victory conditions
The second big change that came along was an idea fostered by Bombur. He said, why not give each regime a victory conditon that defines their actions, and make them behave more like they did in World War II. At the time our testgames showed a huge tendancy for Germany and the Soviet Union to become permanent allies.... which was not our intent. We improved apon the idea, and gave each regime not one, but up to 5 sets of victory conditions.

These are chosen on the first turn of the game, via action card, and should be kept secret from the other players, as only 1 regime can win. There is no joint-victory option. The five different sets of victory conditions make it so that some scenarios are completely avoided, while others are more prone to happen. A good example of these victory conditions are the British ones.

Basically there is a requirement to always own the British Isles, and the dominions (New Zealand, Australia, Canada & South Africa), and then there are 5 options that can be chosen to add to this victory condition....

1). Keep the Empire (Own all production centers in the British empire, at the beginning of 1944 or later)
2). Empire in the East (Take the Chinese coastline cities, and Japan and Korea)
3). Defeat Fascism (Take and hold the production centers of the German and Italian homeland)
4). Defeat Bolshevism (Take Moscow, Kiev, Kharkov, Leningrad, Stalingrad, Gorkiy)
5). Expand the empire (Increase starting VP´s by 60%)

Similar victory conditions exist for each regime. Some are conflicting and tensions should arise because of this. In fact we hope that we can simulate a realistic what-if by using these victory conditions.

Unique Units
One of the hall-marks of the GD 1938 scenario is the existance of its many unique and historical units. If you play Germany for instance, you WILL be using Panzer IIs as well as the other marks, and your fighters will be the BF109s as well as FW190s when they become available. Bombur has been responsible for making the SFTs and Items. I could not have made this scenario without his expertise and help.

Techs and Techbleeding
For those who have yet to play a game of GD 1938, it can right now be said that there are alot of Techs. These techs come in two kinds. The tactical and the strategic ones. The latter ones include production boosts, radar, better training, and more. These are all explained in game.

The tactical ones are the ones like Fighter I, Fighter II, Fighter III, etc. These stretch from 1938 to the 1950s. So a long game is quite possible, stretching on for more than 100 turns, without running out of new techs. A barrier has been made, so you cannot research too far into the future. No Jet fighters in 1939 for instance. This was done to make sure players try and make a balanced approach to research. A tech in general is not available before it was available in real life +2 years.

Also there is the feature called tech bleeding. Whenever a non-strategic tech is researched it becomes cheaper for the next regime that researches it, by 5%. So sometimes it pays off to keep an eye out for those tech prices, and see if something has become less costly. If it has, that is where some of your opponents, or even friends, are researching.

Special thanks
A special thanks goes out to the people who have playtested earlier versions of the game. Without their help this could not have happened.





Creator of High Quality Scenarios for:
  • Advanced Tactics Gold
    DC: Warsaw to Paris
    DC: Community Project.
Try this Global WW2 Scenario: https://www.vrdesigns.net/scenario.php?nr=280
User avatar
Jeffrey H.
Posts: 3154
Joined: Fri Apr 13, 2007 6:39 pm
Location: San Diego, Ca.

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by Jeffrey H. »

Wow, awesome Ernie, (et. all). [&o]
History began July 4th, 1776. Anything before that was a mistake.

Ron Swanson
User avatar
ernieschwitz
Posts: 4240
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:46 pm
Location: Denmark

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by ernieschwitz »

Good News.

I got some extra spare time today... and providing Bombur approves of my work, the Scenario is now done. :)
Creator of High Quality Scenarios for:
  • Advanced Tactics Gold
    DC: Warsaw to Paris
    DC: Community Project.
Try this Global WW2 Scenario: https://www.vrdesigns.net/scenario.php?nr=280
User avatar
ernieschwitz
Posts: 4240
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:46 pm
Location: Denmark

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by ernieschwitz »

Global Domination 1938 is a mulitplayer game. For several reasons, one being the cards that need to be played, the AI does not play well. In fact i would advice not using the AI at all in this game. I would suggest the following configurations for multiple players:

2 players:
(1) Germany, Italy, Japan
(2) Soviet Union, France, Great Britain, United States, China

3 player:
(1) Germany, Italy, Japan
(2) Soviet Union
(3) France, Great Britain, United States, China

4 player
(1) Germany, Italy, Japan
(2) Soviet Union
(3) France, Great Britain
(4) United States, China

5 player
(1) Germany, Italy
(2) Japan.
(3) Soviet Union
(4) France, Great Britain
(5) United States, China

6 player
(1) Germany
(2) Italy
(3) Japan
(4) Soviet Union
(5) France, Great Britain
(6) United States, China

7 player
(1) Germany
(2) Italy
(3) Japan
(4) Soviet Union
(5) France
(6) Great Britain
(7) United States, China

8 Player.
Each player gets a regime ;)
Creator of High Quality Scenarios for:
  • Advanced Tactics Gold
    DC: Warsaw to Paris
    DC: Community Project.
Try this Global WW2 Scenario: https://www.vrdesigns.net/scenario.php?nr=280
User avatar
ernieschwitz
Posts: 4240
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:46 pm
Location: Denmark

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by ernieschwitz »

This post will be about the Victory conditions. In the scenario description they are described as follows:
Germany:
To win Germany has to take and hold Austria, Czechoslovakia, Western Poland (Warsaw and westwards). In addition one of the following victory conditions has to be chosen.

1). Historical Path
- All historical conquests + Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad

2). Against the West.
- France, British Isles + New York, Boston, Phillidelphia, Washington DC

3). Colonial Empire.
-France, Poland, Egypt, Algeria, Tunesia, Morocco, Middle East, Persia, and the arabian peninsula

4). Against the East.
- All of Eastern Europe + Minsk, Moscow, Kiev, Kharkov, Stalingrad, Baku

5). Nordic Homeland.
- year required: 1944
- Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Baltic countries

Italy:
In order for Italy to win, they have to own all the cities in Italy and Sardinia, conquer Malta, and complete one of the 5 options chosen below.

1). Roman Empire.
- Take and Hold Paris, Marseille, Athens, Cairo, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Istanbul

2). Survival.
- Year required: 1944
- Keep alll starting territory.

3). Antibolshevik Crusade.
- Year required: 1944
- Take and Hold Odessa, Sevastopol, Kiev, Stalingrad, Rostov.

4). King of the Balkans.
- Year required: 1944
- Take Yugoslavia, Rumania, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria.

5). Place under the Sun.
- Take the African colonies of France, Belgium and Britain (excluding South Africa)

Japan:
To win Japan has to keep all her main island possessions, Manchuria, Korea. In addition, one of the following is a required option.

1). Co-Prosperity Sphere.
- Year Required: 1944
- Take all the areas owned by Japan during world war 2.

2). To India
- Take Burma, and all of India

3). Southern Expansion
- Take the Phillipines, Dutch East Indies, and all East Australian Cities.

4). Japanese Mainland
- Take all of China, Mongolia and Vladivostock

5). To America.
- Take the Western seaboard of America.

Soviet Union:
To win the Soviet Union has to keep all the cities, in the territory they start out with. In addition one of the following victory conditions has to be chosen, and met.

1). Histrorical Path.
- Take Eastern Europe and Germany

2). Race to the Sea.
- Take Poland, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Paris and Le Havre.

3). Southern Advances.
- Take Rumania, Bulgaria, Persia, Turkey.

4). Defeat Fascism.
- Take Germany, Austria and Italy.

5). Soviet Asia.
- Take Manchuria, Korea, Peking, Tsingtao, Sendai.

France:
To win France needs to control france Proper. In addition the following victory options exist, one must be chosen.

1). Survival.
- Year required: 1944
- Own all starting cities and production sites.

2). Disarming the Reich.
- Take Germany, Austria.

3). A New Empire.
- Take Spain, Portugal, Italy..

4). Antibolshevik Crusade.
- Take Leningrad, Novgorod, Moscow, Minsk.

5). King of the Med.
- Take Spain, Italy, Greece, Albania.

Britain:
Great Britain must own alll of the British Isles, northern Ireland and the Dominions (New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South Africa) in order to win. Also one of the following options must be chosen as victory conditions.

1). Keep the Empire.
- Year Required: 1944
- Keep all starting territory that produces.

2). Empire in the East.
- Take Chinese coastline, Korea, and Japan.

3). Defeat Fascism.
- Take Germany, Austria, and Italy

4). Defeat Bolshevism.
- Take Moscow, Kiev, Kharkov, Leningrad, Stalingrad and Gorkij.

5). Expand the Empire.
- Year Required: 1944
- Achieve 80 VPs.

United States:

The United States need to keep all cities and production sites, within USA proper. That is the 50 states. In addition, to win, one of the following conditions must be met.

1). A Global Empire
- Year Required: 1944
- Achieve 100 VPs.

2). Defeat Bolshevism
- Take Moscow, Kiev, Kharkov, Leningrad, Stalingrad, Gorkij and Baku.

3). Defeat Fascism
- Take Germany and Italy.

4). Japan First.
- Take Japan, Korea and Manchuria.

5). Spread Democracy.
- Take Berlin, Moscow, Rome.

China:

To be able to win, China, must own all chinese territory on the mainland. Some of it is Japanese at the start of the game, and Hong Kong is British. In addition one of the following 4 victory conditions must be chosen.

1). Liberate the Mainland.
- Take Korea

2). Restore the Empire.
- Take Hainan and Taiwain.

3). The Bear and the Rising Sun.
- Take Vladivostock and Ulan Bator.

4). Anticolonialist Crusade.
- Take Vietnam and Burma.

These are chosen by choosing an action card, at some point during your first turn. The cards are yellow and have a number on them. The number is the victory condition number you chose. If you fail to choose a number, then the game will automatically choose one at random for you, and then tell you which one it was, on the start of the next turn.

If at some point you forget what victory condition you chose, or lets say someone else takes over for another player, the victory condition chosen, can be seen in the diplomacy map, where it is listed along with your resources. It is up to you to keep the victory condition you set secret, in order to maximize your chance of winning.

The Screenshot shows the victory cards as shown on the first turn, for Germany.

Image
Attachments
VictoryConditions.jpg
VictoryConditions.jpg (134.19 KiB) Viewed 622 times
Creator of High Quality Scenarios for:
  • Advanced Tactics Gold
    DC: Warsaw to Paris
    DC: Community Project.
Try this Global WW2 Scenario: https://www.vrdesigns.net/scenario.php?nr=280
User avatar
ernieschwitz
Posts: 4240
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:46 pm
Location: Denmark

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by ernieschwitz »

The Screenshot shows, how to select a minor country to declare war against.

First you choose the card: Declare Minor War.

Then a map comes up, with some highlighted hexes. Click on one of them, in this case, Prague has been selected, because i am very sure that this is Czechoslovakia, and I wish to declare war against them. When ready, press the select button, and the minor whose hex it is, will be the one selected to go to war against.

Be aware, that all minors are guaranteed by some other major country than yourself. So in this case, i would be declaring war against France as well, and that might not be good...

Image
Attachments
Choosing.jpg
Choosing.jpg (197.5 KiB) Viewed 622 times
Creator of High Quality Scenarios for:
  • Advanced Tactics Gold
    DC: Warsaw to Paris
    DC: Community Project.
Try this Global WW2 Scenario: https://www.vrdesigns.net/scenario.php?nr=280
User avatar
ernieschwitz
Posts: 4240
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:46 pm
Location: Denmark

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by ernieschwitz »

The next step in this little tutorial, is how to find out diplomatic info on a minor country.

I have selected the card: Investigate Minor

It costs nothing, so there is really no reason not to use it, to gain info, before you act. The Screenshot shows the area around Cuba, and i have selected Havanna as the hex in the minor i wish to know more about...

When selected this is the information i get:
Diplomatic status of Cuba:

Diplomatic points: 75
Diplomatic drift: 0

Most friendly nation: United States

So If i were to attack Cuba, I would be at war with the United States as well. Also, the Cubans apparantly don´t like me. They only have 75 Diplomatic Points out of 1000 in their rating for me, and they don´t drift towards me at all.

Image
Attachments
InvestigateMinor.jpg
InvestigateMinor.jpg (147.38 KiB) Viewed 622 times
Creator of High Quality Scenarios for:
  • Advanced Tactics Gold
    DC: Warsaw to Paris
    DC: Community Project.
Try this Global WW2 Scenario: https://www.vrdesigns.net/scenario.php?nr=280
User avatar
ernieschwitz
Posts: 4240
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:46 pm
Location: Denmark

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by ernieschwitz »

Things look much better if i select Austria (I am still Germany). The report from them says:
Diplomatic Status of Austria:

Diplomatic Points: 454

Diplomatic Drift: 4

Most friendly nation: Italy.

Obviously something is needed to change this. As Germany it would just be wrong for Italy to get a hold of Austria, don´t you think? So its time to select another Card: Diplomatic Action.

With this card Germany (or any other nation whose turn it is) can influence a country to become more friendly towards them. So I select it. And play it on Austria.

I get the following results.
Austria has become more friendly towards us. Diplomatics have shifted 113 points.

This is good news, for when i now use the Investigate Minor card on Austria i get:
Diplomatic Status of Austria:

Diplomatic Points: 567

Diplomatic Drift: 4

Most friendly nation: Germany.

So it paid off to select it. The amount that the country shifts is dependant upon its production capacity, and your production capacity. There is also a 50 point bonus for being at peace with everyone. (Being isolationist counts as not being at peace, or rather, it counts as being indifferent to the country).

The exact formula can be seen in this screenshot:

Image
Attachments
Formula.jpg
Formula.jpg (12.34 KiB) Viewed 622 times
Creator of High Quality Scenarios for:
  • Advanced Tactics Gold
    DC: Warsaw to Paris
    DC: Community Project.
Try this Global WW2 Scenario: https://www.vrdesigns.net/scenario.php?nr=280
User avatar
lion_of_judah
Posts: 2230
Joined: Mon Jan 08, 2007 6:36 pm
Location: somewhere over the rainbow

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by lion_of_judah »

looks good
kombrig
Posts: 254
Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2012 1:18 pm

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by kombrig »

It is simply amazing what the editor allows to do!

So are we going to play it? [;)]
User avatar
Tac2i
Posts: 2078
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 5:57 pm
Location: WV USA

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by Tac2i »

I'm looking forward to the release of this updated version on Monday! Wow! Wow! What an awesome job you have done with this mod. Truly, ATG with its editor is an outstanding war game construction kit.
Tac2i (formerly webizen)
User avatar
Twotribes
Posts: 6466
Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2002 10:00 am
Location: Jacksonville NC
Contact:

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by Twotribes »

I guess when you play all sides it doesn't work.
Favoritism is alive and well here.
User avatar
ernieschwitz
Posts: 4240
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:46 pm
Location: Denmark

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by ernieschwitz »

Believe me Twotribes, i´ve tried... but i always get stuck when i have to plan an offensive against myself, lol ;)
Creator of High Quality Scenarios for:
  • Advanced Tactics Gold
    DC: Warsaw to Paris
    DC: Community Project.
Try this Global WW2 Scenario: https://www.vrdesigns.net/scenario.php?nr=280
User avatar
Twotribes
Posts: 6466
Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2002 10:00 am
Location: Jacksonville NC
Contact:

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by Twotribes »

Been playing all sides for years, have about 70 board games in the garage I collected from 17 till Computers came along. never had an opponent. It isn't hard at all.
Favoritism is alive and well here.
User avatar
Bombur
Posts: 3664
Joined: Fri Jul 02, 2004 4:50 am

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by Bombur »

With all these changes made by ernie, this is one of the best multiplayer simulations of the whole WWII, I hope we will find playtesters for the game.
User avatar
lion_of_judah
Posts: 2230
Joined: Mon Jan 08, 2007 6:36 pm
Location: somewhere over the rainbow

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by lion_of_judah »

I agree, and cannot wait too play this
User avatar
Bombur
Posts: 3664
Joined: Fri Jul 02, 2004 4:50 am

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by Bombur »

I presume you´re volunteering for playtest?[:D]
User avatar
Bombur
Posts: 3664
Joined: Fri Jul 02, 2004 4:50 am

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by Bombur »

ORIGINAL: kombrig

It is simply amazing what the editor allows to do!

So are we going to play it? [;)]


-Another volunteer? If we get more than 4 players, maybe we could divide the Axis in Italy+Germany and Japan....
User avatar
ernieschwitz
Posts: 4240
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:46 pm
Location: Denmark

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by ernieschwitz »

I really wish we could play with more than 4 players, but i think we have to be efficient in a testgame.

As of now the following people have been offered (have dibs) on playing should they want to:

Me (what a surprise!)
Bombur (another big surprise!)
RufusTfirefly (a very loyal playtester)
BWheatley (part of the design process)

The people otherwise on the shortlist, should any of the above not wish to play are:
Jeffrey H.
Kraftwerk (if he´s still around)

and then the people who first made a wish to join in this thread.. At least that is my oppinion...
Creator of High Quality Scenarios for:
  • Advanced Tactics Gold
    DC: Warsaw to Paris
    DC: Community Project.
Try this Global WW2 Scenario: https://www.vrdesigns.net/scenario.php?nr=280
solops
Posts: 1001
Joined: Thu Jan 31, 2002 10:00 am
Location: Central Texas

RE: GD 1938 - Renewed and improved

Post by solops »

"GD 1938 is New and Improved "
So where do I get it?
 
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.-Edmund Burke
Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; if it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.-Judge Learned Hand
Post Reply

Return to “Mods and Scenarios”