Advanced Third Reich Beta Mod

[FlightOfIcarus]

I would also like to thank you Bill for the hours of fun. This mod is not only a work of art but clearly a labour of love[:)] . I will test this new version and give you feedback over the experience.

At the moment, my only suggestion would be an adjustment on Russian AI. It is too easy for the Axis player to ignore Poland on the first turn and go for France's throat. With Poland neutral, Axis have two free hands to deal with the whole West with impunity, as Russia will never attack, even after declaring war. Maybe the russians could be made to attack Poland or the Eastern Axis if Germany does not declare war on first turn? Or at least to invade these countries as soon as it enters the war?

[pzgndr]

ORIGINAL: FlightOfIcarus
At the moment, my only suggestion would be an adjustment on Russian AI. It is too easy for the Axis player to ignore Poland on the first turn and go for France's throat. With Poland neutral, Axis have two free hands to deal with the whole West with impunity, as Russia will never attack, even after declaring war. Maybe the russians could be made to attack Poland or the Eastern Axis if Germany does not declare war on first turn? Or at least to invade these countries as soon as it enters the war?

Are you talking about my mod or the default game? I do have a Mobilization 3 script to increase Russian activation for every turn Poland is not surrendered after September 1939. And if Germany takes France early and tries Sealion, there are additional activations for Russia and United States when there are Axis ground units in England. So, it's certainly an option but Axis needs to be quick, because Russia WILL be breathing down your neck soon enough, at least in my A3R mod. You'll have to let us know how it goes for you?

[FlightOfIcarus]

I was thinking about the option the german player has to not attack Poland in first turn - it starts neutral, not at war with Axis - and go for the West instead. With this, it creates a barrier between Germany and Russia that the allied AI is incapable of handling. Even when Russia enters the war, it only builds masses of units but never attacks Poland or the Eastern Europe, leaving Germany free to take the Sealion or the Desert strategy with total impunity.

Maybe a tweak to make Russian AI invade an neutral Poland could remedy this?

[Cataphract88]

Thanks for the new update and for making this in the first place. [:)]

[pzgndr]

ORIGINAL: FlightOfIcarus
Maybe a tweak to make Russian AI invade an neutral Poland could remedy this?

Good point! Hadn't really considered this before but it should be an option. I can add this.

[TangSooDo]

Bill, I have been playing a single player game as Allies. I have just found that the Canadian ASW unit still needs to be given a strike. Another thought has to do with the information panel at the bottom of the screen. The black lettering for German units is very hard to see because of the dark background of the panel itself. I know that the lettering is designed to match the unit colors of each nation and it may be difficult to change. Just a thought. The good news though is that there have been no crashes!

[BillRunacre]

Great to see the update Bill! [:)]

Thinking about a neutral Poland, I think that if Germany had attacked in the west first, Poland would have mobilized and joined the Allies within a few turns.

[pzgndr]

Good catch on Canadian ASW. I fixed Bri/US but forgot that one. That's an easy edit players can do until I get another update ready.

The neutral Poland issue deserves more consideration. I start them neutral so a DOW gives them random setup. But if there's no DOW then technically there's no WWII yet with Britain and France at war. As Bill suggests, maybe a random entry chance per turn would be best, forcing Germany to react? War with Russia will wait, but the Poland issue should get resolved within several turns.

[FlightOfIcarus]

Interesting. I for myself like the option of not starting at war with Poland - it does give the game a lot of replayability and new options for the players. IRL, I cannot see Poland joining the Allies if Germany had choose to go to war in the West. It is akin to military suicide. Maybe they would choose to stay quiet, hoping to avoid the conflict?

OTOH, the Soviets would probably be more than willing to invade Poland - or even the whole of Eastern Europe - to have a direct path against Germany. In that case, Poland should be a new member of the Axis, crazy as it may sound. Would make a fascinating what-if path to the game.

[pzgndr]

ORIGINAL: FlightOfIcarus

Interesting. I for myself like the option of not starting at war with Poland - it does give the game a lot of replayability and new options for the players. IRL, I cannot see Poland joining the Allies if Germany had choose to go to war in the West. It is akin to military suicide. Maybe they would choose to stay quiet, hoping to avoid the conflict?

OTOH, the Soviets would probably be more than willing to invade Poland - or even the whole of Eastern Europe - to have a direct path against Germany. In that case, Poland should be a new member of the Axis, crazy as it may sound. Would make a fascinating what-if path to the game.

I've been pondering this. From a game point of view, it has to start with at least two major powers at war. So, why would Germany and Britain and France be at war if there is no invasion of Poland? One excuse would be knowledge of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed in late August 1939, regardless of whether Germany executed its option in the east in lieu of an option in the west. So, Britain and France pre-emptively declare war on Germany in anticipation of an imminent invasion of Poland, and Germany reacts by suspending Fall Weiss and shifts west. OK, fine.

So what does Russia do? They're mad. I already have scripts for continuous mobilization increases if 1) Poland hasn't surrendered in September 1939, if 2) Germany doesn't have garrisons in place in 1940 and 3) additional garrisons in place in 1941. If Poland stays neutral, there's no way Germany can satisfy the garrison checks so those will trigger. So between those three overlapping mobilizations, Russia should get fully geared up to DOW Germany by late 1940 or early 1941. The only issue was Russia DOWing neutral Poland and Baltic States to get at Germany, and I have added scripts for that.

The question now is whether this is sufficient, or if something more should be added to possibly trigger an early entry by Poland in support of its allies in the west; eg, German units within range of Paris, etc. I tend to agree that this would be suicidal and Poland should stay neutral. IMHO, what I have now should be OK? WWII starts with Germany, Britain and France at war regardless of an invasion of Poland. Russia starts mobilizing and this accelerates, but doesn't happen too fast. Germany has a window of opportunity to crush France and Britain, but then has to contend with early entry of Russia and the United States. It should be OK for a what-if game. Yea/nay?

[FlightOfIcarus]

Great idea. I think that it should be just fine, with the new scripts for USSR to invade Poland, specially if it means an early entry and and agressive posture for the Russian AI. It could counterbalance a possible Sealion for Germany and prevent it sending the whole of the army against France. Get itself pinched so early in a two front war could force the German player to make some hard decisions - the perfect way to make the game even more interesting. I´m looking forward to trying this new strategy myself. [&o]

[pzgndr]

OK, here's a quick update, a v0.5 Hotfix BETA for the time being:

DATA CHANGES
- slightly reduced Interceptors defense values
- fixed Canadian ASW strikes from 0 to 1

SCRIPT CHANGES
- added OFFENSIVE scripts for Russia at war with Germany to attack neutral Poland and Baltic States, if applicable

The attached file has the updated .cgn campaign file, the new OFFENSIVE script and the VERSION NOTES.

I will wait for some comments/feedback on Axis and/or Allied AI before making any more adjustments. Enjoy!

[TangSooDo]

Bill, the black lettering on Axis units is killing me. For example, I loaded a German HQ and a couple of infantry corps on landing craft in preparation for an invasion of Norway. The following turn I was having trouble identifying which unit was the HQ and which were the infantry. It's critically important to land HQ in a location where they can support the combat units without being in undue danger. Is there a solution to this or maybe a mod I could perform with the editor to make the print in the information panel a lighter color?

[pzgndr]

ORIGINAL: Winslow
Bill, the black lettering on Axis units is killing me... Is there a solution to this or maybe a mod I could perform with the editor to make the print in the information panel a lighter color?

Indeed there is! I had to check with Hubert. Apparently the selected unit name text color is based on the mini tile sprite color for that country. And as I made the mini-map color black for Germany, that's what happened. The rest seem ok.

Attached is a revised mini_tile_sprite for Germany. This goes in your Campaigns\_Advanced Third Reich 1939\Bitmaps\Major_07 folder. You should be able to extract the zip file into the \Bitmaps folder. Alternatively you can simply delete this custom .bmp file and the game will use the default gray for Germany, but this one is a slightly darker shade.

So, easy enough fix. Sorry about that. The "Law of Unintended Consequences" always wins! LOL

[TangSooDo]

The change in text color works great. Thanks.

[Cataphract88]

I agree. A small but very good improvement. [:)]

[pzgndr]

ORIGINAL: pzgndr
In the spirit of simplicity, this version returns to generic air fleets...

FYI, I may be reconsidering this for the next update. The way the generic AI handles fighters, which is the unit type I chose for generic air fleets, it does not use them as aggressively as I would like. Players may notice this also, but perhaps not as much as in AI-AI playtest games. I've had discussions with Hubert and I understand why he has fighters standing off a bit to reduce unnecessary reorganizations, and they will deploy to counter enemy air attacks. The problem is when both sides are AI and reluctant to move air fleets forward, then that causes a ripple-effect that prevents reactive moves and so the air-war stagnates a bit.

It would be helpful to have some independent feedback from real players about how the Axis and the Allied AI is doing to support its offensive operations and in reaction to human player air operations. If there are obvious weaknesses then I can go back to splitting the AFs into separate fighters and tac bombers like I had before in the previous Global Conflict Gold version, which seemed to work fine. If the generic AFs seem OK in actual games then I may not split them. Let me know. Thanks!

[basilstaghare]

Checking to see what the status of this mod is? It looks interesting. Is it playable? Thanks.

[pzgndr]

ORIGINAL: basilhare_ssl

Checking to see what the status of this mod is? It looks interesting. Is it playable? Thanks.

There is a newer update at A3R v0.5 beta. It's playable, for either side. Not perfect, but getting there!

[lordhoff]

Old post I know but, well, maybe ----- I know Third Reich was converted to a PC game but I have never seen nor heard of this with the much better Advanced Third Reich. What exactly was modded?