zaxmod

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Menschenfresser
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zaxmod

Post by Menschenfresser »

This mod is my feeble attempt to balance out USSR (human) vs GERMAN (AI) play. It is only a mod of the 1939 scenario.

WARNING: it has only been tested playing as the USSR and no other countries on normal settings.
2ND WARNING: I still haven't won, even with this mod, but I've gotten well into 1943 before deciding it was hopeless. I guess I shouldn't even say 'win'. Just stop them. I'm releasing it because I need more and different attempts.
3RD WARNING: The German actions leading up to Barbarossa will move slightly slower than usual. Don't be surprised if Poland and France take several months. However, the Germans will still start Barbarossa around the same time. June-July 1941. I've seen it as early as spring and as late as Sept.

INSTALLATION:
There's an instruction file in the zip to help with installation. It's pretty simple.

DESC
I tried correcting the imbalance from a number of different angles. Supply. Terrain. PP. Unit Strength. Etc. Nothing seemed to work. Main impasse are the tank armies. They are unstoppable. I do believe you could fill every hex in Russia with Inf Armies and they would eat through all of them. The events file in the stock game has four separate events set to trigger sometime during 1940-41, 42, 43, & 44. One for each of those time periods. If I understand the event correctly, there were 20 small probabilities in each of these four events (for 80 total) that the Germans could receive a Tank Army. Coupled with Tank Armies they start with and purchase, I've seen them amass about a dozen for the invasion of Russia.

So what I've done is remove these 80 free chances at a tank army and replace them with 40 chances for tank corps and 40 chances for Motorisierte Armies. The probabilities remain the same, so they shouldn't get less units...just less powerful ones.

I've made other changes but I think this is the biggest.

LIMITATIONS:
AI. On several occasions I've stopped my play, saved and reloaded as the Germans...just to see what they're doing. The first thing I noticed was that they rarely use infantry units on the east front. They use only mech & tank units (except for minor allies).

SUPPLY. I've yet to find a way to limit supply. I see the entries in the consts.ini file, but they rarely seem to come into play. German units on the East front are almost always in near-full supply. I think this comes from the fact that as soon as they capture a city, they can draw supply from it. Click on any German unit on the East front and it will say something like "23 from Kiev". And I don't see a way in the csv files to reduce the travel of supplies to distant fronts.

SUGGESTIONS:
I think infantry spamming won't work. They just won't stop the German armor. Build infantry corps for the Finnish front and as skirmishers for the opening of Barbarossa, but I wouldn't waste many PPs on them otherwise. The inability to stack units makes them useless in Russia.

I suggest spending in '39 for a tech increase and then building infantry armies. Set up lines you won't move and give them commanders. The longer they set they get a defensive bonus up to 25%. Once the Germans arrive, keep your lines straight. The AI is very good at finding units where it can get 3 or 4 units to attack at once, which is a sure kill. You must force the AI to attack head on. I've given a good PP bump over the stock Soviets, so think about getting into the armor game at some point. My suspicion is that the USSR can't stop the Germans without building armor.

Post here ideas for changes...
Attachments
SWiE_zaxmod_v4.zip
(727.4 KiB) Downloaded 19 times
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lancecorpD
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RE: zaxmod

Post by lancecorpD »

Good work. I still think balance is best achieved by not allowing Pz armies until spring of '42 Also limit the Pz to level 2 until that time. Soviet should be started at level 2 and able get level 3 at Barbarossa. Also limiting pzs to 30% of total force is much mor realistic. Still a fun game. like the mechanics of it. Like HOI but simpler.
Menschenfresser
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RE: zaxmod

Post by Menschenfresser »

I finished a game this evening. First one played through as the Soviets till T70. First one I lasted that long. Front broke up spring '44, leaving me holding a kessel around Moscow and the Don from Rostov to Stalingrad. I held out in Leningrad too. Lost Moscow in the last four turns.

End revealed my useless Allies. Two whole US units had somehow invaded and liberated France. No Brits to be seen. Only other Allied units I could find were camped out in Narvik. Wonder what happened to the rest?

It's better but not there. I need to further reduce the number of units the Germans get for free. At the end of the scenario I counted 10 free units (tanks corps & mech armies). And your advice about tech for the Soviets might be the key. Even out German and Russian tanks. XP accumulation need to be further reduced from 2 per battle to 1. And I think the Soviets could use a little more PP per turn.

The AI brutally exploits the benefits of multi-hex attacks. It will shift units from one end of the map to the other just to get 3 or 4 hex attacks. It refuses to attack from just 1 or 2.
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AZKGungHo
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RE: zaxmod

Post by AZKGungHo »

I can't get your mod to work - it crashes to the desktop as it's loading. But it sounds like you are on the right track, if only I could play it!!! [:(]
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Menschenfresser
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RE: zaxmod

Post by Menschenfresser »

Hmm...just d/led it fresh and it worked for me.

Just in case my instructions are the problem, I'll write them again here.

You should see three objects inside the zip:
instructions.txt, zaxmod folder, SMALL_EUROPE_SCENARIO_ZAXMOD.xml

- zaxmod folder (one with all the .csv files in it) goes in the scenario folder
- after renaming your stock xml file in order to back it up, drag the modded one into the events folder and remove the '_ZAXMOD' from the end of the file name, so that it reads: SMALL_EUROPE_SCENARIO.xml

Hmmm...I was initially having CTD issues when I started modding because, I believe, the scenario name can have spaces. Not sure. If you have time, try it afresh. If it's still CTD, I'll open it in the editor and try saving it again.

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doomtrader
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RE: zaxmod

Post by doomtrader »

The situation where you have to change original files is very very rare. Almost every mod can be completely separate entity.
The best what you can do is to create completely new scenario with a name little different than the original (1939_zax for example) and you can even include the events file there (just remember to update the path to the xml file), then the only thing you have to is to redistribute the scenario folder.
Menschenfresser
Posts: 253
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RE: zaxmod

Post by Menschenfresser »

Ah, I just realized why I thought I had to rename the xml files. Dates back to when I forgot to change the name of the scenario in the info file. Thanks for the tip. I'll use that next time.
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