ModAAR: American Front, a CSA v USA WIP mod

[d4n13l]

Great work FOARP, looks fantastic! Did you already think about the audio side of things? Would be great if your final result would include some of the "classic" tunes one can hear in other American Civil War games or other sound effects. No idea if this is feasible or worth the effort though, as one can just play the tunes from another program in the background (Spotify, YouTube, etc.), but it would surely round off the package quite nicely.

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: d4n13l

Great work FOARP, looks fantastic! Did you already think about the audio side of things? Would be great if your final result would include some of the "classic" tunes one can hear in other American Civil War games or other sound effects. No idea if this is feasible or worth the effort though, as one can just play the tunes from another program in the background (Spotify, YouTube, etc.), but it would surely round off the package quite nicely.

Thanks!

This is interesting and something I hadn't thought about. There are events that can cause a short audio file to be played - I guess maybe at certain points I can have a riff from either Dixie or the Star-Spangled Banner play in-game. It won't happen often though.

However if you just want to stream The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" or "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" whilst playing then that'll probably fit the bill as well!

[FOARP]

Creating the Map part 66 - Weather (II) and final tweaks

This weeks sees and important milestone in this mod passed with the final completion of the map. I've managed to lay down a total of 75 different weather regions, most of which very on land roughly conform to one or more Level III US Ecoregions, with the characteristics of the weather in each weather region typically being taken from the Wiki data on the climate of a town located within that region. As you can see from the below screen-shot of Southern California this lends the map a very different appearance particularly in desert regions.

This is the last bit of "creating the map" per se that needed doing - after seven months of this, probably totalling around 700 hours of working time (I've got 900 hours logged on SC:WW1 in Steam and no more than 200 hours of that is play time), I'm definitely glad to be finished with that! From here on out I'm instead going to be soft-coding events/AI/OOBs and graphical assets for the game.

The bad news is that a lot of this is pretty tedious coding in text editors, and the bug-fixing that inevitably comes from that. The good news is that I'm going to be doing a lot more play-testing of the mod now as well!

[FOARP]

Soft-coding Part 1 - CSA Events for 1914

Quick one here, which doesn't mean I haven't been doing a lot of work on the mod this week, just that soft-coding for this engine can often be tricky. I've coded three events for the CSA in 1914:

CSS Mississippi - The old Alabama-class battleship is due to arrive in the Mexican Pacific port of Mazatlan, but the CS Navy could simply seize it and turn back to Savannah. Let it arrive and the Mexicans will join the war, turn it back and you'll have an extra pre-dreadnought.

CSS Alabama - The other Alabama class battleship which was due to be scrapped. Scrap it and mount its armament on rail to make a rail-gun unit (Battery "Alabama Annie"), or fix it (at a cost) and return it to service?

Utah Rebels - Right at the end of the year you get a choice of whether to smuggle weapons to the rebels in Utah or not. Go ahead with it and Utah rebels and forms the state of Deseret (see picture). This was a difficult one to code as I'm not sure it's possible to form the state and get the units deployed on the same turn.

[eightroomofelixir]

ORIGINAL: FOARP
Utah Rebels - Right at the end of the year you get a choice of whether to smuggle weapons to the rebels in Utah or not. Go ahead with it and Utah rebels and forms the state of Deseret (see picture). This was a difficult one to code as I'm not sure it's possible to form the state and get the units deployed on the same turn.

The Utah part looks good. I do have a question: Will the rebels of Utah/State of Deseret cause a income loss event for the USA, since they cut off the transcontinental railroad?

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: eightroomofelixir

ORIGINAL: FOARP
Utah Rebels - Right at the end of the year you get a choice of whether to smuggle weapons to the rebels in Utah or not. Go ahead with it and Utah rebels and forms the state of Deseret (see picture). This was a difficult one to code as I'm not sure it's possible to form the state and get the units deployed on the same turn.

The Utah part looks good. I do have a question: Will the rebels of Utah/State of Deseret cause a income loss event for the USA, since they cut off the transcontinental railroad?

Good idea! I'll see if I can find a way of coding it - I guess there can be an MPP loss event (maybe 100 MPP out of the US's present ~1000 per turn) triggered by the existence of Deseret and ending once the state of Deseret no longer exists.

All the US's present transcontinental railways run through Utah (the historic line through New Mexico and Texas, and the one through Idaho, weren't built in this timeline) so the strategic impact is you can't move units from coast to coast via rail whilst the Deseret holds the line.

[FOARP]

Soft-coding Part 2 - USA events 1914-15

Hi, this week I've been working on simulating the communist uprisings in South Carolina and Georgia that happen in Turtledove's TL-191. In this mod the US player can choose to sacrifice some MPP to fund an uprising in the south that forms the Black Belt, and Congaree Socialist Republics, which the Confederate player must somehow crush before the rebellion behind their lines gets out of control.

The below picture shows partisan units of the Black Belt Socialist Republic battling against Confederate State Militia units (who wear grey uniforms as in the books). Capture the capital at Albany, GA, and the Black Belt SR is crushed, though you'll have to keep troops there to ensure that there is no further insurgency.

Fans of escapism will surely enjoy this unrealistic scenario where different parties battle for control of various parts of North America....

Other events I've programmed in the past couple of weeks:
- An elite German volunteer division forms in Philadelphia.
- US units reinforce the states surrounding Utah after the rebellion there at a significant MPP cost.
- War breaks out in Hispaniola, both the CSA and the USA have the chance to reinforce their respective proxies (the Dominican Republic and Haiti).

[FOARP]

Bonus picture - war in the Congaree

[Jazon]

Nice work! I see this mod will also have lots of events, I guess I can learn a lot from this thread before I will start coding events myself. But why communist uprising in Georgia? I haven't read the book, but I would bet for communist activity in US Chicago or city from East coast Keep it going mate!

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: Jazon

Nice work! I see this mod will also have lots of events, I guess I can learn a lot from this thread before I will start coding events myself. But why communist uprising in Georgia? I haven't read the book, but I would bet for communist activity in US Chicago or city from East coast Keep it going mate!

Cheers!

In the books, slavery ends in the CSA in the 1880's but the black population of the south is still very oppressed and discriminated against. Communist ideology spreads amongst the black population of the CSA, particularly in the areas where many work on cotton plantations, and they carry out an uprising in 1915.

[FOARP]

Soft-coding Part 3 - CSA National morale objectives

Hi all, this week I have been programming national objectives within the CSA. I have implemented these in three tiers, representing different amounts of morale-loss for the CSA when they are lost - 5000NM, 2000NM, and 1000NM.

There is only one city in the 5000 NM tier, this represents the capital city of the Confederacy, without which the war isn't going to continue for long. The 2000 NM cities correspond to very important cities within the Confederacy, Nashville is included in this list as it was important in the books though obviously it is not quite as important as the others. The remaining 1000 NM includes all the major fortresses (particularly those bordering the US), state capitals, and other important cities of the Confederacy.

A full list is as follows:

5000 NM
Richmond

2000 NM
Atlanta
Birmingham
New Orleans
Dallas
Havana
Nashville

1000 NM
Sequoyah City (AKA Oklahoma City)
Tulsa
Little Rock
Memphis
Jackson, MS
Vicksburg
Louisville
Frankfort, KY
Big Lick (AKA Roanoke)
El Paso
Amarillo
Lubbock
Fort Knox
Chihuahua City
Hermosillo
Guaymas
Chattanooga
Baton Rouge
Austin, TX (I didn't even know this was the state capital of Texas until right now...)
Montgomery
Houston
Winchester VA
Alexandria VA
Fredericksburg VA
Miami
Tallahassee
Columbia
Raleigh
Charleston
Santiago de Cuba
Fort Campbell
Fort Donelson
Fort Pillow
Jonesboro, AR
Fort Smith
Lexington, KY
Harrisonburg, VA
Lynchburg, VA

The CSA starts with 40,000 national morale points, therefore if the CSA loses the same cities it appears to have lost in the books (Nashville, Sequoyah City, Tulsa, Louisville, Frankfort KY, Big Lick, El Paso, Amarillo, Lubbock, Fort Knox, Winchester VA, Alexandria VA, Fredericksburg VA, Hermosillo, Fort Campbell, Jonesboro AR, Lexington) this represents a total of 18,000 NM points of loss, which combined with cutting off of connections between the CSA and Europe, and 3 years of combat all along the border with the attendant morale loss should be sufficient to force an armistice by the approximate date given in the books (September 1917)

[FOARP]

Soft-coding Part 4 - USA National morale objectives

For the USA national morale objectives are similarly broken down into tiers, with the de facto capital of the USA being the most valuable (10000 NM), the three major industrial cities of the union next at 5000 NM, followed by other major cities at 2000 NM, and then state capitals, important regional cities, and fortresses at 1000 NM:

10000 NM
Philadelphia

5000 NM
New York
Chicago
Pittsburgh

2000 NM
Washington D.C.
Baltimore
Boston
Cleveland
Detroit
Milwaukee
St. Louis
Mineapolis
Los Angeles
San Francisco

1000 NM
Newark, Delaware (a fortress)
Albany NY
Trenton NJ
Hartford
Concord
Augusta ME
Rochester NY
Charleston WV
Columbus OH
Cincinnati
Des Moines
Kansas City
Lancaster NE (AKA Lincoln NE)
Omaha
Witchita
Bismarck
Helena
Boise
Phoenix
Cheyenne
Denver
Albuquerque
Carson City
San Diego
Sacramento
Portland OR
Seattle
Providence RI
Harrisburg PA

The USA starts with 35,000 NM points so a successful CSA offensive against Philadelphia capturing Washington D.C. Baltimore, Newark DE, Harrisburg PA, Philadelphia plus the morale loss from units destroyed should net enough NM points to put the USA below 50% morale, at which point they will start getting "Socialists agitate for peace" events that, unless victories are won on other fronts, will continuously lower morale and have the USA concluding peace within a year - but these events will only fire if the Entente hangs onto Philly. If US morale falls below 30% and the US still holds Philly but the Entente still holds Richmond, then this will kick in as well.

The USA having less NM than the CSA is a function of it being a country that will likely fight the war almost entirely on enemy soil due to its massive industrial and numerical strength - the CSA player will find reach Philly very difficult so likely an attritional victory will be their main way of winning. The USA is thus, like Germany in the main scenario, a "glass cannon", capable of dealing out plenty of damage but likely to be defeated if the fighting comes onto its own soil.

[eightroomofelixir]

What will be the Alternative Capitals of USA, CSA, and Canada in this scenario?

IIRC, the novel doesn't mention any AC plan for USA, and the AC plan of CSA doesn't even really emerge in the WWII later (Featherston just flee with his cabinet).
Personally I would guess NYC-Chicago for USA if Philly falls, and Montgomery for CSA if Richmond falls.

As for Canada, the novel does point out that the Canadians still hold the major cities of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Colombia. I think the Canadian Alternative Capital will be probably Calgary or Edmonton; Regina is too close to USA border and the terrains are too flat to defend.

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: eightroomofelixir

What will be the Alternative Capitals of USA, CSA, and Canada in this scenario?

IIRC, the novel doesn't mention any AC plan for USA, and the AC plan of CSA doesn't even really emerge in the WWII later (Featherston just flee with his cabinet).
Personally I would guess NYC-Chicago for USA if Philly falls, and Montgomery for CSA if Richmond falls.

As for Canada, the novel does point out that the Canadians still hold the major cities of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Colombia. I think the Canadian Alternative Capital will be probably Calgary or Edmonton; Regina is too close to USA border and the terrains are too flat to defend.

Hi eightroomofelixir, good question.

Right now the alternate capitals for the USA are NYC, Boston, Chicago, and Washington D.C., though in reality if Philly is taken then Washington will almost certainly already have fallen. Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Los Angeles are additionally industrial centres.

For the CSA it is Atlanta, New Orleans, and Dallas. I suppose Montgomery could be added to that list but it is fairly close to Atlanta and not as important in 1914 as it was in 1861. Birmingham, AL is additionally an industrial centre.

For Canada right now it is Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver if Ottawa is lost, but basically in morale terms the war is already over if the US breaks the line in Ontario and along the St. Lawrence so it's unlikely that anywhere outside Ontario will acts as capital for long. The map is made to make any attempt to get around these defensive lines quite difficult as well (e.g., trying to outflank through northern Ontario means a very long march through low supply areas, trying to make an amphibious landing on the Quebec coast north of the St. Lawrence will also face supply problems).

[FOARP]

Soft-coding Part 5 - Canadian & Mexican National morale objectives

Canadian NM objectives are as follows:

5000 NM
Toronto

2000 NM
Montreal
Vancouver
Winnipeg
Ottawa

1000 NM
Calgary
Saskatoon
Charlottetown
Halifax NS
Fredericton
Quebec City
Hamilton ON
Berlin ON (AKA Kitchener)
London ON

This basically covers the major cities, provincial capitals, and fortresses in southern Ontario. Canada starts with 20000 NM points. In the books Charlottetown, Halifax NS, Fredericton, Quebec City, Hamilton ON, Berlin ON, London ON, Montreal, Vancouver, and Winnipeg were lost totalling 13,000 NM points prior to surrender, which together with general attrition and a blockade should be enough to duplicate the armistice signed by Canada in autumn 1917.

Mexican NM objectives are as follows:

5000 NM
Mexico City

1000 NM
Fort Maximilian (the fortress defending the Baha California peninsula)
Santa Rosalia (the city halfway down the peninsula)
La Paz, Baha California (Capital of Baha)
Cabo San Lucas (also in Baha)
Monterey
Merida
Veracruz
Guadalajara
Mazatlan

Mexico starts with 10000 NM points, so taking away the Baha California peninsula will, with attendant attrition on Mexican forces, get you most of the way to a Mexican armistice and cripple Mexican morale (and as a result the offensive power of Mexican forces). In the books the Mexicans didn't sign any specific armistice and unless the US player commits significant forces to an advance on Mexico City you shouldn't see it here either, but you have a good motivation to take Baha California from Mexico in order to secure the shipping route to Chile. The USA will get an "Occupy Isla Guadalupe" even where US marines can occupy the Mexican island off the coast of Baha California in preparation for an invasion of Baha similar to the event the UK gets to occupy Greek islands in preparation for an invasion of the Dardanelles.

As a general note, the Mexican OOB won't be big (maybe three corps, six divisions, six brigades [detachments], six regiments [garrisons], three HQs [Calles, Huerta, and Obregon], two field artillery units, some cavalry, a couple of air units, a small navy) and they will have a heavy MPP de-buff (e.g., reduced to 60%) to simulate corruption. The idea here is that you should not see a lot of Mexican troops turning up on the CSA front.

[FOARP]

Soft-coding Part 6 - CSA 1916 events

Not much to say this week as I spent a lot of it just trying to fix problems with a bug in the files (pro-tip: never change the start date after the initial set-up of the game as for some reason if you set the start-date later and then set it earlier the game will not re-set the availability date of units so you will be unable to build units).

The one major event I managed to code was the recruitment of black troops by the CSA - in the books the CSA starts recruiting soldiers from amongst its black population in return for full citizenship rights as the war is going heavily against them. Obviously in a society as horrifically racist as the CSA would have been this is controversial.

I've therefore set up the event to fire after mid-1916 if the CSA has failed to take any of St. Louis, Columbus OH, Pittsburgh, or Philadelphia, the CSA still holds Atlanta, and their morale has dropped below 50%. You then get the choice to sacrifice 100 MPP for 10 turns, and a 2000NM drop in morale, in return for four infantry corps deploying near Atlanta.

[FOARP]

Apologies on the long RL-induced pause, I am back working on this.

[Alikchi2]

Still looking forward to this! Take your time [:)]

[Sigizmund]

Very want to try it in MP when beta version is out [;)]

[FOARP]

Soft-coding Part 7 - The Generals
Hello again, and welcome back after a very long break from dev diaries on this mod. It's been a long break but on the other hand I've finally bought a house and hopefully taken the last professional exam I'll ever have to sit in my life.

Today I want to cover off the generals who are included for each side. Whilst WW1 was not known for its spectacular generalship, and this has carried through to the USA v. CSA version of WW1, the CSA and Canada have a slight edge over the USA in this regard. The generals are primarily chosen from real-life generals who served in the WW1 period. CSA generals are those who were born in the southern states and USA ones were born in the north. A few are fictional ones invented by Turtledove. The rating out of ten for each general is shown in brackets.

CSA

Lejeune (6)
Rockenbach (6)
Bullard (6)
Buck (5)
Summerall (5)
Jeb Stuart, Jr. (3)

USA
Custer (6)
Pershing (6)
Macarthur (5)
Marshall (4)
Funston (4)
Liggett (4)
Hines (4)
Barnett (4)
Dickman (4)
Miles (3)
Young (3)

Mexico
Huerta (4)
Calles (3)
Obregon (3)
(yes, I know these guys are revolutionaries serving an emperor, but options are limited)

Canada
Byng (7)
Currie (6)
Turner (6)
(Byng may be over-rated here, but actually I think he was probably the better of any of the real-life generals mentioned here and Canada need good generals to survive!)