Empire - V 2.0c 23rd July 2023 for new Map (old map for existing games) new patch

[Cavalry Corp]

Have many of you downloaded the mod and at least had a tour round?
I am playing V 1.1 PBEM still - which is still quite similar and we are in late June 42 with the allies chipping at over extended Japanese lines after very aggressive expansion. Its quite a hoot. I will get my opponent to post, he says japan is stretched - we are both very stretched!

Big naval stuff - Japs have lost 2 BB (Mutsu and Nagato LBA TT from Perth),1 CV (Dutch sub!= Kaga) and one CVL (also Sub) Allies lost 4 old BB, 1 CV (Enterprise PH at start) and CV training carrier. Lexington was only out for 30 days and Saratoga will be back soon. Allies have lost a lot of transport ships which is a worry.

Apart from the usual - Japs in N and far W OZ but being pushed back from last week in June but hold Perth (due to some big mistakes from me as allies). Also Japs landed in N NZ. Also deep penetrations in C Pacific. Allies just started raiding distant supply chain, just trashed 3 convoys. Doing OK and holding in Burma, pushing back Japs in W Oz. Hold PM.

I expect the new version to build on this without changing the fun, more chrome, older aircraft at start , more building choices but a little slower pace.

[Cavalry Corp]

I found a couple of minor issues - will not affect anything too much but if you want a 1.4 I will send it to you. One or two other minor changes

Fixed Error
Removed two duplicate starting air groups in Tokyo Dec 41. If you have started = House rule work around- cannot swap out or leave Japan until historical aircraft arrival date?

Minor fine balancers...
Slightly reduced Chinese Cav repl rate.
Reduced a tiny bit more the average starting Exp of Z/S and R Japan CVL/CV air groups - just to make a bit more historical difference from the v.elites on the 4 main CV.
Fixed a couple of minor OOB NZ issues
Fixed a sooner arrival date for Singapore Civilians arrival when using extreme rein +/- 60 days
Tweaked a couple of aircraft arrival dates by 1 month

Do not propose to make a new upload but will send on request.

[Cavalry Corp]

Guys

sorry about this but I am going to have it to issue a new patch. It appears ( I suspect ) that some of the device slots but I use for engines are not valid. I'm close to resolving this and will issue a new version 1.4 imminently. I'm hoping that if any of you have started the game that these changes will be implemented by the game becausr this only affects very late arriving stuff.

[Cavalry Corp]

1.4 has now fixed the Engine issue and will be out tomorrow by 5pm

[Cavalry Corp]

V1.4 Now up - sorry had to be done I did not know its hard coded the game only allows a certain number of Engines. A few other minor fixes and enhancements.
Thanks to those who contacted me about starting games and esp the team game about to start.

PW = Empire 1941


https://gingerdragonltd-my.sharepoint.c ... A?e=BHCtQC

[Cavalry Corp]

Optional house rule suggestion

A couple of potential players have asked me about this so I thought I would put a post up.

It is suggested that the very limited number of German and not so limited number of Thai air units may only transfer in replacement level pilots. They may not transfer out any pilots. This is to stop these units from being used as training units for the Japanese Air Force. Again it's just optional do as you wish but it's a good suggestion. And I will amend the readme file to reflect it.

https://gingerdragonltd-my.sharepoint.c ... l%20Public

[Cavalry Corp]

Ladies and Gentlemen. A lot of playtesting and PBEM requires a small patch

V1.5

Important fixes
Refugees accidentally designated as Engineers - Fixed ( work around HR leave in Strategic mode)
Removed R+D from 2 tiny aircraft factories - Fixed

Play Balance
Delayed arrival date slightly of the two Dutch BC in Scn 42, now arrive Mombasa, for play balance
Delayed arrival date slightly of two USN CV in Scn 42, for play balance

Small Fixes
All coastal and River barges on both sides now designated as AKL
Added a small troop capacity to some more Japanese AKL
Small changes to Japanese transport aircraft stats
One minor arrival date change for a Japanese RCN aircraft
Slightly reduced Chinese aircraft starting pools and production

[Cavalry Corp]

Ship classes and notes in Empire...
We will start the top of the tree.

CV and Naval Aircraft (this is a game for realistic R+D)
Both sides suffer from a retarded availability of good aircraft for the carriers during 1942. After that it starts to accelerate. The allies get the much better carrier-capable aircraft in the long term, but 42 belongs the Zero as top predator of CV fighter aircraft.
Japan suffers from the lack of a good aircraft capable scout plane, that is without diluting their bombers. Japan relies on the long-range Jake. As this war opens, this aircraft has not long entered service and is in short supply. The first reconnaissance version of the potentially excellent Judy is available from the start( engine needs accelerating) but its service rating is terrible at 4. This represents the lack of spare parts for these prototype aircraft, as well as the engine problems they generally had. The allies also suffered from the lack of a good ranged floatplane early in the war. You will see these aircraft develop on both sides as the war goes on. Generally speaking, Japan always has the edge for float recon units as well as specialised ships to put them on.

A lot of Japanese aircraft carriers arrived with only carrier-capable aircraft units not carrier trained. All Japanese carriers start with slightly less AA than stock but get more significant AA upgrades esp. in 44.
Staring aviators on Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu are the most elite, un replaceable... Zuikaku and Shokaku had recently been commissioned and their pilots are a step down. Others arriving are generally another step down again.

ALLIED CV
You have a number of extra CV at the start of the game or soon after the start. Some of them are a bit obsolete so you need to be careful with them. The Ranger for instance has no TT ammo until a late war update. Historically the ship operated in the Atlantic against U boats and was considered unsuitable for the Pacific. The President Hoover Is in the game as a kind of training carrier. It could also be used for ASW escorting convoys and so on. Like all slow ships it is easily targeted by torpedoes.

The British have a number of quite good carriers at the start or soon after and they can be a thorn in the side of Japan, if used carefully. They have generally obsolete aircraft (Roc, Skua and Swordfish), Hurricanes appear in early 42. In Scn 42 two USN CV are slightly delayed until May 42 for play balance.

Remember that aircraft are designated as to the kind of carrier they may operate from (House Rule - you can ignore if you like!) after their title like (cvl) . Generally speaking the late war decisive aircraft can only operate from CV/CVB. This means generally as the war progresses CVE and CVL become slightly less useful as front line prospects. In this game of course, you receive the Midway class carriers later in the war- heralding the first Jets . Britain also has one built for them by the Americans. These are the most powerful ships in the game.

JAPAN CV
Japan has the option to build quite a lot of additional aircraft carriers CVL/CV 43 onwards subject to expanding facilities. The improved Shokaku are pretty good but also there is the T class that are heavily armoured and a little bit better than the original game but maybe arrive a little too late. We also have the late war option to build CVB, the shipyards will need expanding.

There is a period during 1942 when there is nothing available other than to build the Junyo class plus the other CVL. Superficially these look quite good... but because they are slow and because they also had short flight decks I downgraded them to CVL from an aircraft operation viewpoint. This means after 1943 they will be very limited as to what they can do. If Japan can get by without them until mid 1943 then it's good. But if we have some unexpected losses during 42 you may have to build them. Who knows. That is all fun...part of the game design to give the players choices that they can make some of which may not be in their favour later.

Japan has the option to build quite a lot of small CVE for convoy escort etc. These are not as good as the allied equivalence but they can be useful. Again they are restricted as to the kind of aircraft they can operate realistically.

Next discussion will be BB/CB/BC

[seanmac456]

0/10 Named a ship after Beatty literally unplayable

[seanmac456]

Also 21 knot ships getting 15 knot cruise speed is something I am not a fan of

[Cavalry Corp]

Seanmac 456 ,

Thanks for the review. Happy to receive all comments and I hope I can justify ...

Firsty the reason why one of the KGV class BB is called Beatty is because- it was really going to be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Geor ... hip_(1939)

The Howe (ex Beatty) in this mod is an Admiralty class BC - which in fact it was going to be. Howe already exists in this mod before KGV class... so KGV BB is Beatty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiral-c ... tlecruiser

In this mod some BB/BC under construction at end WW1 and or Treaty time were allowed to be completed and or not scrapped.
This is a fictional mod where possible I have used all names that are correct or in line with the ship class to make sure the chrome feels right.

As regards 15KT cruise speed - almost all warships ships were given this as you can find websites stating almost anything and 15 suited, just because a ship had a slower max speed does not mean the cruise speed is always going to be less than others. A few ships designed for pursuit and or had v modern efficient/powerful modern engines or had an exceptional max a speed for their class got 18kt.The 15 was also given as you will see that many old BB have pretty short ranges, this 15kt does not assume the most efficient speed but allows them some flexibility and viable use in game.

Hope this was useful.


Cav

[seanmac456]

the Beatty thing was joke. He doesn't deserve a ship. IRL they were going to do it but it along with Jellicoe but they ended up basically rehashing the arguments about blame for Jutland so they renamed both ships. In all likelihood they would have still renamed the ships because those wounds were still fresh at the time.

As for the 15 knot cruise on older ships I don't like it because it really homogenizes the older ships with newer ones. IMO the fact that the game doesn't have a variable cruise speed is an issue because carriers and modern BBs at 15 knots was probably what they were speced for peace time cruising but I know that Fast Carrier Task force's cruise speed was 23 knots because the US wanted to keep up operational tempo and they could afford the fuel expenditure. That's the reason the standards couldn't keep up with carriers and 28 knot ships could. there were certain situations were everyone would have to go flank it might cause issues. during a lot of the raids the FCTF did the Iowa class were the battleship escorts and the slower NC's and SD's were left behind because it made strike planning easier and it was low risk anyways but when you into places PI in 44 the NC's and SD's were included in the task forces. all of that is to say the distinction of 12 and 15 cruise is a poor implementation of a historical reality which I like to keep in the game because it makes task force composition more interesting and historical.

[Cavalry Corp]

Sorry for the late reply.

Firstly I could probably not disagree with you on the naming of those ships! Although I thought they were named because of Jutland. Britain probably saw it as a strategic victory which it was even if it was a bit of a tactical defeat. I wish there was a really good game on Jutland.

As regards the cruise issue well it is a bit of a tricky one and it is a shame that ships cannot have a few more different speeds available. That is really why I made most ships 15. If players however think that certain combat ships should be reduced then I see no reason why it could not be put in the next patch. But I don't think it will really make all that much difference and if we reduce the speed of ships that need to be used in the game it may have a bit too much of a negative effect. As the game progresses as we all know these slow battleships generally have less and less useful and in my long experience of playing they are torpedo magnets of the highest magnitude. Reducing their cruise speed would probably make it even worse, their full speed 21kt even makes most of them fairly poor all the time same applies to most of the old Japanese battleships. Please feel free to give me a list of ship classes that you think should be reduced to 12kt. Thank you though for commenting on the game and I hope you have a tour around it.

[seanmac456]

The issue is that is that Beatty and Jellicoe had there own very different version of events that not just factional splits in the navy but also in the public.



In terms of the 15 knot cruise speed I am working on my own mod and what I am thinking about is the option to rebuild the standards. granted in this mod that would take them into full on 28 knot fast battleship territory due to some of the alt history i am doing but what i would do in your mod is change it back to 12 knots with a rebuild option and you can have that be just a cruise speed increase, I E installing new cruising turbines, or a full speed increase depending on what you want

[Cavalry Corp]

Seamac,

I think it's a very good idea to offer re build options but realistically I'm not sure players will take it up because if you're going to make it anything like authentic it's going to take a very long time. It is better to build the new ships instead especially for Japan in my mod. Engine refits would be a huge undertaking. I'm sure there are players out there like me actually that would like the option to do these things. Maybe it's something I could add later.

[seanmac456]

well i mean it's up to the player if they think it's worth it

[Cavalry Corp]

agree

[Cavalry Corp]

1. V 1.6
2. Removed duplicate bases in DEI. – REQUIRES RE START
3. Removed the 5 starting (Prototype) planes from pool from E15K2 Norm, reduced other prototypes slightly.
4. Adjusted a very slightly a couple of build rates for early allied and Japanese bombers and pools
5. Adjusted slightly some Japanese plane stats for more cohesion and TR plane loads and SR.
6. Reviewed some older Japanese BB ranges/ fuel in light of new thoughts on modernisation.
7. Slightly put back Japanese CVL arriving 42 by c 1 month, Scn 42 and 2/3 months Scn 43.
8. Slightly reduced Japanese Garrison requirements in China and added a few more security units.
9. Slight reduced exp on starting air Groups CV Shokaku, Zuikaku and CVL Ryujo
10. Slightly reduced PP for both sides.
11. Amended the optional one attack rule, per day turn to all Forest and all combination Mountain and Combination Rough hexes (optional).

[Cavalry Corp]

pbem v 1.6 , 2 days turns Late December 41

In my second game I have found a lot more fun to be had with the surface raider. This was the first of two successful intercepts partly helped by very long range Japanese reconnaissance. The second intercept unfortunately ended because unfortunately of low ammunition issues.

All the ships in the picture were sunk...

Anybody that is currently playing this mode I would be very happy to see any interesting situations that have arisen. In 1.6 it's pretty tough for both sides because although Japan is a lot stronger they also have a lot of obsolete equipment. It is very tempting to waste a lot of pilots in very obsolete aircraft for virtually no gain

[Cavalry Corp]

Just updated info on mod on first page