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Uxbridge -> ETO - before the scenario (10/12/2009 7:00:36 AM)
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We're ready to begin play here in Sweden. I have made some changes to the 1939-scenario, christening it to ETO. Some of the more important changes is listed below. I will post this scenario later on for those interested in trying it, and like to give a hint of what have been done to it. Remember that the changes is all done with the pretext that it is going to be played PBEM, but it will work as a solo game just as well as the parent scenario.
Feel free to read and comment:
1. Earlier changes retracted due to the inclusion of further cities in Scandinavia.
2. Earlier changes retracted due to the inclusion of further cities in Scandinavia.
3. Earlier changes retracted due to the inclusion of further cities in Scandinavia.
4. LWD-effect has been raised to 40 and the time when each country raise it’s level have been re-worked. Now, for most of the war, German units are the undisputed kings of the battlefield and only Germany will ever reach level 5. UK and USA will both reach level 4. Between the Polish campaign and the attack on France, the German army will however see a major reorganization, manifistating itself in two steps of raised LWD. An attack on France prior to May 1940, will thus have to be made with a much less competent German army (this is a game balancing measure, to make a haphazard early German attack less likely to succeed).
5. The general likelyhood of retreats have been raised.
6. The former combat modifications for attacking from different hexsides have been reversed. It is now slightly less efficient to attack from several directions. The exceptions is 2-1 and 6-1 (defender encircled) that is more effective. The reason for this change is not to be found in comparisons with reality, but to avoid certain game problems inherent in the system itself.
7. Moved part of German economy outside of Germany proper. Thus certain hexes in Norway/Sweden (iron ore), Finland (nickel), Yugoslavia (rail-transit country for most Balkan and Turkish imports) and Romania (crude oil and refined fuel) are German ”territory” from the start. Germany needs to make sure her opponents doesn’t get these areas, lest she will lose some of her resources.
8. Moved part of British economy outside of UK. Thus certain hexes in Palestine, Kuwait, Iraq and Iran hold British resources. This is supposed to symbolise UK’s oil reserves in the Middel East. UK need to protect these areas lest she will lose some of her resources.
9. Lowered German, British and Soviet initial war economy. These countries need to be very restrictive with spending PP’s the first year of the war. This is especially true for Germany, which already have a large army with a large upkeep to pay.
10. Losses to attacker is generally more severe now, so a superior attacker should not expect to walk over anything weak in his path. There’s always some losses regardless of odds.
11. Attacks at 2-1 and 3-1 is more favourable than before. It is now possible for an economically strong, but operationally weak nation to wear an opponent down by limited attacks all along the front.
12. Winter move and combat penalties raised even a bit further.
13. The cost of buying units, upgrading and replenishing have been raised with approximately 50 %.
14. Paratroopers have a very low AP-allocation at low LWD-levels (Land Warfare Doctrine).
15. Changed the orientation of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Spain to Comintern and fixed their political strength to 50. It is now prohibited to do any action with these countries except declaring war on them. The reason is (A) now both the Allies and the Axis can declare war on these countries, and (B) to emphasize that the chance of any Scandinavian country joining the war by itself borders on the ludicrous, and (C) Franco was firmly determined to stay out of the war. Germany can declare war at any time at the Axis player’s desire. Allied players can only declare war if they have at least 50 DPs.
There is one side effect of having Scandinavia Comintern. When any of the above mentioned countries goes to war, they will fall under the leadership of the USSR player. Once this happens, the countries.csv should be altered to instead make them either Allied or Axis partners. If not, the play sequence in PBEM-games will be more complicated with more mails sent for each turn.
16. The cost for coup d’etats have been lessened considerably. As a house rule, only Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Greece, Iraq and Persia should ever be subjected to a coup d’etat. The object of this paragraph is to re-create the uproar of the Balkan and Middle East politics in the early stage of the war. As part of the same house rule, no diplomatic activity should be allowed at all, once all major countries are at war.
17. The orientation of Romania has been changed to pro-Allied and Yugoslavia to pro-Axis to better reflect the pre-war situation. This is especially bothering for Germany with her economy (oil supplies) thus threatened by an early entry of Romania on the Allied side. Hopefully, this change, in addition to 16. above, will make for a rather tense political situation.
18. To add a little spice to the political part of the game, and with the termination of DP activity after total war (#16), the allotment of DPs has been slightly raised for the fractional leaders.
19. Slovakia is no longer a playable nation. All Slovakian units are gone and the Slovakian territory belongs to Germany.
20. The initial German PP-level has been raised to some extent. The Axis player should be very careful husbanding this pool. Initially he will have a negative production.
21. Have added a vast number of impassable hexes, foremost in North Africa, but also in certain mountain passes. The reason for the North African area inhibitions is to better portray the difficulty of fighting inland from the Via Balbia coast road. A number of desert lanes have been created to the south. The player should see this area as laying closer to the coast than the scale of the game suggests. Instead of just a vast open space, these lanes will add a number of interesting choices, made even more exciting by the existence of supply problems, movement penalties and aerial reconnaisance.
22. Each country have a number of units with tech levels in advance of the present setting. These are to be seen as the core of the peace-time armies and serve basically as a mean to give the players more choices.
23. Due to inability to create a workable solution for the North African supply problems, an Italian DAK contingent will now replace the German one. No German units are allowed in North Africa, save air units.
24. Iraq is now neutral at start.
25. Have added a number of new cities in Sweden and Norway to enable operations in Scandinavia. The earlier changes for motorized movement have therefore been reversed.
26. Trade between Germany and Italy now possible by using a ”convoy” between Chemnitz and Milan. SMP have to be used.
27a. Oslo can now be reached from the Baltic Sea rather than from the North Sea. Despite this being a bit unrealistic, it will enable the Germans a chance to invade Norway as they did historically. Have added Trondheim as a port that can be accessed from the North Sea and Norwegian Sea. The expectation is that there now can be a land campaign between Germany and UK, with Oslo and Trondheim as principal bases. Of course, the Axis player can always try to take Trondheim and Narvik as Germany did historically, but then he has to pass the North Sea and Norwegian Sea.
27b. A prerequisite for 27a above, is that the city of Aarhus is owned by Germany. This is to simulate the fear of German air power that would keep the Western Allies from intervening in the Skagerack. No German unit actually have to be in Aarhus; it will suffice that the hex is owned by Germany. Historically, Denmark and Norwegen was attacked in a different way. I have included this variant, however, to potrait the fact that Germany probably wouldn’t have had the power to protect a German-Norwegian supply line without the possesion of Denmark.
28. UK now have a number of BEF-units at start. These have tech levels higher than the present setting and symbolize the core of the proffesional British army. Once lost, these units can be re-created only when UK reach these tech levels. The UK player should therefore guard them jealously.
29. Changed Edinburgh to normal city and added Scapa Flow. It is now possible to access the Norwegian Sea from Scapa Flow.
30. Made Batumi and Samsun into ports. It is now possible for the Russians to fully supply or reinforce Sevastopol by sea, even if the Axis has cut its land communication. They may even continue basing naval units if Sevastopol is lost. Hopefully, this change may lead to some action in the Black Sea.
If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, do refer to the paragraphs. [:)]
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