Mega New Elk WIP
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Using the updated map from the GIT and that 1940 scenario you provided, I created this as a basic templet to describe the approach I would like to take.
I used the Edit Mode to reposition the forces and control/ownership to match more closely the standard global game.
2025-3-5-Mega-New-Elk-1940.tsvg
First I blanked all the TUV from the other scenario, and then placed the forces according to the starting units the way they are grouped in G40.
I tried to keep this all very similar so it would look fairly familiar at the foundation. So you'll see that the force which typically goes in East Germany is still grouped together (with the same unit totals there) now in the TT called Berlin. The Units typically in Poland are now in Danzig. The design in the East was to basically have the starting units there out of position for a direct confrontation with USSR, or at least to not have it be optimal on G1. Instead they are oriented more towards the West vs France, or positioned to take over the Pro-Axis neutrals in the Balkans and Finland.
What I was trying to do here was show how we can set up the Fall of France, with the Factory Rail at M+1.
Check out the Forces around Paris. You can see that the force which is typically in "Holland-Belgium" on the G40 board, has now been moved to just Netherlands. Same force there, but now the whole pile is in Netherlands. A new force has been added to Belgium, which will allow Germany to Blitz at the M+1 distance with their Armor and Mech prepositioned on a minor Factory w/ Rail. They can reach to take all the same territories that they might take typically in a G40 game. With some small risk they can reach all the way to Bordeaux and Brittany using their starting Tanks from Belgium. Similarly Vichy can either go to Italy, or Germany on G2, but you can see that the basic forces will have a similar reach on G1.
For the handling in North Africa, Germany will similarly be able to Blitz with a new pocket force for the Afrika Corps, which is pre-position to target French North Africa. The idea here is that most of Metropolitan France will be overrun by Axis on the first turn, and they will then re-focus around French Equatorial Africa as their main hub out of Gabon.
East Africa has a bit of an anachronistic set up in standard G40, with Italians still lurking over there, but I kept this as more familiar from the standard game. Much of the French territory will swing to the Axis side the way I arranged it here, with an option for Axis sweep a bit across Algeria, similar to the old Classic style handling for Africa, but with some tension there now on account of extra VCs.
This is of course just a barest of bones foundation, I left the forces extremely light so that it would be easier to add from there.
I would suggest that when we add new forces, rather than placing them together with an existing force already shown, that we instead cluster them into a nearby tile that is currently empty. I think this will preserve at least a little bit of the familiar, as players will see some similar forces in familiar spots, but then when we add new stuff, say like I did in Belgium, or in Tripoli, it will be a little easier to spot what sort of stuff has been added.
I would also like to focus particularly on the AI behavior when adding forces from here, so that we can get the Fast/HardAI to play a fun game.
Here is a quick visual overview of the ideas I have going right now for a 40 scenario, exported image of the map.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1giz3yfHFvu1yXoOfpzt_yVswsr4CAvHA/view?usp=sharing
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Just remove them from the misc directory. Maybe I should create another folder for unused items.
Since Neutral Axis/Alllies are not used in the main ('41) map, they could be removed. Your call.
Cheers...
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Ok try this:
mega_new_elk_1940.xmlCheers...
P. S The new '40 xml has been loaded, but you should use this instead of downloading a whole new copy.
Cheers...
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@wc_sumpton Incredible! We're going gang busters now!
Sweet!
So of course the templet is just a templet, we can add to it and riff, clean things up or experiment with tweaks. I just thought it would be helpful, since sorta looks like the G40 at bedrock, and then we can just juice it little by little till we got a playpattern that feels right for the board scale.
Exciting! Great work!!!
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I just commented out the old stuff just in case you wanted to revert back. When you push your next save setup game, all comments will be removed, so no problems.
Cheers...
P.S let me know if you change the Neutral Axis(~10)/Allied(~50) territories. You don't have to tell me which were changed, just let me know that there were changes. The variable list is not that hard to do but it is time consuming.
Cheers...
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@wc_sumpton said in Mega New Elk WIP:
Since Neutral Axis/Alllies are not used in the main ('41) map, they could be removed. Your call.
Yea I would leave them. It'll be good to have them handy for anyone that wants to mod it and I believe some will be needed anyway.
We don't want a buncha empty TTys I wouldn't think. Impassable or not. Just from a visual perspective.
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No problem, but none of the territories are marked "captureUnitOnEnteringBy", for the basic map.
Cheers...
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well you'd still need them just so they can be on the map. Wether they do anything or not.
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hmm ... we seem to have lost the M3 ability for land units from Fctrys. I will add it back in on my next update.
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So this is what I'm thinking, using WC suggestion from a few days ago we can take basically every 4-6 PU territory and just make that a 3 PU tile, and do that move like was mentioned or something similar. Every Territory worth 3 PU gets bumped down to 2 say, which are like our optimal factory hop locations for Minors (either already in place, or via purchase). Then it's just a question of which of the remaining 2 PU value spots, get dropped down to 1 or maybe just stay at 2 for potential rail options or Axis to stay somewhat even with Allies, who have more spots under their control at the start.
Using Italy as an example...
Milan 3
Rome 3
Naples 2
Venice 2
Istria 2
Sardinia 2
Sicily 2
Tripoli 2
Benghazi 2
Italian Somaliland 2
the rest at 1 PU gives a total of35 starting Production for Italy.
That feels pretty good to me, I mean it's more than the standard G40. Likely enough to be credible, with a couple Factory rail options there, but not too insane. With a slight boost up from additional TUV in one or more of those empty Territories or Sea Zones, I think that would be plenty for the Italians at this scale.
For Russia we can do something similar. Right now they have 139 Production. I think we could get down to at least 130 with something like Moscow reduced to 3 PU (sorta same there as G40) then all the rest of their spots getting knocked back from 3-4 down to 2 production. In G40 Soviet Union starts with 30 PUs, so this would be like that with an extra 100 on top, but it could still suggest a similar vibe with that callback.
Germany right now is at 84, French purse is likewise around 80 currently. I think Germany we could also lowball a bit, given that they will takeover production from Metro France and North Africa, but it probably does make sense to keep a few Axis starting territories sightly higher than Allies for parity. In any case that basic idea of going low, I think it should work fine. Then it will be easier to parse out the totals so that they're a little simpler to manage.
USA seemed pretty good to me, though the way I did the control they will also be able to pick up some cash from Brazil and such. I think it makes sense for the start date to have Mexico and Central America treated as Pro Allied neutral. USA can basically bring Mexico onto the team on their first turn from the M3 factory rail out of Texas and Southern California. Gives them something to do, and so they can also pick up some cash, if we want to lower the ceiling throughout I mean. UK just needs some of those satellite hubs I think to stretch towards the middle. And to ensure they have enough to place at the home islands, like to hold against a concerted German press.
Overall looks really cool to me. I was having a blast just looking at it
I think with the M+1 factory rail thing in place we can start teasing out openers, and hopefully can get the vibe on that little extra bit of distance to make it all click
Fun stuff! Thanks again for all the help! I definitely wouldn't be able to get this sort of thing together without all the helping hands here. Kickass!
ps. I didn't do the starting income totals when I made the other edits, but I think we could just have it match starting production once that's sorted. Then when PUs are all dialed, we can simply reduce the starting cash by whatever amount (nation to nation) till it feels comfortable for the first round purchase/play pattern.
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@black_elk said in Mega New Elk WIP:
I didn't do the starting income totals when I made the other edits, but I think we could just have it match starting production once that's sorted. Then when PUs are all dialed, we can simply reduce the starting cash by whatever amount (nation to nation) till it feels comfortable for the first round purchase/play pattern.
Yes, I seen that. What I can do is put a dummy EndTurn for every player at the start to give them their PUs. In this way they get their starting PUs even when it changes.
Cheers...
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Each player collects a starting income. I've done a wholesale PUs reduction.
Germans 51
Russians 110
Japanese 45
Americans 99
Chinese 21
British 120
Italians 34
ANZAC 28
French 61Allies 439
Axis 130Cheers...
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@beelee said in Mega New Elk WIP:
hmm ... we seem to have lost the M3 ability for land units from Fctrys. I will add it back in on my next update.
These units seem to be copied from G50, and M3 was not added from what I remember. So, add away, unless you want me to do it.
Cheers...
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no it's ok. I will do it. It was done in my last update . 1.343 I didn't document it though. My bad
Not a big deal. Trying to get my energy up to do some work. The dig out from the blizzard wore me out
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You take it easy. When we moved here, our children are all grown, so we didn't need a big house, I bought a small plastic $90 snow blower. It's not much, sometimes I have to run it while it's still snowing. Still, it's better than shoveling.
Cheers...
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heh was ice storm than snow. Sno blo no good
Was like mucking concrete lolI guess that's why people have kids. Can't find any that wanna work these days
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@beelee said in Mega New Elk WIP:
I guess that's why people have kids. Can't find any that wanna work these days
Cheers...
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This is looking very nice! I feel like these are definitely totals we can work with. I ran a quicky FastAI Game, and the computer player is making some big moves now.
Even with the very limited starting TUV I laid down in the templet, they will start to organize are the Rail +1 pretty quickly. I'm not sure that the computer will attempt to blitz at the full m3 distance with their Tanks and Paired mech, but they will definitely position that way to reinforce on Non Combat. When I ran it for a trial computer Germany attacked Paris, advanced on Normandy, Vichy, Orleans. They also advanced into Tunisia with the little Afrika corps pocket force. Then Italy snapped up Marseille on their turn. G2 Germany mopped up the rest in Wester Europe then redirects vs USSR. Not too shabby! With a little fine tuning should do the trick.
On the Pacific side, Japan was quick to stomp into China, of course, but here I think we can do that same trick (like I did in Belgium) of just adding a new force to nearby Territory/subdivision.
As an example, perhaps the Chinese can have a second Flying Tiger and a couple Artillery pieces at Szechuan (currently an empty spot). Or similarly perhaps they have a another token force with some extra Artillery pieces ready to go in spot like Sinkiang. If there are front line territories currently empty those might have a starting Inf as a blocker, that sort of thing. All told maybe we add a dozen hitpoints or more for the Chinese, and then we have a ready way to counterbalance that faction vs Japan, just so they don't get pancaked too hard.
An active Warfront between USSR and Japan can similarly be somewhat controlled by the starting TUV we elect to add, like which new pocket forces for the juice up there. Perhaps they are in starting positions where USSR and Japan they can skirmish, but where both sides are sorted more oriented in other directions, so a full blown tit for tat becomes less optimal compared to say Japan moving vs UK/France/China etc, or Soviets focusing on the Eastern Front instead.
I was quite pleased just watching the FastAI go through the motions and seeing how they used what was already laid down. Should be a fun way to tease out a playpattern I would think. I will keep my efforts sorta focused on the 1940 since I think that could serve as a nice foundation for other dates, or just to establish a kind of general playscale, which can then be added onto. This will be fun!
Thanks again gang! Way to bang it out there! I'm going to up for a while now. Having a blast
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Mini update
Tried to do it different so the extra crap doesn't show up. I don't think I was successful but maybe wc's cleanup fixed it for good
Anyway, wanted to get Elk into M3 mode so he can play with openers
Gonna fry, unless I stay up for the new Reacher lolP Out
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changed it to 1.341 so it's different then 1.34. Didn't do notes so just a quickie.
