Random WW2 Generation

[ubernaut]

@RogerCooper love this

[RogerCooper]

Step 2 Assign each territory to a country

There are three levels of countries

• Major Countries
  Russia, Germany, Britain, Japan, United States
  The world's leading powers. If active they are always separate players. At least one of these powers must be trying to change the current world order.

• Medium Countries
  France, Italy, China
  Powers of regional importance. If active they are usually separate players, but sometimes they are combined with a major country.

• Minor Countries
  Everyone else
  They are never their own player. They may be combined with a major or medium country. If not they will be part of the "Victim" or "Impassable" country

There are three dummy countries, "Victim", "Impassable" and "Split"

The "Victim" country has units but no moves or production. It can invaded by aggressor nations and is passively aligned with their opponents. This reflects countries with only defensive capabilities. This includes minor countries which have not been combined with a player country and major & medium countries that have fallen into disorder. Yugoslavia was a historical example.

The "Impassable" country is impassable of course. This reflects countries which can't be invaded because of some combination of difficult terrain, military strength, good relations with both sides or the lack of anything worth attacking. Switzerland and Afghanistan were historical examples.

The "Split" country reflects territories occupied by two distinct countries such as "Northwest Europe" and "Spain". They will be assigned randomly in step 3.

Some countries are conditional in that depending on step 3, they may come into existence or not such as Poland or an independent India.

Composite countries are combinations of different real countries which were in the same territory can be treated together such as the Baltic States and Central America.

Some countries, especially British colonies in the Middle East are protectorates. They are technically independent countries but they are likely to be combined with their colonial overlords in step 4. Egypt is a good example. Iraq is an example of a wayward protectorate attempting to ally with another country.

[RogerCooper]

Step 3 Resolve Interwar Period

There were a number of conflicts in the interwar period which could change what country controls a specific territory. Most only involved a single territory such as the Rif War or the Indian Independence movement. Territories controlled by the "Split" country must be assigned to a specific country.

There are three conflicts that deserve special consideration, Russian Civil War, Russo-Polish War and the Reunification of China.

Russian Civil War In the context of this scenario generator, it does not matter which side wins as somebody will end up controlling the core Russian areas of Russia, Archangel and Karelia. However there was a possibility of creating a stable country in Siberia controlling multiple areas. Peripheral areas of Russia may gain independence.

Russo-Polish War as closely related to the Russian Civil War. Plausible outcomes range from Russian reconquering Poland to a powerful Polish state controlling Poland, East Poland, Baltic States, Ukraine, East Ukraine and Belorussia. However the outcomes must all involve a contiguous Polish state. Note that even a maximum Polish state remains a minor country.

The order of resolution needs to be

• Siberian independence
• Peripheral territories status
• Russo-Polish War

War of Chinese Reunification By the end of WW1, warlords have already taken control of China. In effect each territory was an independent state. If the Northern Expedition had failed, China would have remained divided.

An additional complication was the Japanese invasion. The Japanese may decide not to invade, to only take Manchuria or to take Kiangsu as well. Note that if the Japan and China end up on the same side, Kiangsu will be returned to China.

Even if China is reunified, there still be independent states formed, representing undefeated warlords or Communist territory. There is also a chance that Kwangtung ends up under effective Chinese control.

In any case the usual China build rules and territory restrictions apply, as the KMT would not even under the best of circumstances had enough time to build a modern industrial economy. If China is allied with Japan, than the movement restrictions are China are lifted.

[RogerCooper]

Step 4 Align minor countries with larger countries

As minor countries don't have their unit images or turns they will be aligned with medium and major countries. Medium countries will also sometimes be aligned with major countries.

When countries are aligned, their territories and units become part of the larger country, like Canada with Britain in the original game.

Each minor and medium country will be entered into a table giving their chances of being aligned. In addition, countries may be aligned into the dummy countries of "Victim" and "Impassable".

Note that this may in effect undo step 3. For example India may gain independence in step 3 and become a close ally of Britain in step 4. The effect will be the same, but the notes will be different.

This is also when protectorates are handled. Egypt will be probably be aligned with Britain, but it may escape British control and be aligned with some other country.

If China has become aligned with another country, then the special Chinese rules don't apply.

[RogerCooper]

Step 5 Assign alliances

There will to be two alliances "Aggressor" and "Status Quo" The Aggressor alliance is attempting to reorder the world through military force, while the Status Quo is trying to resist that.

As I am not trying to track the ideologies you can assume that unlikely alliances are probably the result of ideological conflicts and similarities.

The first step is to determine the lead aggressor. The lead aggressor is randomly chosen from the major countries. The lead aggressor goes first and will receive more units.

Next the lead status quo power is chosen from the remaining major countries. The lead status quo power receives extra resources.

The remaing major and medium powers are randomly assigned as follows

• 50% Status Quo
• 30% Aggressor
• 10% Victim
• 10% Impassable

The "Victim" nation is a passive member of the Status Quo alliance. It is neutral with regards to the rest of the Status Quo alliance and at war with the Aggessor alliance. The Status Quo alliance can't assist the "Victim" but if the liberate a territory they don't need to return it. Each turn the lead Status Quo power receives a bonus of 1 PU for every Victim-held territory. Note that is major or medium power has been reassigned to the victim nation, that means it is in civil war or some other internal disorder.

The "Impassable" nation is neutral to everyone and out of play.

There is a 50% change of delayed entry of each Status Quo nation and a 25% change of delayed entry for each Aggessor nation (other than the lead aggressor). The delayed entry nation comes in a randomly chosen turn between 2 and 5 at the start of the lead aggressor turn. It is possible that every Status Quo nation is delayed entry, allowing the lead aggessor to focus on victims.

Historically, there was one territorial dispute directly involving major & medium countries, Alsace-Lorraine. Ethnically German but historically French it would be difficult (but not impossible) to resolve the dispute and conflict is likely. There will be a 30% chance that Germany is lead aggressor, while France is a status quo power that is active immediately. This will probably not work out well for France.

[RogerCooper]

Post removed, wrong thread.

[RogerCooper]

Step 6 Order of Play
The lead Aggressor always goes first. Alternate Status Quo and Aggressor countries, randomly chosen. There will likely be a bunch of Status Quo countries at the end.

[RogerCooper]

Step 7: Starting units and resources

I will create a standard setup largely derived from the 1941 scenario. The units will be handled by territory, so they may be controlled by a different country than in the standard game.

In all standard A&A games, the starting resources are the same as the starting income but there is no reason to mandate that. I will likely vary with higher values for the lead aggressor and lower values for delayed entry countries.

[RogerCooper]

Step 8 Balancing the Game

Balancing Axis & Allies style games is a difficult task. For example in V3-1941 the Allies are ahead in every measure, but the game is reasonably balanced.

• Production 120 to 58
• Starting PU 113 to 58
• Units 124 to 105
• TPV 696 to 645
• Objectives 12 to 6

This is typical of A&A games, that units and TPV are close between the sides. However income obviously matters in the long run. Furthermore, vulnerable territories of the Status Quo players may actually work to the benefit of the Aggressor.

As a starting formula I have:

Production x 3+ Starting PU's + Units + TPV - vulnerability penalty - delayed entry penalty

The vulnerability penalty is x3 the income of vulnerable territories + factories in vulnerable territories.

A territory is vulnerable if they are owned by Status Quo country that is active at the game start and that is adjacent to an Aggressor country that is active the game start.

The delayed entry penalty is 10% of the TPV for each turn past 1 of delay.

To balance the game additional units (and starting PU's) are added to the aggressors if they are behind and additional income to the lead status quo power if they are behind.

Units will be randomly added to territories with a weighting equal to value+1. The chance of a specific unit will be proportional to the inverse of its cost.

In either case units will have the build caps equal to 120/cost to prevent ridiculous builds by the AI.

[RogerCooper]

Resolving minor inter-war conflicts.

Territory Country Probability Outcome
Afghanistan Afghanistan 60% Third Anglo-Afghan War is inconclusive.
Afghanistan Impassable 10% Afghan neutrality guaranteed by Britain and Russia.
Afghanistan Britain 10% British decisively win the Third Ango-Afghan War
Afghanistan Victim 20% Afghanistan collapses into chaos after British victory in the Third Ango-Afghan War.
Anglo-Egypt Sudan Britain 80%
Anglo-Egypt Sudan Egypt 20% Egypt establishes firm control of the Sudan
Belorussia Belorussia 10% Belorussia gains independence
Borneo Brunei 20% Brunei preponderant in Borneo
Borneo Britain 50% Britain preponderant in Borneo
Borneo Netherlands 30% Dutch preponderant in Borneo
Buryatia S.S.R. Japan 10% Japanese gain control of Buryatia
Buryatia S.S.R. Russia 90%
Caucasus Caucasus 20% Independent state(s) in Caucasus
Caucasus Russia 80%
Eire Britain 20% Irish uprising defeated
Eire Ireland 80%
Finland Finland 80% Finland gains independence
Finland Russia 20% Russia retains Finland
French Indo-China Thailand Vietnam 40% Vietnam dominant in Southeast Asia
French Indo-China Thailand Siam 30% Siam dominant in Southeast Asia
French Indo-China Thailand Britain 30% Britain dominant in Southeast Asia
Himalaya Tibet 20% Tibet dominates the Himalayas
Himalaya Nepal 10% Nepal dominates the Himalayas
Himalaya Impassable 70% Snow & ice dominate the Himalayas
Italian Africa Abyssinia 25% Abyssinia modernizes
Italian Africa Britain 25% Britain dominant in East Africa
Italian Africa Italy 50% Italy conquers Abyssinia
Kazakh S.S.R. Kazakhstan 10% Kazakhstan gains independence
Kazakh S.S.R. Russia 90%
Kwangtung Britain 60% Hong Kong dominates South China
Kwangtung China 40% Canton dominates South China
Manchuria Japan 70% Japan dominates Korea and Manchuria
Manchuria Korea 10% Korea regains independence
Manchuria China 10% China gains full control over Manchuria
Manchuria Russia 10% Russia dominates Manchuria
Mongolia Mongolia 70% Mongolia gains independence
Mongolia Russia 20% Russia controls Mongolia
Mongolia China 10% China controls Mongolia
Morocco Algeria France 80% France dominates the Mahgreb
Morocco Algeria Morocco 20% Morocco dominates the Mahgreb
New Guinea Netherlands 50% Netherlands dominates New Guinea
New Guinea Australia 50% Australia dominates New Guinea
Northwestern Europe Belgium 50% Belgium dominates the Low Countries
Northwestern Europe Netherlands 50% Netherlands dominates the Low Countries
Sahara Impassable 90%
Sahara France 10% France develops the Sahara
Saudi Arabia Saudi 60% Saudis defeat the Hashemites
Saudi Arabia Hashemite 40% Hashemites defeat the Saudis
Spain Spain 80%
Spain Portugal 20% Portugal dominates Iberian Peninsula
Trans-Jordan Hashemite 60% Hashemite kings installed in Middle East
Trans-Jordan Britain 10% Britain dominates the Middle East
Trans-Jordan France 30% France dominates the Middle East
West Indies Cuba 25% Cuba dominates West Indies
West Indies United_States 25% USA dominates West Indies
West Indies Britain 25% Britain dominates West Indies
West Indies France 25% France dominates West Indies