@thehobbesian I have confirmed that I already have the mod downloaded to my system and I have added this to my queue of TripleA things to do.

There is some other questionable stuff going on in Germany's first turn. NONCOM 5 Sea Zone -> 7 Sea Zone (2 x submarine, 1 x transport, 1 x destroyer) NONCOM Germany -> 7 Sea Zone (1 x infantry) << LOAD NONCOM 7 Sea Zone -> Western Europe (1 x infantry) << UNLOAD NONCOM Southern Europe -> 7 Sea Zone (1 x infantry) << LOAD NONCOM 7 Sea Zone -> Western Europe (1 x infantry) << UNLOAD How did Germany make a non-combat move from 5 Sea Zone to 7 Sea Zone. Didn't the British object? How did the Germans load a transport in 7 Sea Zone from Germany and Southern Europe. And then unload in Western Europe. It would seem to be failure of basic rules and map implementation. I don't think a LLM can learn to play a game like Axis & Allies. A neural net like AlphaZero might fare better, but in either case you need to implement the rules separately from the decision-making.

@Cernel When the Revised Ladder bots were crashing frequently, I moved them onto Amazon Web Services and reworked how they were launched and maintained. AWS is a cloud hosted Linux server, so the bots run remotely rather than depending on my own computer, home internet connection, or an open SSH window. I connect to the server through SSH, but the bots themselves run inside persistent tmux sessions. tmux is useful here because it separates the bot process from the temporary SSH connection. I can disconnect from the server, close my laptop, or lose my local connection without terminating the bot. Each bot has its own named session, which also makes it easier to inspect or restart one without affecting the other. The main upkeep commands are: tmux ls This shows whether the bot sessions are still present. tmux attach -t revised_ladder tmux attach -t revised_ladder2 These reconnect me to the live console output for either bot so I can inspect errors, freezes, or lobby disconnects. To leave a session while keeping the bot running: Ctrl+B, then D If the bot is frozen rather than fully gone, I can attach to the session, stop the process with Ctrl+C, and relaunch it using the relevant startup script. I also set up the launch process so that if a bot process actually disappears or exits, it is automatically started again. In other words, the server does not simply leave the bot offline after a crash. The surrounding startup or monitoring process detects that the bot is no longer running and relaunches it. That does not necessarily fix every possible freeze, since a frozen process may still technically exist, but it does handle ordinary crashes and unexpected exits without requiring me to log in immediately. So the overall setup has three layers: AWS provides the continuously available cloud server. tmux keeps the bot sessions alive independently of SSH. The restart logic relaunches a bot when its process exits or disappears. This is what I implemented when the bots were crashing a lot. Since then, the AWS and tmux setup has generally been stable, and the automatic restart behavior has reduced the amount of manual intervention needed.

Game History Round: 4 Purchase Units - ANZAC ANZAC buy 1 Escort, 3 Fortifications, 1 air_transport, 1 artillery and 1 infantry; Remaining resources: 0 PUs; Combat Move - ANZAC Combat - ANZAC Trigger Remove All RussiansParaBoost: has removed 1 russian_paraBoost owned by Russians in Finland Trigger Remove All Wolfpack: has removed 1 Wolfpack owned by Germans in 112 Sea Zone Trigger Remove All Wolfpack: has removed 1 Wolfpack owned by Germans in 119 Sea Zone Non Combat Move - ANZAC Trigger RussiansParaBoost atFinland: Russians has 1 russian_paraBoost placed in Finland Trigger Wolfpack at112 SeaZones: Germans has 1 Wolfpack placed in 112 Sea Zone Trigger Wolfpack at119 SeaZones: Germans has 1 Wolfpack placed in 119 Sea Zone 1 air_transport moved from New South Wales to Queensland 2 infantry and 1 mine_unarmed moved from New South Wales to Queensland 1 destroyer moved from 62 Sea Zone to 54 Sea Zone 1 cruiser moved from 49 Sea Zone to 54 Sea Zone 1 destroyer moved from 46 Sea Zone to 54 Sea Zone 2 infantry moved from Queensland to 54 Sea Zone 2 infantry and 1 transport moved from 54 Sea Zone to 42 Sea Zone 1 transport moved from 56 Sea Zone to 54 Sea Zone 1 transport moved from 42 Sea Zone to 54 Sea Zone 2 infantry moved from 42 Sea Zone to Java Place Units - ANZAC 3 Fortifications placed in Java 1 Escort placed in 62 Sea Zone 1 air_transport, 1 artillery and 1 infantry placed in New South Wales Turn Complete - ANZAC ANZAC collect 17 PUs; end with 17 PUs Trigger ANZAC Liberates Celebes: ANZAC met a national objective for an additional 1 Optional[PUs]; end with 18 Optional[PUs] Trigger ANZAC Liberates DNG: ANZAC met a national objective for an additional 2 Optional[PUs]; end with 20 Optional[PUs] Combat Move - French Combat - French Trigger Remove All RussiansParaBoost: has removed 1 russian_paraBoost owned by Russians in Finland Trigger Remove All Wolfpack: has removed 1 Wolfpack owned by Germans in 112 Sea Zone Trigger Remove All Wolfpack: has removed 1 Wolfpack owned by Germans in 119 Sea Zone Non Combat Move - French Trigger RussiansParaBoost atFinland: Russians has 1 russian_paraBoost placed in Finland Trigger Wolfpack at112 SeaZones: Germans has 1 Wolfpack placed in 112 Sea Zone Trigger Wolfpack at119 SeaZones: Germans has 1 Wolfpack placed in 119 Sea Zone 1 destroyer moved from 80 Sea Zone to 81 Sea Zone Turn Complete - French Combat Hit Differential Summary : EXP bvsb 7-1-26 F3.tsvg End Late 1941 [image: 1785517846422-screenshot-from-2026-07-31-12-10-33.png] [image: 1785518257678-screenshot-from-2026-07-31-12-16-54.png] [image: 1785518268386-screenshot-from-2026-07-31-12-17-24.png]

@Nothingtoseehere Right, but I already PMed him

@Alexander heh heh you a young stud. You get lucky all the time

@Panzerstahl-Helm-0 [image: 1785446601574-prost.png] [image: 1785446626891-rock-on.png]

@Cernel yes there's a temporary workaround which is to go to "show current game". i say it is attached to being online because it's ok with a local game.

Thanks Dog. In the game I am playing I am using Hard AI but I generally use a combination of both. Oh yeah in the stack the Russian AI was holding back in Yekaterinburg? area was not 150 TUV but about 81 units/ 640 TUV The AI kept a fair bit there since the start of the game really. With some old double hit 1941 tanks.

Let's handle the Battle of the Atlantic in the same way as it is handled in Big World 2. It will be named Handelskrieg instead of Wolfpack. It spawns 1 German submarine each round. It will have a unique submarine appearance (slightly different from regular subs) with 0/4/2 stats and 2 HP. I drew 3 new territories in the South Atlantic just in case the Allies try to kill it, so that "Handelskrieg" will have more space to escape. [image: 1785075450210-wwieurope_names_values-copy.jpg]

Interesting video, and welcome back! I think the changes are interesting. Regarding tactics I do think that having 5 levels is a lot. I think that @shorogyth 's system seems reasonable. I'd also pull the plains bonus out of the tactics system (call it "defensive tactics") and have a separate plains attack bonus. That way horses can have a bonus there, and rangers won't automatically be good attacking on plains. I know it's a third number, but I think it'll be less confusing than tactics being mostly defense bonuses but also one attack bonus. Also, can you have more than a +-1bonus on some terrains? I feel like most flying units would need more than a -1 bonus on caves, especially because tactics give them bonuses. I agree with the relentless issue. I think it's cool for some units to ignore your defensive terrain advantage, but they should be rare and therefore scary. Having basically all orcs be relentless is pretty silly and makes plains better for defense than cities. Regarding unit abilities, I don't think rock paper scissors is necessarily bad, especially because not all factions are equally strong in each. If each faction has different strengths and weaknesses, it forces factions to collaborate more, and stops things from snowballing as much if one faction falls. Eg Gondor would spam rangers because they have good defense bonuses and would kill the winged nazgul (thereby denying mordor's leadership), so you could send flanking cavalry from Rhun or harad to eliminate them. Elven archers were much stronger than the spearmen, but fell very quickly to wargs, which forced the elves to diversify more. In particular, Isengard had no ranged units, so Rohan's flank cavalry was especially dangerous since it would directly target the fires of orthanc, and so isengard had to spend a lot of effort screening its siege forces. I think ranged support feels reasonable. I like all abilities that encourage using a variety of units. Eg the galadhrim archers are one of the most powerful units in the game, but they require you to buy the weaker elven spearmen to unlock their full value. I like the change to charge, since before formation made those units a liability because you couldn't make them not charge. Eg the warg riders were essentially useless for angmar because of this and rohan suffered hard. I do like the new ambush mechanic since it encourages more diversity in unit selection. I do think it should be allowed in cities though (that was the whole siege of osgilliath), and the fact that only a certain number of units can ambush will balance it. I'm not sure I like scouting as it is though. If scouting eliminates ambush, then you just need 1-2 units with scouting in your army and you're fine. And if those units are otherwise useful (eg rangers) then it makes ambushers useless. Maybe scouting should be like spearwall? Just decreasing the effectiveness of ambush so it's less good but still useful? So maybe barrow wights would have an ambush of 6, then eg warg scouts could have a scouting of 2, rangers 3, and wizards 6x2 or sth? I feel like something missing in the game is some notion of hit and run tactics for cavalry. Cavalry is expensive and strong and excels at taking out small groups, but you often can't take advantage of this because if you do it exposes your cavalry to counterattack where they won't make up their PU values. Meanwhile air units can do this which gives angmar and mordor a big advantage. Maybe some cavalry could have an ability wherein they (and only they) can independently retreat after the first round of combat, even if there's a win? This still requires some thought, since if you don't have a win in your first round you have to decide if it's worth leaving your cavalry open to guarantee the win, and cavalry is still worse than flying units since they don't get the whole combat or a noncombat move. But it makes cavalry much more tactically interesting Also a general thought, but I think rangers need to be a higher tier of ranged unit. They have excellent tactics, mountaineer, high movement, anti-flying, scouting, ambush, support, and maybe more. And given the lore this makes sense, but also in the lore they aren't common at all - the Dunedain are solitary and dying out. So I think buffing them and treating them more like weak creatures than elite infantry would make more sense. And then you could maybe have some weaker version for gondor representing Faramir's rangers which are just elite infantry

@djggml So here is a working map.yml (remove the .txt to use it. map.yml.txt map_name: the_pact_of_steel games: - {game_name: Pact of Steel, file_name: pact_of_steel.xml} - {game_name: Pact of Steel 2, file_name: pact_of_steel_2.xml} - {game_name: Pact of Steel 233, file_name: pact_of_steel_233.xml} Note it has the version line removed.

@trout Ciao- Nothing exciting on ANZACs turn. They are building up their fleet a bit and preparing for some....holidays in the Pacific. BR c1546cac-e896-4615-b39c-64ce8cf91d0e-exp-game-4-trout-vs.panzer-ANZ6.tsvg

@Trout Good Morning EXP Game 12 Trout J 9.tsvg There was error that wouldn't load JPN Trprts in NCM so I had to edit. I vaguely remember seeing that after the update and it was fixed. Forgot how weak JPN is. Well they have one job. Give the Germans enough time to get to Moscow lol We'll see how it goes

I get the appeal of having manual rolls in history. For quick out-of-game rolls, I’ve been using https://dice.onl for its simple interface and custom sides – it’s handy when I just need a fast result without syncing concerns. For in-game integration, LaFayette’s points about the upcoming ledger system make sense, but I’d still love to see this feature added eventually.

@rogercooper Cant find Ansalon/Analon on Github maps Missing from your list, but on Github maps Settlers: Fallen Empire Shogun Advanced

@TheDog I recently tried this mod and there is a lot to like about it. However, it does have one problem, at the start of everyone is at war with everyone else. This is both ahistorical and confusing to play. They should either start neutral with each other or grouped into two loose alliances, one in Eastern Japan and other in Western Japan.

The only obvious difference between the xml files is the "placeNoAirCheck". But changing that to "place" did not solve the problem. The AI log offered no clues.

@wc_sumpton thanks a lot! So far it seems to work perfectly!