Iron War: Europe - Official Thread

[Cernel]

@CrazyG said in Iron War: Europe - Official Thread:

@Frostion
Just my suggestion,

Take the northern most Italian territory and split him in half, take a little bit of land from the one beneath it if you need. There are several ww2 maps which almost work for ww1, but Italy messes everything up

Actually, for realism, the biggest WW2 issue in Italy would be that the Gothic line was not on the Po River, but on the Tuscan-Emilian Apennine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_Line
But having another line on the Po too is fine (I see there is also the Transimene Line, on the south); but, yeah, then the north should be split in two west and east parts, better on the Garda Lake - Mincio River, but for WW1 you would definitely want the Piave River. Also that territory comprising Trieste (the second most important shipyard of Italy) is not really representative, and I'm not even sure if you plan to have it as Italian, since it is so over-extended into Yugoslavia, even bordering Hungary.

Imo, the biggest thing missing over-all is Baku, were most of the USSR oil came from, and the main objective of the 1942 German offensive, but I guess it is meant to be comprised in a border territory, as well as Stalingrad.

[redrum]

@Frostion Definitely better. I'd probably take it even a little further in showing less of the southern US and sliding it down a bit but its way better than where things started. You could also consider making the southern atlantic sea zones narrower to push players to use the northern atlantic.

[Black_Elk]

@Frostion said in Iron War: Europe - Official Thread:

don’t think I want to make USA that large and by dragging USA downwards the ships would sail upwards and never go by Greenland and Iceland. It would be much easier if the real world was flat
@Black_Elk
You are right that a Pacific map could be fun to make, and that there are not that many around already. Maybe it could be the next project. As this map is nearly drawn already, I think I will finish this first. I hope that if USSR have both Finland, Germany and an Italian superpower in the Mediterranean to fight, that this map could still have some varied play options. Also I hope that we can make the Europe map Germans opertunities to focus on france, Scandinavia and USSR. It will take some time to conquer France, and maybe this map should not make it as easy to conquer France as the world map. Also I hope that the idea of splitting the navy and land/air cost will hopefully create a new focus for especially the Germans and the USSR who would normally just focus on land.

Sounds cool. I guess for the Pacific I was thinking more of Iron War lite, that could be cranked out and not need a whole lot of additional thought hehe. Since seemed like you could just carve up the existing map and xml, and knock it together fairly quickly like that. My thought there would be a map that stays essentially the same as the World one, and you just draw a line down from where the Arctic starts in Russia to where it starts in North America. You could probably add in a slice of Persia too if you wanted it be 3 vs 6.

This might allow for a somewhat more compelling turn order design. Having 9 total player nations is kind of ideal, since it would allow for alternating sequence if desired. Though for a simplified game, a 1v1 style of play, where the Axis all move together in sequence and then Allies do the same might be novel. I suppose it depends on how much you like can-opening as a feature of the gameplay. I could probably live without it, but just as an example, with 3 vs 6, you could go...

Japan > China, KNIL >Thailand > British-India, USSR, Persia > ANZAC, USA

1 Axis major and 2 Axis minors
4 Allied majors and 2 Allied Minors

Gives a chance to piggy-back a bit if desired, with some nations attached to each other in sequence to give some variety to the turns, while still retaining a basically Japan vs everyone theme. Or similarly if using 2 long player positions in a 1v1 style sequence, you could go...

Japan, Thailand, Persia vs > China, KNIL, British (India), USSR, ANZAC, USA.

Either type of sequence could probably be pretty interesting. Anyhow, all I'll say for the Pacific in this thread.
Don't want to distract too much from the Europe discussion.

For Europe, in terms of the Map above, might try something in the geometry of the lower Atlantic tiles to help indicate that there is a stretch/abstraction going on. Right now it has the masonry vibe, where the tiles are all kind of equally laid out. But it might be more compelling, if the zones changed shape/size the farther you got away from Europe. I like the 6 point connections for the main part of the Air Gap, but aesthetically its got a lot of unbroken right angles in this area compared to the rest of the map, which has a number tiles with 45 degree angles. Maybe a couple of 45 degree angles on the lower left would make it feel somehow more harmonious?

For air transits under the current layout, I don't see a good way to get a Strategic bomber from North America into Africa that doesn't involve carriers, (unless the plan is for Spain/Portugal to turn into a landing pad every game.) Not really sure what can be done about that. I'd say maybe include Azores (which could perhaps help indicate the stretch going on?) Really the only place it could sensibly go and still be functional for the stratB transit would be 3 tiles up from the bottom of the map, across from Portugal smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic. This would kind of screw the Air Gap abstraction, (I'm assuming this area is exactly where you'd want convoy income), but at least it would give the Americans and British a way to fly something over. Since you really can't bomb Italy from Europe.

The way it looks right now, I can imagine some weirdness, where securing coastal France/Iberia becomes a pre-requisite for sending those aircraft to fight the Italians in Africa or the Med. Either that or all the air will have to lily-pad on carriers, or be built in place. Not the end of the world I guess, but might feel a little bizarre for the north Africa/Med action.

There is a similar issue with getting transports to Africa. Basically anyway you go at it, will involve two consecutive turns with infantry as "floaters" before you can make landfall. Just for reference right now the distances across the lower Atlantic from North America to the hotspots in Europe/Africa are almost twice what they are on the Iron World Map. Whereas the distances along the top of the Atlantic (from USA to Greenland/Iceland) are one move shorter. This might make Torch pretty hard to execute as the Allies.

On the ground the territory divisions seem like they would be serviceable for a WW1 scenario, though I agree with the others about the Northern Italy thing.

Overall, with this kind of zoom-in on the European action, I feel like we're still looking at a pretty complex large-scale map, even if there are fewer total player-nations than on the World map. Similarly if the timeline is expanded from seasons to months (per turn) it will probably have a rather different play pace when compared to the World theater Iron War game. That's all cool, just a little different than what I meant when I suggested a smaller/faster map initially haha. I think its actually pretty ambitious.

Final thought would be to include Malta in the sz below Sicily. Especially since every island on the map (with the exception of Gotland) is on the intersection of 2 sz tiles. Malta would make a lot of functional sense as an air transit between Gibraltar and Egypt, since if using a 1940 start date Sicily and much of North Africa will be Axis controlled.

[Frostion]

OK, I have split up northern Italy and rearranged the borders a bit. I hope they could do in both WW1 and WW2.

I also made Gibraltar bigger so it has space for unit placements without being pushed into the water. If an Airfield gave +1 move to planes, then Bombers could actually fly from USA or UK to Gibraltar, and from Gibraltar to Egypt / Jordan.

I have decided to make Albania a small puppet state of Italy. Then it is not only Germany that has puppet states!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_Kingdom_(1939–43)
I imagine the soldiers of Albania could be the Balli Kombetar fascist militias. So the soldier has a white fez.

Also, I am thinking of making a British presence in the Middle East with factory possibilities. So they could aid the Greeks and therefore the Greeks can become a state that Britain could support both militarily and financially.

Here are some previews:

[Black_Elk]

Looks pretty glorious man!

The Albania idea seems cool. I dig everything I'm seeing so far and can't wait to see it.

I have to admit though, despite my suggestion for the theater game, I've always been drawn most to the world map games. Just something about the idea of global domination hehe.
So the suggestion I made was basically for more ways to hook players into this Iron War resource and D10 scheme. Especially players coming from v5 or g40 who might find the unit roster, combat system, resources or sheer scale intimidating. But I think once they play it out and find the groove, they'll definitely come around.

Also I had forgotten you mentioned including bases or other facilities that could confer a movement bonus, so maybe my thoughts on the Air transits or transport times was off. For experience with bases I only have global A&A to go off, and for that one I find the +1 AB for aircraft kind of rough. My thought is that +2 is a more interesting movement bonus in the air (for landings). For ground or naval +1 is cool, but with air it just kind of irks me haha. But even if it was just +1 that would get a stratB that usually moves 6 into N. Africa from the US or England. With fighters I think lily pad carrier plays are more intuitive, so the fighter transit isn't as big a deal. I think it would feel a little gamey though if the only way to get bombers to Africa was off a carrier hehe. So the base solves that prob. I kind of like the idea of an AB that confers a movement or air production advantage, but I'm not huge on the way scrambling works in G40. I think its just kind of overpowered there, and is basically the main reason to buy them in that game. I think some more generic bonus to air attack or defense might be better than a specialized combat phase (the way it works in G40). I do like the idea of somehow the Air Base becomes a critical target for SBR, in the contest for supremacy of the skies!

The NB looks clean!

[General_Zod]

@redrum Regarding, resource list, in the End Of Turn Report. Totals per resource would definitely be helpful in the report.

Additionally a current resource totals in the economy tab would be very helpful in planning. Also, would be cool if via the xml, the map maker could choose which resources should be shown there, so as to not just create clutter with lesser data. Same concept would be cool for stats tab too.

And back to the End Of Turn Report, I also think the End Of Turn portion should be removed. So the report/summary and End Turn delegates can be placed at start or end of turn. And not look like it was repurposed. I have been using it at start of turn for some time now. People seem to like it more, and it is simply most logical position.

[Cernel]

@General_Zod This is the topic:
https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/128/resource-system-assessment-and-improvements

[prastle]

@Black_Elk ExciteMENT! Begins

[Frostion]

@All
I am in the process of building the XML for Iron War: Europe, or I was. I have tried to start up the map for the first time, and have taken care of like 10-15 java error popups. Most errors luckily give an error report that can help determine what’s wrong.

I have noticed that trying to launch a map that has some flaws/mismatches in the naming of flags and players (in the files and directories of flags and units) can result in a launch that fails and just returns to the game setup screen without creating a java popup error.

Right now I am stuck. The map will not load even though it can be selected from the map list and it allows one to set up a game. When launching it just returns to the menu again. No error message.

Are anyone willing and able to take a look at the XML, files or know how to register what goes wrong during launch?

[Frostion]

Yay! Finally some progress
I got the map to run without errors and open up for the first time.
Here are some previews of the map with only flags:

As you can see, the territories are a bit bigger than in the Iron War world map. I also changed the color of the British and French a bit. Also, if the territories seem a bit strange it may be because this map should be WW1 compatible:

[Captain Crunch]

@Frostion congrats

[Frostion]

@CrazyG
Do you have the time to give me a hand again with generating the XML code (conditions and triggers) that replaces any Axis owned "SS-potential" units with German owned version?

I think you had some program and script for doing this last time, and I just gave you a txt file with all the land territory names listed, and a txt file with the code that needed to be multiplied.

I hope to get this Europe map ready for testing soon

[CrazyG]

@Frostion
Sure, post it and I'll take a look

[Frostion]

@CrazyG
Yay!

[CrazyG]

@Frostion
Alright I found the excel document i used to make the other triggers. I think this version should work, but I didn't get to test it

0_1501553296221_FrostionConditions.txt 0_1501553302385_FrostionTriggers.txt

[Frostion]

@CrazyG
The conditions and triggers do not seem to work. I can see that you used something from the old Iron War map, but this map has new players

I tried to fix it by adding some missing or cut text from every single condition (" count="1"/> was missing) but that did not do anything.
I replaced the players (Iraq:Iran:Japan:Thailand) with just (Albania) but that did not help either.

The java error message tells me that the </attachmentList> is missing, but it is not, and it wants it to be placed just after the first trigger, even though there are 186 more triggers that needs to be there before the </attachmentList>

I can see that in the old, and working, Iron War XML, every single condition is followed directly by its corresponding trigger. I don’t know if or why the engine would require this, but maybe we should try to reproduce it in the new Iron War Europe XML.

If you could use this text: 0_1501630277349_IWE-Condition&Trigger.txt
And replace all the ??? with a territory name from the list: 0_1501630307122_IWE-All187LandTerritories.txt
So that we end up with a list consisting of Condition/Trigger/Condition/Trigger and so on, maybe it will work?

[CrazyG]

@Frostion
I'll give it another shot. I was lazy on the first one

[Frostion]

Just wanted to post a teaser. I have “populated” the map with units. I changed the colors a bit and I really like the look of this Iron War version. And there is a lot of space in most territories. What do you guys think?

The snapshot is 6000x4500 pixels, 46 MB: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/91867373/SnapshotIWE.png
(Open this in a new fan and let the picture load … or just download it)

At the moment all the Balkan countries are non-playable and AI controlled. Yugoslavia is attackable (easily invaded) and Croatia (w. Bosnia) is a nation that can be liberated from Yugoslavia and will join the Axis. I think I will give Croatia PUs so that they can build a factory fast.Then Germany will not have to pay the 25 PUs for that when liberated.

Maybe all this will change, and maybe there will be a version of Iron War Europe with a “Balkan” nation instead of all these small AI nations. But as I see it, supporting these nations could be like a mini-game inside the game. Italy supports Albania. UK supports Greece. Germany supports the other Balkan countries.

At the moment Iraq is just an attackable AI neutral, but I have been thinking about adding them as a neutral that could maybe be bribed, and with chance rolls they could join the war on one of the sides. Could be maybe be fun

I think that I will start out with this layout and work it into a balanced version. The map has not been tested yet, not even AI vs AI, as I need to add a lot of stuff to the XML. It will be fun to see how this map handles.

[Hepps]

@Frostion Looks incredible!

[redrum]

@Frostion Looks great. I love the Iron War decal you have in North Africa.