Operation Unthinkable and Operation Dandelion
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Yes so you wouldn't use them in normal combat, but I was thinking the 'dandelion' victory condition is triggered by a successful attack on the Japanese capital with the special nuclear unit.
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@Major-Arcana Why would a single nuclear attack end the war? In WW2, it took 2 nuclear attacks, after a year of conventional attacks with similar effects, after the Japanese navy had been destroyed, for the Japanese to surrender.
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That's the plot of Operation Dandelion from the book. The Nazis want to defeat Japan to be the sole superpower, but realize they can't defeat their huge empire head on in a conventional war. The Nazis are the only power with nuclear bombs but fear the Japanese are only months away from developing nuclear weapons of their own. The operation is a surprise nuclear attack on their former allies, a simultaneous bombing of major cities and military targets across the Japanese home islands to blow them out of existence (like a dandelion!). So not a single bombing, but a single coordinated decapitation strike.
I guess the two sides shouldn't start at war, not full allies but not yet at war so there is a few rounds of maneuvering before one side decides to attach.
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I read an RPG in which Nazi Germany uses in nuclear weapons against Imperial Japan which retaliates with biological weapons. 20% of the world's population dies from the biowar. The Japanese home islands are sterilized. An even, darker alternate history.
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I have been working on converting Operation Dandelion to a full scenario.I have been removing the unused nations and will consolidate the various neutrals.I don't expect much respect for neutrality at this point by anyone. I gave the 2 British units to the US.
I am not sure how to handle Russia, America & France. In practical terms, the Germans need to either ally or attack Russia & America to get at the Japanese. It would seem for balance, that they should ally with Japan.
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Thanks Roger!
I think if you consolidate the neutrals as True Neutrals, the have the same mechanics as Global. I.e. either side needs to declare war on them, then they ally with the other side.
That way the Fascists need to maneuver and pick the right time to fight their way across neutral territory (or find a way around), or the Japanese can declare war and move first to get a stronger position.
That would suggest two three phases to a game:
- The two sides are not at war and the neutrals are neutral.
- The two sides are not at war, but the neutrals are at war with one side and allied with the other.
- The two sides are at war, the neutrals are at war with one side and allied with the other.
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@Major-Arcana There is not much point to having a phase where nobody is fighting, as you could simply start the game when the actual fighting begins.
It seems the whole point of Operation Dandelion is to launch a surprise attack.The buffer states were designed to be in the way and logically the Fascists must attack them and the Japanese will support them.The Nazis are assuming that nuclear weapons will give them the edge they need to win before the Japanese can match them.
To work this in TripleA, I would make nuclear weapons a bomber-type unit which rolls 6 dice but also make it a suicide unit.The Germans would receive 1 nuclear bomber per turn and the Japanese would at a point as well. No nuclear bomber would be received if the enemy has a nuclear bomber in range of your capital.
Give the Germans a deadline before economic strain and political infighting force an end to the war.
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@Major-Arcana I have taken the save file you posted, fixed the errors and split the buffer states with America, Russia and France allied with Japan and Australia with Germany. I gave everyone starting money equal to income.
To reflect the initial attack, I took away Japan's starting money. Nonetheless, the Japanese seem to recover quickly.
To make this a workable scenario, more needs to be done. Germany needs to be stronger or Japan weaker. Or we could give the Germans some nukes to use during the game. But basically it needs to a race against time, with the Germans needing to take the East Asian territories with which they can easily nuke Japan before Japan develops its own nukes.
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I am almost finished with Operation Dandelion. I just need to implement victory conditions.
The initial nuclear strike is represented by zeroing Japan's starting money. Germany wins by taking Manchuria (putting Japan in easy range of nuclear attack). Japan wins surviving 12 turns, I assume by then the Japanese have enough nukes of their own to stop the Germans.
I found that if I gave the Germans actual nuke units to play with, the AI would form the Germans into a big stack and use nukes to blast a path to Manchuria.
Operation Unthinkable is next (and much easier to implement).
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Here is more finished version of Operation Dandelion.
This is definitely an uphill struggle for the Germans to win fast enough. I am having some trouble getting the victory conditions to function. I may revisit this game in the future.
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I have implemented your Operation Unthinkable game. Operation_Unthinkable.zip .
As a game it works, the Allies need to coordinate well to prevent the Russians from overrunning Europe. As history, it does not do so well. The original Operation Unthinkable had a hypothetical date of 7/1/1945. Japan was still fighting, Scandinavia was not under Soviet control, the US was fully mobilized, the Communists were only minor player in China, the Soviets had little navy left.
Operation Unthinkable from Historicalboardgaming.com looks to be a better take on the situation.
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Thanks Roger, Unthinkable seems to work pretty well. Yep don't let history get in the way of a good game!
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@Major-Arcana The historical situation was fairly interesting. With many US troops withdrawn from Europe, the British government was estimating the Soviets had a 2.5 to 1 superiority in ground forces, but the Allies were superior in the air. Could the British hold the line until the US redeployed? A good scenario for Europe-only game, especially with more realistic air rules.
For a world game, one could add Communist guerillas popping up and the Japanese continuing the Pacific war.
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