💥 1941 Global Command Decision - Official Thread

[Black_Elk]

All good! I still had a lot of fun teasing it out tonight.

One thing I noticed for sure is that the bunker unit is probably the main decisive unit in the ground game. Since I was having a tough time breaking through, my thought for that second run was to just build bunkers on all my coastal stacks and then some transports to funnel units from Japan. Keeping the fleet in home waters basically to shuck. I think I bought a pair of bunkers for each frontline tile and like 4 transports. It seemed like the presence of bunkers was pretty key in all the battles I fought as the attacker, and they were relatively cheap, so I'd probably spam them a lot. But they're also the unit that makes it tricky for me to ballpark my chances at a glance, since I'm not super familiar with the dynamic. For fighters I've just been thinking of them as flying hitpoints. It takes some getting used to, because the attack/defense value is low from what I'm used to, but it still seemed like they were still pretty helpful on defense when they were in the opponents stack for the ground game, so that's why I flew mine off the carriers to land in coastal China.

One thing with the roster is that it can be tough to spend the remainder at 3, so I bought an extra fighter. But I noticed afterwards that I wasn't able to place it on the empty carrier deck in sz 006 A.

Anyhow, my thought for Japan is that it'd be cool to have a flashy attack at Pearl and also to smash into the Philippines pretty hard on J1. But as a player it's hard to justify going forward vs USA unless the kill is pretty clean, otherwise I'd preserve the IJN, since it's always the lifeline in the games I'm used to playing. Coming out of Classic it was always fun to try and pick up the dudes from the islands and figure out how best to get them into the fight, but end of the day it was do or die based on whether the fleet could be maintained. So I just lean that way, unless the odds are way in my favor to open up guns blazing, I pull back to cat and mouse position heheh.

Philippines did look like a mighty fortress for sure! Anyhow, I'll hit pause and swoop back for the updates. Catch ya in a bit dude!

ps. Oh also so for me the Battle Calc is how I learn how to play a game if I'm unfamiliar with it. For A&A or if it's fairly similar, where I already know what's what, I can ballpark stuff and don't need to use it so much. But if there are units in the roster that I'm unfamiliar with, or novel combat mechanics, then I will rely on the Calc almost exclusively to tell me if a battle is worth attempting. I've been doing the same with the default casualty selection, allowing the comp to tell me which units should be taking the hits. I wasn't sure a few times though, like with the Japanese carrier, hitting spacebar screwed me a few times lol. But anyway, that's sorta how I do it. Just moving troops around and checking the odds in the Calc, although it can be tricky with the high draw % which I think comes from the battle round limit maybe? Anyhow, still fun to mull it over and think on what to do!

[TheDog]

reliefTiles
So Texas, the Netherlands to do.
The Map Blends stats came from The Shogun, so if you want another variant go for it. But the current one does show up the Netherlands borders of the two layers very well, Texas less so.

Need another Beacon/Lighthouse at the Southern end of the Dardanelles Straits.
Did I sneak in another SZ, 129 the Sea of Mamara?

Danish Straits needs a Beacon on the north of Juteland.

I think we need Dashed/Dotted lines here?
112-113 Danish Straits
91A-92 Gibraltar Straits
What do you think?

[Black_Elk]

Sounds good, I'll make that my plan for the week to get those all handled.

I can do a dotted/dashed line for all the straits and canal entrances.

Yeah I didn't catch sz 129, I thought you had meant a single strait but you mean like double straits right? For Denmark (the Lighthouse in Copenhagen) is that meant to control sz 113/114? I had assumed it was sz 112/113 earler. If it's for 114 I'll make the dashed line come up that way, so it's clearer which Sea Zones are being effected, and then add the one Skagerrak on the other side.

Maybe something kinda basic, like this...?

Or something along those lines. Probably need to set a wider dash so it's easier to see when zoomed out, but some sorta dotted line motif like that more or less.

Let me know if there's anything else relief wise and I'll toss it on the pile. Catch ya next round!

[TheDog]

129, I thought you had meant a single strait but you mean like double straits right?

Yes

.
Denmark
Current code says, you must own both land Copenhagen-Denmark & Juteland to pass between 112 & 113

.
But, ignore the above as you have made me relook at this.

How do show this on screen?
Own land Copenhagen-Denmark to pass between 112 & 113
and
Own land Juteland to pass between 113 & 114.

Maybe you could shine a light from the relevant beacon on to the dashed SZ border line?

If you could do this by Friday/Saturday, in parallel I can do some testing and then release an update by next weekend?

[Black_Elk]

Yeah no worries. I read that just as I was falling asleep, but I can probably bang it out this Wed.

I also want to make sure I understand exactly what you want though. The reason I was confused is because the Copenhagen TT is a separate island right? If so, having that TT control passage into sz 113 would make the tile impossible to reach for the Allies, since that's the sz that the island is contained within. Unless it has a connect to another tile by land or something like paratroopers that don't need a naval transport for the amphib. You'd have a similar issue going the other direction from 114, again cause of the island thing.

I think originally I thought Copenhagen/Juteland would be the same TT or with a land bridge to Juteland if separate, but probably got mixed up in the labelling. Another option if you really want to have both straits would be to modify Copenhagen so that it's not a true island, and make that visually obvious. Like I could add a bit off a border, to split off some of the Jutland tile or the Holstein tile and add it to the Copenhagen tile in the base, if that seems sensible?

Anyhow we'll dive in on it this week for sure!

ps. another option is to break sz 113 into A/B. I'd be among the smaller SZ tiles, but there are others about that size elsewhere so might not be too off the wall. Then you could have the new boundary between 113A and 113B at Kattegat if you wanted, which might be easier to parse for the visual. I imagine the most important passage is 112 into 113 (Allied approach), but I like the idea of a clap back from the Baltic, which I think is what you're after maybe? Like where the Allies could land at Juteland or push up the coast, but the Germans could still hold the strait into the Baltic proper, if they can hang onto the Copenhagen-Denmark tile. Might be a bit tight for the units though. Like maybe not for G, but for a combined US/Brit fleet there'd prob be some spillover. Tweaking the land tile might be simpler hehe.

I think the cleanest visual would just be to have the beacon closest to the relevant white line, and then a second dotted blue line along whichever SZ boundary is controlled.

For the actual canals, Suez/Panama, I was thinking to do something different though, because the lines there are shorter. Like maybe at the entrance do like a half circle in dotted blue?

Or in misc folder I saw Frostion had a bridge graphic that might work for something. Not sure though.

I think the beacons alone can be sorta easy to miss, I might punch up the chroma for the red, but hopefully the blue dots or something similar nearby would help highlight.

For the canals though, and the Dardanelles/Bosphorus zones, the area around those crossings is a little tighter than it is with the straits like Denmark and Gibraltar, so probably needs something to help it pop out more. Maybe carrying the dotted line across the land for the canals?

With a shape like )(

Or something like that for Suez/Panama.

I'll have to play around with it some more, I was just kinda riffing above heheh.

I tried to do a directional beam for the lighthouse earlier, but the light cone looked a little off heheh. Like it would seem ok, but then when I shrank it down it would just sorta lose the visual. There might be a plug in light effect that does it better, that I just don't know about. I'll look around and see if there's something I can pull.

[TheDog]

@black_elk
As you were/reset.

Ignore my previous rambling about a Beacon on the north end of Juteland and 112 & 113 SZ. The sea area is not narrow enough for a canal zone.

I like your idea 113 A & B, with Copenhagen-Denmark as the land component controlling the canal, so lets go with that?

I will manually do the unit place co-ordinates for the 113 A & B SZ to get more in.

.
As to graphics, you have the final say, but my 2p worth.

• No to the Frostions bridge icon.
• I like your "half circle in dotted blue" idea.
• It would be nice to be consistent between graphics for narrow canals like Panama/Suez and other wider canals maybe with the same dotted/dashed blue.
• If using a Beacon a brighter red(like you suggested) and maybe a yellow light with an aura instead of a white light?

[Black_Elk]

Sounds good. I'll do that then

I tried the directional cone of light but still felt kinda weird. This one looked decent though. I added a yellow tinted hallow and punched up hue a bit for the reds to try and make it pop a little more. I could also make them larger, since there's really no need to cap it at 68px tall, if just drawn into the relief. I just defaulted to that from working on the units, but they could probably be 100px or whatever if you want a larger icon.

I can keep tinkering till we have something you like. The narrows are tricky because there's only so much room for the blue dots hehe. I was trying a few at different size for dots, but not quite sure what I like best. For the straits, this is crude, but shows pretty much what I was thinking....

Trying to find something that registers but isn't like too pronounced. By making the blue dot's more vibrant it may catch the eye somewhat better, even across a relatively small area like shown here. I think you probably need like Not sure if something like that works for you?

[TheDog]

@black_elk
Whatever size in the image above looks good to me, liking the blue dots or whatever variant you go for.

[Black_Elk]

Yeah maybe I'll just keep it as is for the size, I think it reads pretty well for the visual.

Oh also I meant to reply to this one earlier but forgot haha...

@thedog said in 1941 Global Command Decision - Official Thread:

I am redoing the US Philippines defence as Dec 41 and will give Japan a Formosa-Philippines invasion force.
Im thinking of randomising the US carrier fleet location, one where the Japanese can go for it, one where its safe, thoughts?
Japan will always have the option to get Pearl Harbour or maybe the US carriers.

I'll admit to being torn with this one. On the one hand I enjoy the concept of game start randomizers, since I think this prevents a scenario from becoming too stale or feeling too scripted. On the other hand though, suss'ing through the round 1 scripts and trying to puzzle out openers is definitely a hallmark of A&A gameplay. Like I'd imagine that's a big part of the draw here, to tripleA I mean, cause people are looking to scratch that itch hehe.

For me a good A&A/tripleA game is one where the designer has done a lot of this work in advance, on the player's behalf, so the player isn't presented with an opening script that doesn't sing hehe. To me this would be a game where the opening round combats have been run to death, with the swings all accounted for, and the hitpoints scaled out in the aftermath, such that both sides have a reasonable avenue towards recovery regardless of the specific results. Including doing that under LL play conditions (even though it's not my preference) just to ensure that nothing is busted out of range for that playstyle. If a round 1 combat is scripted, meaning the player is presented with combats that are basically unavoidable, or which they have to run lest they screw themselves out the gate, that the results there would be largely consistent game to game, so the player can plan around the most likely outcomes.

So in the example above, if you want a J1 Pearl Attack to occur every game, to set it up such that the player isn't shooting themselves in the foot or dying of panic attacks, owing to a particularly swingy combat that might make or break the game on the first turn. A&A games are somewhat notorious for not exactly nailing this part lol. An example would be the v5 Ukraine attack on R1, where you might as well flip a coin to see whether the game will be worth playing or not hehe. Though I guess at least there, it's the very first thing to happen, so you could just quit and reload I guess if it's a nightmare. But for me that's not a great solution, and I'd have rather they'd just made the Ukraine opener more consistent or just not had that battle as an opener hehe.

I think it's probably a dance between meeting player expectations, so the new player isn't confused or frustrated at not understanding the initial game state, while also subverting those expectations to a certain extent, where we can get away it, so that the game remains fresh compared to the standards.

To my way of thinking, the perception of balance by sides is much more important than the actual balance, at least in A&A, since these games are rarely super well balanced, and all the standard games end up needing some kind of bid usually hehe. The important thing in my view though, is that the player doesn't feel defeated/deflated by a do-or-die opening combat that they can't avoid. Again to use the v5 example, a shitty roll in the Ukraine attack, and many players will just hang their hats right there - like 'why bother continuing if you already know which way the dominoes are falling?' haha So that's one to avoid for sure.

I like the idea of allowing enough elements of that random starter surprise into the mix that the player doesn't get bored, and also to avoid the situation where the scenario has a clear shelf-life (after the players have puzzled out the balance, determined which openers are best/most-likely game to game) but without overdoing it. A wheel of fortune can be fun, but if too much is outside of the player's control, that could be also be a turn off.

I think auto-generated units/hitpoints can be particularly problematic, just based on my experience playing Frostion's Iron War. I thought the idea to spam subs and air-transports continuously, with no way for the opponent to disrupt that dynamic, was somewhat ill advised there. What starts out as a nifty/novel bonus there, compounds over time, such that the automatic hitpoint spawns become the scenario defining dynamic in the endgame. In that case I felt like that Axis sub spawns just dwarfed many of the other dynamics in importance, and distracted from a lot of the other stuff I liked about the gameplay. I felt the same way about fuel in Iron War, though that's another subject hehe.

Sorry bit of a ramble there, what point was I trying to make again? Oh yeah, so for randomized starting locations, I can see a way that this works, where either the location or the forces within are randomized, but I also think it's a lot to have going on immediately after game launch. Right now, after firing it up, if I control Axis, the first thing to happen is the German sub spawning, and the swing there can be pretty dramatic. Even if it averages 3 subs, and even if it's extraordinarily unlikely for a player to spawn 0 subs or to spawn 6 subs at the extremes, the difference between say 1 or 2 subs and 4 or 5 subs can be pretty decisive in a game where battles can hinge on a single extra pip. Especially if this is happening every round of gameplay. Least there though its German units spawning on Germany's turn G1, though I'd maybe push this out to G2 honestly, just so the first thing the player experiences of the game isn't an entirely novel mechanic. For USA naval forces would you have this occurring on G1 as well?

I'd say a simpler method would just be to put the main USN fleet at fleet at San Diego, and have the stuff at Pearl destined to die on J1. Basically an odds on battle for Japan, where the question isn't whether or not Japan will actually win the engagement, but more like how many hits they have to sacrifice to pull it off cleanly, vs the inevitable USN counter.

I'd consider changing the location of the IJN starting fleet for this stuff, which would probably be better than changing the USN locations. I wouldn't look to A&A, since none of the World War II games have particularly spectacular Pearl openers to model or learn from. Mechanically, I think what you'd want is a situation where Japan can run this attack without having to park a carrier at Pearl to pull it off.

If they have to expose a carrier and leave it vulnerable to counter attack on US1 that's generally bad for business. Instead I'd want the battle to hinge on the attacking Japanese aircraft in range, since that's pretty thematic. Ideally you'd want more movement for the fighters after the attack, than leading into it. So if fighters are M4, I'd put them 1 movement into Pearl, with 3 movement remaining in the aftermath for any survivors. That way the Japanese player can move their carriers further for a stronger defensive position on US1. Basically so Japan isn't required to move their max distance just to reach the Pearl attack, but instead saving the lion's share of that movement for the J1 non com.

If J1 is Dec 7, 1941, then the attack approach would probably have the IJN starting in sz 013, just north of Hawaii I'd guess, right?

The IJN carrier task force left Kuril at the end of November, hit Pearl with the big surprise, and then sailed west to Kyushu, back in home waters by the end of December. So in A&A terms, a situation where Japan is doing a hit and run more or less, and not leaving a ton of stuff behind to get smoked on US1 counter. This can be achieved by having the IJN start out right next to the USN on the first turn. 1 tile away, rather than 2/3 tiles away. Done like that Japan can send their fighter aircraft and some surface ships to support the attack at whatever odds they're willing to risk, but without necessarily having putting their carriers in harm's way. I think that'd be ideal.

ps. I got stalled up earlier with my dogs and cleaning up after that bomb cyclone weather, so didn't get to the relief today, but I'll chop it up tomorrow if the power holds. I imagine we can get you something by the weekend. Oh also one more thought about Pearl Harbor. Are you familiar with the attack in v5? To me that would be an instructive negative example, like of what not to do hehe. In that game it is possible to run a pretty strong scripted Pearl opener by gaming the fighter movement dynamic off carrier decks and Japan, but the entire battle comes down whether or not a lone Japanese M4 fighter gets hit or not. The situation is such that the Japanese player plans for their unit to die (the likely outcome) but if it doesn't, then things go haywire. If the attack works, the attacking Japanese fighter takes the first hit, and Japan is free to move their carrier away to a totally different spot on non com. If the attack fails (Japan sweeps/no hit on fighter), then they have to move their carrier to Pearl to support the landing of the fighter that's out of gas, which is a disaster hehe. The v5 pearl play really favors experience and rules and unit set up minutia, so much so that's it's almost like an exploit gimmick I guess. It's an interesting play because it uses all the big bag of tricks, including a defensive sub dive to survive choice, but for a scripted attack it's one of the more complex and confusing for a first round combat on an A&A board. There are things I like about it, like how it tempts the player to try and figure out how to hedge their bets. Or to ride the razor's edge, and figure out how moving their starting pieces in curious ways can eek out an advantage, but it's also not particularly obvious. Especially for a new player, since it relies on the attacker using a non-standard casualty order selection. Anyway, it's an interesting case. v3 Pearl I find pretty boring since it's just a wipe. Like Japan can kill everything the USA has with minimal effort in v3 41. For the Classic opener and Revised, if they included a Pearl Attack, that always felt weird, if only because it didn't match the 42 start date hehe. Some of the other WW2 scenarios I've played have tried things I liked for the Pearl drama, but I've yet to see one that I truly loved without equivocation hehe. It's such a set-piece though, and potentially a good fireworks display. I feel like if done well, it could be pretty fun, particularly in a 41 themed game where it aligns with the start date. I'll be excited to see what you cook up and look forward to teasing it out! hehe

Anyhow, that's that for now. Catch ya on the next one!

[Black_Elk]

Also, regarding the relief just cause I have it open right now hehe, adding the beacon/canal graphics and the extra SZ is pretty easy, although the stuff on land can be kinda tricky just cause of the opacity there not being at 100%. I think it'll be simpler to recreate the relief, than it'll be to try to modify the existing one. I ran into a similar issue when I was trying to help modify the Iron War relief. There's a quick transparency heal tool in gimp, but it kinda fritzes out if the background image is also semi-transparent.

Anyway, since I was going to adjust the base for the sz 113 A/B thing, I could probably tweak the base for Texas at the same time, as well since I wasn't super happy with my earlier solution.

One possibility is to make the relief slightly different than the base there, to preserve the shape of the Texas tile across the map edge (basically be removing some of the border lines on the relief map edges, so the wrap line isn't splitting the tile) but then the map blends would look weird showing the base. So it's a bit of a bind. It'd be nice to have Texas bordering Jaurez and such too, without Arizona-New Mexico tile coming between them which was my quicky solution. Also since Texas has a fairly recognizable shape, it'd be nice to preserve that a bit more if can. I mean compared to some of the the surrounding TTs which are mostly rectangles, it'd be nice to have something recognizable along the border.

Oh speaking of map blends, I think they look pretty good honestly. Like it's a pretty nice blend for players who prefer a more subdued/pastel aesthetic for the overall color scheme, although it would probably work better with a black line in relief as opposed to a white line. I'm not sure if there's a way to make the baseline display as white rather than black border, but with the blend on tripleA will show the black line under the white resulting in a 50% gray, which can be a little choppy in the visual. The map wrap I believe will show as a 1px black line regardless right, like where the two edges of the board meet? Not sure that can be avoided, it flashes in/out when scaling or scrolling. Though for the blend it would be less noticeable with black lines for everything probably. Did you want me to do a black line relief next time, so it works better for that stuff? Or just keep with the white?

I think I prefer the white lines relief with no blend for a default look, since to me that's just got a cleaner read at glance and recalls the Domination. But with blends on, I'd prefer black lines in the relief, cause they blend better. Mixing black with black to get black, instead of black with white to get gray, if that makes sense lol. I can be kinda brutal though and probably a bit judge-y when it comes the visual first impression and nitpicky with my own stuff hehe. Like usually I'll determine whether I'm going to play a map pretty quickly as a newb, based on how it looks when I first launch it, and whether I'm vibing on that sufficiently. I'd probably bail on a map before for trying to tool around in the settings to make it more beautiful, unless I found it kinda beautiful to begin with, cause I'm kinda lazy that way. Although for the standard WW2 fair I'd sometimes changes the Hex colors to suit my taste like if something was neon and garish, but unless I was already invested in it for some reason that's about as far I'd go lol. Of course I like this map, since I had a big hand in drawing it lol, but my tastes are on full display here too with default preferences heheh.

Anyhow, let me know what you think is best and I'll dive in on tomorrow.

ps. Here's what I mean about the white line relief blend thing, with the area I want to fix.

Blends Off

Blends On

You can see also how I missed the alignment by a couple pixels for that W. Texas edge and the panhandle too. Creating that weird 4 point. If anything I'd have had a 4 point at Utah/Colorado/Arizona/New Mexico, since that one actually exists, kinda, but anyway... I think combining Arizona and New Mexico was to avoid having a 4 point, so I don't know really the rational. Like even in 1914 they were both already separate states hehe. We could split the tiles and that might be more interesting for invasion USA if that ever went down.

New York/New Jersey tile, I also spotted to add to the list. Honestly there are some other TTs that Hepps has in the USA that are a little wonky, since I think they were imagined as Metro regions, but the stuff in the midwest just kinda looks like the political boundaries there. I didn't want to mess with the baseline too much more though, since we're already pretty far along and they seemed alright.

But anyway, for the W. Texas thing, the map edge is kinda artificial when in-game, so I'd almost be inclined to work the relief to bring the border of Colorado over and such as well. Basically to mix it up along the map edgeline.

I know Hepps' map had the map edge break, but not sure if that would mess with the blends? But anyway in that second image above, like where you can see the double pixel of the map edge, that one.

I'm not sure it's possible to nix entirely with blends on, but we might be able to kinda dance around it when they're off. Or with a hop connection to the relevant tiles, with the relief showing that, even if the base shows an extra? So like having the Chihuahua tile connection skip over the West Texas triangle to connect to Texas, which on the relief would appear to be a single spot. Or to do the same with Colorado and the spots in Canada, so they don't have to follow the hard line the whole way down. That way we don't have to do much to the base, but I can just tweak those in the relief display. For the stuff in the ocean I don't think matters as much, cause those are all just large rectangles anyway, but for the stuff on land that would be nice. It's really just this section of North America that's kinda problematic, cause it's where the map edge falls.

Here it is in the 1914 map. You can see that the map edge break is still pretty visible there. Where the player just kinda ignores the edge break I guess, and follows the displayed borders to know where to click for the connect.

And then here's ours...

We moved the map edge a bit when we went 16000 with it, but basically same kinda dilemma for the nearby land tiles. I think as long as it's not too striking and kinda played down should still look ok though. Like I was playing for a while before I even noticed that with W. Texas and Netherlands hahah.

This is the line I was going to use for sz 113 A/B, if it works for you...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xnvwl23sf092dia/Domination_1941_baseline.png?dl=0

Right then, off for a few! See ya on the next up

[TheDog]

@black_elk
replying to this post
You quoting me I am redoing the US Philippines
so number 102

Your essay ( Im teasing) makes sense, I will try and be your fairy godmother, "you shall go to the ball".

Hopefully you will like the dress and carriage.

Time is not on my side either, so the weekend is fine, I might be releasing later than this weekend.

[ebbe]

@black_elk

I was just thinking: what about having the nice commanders pics in the same 3d style as the units and especially the Country-token? a small detail but just sharing it ; )

[Black_Elk]

Right on! You know I'll stay out way past midnight hehe

Oh bam! Ebbe!

Haha I like that Bradley detail!

Yeah, they might need some more love to bring them in line. Least with unit icons we can doll em up and try stuff out on the fly, now that we got some scaffolding erected with the playable game. Alas GIMP was being annoying earlier. I did a quick black line, but it crashed halfway through adding the blur and then windows decided to update. Lol Go figure!

ps. one final thought on Pearl, but in A&A terms I always thought the Pearl battle would be well handled as a strafe. Like where Japan sticks it out for only a couple combat rounds, does a bunch of damage in the opening salvo, but can then withdraw the IJN at advantage. The prob is that usually the unit set up in A&A has a secondary USN fleet or air that can still threaten to wipe any of the fallback points, so it never really works the way it could. There's also the prob of a strafe being a somewhat more advanced tactic I guess, but anyhow, that always seemed like it might be a cool approach to that one. Alternatively, a situation where anything that survives to occupy the sz if cleared is sort of a write off from Japan's perspective. So units that are a bit more expendable. That way even if they die, they're not upending Japan's game too hard, like might happen if one of their starting carriers gets smoked on the J1 opener.

[Black_Elk]

Here, just in case the power goes down haha.

Here is the relief with SZ 113 added and the Texas thing corrected. Nothing too fancy, it just follows the current base for the map wrap area. I had a simple blue square dot at 3x3 px motif going that I was using as a draft, not sure if it was attention grabbing enough, or if I'm fully sold on the dotted squared off design, something more swoopy might or circular might be better, but anyhow, this is the one that I was trying to save earlier before gimp crashed lol.

I just did a little half box around the canal entrances as the simplest thing I could come up with, but it was more just to try and see how small I could make the dots and still have it read, so not sure. Or maybe it works? But like I said, in case the lights go out, or till I can come up with something cooler hehe.

I did a version in white borders and another in black borders, so you could check em out and see which line color you prefer for that...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gcj73rryoj47s5w/41 white line relief.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/k6tvsj8f100g11p/41 black line relief.png?dl=0

And then here's one with just the beacons, in case you weren't feeling the dotted blue squares thing, since I did those on a separate layer.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9jmwxv0cq0ovd2z/41 white line relief just beacons.png?dl=0

[beelee]

@black_elk oztea's 41 Global setup probably closest A&A Pearl Attack for what you're saying. Basically whack the BBs and get outta there. Got a couple Subs for fodder.

Or you can go Big and bring everything. That usually doesn't work for the long haul but it is an option.

Anyway, just some food for thought

There's a smaller US Fleet off West Coast. No CVs tho

[Black_Elk]

Yeah Oztea's looks interesting. I haven't played the scenario all that much to be honest. I think I gave it a whirl in early days, but I definitely like his choice of start date hehe. To me that's got the right sort of vibe in the A&A context.

Here I'd be less confident with offering suggestions for how to set it up unit-wise, cause I'm not terribly familiar with all the unit interactions yet. Basically the more individual unit interaction there are, the harder it is for me to parse just based on like raw attack/defense power or hitpoints in the way I'm used to. You get a little of that already even in a game like v3, just from stuff like submarines I guess. Here though the units are targeting/not targeting each other in different ways, and you have more units doing the first strike thing. I've been entirely winging it thus far for the most part, like just running attacks and seeing what happens, to try and figure out how the units pair off against each other. Since I can't really parse it from the calc and my headmath doesn't work cause the naval combat mechanics here are new to me. Still something with that sort of vibe, like the smash and grab, blast and jet. I'd also probably do something similar, where the carriers are just outside of range and build that historical near miss into it hehe. I feel like if the USA loses it's carriers before they even get a move, it just discourages their Pacific play, whereas I like a scenario that pushes the Pacific game on the USA.

For Japan I like the idea that they hit big in the opener, and then reposition to home waters if going all defensive, to receive pressure from the Allies, or else to Truk if going forward to place pressure. I think Truk is a good anchor spot for Japan to lock them into a more forward position, and to give them some skin in the game vs USA and ANZAC in the central pacific. I like that they have starting production there in this one. I think the wise Japanese player would want to pull back in order to shore up their lines along the spots that can be reinforced, like where they can drop ships in the water. But I like it where the USA has an angle to move out as well, regardless. Like with that Solomon's launch you get in many games, where USA can sorta wheel it around eventually, after the initial shock of J1 wears off hehe.

Anyhow, always exciting to puzzle out a J1, since it usually has a lot of moving parts. In the A&A games there's always something going on with the British India fleet on UK1 too, though I'm not a huge fan, since it really doesn't match much in the history. I think the Brits should be kinda bouncing from the Pacific with that fleet, or just barely trying to hang on by the finger nails at Singapore, maybe pulling a Madagascar run if they're feeling saucy. Whereas in Revised and a lot of the A&A games that followed, we have them all exploding on UK1 with those ships. Or bidding subs to mess with Japan around the Dutch East Indies, trying to tip the scales on a KJF, which was a bit silly to have happen before Japan was even up to bat haha

Also, just looking at Oztea's map, I'd definitely like to get the G40 version up and running too with this big ass map hehe, cause it's looking pretty clean to me! The part I don't know how to do though, is the one where the Dog was able to like figure out where the little breaks were occurring and charting the TT connections from the 1941 base with the grabbers and whatnot. To me that's all still a complete mystery how that stuff works hehe. But I think all the labels and everything else could just port over from the current G40 files right? Anyhow, that one would be fun to get banged out too. I think the relief and base for that one are good to go since most of the floating pixels were from the subdivisions stuff, but I'm not 100% on that, there might be something on that Global 1940 base that still needs a fix. But fewer lines so it stands to reason there'd be fewer breaks. Fingers crossed lol. But that way we could play Oztea's scenario again with the new supped up digs and unit graphics and such hehe

Anyhow, let me know if there's anything else to spruce up for the 41 stuff and I'll try to dial it tomorrow.

[beelee]

@black_elk Just uploaded Command Decision Holy Bong Water Batman !!! That looks Cool AF !!!

Gonna take me awhile to wrap my head around it lol. Lots going on. Probably just play Germany and AI everybody else when i get time. Just wanted to check it out

@TheDog I was getting a unit error. "early-fighter" I renamed to "Early-Fighter" which is what you had in xml and it went away. Just a heads up.

Nice Work Guys

[TheDog]

@beelee
Oh you Linux guys

Good catch, Im glad you're on board testing it

[TheDog]

@Black_Elk
In game white borders and blue dots from the chats dropbox file, not the thread dropbox file.
If you change your mind on it then post a link, its a quick fix.

I spent way more time looking/thinking about the choices you gave me than putting it game.

Now back to the Pearl Harbour puzzle attack and balancing.

[Black_Elk]

@TheDog Sound good!

@beelee Right on! I'd definitely scope the Unit Help descriptions, since it's pretty different than what we're used to hehe. I'll admit I don't really know how combat works here yet, but it's kinda intriguing. Basically almost every unit has some form of AA shot or targeting vs other units, though I'm not sure how to read the battle calc for that really, so I don't know what I'm doing exactly. I think a full spread unit description in the notes would probably help.

Here just since I mentioned let's see if I can get it to paste the txt for the G units and I'll add the unit images at 100%...

Right now the unit help window in-game shows them with some fuzz and kinda pixel-y from that window, but I think it's a tripleA thing. What we could do as a stopgap is make Units section for the game notes as an image and then maybe arranged the unit graphics and specs in columns/rows by type or by pairing, instead of just a alpha-numeric listing like the unit help will display. That could be a way to tutorialize what's going down with the unit roster too.

I'd actually like to make something like that for the G40 map files as well, if we can get that map cooking. Since World War II Global 1940 isn't exactly the easiest game to play either hehe, and it would probably be pretty helpful to have all the units laid out in the game notes in some kind of matrix with the descriptions and key info. Or to do something similar for whatever mod/HR packages are popular. Not all the G40 graphics I made or borrowed from Frostion are in use here, but I'd probably just included everything I have images for at 54 px and then people can figure out how best to make of use them or add new stuff to the pile.

Anyhow here's the current Command Decision spread real quick... there's some additional units for other nations, like Russian conscripts and US bombers and whatnot, but this is the stuff that'd show in the list if pulling up the Unit Help screen on G1...

Germany Units
Unit
Name
Cost
Tool Tip

Air-Transport
6 PUs
Type: Air Att | Def | Mov: 0 | 0 | 4 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Is an Air Transport Transporting Capacity: 2 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy - Carry 2x Inf-Elite/Paratroopers or 1x Inf-Trained units

Anti-Air
5 PUs
Type: Land Att | Def | Mov: 0 | 0 | 2 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Targeted Attack for Combat & Move Through: 1/6 AA with 1 Attacks for Unlimited Rounds Targeted Defense for Combat & Move Through: 1/6 AA with 1 Attacks for Unlimited Rounds Transporting Cost: 5 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy - Good v Aircraft

Anti-Tank
4 PUs
Type: Land Att | Def | Mov: 1 | 1 | 1 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Targeted Attack for Combat: 1/6 Anti-Tank with 1 Attacks for Unlimited Rounds Targeted Defense for Combat: 2/6 Anti-Tank with 1 Attacks for Unlimited Rounds Amphibious Attack Modifier: -1 Is First Strike Can't Target: Bomber Can be Land Transported Transporting Cost: 3 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy - First Strike - Good v Armor & Motorized Infantry - Attack most units at 1/6, & another (Defence 2/6 v Armor or Attack 1/6 v Armor)

Armor-Hvy
11 PUs
Type: Land Att | Def | Mov: 4 | 4 | 2 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Support on Attack & Defense: 1 ArmorShock Power to 1 Allied Inf-Conscript, Inf-Elite, Inf-Motorized           and Inf-Trained Amphibious Attack Modifier: -1 Can Blitz Can't Target: Bomber Is a Land Transport Transporting Cost: 5 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy - Researched Heavy Tanks - Can carry 1 Inf-Conscript or 1 Inf-Trained

Armor-Lgt
6 PUs
Type: Land Att | Def | Mov: 2 | 1 | 2 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Support on Attack & Defense: 1 ArmorShock Power to 1 Allied Inf-Conscript, Inf-Elite, Inf-Motorized           and Inf-Trained Amphibious Attack Modifier: -1 Can Blitz Can't Target: Bomber Transporting Cost: 2 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy or Industry-Med or Industry-Lgt - Includes Armoured Cars & Light Tanks

Armor-Med
8 PUs
Type: Land Att | Def | Mov: 3 | 2 | 2 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Support on Attack & Defense: 1 ArmorShock Power to 1 Allied Inf-Conscript, Inf-Elite, Inf-Motorized           and Inf-Trained Amphibious Attack Modifier: -1 Can Blitz Can't Target: Bomber Is a Land Transport Transporting Cost: 3 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy or Industry-Med - Medium Tranks - Can carry 1 Inf-Conscript or 1 Inf-Trained

Artillery-Hvy
8 PUs
Type: Land Att | Def | Mov: 3 | 3 | 1 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Support on Attack & Defense: 1 Hvy-Barrage Power to 1 Allied Armor-Hvy, Armor-Lgt, Armor-Med, HQ-           Army, Inf-Conscript, Inf-Elite, Inf-Motorized and Inf-Trained Amphibious Attack Modifier: -1 Is First Strike Can't Target: Bomber Transporting Cost: 5 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy - First Strike - See supportable units above.

Artillery-Med
6 PUs
Type: Land Att | Def | Mov: 2 | 2 | 1 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Support on Attack & Defense: 1 Barrage Power to 1 Allied Armor-Hvy, Armor-Lgt, Armor-Med, HQ-Army,           Inf-Conscript, Inf-Elite, Inf-Motorized and Inf-Trained Amphibious Attack Modifier: -1 Can't Target: Bomber Can be Land Transported Transporting Cost: 3 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy or Industry-Med or Industry-Lgt - See supportable units above.

Battleship
18 PUs
Type: Sea Att | Def | Mov: 4 | 4 | 2 HP: 2 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Targeted Attack for Combat: 2/6 AA with 2 Attacks for 1 Rounds Targeted Defense for Combat: 2/6 AA with 2 Attacks for 1 Rounds Is First Strike Can't Target Some Units Blockade Loss: 1 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy - First Strike

Bomber-Lgt
7 PUs
Type: Air Att | Def | Mov: 1 | 1 | 4 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Targeted Attack for Combat: 2/6 Land+Surface with 1 Attacks for Unlimited Rounds Targeted Defense for Combat: 2/6 Land+Surface with 1 Attacks for Unlimited Rounds Can Perform Raids: 0-1 Damage Can't Target: HQ-Submarine and Submarine Carrier Cost: 1 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy - Tactical 2 engined bomber. Single engined Dive Bomber - Attack most units at 1/6, & another Attack 2/6 v Ground/Sea Surface units

Bunker
5 PUs
Type: Land Att | Def | Mov: 0 | 3 | 0 HP: 2 Can be Placed Without Factory Can be Damaged by Raids, 2 Max Operational Damage, 2 Max Total Damage, Dies if Max Damage Reached, Can't Target Some Units Must be Placed in Territory with Value of at Least: 1

Carrier
14 PUs
Type: Sea Att | Def | Mov: 0 | 1 | 2 HP: 2 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Targeted Attack for Combat: 1/6 AA with 2 Attacks for 1 Rounds Targeted Defense for Combat: 1/6 AA with 2 Attacks for 1 Rounds Can't Target Some Units Carrier Capacity: 2 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy - Carry 2 Aircraft

Cruiser
8 PUs
Type: Sea Att | Def | Mov: 2 | 2 | 3 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Targeted Attack for Combat: 1/6 AA with 1 Attacks for 1 Rounds Targeted Defense for Combat: 1/6 AA with 1 Attacks for 1 Rounds Can't Target Some Units Blockade Loss: 1 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy -

Destroyer
5 PUs
Type: Sea Att | Def | Mov: 1 | 1 | 3 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Targeted Attack for Combat: 1/6 AA with 1 Attacks for 1 Rounds Targeted Defense for Combat: 1/6 AA with 1 Attacks for 1 Rounds Can't Target Some Units Is Anti-Stealth Blockade Loss: 1 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy or Industry-Med - Anti-Sub

Fighter
10 PUs
Type: Air Att | Def | Mov: 1 | 1 | 4 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Targeted Attack for Combat: 2/6 Dog Fight with 1 Attacks for Unlimited Rounds Targeted Defense for Combat: 2/6 Dog Fight with 1 Attacks for Unlimited Rounds Can't Target Some Units Carrier Cost: 1 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy - Mid war+ fighter - Attack most units at 1/6, & another Attack 2/6 v Air units

Fighter-Early
10 PUs
Type: Air Att | Def | Mov: 1 | 1 | 3 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Targeted Attack for Combat: 1/6 Dog Fight with 1 Attacks for Unlimited Rounds Targeted Defense for Combat: 1/6 Dog Fight with 1 Attacks for Unlimited Rounds Can't Target Some Units Carrier Cost: 1 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy or Industry-Med - Early war fighter - Attack most units at 1/6, & another Attack 1/6 v Air units

Fighter-Jet
12 PUs
Type: Air Att | Def | Mov: 1 | 1 | 4 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Targeted Attack for Combat: 3/6 Dog Fight with 1 Attacks for Unlimited Rounds Targeted Defense for Combat: 3/6 Dog Fight with 1 Attacks for Unlimited Rounds Can't Target Some Units Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy - Researched Fighter jets - Attack most units at 1/6, & another Attack 3/6 v Air units

Flag
1 PUs

• Shows national owner

HQ-Air
16 PUs
Type: Air Att | Def | Mov: 0 | 1 | 6 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Support on Attack & Defense: 1 Command-Air Power to 5 Allied Air-Transport, Bomber, Bomber-Lgt,           Fighter, Fighter-Early, Fighter-Jet, HQ-Air, Kamikaze-Plane, Nuclear-Bomber, P51-Mustang, V1-           Rocket and V2-Rocket Can Perform Raids: 1-6 Damage Carrier Cost: 1 Max Built Allowed: 1 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy - Highly co-ordinated Air Command HQ - The big 6 nations can only have 1

HQ-Army
8 PUs
Type: Land Att | Def | Mov: 0 | 1 | 2 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Support on Attack & Defense: 1 Command-Army Power to 5 Allied Air-Transport, Anti-Air, Anti-Tank,           Armor-Hvy, Armor-Lgt, Armor-Med, Artillery-Hvy, Artillery-Med, Bomber, Bomber-Lgt, Fighter,           Fighter-Early, Fighter-Jet, HQ-Air, HQ-Army, Inf-Conscript, Inf-Elite, Inf-Motorized, Inf-           Trained, Kamikaze-Plane, Nuclear-Bomber, P51-Mustang, V1-Rocket and V2-Rocket Amphibious Attack Modifier: -1 Can Blitz Transporting Cost: 3 Max Built Allowed: 3 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy or Industry-Med or Industry-Lgt - Highly co-ordinated Army & Air Command HQ - The big 6 nations can only have 3

HQ-Submarine
8 PUs
Type: Sea Att | Def | Mov: 0 | 1 | 2 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Support on Attack & Defense: 1 Command-Submarine Power to 5 Allied Battleship, Carrier, Carrier-           Fleet, Cruiser, Destroyer, HQ-Fleet, HQ-Submarine, Submarine, Submarine-Adv and Transport Can Evade Is First Strike Can Move Through Enemies Can Be Moved Through By Enemies Can't Target Some Units Can't Be Targeted By Some Units Max Built Allowed: 2 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy - Highly co-ordinated Submarine Command HQ - Germany can only have 2

Industry-Hvy
30 PUs
Type: Land Att | Def | Mov: 0 | 0 | 0 Can Produce Units: 4 Produces Resources each Turn: 7xPUs Targeted Attack for Raids: 2/6 AA-Industry with 2 Attacks for 1 Rounds Targeted Defense for Raids: 2/6 AA-Industry with 2 Attacks for 1 Rounds Can be Captured Can be Placed Without Factory Can be Damaged by Raids, 3 Max Operational Damage, 7 Max Total Damage, Dies if Max Damage Reached, Allows Scrambling Can Modify Unit Movement Must be Placed in Territory with Value of at Least: 7 - Heavy Industrial Complex can produce 4 units per turn - has own Anti-Air defence - Rail links to move units 3 territories - Can produce most national units

Industry-Lgt
15 PUs
Type: Land Att | Def | Mov: 0 | 0 | 0 Can Produce Units: 2 Produces Resources each Turn: 3xPUs Targeted Attack for Raids: 1/6 AA-Industry with 2 Attacks for 1 Rounds Targeted Defense for Raids: 1/6 AA-Industry with 2 Attacks for 1 Rounds Can be Captured Can be Placed Without Factory Can be Damaged by Raids, 2 Max Operational Damage, 3 Max Total Damage, Dies if Max Damage Reached, Allows Scrambling Can Modify Unit Movement Must be Placed in Territory with Value of at Least: 3 - Light Industrial Complex can produce 2 units per turn - has own Anti-Air defence - Rail links to move units 3 territories - Can produce Inf-Conscript, Inf-Trained, Inf-Motorized, Armor-Lgt, Artillery-Med, Bunker

Industry-Med
23 PUs
Type: Land Att | Def | Mov: 0 | 0 | 0 Can Produce Units: 3 Produces Resources each Turn: 5xPUs Targeted Attack for Raids: 1/6 AA-Industry with 2 Attacks for 1 Rounds Targeted Defense for Raids: 1/6 AA-Industry with 2 Attacks for 1 Rounds Can be Captured Can be Placed Without Factory Can be Damaged by Raids, 2 Max Operational Damage, 5 Max Total Damage, Dies if Max Damage Reached, Allows Scrambling Can Modify Unit Movement Must be Placed in Territory with Value of at Least: 5 - Medium Industrial Complex can produce 3 units per turn - has own Anti-Air defence - Rail links to move units 3 territories - Can produce Destroyer, Transport, Fighter-Early - Can produce Inf-Conscript, Inf-Trained, Inf-Motorized, Armor-Lgt, Artillery-Med, Bunker

Inf-Elite
5 PUs
Type: Land Att | Def | Mov: 2 | 2 | 1 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Can't Target: Bomber Can be Land Transported Can be Air Transported Transporting Cost: 1 Max Built Allowed: 9 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy - Marines, Paratroopers & Special Forces - Transport can carry 5, Air-Transport can carry 2 - Most big 6 nations can only have 9

Inf-Motorized
6 PUs
Type: Land Att | Def | Mov: 2 | 2 | 2 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Amphibious Attack Modifier: -1 Can Blitz Can't Target: Bomber Transporting Cost: 3 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy or Industry-Med or Industry-Lgt - Trucks & half-track mobile infantry

Inf-Trained
4 PUs
Type: Land Att | Def | Mov: 1 | 2 | 1 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Amphibious Attack Modifier: -1 Can't Target Some Units Can be Land Transported Transporting Cost: 2 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy or Industry-Med or Industry-Lgt - Trained Regulars - Transport can carry 2, Air-Transport can carry 1

Oil-Field
99 PUs

• Produces Oil (1xPU), the AI will target this territory - The Oil-Field, with a yellow star are a Victory Centre

Submarine
8 PUs
Type: Sea Att | Def | Mov: 2 | 2 | 2 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Can Evade Is First Strike Can Move Through Enemies Can Be Moved Through By Enemies Can't Target Some Units Can't Be Targeted By Some Units Blockade Loss: 2 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy -

Submarine-Adv
9 PUs
Type: Sea Att | Def | Mov: 3 | 2 | 2 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Can Evade Is First Strike Can Move Through Enemies Can Be Moved Through By Enemies Can't Target Some Units Can't Be Targeted By Some Units Blockade Loss: 2 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy - Researched improved attack submarine

Transport
10 PUs
Type: Sea Att | Def | Mov: 0 | 1 | 2 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Can't Target Some Units Is Anti-Stealth Is a Sea Transport Transporting Capacity: 5 Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy or Industry-Med - Transport 1-2 units or 5 Inf-Elite/Marine units - Anti-Sub as the Transport convoy unit includes Corvettes & Frigates

V1-Rocket
3 PUs
Type: Air Att | Def | Mov: 1 | 0 | 2 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Can Perform Raids: 1-2 Damage Is First Strike Can't Target: Kamikaze-Plane, V1-Rocket and V2-Rocket Suicide on Attack Unit Suicide on Defense Unit Is Kamikaze: Can use all Movement to Attack Target Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy - Researched Doodle bug, suicide rocket unit

V2-Rocket
5 PUs
Type: Air Att | Def | Mov: 1 | 0 | 3 Produces Resources each Turn: -1xPUs Can Perform Raids: 2-3 Damage Is First Strike Can't Target: Kamikaze-Plane, V1-Rocket and V2-Rocket Suicide on Attack Unit Suicide on Defense Unit Is Kamikaze: Can use all Movement to Attack Target Placement Requirements: Industry-Hvy - Researched V2 suicide rocket unit