💥 1941 Global Command Decision - Official Thread

[TheDog]

This is a collaborative map between Black_Elk (Graphics, Testing) & TheDog (Code, Testing)

• A historical map set late 1941, Germany is near Moscow and Japan is ready to strike...
• Intended for Solo play with Fast AI or Hard AI or two teams Axis v Allies with the balance being played by the AI
• 8 playable factions, Germany, Italy & Japan v Britain, USSR, Pacific Allies, USA, China
• Huge size map 16816 x 8085px=136MPx by Black Elk, amongst one of the largest TripleA maps with 800ish land and sea locations
• Use Fast AI for faster gameplay or Hard AI for more considered game play

Faster 2.7 now works, thanks to WC Sumpton code, but the units had to be redesigned to fit 2.7

Your comments would be most welcome.

Note this version requires a minimum of TripleA 2.7.14848+ as it makes use of a new feature called "isAI" here;
https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/releases

How to have TripleA 2.5 & 2.6 installed at the same time
https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/3724/how-to-have-triplea-2-5-2-6-installed-at-the-same-time

'
v185 is available in game under Download Maps button

.
v185 Download it from google drive here;
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19OlZIRI5yZeZ1GZHS5JEkb8NiguAYhVO/view?usp=sharing

.
v185 1941_Global_Command_Decision_Manual here;
8588cf42-dd1b-47df-bead-6af2be3e9da4-1941_Global_Command_Decision_Manual.pdf

.
While you wait, read the Game Notes

.

.
This thread uses @Black_Elk map here, to read about its making;
https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/3315/proposed-map-domination-1941

[TheDog]

Map Zoom
Remember to use map zoom ctrl+mouse wheel, to zoom out of the map, that is, to make it smaller.
.
4K Screens
With the huge map size of 16816x8085px it is hoped that 1941 Global Command Decision can be played on a 4K screen properly in all their 3840x2160px glory.

It is also hoped that the huge map size and unit size of 54x54px (and bigger) could be played without too many territory unit overflows, so I think we need a bigger map as in eastern Europe there is lots of unit overflows.

.
For Code Raiders
This map has the following code that is worth looking at;

.
This map has lots of non standard ww2 units.
The most important units are the combat commands, your decision where they are used can turn a battle in your favour as they add +1 attack to 5-10 units. 
HQ-Army x5
HQ-Fleet. x3
HQ-Air.......x1
However Germany replaces HQ-Fleet for HQ-Submarine.

.
AIR UNITS

• Fighters Attack=1, Defence=1 this is used to fight ground/surface units
• Fighters use targeted AA attacks of Attack=3, Defence=3 to fight air units in a Dog-Fight, making them very good at Air to Air & CAP/Scramble
• Bomber-Tac are 1 & 2 engined Tactical Torpedo/Bombers
• Bomber-Tac Attack=2, Defence=1 this is used to fight ground/surface units
• Bomber-Tac use targeted AA attacks of Attack=1, Defence=1 to fight air units in a Dog-Fight

.
SEA UNITS
Transport Attack=0, Defence=1 (Sub only), Move=2, AA=1/12, Anti-Sub (Transport convoy includes Corvettes & Frigates)
Destroyers Attack=1, Defence=1 (Surface only), Move=3, AA=1/12, Anti-Sub
Cruisers Attack=2, Defence=2 (Surface only), Move=3, AA=2/12, Shore Bombardment=2
Battleship Attack=4, Defence=4 (Surface only), Move=2, AA=4/12, Shore Bombardment=4, First Strike(Long range guns)

.
PU resources is collected from previous turn;
0EndTurn" endTurn - PU collected from previous turn
1EndTurn" endTurnNoPU - with 0pu collected

As each unit has maintenance/upkeep this is calculated at both endTurn.
To stop this and only calculate once, search GO 0ENDTURN

.
Conscripts & Kamikaze
Conscripts & Kamikaze are turned on when enemy in sufficient force invades a homeland or home seas.

.
Enforced Stacking Rules
Each Allied Air & Sea unit type limited to 10 of each unit type, each Land unit type limited to 20 per per TT/SZ

So in English only 10 Tac Bombers & 20 Inf-Conscript are allowed per territory etc.
Also 10 Transport & 10 Destroyers & 10 Cruisers & 10 Tac Bombers per Sea Zone etc.

It forces the AI to de-stack and is more realistic, as all those men and equipment need supplies, also gives the player a better game.

.
AI

• One of the first maps to use "isAI" a new xml feature to test automatically if a faction is being played by the AI and can be used to aid the AIs gameplay
• Use of 79 "Capital" code territories to guide the AI as to what is important to players.

.
Victory Conditions

• The map has 29 Victory Centre territories, these include;
• 20 Nation Capitals
• 8 Major Oil Fields (1 is the Suez Canal & an Oil Field)
• 1 Panama Canal

The German/Italian attack in Russia does focus on Southern Russia, the Japanese attacks on Sumatra and Java do sometimes get distracted by mainland China.

[TheDog]

I have another xml version ready to publish, but I just wanted to give a heads up to its feature list.

Each turn is about 1 quarter of a year (Yes I know defining this is problematic)
(where Q=Quarter)
The game starts 1941-3Q=Turn 1 Germany invades Russia
VJ Day would be 1945-3Q = Turn 17, but the game can continue or not?

Tech
There are no Tech Tokens, no Tech phase, so speeding up gameplay, Tech is pre-programed.
Adding +1 to Atk/Def is very difficult to balance for various techs & nations.

Russia starts with Armour-Hvy production, USA starts with Fleet Carriers Production, Japan starts with Long Lance Torpedoes.

Below is a list of current Techs in game and the Turn they activate. All are units to be purchased and are PU costed. (Note these are not upgrades to existing units.)

42-1Q T3_ Germany____Armour-Hvy
43-3Q T9_ USA_________P51-Mustang
44-3Q T13 Germany____Jet ME262
44-3Q T13 Germany____V1-Rocket
44-3Q T13 Britain_______Jet Meteor
44-4Q T13 German_____V2-Rocket
44-4Q T14 Japan________Kamikaze
45-1Q T15 USA_________Armour-Hvy
45-3Q T17 USA_________Jet & Nuclear Bomber
For each of the above all players get a popup notification saying which nation gets what. The unit is added to the nations purchase panel.

Upto 8 Playable factions (in game order), the balance should be Hard AI
1 Germany (includes Balkans)
__Finland (played by Germany, could easily be included in Germany)
2 USSR
3 France (Netherlands, Europeans overseas)
4 Italy
5 Japan
6 Britain (includes South Africa & India)
7 British-Colonies (ANZAC & the rest of the Commonwealth)
__China (played by British Colonies)
8 USA
Neutral Nations are;
Pro-Axis-Neutral
Pro-Allies-Neutral
True-Neutral

Politics
There is no politic phase, but it will use triggers, eg. If Russia occupies Poland, it will declare war on Japan or similar. This is to speed up gameplay and historically not much changed politically from 1941-3Q on wards
Relationships are: War, Allied, Open-Border, Close-Border, True-Neutral
Eg. Japan-USSR Closed-Border till USSR declares war

National Themed units/events
These themed units/events happen on various turns and cost PU, so PU is deducted from the nation’s overall PU.

• Germany turns 1-5 gets one HQ-Army unit, so they have a lot more than USSR
• Germany turns 1-20 get a Submarine in one of six SZ.
• Japan Turn 1 gets one Industry-Hvy, cost 30pu to increase overall production and PU (each Industry-Hvy also generates 7 PU per turn)
• Japan on turns 7-14 get a Bunker per turn, this is to simulate the start of Japan Island defences
• USA on turns 1-5 get one Industry-Hvy, at a cost of 30pu, this is a heavy PU investment, but as each Industry-Hvy generates 7PU, in later turns this will show in USA increased historic military output.
• USSR, Turns 1-20 get one Inf-Trained, this is the only way USSR can get Inf-Trained, these are to simulate the promoted Conscript battalions to Guard status.

All the above are a guide/direction and will change with playtesting and feedback.

Thoughts & Suggestions?

[Black_Elk]

@thedog Sounds cool!

For turn order sequence, I tend to think of factions as blocks in terms of exchanges by sides. So in the order described above you'd have 4 exchanges.

A. 1 Germany (includes Balkans)__Finland (played by Germany, could easily be included in Germany)

B. 2 USSR, 3 France (Netherlands, Europeans overseas)

C. 4 Italy, 5 Japan

D. 6 Britain (includes South Africa & India), 7 British-Colonies (ANZAC & the rest of the Commonwealth)__China (played by British Colonies), 8 USA

The only potential kink I see, is that turn block C (Japan and Italy), and turn block D (Brits, USA, China) might be a bit long.

For a 4 block sequence I'd probably go with...

1. Germany/Italy/European Axis (with Vichy as basically Pro-Axis going to whoever occupies the TT first?)
2. Russia (with Free France for flavor?)
3. Japan
4. Britain, USA, China

Which is pretty much the same as the above, just with Italy under the German aegis rather than Japan's.

I think that order is better than say vanilla G40, but another option would be to have 6 blocks/3 exchanges, something like...

1. Germany
2. USSR
3. Italy
4. Britain
5. Japan
6. USA

With the smaller factions either controlled directly by one of those powers or just attached to their block, so effectively the same turn. Basically 3 outs per game round by sides. I liked AA50, which had 6 positions, but I found both the turn orders there kinda weird in v3. Always felt too font loaded to me, whether G-R-J in 1941 or J-R-G in the 1942 set up.

Not sure what's best, but I do like the idea that if the scenario is called 1941, that the sequence sorta feels like summer at the beginning of round 1, and winter by the end of round 1. Which is sort of a compression of the timeline, but I think it works well enough as long as Japan/USA are in the final position and Italy goes kinda early (so the whole Ethiopia thing feels good. That way you can have a total war start and just kinda fudge it, saying that by the time we get to J1 (Pearl Harbor), that the playpattern basically reflects the whole year there. I also like the idea of the USA opening turn not being super boring. Even if that means sorta skipping ahead a little bit there. Even if they're getting hammered in the Pacific at the outset, they should at least have some kind of warfront positioning into N. Africa, or transiting fighters and such. That's more gameplay than total realism I guess, but just to avoid the whole USA doesn't do anything but non com till like turn 4 lol. They should get at least some early action somewhere I'd think just to keep the player engaged.

Anyhow, all I got for the moment. Sounds pretty fun!

Honestly when thinking about which connections to put in the map, I've just been kinda shorthanding it to the G40 dynamic, but that game has naval bases that increase movement when exiting certain sea zones there. Not having them would mean a further delay on esp the USA getting into position. You'd have more floaters basically, whereas I think players will always gravitate towards and prefer the shortest transport line that allows them to unload units to safety into a land TT. Players love to shuck lol. I think it works provided they have some natural intermediate spots that make sense. So like staging into Greenland/Iceland along the northern route, or if going south have spots like Bermuda and Azores to sorta direct the path towards the Med/Africa. For the Pacific side, I'd like to see the USA with some incentives to head towards Guadalcanal and such in fairly short order. I guess the theme of USA is always slow out the gate, but just to try and not make quite as slow as normal hahah

[TheDog]

@Black_Elk
So I looked at World at War to get an idea of how many units per faction there are, and came to your last option by a different route.

So 6 players, not 8.
As USSR-Japan are neutral, like history, till 1945, I have given the Chinese to the USSR and it also fits in with the total number of units.

Does Italy & Romania work together, just to give Italy a few more units?

The table below is the number of starting units from World at War.

[Black_Elk]

I dig it!

Main question for the moment would be the naval movement M2 vs M3 dilemma for ships.

The main pro for M2 would be simplicity and ease of use for the AI. The main con is that the G40 SZ map assumes M3 naval bases, so nerfing all ships down to M2 but using that G40 SZ map seems somewhat problematic.

A possible solution might be to only have a few naval units at M3, like say the transport. Since the transport unit is defenseless in the v3/G40 ruleset, this might tamp down on the time it take for the AI to calculate stuff. Although the transport doesn't have a hitpoint, it still has TUV value, so you'd think the machine would still target them and try to defend them, but I'm not sure what kind of playpattern behavior it will create. The AI may just throw them forward and then let them die undefended constantly, to advance their ground units. Not an unsound strategy even in PvP play, but perhaps not really what we want.

I think there's also a pretty good chance that Naval Bases in OOB G40 in tripleA may confuse the HardAI. Because the machine is probably calculating based on current position and M2, unless there is an NB involved, in which case they may just goof their positioning all the time. Just seems like one of those areas where the OOB rules probably screw the capability of the HardAI to play well or at least marginally better hehe. I'd think it would be simpler to have all the movement rate attached to the naval units directly, and constant, rather than being changed/boosted by an adjacent naval base unit. I'd be curious to see what actually slows the AI down though, whether it's M3 ships per se, or just the fact that there is that variability entering into because of the Naval Bases?

I mean you'd think the machine would be able to handle M3 fairly easily, because Fighters are already M4 and involved in basically every naval exchange during normal play. I guess there are many more ships on the board typically than aircraft though. But then if M3 wasn't for every ship, but just some ship types, perhaps that wouldn't be as pronounced? I believe we tried Cruisers and Transports at M3 in one of the Global HRs, and something like that might work. The cruiser then becoming the speedy unit, and a more attractive purchase (since in OOB nobody ever buys them lol.) But yeah, that's one to ponder for sure! I don't quite know what would be best.

If the transport unit is M3, and the Cruiser unit is M3, then by default the Cruiser becomes the main escort unit. Meaning the player will usually try to keep a cruiser paired with a transport for defense. Or alternatively maybe the Carrier is the M3 surface unit? This would probably be more thematic, but the carrier is already the best buy and doesn't exactly need much help being an attractive purchase in the standard roster.

Frostion's method was to basically make the Cruiser a relatively cheaper naval unit, but to give it an Anti-Air shot similar to a built in AAgun, which makes them worth buying. Perhaps one doesn't really need a surface ship to move M3?

M3 could perhaps just be for Transports and Submarines, to make the latter more effective on the prowl? This would create a situation where the player is operating from an M2 framework for naval defense and moving the surface fleets most of the time, but with more reach at M3 for the two "weirder" naval units, which are Subs/Transports. I mean they're already weird OOB lol, since they don't create a hostile sea zone by themselves, so maybe that could be part of the rationale there?

Naval movement is probably the most abstract of all the abstractions going on in A&A. I'm not sure that the fastest units in reality necessarily need to be the units that can move the farthest in gameplay. If anything reality would seem to recommend the reverse, like transports at M1 with slow ass escort carriers or whatever defending them. But that's just not the situation in A&A lol. For my part I think Cruisers, Transports, Subs at M3, everything else at M2 could work. M1 is an option for a fodder unit, like Frostion's PT boat, but it has to be pretty cheap I'd think and OOB the cheapest hitpoint on the water is 6 PUs, 8 PUs if you want that hitpoint defend vs aircraft. I'd think the lowest entry point for a fodder ship at M1 would probably be something like 4-5 PUs given the normal pricing of the OOB roster, just so it's at least slightly more expensive than an Inf unit right?

Another option that might be cool is to have the expensive Battleships and Cruisers at M3 along with the M3 transports and subs. This would encourage the sort of big ticket buys that you usually don't see OOB. Battleships and Cruisers at their OOB cost would become worthwhile because M3 is so potent. Carriers, Destroyers would retain value for defense, even at M2 because defending aircraft are so potent, and the DD is needed for ASW. That might get a balance that allows for basically M3 strategic movement, while not going too overboard, and still allowing a somewhat OOB dynamic that fits the map, but just one where the Battleships and Cruisers have that more forward role, and the Carriers and DDs are more like the 'hang back shore up the lines' type units. The gameplay effect would be sort of 'different ships for different roles', but not so far off OOB that's it's like hard to figure out what's going on. Might be a cool way to swing it hehe

ps. So I found an icon I kinda liked for SUB HQ, basically just a dude from a postage stamp lol. Or maybe a periscope view? But it didn't quite read at 54px. Kinda hard to make out at smaller than 100px. You think the HQs could be larger like that? Like if I make them at 100px, we could downsize to 80px of 66px or something and still have it look pretty decent I'd think.

Much smaller than 66 and I start finding the images hard to make out, but otherwise you can cram a fair bit of detail into a 66 pixel circle. Like if one wanted Rommel vs Monty, Patton or Zhukov, or Yamamoto or MacArthur or whoever, we could just make images for that with national themes hehe. Basically just do all the dudes named as "Generals" in the old Iron Blitz A&A cd maybe?

I guess the thought was more generic, but might be cool to have something like that, just to keep in the back pocket.

[TheDog]

@black_elk and others

Naval movement is probably the most abstract of all the abstractions going on in A&A

Maybe we could redesign some of the ship units?

WW2 1941 3Q+ sea battles were broadly split into two actions;

• Convoy, transports moving 10-ish knots with Corvettes and Frigates protecting them from submarines.
• Fleet, surface ships and carriers at speeds of 20+knots. Cruising speed was less.

Transports could move 2 and give them isDestroyer for the Corvettes and Frigates, so just 1 unit.

Destroyers currently are overpowered with their 4"ish guns and multi-role AA, torpedoes, anti sub, jack of all trades and master of none, move 3. Attack reduced to 1/1

Cruisers typically 8" guns, currently not good value for their PU compared to Destroyers, move 3, Attack reduced to 2/2 (twice the attack of Destroyers)

Battleships 15"ish guns with very long range get First Strike

Carriers and Subs listed for completeness.

The above has not been tested, just floating ideas (pun intended )

Thoughts ?

Ship		PU Atk Def Mov  Notes
Transport	8   0   1   2   isDestroyer  (cannot attack surface ships or aircraft)
Destroyer	6   1   1   3   Blockade 1, Bombard 0, isDestroyer
Cruiser		8   2   2   3   Blockade 1, Bombard 2
Battleship	18  4   4   2   Blockade 1, Bombard 4, FirstStrike, 2HP
Carrier		14  0   1   2   2 aircraft, 2HP
Fleet-Carrier	18  0   1   3   3 aircraft, 2HP
Submarine	8   2   2   2   Blockade 2, isSub, FirstStrike

@Black_Elk
My Sub - poor placeholder.

Seeing Patton's helmet, maybe we could do caps/helmets, for the national commanders? You're in charge of graphics, your choice! (some would call that passing the buck)

[Black_Elk]

@thedog Right on!

I'll make a few just in case

[TheDog]

@black_elk
They look good! You will have to scour the the web for these;

Required HQ are;

Britain, Italy, Japan, USA = Air, Army, Fleet HQs
German = Air, Army, Submarine HQs
Finland, USSR = Army HQ only
China = none

[Black_Elk]

Will do. Here's a quick cap/helmet concept for G army, air, navy if you wanted to do something like that more generic?

WW2 in Color? lol

Whatever, you get the idea. In Iron Blitz I think the Generals for Germany were Rommel 5 star, Manstein 4 star, Kesselring 3 Star. I think USA had Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley. Each nation had 3 I think which were the AI players for each Nation. But sorta like pick two or three and throw in an Admiral I guess for good measure right? hehe

We could embellish them with little frames or something, with a secondary color outside the national tint to indicate the type (Navy might have a blue frame for example, Army red frame or whatever), and then steady the contrast of the tiny photographs, isolate the backgrounds so they're more uniform, make sure all the faces and circles are at the same size and such. But that might be kinda cool. Instead of rating them by stars which was the Iron Blitz way of indicating AI difficulty levels, they could just be more abstract command units that get to move around like envisioned. Each nation having only a handful, but just kinda giving that national flare in the unit graphics.

[TheDog]

@black_elk
Currently the maxBuiltPerPlayer is
HQ-Air = 1
HQ-Army = 3
HQ-Fleet =2
HQ-Submarine (Germany only)

However Germany can have more HQ-Army than 3, these are given as national themed reinforcements.

For player simplicity and AI purchasing only one icon per HQ type.

Profiles pics look better than just hats.

[Black_Elk]

@thedog

Sounds good. I banged out like a dozen or so mini portraits, not sure if they fit the bill, but if not I can just keep them in the misc graphics. I was trying a few different options, sometimes I think they look cool against the dark background for a bit more drama. Like here's Ike showing that sort of effect heheh

[TheDog]

@black_elk
Thinking about this more can;

• Axis look left
• Allies look right
• The commanders portrait looks as lifelike/good as possible (not tinted/coloured)
• The portrait is bordered by a circle(porthole) or square(picture frame) of the nations tint/colour.
• Images are 54x54px (could be bigger but they will be truncated in the Battle Calculator, so you decide)

What do you think?

[Black_Elk]

Sounds good. Not sure where I was getting was getting 66 from. I thought that 66 was the max height, but maybe it's just cause Frostion's larger factory unit doesn't display in the calc lol. It's too bad cause 54 is a bit small. I'd go no borders and try to crop in on the face as close as possible in that case, so they still read at that size. I'd think a colored border would probably just get lost in the fuzz. I'll see if I can get something decent going. Here are some quickie examples at 54px

[TheDog]

@black_elk
Just done a quick test in TripleA 2.6 with the image below in the Battle Calculator

The7 horizontal bars are 68x68px (with no truncation) the infantry are the usual 54x54px.

So this means you can have the HQs as bigger images.

[Black_Elk]

Perfect! I'll do them like this for everybody then...

The first set is at 100%, then 150% upscaled with no halo, to show how it would present in game at those scales. I think they look pretty decent. Should cover the bases for people who like a larger unit display.

100%

Upscale 150%

[Black_Elk]

Here's one for G

Upscaled 150%

[TheDog]

@black_elk
Showing my lack of ww2 US commanders, I cannot identify them all. I would have the same problem with all nations including Britain.

Although it can be done(in the xml), having 6 individual faces for the the 6 US commanders in the purchase panel, it takes up a lot of screen space for just one unit x6. Also they would be called HQ-Army-1, HQ-Army-2, HQ-Army-3 etc.
In the ToolTips they could be individually named and have a small bio. But this should be for all nations.

However I think it would be better to have just 3 images HQ-Air, HQ-Army, HQ-Fleet. Meaning for the US the
HQ-Army could be used 3 times
HQ-Fleet could be used 2 times
HQ-Air could be used 1 time

So I do not know what is best

• portraits of real commanders for each nation or
• an icon representing that HQs function

both have their merits?

[Black_Elk]

So for the little portraits I did the 3 US Generals from Iron Blitz, but also added MacArthur, Nimitz, and Marshall. Sorta like a couple for each theater and the homefront. Like an Iron Blitz plus hehe.

For G I did the Generals from Iron Blitz, then added Doenitz, Guderian, and Valentine Hube just so that those two images would balance with the same number of dudes. Probably everyone would just choose Rommel and Patton I'd guess if it was like pick one in dodge ball lol.

For the Brits I think it was Montgomery and Alexander. Pick two in dodgeball might be fun. I mean instead of pick 6, just depending on how much screen real estate one wants to dedicate to redundant graphics that just add flare.

It may not be useful in game, but it looked cool so I figured might as well bang some out. Abstract symbols for Army/Navy/Air command is better for what you have in mind probably. Still it'd be fun if the game had some commander flavor so who knows maybe someone can figure it out at some point heheh.

[TheDog]

@black_elk

It may not be useful in game, but it looked cool so I figured might as well bang some out.

lol, so yeah carry on doing the art assets, we can all share in them!

For my part I will be using some of the portraits as I really like them, I will pick 3 for each nation, then add a small roundel/flag for the nation identifier and add a small abstract icon for Air, Army, Fleet, Submarine HQ.

So thanks!