Flames and Steel (official thread)

[KurtGodel7]

@RogerCooper said:

@KurtGodel7 How are you going to enforce "Sticky Hits"?

I've used AI to make a few tweaks to the engine. The modified version of the engine lives only on my computer. The modified engine allows me to do the following:

1. Reinterpretation of air combat. The map is divided into air theaters. You assign fighters and bombers to each theater. For example, eastern Germany and the western Soviet Union are part of the Germany vs USSR theater. During the dogfight phase, air units shoot at each other, using their dogfight values. Note that air superiority aircraft, such as fighters, advanced fighters, and jets are excellent during the dogfight phase. Then, you pick targets for your surface attack. Maybe you have German dive bombers strafing a couple Soviet territories, and Soviet dive bombers strafing a German territory or two. During the surface attack phase, the armies getting strafed do not fire back, except for aa guns.

2. Sticky hits are automatically enforced.

3. Research system. Each nation has a fixed number of research centers, with each research center generating one tech advance per turn. There is a 40% chance of the tech advance being in its primary focus, a 20% chance of it being its secondary focus, and a 40% chance of it being chosen at random. Each advance causes a dull grey star to be replaced by a bright yellow star. For example, heavy tanks tech starts you out with four dull grey stars. Each advance you get in tanks tech replaces a dull grey star with a bright yellow star. Once you have all four bright yellow stars you unlock heavy tanks.

4. Advanced Production Centers (APCs). Special units, such as heavy tanks, fleet carriers, jets, or Superfortresses cannot be built with PUs. They can only be produced with APCs. Each APC produces one special unit per turn. However, it takes two turns to produce a Superfortress or flying wing.

5. Manpower points, or MPs. These are an additional resource type. Imagine a purely hypothetical nation rich in manpower points, but poor in PUs. This nation "China" can have a large infantry force. But it will not have very many non-infantry units due to low PUs. The Soviet Union can have the world's biggest infantry force, as well as plenty of PUs for non-infantry units. Territories produce MPs only for their original owner.

6. Lend-lease. British and American units are not allowed onto Soviet or Chinese soil. As if to make up for this, the British and American players can build munitions. Munitions are allowed onto Soviet or Chinese soil. Upon the end of the Soviet or Chinese player's turn, they are converted into Soviet or Chinese PUs. If a transport with munitions aboard gets sunk, the munitions are destroyed. If the Axis captures a territory with munitions present, those munitions are immediately converted into PUs for that Axis nation.

[KurtGodel7]

To add to my earlier post:

7. Strategic bombing. This now does a fixed amount of damage, instead of involving die rolling. Damage is in PUs, and is capped at double the territory value. The air phase only happens once per game round, so a 4 PU territory can cost you, at most, 8 PUs in strategic bombing value per game round.

Strategic bombing damage
Medium bomber: 2 PUs
Strategic bomber: 5 PUs
Superfortress: 13 PUs
Flying wing: 6 PUs

To give an example of this, suppose Japan wants to wage a strategic bombing campaign against China. Separately, Japan wants to use dive bombers to strafe the Chinese Army. China can allocate its limited fighter force to the "Japan vs. China" air zone to try to defend against the dive bombers. Or it can allocate its fighters to the "bomb China" air zone to defend against the strategic bombing raids.

Other than the U.S. and Britain, no one starts the game with the tech needed to build strategic bombers. Japan can always research that tech. In the meantime, however, it can use medium bombers for its strategic bombing campaign. China can defend against this by building fighters and aa guns.

[KurtGodel7]

Also:

8. AA guns now work differently. AA guns fire after the dogfight phase. They fire on a 2. Each aa gun gets one shot only, without regard to the number of enemy air units present. With three aa guns, you are guaranteed one hit. If there is a particular factory you want to defend, you could pile a lot of aa guns into the territory with the factory. Defending your army from being strafed is more difficult, because the dive bombers could always choose to attack a territory where your aa guns aren't. AA guns don't fire during ground combat, but they can be taken as casualties.

9. Dive bombers fire at twice their normal combat value when attacking land targets. Likewise, torpedo bombers fire at twice their normal combat value when attacking surface ships. Imagine attacking a fleet of 10 ships with your torpedo bombers. Only the ships damaged or destroyed by your torpedo bombers would get to fire at aircraft. The rest of your fleet was considered too far away from the action to be able to use its aa guns. The way to defend against enemy torpedo bombers is with fighters and jets.

10. Air zones come in three flavors: land, coastal waters, and open ocean. For a land zone, you need a landing base within range of your aircraft. For coastal waters, you need either a landing base or aircraft carriers. For open ocean, only carriers will suffice. When using carriers, the number of aircraft you can have in a zone is limited by carrier capacity.

[Vendetta]

@KurtGodel7

I would recommend a name swap for the Advanced Production Centers, since APC is an acronym that every wargamer is going to associate with armored personnel carrier.

Special Production Center / SPC should be a pretty easy substitute to avoid the overlap.

Your Europe map looks beautiful, from what I can see. Taiwan and Okinawa are a bit off-putting on the Asia one, they’d look better if they swapped sizes with one another. Okinawa being placed that close to the edge of the sea zone also leaves me wondering whether it should be shifted onto the boundary line instead.

Your combat system ventures far enough from any version of the game I’ve played that I can’t really offer any judgement about it at this point. Hopefully, once you’re far enough along in development, you can share a play by play of a test game as a demonstration.

[KurtGodel7]

11. Naval combat now works differently.

Step 1: destroyers fire. Enemy subs are taken as casualties first. Only after all subs are dead can surface ships be hit. Enemies killed during this phase do get a casualty shot.

Step 2: Subs fire. Anything hit during this phase does not receive a casualty shot. Only surface ships can be taken as casualty.

Step 3: Surface ships fire, except for destroyers. Enemies killed during this phase receive a casualty shot. Only surface ships can be taken as casualty during this phase.

[KurtGodel7]

@Vendetta said:

@KurtGodel7

I would recommend a name swap for the Advanced Production Centers, since APC is an acronym that every wargame is going to associate with armored personnel carrier.

Special Production Center / SPC should be a pretty easy substitute to avoid the overlap.

Your Europe map looks beautiful, from what I can see. Taiwan and Okinawa are a bit off-putting on the Asia one, they’d look better if they swapped sizes with one another. Okinawa being placed that close to the edge of the sea zone also leaves me wondering whether it should be shifted onto the boundary line instead.

Your combat system ventures far enough from any version of the game I’ve played that I can’t really offer any judgement about it at this point. Hopefully, once you’re far enough along in development, you can share a play by play of a test game as a demonstration.

Good feedback on APCs and Okinawa.

One of the places from which I drew inspiration was Axis and Allies Naval Miniatures. With that game, you use fighters to gain air superiority. Bomber type aircraft to benefit from air superiority. It's normal for units to have multiple hitpoints. The mighty Yamato was given 6 hitpoints. Cruisers, battleships, and dive bombers are unable to hit enemy subs. There was a very good paper-rock-scissors dynamic to that game which I wanted to bring into an Axis and Allies style map.

[KurtGodel7]

Some updates to the map.

The above is the start of round 1.

I've been doing some play testing. Play testing is revealing that some of the stuff is working as I'd wanted. That makes me very happy. But it's also revealing a lot of stuff which needs to be corrected. Like, a lot of stuff.

In my test game, Germany pushed east into the Soviet Union. At first there was good German progress. But the USSR starts the game with two or three turns worth of MPs, and it has the largest MP income of anyone in the game. It used that massive stockpile of MPs to buy huge amounts of conscripts. Conscripts cost MPs only. No PUs. This allowed the Soviets to come up with a stack which could stand up to the German onslaught. The Soviets have a good PU income, so they're able to combine non-infantry units with their conscripts.

Something similar happened in China. Good initial progress by Japan. However, China also has access to lots of MPs, and also used that to buy conscripts. China doesn't have a lot of PU income, but what it did have it used to purchase good defensive units like heavy guns. The result was good initial Japanese progress into China, followed by a slowdown due to China's stack getting big.

Germany and Japan used dive bombers to strafe Soviet and Chinese soldiers, respectively. However, dive bombers start the game with a range of only 3. It is necessary to research "extended range" tech to get that range up to 4. At a range of 3, you're only able to hit targets at the very edge of the front. If there was no big stack at the edge of the front, Axis dive bombers could not be used to full effect. The conscripts grew in number, quickly, without being trimmed back very much by dive bombers. Lesson: it might be a very good idea for Germany and Japan to set Piston technology as a primary research priority, at least until they get extended range.

Another problem: Japan does not go to war against the U.S., U.S.S.R., or the U.K. until round 3. In the meantime, Britain built a factory in Singapore, and another in the East Indies. Trenches and heavy guns for those factories. Those things were supposed to be easy money for Japan. Instead they were turning into British bases for its upcoming war against Japan.

Germany and the USSR each built a specialized production center (SPC) on round 3. The Soviet Union had unlocked KV-2 tech, and was looking forward to receiving its one heavy tank per turn. Germany hadn't yet unlocked Panther tech, which meant that Germany's SPC would have produced nothing for at least a little while. A player error on my part for building Germany's SPC too early. But also a GUI problem, because the game should warn you if you're about to build an SPC which won't become useful until later.

[malmessi]

@Vendetta said:

Hopefully, once you’re far enough along in development, you can share a play by play of a test game as a demonstration.

Very curious too

[KurtGodel7]

German air allocation: bombers. Note that it is sending a medium bomber and a ridiculous number of dive bombers to the eastern front. This is the start of round 1, and the start of Operation Barbarossa. Those German air will have much work to do.

Japan's air allocation: bombers. Japan is sending two dive bombers and a medium bomber to strafe the Chinese Army. It is keeping its 8 torpedo bombers with its carriers.

British bomber allocation. It is assigning both its strategic bombers to the task of bombing Germany. Its dive bomber and torpedo bomber don't yet have the range to reach across the Channel. That will come later, with Extended Range tech. In the meantime, it can use those air for neutral farming.

Fighter allocation: Germany. It is sending four fighters to defend the "bomb Germany" theater. The rest are allocated to the eastern front to ensure air supremacy there.

The Soviet player allocates his air to Siberia, to avoid air war with Germany.

Air war in "bomb Germany." Note that fighters take 2 hits to kill, and strategic bombers take 3 hits to kill. The German fighters have fired.

The British bombers have fired back. Strategic bombers have a dogfight value of 2, compared to 3 for fighters.

Dogfights last two combat rounds. The second round is now concluded. Britain has lost a bomber, and the other took damage. A German fighter took damage.

Now it is time for Germany to assign targets for its bombers. The bright green territories represent potential targets.

There is only one potential target the Luftwaffe actually cares about. Leningrad! All German bombers are assigned to that one target.

The strafing of Leningrad. The Soviets have taken 10 hits. Land units don't get to fire back, unless they are aa guns.

The British bomber chose Hamburg as its target, and did 5 PUs of damage with its bombing raid.

[KurtGodel7]

The German research phase.

Germany has three research centers. It's assigned one of them the primary focus of Germany. There are some good techs in that category. But the one which really has Germany's mouth watering is Speer's industrialization. This gives Germany a free Panther each turn on each of its SPCs. But for this to actually work, Germany must have researched Panther tech. Also, it must be able to build SPCs. That is why Germany has chosen tanks tech as the primary focus for its second research center, and "advanced" as the primary focus for its third research center. The more advanced tech you have, the more SPCs you can build. But each nation has a hard cap on the number of SPCs it can have. Germany is capped at four SPCs.

For secondary research Germany has chosen Piston Aircraft, Jets, and Innovation. The first tech in Piston Aircraft is Extended Range. That tech allows fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers to have a range of 4 instead of 3. Jet technology allows Germany's SPCs to produce jets as their special unit. Jets can only attack other aircraft, never surface targets. The first Innovation tech is Industry, which grants +2 to factory placement capacity. A tech like this could help Germany invade the Soviet Union.

Germany has now researched.

One star towards extended range. One more star there, and Germany's dive bombers will be able to go deeper into Soviet territory to strafe.

One star towards Panther tech. Excellent. Germany also gained Advanced 1 tech. This means it can build one SPC. But, that one SPC would be useless if built now, because Germany does not yet have the technology to build any advanced units. To solve that problem it needs to finish researching Panthers or jets.

[KurtGodel7]

The beginning of Germany's combat move. Note that Leningrad has been considerably weakened during the air phase. It is now possible to take Leningrad on G1.

The German combat move is now complete. Having used dive bombers to weaken the Leningrad defense, Germany is now finishing off the Leningrad army with units from Helsinki and units shipped in via transports. It is also attacking most territories on the German/Soviet front.

The purchase units phase for Germany. Note that it has 120 PUs and 15 Manpower Points (MPs) to spend.

Germany's purchase. Most of its MPs are going to infantry. Some are going to mobile infantry or Sturmtruppen. If you need a cannon fodder unit and you're out of MPs, the anti-tank gun is a good cannon fodder unit. Germany is buying a number of those. Tanks have two hitpoints and move 2, so they are a good choice for an invasion of the USSR. Light tanks only have 1 hitpoint, but they give you more offensive firepower for your money than tanks. However, Germany isn't buying any light tanks this turn. It's buying a few field guns to spice up its offense.

Germany has won its battles.

[KurtGodel7]

The Soviet player's turn. Research phase.

The Soviet player envisions having SPCs producing heavy tanks. With that happy thought in mind, he has selected tanks tech as the primary focus for one of his research centers. The other research center's primary focus is on recruitment. Recruitment tech is way more powerful for the Soviet Union than for any other nation. Conscription 1 tech causes Soviet factories to spawn 1 free conscript per turn, so long as the underlying territory is worth at least 9 PUs. Conscription 2 tech increases that bonus to 2 free conscripts per turn. Tech like this is a very tempting thought in the eyes of the Soviet player.

For secondary research focus, the Soviet player has chosen Piston Aircraft and Advanced. Currently Soviet fighters have a dogfight value of 2. Modern Fighters and Radios gets rid of this nerf, and brings their dogfight value up to the normal level of 3. That would be a step towards being able to challenge the Luftwaffe over the Eastern Front. (The Soviet Air Force has been hiding in Siberia, to avoid getting wiped out by the Luftwaffe.) The other secondary research focus is Advanced. This will allow the Soviet player to actually produce the KV-2 heavy tanks he hopes to have.

Both these techs were selected at random. But they are still good techs for the Soviet player. Rail guns tech causes your heavy guns to defend on a 5 instead of on a 4. A very solid defensive tech. Global Marxism allows the Soviet Union to receive MPs from captured territories, so long as those territories have an MP value. (A cap of 4 MPs received.) This doesn't help now, because the Soviet Union isn't about to capture territories with MP value. But there are techs further along in that tech category, such as Late War Industrialization and Late War Production, which improve Soviet income.

The Soviet Union does not go to war against Japan until the start of Japan's third turn. For right now it is mostly focused on Germany.

Germany will continue to push east despite this counteroffensive at Lwow.

The Soviet build screen. The Soviet Union starts off with only partial income (70 PUs.) But, it also starts with several turns' worth of MPs, to reflect the one-time conscription which happened in the summer of 1941. If it wanted, it could build 70 conscripts at a cost of 70 MPs and 0 PUs. The problem with that would be unit placement.

The Soviet build.

It's using 50 of its MPs, saving the rest for next turn. It's building some heavy guns, suitable for defense. A couple field guns, which are good for offense. Four tanks, which are versatile, move 2 units with 2 hitpoints.

The end of the Soviet non-combat move. At this point, it looks like the German Army is much stronger than its Soviet counterpart. The Soviets won their counterattack in Lwow, with 1 unit remaining.

Place new units. 60 new units for the Soviets to place. Other than 7 conscripts for Vladivostok, all of them are being sent against Germany. Note that this unit placement was largely a result of the USSR starting out with 70 MPs. Currently it collects 26 MPs per turn, so it will not continue to place units in such massive numbers.

The Soviet player built at Archangel and Gorky to counter the German army at Leningrad. The units placed in Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kharkov are intended to fight the Germans south of Scandinavia.

[KurtGodel7]

Japan's turn. Research phase.

Japan gained Advanced 1, allowing it to build one SPC next turn. But, that SPC would be useless initially. Japan needs to research the ability to build at least one advanced unit type before that SPC would do any good. It had selected carriers tech as a primary focus, hoping to work its way toward fleet carrier tech. But it did not receive any advancements in carrier tech. Instead, its other advance was in Japan tech. There are some good techs in that category. Late war production, Industrialization, and Rapid Production will all give Japan an income boost later in the game. Kate tech improves Japan's torpedo bombers. Night Action improves its cruisers and Yamato battleships.

Japan doesn't go to war against the U.S., Britain, Dutch, or U.S.S.R. until round 3. In the meantime it is at war against China and neutrals.

The Dutch East Indies. The Dutch don't actually get a turn. Unless Britain ships in reinforcements, the East Indies will be like this later when Japan attacks.

The American fleet at Pearl Harbor. The U.S. is not allowed to move units while at peace.

Japan's combat move. Some Japanese air had strafed China during the air phase. Japan is now following that up with ground attacks. But, it's also invading neutral Bangkok. That isn't just greed. Japan greatly lacks unit placement capacity in the south. Its plan is to invade Bangkok on round 1 and build a factory there on round 2. This will give it some of the unit placement it needs to pressure the South Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Japan is moving its main fleet closer to Pearl Harbor. At the start of round 3 it will attack the Pearl Harbor fleet with 8 torpedo bombers. Those will do considerable damage. Then it will use its navy to finish off the Pearl Harbor ships. The Japanese carriers appear to be empty because of the way air are handled on this map. In reality, those carriers are filled to the brim.

Japan's purchase phase. It has 8 MPs. Mostly those will go to infantry, but it might build a mobile infantry or two. 83 PUs.

Japan's purchase. Two factories to help unit placement in the south. A couple transports to help ship units off Japan. Land units, mostly for its factories in northern China.

Japan's unit placement. Note that the new factory in Canton appears to be in more danger than it really is. Britain cannot attack it because Britain is not yet at war with Japan. China could attack it with two conscripts. A conscript attacks on a 0 (or 1 if supported).

[KurtGodel7]

Britain's research phase

The result: one star towards the Churchill heavy tank, and Advanced 1 tech. Britain can now build an SPC, and has completed the advanced tech category. But that SPC would sit idle until it researches at least one advanced unit type. The Churchill heavy tank would be one example of an advanced unit. As an aside, the Churchill heavy tank is a little inferior to a normal heavy tank. But Britain can solve this problem by researching Centurion tech, which makes its heavy tanks superior to normal heavy tanks.

The British fleet in the west Mediterranean was not strong enough to challenge the Italian Navy. Therefore it has exited the Mediterranean and journeyed into the Atlantic. Note the German fleet to the north.

Here, the British and Italians are competing for North Africa. Britain has a bit of a tricky situation. It is only allowed to place new factories in the British Isles, Canada, India, Australia, or South Africa. This means its supply lines will often be longer than it might prefer.

Note that Britain is unable to reinforce China, because non-Chinese soldiers are not allowed onto China-owned soil. Britain will have to fight its own, separate war with Japan, starting in round 3. Also, Lend-Lease munitions can only be placed in the continental United States, Canada, or the British Isles. This means Britain cannot use its India factories to send Lend Lease munitions to China or the Soviet Union.

The British Navy couldn't reach the German subs in the North Atlantic, so Britain chose to neutral farm Iceland instead. During the air phase it had strafed Ireland, killing one of the two infantry defending it. If it kills the other infantry during the next air phase, it will be able to waltz into Ireland unopposed. The British dive bomber and torpedo bomber would prefer to strafe the Germans in France instead, but they cannot do so until Britain gets the Extended Range tech.

The British build. One factory for India, the other for South Africa. Destroyers for the North Atlantic. Land units for the factories in India and Africa Britain already has.

Place new units. Note that allowed locations for factories are colored somewhat differently than disallowed locations.

[KurtGodel7]

Italian research phase. Italy has one research center. As a small nation, its main research objective is to get anything it can to produce free resources. That means innovation tech as its primary focus, and recruitment as its secondary focus.

A randomly chosen tech, towards being able to build strategic bombers. Not what Italy had wanted.

Italy's combat move. No actual attacks, but a buildup in North Africa.

Italy's build. It is one of three nations able to build conscripts. (The other two being the Soviet Union and China.) A conscript attacks on a 0, or a 1 if supported. Defends on a 1. Costs 0 PUs and 1 MP. Six conscripts for Italy, as well as four transports.

[KurtGodel7]

China's build phase

11 conscripts, made possible by having 11 manpower points on hand. But China doesn't have many PUs, so its PU units consist of three heavy guns and an anti-tank gun.

Unit placement for China. China is allowed to place up to two conscripts in any Chinese territory, so long as it owned that territory at the beginning of its turn. Hankow was conquered this turn, which is why it's a different color than the rest of China's territories. Units which cost PUs can only be placed in China's factories. China is allowed to place up to two conscripts in a factory territory without having them count against the factory's unit placement.

[KurtGodel7]

America's first turn. Research.

America gets good income bonuses from its USA tech. That's why USA is a primary focus of one of its research centers. The other research center's primary focus is on fleet carrier. The U.S. starts off with one star towards fleet carrier tech, so this would be a good opportunity to unlock an advanced unit for the U.S. to produce. The U.S. chose Advanced as a secondary focus, in hopes of being able to build Special Production Centers (SPCs) to produce advanced units. The U.S. is allowed to have up to four SPCs, tied with Germany for most in the game. The other secondary focus for the U.S. is Piston Aircraft. You need extended range to start with, but after that there are some good piston aircraft techs available.

One star towards Extended Range. The other research advance was shipyards. That's a 1 PU reduction in the cost of your transports and cruisers. Also that builds towards other good surface ship techs. This is very good news for a nation which will soon be in a naval war against Japan.

The U.S. build screen. The U.S. has limited building ability while at peace.

U.S. unit placement: 2 trenches for Manila. Trenches can be placed without a factory. But only 2 trenches max per territory per turn. The trenches won't stop Japan's invasion of the South Pacific, but they might slow it down. The rest of the U.S. units were placed in the Pacific or in San Francisco. The U.S. is unable to move units while at peace, so it went straight from unit purchase to unit placement.

The U.S. collected income of 36 PUs and 4 MPs. Okay, that's not much. Granted. This is the U.S.'s peacetime income. At the end of its third turn it will collect 50% of its true income. At the end of its fourth turn it will collect 60%, then 70%, and so on, until it has fully ramped up. How much will America's income be once it's fully ramped up? 227 PUs, 13 MPs. Plus whatever income it is able to add to that through neutral farming or technological research.

Currently Germany's income is 142 PUs and 15 MPs. Japan's is 94 PUs and 8 MPs. Germany hopes to expand its income at the expense of the Soviet Union. Japan hopes to grow its income through conquest in the South Pacific, China, and southeast Asia. Japan isn't looking to invade the Soviet Union any time soon. Japan would be content with a stalemate between the Soviet army in Vladivostok and its own army in Manchuria.