Iron War - Official Thread

[Hepps]

@Frostion One thing to note (as Black Elk mentioned) is that often you don't want the Minor powers controlled by the AI because they will frequently take possession of territories that you would want to reserve for the Major powers since the resources held within are (often times) more valuable than the PU.

Letting the AI play a portion of the core assets to my cause within the game seems really unnatural to me... but that may just be me. I say this because as you look over the entire map.... a good part of the important battles end up being automated.... especially if you apply this practice to both sides of the war... if you leave the AI in control of Minor powers... Most of Africa is left to the AI to determine.... Central interests of the Axis cause are also left to the AI.

What was your intention as far as which nations are meant to be AI control and which human?

[Frostion]

@Hepps ... Well, right now most suitable for human control is meant to be Germany, Italy, Japan, USA, Britain (needs strengthening), France, USSR, British India and ANZAC.

The British Colonies, French Colonies and KNIL territories (Netherlands Colonies) will at the moment not get their territories back when liberated. This was to give the main major players a chance to grow and be rewarded when liberating lost territory. This system is not optimal as it is not self explanatory, it leads to confusion and players might not read the notes and know this. This feature must surely be changed.

[Black_Elk]

@Frostion @Hepps In most of my more recent games I'm letting the Fast AI handle all the minors and don't find that I'm missing them. Every now and again Finland or Thailand or Iraq will make an annoying blitz into a gold tile after I've can opened opened it for them. If it seems really critical to the war effort I might scrub reload, but most times I just play on and let them snatch the prize hehe.

I think it's an interesting idea to use a standard bonus for the AI. I only hesitated since it seemed like taking advantage. But if it was described/suggested as standard in the game notes, I think many players would opt for it, since the play pace is so much faster that way. I do sometimes miss the music though haha.

I've taken to going Fast AI for the enemy over hard AI. I think sometimes the Fast AI's penchant for brazen or attacks can actually be more challenging than Hard AI deliberate calculated moves. Mainly because Hard AI is more conservative/predictable so you can kind of game it, and force it to play into your hands.

I have to say, I really enjoy the way factories work in this game. I dig how it's possible to knock them out, and also how they are relatively inexpensive to purchase/replace. I'm not sure I'd change the costs for bombers or anything. Or if so, I don't think I'd make them cost more than say carriers at 40. But right now the cost at 30 feels about right. Who knows maybe Redrum will hook us up with an AI enhancement at some point? But for the time being, I'd probably just have a gentlemen's agreement with the AI not to go too crazy with the SBR hehe. Even then though, sometimes you just want to lay smack down on the machine, and in those instances having a bomber option to smoke their production can be a lot of fun.

For the production spread I was thinking it might be cool to have Tangier/Casablanca as a gold 5 PU territory to help jump start Torch, since it would be a nice target territory for UK or US. Another worthwhile candidate for a gold 5 might be Hawaii, since it could serve as a spring board for either side. Usually Anzac and KNIL are pretty good at stacking New Guinea, which means its hard to get a production foothold with the US in the Pacific, unless you make it to Sumatra or the Mainland. Hawaii might be a nice for a little extra reach, even if it doesn't have a factory to start.

All in all I'm having a great time so far with the mod, so I don't know how much I would change. Though I could definitely see boosting the UK somewhat. I think I'll try a few games with the income boost in effect and then report back.

But yeah man, it's kick ass game. Really, excellent work!

[Hepps]

@Frostion Yah sorry I reread the motes after I posted.

I'll have to try to organize a game against an opponent with the Neutrals divvied up as per your design intentions.

I will let you know how we fair.

BTW, love the colonial recruitment system you created.

[Black_Elk]

Ok just tried a solo game as Germany vs the AI Allies, with a 50 percent income boost to the AI.

I didn't have a ton of time to game today, so I wanted to see how dramatic the income increase would be, if somebody opted to just play one major Axis power on the team (instead of all 3). In this case I played Germany and left Italy and Japan to the Fast AI. The Italians and Japanese were pretty formidable.

It's a little unfortunate that the Income bonuses can't be assigned the same way as bid on a per nation basis. I think it would be a useful feature to have for human players as well (not necessarily for Iron War, but for other games too like v5, where you could just let the Allied player have an income boost instead of a pre-placement bid.) That would be a nice feature to have, so the income bonus would have more application than just in games that use the AI.

For now though, I think as Axis you probably would want to take control of at least the 3 main powers to make a 50% AI increase workable, otherwise the other majors on your team get a pretty powerful boost. It was kind of fun to see some of the Axis minors buying aircraft for a change haha. Here is the situation in the 8th round 1946...

0_1493491684221_39 Iron War Elk Germany vs Fast AI Allies x50 percent income round 8.tsvg

Next game I will take control of all 3 Axis powers vs the Fast AI +50% and see how things shake down. Then switch and try it as Allies the same way.

[Frostion]

To handle the problems with the Balkan countries, I have thought about a solution that might improve the game, whether they are played as AI or by the an Axis human (most likely the German player):

I was thinking about an annexation or "take direct control" option in the German Actions and Operations step. A button for every of the five nation/territory that would just change the ownership of the nation in question.
If the player wants a bigger Germany instead of small axis players then he could do press the button.

It would come at a non-PU cost. As the Axis would become overall more effective because of the PUs under one player's control, the annexation could lower the Balkan territory's PU value by 2 PUs. Resulting in only one of the Balkan countries being able to have e factory, Romania I think.

This system would maybe have to include removals of factories when/if Germany annexes the territories, excluding from the single factory holding 5 PU territory ... and player pop-ups informing about the event.

If we change the round/year to have like two rounds per year, the map would be changed to start out in Early 1940 = Round 1. So the first German annexation possibility would be in 1940, even though that would probably only be a realistic scenario for Slovakia, a country that actually sent in troops into Poland to help out the Germans fight the poles.

[prastle]

@Frostion Updated the bot maps today. Iron War and a few others now available in all bots shortly.

done. I wonder if it will ever be possible for a bot to be an ai as well?

[Hepps]

@prastle Yah a BOT for this would mean you have to play every last player on the map.

[Black_Elk]

@Frostion said in Iron War - Official Thread:

To handle the problems with the Balkan countries, I have thought about a solution that might improve the game, whether they are played as AI or by the an Axis human (most likely the German player):

I was thinking about an annexation or "take direct control" option in the German Actions and Operations step. A button for every of the five nation/territory that would just change the ownership of the nation in question.
If the player wants a bigger Germany instead of small axis players then he could do press the button.

It would come at a non-PU cost. As the Axis would become overall more effective because of the PUs under one player's control, the annexation could lower the Balkan territory's PU value by 2 PUs. Resulting in only one of the Balkan countries being able to have e factory, Romania I think.

This system would maybe have to include removals of factories when/if Germany annexes the territories, excluding from the single factory holding 5 PU territory ... and player pop-ups informing about the event.

If we change the round/year to have like two rounds per year, the map would be changed to start out in Early 1940 = Round 1. So the first German annexation possibility would be in 1940, even though that would probably only be a realistic scenario for Slovakia, a country that actually sent in troops into Poland to help out the Germans fight the poles.

I wonder how this would work in the situation where the Allies are also being controlled by a human, since it would make a Russian offensive into these Balkan territories rather less advantageous for the Soviets?

I think the ideal would be a universal annexation option available to all major nations. If the concern is that this would allow too many PUs to be concentrated in one nation's hands, maybe the solution is to just make the initial annexation really expensive? I dont know say 50 PUs to annex a single territory, perhaps with a cost in resources as well? This would mean that a player is unlikely to recoup the cost in PUs (or at least not for several rounds), so they would be less likely to do it unless they really wanted the territory for production purposes (ie to build a factory). To me that would be more intuitive than a process that actually changes the value of territories on the map or that is exclusive to just Germany, since I can see that introducing possible confusion or exploits regarding the production spread on the map. I also think in a lot of cases the option to annex would really be more helpful for the Allies than the Axis, since they have fewer +5 territories that can be conquered. The UK or US for example, probably need a leg up here more than Germany does (G does pretty well even under AI control.) It would be really awesome for example if the US could annex a tile like Normandy or New Guinea or somewhere in West Africa, even if the cost was very high, just to gain a production foothold closer to the main front.

I guess I'm not really seeing what the problem is with the Balkans, other than being somewhat lackluster to play, the Axis minors don't really hurt the German/Italian balance that I can see, and those turns are pretty fast. I think the issue is more with Allied production than Axis production. The US in particular would benefit from more +5 target territories to help them get into position on Fortress Europa. I don't know maybe just having Iceland and Tangier at +5 would be enough to get them into the action for D-Day? Those are both neutrals so it would be relatively easy to do. I still think something to make US/UK production in Western Europe viable would be ideal though. It's hard to build momentum for D-Day in a way that feels historical with Normandy just going to France. Maybe If the Low Countries were +5? Then at least you would have a spot for UK/US to get something going vs G after the beachhead is established.

I like the idea of early 1940, if that makes more sense for 2 rounds = 1 year.

I'm definitely going to play some games tonight after work! Love this map

[Black_Elk]

Ps. So yeah, I'm thinking that Benelux and Iceland worth +5 would solve a lot of problems for the Allies vs Europe. Right now it is the Axis who make most of production purchases and they can expand pretty naturally with a factory at each new echelon as they grow. But the Allies end up kind of stuck, unable to really build new production hubs as they push out.

Historically the British had Operation Fork invading Iceland in 1940 to deny it to the Axis. And Germany had a planned Operation Ikarus to seize it. The defense of Iceland was transferred from the UK to the US in 1941. So any of those nations taking control would make sense historically, and the value at 5 would make this play more worthwhile.

Similarly having the Low Countries worth 5 would open up options for the UK to do a little Dunkirk, or Market Garden action, or give the US a way to establish production in Western Europe (without requiring Normandy.) Probably better as a true neutral, so the Germans don't opt not to conquer it. I think both those make sense.

One issue that probably should be addressed though is the Sea Lion thing. Right now England caps out at 5 hitpoints in production, whereas Germany has 10 hitpoints in production to start, and can easily increase this to 15 or 20 hitpoints, with a couple factory purchases.

To get more than 5 hitpoints on England you either have to ferry or fly in units from the US, Halifax or Russia. Canada and the US are both 2 turns from England. Russia can purchase fighters in Leningrad and send them over, but that also takes 2 turns. Germany by contrast can have close to 30+ hitpoints on England by G2. So I'm not sure it's really possible for the Allies to prevent Sea Lion right now if the Germans are committed.

I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to consider strengthening Scotland, and perhaps giving it a starting factory. Not sure, I'll have to look at the map again when I get off. I think adding to the British would probably be more fun than taking stuff away from Germany, although fewer starting transports for G might end up being easier to balance. Right now Germany can get 13 hitpoints into Scotland at the end of G1 (if they take no hits.) The British have just enough to destroy this at odds, but the issue there is that they can't counter attack in Scotland and defend England at the same time. Since the latter is more important (Capital/Factory) Germany basically can do a walk in. I think this is going to be a tough one to strike the right balance, because it's nice for G to have an option for Sea Lion, but we don't want it too easy. Right now though I can't see any reason not to invade Scotland on the first turn.

Somewhat related to the Sea Lion thing, is the ease with which Italy and Germany can take all the straits around Europe on the opening turn of the game. Denmark, Gibraltar, Istanbul and Egypt are all pretty easy marks. So the Axis really open things up on the water.

Russia can certainly have a lot of attack power bearing down on East Prussia in fairly short order, which is a deterrent to some of those naval escapades. But it still takes them at least 3 turns to truly get into position for a major offensive of the sort that could threaten Berlin. By which time Germany can stack England and then transport all the units back to the East, leaving the defense of the West to the Kriegsmarine. A competent human Allied player will handle the naval situation much better than the AI, of course, but right now G definitely has the initiative there, and seems pretty tough to stop.

0_1493616050343_39 Iron War Elk Axis vs Fast AI Allies G2.tsvg

Even going with a transport build G1 to ice the invasion of England, it's still pretty straight forward to deadzone the Atlantic. This was a little slower, and ultimatelt more expensive than buying the Graf Zeppelin outright, but still allowed me to wheel back East with plenty of time to hold vs AI Russia.

I think maybe what the AI Allies (US/UK) need is a string of potential production hubs. Perhaps Southern Greenland +5 to Iceland +5 up North, and Tangiers +5 or maybe Liberia +5 down South would give the US a way in? If they could build a chain out of Greenland or Africa it would at least spread the Kreigsamarine in two directions. Norway or Benelux +5 might be sweet to serve as forward production hub goal for Western Europe, similar to the way Libya or Egypt are for North Africa. Basically what seems to happen for the Allies is that the US AI gets stuck floating, despite having a ton of naval TUV, but without production hubs close enough to the action to really start moving the ball forward. I see something similar happening in the Pacific. I wonder if adding a Truk as a starting Japanese territory +5, in Pacific 5 sz might help? Then the US would have target territory that also puts it in range of the home island. So they'd have some way to hold the IJN in the cat and mouse between production centers. Hawaii +5 might work in a similar way, but in reverse if the tables are turned and its Axis AI. Anzac is pretty good at defending KNIL pacific territory, so the dutch money islands aren't necessarily available as a US springboard. That's why I was thinking an intermediate hub somewhere sooner might help here in the Pacific as well. I guess maybe it wouldn't be an issue if there was some kind of US annexation, so they could set up hubs the way they did historically. Lending materials to lease bases.

Anyhow here is that Sea Lion game vs AI Allies (regular income) after 9 rounds. Germany just won an epic battle for control of Leningrad, and Italy and Japan are on a steady march...
0_1493627346500_39 Iron War Elk Axis vs Fast AI Allies J9.tsvg

[Black_Elk]

I just discovered the hard way that Denmark connects to Sweden overland! Russia back door blitzed into West Germany with a Tank from Sweden. I was letting them run wild up there, in the hopes that I could reconquer all of Scandinavia once they knocked off all the pro-Axis Swedes.

I'd say that attack route between Denmark/Sweden is not particularly intuitive, since it took me this many games to realize. Was the connection here intentional? If so it will definitely change my plan of expansion for Germany next time, since Scandinavia would be much easier to conquer walking across the water if I don't need the transports to pull it off haha. Might want to note that connection in the game notes.

Anyhow, here is another game vs AI Allies. This time I gave the AI a x25 percent income boost, and took control of all 3 major Axis nations. Game was notable for India falling to Germany this time, after Japan couldn't quite get the job done on the airblitz. Here it is in 1945, as Germany scrambles to regroup after that surprise soviet invasion from an unexpected direction lol

0_1493659372584_39 Iron War Elk Axis vs Fast AI Allies x25 percent income G7.tsvg

edit: Haha Totally Hepps!

Still going after 13 rounds. The AI actually pulled out a few more surprises on me, like when Anzac smoked half of the IJN with a glorious air assault. It was a definite setback for the Empire. But Germany, already in position around India, seized the opportunity to establish a Pacific Reich!

Currently we are battling out of the newly proclaimed German East Indies and trying to break into Australia. Here is the situation at the dawn of the 1950s...

0_1493669578537_39 Iron War Elk Axis vs Fast AI Allies x25 percent income J13.tsvg

The Russian AI is stacked deep, despite being cut in two, and the Western Allies have finally managed to get some fighters over to the Soviet core. I think the income boost at x25% plays pretty nicely. The AI purchases more air, and seems to be a bit more effective at moving it around. Though you can still mess with them quite a bit, as this German escapade into the South Pacific is showing me lol.

I'm certain I will have to play on now, after work tonight, until we plant the German flag over Sydney! hehe

[Hepps]

@Black_Elk Perhaps Stalin just had Jesus in the ranks of that Tank regiment.

[Black_Elk]

Ok I kept it going for quite a while just to see how long it would take me to knock the Allies AI down to zero TUV, and take every tile on the map. More an exercise in patience than anything else, but I pulled it off just shy of round 30, after unleashing a full scale nuclear Armageddon on the Americas. I actually kind of like this feature of the game, since it gives you a way to cut through the enemy once you get to that point where the war is done and you just want to watch the map change colors haha.

I honestly have no idea how this sort of nuclear endgame would play out vs another human. Or if skynet ever became self aware and the AI started using nukes of their own. Right now the machine seems to have more humanity than me, as I've we've just been lighting it up for several rounds now and turning whole regions of the globe into glass hehe. Here is the map in what I guess would be the late 1960s, with Axis clearly running the show for the next thousand years...

[0_1493751359275_39 Iron War Elk Axis vs Fast AI Allies x25 percent income G30.tsvg](Uploading 100%)

For some reason it won't let me upload the final save. I get a message that says "ERROR
Something went wrong while parsing server response."

Round 24 was the last save I have that will post, but you can see from there which way the nuclear wind is blowing. Too bad, because there was something kind of impressive about complete world domination with not a single Allied unit left heheh.

0_1493751239849_39 Iron War Elk Axis vs Fast AI Allies x25 percent income G24.tsvg

In any case, I think you can see from this gamesave what I was talking about earlier, how the Axis have almost endless options to expand production and to buy front line factories as they go. It would be nice I think if the Allies had more +5 target territories so they can do something similar with the globe trot. Right now many of the best potential production hubs for Allies end up liberated to their minor partners, or must be first conquered by Axis before they can be claimed, which makes this sort of factory expansion play pattern a lot harder to execute with the Allied team than it is for the Axis team.

[Frostion]

@Black_Elk
It seems that you are realizing the “Man in the high castle” universe. (An idea for a mod!? Or new map? ) Conquering the whole world! I have never done this, yet.

@all
Ok. I have just updated the Iron War files. It should be possible to download a v0.1.2 now. So delete/backup your Iron War zip in the downloadedMaps dir and redownload the map.

This new release tries to open up for more strategic options for especially USA, but also all other nations. A lot of territories now provide 5 PU+, which means that they may hold a factory.

This new release does not include any annexation options for Germany to take control of Balkan states, but this may be on the agenda for the next release. Also maybe some more PU support options between the allies would be a good idea.

This new release has really changed the starting setup and PU balance. I would appreciate any suggestions on balancing the staring units and conditions. Here are the changes:

Iron War 0.1.1 to 0.1.2
• All British-Colonies, French-Colonies and KNIL territories are now “originalOwner” of AI-Neutral. This means that if taken by the enemy and thereafter liberated, ownership goes to the liberator. This is to further strengthen the six major allied powers.
• North and South (Belgian) Congo are now unprotected AI-Neutral, capturable for free by France in round 1.
• Removed the land connection between Denmark and Sweden.
• Removed 1 German Transport from North Sea Zone.
• West Germany PU value reduced from 40 to 30.
• UK/Canadian starting production raised from. 64 to 70 PUs.
• Hawaii PU value raised to 5.
• Iceland PU raised to 5.
• Morocco is now a 5 PU Pro-Axis-Neutral territory.
• Peru PUs raised to 5.
• Mexico City PUs raised to 5.
• Sierra Leone renamed to Liberia and is now a 5 PU USA territory.
• Visayas renamed to Philippines and is now a 5 PU USA territory.
• A lot of minor changes.
• New timeline and events. See description in the notes. Added one new movie for round two. Please keep an eye out for flaws in the tech unlocks. I think they all work, but who knows:

Early 1940 Start of game (Round 1)
Late 1940 Finland gains access to German technology. (Round 2)
Early 1941 Balkan states gain access to German technology. (Round 3)
Late 1941 China gains access to USA technology. (Round 4)
Early 1942 Brazil gains access to USA technology. (Round 5)
Late 1942 Several nations develop the Heavy-Tank. (Round 6)
Early 1943 Several nations develop the Jet-Fighter. (Round 7)
Late 1943 Germany develops the V1-Rocket. (Round 8 )
Early 1944 Japan can make use of Kamikaze-Planes. (Round 9)
Late 1944 Germany develops the V2-Rocket. (Round 10)
Early 1945 USA develops the Nuclear-Bomb. (Round 11)
Late 1945 Germany develops the Nuclear-Bomb. (Round 12)
Early 1946 USSR develops the Nuclear-Bomb. (Round 13)
Late 1946 Japan develops the Nuclear-Bomb. (Round 14)
Early 1947 Britain develops the Nuclear-Bomb. (Round 15)

[Black_Elk]

Sounds fantastic! I love what I'm hearing so far!

Guess I know what I'll be doing when I get off work tonight haha. This map is fun and agrees with my insomnia.

Two quick thoughts for the next update somewhere down the line. I noticed that the minor powers tend to stack up a lot of resources over time, especially towards the endgame. It might be nice if there was an option for the major powers to exchange PUs for Resources from their minor partners. Even if the resource amounts were relatively small, and the PU cost relatively expensive, it would still be a nice tradeoff in some cases (like if you want to buy/move more warships or tanks than you could otherwise afford in steel/fuel.) This might encourage more sharing rather than hoarding by the majors, because then they could get something advantageous from the minors out of the deal. Since the Aid options screen comes right before the purchase screen, it would give you a way to increase fuel or steel in the near term, but at a potentially high cost in concentrated PUs. I think this would fit well with general theme of the game, and suggest a somewhat more reciprocal relationship between the major powers and their junior partners.

The only other suggestion I have right now is for the music. I love it! But things go rather quiet when you have many nations assigned to the AI. Right now music only plays for the nation's under human control. Might be cool to have some general marching music that plays during the AIs turn.

The last few minutes of Wagner's Lohengrin prelude might be kind of cool for the Axis AI.
https://youtu.be/lqk4bcnBqls

Or maybe something like this for Allies AI... The end of that one also hits pretty hard haha.
https://youtu.be/R_Rfkhg7s_M

Or even just cycling through one of the existing anthems at random, so you have something to zone out to, while the AI is doing it's thing. Some bellicose or inspirational stuff to play in the background and compliment the sound effects while the AI races through its turns. Just a thought. Clearly there are limitless options. But the sound work is one of my favorite things about this game, hearing the anthems and theme music is definitely one of the highlights. I guess space is a consideration there, but I definitely don't mind waiting a bit longer for the download, since the map sounds so glorious.

This coming from someone who has almost always muted tripleA in the past. Probably the first game I've played that's actually easy on the ears and audibly engaging enough to make the volume worth turning up for a change.

Home now. About the launch the new one. Catch you in a few

edit: I was eager to try the US, but figured I'd check out the German Sea Lion option against the Fast AI first, just to compare with the previous version. I think this new production spread feels way better already. If the Germans don't take too many hits in Scotland, purchase a carrier to defend their fleet, and some dive bombers to punch up the attack power, you can still crack the British AI on London at odds, but its a bigger commitment. With fewer units remaining to wheel back to the East immediately on G3, so you don't get flattened by that Russian bear haha. I also like how Iceland can serve as a lilly pad for either side. I don't know how Sea Lion might pan our against a human, I'm still thinking more in terms of the AIs game, but Iceland might make the play more attractive for Germany, since there's a bigger pay off if you secure the North Atlantic early on.

Italy and Japan both feel suddenly a lot more interesting too, with these new production centers to consider. Was thinking about a different Japanese opening now that Philippines is a bigger factor, trying to decide where best to park the carrier lol. Here now in the second round with Il Duce, trying to decide how I want to manage Africa now that Liberia is up in the mix! I think it will create some cool tension in puzzling which direction to go with Italy.

0_1493797934346_Iron War 1940 Elk vs Fast AI Allies Italy round 2.tsvg

I'm having fun! Nice work man

edit: Just to make sure, I blew through another opener real quickly, solo as Germany vs the AI. Taking slightly higher than average casualties in Scotland on G1, you can still get a pretty strong hit on London for G2, but the difference is the average units remaining. This one has me at roughly 80%, with a likely 7 units remaining. Not exactly the ideal, though still definitely doable vs the AI, especially with an airblitz. But the G1 Scotland thing makes it more of a gamble, which I dig, since with fewer units surviving, the aftermath is more challenging to manage.

0_1493803110492_Iron War 1940 Elk vs Fast AI Allies G2 Sea Lion.tsvg

Out of curiosity, I loaded up that Sea Lion G1 turn after placement, but this time assigned the Axis to the AI, to see what they would do on their second turn from this position. I took control of the USA solo, and let the first round play out until Germany came up again. The German AI immediately decided not to kill London, but instead to pull the Kriegsmarine back into the safety of the Baltic, and throw everything against Russia haha! Not unlike what I might expect a human player to do. Like simply threatening a Sea Lion invasion, while leaving the option open to back off the plan at the last moment, (if the Scotland battle went poorly for example) and instead go for something more cautious and traditional.

I like Philippines as an endgame Pacific target for USA, seems like it would definitely be worth reclaiming, if only MacArthur could find a way to return hehe. Perhaps it might also help the Japanese AI a bit, since they seem to struggle with income early on, and this gives them a bit more loot to work with. They tend to take the tile on J1 pretty consistently so its an easy 5 to add to the warchest. I'm definitely digging Iceland, Liberia, Morocco and Hawaii. These give the Anglo-Americans a lot more to think about in the early game, and something to shoot for, when planning where to concentrate their production.

0_1493807292657_Iron War 1940 Elk vs Fast AI Axis USA round 2.tsvg

Morocco is particularly cool, since it forces the Allies to make a decision early on. Do they give it the Americans or the British? Its easier to take with the US, but saving it for the Brits would give them a way to spawn units into Africa without needing transports out of England or Canada, which could be pretty useful in the long run.

Next time I'll probably take control of the Major Allies and play a full game vs the Axis AI, to get a better feel for the latest tweaks.

[Black_Elk]

I'm definitely liking this new balance in Africa. Here in the 7th round, 1943 under the new timeline, and it really feels like WW2 Sand and Sea in the Med. With Patton and Monty racing across North Africa to see who will be the first to wreck Italy. I'm finding it a lot more entertaining as the Anglo-Americans and the pattern feels a lot more historical. Russia and British India have also been a lot of fun, we had to brace against a pretty formidable Axis offensive, but things are finally starting to open up. Germany is stacking pretty heavy into Russia, but fortunately for the West, Stalin was able to secure Suez and trap the Italian fleet off the coast of Somalia, where it was promptly destroyed by the USN Pacific fleet in a glorious naval showdown. Anzac is also starting to get in on the action in a more significant way too. I had to take control of KNIL last round to prevent them from messing up the grand plan, but otherwise the AI has been doing pretty well with the minors.

0_1493873746408_Iron War 1940 Elk vs Hard AI Axis Russia 7.tsvg

Kick ass game so far!

ps. Got a proper D-Day going this time. The Anglo American shake up in Western Europe arrived right on time, and gave Stalin the much anticipated opening he needed to start really driving on the offensive. Allies achieved economic victory in the 10th round after the US took West Germany. The Soviets just sacked Berlin here in the 11th. There are still a lot of Germans hiding out in Hungary and Bohemia, but it certainly seems like the curtain is drawing on the war. Had a great time with this one! Fun stuff for the Allies

0_1493873649368_Iron War 1940 Elk vs Hard AI Axis Russia 11.tsvg

One thing though, in this last play through I don't think I saw any of the film reels showing the year at the beginning of the round. Figured you might want to look into that one.

[prastle]

@Frostion minor problem with the new update. For some reason anyone that has the old map installed cannot update iron war from in game down loader. Not sure why. But if they select installed maps and uninstall it they can then download the new one.

Just for info we are enjoying it !

II will try and find the time this weekend to update the bots again to new version.

[Frostion]

@prastle I have seen trouble with downloading also. My experience is that i press the download button and it (falsely) indicates that the download finishes within 2 seconds. After 3-4 retries the download can actually begin.

I have just updated the yaml file and made a pull request. I think that Ron has already accepted it, so mayb you will be prompted to make a re-download. I suggest that you do it, as I just added a new notificationsproperties to the map files that I maybe missed the first time. Now the new round/half year pop-ups should also be in. Maybe they are missing from your version of 0.1.2 ?

[Black_Elk]

@Frostion Going to redownload now just to make sure.

Meantime, I was playing another Solo with Germany. This time rather than building a carrier and trying to lock the Atlantic, I opted to attack the Royal Navy, and take Iceland and all of France at a go. Check out how fast the American Fast AI guns for the Med haha. The British also seem to be positioning on Iceland. I dig it!

0_1494068284776_Iron War 1940 Elk vs AI Allies G3.tsvg

edit: Ok redownloaded the map. The Film reels are working again for me now. I also noticed the jump to 100% when downloading again (after deleting the older map files). I quit out of tripleA and killed all the processes, then tried again and it worked as normal.

I started a new Solo game with Germany vs the Hard AI. Did the Scotland move again with the Graf Zeppelin buy. I like defense for the Kriegsmarine (at least vs the AI) but for this game I backed it up with a pair of bombers in case the Americans come forward again haha. Feels pretty solid. G just made a clean sweep of the Eastern Med, with Egypt and Istanbul on a gamble, just so we could brazenly snatch Crete and Cyprus for the all out blitz shock against the British. Now that we're holding it down in London, our prospects in Iceland feel a lot more realistic hehe

1941 according to the reel, looking good...

0_1494072151969_Iron War Elk vs Hard AI Allies G3.tsvg

[Black_Elk]

I've been playing on. In the 8th round I finally cracked Leningrad, which opened it up for total victory in the 9th. The Western Allies were definitely trying to trade Iceland with me, which was pretty cool. Sadly I didn't see the American AI do much with Liberia or Morocco, but just having those territories in play did have me switching up my German game quite a bit haha...

0_1494231890416_Iron War Elk vs Hard AI Allies G9.tsvg

One thing I've noticed that has been pretty consistent, is that Russia is rather vulnerable in the territories east of the Siberia factory. Once Japan starts to overrun Mongolia, it can be hard to prevent them from blitzing all over the place, and just carving up the Russia backfield at will.

I was thinking that Irkutsk +5 or possibly Yakutsk +5 might help with this somewhat. Either one seems pretty reasonable I think from a historical perspective. Not quite sure which candidate I like better, but either location is far enough away from the front lines that its unlikely to be taken immediately by Japan, so Russia would have some flexibility to fight out of it. This pocket is about half way between the Siberia factory and Vladivostok/Alaska region. Situated such that a factory here could coordinate with other Soviet troops built at center, or perhaps more interestingly, with Western units. Yakutsk is within reach of US/UK air units, (even ground ferried over from North America), making it a potential endgame stronghold, even if the Soviet core falls to Axis. This would allow Stalin some way to fight on with Western Support. Even the Allied AI will put western air in this area given a couple rounds, as you can see in the save above with those British and American air bouncing around. Though right now, the Soviets don't really have a way to capitalize on it.

A factory viable territory in this region could be justified as representing PU's from the Northern Trace/Alaska-Siberian air road, where the Allies supplied the USSR in stages by air. The Soviet leg of this route had its terminus at Krasnoyarsk, but I think you could reasonably put a +5 territory anywhere along the route and it would make sense (activating the Soviet Far East for a potential factory). The actual route is described below from the wiki...

Soviet First regiment pilots accepted the planes at Fairbanks and flew over the Bering Strait.
Second regiment pilots flew from Uelkal to Seymchan.
Third regiment pilots flew from Seymchan to Yakutsk.
Fourth regiment pilots flew from Yakutsk to Kirensk.
Fifth regiment pilots flew from Kirensk to Krasnoyarsk.

If Irkutsk, then this +5 territory could stand in for Trans-Siberian rail. It is somewhat sheltered by Lake Bakail, at least for the outset, which would probably be helpful.

The Russians have a decent starting force in the far east region, but no real way to reinforce it quickly enough to make a difference. This is where a factory could come into play. Then you'd have a kind of 3 way split on the USSR... the western factories, the central factory, and the eastern factory. Each with a different set of Axis nations gunning for it. Anyhow, those two seemed the best candidates (Irkustsk/Yakutsk), if thinking about another +5 spot for the Soviets in the East, really territory could do double duty, and encompass both the ALSIB or Trans-Siberian Rail thing.

Just an idea that seemed like it might be fun.