Yeah, although it is already listed in the resource table, so least the space is available if we wanted to do something more with it. Right now I'm pretty sure pilots are only used by Japan for their kamikazes.

I think the air spam is kind of problematic in a lot of A&A style games, especially with air vs naval and bombers running amok, so seems to me that using a resource to cap the total number of those units in play would probably serve game balance in the end - or at least give the designer some control over how quickly they are introduced. Would be pretty straightforward to increase/decrease the starting resources as needed once we had an idea of how much they might cost.

Just guessing based on the SS thing but maybe something like...

Air Transport 20 pilot points
Fighter/Dive 25 pilot points
Jet Fighter 30 pilot points
Bomber 40 pilot points

Where an average nation might be pulling down like 50 some odd pilot points on average per turn?

Least that way they couldn't just blow it out on the air spam, dropping massive bomber stacks or fighter stacks for globe trotting nightmares haha. I don't know, just an idea. Maybe stick the pilots at the capitals or something to keep it simple?

Will look back over the saves, or see if I can grab one on the next game. I think the issue is not so much that the AI backs their factories when they have a chance to defend overland, but more getting caught with their pants down on amphibious landings.

For kicks I tried a German solo where I didnt buy any aircraft just to see how it played out.

I had to put most of initial fuel into the water, to make sure my fleet could contend with the British and deter the FastAI Allies from making an early landing. Did this mainly with cruisers and destroyers. Afterwards I put all the remaining fuel and steel into tanks and mobile ground for the invasion of Russia. So far seems to be holding up alright...

0_1520033786753_2.2 Elk Germany vs FastAI Allies No aircraft round 12.tsvg

To Redrums earlier point, it does feel a bit more epic when most of the cash is used for tanks and ships rather than aircraft. After playing like this for a few rounds I can see how fewer early air stacks might help. I wouldn't raise the cpst in PUs, but just cap the totals available at purchase with the existing pilot resource.

I think it would make sense for Aircraft to require this pilot resource at purchase much the same way that the SS resource is handled for the black tanks. So basically more powerful or advanced attack aircraft would require more pilot points, the way that the SS Heavy tank requires 25 resources, instead of the regular SS infantry's 20. Usually you have to save up to get that black tank, so basically do the same thing with bombers or jets or whathaveyou.

That would stager the air builds somewhat, as players would then choose between spending their pilots each turn or saving them to buy better aircraft. It would cap the air spam overall and model the idea that experienced pilots are needed before you van fly all those fighters and bombers around.

Would pace the air war similar to the way the heavy ground/naval game is paced by oil and steel, without upending stuff too much.

Other than that I think all we need is a way for the AI to recognize the value of the factories so it will priorities those territories, and the map play pretty enjoyably for the single player.

Just in terms of the PUs, for the most part I really like how the purchasing structure in Iron War departs markedly from traditional A&A by basically making infantry really fucking expensive relative to every other unit haha.

So in A&A you have a baseline of 3 ipcs per fodder hitpoint entering play and every other heavy-hitter is somewhere between two to six times as expensive as that fodder infantry. In Iron War the baseline is 10 PUs per entry level fodder-point, and all the heavy hitters at least on the ground are cheaper than 2 for 1 compared to infantry, so if you go heavy-hitter rather than basic fodder you end up with at least some remainder to inform the next purchase candidate. I think the psychology of the remainder purchase is such that most players will prefer to spend every PU rather than save their pocket change, so this can be used to encourage a more diverse purchasing pattern over the course of the game, once the production limitations come into play. After that its just a matter of getting the most bang for your buck based on the resources you have available. Right now fighters are the best purchase because there is no cap on how many you can buy, and because of the movement advantage, but they still can't take land. I think if you had a pilot limit it would probably force more of the money onto the ground or into the water, rather than the air without having to change too much else.

Pilots would probably be a more interesting resource than fuel for aircraft, so we wouldn't have to put aircraft into such direct competition with tanks and ships (since you'd probably just end up with the same situation all over again otherwise, e.g. players choosing to spend fuel on aircraft rather than tanks or ships.) Maybe a large nation like Germany or Russia has 20+ pilot slots, but a small nation like China might have only 1 or 2? I don't know, but something to put a cap on it. It would help with the whole dark skies situation that becomes kind of unavoidable in a high economy game that continues for a dozen or more rounds.

I still think it would be interesting to see a unit that used fuel but not steel (the inverse of the current artillery unit.) I think mech might make sense there. Then maybe increase the power of SP-Artillery so that it is more distinct? Right now I feel like SP-Artillery is kind of overshadowed by Mech, with the later being more useful generally. But yeah, some way to spend excess fuel the way you can spend excess steel might be cool.

Another way to encourage more tank buys would be to just up the baseline amount of fuel from a minimum of 1 per turn, to 2 per turn or 3 per turn. Most of the big dog nations (especially the ones that need to maintain a large navy) will go dry after the first couple rounds, so they get stuck only able to purchase 1 fuel unit per round. Right now the whole fuel-maintenance thing is still a little confusing, so more of a cushion might help to keep the purchase phase from becoming overly stale. I think that's probably simpler for now to just increase the minimum amount of fuel per round, than it would be to introduce a more complex fuel sharing scheme, or some way to exploit/develope existing oil fields to increase the total haul (which would have been my other suggestion to make fuel units more accessible.)

I don't know, its always hard for me to get excited about buying AAguns regardless of their cost/abilities, probably owing to their long history of sucking in A&A lol. Although I admit I definitely prefer them in Iron War to A&A, since at least here they can move during the combat phase and take territory.

An AAgun (or Cruiser) might make me think twice when it blocks a critical flight path though. So if I know I have to make 2 passes over an anti-air unit to reach a target and return, I might forego the flight plan. I guess in that sense they might be useful to set up lines of defense along desireable flight paths. But with the production slots usually pretty limited, I don't think AAguns would ever top the list for me, even if trying to create a buffer like that.

Fighters and Bombers are definitely my favorite units in Iron War. As Redrum pointed out, they overpowered enough to make most of the other units seem kind of irrelevant, but I dont really mind that for the era. Feels somehow appropriate that the air war would totally dominate and push everything else into the background. When you have this many nations spamming aircraft though, it does leave things a bit open for turn order exploits. Like in that earlier all bomber game I posted, just a few turns spent transiting aircraft to a hotspot like Leningrad or Egypt and you can make it almost unassailable. Even bombers (weak on defense as they are) can put up some pretty kick-ass hitpoint walls that push a territory out of reach rather quickly. Since on defense you can usually have like 3 or 4 nations stacking air hitpoints as a group, whereas the attacker needs to set up a series of 1-2 punches with huge numbers to break through. Some of this is probably unavoidable when we have so many player nations on the board, unless you want to start pulling air units from the purchase roster for minor nations, but then I think they'd become a lot less interesting to play. In A&A style games the can opener play, or the rush air defense play, are usually the only plays that a tiny nation can use to have much impact on the broader game, so nixing their air and its almost like they might as well be neutrals.

I find that after Fighters and Infantry fodder, (+ critical ships/factories to move them around the map), most of the other purchase options are just to spend a remainder. Like if I buy all my desired fighters and infantry and wind up with 13 PUs left maybe I'll buy a tank destroyer, if its 16 PUs I'll get a medium tank etc. Or sometimes its just for flare or showboating, like buying 5 heavy tanks just because you can hehe.

I kind of like the cost structure you have going, even if the fighters a steal, though I guess if the fighter spam seems like an intractable problem you could always create a ceiling on it with pilots as a maintenance resource. Since you already got them in the table for kamikazes and such. Sometimes the endgame can lose its charm when the big dog nations all have double digit aircraft stacks buzzing around. It can start to really limit the playpatterns, so might be worth putting an upper limit on it somehow?

I could see that, although I think part of the appeal of these A&A style games is how the mechanics are all basically transparent. So that even if you give the computer a buff (like with an income bonus) at least the player still knows what they're up against. Long as the player has a way to pop the hood and find out what's going on underneath it. That said, some way to prioritize target territories for the AI would be cool. Or to somehow set sz or land tiles with a marker so that the AI treats it as a seriously do or die spot to hold/take, the way British/American players might treat Berlin (or the batlic sea zone that borders it) in traditional A&A maps.

Doubtless, though I still think its worth exploring ways to tweak things so its harder pull a fast one on the machine haha. If only because the map is still pretty engaging for a solo, and my impression was that it was designed to make at least some use of the AI. A head to head match with all nations under human control would almost certainly look totally different than any of the saves posted above, but even then I could picture scenerios where a concerted bomber spam vs destroyable factories might undermine the production scheme. That's why I was thinking maybe a class of factory that can't be bombed or destroyed, which spawns infantry at the capital/VC might be interesting. I guess then you'd have 2 ways that units enter play, heavy equipment (the stuff that uses resources) requires factories to spawn, whereas regular infantry would just require control of one of the large population centers represented by the VCs. Feels kind of realistic and might make sense for a minor nation like China or Balkans where you could limit the roster based on the kinds of factory territories they have access too.

Not sure, but another aspect of the problem (at least from the AI) is that the machine also doesn't seem to realize that it needs to purchase factories to stay in the fight. So for example, here is that same game a round later...

0_1519766254818_2.2 Elk Allies vs FastAI Axis all Bombers round 5.tsvg

You can see that even though I've destroyed every Axis factory on the European side of the board, Germany and Italy fail to purchase new factories when their turns come up, despite having a ton of cash to do so.

I'm guessing this is probably related to that thing where the AI doesn't really defend its core factory territories (like in that earlier game where the Axis leave West Germany exposed to amphibious). Maybe because the unit type is different from the vanilla A&A factory, on account of being destroy-able?

Perhaps a workaround for the bomber spam would be allowing VCs to spawn infantry units or something, so that even if all factories are knocked off the board, the AI will still have a way to produce hitpoints, provided it has the cash and control of a VC?
A human would surely be more sensible with their factory purchases, and with interception vs bombers, but the machine doesn't seem to have a knack for this sort of thing haha.

I wanted to show a more extreme demonstration of that Allied bomber spam I mentioned earlier. In save below you can see that by the end of the third round the Allies have completely shut down Germany's ability to produce units just with bombers alone. In all likelihood they're about to do the same thing with Italy next round, at which point the Allied bomber force will probably be large enough to pick off factories from the minor Axis nations at will....

In this example game I set up two main hubs from which to rain down death and destruction on the European Axis, with bomber armadas stationed in England and Egypt. From those spots I can reach pretty much anywhere that the European Axis blocks might want to build a factory. So basically, as long as I can put like 4 bombers on each of the possible factory locations per round, I can totally lock the European Axis out of the production game, just by using bombing raids.

I was pretty sloppy here too, not really doing anything with my combat moves other than bombing or bomber positioning, so I imagine this kind of play could be even more effective with a little more consideration about ground and naval forces. But yeah, just figured it might be worth looking into. For the most part I really enjoy how factories are easy to destroy and relatively cheap to replace, since I think it makes the territory trading game more interesting, but this lock out pay with the all bomber exploit is pretty powerful once you get things going.

0_1519763750916_2.2 Elk Allies vs FastAI Axis all Bombers round 3.tsvg

Yeah I like the way it handles, especially when the AI gets a boost to be competitive. In a solo it's not as critical since the AI beats up on itself fairly well. I tried a couple 2.2 games where I picked one of the minor powers and let the AI loose on itself, just to see if it could hold its own. The balance in Asia felt pretty solid. Here's an example where I just took control of Brazil for 12 rounds. There's not much to do as Brazil, and it's not really a playable faction, so for all intents it was a placeholder to observe and AI vs AI game haha. Anyhow this is how it looked in 1945 with the AI beating up the AI.

0_1519683983400_2.2 Elk vs FastAI Axis Brazil 12.tsvg

Then I played a few full games against the fast AI just to see how things panned out. In the first I took control of all the Axis nations and gave the Fast AI Allies a 120% boost. Took that one almost to 1950 before I got sleepy.

0_1519684121860_2.2 Elk Axis vs FastAI Allies Germany 18.tsvg

Afterwards I did the same thing but playing as Allies vs fast AI Axis with the 120% boost... Here it is at the dawn of the Nuclear era, with most of the world handled.

0_1519684209788_2.2 Elk Allies vs FastAI Axis China 11.tsvg

In general I'd say the game where I played as Axis was more engaging than the game where I played as Allies. I think it's mainly because the Axis get to really paint the map, and expand with a sense of momentum, whereas the Allies spend most of the game trying to liberate territory until they can establish a foothold somewhere. Also on the Axis side the minor powers (Balkans/Finland, Iraq/Iran, and Thailand) are definitely under pressure just to stay alive, whereas the minor Allies (France/British-Colonies, French-Colonies/ANZAC/KNIL, and China/Brazil) are a bit more secure, at least when you're taking control of the whole team. I found that the best use of the minor Allies was to just spam aircraft, especially bombers if you can get them up past the 30 ipc threshold on income, after which point you can pretty well murder the Axis production. Still it was pretty entertaining. I think this might have been the first time I took control of all the minor Allies, since usually it feels like a lot of spinning plates and I just give them over to the AI. In this game Japan got hammered after leaving their transports exposed to an air raid, so they were kind of nerfed out the gate. Made it a lot easier for Russia to put the hurt on Germany. I had fun but got a little tired as 1945 set it, so had to call it a night.

FastAI was smooth compared to HardAI, for the lag factor, but I still find myself reloading after a round or two or when things hang, or to scrub a turn and see how the AI responds to different stuff. Sometimes seems faster to relaunch than to wait for the fastAI to figure itself out if its struggling haha, but they usually hum along pretty quickly compared to the hardAI grind.

Yeah I think its kinda cool to have a map that works well for an AI match, since it services a gameplay niche that isn't always represented at this scale. Some of the smaller maps like v3 work alright, but there you really have to boost up the machine for it to be competitive and its rarely going to be as satisfying as a head to head game with another human player. I think Iron War has a few things going for it, beyond just the usual A&A fair, that keep it enjoyable for me in the stomp down "paint the map my color" type department haha. I like the way the production is handled.

I managed about 8 rounds as Russia last night before I had to go to sleep. US AI was starting to step up pretty major as I recall, taking Iceland, Norway and Morocco. Here is how it was winding down when I hit the sheets...
0_1518641257162_2.2 Elk vs FastAI Axis Russia 8.tsvg

Went another 5 rounds on a new game this morning, this time as Japan vs the Fast AI (definitely speedier going fast for the AI rather than hard.) I think the Russian balance has finally hit the sweet spot with those latest additions. They've got enough juice in the far east now to keep Japan from just steamrolling across the backfield, but not so much that Japan can't hold them in check with some concerted effort. Feels like its striking a pretty nice balance, at least from what I've seen so far. Also just noticed the British drop a factory in Norway, so seems like that is working out well too. Germany is still pretty deep into Russia, but its not the typical smash and grab with no mercy, since the Soviets are holding onto more income in the Far East. Anyhow, just wanted to post an update...

0_1518641179982_2.21 Elk vs FastAI Allies Japan 5.tsvg

ps. Took it 12 rounds to late 1945. While I was busy stomping Australia and trying to push 200 with Japan, the Allies sneaked in the 20 VC win over on the European side. Nice job from the Anglo-Americans! AI Germany still might have a little fight left. I imagine we could drag this one out for a while but it's getting late hehe
Fun stuff! Allies were definitely more formidable, keeping the pressure on.

0_1518659012392_2.21 Elk vs FastAI Allies Japan 12.tsvg