Defense of the Reich (and air war in general) reworked
Following GeneralWerner's earlier suggestion, and also my experience with single and multiplayer games, Allied bombing of the German cities now results in 150 prestige for each per turn, up to a maximum of 450. But this deduction still happens at the end of the turn, and some of the prestige is added at the begining, so this system can still be hacked to some extent, if the player empties the "treasury" at the end of the turn, by leaving just a few unspent prestige points. Nevertheless, the potential loss is still higher than before, and I made some other changes so that the Allied strategic bombers pose a higher threat in both single and multiplayer games.
For example, the appearance and overall presence of the Allied bombers have been changed a bit as well, while their absolute numbers are basically the same, some of them may appear earlier in 1942. Until now, there was a big wave in early 1942 (depicting the so-called "Thousand-bomber raids") followed by mostly silence for the rest of that year, but now their flow is more steady after the initial big wave.
Another change is that British strat bombers also have their air and ground defense increased by 1-2 points to better represent their predominantly night-time use during the time span of the scenario. (Watching the great TV show "Masters of the Air" gave me this rather obvious idea. There is a scene in which the US bomber pilots contemplate that their British comrades had an easier time since they bombed during the cover of the night and wished they could do the same. It is somewhat silly I did not do it earlier since other night-time bombers like the Soviet U-2 or the German bi-plane nuisance bombers already got such a bonus for their predominantly night time use.)
JG 1, the German fighter unit which is in Berlin in turn 1 is now initially at maximum strength 5. Historically JG 1 had only one Gruppe with 3 squadrons in June 1941, so basically it had only a third of the strength of an average full strength Jagdgeschwader, and the 2nd and 3rd Gruppe were only added in early 1942. And thus it will only become a full strength unit in turn 16. The reason for this is part historical accuracy and part to prevent this unit from being transferred to Africa or the east as soon as turn 1. While it is still possible to transfer it, using such an understrength fighter unit at the frontline is of course very risky, even in single player against the silly AI, so not really recommended.
On the other hand, JG 27, the figher unit that starts in North Africa is now already there in turn 1, whereas earlier it only appeared in turn 6 or something. However, initially this unit is also understrength with max strength 7 and can only be full strength from turn 6. Now it is also a Bf 109E trop and not as a F version (as historically at that time), so it has to be upgraded as well.
AA guns in general are also weakened a bit since now they get only +1 bonus to their anti-air attack after each experience star, while earlier they got 2. The cheapest 2 cm AA (and its derivatives) is now a bit more expensive.
All this is of course to make the player pay more attention to the air defense of Germany in both single and multiplayer. Or face the consequence in the form of more prestige losses than before.
But, as always, there is a little compensation: now an additional bomber destroyer unit appears in turn 17.
- BE 25_3.jpg (683.99 KiB) Viewed 459 times
It is of course a Ju 88C, another new unit addition with somewhat mediocre stats, but still OK when appears. However, the better Me 110G and Ju 88G bomber destroyer units now become available a bit later. And a new bomber destroyer version of the Fw 190A-8 will also arrive.
And there are a number of other changes, like minor stat changes to most fighters, most notably better balanced Italian fighters, more sub-types for German and Italian bombers, and others, like one starting He 111 unit in the east was replaced by a Ju 88, since it looks like there were twice as many Ju 88 available for Barbarossa than He 111s. Actually, there are quite a lot of other smaller changes here and there, some are less obvious or "under the hood" or which I just forgot to make a note.
