Latest changes to GS v2.00

[Peter Stauffenberg]

Possibility to use local rail networks if you capture the country capital.
A nice addition to GS v2.00 that we're current testing (will be available to the betatesters tomorrow) is the possibility to use the local rail network if you capture the capital of the country.

E. g. Norway, Finland, Spain and other countries had a rail network so it doesn't make sense that you can't rail move units in these countries. So we've changed the game code to the following.

* Units in supply level 4 and 5 receive supply from a major power capital and can rail move as before if not in enemy ZOC
* Units in supply level 3 can rail move if within 30 land hexes (traced through friendly territory) and not in enemy ZOC
* Capitals can only provide rail supply on the turn AFTER they enter the war if surprised (units lose efficiency from surprise).

This means that you can only use rail supply on turn 2 of the invasion of the country. Local rail supply means you can e. g. rail move Spanish units on turn 2 of Operation Isabella. The Allies can e. g. get rail movement when landing in Spain or Portugal after they capture Madrid or Lisbon.

Even more interesting is that the Germans get rail supply in England after they capture London. It didn't make sense that you couldn't rail any units in Britain even after taking all hexes there. You also get rail movement inside Finland / Norway. Germany can use rail movement in the Middle East after taking Damascus / Baghdad or Basra.

German units can rail move out of eastern Russia once they take Moscow and get within 30 hexes of Moscow.

[ncali]

This sounds pretty good to me, although it would be nice if there was some additional limitation on how much rail could be done in non-core areas with more limited rail networks (like Scandinavia and Turkey). Also, I think that in the earlier versions of the game the Germans did get to rail in England after taking London. I assume this was tied to the same mechanism that let the Allies rail in Europe after retaking Paris. I could be wrong about this as it's been a while since my last game taking England, but I'm pretty sure it did work.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

Weather in the Med zone.
We also added that rough hexes in the Med weather zone will get mud weather when there is mud or winter weather in the central weather zone.
Mountain hexes in the Med weather zone get the same weather as the central weather zone.

This means that fighting in rough hexes on Sicily, Italy, Spain during the bad weather is not a good idea.

French armistice
The French Government now offers armistice once Paris is captured or left empty (after June 27th 1940). If the Germans accept then Vichy France is created as normal.

If the Germans reject then North Africa and Syria will become Free French territory and all French controlled hexes in mainland France / Corsica will turn to UK control. All French units will change to UK and get flagged as Free French. So you can evacuate units to Britain and the Germans must destroy them and capture all hexes in France to get control.

But with no Vichy France the Germans can get production from southern France immediately and get a broad front line vs Spain making Operation Isabella more likely. The Germans will probably consider rejecting the armistice offer if the French lose too many units before Paris falls. So making suicide attacks from the Maginot line, wasting the French navy etc. only means you might risk Germany controlling all of France from 1940. So we hope to see less ahistorical French attacks prior to Paris falling.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

You have a rail capacity that can be used anywhere. Overuse becomes rather expensive if you rail many units. There aren't many units to rail in e. g. Norway or Finland. In Turkey you have more, but the Allied rail capacity is only 6 prior to USA joining the Allies and that means you can only rail 2 corps units or 3 garrisons before starting to pay. That means you can't rail anywhere else. Usually you don't need to rail units many times in such areas. E. g. the Germans will rail units to Bergen and Trondheim to keep them garrisoned. In Spain and Turkey the Allied player will rail units to defense lines near Zaragoza and Madrid and Istanbul / Ankara. Once you have railed there you don't need a lot of more rail movement there.

So I think misuse of the rail capacity won't be a big problem due to the already existing limitations. E. g. the Allies can rail lots of units within France soon after taking Paris in the current version.

One can actually see rail movement as strategic movement. Since a turn is 20 days it would be no problem for e. g. the Norwegians to rail the 2 garrisons from Bergen / Trondheim to Oslo vice versa for Germany. You could get from Oslo to Bergen / Trondheim in about 10 hours so you could send a filled train once per day. That means 20 trains per turn. If you can get 500 people onboard each train you can get 10000 people transported per turn per train.

[Blathergut]

All sounds interesting. I will see how much energy this olde soul has after the next two weeks and March Break finally arrives...might help with your testing.

[rkr1958]

French armisticeSo we hope to see less ahistorical French attacks prior to Paris falling.

In my hotseat check out prior to releasing to the beta testers, the whole French campaign seemed to play much more realistically. Two specific examples I think illustrate this.

1. A French DD, which was part of a large allied task naval force escorting the Canadian mech and infantry corps, ran into a hidden German u-boat flotilla. Yes, I can even surprise myself. Anyway, the priority was the protection of the two transports so the rest of the escorting ships, which will all UK, had to leave the French DD squadron to its own fate. Normally, as the axis player I would have not risk u-boat step losses to take on the damage French DD (7-steps). But, now with these armistice changes I finished it off.

2. The second example was the allied turn before the certain captured of Paris. The French fighter was down to 3-steps and I still had four garrisons in the Maginot forts. I evacuated the 3-step French fighter to the UK and the four garrisons stood fast in their forts and did not attack.

To me this game the whole French campaign a more realistic feel.