Will try to answer some old and new questions now.

[firepowerjohan]

We are in such a late stage that the rules are all in now, hence answering questions is now much easier.
Going through some old topics to answer a few questions. Some of the questions were asked by ppl that are now in the Beta testing team but it could be useful for others to read more about how the game works

[James Taylor]

OK, How about a detailed explanation of the amphib features.

[balsampear]

Screenshots？Demo?

[joe98]

See the March Update for screen shots.

Note: the game is not finished.

-

[hgt]

I second that question:is there going to be a demo?

[coldknight]

There most likely will be

[firepowerjohan]

The business side is not my area, so Iain will be better answering those kinds of questions. For gameplay though, bring em questions on

The amfibious invasion is going to be that you will be able to land in empty hexes and according to tests I have not see there is possibility to block invaders from landing since it will cost you more to block the entire area (D-Day for instance) than it is worth.

[James Taylor]

Will there be an ability to construct fortifications, improve positions, other than an inherent ability for a unit that remains stationary? If so, are there differents levels, exclusion features, and what are the combat parameters?

[firepowerjohan]

Will there be an ability to construct fortifications, improve positions, other than an inherent ability for a unit that remains stationary? If so, are there differents levels, exclusion features, and what are the combat parameters?

No, there will be no ability to construct forts but instead units entrench when being stayed put in a hex. Some scenarios have pre built fortresses on map though.

Edit:
That question about combat parameters is a huge one, you want the short story or the extensive parts from the manual combat section?

[James Taylor]

A brief description is sufficient. Things like enhancement to soft/hard/air/artillery defensive values, reduction of occupier's attack due to restrictive maneuvering, facing or flanking attack results, supply & morale consequences, entrenchment reduction techniques, etc.

The usual!

[firepowerjohan]

A brief description is sufficient. Things like enhancement to soft/hard/air/artillery defensive values, reduction of occupier's attack due to restrictive maneuvering, facing or flanking attack results, supply & morale consequences, entrenchment reduction techniques, etc.

The usual!

Well, there are first a number of different unit types and units have different combat values against other types. So A Destroyer might have Naval Combat 3 and Sub Combat 6 which means when facing a Sub it will inflict twice the damage compared to facing other naval unit.

Also there is a effectiveness state on every units which in addition to terrain, rivers, entrenchment will affect the combat values. The Max Effectiveness is the theoretical max but since you constantly do actions that lowers effectiveness you rarely reach that number (peace units will since they are constantly resting).

Factors that increase Max Effectievness are supply, quality of the unit, organisation technology and leadership from the highest nearby Commander.

This Combat value and its modifier is about damaging the enemy. there is also a factor that instead reduce your casulties (sort of like a dodging, parrying or armour would be in a medieval game) which is survivability. For instance will high tech armour units have higher survivability hence are soing to take less damage than a low tech will.

When a unit has low effectiveness it may retreat, especially if the last attack caused a large effectivness loss on the unit.

In combat, there is often also a shock phase whera attacker uses a special shock attack value that reduces the defenders effectiveness. Furthermore, when taking casulties you also lose abit effectiveness. The quality of the unit determines this amount which means that veteran units are much more likely to stand their ground than green units. It also enables us to make certain unit types being disturbed easier than others i.e air units have have low quality in CEAW which means the value of having interceptors is important. The interception duel will weaken the enemy effectivenss alot before it reaches the destination. This, without having to have big air casualties but instead the effectiveness model takes care of it.


There are certain types of combat also.
Navy vs Navy
Dog Fight
Other

Where Navy vs Navy means the attacker fires first, so at Sea the attacker has advantage!
In dog fight, both units fire simultaneously which means in the air every battle is neutral so there is no attacker or defender. In other battles than those two, the sequence is attacker shocks, defender fires, attacker fires.

This chain of phases are actually providing very realistic behaviour and effects. Firstly, a strong barrage by having a large shock attack value means you can disorganise the defender making it easier for your attack since the defender fires back when weakened. Contrary it also means, a defender with a large fire value will suffer less casualties since it will damage the attacker before it can fire back.

So, the effect in the end is that weak units will not only inflict less but also suffer more which is realistic.

[James Taylor]

Thanks fpj a nice rendition. You mentioned the quality of a unit and veteran vs green status as a function of that quality, can you elaborate on that "quality effect".

For example: How do you improve quality through combat, tech upgrades, leadership connections, etc.?

How is it degraded, other than what you have previously mentioned, like the incorporation of replacements?

[firepowerjohan]

Thanks fpj a nice rendition. You mentioned the quality of a unit and veteran vs green status as a function of that quality, can you elaborate on that "quality effect".

For example: How do you improve quality through combat, tech upgrades, leadership connections, etc.?

How is it degraded, other than what you have previously mentioned, like the incorporation of replacements?

Quality and survivability will increase for experienced units. Furthermore, the manpower system means if you recruit past certain levels (country based) you will get manpower penalty resulting with fresh recruits having minus numbers in quality and sometimes survivability. You are basically starting to recruit non volunteers and later on you recruit old men and young boys.

Quality - "Higher effectiveness regain and lower effectiveness drop due to casualties"
Survivavility - "The ability to avoid getting hit by normal and shock attacks"


Quality can also sometimes come with tech. Another thing worth to mention is that quality increase the effectiveness of a unit somewhat so high quality units also have abit higher firepower.

[James Taylor]

Thanks again, most informative. Let's discuss leadership quality. Is it set throughout the game or does it evolve and if so how does it evolve.

How do the leadership's quality get passed on to the units under its command? What is that command structure, the limitations?

What are the leaders' combat parameters, ie. defense value, movement features, etc. Can they be changed during gameplay due to tech acquisition?

And finally, if a command unit is destroyed during gameplay can it be rejuvenated, or does another assume its place for potential creation in the build queue?

[hgt]

I have two questions:

1.How is the technology tree?Could you give us more details about them and how they affect the game?
2.What is happening to non-alligned countries,like Spain,Sweden,etc.Are they in the game?

Thanks.

[firepowerjohan]

Thanks again, most informative. Let's discuss leadership quality. Is it set throughout the game or does it evolve and if so how does it evolve.

How do the leadership's quality get passed on to the units under its command? What is that command structure, the limitations?

What are the leaders' combat parameters, ie. defense value, movement features, etc. Can they be changed during gameplay due to tech acquisition?

And finally, if a command unit is destroyed during gameplay can it be rejuvenated, or does another assume its place for potential creation in the build queue?

Commanders are unit attachments so never stand alone. Commanders can only be deployed on ground units but affect all land units (including air). They have a leadership rating which increases the max effectiveness of all units within leadership range.

On top of that, some Commanders have battle bonuses that will apply to the unit they are attached to. For instance, if a commander have a ground attack bonus then that value is added to the ground attack value of its unit. A Commander can be reassigned and redeployed but with cost of both time and production points. If a unit with a Commander gets destroyed then the Commander will get injured for a random amount of turns and will be going through the production queue and force pool to be deployed again. A commander might also get injured if its unit retreats.

Every Land unit can have one battle commander (attachment) but are also effected by the highest leadership commander wityhin range. Sometimes those 2 commanders could be the same person.

So, Say

Rommel leadership 7, Ground Attack 1, Ground Defence 0

This means all units within range (unless they have a commander with higher leadership than 7) will have 7*2=14% higher effectiveness. Furthermore, the unit Rommel sits on will have a Ground Attack +1 bonus to its value.

We do not have any experience or injury effects on Commanders abilities but it is a nice idea and will be on our future list of things to consider

[firepowerjohan]

I have two questions:

1.How is the technology tree?Could you give us more details about them and how they affect the game?
2.What is happening to non-alligned countries,like Spain,Sweden,etc.Are they in the game?

Thanks.

1. Research is done by buying laboratories that produce research points. You have 5 research areas so when you buy a lab it is always a "Infantry lab", "Armour lab", "Air lab", "Navy lab", "General lab" and cannot be changed. You can sell them at a small value.

In every research area are 3 technologies with many levels. For example Air has

* Dog Fight
* Close Air Support
* Strategic Operations

the air labs are split into these 3 technologies each turn to give a certain progress. When progress hit a certain sum (varies for each tech) you get into the next tech level and are able to upgrade the units affected. For example

Strategic Operations L1:
Attack range +3
Land Spotting +1
Sea Spotting +1

Unit affected:
Fighter
Tactial Bomber
Strategic Bomber


This means you can upgrade any of those 3 unit types on map at anytime and it also cost some money to upgrade them. Note that some tehcs might affect just one single unit or it may affect all units (Organisation tech). Organisation technology is affecting all units and Germany has a high tech level there already in 1939 to simulate the idea that they will be better than other countries for most parts of the game.

There is also a semi-random research option, which in fact is the default setting when you start the game, that means your research is a slow steady progress but sometimes get small or big jumps by random. That means you cannot predict how many turns a certain tech level will take to get, but during the course of 5 years these things will pretty much even out.

Furthermore, there are focus points that every country gets stored every 6 months that can be used to set focus in a a rsearch area towards a certain technology. This means if you set focus on Dog Fight, you will have a higher % of the lab progress going toward it than the other 2 technologies in Air Research Area. Apparently, every research area can have a focus and its default value is "Balanced" which means with 3 techs they get 33.33% each. Setting a focus means 50-25-25.


2. Yes indeed, they are in the game!
You can invade neutral countries unless they are supportive of you already. So for example, Axis cannot invade Switzerland because they are pro-axis while Allies can. Likewise, Allies cannot invade Iraq since they are pro-allied, but Axis can. Most other countries are totally neutral so can be attacked by either side.

[hgt]

I have two questions:

1.How is the technology tree?Could you give us more details about them and how they affect the game?
2.What is happening to non-alligned countries,like Spain,Sweden,etc.Are they in the game?

Thanks.

1. Research is done by buying laboratories that produce research points. You have 5 research areas so when you buy a lab it is always a "Infantry lab", "Armour lab", "Air lab", "Navy lab", "General lab" and cannot be changed. You can sell them at a small value.

In every research area are 3 technologies with many levels. For example Air has

* Dog Fight
* Close Air Support
* Strategic Operations

the air labs are split into these 3 technologies each turn to give a certain progress. When progress hit a certain sum (varies for each tech) you get into the next tech level and are able to upgrade the units affected. For example

Strategic Operations L1:
Attack range +3
Land Spotting +1
Sea Spotting +1

Unit affected:
Fighter
Tactial Bomber
Strategic Bomber


This means you can upgrade any of those 3 unit types on map at anytime and it also cost some money to upgrade them. Note that some tehcs might affect just one single unit or it may affect all units (Organisation tech). Organisation technology is affecting all units and Germany has a high tech level there already in 1939 to simulate the idea that they will be better than other countries for most parts of the game.

There is also a semi-random research option, which in fact is the default setting when you start the game, that means your research is a slow steady progress but sometimes get small or big jumps by random. That means you cannot predict how many turns a certain tech level will take to get, but during the course of 5 years these things will pretty much even out.

Furthermore, there are focus points that every country gets stored every 6 months that can be used to set focus in a a rsearch area towards a certain technology. This means if you set focus on Dog Fight, you will have a higher % of the lab progress going toward it than the other 2 technologies in Air Research Area. Apparently, every research area can have a focus and its default value is "Balanced" which means with 3 techs they get 33.33% each. Setting a focus means 50-25-25.


2. Yes indeed, they are in the game!
You can invade neutral countries unless they are supportive of you already. So for example, Axis cannot invade Switzerland because they are pro-axis while Allies can. Likewise, Allies cannot invade Iraq since they are pro-allied, but Axis can. Most other countries are totally neutral so can be attacked by either side.

1.It sounds great.And these laboratoires,are they historical or they don't have names?
2.I asked this because on the screens like this
http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/comm ... ?id=133052 Poland
or this
http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/comm ... ?id=133052 Egypt
or this
http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/comm ... ?id=133052 Europe

I haven't seen their flags.But I noticed that all pro-German countries have the gothic sign and all the pro-allied countries have the allies' sign.Am I right?

[firepowerjohan]

1. The labs do not have names other than "Infantry Lab", etc....
2. I did not understand exactly the question, but those screenshots are almost half a year old. You will not see the neutral flags up there in the corner of the screen. Instead you will see them in the political map.

[balsampear]

Cant wait............