Finalizing GS v2.01 so it can be released by Slitherine

[Peter Stauffenberg]

We're preparing the GS v2.01 official version to Slitherine. Please report now anything you feel should be changed (bugs remaining etc.). Soon we will close all changes to GS v2.01.

I also want feedback from you regarding the latest changes about linking Belgium / Holland and Norway / Denmark and the slight increase in war effort gained while at peace. Russia gets 8 garrisons as a strategic reserve in August 1941. This is also something I like feedback on. We need to verify that France still falls in June in most games and that the German 1942 offensive will be strong enough to push the Russians hard, but not so strong that they can crush them completely.

We will not add new functionality and focus on bugfixes, dealing with loopholes in the rules, balance issues etc.

E. g. one player was reporting that if the Germans don't take Warsaw then the Russians won't automatically annex the Baltic States in June 1940. They can DoW these countries when they get to war, but that's another matter.

Should this be fixed so the June annexation of the Baltic states should take place regardless of the situation with Warsaw.

I think the Germans will have problems if they don't take Warsaw because the Poles will still be alive and can harass the Germans, but maybe it can be exploited in a way we haven't seen yet.

[rkr1958]

Borger,

Denmark & Iceland? Something that occurred to me with the latest changes is that a number of axis players (like us) will now wait until after the fall of France in 1940 to invade Denmark. Turn 14 (May 18, 1940) is the scripted date for the transfer of the Iceland airbase to the UK if Denmark is occupied. For most Sitz strategies this date will be before the fall of France and the invasion of Denmark. Will the Iceland airbase be ceded to UK in those games when Denmark is occupied even though that'll be several turns after the May 18 date?

[gerones]

I would vote for releasing the patch to the community the sooner the better. Once released it would be nice that this time we have a rather long time (may be until Christmas?) with the people playing and enjoying the game without new patches so we would only focussing in fixing bugs. I mean that to have the people playing the game for a rather long time until new patches are released is the best way to test the game balance. I feel we need a long period with people just playing games!

[Peter Stauffenberg]

That is true and the main reason we need feedback from Case Yellow and Barbarossa so we don't have to tweak the game balance after release.

[_Augustus_]

Stauffenberg:

I also want feedback from you regarding the latest changes about linking Belgium / Holland and Norway / Denmark and the slight increase in war effort gained while at peace. Russia gets 8 garrisons as a strategic reserve in August 1941. This is also something I like feedback on. We need to verify that France still falls in June in most games and that the German 1942 offensive will be strong enough to push the Russians hard, but not so strong that they can crush them completely.

Here's some feelings based on an ongoing game with Alec in which he conquered France and the two pair of nations in a timely manner. The game started before the changes for the pairs mentioned above.

Axis went for a strong(or at least what looked like a big investment to me) Sealion in '41 and easily took over UK/Ireland after all the possible units from the Isles tried to evacuate(I wanted to try that for the first time:). Axis probably lost almost as many PPs due transport/invasion overcharge as in actualy meaningful battle(mopping up not included). Axis also sent some German units and new Italian units to Africa where the Brits were strong. 7 was the most SUBs revealed at any single moment.

Meaningful Axis losses as far I can remember were 2 German ARMs, 2(?) INFs, a TAC, a SUB and some Italian units at start of the Barbarossa in 1942 at the latest possible turn due to the weather. USSR at that point had:
-bought all the available Labs up to that point
-had sprinkled let's say half a dozen GARs as speed bumbs in dread of Barbarossa '41
-had sprinkled almost as many INFs further back for the same reason
-had bought 5 leaders ready to the deployed in addition to the 2 free ones coming. They weren't the 5 most expensive ones, but all had 5+ rating.
-had a dozen INF units ready to be deployed on turn 1 of Barbarossa(they would had been deployed earlier but I didn't realize the EFF penalty on DoW was only to be -10 and not -30 at this point)
-had 1100 PPs in reserve. Not spending them was due to false hope of getting some tech upgrades which dragged on and on and also because I wanted get an idea of what would be coming over the border. The 3rd reason coming in a sec.

Over the border came a tank heavy fighting group which killed units left and right in the norther sector. The southern sector was pretty empty of Axis troops. Obviously USSR units could not get any sort of odds attacking against the tanks. To slow them down USSR bought a large number of INFs and with heavy overuse of railroad capacity placed them in front of the tank horde into suitable places in an effort to overwhelm them by the sheer numbers. I don't really want know how many PPs USSR have spent on railroading. A lot. It worked or at least it made Alec to choose to stop the advance in our game. By continueing he would had KOed a lot of units with those ARMs and MECs, but maybe they would had fallen victim to the arriving guard units from Siberia? Anyways the situation towards the end of the summer '42 is that Soviets are knocking at the doors of the capitals of the Axis minors in the South and the frontline is almost in the original Eastern Polish territory up north.

Allies missed both the free 8 GARs update and the almost all of the "early war effort goes up faster" update. That was implemented somewhere at the end of the '41 or very early '42 in our game. 8 GARs would be 120 PPs extra and the larger early war effort would contribute some PPs not forgetting USSR would had gotten more labs slighty faster. Hence the tech levels would had been better slightly earlier for units deployed. Of course my choices of early labs effected the number of PPs I'd accumulate up to '42.

Now obviously this experiences from one game only. Hence subject to our decisions, how they complimented or did not compliment each other in the game including any funky and wonky strategy experiments Alec is trying out in this game. Maybe he can put in a word how he sees the situation and if he feels the situation isn't representative of "normal" strategies when going for 1941 Sealion and 1942 Barbarossa?

Should this be fixed so the June annexation of the Baltic states should take place regardless of the situation with Warsaw.

Indeed it should be fixed. I can't see Stalin simply sitting on his hands if the Germans don't fullfill their part of the agreement to hand over the Baltic states or Eastern Poland. What would be a good way to fix this in game mechanics I'm not sure. Force a DoW by USSR at some point or just simply handover the territory?


Sincerely,

_Augustus_

P.S. What is the normal focus point rate for USSR? USSR only got their 3rd focus point only in July '42 in our game. Which has cramped their style quite a lot.

[_Augustus_]

Hi,

Reading other posts on forum made me realize you were more after feedback on 1942 in games with regular Barbarossa rather than '42 Barbarossa. All that text for nothing Well almost. The balance would shift towards Soviets in 1942 Barbarossa scenario with those changes. Has the '42 Barbarossa been a viable strategy for Axis so far in GS2.0?

Should this be fixed so the June annexation of the Baltic states should take place regardless of the situation with Warsaw.

Indeed it should be fixed. I can't see Stalin simply sitting on his hands if the Germans don't fullfill their part of the agreement to hand over the Baltic states or Eastern Poland. What would be a good way to fix this in game mechanics I'm not sure. Force a DoW by USSR at some point or just simply handover the territory?

After a good night's sleep. How about rather than have USSR DoW have them mobilize at a certain date and annex the Baltic states at a certain date? By not taking Warsaw and effectively holding onto eastern Poland they are clearly violating the agreement and Stalin knows to look out for them.

Just an idea,

_augustus_