AK: British India

[VPaulus]

Please post here your comments about this scenario.

[Kamerer]

British India, Beta 2

FM level played
Prestige start: 3,600 End: 250 Net: -3,350
Result: DV at 21/30

Overall: This was a tough map to fight. The air was tough, and very expensive to fight. I’d let the game go to the end – I reloaded it and cleared the map (25 turns) for the satisfaction. At the end, a more dramatic “fanfare” would be nice instead of Habermann’s (if that’s who the briefer is still supposed to be) simple, though well-written, paragraph. Tough map, required work, fun.

First note: I’ve traveled across India a few routes. It’s not all jungle like the map. It could be re-done to make it slightly more varied. I’d also make one victory hex in Ceylon. It was a critical strategic location and significant military asset of the British at the time. Either Colombo or Trincomalee.

Naval game in general: It seems a bit off in my mind. I’m more of a student of naval history than land warfare in general. The performance of the German heavy units in gunnery is really abysmal, and in fact they were superior in that regard. Also the match up between light cruisers and heavier units is not accurate in my mind – they “punch way above their weight” in the game. If a british light cruiser were to seriously get in a gunnery duel with a German heavy, they’d be wrecked pretty quickly.

Air mobile units: I’m confused about airmobile equipment. In the Caucuses, I could glider transport my nebelwerfer units. Here I can not. Why? I ended up with three non-motorized nebelwerfers sitting on rear air bases useless. Just curious what I am missing here? My transport button tells me I have air slots available to do so (not all used up).

Map Issues: most of the airfields say “jungle” as terrain description. Also, the city names are modern ones and not ones used at the time, like Bombay and Madras. Ditto with river names like Ganges.

Movement issue: Actually this is not unique to this game, but it came up again; I had been meaning to ask about it. Unit movement bonuses also apply when they are in transports. I noticed that a while back when playing the main game Italy scenario. Should this really be the case? I have a +2 movement tiger and at sea, it moves six.

[uran21]

First note: I’ve traveled across India a few routes. It’s not all jungle like the map. It could be re-done to make it slightly more varied. I’d also make one victory hex in Ceylon. It was a critical strategic location and significant military asset of the British at the time. Either Colombo or Trincomalee.

Thanks on the feedback. Can you describe in more detail which terrain types and vegetation could be used and where?

Also, the city names are modern ones and not ones used at the time, like Bombay and Madras. Ditto with river names like Ganges.

Naming was taken from Google maps so obviously modern, what would be the proper naming?

[Kamerer]

A lot of those names are modern altered ones. Even many Indians hate some of those names. Like Mumbai. It would be Bombay, etc. Chennai is Madras in 1940 (and still to a lot of people!). I'd look at any pre-1990 atlas, or better yet a world war II era one and use those names. Yangon should be Rangoon, etc. over in Burma. I can look later and make a list for the more significant cities if you'd like.

For geography, I'll look at a topo map of India later today and suggest a few areas to alter. Oh, here's a useful source - I just looked and the wikipedia article is a good quick reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_India

Encyclopedia Brittannica has pretty good detailed summary, too. It starts on page 1 and runs just a few brief pages:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/285248/India

Things that stick out in my mind are the western Ghat mtns., which run near the sea on the SW coast. In the center of the south is an arid plain (part of the Deccan plateau, around Mysore, etc.). Up in the NW there is a desert, too. It's a hugely varied place.

So I would:

1 - put in the desert in the NW
2 - narrow mtn range 1 hex in from coast on SW side - the Western Ghats
3 - narrow hill line on opposite SE coast - Eastern Ghats (they are more hills than Mtns)
4 - arid clear area in between

This would make it more varied and accurate. Also it will keep the defense hard as the mtns and hills will have the same effect as the jungle. If you want very specific recommendations, tell me the easiest way to communicate that. And let me know if you want name suggestions; I can try to find an old atlas or check some history books I have.

[uran21]

List of accurate names for more significant cities would be much appreciated. One question related to vegetation, do you think it would be appropriate to use ordinary forest as well as jungle and how about countryside terrain and tiles? And one question related to gameplay, did you feel you miss more open ground to develop some significant tank battle in the open? I think map could use more open ground.

[Moltke71]

I agree. British India would have used the old names. The names were only changed in the last 20 years.

[Moltke71]

The area around Bangalore is not jungle. My wife is from there and I was there in '76-'77. Bangalore is on the Decan plateau which keeps it temperate. I remember some woods and some barren spots but no jungle.

[Moltke71]

List of accurate names for more significant cities would be much appreciated. One question related to vegetation, do you think it would be appropriate to use ordinary forest as well as jungle and how about countryside terrain and tiles? And one question related to gameplay, did you feel you miss more open ground to develop some significant tank battle in the open? I think map could use more open ground.

Bangeloru = Bangalore
The town SW of Bangalore is Mangalore, not the long unpronounceable name at present
27,30 is Madras

You've lost Calcutta.

[Moltke71]

Not complete because they left out the Karnakata region

See also: Renaming of cities in India
Andhra Pradesh

Elgandal to Karimnagar
Indur to Nizamabad
Metuku to Medak
Paalamuru to Mahaboonagar
Ellore to Eluru (change effective 1949)
Waltair to Vizagapatam
Vizagapatam to Vishakapatnam
Bezawada to Vijayawada
Cuddapah to kadapa to YSR district
Ongole Dist. to Prakasham
Nellore Dist. to Pottisriramulu Nellore
Cocanada to Kakinada
Masulipatam to [Machilipatnam]
Ekashilanagaram to vorugallu
Vorugallu to Warangal

Assam

Nowgong to Nagaon
Gauhati to Guwahati (change effective 1983)
Sibsagar to Sivasagar

Gujarat

Baroda to Vadodara (change effective 1974)
Broach to Bharuch
Cambay to Khambhat
Bulsar to Valsad

Himachal Pradesh

Simla to Shimla
Mandav Nagar to Mandi

Kerala

Trivandrum to Thiruvananthapuram (change effective from 1991)
Cochin to Kochi (change effective from 1996)
Calicut to Kozhikode
Quilon to Kollam
Trichur to Thrissur
Cannanore to Kannur
Palghat to Palakkad
Alleppey to Alappuzha (change effective from 1990)
Alwaye to Aluva
Parur to North Paravur
Cranganore to Kodungallur
Tellicherry to Thalassery
Badagara to Vatakara
Palai to Pala
Verapoly to Varapuzha
Cherpalchery to Cherpulasseri
Koney to Konni

Madhya Pradesh

Ahilyanagari/Indur to Indore
Avantika to Ujjain
Bhelsa to Vidisha
Rassen to Raisen
Saugor to Sagar
Jubbulpore to Jabalpur
Bhopal Bairagarh to Sant Hirda Ram Nagar, Bhopal
Bellasgate to Bheraghat
Ojjain to Ujjaini
Mandu to Mandavgarh

Maharashtra

Bombay to Mumbai
Poona to Pune

Pondicherry

Pondicherry to Puducherry (change effective from 1 October 2006)
Yanaon to Yanam (change effective from merger with Indian Union)

Punjab

Jullunder to Jalandhar
Ropar to Rupnagar
Mohali to SAS Nagar

Tamil Nadu

Koyamutthoor to Coimbatore (change effective 1972)
Tinnevelly to Tirunelveli
Tranquebar to Tharangambadi
Trichinopoly to Tiruchirapalli (change effective 1971)
Madras to Chennai (change effective August 1996)
Tanjore to Thanjavur
Tuticorin to Thoothukudi
Cape Comorin to Kanyakumari
Ootacamund to Udagamandalam
Conjeevaram to Kanchipuram
Virudupatti to Virudhunagar
Potonovo to Parangipettai
Mayavaram to Mayiladuthurai

Uttar Pradesh

Cawnpore to Kanpur (change effective 1948)
Benares to Varanasi (change effective 1956)

West Bengal

Calcutta to Kolkata (change effective from 1 January 2001)
Burdwan to Bardhaman
Chinsurah to Hugli-Chuchura

[Kamerer]

The list bis made covers it all! There you go!

The map changes I would encourage strongly, too.

[Moltke71]

Thanks. The missing cities to the south are covered in my earlier post. Perhaps showing neutral Portuguese Goa would be interesting but not vital.

[uran21]

Hi guys, thanks a lot. Map received update on terrain and uses some custom names for it. Maybe it will not be the masterpiece of accuracy for you who know the area from first hand but it includes more variety and it is an improvement. Still need to change names to correct ones, thanks for the list. Your help is very much appreciated!

[Kamerer]

On the name changes, the big ones that are weird are of course Bombay, Madras, Bangalore, Mangalore, Calcutta (not there), Rangoon, and making the river names historic (like "Ganges"). So if you get pressed for time, don't sweat the tiny ones.

I know time is critical, but if you want someone to look at the map or names, I'll help. I played the whole campaign through and left detailed notes on each scenario (not quite as detailed as above, though). I am wiped out. Rather not repeat the whole thing in beta 3, but happy to help a bit each day; love the game.

[uran21]

Thanks for your help! I hope you will like variety of new map in Beta 4. No more terrain changes are going to be included at this point but your feedback and overall impression on the subject is more than welcome.

[Moltke71]

Much better although Calcutta is still missing.

[uran21]

Shouldn't be missing. It is located at 42,19.

[Moltke71]

My bad,

[Kamerer]

That map looks very good, no one would be displeased.

[monkspider]

British India
DV 23/32
Ending prestige 250
Losses: 2x Italian fighters, 1x Bersaglieri

Here it is, the moment of truth, the conquest of the crown jewel in Britain's crown. This was a great scenario and a proper send-off. I really liked that the scenario begins on June 6th, 1944, that was a nice touch. My strategy was to send my SS Panzer division south along the coast, the 9th Panzer division towards the mountains that guard the British HQ and the Italians east toward Burma. I managed to win the first round of naval combat but the huge fleet on the east side of the subcontinent made me give up on any further eastward conquests with my Italians and instead sent them south to help take the objectives in Northeast India.

As great as this scenario was, there are two things that would have made it legendary.

1. Include a small number auxiliary Japanese infantry troops on the eastern part of the map. Finally linking up with the Japanese would have been such an awesome touch. The hour is probably too late to include something like this in the game, but if you could, man oh man, it would have been epic. You will have to create Japanese units for Pacific Corps someday anyway right? Might as well get it out of the way, right?

2. The ending was great and well-written but it was nice if there was, as Kamerer said, a bit more ending fanfare. Maybe something about the British suing for peace? It would have been nice to know how your victories affected the course of the war.

Well, with that, I have officially played every single scenario on both paths of the campaign. It has been awesome. I can't wait to purchase the retail product as well as play around with more of the new units in a grand campaign playthrough. Now tell Kerensky to give us Grand Campaign 43-45 West!

[uran21]

I am afraid it is a bit too late for Japs to appear. One thing interests me, what is your comment on prestige after Arabia to British India?