@Imperious:
Kurt i like what i see in terms of how the territories are carved up. Is this your invention or some game you found on Triple A?
If it’s yours, i think you have a great skill in game design.
One thing however, i would l prefer a bit more out of the box thinking in terms of the unit values ( they are too similar to WW2 AA).
Perhaps conversion to a D10 or D12 system, or having the units rolling D6-D12 depending on type ( like in fortress America)
Also, consider some units rolling before others to model entrenched infantry, or Artillery before other units.
These are part of what will become my own game coming out soon, which have all the pieces you brought up and more.
Check out the Great War thread in Variants. Good to finally have something to agree on with you… anything… and something i never thought you had a proclivity for.
Thanks for the kind words. However, I can’t take credit for this map. TripleK and Surtur created the original Domination, and Imbaked converted it to Domination 1914 No Man’s Land. This map can be played on TripleA, which I strongly recommend!
Rand loves playing this map, is very good at it, and is working on his own version of it.
If the attacker is using poison gas, that gets to fire before any other units.
The benefit to being an entrenched infantry isn’t captured by allowing entrenched infantry to fire first. It’s captured via the trench unit.
To give a specific example: suppose the German player uses his Pacific fleet to take Guadalahara on G2. Almost all neutral territories are defended, but Mexico City isn’t. Guadalahara is adjacent to Mexico City. So all you need is one German infantry in Guadalahara to take Mexico City on G3.
Mexico City is worth 4, and has a factory. If Germany is going to defend Mexico City, it should use those four points of unit placement for a combination of infantry and heavy artillery. In addition to those 4 infantry/heavy artillery, Germany can also place 3 trenches in Mexico City each turn. It takes two hits to kill a trench, so Mexico City’s hitpoints are growing by 10 a turn! (3 trenches = 6 hitpoints, + four hitpoints from infantry or heavy guns.)
The U.S. player decides to do something about this. So he spends 20 to build a factory in Texas, and another 20 to build a factory in New Mexico. Texas and New Mexico are each worth 2, so he can now place a total of 4 units right at the Mexican border. That’s good, but not by itself enough to let the U.S. take Mexico City against a determined German opponent. So he spends another 20 on a factory for San Francisco. San Francisco is worth 4, but it’s rather far from the Mexican border. So he uses the San Francisco factory to produce 4 cavalry a turn. (They give you mobility, and are artillery-supportable.) The Texas and New Mexican factories each produce 2 field guns a turn. At this point, the American player is now throwing 8 hitpoints worth of units at the problem, compared to 10 for Germany. The American player’s effort is good, but not quite good enough. He needs a bit of an extra push. So he builds poison gas in his starting factories in New York and Charleston. (Those are the only 2 starting American factories, by the way.) Those factories are very far from the Mexican border. But poison gas can move 3, so it won’t take all that long for the poison gas from there to threaten Mexico City. If the U.S. builds 6 poison gas a turn (in addition to the 4 field guns and 4 cavalry I mentioned), then eventually Mexico City will fall.
This effort will consume all or nearly all of the United States’ income for a number of consecutive turns. The German player knows he can’t hold Mexico City forever against an all-out American offensive. His goal is to delay the American offensive into Spain, or the Pacific, or wherever else the American player had planned on going. The early game U.S. is a little weak. Its income is in the 60 - 70 range, compared to 120 for Germany, about 80 for Austria and Britain, and about 70 for France. Later in the game the U.S. income can be 150 or more, due to neutral farming. The U.S. can do very little neutral farming if it’s going all out against Mexico City. Edit: Britain’s income also tends to increase as the game progresses, with an income of 120 or 130 being fairly normal. Austria’s income should also increase due to conquests at its neighbors’ expense.
In the battle for Mexico City itself, the American player will typically be dealing with a lot of German trenches! The U.S. player will spend most of the battle working his way through German trenches. Recall that of the 10 hitpoints of units a turn the German player had been building on Mexico City, 6 hitpoints came from trenches. The American player will get to kill some non-trench German units at the very beginning of the battle, with poison gas. After that, it will take several combat rounds before the German trenches are killed. Several rounds of the American force’s firepower decreasing, while the German force’s firepower stays the same. (Trenches don’t provide defensive firepower.)
Maybe I’ve sold you on the map’s existing mechanics, and maybe I haven’t. If I haven’t, then I’d encourage you to learn how to create player mods to maps. Imbaked created a player mod to the original Domination map, and Rand is working on a player mod to Imbaked’s map. No one is stopping you from creating your own mod to this map. (Though there is a bit of a learning curve.) I’m over 90% sure that the TripleA engine would support all the changes you mentioned.
