G40 Balance Mod - Feedback Thread

I suppose “Midway” can happen anywhere in the Pacific and I’m not suggesting anything should be done to the game to ensure a big battle at Midway  :-)

And you can’t really make Pearl Harbor happen unless you start the game in 1941 (like the AA50 game did)

But Stalingrad has possibilities!  You could make a rule that the Russians can produce if they have a factory (don’t need the capital to produce and collect), that the Axis doesn’t sack all (some fraction maybe) of Russia’s money by taking Moscow or that the Germans sack some Russian cash (5 or 10 IPC’s?  1/2 of what’s on hand?) if they get Stalingrad (Russians can defend Stalingrad a lot better without the punitive capital rules)

Just off the top of my head.  They do sound compelling, no?  Remember, in history the Germans tried harder to get Stalingrad than Moscow……

Just curious, don’t you guys think Hepster should get a nod in your credits for the Marine unit graphics you guys are using?

It’s cool to see it get some use, since it was just kind of collecting dust since 2011.

But it always kind of bugged me a little that he goes totally uncredited in the vanilla G40 file, despite doing work on nearly every unit in the game haha. Including that one.

Same deal with Eschelon and Dan, and Crystalct in the past. A lot of people made contributions there for custom maps that got packaged in by Puli several years ago. I don’t know that any of them really pushed for any kind of recognition, since it was all done for the love, but without the art assets we wouldn’t have much a game.

All you have to do is look at the shitty hack job cruiser unit I made, which for whatever crazy reason is still the default in G40, to see what this game used to look before the real graphics wizards stepped in to clean in up lol.

Anyhow, seems like it might be a nice gesture, even if the OOB files makes no mention, to at least give Hepster some props for all the work he did. The slick ass Marine unit is just one example among many.

Not to digress overmuch, but it was never the specific cost or abilities of the Marine unit that had me worried. More the fact that including a new unit to begin with just made it harder to use the mod FtF. Since you have to either order new materials or customize the boxed stuff (like painting infantry or whatever.) I saw it as a barrier to ease of adoption on the physical board. Or at least for peeps that don’t have killer skills to make amazing custom magna-boards and gloriously painted sculpts, stuff that always has me totally envious haha. Kind of had the same feeling about Vichy, since it seemed to require ordering/painting more sculpts or ordering/printing control marker roundels to pull that off FtF. Just that, to me, building those into the foundation puts real limits on accessibility outside of the digital tripleA arena, (where that stuff is way easier to include.) At this point thought, I think the ship has sailed. The mod is probably way too far along now to revisit any of that stuff. Just that when this idea was proposed to me at first, I thought there were other things that might be at the foundation instead (stuff that might be easier to also pull off FtF). But I certainly do dig the way it looks!

The Vichy territory color is very appealing to me, I think it was a great choice. And the Marine unit is an undeniably legit graphic.

But yeah, just thinking it might be cool to see that dude make the list, for hooking up those units.
:-D

Ps. Maybe it would be cool to include some links to HBG for people that want to pull this off on the table top.

Hell with enough interest, maybe someone over there could be persuaded to offer like a package deal, so people can order all the balance mod stuff they’d need together at once.

Or maybe just some suggestions on other ways to do it. Like with a link to printout for Vichy roundels ready to print and cut out. Or suggested methods for a really simple paint job (like just going water based so it’s easy to remove.) You know like Red cap marines. Or if you need to do Vichy inf or ships, it could just be like paint a white dot on the standard French sculpts. Something that’s quick, and doesn’t require a whole lot of commitment.

That way it doesn’t have to be so tripleA exclusive

@Gamerman01:

Stalingrad not a significant city where the Germans “happened to be stopped”?

You need to read up on your history.  Ever heard of “not one step back”?
Never heard that Hitler was obsessed with Stalingrad because of its name?
Not to mention I’m sure the location was very strategic - gateway to the oil fields or something.  And then there were the massive “tractorworks”

The Germans were within spitting distance of Moscow and decided to turn and go towards Stalingrad, that’s how significant Stalingrad is.  This game is a big letdown when the Germans walk into an empty Stalingrad……  Not to mention no battle at Pearl Harbor or Midway, etc etc etc  :-)

What I understood of Simon33 is that he thinks along this way about Stalingrad strategic value:

Though Stalingrad carried significant military importance, the psychological importance both leaders placed on the city elevated it to a level of importance above perhaps even the capital city of Moscow. The price both armies were willing to pay to possess it transcended military utility and entered fully into the category of obsession.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/why-stalingrad-was-the-bloodiest-battle-all-world-war-ii-18535

Do Germany’s players have to aim at the same obsession than Germany’s Fuhrer or can they pick sound military objectives that Wehrmacht’s Marshall would have had advice?

@Gamerman01:

Stalingrad not a significant city where the Germans “happened to be stopped”?

You need to read up on your history.  Ever heard of “not one step back”?
Never heard that Hitler was obsessed with Stalingrad because of its name?
Not to mention I’m sure the location was very strategic - gateway to the oil fields or something.  And then there were the massive “tractorworks”

The Germans were within spitting distance of Moscow and decided to turn and go towards Stalingrad, that’s how significant Stalingrad is.  This game is a big letdown when the Germans walk into an empty Stalingrad……  Not to mention no battle at Pearl Harbor or Midway, etc etc etc  :-)

I’m pretty sure that a fair part of the reason for this battle is that if the Germans won their forces in the Caucasus, their flank would have had some natural protection from the Volga River.

I haven’t heard that Hitler was obsessed because of its name. Interesting! Yes, I’ve heard of “not a step back”. The Soviets lost a lot of men and weapons because of this attitude, e.g. in Kiev even though that battle was before the order.

Did the tractorworks get applied to war machines? I don’t really think anything you said rebuts what I said. It had propoganda value. I guess we have an NO for USSR for propaganda. Why not one for Germany?

Re: Guam, you might also put in some air cover but even if you don’t the most likely outcome from a scramble is a dead fighter and a damaged BB. The ANZAC would need some ships in SZ54 to attack it. Unlikely anything else could reach.

@regularkid:

I also find the lack of regular game circumstances for pivotal battles at Midway, Stalingrad, and a surprise attack at Pear Harbor annoying.

Re: Pearl Habor. That battle did not achieve the Japanese goal of sinking the US carriers so given that  recon isn’t modelled in the game our perfect intelligence makes the value proposition negative.

One more comment on Pearl Harbour. Bad weather the day before had kept USS Enterprise out of the harbour. If that hadn’t have happened, the Pacific might have gone down very differently! That carrier fought at Midway and in the Solomon Islands campaign (the only full size carrier to survive it). Also provided air cover for the Doolittle raid if that raid achieved enough propaganda value to justify the cost. Apparently not in the Coral Sea for some reason.

@simon33:

Re: Guam, you might also put in some air cover but even if you don’t the most likely outcome from a scramble is a dead fighter and a damaged BB. The ANZAC would need some ships in SZ54 to attack it. Unlikely anything else could reach.

So you were imagining Japan doing the attack?  I guess like on J2
ANZAC doesn’t have to attack it, the USA can!!!  I’ve done it before

Yes Hitler was interested in Stalingrad because of the name, and likewise Stalin said not one step back partly because of the name, from the documentaries I watch anyway

Would probably be easy to check, but I think the “tractorworks” were relevant to tank building?

The USA can only attack SZ21 (Guam) if they have units in range. Same with ANZAC. I’d actually imagine that SZ54 would be hit on a J2 if there is anything there. You’d need a bomber somewhere like Wake Is or a naval base there. Doesn’t seem to likely unless Japan doesn’t position J1 to threaten SZ54 like I would.

Indeed, the T-34 was built in Stalingrad. So an NO is probably justified. Why have an NO for Germany though? Just done a bit of digging and it seems there weren’t too many bridges over the Volga in the 1940s. There was a rail bridge at Syrzan 686km by road away though.

I think when I counterattacked Guam sz with USA once, I had air at Wake, almost certainly a bomber and at least 2 planes, which could attack because of a carrier at Hawaii
You could also have the sub and destroyer from the Philippines in range, and depends on what was done with ships in 26 on USA1, so no, you certainly do not need a new naval base

Don’t make me play you…

I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone position like that.

I did say “or” a naval base.

@simon33:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone position like that.

Man I hear that a lot!  I think that’s a good thing……

Now with Kid’s comment, I wonder if he was the one I devastated with a counterstrike at Guam US3 - I think he was…

Done some digging in the code, my suggestion of removing bombardment support from marines isn’t possible without change. Unless there’s a huge call for it, it probably isn’t going to happen.

@simon33:

Done some digging in the code, my suggestion of removing bombardment support from marines isn’t possible without change. Unless there’s a huge call for it, it probably isn’t going to happen.

Why would we remove bombardment support from marines? It’s not like they are too strong.

I think the bombardment is overly strong. I may be the only one who thinks that.

Bombardment is severely underpowered in G40. A lot stops it, and its effects are minimal.

When I was first playing classic we didn’t know the rules and played that if you didn’t use the BB in the sea combat it could still bombard. Is it really that underpowered? 1inf+1art with 2BBs will on average kill 2 units in the first round. Kind of weird that artillery is used and gets the combined arms bonus in an amphibious assault. As if a howitzer was going to fire from a landing ship’s deck! I guess Kid is going to tell me that it did happen now.

My only gripe with bombardment is that hit units get to fire back at your landing troops!  Kinda defeats the purpose of bombarding.  It’s a house rule for my group.