League General Discussion Thread

@gamerman01 said in League General Discussion Thread:

The UHD map is so gorgeous. It is a little bit of a work in progress, and my maiden voyage started over a year ago because @oysteilo is very tough. It took us quite a few rounds to get used to the differences, and Oysteilo found 2 boundary errors and I found 1, so it keeps getting better. @Black_Elk and @barnee have continued to improve it as well.

I got drawn in by the beautiful colors, topography, and the flesh on the infantry. Check out the rivers. Those aren’t just designs, they’re the actual rivers and lakes.

If you try it out, I promise a pretty tough learning curve. I tried it out to be adventurous and to report back to you all. Well… I just did G17, turned out the fog of war in the first several rounds really set us up for an epic game (not to mention a bid of 40 which I believe is double 20) and the battle still rages.

I have downloaded! Are e.g. Saudi Arabia and British Somaliland adjacent to each other? Do you know: Can I use that map but default units?

Oh wow! I only just caught this right now. I get the email push sometimes. Knew it had made the rounds here and there, but league action is next level! That’s badass! Hopefully got all the connects sorted now, but if not, I guess I’ll find out real soon hehe

Yeah I think it should like totally work with all the BM right? Cause the stuff simon33 mentions for balanced mod I just ported straight from the standard G40. That was the hope at any rate, that it would function the same way, just with a bit of a glow up for 20 yr anniversary tripleA, but still working for Balanced Mod, or Oztea’s or any of the standards. Anything like that based off the main game, cause for the main XML basically just the same thing going on as vanilla. Plan was to a quick flip version that would work also for some of the 2.7 features, and also to get the map blends working. Like so the sea zones lines and such wouldn’t break when zooming in/out. I think there’s a quick skin for Revised style colors too, or to blank the terrain or switch to a pattern if some of that is distracting. Or just to snap up the unit art and throw them into the regular G40 folders, if peeps just wanted those Frostion digi sculpts tinted out for National Colors. Kept the labels the same so should be able to plug em in that way if desired. Some of it’s a little wonk for the map, like the Aden/Trucial States getting attached to a nearby tile. I think for an easier read, could probably just do a neutral thing like there like OOB if it makes more sense, or like if one wanted to the same for Sakhalin or any of those additions for stuff that’s cosmetic. The TT connects are the same as vanilla, since that was the XML used, so I think that’s just like one line in the polygons txt to do a quick switcheroo for any TT like the stuff around Arabia.

I think the next step if it works well, would be to upscale to from 11110 px to 16000 px and do a slightly larger relief, since I have the topo-under map ready at that scale. Just takes some time to go back over the lines for the borders and such to do the two tone thing, or for the highlight effect in tripleA when a territory or sz is selected. I’m running GIMP on gaming laptop, which works fine for 1080p gaming but kinda lackluster for image editing, so sometimes it lags hardcore when the map is really large, so trying to reduce the number of layers I need to make it work, before going jumbo again. I think it’d be simpler now, since the hardest part was trying to do all the morphs to get it aligned with OOB.

Sorry, been super MIA for ages it feels like. Got some RL tethers trying to help get the fam sorted, so I’ve been super light footprint. 2025 already! Time travelers paradox, good to see the old crew still rocking!

Good gaming all!

@gamerman01 said in League General Discussion Thread:

@simon33 , he is a mainstay around here, plus did who knows how much programming with TripleA

Absolutely. He added Canada to bungs map and did a bunch of options for BM.

I always try and credit those in any mods I work with and he and the BM crew and many others are credited :)

Really want to see what UHD will look like with Canada lol

I know many of us are working on our league playoff games, but I wanted to draw some attention to this thread, since it is easy to miss in the activity of the forum:

https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/41499/pre-announcement-the-axis-allies-cup

@djensen Is taking suggestions for a separate team competition that I think many of us would be interested in participating in

It is with pleasure I can announce the availability of version 2 of the “French Rebalance”. Main change with this is that after the fall of Paris, formerly French territories can be activated by USA/UK/Anzac. If Paris is liberated, usual rules apply. More info here: https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1738044

I think I have tested the changes just enough but of course, if there are any bugs, let me know.

And of course if you would like to playtest, DM me.

Oh and while I am getting the version bumped along so you can upgrade the map, until that is done, you will need to delete the global map and re-download it.

@GovZ said in League General Discussion Thread:

Since this seems to be the place to toss out ideas to balance the game, I’ll add mine - Allied Advantage (based on an optional rule from the original game): Russia starts with Industrial Tech, UK starts with Radar, & US starts with War Bonds.

I didn’t give this the love it deserves. Adding in game optional rules like tech from the get go is BRILLIANT. And those are great. I would add War Bonds for Russia and even UK. That would bump the income. Obviously tech tokens anniversary style would be a cross variant easy LH approved fix.

@gamerman01 said in League General Discussion Thread:

@crockett36 Those are some really cool ideas,

As to the Allies in Russia NO, I love this one.
#1 the NO is realistic because Russian morale is much higher when they know they’re on their own, it is the Great Patriotic War. The rulebook says “national prestige.”
Gameplay, it’s awesome because you have to balance whether you want the 5 or you want allied help.

I hate you! LOL. We could cross variant allow the optional rule in classic that Russia seizes the foreign units as their own. That would be OP.

@crockett36 said in League General Discussion Thread:

I didn’t give this the love it deserves. Adding in game optional rules like tech from the get go is BRILLIANT. And those are great. I would add War Bonds for Russia and even UK. That would bump the income. Obviously tech tokens anniversary style would be a cross variant easy LH approved fix.

Thanks, but the credit goes to Larry - it’s from a 30 year old rule book and how we played in high school. I feel old typing that.

@axis-dominion said in League General Discussion Thread:

I think what’s needed most to breathe fresh new life into global (all variants) is that ever illusive overhaul of the tech development. It’s a whole dimension of the game that’s gone MIA for too long.

Instead of tech being random, my play group is toying with the idea that certain techs are activated once a power takes a specific action. It would work a lot like a one time NO. Examples would be the UK getting Paratroopers the first time it attacks Holland or Japan gaining Shipyards after building an AB on the Solomons. We haven’t played a game - or even figured out how all the techs would work - so I have no idea how this would impact gameplay.

I had a conversation via DM with @Crockett36 regarding Global 1942. I recently rediscovered this map after playing in once several years ago, because I saw that for the Global Tournament at Gen Con they used this setup. I’m planning to attend Gen Con this August. I would be interested to hear from other League players if they have played this in any format, and what your thoughts are, please reply!

More on Global 1942:
It’s a Larry Harris creation, some might say Global 3rd Edition, and gets all players directly into the action. All powers start at war with each other, and the turn order is significantly changed.

Turn Order:

• USSR
• Japan
• USA/China
• Germany
• UK
• Italy
• ANZAC/France

The turn order prevents Italy from being used as a can-opener on the Eastern front for Germany, but also gives Germany a chance to respond to US landings in Europe before they can be reinforced by the UK - so some interesting play differences.

Also seems to be a little more balanced, I have even seen some evidence that the typical bids (a couple years ago) were in the Axis +6 to +7 range. Japan is in a commanding position in the Pacific, but Germany will likely be scrambling to recover from losing a lot of valuable matéiel and momentum on the Eastern Front. To Italy’s delight, its theatre of operations is largely devoid of UK ships and manpower, but that certainly won’t last long! As Germany doesn’t have a factory in Southern France to supplement any action in the Mediterranean.

If you haven’t checked it out, it is part of the download pack for Global 1940, so you most likely already have it installed!

• The Red Army prepares in counterattack into Ukraine and Belarus, the beginning of Round 1.
  

• The Japanese are in position to destroy a significant part of the American fleet at the Solomons, but doing so may put them in a position to be destroyed themselves–and transports to capture valuable territory are nowhere in range.
  

@gamerman01 @crockett36 @Daaras @mikawagunichi

• Normandy-Bordeaux has both the Naval Base and the minor IC removed; Southern France has the minor IC removed in this setup.
  

Turn Order:

• USSR
• Japan
• USA/China
• Germany
• UK
• Italy
• ANZAC/France

The turn order prevents Italy from being used as a can-opener on the Eastern front for Germany, but also gives Germany a chance to respond to US landings in Europe before they can be reinforced by the UK - so some interesting play differences.

What would be the ipc value of these two changes? 37 plus x

@crockett36

Turn order would definitely affect the bid, it would be pure speculation as to how much it is worth - certainly USSR having an entire extra turn and not being vulnerable to Italian aggression in nearly the same sense is worth at least their 37 IPCs of production, as posited. USA also going before Germany might affect the bid, as US support in the European theater would be a full turn of buys stronger.

Also worth showing the difference in starting units/TUV between OOB and the G42 setup:

OOB

G42

While the unit count and TUV is closer, remember that France’s units and most of UK’s vaporize on G1; conversely in G42, about 100 German TUV is destroyed by the USSR on their opening turn. Also, much of that TUV is facilities: such as the NB/AB in Philippines, Guam, France that tends to fall rather quickly in OOB. So TUV/unit count don’t tell the whole story, of course, but it is interesting to see the difference.

@GovZ said in League General Discussion Thread:

Instead of tech being random, my play group is toying with the idea that certain techs are activated once a power takes a specific action. It would work a lot like a one time NO. Examples would be the UK getting Paratroopers the first time it attacks Holland or Japan gaining Shipyards after building an AB on the Solomons. We haven’t played a game - or even figured out how all the techs would work - so I have no idea how this would impact gameplay.

I really like this idea although the actuality of the details might make it less likeable. It’s always struck me as weird that you invest in research and can’t direct where the investment goes!

@Stucifer So far, I am really enjoying our first game of G42. We played with a 7 bid to the axis and japan feels super strong. Germany feels weak.

Overall, the setup from G42 is very similar to the setup for 42SE, but obviously the rules and map are different.

@gamerman01 said in League General Discussion Thread:

@simon33 said in League General Discussion Thread:

I really like this idea although the actuality of the details might make it less likeable. It’s always struck me as weird that you invest in research and can’t direct where the investment goes!

The way I think of it is the nation is pouring a lot of money into all kinds of research, but only breakthrough here or there, or the breakthrough comes too late, and it is very unpredictable.

Think German rockets, German jets (too late), atomic bombs (never), for example

Having played with tech a lot, I would counter this and say that you are not going to pull a fish from a pond you are not fishing in. For the US to get radar is nonsensical except in a house rule where you allow allied sharing (historically accurate for the Anglo-American alliance). I will tell you that the different charts (ponds) make it so that your chance of getting the tech you want go up as you possess almost every tech on that chart.

Please remember that I am always writing as a playtester who might influence some future game designer who might update the rules for the next generation of players. We need another great WW2 movie! Anyone doing anything to celebrate/commemorate our victory 80 years ago May or September?