My only suggestions are to add a legend for the macro commands so you can see what they are on the screen, and add purchase options for purchasing back damage, buying technology, or upgrading a minor to a major factory (20 IPCs).
Looks great man, I’ll start thinking/using this and see if I can come up with some scripting that may help it along. (ie like making the macros into buttons you click).
I have in the current game of global we are playing.
UK has long range aircraft and 3 bombers in England, USA has 2 in England. Been spending about 3 turns so far bombing everything that doesn’t have a fighter to defend it, and when they do I use UK’s long range aircraft to bring in fighter escorts with the bombers to hit Western Germany. It is really just softening up the territory while I move transports in to land and doing very very well as Germany bought some of the dmg back the first round out of habbit, and now he will have to dump so much cash into repairs when I land that his counter attack will be very weak. Coupled with the fact that the US landing force in in Gibraltar with a stack of 10 ground units and UK’s fleet at Liverpool, Germany and Italy have to defend just about everywhere.
We kind of decided to play the alternate capital rule at the last minute when Sealion was successful. In the end though I think it made the game play very fairly, otherwise there would just be USA and Russia building (for a Europe only game). We quit right as the US was landing in portugal and the Brits were gearing up to move back to their homeland so we didn’t get a chance to fight for London but it would have been a tough decision. I see it if they spend the money to bulk up London (already built the Major IC back by then), the Russian front starts to hurt and what is stopping the allies from just landing elsewhere? Great game though, I recommend you try the alternate capital house rule if the opportunity arises.
I tried your G3 neutral crush, however I was playing Europe 1940, not global, and I have a few notes. The only variation I played here was if UK fell, they didn’t surrender all of their money and kept playing with Canada as its new capital (which actually worked out very well and stayed balanced).
As Germany, I purchased 2 transports and 2 submarines (in hindsight, a cruiser might also have been a good buy, or a bomber just the same). I used all my planes in some sort of naval combat coupled with submarines and the surface fleet. I got lucky with the dice (but I did also plan out the attacks well) and eliminated every UK fleet in the Atlantic except for the carrier and the other ship at Gibraltar and the one off the coast of South America. In turn I lost 2 submarines and 1 fighter from the combat. All of my planes landed in Holland afterwards. I had to make sure all my transports would be in the baltic rather than the atlantic side of Denmark because 3 fighters vs 1 damaged battleship and a cruiser (2 subs there but the UK planes cant hit them) could easily be taken out and lost all 3 transports and ruined Sealion. Anyways, the ground forces moved into Paris and left Normandy alone for round 2. Also, I invaded Yugoslavia with the Infantry from Southern Germany and any tanks that couldn’t reach Paris this round (was 3 of them and 1 artillery).
UK countered with 9 infantry in London and did the Taranto raid on Italy, though they lacked much teeth after that and just kind of hung out in the med with the French ships to cancel Italy’s NO.
G2 I landed a successful Sealion with 3 transports, using something like 3 infantry and 3 artillery. I lost 3 infantry, 2 artillery and 2 more fighters. We decided to then do the alternate capital for the UK and Germany just went up 6 IPCs with no IPC spoils. This is where I saw an opportunity to do the Neutral crush. UK had no transports on the board except for from the med which now retreated to the Red Sea and the horn of Africa, Russia and the USA were not in the game yet and can’t capture neutrals while still being Neutral. So I decided to set up for Turkey and Spain, while Sweden would come in time since it was safe from Capture, I also noticed if I played it right I could get units into Iraq on G4 and hit Persia/Saudi Arabia if necessary with the extra infantry. Units from Yugoslavia moved into Bulgaria to be ready for Turkey while Italy didn’t make a move yet for Egypt they remained in the Eastern Med for support from their 1 remaining transport. All of the Paris units would take Normandy then G3 would do Spain.
Fast forward to G5 or 6 (can’t remember now that I am on the computer), Germany had a small factory in Yugo for the Russia push (never got around to doing the Afrika Korps NO) but started to struggle a little with units on the Russian front. I still think Russia would start losing ground but they had Leningrad stocked up really well. I do know that I was 1 turn from taking the Stalingrad factory, thanks to an Italian factory in Turkey (yeah they took it when I meant for them to soften Turkey up for Germany). USA landed in Portugal and Morocco. most of the german subs have retreated due to USA weilding 5 destroyers in the Atlantic with a couple bombers for support. Interestingly enough, the UK’s carrier lived long enough to regroup with the South America cruiser and retreated to the US coastline, then grouped up with a token UK fleet built from Quebec. They should be now getting back into the fight here soon enough. Italy did so well against Turkey that when it came time for Egypt, they fell flat on their face. only making 22 with not a single NO (french destroyer still hanging out at Gibraltar after fending off 3 german subs) has been difficult to spend any money on a fleet outside of a sub or two to eventually clear out the med.
All in all? I hit so many neutrals and early enough that I made my money back, the downside is that I have a very very long coastline to now defend from the awakened giant. And every unit I build in Normany, France or London is one less unit vs Russia on the shrinking German stacks of Infantry and Tanks. I utilized my airforce so much that it now only consists of 1 bomber, 3 Tacs (but one is in London for helping take out ships with the subs) and 1 fighter. Overall I am optomistic about winning once Stalingrad falls and I rebuild a stack in Germany to push back, but I may have to let the Allies take Spain or UK just so I am spending money on one less place.
In short, does the strategy work? I would say yes under the condition you take out all of the UK transports, still have a decent Air Force and you get a good stack ready to march into Turkey and Spain. Sweden was easier with 3 transports but I also had to use Infantry gained from Finland that were already earmarked for the Baltic campaign. I think when we quit, Germany was making 76 a turn with 2 NOs and Italy with 22 a turn, UK with 22 or so and Russia at 24. everyone is so worried about the allies picking up a handful of free infantry when they really dont have the infrastructure to pick them up, atleast not for 2-3 turns if not more, in which Germany can make 7 IPCS extra a turn, (+1 for Portugal if you get there, +2 for Iraq and +2 more for Saudi).
can you link the thread for those of us that are not internet-inclined?
Couple things to note gentlemen:
these are the setups for the 1940 Europe version, LH has said that the global will have an alternate setup and we may see that written out in the rulebook somewhere rather than on the boxes.
If we not the France set up we have a minor IC on the normandy coast, major in paris, so that leaves no IC on the med, just a naval base. However, southern france is worth 3, so it can take upto a major IC if your strategy dictates.
Assuming global set up doesn’t change much, I noticed that Western India has 4 infantry, this could prove to be a fair amount of help in holding india for the Pacific campaign, combined with the south africa IC as well.
Germany’s Major IC is on the west side of the country, as and many of us know that is where most of their industry was located at the time. This keeps it in range for strategic bombing by the allies, 3 spaces by my count if you fly over Holland Belguim. One note here before I move on to my point, you can in theory, pump out 10 ships then on the western side of denmark now, rather than in the baltic sea only. Anyways, my final note on German IC’s is that Germany itself is worth 5 IPCs so it can be upgraded to a major IC.
some notes about IPC values for neutrals
Spain 2
Portugal 1
Yugoslavia 2 (my alternate placement for a med IC)
Bulgaria 1
Greece 2
Finland 2
Sweden 3 (to me this is big for the push to Leningrad)
Brazil 2
Venezuala 2
Argentina 1
Turkey: going to call it 2, way to blurry
Saudi Arabia Area 2
Western Persia Area 2
two territories in southern africa that are 1 IPCs each
All I got for now…should be a fun game with lots of different strategies
Ran into this issue when I was Strategic bombing India tonight. Being that India has both a Major Industrial Complex, a Naval Base and an Air Base how is the damage worked out? I can see this as one of 3 ways and couldn’t find any clues in the rule book.
1. Does the bombing nation elect which facility to bomb and only 1 facility gets the all of the damage?
2. Does the bombed nation pick which facility gets damage chips on it? (unlikely)
3. Or does the damage go to the territory as a whole and 6 damage chips on India would stop the Air Base, Naval Base and limit the production to 4 units.
Thanks for the help.