Summary for (g)

[Mark Stevens]

These are our current proposals for (g):

Move the Swiss surrender hex to the Federal capital of Bern, not Zurich as at present

Move the Axis Supply Point from Tobruk to Benghazi, to make an Axis assault on Egypt harder (there's another Axis SP at Alexandria if they get there)

Disband an Allied Replacement Unit if the Soviet Union chooses the Winter War Option against Finland (10,000 LRS, 500 SMGs, 500 HMGs, 500 Cavalry, 500 45mm AT guns, 1,000 mixed tanks - early T34s and T28s)

Place an impassable line of hexes from Narvik north to the top of the map - the ports either side can still be accessed from both the west and east respectively

Add a Polish Mechanised Brigade ('2 - 2') in Warsaw and move the airfield garrison one hex to lessen the chance of a one turn surrender

Add some impassable Alpine hexes to the Franco-Italian border, fortify the French passes, and make the French Alpine troops (and inevitably all of the little city garrisons) mobile once France is at war. It should slow the Italians, but not a German attack in several corps strength

Make 'Operation Marita' an automatic part of the German DoW on Yugoslavia, not an Option

Cancel the Axis Option to mobilise Spain (by giving it French North Africa) one year after the USA enters the war

Add a message to the Yugoslav and Greece mobilise News Strings to make it clear that they are not 'Allied' unless invaded by the Axis (this is mainly relevent for an early Axis activation of Italy which isn't part of an invasion of the Balkans: it will allow the Yugoslavs and Greeks to redeploy for a better defense)

Add a message to the 'Case Yellow' Option to the effect that it cannot be used prior to Spring 1940 (I've looked a ways of doing this 'properly' by disabling and then enabling Events, but it's quite complex and has the potential to lead to bugs)

Add a 'King's Own Malta Rifles' and 'Gibraltar Defence Force' to the islands - '1 -1's only, move seven, regimental size. I've looked at a couple of websites and think that the existing fixed defenses do reasonably represent the two island's forts and guns. Their safety should depend on reinforcements from the UK or elsewhere, and the level of naval and air support in their vicinity: to make the intrinsic garrisons any stronger (other than the two regiments) just wouldn't be realistic

Adopted SkyVon's suggestions for the introduction of early Spitfires in the RAF Fighter Groups, and their lower numbers in relation to the Hurricanes. However, the British were outproducing the Germans in fighters (Me 109s and Me110s by mid-1940, so I've built that in to the replacement schedule as well). I'm afraid that implementing the rest of his suggestions - it's worth reading his research - will mean redrawing the entire air OOB: that'll have to wait until we redo the whole scenario OOB, if ever.

I'll need to rewrite the Full Briefing to reflect these, if implemented.

The net effect of these proposals is to lessen the chance of sweeping Axis victories as early as 1939. That'll teach Tero to beat me so easily!

All cheer now.

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"Doing good ain't got no end." Union irregular officer in 'The Outlaw Josey Wales'.

[Ming]

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!

Say, while we're on the subject of things needed to be changed. . . . .


Just kidding. Looks great. Awaiting with baited breath.

[Chuck?]

Move the Swiss surrender hex to the Federal capital of Bern, not Zurich as at present

This is my bread and butter move when I play as the Axis. Moving the capital to Bern will give the French more than enough time to send reinforcements. Once the allies establish a defense in Switzerland it's very hard to dislodge them.


Move the Axis Supply Point from Tobruk to Benghazi, to make an Axis assault on Egypt harder (there's another Axis SP at Alexandria if they get there)

This is a good idea I think.


Disband an Allied Replacement Unit if the Soviet Union chooses the Winter War Option against Finland (10,000 LRS, 500 SMGs, 500 HMGs, 500 Cavalry, 500 45mm AT guns, 1,000 mixed tanks - early T34s and T28s)

A nice carrot to get the Allied player to select the 'Winter War' option.


Place an impassable line of hexes from Narvik north to the top of the map - the ports either side can still be accessed from both the west and east respectively

Another good idea.


Add a Polish Mechanised Brigade ('2 - 2') in Warsaw and move the airfield garrison one hex to lessen the chance of a one turn surrender

Poland really shouldn't fall in one turn. This has more to do with the scale of EA than the placement of units. Warsaw isn't that far from the East Prussian border. Obviously if the Germans had an entire week of movement before the Poles took a single step than Warsaw would be in danger.


Add some impassable Alpine hexes to the Franco-Italian border, fortify the French passes, and make the French Alpine troops (and inevitably all of the little city garrisons) mobile once France is at war. It should slow the Italians, but not a German attack in several corps strength

Ok.


Make 'Operation Marita' an automatic part of the German DoW on Yugoslavia, not an Option

Ok.


Cancel the Axis Option to mobilise Spain (by giving it French North Africa) one year after the USA enters the war

Is the Axis option for bringing in Italy also set to be removed one year after the USA enters? Doesn't seem likely Italy would want to enter the war once they saw how powerful the Americans would be.


Add a message to the Yugoslav and Greece mobilise News Strings to make it clear that they are not 'Allied' unless invaded by the Axis (this is mainly relevent for an early Axis activation of Italy which isn't part of an invasion of the Balkans: it will allow the Yugoslavs and Greeks to redeploy for a better defense)

This should make the Balkans a nightmare for the Axis. Do the Yugos and Greeks get to redeploy if Italy is brought in after the Axis get within 2 hex of Paris?


Add a message to the 'Case Yellow' Option to the effect that it cannot be used prior to Spring 1940 (I've looked a ways of doing this 'properly' by disabling and then enabling Events, but it's quite complex and has the potential to lead to bugs)

This change along with the others will make a fall of Paris in '39 almost impossible.


Add a 'King's Own Malta Rifles' and 'Gibraltar Defence Force' to the islands - '1 -1's only, move seven, regimental size. I've looked at a couple of websites and think that the existing fixed defenses do reasonably represent the two island's forts and guns. Their safety should depend on reinforcements from the UK or elsewhere, and the level of naval and air support in their vicinity: to make the intrinsic garrisons any stronger (other than the two regiments) just wouldn't be realistic

Malta is already fairly strong. If the allied player wants to leave it undefended and allow the Axis player to take it that's their decision.


Adopted SkyVon's suggestions for the introduction of early Spitfires in the RAF Fighter Groups, and their lower numbers in relation to the Hurricanes.

Yes the early Spitfires should be used for some time before the late Spitfires begin to be produced.

[Mark Stevens]

Make Danzig a Free City (Allied), and the two hexes to the east of it Polish - the 'Polish Corridor' - with a weak Polish Naval Brigade ('1 - 1') in the Corridor and the Polish Navy (4 destroyers) off the coast of Danzig.

This will leave Kuechler's German 3rd Army, with one Motorised, two Infantry, and one Landwehr Corps, plus the fixed Koenigsberg Garrison (it is an Axis Supply Point), cut off in East Prussia. The Axis will only be able to reinforce them by sea (prior to declaring war on Poland and claiming Danzig), i.e. exactly as it was in August 1939. Probably won't make much difference to the grand scheme of things...

Make Tripoli accessible from east or west by moving the city and rearranging the line of blank hexes from Malta to the North African coast. It's silly that Tripoli, a major port of the North African coast, currently only opens onto the west. Add an Italian HQ in Libya from the start.

Add a railway line, running through sand dunes, from Cairo to Port Sudan to improve Allied supply in the Horn of Africa. Cut off from the north by a row of blank hexes, with no ports in the south to land on it, and a note forbidding paradrops onto it.

Make the Stalin Line forts Fortified hexes.

Add two more Axis Russian Volunteer Corps in Kiev - apparently there were around 800,000 of them, 'Hiwis' - volunteers - some playing combat roles.

Every time I read a book on WWII I feel new ideas welling up.

[SkyVon]

How will the Allied supply in EA compare to the Italian? Was the Italian supply that strong or should supply to Italian EA come from (in the form of a road) somewhere in Libya?

[Mark Stevens]

That's another alternative. So far we've gone with putting an Axis SP in Addis Ababa, but making the Italian Colonial troops very poor proficiency, and I think that's worked OK.

[Mark Stevens]

how about a Sea Supply Road from Scapa Flow to a port next to Narvik to provide an Allied Player with very tenous supply (it looks like '7') if he decides to fight a Norwegian Campaign and can't open the route to Murmansk through Finland using the Russians? Might make it a bit more interesting.

[Mark Stevens]

And a four turn (one month) delay before an Axis invasion of the UK leads to a Soviet Option to enter the war: Stalin convincing himself it's for real, and mobilising the troops? It shouldn't be any longer, as the Red Army and Air Force was deployed on its western border ready to attack.

[Mantis]

I agree that it shouldn't be any longer, but to play devil's advocate, in >this< game Stalin's a fool if he has more than a picket or two setup in the west. Most of us will never be setup that way (there will be exceptions, of course), and those turns can arguably be said to be required, just to get enough to the front to actually have an offensive.