Yes. Chechens. The Montainous Republic of Northern Caucasus will threaten Grozny, under the Green flag. An incentive to keep Terek Cossacks in the vicinity…
THe MNRC was one of these small minority trying to win independance against both Reds and Whites during the Civil War. Their presence will force Southern White to keep a closer look to this area, and will disturb Reds attempting to stand here against Reds.
One of the most difficult balance question in wargame is tied to the knowledge players has of the outcomes of the past. Who would name Hood as Army leader? Who would let Ardennes unguarded in 1940?
This problem in RUS surfaces from the start when a player takes the Reds. He knows Czech legion will disappear before winter 1918 and the most potent enemy of the Revolution is the Southern Whites. As Southern Whites begin the GC in very precarious situation, the Red player will often choose to concentrate in Kuban rather than on the Volga.
Premises are correct, but the game is losing a large part of its interest. What isn’t portrayed is the lack of knowledge about future Bolsheviks faced at this time.
So it is needed to reintroduce this situation. As I’m always reluctant for idiocy rules, I’ve resorted to a compromise.
If Reds are played by a player ( not Adriven then), the loss of Kazan, Simbirsk, Saratov and Perm before november 1918 could cost each 7 NM. Maybe yes, maybe not, to preserve the sense of a bet upon future. Such NM losses will hurt severely Reds during the first part of the game.
Red player will have to choose more carefully to neglect the Volga front. He may avoid the dire consequences of the priority to Southern front, but at least, he will have to think twice about.
For the next version? soon.
Playing with Southern Whites, and suffering for large Red winter offensive, both Stalin and Trotsky menacing my gains in Kuban. Krasnov has been beaten, Denikin army blooded…
1) Trotsky isn’t anymore railbound. He now moves as any leader. The railbound trait is creating endless problems for a very small result. Moreover, many times Trotsky will be in a railroad region of close to it because of the constraints of supply.
2) Thanks to the insightful remarks of Old Fenrir here :
http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=23512
Most of the Don army will be locked in the first 2 turns. Realist and helping game balance.
Most of his other suggestions have been implemented in FY since several months ago. Reds have more artillery, regional policies earn more tothem, etc.
3) AI should be much more active during winter. The AI passivity during winter is helping human player too much and these long lulls are just unhistorical. Both sides attacked several times during winter. One reason to lower AI aggro during winter was the risk of attritional losses, as AI has no real clue about attrition. If necessary, I prefer to help AI by giving it a boost in replacement to compensate ( not yet done, only if tests show this to be needed).
4) bug fixes here and there…
5) Northern Caucasus Army group may suffer during first months random paralysis ( ie units are locked for one turn). The Red leader Sorokin, murdered at least one subrdinate, did a putsch against leader of the local Soviets and was finally assassinated by his own troops…It had to be protrayed and i will be an incitative for Red player to not push too much troops in the Kuban at start.
5) AI will build more supply wagons.
6) Southern Whites AI will target more often Tzaristsyn in the first months.
7) Improved a bit Red AI behaviour in Turkestan.
8) Increased possibility of small green revolts in Ukraine
8) Ukrainian faction will have now guerilla units ( a few)
9) The finnish offensive against Olonets in April 19 is now portrayed, under the form of a Green faction action. The event will fire randomly if Finland isn’t offically at war with the Reds and cease if the war begins. Finns limited force are belonging to the Green faction as this action was considered as hostile both by Reds and Allied powers.
10) The Republic of Northern Caucasus will be represented too as a Green revolt, popping up randomly around Grozny.
First, thanks to all who have downloaded since yesterday the new version of FY. I wasn’t expecting a so large number.
In the official forum, lately some discussions about balance have resulted in really nice contributions. Of course, the official version is unbalanced. FY tries to get a better result in this field too, but with unavoidable choices in design. To situate myself in the old and customary wargaming debate about Victory conditions, I’m very inclined to consider Victory is doing as much than in real situation, or better. So Reds in FY are expected to win against Whites before the summer of 1920. Time is a critical factor to assess victory condition, as Reds did that in history.
But, FY is a computer wargame, ie a game mainly played against AI. An AI can’t just be expected to perform better than in history or even as good. AI will always be weaker. So the victory conditions must be harder against AI ( in the Red case, more penalties for winning after 1920 Summer).
Definition of the right victory conditions in FY is yet a work in progress, of course, even if a large part has been implemented…
The next version will fix bugs, and should be released in a few days. I’m currently smoothing a bit Balt involvement in war.
BTW, SVF is shelved once again as the last AGEOD version has introduced some new features having terrible consequences for gameplay and AI. It will need time to assess and address the mess they created. It’s tied to the new recruit rules, retrofitted without any thinking for AI and gameplay, as described in this thread:
http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=23493
The same trend is now affecting all AGEOD design: the programmer is acting as designer, who is not unfortunately for us…He’s believing the AGE engine is by itself a great game. He’s wrong. Design is needed even on a great engine…
Let the dust settle and wait AGEOD cease to alter without insight AACW. Just put the definitive version, without bugs….
Edit:
as usual, AGEOD is denying the problem. Unfortunately, 3 years ago, artillery could be built is some States where today no artillery can’t, even if you may order such buildings, which will never been completed…AGEOD dev,whose main nickname is Pocus, should think twice before writing: why AACW authorize artillery to be bought in some States? Because maybe it was possible before AGEOD has messed the whole thing…Certainly a sideeffect of the changes in the DB done by Gray Lensman…
Yes,
after a serie of delays ( broken laptop, business and family urgences), the new version is coming.
Compatible with 1.04.
You must first patch to 1.04 official version, then apply the Fatal Years mod.
Modder Corner 