New British units can be placed in Cyprus, Malta, and Gibraltar

PSP/DS/PC/MAC : WWII turn based grand strategy game

Moderators: firepowerjohan, rkr1958, Happycat, Slitherine Core

Post Reply
fangotango
Corporal - Strongpoint
Corporal - Strongpoint
Posts: 74
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2014 2:39 pm

New British units can be placed in Cyprus, Malta, and Gibraltar

Post by fangotango »

Is this the correct rule? Or is this a bug. I assume it is the correct rule, but a fellow player has questioned if it is a bug.
Peter Stauffenberg
General - Carrier
General - Carrier
Posts: 4744
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2007 4:13 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway

Re: New British units can be placed in Cyprus, Malta, and Gibraltar

Post by Peter Stauffenberg »

Yes. That is correct. Italy can place units on Sicily and Sardinia too. UK can deploy in Belfast as well. One of their major naval bases was in Belfast.

This is controlled by settings in general.txt. If you alter general.txt you can set 0 on the unit types you don't want to be able to be placed on islands.

/* */
/* ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
/* Unit deployment rules */
/* ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
/* */
/* Controls if home cities on islands and cut-off areas from capital can deploy units */
/* 0 = no. 1 = yes */
ISLAND_DEPLOY_GARRISON 1
ISLAND_DEPLOY_CORPS 1
ISLAND_DEPLOY_PARA 1
ISLAND_DEPLOY_MOUNTAIN 1
ISLAND_DEPLOY_CAVALRY 1
ISLAND_DEPLOY_MOTORISED 1
ISLAND_DEPLOY_MECHANIZED 1
ISLAND_DEPLOY_ARMOR 1
ISLAND_DEPLOY_FIGHTER 1
ISLAND_DEPLOY_TACTICAL_BOMBER 1
ISLAND_DEPLOY_STRATEGIC_BOMBER 1
ISLAND_DEPLOY_SUB 1
ISLAND_DEPLOY_DESTROYER 1
ISLAND_DEPLOY_BATTLESHIP 1
ISLAND_DEPLOY_CARRIER 1
Jimbonsx
Corporal - Strongpoint
Corporal - Strongpoint
Posts: 73
Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 6:13 pm

Re: New British units can be placed in Cyprus, Malta, and Gibraltar

Post by Jimbonsx »

Can I ask about the rationale behind allowing British deployment in Cyprus, other than it being a British military base; ditto Malta? These places were difficult to travel to in the war, for large bodies of troops. I could understand allowing Suez or the Arabian Sea as deployment sites for British forces but I cannot think of a single reason to allow Cyprus that ability.
What was the thinking behind this decision?
Peter Stauffenberg
General - Carrier
General - Carrier
Posts: 4744
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2007 4:13 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway

Re: New British units can be placed in Cyprus, Malta, and Gibraltar

Post by Peter Stauffenberg »

The thinking was to allow deployment in cut-off areas (e. g. in Russia) and also islands such as Sardinia, Sicily and Northern Ireland. The old rules required a rail link to the capital to be allowed to place new units. One example was Northern Ireland which had a big naval base, but you couldn't place any units there. Another was Sicily which had a big population.

Placement of units in naval bases like Cyprus can be seen as units coming to the Mediterranean theatre from e. g. the Far East. Some units are deployed in Egypt as fixed reinforcements, but you can't place new units in Egypt since Egypt is not a core UK territory. Cyprus is so that means units place there simulates those coming from South Africa, India, Australia etc. You have to place the unit on a ship to sail it to Egypt to enter the battle.

The alternative would have to be general off map boxes where you can place reinforcements produced, but there was not room for such an area on the map. Cyprus, Malta and Gibraltar simulate that effect. However, to place any units on Malta or Gibraltar you have to empty the hex first making them vulnerable to capture. There are no hexes adjacent to the fortresses where you can add new units. If you leave Malta or Gibraltar you can also trigger events against the Allies making it easier for the Axis in North Africa. E, g. the supply limit you have in North Africa for Axis units is dependent upon the Allied unit presence in the Mediterranean.

It was certainly possible to code exceptions for certain areas, but the development team opted against that since it wasn't seen as a problem for game play. The benefits for adding the possibility to add new units more freely was more important.

E. g. isolated cities were able in Russia to produce units. There was e.g . examples of one side of the tank factory in Stalingrad producing new tanks while fierce battles took place in the other end of the factory.
Jimbonsx
Corporal - Strongpoint
Corporal - Strongpoint
Posts: 73
Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 6:13 pm

Re: New British units can be placed in Cyprus, Malta, and Gibraltar

Post by Jimbonsx »

Thanks for replying.

It makes gameplay really weird when the Axis have the Suez Canal and British army units turn up in Cyprus.
How about designating Suez and/or Kuwait City as "UK" territory, thus allowing the placement of UK units there? I don't think that's unreasonable, especially as Egypt was a British Protectorate at the time. Kuwait is already (in the game) a part of Egypt for conquest purposes.
(BTW in "Commander The Great War", Egypt is a valid deployment area for new builds....)

Britain is unique in this game in that it is the only major power with a global empire from which it could call forth new-build units (I am excluding France because the French army could only realistically call on reinforcements from North Africa) - Canadian, Indian, ANZAC, South African units are all represented in the game, because they're part of the Empire and were transported by sea to their theatre of operations, despite not being built in "UK" territory.

Gibraltar is a reasonable candidate for deploying UK units because it has easy access from the Atlantic, Malta shouldn't be a deployment area for the same reason as Cyprus, Leningrad was a huge city (2nd in the USSR) and capable of recruiting and equipping (albeit not very well) a shedload of replacements/new units so yes to allowing new builds there.

Stalingrad, incidentally, was not cut off - the east bank of the river was always Soviet-controlled.

The whole point about an area being cut off is that it is, well, cut off from regular supply and reinforcement, so maybe just allowing replacements (unit rebuilds) should be allowed?
Peter Stauffenberg
General - Carrier
General - Carrier
Posts: 4744
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2007 4:13 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway

Re: New British units can be placed in Cyprus, Malta, and Gibraltar

Post by Peter Stauffenberg »

We could certainly have done what you're suggesting. However, there seems to be almost no players left playing GS 4.0 so it might not be worth the effort making yet another patch.

I guess players are hoping Slitherine would be interesting in making a strategic WW2 game with resources, oil, production etc. after their recent successes with Panzer Corps 2 and Strategic Command.
Jimbonsx
Corporal - Strongpoint
Corporal - Strongpoint
Posts: 73
Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 6:13 pm

Re: New British units can be placed in Cyprus, Malta, and Gibraltar

Post by Jimbonsx »

Well, thanks for replying anyway. It's such a pity no-one wants to play CEAW any more - especially after all the hard work that's gone into GS. I'm still playing, just not getting any replies to my request in the 'Opponents Wanted' forum.
Peter Stauffenberg
General - Carrier
General - Carrier
Posts: 4744
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2007 4:13 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway

Re: New British units can be placed in Cyprus, Malta, and Gibraltar

Post by Peter Stauffenberg »

I had a look at this issue and managed to make some slight code changes to turn off deployment on Cyprus, Malta and Gibraltar.

I added some values in general.txt to control the status of the following 5 island areas:
ISLAND_MALTA_DEPLOY 0 /* 0 = can't deploy on Malta 1 = can deploy */
ISLAND_GIBRALTAR_DEPLOY 0 /* 0 = can't deploy on Gibraltar 1 = can deploy */
ISLAND_CYPRUS_DEPLOY 0 /* 0 = can't deploy on Cyprus 1 = can deploy */
ISLAND_SARDINIA_DEPLOY 1 /* 0 = can't deploy on Sardinia 1 = can deploy */
ISLAND_ALBANIA_DEPLOY 1 /* 0 = can't deploy on Albania 1 = can deploy */

Here Malta, Gibraltar and Cyprus are turned off, but Sardinia and Albania are turned on. So it can be customized to the player's need.

I make a separate post with the files needed to implement the above. These changes will not invalidate save games. This change also fixes the issue about spawning UK units in Egypt after Egypt surrenders when the Axis capture Cairo and Kuwait.
Jimbonsx
Corporal - Strongpoint
Corporal - Strongpoint
Posts: 73
Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 6:13 pm

Re: New British units can be placed in Cyprus, Malta, and Gibraltar

Post by Jimbonsx »

Thanks Stauffenberg, perfect fix, and thank you for revisiting the issue.
Post Reply

Return to “MILITARY HISTORY™ Commander - Europe at War : General Discussion”