BJR-mod future changes on the to-do list

[Peter Stauffenberg]

Here is our current list of changes we want to implement in the BJR-mod. Some of the changes are meant to remove the need for house rules while other changes are meant to improve the game play.

We encourage you to make comments to the proposed changes. We don't know yet when and in which sequence the changes will be made, but here is the list from highest to lowest priority.

1. Research restrictions (easy)
2. Rail movement restrictions (easy)
3. Historical Italian surrender (medium)
4. Weather effects outside Russia (medium)
5. Amphibious landing limitations (medium to hard)
6. Reinforcement arrivals from a text file (medium)
7. Partisans (medium to hard)
8. Sub rules (medium to hard)
9. Port rules (medium)
10. Transport loops (medium)
11. Victory conditions (medium)
12. Malta Supply Rule (hard)
13. CV, BB and DD build time (medium to hard)
14. New unit types like Marines and Paratroopers (hard to very hard)

[Peter Stauffenberg]

Here are some explanations to each change.

1. Research restrictions
• The game could prevent players from building more labs in an area than determined by the game year. This should be
easy to implement.
* 1939: max 1 lab in each category
* 19410: max 2 labs in each category
* 1942-1942: max 3 labs in each category
* 1943-1945. Max 4 labs in each category

2. Rail movement restrictions
• The game should keep track of the free rail movements per turn (all units can use these).
• When the number of free moves are used up and you must pay for rail movement then the game should keep track of
which units are sent when paying for. Then armor, motorized and air units will NOT have the rail movement icon lit up
when activating the unit.

The game should only allow for the following overload of the rail capacity:
* 2 corps units
* 1 corps and 2 garrison units
* 4 garrison units

When the overload limit has been reached then NO units will have the rail movement icon lit up when activating any unit.
• The game should also keep track on cities, fortresses, capitals captured during the game turn. These should NOT be
shown as valid destination targets for rail moves. Only cities, fortresses and capitals owned by the START of the game
turn should be eligible as rail movement targets.

3. Historical Italian surrender
• Italy should surrender if a city in mainland Italy is Allied occupied and both cities in Sicily and all cities in Libya are lost
to the Allies. Italy will surrender as before if Rome is captured regardless of which other cities are Axis or Allied controlled.

I wonder if it’s possible in the code to check for control of certain cities (by name or hex coordinates). Then the game should
test the status for the following cities.
* Milan
* Genoa
* Venice
* Florence
* Rome
* Naples
* Taranto
* Messina
* Palermo
* Tripoli
* Benghazi
* Tobruk

The test can be like this.
If Rome = Allied controlled => Italy surrenders

else if (Milan OR Genoa OR Venice OR Florence OR Naples) are Allied controlled AND (Messina AND Palermo AND Tripoli
AND Benghazi AND Tobruk) are are Allied controlled => Italy surrenders

else Italy does not surrender

If this contingency test is too complicated we can simply let Italy surrender if one of the following cities are Allied controlled:
* Milan
* Genoa
* Venice
* Florence
* Rome
* Naples

4. Weather effects outside Russia
• Movement penalty (but NOT efficiency loss) for 6 turns from severe weather could be extended to more
countries than Russia.
• The game will check the original owner of the hex to determine which countries will be affected by movement
penalties due to bad weather. These are the countries that should be affected in addition to mother Russia:
* Finland
* Sweden
* Norway
* Estonia
* Latvia
* Lithuania
* Poland
* Hungary
* Romania
* Bulgaria?
* Yugoslavia?
* Turkey?
* Switzerland?

Or should all European countries suffer movement penalties during the winter? I remember how the Allies
struggled in Italy during the winter. Not from snow, but from mud. So all countries should have some winter
effects.

To make the winter effects easier then we could say that the movement penalty from winter will occur
on the same months as the amph limitation meaning that movement penalties will occur in December-January
in the Med countries while November-February in Europe. This will be in addition to the Russian winter rule.
So mother Russia may have winter effects for longer than the rest of the world. E. g. the Russian winter
starts in December with efficiency loss and winter. Normal movement penalty started already in November.
It should cease in March, but since the Russian winter started in December it will last for 6 turns from that turn
(maybe till April).

That is a simple way of handling things because movement penalties due to winter will be at the same time
as limitations to amph landings. Russian winter will be an exception because it’s longer and also causes
efficiency loss.

This change will make it harder to perform offensive operations during the winter even outside Russia. This will
help the Germans late in the war because the Russia armor can’t blitz towards Berlin during the winter once
they get out of mother Russian terrain.

5. Amphibious landing limitations
• The game could keep track of the available amphs for each side. When an invasion is made the the available
number of amphs for the power is decreased by 1. Landings into friendly controlled hexes will not decrease the
number of amphs.
• If there is no more amph points available then the unload button should be greyed out if you try to land in an
enemy controlled hex.
• At the start of each turn the available number of amphs should increase by 1 until the max for the major power
(decided by game year). It would be nice if these numbers are printed in a dialog box at the start of each turn
for each side. E. g. Amphs currently available: Germany: 2, Italy: 4. Britain: 1, USA: 1, Russia: 4. Max available: 4
• Amphs for Allied minors will use British amph points except Free France that will use US amph points.
• Amph points for Axis minors will use German amph points.
• Italy will use German amph points in the Atlantic and Germany will use Italian amph points in the Med unless
Gibraltar is Axis controlled. This change may be hard to implement.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

6. Reinforcements arrival from a text file
• Should be possible to make a file called reinforcements.txt with the following columns.
* Country
* Unit type
* Arrival year
* Arrival month (0-11)
* Arrival day
* Arrival at country activation (Y or N)
• When the conditions are met for the unit activation then the unit will be placed in the force pool for the side the country
belongs to. If you answer Y to arrival at country activation it means the unit will ONLY arrive on the turn the country
activates instead of a fixed date.
• Also leaders should have a chance to activate from such a list. So it should e. g. be possible to set an arrival year, month, day
to 1939,8,1 and then the leader should be in the force pool when the game starts.

7. Partisans
• Partisans could only appear as garrisons and never as corps units.
• Partisans could have a chance to appear in any unoccupied cities, fortresses or capitals. This change
will remove the need for forcing players to garrison cities. They will now do it in fear of losing cities to
partisans.
• Unoccupied captured cities in the following countries will lose 2 steps per turn from partisan attacks (similar
to strategic bombardment). At the end of the turn one step will be repaired so it will take 1 turns to
bring the production down to 0. This rule applies to all unoccupied conquered cities regardless of country.
• Partisans should have a chance to continue to spawn in certain occupied countries. The spawn chance
could be different for each occupied country. These are the countries that could get partisans after
being occupied:
* Russia
* Britain
* USA
* France
* Yugoslavia
* Greece
* Turkey
* Spain
* Sweden
* Others?
This point may be removed if we include the rule about unoccupied captured cities will lose 2 steps per turn.
That would simulate partisan activity in those countries.
• Partisans could arrive with a random strength between 3-10 in.

8. Sub rules
• Subs should be allowed to move through enemy naval units. If they end their turn in an enemy occupied hex then the
sub is automatically moved to an adjacent hex. With this change we can remove the house rule about having max
4 naval units adjacent to a sub.
• CV’s and naval units should not be allowed to attack subs if they have moved before they attack.
• Subs moving should NOT be stopped by naval units or enemy subs in their movement path. ZOC at the start of the
turn should be used to limit the movement range of the sub. So a sub should in fact be “teleported” to the destination
hex when moved. This will remove the problem with hidden enemy subs stopping sub movement and forcing combat.
So surrounding a sub is useful to have ZOC around it so its movement range is smaller next turn, but with this change
you can’t box in a sub.

9. Port rules
• BB’s and DD’s should not be allowed to attack enemy naval units in a port.
If it’s possible to lift this limitation for one turn if the naval unit inside the port attacked in the prior turn then this is
good. But the most important change is to prevent BB’s and DD’s from attacking naval units in port. This means the
ports will become free havens a depleted naval unit and rest and repair.
• Max one sub attack per port per turn should be allowed. This is similar to having max 2 air attacks her hex.
• Enemy land units adjacent to a port should not be allowed to attack a naval unit inside the port unless the city
controlling the port is controlled by your side.

10. Transport loops
• Should add a new transport loop from the Western Africa to the Persian Gulf
• Should add new transport loop from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf
• Should add new transport loop from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea
• Should change who can use the transport loops so all transport loops are open except the one from the Eastern Mediterranean
to the Red Sea should be controlled by Port Said and the one from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea should be controlled by Kiel.
• The movement time inside each loop can be controlled by a variable in general.txt or hardcoded to 1 per loop if that’s easier.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

11. Victory conditions
• The game should replace the current game victory conditions and replace it with the BJR-mod victory conditions.
• The game should show victory conditions by the end of the May 1945 turn or when one of the sides has been
completely conquered. Then it should count the number of the following capitals controlled by the Axis or the
turn all victory cities were Allied controlled:
* Berlin
* Rome
* Washington
* London
* Moscow
* Paris
• Then the game should show the victor according to the following list:
*Ultimate Axis victory: Axis control of 4 or more capitals (London, Washington, Paris, Moscow, Rome, Berlin)
*Strategic Axis victory: Axis control of 3 capitals
*Major Axis victory: Axis control of 2 capitals
*Minor Axis victory: Axis control of 1 capital
*Draw: Axis lost their final capital in May 1945
*Minor Allied victory: Axis lost their final capital in March-April 1945
*Major Allied victory: Axis lost their final capital January-February 1945
* Strategic Allied victory: Axis lost their final capital in July-December 1944
* Ultimate Allied victory: Axis lost their final capital before July 1944


12. Malta supply rule
• The game could keep track on the available Malta supply rule points by counting the number of ports controlled
by the Axis:
* Casablanca, Oran, Algiers and Tunis: +2 per city
* Tripoli, Benghazi, Tobruk: +2 per port
* Alexandria, Port Said, Beirut: +1 per port
This number could be shown at the start of each game turn similar to the available number of amphs. Or it
could be written in the status line somewhere. E. g. like
Available supply points: 6
• The game could also keep track on the number of supply points spent on units occupying a hex in one of the
following countries:
* Vichy France, Free France, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Persia
• All Axis units inside those countries will add to the Supply points needed using the following values:
* German armor, tac bomber or strat bomber: 1.5
* German fighter or motorized: 1
* German corps: 0.5
* Italian or Axis minor: armor, tac bomber or strat bomber: 1
* Italian or Axis minor: fighter or motorized: 0.5
It can be shown behind like
Axis African supply points: 6 / 6. The number before the dash is the spent number and the number after the dash
is the max capacity
• The game could also check if the Allies have 3 naval units (including 1 CV) in the Med and write the max supply points to
999 if the Allied player doesn’t have so many naval units.
• The same can be done if the Axis player controls Gibraltar or Malta. Max supply points = 999.
• The game could even prevent landing of Axis units in the African countries if the spent number plus the unit supply
cost is greater than the available supply points. Then the unload button is greyed out. This change may be hard
to implement.

13. CV, BB and DD build time
• Several of the major powers had already started contruction of naval units prior to the war. For some the hull was ready,
but the ship itself was not fitted. Some hulls were general so the ship built could be a BB, CC, or CV dependent upon the
need at the moment. Destroyers were built much faster and USA had a record of building DD’s super fast.

To make this easy we could e. g. assign via General.txt the free build pool for each major power. E. g. like this.
UK free build pool = 6
USA free build pool = 4
Russia free build pool = 2
Germany free build pool = 2
Italy free build pool = 3

Then the game checks the number of BB’s, DD’s and CV’s built and stores it in a variable called Already built.
The game can use the following algorithm for calculating the build time for the next surface naval unit:

Build factor = 1 if Already built <Build>= Build pool AND <2>= 2*Build pool

Build time = base build time * Build factor

This means that e. g. the UK will have their first 6 naval builds at the regular built time (BB, CV and DD) 8, 8 and 6 turns
the next 6 naval builds at 16, 16 and 12 turns and all future builds at 24, 24 and 18 turns.

14. New unit types like Marines and Paratroopers (hard to very hard)

* Marines
It would be nice to have the chance to build marines that would use the same stats as corps units, but with the ability to attack coastal land units just like a BB and a chance to advance into the vacated hex if the defender is killed. That means it would be possible to penetrate a line of coastal garrisons along the coast line.

The marines should be restricted so they can't just jump from coastal hex to coastal hex to land. The marine should only be allowed to attack the same coastal hex until it's captured or until the marine withdraws from the coastal hex. Then the marine unit should have to get back to a port to get the attack coastal hex possibility. This would simulate that a marine unit on a beachhead must continue to fight on the beachhead until the beachhead is cleared.

An alternative to a marine unit could be that when you can purchase an amph capability for corps units in a port. The amph capability could cost 20-30 PP's or so and means that the corps unit is allowed to attack an enemy occupied coastal hex from a transport. The attack capability is available only as long as the corps is on a transport. Once the transport moves from the attack hex adjacent to a coastal hex or the unit lands then the unit becomes the normal corps unit again. That is a simple way of simulating amphs.

* Paratroopers
Paratroopers could be dealt with similar to corps units. It should be possible to buy airborne capacity for corps units located in a city for e. g. 20-30 PP's. When clicked on you buy the airborne capacity and the unit changes into a tac bomber with the movement range of a tac bomber. Then you can move the airborne corps within attack range of the tac bomber and click on unload to land the corps in an unoccupied land hex. Then the corps will become a normal corps again.

[gerones]

Here are some explanations to each change.



2. Rail movement restrictions
• The game should keep track of the free rail movements per turn (all units can use these).
• When the number of free moves are used up and you must pay for rail movement then the game should keep track of
which units are sent when paying for. Then armor, motorized and air units will NOT have the rail movement icon lit up
when activating the unit.

The game should only allow for the following overload of the rail capacity:
* 2 corps units
* 1 corps and 2 garrison units
* 4 garrison units

[rkr1958]

Borger is truly a wizard! We're alpha testing the weather changes he's made to the mod. I'm excited about these and other changes he's making to the mod. I'm in awe about how quickly he was able to make these changes. It's truly amazing.

[anlag]

I'll say it again, this is a great mod and it means a big life for an already good game. Big props, well done.

Having just finished a game vs the AI with the 1.05 version where I wanted to test things out, I noticed a couple of things that could be tweaked, if the possibility exists in the code. For one, when Germany falls, all its fortresses disappear. Since all hexes in Italy now belong to Germany, this includes the forts in the Gustav line. Normally unlikely to be noticed, I suppose, but since the AI failed to take France and ze Germans ended up being squashed between the Russians and the western allies, Berlin and Hamburg fell in October -42 while the invasion of Italy was still just getting going up the 'boot'. Now, it's not as if it's going to make a huge difference if Germany's fallen anyway, but I can't say it didn't make it easier when that fortress line across Italy just disappeared, and it would seem more realistic if it didn't, right?

Another thing I noticed, which probably applies in the vanilla game as well (only played a few rounds in all), is that the Russians and the western allies have separate rail networks and that this sometimes leads to somewhat strange situations. In my game, the Russians took Berlin while the British took Hamburg, prompting the game to inform me Germany had surrendered to the UK (is that random, or always to the conquerer of Hamburg, or always to the west rather than to the east? The latter could be quite historical, if they had had the choice.) Then, when the Russians somewhat later had taken Venice and I wanted to rail some tanks there rather than drive them across the Alps, I find Russian troops in allied controlled hexes (the surrendered Germany) can only rail to other allied cities, meaning for instance Genoa (taken by Patton) but not Venice (taken by the Russians.) However, it was perfectly possible to rail freshly built troops from back in Russia down to Venice, which since I hadn't invaded Yugoslavia yet (that came slightly later) meant they had to travel through Germany/Austria anyway... Somewhat of a contradiction there. Lastly just to make it even more interesting, for some reason one isolated hex in Bavaria did become Russian controlled rather than allied like all the rest of the country, and from that one hex I could rail Russian troops to the other Russian cities including Venice. Weird. Now, I realize the separation of the rail networks may be intentional, but it does create some contradictions, as shown. Also not a big issue, but just to point it out.

--

Now, a couple of other remarks, first on this...

• Partisans should have a chance to continue to spawn in certain occupied countries. The spawn chance
could be different for each occupied country. These are the countries that could get partisans after
being occupied:
* Russia
* Britain
* USA
* France
* Yugoslavia
* Greece
* Turkey
* Spain
* Sweden
* Others?

I'd certainly add Finland to that, and for that matter... Germany. Also, depending on what scale things should be represented, there was a pretty active Dutch resistance, could that be interpreted as partisans? Perhaps not even a full garrison, considering the size of the army to begin with, but if it's possible (as implied) to spawn units with less than full strength, I'd include them with a chance to get a few strength point partisans.

By the way, speaking of Finland, and weather. If there's any possibility at all to do so, please try to exclude the Finnish troops from getting the efficiency penalty from Russian winter. The game as it is gives the Russians an advantage over the Finns in winter, while the historic reality was the exact opposite. The Finns were experts, perhaps the best in Europe, at using the terrain and the harsh winter to fight the much more poorly equipped and trained Russians, allowing them to inflict an estimated ten times the casualties they themselves sustained during the Winter War. The Russians may have learned their lesson and improved, say, by the later stages of the Continuation War but even that would only reduce the gap, not turn things around to their advantage. If anything, the Finns should have a boost relative to the Russians in winter, but a first step would be to at least remove their penalty.

All said, most of these things are relatively small issues, but since you're already excelling in taking care of the bigger problems, it feels like we are in the luxurious position of pointing out also the less vital things that could be improved. Keep up the good work!