AGEOD's Espana 1936

[MengJiao]

Are there Germans in the OOB?

  There are some very Germanic Units (Panzer Gruppe Drohe sounds pretty dramatically germanic and I've seen them prowling around on the road to Malaga).  There are also Italian Units.

   Luckily, I started with the Republicans because apparently the Republican AI "regional files" need some work.  there are patches for that coming.  However this doesn't have much impact on me since I've been the human Republican and the Nationalist AI has done well I think.

   The Italians landed at Ferrol up north either because the Republicans have left only two port areas open for the Nationalists: Cadiz and Ferrol (and one other Port up north) or because things looked bad up north.  The Nationalist Air cover (either Italian or German) was over Leon up north, which was wise I suppose, but in the end Leon fell to the massed rabble of the miners -- the worst large group of troops in the game -- so things indeed were bad up north for a while.  It is possible to find troops with less base cohesion than the miners (35/75 IIRC), but you have to look pretty hard.  There's a bunch who I assume are listening to Advanced Classical Music in shifts 24 hours a day (the Cultural y Something battalion from Somewhere Near France), but they are not allowed out of their home listening area due to their cohesion problems.

  Notes and corrections on the above:
  1) there are 4 Nationalist ports up North
  2) the Italians also landed down south at Cadiz
  3) when the mixted brigades enter the game, the miners all get the standard 75/75 cohesion

   So, given that mixed bag...what happens in say, January 1937 with the Republicans trying to upgrade their stuff and the Panzers rolling in (the Russian tanks also start to arrive, but they are pretty far from the fronts -- ie in Valencia while the Panzers and Italians in Cadiz are within striking distance of everything from Malaga to Cordova)?   One thing that happens is that an overly-aggressive Republican can wreck his own army in about a month.  The Italians have plenty of good artillery: mobile 100mm batteries and 149mm guns too and the basic Nationalists also outgun the Republicans and throwing in some Panzers just makes it that much worse.
   So I declared game2 a flat out defeat (we will never know how game1 would have gone) and restarted with the situation in dec 1936 of game2.  So now I'm in game 2.1 trying to stay out of trouble until some guns and armor come up to the fronts.

[airboy]

I read a number of books on the Spanish Civil War.  The best, reasonably short book which explained the multiple factions, international support and operations, and the course of the war was the book by Antony Beevor The Battle for Spain.  It had a slightly different title in the previous edition.

Amazon link is: http://www.amazon.com/The-Battle-Spain-Spanish-1936-1939/dp/014303765X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382290962&sr=8-1&keywords=beevor+spanish+civil+war

This was the most depressing war I have ever read about.  Nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody involved in this multi-sided war comes off well.

The factions were:
Communist: USSR: Various Western Anti-Fascist Independents: Supporters of the First Election: Anti-Catholic
Fascist: Italy: Germany: Catholic Church
France, Portugal & the UK (supporting in various means one side or the other).
The Anarchists (very important early in the war).

These different sides, and sub-factions within each "side" waged a pogrom of extermination of their perceived (or real) opponents both civilian and military.  The executions by the Communist, Fascist an Anarchist sides were horrendous.  The USSR, Italy & Germany (and a lesser extent France and the UK) tested out their war equipment.  The USSR, Germany & Italy tested out their combat doctrines since they all had "volunteers" in the conflict.

In terms of the sheer insanity and lack of trust of your "allies" or "enemies" is George Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia."  He got shot through the neck and survived.  But perhaps his narrowest escape was from being executed by the Communists even though he was fighting "on their side."

[MengJiao]

I read a number of books on the Spanish Civil War.  The best, reasonably short book which explained the multiple factions, international support and operations, and the course of the war was the book by Antony Beevor The Battle for Spain.  It had a slightly different title in the previous edition.

Amazon link is: http://www.amazon.com/The-Battle-Spain-Spanish-1936-1939/dp/014303765X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382290962&sr=8-1&keywords=beevor+spanish+civil+war

This was the most depressing war I have ever read about.  Nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody involved in this multi-sided war comes off well.

The factions were:
Communist: USSR: Various Western Anti-Fascist Independents: Supporters of the First Election: Anti-Catholic
Fascist: Italy: Germany: Catholic Church
France, Portugal & the UK (supporting in various means one side or the other).
The Anarchists (very important early in the war).

These different sides, and sub-factions within each "side" waged a pogrom of extermination of their perceived (or real) opponents both civilian and military.  The executions by the Communist, Fascist an Anarchist sides were horrendous.  The USSR, Italy & Germany (and a lesser extent France and the UK) tested out their war equipment.  The USSR, Germany & Italy tested out their combat doctrines since they all had "volunteers" in the conflict.

In terms of the sheer insanity and lack of trust of your "allies" or "enemies" is George Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia."  He got shot through the neck and survived.  But perhaps his narrowest escape was from being executed by the Communists even though he was fighting "on their side."

  I got to February as the Republicans and then George Orwell shot me.  I hope that is a bug.  Anyway, things seem buggy and I'm going to wait for a few patches before I start a new campagin.

[bob48]

[Let me rephrase:  I'd not seen a strategic/operational game featuring the SCW til now.]

True. I'm preparing for my review by reading Beevor's The Battle for Spain.

Its a damn good book - I've read it twice so far.

[Martok]

  I got to February as the Republicans and then George Orwell shot me.  I hope that is a bug. 

???  Is that an in-game event?  A euphemism for something? 

Anyway, things seem buggy and I'm going to wait for a few patches before I start a new campagin.

Oh really?  You hadn't mentioned much specific in the way of bugs before -- what is it about the game that's currently wonky? 

[MengJiao]

  I got to February as the Republicans and then George Orwell shot me.  I hope that is a bug. 

???  Is that an in-game event?  A euphemism for something? 

Anyway, things seem buggy and I'm going to wait for a few patches before I start a new campagin.

Oh really?  You hadn't mentioned much specific in the way of bugs before -- what is it about the game that's currently wonky?

  Sorry.  Just a joke.  the Orwell thing.  In game, the Nationalist AI seems to have broken down.  They are in various cities allowing themselves to be besieged.  Maybe I have too many airplanes and tanks?  They don't seem to be able to cope with things once the Republican convoys start coming in or maybe my submarines and ships are sinking too much of their incoming supplies?  I can't tell.  There seem to be other bugs that I haven't seen yet, but the consensus (and my feeling at this point) is that the AI needs some serious work and not just on the Republican side.

  I've been reading the AGEOD website.  The patches are rolling out.  Maybe in a week or two things will be working.  I think I know what went wrong with the Nationalists: their ability to produce stopped in Dec 1936.  By late April 1937 they have had 16 turns or so without production and they are quite rightly hiding in their defensive works.

[MengJiao]

  I got to February as the Republicans and then George Orwell shot me.  I hope that is a bug. 

???  Is that an in-game event?  A euphemism for something? 

Anyway, things seem buggy and I'm going to wait for a few patches before I start a new campagin.

Oh really?  You hadn't mentioned much specific in the way of bugs before -- what is it about the game that's currently wonky?

  I got patch 1.01b (shows as 1.0b in the game).  This supposedly fixes all the problems I have seen.  I restarted in Sept 1936 (after I shot up the Nationalist Navy and blockaded Cadiz).  The Nationalist AI seems to have regained its composure, though some of its counter-attacks seem to have been overly elaborate (armies hiding in the mountains, blowing up train tracks etc.) and the Italians have arrived and they can do some major damage.  And the Russian tanks, armored cars and Airplanes have turned up.  I've distributed the armor in penny-packets so as to get the armored bonus for entire forces in various spots.

[Bismarck]

Where did you get 1.01b? Thanks.

[MengJiao]

Where did you get 1.01b? Thanks.

  It's at:

  http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?32841-España-1936-Public-Beta-Patch-1-01b-(16th-October-2013)

[Bismarck]

Many thanks!