Moderator: Cartographers
FarangDemon wrote:There are no bonuses associated with the bombing missions.
Those numbers in the legend at the lower right hand of the map represent example values for starting neutrals on the bombing missions. The legend explains that regions with plane icons one-way assault the bombing missions (which start neutral). The bombing missions then bombard the color coded regions.
I'll try to make it more clear. Maybe moving the numbers to the left and making them look like neutral army digits would help.
Size of Neutrals for the Bombing Missions
* Rolling Thunder - 3 (-1 every round due to air defenses)
* Linebacker - 7 (-1 every round due to air defenses)
* Barrel Roll - 2
* Steel Tiger - 2
* Arc Light - 1
* Menu - 6
MarshalNey wrote:OK, looked this over in some detail. First, while I love the clean graphics and all, what I love even more is... an informative First Post. It helps us mods digest the map info quickly, but more importantly it helps community newcomers to the thread, especially on more complex gameplay.
So, as soon as you guys get a chance, could you update the first post with all of the relevant gameplay information? I like the historical overview, it gives a decent backdrop for the theme. What I would like to see is:
# of total regions
-- # of regions that are 'open deployment' (deployed randomly at the drop)
-- # of regions that are starting positions
-- # of regions that are neutral
(by my count, there's 60 for open deployment, plus 8 starting positions plus 6 neutral bombing missions)
Names of any neutral regions and their starting values
Gameplay framework and current ideas... this is basically this post:FarangDemon wrote:Regional Bonuses
As the continents are otherwise too big and too hard to defend given a standard bonus structure, I think we could use something like Berlin or England. It would also help every starting location have a near equal chance of growing at the same rate.
This is my initial idea:
Cambodia, Laos, North Vietnam, South Vietnam
hold any 4: +1
hold any 6: +3
hold any 9: +6
Thailand
hold any 5: +1
hold any 7: +3
hold any 10: +6
I think this adjustment for Thailand evens out the advantage of not being able to be bombarded and having neighbors who might not go for Thailand. Though the US Army likely will go for U Tapao, they may have no pressing need to venture deeper into Thailand.
I've purposely assigned the value of just +1 army for the lowest level of bonus in order to minimize the advantage one would get by dropping it, which would happen a lot in 4-player and even 6-player trips. So it's like Poker Club, you can drop a pair but you only get 1 more army than a High Card would.
Starting Positions
We've shifted our starting positions to the leaders - each player gets one leader. Each leader would start with, say 6 troops and assaults its corresponding region. To protect them from being attacked before a player's turn, the territories they assault could start neutral.
In addition to adding to the historic feel of the map, this new arrangement protects the starting positions of Kaysone Phomvihane and Pol Pot from bombardment. Now we don't need to worry about creating a small territory within a territory in Houaphan to represent the Pathet Lao caves which sheltered the Pathet Lao HQ from bombardment, as Kaysone is quite safe from bombardment under the new arrangement.
Bombing
The numbers in the legend refer to the neutral armies you need to go through before you can execute the bombardment. Territories with planes one-way assault the color-coded bombing missions (each color has two missions it could assault).
I chose the neutral starting values for the bombing missions to match the actual chronology of the war(s). Initially it is easy to bomb Laos and South Vietnam and North Vietnam below Hanoi. It should take a bit of time before violating Cambodian neutrality (Operation Menu) and the more comprehensive bombing of North Vietnam including Saigon and Hai Phong (Operation Linebacker). For the same reason we want Tet Offensive to have a high neutral starting value....
Tet Offensive
For an added gameplay twist (which should please the history-minded) I want to allow Ho Chi Minh to conduct the Tet Offensive. He could one-way attack a large neutral "Tet Offensive" which can one-way attack any South Vietnamese region except Mobile Riverine Force and 1st Cavalry Division. Based on the below map and from what I've read, it seems that every region we have except for those two was attacked during the offensive.
Ho Chi Minh Trail
Attacks range 2 down the Ho Chi Minh Trail (from North to South). So one could attack directly from Khammouane to Quang Tri or from Quang Binh to Xepon to North Central Highlands.
And, even though you might not use traditional continent bonuses, it will help me if you include a breakdown of each bonus continent like so:
N. Vietnam
10 regions, 4 borders, all bombardable
Laos
14 regions, 7 borders, 6 bombardable
Thailand
10 regions, 3 (4?) borders, none bombardable
Cambodia
10 regions, 5 borders, 5 bombardable
S. Vietnam
16 regions, 5 borders, 4 bombardable
If you can keep the First Post tidy and regularly updated, this map should have a smooth ride through gameplay.
natty_dread wrote:Ah, ok.
So, let me get this bombing thing straight...
Linebacker bombards the northern part of north vietnam, the area with Hanoi, 6 territories.
Rolling thunder bombards the southern part of north vietnam, 4 territories.
Right?
Are Guam and Yankee Station separate territories?
natty_dread wrote:Well, I think the green bombing missions and Arc light could be at least neutral 2:s. 1:s are a bit too easy...
natty_dread wrote:Is the only function of the faction leaders that they give a +1 autodeploy? Seems like they could be made a bit more useful...
Riskismy wrote:Hey FarangDemon,
I don't like how you've set up the Political/Military Support territories. It seems to me that some leaders will have quite massive advantages over the others.
Take Pol pot or Ho Chi Minh, they each have their own private bonus area which isn't contested by other leaders. As far as I can tell, there's no way for the other leaders to assault these Support territories unless they go through the leader first.
I think you should consider perhaps reducing the amount of support territories to 4 and have two leaders fight over each. Alternatively, make 8, but somehow accessible - perhaps via the power centers?
In any case I like it all in all, but I think you have to take a closer look at that arrangement.
Riskismy wrote:As for the bonuses, you have the three private support territories of Pol Pot, Ho chi Minh and Kaysone at a simlar bonus as the one contested by Lon and Vang. That won't do at all IMO.
Riskismy wrote:I'm not sure about US public opinion. Do I understand it right that Ho chi Minh is the only one who can use the Tet Offensive?
FarangDemon wrote:I've created a new thread where I can modify the first post to keep up to date with changes.
Please refer here for the latest version of Second Indochina War. Please read the first post, all is explained.
viewtopic.php?f=583&t=140208&p=3061339#p3061339
It sounds like you are saying it will not do for Chinese Aid and US Aid to both provide +1, regardless of the different numbers of neutral armies guarding the bonuses. But consider if US Aid was reduced to a single neutral. Now the players going for US Aid have almost nothing to fear from losing troops to the neutral, the only risk is from each other. The players going for private bonus are going against 3 neutrals, will lose some armies up front and might not even succeed in taking it the first try. Maybe now it's fair.
Based on your input, I've also changed US Base-building to be just 3 neutrals. I agree with you that at 4 neutrals it was too risky to take. We could even reduce it to 2 neutrals, but I'll wait to here your thoughts first.
One thing we need to keep in mind before lowering the neutrals too far for the shared bonuses - in games with fewer than 8 players, it will sometimes happen that there will only be a Lon Nol player while Vang Pao starts neutral. In this case, Lon Nol will have an advantage over Pol Pol - Lon Nol has a +1 bonus guarded by a single, whereas Pol Pot has to go through a 3 stack to get the same reward.
In a 7-player game, it's a 1/8 chance that Lon Nol is absent and 1/8 chance that Vang Pao is absent. That means 3/4 chance that either Vang Pao or Lon Nol is absent.
Yes. So it's a private bonus until Ho Chi Minh (if he exists) launches the Tet Offensive.
Riskismy wrote:Then that another problematic issue IMO. Not only is Ho chi min the only one who can gain all those wonderful paths of attack,
FarangDemon wrote:I can't edit the first post as it was posted by grifftron, and he is no longer active on this project. So if it's necessary to edit the first post, and I can't be given rights to edit grifftron's post, I guess we'll need to make a new thread.
FarangDemon wrote:I've created a new thread where I can modify the first post to keep up to date with changes.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users