House Rules

PC/MAC : Commander the Great War is the latest release in the popular Commander series to bring the thrill, excitement and mind-breaking decision making of these difficult times to life.

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Edward75
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House Rules

Post by Edward75 »

If there is no limit in game, then you need to create House Rules.
For example! Limit Air Strikes to one hex per turn (2 Air Strike. May be +-1). Otherwise, you can make numerous raids on one unit. Either destroy it completely, or suppress its effectiveness and then destroy without loss.
What do you think? Need such a Rule?
AEWHistory
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Re: House Rules

Post by AEWHistory »

That’s an interesting house rule. As for me, I am having some trouble with MP atm (ONPP, if you read this, msg me! I’m not blowing you off, I can’t get the game to work!). However, when I get MP going again I’d like to experiment with a few house rules. Mostly stuff to benefit the CPs, but largely play balance stuff to make the game interesting longer. For example,

1. If Bulgaria goes ‘red’ the Allied player agrees to DoW Bulgaria at an agreed upon date. Perhaps sometime around their actual war entry date? This would offset the common occurrence of Bulgaria simply not entering the war at all even though the other three CPs are active and fighting.

2. The Allies can allow for a limited number of German merchant convoys to arrive unmolested or, leave one route open, or something like that. In reality it was easy to close down shipping from outside of Europe, but in-game it is too easy to close down Norway and even Sweden. At best Germany can protect one and sometimes neither. (Explanation: once the royal fleet intercepts the RotW convoy for Germany it can deploy a goodly segment to Norway and destroy those convoys. At the same time the RN sub can reinforce the Russians and more can be sent, effectively making Germany fight a full blown naval war in the Baltic.)

3. alternative to number 2, one could introduce some triggers. It can be agreed upon that an attack on Norwegian or Swedish Convoys would bring one or both countries into the war. So before those convoys can be attacked the allies must declare war on those countries. The problem is that I don’t know if this ends the convoys. Does it?

4. Another alternative would be to agree that the RN cannot enter the Baltic without triggering Denmark from entering the war. The idea being that if Germany will have to fight a naval war in the Baltic it would benefit from the extra Danish warship.

5. Lastly, I have played around with bringing in other countries just for fun. Persia and Spain make for a very interesting addition on one side of the other (though the Ottomans will likely collapse without a lot of help if Persia enters on the Allied side).

Anyway, these are just idle thoughts. I have some others but I’m forgetting them at the moment.
Robotron
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Re: House Rules

Post by Robotron »

@AEWhistory: are you aware that there's a modification of the game available that deals with all of those issues you listed?
Image
Slitherine's Commander the Great War - Director's Cut: POTZBLITZ mod!
FIND IT HERE: http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=218&t=77884&p=662610#p662610
AEWHistory
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Re: House Rules

Post by AEWHistory »

Hey Robotron: honestly, I wasn’t but in fairness to myself I don’t pay much attention to the mods because I’m an iPad user. When I have looked in the distant past I have always wished I could use that stuff—particularly what you’ve designed—but I’m stuck so I try not to give myself more remorse. Does that make sense? However, with the game on sale maybe it is time I bought the Pc version and took a gander at those mods now that you mention it. I’d love to be able to play around with this game a bit.

EDIT: as an aside, has anyone ever figured out what the bug is that keeps Bulgaria out of the war in these MP games? Or, for that matter, SP games as well? It is such a game killer for me because without Bulgaria the Turks are screwed and without the Allies having to dispatch forces to the Middle East the CP is screwed.
Robotron
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Re: House Rules

Post by Robotron »

When the "turns to join" number goes red it means that specific nation's alignment has stopped shifting towards the preferred alliance.
This happens anytime after game turn #20 when the "enemy-to-be" alliance has grown too powerful and declaring war on it would be deemed suicidal.
Usually this happens when one alliance has lost a powerful ally and/or the other alliance has gained a powerful new ally thereby tilting the balance of power too far.
Neutral nations will stop shifting when the "would-be" enemy alliance has 50 PP more than the "would-be" ally alliance even with the PP of the neutral nation in question counted in.
Convoys on the map are also counted in.
In the basic game this often leads to Bulgaria stopping to shift towards CP once Italy has joined Entente.
Once CP start conquering large amounts of Entente cities, thereby reducing Entente total PP, Bulgaria should start shifting towards CP again.
Image
Slitherine's Commander the Great War - Director's Cut: POTZBLITZ mod!
FIND IT HERE: http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=218&t=77884&p=662610#p662610
AEWHistory
Senior Corporal - Ju 87G
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Posts: 96
Joined: Sat Sep 14, 2013 8:49 pm
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Re: House Rules

Post by AEWHistory »

Thanks so much Robotron! This helps quite a bit for SP. For MP I think I am still going to try to do something akin to what I mentioned above, but I’m also going to check the Slitherine store to see if CtGW is cheap on sale. I hate buying it again but I don’t mind spending a few dollars if I can finally play the PC version and all the mods.

As an aside, once Italy joins what is the typical amount the CP needs to conquer to finally get Bulgaria to cross the finish line on the way to war? I’ve never actually seen this happen so it seems like it must be a lot.
Robotron
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Re: House Rules

Post by Robotron »

Capturing 50 PP worth of Entente cities should start Bulgaria (or any other pro-CP nation whose "turns to join" numbers have gone red) moving again.
Normally this can be easily achieved by taking most of Serbia and some French and Russian cities, especially Warsaw.
Each Entente convoy en route to its target counts between 7 to 10 additional PP for the purpose of calculating that limit, so better make sure to sink those as soon as you spot them.
Image
Slitherine's Commander the Great War - Director's Cut: POTZBLITZ mod!
FIND IT HERE: http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=218&t=77884&p=662610#p662610
AEWHistory
Senior Corporal - Ju 87G
Senior Corporal - Ju 87G
Posts: 96
Joined: Sat Sep 14, 2013 8:49 pm
Location: Trenton, NJ

Re: House Rules

Post by AEWHistory »

Has anyone tried MP games where everyone agrees not to disassemble the garrisons? How do you implement that exactly? Because it seems to me that getting rid of the garrisons gives the allies a huge boost.
Robotron
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Re: House Rules

Post by Robotron »

I take it you are referring to the "Small garrisons" which consume 1 PP upkeep per turn.
Russia alone has 57 of those "Small garrisons" equaling 57PP bonus production after disbanding all of them.
You are right at pointing out that this is a problem which can only be solved by mutual agreement and by having good luck at finding an opponent open to reason who agrees on such a proposal.
There is simply not much else you can do about it, it's one of the shortcomings of the basic game.

I might add that in my mod I've removed the upkeep for Small Garrisons and readjusted the production values for each nation to make things more balanced.
My mod also deals with other deficiencies of the basic game like overpowered air units and underpowered artillery among many other things.
You really should check it out. ;)
Image
Slitherine's Commander the Great War - Director's Cut: POTZBLITZ mod!
FIND IT HERE: http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=218&t=77884&p=662610#p662610
AEWHistory
Senior Corporal - Ju 87G
Senior Corporal - Ju 87G
Posts: 96
Joined: Sat Sep 14, 2013 8:49 pm
Location: Trenton, NJ

Re: House Rules

Post by AEWHistory »

Robotron wrote: Sun Jan 10, 2021 9:10 pm I take it you are referring to the "Small garrisons" which consume 1 PP upkeep per turn.
Russia alone has 57 of those "Small garrisons" equaling 57PP bonus production after disbanding all of them.
You are right at pointing out that this is a problem which can only be solved by mutual agreement and by having good luck at finding an opponent open to reason who agrees on such a proposal.
There is simply not much else you can do about it, it's one of the shortcomings of the basic game.

I might add that in my mod I've removed the upkeep for Small Garrisons and readjusted the production values for each nation to make things more balanced.
My mod also deals with other deficiencies of the basic game like overpowered air units and underpowered artillery among many other things.
You really should check it out. ;)
Once again thank you very much. It sounds like your mod really deals with the issues that needed attention in the game. I will certainly DL very soon. It is a shame that the developers didn’t continue on and incorporate more of your changes into the game itself. As you noted, these aren’t just flavor differences. Rather they are basic foundational flaws of what is otherwise a very enjoyable game. Then again, I have been pining for a return to the iPad of Slitherine and the associated programmers. I realize Apple screwed them over but the likelihood of another switch away from 64-bits like the one from 32-bits is many years away. As it stands it is a large market that they seemed to be doing well in.... but what do I know, right?
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