HOMM IV: Axis and Allies (H4)

[gravyluvr]

Hey folks,

Long time player/CH forum member. I reloaded HOMM on my new computer and have been playing some HOMM 2-4 for nostalgia sake.

I am revisiting a map I created about ten years ago in HOMM IV for myself that I made that plays like Axis vs. Allies.

I'm going to be tweaking it as I recover from hip surgery.

Looking for testers and help on easiest place to file share these days. I have a dropbox account and can share that way.

Allies:
RED - Russia (Might)
BLUE - USA (Order)
GREEN - France (Nature)
PURPLE (Great Britain)

Axis:
CYAN - Germany (Death)
ORANGE - Japan (Chaos)

I've created the map so that the human plays as the Allies. The difficulty rating can certainly make a difference so try it out.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/amwtivdqpcc5k ... s.h4c?dl=0

You can hit me on this thread for ideas and troublespots. Two beginner tips. Know your WW2 and AAA, and like any good might player, hit-n-run with Russia, run away with the French, and manage the British empire while you use the American Production dominance.

Known issues: I need to improve/tweak the Japanese abilities to produce Naval threats and I'd like to improve the Axis ability to expand their empires.

[gravyluvr]

Added natural difficulty if you only play as certain powers and leave the French to the computer (not a good future for Charels de Galle) or even Russia (makes it ultra difficult).

[Panda Tar]

Welcome back, Gravyluvr! Just passing to say hi, actually. And I hope for a quick recovery. Hip issues is ever present and kinda delicate to take care of, although nowadays there are plenty of ways to prevent some stuff we can fall victim off later on.

For your health, then!

[gravyluvr]

Thanks Panda Tar! Good to see a lot familiar names. I've been playing older/favorite versions HOMM and Civ to relax and unplug after work for years.

[Yurian Stonebow]

Thank you Gravyluvr for the opportunity for me to set my mind into new Heroes map making fun. I downloaded the map, previewed it in the H4 map editor and started making enhancements of my own for my personal enjoyment and for reasons of historical accuracy. Geographical details will be further looked into and modified, and extra eye candy shall be added. Balance related issues are on my "To do-list" as well. Cheers, Yurian

[gravyluvr]

@Yurian

Cool. It was started and then shelved and I found it when I was copying old files and drives into my new computer. Like most HOMM players I made my own maps but rarely dared to put them out there. If I recall, I even used a World War II for Dummies book to get a lot of the Leaders names and to work on the locations. I also tried to use the Axis and Allies board game as the starting positions and strategic base of the game.

[gravyluvr]

To give you the context of the game board, keep in mind that the resources are designed around the points per territory in the AAA map, included here:

[cjleeagain]

I just downloaded the map to take a look at.

It's interesting and doubtless has taken a lot of work. But I've always had problems with this kind of war gaming.

You can be balanced and accept a theoretical, sanitized world where the field isn't tilted. Or you can be historical. I don't really see any way to reconcile the two.

I think the map should have taken some of these concepts into consideration:

1) Russia is vast and difficult terrain to wage war in - muddy in Spring and cold/snowy in winter. Overstretched logistics, transportation costs, lack of oil doomed the German advance. I remember a H2 map of Europe that had these features done right.

This map AxisAllies.h4c 's Russia is easy to invade with not much barriers of distance or snow/swamp terrain.

2) Germany is compact with plenty of productive capacity located in an easily traversed region. It starts out well armed, but must expand quickly in order to gain natural resources. Ditto for Japan.

I'm totally not sure what so many Satyrs and Berserkers (but not enough to pose a serious challenge to the high-level German heroes) are doing all over the terrain of Germany for this map. Is the AI supposed to fight these guys? Or is the AI supposed to round them all up, conscripting them for a huge German army?

3) UK is insulated from easy invasion, correct. Winston Churchill is a solid might hero, ok. UK has colonies and vast resources, correct. Distance and naval power will decide. The UK's naval advantages give it versatility but also very long supply lines. Much of the UK's military power could not be brought to bear against Germany in the early stages of WW2.

I think the UK faction can be played a lot like how the real-life UK was played.

4) The US was really badly distorted on this .h4c map. Made too small and compact. The real-life US was this vast arsenal of democracy that needed the longest time to get up to speed due to the oceans and its own internal distances. EG distance from Kansas City to New York is bigger than the distance from Berlin to Moscow.

So when I saw this map had so many resources clustered around Washington, it didn't feel like the US. I think a realistic US player should have huge potential, but need time that its allies didn't have. Instead of a few well-resourced cities I think the US player could have started with a vast landscape of unflagged mines, and have to travel a long way to flag them before the they can get any genies or titans.

[gravyluvr]

Just re-found this thread...

Germany gets to mass Necro the French/nature neutrals to build their dead armies. I found the US took a long time to get into action when I played even with some of them flagged. but you still had to flag the Titan, Golem and other Order Troops. Also Order take a lot longer to get into the action.