########### 'On the Balance' 1.03b - updated to (try) and make 1.03b work!

January 1936, the world stands on the balance between three competing ideologies.  Democracy,
strong after the first world war has failed in Russia and is rapidly failing in Central
Europe, while Fascism and Communism are both rising to prominence....

This scenario is meant to give a player a balanced set-up, include most of Bolt's
1.02c events (although there's nothing new from Bolt here) and add a fair few of my own.  It also tries to address
some of the AI issues, although there's only so much you can do in the AI files.  While
some of the events may seem a little arbitrary, or maybe not as historical as they could
be, one of my aims has been to make this scenario fun to play, and at times I have made
a compromise between historical accuracy and gameplay expediency, although this is usually
due to the current limitation of the system (for instance, countries not travelling through
countries to which they have military access to attack someone they're at war with!).

Thanks to Bolt for giving me permission to use his material from 1.02c in here.  Same goes
for G'Kar, who's Russian Industrialisation events work a charm for the AI.  Thanks also to 
someone who mentioned the idea of turning CV's into uber-battleships to get around their 
relative lack of use at this stage.  I'm sorry, as I've been unable to track you down, but 
if you let me know who you are I'll drop your name (or what goes for it on the net!) in here.

While you're free to go and do crazy things with the Allies, to counter for the hot and cold 
AI I've put in some relatively narrow Garrison and Invasion prefs.  While this is fine as long 
as you're looking to play the Allies versus the Axis (and I've taken into account the balkan 
states that go to either side, and the UK/USSR wars that crop up over Finland) if you're keen 
to play as the US and declare war on the UK or Russia this isn't the scenario you've been 
looking for.

While the mod is intended to be balanced, you'll probably get the best game from playing as the
UK or the USA.  This is mainly because, try as I might, there's nothing I can do from the 
outside to convince them to invade the continent effectively.  Well, most of the time.

################  Set up:

Put the Axeevents folder in \db
Put the contents of the Scenarios folder in \scenarios
put Axeevents.txt in \db
put the files in the ai folder in \ai

And you're good to go.

Sorry about all the Axe prefixes - initially I was just knocking it up for m'self,
but when it started to come good I thought I'd share!

#################  The scenario:

- Generally edited build prefs for all major and many middle powers
- On average, Nationalist China will give Communist China responsibility for
the northern front against Japan, getting the 8th route army involved.
- Passivity levels for China/Japan war increased.
- China given some ongoing dissent, or it seems to roll Japan a little too easily.
- Puppeting of China if Japan conquers it (option for human)
- An event to end any war between the UK and the USSR at the end of the Finnish Winter War
  (ends if either the end is chosen through events, or Finland is annexed).
- Russian industry artificially strengthened, especially from 1941 onwards, which while its outside
  the game mechanics, is relatively historical.
- Some internal dissent given in Germany in 37/38, to represent the overhaul the domestic
  economy was getting, and to generally slow Germany down a little.
- (perhaps the most controversial change) - If they are in the alliance with Germany at 
  the time it changes to the Barbarossa AI, it will annex Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and
  Bulgaria, and receive a number of divisions in the forcepool representing their militaries.
  I've done this to put an end to the Germans at the gates of Moscow while at the same time
  the Russians have advanced into Southern Germany through the Balkans.  Not perfect, but
  probably better given the HoI's current limitations.
- Similar events that give control of Northern Italy, Northern Spain and Northern Yugoslavia
  to Germany (where appropriate) so that the Allies don't roll over an undefended German/Italian
  border into an undefended Munich!  Added a small German garrison in Innsbruck so that the
  AI has some troops on hand straight away.  This won't fire if Bolt's Italian event has.
- Worked a fair bit on the UK overseas garrisons.  No more troops in Lagos and the New Hebrides.
- Some effects for French (minor) and Russian (major) partisans, mainly through increased
  dissent for Germany - a little crude, but if there's no 'occupying' effect for Russia
  in Germany then it rolls over them in '42 or '43 (well, if the AI doesn't go to sleep).
- An attempted event that makes peace between China and Japan if Japan loses all of its
  provinces on mainland China.  Unfortunately the dow in this case (like that for Denmark
  and Norway) is hidden away in the main code - I've tried to do something about it, but it's
  nowhere near as successful as I'd like.
- Adjusted front, garrison and invasion AI's for many countries.  The adjusted invasion AIs
  seem to help a bit, but not really enough.
- UK convoys to Russia (especially useful if USA isn't in the war).
- Some events to further tweak the alignment of some nations, as without them you can have
  some pretty strange chains of events.

#################### Some Observations

Unfortunately the retreat bug has a significant effect on the war between China
and Japan and there's bugger all I can do about it.  I've seen both Japan and Chine have
30-odd divisions destroyed through it, and if it happens to only one side (which is often
the case) the other is toast.  Touch wood in 1.04.....

I've also put in some events to puppet all of China to Japan if Japan wins, so that they can focus
on a pacific war.  Similarly, I've put in a peace event if Japan loses all of its possesions on
mainland China and Korea.

The admiral object only responds spasmodically, so navies are still doing whatever the hell they
like most of the time.  This hurts invasions a fair bit, as the US will often intercept 
undefended JApanese forces invading the Phillipines, while the UK may not always protect the 
channel.  If anyone out there knows how to make them work please pm me at Road to War.  
Maybe in 1.04.....

The Garrison AI still seems to go to sleep a bit.  It seems a little better in 1.03b though,
although I have sighted a few Garrison super-stacks.  This has mainly happened to Germany,
and in response I've tried to put more Garrison focus on the borders.

Because of the time it takes to play a whole game I'm doing all of the testing 'hands-off'.
This may present some issues with the balance when a human takes over - my apologies, and
please let me know if it does (again, a pm at Road to War would be greatly appreciated).

There may still be some minor event issues where things are out of place - bear with me
on these, as I will continue to improve it as time goes by.  It has got to the stage where I
think it's a significant improvement on 1.03b, though, and given that I'm giving it a run.

################### Anyways


Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy - if you've got any suggestions on how to improve it you're
welcome to let me know at the Road to War Forums.  Feel free to use anything from it in
your own mods as well.

Have a good one, and spare a thought for all those that suffered in the real thing that
inspired this game.

Axe