There’s a lot to unpack here, so I’ll go through your post and answer as best I can.
@argothair said:
I have never played or even seen East & West other than in this one article, so I’m in need of more of a primer. Is East & West available at all on TripleA other than as a mod of the Classic map?
The answer is no. I am not experienced enough (i.e. at all) with adding/creating new maps/games within TripleA, although it would be theoretically possible.
What you can do is go to http://www.motcreations.com/ and download the MapView app; in short, what this allows you to do is add and move units around the map, creating a new map tab for each turn-phase, but everything else has to be done manually (dice rolls, etc.) It’s handy for visualization, but by and large it is essentially just an aid for PBEM play.
Does it really make sense to use the Classic map, given the limits that places on your ability to have additional territories?
The thought with mocking the game up in Classic has basically everything to do with the fact that the rules/mechanics of E&W most closely line up with those of Classic; by running it in Classic, you at least get a sense of how combat would go in terms of odds, as well as testing strategies, because you can pretty much map the starting setup 1:1, and the relative positioning of units is mainly the same. The other consideration is that most other global maps (i.e. Revised, Anniversary, etc.) tend not to have the “cold war” territories you would expect anyway, such as North/South Korea and East/West Germany. Again, this is why I have mentioned upthread that I would be interested in converting Europe 1940 to play E&W with – link to the separate thread for that here: https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/39450/brainstorming-east-west-cold-war-scenario-for-europe-1940/1
Have you been able to automate any of the (e.g.) diplomacy rules for tripleA, or does that all have to be done manually by the players?
As I mentioned, I have no experience with the developer tools in TripleA, so I’ll give you an overview of how the diplomacy mechanics work:
Essentially, if you influence a major neutral (aka neutral alliance) they move one pip towards your side (as depicted on the map.) They can give 1/4th, half, or all of their income to either the USSR, or the NATO nation which they are affiliated with. There’s also “+0” to each side, and a “true neutral” (let’s say) spot. So effectively a sliding scale of 9 positions; China starts at +1/4th to the USSR (i.e. +4 IPCs, since China is worth 16 IPCs) and the OAS starts at +0 to USA; the Arab League starts out at true neutral.
(as a side note, Imp Games’ followup game, a WWI game known as The Great War, reduced the sliding scale for diplomacy to only 7, removing the +0’s. This game map is also available with MapView.)
Since the diplomacy roll is just a 1d6 (successful on a 1) I imagine it’d be possible to build that into TripleA; at worst, you’d have to mod the PUs at the end of the relevant turn(s).
As for minor neutrals, they essentially have their own forces (as is the case in, say, G40) but can be influenced to join a NATO power or the USSR; the USSR can also attack any neutrals at any time (including majors.) So those territories would just become “owned” if influenced or attacked; IME with TripleA, this would be a little janky, because the app seems to hard-code all territories as belonging to a particular owner, and that underlying alignment never changes. So, for example, if you code China as neutral but the USSR attacks them, any remaining territories should become British-owned; if the US were to liberate those territories, TripleA would (I suspect) make them American, when they should be British.
How does East & West think about the possibility of nuclear escalation – I saw in one place you discussed using an essentially tactical nuke against a US Pacific fleet, but is there any possibility that the game escalates into strategic nuclear war?
So the other mechanic that impacts diplomacy is the “complication table” for nuclear weapons. Essentially, whenever a nuke goes off, you roll 2d6, and consult the complication table; the most likely outcome is a normal attack, but you can also cause “outrage” by one or all 3 of the major neutrals, shifting their support one notch to the opposing alliance.
On a 2, the nuke detonates in the territory from which it was originally launched (i.e. at the start of the combat move phase) and on a 3, the nuke is a dud and is both lost, and fails to detonate over its target.
The other risk with nukes is that the bomber carrying them can be shot down by AA fire, and may fail to escape the blast radius (1 on a d6 roll.)
The problem is that nukes destroys 5 units (either on land or at sea) so while Soviet infantry cost 10 IPCs for 5, naval units cost a minimum of 40 IPCs for 5 – with nukes costing 20 IPCs.
Because E&W takes place in 1948, the USSR does not start with the technology to produce nukes, and (as you can see) the cost and other drawbacks make them a tough sell for NATO; this keeps their use generally very limited – often the US fires their starting nuke, but the only others I tend to see are purchased by the USSR late in the game (round 6+, approximately.)
Hopefully that all answers your question about nuclear escalation.
Finally, does it make any sense to have traditional ‘capital’ rules during this time period and at this scale? My understanding is that half the point of NATO was to assure countries that the rest of western Europe would keep fighting even if, e.g., France were occupied. Similarly, it’s hard to imagine China or the USSR surrendering in the 1970s or 1980s just because you took Beijing or Moscow.
E&W expressly does not use the capitol rules from Classic; a country keeps fighting on if they lose their capitol, and they do not surrender their IPCs or stop producing IPCs in that situation. In terms of mimicking E&W using the Classic map in TripleA however, these mechanics cannot really be worked around.