It's the start of 1944, and the tide has turned against the Axis powers. Italy has surrendered. Germany is grimly fighting to hold onto Northern Italy. The USA is counterattacking in the Pacific, and Japan's resources are becoming strained.
The USSR is counterattacking on the eastern front, stretching Germany's reserves to the limit. Germany has been frantically fortifying their Atlantic Wall, to defend against an expected Allied invasion of France.
But, the Axis Powers, like a wounded animal, are fighting more fiercely, and could be more dangerous than ever. Do the Allies have the will and determination to win this fight, or will the Axis be able to use their military might to strike back and thwart the Allied plans?
This is a shorter scenario with plenty of action in all theaters, running from January 7, 1944 until September 2, 1945.
Release Notes #46 (Version: 1.0.8594.25195)
New Functionality:
New D-Day Scenario
Tuning [List] <*> Reduced UK Manpower for Pearl Harbor Scenario <*> Improved USA AI performance against Japan <*> Reduced impact of Russian Office Purge <*> Increased "Mother Russia" defense bonus <*> Increased Russian Winter penalty
Bug Fixes:
Fixed a bug that was stalling USA AI against Japan
Release Notes #45 (Version: 1.0.8536.18029)
Tuning [List] <*> Adjusted AI Production priorities
Changes:
Closing a report now returns you to the reports menu.
Bug Fixes:
Fixed errors in move map that prevented moving between Copenhagen and Malmo, and Gibraltar and Hoceima
Release Notes #44 (Version: 1.0.8502.23827)
New Functionality:
New "Show All Moves" Command. Press and hold the "M" key to see all of your planned moves displayed on the map.
Airbases can now be built to multiple levels. The number of aircraft that can participate in battle will be limited to the airbase level of the region they are based from. The existing airbase levels on the map have been updated to the new system. For example, if the airbase level is 4 and you have 8 units operating from there, they will operate at 50% effectiveness.
New option to suppress showing convoy battles on the map.
Changes:
In Air-to-Air combat, the losing side may attempt to break off to avoid destruction.
Air units will now return to their starting air base, when possible. Air units historically returned to their bases except for emergencies, so this is more realistic. They will now only choose another airbase, if their original is not available.
Updated fighter, tactical bomber, and strategic bomber air/sea attack ratings to include approximate impact of aircraft speed and climb rates in combat performance. The old calculation excluded these factors, which made these ratings less accurate. The new estimates are based on the average of the enemy faction's performance at the same tech level, so this rating is still an estimate, and your actual combat may vary, depending on which enemy country you are attacking. But, it should be a better estimate than is currently in the game.
Updated Resource Grid on Production Screen. When you weren't producing enough supply or fuel, the Resource Grid Usage Row would only show what you had available to use, not what you actually needed to fully fuel or supply your troops. The grid now shows what you actually need, even though you weren't able to provide that amount. This will help you better know when you are underproducing fuel or supply. In this case, the tooltip will also say "Need" instead of "Used".
Pearl Harbor Scenario - Released
This new update includes a new scenario you can play: Pearl Harbor.
The game begins just after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. America's Pacific Fleet has taken a major blow, but the attack has driven the Americans to join the war!
Meanwhile, Italy has been reinforced by the Afrika Korps, and is trying to push back the British in Libya.
Germany has conquered France, and has begun Operation Barbarossa, driving up to the very gates of Moscow where they have ground to a halt in a fiercer than normal Russian Winter they weren't prepared for, that is taking a heavy toll on their troops.
With this new scenario, the action is intense all across the world, and you will have to react quickly to survive in the most exciting period of World War II.
Release Notes #43 (Version: 1.0.8488.16006)
New Functionality:
New Scenario: Pearl Harbor. Start play just after Pearl Harbor Attack on 12/12/1941 and continue to end of war on 9/2/1945
Units Report now shows active trade and supply convoys
Tuning [List] <*> Reviewed and updated AI Research strategies <*> Updated Japan AI Strategies <*> Updated German Trade AI to better assist its allies <*> Updated USA AI strategy when D-Day invasion fails <*> Adjusted USA and USSR mobilization. Mobilization was starting too soon, and was too fast. <*> Supply convoys burned coal as first choice of fuel, now they burn regular fuel first, if available, then use coal. <*> Trade convoys weren't being charged fuel costs. Now they are charged coal or fuel <*> Adjusted manpower levels. Manpower was too generous for colonial powers like the UK. Original calculations were based on the percentage of total population that could be used in factories, with that value reduced somewhat for conquered territories. The reality is that the colonial populations lacked training and infrastructure in their territory to achieve that level of effective manpower. And historically, conquered territories manpower usage was lower than allowed by the game. New manpower levels should be more realistic for what the countries could actually utilize historically.
Changes:
Updated the Research Details Screen to make the research effects more clear.
Bug Fixes:
Fixed bug that was causing AI to overbuild transports
Fixed bug with supply creation causing crash
Russian armor Tech Level 1 had incorrect number of AT Guns
AA Production was not adding the correct number of guns.
Cash research bonus was not being properly applied.
Release Notes #42 (Version: 1.0.8437.16566)
Tuning [List] <*> Based on player feedback, increased Difficulty for levels higher than Sergeant. This won't affect games already in progress. <*> Updated AI for mid-to-later war years for greater ally cooperation, and cross theater operations <*> Reduced shore bombardment damage, but added a small morale reduction for the target unit.
Changes:
Finland map now has a lighter color. It was previously the same color as Germany. This will make it easier to distinguish between the two countries. Note: this will only take effect in new games. Old, saved games will have the old colors.
Bug Fixes:
Difficulty: Game was incorrectly giving player difficulty bonus for countries that were still neutral when playing Axis vs. Allies Mode. For example, if you were playing as USA before Pearl Harbor, you would have incorrectly been given a bonus until you were at war.
Difficulty: Game was not correctly giving bonuses in Axis vs. Allies Mode.
Shore Bombardment ground defenders were able to damage bombarding ships.
Release Notes #41 (Version: 1.0.8416.23153)
New Functionality:
When disbanding a ground or air unit, you can now optionally move the troops, tanks, and aircraft to your replacement pools, instead of recovering resources and manpower.
Changes:
Streamlined the animation on the Game Over Screen replay.
Changed background image on Game Over Screen.
Bug Fixes:
Disbanding units did not return the correct amount of metal to the resource pool.
Bomb load for rockets was higher than intended. Value was for whole unit of 10 rockets instead of per rocket. Rockets caused more damage than intended.
Rocket range was not being computed correctly. Targets should now be correctly identified and should be reachable by the rockets.
Release Notes #40 (Version: 1.0.8405.19707)
New Multiplayer Game Modes: PBEM and Hotseat! (Beta)
The main new features of this release are two new game modes: Play-by-Email (PBEM) and Hotseat.
With both new Multiplayer Modes, you play against a human opponent instead of the computer AI. Both multiplayer modes use Axis vs. Allies Mode. Meaning that one player will control all of the Axis Countries, and the other will control the Allies.
In PBEM Mode, The first player enters his orders normally. When he clicks the End Turn Button, the game is saved automatically, and the game will display a message box identifying the name of the file that needs to be emailed to his opponent.
When your opponent receives the email, they save it to the DOTW Multiplayer folder on their computer, and then load the game into DOTW. They player their turn normally, and then send the file to player 1, and so on.
Hotseat mode is similar to PBEM mode, except both players play on the same computer, and no email is required.
Multiplayer is still in BETA. You may encounter some bugs (please report them if you find any), but the game should be fully playable.
I hope you enjoy!
New Functionality:
Save files are now compressed to save space. The game will still load old save file format files, but all new saves are compressed and take up much less space.
Changes:
Game Over Screen changed to show flag of winning faction instead of player country.
Release Notes #39 (Version: 1.0.8389.18599)
New Functionality:
AI Historical TimeLine: This is a new game option that will force the AI to more closely follow the historical event timeline for major events. Optional game events will also always fire (e.g., Norway, Greece, etc.). You can use this new game option if you don't want the AI to progress faster than events occurred historically. With default game settings, the AI will pursue its goals as quickly as possible.
Axis vs. Allies Mode moved from Beta Status to General Release
Bug Fixes:
In Axis vs Allies mode, when difficulty level other than sergeant, player's allies incorrectly receive transport penalty or bonus.
Force Size Editor: Additional convoys and transports weren't being added to player forces.
Production screen didn't check that you had researched rockets to level 3 before allowing you to build them. The rockets built were non-functional, but the game should have prevented you from trying to build until you had researched level 3 rockets.
Countries that start as neutral (USA, USSR, and Italy), could not initiate trades with their future allies until they had formally joined the war. Now they can initiate trades while they are still neutral.
Release Notes #38 (Version: 1.0.8380.18849) - Axis vs. Allies Mode
This release of DOTW includes a new game mode: Axis vs. Allies Mode. It's still in Beta, but if you want to give it a try, it's included in this release.
When you start a new game, you will still be able to play as a single country. However, there will be a new "Control Alliance" option on the New Game Screen that will allow you to control every country in your alliance.
For those of you who like total control, this mode is for you.
You can also use this new mode to play the game "hotseat" with friends, where you each control an allied country on the same computer.
When you start a game in this new mode, you will see a new Country Control Button next to the Information Panel that will allow you to cycle through all of the countries you control, and enter orders, production, trade, espionage, and research for every country in your alliance.
The Country Control Button will show the flag of the Country for which you may currently issue orders. Each time you click on the button, it will select another Country in your alliance. You can switch to each Country by continuing to click the button.
For example, if the button shows the UK flag, and you wanted to enter orders for France, you would click the button until you saw the French Flag displayed.
You can cycle through your Countries as many times as you want, prior to ending your turn.
But you must enter orders for every Country in your alliance before clicking the End Turn Button. After you click End Turn, no more orders can be given for that turn.
Tuning [List] <*> Increased French War Weariness morale slightly
Changes:
Added airfield to Midway Region
Added crossing arrows to map between Sevastopol and Krasnodar
Added messages when troop replacements, air replacements, tank replacements and repair points are completed, to the messages panel.
Previously, at difficulty levels higher than Sergeant, the game would not provide starting Production, Trade, Research or Espionage plans. This was intended to create additional challenge, but actually just created additional annoyance, since you had to recreate the plans manually. This has been changed so that you still get starting plans that you can use as a template. This should reduce "busy work" at game startup at higher levels.
Bug Fixes:
Fixed map error that allowed movement between Tegucigalpa and Belmopan
Fixed map error that allowed movement between Phoenix and Gallup
Fixed error when major country defeated, and colony regions were transferred to an ally that was still neutral (e.g. USA). Region was flagged as Allied or Axis, which didn't match faction of recipient.
Fixed error where Pearl Harbor Message was still displayed, even though USA was already at war (had been attacked early).
If Japan attacks Thailand early, Thailand surrender event will now be properly cancelled.
Unit Specs Report was not displaying the correct Land Attack, and AirSea Attack values for aircraft
Fixed bug with game over screen not displaying
Release Notes #37 (Version: 1.0.8367.23487)
New Functionality:
Canals and crossing which allow land units to transit water, are now marked on the map with red arrows. For example: Suez Canal, Turkish Straights, etc.
Tuning [List] <*> Surface ships firing guns at submarines had the same chance to hit as they would against other surface ships. This has been reduced to reflect the difficulty in targeting submarines. <*> Increased damage done by sabotage missions. <*> Added a bit more randomness to the research progress made, to better reflect the uncertainty associated with research.
Changes:
When sabotage target is not specified, the mission will now target the best target in the largest factory region. Previously it targeted the first production item in the region.
When conquering a major country, the conqueror will capture half of the stockpiled resources. Previously, this only occurred with the creation of Vichy France.
Added airfields to Alice Springs, Carins, Townville, Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne in Australia.
Removed retired German ship Hanover from starting Order of Battle, and added missing ships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau
Bug Fixes:
Corrects a bug where the AI unintentionally gets a large number of transport points at higher difficulty levels.
Fixed a bug where Paratroop unit using Strategic Redeploy was constrained by Air Range when they initiated the SR from a region with an airbase.
Fixed a map error which prevented you from moving between Dusseldorf and Liege, even though the map shows a border.
Fixed a map error which prevented moving from Sumbawanga to Mukunsa
Fixed a bug where sabotage mission fails if primary target not found. Should have targeted best available target.
Fixed a bug when sabotaging resources (coal, oil, metal, food) would fail.
Fixed a bug where if you didn't also have an ID Production Mission, a specific sabotage mission would not find a target.
Sabotage missions against a specific target type would always pick the same production item. Now the mission will target the production item whose production has progressed the furthest within the region.
Fixed a crash that could occur when generating a supply unit from a depot to a unit.
Army, Air Fleet, and Naval Fleet filters on Future Name Screen should be working properly now.
