Request for help with scenario; mid-late 20thC

I'm making a scenario starting in 1936 and going on till 1986. the beta version will be 1936-1946, perhaps I will make them in multiple parts, but realy I want the player to be able to play all the "50 years of conflict in europe".

The scenario will eventualy have a whole host of alternative history units and city improvements, but for now I want to fully fill the WWII era.
The main charactristic of this scenario will be high graphical quality, and fun and simple military development. There will be quite a few new units but they will all be usefull, and you will not need an encyclopedic knowledge of WWII to understand what they are for. However, the new units will alow for tactics that are totaly different from normal CIV III, it will be a whole new tactical challenge.

I already have the majority of the units needed for the Beta release but I have a few requests.
First I need a map, it should be large, but not huge and should be europe, north africa (down to ethiopia) the east coast of America/Canada and western Russia and the middle east, as far east as Afganistan. This should allow for eroupe and all the areas that border it and as such have a dirrect effect on it.

Secondly there are a few units I'm missing, they are;
-Tanks
The matilda british tank
The M11-39 Italian tank
The german Panzer II
The R35 french light tank
The Char 2c heavy french tank
The M10 amercian Tank killer
And the Hungarian Turan tank (hunagry, austria and czecheslovakia are going to be seperate civs to germany, so they will need a little character all of thier own, in case the german player decides to unite the german nation not by brue force but through military alliance).

There are plenty of tallented unit creators out there who can make high quality tanks, And I know some of these units were at one time planned (the matilda and M11 for example).

Here are some pictures of these units for any one whoe wants to take up the chalenge. I can find projection drawings for them as well if any one is interested.
First the Matilda MK2, a slow and undergunned tank, which had however exelent armour;

The M11-39 was the main Italian tank, though there were many modifications and upgrades they were all equally flawed. One of the things that changed was the position of the main gun. In many tank early european and american tank designs the main gun was housed in the body of the tank, with a smaller gun or MG in the rotating turret.
It was soon found however that the mobility of tank warfare meant that the main anti tank gun had to have a 360 degree ratational field of fire that was not dependant on the way the tank was facing. So the two guns were swapped round, the anti tank gun being placed in a turret and the anti infantry gun being mounted in the body. However because the tank turrets had originaly been designed to house a small Anti infantry gun or machine gun, they could only be equiped with relativly small caliber Anti tank guns or risk low rates of fire, weak turret armour and reduced space for the tank commander (thus reduced Tactical flexability).

Heres a shot of the M11-39 with the main gun in the body;

The panzer II will be an important tank for the germans and will represent all their panzer Is and IIs (so as to save on alternative graphics for two tanks that will not be used much later in the war). The scenario begins in 1936 with the spanish civil war so the panzer II will be the tank available to the germans at the begining of the scenario. The germans learned a lot about the design of tanks from how the Panzer I and II performed in Spain.

Heres a picture;

The french need an upgrade of their early renault light tank, actualy a WWI tank (the one produced by Kinboat), and they can find it in the renault 35. Quite a modern looking tank the R35 was slow for a light tank but quite strong.

I'm working on the Char b1 at the moment, and Using the Char b1 base I will make an advanced french tank called the ARL 44. The ARL 44 did not enter full production untill after the liberation of france because of the german occupation and control of the war industry, but it is probably have been the next development of tank warfare in france had they not been defeated so easily.

Untill the introduction of the ARL44 the best tank the french have is the Char 2c A monster tank, somewhat like the russian T35, used to spearhead other tank formations in small numbers, had they entered full production an upgraded Char 2c could have provided the french with a mighty weapon. It would have been vunerable to air attack, and having only one turret per 68 tons compared to one turret per 20 tons in the Panzer IV would mean that although tough the Char 2c would have less firepower than a comparative tonnage of german tanks, but the turret was large and roomy and extra gunners meant potentialy a bigger gun, and a higher rate of fire (many hands make light work).

There will be tree main unit sets for the late war era, the Nationalist (axis) unit set (german tanks planes and infantry), The democratic unit set (American tanks planes and infantry) and a communist unit set (a mix of russian and American tanks planes and infantry), to represent the fact that in this time a strong nation tended to lead its ideological allies, selling them its advanced vehicle designs, so they did not have to spend their limited resources on reserach and development.

There will be three types of tank destroyer, one for each unit set.
I'm working on a german one, and a russian one (if I still have the model). What I need most is an American M10 tank destroyer (or an M18 Hellcat or M36).

These Armoured vehicles were compromise machines, mounting a big anti-tank gun in a vehicle meant either a whole new bigger tank design or a modification of the old design. Some tank destroyers (like the german Stug or hetzer) mounted the gun directly in to the hull, so the tank had a lower profile and could have strong armour, but in order to fire the main gun had to turn the whole tank. These types of tank were good in defensive roles, where they just had to sit still and hammer the oncoming ememy tanks, but in the open they could easily be outflanked and hit in the sides or back with out being able to return fire.

The M10 and M36 compromised by having the gun in the turret, but having the turret open and with less armour. These tanks were better on attack than the Body mounted tank killers, but were easier to disable and destroy.

Heres a picture, the m10 is on the left and the m36 on the right;

Finaly I want a tank to be used for hungary and czechoslovakia, The LT vs 35 was an early czech tank, whose design was licenced to hungary. When the germans occupied hungary and Czechoslovakia thier tanks were absorbed in to the german panzer armies, but untill that point, had either of those two nations chosen to defend them selves from the germans they would have relied on this tank.

The czech version was the Lt vs 35
The hungarian version was the Turan mkI
The german designation was the Panzer 35

Here are some images of the hungarian version, you have good rear, front and side images her, and I can point you to some bigger versions as well as some schematic drawings.

Heres the picture;

Heres a little view of My french tanks so far, The top one is the Char B1 and the lower one, with the bigger turret is the ALR44. In real life the real ALR 44 was introduced too late to be of any practical use but had things gone differently and the war in france gone on till aprox 1943 (if the czechs had been backed up by the british and french, the germans may have had to fight them as well as the polish and french, so the early part of the war would have been drawn out longer) the ALR44 would have been a usefull adition to the french war machine.
It has a number of good features;
Based on an existing chassis, spare parts for the lower section would have been abundant.
The turret is large and roomy, plenty of space for reloading and a radio for the tank comander, a vital element in properly co-ordinating tank opps.
A large caliber long barreled gun would have good armour penetration.

However minus points include;
A high profile would make the tank easy to hit.
The char B1 was slow, The ALR44 being based on the older chassis would probably have the same problem, if not worse because of extra weight.

wow nive, but arent they a little big?

Yeah, they are big previews, don't worry they are no bigger than the sherman from vanila CIV III

Heres a look at what the commando looks like at civ III scale from all 8 directions. This is in the American colours (civ colour 21).

I would love to help you with this scenario Smoking Mirror, but I cannot make units as I am graphically challenged. I can help with anything that is not units though, just let me know!

Pap

Originally posted by Smoking mirror
Heres a look at what the commando looks like at civ III scale from all 8 directions. This is in the American colours (civ colour 21).

Click to expand...

Very interesting! As you could see in the Steph mod thread, I have commando in the tech tree... But no animation!

that commando looks cool, though his helmet are very "high"?

Yeah, I want him to look generic, so that he looks apropriate for all the civs that can use him.

For pap1723 or any one else who enjoys scenario design;
Yes I'm going to need plenty of help with the other aspects of the scenario such as the map and city placement as well as working out unit strengths and beta testing etc...
The most important thing I need right now is help with the map.
Ive outlined the general area that I want, but not yet modified any of the terrain, like hills, mountains, forests and rivers etc..

I've still not decided if I want the map to be large or huge. Much of the map is taken up by the Atlantic so the land area (which creates the biggest problems with slow down because of railroads, cities etc..) So it could perhaps be a little bigger than I originaly thought.
Also the difference between large and huge is only 40x40 extra squares (140x140 compared to 180x180) so I don't think it will make much of a difference.

Here is a mini map preview of the are I'm thinking of including. IS there anything here that does not need to be included, and what civs do you expect to see in this area (with a time scale of 1936-1946);

I'm thinking that the top half of the map (italy and above) needs to be stretchedto fill more of the map, while less of africamidle east needs to be included.
Perhaps if I also include less of america and canada, I don't think cuba and the west indies needs to be there.

I'm using a BMP to BIC converter to make the map so its quite quick to get the genaral out line, but it has trouble with the terrain types, so its not very easy to place mountains hills forests etc, and rivers are impossble. Making a new cropped wersion however only takes about 2 mins so any recomendations can be quickly acomodated.

i like the map, i can finish it for you if you want, i´ve done many maps so i have some experience.

Thats great yoda, I think I'm going to use the large map.
50 years of conflict

Theres not going to be much jungle in the scenario so I'm going to make a Swamp terrain for use in eastern europe where swamps played a special role in the fighting, being natural fortress' for partisans operating in the area. Tanks will not be able to enter without roads.

I'm not sure about the Resources yet, There are going to be lots and some of the Luxuries are going to be Strategic objectives;

#1 "Russian HQ" This will represent the russian leadership, and will be placed just to the rear of Moscow. While the russians still hold it they will have a happyness bonus. If the germans take Moscow the "Russian HQ" resource will fall in to thier trade network and provide the germans with extra happyness.

#2 "French Freedom" This will be placed in or near paris. While the french still hold paris they will have a happyness bonus. Should paris fall it will be asumed that french freedom is finished. The germans will gain a happyness bonus. Should the british or americans (or french or spanish) retake paris it will give the liberator a happyness bonus (as long as a trade link exists, this is realistic, as an isolated paris is no better than an occupied paris).

#3 "American air bases" this resource will be located in Greenland or Iceland, If the germans (or russians or anyone else) captures this resource it gives them an air base within striking distance of the US. This may be enough to take the wind out of the Americans sails.

#4 "british resistance" This will be in the south of england. Should London be taken the british player will find his citizens quickly demoralized.

I'm thinking of making some of these resources multiples, so that if there is three "british" luxuries the british can trade them to thier allies, thus sharing their solidarity (the americans can only be kept in the fight if thier allies remain free. The fall of england, france and russia would probably have ended the war with America making peace with the Germans.
Perhaps they will just be flags, Such as a "british" luxury, represented by two or three union jacks in the area around London and manchester, Or a "german" luxury represented by three or four German flags around the key german industrial bases. This means that if those areas are bombed the nation will lose morale temporarily untill the resource is reconeced to the national trade network. Perhaps the resource could also give a bonus to production.
Any way, I'll take care of all that once the map is made.

Heres something I just knocked together. I used CIVII graphics, but I would use Custom 3d buildings for the final scenario.

I'm going to Keep Cuba and the west indies as they provide essential Luxuries to both America and Europe. I think its O.K that africa looks that big too.

I'm going to include Iraq, Iran and saudi Arabia as individual civs as these were prety much independant by 1936.

They will not be in the beta release, but I'm thinking of including Israel as a civ as well. They are an important part of 20th century history so although Palestine and Israel were allied protectorates rather than independant states during WWII it would perhaps be better to include the israelis at least.

I'm going to have different polictical groups rather than cultural groups, so;

American= Democratic
European= military Nationalist
Middle eastern= Communist/socialist
Asian= Monarchist nationalist
Romano/greek= Neutral

This means that Political groupings will be better inclined to be nice to each other. They will also have (hopefully) thier own government types which will further urge the different political groupings in to alliances.
I will be making alternative city graphics for them all, hopefully looking more WWII era than the current industrial city set, which looks more 1840s than 1940s.

I'm having another go at the map, using satelite images of the area I'm interested in.
Heres the image I'm working from;