Ottomans in WW1 Scenario(support thread)

[Blue Monkey]

An alternative for Armenia if you decide not to include them as a separate faction is to have an improvement (building/wonder) that autobuilds a Hidden Nationality unit. Make it require a resource that is only within or near the Armenian homeland. Limit buildability to non-Ottoman faction(s). iirc Vuldacon and/or Pounder have posted about how improvements will "build" units even if the unit is not available yet. On the first available turn every potential unit already built suddenly appears. With a proper sequence of techs you can simulate an uprising at an appropriate point in the game's progress. Controlling more of Armenian territory would allow more improvements & thus more resistance fighters.

If you do decide to include them as a faction, Quintillus has recently posted about how to make a city into a "government in exile" within another faction's territory. Combined with the above, it might be possible to make Armenia a playable faction. Note that it's possible (afaik, iirc) to restrict some victory conditions to a select group of factions.

 

[Bengal Tiger]

While the idea of government-in-exile is interesting, iirc you can only do that by editing the save file afterwards rather than having it preset in a scenario.

I've done some playtesting with Armenia as a one-city civ (Van in Eastern Anatolia) and in general things seem to play out historically, with Van being conquered usually around 1915-1916 by the Ottomans.

I'm still dubious as to how much of a factor they really are in the long term, but I don't want to overpower them just for the sake of interest when the Ottomans already have their hands full and tend to lose(territory wise, not necessarily VP wise) about 75% of the time when I simply go in "observe" mode by playing the Arabs.

One thing that I've definitely noticed is that when I play as one of the actual combatant nations, no matter which side, I always seem to do far, far better than the AI(playing on Monarch) to the point where it's almost too easy no matter which position I start in.

This is largely due to my ability to utilize artillery, as for most of the game ground units lack the offensive power to allow for a real offensive surge(which I think simulates the historical situation fairly well). I'll have to try ramping up the difficulty on my next round of playtesting and see how it goes.

As an aside, does anyone have some suggestions for what I should name Military Leaders for each civ?

 

[Big Bopper]

I've done some playtesting with Armenia as a one-city civ (Van in Eastern Anatolia) and in general things seem to play out historically, with Van being conquered usually around 1915-1916 by the Ottomans.

I would go with this method and keep Armenia weak and reliant on the Russians.

As an aside, does anyone have some suggestions for what I should name Military Leaders for each civ?

The easiest way would be to take a look at the individual campaigns of WWI in the Middle East in wikipedia. There will be lists of generals for all sides involved.

British Military Leaders for example...

Spoiler :

John de Robeck
Harry Chauvel
T.E. Lawrence
Frederick Maude
Edmund Allenby
Charles Townshend
Herbert Kitchener
John Maxwell
John Nixon
Percy Lake
Ian Hamiliton
William Birdwood
Archibald Murray
Philip Chetwode

 

[Takhisis]

Will there be just the one British faction? If you do so, they'll probably divert their Gallipoli campaign to garrisoning their ports such as Alexandria. Perhaps having them as one big force in a locked alliance with the restof the British factions would be better, so each faction would represent one separate campaign.