Blitzkrieg 1936 - R E L E A S E D !!!!

[Eivind IV]

"Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933. Under his leadership the country

developed into a ruthlessly aggressive totalitarian state. All forms of democratic government and political opposition were soon swept away. By coercion, repression and propaganda, the Nazi Party began to control German life. The Nazis pledged first to restore Germany to its 'rightful' place in Europe, and then to seek world power. The Blitzkrieg era has begun..."
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In October 1936 Italy's Mussolini made an alliance with Germany's Adolf Hitler. Ethiopian trade concessions were extended to Germany (Ethiopia had been conquered by Italy in May). They also declared common policies towards Spain, the Danubian countries, the Soviet Union, and the League of Nations. Mussolini called the new alliance the "Rome Berlin Axis".

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Hey guys! After four months of playtesting I decided that it is about time to make a finished version of this on as I doubt much more will be changed.



NOTE: This is designed for multiplayer/PBEM in mind.



Can you avoid ww2?

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The civs in chronological order:
* Soviet Union
* Imperial Japan
* Axis
* French
* Americans
* British Commonwealth
* Chinese (AI)


THE FILES - BLITZKRIEG 1936 - UPDATED WITH SINGLE PLAYER VERSION! (update of the update)

 

[Archer 007]

Looks awesome!

 

[BKA]

Like that newspaper headline!

 

[Eivind IV]

Yeah, I love the title myself! I got to thank the great title master, Saarstock, for that one .

 

[yoshi]

Some nice units, particularly the G Infantry unit.

You got a whole forum to yourself? Wow, they must really respect you at Poly...now I'm definitely going to download BK...this I gotta see!

Do you know of any good sites with pics of WW2 vehicles and infantry? I'm also looking for WW2 stats (i.e. # of units in x locations, production center locations/outputs, etc.).

 

[yoshi]

Oh and nice newspaper pic. Very nice indeed.

BTW, why did you decide to make MK on a World map as opposed to Europe --aside from the obvious reason of including the Pacific war? I've just always found World maps to be too cluttered and not rich enough in unit-unit strategy. Then again, I haven't played BK yet so it may be self-explanitory.

 

[Eivind IV]

Hehe, you may exaggerate a bit there, mate!
And the forum I have is at CDG (Creative Design Group). That is a site were they take good care of scenario makers and give them their own forum to work on various projects in the service of civ2

Do you know of any good sites with pics of WW2 vehicles and infantry? I'm also looking for WW2 stats (i.e. # of units in x locations, production center locations/outputs, etc.).

I would talk to BKA if I were you. He made an excellent ww2 scen with completely(?) accurate unit placements on a world scale. And if you are looking for anything in particular I would recomend you to make some searches at google with the words 'order of battle' included in the search. If that doesn't work feel free to contact me and I'll be glad to help you.

BTW, why did you decide to make MK on a World map as opposed to Europe --aside from the obvious reason of including the Pacific war? I've just always found World maps to be too cluttered and not rich enough in unit-unit strategy. Then again, I haven't played BK yet so it may be self-explanitory.

Well, personally I just love the fact to play on a world scale. It makes everything more realistic in my humble opinion. The fighting in the Pacific, for instance, had a major impact on the war in Europe. Look only at pearl harbour.

But this is a scen were the concept is to see if you can avoid ww2

Remember that it is designed for multiplayer and I wouldn't have too high expectations on the SP game play. Some day I might make an SP version on this scen if there's a market for it.

Cheers!

 

[Archer 007]

Ive played it single-player to give it a spin and still find it rather fun. Great work!

 

[yoshi]

CDG? Cool.

I'm sure BKA will read my post eventually and post some links.

Used your search words. Lots of results, thanks.

Part of the reason why you didn't go for an SP version is because of the AI's inability to use Carriers right?
I thought of a partial solution to that: Give the AI a 'Carrier Group' unit that is very powerful and give 'Submarine advantages/disadvantages' flag (so it doesn't liquidate every enemy unit on the coast! ). The AI will then patrol the Pacific with its super Carrier units. The extra punch implies its use of aircraft (i.e. torpedo bombers, etc.). Basically a more powerful Battleship unit.

I guess the other reason for not having an SP version is to avoid the AI sending its best ships against Coastal Fortresses! A while ago I said the hell with it I'll make them all subs, since the AI units ignore invisibility anyway (not to mention some other flags like '2 space visibility'). I just give subs the 'see sub' flag

I'm not really into multiplayer. I prefer to play it alone, not only because you don't have to depend on someone else but also because you can get the AI to play things out in a similar manner to the way the enemy did historically --obviously this method is inappropriate for certain scenarios. (Nevertheless this is a nice scenario. Some good-looking units in there too: the Panther and Tigers I and II are particularly good.)

I notice that you make use of a number of 'House Rules.' How's that working out in terms of gameplay? Do players "cheat?"

(BTW, have you tried making any scenarios using ToT?)

 

[Eivind IV]

Originally posted by yoshi
Part of the reason why you didn't go for an SP version is because of the AI's inability to use Carriers right?

No, there are many reasons. The main reason is because I like playing PBEM games myself. It makes civ2 a more fun game to play as you will have to face opponents who are actually as smart as you. More realistic. The AI always screws up.

In this game I have the '8th civ', which is the barbarians. They are there only becasue they fit more in an MP game.If you choose to invade Polend, you don't declare war on Turkey, Sweden, Norway, China, Switzerland etc at the same time. But when you try this concept in SP, the AI launces many stupid attacks on these barbarian cities. That's why I have decided to make an SP version as well. Expect it within a week ) .

Originally posted by yoshi
I notice that you make use of a number of 'House Rules.' How's that working out in terms of gameplay? Do players "cheat?"
[/B]

One of the house rules are that only dive bombers and fighters can land on carriers. This is a mean to make it more realistic. the AI never fulfilles house rules you know, so it's just unrealistic when the AI attack with heavy bombers from carriers.

Other rules such as only the owner, and its allies, of one canal (suez for instance) can sail through. Also to make it more realistic.

When you play a PBEM game you trust you opponents to obey these rules.

Originally posted by yoshi
(BTW, have you tried making any scenarios using ToT?) [/B]

I don't even hold a copy of TOT, so I've never seen it. But they say it's great.

 

[yoshi]

The main reason is because I like playing PBEM games myself.

Understandable. The AI can get so stupid sometimes I sometimes wonder if designers at MP didn't just have a secret agenda to drive players nuts!

Is there still a lot of MP gaming going on? It's been a while since it tried it. (The other reason is that I use a slow dial-up connection and pay by the hour --it's pretty cheap though-- so MP is a little problematic for me in that sense.)
Yes, MP has the advantage not having to restrict one's self to what is doable using AI opponents; opens a few doors for scenario design --but, to be fair, MP can also take away from historical significance which is the only reason to play a historical scenario IMO.

Other rules such as only the owner, and its allies, of one canal (Suez for instance) can sail through. Also to make it more realistic.

I though up a solution for this particular 'rule' that may interest you:
A while ago I was experimenting with how to control canals. The main problem was that the AI did (and does) not identify cities connecting two bodies of water (i.e. a canal), so unless it specifically goes to that city and then set new coordinates somewhere in the body of water it will go the long way around (assuming there is one (e.g. going around Africa instead of passing through the city of Suez that connects the Red Sea and the Mediterranean).
Once again Civ2's macro came to the rescue. I simply created a real Suez canal (i.e. two seas connected by water) and placed an immobile 'Canal Zone' unit belonging to the initial owner of the city of Suez at the choke point. Then I wrote a script that would remove the Canal Zone unit via the ChangeTerrain action (to the same Ocean terrain) if Suez were to be captured and would place a new Canal Zone unit in the same place as the previous one under the attacker's flag. The result will be that the only the attacker’s units will be able to pass through the ‘canal.’

Example:

@IF
CITYTAKEN
city=Suez
attacker=Anybody
defender=Anybody
@THEN
Text
^Suez captured!
EndText
CHANGETERRAIN
terraintype=11
maprect
x1,y1, x1,y1, x1,y1, x1,y1 [location of Canal zone]
@THEN
CREATEUNIT
owner=TriggerAttacker
unit=Canal Zone
veteran=Yes [set this value to ‘yes’ so as to avoid “For valor in combat…” message]
homecity=None
locations
x1,y1 [same coordinates as previous Canal Zone unit]
endlocations
@ENDIF

(Note that all four maprect coordinates are the same as that of the Canal Zone unit.)

If you don’t want it to be generic, just replace the attacker/defender/owner/ wildcard parameter values with specific civ names.


Another thing on BK1939: those combat graphics (explosions; Icons.gif) are the best I’ve seen yet! Mind if I use them?

 

[Eivind IV]

Use anything you find in the scenario. I took them myself from Herbstnebel by DarthVadah.

Great idea with the canal event, but there is one problem with it; I doubt that the Brits would deny the French to sail through. So in the SP version there will be no such house rules.

 

[yoshi]

Great! Thanks.

About the canal thing: Yes, that's a bit of a setback. I guess you could always make the canal wide enough to have multiple Canal Zones (i.e. have British and French canal zones appear side by side if either has control over Suez). Would simplify things the French were out altogether and you just included them into an 'Allies' civ.
Although, if you were playing post-Battle of France, then the French are no longer an important player in the war aside from Free French forces and the French resistance in France --niether of which had any substantial naval capability.


BTW, if you want more ideas for events (particularly those appropriate to WW2 strategy), I suggest you re-visit my Events Thread. I've added quite abit of stuff since you last posted there... (So be sure to check Page 1 first. )

 

[ChildOfWar]

your blitzkrieg scenario was one of the grearest scens i've ever played! but i noticed a few things..could you modify the events and the diplomacy so that it goes hitsorically correct, like invading poland 1939, barbarossa 1941? it's good to play "free" but it could be interesting. and second, the panzers shouldnt make each others obsolete because the panzers should be used combined. but in all other ways it's a damn great scen. btw, the russian science rate should be increased?

 

[yoshi]

ChildOfWar, I'm in the process of very slowly (that's an over-statement) developing an SP WW2:Europe scenario. Since the Human is the protagonist (Germany) and the AI is too stupid to use a variety of units properly, I'm experimenting with giving the Germans a wide variety of units (rather than replacing them with the most advanced units of each year using a batch file to swap files each year --that I reserve for the more generic Allied, and Soviet units). Instead of giving the AI the same variey of units as the human (i.e. instead of seperate slots for Soviet T-34/76 and T-34/85, I just replace former with latter using batch file at appropriate time), I'm thinking of giving it 'super-units' (e.g. Divisions) that it will know how to use and will present a far greater threat to the Human player than a lot of scattered units acting contrary to their intended roles. Meanwhile the player will be challenged to use his wider variety of units, combine their strengths to counter these threats and ultimately achieve whatever victory is possible within the historical circumstances.

My scenario also applies to your other comment about historical campaigns: use immobile neutral --allied with all; no contact-- civ units (or impassable terrain if using ToT) to prevent attacks until a historcal date. For example, if you want to hold off Russo-German conflict, just place impassable frontier across Russian/German border. Forntier is only removed on the date Operation Barbarossa was historically launched. If you want to be even more specific, only remove the impassable units/terrain in places where Germany historically crossed the border. Personally, I prefer to give the player more freedom by creating historically-accurate factors that will lead the Human to behave in a certain way (i.e. heavy Russian military presence along the border just previous to the time of Barbarossa --who will attack who first kind of thing). Of course I don't have time to describe the whole process to you (besides, I'd like to keep a few ideas for myself ), but I think that addresses your comment to a degree.

You could always edit BK1939 (with Eivind IV's permission) and include something along the lines of the above --or you could just remind him for the next BK release .
Keep in mind that BK1939, is designed for MP play therefore you should assume that most aspects of the game are designed to be played in that mode and under those conditions (i.e. a cleaner design that makes for better online play). So, too much variety can slow things down and too little can make it boring --not to mention that if using MGE, you only have 62 unit slot to work with (hence another reason for my use of super-units). Likewise, if play sticks too close chronologically to the timeline, it will limit the fun factor...and give people who are familiar with WW2 an advantage because they know when and where everything is going to happen.

If you want specifics on how the Events would work for something like that, see the Events Thread link in my previous post.

 

[ChildOfWar]

thanks for your tips, now i've got to go modifying (for personal use ) and playing!!

 

[Eivind IV]

I've never made a scenario called BK1939, as of yet. Only BK1941 and now BK 1936

 

[yoshi]

That's what I said: BK1936.

 

[Eivind IV]

You could always edit BK1939 (with Eivind IV's permission)...

Keep in mind that BK1939, is designed...

 

[yoshi]

Damn that language barrier!

Even with the smilies, I fail to make my pathetic attempt at sarcasm appearant.

I keep forgetting that the scenario is about preventing WW2, that must be why I say the date is the beginnning of WW2. Won't happen again.

BTW, I asked BKA about sources. He suggested the bottom of the AWAW Readme.txt. It's all there...that's what I get for not reading the whole Readme! Anyway, I'll check out his sources first before getting into any WW2 questions.