I've been using the standard R.E.D. mod for some time, and decided to give the WWII Edition a shot this past week. I've played through the 1939-45 scenario once as France, and was midway through another playthrough as Germany when the game repeatedly crashed on the end turn rotation, unfortunately putting a stop to that.
So my thoughts.
Firstly, love the mod, but I'll also try to be constructive with what I liked and what I didn't.
The new loading art is a great touch, but what blew me away were the audio files that play as you wait for the scenario to load. Sets the stage, and looks very professional. The text for the France intro could use a little tightening up though, as a couple of sentences come off a bit clumsily.
I initially played as France with Scripted Events on, but the game crashed around turn 10 (not a Fall of France bug) so I restarted with scripted events off, and alternate history on. Deity difficulty level.
Playing as France is *hard*. Germany hit me with everything and I just barely managed to hang in the game - then ITALY jumped me (early, in Jan '40), and I almost collapsed in the south before Italy went back to peace after a few turns, allowing me to stabilize again. I eventually managed to recapture Strasbourg, and take Cologne, and hold a line there until the USSR entered the war (early again, in March of '41, again only for a few turns).
France starts off very weak, which is fine - it made it a challenge - but the lack of any sort of Maginot Line made me blink when I started. The Germans just rolled right across the border and took Strasbourg without so much as a by your leave. They certainly didn't have to worry about going through Belgium. It might complicate things for the AI, but the Line was such an iconic part of France's defence that its omission took me out of the scenario for a moment. Perhaps a static artillery-stackable "fortress" unit could be created for the Maginot mushrooms?
Once the Soviets were in it for good after the summer of '41 the tide slowly turned in my favour, and I took Berlin by mid '42, and had Rome by early '43. I ended the game at that point, after having to work harder for a military win than I've ever worked in a game of CiV. So kudos for that - very fun and well balanced scenario.
Some things did annoy me though. While I was fighting for my life the British sat off the coast hording masses of gold and being about as useful as tits on a bull. They never once sent me a BEF, and their total contribution to the war (aside from getting kicked out of North Africa by the Italians) was to bomb the crap out of Antwerp with a pair of Wellingtons once the Germans conquered it. Did a Dutch girl break Churchill's heart when he was fighting Boers or something? I don't expect much of AI allies, but that was just excessively unhelpful. Thanks, ally guy.
Although the art is great, there's never any reason to use the diplomacy screen. Alternate history seems to allow the AI to declare war on and off, but I couldn't myself. I couldn't even decide whether on not to accept it when the AI decided to go back to peace. I was just at peace. Bam. Overall, I didn't find alternate history to be a good option. It was random, and out of my control.
Some options to request aid from allies would be nice, as well as discuss targets or strategy (even in general terms, like, "I think you should build more bombers."). One idea I had was that as you kill enemy units you get a "blood, sweat and tears" resource (or somesuch) that you can then "spend" to request assistance in money or troops or whatever from less heavily engaged allies. I mean, by Christmas of 1940 I was sitting at 15 gold a turn and 0 in the bank, desperately maintaining an army on the ragged edge, while Churchill was sitting on something like 100+ gold a turn and 10,000 gold in the bank, totally refusing to spare a Franc for the French.
To be honest, if the game had allowed it, after Rome my Legions would have been marching not on Moscow, but on London to dip the lot of those money grubbing English pigs in a molten vat of their shabby lucre. All the love in the world for the Greeks though. Those guys were champs.
Which brings up victory conditions. By the time I stopped I'd conquered Germany up to the Stettin and Prague (I magnanimously let Comrade Joe have Vienna), and I'd conquered from the north down to Rome, and was on the outskirts of Naples. Seeing the opening post here it seems that taking Naples would have ended the game, but that wasn't clear in game, and I assumed the scenario had no specific endgame coding. It's not a big deal, but it might be worthwhile to list those conditions in one of the intro screens. I'll probably go back and take Naples later just to see what happens.
I started a second game as Germany, on Deity as well, with alternate history off this time, and events also off, and it was going great until it crashed at the end of turn rotation of turn 59. Which is too bad.
One thing though. From reading the poster above it seems that with events on, taking France is only a matter of marching to Paris. In my German game I conquered Poland, while allowing the French to invade the Rhineland. Then I encircled them and wiped out their army, followed by a rapid riposte across the border to roll Paris before they could reform. It was February of 1940, and I figured that would be that. I could get an early start on Sealion.
Hell no. That was just the START of the fight. The Brits in *this* game poured forces onto the continent to help (how's THAT for AI solidarity, oh yeah, I see how it is), while De Gaulle relocated his capital to Lyon, slapped down a military base to bunker up, called up reserves, and made me WORK for it. I didn't have all of France secured until another five months of bitter fighting that left my panzer divisions battered shells - and even then I had to deal with a vengeful death ride into the Baltic by the entire French fleet, which badly delayed my plans to mop up Norway.
All that to say, I found it all immensely entertaining, and perhaps a point in favour of not using the Fall of France event. It's just too bad I'm not going to be able to finish the game.
EDIT: I suspected the cause of the crash might be Operation Weserubung, which I just completed on turn 59. However going back to an earlier save and stopping work on the op still lead to a crash at the end of turn 59, so no dice. Oh well.
EDIT EDIT: It was the convoy bug mentioned elsewhere on the forums. I just used the IGE and deleted all the British convoys, and that fixed it.
In any event, an excellent mod and a superbly well constructed and balanced scenario, and I look forward to seeing how you develop it further.