[SCENARIO] World War I

Jon Shafer

Civilization 5 Designer
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# World War I
# Civilization 4 (c) 2005 Firaxis Games

# Created by - Jon 'Trip' Shafer

NOTE: Updated for BTS by isenchine here.

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At its time, World War I (1914-1918), or the Great War as it was then called, was the most destructive conflict the world had ever seen. Millions of lives were lost and billions of dollars of damage was done during the four-year conflagration. Its effects would change the shape of the world forever, as old empires were destroyed and new ones arose.

The battles took place primarily in Europe, between the "Central Powers" of Germany and Austria-Hungary, later joined by the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria, and the "Triple Entente" or "Allied Powers" of Russia, France, the United Kingdom and later Italy and the United States.

This scenario begins in August of 1914 with the opening shots firing and the outcome of the struggle very much in doubt. Can you tip the scales and change the fate of the world?

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Ahhhh yes, the big one. Whenever you ask people what scenarios they want for Civ the top two most requested are always the same - the World Wars. In the end I chose WWI because a few other guys were working on a WWII in North Africa scenario and trying to encompass an entire theater like Europe or the Pacific is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. I have no doubt such a number of great WWII scenarios with a grand scope will be made but the variety of nations, the specific events that took place and the incredibly wide variety of technology makes it a daunting foe.

World War I on the other hand suffers from fewer of these issues - almost all of the major participants and the only major theater can be easily depicted on a single map, using special rules to account for the USA. Technology, while advancing steadily forward didn't make the massive leaps and bounds as in WWII. And the joining of the war by all belligerents is much simpler to model. WWII requires the conquest of Poland, northern Europe, France, the Balkans, North Africa and great battles in the USSR and against Britain - getting everything to come together in a realistic and fun manner is difficult to choreograph. With WWI the major nations are already fighting with the minor ones coming in later in a way that can be easily modelled.

WWII aside, WWI is an interesting conflict on its own merits. As a history student 19th century Europe has been my primary focus and WWI essentially marks the conclusion to this period. And certainly, it's just plain fun for those who enjoy military history and strategy to see if they can do better than Hindenburg and Ludendorff, or to avoid the collapse Russia suffered. This has been my largest project so far, and it's also the one I'm most proud of. I had been planning on making this scenario for quite some time and I'm pleased with the way it has turned out. There are always things a designer would like to do better (there's no such things as a perfect production, they say) but it's good to reach a point where you're glad to show people the final outcome and have them enjoy playing.

Of course, this is just the beginning. The number of people who will work on WWI scenarios and scenarios in general will snowball in the coming years. I hope to be right there continuing to produce more cutting-edge content. We'll see what my next project is...

'Til lata
- Jon

Thanks to Chris Sulzbach for his Unit models, Dorian Newcomb for unit animation, Justin Thomas for unit icons, Nolan for her leader flags, Rhye for his unit flags, the guys here at Firaxis and Take 2 for testing and everyone out there for playing.

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(The above taken from the included readme)

To install simply extract the attached .zip file into Civ 4's \Mods\ folder or your \CustomAssets\Mods\ folder.

Be wary, this is a big map with lots of units, so prepare for it to be a bit slow if you don't have a new computer.

Have fun. :)

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Oh, and if anyone was wondering where the mysterious Mark V Tank, Biplane and WWI Infantry came from, this is what they're for. ;)

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You must have patch 1.61 installed to play!

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v1 Removed after 3,962 Downloads

Fixes with v2:

- Increased point Victory requirement from 575 to 900
- Increased number of turns from 60 to 72 (one extra year)
- Reduced tech costs by 40%
- Greatly reduced chance of Revolution and subsequent spawning of Rebels once in Revolution
- Increased number of buildings in cities for a number of civs
- Civs units now use correct voices (not all Latin)
- Germany's color is now Grey instead of Black (should fix the issue where Germany's flag showing up as the Barbarians instead)
- Barbarians renamed "Rebels"
- Removed a few Basic Infantry units France had lying around and replaced them with the French equivalents
 

Attachments

  • WWIMilMap.PNG
    WWIMilMap.PNG
    427.3 KB · Views: 41,224
  • World War I v2.zip
    374.6 KB · Views: 36,169
I am eager as well to play this szenario, Trip! You have very good taste when it comes to making these! But whenever I try to load the mod, Civilization just shuts down! Why me?:(

--Jefff
 
Where did you extract the .zip file to? How are you trying to play the scenario? (That is, what steps are you using.)

Anyone else tried playing and had this problem?
 
I am able to load and run it just fine. I put in My Games\Civ 4\MODS if that has anything to do with it.

It does take a while to load, though. That's mainly because I selected to play the British and so almost every other civ got to play before me ...

It is definitely a large mod! Overall, I'd have to give it two :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
Well done!, these scenarios are impressive.. And you're a firaxis man? So will these appear in an expansion or future patch or something?
 
@Jefff,

I experienced the same problem - until I installed patch 1.61 that is. Now it works just fine.
 
Yes, I suppose I should specify, this is for 1.61 only. I will make note of that in my first post.
 
First off, let me just say this is an excellent scenario. I played a full game as Germany on Warlord level just to give myself an easier go at the alternative history angle. Two things I noticed during playing:

1) At one point fairly early on Russia offered me a peace treaty with the standard 10 turns of peace plus they were willing to hand over 100 or so gold (a large amount in this scenario). At the time I had barely conquered any territory and the cities I did take were French. I'm just curious if the ability to negotiate peace with the major belligerants is an intended part of the design?

2) At various points I noticed where the German flag/banner on units would revert to the "Barbarian flag" after I had moved it. This happened a few times.

Trip said:
WWII aside, WWI is an interesting conflict on its own merits. As a history student 19th century Europe has been my primary focus and WWI essentially marks the conclusion to this period. And certainly, it's just plain fun for those who enjoy military history and strategy to see if they can do better than Hindenburg and Ludendorff, or to avoid the collapse Russia suffered.

I, too, enjoy military history -- particularly that of Europe -- which is why I get a great deal of enjoyment from these scenarios. Even more so than just the normal game. Although some people might not take the time to read over the Civilopedia entries for scenarios, I think it adds a nice feel to the gameplay. As you obviously have a solid knowledge of the history and circumstances of all the civs involved during the WWI era, perhaps you could go back and alter the Civilopedia entries to match up to the countries (with Austro-Hungary) or eras (with Germany). Granted it would be a bit time consuming, but just throwing out the idea nonetheless.

Anyhow, as I said, terrific work. Look forward to future projects.
 
Thank you Brian, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

- Hadn't really thought about them negotiating peace. I haven't seen it often so it's not really a big deal... if it's more common than I think though then that would be a problem.

- Not sure why the German flag would switch back and forth.

Writing up Civilopedia entries for everyone would be quite a task indeed. ;) Unfortunately I had only so much time to work on this and our in-staff writer wasn't able to help me here like he is with some other projects. Hopefully that doesn't disappoint too much.

With regards to the future... you'll probably have to wait for the Civ 4 expansion, Warlords before another one of my projects comes out. :) But the production quality should be higher than here, as well as the fun factor I hope. You'll have to delve into the past a bit though, hope that's not a problem. ;)
 
Trip said:
Thank you Brian, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

- Hadn't really thought about them negotiating peace. I haven't seen it often so it's not really a big deal... if it's more common than I think though then that would be a problem.

Yep, it shouldn't be a problem so long as people play within the spirit of the scenario. Just started a second game as the Ottomans and although I was able to negotiate a peace treaty with the British (thus ending the conflict between the major nations), war was redeclared the very next turn by the AI.

Writing up Civilopedia entries for everyone would be quite a task indeed. ;) Unfortunately I had only so much time to work on this and our in-staff writer wasn't able to help me here like he is with some other projects. Hopefully that doesn't disappoint too much.

Understandable. The introductions for each nation when you begin the scenario are very well written. I hadn't noticed the first time I played.

With regards to the future... you'll probably have to wait for the Civ 4 expansion, Warlords before another one of my projects comes out. :) But the production quality should be higher than here, as well as the fun factor I hope. You'll have to delve into the past a bit though, hope that's not a problem. ;)

If it's as good as Conquests was for Civ 3 it should keep me playing until Civ 5! However, I'm sure I speak for quite a few fans when I say we'd love to see a World War II scenario in a possible second expansion. Especially since you are adding Churchill and Stalin. Keep lobbying for those 20th century scenarios and thanks again.
 
I loved this scenario. I thought the events were well done. I just finished winning a game as the Ottomans and enjoyed it immensely. Thanks for all your hard work!

oh, one criticism though. At least for me, the Barbarians had the German flag. Not sure why. Not a big issue, just something I noticed.
 
coll scenario, just played with the italians on prince, and all i had managed to conquer in the end was trieste... (although i managed to get to graz for a short period of time), so seems to be quite realistic :D

1. the german flag turns into barbarian just as the barbarian turns to german from time to time...

2. they declare peace every few rounds, but war seems to break out again at least 2 rounds later...

3. germany won a time victory although the war ended almost with the same territorial losse/gains as the real one did
 
i put unzipped file in custom assets as suggested and when the game restarts it freezes when loading at the point where its checking xml map. what can i do? i really wanna paly this..... cheers
 
pigfarmer said:
i put unzipped file in custom assets as suggested and when the game restarts it freezes when loading at the point where its checking xml map. what can i do? i really wanna paly this..... cheers

The extracted folder "World War I" should go in your C:\Civ4\Mods\ directory. Not sure if that's what you meant when you say the customs assets directory.
 
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