[BTS] The Road to War - FINAL Edition [1.09]

[kiwitt]

Planned Release date = May 2025 (80 year anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe)

1. Introduction

I would like to acknowledge, Dale Kent is the original developer of 'The Road to War' included in Civilization IV - Beyond the Sword expansion, and also the Ultimate Edition 1.10, without whom my version would not exist. An update of this last edition, was made by Deanj for version 3.19 release.

I am a long-time war gamer, having played for over 50 years. During this time, I played many types of games. These included the old classic - Chess (which I remember beating my father at age 12), model tanks on a table-top battlefield (which included making and painting). I remember even playing on huge hex maps with cardboard counters. Eventually I moved on to computer gaming, with classics like Close Combat series, Panzer Elite, etc. During this time I developed and extensive library of knowledge about World War II, but also the Cold War.

The Civilization series of games, has been a great love of mine for decades, and I even tried the later versions (V and VI). I always returned to Civilization IV, because I preferred the UI compared to the console-like of these later games. As the versions are released, they put pressure on my PC hardware, warranting upgrades to continue to enjoy my gaming. The variety of mods available, showed me the amazing capabilities of the Civilization IV framework. I played untold hours of these mods and I became hooked. When 'Beyond the Sword' expansion was released, I discovered Dale's - The Road to War - Mod. I just could not stop playing this mod for ages.

1.1 - My legacy

Version 1.09 will be thoroughly playtested to ensure that the game is stable. After more than a decade and a half of development, there comes a point when I need to just play the game I created.

 

[kiwitt]

2. Development

One thing that struck me was the level of detail already in the mod, and my interest in particular to the European conflict drew me in more. I loved the changing of the winter season, as it increased the atmosphere. However, I could not help but notice how abstract the game was compared to history, despite it having historical events. Nevertheless, I could see the attraction for casual players, who may not want or desire the historical detail.

As mentioned above, my interest centered on the European conflict, due to the large scale land battles, compared to the island hoping of the Pacific conflict, where naval actions predominated. My WWII knowledge was also focused more in this sphere, and this is seen in the details in my version of 'The Road to War', hereafter called RTW.

The main thrust of my development, is on the structure of national armies, of battalions, regiments, brigades, divisions, corps, armies, and the massive Army Groups (and Army Fronts of Russia). This became my foundation that I continued in all future development.

I started developing the game in 2009, and my intial release 1.03 (for 3.17) was very popular. This encouraged me to develop a more comprehensive version - 1.04 (for 3.19). This version formed the basis for continued refinement of details in versions - 1.05, 1.06 and 1.07. I paused development for I time, so I could play other games, like World of Tanks, Armored Warfare, and even Forza Horizon. Recently, I made further refinement and released version 1.08. As said in the title, version 1.09 will be my FINAL version, I think. So in light of this, I have done extensive play-testing to ensure that the game is stable.

2009 - 1.03 - https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/kiwitts-road-to-war-mini-mod.306489/

This was my first attempt at modding. As you can see from reading the thread, I have taken a lot of design decisions, which continue to be part of later releases. What impressed me most was my ability to start coding, initially in XML and eventually Python scripts.

1.03 Bug fixes - https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/kiwitts-road-to-war-bugs-and-fixes.333624/

As can be seen here, I made a lot of changes to ensure the game is as accurate historically as possible.

1.04 - https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/road-to-war-historical.337742/

This was my main thread for development. A lot of changes were made again and improvements to make the game as good as possible.

2019 - 1.05 - https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/road-to-war-historical-1-05.641749/
I revisitied my mod and felt some changes were required. This was essentially an accuracy tidy up.

2021 - 1.06/1.07 - https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/road-to-war-historical-1-06.667315/

This was my 2nd development phase, where I made significant changes to the map and I tried unlimited divisions, but I limited this in later releases.

2025 - 1.08/1.09 - https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/the-road-to-war-final-edition-1-09.696404/

I have this 3rd phase of development will be my FINAL EDITION. 1.08 was the start of my changes.

1.09 will have a significant detail uplift. I have removed most of the unit's starting promotions. For the Germans, I have used the following

No Medal - Combat1
German Cross - Combat2
Iron Cross - Combat3
Knights Cross - Combat4
Knights Cross with Oak Leaves - Combat5
Knights Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords - Combat6
Knights Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords and Diamonds - Combat6 + Morale

 

[kiwitt]

3. The Map

The original RTW map contained a few key cities, that each nation had. In order to make the mod more accurate, I added dozens of new cities and towns, and many close to each other as seen in 'The Ruhr'. The population in these cities and towns, was thoroughly researched to reflect how many people they had back in the 1930s. In addition, the make up of these towns was researched to improve the accuracy even more. However, I discovered that due to the limitations of the game AI, I needed to add towns to reflect the various historical operations, including Operation Torch, Operation Husky and of course Operation Overload, more well known as D-Day. In addition, I have included, a base in Belgium representing the initial British forces in Europe, a German base, in Afrika, Italy and Norway, as well as US bases for the aforementioned operations.

Players of the original RTW will remember the Winter turns and how the game slowed between turns while it redrew the terrain to reflect the 'Bitter Winter' effects. I did some research into this whereby I discovered that not every winter was bitter, so some years there is not 'Bitter Winter', which players will discover.

I have reduced the number of roads in the EAST to reflect how hard it was to move, especially during those muddy seasons. You will get a taste of this in POLAND, but compared to Western Europe, the progress in RUSSIA will be painfully slow. In addition, the limit of how many workers you can have will hinder your ability to build more roads and railroads.

 

[kiwitt]

3. The Units

As mentioned above, this is where the real difference between the original RTW and my Historical version separates. The original used Early, Improved, Advanced and Modern categories for units, and I used these same categories for Divisions, Corps, Armies and Army Groups/Fronts. However, some nations were unlikely to have created large units and this is reflected in them starting from battalions. I have done extensive research into make-up of these units individual firepower, to determine the points value of each. The amount of units in each category is limited by the actual numbers able to be created, e.g. you can make less Army Groups, than you can divisions, etc.

To make the game have a more realistic feel, I have named every unit with the names they had in WWII, e.g. Afrika Korps, 3rd Army and even HeersGruppe Mitte (Army Group Centre). Initially, I added the name of the various Generals who commanded these units, but I learnt how to add the actual General to the unit, which gave them additional promotions.

This leads me to explain the customisation I did to the units, to reflect the special focus the units had as well as additional abilities the Nation who makes them can give. e.g. Winter Warfare for Nordic countries and Russia. Some units have special ability in mountains, woods and even city battles. One customisation I coded in, was the ability to be 're-built' after it has been destroyed in battle, which reflects that many units were 're-built' even 2-3 times during the war, especially the Russian ones (all of which can be rebuilt 2 more times).

I have added many units in their historical starting locations, which I researched in books and the many sources on the internet. However, I needed to add a lot more units than what a nation started with, in order to ensure that the battles contained the correct make-up of forces engaged.

While a smaller part of the game, the Air Forces and Navies have not been ignored, despite my focus on the land units. The names of various fighter aces are included, and also the battleships, cruisers, destoyer squadrons and submarines. You can even build naval mines.

The map also includes the many fortifications built to defend cities and whole nations, e.g. The French Maginot line, the German West Wall and the Russian Stalin Line, including extensive defenses around key cities like Kursk and Moscow. Many of theses have also been historically named.

Main Starting Forces

The Germans (all with 1 rebuild, and generals with 2 rebuilds)
Army Groups: 3 x Heersgruppe (North, Centre, South), 2 x O.B. (West and South- Italy), 10 x ArmeeGruppe
Armies: 7 x Panzer Armies, 29 Armies
Corps: 22 x PanzerKorps, 100 x ArmeeKorps
Divisions: 60 x Panzer. 44 x PanzerGrenadier/SS, 247 x Infantry

Army Groups, Armies, ArmeeKorps and Infantry Divisions, all start with 1 movement point. This reflects the fact, that despite evidence to the contrary - BlitzKrieg tactics, many of the German forces were actually horse drawn or on foot.

The Russians (all with at least 2 rebuilds)
Army Fronts: 30 x Army Fronts
Armies: 10 x Tank Armies, 5 x Shock Armies, 15 x Guards Armies, 71 x Armies
Corps: 44 x Tank Corps, 41 x Mechanised Corps, 182 x Rifle Corps
Divisions: Over 1,000 Rifle Divisions, 64 x Tank Divisions, 51 x NKVD Divisions

While this seems like a lot of forces, it needs to be said, that a Russian Division is equivalent to a Western Brigade, a Russian Rifle Corps to a Western Division, and so forth. i.e. Army Fronts are more like Western Armies. But what makes them especially tough is they all start with 2 rebuilds, effectively tripling the numbers above.

The Allies (most with at least 1 rebuild)
Army Groups: 3 x British Army Groups, 4 x US Army Groups
Armies: 7 x British Armies, 2 x Commonwealth Armies, 12 x US Armies, 1 x Canadian Army
Corps: 17 x British Corps, 11 x Commonwealth Corps, 28 x US Corps, 2 x Canadian Corps
Divisions: 22 x British/Commonwealth Armoured, 16 x US Armoured, 2 x Canadian Armoured, 48 x British, 29 x Commonwealth, 64 x US Infantry, 8 x US Mot. Infantry, 17 Hvy Infantry, 3 x Canadian

American, British, and Canadian forces are starting with 2 movement points, which reflects the fact that they were very motorised. This will give significant speed advantage to the Allies forces. In addition, the Corps are actually Armoured Corps, giving them access to BLITZ and other Armoured only promotions.

The French, Polish, Lowlands, Scandinavian Forces, are made up of a few Armies, dozens of Corps, and around 100s Divisions.

However, each major nation can build up to 300 Divisions, Russia - 300 Rifle Corps, and minor nations 300 Infantry Brigades, which do not require barracks to build, as to reflect local militias being raised to defend.

 

[kiwitt]

4. How to Play

Initially I thought, the best way to play was Hot-Seat, whereby you controlled multiple nations that reflected the historical groupings. However, it is better to play with one or two nations.
Germany: While the AXIS were aligned, the co-ordination and command control, was really ineffective, and led to the massive defeat at Stalingrad due to the poor performance of Romanians.
The Allies: Hot-Seat could be an option for controlling both the British Commonwealth and American forces, with other allies assisting where they can.

You may notice that Russia is an unplayable nation. This is a conscious decision due to the impossible task of managing 1,000s of units, each with two rebuild options, giving a much larger task.
After asking the players (over 10,000 to date) of my version, I discovered most preferred to play the Germans, and this is who I too prefer to play. But, that does not mean the other nations are not as well developed, which you will see as you encounter them in battle.

The Germans
This is the main stages of the Road-to-WAR Historical. These are setup with the difficulty set as SETTLER in the save files.

1936 - January - Fortnight 1 - This is before you can select Historical Events (Recommended), Random Events, Open-Play
1936 - January - Fortnight 2 - This is where Historical Events have been selected
Do not open spoiler if you want to have events as surprises.

Spoiler List of major events :

1937 - January - Fortnight 1 - This is the last year of PEACE
1938 - January - Fortnight 1 - This is the year, AUSTRIA and CZECHOSLOVAKIA are annexed by GERMANY
1938 - March - Fortnight 1 - AUSTRIA annexed
1938 - September - Fortnight 2 - CZECHOSLOVAKIA annexed
1939 - January - Fortnight 1 - This is the year WORLD WAR TWO starts. I recommend players start here, so they can make their own preparations for their style of play.
1939 - April - Fortnight 1 - ALBANIA invaded by ITALY
1939 - August - Fortnight 1 - Eve of start of invasion of POLAND. Last chance to make minor changes to my preparations for the invasion of POLAND.
1939 - September - Fortnight 1 - POLAND invaded by GERMANY
1939 - December - Fortnight 1 - FINLAND invaded by RUSSIA
1940 - January - Fortnight 1 - This is the year, the WEST is invaded
1940 - March - Fortnight 1 - Eve of start of Invasion of DENMARK and NORWAY. Last chance to make minor changes to my preparations for the invasion of the WEST.
1940 - April - Fortnight 1 - DENMARK and NORWAY invaded by GERMANY
1940 - May - Fortnight 1 - NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM (LOWLAND) and FRANCE invaded by GERMANY
1940 - July - Fortnight 1 - VICHY FRANCE joins AXIS with GERMANY and ITALY
1940 - November - Fortnight 2 - ROMANIA, BULGARIA, HUNGARY joins the AXIS
1941 - January - Fortnight 1 - This is the year, that the EAST is invaded by the AXIS
1941 - March - Fortnight 1 - Eve of start of Invasion of YUGOSLAVIA and GREECE. Last chance to make minor changes to my preparations for the invasion of the EAST.
1941 - April - Fortnight 1 - YUGOSLAVIA and GREECE invaded by AXIS and AFRIKA Korps can begin operations in North Africa.
1941 - June - Fortnight 1 - Eve of Operation BARBAROSSA, the invasion of RUSSIA by the AXIS. Last chance to make minor changes to my preparations for the invasion of RUSSIA.
1941 - June - Fortnight 2 - RUSSIA invaded by the AXIS, and the war of attrition begins
1941 - December - Fortnight 2 - U.S.A.. Joins the ALLIES can can commence operations in North Africa, Sicily and Northern France.

NOTE: If you do want to play another nation, it will require a small edit of the Nation section of the Scenario file. But be warned, any errors in editing can cause the file to be damaged, so make a backup of the original before you do. See the Civfantics Modiki for details on what to do.

CAUTION: It is essential that you save every turn, due to the complexity the game will sometimes CTD, losing all your progress. Saving every turn will allow you to at least start the turn again, whereby the randomiser will take different actions. A better developer than me, would probably be able to diagnose these errors better and fix them if possible.

 

[kiwitt]

5. Events

When the game begins you can make some initial moves and builds and the second turn you get to select; Historical Events, Random Events or Open-Play.
Historical Events is where my development has been focused on, so this is my recommended option, whereby events happen on the on the correct dates.
Random Events, will cause most events to occur around their historical dates, either months earlier or months later of in some cases not as all.

Open-Play is very much a free-for-all and am unsure how this will play out given my design for history, but is available for the adventurous among you.

 

[kiwitt]

6. The Strategy

Having a good strategy is essential, for victory. Also a good grasp of history, in order to ensure you can be ready for each stage of the war.

As Germans, if you take too long defeating Poland this can impact your preparations for the invasions in the West, and likewise too long there will impact your battles in the East, which is essentially the main event. The USA joins the Allies in December 1941, by which time it will have created a massive amount of units, since its 1936 start, due to its huge industrial base, so be aware.

As the Allies, your role is to harass the Germans to such an extent that they will find the invasion of Russia to be extremely difficult. However, the A.I. is quite poor in co-ordinating its units, so the Germans will have a hard time reacting to your actions. Early action revolves around the Middle-East, but later it includes Western Europe and the North African desert.

 

[kiwitt]

7. Conclusion

I have looked at other RTS games like Hearts of Iron, but I prefer the mechanics of Civilization IV, hence why I have created essentially my own version based on it.

Because I love World War II history (I have 100s of books and videos on the subject), and a decades long career in computing, this game is like my culmination of all my knowledge and interests combined.

Therefore, please enjoy playing the game, like 1,000s of other like you have done.

 

[kiwitt]

8. Reserved