Using Civ3 as a tool for a college history report???

[Fortius]

Well I have to do a presentation of the WWII battles of Kursk, Stalingrad, El Alamein and the fall of Italy. I was thinking of using the Civ3 editor to make/setup an automated "simulation" of the battle (triggers anyone?), catching the action via SnapzPro and importing into Keynote/Powerpoint... So here is what I ask you...

- Is my idea sane?
- Are there already Civ3 WWII maps somewhere online I could use?
- Can I automate a map to run by itself (in AOE I could setup preliminary introduction actions for custom missions and so on...)?

Thanks for any and all help you can give me!
Cheers!

 

[Padma]

IMHO, using Civ3 for any kind of "battle simulation" is foolish.

Civ3 is *not* a wargame. It's military activities have been abstracted to a great degree, in order to concentrate on the *strategic* actions, not on tactical battlefield outcomes. I would recommend using an actual wargame to do these kinds of things.

(I did something similar for college history, back in the pre-computer days, using board wargames to compare the Roman Legion with itself as it changed over the centuries. )

 

[AlanH]

As Padma says, Civ3 is far too stylised to do realistic battle simulations.

You might want to look at Hearts of Iron from Paradox, ported and distributed online for Mac by Virtual Programming. It's a WW2 strategy game, and I think it plays along all by itself if you let it. It has a lot of strategic and tactical depth, so I haven't played it, but it seems to be highly thought of.

Warning: Version 2 apparently has an open bug in its implementation of land battle odds (Dojoboy understands these things - ask him )

 

[Hellfire]

Then again, since Civ3 is turned based, and the maps are based on squares, it's easier to set up and control.

If you feel daunted by current suggestions I would think your idea is in fact more sane than these others. However, if you want your presentation to look like the short lived "Decisive battles" on the History Channel, you need another package.

 

[wallyskier]

Likewise, my recommendations are the old fashioned cardboard counter wargame. Try the following:
Avalon Hill used to publish a great game called "The Russian Campaign". it was flexibile and varied on a division level. It would cover your eastern front campaigns. The same company produced "Afrika Corps" which covered the war in the western desert well. Supply and recce are the keys to that campaign.
Italian campaign is more problematic. Since it was such a static bloodfest it's hard to recreate that campaign from start to finish. I would suggest using Avalon Hill's "Squad Leader" game and expansion packs to illustrate small battles that show the effect of terrain on the outcome.
I just scoped out Ebay and all of the above mentioned are available. Most are under 10 bucks, and Afrika Corps is going for $.01.
For sheer fun, try "PanzerBlitz" and "PanzerLeader". Great brigade level wargaming, or am I dating myself?