WW2

[Ali Ardavan]

This year, 2014, is the 75th anniversary of the start of the second world war.

I have been planing to set a WW2 scenario for GOTM this year and was thinking of doing so for the September game. (September 1st is commonly designated as the start of the war, though some hostilities predate that. On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland. There were subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.)

I have played the WW2 scenario that shipped with the game. It is a finely designed scenario. It, however, starts in June 1940 right before the conquest of France by Germany.

I decided to start this thread for various purposes. I am wondering:
- How much interest is out there among active and occasional players.
- Are there other good WW2 scenarios that are compatible with classic and MGE?
- Shall we do a number of games, rather than just one? One possibility is to play the original WW2 scenario once as axis for one GOTM, another time as allies for another GOTM, and possibly a third time as Russians.

 

[Major Advantage]

First of all, this year is also another anniversary, it is the 100th of WW1. It really started in August, so there is still time! And WW2, well we could do it in 25 years.

On the second, I see your point, but I have never been much into scenarios. It takes away the part I like most, expanding and exploring and making the way through the tech tree. Still, I think that scenarios deserve a place in out gotms, so why not have one every now and then?

 

[Inkerman]

My thinking is with Major_Advantage; a modern war scenario would not emphasise the aspects of Civ2 I enjoy most, but I'm good to support ideas and try things as others may be very keen on such a game.

I don't have experience of such scenarios. If there is a good one then perhaps we need not look further. But the anniversary could also be an excuse for a style of game rather than anything too close to the actual map/countries. For example a fairly fully developed set of countries, with one side militarized at the start and the other less ready for war but with great potential. It might be necessary to slow tech development and restrict bribery, city founding etc. As ever any such specialized setups risk not playing with the AI's strengths.

I suspect playing the same scenario from different sides as successive games would not be so good, as the games would be too similar. Perhaps offer a choice of save files giving a choice of which power to take?

I like the view that WWI and WWII were the same war with a 20-year truce, so I see the idea applies to either. It's a similar sort of high-level view that talks about the 20th century being "short", from 1914 and the outbreak of WWI to 1990/1 and the collapse of the Iron Curtain, and almost any game based on military conflict in that period could fit - ah I remember we had one a while back with the Professor's naval warfare scenario.

With standard game files I guess the wars would be distinguished by what technologies are available. Once you get beyond extensive fortifications, riflemen/fanatics, artillery and cavalry, submarines and no aircraft the feel will move beyond WWI.

The conflicts offer plenty of scope for other ideas, again perhaps to inspire a style of game rather than anything too close to the actual map/countries (to make best use of what the AI can and cannot do well.) An anniversary being noticed in Britain just now is 70 years since the D-Day invasions - coming in a couple of weeks time. Can an invasion force knock over a weaker defence before something e.g. the defence completes a Manhattan Project?

 

[Ali Ardavan]

First of all, this year is also another anniversary, it is the 100th of WW1.

Great point. I love to do a scenario on that too but I do not know if a good one exists.

... I have never been much into scenarios. It takes away the part I like most, expanding and exploring and making the way through the tech tree. Still, I think that scenarios deserve a place in out gotms, so why not have one every now and then?

My thinking is with Major_Advantage; a modern war scenario would not emphasise the aspects of Civ2 I enjoy most, but I'm good to support ideas and try things as others may be very keen on such a game.

True. But for the seasoned player we rarely get to face a formidable rival in mid and late game. Scenarios open up areas of the game we do not often see.

I don't have experience of such scenarios. If there is a good one then perhaps we need not look further.

The WW2 scenario that shipped with the game is actually quite good. There are some special rules to make the game play better and they tweaked the regular AI to fine tune it for just this scenario.

I have played it twice (years ago) and enjoyed it quite a bit.

I suspect playing the same scenario from different sides as successive games would not be so good, as the games would be too similar. Perhaps offer a choice of save files giving a choice of which power to take?

If we decide to do it, it would not be successive games. My thinking is 2-3 months apart. Having different people play different sides is only a good choice if we get upwards of 20 people playing. A great feature of the GOTM is to see what others do in your exact circumstances. Furthermore, the sides in the WW2 scenario are different enough to keep things interesting.