Simulating Blitzkreig in Civ2

[Case]

Originally posted by Boco
Find a copy of Case's Appeasement and Aggression and examine his @UNITS. He spent a lot of time trying to get Civ2 to simulate what you're after.

Yeah, and almost no time actually play-testing the 'finished' scenario, which is why it didn't work I was pretty happy with the combat stats though. Another scenario worth looking at is the final version of John Ellis's 'Bonaparte' where he brilliantly set up the unit stats to encourage mobile warfare - I modeled A&A on this, but wasn't anywhere near as successful as he was.

One of my key goals in developing the unit score balance in 'Appeasement and Agression' was to emphasise the role of combined arms. As a result, while armoured units are great in open terrain during offensive operations, they're unable to either hold the ground they've won and operate in other terrain.

My objective in doing this was to break out of the standard strategy in WW2 scenarios where the mass production of Tiger Tanks or mobile artillery is enough to guarantee victory (ie, 'Red Front' or '2194 Days of War'). Historically, infantry was the 'queen of the battlefield' in WW2 and played a key role in all of the wars mobile campaigns. The only major offensive dominated by armoured units was the German attack at Kursk in which a shortage of infantry was one of the many factors which lead to German defeat.

[techumseh]

I concurr, your excellency!

[Willhelm II]

Infantry are the backbone of the military; we must first understand this principle if we are going to make simulate Blitzkrieg/Modern warfare. We should develop a style of play that forces a player to build massive fronts with infantry units (I believe a map entirely covered in fortresses is the only means in which to simulate this). Tanks, with the ability to ignore ZOC, should have the ability to mow down infantry but are weak when confronted with massive waves of infantry assaults or from Anti-Tank units.

Perhaps the answer can be found in production values; infantry should be able to be built on mass at a quick pace, but tanks should take a greater length to build. Balance is the key, taking into consideration the highest production values that are possible for a city with regards to factories and their improvements. Under such a system, countries with a low production output would be unable to amass massive armies, unlike industrialized nations with the means.

If only military units could be built like settlers, with each unit being taken from the population; this would provide such a new strategy with regards to population, production & military armament. Sadly, the golden chalice that is the Civ2 source code still is not within grasp.

We need values that work within the universe of Civ2 and produce a new way of playing.

Let us experiment, and work out this problem that continues to persist in WW2 & modern scenarios alike, where players only end up producing ‘super’ units on mass.

First we need the values of two crucial units:

Infantry

Basic Tank

Once we have these sorted, the rest should easily sort into place.