Harry Turtledove's "The Great War"

[Art of War]

this is an alternative history of WW1. You may have seen the book series in book stores.

I had originally had this about 70% complete back in January, then I just stopped making it. Now I'm back, and instead of using the GIGA map, I'm using the same map from Jim Panse's WW1 .scn...excellent scenario, btw.

I'll post the units below....I need someone to help me with a title picture, and I was wondering, Curt, if you could help me. I'll extrapolate more on the whole story of the Great War later on....

[curtsibling]

Good scen!
I like Turtledove's paperbacks!

Yup,
I'm up for doing your title gif,
Just PM me with the details!

[Palaiologos]

Dude, i downloaded your units.bmp but all it shows is a purple block, not units.

[EZRhino]

Strange, it looks fine to me.

[Palaiologos]

I just downladed it again, and works fine.
Don't know what happened the first time, perhaps my faulty connection screwd up.

But who cares anyway?

[Art of War]

I've attached the readme, it has the background and such.

[Art of War]

I attached the Readme for the whole background. Since the GIGA version is gone, I've added the Italians instead...that's Readme v1.0

[lord of the mark]

one of the things i didnt like about the great war series, was the apparent assumption that ww1 in europe plays out exactly as in OTL (original time line IE actual history) despite participation of the US in North America and battle of the Atlantic.

Now i'll admit i never even finished the first book, so maybe this changes later on. But as far as I had gotten the western front was the same through the battle of the Marne (explicity) and through January of 1915 (implicitly) Now i understand Canadian troops didnt impact the western front till spring 1915, so i have no problem with that. But he also indicates Brit units in Canada in 1914, which has to impact whats available to the western front. He doesnt identify the brit units, IIRC. He also indicates a free for all battle of the Atlantic - is January 1915 too early for this to impact Britains war fighting ability?

It would be interesting to see how this plays in a scenario. What would be especially interesting would be to start with a conventional WW1 scenario that plays relatively realistically, and then add the american front as defined by turtledove, and see what the impact on the western front is.

[our_man]

Good luck with this. I enjoyed the books very much. Scott F was also working on making a Great War scenario, which was shaping up to be a classic before he disappeared.

The last playtest version was posted on the forum a while back, it would be worth taking a few minutes to try to find and download it. Fantastic graphics, excellent tech tree and a decent set of events; it wouldn't do any harm to take a look, and it might give you an idea or two.

Admittedly I'm biased in my judgement by his inclusion of an "Easter Rising" event.

[Art of War]

actually, as the story played out, lord of the mark, the Quadruple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman, and America) captured Verdun, along with Alsace-Lorraine...it's a very interesting idea. I also questioned the use of British Troops in the Canadian front, but i think Turtledove just meant that a few crack units were sent, not masses of armies.

our_man: my units aren't the best right now...i'm going to redo alot of stuff with new and better units (mostly the planes). Also, my events are pretty darn good, IMO!

To anyone out there, i may need help on the tech tree a little. I'll d/l scott's files if i find them!

[Art of War]

after this, i'm also planning on doing an "American Empire" scenario, that takes place from 1918-1940. I think that's the correct date...i haven't been able to dig out the date that WW2 starts in "The Victorious Opposition" which is his newest book...it starts at the end, and i'm thinking it's either '38, '39, or '40...we'll see, I guess.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Art of War
actually, as the story played out, lord of the mark, the Quadruple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman, and America) captured Verdun, along with Alsace-Lorraine...it's a very interesting idea. I also questioned the use of British Troops in the Canadian front, but i think Turtledove just meant that a few crack units were sent, not masses of armies.

our_man: my units aren't the best right now...i'm going to redo alot of stuff with new and better units (mostly the planes). Also, my events are pretty darn good, IMO!

To anyone out there, i may need help on the tech tree a little. I'll d/l scott's files if i find them!

So did the battle of Verdun take place in 1916, as in OTL? Any departures from OTL in european theater before summer 1916?

[Art of War]

Well, in the alternate timeline, the war ends in late 1917, instead of late 1918. The german capture of verdun (in the third book, i think) leads to that, so it is either late 1916 or early 1917.

[Palaiologos]

I've never read this man's books, but reallistically speaking the capture or not of verdun would have had little impact on the war itself.
Verdun was intended to be an attrition battle by the Germans.They had estimated that the current killing rate was in they favour, since they were losing about the same number of men as the french but they had more manpower to draw upon.

[Art of War]

I think the uprisings in the French Army in the books are also much more severe than they were in OTL.