New Scenario: Zweiter WeltKrieg

[kobayashi]

Hello Everybody,

I am ready to release my newest scenario, Zweiter WeltKrieg - Second World War. I know there are plenty of good WW2 scenarios out there but ZWK is different in that it is a Civ2 scenario with a WWII theme and not a WWII simulation using the Civ2 game engine. So this is not your typical tactical battle type scenario and is suitable for an audience beyond the war scenario enthusiast. You could say that the purpose of the scenario is to discover which other ways WWII (in Europe) could have unfolded if different personalities were involved. Another departure from other war scenarios is the emphasis on research.

ZWK was designed to allow both single player and multi-player games. So do not expect any events or programing to ensure that the War takes its rightful course and there are no free units to beef up the AI. There are also practically no restrictions on negotiations or the transfer of technology. However the map, tech tree and the political *** military balance is such that it steers the players towards the initial phases of the War simply for the sake of maximizing their chances of winning.

Seems that the League's Review Section is no longer being updated so I am simply putting a link here for anyone wanting to download it.
.
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ2scenmod.shtml#zwc

It is the 10th scenario counting down from the top (added later - and has been updated to version 1.3)

<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by kobayashi (edited May 08, 2001).]</font>

[kobayashi]

Here's some units from the scenario. I made most of the ZWK units from scratch.




[This message has been edited by kobayashi (edited April 20, 2001).]

[Chris 62]

This is an impressive scenario. There are no engineers, and no railroads, so forget the tried and true tactics of WWII scenarios. Combined arms is the key to battle here. In the early part of the war, Pzkw IIs and Pzkw IIIs are quite effective as combat units. Even Bf-110s have value as long range escorts. Each power has a full range of units to build. A new feature is the use of submarines. Unlike other scenarios, they have zero attack factor. You must have Torpedoe units on the subs to use them in an attack role. The scenario provides for free torpedoe replacement in Geramny, and when you capture it, the coast of France. Most of the wonders have been renamed, with new artwork. As can be seen from the exanple posted above by the author, the units are of the highest quality. This is not just another WWII scenario, but a new approach to the second world war.

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All knowledge begins with the phrase: I don't know.
[This message has been edited by cpoulos (edited April 20, 2001).]

[Mao]

awwwwww no engineers? c'mon....put in engineers and railways...pwease???

[Kull]

Tundra?

[Cal]

Kobayashi:

What song is Theme2.wav?

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The strategically impaired,
-Cal

[kobayashi]

quote: Originally posted by Cal on 04-21-2001 06:20 PM Kobayashi: What song is Theme2.wav?

Its some panzer march that was supposed to be famous then. I downloaded it from a site (I can't remember which one now). Of course its been truncated here and there so in german it will sound like gibberish but to rest of us won't notice.

[kobayashi]

quote: Originally posted by Mao on 04-20-2001 04:58 PM awwwwww no engineers? c'mon....put in engineers and railways...pwease???

Well its not practical for new cities to spring up during the short period depicted in the scenario. Also, I wanted the terrain improvements pillaged and cities destroyed to be gone forever.

The railways also aren't too practical. You would be able to mobilise for Barbarosa in one turn. Land untis would move further than planes. The idea is to concentrate your forces for attacking and deciding which fronts can be left lightly defended.

Do try it. You will understand what I mean after you played a game.

[Cal]

This scenario is a little bit too easy...

I played a single player game as the Axis. By week 30, I won the game by capturing London.

I never declared war on the Soviet Union. I sent a few long range planes to Africa to help the Minor Axis, but it turned out to not be really necessary because neither the Allies or the Minor Axis was close to gaining any territory. My win played very close to history... finishing the initial attack on Poland, then turning toward the Neutrals in the west and France, and then England.

How are reinforcements supposed to be sent to Africa? The only way to gain access to it would be to send ships from conquered Greece... unless you conquered the Minor Axis yourself.

One thing that bothered me is that to simulate the oils effect on the economy, the Ploesti oil fields are usually give very high shield and tax bonuses, but these weren't present, which reduced Ploesti more to an isolated city that wasn't worth worrying about, since I kept the Soviet Union from attacking me (actually, I just played like they didn't exist).

Well, I'm sure it'd be a better multi-player game (now I just have to find people to play it with me).

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The strategically impaired,
-Cal
[This message has been edited by Cal (edited April 23, 2001).]

[kobayashi]

Thanks for your comments. I have been thinking about this myself (single player axis game) and perhaps I should suggest in the readme of version 1.2 that the single player game can be played as the Allies (I even played a good game as the Neutrals). The problem is balancing the game between single and multi-player. If I gave the Allies 10 more captial ships at the beginning, it would be much harder to get to London in a single player game but in a multi-player game the Axis would never even capture and keep any of the coastal cities. I have tended to give multi-player preference as there are plenty of single player scenarios out there which are very good.

What do you think was the main problem with the Allies AI? Maybe I could tweak it a bit. Or should the Axis objective be to capture both London and Moscow? Another option would be to add a repeating aggression event to make the Russians hate the Germans slowly but that would make the Russians attack the germans and not the otherway round.

Africa should be reached through the two ways you mentioned. The Axis spent a lot of time conquering the Balkans and Greece and couldn't get to Moscow in time cause Barbarosa started late. Another way is to use Marseilles as your main Mediterranean Port and go on to capture Tunis and Algiers.

As for the Ploesti thing, if you lose the city, Guderian's Panzer Academy expires. It has nothing to do with the resources there.

[This message has been edited by kobayashi (edited April 23, 2001).]
[This message has been edited by kobayashi (edited April 23, 2001).]

[Cal]

I think the main problem with the Allies AI is that they don't make any units to defend themselves from Air attack, London and Dover had no AA in them, and only one plane was in London. Once I captured Dunkirk, getting from there to Britain was easy.

[kobayashi]

Thanks to everyone who has sent in comments. Seems that version 1.1 still has some difficiencies. I am making version 1.2 now. The changes to be implemented so far (as taken from the readme) are:

9.02 VERSION 1.2 CHANGES
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a. Gave the Polish back the cities of Vilna and Lwow.

b. Disabled city capture (bribing) by Commandoes and enabled the Informant network(embassy) option.

c. Added a ADSIC/Sonar message to replace the Railway message. Added a Mustang Message to replace the Transform message.

d. Withdrew suggestion that single player play as Axis.

e. Allies now begin researching War Adjustment so the Allied AI will have AA guns earlier.

f. Soviets and Minor Allies (i.e. Poland) at at war at the start.

g. Capital ships can now attack aircraft to solve the problem of the invulnerable battleship.

h. Axis government city corruption is now equivalent to 10 spaces from the capital, previously 4. This will reduce the overall Axis advantage.

If there are any more suggestions for other adjustments, NOW would be a good time...
[This message has been edited by kobayashi (edited May 06, 2001).]

[Cal]

I think the Soviets should begin the game at war with the neutrals as well... they never did get around to absorbing the Baltic states.

After another try at version 1.1, I made it to London by Week 16.

[Cal]

Dealing with the British navy was never a big factor... Maybe giving each U-Boat only 2 torpedos to start out with would make it harder.

I played one turn as the Allies, but after about all of my cities went into civil disorder, I gave up and tried the Axis.

Oh, and one last suggestion, make the League of Nations wonder obsolete. A human player would have no problem breaking the forced peace treaties left and right, but a computer controlled opponent would. I'm pretty sure Germany withdrew from the League of Nations in 1933.

[Pap1723]

Love the scenario...
I can't think of any big changes right now, but Germany did leave the League of Nations in 1933 when Hitler took over power.

I think you should consider removing the League of Nations because for one, it was very unsuccesful because it didn't get support from some of the bigger superpowers (U.S.), and two, it makes it too easy to sue for peace if your country is near defeat. I think it is unrealistic because in the two major world wars, the countries would accept pretty much nothing short of a complete unconditional surrender (Vichy France is the only country I can think of that was allowed a REAL puppet gov't).

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"Every man dies, but not every man really lives."
-William Wallace in Braveheart