Neutrals in a WW2 scenario

[Steff]

Currently I am still working on my WW2 scenario, where two different neutral countries will occur. One will be the countries which will be overrun soon by German troops as e.g. Poland, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Jugoslavia and Greece shown as Barbarians. The other neutral country will be Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Turkey. The "Barbarians" will only have defensive units and some fighters. As the other neutral country (Spain, Ireland, etc.) will not actively take part in WW2 should it also have offensive units like a small tank, fighters and ships or are some defensive units sufficient ? This would save me some units for the more important countries.

[Palaiologos]

It should the other way around. Countries that actually fought in the war should have some offensive power,albeit limited, while countries such as Turkey and Spain that had no effect on the outcome should lack any sort of it.

[Steff]

Thats what I thought:
Neutrals 1 (Poland, Netherlands, Denmark, etc) only defensive units
Neutrals 2 (Spain, Portugal, Ireland, etc) defensive units and some offensive units.
All other nations like USA, GB, Germany, Russia, etc. all kind of units.

The question is: Should Neutrals 2 also have offensive units or not.....

[Reinhard-Baer]

I think they should have some units to do attacks. As we all know Portugal and Spain were in discussions with the Germans and they might have joined the Axis. So in my opinion countries like Spain could have an impact on the war therefore should have the opportunity to do so.

[Henrik]

I'd give both a combination of attack and defence units.
Just becouse, for instance Spain was never attacked, does not mean they wouldn't have been able to attack forces entering their territory (or for that matter that they wouldn't have been able to attack one of thier smaller neighbors if things had gone differently).

EDIT: As I just noticed Reinhard Baer allready pointed out partially

[Heresson]

R-B is right. The same for Turkey.

[Michael Daumen]

I say the second Neutral civ shouldn't have offensive units for two reasons:

1. Since new units can be built in any of the Neutral civ's cities, you're units can't be specific to one region like Spain or Ireland. You could place the units there at the start, and provide events to generate more, but without the ability to make new ones there's less of a reason to.

2. If these units can attack, they will move around more and try to attack enemies. The biggest problem would be in Ireland, which in a lot of WW2 maps is connected to England. So unless you are trying to have some far out things happen, I would just leave them some defensive units.

Someone brought up the possibility that Allied civs could attack these Neutrals and they wouldn't be able to defend themselves. Units with a defensive role can still attack, can't they? You can prevent human players from doing this with a simple house rule. The Allies have other fish to fry anyway. Then make all civs at peace with these Neutrals, and that none of the Neutral civ's cities are objectives.


From your post you don't plan on these countries doing much of anything, so save the unit slots and event space.

[Exile]

And . . .

It also helps to keep your "neutrals" neutral if you give them the Eiffel Tower.

I did this in Age of War specifically to keep Spain present, and called it Spanish Neutrality. If not human-controlled, it tends to keep Spain out of the fighting as much as possible. It's not foolproof, but it does help. It could easily be used for neutrals.

[Boco]

That's a slick trick, Exile! Keep the ideas coming.

[Steff]

OK, I will reduce the units to a minimum. Currently the neutrals have several units: one PZL 24 fighter, one Infantry, one IZ Panzerwagen and as all nations three different defense units (1939, 1941, 1943).
Maybe I will kick out the Panzerwagen.

OK, one more question. Which country flag should I use. Currently following flags are in use:

Neutrals 1 = Spanish flag (Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Turkey)
Neutrals 2 = Polish flag (Poland, Denmark, Norway, Netherland, Jugoslavia, Greece)

[Palaiologos]

Greek flag for Neutrals 2!

[Steff]

I can imagine why......

[Michael Daumen]

Originally posted by Palaiologos
Greek flag for Neutrals 2!

Should realistically be a white flag ...

>ducks<

[FiGu]

Is Finland going to be in this scenario?

[Steff]

Unfortunately not. Scandinavia is only represented by Denmark (3 cities), Norway (about 4 cities) and Sweden (about 3 cities). The scen plays mainly in Europe. Maybe I can post a map this evening.