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Here's the situation:
The original scenario design called for 4 active civs; Germans, Belgians, French & British (moving in that order). The first two were AI controlled, while the latter were both Human-controlled civs (ala Nemo's 2nd Front). It quickly became apparent that the Belgians were not going to operate in a fashion even remotely consistent with their historical role, so most of their units were relegated to 0-move status. This was a minor change, since historically they were totally on the defensive and had little interaction with the French and Brits during the time frame of this scenario.
Since the British don't even reach the continent for a while, the first part of the scenario was developed on a purely "France vs. Germany" basis. To minimize editing, at this point the Brits were left as an AI civ, with the intention of later hex-editing them into human-controlled status. Which is what I did last night. Disaster.
A full up test of the first two parts was under way when it became apparent that the order of play was a BIG problem. The British are the last human-controlled civ to move before the Germans, so that means you don't see ANY of the German attacks on the French! For those of you who played 2nd Front, just remember how annoying it was when some of your Air Units were attacked by the Luftwaffe. When it was your turn to move the Air Force again, sometimes your units were damaged or missing, but how it happened was always a mystery. Imagine if the same thing had happened with your land forces!! (And I gather that it DID with the MGE version!) Another example. Do you think Red Front would have been half the success if people never got to see the massive German assault on Russia - as it occurred? Doubtful. So this is a huge problem...almost a show-stopper. At this point there seem to be two options:
1) Rebuild the scenario from scratch with the British moving BEFORE the French.
2) Edit the scenario so that the BEF units are all French-controlled.
There are certainly pluses and minuses to each approach, so lets consider them:
Option 1 (Rebuild):
PLUS - Retains the independence of command that was a critical component of this phase of the war. One of the major reasons for even HAVING two civs was to prevent the French player from distributing the BEF units throughout his army. It also replicates the considerable communication problems that existed between the two sides. Trying to coordinate an offensive (or even a retreat) such that neither army fouls up the other was a real historical challenge, and the use of two civs replicates that nicely.
MINUS - Rebuilding a scenario which is already about as large as 2nd Front, well that's a daunting task to put it mildly. It's doable, but incredibly time consuming. There are also larger issues involving two-human-player games. First, they don't work well in MGE since you never get to see the AI move. Second, you need two different versions for FW and MGE. Third, you can't package the file as a scenario but have to open with a saved game (which is another can of worms, but let's move on). Fourth, even with the order of play reversed, now you'll miss seeing all the German attacks upon the BEF! That's less of a problem simply based on force size, but still an issue.
Option 2 (Edit):
PLUS: This basically returns us to the world of one-human-player Civ. So all the minuses mentioned above effectively won't happen. There are a few other benefits, such as enabling the "British" units to move freely through French cities and even defend them from inside. A major benefit is that performing this edit can occur in a fraction of the time it would take to rebuild the scenario from scratch.
MINUS: All the pluses from Option 1 are pretty much gone. You lose the fun of trying to coordinate a two-civ strategy against an overwhelming AI opponent.
I suppose there are two other options, but neither appeals to me:
3) Leave it as is and hope nobody cares. Great. Work for half a year on a game I don't want to play.
4) Make the British an AI civ and use events to assist them in cooperating as your ally. See above comments about Belgium and multiply by 10.
Not surprisingly, I'm leaning HEAVILY toward Option 2.
But maybe I'm missing something. If anyone can make a good case for the alternative (are there some extra Option 1 pluses and Option 2 minuses that I missed), then I'm all ears!
The original scenario design called for 4 active civs; Germans, Belgians, French & British (moving in that order). The first two were AI controlled, while the latter were both Human-controlled civs (ala Nemo's 2nd Front). It quickly became apparent that the Belgians were not going to operate in a fashion even remotely consistent with their historical role, so most of their units were relegated to 0-move status. This was a minor change, since historically they were totally on the defensive and had little interaction with the French and Brits during the time frame of this scenario.
Since the British don't even reach the continent for a while, the first part of the scenario was developed on a purely "France vs. Germany" basis. To minimize editing, at this point the Brits were left as an AI civ, with the intention of later hex-editing them into human-controlled status. Which is what I did last night. Disaster.
A full up test of the first two parts was under way when it became apparent that the order of play was a BIG problem. The British are the last human-controlled civ to move before the Germans, so that means you don't see ANY of the German attacks on the French! For those of you who played 2nd Front, just remember how annoying it was when some of your Air Units were attacked by the Luftwaffe. When it was your turn to move the Air Force again, sometimes your units were damaged or missing, but how it happened was always a mystery. Imagine if the same thing had happened with your land forces!! (And I gather that it DID with the MGE version!) Another example. Do you think Red Front would have been half the success if people never got to see the massive German assault on Russia - as it occurred? Doubtful. So this is a huge problem...almost a show-stopper. At this point there seem to be two options:
1) Rebuild the scenario from scratch with the British moving BEFORE the French.
2) Edit the scenario so that the BEF units are all French-controlled.
There are certainly pluses and minuses to each approach, so lets consider them:
Option 1 (Rebuild):
PLUS - Retains the independence of command that was a critical component of this phase of the war. One of the major reasons for even HAVING two civs was to prevent the French player from distributing the BEF units throughout his army. It also replicates the considerable communication problems that existed between the two sides. Trying to coordinate an offensive (or even a retreat) such that neither army fouls up the other was a real historical challenge, and the use of two civs replicates that nicely.
MINUS - Rebuilding a scenario which is already about as large as 2nd Front, well that's a daunting task to put it mildly. It's doable, but incredibly time consuming. There are also larger issues involving two-human-player games. First, they don't work well in MGE since you never get to see the AI move. Second, you need two different versions for FW and MGE. Third, you can't package the file as a scenario but have to open with a saved game (which is another can of worms, but let's move on). Fourth, even with the order of play reversed, now you'll miss seeing all the German attacks upon the BEF! That's less of a problem simply based on force size, but still an issue.
Option 2 (Edit):
PLUS: This basically returns us to the world of one-human-player Civ. So all the minuses mentioned above effectively won't happen. There are a few other benefits, such as enabling the "British" units to move freely through French cities and even defend them from inside. A major benefit is that performing this edit can occur in a fraction of the time it would take to rebuild the scenario from scratch.
MINUS: All the pluses from Option 1 are pretty much gone. You lose the fun of trying to coordinate a two-civ strategy against an overwhelming AI opponent.
I suppose there are two other options, but neither appeals to me:
3) Leave it as is and hope nobody cares. Great. Work for half a year on a game I don't want to play.
4) Make the British an AI civ and use events to assist them in cooperating as your ally. See above comments about Belgium and multiply by 10.
Not surprisingly, I'm leaning HEAVILY toward Option 2.
But maybe I'm missing something. If anyone can make a good case for the alternative (are there some extra Option 1 pluses and Option 2 minuses that I missed), then I'm all ears!
)
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