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Numdydar -> RE: European Campaign Mod for WITPAE System??? (4/26/2015 3:27:45 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: fcharton
The problem with using AE as a basis for a game on the european theater is that it would need a major change of scale. At the current scale, Normandy is a 2x3 hex area, where you'd have two or three huge stacks, fighting for 60+ turns, before one finally retreats or is surrounded. The russian front is larger, but you'd find the same kind of huge stacks everywhere, which would make all the small unit detail we get in AE useless...
Note also that the heart of AE is the supply system, which is predicated upon the difficulty to supply one's troops, and the need to build infrastructure. This happens because the battlefield is either islands or landmasses with little transportation (and very rough terrain). Europe isn't so. And the focus on oil and resources only makes sense because they are the reason why WWII was fought in the Pacific (it was not the case in europe, or at least not to the same extent).
As a result, just making a new map and OOB wouldn't work. You'd need to adapt the engine, and it would be very close to a rewrite because the paradigm would change. And even so, I suspect the end result would be disappointing : the supply model, which is what "works" in AE, would be so different, that a lot of the AE feeling we all love would be lost in the process. I think "AE in space" would in fact work better than "AE does Europe".
Of course, there are very good ideas in AE, and a lot of knowledge and research in the team and among the players, but what you ask for is closer to developping a new piece of software than just modding AE. And this makes the problem of building a team even more difficult, as you need a fairly large set of skills.
This said, I'd be very happy to contribute to such a projet...
Francois
People are complaining about the 10 mile hexes in WitW so I can only imaging how they would feel about 45 mile hexes [:(]
Third Reich has a pretty large scale (65 miles?/hex) European map so that would give some idea of what the map would look like on a WitP scale. Not much room at all. Basically a WWI experience versus WWII. Italy one or two hexes wide. That sound like fun Not.
You might want to take a look at this http://schwerpunkt.wargamer.com/Eurdesc.html
As this is 7.5 miles per hex. Plus, while not the WitP system it is still pretty detailed.
Map scale is a very big deal in games. Which is one reason there are so few games covering the entire world. Paradox gets away with the HoI series by ignoring scale completely and using provinces. This way a lot of the large useless areas of the map can be huge sized while more densely areas can be made smaller.
WiF board game had two different scales for the ETO and PTO. When a unified map for the computer version was approved by ADG, people cried foul because the PTO now had more area but still the combatants had the same number of troops to cover the larger area.
The point of this is to model the entire world (or convert WitP scale to the ETO) one area is going to get shortchanged using hexes. I honestly think that the War in Europe (7.5 miles) really work well for the ETO. Much better than the 10 miles in WitW. Of course even in the ETO, 10 miles/hex works great in WitE. Again due to the large scale of the East compared to the West. So even within the confines of a single theater scale can (and should) vary.
Now if you wanted to capture the ETO (especially the Western/Desert fronts) experience, then than should determine the scale for the entire game. Yes the PTO will be 4-5 times bigger along with a huge amount of nothing. But a smaller scale in hexes will at least allow the important activities in the ETO to be played out correctly versus one or two giant stacks pounding it out turn after turn which is what you would get with a 45 mile/hex [:(]
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