xwormwood
Posts: 1149
Joined: 8/28/2000 From: Bremen, Germany Status: offline
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Hi Franciscus, you're right. I'm from Germany (my Grandfather did fight in the Waffen-SS), and I completely agree with you that there should be no sugar-coated history, or history-light. I'm all against forgetting historys lessons, and if I watch a TV-documentation, or when I read a book or watch a movie, I'm all in favor to show everything. But when I play a game (again, a game!), where I am in charge (me, little me), I can't play on imagining that I've replaced Hitler without having sacked his whole morderous system of crimes. When I'm in charge, than I'm in charge in a (fictional) history line without the need of SS units, slave labour, etc. That is nothing i want to be responsible for, even while it is only a game. Yes, of course I've already played board games like Russian campaign etc. where I led Waffen-SS unit. Maybe it would be different if SC wouldn't give you ultimate power. The game allows you to decide what whill happen next. What to produce, to research, where to move, what to attack, where to hide or where to surprise. Under such circumstances you don't have to rebuild history unchanged. Waffen-SS were units which received for ideological reasons the best weapons. I don't share the ideology, so why should I be forced to do the exact same thing Nazi-Germany did? I'll spend the money where I want (I'm in charge, after all), and there is simply no need to attach the SS runes to any unit name, as there is no SS in my fictional history, which is more or less a carbon copy of history, but without the unnecessary war crimes and the murder. My point is this one: Goebbels wanted the SS to look bad ass like, and so did Himmler. So they did everything to polish their historical picture. If you wipe away their propaganda gloss, throw what is left into a game engine, than you're looking exactly onto what SC will offer you. From all I know the SS war crimes had much to do with how the SS units were treated by there enemies. And the SS units were aware of that. This, and the fact that some of them believed in a god-like version of Hitler, made them tough enemies. If your afraid for the punishement, you will resist capture. In case of the east-front probably up to the point were you rather die before you surrender. Take aways the war crime and the hatred which followed (rightfully!), what remains? Units with the best possible german equippment. And those are in the game. But as I said, I played games with SS units too. But I really don't fancy them, as I know for a fact that they were not those super-germans the Propaganda wanted us to believe they were. But if you fought down the scum of the earth, you will keep this picture alive as well, as it adds to your victory (we fought those tough bastards, and we won). That is what I call Goebbels late victory, keeping the picture he drew of the Waffen-SS alive even though the Nazis lost the war. For me the question is where you draw the line. The Wehrmacht partly froze to death during 1941 because the trains were used to transport Jews into Ghettos or death camps. I never heard anyone missing this in any game, even though everyone insisted that the Wehrmacht will freeze to death in the Russian 1941 winter. So we have the Germans freezing, and we abondon the rest. That has nothing to do with history, yet we all agree about this. I draw the red line where the Nazi-Part stays more or less out of the game. Good news is that you really won't miss them. Play against the AI, and get your but kicked (this is the first AI I've played that was able to do a "I kick the walls of Fortress Europe down" successfull D-Day invasion followed by the liberation of France). Play against a human opponent and be ready for the game of your live (this one comes from PBEM games of older SC releases). I haven't played DC:Barbarossa yet, but I've read some reviews about the game. I guess I will give it a try when it ends up to become a special offer during a sale.
< Message edited by Xwormwood -- 11/15/2016 10:09:15 PM >
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"You will be dead, so long as you refuse to die" (George MacDonald)
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