Personally, I get quite bored with the stock political events. Especially in the Balkans. As Germany, I stack up units on the Yugoslav border and wait for a couple of events to occur. There is absolutely no uncertainty what will happen, just when it will happen, and there is nothing I can do to change things one way or another.
I've added a lot of events in Global Glory compared to Total War. And in the last couple of months I've added more. I completely revamped the way the Balkans political events work. I'm trying to capture some of the uncertainty of the political situation as it existed and give the German player (and, slightly, the Russian) something concrete to actually do to change the outcome.
In summary, what I have is this:
- A) Yugoslavia starts as Pro-Axis. Political volatility is increased to 7.
- A1) There is still a Yugoslav coup which makes Yugo Pro-Allied. The probability of this is fairly small (10 or 20%) UNTIL Greece is captured. Then it is big: 80%.
- B) Rumania starts Pro-Axis (not leaning Axis).
- B1) Rumanian event #1: border war with Russia over Bessarabia, German troops invited in. Rumania becomes full-Axis
- B2) Rumanian event #2: border war with Russia over Bessarabia, Russia occupies Rumania. All Rumanian infrastructure is double-damaged. Russian WR is penalized by changing the thresholds (this is done such that production is reduced, but DOW is not delayed - I want to balance the game but not make Russian war so far away that Germany must focus on Britain). German production becomes FM=3. Hungary, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia all become full-Axis. Greece becomes Pro-Axis and gets some additional land units (an arms deal with Germany, say). Turkey becomes Pro-Axis. Persia takes 1 step towards the Axis. Russia increases her gift to Germany to try to pacify Germany.
The Russian occupation is obviously quite a huge thing. It would be fairly low probability. It is really no more of a "what-if" than Spain joining Germany.
This setup provides 3 major game courses for the Balkans:
(i) Yugoslavia is captured by the Germans, entailing repair of resources and a future need to garrison against Yugoslav partisans. Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria (or most of them) all become German. This is basically the course that matches the current setup.
(ii) Germany manages to capture an Allied friendly Greece BEFORE the Yugoslavia coup, and this causes Yugoslavia to shift to the Axis and become full-Axis. Germany does not need to repair resources, and will not need to garrison against partisans.
(iii) Russia occupies Rumania. A whole new world unlike pre-existing AWD opens up, and I struggle to keep it balanced [:)].
Personally, I really really like this setup. It leaves me uncertain what will happen, and it gives the German something to strive for (capturing Greece first, a real distraction in the Med when the path through Yugoslavia doesn't yet exist) instead of just sitting on the Yugo border and waiting. I also think it does a better job of modeling real political processes and possible outcomes.
My question is this ... what do you all think?
I've been thinking of adding another one, the Soviet occupation of Finland. After all, it was the Soviet plan. War being war, it could have happened. But I don't feel as strongly about this one, because it is harder to see a good way to plug semi-meaningful German or Russian actions into the equation. Also the existing Total War situation for Finland doesn't really impact your operations the way the "line up at the Yugo border and wait" mechanic does in the Balkans ... you can just ignore the Finland border war event, but you cannot ignore Yugo and Rumania.
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