World War III

[markb50k]

I've been playing with MWIF for years now, and have been tweaking and bending the game to be very personalized to how I want to play.

Well, just to show an example of how far you can push this game, I'd like to show you some teasers of a new 1989 World War III scenario I have been working on for a few months. I'm just about ready to start this beast and I figured y'all would get a kick out of the idea.

Basically consider 1939 as 1989, and the world has taken sides. I did a ton of research into World military power in the 1987-1989 timeframe.

It's purely hypothetical and much of this is done for fun and for me, so while i kept NATO and Warsaw Pact forces per the historical setup, much of the rest of the world was determined for balance, and I'll likely tweak this several times to max the fun-factor.

Unlike the Global War scenario, the sides start with massive forces and I cannot wait to see the sheer number of losses that the opening turn will create.

Anyways here's a couple of shots. I'll check back here and answer any questions y'all have but at this point I know about as much about the game and the limits of what you can do as I guess I'll ever know, so hopefully I can help with any one curious how to do this for your own game.

Take it easy

[markb50k]

Quick shot of Korea/China/Japan AO:

[paulderynck]

I'd be interested in your supply calculation times.

[markb50k]

yeah, that will be a beast for sure. The sooner less units are on the board the better lol.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: markb50k

yeah, that will be a beast for sure. The sooner less units are on the board the better lol.

It looks like you have made a lot of Europe as part of the US. If that is true, then supply calculations shouldn't be that bad. Very little overseas supply I suspect.

What did you do about HQs?

[markb50k]

Yes everything is simplified. Germany is the Warsaw Pact. USA is NATO. All HQs and units are the same country just with different names to key which country they are representing which I will use when deciding where to place reinforcements etc. it’s built purely with solitaire in mind and the challenges are less dealing with allied cooperation and more with gameplay.

[hazmaxed]

I like the idea. Do the air units represent much smaller numbers of aircraft, maybe squadron size? One small critique; the air-to-air value for the F-117s should probably be parenthesized, because they are not air-to-air capable, to my knowledge.

Looks like fun.

[markb50k]

At first I made each counter represent 50 aircraft but I saw some performance degredation so I upped it to 100 and removed half the counters off the board. I later discovered that exceedingly high ranges made calculations intense for the program especially for naval air phase so I lowered those as well. Still trying to find the middle ground. As for the F117 yeah I converted it to a LND But you’re right I should probably make it in parentheses. Thanks

PS just started the first turn and hope to give some highlights later on. Just finished naval combat phase

[Divadov]

WOW, AWESOME!!!

Where is possible to download the module?

[markb50k]

Still tweaking the starting setups. Proper game scale is challenging especially for performance reasons. When I get to the next stopping point I can see how easy it is to make it available

[TrogusP96]

Pretty cool looking. Are you able to change unit costs for land units? If so how? I'm trying to change division costs.

[markb50k]

@TrogusP96

For unit costs:
- Land units aren't editable through normal means
- Air units have multiple costs per air type (F2, F3, etc) so you have some flexibility there by editing the save game or the AIR UNIT csv file
- Ships you can edit the second phase cost for most types units save game or NAV UNITS csv file


UPDATE: I did alot of rework on the units and alignment of countries for balancing purposes and performance purposes. And just finished the first impulse for East and West. I'll post some screenshots of whats going on.

[markb50k]

Sep/Oct 1939 (1989!)
Impulse 3

This is where the scenario save file starts you (NOTE: you cannot start a new game using this conversion since so much has been changed especially when it comes to country borders and alignments.

In my final balancing tweaks, i shifted most of the third world to the Warsaw Pact which in essence left Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf States surrounded by enemies (In my first iteration of testing, Egypt, Jordan, and some other moderate states were pro-West).

Many many other tweaks but I finally got it to a point where it seems balanced enough and challenging for both sides.

NATO LOSSES AFTER BOTH SIDES HAD THEIR FIRST IMPULSE
- heavy losses to Carrier Air Wings in China Sea. US has control of the sea area but took losses to its air corps

[markb50k]

WARSAW PACT LOSSES AFTER FIRST IMPULSE

[markb50k]

CENTRAL EUROPE:

Warsaw Pact had three victories on their attack impulse:
- hex just west of Leipzig
- a breakthrough in the North German Plains, capturing Lubeck, Rostock, and Hamburg. This also caused the corps losses of the UK, Netherlands, and Belgium (in the counterrattack)
- Vienna and much of Eastern Austria

However, NATO was able to push back the Leipzig bulge with French reinforcements, and was able to retake Hamburg. The line still slightly favors the Warsaw Pact as well as numbers of corps.

[markb50k]

NORTHERN EUROPE:

Soviet Naval Infantry and Airborne forces capture Narvik giving them a port into the Norweigan Sea. This was assisted by most of the Northern Fleet being sortied into the Norweigan sea and NATO not having CV battlegroups that far north.

Finland's meager defenses were positioned in Helsinki which allowed Soviet forces to reach it in the first impulse and take the city (assisted by more airborne drops).

NATO is not well positioned here and it trying to get forces to Trondheim (French rapid deployment airborne troops)

[markb50k]

SOUTHERN EUROPE AND MIDDLE EAST

Greece loses two corps including their HQ at Salonica, while Turkey is forced to retreat around Istanbul. The city is still in NATO hands.

In Israel, one corps was lost on the initial Syrian-Iraqi-Egyptian attack and another lost in a counterrattack.

Thankfully for NATO, heavy reinforcements from Spain and a US corps land in southern Turkey and the Iraqi forces there are not going to be strong enough to resist for long there. This may alleviate enough pressure on Israel for them to survive the first turn. We shall see.

[markb50k]

PERSIAN GULF AND CENTRAL ASIA

Kuwait is captured including stockpiled oil but the attack was costly due to air support from US CVs in the Persian Gulf.

Most of Iran's forces move East to assist Pakistan in their attack on India. Corps are lost on both sides in the initial attack and counterrattack.

India needs to make a big stand here because China looms in the East

Also, a heavy Soviet attack in Afghanistan rolls low and the Mujahadeen survives

[markb50k]

SOUTHEAST ASIA:

Probably the largest concentration of Warsaw Pact forces between China and Vietnam destroy the Thailand HQ near Bangkok. NATO is able to get Australian, Indonesian, and a US light infantry corps in there but they will need some lucky rolls since the Warsaw Pact has such an abundance of troops and aircraft.

Also, Hong Kong falls without a fight.

[markb50k]

KOREA

The Soviet Navy is able to provide support for the North Korean attack and a single hex is captured on the Eastern shore.

US Forces reinforce and the smaller geography of Korea and mountains could offer some assistance to the outnumbered NATO forces. Soviet Far East forces are moving to support the attack as well.