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Hello all,

I am very pleased to share the first beta version of the 1911 Anglo-German Alliance scenario! What I’m presenting here should be playable (and fun!) single player (vs AI), PBEM or hotseat for the first year or two of the war. This file was last updated on 14 May 2020.

Here is the current a download link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sPNmaYya1YMP2hGA4DQQ0XFWb4yJrUig/view?usp=sharing

The Background

This is an alternate history scenario. It assumes that the Anglo-French Entente of 1904 foundered, while Germany was able to reach a naval understanding with Britain. Meanwhile, the rivalry between Russia and Britain in Central Asia has reached a peak and a dispute over Persian oil has led to war.

This scenario might seem implausible now, but it certainly didn't look implausible from the perspective of 1900....

What’s in?

*New scenario where the world is tipped into war by a dispute between Russia and the UK over Persian oil
*Reworked sides: Britain and Germany (plus Austria Hungary) vs France and Russia (plus Italy, the Ottomans, and the USA)
*Revised OOBs largely based on the historical 1911 – less unit density (but also preventing exploits on the Eastern Front)
*A completely different start to the game - a gradual escalation from the flashpoint in Persia, with Germany and France joining on turn 2.
*The Persian Theatre, where the Russian army contends with the British Indian Army for control of Tehran
*The naval war turned on its head: British blockade of France, Russian commerce raiders in the Atlantic, diplomatic consequences if Britain withdraws from the Med, a reduced German naval OOB reflecting a settlement with Britain.
*Dozens of event that markedly change the course of the game...
**Russia must decide whether to mobilise against Austria-Hungary and gain the upper hand in the inevitable war with them
**Germany must decide whether to allow Austria-Hungary dominion over Serbia, and whether to risk outrage in Britain by invading neutral Belgium
**France must decide whether its fleet is based in the Atlantic to raid British convoys (or support an invasion!); or in the Mediterranean to contest British control of the inland sea and bring other Mediterranean powers on side
**Britain is faced with many challenges; Deploy the Indian Army in Persia? Risk diplomatic consequences by enforcing a blockade of the Mediterranean at Gibraltar? Offer Home Rule to Ireland, or risk an uprising...?
**The USA provides support for France and Russia if US mobilisation gets over 20%...
*AI - the AI is good enough to keep you on your toes in the early game for sure (mainly this is the game's native AI, I have only scripted a few things)
*Balancing - this should be reasonably well balanced, extensive testing of the alpha builds has highlighted points that needed adjustment

Where to expect it to look incomplete

*Late war - for instance there is more to do on US mobilisation events, US War entry will need more detail. There is no victory condition set, and if you play until August 1914 then some inappropriate events will occur that I haven't got around to deleting
*AI difficulty levels - the AI ought to get additional troops depending on your difficulty selection, this does not happen at present
*There are a few highly-exploitable situations that I intend to make fixes for - e.g. the Entente player can move the Ottoman army prior to war entry
*This is the first beta release so likely there will be bugs and imbalances that are revealed through having more than one person testing
*The loading screen is still the default, and some popups/event messages need another pass to look better

How to install it

Note that Strategic Command will have a separate folder for user-generated campaigns, from the core campaigns. Unzipping the download file next to the core campaigns will probably not work. For me the correct path to use is:

C:\Users\Me\Documents\My Games\Strategic Command WWI\Campaigns\

If you are having trouble then try opening the Editor and saving a campaign yourself - this should show you the correct path. Or locate where the game is putting its savegames, there will be a Campaigns folder next door which you can use.

Thank you for downloading it - I really look forward to your feedback!


Also, here is a screenshot of one possible route the early game can go down - Germany has stuck with the Schlieffen Plan, risking a large hit to British morale for violating Belgian neutrality. The British have landed on the Belgian coast, and France is fighting for its life. But, you should see what is happening on the Eastern and Persian fronts...

That front will look familiar from the vanilla game, this one will not. Here is one of the consequences of committing the British Regular Army to Belgium:



Russian troops have just taken Tehran. The Indian Cavalry Corps, to the east of the city, is now out of supply and will probably be unable to withdraw.

This has happened because the Russian Army has been able to concentrate additional units with their railway line into the South Caucasus. The British have been unable to match that - the line of communication to the UK is longer, but in any case all British troops are fighting on the continent.

Losing Tehran has had another a significant effect on British morale, building on the hit from violating Belgium's neutrality. Britian is now at 82% is now the lowest of all the majors.

So I'll probably be putting up an updated alpha build next week. I'd be keen to hear from anyone who's tried it out so far!

Out of the map, but Britain and Germany had a project to divide the Portuguese colonies before WWI: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2638392?seq=1

Indeed! At some point I will probably add a decision about whether Britain wants to trigger the Anglo-Portugese Alliance and get a bunch more Atlantic bases, or whether to occupy the Portugese colonies and push Portugal itself the other way...

I've just loaded another Alpha version, link in root post. Contains a fix of the naval loop events, more early-game balancing, and more diplomatic events for Austria and Italy! It'd be great to hear from anyone who's trying this out.

just a quiet week in July 1911... not much happening at the moment!

Just uploaded a new alpha, with a whole bunch more events and balance fixes - Ottoman war entry should now be a thing, along with many other events.

Doing my first playthrough on Hotseat now. I am seeing Russian strategic advice on Turn 1 as the British/German player?

Unit purchases for Persia are still marked as "*Unavailable until August 1, 1914". Intentional?

Overall I really like this, a great idea well implemented! Will report back with more feedback.

ORIGINAL: Alikchi2

Doing my first playthrough on Hotseat now. I am seeing Russian strategic advice on Turn 1 as the British/German player?

Unit purchases for Persia are still marked as "*Unavailable until August 1, 1914". Intentional?

Overall I really like this, a great idea well implemented! Will report back with more feedback.

Both of those are in need of fixing. Sadly to update a Unit Availability date, every unit type appears to need to be updated separately for every nation, which makes it a tedious and error-prone task. There are a few oddities in there for the majors as well.

Glad you like it and thank you for the feedback!

After a bit more play: still good! My only suggestion is to beef up France a bit more, as they seem vulnerable to wilting under direct pressure from both the UK and Germany. You mentioned work on Ireland, which is good - I think a French-supported rebellion in Ireland is one of the obvious things to happen here to even the scales.

ORIGINAL: Alikchi2

After a bit more play: still good! My only suggestion is to beef up France a bit more, as they seem vulnerable to wilting under direct pressure from both the UK and Germany. You mentioned work on Ireland, which is good - I think a French-supported rebellion in Ireland is one of the obvious things to happen here to even the scales.

thanks for the feedback!

Out of interest - what date are you at, and have the British joined the Germans in Belgium or are they doing something else?

I find the French can stop the Anglo-German advance but it requires a lot of care and foresight - probably too much. My current test game is in early summer 1912 and the lines are very stable on both West and East fronts, but French NM is starting to crumble and German production after conquering Belgium is pretty big, so I'm pretty sure the position won't be sustainable for France.

My current thinking is to marginally increase French strength and make its reserves more flexible, and probably remove a couple of reserve corps from Germany.

For the mid-game, As well as Ireland, I'm thinking about the NM levels on both sides, and an increasing amount of US help for the Entente powers as their mobilisation level increases. France probably needs more NM, while the intention is that Britain is a morale-vulnerable power and could do with a bit less.

So with a couple of hours' work this afternoon I have done some balancing fixes, including the Irish partisans. I've also started work on the US mobilisation event-chains - the US will now appropriately react to France and Britain blockading one another, while there are now events for the US to help France and Russia as its mobilisation level increases. (A convoy through the Arctic? Why not...)

ORIGINAL: The Land

So with a couple of hours' work this afternoon I have done some balancing fixes, including the Irish partisans. I've also started work on the US mobilisation event-chains - the US will now appropriately react to France and Britain blockading one another, while there are now events for the US to help France and Russia as its mobilisation level increases. (A convoy through the Arctic? Why not...)

So now I've uploaded an updated version. It has the basic shape of the game for a couple of years with more details on US support for the Entente, and a load of balancing fixes.

This will probably be the last alpha - next stop, the AI! I haven't covered every base with the scripting yet but it's starting to feel polished in some areas.

Hope everyone enjoys it

hmmm, well now I have a version that technically has an AI. Nothing to do with me, even with minimal scripting the game can make some sensible decisions! With a bit more work, this should be able to become a beta in a week or two...

ORIGINAL: The Land

hmmm, well now I have a version that technically has an AI. Nothing to do with me, even with minimal scripting the game can make some sensible decisions! With a bit more work, this should be able to become a beta in a week or two...

Looking forward to trying this when you think the AI is at a decent level. Fascinating 'what if'..

Well, here is the AI managing to defend France from a Schlieffen-Plan type invasion... getting there!

So after a few AI tweaks I've tested the current build single player both sides, and it's working!

So I hereby declare this project in beta phase - please see the first post for an updated download file.

Great work! I have been playing the Beta as CP against the AI. More thoughts:


-> Making the USA tilt more towards the Entente makes more sense for balancing reasons, and could lead to really interesting naval battles for the Atlantic and to a land front in Canada versus the US. Just my two cents, but a full European war breaking out at this time would have very interesting effects on the US 1912 election, and you could see a Roosevelt administration eager to jump into the war and seize Canada, or (conversely) a strong showing for the Socialist Party & isolationists in congress and avoidance of conflict altogether.

->maybe some events to at least reference British and French fighting in places like Africa and Southeast Asia? A British-German invasion of Indochina or Madagascar could make sense. It's a shame the map isn't quite wide enough to include what could be a fun Russo-British campaign in Afghanistan etc.

-> other minor nations units (Sweden, etc) have the same problem that Persia does with units unlocking in 1914, but I'm guessing you know this already

ORIGINAL: Alikchi2

Great work! I have been playing the Beta as CP against the AI. More thoughts:


-> Making the USA tilt more towards the Entente makes more sense for balancing reasons, and could lead to really interesting naval battles for the Atlantic and to a land front in Canada versus the US. Just my two cents, but a full European war breaking out at this time would have very interesting effects on the US 1912 election, and you could see a Roosevelt administration eager to jump into the war and seize Canada, or (conversely) a strong showing for the Socialist Party & isolationists in congress and avoidance of conflict altogether.

->maybe some events to at least reference British and French fighting in places like Africa and Southeast Asia? A British-German invasion of Indochina or Madagascar could make sense. It's a shame the map isn't quite wide enough to include what could be a fun Russo-British campaign in Afghanistan etc.

-> other minor nations units (Sweden, etc) have the same problem that Persia does with units unlocking in 1914, but I'm guessing you know this already

Thank you for the thoughts! Really helpful!

How is your game going? I'd be really interested to hear what strategy you used and how it's working out!