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mdsmall wrote: Thu Mar 31, 2022 12:07 am Here is a short overview of the Icarus mod for SC WW1 that Old Crow and I will be play-testing on You Tube, starting on March 31st. I will post complete notes on the mod in a separate thread in the Mods and Scenarios Forum above.

The primary purpose of this mod is to expand the range of strategic options available to both sides, using the existing game system (version 1.08). The core campaign areas of the game, on the Western and Eastern fronts, in Italy and in the Balkans, are largely unchanged. But many events have been added to make the Ottoman Empire a more interesting theatre of war and to bring more minor powers into the game. Some of the new features make historical events more plausible as options for players - like the Gallipoli campaign, the Arab Revolt, the Persian theatre of war, or the Zimmerman Telegram. Other features have been added which did not happen but could have - like the Ottomans extending a railroad to Baghdad, or Sweden starting a convoy to Britain through Norway. Diplomacy has been made more powerful, combined with a range of new options with minors which can only be achieved through the creative use of diplomacy.

A second purpose of this mod is to slow down the tempo of the war so that games will more often run to 1917 or 1918 before they are decided. This should allow players to experiment with new technologies that only emerge in the later stages of the war. Infantry corps defensive strength has been slightly increased, making combat losses more balanced between attackers and defenders, especially in the early stages of the war. The lethality of artillery has been reduced by restricting the number of shells that artillery units can store and by slowing down investment in Gas /Shell production. Heavy Artillery units are introduced. Counter-battery fire can now take place. Tanks have been made more effective. Several kinds of air-power tech have been made cheaper to encourage investment in them. German storm-trooper units with some unique capabilities have been added, starting in late 1917.

Strategically, the naval campaign in the North Sea and the North Atlantic has been made more deadly by increasing the impact in 1917 and 1918 on national morale of the British blockade against Germany and German submarine warfare against Britain. The national morale impact on Russia of losing Warsaw has been somewhat reduced, which makes it more likely that Russia will hold on for longer in the East. If powers can recapture lost national morale objectives, they can win back lost national morale points. These changes should give both sides more capacity to hold on until at least 1917, increasing the odds that the United States will enter the war. At that point both sides should be in a race to see which side can push the other's national morale to the breaking point.