Third Reich's Destiny Mod V2.0!!

[Denbushi]

After a rather chilly reception, the Third Reich's Destiny is back, and I think even better than ever. I hope that you will take the time to read the rather lengthy details, download it, play it, and let me know how I can improve it. It won't affect your game settings in the original scenarios in any way, except that there will now be an additional scenario in your selection screen.

Download it at Third Reich's Destiny Mod

Readme follows.

[Denbushi]

The Third Reich’s Destiny Mod
Version 2.0
By Tim Morris
denbushisan@hotmail.com
22 August 2005

Please note that the mod has changed considerably since V1.0, so please read through the file fully. I am very excited to present with you these numerous, and I think very enriching changes, and I am hoping that people will enjoy this mod and send me specific suggestions on how to balance it and limit exploits.

To install, simply unzip all files into your GGWaW/dat/ directory and look for “Third Reich’s Destiny” in your scenario screen.

If you would like to play with only the game-flow modifications, and not the unit stat modifications, or vice-versa, contact me and I will walk you through how to do it.

This mod is a fairly comprehensive attempt by me to address a number of issues I detected as a mostly German player, as a result; overall, it may confer a very slightly advantage to the Germans, however I think this has been balanced out by changes I have made to the allies as well. While GGWaW is a great game overall, it seems to rather ride on a rails in a "and that's the way it really was" sort of fashion. I personally have found that it was nearly impossible for Germany to do even as well as their historical counterparts on any but the easiest difficulty setting, let alone achieve the ambitions of the Third Reich. Others play experiences may be different.

In reality, Germany very nearly forced an allied withdrawal from the war on numerous occasions. If it had not been for the shortsighted and inept wartime leadership of Adolf Hitler, things may well have turned out very different. Germany took a huge amount of punishment over the war but still remained a serious threat to the allies right up until the end of the Ardennes offensive. But in the game, I have found that the German player must play VERY conservatively as once they suffer more than light casualties, they will be virtually crippled for the rest of the game as they will not be able to produce new units fast enough, nor conquer the resources they need to defend themselves.

1. Spain:

· As in the "Franco's Alliance" mod, which I must note I was completely unaware of while developing my mod, Spain is now a frozen ally of Germany. The Franco regime was very sympathetic to Germany, and probably would have joined the Axis if Germany had sent them the money and equipment they needed. Many of the same troops that were now invading Poland and France had previously aided in fighting against the Federalists in the Spanish Civil war just a few years earlier. Spain will unfreeze and enter the war if the Axis takes Gibraltar OR if the Western Allies attack Portugal.

· Two Spanish infantry have been changed to militia so Germany does not get a HUGE boost in this instance.

· One resource has been removed from Spain; as Germany will now have access to Spanish resources throughout the game.

· I also did borrow the idea of adding a rail link to Gibraltar, and adding a few troops to Portugal.

2. England:

· In the event that Germany successfully occupies either Scotland or England, which is now slightly more possible with the modifications I have made to unit stats, the United States will now immediately declare war on Germany. The Continental US, Alaska, West Atlantic, and Caribbean will unfreeze, and US factories will ramp up production.

· Russia will also ramp up production in anticipation of an immanent attack, as clearly Germany is not satisfied with merely taking Western Poland and France, but will remain neutral for now.

· The region of England gains one infantry unit to better defend it, and to represent the army that has escaped from Dunkirk. Unfortunately, the AI seems to move any fleeing or damaged units from Northern France into Southern France, where they are subsequently destroyed by the Vichi takeover.

3. Eastern Europe:

· Hungary now has 2 factories. Historically, they had significant production capability, and made a major contribution to Germany later in the Russian campaign. They produced excellent infantry, and armored units both of their own design, and of licensed German designs, including the Panzer IV and Panther.

· Hungary will gain a x3 factory multiplier upon war with Russia.

· Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria will now unfreeze in the event of war with Russia. So that the conquest of Yugoslavia will no longer be such a no-brainer.

· Yugoslavia loses a population to make it easier to keep under control. I’m sure a friendly Croatian will argue this with me, but I don’t think Tito’s militia was THAT strong, but I admit I’m not that well versed on the subject.

4. German Western Europe:

· East Germany and Czechoslovakia have gained additional factory capacity and population so that Germany can effectively repair damaged units and keep itself somewhat effective later in the war while beset on 2 fronts and suffering from strategic bombing and heavy casualties, this is assuming they can get the resources, which has always been the bottleneck.

· Vichi France and associated African territories now unfreeze when America declares war on Germany so that Germany can prepare for an imminent Allied landing.

· A resource has been moved from Sweden to Norway to encourage Germany to take that country, and discourage it from attacking Sweden. Also fixed a bug in the default setup for Sweden that had them receiving a Fighter unit, which due to a typo, they were not.

· 80 production points are now required for an Axis victory to offset the slight increase in the unit strength and amount of production theoretically available to Germany.

5. Russia:

· Added an additional factory and resource to Moscow to increase the strategic importance of this region. Added an infantry unit to better protect it.

· Finland will now become unfrozen if Germany takes the Baltic States. Historically they entered the war with Russia almost immediately.

· As noted in the section on England; Russia now gains a factory multiplier of x3 if Germany takes either part of the British Isle, but remains neutral and frozen. Stalin would have anticipated that with the British out of the way, and the Germans apparently not satisfied with the conquest of France, he would be next.

· Prussia no longer requires a garrison to prevent the Russian entry into the war. This is to prevent the Prussian Gambit exploit where a small allied unit would overwhelm the one Prussian defender from a landing via the Baltic Sea, thereby allowing Russia to become unfrozen.

· Russia now suffers from Partisan attacks in occupied territory. Nobody saw them as liberators. Russian troops commonly looted and vandalized homes and shops and raped women once they crossed into German territory, as well as executing suspected German collaborators and deporting POW's to death camp gulags in Siberia.

6. Middle East:

Cairo and Saudi Arabia gain a resource point, to increase their strategic important. Britain was VERY concerned about the possibility of losing the Middle East.


7. Unit Tweaks:

Another significant change is a major tweaking of nearly all unit stats to more accurately reflect the relative strengths and weaknesses of different nation's forces in 1940. I think that the relative weakness of the Russian units in my mod AND in the retail version are offset by the fact that the AI will do virtually nothing but research until Operation Barbarossa starts.

· Infantry: Lowered all Land Attack ratings to reduce the mortality rate among infantry and the instances of infantry units slaughtering a mechanized attack. Also to increase the usefulness of artillery units.

· Militia: Raised German Land Attack and Evasion, since militia represents the Italian army, and they were actually quite excellent troops, although more poorly equipped than the German army, who were frequently praised by German commanders who fought alongside them. Raised Japanese durability to represent the die-hard nature of their conscripts.

· Mechanized: Reduced cost for all. Germany, US, and Russia employed large numbers of mechanized units, now it is actually feasible to build them. Adjusted stats to more accurately reflect the relative strengths of mechanized units at the start of the war. German tanks are now far superior, but they use twice as much fuel to do an extended blitzkrieg move to reflect their heavy weight, low mobility, and technical complexity, which caused them to break down often. Lowered Russian evasion to represent their lack of training, but added durability. Germany loses evasion but gains durability and armor.

· Artillery: Raised land attack for Russian artillery.

· Airborne: Lowered cost for all, significantly for Germany and US, since these nations employed large numbers of airborne troops, and they were previously so expensive as to be a waste of time. Also raised evasion for all, as these were the toughest and most highly trained troops of the war.

· Carrier Air groups: Cheaper for US and Japan to make them more worthwhile, and adjusted their stats to more accurate reflect their abilities. Lower speed to reflect their shorter combat range than their land-based counterparts, but better Air-to-Air so they can actually defend themselves.

· Bombers: Removed Air-to-Air bonus from Jap, gave to US for the "Flying Fortress". Germany gets a reduced cost to make their shorter ranged and unarmored bombers more worthwhile. They produced (and lost) thousands of 'Junkers' bombers during the war. (Could this be the origin of the slang "Junker"?) All bombers get a reduction in land attack and a boost in speed to encourage them to be used as they were intended, to attack enemy production centers deep behind lines, rather than to wipe out troop concentrations on the front line. This also places a new importance on dive-bombers, as they are now superior for close air support, and on flak units and fighter cover to defend behind the lines.

· Fighters: Germany gets a boost in land attack, Air to air and evasion, to represent that at the start of the war, they had the best planes, and most experienced pilots. All get a speed boost and a reduced cost so they are more useful on the offensive and can actually reach across the English Channel.

· Dive Bombers: Germany gets a land attack boost. Stukas were the deadliest dive-bombers of the early war. Japan gets an evasion and air attack boost. They were nearly as agile and capable in fighter combat as a dedicated interceptor. Russia gets an armor point. The Ilyushin-2 Dive bomber was described as a virtual flying tank.

· Submarines: Germany gets a torpedo boost so they can ACTUALLY sink a ship at the start of the war. They're still not very survivable though, so be sure not to venture too far from a friendly naval base.

· Light fleet: All get a boost to land attack.

· Heavy fleet: All get a boost to land attack to give them parity with land based artillery, and durability as they were dying way too easy.

· Carrier: All get durability.

[Denbushi]

I would like to add something that I realized I forgot to put in the readme.

The durability of factories, railroads, and resources have all been lowered by one so that the weaker heavy bombers can damage them effectively.

I also wanted to make a few observations about the mod.

First of all, it may seem that by making Spain an ally of Germany, it is making the game easier for the Krauts, but actually it is making it harder. It seems as though a blitz through Spain to Gibraltar was becoming pretty much a no-brainer move for the German player, and this is no longer an option. Germany must now commit to a much more difficult airborne or amphibious assault of the fortress in order to secure the med and unlock the spanish forces.

I also wanted to point out that while the stat modifications to units may seem like a huge change to the play balance of the game, they are all in the form of a mere +/- 1 point, I do not believe this is enough to significantly change the balance, but it DOES mix up the strategies a bit and create more character and feel for the different nations. For instance, Germany now has the best Fighters, Submarines, and Armor, but (as always) the weakest heavy bombers, and a now even MORE severe supply shortage. Russia has the best artillary, and dive bombers, and potentially the second best, or best armor, with some research. Japan has arguably the best all-around air-force, especially for sea warfare, and the US has the advantage in Airborne troops and heavy bombers. I would expect to see strategies shift to take advantage of these strengths.

[Denbushi]

I just wanted to show you this screenshot I took recently while playtesting my mod.

As you can see, the Allies will now try CONSIDERABLY harder to defend Britain, since America actually gets a turn to desperately try and reinforce them. Mind you this battle was after I had already spent 3 turns heavilly bombing england, essentially destroyed the RAF, most british production, and captured scotland, and the Allies still put up a VERY stiff resistance.

The Russians aren't rolling over quite as easy anymore either. They managed to attack the strongest point in my line during Winter 1942 and force me to retreat.

I love it. I hope others will be as excited about this mod as I am.

[aletoledo]

I like a lot of your ideas about unit capability adjustments.

I think making strat bombers about attacking strategic targets a great idea and I like the idea of changing some of the miltia stats to be different for different countries.

[redhotheydrich]

i really like your mod .how about making a a battle of karkov grand campain starting in 1943 march rght before kursk.for us please.