Bill101

Best we don't give away the ending just yet!

They'll know alright, or they'll only have themselves to blame!

Players decisions play a big role in Italy's war entry, so sometimes it will come in at the historical time, sometimes a bit later, sometimes perhaps a bit sooner, and sometimes not at all. The latter might sound a little surprising but all will be revealed during your first game as the Central Powers.

Hi It might not be clear in the screenshots as the flags are very similar, but Montenegro and Serbia are both separate identities with their own armed forces. As to Greece, that took a lot of thought but the game handles this with a variety of scripts and even decisions that players can make. It gives a good approximation of what happened, and allows for the Entente to attempt to gain a bridgehead in the Balkans from where they can either help Serbia, or threaten Bulgaria and the Ottomans. Or even Austria-Hungary itself if they are feeling so bold. Bill

No, they won't automatically surrender as a result, but it will make their continued survival much more difficult. A Major's active Minors provide income to the Russian coffers whether or not Russia is alive or dead, and this money is then available for purchases on their Minors units. So in a roundabout way the Minors actually pay for themselves, and it would probably be sheer madness for the money to be spent on anything else. Taking an example from a recent game of mine, Russia had collapsed but Romania was still fighting on. This provided some money to Russia, which was all used to reinforce the Romanians in the short time that they existed before a mixture of German, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian troops finished them off. One reason all purchases are routed through the Majors is that it's much easier from a player's perspective to keep track of just a limited number of Majors' incomes, than it would be were every Minor to have their own distinct income and expenditure. Plus the decisions are usually obvious - i.e. there really is no sensible alternative to spending the money on the active Minors.

The British pay for the Belgians, and the Russians pay for Serbia. This applies both before and after surrender. What happens in the game is that all active Minor powers have a Major power assigned to them, and this Major power pays out whenever you want to reinforce, expand or improve the Minor's armed forces.

The Arabs can be a thorn in the side to the Ottomans, but only in conjunction with British or French forces will they be a major threat to the Ottomans. Unless of course the Ottomans ignore the area and leave it ungarrisoned!

There are differences in some units starting experiences, and also in the combat factors between some nations. This represents training, combat experience, armaments and doctrine. So, the British start off with literally the best formation in their I Corps, while the Germans have some very good, and also not so good units (e.g. Reserve Corps). These are generally better than their French and Russian counterparts, but the latter have some Guard units too.

The wheels were already rapidly turning for Britain to enter the war when Belgium was invaded, and the invasion just provided the British government with a great way of explaining the decision to enter the war, a propaganda coup in fact because it was used as an explanation for the rest of the war. So, not invading Belgium won't actually delay the UK's entrance into the war, but the British army, despite being very good (and their I Corps is the most experienced formation in the game) is so small that it probably won't be a great threat for a while. It's still worth a try because if you can dig in well then the Entente will struggle to advance into Germany, hopefully not succeeding until you're ready to deal with them!

Both the Belgians and Serbs can fight on from exile after their last capital has been taken. Thus any parts of the Belgian army which are in France when the Germans take their last capital will not surrender but will continue fighting. The same applies to any Serbian units that are outside Serbia but on friendly territory when their last capital falls. One very surprising thing about Belgium that I learned while researching this game was that King Albert was actually negotiating with the Germans during the war. I had always thought that they would have fought on and on, but it appears that this wasn't necessarily the case.

The definitions can't be changed as such, but the countries can be renamed so that you aren't constrained to the countries set as Majors in the default campaigns always being the Majors in mods. For instance, in the WWI game there will be a number of campaigns which have Belgium as a Major. We just renamed the Russian slot by adding a localization.txt file to the campaign, which included the lines: ; Country IDs #RUSSIA= Belgium In the campaign.ini file we amended the fourth line to read: #CUSTOM_LOCALIZATION= 1 Then we changed some of the unit sprites and the flag sprites to reflect that they are Belgians and not Russians, and there we have it. If you are editing a default campaign to switch a Major to a Minor or vice versa, then you will also need to amend the territory ownership in the editor. Hopefully this helps, and there are other examples from previous releases and mods too.

It all depends on whether or not the recon bomber is destroyed in the mission. If not, then you get the info as otherwise it would be a bit harsh (and hard to work out what is and isn't fair). I think it works pretty well, and it can be very handy when trying not only to locate the enemy's reserves and artillery, but also if you think the enemy fleet is operating off your coast. In naval actions, using a Seaplane Carrier to spot some of the enemy fleet also makes your dash into action all the more effective. That is as long as you've correctly predicted where the enemy fleet might be.

It's the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army that you're referring to. There are a number of decisions players can make regarding mobilization, of which this is one. I do think that it may be worth trying the eastern approach because if Germany doesn't declare war on Belgium then the German army in the west only has a small frontier to defend. But at a later date it may be hard advancing into France because the French and British could build up a strong defense line themselves before you attack. It would definitely be interesting to try out, and there are lots of possible strategies available in this game, of which this is just one.

Fighters can escort them, but the range of their Fighter escorts is generally going to be less than the Airship's range. This means that Fighters will need upgrading with Long Range Aircraft, but as Airships also get upgrades to their range from Airship research, there is always a good chance of outdistancing your escorts... making your Airships prey to well placed enemy Fighters.

Hi SeaMonkey In answer to your first question that is the case. You just point and click at the target tile, and the Recon Bomber will fly there and back, disclosing enemy dispositions and the strength of resources for all locations en route. This does count as a strike, and it can be intercepted and escorted by enemy and friendly Fighters alike. The old spotting rule can still be enacted too, simply by increasing air units' automatic spotting ranges in the editor.

It all depends on how much research you can afford to invest in them, because without any upgrades they aren't very useful. You'll have to weigh up between an extra Corps or two and improved Airships, and if fighting is raging at the gates of Paris or Warsaw then a better Airship probably won't be top of your agenda. They can become a nice little weapon once upgraded, just as long as enemy Fighters don't intercept them. That can be painful!

They can be modded into aircraft because they use the Bomber function and can be intercepted by enemy Fighter aircraft, or shot at by AA. However, the Airship research technology probably wouldn't be applicable in all cases (i.e. for regular bombers). So it really depends what you might want to use this slot for, as the game will already come with three aircraft slots. In games using the WWII engine the Airship slot is transformed into the Rocket slot that we've had in previous SC games, so really modding them into a new aircraft type only makes sense for WWI games. Unless you want a super fast jet that can't be intercepted in your WWII games?

Hi Wodin Don't worry, the game actually uses a different engine for playing WWII games. In the editor there is a switch so that game designers can choose to make a scenario using either the WWI or the WWII engine. This is simply there so that some of the new changes made for this WWI release, e.g. 8 Majors and an enhanced interface, can be enjoyed by WWII players too. Putting it another way, you get two wars for the price of one! Bill

Good to hear!

You will need to use a Belligerence script, to fire under whatever conditions you set it to.

A lot of the images that come with the game can be modded, so smaller cities or different unit graphics, different flags etc, it can all be done!

Hi Alastair Although the game started off using the same base engine as the Global game, many months of thought and development went into amending and improving the engine to ensure not only that it works very well for a WWI game, but also to enhance the WWII gaming experience too. WWI games will include aerial reconnaissance missions which we've never had before. So now, if your Recon Bombers don't fly over enemy lines, you'll get no intelligence of enemy preparations for an attack. This is a major change from the past where if the enemy were within your aircraft's spotting range, you could automatically see them whether or not your aircraft flew a mission. In the same way, Seaplane Carriers can help join the hunt for enemy U-Boats, and they can come in just as handy during a major naval battle when knowing the position of the enemy's fleet could mean all the difference between victory and defeat. Shell Production is a new feature which really means that your offensives require a bit more planning. Build up your stock of shells and you may be able to punch a big hole in the enemy's line. But if you don't invest in improving shell production, your opponent may do this first to you... and you don't want to be the one suffering from a shell shortage when all hell breaks loose! :eek: As well as National Morale, which is a really major addition as it can be used to trigger all kinds of scripts, from riots and rebellions to full scale revolutions, there are retreats (these are fun! ) and a number of changes to scripts relating to the formation of new countries so that we can recreate something like the Russian Revolution or the collapse and defeat of Austria-Hungary. Unit upgrades now have some customization, so that if you want HQs to be able to upgrade with Motorization and/or Anti-Aircraft Defense, this can now be done. In the same way, Infantry now have the potential to upgrade with Anti-Aircraft Defense. This should give enemy Tactical Bombers a tougher target in WWII games! Plus of course there's that giant map of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and the North Atlantic. It can easily be chopped up by modders looking to play (say) just a WWII campaign set in the Mediterranean and North Africa, or the Eastern Front, or the breakout from Normandy. One campaign using just part of this map is already in progress, and there may be more to come... These are just a few of the many changes that have been introduced, but hopefully they serve to show you that we have been busy. Very busy indeed!

Hi Jestre This is an option included in the game, as there are three settings: full counters (as per the screenshots); limited counters (just a small coloured ring around the base) and no counters at all. All can be quickly chosen in the Options so you'll be able to use whichever you like the most! Bill

The rule is still there but it isn't included in the manual because it is now just the way things are. In the past we had to mention it because it was a change from the way things were. I hope this makes sense!

Mobilization is not yet complete when the war begins!