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Questions about The Great War and Breakthrough


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My questions are probably directed at the moderators since I have a funny feeling they know the answers to my questions.

But first, a belated hello to Hubert after too long an absence!

I don't own either game yet but want to get Breakthrough at the very least. What I would like to know is whether or not Breakthrough is a stand-alone game. Can I run Breakthrough without owning The Great War?

Assuming Breakthrough can run on its own, is there any content that I would be missing if I didn't get both games (apart from the WW II material) ? For example, does Breakthrough have a scenario that is equivalent to The Great War's 1917 American entry campaign (I don't know what to call it since I haven't seen the game)?

I compared the demo for each game and my sense was that (not surprisingly) Breakthrough was a more mature iteration of the game system, and has what for me are several irresistible scenarios as well (Franco-Prussian War, Balkan War, Russian Civil War, and the one about what may or may not have been Karen Blixen's boyfriend in Africa). The two WW I scenarios in the demo are very similar to (but still different from) their counterparts in Breakthrough. The Kaiserschlacht scenario has the better name and covers a smaller area than the Ludendorf scenario, but I prefer to see the overall effect an offensive like this would have had on the front as a whole.

The one thing I found myself wondering (but didn't have time to track down) is whether the Central Powers using auto-deploy will exactly replicate the historical deployment in the 1914 scenarios. My sense is that it's probably pretty close, but if it isn't, I would really like to know how to simulate the historical deployment before I start making departures from it. I want to be able to play the Schlieffen plan and know that it's going up against Plan XVII.

The one thing I haven't come across is any mention of the Caporetto offensive. Is that included anywhere, or will it eventually show up in a patch (I don't really expect you to answer that last one).

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Hi Philippe.

To play Breakthrough! you do need The Great War, it is not a stand-alone game.

With The Great War and the Breakthrough! Add-on you have tons of great campaigns, but unfortunately no Caporetto offensive campaign.

I guess its safe to say that the auto-function won't place the pieces historical correct. I just tested in the 1.05 version of the game. The Auto-function placed an HQ and two cavallery units into East-Prussia, and the Heavy Artillery into southern Germany, so it won't be ready to help in the Belgium invasion.

I assume that you would need to play The Great War to get the historical correct unit placement automatically. You're of course free to place all your units accordingly to the historical correct setup. But if you prefer not to place anything, than the Auto-Function won't give you much joy.

:)

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Hi Philippe

The easiest way to work out the deployments for those in Breakthrough's Deployment Phase would be to make a list of the units, find their starting positions in SC WWI, and then you'll know where to place them for a historical start in Breakthrough.

Caporetto is not planned as an official release, but if anyone wants to make a mod of that campaign and load it to the Repository then it looks like it would have some players here. I'd certainly take a look at one too. :)

Bill

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