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SMAN's World at War Scenario - The War in Europe (WW2)

No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his country.

-- General George S. Patton, Jr.


The "War in Europe (WW2) Scenario" provides the opportunity to play this life-or-death struggle, using a modified version of the "SMAN's World at War" base mod. It provides a tailored WW2 gaming experience, with a re-engineered AI designed to put up a much better fight.

Unlike other very good WW2 mods, this scenario maintains the "World at War" philosophy of expanding content vertically, not horizontally. It seeks to keep as much of the Civ V game design in place as is practicable. Many modifications included in the mod's design are simply added to bring the "total war" aspect of WW2 into focus.

All sides start the game at permanent peace. But, rest assured, by the end of the year, someone is going to do something stupid... Once this main war begins, you will be able to declare war and make peace normally.


Major Features:
- Seventeen playable civs, representing most powers in Europe and North America

- Over 200 civ-specific Unique Units - to add the historical flavor

- AI activities are centered on 'Combat Operations' – these are historical military missions, focused on accomplishing a specific objective. Most major combatants have a few Combat Ops they can launch throughout the scenario. When these Ops are active, the AI civ receives additional reinforcements to help accomplish its mission.

- Customized Events: allows for variable events to provide variety to the game. Some of these events are major: will the USA join the Allies? Possibly the Axis? Will Spain or Turkey enter the war? Against whom? Every spring, it's possible the Soviets will muster a massive army for their legendary counter-offensives. Less momentous but still important events are possible as well: Industrial Espionage (additional research progress), War Bonds (additional gold), and rebels appearing if you've lost too many of your original cities.

- Adjustable "Fog of War" settings: by default, civs have visibility on all land tiles. It is possible to adjust this visibility setting to 3 other choices: normal FoW setting, visibility on all land and sea tiles (but subs remain invisible), and visibility on all land and see tiles, with all units visible. Changing this setting requires a simple text file edit.

- New Terrain improvements: Defensive Bunkers, Coastal Artillery Bunkers, Air Defense Bunkers, and Trenches


Other Features / Changes:
- The mod lasts 84 turns (monthly game turns, seven years in duration)
- Custom scoring / victory conditions for the scenario.
- National Promotions: a special promotion given to all land units for each playable civ - adjusting their stats based on how well their civs train and support them
- National Economic Handicap: certain civs perform more efficiently than others - they get more benefits from existing buildings than other civs
- New Terrain Improvements: Defensive Bunkers, Coastal Artillery Bunkers, Air Defense Bunkers, and Trenches
- Naval Melee Ships CAN NOT CAPTURE CITIES! They may attack and damage them, but not capture
- Increased number of Spies - surveillance range increased to 6 Tiles
- Most units have increased movement speed. Some units (tanks and ships) have greatly increased movement speed.
- Units have improved visibility, and Fighter/Bomber units have increase range
- The mod adds "Winter Warfare" - in the months of Dec, Jan, and Feb, units at war in large parts of the USSR and Scandanavia will experience extra damage just for being there. Enemy units are damaged more
- Unlike the main `World at War` mod, the `Chateaux for All` and `Reforestation` capabilities have been removed from this mod
- Airports cannot airlift units


Please note: this mod is stand-alone! It doesn't work with any of the other World at War mods!!!

There is plenty of additional information in the "Discussions" tab - please look there!


Warnings/Caveats:
- Mod has been tested and seems relatively stable – but is in BETA status.
- This mod is a resource hog. It takes a lot of the Civ V's game engine to keep it running. This unfortunately can lead to crashes more often than usual. It is highly recommended to clear the game cache before attempting to play the mod, and often clearing cache is helpful when playing a different civ than before.
- The oversized map and ridiculously large number of units can also cause issues when loading saved games. It sometimes requires 2-3 attempts to load a game. I apologize for this additional work, but to bring such an epic fight to Civ V requires pushing the game engine a lot further passed anything its designers ever planned for. As such, a little patience is required to get everything started.
- The first turn takes a lot longer than subsequent turns. The AI has a lot of work to do to set up the scenario properly, and this does reflect in the turn length. Additionally, if you use an alternate Fog of War setting (q.v.), this can also take a few extra seconds after you click in the, "Press any key to continue…" button at the beginning of the game.
- Although the mod is fairly stable (once you get it up and running), additional work is required in "balancing" the scenario – getting the right number of reinforcements, events, etc. The basic questions are: is each civ fun to play? Is each civ an interesting challenge to play?


Suggestions:
- This mod is a beast, large, and touching many, many database tables, etc. It really needs to start with a clean slate to perform correctly. Before starting the scenario, clear the game cache! You may not have to do this, but the mod will almost certainly perform better. Set "autosave" to every turn!

- You'll have to manually move the scenario map into the game's map folder:

https://steamproxy.net/workshop/filedetails/discussion/1689346337/1850323802575209317/

- If you're having difficulty loading the mod or a saved game, there are some suggestions here:

https://steamproxy.net/workshop/filedetails/discussion/1689346337/1850323802575213892/

- Attempt to play the scenario the first time without any other mods – call it a "tutorial"

- If you want to see unit movement/combat animations, thoroughly recommend using "Quick Turns" mod by Krzyzyk.


You might be asking – if the mod takes so much TLC to get/keep working, then why bother? The answer to this depends on how much of a student of history you are – this mod will provide a deeply immersive, historically compelling gaming experience covering WW2. Significant effort has been invested to mangle the game's normal AI to force it into providing a fight worthy of a truly Era-defining, existential struggle.

Or – you truly enjoy a mano-a-mano slugfest, where the only purpose of playing the game is to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women! This mod is specifically designed to provide that.

And oh, BTW…. The AI cheats! Especially Hitler....


Acknowledgements: Many, many previous modders deserve credit for the art, models, etc., appearing in this mod. Most of the new unique units feature the spectacular work done by danrell. Additionally, content is included by other great modders, such as JFD, Bouncymischa, Snafusmith, Ekmek, Wolfdog, Nomad or What, Civitar, bernie14, Nutty, Lord Tirian, Hypereon, etc. – all contributed greatly to this mod.

I would be completely in remiss if I didn't thank @LeeS and @WHoward69 for the extensive support provided on the Lua scripts.

I will continue to add contributors to this list as I find them. If I've missed anyone, please let me know and I'll add them to this list.