regarding Victory conditions - (Moscow spoiler alert)
Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2020 5:02 pm
Has there been much discussion regarding randomizing primary victory, or secondary, conditions. I’ll illustrate with the Moscow scenario near the end of the Blitzkrieg campaign. Hence the spoiler alert.
I like the fact that victory conditions can change mid scenario. It was an interesting shock when my orders for taking Moscow were suddenly and thankfully changed. The fun isn’t near as great the second time through as you can plan your CP choices accordingly and not play near as aggressively. Just attack enough to get the required defensive positions that you have to hold and set up your excellent defense.
Now imagine a scenario where about 1/3 of the time the orders never change and you have to actually take Moscow. The scenario would have a less predestined feel to it. For it to be a “doable” scenario the following would have to be the case IMO.
1-plausibility: The idea would be that Stalin decided to launch the winter offensive elsewhere; while still having a strong but necessarily weaker defense of Moscow.
2- the first few turns should look more or less identical to the German player until around the turn that the victory conditions change in the current scenario.
3- clearly the Soviet force pool would have to be different depending on which branch of VC ultimately were in play.
4- AI strategies would also have to differ, making for twice the work to the scenario developer. Of course for this particular scenario, one of the strategies is already completed
5-I have no idea if this would require a change in the game/editor engines, but if so the basic mechanic of introducing a random number to decide which of N final VC conditions are extant would be well worth the minimal effort. (The major workload would be for the poor scenario designer, assuming the editors/game engine would support the feature.)
There’s more that could be said, but this is a long enough post.
I like the fact that victory conditions can change mid scenario. It was an interesting shock when my orders for taking Moscow were suddenly and thankfully changed. The fun isn’t near as great the second time through as you can plan your CP choices accordingly and not play near as aggressively. Just attack enough to get the required defensive positions that you have to hold and set up your excellent defense.
Now imagine a scenario where about 1/3 of the time the orders never change and you have to actually take Moscow. The scenario would have a less predestined feel to it. For it to be a “doable” scenario the following would have to be the case IMO.
1-plausibility: The idea would be that Stalin decided to launch the winter offensive elsewhere; while still having a strong but necessarily weaker defense of Moscow.
2- the first few turns should look more or less identical to the German player until around the turn that the victory conditions change in the current scenario.
3- clearly the Soviet force pool would have to be different depending on which branch of VC ultimately were in play.
4- AI strategies would also have to differ, making for twice the work to the scenario developer. Of course for this particular scenario, one of the strategies is already completed
5-I have no idea if this would require a change in the game/editor engines, but if so the basic mechanic of introducing a random number to decide which of N final VC conditions are extant would be well worth the minimal effort. (The major workload would be for the poor scenario designer, assuming the editors/game engine would support the feature.)
There’s more that could be said, but this is a long enough post.