How about a campaign with many different ahistorical paths?

[smashtheaxis]

How would you like an axis campaign tree with many different possible paths? In which a historical path is possible, but not very likely. Instead, most times you play, the war will take a very different course, depending on scenario results and/or your decisions, as well as the AI's "will", i.e. some counter-offensive scenarios where the enemy attacks you could be triggered randomly, simulating surprise attacks. This campaign tree would not have the 30+ scenarios of the original, but more than a 100 scenarios (sometimes using the same maps, but for different battles).

Obviously, this would mean many ahistorical scenarios, of battles that never happened in reality, that would have to be written by people with some historical background knowledge to make them somewhat realistic / plausible.

Some possible scenarios:

- western allies attack during polish campaign, leading to an early two front war and a prolongued conflict in the west and in poland with no barbarossa at all / later war between germany / soviet union
- eastern front: axis taking defensive strategy in the east after moscow disaster
- western allies invade france / southern france in 1943 instead of sicilly
- germany not getting involved in north africa and balkans, attacking soviet union 6 weeks earlier, with several early scenarios leading to an early moscow attack
- fall blau without caucasus, concentrating on stalingrad
- instead of kursk, different defensive scenarios in the east in 43/44
etc.
- possibility of separate armistice with soviet union (after causing extreme casualties to the red army, and because of stalin mistrusting the allies), leading to prolonged war on the western front in 1944/45, maybe 46.
- possibility of armistice on western front with prolonged war in the east, fighting to the ural mountains.

It would also be great to have the available equipment list adapt to the course history takes, even including fictional equipment, for example for a France that stays longer unoccupied and has time to develop some new tanks / planes.

I think such a campaign tree would be much more exciting than playing the same historical battles that every WW2 game repeats all the time.

[captainjack]

It's a great idea but one that could require a fair bit of work.
For example, assume Poland was better prepared and had superior defensive strategy, and you can fight a defensive campaign, with a chance to hold the Germans before winter or to drive them back before Russia joins in. Several people (notably Halibutt) have already developed a lot of additional Polish unit icons which would add depth and colour, including some upgrade paths if the fight runs on a bit longer than in real life.

Similarly, you could place the German attack on Russia in spring 1942, so they have better equipment and weather but maybe face a stronger Soviet Union army.

In principle, developing a one-off alternative path isn't that hard. I'm fairly new to modding and the biggest problem with developing my private mod is to avoid getting side-tracked by interesting information instead of writing scenarios.

The tricky bit comes when you want to combine campaigns, as you would have to think about where paths (historical or unhistorical) could link together, and think about what impact this would have on equipment, prestige, objectives and timing. This could be very interesting - eg a poor German result in Poland could set back the invasion of France, bringing forwards or delaying some equipment availability dates, which would need a different equipment file, and possibly changing options for the Balkans and Russia.

Good luck with it.