So, what is War of the World II?
I imagine everyone on this forum is well aware of my 2013 release "War of the World" - which was the first global map every made for Panzer Corps. (
viewtopic.php?f=147&t=46533) Although this was a major breakthrough for modding, there were a lot of gaps left in the design (Siberia was completely empty for example), and the attempt to make both sides play the same scenario ended in a very messy attempt at balancing, though I never released the v1.2 patch (so most of this muck has never made it to the official stage).
War of the World II attempts to create a whole new mod, while remaining similar in principle to the 2013 one. Many new features have also been added (or at this stage are still being thought of!) - for instance there will be a new 'diplomacy' section in the game, which allows for all sorts of different situations in the war (What if Germany invaded France through the Maginot Line, or if Japan assisted in Operation Barbarossa). I have also pushed the start date back to 7 July 1937, so more options in China are available (and a 1938 conquest *may* be possible, opening up all sorts of new routes to victory!). Industrial power will also be an important asset - you will need factory units in order to keep your war machine running (each generating a certain amount of PP each turn). Factories will be purchaseable, so you will not only be a general in the field, but a minister in an office, organising all production.
Unlike the famous (and excellent) Battlefield Europe that appeared last year (and which I understand stole a large number of my good ideas), WotW 2 will not follow history exactly. Instead I have allowed far greater freedom in purchase choices (does Germany decide to go ahead with the Z Plan in 1938?), and offensives will not copy history - there will be a chance for D-Day ("Sledgehammer") to occur in 1943. That said, it will certainly be more difficult to achieve complete victory than in WotW 1 - the US Eastern Seaboard will be well defended if you decide to invade in 1944/45.
I have also attempted to clear the map of unnecessary clutter, and have reduced the unit detail considerably (turns are 5 weeks long, and units are Army scale). It seems very unlikely that Japan would have created an armoured formation of 2,000-4,000 tanks using only one model, so I have generalised the units into basic categories such as Improved Light Tank or Turbojet Fighter - allowing people to focus on the grand scheme of the war.
Central to this idea is the removal of airfields from the map. In WotW 2, cities and ports can now reinforce aircraft identically to how airfields do in vanilla Panzer Corps. (I'm assuming every major city has an airfield nearby). Just as cities are necessary for land warfare, it will be important to control ports for naval warfare - a ship will only have a small amount of tiles (probably ~20) that it will be able to travel before it will need to refuel - so Kiel won't be a suitable port for an invasion of South Africa!
The 1937 start date also brings up the challenge of Austria and Czechoslovakia. Basically these annexations will be solved using the diplo panel and events. Around the start of 1938 you will be told that you can declare war ("annex") on Austria, which will immediately added to your empire. Czechoslovakia will be guarded by the USSR, UK, France and Poland until early 1939, so you should not invade until it historically fell. (Czech will lose all of its units this turn, allowing you to conquer it 'peacefully'.) The annexation of the Sudetenland will happen as a message, but will not have any effect (the region is only about 1/6 of a hex!)
- BNC
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About ambition, I'm not strecthing the game much further than WotW1 did, so its nothing new to work with.
