World War

World War I v2
# Civilization 4 (c) 2005 Firaxis Games

# Created by - Jon 'Trip' Shafer

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At its time, World War I (1914-1918), or the Great War as it was then called, was the most destructive conflict the world had ever seen. Millions of lives were lost and billions of dollars of damage was done during the four-year conflagration. Its effects would change the shape of the world forever, as old empires were destroyed and new ones arose.

The battles took place primarily in Europe, between the "Central Powers" of Germany and Austria-Hungary, later joined by the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria, and the "Triple Entente" or "Allied Powers" of Russia, France, the United Kingdom and later Italy and the United States.

This scenario begins in August of 1914 with the opening shots firing and the outcome of the struggle very much in doubt. Can you tip the scales and change the fate of the world?

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Ahhhh yes, the big one. Whenever you ask people what scenarios they want for Civ the top two most requested are always the same - the World Wars. In the end I chose WWI because a few other guys were working on a WWII in North Africa scenario and trying to encompass an entire theater like Europe or the Pacific is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. I have no doubt such a number of great WWII scenarios with a grand scope will be made but the variety
of nations, the specific events that took place and the incredibly wide variety of technology makes it a daunting foe.

World War I on the other hand suffers from fewer of these issues - almost all of the major participants and the only major theater can be easily depicted on a single map, using special rules to account for the USA. Technology, while advancing steadily forward didn't make the massive leaps and bounds as in WWII.

And the joining of the war by all belligerents is much simpler to model. WWII requires the conquest of Poland, northern Europe, France, the Balkans, North Africa and great battles in the USSR and against Britain - getting everything to come together in a realistic and fun manner is difficult to choreograph. WWI the major nations are already fighting with the minor ones coming in later.

WWII aside, WWI is an interesting conflict on its own merits. As a history student 19th century Europe has been my primary focus and WWI essentially marks the conclusion to this period. And certainly, it's just plain fun for those who enjoy military history and strategy to see if they can do better than Hindenburg and Ludendorff, or to avoid the collapse Russia suffered. This has been my largest project so far, and it's also the one I'm most proud of. I had been planning on making this scenario for quite some time and I'm pleased with the way it has turned out. There are always things a designer would like to do
better (there's so such things as a perfect production, they say) but it's good to reach a point where you're glad to show people the final outcome and have them enjoy playing.

Of course, this is just the beginning. The number of people who will work on WWI scenarios and scenarios in generally will snowball in the coming years. I hope to be right there continuing to produce more cutting-edge content. We'll see what my next project is...

'Til lata
- Jon

Thanks to Chris Sulzbach for his Unit models, Dorian for unit animation, Justin Thomas for unit icons, Nolan for her leader flags, Rhye for his unit flags, the guys here at Firaxis and Take 2 for testing and everyone out there for playing.