WWI: Centenial Edition

[Nefaro]

Meh.  HOI mods.. 

[Boggit]

Guess they trying to suck a few more $s/euros out of the old version.  Don't forget that Ageod's To End All Wars is just about 8 weeks from release.

But they are not the same game. The scale is totally different, and they play differently too. Both have their sweet spots, although without doubt this game has a learning curve so steep it rivals the Matterhorn. Still it's very nice when you've climbed it, getting there is the issue... ;)

[Boggit]

You know I forgot all about Squad Battles...I had meant to pick that up but never did.

I did a review on the game - you'll find it in the archives. It's very  good as Jomni said - but again not grand strategy.

[bbmike]

Note that these texts are only available in Darkest Hour Full. DH also comes with one or two earlier iterations which are really HOI2 using some DH additions. Since HOI2 never had a World War 1 campaign, though, that can only be played on DHFull.

If you play the WW1 scenario in Darkest Hour does it continue all they way into the 1960s or even beyond?

[Gusington]

Thanks for posting those Jason. My experience with Victoria 2, and most Paradox titles, has been...flummoxing.

[JasonPratt]

Note that these texts are only available in Darkest Hour Full. DH also comes with one or two earlier iterations which are really HOI2 using some DH additions. Since HOI2 never had a World War 1 campaign, though, that can only be played on DHFull.

If you play the WW1 scenario in Darkest Hour does it continue all they way into the 1960s or even beyond?

Within the game as-is, it can continue to late June 1940. With a slight tweak of the save file it can continue to 1970 or 1999 or 2014 -- I once saw a production clock with only a few fractions of industry assigned to build a late 19th-century battleship, which tracked its projected completion in 2056! -- but the techs run out around 1970.

The WW1 campaign has scripts into the early 1920s, so after that point the game won't look for triggers to guide events; in which case the player can turn on the "declare war on anyone" button which takes the brakes off the several dozen nations in the game and allows them to do whatever they want whenever that seems best to the AI. This can still lead to the results notorious to Europa Engine games, though -- DH doesn't fix that. For example, Chile out of nowhere declares war on South Korea, who capitulates a few days later before the first troops arrive which Chile can't even send. But 'things' will certainly happen in the game this way as long as the gameclock is set to last, even after the scripts run out.

There is a simple mod, fairly easy to install, called Armistice, Arms and Revolutions (I think, something close to that) which ties together the plot triggers for the WW1 campaign and the earliest WW2 campaign start (1932).  The WW2 scripts (connected via the simple mod download and install) start in 1932 and run to 1962, or however long HOI2:Armageddon:Doomsday ran. Darkest Hour features most of the scripts (where applicable) from HOI2:Arma:Doom, and adds dozens of others.

[JasonPratt]

Thanks for posting those Jason. My experience with Victoria 2, and most Paradox titles, has been...flummoxing.

Based on my 15 minutes of poking around Vicky2 to see how feasible it might be to run it as part of my giant crossover WW1 game comparison (I decided not to since its eventual version of WW1 would probably be too different to really compare), Darkest Hour seems a little simpler. There are obvious engine similarities but a lot of things are quite different.

Have you read through my Ethiopian WW1 AAR? That gives an idea of what I went through learning the DH game mechanics (which I'm still somewhat learning).

[SgtRock]

WW1 Gold is the most complex game I've ever played.  More complex than WitP, in my opinion, and I know that sounds nuts. 

Yikes!!! that should scar everyone away!

[sandman2575]

Well, I hope not, because WWI Gold is a gem of a game.

The thing that makes it such a challenge is (A) it has very complex rule-set to begin with, (B) these rules change depending on the timeframe, i.e. 1914 "Movement Warfare" vs. 1915-17 "Trench Warfare" vs. 1917-18 "Combined Arms Warfare"; and (C) different nations have very specific rules associated with them. It is a lot to try to hold in your head at once.

My copy of the WitP:AE manual is filled with stickies and highlighting and underlining -- it's a monster of a game, no question. But for whatever reason, I've found WWI Gold harder to wrap may head around. It may have something to do with the fact that WWI is a 'port' of a board game, and probably doesn't do enough to take advantage of all that a computer could do to streamline gameplay.  So it feels inevitably a little clunky on the computer.  That said, I love the board-game feel of WWI -- it gives the game enormous character.

I haven't bought Centennial but all the hoopla has inspired me to go back to Gold, and I'm really enjoying it.  There are still some things I find baffling (naval warfare is particularly mysterious to me), but it is a tremendous game, provided you're willing to scale the mountain of its steep, steep learning-curve. 

[jomni]

That's right. If it's a boardgame port, you better know the rules and the various phases to play well. If it's an original computer game like WITP, you just need to learn the UI and just use your general knowledge on strategy and tactics in the hopes that it is simulated reasonably. Though a competitive player will still look in detail and find gamey tricks.


But I find WW1 gold more approachable than WITP. There's less to do and set up. 

[WallysWorld]

So I played a few months of the two player Grand Campaign with the Centennial Edition and have to admit, the game plays very well for me. Others are reporting crashes and slowdowns due to perhaps memory leaks which the developer says they are working on, but I have to say the grand campaign is running very well for me.

Update: I just had a freeze on a battle screen and then the game really slow downs after a while of playing it and virtually freezes up. I guess it doesn't run as well as I thought.

[Queeg]

So I played a few months of the two player Grand Campaign with the Centennial Edition and have to admit, the game plays very well for me. Others are reporting crashes and slowdowns due to perhaps memory leaks which the developer says they are working on, but I have to say the grand campaign is running very well for me.

Update: I just had a freeze on a battle screen and then the game really slow downs after a while of playing it and virtually freezes up. I guess it doesn't run as well as I thought.

I've had the same experience.  It runs perfectly for 30-45, then suddenly crashes.  I've started quitting and relaunching the game periodically.  It loads so fast that it's a minor inconvenience. 

[bbmike]

Sooooo....are you guys recommending this for those of us who have never played it?  Can you play in hotseat mode?

[Nefaro]

Sooooo....are you guys recommending this for those of us who have never played it?  Can you play in hotseat mode?

Sounds like it has "Wait & See" on this version, because it obviously has nasty memory leaks.

But if they can get that stuff fixed, yes.

I don't recall if WW1G had hotseat play, I think it did?   They also added PBEM in one of the latter patches (along with direct play).  I'd expect all that stuff to still be in this one.

[jomni]

If I remember correctly, the several phases made multiplayer a bit of a chore. And also the phasing sequence is different / simplified compared to original rules.

Regarding the freezes, it's just like the Matrix / Ageod version. But my campaign came to a freeze that wasn't recoverable by restart.