In this update we unlock a 3rd scenario: The Russian Revolution. It starts in the weeks prior to the collapse of the Central Powers. The early game is mostly focused on the surrender of the Bulgarians, Ottomans, Austro-Hungarians and ultimately the Germans. What follows is all the chaos that results from the disintegration of Austria-Hungary and partition of the Ottoman Empire.
The end of The Great War is just the beginning as suppressed nationalities rise up and fight to establish independent nations. In Russia, the Soviet Red Army goes on the offensive from Ukraine to Vladivostok spreading the doctrine of Communism and revolution. For the victorious Allies, dividing the spoils and redrawing the national borders of your defeated enemies could lead to more war and domestic unrest.
The Russian Revolution is likely our most orchestrated scenario in terms of creating a roughly historic experience. We’ve never focused so much on forcing the world to go to peace. To that end, the AI is less aggressive in terms of expansion and more concerned with preservation. And while the landscape becomes terribly broken, at some point a newly established order forms. Players can choose to allow more historical paths to set the course of the game, or attempt to counter the momentum of history.
Typically a Making History game is centered on Germany and the existential conflict the German nation instigates. In this scenario, there are multiple wars and subplots across the globe. In many cases, players can switch nations midgame to take on new challenges like founding Yugoslavia, leading the Turkish Nationals, or creating a Mongolian Empire with a White Russian led Army. Even though the German AI will likely surrender, players can always decide to reject peace demands and fight on and overcome the Allied advantage.
We look forward to hearing the player feedback on this scenario. It took a long time to create and it’s underlying scripts are complex. There are likely to be some rough edges to work out. The release notes are very minimal since most of the work since the pre-Christmas release was dedicated to the new scenario. Now that it’s basically finished, we’ll be turning our attention to making the final improvements that will mark the end of Early Access. These are mostly bugs, refinements and game balancing but there is also a list of feature requests and wish list items we will be considering as well.