The Second World War: Historic Timelines & Advanced Weapons

August 08, 2017

Making History games are―as the name implies―designed to allow players to change the outcome of important historical conflicts. Each scenario generally reflects the world on a given date by translating researched information into game data. The flow of the game is driven by the individual nation AI and the use of coded scripts that generate historical events. A combination of variant decision-making by the AI and unpredictable player activity creates a unique a-historical experience every play through.

 

American Carrier on the move (Game Image)

 

Early historical milestones are likely to play out as expected, like German aggressions in Europe up to the Polish invasion. Later events, on the other hand, will tend to be more reactive than historically based since a great number of battles on land and at sea would have to follow a set path over a four-year period in order to trigger epic events like D-Day or Midway. If Moscow falls to the Germans for example, it will set off a series of possible outcomes depending on the circumstances. In general, we attempt to cover both historical timelines and a multitude of possible a-historical tangents.

 

German Jet Fighter I and Jet Fight IV (Game Models)

 

In Making History: The Second World War, it is possible for Germany to get the Atomic Bomb first or Japan might attack the USSR, leading to a Soviet exit and a longer war. Given that we can expect a Making History game to deviate from history to a lesser or greater extent, we cannot always predict how quickly the timeline will progress and many players choose to extend the game beyond the scenario end date. With all these factors in mind, we’ve chosen to include a number of units and technologies that were historically planned or completed after the war. These kind of units are entertaining and help extend the playable timeframe.

 

German Ballistic Missile (Game Models)

 

For your Navy, you can build the Supercarriers the Americans canceled, along with the massive Montana-class battleships and Alaska-class cruisers. Tank technologies can be brought into the 1950s with the construction of Main Battle tanks. In the Air, we’ll have multiple levels of Jet Fighter aircraft and a Jet Bomber that can also deliver a Nuclear strike. Other Nuclear capable weapons include Strategic Bombers and ICBMs. While you can disrupt your enemies productivity by pounding their cities with conventional warheads from V1 & V2 style rockets, the ICBM will be the ultimate city killer with continental range.

 

American Supercarrier and Super Battleship (Game Models)

 

To further enhance this portion of the game, we’ve put greater effort into giving the AI nuclear awareness. They will actively seek to achieve this technology and use it wisely. In other words, the Soviets might nuke the USA, but will not bother going nuclear against a weaker nation like Czechoslovakia. They’ll prefer to use tanks unless the Czechs somehow get nukes themselves.

 

British Main Battle Tank I and German Main Battle Tank II (Game Models)

 

There are several rules and nuances added to the AI in response to the existence of nuclear weapons in the game. To begin with, the first nation to gain the technology will remain secret until the first use. After that, all nuclear nations will be exposed. Nuclear powers will unlikely declare war on each other, but once at war they will fire off their stockpiles to try and wipe out their rival before the other can respond. The nation left with no nukes to respond with will be forced to surrender. The AI actions are designed for the single player game experience. I imagine a multiplayer nuclear conflict will generate some memorable results. To this end, the Editor has been upgraded to allow modders to start the game with already nuked cities just in case someone wants to do a post-apocalyptic scenario. The obvious next step is an expansion pack that replaces our rebel units with zombies.

The AI actions are designed for the single-player game experience. I imagine a multiplayer nuclear conflict will generate some memorable results. To this end, the Editor has been upgraded to allow modders to start the game with already nuked cities just in case someone wants to do a post-apocalyptic scenario. The obvious next step is an expansion pack that replaces our rebel units with zombies.

 

American Strategic Bomber and Nuclear Bomb (Game Models)

 

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