[WarInEur] RE: WarInEur Digest, Vol 43, Issue 12

[SGMINFO at aol.com]

In a message dated 23/02/2008 23:55:39 GMT Standard Time,  
ultrasoundimages at sbcglobal.net writes:

Is it a  recreation where historical accuracy is desired? Is it a game where
game  balance is desired? Is it a 'what if' simulation where competing 'what
ifs'  can be tested? Is it a teaching tool that the evils of Nazi Germany are
to  be exposed by seeing Germany consistently lose (I kid you not, that  seems
to have been the purpose of one poster  her)?



..And we should not forget its ancestry. War in the east. Many of our  
notions and assumptions are projected forward from that original Genesis.
 
The original game had pseudo fixed historical  'production/reinforcements for 
the Germans and only the Soviets had  production.
 
It was very much a study in the Soviet conundrum. The germans invade on  
schedule, it was up to you to see if you could solve the problems that they  
posed. It was a study in planning, how to survive the initial onslought, how you  
solved the enigma of the, for those days, unique challenge of a production  
system, creating the weapon system to crush the Germans, whilst staying around  
long enough to wield it.
 
 For the time it was unique, in scale, in size, and in time. Perhaps  the 
most interesting bit was that such a simplistic approach approximated the  course 
of the war in the east so well.
 
But the fascination was the puzzle..starting from that same starting throw,  
how the machinery ground out a result as you turned the handle.
 
With the (inevitable) push of expansion into the other theaters of the war  
so the parameters of the original simulation grew fuzzy and began to break 
down.  nce you added full German production, and allied production, the variations 
made  the model potentially very unstable, and the model is not naturally 
designed  around equilibrium points.
 
 The key illustration of this, is German combat performance. Had the  germans 
done well in the East, and the west, production would not have ramped  up,but 
remained at the levels of 1941, a naturally self adjusting feature ITRW.  
Best ullustrated by the way the Luftwaffe was treated through the war  
Characterised by the thought, never enough resources until too late.
 
But the model could not, and does not, easily encompass this. Hence the  
classic problem of runaway German peroduction...
 
War in the East can be characterised  by the idea, how well can the  Soviets 
do?
War in Europe stands this simulation on its head , and asks the question,  
how well can the Germans do?
 
It is a testament to the designers, that such a fundamental shift in the  
substrate of the game, could be accommodated so well...
 
 
-|steve|
 
 



   
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