A Modern Total War? (Discussion, Oppinions)

[Sir Beane]

Well said, PBI. I completely agree with you on everything you've said, but would like to add something to your details on WWI. It would be a wondrous war to fight, but as you say, it would require a shockingly huge amount of troops and land on the battlefield.

It's possible, and doesn't take much imagination to make it into a total war game, but it probably won't take place with today's gaming technology. In the years to come, when the average computer can handle the sheer imensity of WWI in a game, we'll probably see something like this. But not now.

The problem I see with WW1 is also a matter of scale. A typical battle would consist of hundreds of thousands of men on a battlefield that could be a hundred miles across. The battlelines are trenches with maybe a mile or more of land between them. Every so often one side loses or gains a few feet of land and builds a new trench. Occasionally artillery rains down hell on side or the other, or both.

Snipers make the odd potshot, men die of trenchfoot. Sometimes the higher ups order suicidal charges into no-mans land against a machine gun nest, maybe you get lucky and take it, maybe your whole squad dies.

Battles last weeks, maybe even months. Tactics take second place to large scale strategy. Victory depends on supply lines and huge grand campaign scale decisions rather than battlefield ones. Logistics are much more important than in any battle before.

When you can't flank, you can't succesfully charge, there is no melee, no line for you to break, no routing the whole enemy force, and the only way to win is through long, slow attrition warfare.

How do you make it fun for the player?

I'm not saying you can't. And I'm not saying that's all there is to WW1, but I would appreciate some input from the people who are championing a WW1 game. I would love to see it done if someone can think of a way to make it work.