Alternativ history - a gaming project

**Fixiwee** · 01-06-2009, 19:08

So I had this idea for a gaming project for personal enjoyment. The idea was to start of with EB and replay history with similliar events but letting it evolve. By this I mean I would use different games for different periods. Since a lot of people are on the same level here, rp wise, I'd like to ask for comments and especially for further hints of games and mods.

Prologue
Rome total war - Alexander
Served for the setting of the ancient world. The game was neither good nor had any depth, but at least I could replay Alexanders conquest which changed the world.

Epoch 1 Rise of Rome
Europa Baraorum
currently playing
Well I don't have to tell you a lot about it. The game has all the depth and joy I could hoped.
After I finished conquering half of europe and thus finishing EB I will move on, but the following is just an outline

Epoch 2 Decline of Rome
I intend to play Invasio Barbarorum to replay the fall of rome as a Romani. Should serve my needs well.

Epoch 3 Medieval Kings
For this I am still a bit sceptical. One possibility would be to play kingdoms, since the middle ages were not a time for world conquest. On the other hand, I haven't really looked at the mods that are available for TWM2

Epoch 4 European Empires
I'll have to see how TW Empires comes out. If the game offers some depth and possibility to play England as the global player it became in the 18th century. The other possibility is to play Europa Universalis, which might be slightly different, but is more event-trigger like, which adds more controll to the course of history.

Epoch 5 Age of the Extremes
This is clearly a case for Hearts of Iron 2 + Doomsday. I want to replay the american century with beating the Nazis just to face a bigger enemy, the sowjet union. Will there be a cold or a nuclear war? Only time will tell.

Epiloge
Something in the near future?

Like I said befor, this is just my outline. There is still much that could be added if you know something. For example, I'd love to play the Romans through the age of emporers too. Medieval1 Viking Invasion popped into my mind.
Also, there isn't anything interessting for the 16th and 17th cenutry going on, nor is the first world war coverd anywhere. If you got some ideas I'd be very happy to hear it.

**Olaf Blackeyes** · 01-06-2009, 20:55

OK im doing this as a part of my AAR (in my sig). Believe me its FUN!!!!!!!!

Some tips though.
1. If you have a specific faction from EB try to stick with that faction or its equivalents throughout your whole saga. Makes things far more challeneging for you as a player.
2. Try to include stuff or people fron past games in your current game. Give it a historical background.
3. Write an AAR on this. I would love to see it.

EDIT: If you want good mods for M2TW try Stainless Steel for Europe based or Broken Cresent for Mideast based gameplay

**Ignopotens** · 01-06-2009, 22:44

what you might consider for Epoch 4 or actually adding another epoch between 4 and 5 is Victoria: Revolutions. It's an expansion for Victoria that allows you to convert your game directly into HOI2:DD

**Fixiwee** · 01-07-2009, 20:11

Originally Posted by Olaf Blackeyes

OK im doing this as a part of my AAR (in my sig). Believe me its FUN!!!!!!!!

Some tips though.
1. If you have a specific faction from EB try to stick with that faction or its equivalents throughout your whole saga. Makes things far more challeneging for you as a player.

I haven't thought about it. It's not a bad idea but I might stick to the rise and fall of specific nations. It wouldn't be fun for me personally to play as the Romans in ancient times and siding with Hitler as the Italians to conquere and destroy the world. I mean I did conquer the World in HOI2 with the german, but I want the good guys to win the wars.

2. Try to include stuff or people fron past games in your current game. Give it a historical background.

I'm defo doing so. People from "TW Empires" will look back at the great Scipio, Metellus the Reformer and Kaeso the conquerer. That's why I try to play as many games as possible. Not for reasons being a nerd, but to give it a flow through history. I'm also playing Caesar IV for it let's me play through the empirial times.

3. Write an AAR on this. I would love to see it.

I thought about that. A lot. But I'm kinda scared that my AAR would be just an 1 page thing since I dunno how much motivation I'll have. And on the other hand I'm also not sure if people want to read how history continues in TW Empires (if it's a good game).
On the other hand again, you people here are really into AARs, people who do that get a lot of feedback, hence people are really reading it. Hmm...

EDIT: If you want good mods for M2TW try Stainless Steel for Europe based or Broken Cresent for Mideast based gameplay

Noted. I'll look into it. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Ignopotens

what you might consider for Epoch 4 or actually adding another epoch between 4 and 5 is Victoria: Revolutions. It's an expansion for Victoria that allows you to convert your game directly into HOI2:DD

Wow. That sounds awesome. I didn't know about the converting thing. I might look into that. That's exactly a comment I was looking for.

**Warluster** · 01-12-2009, 02:37

Some suggestions as to what you can do.

In the Medieval epoch instead of M2TW you could use Crusader Kings. That way if you also use EUIII then you can have one massive mega campaign, from 800 AD to 1963 AD.

Victoria is a very, very good game. One of the best I've played, but there is a slight problem for new players. It is very, very hard. It has a lot of depth to it that you'll be discovering things a year after you've got it (Theres no tutorial) but once you get over the learning depth (Start off with automanage) it will be one of the best games you've ever played; and perfect for a thing like this. Just thought I'd warn you.

For the future epoch you could use Galatic Civilizations II

There is another game which is like HoI and EU, and in space, but I can't remember it.

For EUIII make sure you use the Magna Mundi mod; it adds such historical accuracy, and gameplay changes, it is a new game. It defintly makes EUIII what it should've been on release; absolutly superb. EUIII is defintly recommended over ETW, even though its not out yet, EUIII covers not a mere 100 years but 400 - 500. Much better then ETW

**Olaf Blackeyes** · 01-12-2009, 05:11

Originally Posted by Fixiwee

I haven't thought about it. It's not a bad idea but I might stick to the rise and fall of specific nations. It wouldn't be fun for me personally to play as the Romans in ancient times and siding with Hitler as the Italians to conquere and destroy the world. I mean I did conquer the World in HOI2 with the german, but I want the good guys to win the wars.

People STILL do not understand that in history there is no such thing as good guys and bad guys. The whole good guy/bad guy thing is always determined by the WINNER of said conflict. I mean yes Hitler did kill 9 million ppl, but look at the others around the world at that time, Stalin for instance. He killed like 25-30 million, HIS OWN ppl for that matter, and we allied to these ppl.
Besides u aint gotta keep it totally historical either i mean its ur campaign. So u can just make it so Hitler never appeared in ur timeline ect, ect.

**johnhughthom** · 01-12-2009, 06:13

Originally Posted by Olaf Blackeyes

People STILL do not understand that in history there is no such thing as good guys and bad guys. The whole good guy/bad guy thing is always determined by the WINNER of said conflict. I mean yes Hitler did kill 9 million ppl, but look at the others around the world at that time, Stalin for instance. He killed like 25-30 million, HIS OWN ppl for that matter, and we allied to these ppl.
Besides u aint gotta keep it totally historical either i mean its ur campaign. So u can just make it so Hitler never appeared in ur timeline ect, ect.

**Fixiwee** · 01-12-2009, 13:49

Originally Posted by Warluster

In the Medieval epoch instead of M2TW you could use Crusader Kings. That way if you also use EUIII then you can have one massive mega campaign, from 800 AD to 1963 AD.

Yeah I have been thinking of that. The pro of the paradox game is that they are more complex and allow to change the course of history through events, which leaves more controll to the player. The contra is, that the game let's you play less RP stuff. It's somewhat tempting to play kingdoms and see which character develops in what style. That is the reason why I play EB over EU:rome, since it's has better gameplay.

Victoria is a very, very good game. One of the best I've played, but there is a slight problem for new players. It is very, very hard. It has a lot of depth to it that you'll be discovering things a year after you've got it (Theres no tutorial) but once you get over the learning depth (Start off with automanage) it will be one of the best games you've ever played; and perfect for a thing like this. Just thought I'd warn you.

Thanks. I'll defo look into it. Seeing that there is no other game covering the time period, especially ww1, i'll make Victoria my choice. Since I played HOI2 a long time ago, I know what kind of games the paradox are. I'm actually going to use those games in my diplomatheisis, but that's another story.

For EUIII make sure you use the Magna Mundi mod; it adds such historical accuracy, and gameplay changes, it is a new game. It defintly makes EUIII what it should've been on release; absolutly superb. EUIII is defintly recommended over ETW, even though its not out yet, EUIII covers not a mere 100 years but 400 - 500. Much better then ETW

Yeah. Good point. Let's see how ETW will be. Maybe it will be possible to use both. Since there will be 3 theaters of war. But anyway, it's still a lot of time to go till I reach that timeperoid.

Originally Posted by Olaf Blackeyes

People STILL do not understand that in history there is no such thing as good guys and bad guys. The whole good guy/bad guy thing is always determined by the WINNER of said conflict. I mean yes Hitler did kill 9 million ppl, but look at the others around the world at that time, Stalin for instance. He killed like 25-30 million, HIS OWN ppl for that matter, and we allied to these ppl.

Well that's coming presumptuous. You should know that I am a history-student so I know that history is diverse and implifies more then just good and evil. But this is a gaming project for pleasuring purpose. It's not a history lesson. And games tend to be black and white, ww2 in gaming is a classical interpretation of good versus evil. As I pointed out above, I'm even writing my history theisis on this.
And I am very well informed of Stalins history. But this is not the point. My point was that I want to replay history as the americans fighting against Hitler and later Stalin aswell.

Besides u aint gotta keep it totally historical either i mean its ur campaign. So u can just make it so Hitler never appeared in ur timeline ect, ect.

Well yeah I could. But I don't want to alter history too much. I wanna have it different, but still have a resemblence. But this is a point I am still thinking about.