Play as country?

[Bleek]

Very simple question, can you play as a country and not the entire allied or axis?

[Kraken Studios]

You can play a side. The reason is due to multihex attacking.

[toddtreadway]

This is something we asked for a while back, and I think the intent is the put the ability to play as at least certain individual countries into Warplan 2. Is that correct, Alvaro?

If so, will the PBEM be the same Slitherine one currently in place?

[Kraken Studios]

Yes it will be the same. Different countries would be in WarPlan 2 if I can do it. At the very least it will be different political factions.

[toddtreadway]

So there is the possibility that Warplan 2 won't have individual countries, like either Germany OR Italy, playable?

[Kraken Studios]

Unlike other 1 click, 1 unit, 1 move games WarPlan allows players to multihex attack which makes it tough to play a single country. It is on my list. If I can do it easily yea I will add it.

[toddtreadway]

That is unfortunate. Honestly, the main reason I am interested in a Warplan 2 is to allow players to play as individual countries rather than an entire alliance.

I hereby request that that ability to play as an individual country be a main focus of Warplan 2.

[Bleek]

It's one of the better features in Strategic Command, but I'm not a huge fan of that title (I don't like single unit tiles for a start).

Warplan having a similar feature would elevate it once more. I'd love to play as the UK and control the different fronts.

But I also understand this is a bigger undertaking because of the AI scripting required to play all remaining countries.

[Kraken Studios]

At the moment if I allow it does the Human player get to control UK forces as the USA when they need it? Then it messes up the UK scripts. Like let's say you pull a UK unit slated for the invasion of Rhodes. Now it doesn't fire yet the A.I. still thinks it does.

Or I could give zero access to the other countries which then would make the game very different. What if the A.I. feels it needs to invade France in 1943 because Russia is falling, by it's calculations, but the human US player doesn't want to do that?

So now I have all these players complaining about this situation.

This isn't as simple as it seems.

[IamLags]

Yeah maybe playing as the western allies only or Russia only would work.. turn it more into a 3 sided game. That would be cool.

But i agree i dont think it would work very well if you were only controlling the UK and not USA & France.

[Bleek]

Another level could be added, diplomatic requests - so the AI and player could signal their intent and choose to support a certain campaign/offensive.

Yeah I know, I'm asking a lot.

[Kraken Studios]

That is a lot of work for an open ended system. Some things are very easy to implement in a board game and incredibly difficult in a computer game, and other things the other way around.

[toddtreadway]

How about "lending" units to other countries, so that they can control them? The owner would still be responsible for maintenance and repair on their turn, but the one who has possession of the unit could move and attack as if it was their unit? Or alternatively, allow all units to be used by anyone in the alliance unless particular units are designated as not being allowed to be used.

[Kraken Studios]

Still tough as the A.I. doesn't know or might need a unit later.

[Raptor341]

If nothing else, having the option of individual control (of nations) opens up the possibility of multiplayer PBEM, where each player must plan and act in their own nations best interest, which would simulate the difficulty of making plans across more than one person. That would make for great PBEM gaming.

[Kraken Studios]

That would be WarPlan 2 and PBEM 3 which Matrix just put up.