DISCUSSIONS

I and another players, as France and Germany respectively, played against an AI-controlled USSR in this scenario, which is set in 1949 in an alternate history where Hitler died young, World War II never happened, and the USSR has grown to dominate Eastern Europe and is now planning to take over Western Europe by force. The Western powers have let their military forces run down in the long peace, while the Soviet Alliance has been preparing for war. The challenge is whether the West can prepare to defend itself before the East attacks.

In a nutshell, the answer is yes, because we waited until turn 102 and the USSR had still not attacked. At this point, Germany's forces were so large (and the German player had skillfully lured the Polish army into a dis-advantageous position), that we decided to go on the offensive. Germany's massive tank fleet made short work of the Polish army, and Poland changed sides. Meanwhile, the smaller French army liberated Hungary, Slovakia, and parts of Romania from the Soviet yoke, and joined Germany in moving into the USSR itself. We quickly advanced deep in to Russia (while Germany liberated Finland almost in passing), and the USSR surrendered - only 20 turns after we began our attack!

Although this scenario is interesting, it seems to have 2 problems: 1) on AI, the Soviet Alliance does not attack as it is supposed to, and 2) against an AI Soviet Union, the "Normal" difficulty setting is almost too easy - "Hard" should be used. (I think "Harder" or "Hardest" would make it impossible for the active players to win.) I did have the advantage of a skilled player as Germany, though.

This scenario also has a number of unique and innovative technologies in the Research folder...none of which we had the time or need to develop, but which would add interest in a more evenly matched game, and are worth consideration for use in other new mods.

One last note - "Red Alert" has different music from the MH:Gold standard. I did not care for it, but the German player liked it: you will have to find out for yourself whether it is enjoyable or not.