The Classic

Red Army

   Long, long time ago Nemo & Alex took an old scenario by Mike Nilsson about the second world war: "2194 Days of war", and modified it, creating a real classic. Even better, using similar mechanics, they created other fantastic Civ2 scenarios, including "Red Front": probably the best 2WW Civ2 Scenario ever. The last version they released was v1.4 (and we have used it to write this review), though they allowed Colwyn to update it to a v1.5 version.

   The scenario starts in Summer 1941, when Germany was about to start "Barbarossa" operation, i.e., the invasion of the Soviet Union. With France beaten and divided, Britain alone and under constant pressure by the Luftwaffe and the USA inmersed in isolationist policies, Hitler considered himself invincible.   

Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, Stalin trusted so much in Molotov-Ribbentropp pact that he purged the theoretically almighty Red Army of its better officers, replacing them with totally addict men... but mostly inept officers.

The Sovietic Forces: Partisans, Naval Infantry, NKVD, Cossacks, Siberian Troops and the Red Guard

The German Forces: Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, Einsatz-Gruppen, Romanian Allies and Wolksturm.

    Your duty, as the highest Soviet Commander, is to stop the german invasion and expel them from the sacred soil of the Rodina (homeland). Good luck, you're going to need it.

    First of all, when you start the game (only with Soviets, of course), you'll feel yourself as being devored by a hungry lion. The mighty german units will advance crushing all opposition. In the first german turn, even before you start moving, you're going to lose more than 140 units. Germans will suffer almost no damage.

Your starting positions (north - south). As you see the germans have destroyed the first line of your defences.

    When you've played the first turn, you'll be frightened: your units are quite worse than gernans'. These seems to be no chances for the poor soviet forces.

    But Russia has two powerful allies: the Time and the Climate. Don't try to resist in the first turns: retreat as much as you can, make only local minor counterattacks to cause them as much casualties as you can... and wait for winter. When winter stars, the scenario will change drastically. Your units will be better and german units will be stopped (but be careful in the north: you're at war with Finland too, and finnish infantry is deadly when fighting in the snow). Try to take as much advantage as you can, and use the cities in siberia to create more units. Research tank technology, and when you've built a huge army, when the US has entered the war and you've received help enough from your allies, crush the invaders and take Berlin.

    There are apparently an unuseful unit: refugees. They are civilians who try to flee from german advance. They are much more important than you could think: if they survive until winter 1941, they'll turn into laborers (with settler abilities) and will be a great help for you. But if the germans capture them, they'll become slave workers and will work for the germans. Try to keep them alive.

    I can't tell you a winning strategy: just don't try to fight when you can't win, make them as much damage as possible minimizing the risks and wait for better times... they'll come. There will come a day when a lot of german units will be Volksturm: this will be the signal of your upcoming victory.

    Oh, and make a good use of incoming convoys from the UK... use them to rush-build units and wonders or to get money. They have to survive the travel from the UK to Murmansk (and don't lose Murmansk, otherwise you'll have to receive supplies from Iran).

    The well-documented and historically true events. The graphics. The differences between summer or winter. The well-balanced techtree and investigation times. The great variety of units. The unit obsolescence process, really good implemented. The AI: if I didn't know this is impossible, I'd bet that Nemo and Alex have re-programmed the game AI because it's much better. And the feeling you experience when you finally put your flag over the Reichstag. The re-playability: try playing with finnish, it's even better! The sound effects. The scenario itself.

   When you unzip the scenario, you'll see there are nine events files, nine rules files and (guess how many?) nine units files. Every six months, you have to save the game, get out of Civ2, run the BAT file to change the scenario parameters (summer of winter, and the year) and go back to the game to keep on playing. This allows the huge variety of units and events, but there's a problem: it's boring and people can make mistakes.

    Another problem is that the scenario is too big. Too many cities that will make the micromanagement a nightmare, and too many units that will make the turns almost eternals. In the first turn, you have to see how germans destroy more than 140 of your beloved units... it will last four minutes, and you won't be able to do anything at all! It's quite frustrating.

    If you like complex scenarios, this is for you. As I said before, it is probably the best WW2 Civ2 scenario, and people love it. But if you suffer a headache everytime you see more than 100 units moving simultaneously, try any other scenario. A great artjob, impressive script and really well betatested, so very well-balanced..