Hack the World War!

Well, since everyone's talking about panzers all of a sudden, I thought I'd bring you up to date on Panzer General 2, the game that wouldn't die. I may have mentioned that the game ceased commercial production in the late 90's, and its developer went bankrupt.

And then something weird happened - people started hacking it. An anonymous programmer called "007" (presumably part of the original development team) started fixing the bugs and adding new features, and another ("008") continued the work. Internet forums appeared.

Someone figured out the map structure, and suddenly there were hundreds of gorgeous new maps. People wrote scenarios for China, India, Guadalcanal, the Aleutians, and any other place there was a battle, real or imagined (e.g., Knoxville).

And they started hacking they equipment files. They corrected typos in the original game data. A German military guy completely rewrote the equipment file - his "Waffenkammer" file added hundreds of new units and brought existing units closer to their historical levels (and, amusingly, made the Americans much weaker). He added new nationalities: Italians, Greeks, Ethiopians, Hungarians - you name it. There are almost as many nationalities doing development now - the Poles, for example, have their own website (sponsored by the state airline).

Then they started writing new campaigns. Steve Brown has become the Shakespeare of Panzer General 2 campaigns, creating games that are far more challenging that the originals (notably his murderous Pacific USMC campaign), and providing history lessons as well (the experience of the Indian 5th Division 1940-46). They are so hard: I won most of the OEM scenarios on the first try - I have never won a Steve Brown scenario on the first try.

So this weekend I made the big switch. I'd been playing with the Waffenkammer equipment file, but decided to switch to AdlerKorps (2000+ units). Mein Gott! This file has everything. It includes the most obscure units (was Slovokia in the war?!). Infantry units evolve as the war progresses.

It's been painful. I had Waffenkammer dialed - its creator was obviously an infantryman and infantry units were extremely powerful. I found I could win the first five or so German scenarios (Spain, Poland, Finland, Norway, France) without any tanks at all. Try that with AdlerKorps and you'll be running back to Berlin before you can say "hostile overrun attack."

The game is once again transformed - there are several dozen campaigns that have been written for AdlerKorps. Can't wait to try the Bulgarian one: "Tsar Boris III has charged you, General Stanchev, with the important task of leading our mobile corps, centered around the 1st Rapid Division, in our struggle to make Bulgaria a great power of the Balkans again."

Somehow, someday, this thing will be played out.

Then I'll download the Napoleonic campaign, and off we'll go again.