Tides of War

Nah, this will be PT boats and gunboats, with heavy air action, I'd bet. In fact, the presence of so many airports will probably mean most of the actions take place at night, or in foggy weather. Canadian boats trying to sink the iron ore and coal freighters, etc.

Interesting. I thought it might be War of 1812, but an extension of Enigma wouldn't be bad either.

Can I ask what exactly is happening in Ireland right now?

I'd expect a civil war - Northern Counties vs Southern Catholic government as usual, with US Military support for the South and IGN/CLF gun-running for the North?

Or maybe even the CLF attacking the Germans shipping arms over. This has the potential to become very complicated...

Complex and tangled is the political situation in this alternate history indeed. Although I do not consider victory for any one side "impossible" by a long shot, we need to look at what we're talking about. "Victory" is what? Clausewitz argued that war was merely to bring about a favorable settlement and political situation for one side. The goal of none of the combatants by this time is to utterly destroy the other. America hopes for a permanent world empire as prosperous and successful as the German Weltreich. Imperial Germany looks for a secure and stable empire in order to expand its economic and military base. And the LFN/RNE look for strong solidarity between "abandoned colonies" of the old Commonwealth, a Britain free of German occupation, and a strong grasp on the Pacific - in other words, a resurrection of the British maritime empire under a free and unified flag.

Can any one side achieve these goals? Of course they can. However, even if they were to achieve them, they would have to continue to fight vigilantly to preserve those accomplishments. Therefore, this conflict could end up being quite bloody and lasting quite a long time. Enigma's development team places great importance on the naval aspect of war, and rightly so - however I myself have doubts about the ability of navies to keep at bay armed forces on land. Throughout modern history many events suggest that strong navies cannot stop armies from landing troops and concerted landing operations can still succeed.

In World War I, German advisors to the Kaiser argued that America was not a factor in the strategic situation. They argued that America would not even be able to transport its troops to Europe because of the German U-boat threat and the fact that submarines could easily destroy troop transports. This ignored all tactical use of convoying and the possibility of Anti-Submarine Warfare. As it was, we all know America did in fact come, in such numbers that damned the Second Reich to defeat and ultimately extinction.

If war does break out in earnest amongst the Great Powers of Enigma's alternate world, I would expect to see landing craft within a few months. I would also expect aggressive attack operations and prepared offensives. Land campaigns would make the news as much or more than naval incidents.

My question is, realistically, how will that be handled? Will news updates continue? Will the site be brought up to speed? And will the multiplayer war be reflected in news concerning the wider war?

If help is needed in updating the Enigma history, myself and others would probably be interested in assisting. Even editing and fact-checking would be fun for me personally.

Maestro,

You have touched on several important elements of what we are wrestling with in Enigma's story.

As we get our team back up to full strength and full steam the website will catch up as will the game. We intend to begin "news releases" for the world of Enigma as soon as we complete the logistical design work and of course the historical research. The land battles are particularly tricky. Multiplayer and the extended play project will both figure into the continuing history of Enigma as well as the regular news updates.

Perhaps a chat on this topic with the interested individuals would be appropriate.

--East

Hey, I'd love to chat with your or your team. If there's something I can do to help that would be very cool, and at the very least we can toss around some ideas. AIM is the easiest way to contact me, if you'd prefer to use some other system just let me know.

As a side note, I heard that much of Tesseraction is comprised of ex-Dynamix employees. I loved the Dynamix games, and I've even managed to talk with Mr. Blake Hutchins, one of the main creators of the Starsiege universe, since he's working with Starsiege fans and players on developing (an officially endorsed) mod for the newest Tribes game.

I always thought what happened to Dynamix was terrible, and I know that if some of those same minds are at work here Enigma will do great and I'd love to lend my assistance and ideas.

I look forward to future discussions!

Blake is still a member of our board and a valued friend (personal and of Enigma). I usually only use the Jabber resources here at tides of war for chat. I'll see if we can't set something up later in the week.

--East

All I can say, is maestro definitely covered the goals of all three powers. However, I have a question- is there any form of resistence in occupied Britain or France?

This game promises to have an extraordinary storyline.

Yes there is, the Crown Liberation Front (If memory serves). They work against Edward and the German Occupation. They enjoy assistance from the USA usually via Ireland. (Ireland being free makes them a lot more friendly towards the old British government).

Sure thing, later this week I will have moved into my college dorm and begun prep work for classes. However I should still have enough free time to chat with you guys.