New Battle Scenario: The Balkan Wars 1912-13

[StephenT]

Sick Man of Europe: The Balkan Wars​

It was the first war fought in Europe in the 20th century - and it set the trend for all the others: horrific, violent and bloody. During the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, vast armies of conscripts fought each other with artillery, machine guns and bayonets - and over 200,000 soldiers would be killed in just ten weeks of fighting. It was a total war, with whole societies mobilised for the conflict and atrocities against civilians commonplace on all sides. But how did it begin?

For over three centuries the Ottoman Empire had ruled South-Eastern Europe. However, this once-mighty state was now in terminal decline. Many of her former subject peoples in the Balkans had gained independence during the 19th century, including Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. However, the Ottomans still governed millions of Christian subjects in their remaining European provinces. Although the Serbs, Greeks and Bulgarians were all highly suspicious and jealous of each other, they could at least agree on one common interest: the liberation of these people from the Turks. While the Great Powers of Europe were content to watch complacently as the Ottoman Empire declined, the young, upstart nations of the Balkan League laid secret plans to take matters into their own hands...


DOWNLOAD V 0.1 BETA

This is a battlescenario for HoI2. It's quite a quick scenario (short timescale, only a few units per side), and my playtesting currently suggests that Greece is the favourite to win. The scenario is fully playable now, although I'll be grateful for any suggestions or comments for improvements.

In particular, please note that the sides currently only use the default AI - if somebody wants to try their hand at coding scenario-specific AI I'll be very grateful. Also, some of the unit names, etc are currently in English - so input from Greek, Turkish, Bulgarian and Serbian-speakers will be welcome.


INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

1. You must first apply the No Time Limit patch to HoI2.exe

2. Unzip all files into the Hearts of Iron 2 folder. (z-balkanwars.csv goes into db\leaders, balkanwars.eug goes into \scenarios, the two picture files into \scenarios\data and all other files into a new \scenarios\balkanwars folder.)

3. When you next start the game, the new scenario will be listed withthe others.

 

[StephenT]

Here are a few screenshots:

The scenario selection screen:

The victory conditions. Note that these are different for each country; the Balkan nations not only have to beat Turkey, but grab more of her lands than their so-called "allies".

The situation as play begins:

And the complete game map:

 

[StephenT]

Finally for now, a few notes on current issues with the scenario:

1. No leader pictures are currently available. Once the 1914: The First World War mod is completed, this battle scenario will be updated to use the pictures distributed with that mod.

2. Although they are not visible in the game, countries in this scenario currently use the 1936 government ministers, not the correct 1912 ones. Again, this will be corrected once 1914 is available.

3. Flags used are those of 1941, not 1912. Again (you guessed it) this will be corrected once 1914 is available.

4. The capital of the Ottoman Empire has been moved a few hundred metres eastwards from its historical location, and is now on the Asian bank of the Bosporus. This was done for both play balance - to give Turkey a buffer between its capital and the Bulgarian army - and history. During the real-life 1st Balkan War Bulgaria annexed almost all of the territory represented in HoI2 by the Istanbul province, but not the actual city of Constantinople. For what it's worth, you should consider the name of this province in this scenario to be Adrianople instead.

5. The original plan was to include a series of events for the Treaty of London and the Second Balkan War, when Bulgaria turned on its former allies and was also attacked by Romania and a revitalised Turkey. Unfortunately, there were too many possible variations to make it practical to encode this. However, I've left the Romanian order of battle in the download in case anybody else wants to give it a try.

6. The southern Dobrudja is shown in the screenshots as belonging to Romania. In fact, it was part of Bulgaria at this time, and the download files show this correctly.

 

[Jayavarman]

5. The original plan was to include a series of events for the Treaty of London and the Second Balkan War, when Bulgaria turned on its former allies and was also attacked by Romania and a revitalised Turkey. Unfortunately, there were too many possible variations to make it practical to encode this. However, I've left the Romanian order of battle in the download in case anybody else wants to give it a try.

So I guess the new plan is to make another battle scenario: The Second Balkan War.

 

[jaycee_]

Hey this is really great.
Just playing it.

THX!!!

PS: I dont know if you know it but there is a special Tag in HOI2 for the Ottoman Empire (i think "OTT").

 

[Shadow Knight]

Stephen, I'll add a link to this in the 1914: Metathread for you. Looks good by the way.

 

[unmerged(33990)]

Oh man, sweet! The Balkans Wars are my favorite scenarios in TOAW! But where can I get this No Time Limit mod?

 

[unmerged(24388)]

you can gt it from 'stony rd' site here and there are other traeds that say where to get it on the hoi2 forum BIOSIS

 

[Lt Hilsdorf]

can anyone explain how to add Romania back into the scenario? Im not sure how I go about doing this.

 

[unmerged(5110)]

Hi guys! Looks like an excellent scenario you're making, stephenT!

I'm making a centralized research database for people that want all of the important research at their fingertsip -- i'm wondering, the research you did on the OOBs for your countries and all, do you mind posting it to

http://hoi2.nsen.ch/wiki/index.php/Knowledge_Base

(with reference to your sources, of course)

I would be much obliged. And keep up the good work! I like your battlescenario map!

 

[Lt Hilsdorf]

well if anyone wants to know I wrote up some Treaty of London events. I tested them and they worked fine so Im gonna start on making some events to begin the 2nd Balkan War. I've sent them to stephenT so maybe he'll put 'em in. If anyone wants to try them out for themself just email me or give me an IM and I'll send em with instructions on how to get 'em working.

 

[StephenT]

can anyone explain how to add Romania back into the scenario? Im not sure how I go about doing this.

Open the file balkanwars.eug and look for the following lines:

#Rumania
yes = 423
#yes = 424
#yes = 425
#yes = 431
#yes = 426
#yes = 432
#yes = 436
#yes = 433

and

#include = "scenarios/balkanwars/rom.inc"

Delete the # symbols from the "yes = " lines and the "include = " line.

However, Romania won't actually be at war with anyone...

 

[StephenT]

I'm making a centralized research database for people that want all of the important research at their fingertsip -- i'm wondering, the research you did on the OOBs for your countries and all, do you mind posting it to

http://hoi2.nsen.ch/wiki/index.php/Knowledge_Base

(with reference to your sources, of course)

I didn't use any on-line sources - the main one was an article by Richard Lechowich published in Strategy and Tactics issue 164, published in 1993. I also used Misha Glenny's history of the Balkans for general background. The leader file was copied from the one in the TGW mod, with a few alterations based on what I read in the sources.

 

[Lt Hilsdorf]

Open the file balkanwars.eug and look for the following lines:

#Rumania
yes = 423
#yes = 424
#yes = 425
#yes = 431
#yes = 426
#yes = 432
#yes = 436
#yes = 433

and

#include = "scenarios/balkanwars/rom.inc"

Delete the # symbols from the "yes = " lines and the "include = " line.

However, Romania won't actually be at war with anyone...

thanks I managed to figure it out a little bit after I posted that. anyway sent you an update of the events

 

[StephenT]

well if anyone wants to know I wrote up some Treaty of London events. I tested them and they worked fine so Im gonna start on making some events to begin the 2nd Balkan War. I've sent them to stephenT so maybe he'll put 'em in. If anyone wants to try them out for themself just email me or give me an IM and I'll send em with instructions on how to get 'em working.

While I liked your events, I'm not sure they really fit what I wanted to do with the scenario. They basically end the war at a certain time and give all the provinces in European Turkey to whoever got them historically. So even if Bulgaria was the one to capture Pristina and Skopje, those provinces would go to Serbia instead by these events. Which doesn't seem fair to the Bulgarian player.

To do it "my way", though, would need four events for each of the 14 provinces in European Turkey - one if province 409 is captured by Bulgaria, one if it's captured by Greece, etc etc. And writing 56 separate defeat events for the Ottomans is madness on a scale surpassing even that of a certain other mod I won't name here... If people are interested in a Second Balkan War game, I'd prefer to treat it as a separate scenario starting in June 1913. However, I think it would be a walkover for the non-Bulgarians



On the othre hand, if you want to post your events here so other people can copy them and try them out, by all means go ahead... I suggest you'd need a second one for Bulgaria, triggered once the peace has signed, which puts them at war with every other country in the scenario (except Albania).

Also, for reference, I would slightly amend the distribution of provinces you had in your Treaty of London event:

Serbia gets 452, 451, 415 and 413 - agreed.
Bulgaria gets 414, 416, 410, but also 409 (Adrianople). I'd also not give them 411 - they controlled part of the hinterland of that province, but the all-important city of Salonika was taken by Greece.
Greece gets 392, 412 and 405, but also 411. You repeated 392 in the event you sent me...
Albania would get 390 and 391, but would need an albania.inc revolter file definition written and included in the game.

 

[Allenby]

Stephen, would you like to me to supply the correct flags and leader photographs? I see no harm in having them included with the download up until 1914 is available, after which the matter will be academic because this battlescenario will be included in its first edition...whenever that will be.

 

[Lt Hilsdorf]

well im planning on writing some 2nd Balkan war events so everyone goes to war with Bulgaria. If I get them done tommorow I'll send them along with (another) updated Treaty of London event set

 

[StephenT]

To be honest, I didn't want to pack out the download with lots of graphics files... Also, I didn't think people would want to overwrite the Serbian 1941 flag with the pre-WW1 one just for a battle scenario: a full-conversion WW1 mod would be a different matter justifying a separate insallation of the game.

If people are keen to see authentic leader pictures and flags, then they'll look forward with eager anticipation to the release of 1914...

(or they can copy and paste the existing leader pictures from TGW and add the file names to the z-balkanwars.csv leader file )

 

[ptan54]

Not too difficult to triumph as Bulgaria either - Serbia and Montenegro are virtually impossible as Bulgaria always beats you to Macedonia/Kosovo first. Turkey is also virtually impossible.

 

[Serbon]

While I liked your events, I'm not sure they really fit what I wanted to do with the scenario. They basically end the war at a certain time and give all the provinces in European Turkey to whoever got them historically. So even if Bulgaria was the one to capture Pristina and Skopje, those provinces would go to Serbia instead by these events. Which doesn't seem fair to the Bulgarian player.

Serbia,Bulgaria,Greece and Montenegro agreed how to divide the Turkish lands before the start of the war,so I dont think it is unfair to how events to make this happen.The Second Balkan War started because the Bulgarians did not do their part of agrement and the others felt they dont deserve their full part.
I'm a Serb so I can help with Serbian if you want.