The Cruel Sea Version 2.0
A scenario for Civilisation II Fantastic Worlds
By Nick Dowling (‘Case’)
This scenario is
dedicated to my Grandfather and the thousands of other sailors who manned the
Allied Merchant Navy in The Second World War
Contents:
1.
Installation
and dealing with the two parts to this scenario
2.
Overview
3.
Hints
and Tips
4.
‘House
Rules’ and scoring system
5.
Historical
Notes
6.
Units
7.
Credits
8.
Sources
9.
Known
Bugs
10. Distribution & Contact
Information
What’s new in this version?
If you’ve played version 1 or 1.1 of this scenario, then you’ll notice quite a few changes. I’ve fixed most of the bugs which were brought to my attention and included lots of new features. The most prominent change is that the scenario is now divided into two parts and this allows for lots more events and units. As a result, I’ve replaced or modified most of the unit graphics, and added some new units. I’ve also included sounds in this version of the scenario. In addition, Various unit stats have been ‘tweaked’, and for those who have access to a copy of excel, there’s now an easy to use spreadsheet.
1.
Installation and dealing with
the two parts to this scenario
Installation: Simply unzip all the game files into a subdirectory of the scenarios directory, and place the sound files into a subdirectory of this named sound. (eg the same as in every other scenario). Once you’ve done this, run cruelsea.bat and select part one to set up the units, rules, and events files for the first part of the scenario.
Swapping
parts: In mid 1942 you will be prompted to change to part two. When this
occurs your must save the game as SEA.sav (saving as exactly this name is vital
for the new events to load properly), exit, run cruelsea.bat and select
part two.
After you finish a game of this scenario you need to run cruelsea.bat again and load the first part before starting your next game of the scenario.
Frequently
Asked Question:
Q:
When I try
to load the scenario, I get a message along the lines of ‘Failed to open. File
is of a more recent version’.
A: You don’t have the
Fantastic Worlds or Multi-player Gold edition of Civilisation 2, either
of which is needed to run this scenario. If you can’t find a copy of these programs
in your local second hand software shops, they are available for download from www.civfanatics.com (I’m not sure how
legal that is though)
2.
Overview
This scenario covers the ‘Battle of the Atlantic’ between late 1940 and 1944. The scenario is intended to be played as the Germans, though other civilisations may also prove entertaining (if a bit easy).
In this scenario you play the commander of one of the major navies. As a result, you only command naval, and some air forces, and must follow any orders given by your commander in chief, no matter how stupid they seem.
Scoring is achieved by comparing loss to kill ratios and entering them into one of the attached spreadsheets.
This scenario is designed to be hard. This is intended to simulate the fact that Germany never really had a chance of winning the Battle of the Atlantic (as Admiral Donitz conceded after the war).
3. Hints and Tips
*Make sure you send your U-boats and surface warships to the training centre in the northern Baltic before sending them into the Atlantic
*Hitler dreamed of attacking New York, and will reward you if a successful attack is carried out (note: all other cities contain invincible units)
*Use Condor aircraft for long ranged scouting, and try to keep them away from enemy fighters – escort them with JU-88’s whenever possible.
*Keep a careful lookout for mines. The easily visible mines are invincible, all the other types can be defeated by relatively powerful units. (not submarines)
*Conserve your heavy warships. Consider sacrificing less powerful units to soften up major enemy ships before you attack them with your heavy warships (especially if your ship is a long way from a port)
*’Wolf pack’ tactics work well
*While the point value gained from sinking escort vessels is low, the removal of a threat to your units is a considerable reward in itself
Common Shipping
Routes:
4.
‘House Rules’ and Scoring System
* Invincible mines are included in this game to prevent the AI making pointless attacks on coastal cities, and I consider it cheating to sit your units on your mines and take advantage of the invulnerability this gives. Anyway, it’s a lot more fun fighting it out in the Atlantic.
* At some stage in the Game the Germans will become unable to build heavy warships. If you’re playing as the Germans when this happens please cancel the construction of any heavy warships that are being built in your ports (you can use the shields to build other ships or submarines)
* Some of the more expensive units actually have a negative cost when you try to rush build them. As this is a weird bug in the game, buying ships for negative costs is considered cheating (if you wait a few turns the cost should return to more sensible positive values).
Scoring system:
Two spreadsheets come with this scenario. The MS Excel spreadsheet was created by David Wylie (‘Boco’), and is strongly recommended. If you don’t have Excel, I’ve also included a MS works spreadsheet with this scenario.
Note: This system is designed for the Germans only. If you play as any other Civilisation you are on your own.
To calculate your score, bring up the defence minister casualty report, and enter the number and types of ships that the Allies (Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States) and Germany lost into one of the spreadsheets. If the resulting score is positive then you are winning and if its negative then you are losing.
In the case of units which change between the scenarios two parts (eg the Nelson class and escort carrier units exchange between parts one and two), use the unit type available in part two to calculate your score
Please let me know if you have any problems with or suggestions for the scoring system.
In case you lack both MS Works and Excel, here are the point values for every ship:
Type of ship Value
German Kills:
Freighter: 15
Liberty Ship 20
Tanker 25
LST 15
Ocean Liner/ Troopship 35
Patrol Boat 2
RCN Corvette 5
Old Destroyer 5
Destroyer 10
Destroyer Escort 10
Fleet Destroyer 20
Light Cruiser 25
US Heavy Cruiser 35
Heavy Cruiser 35
AA Cruiser 35
Old Battleship 50
Battleship 100
US Battleship 125
King George V 125
Escort Carrier 50
Carrier 100
US Carrier 125
German Losses:
Type VII -30
Type IX -45
Uboat Flak -45
Elektro Boat -60
E Boat -15
Z Class Destroyer -35
Light Cruiser -60
Hipper Class -100
Pocket Battleship -125
Scharnhorst Class -150
Graf Zeppelin -175
Bismark Class -250
H Class -350
5.
Historical Notes
I have tried to make this scenario as historically accurate as possible, but due to the confines of the Civ 2 game engine I have had to make a few compromises. For example, Germany did not conquer and set up naval bases in Greece and the Balkans until early 1941. The Americans did not set up bases in Greenland, Iceland, Newfoundland and Northern Ireland until 1941, and the base in the Azores was established in 1943. Also, Jerusalem was ruled by Britain, but I’ve ‘donated’ it to the Americans to entice them into the Mediterranean If you believe that I have made any major mistakes that can be fixed within the confines of Civ 2, please contact me at the email address at the end of this document.
Also, the events in the scenario aim to recreate the war as it occurred. I am aware that by doing this I run the risk that the events won’t ‘match up’ with the progress of the simulated war. However, I have attempted to make the scenario difficult in order to prevent major discrepancies. Again, if there are major problems please let me know.
A note on the ‘Channel Dash’
A common criticism of this scenario is that as the English channel is blocked with invincible mines, the ‘channel dash’ mounted by the German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau with the improved Hipper class cruiser Prinz Eugen in early 1942 cannot be recreated. The reason I chose to block the Channel to the German Navy is because British minefields, and naval and air patrols did generally make it a death trap for German submarines and warships, resulting in the German Navy generally avoiding it (submarines travelled between France and Germany via the North Sea rather then the Channel). While this does mean that an important and dramatic incident in the battle of the Atlantic cannot be simulated, in my opinion blocking the Channel ensures against an even greater inaccuracy. Anyway, the Channel Dash was ordered by Hitler against the professional judgement of the German Naval command, and proved to be very costly for the Germans with the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau both being badly damaged by mines (the Gneisenau was never repaired).
6.
Units
Note: Some of the below units only appear in one
of the scenarios two parts.
German
Type II: A very small pre-war U-Boat. Though mainly used for training, many Type II’s carried out patrols in costal waters, and some were shipped to the Black Sea, and had the Germans reached the Caspian Sea some Type II’s were planned to operate there as well.
Type VII: Germany’s primary U-Boat. Though somewhat small and short ranged, over 700 of these subs entered service during WW2, making up the vast majority of the German submarine fleet.
Type IX: A large, long ranged sub. These subs were generally superior to the Type VII (especially in terms of range), but had a corresponding price tag. Over 300 of these subs were built and they saw service in all the worlds oceans, with some being temporarily based in the Dutch East Indies, where one Type IX was sent on a patrol that reached New Zealand!
U-boat Flak: Donitz’s answer to the threat of Allied aircraft attacking U-Boats crossing the Bay of Biscay was too fit several U-Boats with heavy anti-aircraft armament and use them to escort other U-Boats.
Elektro Boat: Germany’s last (and perhaps only) chance of winning the Battle of the Atlantic. These revolutionary U-Boats used a combination of efficient engines and a sleek hull to move swiftly underwater. These submarines were developed too late too play any major part in the war, but had they been developed earlier they may have been decisive. On the other hand, Clay Blair argues that the boats were poorly made and had they ever entered service in serious numbers, would never have achieved much. As only a few Elektro Boats entered service, we will never know how effective they may have been (though it is worth mentioning that the Allies quickly scrapped most of the completed Elektro Boats they captured at the end of the war).
Marconi Class: A number of Italian submarines served
alongside the Germans in the Atlantic. However, these subs were too large and
unmanoeuvrable to survive long in the face of alert Allied forces.
Japanese Submarine:
Japanese submarines operated in the
Indian ocean against Allied shipping, and made several cargo runs between Japan
and Germany.
Blockade Runner: A lightly armed merchant ship carrying war related materials (typically from Japan). Try to get these ships back to German ports and disband them for some bonus shields.
Auxiliary Cruiser: A long ranged merchant ship fitted out for raiding. Though weakly protected these ships could put a good fight, with the raider Kormeran sinking the Australian light cruiser Sydney in 1941.
E-Boat: A large, fast torpedo boat.
Z-Class: These heavy destroyers posed a significant
challenge to Allied shipping.
Light Cruiser:
German light cruisers were well armed but suffered from short range and a
somewhat unconventional design. Most of these ships were sunk in the Norway
campaign of 1940.
Hipper Class: Germany’s heavy cruiser class. The best known of this class was the Prinz Eugen which escorted the Bismarck, and was the only major German warship to survive the war. Though well armed, these ships were too short ranged to be effective raiders.
Old Battleship: These two ships were built in 1908 and were
obsolete by World War One. After the war, they were retained only because they
were the largest ships allowed to Germany under the Versailles treaty. During
World War Two they supported the invasions of Poland and Norway before being
retired from combat and used as training ships and floating anti-aircraft
batteries.
Pocket Battleship: Small battleships designed to raid British shipping. The best known of these ships was the Graf Spree.
Scharnhorst Class: These two fast battleships were very effective raiders, but were inferior in armour and armament to the Royal Navy’s larger battleships.
Bismarck Class: Whilst the Bismarck class was bigger and more heavily armed then any British battleships, their armour was inferior to the British ships, and the ships were impossible to steer if the rudders were jammed.
Note: Hitler values these ships highly and will lose
confidence in the Keigsmarine if any are destroyed.
H-Class: These huge battleships were the planned
successors to the Bismarck Class. They mounted a much heavier armament on a
correspondingly larger hull. While construction began on the first two ships of
this class in 1939, work was soon cancelled due to shortages in the necessary
materials. Development of the H-Class design continued nevertheless, and the
final version of the ship was planned to be larger then modern ‘Nimitz’ class
aircraft carriers!
Graf Zeppelin: The only aircraft carrier ever built by
Germany. Due to inter-service rivalry and a shortage of dockyard space, this
ship was never completed.
Note: Please only
operate fighters and Stukas off the Graf Zeppelin.
JU-87 Stuka: This famous dive bomber proved successful against ships, sinking a number in the Mediterranean. Had the Germans ever finished the carrier Graf Zeppelin Stukas would have operated off her.
FW-190: Long ranged versions of these single engined fighters were pressed into service in an attempt to counter the growing Allied air power over the Atlantic. However, due to the Luftwaffe’s heavy loses on the Eastern Front and over Germany to few of these aircraft were ever available to make a difference.
Me 110: A two engined ‘heavy’ fighter. These
aircraft proved unsuited for use against single engined fighters, but performed
well against less manoeuvrable aircraft such as bombers.
JU-88: A two engined medium bomber that was also modified to serve as a heavy fighter. These aircraft were very successful.
Do-217 (Fritz X): These aircraft were modified versions of the
Do-217 medium bomber designed to carry the Fritz X radio guided missile. They
were fairly successful, with a number of Allied warships being sunk or
severally damaged by these missiles.
FW200 Condor: A big four engined converted airliner used as a maritime patrol aircraft. These aircraft never reached their full potential as only a small number were in service at any time and their crews were poorly trained at over ocean navigation. Nevertheless, they were useful in finding targets for the U-boats, and attacking lightly protected freighters.
JU 290: This aircraft was built as a dedicated patrol aircraft and was intended to replace the Condor. The Ju-290 boasted excellent performance, but arrived too late in the war to make an impact. An upgraded version, the JU 390 was also produced, and a prototype of this aircraft flew to within 40 miles of New York City.
Fl 282 Kolibri: A small recon helicopter designed to be flown from U-Boats and surface ships. This was the only true helicopter to see service in WW2, but was completed too late in the war to be of any help to the Germans. In the scenario, this helicopter can be flown from submarines.
British
Corvette: A
slow, lightly armed but effective anti submarine ship. Hundreds of these ships
were operated by the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy.
Old Battleship: Britain entered the war with the majority of its Battleships having been built before 1930. As a result these ships gave mixed service, with some proving vulnerable to modern weapons and others performing well.
Nelson Class: These ungainly battleships were built in the
1920’s. Because of their unconventional design, these ships were failures.
Nevertheless, they played an important role during the war, and took part in
the hunt for the Bismarck and the Normandy landings.
King George V: Big, well armoured and armed battleships. The most famous of this class was the Prince of Wales which carried Churchill to his first meeting with Roosevelt off Newfoundland, and was later sunk by Japanese aircraft off Malaya in 1941.
Carrier: British armoured carriers were well protected against bombs and torpedos, but carried an air wing only half that of an American fleet carrier
Swordfish: A obsolete biplane operated by the Fleet Air Arm. Despite their obsolescence, these aircraft made a major contribution to the war effort and served until the end of the war.
Beaufighter: A twin engined heavy fighter and attack
aircraft.
Mosquito: A fast, two engined bomber. Hugely successful both as a bomber and a fighter.
Wellington: A big two engined bomber. Equipped with radar and a Leigh Light searchlight, these aircraft were very successful at hunting submarines by night.
Sunderland: A large flying boat. These aircraft were mainly used for scouting purposes, and only carried a small bombload. However, they boasted a formidable defensive armament, earning them the nickname ‘porcupines’ from the Germans
American
US Battleship: Faster and better armed then British battleships, they were not as well armoured as the King George V class.
US Heavy Cruiser: American heavy cruisers were generally larger and better armed and equipped then their British and Axis counterparts.
US Carrier: Very big, fast carriers. Mainly used in the Pacific.
P-38 Lighting: A long ranged, two engined fighter. One of these aircraft fired the USAAF’s first shots against Germany when it attacked a Condor near Iceland on the 10th of December 1941.
TBF Avenger: Flying from carriers and land bases, these
single engined torpedo bombers played a vital role both in the Atlantic and
Pacific theatres.
B-26 Marauder: A two engined tactical bomber. While not an anti submarine aircraft, trainee crews flew countless patrols in these aircraft (and other tactical bombers) out of bases on the American mainland.
Allied
Liberty Ship: A mass produced freighter. A very basic, but very successful freighter.
Destroyer Escort: Designated ‘frigates’ in British service,
these small destroyers were mass produced for use in escorting convoys. Over 500
DE’s and frigates were built during the course of the war.
Fleet Destroyer: Large heavy destroyers intended in escort valuable convoys and capital ships, these destroyers were a threat to even the biggest enemy capital ships, with fleet destroyers making numerous attacks on battleships throughout the war.
Light Cruiser: Allied Light Cruisers were fast, well armed
and long ranged.
AA Cruiser: A cruiser equipped with a large number of fast firing anti-aircraft guns and sophisticated fire control.
Escort Carrier: These ships were converted from large freighters and oil tankers. They carried 12 to 20 aircraft and were a major threat to submarines.
Hudson: This medium bomber was used by all the
Allied nations for maritime patrol. The US Navy called this aircraft the
Ventura.
PBY-Catalina: Called the Canso by the Canadians, this long ranged amphibious aircraft saw extensive service in the Atlantic and Pacific.
B-24 Liberator: A very long ranged (VLR) four engined bomber. These aircraft, especially when fitted with radar, were the most successful aircraft against U-Boats, sinking 74 subs.
Common Units
Freighter: Medium sized ships. These ships are the most common in the scenario.
Tanker: These large ships carried oil around the world. They should be regarded as important targets.
Old Destroyer: A WW1 era destroyer. These ships were pressed into service with the Allied navies to meet shortfalls in destroyer numbers.
Old Battleship: Many WW1 and 1920’s era battleships served in WW2. Despite their age and lack of protection, many of these ships made very valuable contributions to their nations war effort.
Destroyer: A medium sized, fast warship designed to escort convoys.
Heavy Cruiser: A long ranged, powerful cruiser. Strong on attack and defence.
Battleship: A large, well armed and armoured warship.
Fighter: A single engined, short ranged fighter.
7. Credits
Except where states otherwise, all unit, terrain type and city graphics used in this scenario were originally created by Captain Nemo, and are taken from his excellent scenarios ‘2194 Days of War’, ‘Red Front’ and ‘Second Front’. Many of the surface warships pictures were drawn by Captain Nemo for Darthveda’s upcoming scenario about Japan in WW2 and were taken from posts on the Apolyton Message boards by Darthveda and The ANZAC. Some of Captain Nemo’s ships have been modified by The ANZAC to correct various inaccuracies
I created the Condor by extensively modifying Nemo’s B-17 graphic. I also created the tanker unit by modifying Nemo’s Liberty Ship. The Destroyer Escort, Carrier, Graf Zeppelin class, Nelson Class, German Old Battleship, Axis Light Cruiser and US Heavy Cruiser graphics were all also created by extensively modifying units by Captain Nemo.
I created the Hudson graphic by modifying a unit created by Allard HS.
I created the Fl 282 Kolibri by modifying the helicopter used in Harlan Thompson’s scenario WW2: The European Theatre
Nemo’s B-24 Liberator was modified by Darthveda
The Sunderland and PBY-Catalina units were made by Tecumseh
The City Defences unit and Canadian shield were made by Hobbes.
The Swordfish was created by Paul Hanson
The Type II submarine was provided by John Petroski (who kindly sent me
his uncompleted scenario ‘Wulfpack’ for inspiration)
The Bismarck Class and H-Class units were created by Scott F
The Liner/Troop Ship, Carrier, Scharnhorst class, Pocket Battleship, Z Class, E-boat, British and common old Battleships, Old Destroyer, Allied Light Cruiser and Admiral Hipper units were created by The ANZAC. I also wish to thank The ANZAC for the many ideas he suggested to me.
As previously mentioned, the Excel scoresheet was created by David Wylie.
The title picture was provided by Jimmywax and is taken off the United States Navy’s web page (it actually depicts a destroyer during the Korean War)
I wish to thank everyone who tested this scenario for me. Their enthusiasm and feedback were extremely helpful in spotting mistakes and inspiring me to complete this scenario. Thanks guys!
In addition, I’d like to thank everyone who offered me advice and suggestions via email and on the Apolyton and Civ Fanatics message boards.
8. Sources
Websites:
There are many good websites covering the Battle of the Atlantic, but in my opinion www.uboat.net is by far the best. It contains an amazing amount of information about all aspects of the U-Boat campaign, including histories of every U-boat commissioned, biographies of every U-Boat skipper, technical details and descriptions of U-Boat operations.
Another very good site is www.german-navy.de/marine.htm This site has lots of detailed and interesting information about the German Surface fleet of WW2 (which uboat.net sadly lacks).
I also strongly recommend www.naval-history.net It has lots of very valuable timelines of the war at sea.
www.world-war.co.uk is a very nicely made site, and has a lot of information about cruisers in WW2. http://www.uboatarchive.net/ has a good collection of U-boat related pictures.
www.navsource.org/archieves/home.html boasts photos of every major US ship of the twentieth century (and before!) and has a good selection of links.
http://members.tripod.com/regiamarina/ is a good site on the Italian Navy in WW2
http://www.hazegray.org/ boasts lots of historical articles and a superb database of the current state of the worlds navies.
http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/ has histories of just about every ship the US Navy has ever operated
http://www.usmm.org/ is a very large site on the US Merchant Navy, and has an excellent links section.
If you’ve got technical questions I recommend the message boards at www.warships1.com (which also has an excellent historical reference section)
For further reading, I strongly recommend the Google search engine. (www.google.com) (which is very good at hunting down web pages on obscure topics [like say, German helicopters of World War Two and experimental Australian tanks of the 1940’s])
Books:
For every website on the Battle of the Atlantic, there are probably a thousand books on the subject. The best ones I’ve read are the two volumes of ‘Hitler's U-Boat War’ by Clay Blair. These books contain mind numbing amounts of information about the Battle of the Atlantic, and in them Blair proves that U-Boats never even came close too defeating Britain, with only 1% of the shipping crossing the Atlantic between 1939 and 1945 being sunk! (this figure is supported by the official British history of the Battle of the Atlantic, ‘Defeat of the Enemy Attack on Shipping’)
If you’re interested in WW 2 submarines I also strongly recommend ‘Silent Victory’, Clay Blair’s equally good book on the United States successful submarine campaign in the Pacific (where in contrast to the Germans, American submarines sank over 50% of the entire Japanese merchant marine!).
Other books that were very useful were: ‘Defeat of the Enemy Attack on Shipping’, ‘The Chronicle of the Second World War’, ‘The Two Ocean War’ by Samuel E. Morrison ‘One Day in a Very Long War’ by John Ellis and ‘Engage the Enemy More Closely’ by Correlli Barnett, the latter being a very accurate and readable history of the Royal Navy in WW2.
Other Stuff:
Lots of maritime museums have old submarines to inspect. If you’re ever near one of these museums, I strongly recommend that you have a look. The best maritime museum I’ve ever been to is Patriot’s Point at Charleston in the United States (which by itself is worth the trip to Charleston)
I understand that captured U-Boats are available for inspection at museums in Chicago and London, and there’s a model U-boat at Hamburg and/or Kiel.
Last,
but definitely not least, the movie ‘Das Boot’ (The Boat) is fantastic, and the
more recent American movie ‘U-571’(?) is much better then I expected it to be
(though it was the British who captured the first four rotored Enigma machine
from a sinking German submarine)
I
haven’t seen the movie ‘The Cruel Sea’, but it’s also meant to be good.
9.
Known Bugs
Minor:
*City defence units are actually the last unit to defend against attacks on a city, so don’t feel that your ships are save sheltering in harbour! (research conducted by Ravagon has proved that this is because the city defence unit occupies the unit ‘slot’ reserved for chariots in the original game of Civ 2)
*Occasionally a message will appear stating that the war between X & Y has ended, but fighting continues
*The AI occasionally moves some of your units for no good reason.
Major:
*I’ve never seen this, but playtesters have reported that the English and Americans occasionally go to war. If this happens I strongly recommend that you either load a game saved before this war broke out, or go into cheat mode and edit the English and American kings so that these two nations are at peace and are friendly towards one another (if it’s after December 1941 you can also set Britain and America as allies)
If you see any other bugs, please contact me.
10. Distribution and Contact Details
Please feel free to distribute and modify this scenario in any way you want, as long as you give me credit for my work, and the various artists credit for their graphics.
If you have any comments or questions about this scenario please leave a message for me on the Apolyton Scenario League Board, the Civ Fanatics Scenario Creation board or e-mail me at: nick_dowling@hotmail.com
Version History
1.0 Sent out July 2001
1.1 Fixed problems with events sending the Germans bankrupt
2.0 Major upgrade: Scenario expanded to two parts, sounds, new technologies, units and events added. Various problems in the game fixed and a new title picture added. Included Boco’s Excel spreadsheet. Updated the readme, including the links section.
There’s also an improved version of The Cruel Sea version 1.1 made by Kobayashi available for download from the Civ Fanatics Scenario creation message board. A French version of the original rules and events can also be downloaded from the same board.
Other
Scenarios by me
· Raging Dragon – covers a modern war between China and Russia
· The Battle of Australia – covers a hypothetical Japanese invasion of Australia in 1942
Both these scenarios are available from Apolyton.net and Civfanatics.com
