Often people ask me what a round represents in time. To keep it simple, I respond that a round is roughly 3 or 4 months. A lot of times the game seems to follow that time logic. If a round really was 3 or 4 months it would take around (6.3 call it) 7 rounds to go from June 1940 to December 1941. Two very distinct dates in this game. I immediately concluded that from an “enjoyment” point of view, 6 or 7 rounds was too many rounds to go through before getting all the powers in the fight. As it is now, the last possible holdout, Russia, can go to war on turn 4 should the Germans not attack them before then. There’s one good example of game-play trumping history/time.
The problem with Larry’s own account of time is that its entirely inconsistent.
IN 1940 Germany is at war with Russia on turn X and with USA on turn Y. If you just plug in the turns into a time frame you get 6 MONTH TURNS.
6/1940-11/1940 Germany at war with France
12/1940-5/1941 Germany takes Yugoslavia and prepares for Barbarossa.
6/1941-11/1941 Germany attacks Russia in the game and in history
12/1941-5/1942 Japan attacks USA in the game and in History
He concluded that 6-7 rounds is too much, which would have meant 3-4 month turns, therefore revising the time when Germany takes on Russia ans when Japan takes on USA ALSO changes the time of which a turn is measured. Russia attacking Germany on turn 4 is also historical. Stalin was planing to do it for late 1941 which would be turn 4.
His statement:
There’s one good example of game-play trumping history/time.
Is actually the opposite. Its historical entirely and is totally consistent with “time”.
http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v19/v19n6p40_Michaels.html
This most recent compendium of Russian revisionist writings deepens our understanding of Stalin’s preparations for a military first-strike against Germany in the summer of 1941. The strategic deployment plan, approved by Stalin at a conference on May 15, 1941, with General Staff chief Georgi Zhukov and Defense Commissar Semen Timoshenko, called for a Blitzkrieg:
Tank divisions and mechanized corps were to launch their attack from the Brest and Lviv [Lemberg] tier accompanied by destructive air strikes. The objective was to conquer East Prussia, Poland, Silesia and the [Czech] Protectorate, and thereby cut Germany off from the Balkans and the Romanian oil fields. Lublin, Warsaw, Kattowice, Cracow, Breslau [Wroclaw] and Prague were targets to be attacked.
A second attack thrust was to be directed at Romania, with the capture of Bucharest. The successful accomplishment of the immediate aims, namely, to destroy the mass of the German Army east of the Vistula, Narev and Oder rivers, was the necessary prerequisite for the fulfillment of the main objective, which was to defeat Germany in a quick campaign. The main contingents of the German armed forces were to be encircled and destroyed by tank armies in bold rapid advances.
Three recurrent terms in the mobilization plan of May 15 confirm the aggressive character of Stalin’s plan. “A sudden strike” (vnyyzapni udar), “forward deployment” (razvertyvaniye), and “offensive war” (nastupatel’naya voyna). Of the 303 [Soviet] divisions assembled on the western front, 172 were assigned to the first wave of attack. One month was allotted for the total deployment – the period from June 15 to July 15. Mikhail Melitiukhov: “On this basis it appears that the war against Germany would have to have begun in July.”
