Axis and Allies
Story Description: Travel back in time to take over the 5th Column, and lead the Axis powers to win WW2 and conquer the World!
Story Arc ID: 1379
Author’s Global Chat Handle: @PW
Length: Long (4 missions)
Alignment: Villainous
Designer Notes: The premise of this arc is that the player goes back in time to change history, by assassinating the historical leader of WW2 Germany, then taking his place as leader of the Axis Powers. The player then has the opportunity to reverse a couple of decisive events during WW2, ultimately culminating in an “Invasion America” scenario where you crush democracy and conquer the world. (This is, of course, an utterly villainous arc.)
This arc does use several outdoor maps in an effort to replicate battlefields of WW2, but there are defined goals and no Defeat All missions. There is one relatively low powered hero (Maiden Justice, the WW2 era Ms Liberty) in the final mission, but several allies are provided and she should be relatively doable even for a soloer. I’ve tried to balance this arc so it is as soloable as possible; originally had Statesman defending America as well, but had to drop him as he was unreasonably difficult for a soloer even with allies. Larger teams are fun on these maps too (though the hero will be a little easy for them).
Recommended level range is around 25-50.
CoH Forums Link: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=13221467&page=0&fpart=all&vc=1
Similar Missions:
- The Do-It-Yourself Laser Moonbase Project
- Timeshift Vietnam 1968
- Glory Days
- A Surprise Fit for a Baron
- Hammer and Sickle of Paragon City
Glazius
Says:
@GlaziusF
Playing on a level 39 ice/axe tanker, diff 2 so boss fights are bossily fighting.
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You know, apropos of nothing, it would be hilarious if you succeeded in every mission but didn’t change history one bit. Just to schadenfreude Schadenfreude.
So technically, the “5th Column” is supposed to be some kind of infiltration wing. Like there are four columns of troops outside the city and the fifth column will arise from within the city itself.
Having Supreme Leader there be a member is like making FDR a CIA operative or something. I wonder if you can call him like a “national socialist” or something.
Though actually he was more of a “flopping ragdoll”. Go go axe knockdown.
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I dunno, wouldn’t like morale suffer or something if the new Supreme Leader only popped back to take charge of things every couple of years or so?
Well, best not to think about time travel too much.
Map’s still decent, the rebalance to actually put lieutenants in is definitely worthwhile, and the little spice of munitions dumps to blow up and send soldiers flying is at least a little fun diversion.
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Troop transports!
…are those anything like mole machines? They better not be anything like mole machines.
You know what would be hilarious? If General Winter and General Mud were actual super-powered dudes and everyone just thought that they were being hammered by Mother Nature this whole time.
Fortunately, troop transports are trucks.
Unfortunately there are a crapton of wrecked trucks on this map, leading to a lot of false positives. When the recticle doesn’t pick up on them it’s a pretty nice clue though.
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The president is defended by bad dudes. Am I a ninja enough dude to kidnap the president?
Still don’t like Red Atlas. No minimap and terrible terrain.
Ouch. No “you lost me” text? I don’t fancy taking on a hero without backup here.
I think I backtrack about four/five times just trying to figure out where I parked my allies and how to get them to keep up with me.
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Storyline - ***. Germany stomps on people despite having its leader absent most of the time? I wonder if it might work better the other way ’round - showing up at key battles to swing them for the Germans, then when Herr Painter is at the victory celebration, clout him in the back of the head and lead the resulting amalgamation as the legendary heroes of the war.
Design - ****. The russian soldiers need something obvious to distinguish them from the commissars. They all looked like a bunch of dudes in shoulderpads. Similarly the Frenchies looked like a bunch of dudes in blue coveralls. And… Red Atlas. I do hate Red Atlas so very much.
Gameplay - ***. So ally-losing blindly-wandering frantic-tabbing objective-hunt-and-pecking much. It’s a huge buzzkill trying to find the, what, four things on that map I have to do and leading allies around to fight the same dudes over and over again.
Detail - ****. It’s good, but sparse. Probably because of text limitations, but sparse is sparse.
Overall - ***. It’s what every villain wants to do, but the plot is a little weird even for time travel, and RED ATLAS RED ATLAS RED ATLAS RAAAAAAAAAGH.
Posted on June 18th, 2009 at 10:06 pm