Something I don't understand about Relic - German campaign

Many people (including me) did not finish the Soviet campaign.
I just think it's not pleasing, it's a bit dumb because you simply throw a horde of troops in German MG42s until you win. Yes I've seen the Russian CoH2 hate video and I think it's dumb as hell.
But somehow the campaign simply wasn't entertaining for me because I have played this whole "stomp the German" stuff in countless games before.

But what would be a real pleasure for me (and I guess for most of the other players interested in) is a German campaign.
I simply don't understand why Relic has never made a German campaign beneath the one for the PE which indeed was my favourite one in vCoH.

Are they afraid of legal consequences?
Why should they be? You don't have to put the swastikas everywhere or something like that.
They in fact could teach the players something about the history of Germany inside the Wehrmacht.

I imagine to follow a German Officer (or something similar) through the history of the war.
At first in '39/'40 they are all excited as they really were during that time when France was defeated within weeks and Germany freed itself from the shame of WW1 (This is just a prologue that can't be played hence the lack of a French army in the game).

Then the real campaign starts with Barbarossa. They could show the view of the soldiers that are really into fighting the Russians because of being blinded by German propaganda. But the first enthuisiasm slowly fades and first doubts come up. The officer sees executions of Soviet soldiers because of the Commissar Order and in fact has to shoot one on his own (Generation War anybody?).

Stalingrad would be the middle of the German campaign. There is ABSOLUTELY no better use for cold tech than to show the struggle of the German army in this time of the war.

Then the time of retreat has come. You can play the tank battle of Kursk and maybe some other last offensive actions of the German army.

The last part of the campaign could be the battle of the bulges in which the officer gets captured in the end and reflects everything he did in this cruel war.

Honestly, I'd buy that one even if it hadn't anything for multiplayer.
In addition it would be one of the first BIG games that dared to show the war from a German perspective.
This would extremely boost the player base.


What do you guys think?

Battle of Kursk

If they can hold the same standard as AA campaign, I will gladly buy it.

I was a bit disappointed by AA campaign. It could be something like The Dark Crusade and I would pay 50-60 bucks for that. I mean why not?

I would love to play a German campaign. Market Garden from vCoh was fantastic, and all the plot connections (Shultz, Hauptman-later Majorgeneral Voss, Arno... everyone) were fantastic. The missions were also well designed and believe it or not, I still play vCoh campaigns.

But from a designer perspective, creating a late war German campaign might be a bit hard because they were mostly on full retreat and leaves you only with Market Garden. But again, even a campaign full of tactical retreats and scorched earths might be awesome. Although my WWII knowledge is limited and you guys might come up with a lot of great ideas which are historically accurate.

PS: Any news from Relic's Big Announcement? Might it be a German Campaign? As I said I think AA has a lot of wasted potential. If they ever upgrade AA, I would pay for it. RELIK YOU GAVE US DARK CRUSADE AS A STANDALONE DLC WHY CAN'T YOU DO THE SAME WITH COH2.

PS: Any news from Relic's Big Announcement?

I read from more than just one user that the "big" announcement was/is a free to play weekend.
Don't know if this is true though.

Does anyone remember the game Codename: Panzers? great game and to some extent precessor of coh. it a german campaign similar to what op describes which was utterly stunning and thrilling. its usually better not make the campaign about the war itself (which could be offensive to some) but a neutral, personal story, which is about people and not nations or something like that

I read from more than just one user that the "big" announcement was/is a free to play weekend.
Don't know if this is true though.

Whaaaa...?

I read from more than just one user that the "big" announcement was/is a free to play weekend.
Don't know if this is true though.

It is true, you can rewatch their Twitch Stream in which Kyle says that.

Regarding a german campaign:

I bet that this has been discussed at Relic and if there was going to be another singleplayer DLC a german campaign wouldnt be unlikely.
However, a german campaign is always tricky to pull off as it is a tightrope walk. Even if you stay as neutral as posibble in your portrayal of the german army lots of people will be criticizing you.
I wouldnt be surprised if that was (at some point) a too delicate subject to touch for Relic, especially after the mostly unjustified outcry after that Russian-Campaign youtube video.

Mind you, im not saying that Relic is "afraid" of doing a german campaign, but why wouldnt one go with a safer route if it is just as interesting (Ardennes Assault for example).

However, a german campaign is always tricky to pull off as it is a tightrope walk. Even if you stay as neutral as posibble in your portrayal of the german army lots of people will be criticizing you.
I wouldnt be surprised if that was (at some point) a too delicate subject to touch for Relic, especially after the mostly unjustified outcry after that Russian-Campaign youtube video.

Mind you, im not saying that Relic is "afraid" of doing a german campaign, but why wouldnt one go with a safer route if it is just as interesting (Ardennes Assault for example).

In my opinion Relic has to take a risk in marketing. They are always like 'oooooh... well... we just do something but don't tell everyone (NDA)... we are afraid of mistakes so... yeah...'

That's the wrong way. Even if they are getting critizized, it's better than just boring out of the market at all. Take a look at Call of Duty, everyone is critizizing the game all the time and though it is one of the best selling game franchises of all time.
You know what Activision did? They made a mission where you can kill hundreds of civilians at an airport (MW2) and where a child gets killed by a terrorist attack (MW3). This is risky and I'm also not a fan of this kind of shocking marketing. But you cannot deny that it works.
A 'simple' WW2 game from a German perspective isn't that risky. Everyone has somehow seen the holocaust and everyone more or less knows what we (the Germans) did in this war.

Look at Youtube. CoD videos sometimes have > 10 million (!) views.
While CoH videos (even the ones from Relic itself) rarely get more than 10.000.
This is simply a marketing issue.

yes an axis campaign for single player whould be awsome

I am still waiting for an oldschool WW2 Call of Duty 1 like singleplayer campaign which shows the German perspective of the Barbarossa campaign in 1941.

DEUTSCHLAND! DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER ALLES I SAY!

yay for deutschland campaign

It would be difficult to make a campaign for the Germans because of the horrible things the Nazis did, but I think Relic should take a risk. They could depict a German officer's life through the WW2, and it would be very exciting. Like the TV-series Unsere Mütter, unsere Vätern (Generation War).

I think maybe the culmination of battle for Moscow could work -

I could be presented as the 'nearly' moment of German victory (yes I know we could debate this but games can afford to be a bit simpler withe the truth).

Successfully encircling Tula - Missions pushing armour North of the city, break through prepared defences in front of the city, fight in the suburbs and beat off Siberian divisions and the culmination - can you / cant't you park a Panzer in front of the winter palace.

I think the perception of this battle is that lacks some of the more horrific elements relating to civilians - It's perceived as more truly front line (though this may be incorrect).

Look at Youtube. CoD videos sometimes have > 10 million (!) views.
While CoH videos (even the ones from Relic itself) rarely get more than 10.000.
This is simply a marketing issue.

This is more of a genre-issue. CoH is a niche-game, a popular one.

The Call of Duty franchise can take major risks, because even if they dont work out in the end the brand wont be in danger. I dont think that is the case for a game like CoH2 were budget seems to be very limited.

It is possible to depict the career of a German officer, who belongs to the "old-school": A Prussian aristocrat from a prominent upper class family, who lives in a mansion somewhere near Köningsberg before the war, and who succeeds in every battle, but loses almost everything during the war and then in the end becames a prisoner of war. That would not be so big risk, because they who belong to this old-school category didn't like Hitler, and Hitler didn't like them, and they usually had high moral standards, and because of it came in conflict with the Nazis.

It is possible to depict the career of a German officer, who belongs to the "old-school": A Prussian aristocrat from a prominent upper class family, who lives in a mansion somewhere near Köningsberg before the war, and who succeeds in every battle, but loses almost everything during the war and then in the end becames a prisoner of war. That would not be so big risk, because they who belong to this old-school category didn't like Hitler, and Hitler didn't like them, and they usually had high moral standards, and because of it came in conflict with the Nazis.

+1

It is possible to depict the career of a German officer, who belongs to the "old-school": A Prussian aristocrat from a prominent upper class family, who lives in a mansion somewhere near Köningsberg before the war, and who succeeds in every battle, but loses almost everything during the war and then in the end becames a prisoner of war. That would not be so big risk, because they who belong to this old-school category didn't like Hitler, and Hitler didn't like them, and they usually had high moral standards, and because of it came in conflict with the Nazis.

they kind of had that in the market garden campaign. You controlled two brothers and they discussed how their mums letters said the farmhouse hadn't a roof anymore and mused about the war being lost and why it was still being fought.

SPOILER: I cant quite recall but I think one of the brothers dies

Having a german campaign would be pretty controversial and hard to advertise. I don't see them doing it unless they pair it up with an allied campaign.

They already done a german campaign in VCOH, they could another one but i feel like it's gonna be boring if they do so, AA was so boring to play with units that you already palyed with in the Multi