Advanced European Theater of Operations - AETO Game Concept and Evolution

AETO Game Concept and Evolution

Advanced ETO’s design philosophy maintains a strict adherence to historical fact, with very little deviation allowed beyond what was reasonably possible during World War 2. Players are given the opportunity to deviate from historical campaign strategies, but geo-political historical deviations are extremely limited (for example, Italy may invade Greece, as occurred, but Italy may not join the Allies against Germany.) Furthermore, the AETO rules restrict players to historically fielded units and combatants (as an example, the Soviet Union cannot launch any aircraft carriers, although Germany may launch one "historic" aircraft carrier...the Graf Zeppelin.) Some historically possible, or at least plausible, allowances, however, are permitted (for example, the United Kingdom may invade a neutral Norway, but France cannot invade Switzerland). Hence, most AETO campaigns tend to follow an overall historic course, except when altered by actual player strategies. Germany, for example, is not required to establish the Vichy regime, but to not do so would invite strong disadvantages for the German player (such that most German players will always opt to establish the Vichy State.)

Generally, historic strategies and decisions will generate historic results, and vice versa. For instance, if the German player prosecutes the “Battle of the Atlantic” in the same manner as history records, he will likely replicate the results (unless the Allied player’s strategy is markedly different than the historic Allied strategy.) Under the rules, any variation from the historic German strategy for control of the Atlantic will result in what would be reasonably true to what would have happened during the actual war (if the same variation had occurred) to the extent that such can be known or hypothesized. In any case, the AETO rules make no allowances for "what if" variations Mr. Harvey considers implausible, such as Germany foregoing the construction of its surface navy so as to increase the number of U-boats.