Potzblitz V26.01 OCT 26th 2025

[Robotron]

I just responded to the "open to suggestions" comment for Italy.

No problem. In the new V26 PDF manual on page 16 there are new rules for getting Italy to stay with the Triple Alliance, which means staying quite pro-CP at the start of the game and defuse the dreaded "Italy proclaims Neutrality" Entente event.

[imp44791]

Interesting. I will try this route to see what happens. Thanks for considering it.

I will now patiently wait for the update to drop.

[Munt]

Oops, I hope the "laundry list" comment did not allude to my feedback. It was not meant to be criticism- this is, as I have said, a fantastic mod. I just responded to the "open to suggestions" comment for Italy.

EDIT: Sadly, there are not ANY superior WW1 strategy games. WW1 Gold is based on a very interesting (but fussy, leading to endless bookkeeping) tabletop system, but the computer port is a buggy nightmare - and the amateur enthusiast who was behind it lost the rights to AGEOD's awful "To End All Wars" (I can't stand AGEOD's engine - just my taste, but I hate it). The very old "Guns of August" is a a very cool abstraction with the amassing of activation points, but is limited otherwise, especially in the naval game. I could never get into either the Supreme Ruler, or the Making History systems, though I own both games

CTGW is a very limited engine, but your events have given it a richness that makes it the best of these very meagre options. Sadly, despite being by far the most significant historical event of modern history, WW1 gets no interest whatsoever, whereas you can't move for WW2 games.

I have one more ww1 game but only the western front playable.

The name of the game in steam: The Great War: western front.

[Robotron]

Meanwhile I've playtested the "Italy goes CP" option to iron out any irregularities that might arise from not having Turkey and the Balkans in play.

As expected the game was a bit uneventful with all those parts of the map inactive and a lot of events missing.

Played "Diplomatic Poker" followed by "Ultimatum to Serbia" to disable "Italy proclaims Neutrality" event.
Serbia surrendered and Russia attacked Austria.
Austria then sacrificed some units to trigger the "Battle of Komarov" and "Battle of Krasnik" events to get Italy into play.

Russia put up a good fight despite Germany managing to temporarily occupy Warsaw and Osoviece due to all Russian units duking it out in Galicia. Will have to add a "don't move until Germany declares war" script to prevent this from happening. I got lucky with the Romanian king staying loyal via "Diplomatic Poker" event and INFLUENCED Romania to join CP in 1916.
After a very late Russian Supply Crisis and a somewhat weak Brussilov-Offensive, the February Revolution happened precisely on time in 1917 and then surrender by playing the Brest-Litovsk Treaty event in summer 1917.

In the west Paris fell in 1914 but the Italians only managed to capture Nice and then ground to a halt. Nothing much happened in 1915 but in 1916 a deluge of British units appeared in France which the Germans were able to resist but the Italians got pushed back until helped by German tanks.

At the end of the game both Austria and Italy were running out of men and suffered from bad morale but Germany was doing okay. The game was of course quite a bit easier than usual due to Italy being much more powerful as an ally for CP than the Ottomans.

I'll upload the V25.1 update in a few days.

[Robotron]

Sorry for the delay, turns out the new update has escalated to a major rework of big chunks of the script as I keep finding stuff that's not working as intended.

[Robotron]

Recovering from a hard disk failure but back on track, only minor losses.

Some of the changes in V26:

- introduced methods for CP to keep Italy in the Triple Alliance
- reduced unit strength for Goeben BC unit
- reduced efficiency regain for troops on enemy territory
- rewrote muddy weather script which was indeed faulty after all
- removed misleading tooltips
- ammo factory max cost is fixed at 15
- reduced chance for ammo factory explosions
- reduced Bomber unit ammo cost to 2
- fixed some Zeppelin-related events that never worked right
- increased German ability to push Russians out of East Prussia by 1915 via "Max Hoffmann" and "Russian Wireless intercepted" events
- German Crown Prince generates bonus diplomatic points for each successful attack by his army corps
- increased "German Battlecruiser Raid on British coast" event success chance
- fixed German naval units in ports leading to mutiny events too early
- rewrote Entente reinforcements in Macedonia being dependent on actual naval superiority in the Eastern Med
- made Romanian King less susceptible to early death and increased chance for Romania to stay with CP...if Austria is willing to cede Transylvania.
- raised chance of Austrian Emperor Franz Josef dying after ceding Trento and/or Transylvania.
- made Serbian army less susceptible to the "Typhoid Epedemic" event
- made Bulgaria less probable to join CP without Austrian successes against Serbia
- in singleplayer mode made British quite a bit more powerful in Egypt and Mesopotamia
- increased Ottoman starting manpower
- increased Ottoman ammo limit
- reduced Ottoman susceptibility to "Mass Desertions"
- increased Dutch hostile reaction for having to compensate for German "Agricultural Shortage" events
- made Sweden more/less likely to join CP depending on Swedish starting alignment
- reduced vulnerability of air aces quite a bit
- rewrote scripts for spawning of CP submarines when playing "Merchant Submarine" or "Adriatic Submarines" events
- rewrote the whole "Italy demands Trento" routine as well as the ensuing "Tunisia/Trieste ceded" events
- rewrote chances for Russian "Kornilov-Coup" to succeed and Lenin to get shot upon arrival
- fixed the inability of Entente AI to rebuild the Russian army after the "Russian Supply Crisis" event
- fixed "Lativian Riflemen" event for singleplayer
- fixed "Wilhelm Wasmuss" event
- fixed bug for naval unit retreating from combat into enemy port...oh dear!
- made US start a bit less hostile to CP
- fixed missing FX for events
- updated PDF manual

and many, many, many more changes I can't recall right now. Rest assured V26 will be worth the waiting time. ^^

[imp44791]

Thanks, this looks tremendous. I will take it for a spin when it's out.

I assume that it's the "many, many more changes", but you had also mentioned neutral Britain getting super unhappy per each German capital ship in the building queue. But even if you never got the chance to do it, I'll simply roleplay it when I play the CP (by not building more ships while Britain is neutral).

[Robotron]

I assume that it's the "many, many more changes", but you had also mentioned neutral Britain getting super unhappy per each German capital ship in the building queue.

Yup, that's also included.

[LepetitKipetchi]

Hello Robotron,
Can't wait to discover these new evolutions : thanks for your work after all these years, that's still an immense pleasure to play it again with few changes every time !
I have watched several documentaries about the war (which make me appreciate how this game is realist with history !) and discovered the story of the French general De Castelnau (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No%C3%ABl ... _Castelnau), which was one of the "most human" French generals (and also one of the best). I don't think he is inside your mod so do you think it could be possible to add him please ? He could start in an army located at the east of the France in the beginning ? It would be a nice hommage for this great man !

Also, in several games playing with the Entente, I was surprised by a sudenly loss of morale of Serbia at the end of the war, even if Austria proposed their redition before which is not so logical. They finished to surrender without a valuablereason : am I the only one / do you have an idea about the origin ? At every time, it was hard for them but their units were not fighting so much against Bulgaria and no impact on their cities. Don't have a sauvegard to send you actualy but will send it to you when I have time to play again.
Another surprise I foudn in few games : with the event "Gallieni to defend Paris", the army corps did not spaws every time. Will try to send it to you with a sauvegard also.
I have no more ideas actually about good evolution for the future update adding yours.
Cheers,

[Robotron]

@LelpetitKipetchi: I've looked at the issue with Gallieni and fixed it but I'm not quite sure why Serbia surrendered too soon in your game, so I gave them a bit of a morale boost for good measure.
About general De Castelnau: the early game in the west is a very delicate issue and simply adding another French general from the beginning which is also "one of the best" is just too much to ask even if he was a very important figure but truth be told this is the first time I've ever heard about him. I'll add him when the Race to the Sea starts.

Potzblitz V26.0 is pretty much finished, I plan to release it the coming weekend.

[LepetitKipetchi]

Hello Robotron,
Thanks a lot for your reply and for these modification : I should have time this weekend so I would be able to try it

As a French who love history, I was also very surprised to discover him so late considering his impact on this war !
That shows there is always something new to discover haha

[Robotron]

And thus without further ado: Potzblitz mod V26.0

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11OIDhZ ... xBuxF/view

General changes
- reduced PP cost for Zeppelins and Bombers
- reduced Bomber unit ammo cost to 3
- reduced vulnerability of air aces a bit
- reduced efficiency regain for troops on enemy territory
- reduced chance for ammo factory explosions
- rewrote muddy weather script which was indeed faulty after all
- fixed bug for naval units retreating from combat into enemy port
- fixed bug that lead to "normal" game difficulty actually resulting in "easy" difficulty outcomes...*facepalm*!
- removed misleading tooltips
- fixed missing FX for events
- updated PDF manual


Central Powers
- made Bulgaria less probable to join CP without Austrian successes against Serbia
- made Romanian King less susceptible to early death and increased chance for Romania to stay with CP via outcomes of "Diplomatic Poker" and if Austria is willing to "Cede Transylvania".
- rewrote scripts for spawning of CP submarines when playing "Merchant Submarine" or "Adriatic Submarines" events
- increased manpower loss from "Hunger Crisis" events
- fixed "Pig Murder" and "Emergency Plans" events to end food shortages getting discarded too soon
- increased Dutch hostile reaction for having to compensate for German "Agricultural Shortage" events
- made Sweden more/less likely to join CP depending on Swedish starting alignment
- fixed "Wilhelm Wasmuss" event
- increased chance for animosities between German and Austrian generals


Triple Entente
- made Serbian army less susceptible to the "Typhoid Epedemic" event
- rewrote Entente reinforcements in Macedonia being dependent on actual naval superiority in the Eastern Med
- made US start a bit less hostile to CP


France
- Added French general Castelnau
- fixed issue with Gallieni's troops not spawning


Britain
- Britain moves closer to joining Entente when Germany builds new BBs or BCs after playing "Tirpitz Plan"
- in singleplayer mode made British quite a bit more powerful in Egypt and Mesopotamia


Russia
- fixed the inability of Entente AI to rebuild the Russian army after the "Russian Supply Crisis" event
- rewrote chances for Russian "Kornilov-Coup" to succeed and Lenin to get shot upon arrival
- fixed "Lativian Riflemen" event for singleplayer mode
- increased chances for "Lake Naroch", "Brussilov" and "Kerenski" -offensives to trigger in singleplayer mode vs Entente AI


Italy
- introduced methods for CP to keep Italy in the Triple Alliance (see manual page 16)
- rewrote the whole "Italy demands Trento" routine as well as the ensuing "Tunisia/Trieste ceded" events


Germany
- increased German ability to push Russians out of East Prussia by 1915 via "Max Hoffmann" and "Russian Wireless intercepted" events
- Germany can gain a substantial amount of ammo by speedily capturing Antwerp's Chilean Nitrate depots
- German Crown Prince generates bonus diplomatic points for each successful (= damaging) attack by his army corps
- increased "German Battlecruiser Raid on British coast" event success chance
- fixed an issue with "Chaos at OHL" event which was wrongly triggered when the German army corps originally stationed in East Prussia was moved.
- fixed German naval units in ports leading to mutiny events too early
- fixed some Zeppelin-related events that never worked right


Austria-Hungary
- raised chance of Austrian Emperor Franz Josef dying after ceding Trento and/or Transylvania.


Turkey
- reduced unit strength for Goeben BC unit once under Ottoman command (while Goeben escapes to the Dardanelles she's still at full hp)
- increased Ottoman starting manpower
- increased Ottoman ammo limit
- reduced Ottoman susceptibility to "Mass Desertions"
- "Holy War" and "Enver Pasha" events stay a bit longer in the CP event pool


Enjoy...or else!

[imp44791]

Thanks!

I installed and started the Moltke-Schlieffen scenario to test the new events.

I was ridiculously lucky with Italy already at 98. I played and failed the ultimatum to Serbia, then Britain delivered the Turkish ships and that was that! Italy as a CP in 1914! This will make for a very interesting alternative, very 19th Century European scrap rather than the World War we know. I wonder how the French AI will cope with the extra front. Let's see.

I will still roleplay it and avoid going through Belgium to get those extra 10 turns without blockade.

[imp44791]

OK, staying on the Italy "CP in 1914" theme. If this happens, there could be an event to help France in the south. Right now, Italy entered in Round 2 and immediately I started moving my active corps to the Alpine border. In Rd 3 France entered as normal, and the Italians pounced on the Nice garrison. In round 4, with a good roll, they managed to kill the Toulon garrison as well.

I think that historically France would mobilise differently with an Italy already declared for the CP. I don't believe they would divert their main (active) forces away from the Plan 17 axes in the north, but they wouldn't leave the Med naked either. At the very least a reserve corps each could have gathered in the big cities like Marseilles and covering a vital naval installation in Toulon. In game terms that could mean an event on entry in Round 3 if Italy is in the war, or some other clever trigger you can think of if it's merely imminent, and place two reserve corps in Marseilles and Toulon respectively. Nice can keep its garrison - it's not unreasonable to think that an early Italian attack could have got it while the French were concentrating further behind. But marching to the gates of Marseilles pretty much unopposed is a little too blizkrieg-y for 1914 (and Italy!).

Conversely, Libya having only two garrisons is a bit odd considering the Italians were still fighting counterinsurgency there. There's also an opportunity for a colonial theatre there, if both sides have some forces. Perhaps replace the garrison in Tripoli with a reserve corps?

More impressions as the main theatres start heating up. Austria is doing well vs Serbia (another couple of lucky rolls there) so it will be interesting to see the Romanian event chain there. Reading your triggers for Carol surviving, I think that some could be linked also to Austria's fortunes in the Galician front. I mean, sure, Romania would have looked favourably to Austria actually defeating Serbia, but not if at the same time the Russians got to the Carpathians. Perhaps add a trigger that restores the default king mortality if Russia takes Przemysl in 1914, regardless of the course of the Serbian front? Przemysl was a big symbolic deal, as we all know.

As always, these are only ideas. Thanks for your wonderful mod.

[imp44791]

Yeah, Round 5 the Italians got Marseilles. The French need beefing up in the south IMO.

I'll stop this playthrough here and try an Aufmarsch Ost now.

[LepetitKipetchi]

Hello Robotron,
Just tried my first game which is really nice but I have discovered some bugs I guess (I have attached you a save to check it):
- my nations have regularly a minus for there points of production without reason (for Belgium, Enland and France for the last turn), then, it go back normaly after few turns but I cannont understand it
- Belgium got a very low morale arriving to 0 (which is really hard to play, I forgot to tell you as for Serbia) and next turn, they are back with 30 to 40% (you can also discover it in my save)

Is it a volontary change or just a bug ?

I continue to try it and will tell you if I find some strange results, thanks again for your great job !

[Robotron]

Is it a volontary change or just a bug ?

This is a horrible bug. There's a fix in the attachment which all players should apply, the same way like you apply the mod.

Round 5 the Italians got Marseilles. The French need beefing up in the south IMO.

The fix will also spawn some French forces near Nice & Toulon in case Italy declares war on France in 1914.