Potzblitz V26.01 OCT 26th 2025

[Umeu]

Argh...the manpower loss erroneously gets called twice: once in events and once in experience script (line 36). Just remove it from experience.

ok, thanks!

What about Kronprinz? I took a look at it, but it's got something to do with math, which I'm bad at, and don't really understand that part of lua yet XD

[Robotron]

For some reason Kronprinz's unit has no experience value assigned to it, which is strange. Was that unit freshly produced?

[Umeu]

For some reason Kronprinz's unit has no experience value assigned to it, which is strange. Was that unit freshly produced?

yeah, it was. Straight out of the production queue

[Robotron]

Corrected game_commanders.lua in attachment.

Overwrite the old one in Data/Scripts/game

[Umeu]

Corrected game_commanders.lua in attachment.

Overwrite the old one in Data/Scripts/game

thanks.

Been thinking about something we talked about when we played our first game. I think INTEL could do with a little bit of tweaking. Before I thought it wasn't useful, and in a way it kinda is a win-more. Since the side most able to spare diplo points from events, is the side that can afford not to send some until the interest rate allows you to accumulate a shit ton of points every turn.

But even the losing side can have pretty big effects with a successful intelligence campaign. Thing is, it's way too abrupt and immediate, I feel.

Of course it's a game and an abstraction, so there's no real way to represent all the different kind of military, naval and diplomatic codes that were used at the same time. But for example, while the Russian code was broken in 1914, it didn't really affect the war (though the Russians not being able to read their own code and thus sending plain text messages (Hello Ukraine...) was influential).

So there's already the distinction between intercepting messages (relatively easy) and decoding the messages (very hard). The German army code wasn't broken until 1918, for example. Though the naval code was broken earlier, the Germans could still mount a relatively succesful u-boat campaign.

Currently, the attack bonus is too big for cracking the army cipher, and the odds for getting this event is way too high. The odds for getting this event should either be drastically lowered, or, the bonus should be drastically lowered. Probably it should be a bit of both.

I like the discarding certain events consequence of the intelligence war, probably there should be a bit more of this. Breaking the cipher should prevent or instead lead to certain events. I see the army cipher broken more often than the naval one. I'd like to see it a bit more for the naval cipher, especially because the cipher giving visibility to naval units would be a nice twist when vs succesful u-boat campaign. Probably the cipher broken should give visibility or attack boost, not both. Especially on land, LoS is too strong by default (this is the game, not much anyone can do about it truly), but a single zeppelin tells you all you need to know about the entire front (and at start of game, Germany can use it even for both fronts at the same time, going back and forth). So on land, the cipher showing where units are isn't that big of a bonus.

The double agent event is really strong in some situations, but it can only be used once, so I think it's fair.

Steal technology is one I like. For example, the French were the first to write a manual for infiltration tactics, but the Germans found this pamphlet and actually put the idea into practice. I'd like to see a bit more of this, but rather than perhaps outright steal techs that are already unlocked, it can also give just tech point boosts (like the research event also does)

sabotage is too strong, but the idea is good.

Sea mine immunity is a good example of something that's balanced and has a real but still limited impact on the game.

magazine explosion is a good example of something that's balanced and has a real but still limited impact on the game.

Another thing that might be good would be alignment swings. Nothing to drastic maybe, but for example Germany tried to influence Mexico, but because Britain intercepted it, USA swung a few points towards Entente (so to speak). Edith Cavell shot event that's already in the game is a good implementation of this as well.



While INTEL actions on enemy nations is quite easy and strong, at least, once your diplomatic cost gets high enough (around 25+). Usually with 1-3 attempts, you can break an enemy cipher. But, when trying to do this defensively, I can easily pour hundreds of diplomatic points into a nation, and it won't restore the cipher or have any noticeable effect. So it's almost always better to just use those points offensively, and break the enemy cipher instead of trying to protect your own.


I'm not sure if pillage actually works? I tried it a few times, but it said I haven't occupied any enemy cities, even though this was false.


of course not trying to create more work for you

[Robotron]

of course not trying to create more work for you

No sweat, I'm not planning to change anything.

[Umeu]

of course not trying to create more work for you

No sweat, I'm not planning to change anything.

fair enough. But what about only lowering the attack bonus for army cipher broken a bit then? It was the main reason why I started thinking about this, as in my previous game vs Wolf, I broke the cipher and it decided the game really quickly. Even it's quite easy to do, and as I said, the counter doesn't seem to be that effective (I know counter-intel is a sort of black box, but if I put 500 diplo points into it, I expect at least some results, especially since 500 diplo points can break the cipher of every nation in the enemy alliance).


EDIT: Germany demands Right of Passage (from Belgium) event shows up in Ostmars. I don't think it did that before, but it probably shouldn't be in that scenario?

btw, what do you think of the idea to give CP (or any nation but Russia on Russian hexes) a movement efficiency penalty while moving through Russia, to represent the kind of scorched earth approach and difficulty to move and forage in such underdeveloped terrain. The hexes aren't too accurate for Russia. For example the distance between Berlin and Hannover is 5 hexes but 300km, and from Frankfurt to Verdun is 5 hexes as well but 330KM, while the distance between Smolensk and Moscow is also 5 hexes but 400km.

It could work just like the penalty (Ottoman) troops get moving through Sinai desert, though nothing as drastic as that. Maybe like 0.5 efficiency loss extra per move. This way, the CP armies will exhaust faster than the Russians do, since the Russians know the terrain better, are more used to moving in it, etc etc. It'll give Russia another dimension to play with, since now they can effectively use the space they have to defend. Just retreat and retreat, then counter attack if the enemy follows and gets exhausted. If they don't follow, you have more time to set up a defense or counter attack.

could look something like this, I think. Just adapted the desert&dune one quickly. Might be a better way to do it. I set the minimum to 200, so green and seasoned troops always get the penalty, though I'm not sure if that's correct. Maybe it should even be higher, but I thought 300 is like elite/lvl 3?)

Code: Select all

		--- Russia size effect
		
					if hex ~= nil 
						and unit.hex.originalFaction.id == 4
				and unit.hex.x >= 117 --past Brest Litovsk - Kovno line						
						and hex.construction == nil
						and unit.alliance.id == player.alliance.id
						and unit.prototype.lua.class == "ground"
						and unit.prototype.name ~= "armouredtrain" 
						and unit.prototype.name ~= "armouredcar"						
						and unit.faction.id ~= 4 then
								if unit.luaData.experience == nil then
									unit.luaData.experience = 0
								end
								local limit = 500		
		
								if math.random(200, limit) > unit.luaData.experience then		
									loss = loss + 5
									if MatchType() == 1 then
										if unit.alliance.id == 2 then
											loss = loss -5
										end
									end
									
									if impassable.luaData.winter == 1 then
									loss = loss + 10
									if MatchType() == 1 then
										if unit.alliance.id == 2 then
											loss = loss -10
										end
									end
									end
								end
					end

It could possibly also be an event Russia can play, Scorched Earth event (historically, they did employ scorched Earth after retreating from Warsaw.) So could be like, Attack on Warsaw has happened, or Warsaw has fallen, and then the event is put in the Event Pool for Russia. They can choose it, and after that, CP unmechanized ground units in Russia take +1 or +0.5 efficiency penalty per move.

I kinda like the idea of it being an event a player can decide to get. Makes it a strategic choice, and it comes at a cost. Diplo points + you must lose Warsaw (or any other capital city.)

[Wolf001]

If you give CP troops a movement efficiency penalty at least in SP playing as the Entente you’ll be guaranteed to win. The AI will overstretch itself as it does with the Ottomans and keep attacking with exhausted units.

In SP I believe that would upset the balance of the game

[Wolf001]

If you give CP troops a movement efficiency penalty at least in SP playing as the Entente you’ll be guaranteed to win. The AI will overstretch itself as it does with the Ottomans and keep attacking with exhausted units. It already struggles as it is trying to knock Russia out.

In SP I believe that would upset the balance of the game

[Umeu]

If you give CP troops a movement efficiency penalty at least in SP playing as the Entente you’ll be guaranteed to win. The AI will overstretch itself as it does with the Ottomans and keep attacking with exhausted units.

In SP I believe that would upset the balance of the game

I already wrote that into the example code. It doesn't apply when you are entente vs cp. Only in mp or as cp vs entente. Though of course it's only a suggestion.

I think a scorched earth event would be pretty cool, but keen to hear what you think.

[Robotron]

That's actually a sound idea, but instead of having it become available after the fall of Warsaw let's add it after the Supply Crisis has started since that's usually the time when the Russians disengage anyway. Also there will be a time limit: the effect will end 12 turns after the end of the Supply Crisis or earlier if both "OberOst created" and "Congress Poland" happened, representing CP restoring administration and logistics in the east.

[Umeu]

That's actually a sound idea,

unlike some of my other ideas?

but instead of having it become available after the fall of Warsaw let's add it after the Supply Crisis has started since that's usually the time when the Russians disengage anyway. Also there will be a time limit: the effect will end 12 turns after the end of the Supply Crisis or earlier if both "OberOst created" and "Congress Poland" happened, representing CP restoring administration and logistics in the east.

I like it, and it makes sense for when Germany attacks into France/Belgium, but what about scenarios where Germany turns to Russia first, such as of course Aufmars Ost, but also when they turn the Moltke/Schlieffen into an Ostmars. In those situations, Germany can already be in Warsaw+Vilna+Riga/Minsk by the end of 1914, and thus creating OberOst before the supply crisis even started, let alone ended.

[Wolf001]

Should the CP player suffer a plenty if playing Moltke-Schlieffen Plan and goes for attacking Russia instead? At the risk of upsetting Umeu that was the strategy played against me in our current game. Russia was attacked the turn before entry and I lost Warsaw and Umeu also unlocked the two Austro-Hungarian events.

As Belgium wasn't invaded I'm rather limited in what I can do. I'm not sure if the Entente events related to Belgium are available in the Moltke-Schlieffen as they are in Aufmarsch Ost. At the moment I'm not seeing any downside at least in MP going after Russia first in Moltke-Schlieffen. Umeu has already split my forces in two with taking of Minsk before winter 1914.

Of course in 1915 the advatage can change if Italy joins me and Umeu has left Serbia alone for now.

[Umeu]

Should the CP player suffer a plenty if playing Moltke-Schlieffen Plan and goes for attacking Russia instead? At the risk of upsetting Umeu that was the strategy played against me in our current game. Russia was attacked the turn before entry and I lost Warsaw and Umeu also unlocked the two Austro-Hungarian events.

As Belgium wasn't invaded I'm rather limited in what I can do. I'm not sure if the Entente events related to Belgium are available in the Moltke-Schlieffen as they are in Aufmarsch Ost. At the moment I'm not seeing any downside at least in MP going after Russia first in Moltke-Schlieffen. Umeu has already split my forces in two with taking of Minsk before winter 1914.

Of course in 1915 the advatage can change if Italy joins me and Umeu has left Serbia alone for now.

well, Britain warned me to stay out of Belgium, and I obliged

Seriously though, why would I be upset? I made this point to Robo already, and he said "and not use your generals? No thanks." To which I said it's easy to still use the generals without having them in the front line, just stick 'm on a reserve.

I didn't really do that in our game, I only brought Moltke, as it's a Moltke goes East strategy, so he has to come of course. But I left Hausen, and more importantly, Kluck, on the west front. Otherwise the collapse might've been even faster.

So let's take a look at the downsides of Moltke goes East

1) Can't use generals in attacking or defending aka frontline units without getting insubordination (this in itself doesn't do much, but it does mean you lose the bonus for 2 turns, which is not insignificant, but also not a massive disadvantage. Getting Hindenburg unlocked early definitely mitigates some of it, as well as getting Kronprinz.

2) You will not get any of the diplo points associated with invading Belgium and France succesfully, nor any of the alignment boosts on Italy for doing so. This is pretty big.

3) In that same vein, at turn 12, France will be defended succesfully, causing 2 collapse points for germany. It also massively swings Italy towards Entente. This is probably the biggest weakness of the strategy.

4) Focusing on Russia means that you're unlikely to make much progress in Serbia, though there are ways to fight in Russia and Serbia both, though it'll slow down progress compared to focusing only on 1 front.

5) Not invading Belgium means you won't get any of those valuable north-sea ports, and thus your naval reach is greatly dimnished. This might actually be the 2nd biggest draw back of the strategy.

but what do you stand to gain?

1) Engalnd stays out of the war and the narrow front full of forts neutralizes France for almost a full year, this is massive obviously, especially if the Entente player used events such Warning, naval review or Army of Africa to defend.

2) You can overwhelm Russia and cripple them before they can even get industrial warfare. Now what I had never considered, is that you can actually invade Russia already on t4 or t5, but another player did this to me and I realized how powerful it is to seize the iniative against Russia. I'm not sure whether going on t4 or t5 is best, but it's better than to wait for Russia to attack first.

3) it takes off pressure from Turkey. I didn't go down this route in our game, but it's possible to send Goeben to Istanbul and have Turkey join the war like 5-8 turns before Britain does (especially if you use Shelling of Sevastopol). Turkey can then prepare fully for the British war entry, and also put pressure on Russia who can't even defend their mainland, let alone the caucasus.

4) effectively fighting on only 1 front allows Germany but also Austria to conserve manpower and save up some PP for later in the game.


So compared to Ostmars, what does Moltke goes east offer? Not that much beyond the surprise value. Ostmars gives you a better army in the east, though Russia is better prepared to meet you in the sense that in Moltke goes east, there's 1 or 2 turns where Russia doesn't have enough war effort to sustain their army. But you won't suffer most of the drawbacks in Ostmars.

So the main problem is just the same problem, Russia's weakness cripples entente in MP.

However, Britain and France have received huge buffs, so I don't know if knocking out Russia in 1914 basically is enough to win. There's only 1 way to find out.

But I do have some suggestions:

1) The Tsar demanding his generals to invade Prussia should hinge on Belgium being invaded, as well as Serbia not having surrendered.

2) scorched earth related event

3) industrial warfare unlocking a few turns earlier if Russia is invaded before they attack themselves (this is already how it works for the AI), This is really powerful though, so I'm not sure if this is the best way.

4) Warsaw just always needs an army corps

[Wolf001]

Finished my singe player game today on turn 50.

As I’ve said in a previous post the game does play much slower now with the shell production changes which isn’t a bad thing. You do have to decide early on where you want to attack before committing to taking a hex of course late in the game shell production for the Entente can increase as it did historically.

I believe the failed Italian Offensive could be adjusted perhaps I only had it happen twice the entire game. Granted the AI didn’t put up much of a fight as it was occupied elsewhere.

The Ottomans might need some adjustment when it comes to mass desertion events. The AI attacks the British relentlessly from the time you occupy Abadan and get Kuwait most games. Since it doesn’t care about the desertion event it can gain morale loss and collapse points quickly. In my last game the Ottomans surrendered in early 1916 despite me not taking any hexes of note other then Basra.

I’m not sure what can be adjusted as you don’t want to make the Ottomans too powerful at least in single player as the AI produces a lot of units and will more or less bottle up any British forces in Kuwait and Persia.

I don’t have any other suggestions right now will start playing as the Central Powers on my next campaign.

[Robotron]

Thanks for the feedback, Wolf. I'll make sure your observations will go into the next update.

About that "Moltke-Schlieffen" transforming into a "Moltke-East" trend that currently seems to be all the rage:

- Moltke will resign and will be replaced by Falkenhayn as usual in 1915.
- no German commanders in the west can be detached from their units until Germany is at war with either Belgium or Russia
- all German units moved to the east until Russia declares war will suffer additional efficiency loss from rail movement, so they arrive in the east at yellow efficiency status
- if "Italy proclaims neutrality" was played before by Entente and Entente did NOT play "Rush mobilize Russian army" then Italy will majorly swing to Entente if Germany preemptively attacks Russia
- as a compensation German commanders from the west won't suffer from the "Insubordination" event anymore that removes them from their units

"Scorched Earth"
- is available as an event for Entente if either Warsaw/Riga/Minsk/Kiev/Odessa were captured or "Russian Supply Crisis" was triggered, whatever comes first. It conveys the winter movement penalty for all CP units except Armored Cars, Trains & Tanks even during the summer season when moving on Russian hexes for 6 to 12 turns, the exact number of turns is randomly determined at the start of the match and can't be prematurely ended.

[Wolf001]

Another Suggestion at least for MP. The transport that spawns after the BEF event is played (in Calais) can be sunk by the CP player rather easily. I noticed in my current game that the transport can’t be sunk in harbor.

Is it intended for the transport to be easy to sink in MP?

[Robotron]

That's probably caused by the combat bonus for the first submarine attack "Silent Killers" but I'm not sure. Maybe we should exclude Troop Transports from the event, although it's unrealistic.

Why were you not able to protect (= surround) the BEF troop transport with units from the Royal Navy?

[Umeu]

Another Suggestion at least for MP. The transport that spawns after the BEF event is played (in Calais) can be sunk by the CP player rather easily. I noticed in my current game that the transport can’t be sunk in harbor.

Is it intended for the transport to be easy to sink in MP?

It's not easy to sink it in harbor in MP either. I sunk it vs you and vs other players too, because you and others sent BEF on turn 4, and by then a fast German advance can take Calais, force the BEF out of the port and take out the convoy with sometimes a single sub attack, though usually you need another attack on top. I our game, I had to send a light cruiser to finish the job, putting it in a dangerous position, so it comes at a risk. And I effectively traded a light cruiser for the BEF.

I think nothing needs to be done about this, as it's something that can easily be countered by the Entente player. They can defend Calais better, or they can send BEF on t3 (if they can find the event, granted), they can decide not to send BEF on t4 if Calais can't be held. Or finally, they can use the navy to block the entrence to the channel that's called English for a reason...

if it's not too hard to do though, perhaps an option to send the BEF to France (and then availability will choose the port) or to England (as for example French actually iniatally did not want to send the BEF to France but rather wait out at home until the rest of the army was ready), then the Entente player can decide to get the BEF, without risking it getting taken out. However, it's arrival will be delayed a lot as a result. So there would be 2 options, send to France (Calais by default) or Send home (Porthsmouth by default)

[Umeu]

Thanks for the feedback, Wolf. I'll make sure your observations will go into the next update.

about the ottoman deserters, I think the problem is that the AI can't manage morale/collapse points properly. So I thought that it might be an idea for the AI to suffer the mass desertion army penalty (of 1 or 2 strength lost for fresh troops) but not the morale/collapse point penalty (or a reduced penalty) so that triggering desertion event for them is not as devastating as for a player, who will wisely decide not to attack most of the time.

- Moltke will resign and will be replaced by Falkenhayn as usual in 1915.

Do you mean he'll resign immediately or he'll just get fired after France is defended? With all the other changes to nerf the strategy, can we please keep Moltke XD how can it be Moltke Goes East without Moltke

- all German units moved to the east until Russia declares war will suffer additional efficiency loss from rail movement, so they arrive in the east at yellow efficiency status

fair enough

- if "Italy proclaims neutrality" was played before by Entente and Entente did NOT play "Rush mobilize Russian army" then Italy will majorly swing to Entente if Germany preemptively attacks Russia

fair enough