Potzblitz V25.0 OCT 18th 2024

[Robotron]

It will always happen when playing singleplayer Entente and will be fixed in V10.4.

[Robotron]

Just uploaded V10.4:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/118uUhk ... 2qHBA/view

Changes made:

1. Submarines at 15PP, submarine tech research slightly accelerated
2. Light Cruisers at 25PP, subs suffer combat penalty vs LCs once anti-sub techs are researched: Depth Charge: -15%, Depth Charge Projector: -25%, Passive Hydrophone: -50% (not cumulative)
3. CP gains diplo points from advance in France until Moltke is fired
4. Zeppelins +1 LOS
5. lessened chance to trigger "Neutral Convoy sunk" event: can only happen if at least one other convoy was sunk before. Chance rises for each additional sunk convoy
6. in singleplayer vs CP AI German troops still deserted East Prussia, fixed
7. the whole "Cede Trento to Italy" event tree was defunct , fixed
8. ground units attacking air units receive a 300% combat bonus to get rid off the rather lame tactic to block gaps in the front line with fighters, zeps etc.
9. fixed "Austrian Howitzer" event never doing extra damage on subsequent shots from artillery
10. all capital ships (B,BB,BC) only use 1 ammo point when bombarding land units, instead of 3 as was before
11. "British Guarantee to Belgium" event will have Britain DOW on CP as soon as Belgium is attacked (normally turn 3), if not played Britain will DOW CP on turn 4 if Belgium is attacked
12. hardened Austria-Hungary in respect to collapse points: reduce 1 collapse point when capturing Belgrade and Tirana. Loss of Przemysl erroneously caused 1 automatic collapse point: fixed.
13. made CP AI more aggressive on the Eastern Front and have AH units in Galicia freeze until Russia attacks. You can break the freeze before Russia enters the war by invading AH with Serbia (1 Army Corps or 2 Reserve Corps with at least unit strength 9)
14. updated the manual

Greets,
Robo

*EDIT* upload was missing PDF manual. Re-download if you need the PDF

[Unwichtig]

Hi Robotron,

first of all i need to tell you that you have done an amazing job so far.
I actually cant believe that someone has put that much passion into one game, creating such a fantastic product.

I never post anything anywhere, i just play, this is literally my first post in a forum. lol. I love CTGW but i found it too easy and it was lacking ww1 details, especially the diplomacy feature was sadly poorly integrated/designed in the original version.
But you nailed it, you have completed that missing element and the diplomacy options now make sense, they realy "tell the story" and lead to a much more interesting game as there are interesting decisions to make every turn. great job.

I knew i was loosing against the russians, but i kept playing just to see the next events because they are presented so nicely.
The game now tells the story and adds a lot of background knolegde etc.
As being a historical ww 1 nerd, what else can i ask for? wow!

I currently have a lot of time at home as well so I have been testing the mod. I will continue to do so.
So far only one crash observed:

I have version 10.0 plus 0.4 update, so everthing up to date. I play CP, when i click for next turn from round 25 to 26 the game crashes.
I dont click on any units, nothing, just the "next turn" button. After 2 secs, the game stops completly.

Final log words says:

[02:28:56][4584]UNLOCK COMMANDERS DONE
[02:28:56][4584]$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ CONVOY BONUS $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$:60
[02:28:56][4584]+++ A CONVOY HAS REACHED FRANCE! +++
[02:28:56][4584]$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ CONVOY BONUS $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$:60
[02:28:56][4584]+++ A CONVOY HAS REACHED ENGLAND! +++
[02:28:56][4584][C]:-1(field random) game/game_convoys.lua:171: bad argument #2 to 'random' (interval is empty)

Any idea what that means?

In any case, i will continue to test and add some thoughts as well tomorrow. Made a few notes already but want to complete CP first to double check my ideas, maybe the will be solved in the "endgame" so give me some time please.

Thx

[Robotron]

@Unwichtig: big thanks for the compliments, it's such comments that keep me working on the mod.

Here's the bug fix, V10.41:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AW4EF5 ... SLvQb/view

Other users should also use this new V10.41

[berto]

Can anyone recommend a YouTube (or whatever) video of PotzBlitz Mod (not the generic game) game play? After several game playthroughs, I remain ignorant of the finer points of tactical movement, unit types and their special uses, terrain effects, commanders, how best to deploy fleets, etc. Not so much a high-level strategy guide, I need more of a tactical how-to.

[Unwichtig]

@berto: I am sorry i am afraid there are no good vids on youtube yet. I checked as well, at the moment just a few general reviews but no tactical advise available.
Game is little difficult now, but thats fine, take it as a challenge. so do i i just restart and do it all again and try something different. game is just 60 turns which allows you to restart more frequently.

@robotron: Thanks for update. work fine, i completed the compaign, here are some observations and suggestions:

1. I tried to rewrite history and tried hard to get at least one more neutral country on side of CPs.That seemed to be a useless investment -
I spend all DPs for first 10 rounds on countries that like me such as finland and spain. i influenced them both to 100. but it had zero effect.
No event, no support, no second front on france or russia, i actually did not gain anything out of that.
If felt like a bit pointless and i thought i wasted all DPs for nothing and missed other major events instead. Why would i want to do that again?

Suggest: if a nation does not want to join the CP for whatever reason, at least one event should pop up stating something like:
"Country XYZ is now in favour of the CPs but yet unwilling to officially support it. It will not join the alliance but you can choose between three options"
Option 1: Illegal trade and crossborder smuggling activities with that country will lead to +2 PP per round and Entente countries will not notice.
Option 2: Technological Exchange. The countries scientists are happy to exchange technologies with your countries scientists. This will bring all CP countries one randomly chosen technology per 10 turns for free.
Option 3: Intelligence relations. The spies of country XYZ are willing to share their knoledge with you. This will remove the fog of war on the map from the XYZ nations army units so the visibility of the map increases for CP.

2. I have plenty of ideas for some great events. Maybe they already exist i just have not seen them, but this one is my priority:
At the moment the German Colonies dont play a role in the game yet, only event that covers them is the "Emden escapes event when the eastasian squadron detatches.
I realy think there must be an event thats about the german colonies in africa. Here is my suggestion which will lead to a difficult but good decision:

With germany owning south east africa (tanzania) and south west africa (namibia) the CP should have the choice what to do with these colonies.
As they are difficult to defend and most likely to be lost anyway, at least they could be defended for a little longer.
Here is the choice (suggest between turn 5-15):

"German colonies in africa are vulnerable for a french-british intervention and likley to be lost if not defended. Do you want to try to defend tham as long as possible or evacuate the remaining troops from the area"
Option 1: Defend the colonies! (1 garnison will be embarked in each colonie i.e. sw and se africa.) They will disappear from the european theatre. suggest one from east and one from westfront. Advantage: If the british sea blocade in the atlantic/north sea is broken, TWICE as many supply ships will arrive from the colonies.
This will force players to have a long term naval campaign plan.
Option 2: Evacuate the colonies! (2 garnisons will join the european theatre, suggest one in east and one on westfront.) The colonies will be lost and the national morale will slightly decrease. but compared to option 1 more infantry is available in europe.

I have many more ideas, once again thanks for hard work robo. very well done.
I leave is for now but i have tons of ideas let me know if u interested.

[Robotron]

@unwichtig:

1. Congratulations, you just found a major bug caused by a stupid oversight. The formula for influence is not working correctly on nations with a near neutral alignment of about 50. Now that's kind of embarassing.

Your proposals about "deals" with minor nations of only slightly pro-CP/Entente alignments are intriguing, I will consider them for V10.5

2. I've thought long and hard about events concerning the colonies and came to no conclusion about anything worthwhile besides investing resources to avoid a slight morale drain and that felt so bland that I dropped the idea. Then I thought about a mission for the CP player to produce a zeppelin within a time limit to carry supplies to the colonies but dropped it too.

I might however reconsider the idea about colony events. Your proposal about doubling the convoys is not feasible I'm afraid because the Entente player will be intercepting these nonetheless...it's still a turkey-shoot.

I'm all ear for further ideas, so please feel free to propose stuff.

[Unwichtig]

Hi Robo,

still checking the game. Have some time on the weekend as i am trapped due to corona, so here is a little summary of some thoughts.
I have to say the game is now by far the best WW1 ´medium complexity´ strategy game on the market.
Other games are also great but often they are to heavy in micromanagement. for beginners and advanced players the potzblitz is the game to play.
No idea why u dont get paid to do this.
Just let me know if something in the file is unclear. I have written it all down in detail.

see attachment.
1. Country XYZ favours your alliance but does not want to join it - Event with 3 Options.
2. German East Africa Colonies Event with 2 Options
3. German West Africa Colonies Event with 2 Options
4. Cut the Wire Event with two Options for each side.

Possible Events for CTGW.rar

(194.7 KiB) Downloaded 65 times

Thanks and have a great weekend.

[Robotron]

I have to say the game is now by far the best WW1 ´medium complexity´ strategy game on the market.

Yes, it feels like a WW1 version of "Panzer General" on a map of europe. Beers & Pretzels ftw!
Have you tried Strategic Command WW1? Basically it's a VERY souped-up version of CTGW with a remarkable set of new features but with some quite disturbingly similar problems when compared to CTGW.

No idea why u dont get paid to do this.

This is not a mod for blockbusters like Skyrim or such: it's a triple-niche game: war games are niche, WW1 is niche, and games older than 5 years are mostly niche too
My payment is people reacting positively to my mod as long as the servers are still supporting the game.
Also I'm just a lazy & lousy coder.

[Unwichtig]

@robo: yes, i played strategic command ww1 and ww2 and the worldwide versian with japan as well. also all HOI games - i actually started with the HOI series, loved it, but it became a little too complex and therefore no option anymore because too timeconsuming. HOI is a Great game, but starting a campaign ruins my holiday so i stopped doing that. CTGW is the best for me...simple, easy to handle, but sill includes all you need. I play 10 rounds per evening, so thats one game per week. thats okay. I am happy the game does NOT have few hundered rounds, then it would take me a year to complete a campaign. dont have that time.

Anyway just add a suggestion to german colonies events:
- If colonies are evacuated on time (i.e. given up without a fight), national morale sinks, fewer supplies arrive by ships (i never understood where the automatically created german convoys actually are coming from they dont make sense in the first place - colonies were lost 1915/16 so where were the convoys supposed to come from?!?)
- Key thing is that new german commanders could arrive together with their infanctry units in wilhelmshaven few rounds later
- how about unlocking: Ernst von Raben (from cameroon), Joachim von Heydebreck (German SW africa) and Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (German SE Africa)
- If dicision made to keep them as long as possible, nat. morale could get a boost as well!? (plus chance for extra PP if atlantic blacade not in place or suez controlled by CP)

key question is if you are open for "what if-scenarios!?". so events that did not take place but that might have taken place. it would not be historically correct, but its a game in the end so why not? Its your mod, your decision.

I was thinking about "Japan supports the CP" event which could happen if CP control warsaw, riga, kiew, minsk and vilna before autumn 1915.
As russia was enemy of japan as well with territorial disputes, they might have been happy with a weakened russia.
something like
"Japan is in favour of the CP and supports their activities on russian soil. They offer you a secret defense pact against the Entente countries"
Option 1: Japan extends their naval activities into the indian ocean and opens a second frontline on east russia.
Effect:
+Will prevent ANZAC arrive in europe event from happening
+Few russian infantry units (2?) will withdraw from europe to asia as they need to strenghten their defences against japan.
+ 5% chance that 5 extra PP per round is available for germany due to illegal trade/smuggling
+ 1 DP per round due to extended political influence in the world
- UK, FRA declare war on CP immediatly, USA in next 5-10 turns from this event.

So many ideas...sorry. Love the game. Just forget about this if u dont like it its ok.

[Robotron]

key question is if you are open for "what if-scenarios!?". so events that did not take place but that might have taken place. it would not be historically correct, but its a game in the end so why not? Its your mod, your decision.

The whole mod is a single big "what if" scenario, you'll probably never see a match that goes strictly "by the book".
Examples:
For starters there are several German war plans (Schlieffen, Rupprecht, Aufmarsch Ost) to choose from and if you like to get really crazy results you can take the risk and play the Ultimatum to Serbia/Belgium events (no guarantee they'll work though).
Or you could have Sweden join CP via the Russian pre-emptive naval strike event or give Transsylvania to Romania instead of siding with Bulgaria.
Turkey might succeed in calling for Jihad or Russia may delay her mobilization for several turns or go for a surprise attack as early as turn 3.
If Entente is doing badly then Italy might never join them.
I could go on and on

I was thinking about "Japan supports the CP" event which could happen if CP control warsaw, riga, kiew, minsk and vilna before autumn 1915.
As russia was enemy of japan as well with territorial disputes, they might have been happy with a weakened russia.
something like
"Japan is in favour of the CP and supports their activities on russian soil. They offer you a secret defense pact against the Entente countries"
Option 1: Japan extends their naval activities into the indian ocean and opens a second frontline on east russia.
Effect:
+Will prevent ANZAC arrive in europe event from happening

This is more or less what the "Cede Tsingtao" event does if played before the Entente can play "Anglo-Japanese" alliance. It's a matter of what alliance manages to play the particular event faster. Since the cards are drawn randomly from a constantly changing pool of available events there's an element of chance to it which offends some players but the effects of most events are only moderate.

+Few russian infantry units (2?) will withdraw from europe to asia as they need to strenghten their defences against japan.
+ 5% chance that 5 extra PP per round is available for germany due to illegal trade/smuggling
+ 1 DP per round due to extended political influence in the world
- UK, FRA declare war on CP immediatly, USA in next 5-10 turns from this event.

Actually this can already happen once Russia is on the ropes, after the February Revolution has triggered and Tsingtao was given to the Japs.

[Robotron]

@cocolo: please apply the attached bugfix just like a regular update

@others: this is a bugfix for a crash that was found during my match vs cocolo, you can apply this too just like a regular update, it prevents a crash bug after the "Turkey mass desertions" event.

bugfix for MP Robotron vs cocolo.zip

(17.99 KiB) Downloaded 72 times

[Unwichtig]

Hi robo, thanks for rapid response. You are right, the whole game is very "what if" based. I played the entire day to do some further tests. here are some observations, some of them are bugs.

1. German supply submarine event that sails to boston for extra 45 pp. the trade submarine runs out of supplies and ends up in fiery red on the way back and even dies. Its a supply sub (!) that has just got stocks and fuel from boston, so it should be fully loaded once it leaves port in usa. My sub almost died without enemy contact, suggest: boston port visit fully "refreshs" the endurance at sea.

2. the Moral event between germany and austria (equal moral between both countries, about turn 30), the one with the picture of both CP emperors on it, does not work.
I used it but german morale stayed 50 and austria stayed 115.

3. Destabalize: game crashes after i destabalize france 3 times. (I dont know if this happens with other countries). i repeated this on france to verify, but if france is destabalized 3 times the game crashes. Also: It seems that i can destabalize countries even if i do not have any DPs. this worked a few times with a chance of 147% (?).
No DP were required to continueously destabalize. Suggest: destabalize is powerfull, it should always cost min. 25 dps. so you cant do it in the early stages of the game.

4. The CPs cant set focus points on vehicle research. I tried it with austria and germany. I cant click on the icons, so focus is impossible. All others are okay it is only the verhicle research. It still proceeds so its not a big issue, only focus is denied.

5. Food shortage in germany...i felt very punished today after multiple hours of land campaigns against russia, serbia, greece, denmark, holland, belgium, finland (they all surrendered late 1916) AND italy + rumania on my side (+90 favour for CP) AND usa not entered war yet. However, CP gave up because of collapse points. It was absolutley clear that i had the upperhand in europe and i was about to win the game with huge offensive to start against france. But war ended anyway.
This felt unreal, no country whould throw that victory away, i had only france and gb remaining as enemies and massive PPs etc. Just did not feel right, i know its the food crises event that shatter me. and the royal navy sinking my supplies. Ok i get that, i had a poor navy. My lesson learned is: A very successfull campaign in the north, east and south is doomed to fail. So why would i do that again if the only solution is fighting france UK in the first place? I love your approach with CPs, its great.
I kindly ask you to add one or two more events to reduce them as well, and i think i have a few realistic options:

Event based solutions to reduce CPs Collape Points, all food related to ensure that players are not forced to break the UK blockade but also have other options to get food:
a) Russia surrenders? Activates the "Access to vast farmland in west russia" event. Germany forces farmers to provide mandatory food deliveries to germany. (- 2 CP)
b) Ottoman controles the Suez? Activates the "Free trade to asian countries via the Suez" event. Neutral asian countries continue to trade with the CP (-1 CP)
c) German Navy destroys all russian navy units in baltics? Activates the "Sea Control in Baltic established" event. This will allow german fishermen to fish safely without danger of russian interference which increases food in germany (- 1 CP)
d) "Germany prepares for a long war event". (Must be played before uk starts blockade). Germany gives up its colonies and withdraws all resources from them into the homeland. All food supplies are focused and ´secured´ for the homeland, the colonies are given up. This event reduces the chance for food crises as all foods are kept and storred in germany in the first place. (-25% chance that food crises event happens)
e) Ottoman joins CP and defeats persia (something new to achieve!): "Reestablish the silk road" event. The ottoman empire resumes the illegal old trade / smuggling routes with the far east which includes the transportation of foods and rare goods. (- 1 CP all Central powers, and 15PP Ottoman empire)

I am realy into this, you have created the Mod of the year for me. Sorry for long text.
Rgds

[Unwichtig]

@robo: sry i forgot to reply to your zeppelin idea regrading the colonies. I think it would wor, actually makes sense. This would be an easy solution to integrate the african colonies into game. In fact - more or less - zeppelins were used in the 30s by another german regime to show the world about their technological superiority. One could say the hindenburg wa salso nothing less than a propaganda asset as well with big ´national symbols´ on it transporting people to usa. this technology was - at that time very advanced. Imperial germany may have done the same just to show the world what its engeneers were able to construct. Just dont fly to New york but to the colonies. Good idea.
practically the player could be asked (before usa or UK join the war) if he wants to construct a zeppelin and send it directly to africa as a ´national beacon of hope´.
Yeah lets just call it the ´Beacon of hope project´
If the player says "yes, send a zeppelin to africa" the effect is: National morale +10, USA/UK impressed of german engeneering so both join war 5-10 rounds later. 50% chance that zeppelin returns with 10PP resources.
If the player says "No, zeppelins will only be build for the frontline in europe" the effect is: No moral boost, no chance for PP, no other nation impressed, but player does not need to invest in a zeppelin".
If player says "yes", automaticaly the first zeppelin that germany builds will start its journey to africa, so is not available for frontline.
I would like that.

[Robotron]

1. German supply submarine event that sails to boston for extra 45 pp. the trade submarine runs out of supplies and ends up in fiery red on the way back and even dies. Its a supply sub (!) that has just got stocks and fuel from boston, so it should be fully loaded once it leaves port in usa. My sub almost died without enemy contact, suggest: boston port visit fully "refreshs" the endurance at sea.

Excellent point! I'll make it so.

2. the Moral event between germany and austria (equal moral between both countries, about turn 30), the one with the picture of both CP emperors on it, does not work.
I used it but german morale stayed 50 and austria stayed 115.

Damn, last time I checked it worked, will have to re-investigate.

3. Destabalize: game crashes after i destabalize france 3 times. (I dont know if this happens with other countries). i repeated this on france to verify, but if france is destabalized 3 times the game crashes. Also: It seems that i can destabalize countries even if i do not have any DPs. this worked a few times with a chance of 147% (?).
No DP were required to continueously destabalize. Suggest: destabalize is powerfull, it should always cost min. 25 dps. so you cant do it in the early stages of the game.

The ctgw.log file would have been very helpful here for me. Without it will take some extra effort, but I'll see to it.

4. The CPs cant set focus points on vehicle research. I tried it with austria and germany. I cant click on the icons, so focus is impossible. All others are okay it is only the verhicle research. It still proceeds so its not a big issue, only focus is denied.

Yes, I'm aware of this and I've no clue yet about the source of the problem.

5. Food shortage in germany...i felt very punished today after multiple hours of land campaigns against russia, serbia, greece, denmark, holland, belgium, finland (they all surrendered late 1916) AND italy + rumania on my side (+90 favour for CP) AND usa not entered war yet. However, CP gave up because of collapse points. It was absolutley clear that i had the upperhand in europe and i was about to win the game with huge offensive to start against france. But war ended anyway.

1. "it was absolutely clear that I had the upper hand": famous last words
2. Did all the collapse points come from Hunger events? Probably there was something else that contributed to your demise.
3. You are not supposed to attack Netherlands, they play an important role for CP food supply. See manual §4.11, page 24.

This felt unreal, no country whould throw that victory away, i had only france and gb remaining as enemies and massive PPs etc. Just did not feel right, i know its the food crises event that shatter me. and the royal navy sinking my supplies. Ok i get that, i had a poor navy. My lesson learned is: A very successfull campaign in the north, east and south is doomed to fail. So why would i do that again if the only solution is fighting france UK in the first place? I love your approach with CPs, its great.

You absolutely need to cripple the Royal Navy to break the blockade, there is no easy way around it. See the manual §4.1, page 18.
Failing that you might succeed to strangle Britain by sinking enough convoys with a heavy investment into submarines before you starve to death.
If your submarine fleet is strong enough you may even repel the whole US navy rushing to save Britain.

I kindly ask you to add one or two more events to reduce them as well, and i think i have a few realistic options:

I'll reconsider factors leading to Food Crisis events. Removal of Collapse Points will be out of question though.

Event based solutions to reduce CPs Collape Points, all food related to ensure that players are not forced to break the UK blockade but also have other options to get food:
a) Russia surrenders? Activates the "Access to vast farmland in west russia" event. Germany forces farmers to provide mandatory food deliveries to germany. (- 2 CP)

Russian surrender already counts into calculation of CP hunger events, but maybe not enough. I'll double it.

b) Ottoman controles the Suez? Activates the "Free trade to asian countries via the Suez" event. Neutral asian countries continue to trade with the CP (-1 CP)

Okay, under the conditions that Italy sided with CP or Egypt is cleared of British troops.

German Navy destroys all russian navy units in baltics? Activates the "Sea Control in Baltic established" event. This will allow german fishermen to fish safely without danger of russian interference which increases food in germany

What about British submarines marauding the Baltic? A common tactic in multiplayer.

d) "Germany prepares for a long war event". (Must be played before uk starts blockade). Germany gives up its colonies and withdraws all resources from them into the homeland. All food supplies are focused and ´secured´ for the homeland, the colonies are given up. This event reduces the chance for food crises as all foods are kept and storred in germany in the first place. (-25% chance that food crises event happens)

I'll consider that once the Colony-event-tree is implemented.

e) Ottoman joins CP and defeats persia (something new to achieve!): "Reestablish the silk road" event. The ottoman empire resumes the illegal old trade / smuggling routes with the far east which includes the transportation of foods and rare goods.

Very good idea. Will also apply once Persia joins CP via events.

[Unwichtig]

Ok i never played this CTGW on multiplayer, so did not think about subs in the baltics. then delete the "Sea Control in the Baltic Event" idea.

Dont worry about the destabalize issue with france, i ll do it again and send you the correct log file thats much easier. its not urgent, dont investigate that that can be solved later. i ll do that tomorrow.

Ok i ll read the manual before i write more about collapse points. i realy like them they totally make sense, i think i am just not used to them yet. Played normal game to often and just kept attacking. normally that works but okay disregard that thought regarding deleting collapse points. was not aware about importance of holland for food and focussed too much on landcampaign instead of navy..."famous last words...i should have won the worldwar. never mind....i ll start again.

[Unwichtig]

Possible Events CTGW for CP:

1. „Niedermayer-Hentig Expidition“
Background: In 1914 Germany send a team of diplomats (Hentig and Niedermayer) via Constantinople to Afghanistan. Idea was to influence local warlords to support the CP against The British Empire. With its long and direct border to India, the warlords could have had a destabilizing impact in the important British Colony. The warlords denied the request to attack / sabotage UK bases in India. The Expedition failed. However, it could have had a minor impact on UK as they could have been forced to keep forces in India to defend their colony against intruders.

Idea: Event for Germany between turn 4-12. “Send diplomats to Afghanistan”

Possible Result (suggest):
- 33% chance that event works and warlords support fight against British Empire
- If it they do: +1DP per round (as CP have increased political influence in asia)
- British Invasion in Kuwait is delayed / or does not take place (?) as their Asian forces are required to secure India.
- Arrival of ANZAC forces in Europe is delayed by few turns (?)

2. “Zimmermann – Depesche”
Background: Germany was well aware of the territorial dispute between Mexico and USA and tried to gain something out of that. In 1917, just before USA was about to officially joint the Entente, Germany was afraid that this could happen. The “Zimmermann – Depesche” was a diplomatic secret note that was delivered from the German Foreign Affairs Secretary Zimmermann via the German Embassy in Washington to Mexican Officials. It offered a pact with Mexico to join the fight against USA if they join the war. It stated that Germany would fully support Mexico after the war to regain the lost territories in the Mexican US war from 1848. The message was intercepted by the UK secret service and decoded. It did not work.

Idea: Event for Germany that is available from Jan 1917. “Align with Mexico against US”

Possible Result (suggest):
- 33% chance that Mexico joins the war IF USA declares war on the CPs.
- If they do: +1DP per round (as CP have increased political influence in America)
- Number of US Troops that are brought to Europe reduced by 33% (?)
- Convoys from US to UK only have strength of 8 instead of 10 as some resources are required for war in USA. So UK gets slightly fewer supplies.
- Event can be interrupted if Entente have broken German cipher.

3. “Modern Warfare – Use of Miners”
Background: Due to ´static-non dynamic trench warfare´ and no major breakthroughs on the western front until 1916, both sides started to find new solutions to allow crushing the trench systems at once. Beginning in 1916 both sides started to use professional miners to dig tunnels under the enemy lines, position tons of gunpowder and TNT and blew them up at once. One of the most known incidents was the “Mine Battle of Messines”, single explosions blew up entire infantry corps, i.e. up to 10.000 Bavarians in june 1917.

Idea: From late 1916 the event “Start planning for Mine-Warfare” could be chosen. (available for CP and Entente). If this event is selected, it could say something like: The CP/Entente are researching on new methods how to break the enemy lines most effectively with as few casualties as possible. Mineworkers across the country are now being recruited and trained on explosives.

Possible Result (suggest):
- 4-6 rounds after the event was chosen, the player gets a Message that the Miners are ready for combat. The player can then choose a single enemy unit that will be blown up (immediate death).
- Basically it completely removes one enemy unit of choice
- Must not be a unit on a city, must be done on Belgium or French Territory.
- Sorry this might be difficult to implement into the game.
- 2nd option could be that automatically a CP/Entente infantry unit West of German border disappears from the map.
- Should only happen once, otherwise too strong impact.

I am realy sorry for suggesting so much, i know you have a real life as well. So dont feel rushed by me please, i just like inventing things like this, its a hobby of mine. Normally i play ww1 and ww2 boardgames with my own invented rules, its just great to have something similar on pc now.
If you dont like my ideas just forget about it. mod is great anyway.

[Robotron]

By all means, keep the ideas coming, I'm eager for any new input.
As for your suggestions:

1.
The mod already provides two events for German agents operating in Persia to frustrate the British: Wilhelm Waßmuß and Arthur Bopp. I'm not sure if another mission to Afghanistan is really needed.

2.
Zimmermann Telegram is also already integrated as is Pancho Villa and the Mexican-US border conflict. The mexican raids can delay US war entry, affect the result of the president election and drain diplomatic points while they last.

3.
Mining War is also already available, although I forgot to add it to the manual. The event will damage a number of German units adjacent to British troops in France and cause efficiency loss. The result will be determined by comparing the experience level of German and British troops to represent the effectiveness of mining teams from both sides.

Well what can I say, I've been modding the game for 5 years, so a lot of stuff already went into it.

In other news I've already added most of your suggestions of yesterday and managed to fix the reported issues.

[Unwichtig]

Hi its me once again, I just finished my second round, here are my obervations, some of them are more some less important:
I tried a few new things to check some mechanics which i made some rare observations.

- I had a lot of PP left with austria which i used to invest in a fleet (after russia surrendered i reduced my infantry instead). My large austrian navy helped the germans to fight the blockade in atlantik and north sea. To resupply them i used german ports. Then Germany surrendered and all my austrian ships in german ports became german, so i could not use them anymore. The literally became german ships and gave up as well. Why? I would have loved to bring them back into the med.

- The decision NOT to invade belgium at early game comes with a huge penalty: I fought in the east first and defended the easy small frontline to france instead. that worked nicely, hoewever, when i tried to do the schliefenplan in 1916 and declared war on belgium later, they surrendered after 1 turn...and became neutral then. So i was not allowed to move units via belgium into france. My whole plan fall into peaces with belgium ´not allowing me to cross´. Whats the point? Playing germany i dont care if they surrender i want to be at war with them no matter if they decide not to be at war with me. So i had to regroup all army and invade via switzerland instead because ger fra frontline is to narrow to attack. i wasted 5-6 moves to replan. Suggest if belgium surrenders that german player can decide: attack anyway, but with a huge political penalty. i.e. usa joins entente immediatly.

- i cant follow the way the DPs are calculated, if the counter says i have 7 points and i gain 24 per round, i assume i have 31 in the next round. but i only got a total of 29. that happened a few times. the new gained DPs plus the ones i had did not represent the sum of the points i got next round. This might be because i got a diplomatic penalty somehow, but i would like to know what kind of penalty that is. If the answer to this is: read the manual, then dont bother and just say read the manual i did not read it completly to be honest. but if theres a bug i send you the log file.

- the missing tank focus became a bit of a problem, as i cant focus on tanks, i got tanks later and i can therefore only attack with tanks later and get the infantry antitank weapons also later. there was a point when i was facing french entente tanks that smashed me and i still could not build antitank weapons. This is a difficult thing to change, i know, but i think the infantry upgrade for antitank weapons should be unlocked when any country attacks with tanks, so either me or the enemy. I think its more realistic that germany starts to do research on antitank weapons when they are attacked by entente tanks, and not when they attack with tanks themselves. if i know someone is smashing me i will do everything i can do to stop him doing that, no matter if i have tanks myself.

None of these points are significant, just some further observations. next post will include a few more events i created. stand by.
keep up the good work.

[Robotron]

- I had a lot of PP left with austria which i used to invest in a fleet (after russia surrendered i reduced my infantry instead). My large austrian navy helped the germans to fight the blockade in atlantik and north sea. To resupply them i used german ports. Then Germany surrendered and all my austrian ships in german ports became german, so i could not use them anymore. The literally became german ships and gave up as well. Why? I would have loved to bring them back into the med.

Fixed. That bug was in since the game's vanilla version. Good thing you brought it up, I completely forgot about it since the last time a player mentioned the issue and at that time I had no clue how to fix that.

- The decision NOT to invade belgium at early game comes with a huge penalty: I fought in the east first and defended the easy small frontline to france instead. that worked nicely, hoewever, when i tried to do the schliefenplan in 1916 and declared war on belgium later, they surrendered after 1 turn...and became neutral then. So i was not allowed to move units via belgium into france. My whole plan fall into peaces with belgium ´not allowing me to cross´. Whats the point? Playing germany i dont care if they surrender i want to be at war with them no matter if they decide not to be at war with me. So i had to regroup all army and invade via switzerland instead because ger fra frontline is to narrow to attack. i wasted 5-6 moves to replan. Suggest if belgium surrenders that german player can decide: attack anyway, but with a huge political penalty. i.e. usa joins entente immediatly.

The real problem here is that Belgium surrendered after 1 turn which is not working as designed. I need the last autosave.endturn file from the "Save" folder before Belgium surrendered. If you don't have it anymore there's not much I can do about the issue.

- i cant follow the way the DPs are calculated, if the counter says i have 7 points and i gain 24 per round, i assume i have 31 in the next round. but i only got a total of 29. that happened a few times. the new gained DPs plus the ones i had did not represent the sum of the points i got next round. This might be because i got a diplomatic penalty somehow, but i would like to know what kind of penalty that is. If the answer to this is: read the manual, then dont bother and just say read the manual i did not read it completly to be honest. but if theres a bug i send you the log file.

DP income is fluctuating because of a bazillion modifiers. The income value can never be exact, because the game cannot predict what the enemy will do during his turn or random stuff happening which will affect the income or budget value.

- the missing tank focus became a bit of a problem, as i cant focus on tanks, i got tanks later and i can therefore only attack with tanks later and get the infantry antitank weapons also later. there was a point when i was facing french entente tanks that smashed me and i still could not build antitank weapons. This is a difficult thing to change, i know, but i think the infantry upgrade for antitank weapons should be unlocked when any country attacks with tanks, so either me or the enemy. I think its more realistic that germany starts to do research on antitank weapons when they are attacked by entente tanks, and not when they attack with tanks themselves. if i know someone is smashing me i will do everything i can do to stop him doing that, no matter if i have tanks myself.

The missing focus bug got fixed for V10.5. Normally the antitank tech box should appear after any nation has conducted the first tank attack. Again, the savegame would be of immense help to look into the issue of the missing anti-tank tech box.