Good morning!
First quicklook feed-back, i ll keep adding some stuff here.
I would like to hear some opinions from other players as well, please let me know what you think.
First of all: Great MOD! I played many hours already and its a new experience. Some nice things:
1. At the moment, I do not see any major critical things that need to be changed. The events work, the game runs very smooth.
Nehi finished an entire SP game and so did I. There was only one minor crash which was fixed in less than 30 minutes. So new playes dont worry, play this Mod, its very stable and the chance of a crash is minimum.
2. The famous first moves, i.e. pushing into enemy hexes as far and quick as possible (critical for early victroy) have changed a little. Thats good.
After the starting position of all units was static and did not change for some time now in previous mods, i guess many playes had time to learn the ´perfect´ first moves.
Its fun to look for some new solutions now. Some minor changes lead to big differences. My impression is, that especcially the austrian setting has changed.
3. I already said that i like the few changes made on the map. New cities, fortresses, impassible hexes etc. lead to new strategies. Makes it worth replaying the game more and more often.
4. Personal opinion from SP game (I played CP vs. Entente). I will replay few more times now to verify my first impression, but there might be a little limitation here:
- Players can now choose the intended attack plan prior to game start. (which is good!)
- But consequently, many ´Attack or defense Plan´ related events that used to be in the event pool now disappeared from the game on both sides. (Redeploy, Schlieffens Legacy, Russian rush mobilisation, request german aid etc.)
- I played CP and used the Aufmarsch Ost plan, I was at war with russia as soon as Germany joined the war. Thats so quick, that many events become obsolete.
- I tried this twice already, Germany Striking East is leading to an all out war with russia on turn 3.
- Nothing wrong with that, but: The starting-event-pool (=Available Events during first 5 turns) seems to be smaller now.
- I played every single available special event incl. the new ones. There is actually no need to choose, you are able to choose them all. (Kaisers Gold, German Navy Expansion, Battlecruisers for Ottomans, Norwegian convoys etc.) After Turn 5 all special events were played and here comes the issue:
- From now on EVERY turn i could choose the Patriotic Move event. It just kept showing up. And I think this is too powerfull!
- We all know that the first few moves are critical for the entire game, and many players play the patriotic move event to rush into enemy territory as quickly as possible.
- But the lack of other events allowed me to choose it 4 (!) times until Dec. 1914.
- This allowed me to complete even BOTH conditions on the eastern front at the same time (I took Riga, Vilna, Minsk, Warsaw and Brest). Thats insane.
- As this event happens too often, it takes away the ´long-static-war´ experience. (@nehi: you won quickly as well, i am sure u used it too?)
My short term solution is: This event should only happen ONCE per year. Or the attack bonus must be reduced from +2 to +1 only. Or if played more often, the penalty must increase significantly. I thought i was doing a Blitzkrieg in russia but thats not realistic.
My long term solution is (after you have had your break from the game):
I am happy to think suggest 2 or 3 new, very basic events just to widen the event pool again.
More events = smaller chance the event will appear. You had some great ideas about the ´warmaterial department event´ or even the ´Build the rhinebridges´ event could be added to the starting pool. Just to fill it up a little and force players to make an active choice.
At the moment you can just choose all events step by step there are enough turns and DP to pick them all.
Plenty of ideas available. But I know thats more work for you so the short term solution will do it.
@nehi: what do you think? Patriotic Move too powerfull?
But generally i abolutely like the two russian war conditions. (Baltic vs Polish) They are very fair and make sense. I also think that new players will find them very challenging - No need to make them harder. They seem to be perfect.
Its the combination of an early war with russia (from turn 3 = more moves available until dec.) and the many Patriotic Blitzattacks that is powerful.
Please testplay this, anyone, I would like to hear a 2nd opinion.
I keep playing now. Great job Robotron!!!!
), sunk by entente
