"Kaiserschlacht" WWI Mod v3.3 (Mar 5, 2016)

[hs1611]

And maybe I should add some stuff following uk18?

- BNC

Invasion of the USA from Mexico?

[BiteNibbleChomp]

Invasion of the USA from Mexico?

I was thinking more like the Polish-Soviet war, with Germany intervening to support a pro-Central-Powers Poland + Ukraine.

Plus, I don't have any Mexico graphics at the moment.

- BNC

[hs1611]

That sounds good too.

[captainjack]

The Polish Soviet war and Soviet Civil War could be interesting and wouldn't need much in the way of extra units.

[Micha63]

Just playing the Cumbry Scenario, fantastic work.

[hs1611]

I'm on my second play through the Grand Campaign and have a couple of observations to make.

First what I believe to be a bug. I managed a DV on the Michael scenario but got a LOSS message and was sent to Arras 18.
It's not a big deal since I just used the "endscn" cheat, but I thought you'd like to know.

RECON seems to be a waste. They have a spotting radius of 2, which is the same as Infantry. The only advantage Recon has is the multiple moves.
In my opinion, especially on "trench war" scenarios, that is just not good enough.
Maybe increase spotting to 3? On the other hand if you do that you'll have to keep your Artillery even farther behind the front lines, which may or may not be a good thing.

Speaking of ARTILLERY, it seems to be a bit overpowered to me.
Ideally it should do more SUPRESSION and less KILLS, at least in the offensive, but I'm not sure if there's any way to change this.
A suggestion to nerf Artillery a bit, at least SIEGE and maybe HEAVY Artillery, would be to give them MOVEMENT 0.
You could raise their price and give them organic transportation, but you would have to SWITCH the unit between firing mode and transportation mode.
Thus you could only move or fire in a turn, but not both.
And maybe reduce their INITIATIVE a bit. 5 is too much.

Apart from this, I'm really enjoying this MOD. It's quite different from the WW2 MODS.
I'm not a fan of big strategic maps, but I think I'll try the WW1 global scenario next...

Overall, a very good job.

[captainjack]

It's the Great War, so artillery should dominate. In that context, I don't think that the 2 spotting is all that unreasonable, given that recon move allows an opportunity to pull back if you find something too scary to deal with. The need for better spotting drove the need for aerial reconnaissance, which in turn led to fighters and so on, and the benefit of a Zeppelin becomes apparent very quickly - and so too does the need to get fighter escorts and to watch for AA units.

As for speed, in the early versions all the artillery walked at speed 1 (move heroes were very much appreciated). While speed 1 is good for developing planning skills, I much prefer the horse drawn guns.

[hs1611]

Yes, Artillery should dominate. But not that much.

As for MOVEMENT my suggestion is to give MOVEMENT 0 to HEAVY and SIEGE guns. At the same time make them switchable to a TRANSPORT MODE (Horse transport).
I don't think reasonable that those guns can SHOOT and MOVE on the same turn.
Also they should have less INITIATIVE. They should be pretty much helpless when attacked by INFANTRY at close range, even on OPEN GROUND.
The exception is the LIGHT, and maybe the MEDIUM, artillery. They can fire CANISTER, so better close range defense, at least in the open.

As for RECON I understand your point. I even agree with it. But in that case, at least for me, they are pretty much worthless. I prefer to use my Zeppelin and Fighters for Recon.
Maybe if INFANTRY had only SPOTTING 1? I don't really think this is a good idea. What do you think?

[BiteNibbleChomp]

Artillery was officially the biggest killer in WWI (even compared to gas + machine guns), so I wanted to represent that. And siege artillery is well balanced IMO as it costs 500 and is only any real use against tanks and strongpoints, the 2 things that a 30cm shell is better suited for compared to a 10.5 (Med. Gun) or 15 (Heavy Gun). If you want to make them not move+attack, why not just play it so that you don't move them?

Recon in 1914-16 was just cavalry, which everyone (save the Russians) worked out was worthless from about the 1st Marne onwards. Later (1915-7) you will invent armoured cars, which are able to fight '14 infantry well and can hold against a '16 or '18 infantry. Planes in this mod end up being your main recon tools, just as they did in the real war.

In the upcoming v2.1 I will look to fix the issue with the Michael offensive scenario.

Happy gaming,

- BNC

[hs1611]

Artillery was officially the biggest killer in WWI (even compared to gas + machine guns), so I wanted to represent that. And siege artillery is well balanced IMO as it costs 500 and is only any real use against tanks and strongpoints, the 2 things that a 30cm shell is better suited for compared to a 10.5 (Med. Gun) or 15 (Heavy Gun). If you want to make them not move+attack, why not just play it so that you don't move them?

It was just a sugestion, it sounded good to me but it is your MOD.
I will play with whatever rules are implemented. No "house rules" for me. I'm just too lazy...

Recon in 1914-16 was just cavalry, which everyone (save the Russians) worked out was worthless from about the 1st Marne onwards. Later (1915-7) you will invent armoured cars, which are able to fight '14 infantry well and can hold against a '16 or '18 infantry. Planes in this mod end up being your main recon tools, just as they did in the real war.

When you put it like that you are right, of course. It is realistic. Cavalry is useless.
It just seemed a waste of CORE slots. But that's easy. I'll simply not use them until I can upgrade to the armoured cars.
Possible exception "Race to the Sea".

In the upcoming v2.1 I will look to fix the issue with the Michael offensive scenario.-BNC

Good to know, thanks...

[MarechalJoffre]

I'm kind of new to Panzer Corps, and way too stupid to properly install a mod. Any guides to install this one?
Edit: I've managed to install it after a couple of tries. It's a great mod! Nights gonna be spent on it
Although I'm still not able to get the Grand European Map to activate. There wasn't a file named "Scenario" in My Games/Panzer Corps, so I had to make one. Put the WW1grand files into it, still nothing changed. All I can play is the "normal" campaign. Any help?

[captainjack]

When I bought my first (and only) siege artillery piece it was much less effective against ground troops than I had expected and the low ammo was a pain, but against the Verdun fortresses it was brilliant so the overall effect is pretty good. I haven't yet had the joy of firing at tanks with it - I'm suffering a pre-Arras 17 panic attack!

[BiteNibbleChomp]

When I bought my first (and only) siege artillery piece it was much less effective against ground troops than I had expected and the low ammo was a pain, but against the Verdun fortresses it was brilliant so the overall effect is pretty good. I haven't yet had the joy of firing at tanks with it - I'm suffering a pre-Arras 17 panic attack!

It has around 11 attack vs soft units (a medium gun has 25 IIRC), so I don't know what you expected it to do. But 36 HA is really awesome!

I'm kind of new to Panzer Corps, and way too stupid to properly install a mod. Any guides to install this one?
Edit: I've managed to install it after a couple of tries. It's a great mod! Nights gonna be spent on it
Although I'm still not able to get the Grand European Map to activate. There wasn't a file named "Scenario" in My Games/Panzer Corps, so I had to make one. Put the WW1grand files into it, still nothing changed. All I can play is the "normal" campaign. Any help?

New Game -> Scenario Tab -> (scroll down) -> Custom... -> 'The First World War'. It won't appear next to the main campaign or anything.

- BNC

[MarechalJoffre]

I'm kind of new to Panzer Corps, and way too stupid to properly install a mod. Any guides to install this one?
Edit: I've managed to install it after a couple of tries. It's a great mod! Nights gonna be spent on it
Although I'm still not able to get the Grand European Map to activate. There wasn't a file named "Scenario" in My Games/Panzer Corps, so I had to make one. Put the WW1grand files into it, still nothing changed. All I can play is the "normal" campaign. Any help?

New Game -> Scenario Tab -> (scroll down) -> Custom... -> 'The First World War'. It won't appear next to the main campaign or anything.

- BNC

Alrighty, that settled that. Loving your mod, literally this is what I was looking for a real long time!

[hs1611]

Finally finished this Campaign (next up the Full Europe/North Africa Scenario) and I thought I should give you some feedback.

Overall, quite different from vanilla PzC, which is excellent.

Two Scenarios that I would like to mention are Arras 18 and Mons 18.

What can I say about Arras 18? It's a bloodbath!! I narrowly managed a MV by concentrating all my CORE units in Bethune and sacrificing the AUX units to make the enemy waste a couple of turns before they could attack my CORE.
Hey, that's what AUX units are for!! And I still lost a few CORE units (thanks Rudankort for reform units)...

Now, as for Mons 18, easiest Scenario in the Campaign!! I got a DV without losing a single health point from my CORE units and without firing a single shot, except for my Artillery.
I don't think this was what you intended.

Two problems I found with this Scenario:

1 - The Entente Air Force never appeared over Brussels, where my CORE was entrenched. This might be because there's no alternative Airfield between Brussels and the initial Entente Airfiels. Maybe the aircraft don't have enough Endurance to get to Brussels and return. If that is the case a simple Airfield located somewhere across the river from Brussels would fix it.

2 - Now, this other problem is a real game breaker. It might be just my installation. If someone could verify this I would appreciate it.
Let me show you my Position on the Last Turn:



As you can see there's a barrier of AUX Gas Shells all around my units and protecting the objective South of the river.
The problem is that, while Gas Shells are classed as Tac Bombers they behave as Ground Units. They block other Ground Units from using the same hexes.
This means that, since the AI will not attack and destroy Gas shells it will never be able to get to my troops.

Just to make it clear, Gas shells are Tac Bombers but behave as Ground Units. They occupy the Ground and not the Air of the hex that they're at.
Aircraft can be on the same hex as Gas Shells:



I looked at the equipment file but could find no reason for this.
I tried removing Gas Shell's traits but it continued doing the same.
Class is correct (8 - Tac Bomber).
Movement Type is correct (5 - Air).

I can't figure this out.
Guess I won't use Gas Artillery on the big map!

Thanks

[ThvN]

I think the problem is that the target type is set to 'Soft' in stead of 'Air'. But if you set it to air it will start with the same amount of fuel that the primary unit (the gun) has left, in this case 0. So it won't be able to refuel and cannot be moved.

So, to fix this, the target type for the gas shell needs to be set to '2', and the primary unit and the gas shell need the same amount of fuel to be set. But remember that moving the gun uses fuel so make sure to refuel it before switching. BTW, I noticed there are two identical gas shells in the equip file, items 2764 and 1764, it seems the last one is used?

[BiteNibbleChomp]

Finally finished this Campaign (next up the Full Europe/North Africa Scenario) and I thought I should give you some feedback.

Overall, quite different from vanilla PzC, which is excellent.

Two Scenarios that I would like to mention are Arras 18 and Mons 18.

What can I say about Arras 18? It's a bloodbath!! I narrowly managed a MV by concentrating all my CORE units in Bethune and sacrificing the AUX units to make the enemy waste a couple of turns before they could attack my CORE.
Hey, that's what AUX units are for!! And I still lost a few CORE units (thanks Rudankort for reform units)...

Now, as for Mons 18, easiest Scenario in the Campaign!! I got a DV without losing a single health point from my CORE units and without firing a single shot, except for my Artillery.
I don't think this was what you intended.

No, it's not what I intended. Mons is supposed to be an even bloodier version of Arras 18 that dooms your core so that you struggle to defend Imperial Germany from a revolution in the next one. I can't allow 5-star units to have an easy job defying the revolution.

Though using gas shells as a garrison is kind of a cheat!

In v2.1 I do plan on adding an airfield (if only to doom your core further!)

I think the problem is that the target type is set to 'Soft' in stead of 'Air'. But if you set it to air it will start with the same amount of fuel that the primary unit (the gun) has left, in this case 0. So it won't be able to refuel and cannot be moved.

So, to fix this, the target type for the gas shell needs to be set to '2', and the primary unit and the gas shell need the same amount of fuel to be set. But remember that moving the gun uses fuel so make sure to refuel it before switching. BTW, I noticed there are two identical gas shells in the equip file, items 2764 and 1764, it seems the last one is used?

I'm kind of surprised that this has managed to be overlooked in the development of about 7 patches! I might make the gun have 0 moves and 8 fuel, and then the shell will carry over the fuel.

Also, there should actually be 3 gas shells in the e-file. That's because there are 3 Germanys in the mod, with quite a long development history:

First one: the one you played as in the very early versions of the mod (when artillery was one unit instead of 4 and moved at 1 hex per turn) - Nation ' Germany '
2nd one: I decide to start GC14 and add horse transports for the campaign. GC14 gets doomed but the transports carry into the campaign you have been playing. - Nation ' Vichy France '
3rd one: I cloned most nations for use in the large Europe map, so that artillery can have 2-3 range in that but 5+ in the campaign. - Nation ' Poland ' (surprisingly, clone Austria managed to get ' Free Poland ' )

The first Germany has long been abandoned (the Kaiser of that one must have died), but I never bothered removing its stuff.

- BNC

[hs1611]

If you can make Gas Shells behave like aircraft you don't even have to reduce the Gun's movement to 0, because aircraft spend some fuel even if they don't move.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

https://www.mediafire.com/?1qv8izlyvqjt013

v2.1 is up. Download updated on first page.

Notable fixes:

- Marne airfield now should allow your units to refuel.
- Mons 18 now has airfields in the middle of the map (I probably just made in unwinnable by doing so!)
- Gas Shells now behave as aircraft.
- Gas Artillery now have a max of 8 fuel.

Grand Map:

- French units now gain +2 strength a turn so that a 1915 offensive won't knock them out very easily. This begins to occur as soon as the trenches are dug.
- Serbia now has an additional 2 units.
- France no longer provides 700 PP when conquered
- Prestige per turn changed to 75 if the Ottoman Empire joins the war.
- Russia now will launch a cavalry strike at some time in 1915-6
- Poland now much stronger.
- Minsk and Riga now have artillery helping defend them. Kiev has gained a 2nd artillery garrison.

I hope this solves all of the issues with v2.0!

- BNC

[Cataphract88]

Thanks a lot for the new update.