Potzblitz V26.01 OCT 26th 2025

[Tulius Hostilius]

There ARE already Arabs fighting for CP via the "Fires in the desert" event which brings the Senussi tribesmen into play.

If I were to introduce cheap Arab mercenaries as regular units for Turkey then the CP player would just swamp the area with them.

Sorry for being out of topic, but I wasn’t talking about the Senussi, I saw them, but I was re-reading a bit about the Mesopotamian campaign and I noticed that at least in the beginning the Ottomans had more irregulars fighting there than regulars.

I confess that my personal bibliography about WWI is pretty limited to some genetic books, but while in the internet I felt in the inevitable Wikipedia, and while not a Wikipedia fan for details, I went to this entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotam ... paign#1914

“Early on the morning of 12 April, Süleyman Askerî attacked the British camp at Shaiba in what became known as the Battle of Shaiba. He had about 4,000 regular troops and about 14,000 Arab irregulars provided by Arab sheiks. Although the irregulars proved ineffective, the Ottoman infantry launched a series of relentless attacks on the fortified British camp and later attempted by bypass it.”

No source is given herem but it is curious to see 4000 Ottoman regulars to 14000 Arab irregulars.

The entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Shaiba states “The Ottoman commander Süleyman Askeri had about 4,000 regular soldiers, including the Istanbul Fire Brigade Regiment and a large number of irregular Arabs and Kurds, numbering maybe 14,000, for a total of 18,000 personnel.[1]” and here a source is givem: Charles Townsend, Desert Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2010), 84.

[Robotron]

And for simplicity's sake let's just pretend that those forces mentioned are part of the ones built by the CP player, shall we?

I just can't allow Arab units to be part of the Turkish unit list or we'll have Arabs fighting in the Caucasus, at Gallipoli or at the Salonika front or even Galicia.

That would feel plainly wrong.

The AI already loves to assign Bulgarian and even Austrian units to the Middle-East scenario, which is an atrocity in its own right.

[Tulius Hostilius]

Fair points. I already find odd to see Austrian units in the Western Front.

Although sometimes it may seem otherwise, I was/am not trying to convince you to implement my sudden suggestions.

The thing is that I am still new to the game (I joined a month ago, when I bought the game!), and you have hours and hours of testing, then a post that was basically a brainstorm/basic chat, and an expression of a partial surprise from me that in the Mesopotamia front, in a battle, the Ottomans had more irregulars than regulars, may have been seen as a serious suggestion, since the Forum is quite empty, we end talking to each other.

A side note, some years ago I saw a movie about the Italian/Sanussi war: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081059/

It is a good movie, if you like the genre.

-- end of out of topic conversation

[Zombo]

It's looking great!!!

2 German chemical-arty corps made sure, Paris was down to 0 PP at late 1915.

I am still uncomfortable, though, with the "strategic bombing" effect of artillery on cities. I don't see the rationale. You'd have to imagine that the front runs within artillery distance of all the industrial equipment present in the hex.

Now, I would make (slight) PP damage a function of combat against the hex (the more successful the combat the more damage it does - as we can imagine more portions of territory being captured, potentially with factories, etc... in them) but what feels very wrong is that you can simply move adjacent to an hex and blast its industries to bits without even attacking. In my view, if you move adjacent to an hex and don't attack, you're basically accepting the enemy's line of defense as the front - and the enemy's line of defense, unchallenged, will NOT leave its industries exposed.

During WWII, you needed thousands of flying fortresses to pulverize the industries of a whole region.

To sum up, I'd recommend making PP damage a function of victorious combat ( possibly slightly modified by the presence of friendly artillery within range - or even better, if the attack was preceded by artillery attack)

Unsuccesful attacks or no attacks at all should not do anything.

[Robotron]

You'd have to imagine that the front runs within artillery distance of all the industrial equipment present in the hex.

We are already imagining that a single unit, be it as small as a Reserve Corps or a Fighter Corps is occupying a single hex which is about 50 kilometers wide.
It's just the kind of abstraction that the game design forces upon us.

[Zombo]

The problem is that it leads to unrealistic tactics, which is what I think you're trying to avoid

moving adjacent to PP centres with not enough forces to threaten it, and yet wipe out its PP production just by shelling it. As I said, not even in WW2 was this really feasible, if you except massive commitment of thousands of latest generation four-engine bombers

In other words, the Germans being stopped in front of Paris is a perfectly valid WW1 proposition. By in that context the Germans being able to pulverize Paris's industrial capacity nonetheless is a little absurd, and honestly, I'd be really frustrated if I were playing the french.

It took a specially designed crazy-long-barreled gun to be able to fire into Paris and its effects were anecdotal ( and of course, it was unthinkable to make mass production of it)

[Zombo]

...if there's no easy solution to implement damage resulting from combat into the PP hex ( without actually capturing it) I'd recommend NOT ALLOWING artillery bombardment to reduce PP AT ALL

[nehi]

...if there's no easy solution to implement damage resulting from combat into the PP hex ( without actually capturing it) I'd recommend NOT ALLOWING artillery bombardment to reduce PP AT ALL

the problem is, u aim just for history accuracy and u forgot its a game

u should defend paris i u dont want its industry pulverized

u can imagine how much can workers do, if they are threaten by bombing or even worse, direct attack of infatry?

make some bumper zone then, bleed for it, but make it

entente with untouchable industry is unbreakable, i can agree that long range damaging industry is too much, but the close one is ok

[Zombo]

Well, if I have not misread Robotron's intentions, it's a game that aims at historical accuracy ( if all we needed was a game, the original version was a game already)

When you say, defend Paris, given the scale of the game, if a unit holds it hex, I consider it defended. Regarding the "threat of bombing" that you refer to, that assumes that the defender has established its defensive line leaving all of its industrial potential within enemy artillery range, which is ridiculous. And regarding "direct attack", that's precisely my point. At this stage, you don't need to attack at all, you just move adjacent and obliterate the hex's PPs. Where's the attack in that?

[Robotron]

I think I got it sorted out now:

Cities will be damaged by 1 point if the defending unit took damage after getting attacked by a land unit.

Strategic attacks by artillery, naval and air units will behave as before, that is:
PP loss to cities will be calculated according to the strategic attack value of the attacker.

Examples:
an attacking unit with a stratattack (strategic attack) value of 10 will cause 1 PP damage to a city with 10 PP.
2 units with a stratattack value of 10 will be needed to cause 1PP damage to a city with 20 PP.

Alternatively 1 unit with a stratattack unit of 20 will be able to destroy 1 PP from a city with 20 PP.
Alternatively 1 unit with a stratattack unit of 20 will be able to damage 2 PP from a city with 10 PP.

Stratattack damage from different sources will be combined.
Leftover stratattack damage from fractions is carried over to the next turn and will diminish the cities ability to repair lost PP.

Some stratattack numbers for Potzblitz V6:

a basic artillery has a stratattack value of 10.
an upgraded artillery has a stratattack value of 18.

a basic zeppelin (the one that looks like a barrage balloon) has a stratattack value of 0.
a fully upgraded zeppelin has a stratattack value of 12.

a basic bomber has a stratattack value of 15.
a fully upgraded bomber has a stratattack value of 25

a dreadnought has a stratattack value of 15.
a light cruiser has a stratattack value of 4.

Discuss!

[Robotron]

I have implemented a new function for atmospheric sound effects to accompany the clicking-through-the-events list for pure flavor reasons.
I know some of you couldn't care less about such "chrome" but I hope the rest will enjoy these as much as I do.

[Zombo]

Who doesn't care for chrome? let him be lynch by the angry mob!

Strat: well, I made my point. For my part, the less the better, but I agree some concessions to ... whatever... is acceptable, as long as it is not too impactful and more importantly doesn't generate totally ahistorical tactics ( such as nuking Paris from afar without ever having enough forces to mount even the most timid land probe, or nuking Turkish coastal cities with battleships, etc) that even for WW2 would be out of place...

Maybe establish a maximum damage limit from start attack to 15%-20% of the PP total, rounded up?

[Robotron]

@Zombo: stratattacks will be able to reduce a city until 20% of starting PP are left. However, this will only apply to cities with a starting PP value of at least 10.

More news:

added Luxembourg:
Luxembourg will be a Belgian city (since the map can't be edited) with a PP value of 4 and no unit to defend.
It will be located just north of Metz.

new event: "VIOLATIONS OF NEUTRALITY":
This event will only be available during turn 3 and only if war plan Rupprecht or "Aufmarsch Ost" were not selected, thus assuming the CP player will attack through Belgium.
It will transfer Luxembourg and the Dutch province of Limburg (hex 89,24) under German control.
The consequences:
Germany will have more room to move and attack the fortresses of Liege and Namur.
Netherlands alignment will be shifted sharply towards Entente and her ability to provide food for Germany during the British Blockade will be reduced a little bit.

[Robotron]

Finally, it seems V6 is ready to get uploaded.

Here is the complete list of changes, probably not including all bugfixes reported by players that got fixed.
The list is a copypaste job done from all the announcements I made during the last few weeks.

START

Discarded the "Denounce" option from the diplomatic screen since it was quite useless.
Instead there'll be a "Pillage" diplomatic option that nets a gain of 1 extra PP from every enemy city, capital or fortress occupied by your troops from the selected enemy.
Of course this will anger neutrals and it will also increase the cost for future diplomatic actions.

Also included the scripted targeting for AI units already applied to CP units in singleplayer to Entente units in singleplayer.

Maximum limit of allowed number for Zeps and bombers was faulty and got fixed. Maximum unit number of Zeps and bombers now correctly limited by number of completed Zep/bomber techs. The carpet bombing fans should rejoice.

INTEL events did not work correctly and got fixed and now they really matter.

"Mud" event was fixed so units can move without taking the mud with them.

New "cleverly" designed randomizing function applied. Should the multiplayer crashes be caused by randomizing, then the game should crash on the first turn.
This should at least help to find the problem. At the very least the game now has a decent randomizer.

"Essen Strike" event got fixed again and hopefully for the last time: INFLUENCE Sweden as CP before Russia DOWs and you have a 10% chance per INFLUENCE point spent to have the event added to your pool of events so Sweden can join CP. Of course Entente can counter-influence to prevent this.

New choice-events:
"Bring Lenin to Russia" to speed up October Revolution
"Kornilov Affair" to possibly counter October Revolution
"Finland Revolt" (can be started by INFLUENCING Finland via diplo screen)

Russian offensives of Lake Naroch, Brussilov and Kerenski added as choice events that burn lots of manpower and add collapse points to spawn extra units

Gallipoli Landing added as choice event.

The city of Pristina moved back into Albania.

Naval forces to both Portugal and Spain: 1 Armoured Cruiser for Portugal, 2 Armoured Cruisers and a Pre-Dread for Spain.

Slightly more randomized starting alignment for minor neutrals.

The "attaque a outrance" will now only trigger after french general Joffre has been unlocked BUT once he IS in play it will also trigger if the French are attacked by Germans albeit with a much smaller chance than when French attack the Germans.
Reasoning behind this is that the Entente player could just avoid the event by not attacking at all until the German advance comes to a stillstand which seems not right to me.
To compensate the "French abandonment of Plan17" event, that will nullify the "attaque a outrance" event, will be available if:
- Schlieffen-Plan is not played in turn 1
- The CP player choses to play the "Redeploy" event, or no war plan at all
- Belgium accepts the German demands for free passage

Removed all the Royal Navy units stationed at Canadian coast. My own research and the links provided don't justify the existence of a LightCruiser, ArmoredCruiser and a pre-Dread.

Without German compensation ("The Kaiser's Gold") for the withheld turkish BBs by Britain, the Goeben BC will not be allowed to enter the Dardanelles.
Playing the "Goeben Battlecruiser" event will not be possible after Britain has entered the war.
Playing the "Goeben Battlecruiser" event on turn 2 will result in slight damage to Goeben due to overworked boilers (only a problem when playing CP in SP or in MP).
French Army of Africa might be damaged when played before or during the same turn than "Goeben Battlecruiser" was played.

Lawrence of Arabia's troops will first have to capture the capital of Medina to have full supply. I gave them the coastal town of Yabu so they start with at least half supply. Medina will be defended by a Turkish smallgarrison or a Reserve Corps if "Jihad" was played by CP, in which case, well, though luck, Mr. Lawrence.

Greater chance for "Jihad" to be available: once Turkey has entered the war, the "Jihad" event will stay in the event pool for 2 turns and will then be discarded.
However, the event will be removed if Entente chose to deliver the BBs Turkey had bought in Britain.

Fighters have now a range of 5 (still only LOS 3).

Anti-sub technologies will now also be unlocked as soon as a naval unit runs into a minefield. Before, as Entente player you had to wait until the first CP sub had caused at least 2 points of damage.

Troop transports are now at speed 14 (was 12). LightCruisers and BattleCruisers at 15 (was 14).

The British North Sea Blockade will take longer to establish. The sinking of the first German convoy will no longer establish the Blockade, forcing the Entente player to choose the "Blockade established" event or wait for a few more turns (buying time for CP).

INTEL effects now have a chance to cause "Socialist defeatism" causing moderate morale loss and even collapse points.

Serbia has been included into the collapse point system like one of the major nations

effects of "collapsing" raised significantly

major re-assignment of PP to all towns and capitals in the game
new Turkish fortress of Adrianople

shipment of PP via sea or rail will slightly raise the receiving nation's war effort if below 100

Cities will be damaged by 1 point if the defending unit took damage after getting attacked by a land unit.

I have implemented a new function for atmospheric sound effects to accompany the clicking-through-the-events list for pure flavor reasons.
I know some of you couldn't care less about such "chrome" but I hope the rest will enjoy these as much as I do.

added Luxembourg:
Luxembourg will be a Belgian city (since the map can't be edited) with a PP value of 4 and no unit to defend.
It will be located just north of Metz.

new event: "VIOLATIONS OF NEUTRALITY":
This event will only be available during turn 3 and only if war plan Rupprecht or "Aufmarsch Ost" were not selected, thus assuming the CP player will attack through Belgium.
It will transfer Luxembourg and the Dutch province of Limburg (hex 89,24) under German control.
The consequences:
Germany will have more room to move and attack the fortresses of Liege and Namur.
Netherlands alignment will be shifted sharply towards Entente and her ability to provide food for Germany during the British Blockade will be reduced a little bit.

END

To be honest, I'm quite tired of playtesting right now, but the last few singleplayer games I had during the last week were stable.
So, unless you have anything else you want to have added, I will upload the thing tomorrow.

Cheers!

[Robotron]

Uploaded.

Please note that because of the new AI targeting routines the units affected will execute their attacks at lightning speed, expect some hectic camera movements. And no, I don't know how to fix that.

[Zombo]

Great!


has multiplayer been tested fro the infamous bug? if not, should we just give a try?

[Robotron]

For some strange reason, the google drive link I posted yesterday does not directly link to the proper download as it used to the last time I uploaded stuff there.

Try this link instead (fixed in opening post too)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vfuQZ ... E325aqbeaW

[nehi]

do germans have some bonus in the west? like each of my attacks by german unit got better or equal result than prediction / half of them twice better, no war plan chosen

[Robotron]

@nehi: yes, as long as the "France caught offguard" event was successfully triggered, Germany enjoys a combat bonus against France, Britain and Belgium until either...

1. "Moltke sacked" event was triggered or
2. winter falls and Paris was not taken or
3. 1915 begins

Unfortunately I don't know how to integrate the combat bonus into the combat result prediction without the bonus getting added every time a combat prediction is shown.

So, instead you get a combat result prediction without the bonus.

[nehi]

when i hit "choose event", its crashing the game

problem free until turn 20

[22:28:25][3896]it is now:1539116905
[22:28:25][3896]ALUCK 87
[22:28:25][3896]BLUCK 98
[22:28:25][3896]CLUCK 3
[22:28:25][3896]it is now:1005848854
[22:28:41][3896]==============START DODIPLOEVENTS
[22:28:41][3896]+++++++++++++++++++++++++ event:UltimatumSerbia3
[22:28:41][3896]:2129(global DoDiploEvents) :2129: attempt to perform arithmetic on field '?' (a nil value)