Slitherine

In singleplayer: I would say playing the Entente allies is easier.
However in my last singleplayer game with me as Entente I had a scenario which involved both(!) Serbia and Belgium submitting to CP calls for surrendering from the get-go.
This lead to Russia declaring war on AH on turn 1, but delaying British war entry. It was quite a slugfest in the east with almost whole of Galicia and Przemysl in Russian hands.
France managed to redirect her main forces to the Belgium borders but got badly smashed. Still France managed to BARELY stop the Germans in 1914 even without British help but British reinforcements were badly needed afterwards...and came too late.

In multiplayer: it will depend on the way the game evolves. Here the CP player can actively choose to some degree which way the war will go: historical or not.

In the first ever completed PotzBlitz multiplayer challenge I as Entente got badly demolished by the Central Powers played by Argentum who is a very good player.
However that game evolved quite different from the historical scenario with Britain only joining in 1915 because of a German attack through Switzerland instead of Belgium.
Italy joined CP because of CPs better war performance while the Ottomans stayed neutral during the war because of the British-Ottoman Battleship deal getting through.
Also Italy joining CP pissed off Ottomans because of hard feelings left from the 1911 Ottoman-Italo war, thus further delaying Ottoman war entry.

Note that this particular outcome was not set in stone by initial choices but also depended heavily on the success both of players on the battlefield too.

Got a weird thing, not a crash, when playing as Entente and AI Central Powers choosing Germany to attack in the East instead of Belgium.

In turn 13, I got the following:



As mentioned, game didn't crash and I was able to keep on playing.

@Vokt: apparently I forgot to link the text with the picture there. The event is just for informing you that the German offensive in the east was halted. You're not missing out anything. Thanks for reporting anyway.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=18B0-F ... l2ufHgqL2E

all other links are updated too.

Stupid questions: How does one make these diplomatic etc. choices I keep reading about? Where is the interface for this? I am confused, or failed to get the memo.

You are totally correct asking the question since opening posts is lacking any pictures (there were pictures before but the picture hoster had deleted them. The forum only supports uploading of up to 3 pictures per post.)

So here we go:

CHOOSING EVENTS:

click on diplomacy tab:



FIRST choose one of your alliance's nations on the left



SECOND choose the SAME nation's flag on the right. This is mandatory to allow to target that nation for bonus PP, MP, AM or morale events.



Then you should have these options:



Clicking on "choose event" will give you a choice of 1 of three available events to play:




This might all be quite unwieldy but it was necessary to do it that way to allow the "transfer" (see below) feature to work correctly.

TRANSFER:

Transfer up to 20 units of PP or ammunition between nations of the same alliance.

first click on the left vertical list of your alliance's nations to choose a SENDER.

second click on the right horizontal list of your alliance's nations to choose a RECEIVER.

Example showing Britain transferring 20 PP to France.



This can be done via railway of sea transports. It will use up rail or sea transport moves.
The sender is expected to provide the means of transport unless he has neither rail nor sea transport moves left.
In this case the receiver will use up means of transportation.
If neither sender or receiver have any rail/sea transport left then no transfer is possible.

Up to 30% of any rail shipment can get lost by "local requisition".
Sea transfers can be sunk by Central Powers raiders (you'll be notified when this happens) and will be lost.

To be able to conduct a transfer of PP or AM via rail you must have a continous railway connection between any two capitals of sending and receiving nation.

To be able to conduct of PP or AM via sea you both nations must share ports in the SAME sea region.

Sea regions are:
Baltic Sea, North Sea, North Atlantic, Western Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean, Adriatic sea, Black Sea, Red Sea

berto wrote: ↑Sat Dec 01, 2018 6:00 pm How does one make these diplomatic etc. choices I keep reading about?

then u were missing the best part of potzblitz

entente is easier, as ai is not capable to play effectively side which has to be offensive

Thank you! I had seen the "Choose Event" button but didn't press it for fear I would commit to ... some single unknown default, the "Event" (?). I didn't realize that "Choose Event" was a gateway to a multiple choice pop-up. I got it sorted now.

Now I really got a crash. Same game than screenshot above. Game is already in early 1917.

Can't reproduce your crash. Please provide the crash report from the ctgw.log right after the crash before reloading.

Because of different random stuff happening in between turns the logfile is always the best source for me.

You only need to copy and paste the last few (10-15) lines, uploading is not required.

Here you are:

Log date: 2018-12-02 11:41:37
[11:41:38][11860]Renderer: Intel(R) HD Graphics 520 version: 4.4.0 - Build 21.20.16.4550
[11:41:38][11860]Commander: The Great War(v 1.6.4)
[11:41:38][11860]Audio device used: OpenAL Soft
[11:41:38][11860]Loading main script
[11:41:38][11860]Loading app script
[11:41:38][11860]App version:1.6.4
[11:41:38][11860]Today is: 2.12.2018
[11:41:38][11860]ALUCK 6
[11:41:38][11860]BLUCK 41
[11:41:38][11860]CLUCK 28
[11:44:44][11860]----------GAMEPHASE END START
[11:44:44][11860]Phase end: entente
[11:44:44][11860]-----------GAMEPHASE END END
[11:44:44][11860]Turn ended: 43
[11:44:44][11860]----------GAMETURN START!

And just in case, the ctgw.log file:

Vokt wrote: ↑Sun Dec 02, 2018 10:54 am And just in case, the ctgw.log file

last few, not first few

[11:44:45][11860]EVENTCHECK4A
[11:44:45][11860]EVENTCHECK5
[11:44:45][11860]EVENTCHECK5A
[11:44:45][11860]+++++++++++++++++++++++++ event:Pope
[11:44:45][11860]game/game_diplomacy.lua:824(global ChangeFactionAlignment) game/game_diplomacy.lua:824: attempt to index local 'alliance' (a nil value)

Cause of the crash was related to neither side playing the "Pope" event.

Fixed:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xrGEt ... SGzoEuHYg3

transfer maximum for PP and ammo raised to 20

what is the reason for that change? Although I like the option, I've always used it in ways that seems not very plausible historically: one player controls all countries of his alliance, so he just sends his PP and ammo to where it matters most. In reality countries would not easily depleted heir stocks for an ally's sake.
I would NOT expect real AH to send all its ammo to Germany (nor the opposite) just because they need it for a critical offensive, at the severe expense of ther own fighting power, and yet that's what a competent player would do. Raising the limit aggravates that aspect.

In other news:

I've decided against typing up a test mod for MP, instead I've rewritten all events containing spawning of units for multiplayer.

The MP versions of those events will include a check where every unit that is spawning first has to pass a series of tests whether they are in LOS of the enemy.

The first check will first be done against zeppelins who have the highest possible LOS and then working down in several steps to units with LOS 1.
Places (towns, fortresses etc.) will also be checked since they also have a LOS.

If the units appears to be in LOS of the opponent (which would crash the replay) the player who has played the events will get a PP compensation.

I'll upload that V7.0 ("no beta"?) next weekend so players can report about bugs in the meantime.

Robotron wrote: ↑Sun Dec 02, 2018 8:03 pm In other news:

I've decided against typing up a test mod for MP, instead I've rewritten all events containing spawning of units for multiplayer.

The MP versions of those events will include a check where every unit that is spawning first has to pass a series of tests whether they are in LOS of the enemy.

The first check will first be done against zeppelins who have the highest possible LOS and then working down in several steps to units with LOS 1.
Places (towns, fortresses etc.) will also be checked since they also have a LOS.

If the units appears to be in LOS of the opponent (which would crash the replay) the player who has played the events will get a PP compensation.

I'll upload that V7.0 ("no beta"?) next weekend so players can report about bugs in the meantime.

This is great news. I cant wait to test this. Seems to be a solution i can surely live with.

Robotron wrote: ↑Sun Dec 02, 2018 8:03 pm In other news:

I've decided against typing up a test mod for MP, instead I've rewritten all events containing spawning of units for multiplayer.

The MP versions of those events will include a check where every unit that is spawning first has to pass a series of tests whether they are in LOS of the enemy.

The first check will first be done against zeppelins who have the highest possible LOS and then working down in several steps to units with LOS 1.
Places (towns, fortresses etc.) will also be checked since they also have a LOS.

If the units appears to be in LOS of the opponent (which would crash the replay) the player who has played the events will get a PP compensation.

I'll upload that V7.0 ("no beta"?) next weekend so players can report about bugs in the meantime.

Not a very elegant solution, but I think it will work. However, PP can not replace unit on the battlefield and therefore I think France should get more units at the start. For example, infantry in the capital.

Zombo wrote: ↑Sun Dec 02, 2018 7:44 pm

transfer maximum for PP and ammo raised to 20

what is the reason for that change? Although I like the option, I've always used it in ways that seems not very plausible historically: one player controls all countries of his alliance, so he just sends his PP and ammo to where it matters most. In reality countries would not easily depleted heir stocks for an ally's sake.
I would NOT expect real AH to send all its ammo to Germany (nor the opposite) just because they need it for a critical offensive, at the severe expense of ther own fighting power, and yet that's what a competent player would do. Raising the limit aggravates that aspect.

Sorry Zombo, I've missed that post of yours yesterday...it's a bit difficult to keep track of new comments when almost everybody has a tank variation as an avatar pic.

Well, I just found that one can't do very much with 10pp or 10am, so I decided to raise the limit, that's all.

Another crash. Allies are quite close to victory. Austria-Hungary asked for peace, we accepted and game crashed.

Ctgw.log file:

Sorry Zombo, I've missed that post of yours yesterday...it's a bit difficult to keep track of new comments when almost everybody has a tank variation as an avatar pic.

Well, I just found that one can't do very much with 10pp or 10am, so I decided to raise the limit, that's all.

No problem, I'm happy to see the forum lively again. To answer your concern, I was of the opposite opinion, and more particularly so for the ammo. I like the idea of offensives running out of steam when ammo is exhausted, and that one extra blast you get from sucking from your Ally's stockpile seems a bit unnatural and ahistorical to me. So while I like the option for the sake of... well, it being an additional option, I think 20 ammo overdoes it. This can have critical effect in delaying German offensive exhaustion in France in the 1914 push if the AH just farms ammo to send to Germany, which seems a very good game option and very imlausible historically, as well as detrimental to the balance.

Any thoughts, other players?

Zombo,

Although I do not have this mod "yet", I have always dreamed of nations of the same alliance of sharing resources within the game. It struck me that these nations were also trading partners along with virtual means to send goods and war supplies. One of the aspects of the game that was bothersome to me (as being the losing side): That I could not sell back the factories making ammo where I no longer had use for them, maybe in part, but not in total. Let's say that AH had lost it's artillery and cannot afford to produce another unit, yet it is producing/stockpiling more ammo than it can possibly use, What''s to become of it?