Potzblitz V24.2b JAN 1st 2024

[Robotron]

i dont know anything about v8 yet (...) so i dont believe its less possible now

Makes you sound a bit silly, won't you agree?
At least wait for more detailed feedback to come in or try for yourself.

[berto]

In V8.0, the Schlieffen Plan is a nightmare to defend against.

Not looking for any advice or game play tips. Just sayin'.

Single- or multiplayer?

Single-player.

And probably not a very good single-player.

[Robotron]

And probably not a very good single-player.

All I can say is that the last time (last thursday) I tested V8 I was able to stop the CP AI's Schlieffen before it even touched Paris.
And I'm really not a very good player.
It can become problematic though if Entente chooses to have Russia fully mobilized and France takes the full brunt of the attack maybe helped by a German "Wave of patriotism" event right after the "Attaque a outrance".

[nehi]

Makes you sound a bit silly, won't you agree?
At least wait for more detailed feedback to come in or try for yourself.

i wont

but i agree some of your comments are silly and annoying

dig deeper for hidden information in it, if u failed for the first time

[Robotron]

dig deeper for hidden information in it, if u failed for the first time

If you have constructive criticism about the mod's latest version then let's hear it.
This is not the place for playing quiz games.

Thanks.

[Zombo]

A Belgian Army in Brussels surely makes a hell of a difference

[Robotron]

A Belgian Army in Brussels surely makes a hell of a difference

I'm not quite sure whether this is ironic or not.

Btw Zombo, how about a match?

[Zombo]

I'm not quite sure whether this is ironic or not.

I mean it

Btw Zombo, how about a match?

Let's do it. Give me a coule of days, so that I can clear some nasty Real Life issues out of the way.

[Argentum]

Crash.
Also Canadian corp event won't unlock any tech for brits.

[Robotron]

@Argentum: a graphic was missing, fixed the other issue too. Thanks for reporting!

V8.11:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=12wxZ2 ... 2bY-dO8wrn

[Zombo]

Is it still necessary to installl v4.7 and then V8.11 or is v8.11 self-sufficient?

[Robotron]

You still have to install both over a fresh installation of vanilla 1.6.6. if you have never installed Potzblitz before or your version of Potzblitz is earlier than V4.7.

The main mod V4.7 contains the bulk of data.

The most current update V8.11 contains the new stuff and latest fixes.

After you have installed the main mod V4.7 and the latest update any further updates are of course self-sufficient.

Have you lost your drive with your installation or moved to a new machine?

[hnox]

Hi.

I've finished my second multiplayer game, and I have some comments. But, first of all... May I ask how many of you have played a multiplayer game with version 8.x?

I go first with some general remmarks:

Subs and light cruisers.
It seems to me that subs are quite strong against surface ships other than transports/convoys. Subs are able to actively chase cruisers (rather than stalk them) and effectively destroy them working as a pack. That would not happen even in WWII, just because of submerged speeds until schnorkel late it the war (when radar and planes had already won the Athlantic War). I would change this as I find it too gamey. Robotron has told many times that dealing with the internal of subs is quite a mess, so I suggest to have a sub cap which depends on the calendar and tech level (like you can find it A World At War, http://aworldatwar.org/).

My experience with subs packs is mainly on waters close to my bases (North Sea, Baltic Sea), and mainly coastal waters. So it is not a matter of sub speed, nor operational range. Subs simply pocket and destroy surface units worth 4 times their cost. It is not an assymetrical disavantage: both sides can do it! British subs at the Baltic are a delicious nightmare.

Intel and counter intel.
In our experience, counter intel is too unbalanced to the side who is late on intel investment.

As soon as your cipher is broken, you start loosing DPs. As you loose DPs, you can't invest them but every other turn, so the distance grows greater, and your opponent simply gets lost in the horizon... Then, when the advantage is so great you can't solve it for the rest of the game, the winner of the Intel Race has plenty of DPs to waste on events.

It's just a too slippery slope. Once you fall, you don't stop. Usually decided after the first opening turns, as soon as crucial events for 1914 are played (Italy, Turkey, Japan, 1914 offensive's events, east/west decission events, some badly needed reinforcements for France, Fritz Haber, you know them...).

Playing as CP
We have found that CP has a hard time. Lacks units, so it is easily overrun at Poland, and gets soon overextended in France. I have learnt that my first MP against Cocolo went better than I expected. He spended 1915 fearing a counter attack in France and Russia. I was simply holding my attacks being overcareful because my only reference was my single player matches, in wich early Entente Attacks must be very limited .CP was safe only because fog of war.

Of course, Cocolo had the reference of his late sufferings, so he actively fought and simply destroyed CP in 1915. And no, it is not just because the Army Corps in Brussels ; )


We wonder if we did something wrong.

So, just for the interest of modding, me and Cocolo we challenge you, Robotron, to enjoy two matches in a row, or even two pararels if you prefer and your mind is not going to explode. You play CP in both : D

[cocolo]

hi Roboton, hnox and i just finished our second mp game.

in the bug side i only had the english army corps spawn bug vthat crashed the game at the beginning but just not choosing the event was enough to keep going and i understand this has been fixed already. We played with v8.1 i believe, hnox correct me if wrong.

in the other hand after 2 games changing sides we arrived to the folllowing conclusion:
a) the game is right now inmensely unbalanced in favor of entente
or
b)we both do something REALLY badly with cp.

i tend to believe in case "a" specially in the case of Russia. The last game i was able to anihilate the AH front by mid 1915, the Germans were, except for a couple of counterattacks, in the defensive and losing ground including a couple cities. All this was easily done and keeping a pp excess production of around +80 every turn.
The supply crisis never happend and i dont think it woul ever as for Russia to increase ammo factories to +20 is very easy. And even if it had happened it would just delay them a bit. A simple calculous makes you see the size of the army Russia is capable of build and maintain. We just dont see how cp can survive that ...even less wearing it down of course.

In our previous game hnox was happy having a quiet front home and sending around 10 armies to attack turkey instead. When he finally decided to attack Germany proper, the whole front collapsed in a few turns.

i think GB and France are overpowered too but not in the same length.

the unbalance happend in the diplo front too. By mid 1915 AH had offered surrender and i had over 100 intel points in Germany. Maybe hnox expands on this but apparently he was suffering nasty effects from this too while i don recall a bad event happening to me. All this while getting all the regular events i found ineresting for me played.

Maybe we could play a game with you and find what we are doing bad if thats the case, right now we have no idea.

And still the game is a lot of fun to play!

[cocolo]

lol hnox that was close coordination,

personally i dont find the sub situation too gamey for now, naval battles will always look weird in a game that every turn is a month and naval battles normally resolve in a matter of hours.

about the intel i still dont grasp it enough to even have an opinion

[Robotron]

@hnox: okay, I'll PM you the password for the challenge.

How about Cocolo and Zombo contact each other for another match?

[shri]

Hey Robotron,
First of all i downloaded the mod and great efforts must say.
Played nearly 30+ hours in the last month and finished a long and hard fought game in one of the 7.XX versions of your MOD. Tough win as CP in June 1918.
(this is after several attempts, at-least 5)

Now some things-
1. Russian Front should not have so much entrenchment, i read Norman Stone over a decade ago (and may have forgotten something) but i am still quite sure that more than 4 entrenchment for Russia and more than 6 or 7 for Germany/Austria is A-Historical on the eastern Front.
This means, attacks on Eastern front for Germany should be easy, Russia has to hold onto Fortresses at any cost or drown in Blood.
Anyway, Gen. Ludendorff's calculations (supported by American Intelligence) showed that a single German Division could hold off an entire Russian corps easily on the defensive and 2 German Divisions could rout 3 Russian divisions easily on the offensive.
In short- Drastically Reduce Russian ability to dig in (remove their entrenchments)

This will make the Battle for the Forts of Novo-Georgevisk, Auschwitz, Brest-Litovsk, Ivanograd very difficult and very important. This should be the main Russian defensive line. Right now, a Mackensen type Gorlitz-Tarnow is impossible due to the entrenchments.

2. Belgium shouldn't be so strong, Liege was somewhat of a problem but partially passable and Namur fell quickly, Antwerp was difficult.
You giving 2 Armies to Belgium is A-historical. Germany should advance to the Amiens-Reims line easily as it did Historically and capture the coast unless they let loose the corps to East Prussia.

3. German starting PP is too low, In 1914 Germany raised 4 armies in addition to it's existing 8, the 9th, 10th 11th and 12th, the 11th from Units spared from the West, the 9th from reservists and garrisons all over Germany, the 10th from extra units of Koenigsberg and the 8th army and a whole new 12th Army.
No other country raised units so fast.

4. Britain OTOH has too many armies too fast, Historically only after 1916 they allowed vast armies to pour in under Haig. Till then they were low on numbers always.

5. To save France, the Foreign Legion and African Legion both should appear near Paris instead of Bordeaux or in Africa, miracle teleportation maybe, the Goeben-Breslau success can mean a depleted numbers but it should appear.

6. German Navy should get an extra BB, right now the German Navy is equal to Italians and Austrians, too less.

7. Aircraft upkeep should be increased the AI builds a shit ton of Air-Force and it becomes a mosquito bite match.

8. BBs are somewhat weaker in attack than BCs, this is a bit strange, Dreadnoughts could dispatch Battlecruisers to hell.

9. Intelligence is a nightmare, my intelligence was cracked and i spent rest of the game doing counter-intelligence, frankly it's a nightmare. They often ate away all my income, too bloody strong.

10. Artillery perhaps can be stronger after the upgrades, after all late war artillery was devastating.

[Robotron]

@shri: thank you for your detailed feedback.

1. unfortunately the entrenchment level for forts is a global variable and can't be set for individual forts. Also there is a special Gorlice-Tarnov event to boost German attacks.

2. The the Belgian Army Corps led by King Albert will only appear in singleplayer vs Entente AI. Otherwise Belgium will only have 1 Army Corps in Brussels. This is done for balancing reasons.

3. I'm sure by the end of 1914 the CP player can produce at least 4 German Army Corps and more.

4. Again for balancing reasons Britain can produce Army Corps from the start when playing against Entente AI. In all other setups Britain must first research Industrial Warfare tech.

5. So are you saying taking Paris in 1914 is too easy then for the CP player?

6. While this might be more historical playtesting showed that CP players were able to kill off the Royal Navy in record time if given a second unit of capital ships. Although this is still the case because of bad naval AI at least it takes a little longer.

7. higher upkeep for fighter units was just recently introduced

8. this is to simulate that usually BCs can decide whether to engage or stay out of range because of their higher speed. Also damage is even more depending upon the base defense value than on the attack value. Higher naval attack values for BBs rendered BCs almost useless in the past.

9. I'll have to look into that again

10. I've found fully upgraded artillery quite powerful, two units are perfectly able to reduce an Army Corps to almost 0 efficiency to be destroyed by ground attacks.

I'm sorry to read that you have so many objections about how the game behaves but it is difficult to balance things between historic accuracy and game balance for both sides and for beginners and experienced players alike. It's been a constant juggling over the last years bordering on futility as every new "generation" of players who discover the mod likely takes different views about stuff that was implemented because of proposals made by players in the past that are no longer around. Hope you enjoy the mod anyway.

Cheers!

[Robotron]

To fix some of the issues brought up by players I'll upload V8.20 in a few hours.

[shri]

@ROBOTRON

I am sorry, if i came across too harsh, infact i praise the mod because after a gap of over a year i replayed the game. I found the base game far too moronic to be honest.

For- 1-- maybe Russia, Turkey, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Austria and Italy can get Trench technologies after level with 3X delays.
For 2,4,6,7,8- Thanks i lot, i guess you have done a lot of work on it which is beyond anyone can imagine.

Regarding 5- NO. PARIS IS IMPOSSIBLE IN 1914.

9- please do thanks

10- i need to check it more. will do.