NEW UPDATE 11.21 NOV10TH 2020

[Robotron]

Sadly, we have another game to finish before updating to 11.21.

Well, as I said, if you have crashes, you can try to apply the update to V11.21 even if I normally advise against updating while a match is in progress.
It might work or not, but if you have a crash bug you have nothing to lose anyway.

And I really don't want to rub it in, but the bugfix for your issue, among others, was available for 2 months in the bugfix thread, after that bug was first reported by Unwichtig in September.
All reported bugs got merged into a new version upgrade, which happened a week ago.

In case you don't already know, there a thread where I post bugfixes:
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 8&t=101239

[mrdozer2379]

thankyou again for all the help.

[Robotron]

Sure thing. Let me know if you were able to continue your match.

[Unwichtig]

AAR:

Unwichtig (Entente) v. MrDozer (CP)
Very balanced game, a Pyrrhic Victory for Unwichtig. But damn, that was close.
Good match MrDozer, enjoyed it.

http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 10#p890110

[LepetitKipetchi]

Hi guys,

I agree with your ideas for "Aufmarsch Ost" to have a German plan attack for Poland or Balt countrys and Bielorussia, it is a real challenge and looks more about something which could happen in the real History ! Even more if you can let the Britishs out of the war for some weeks more, it is challenging
The third option to destroy 3 Russian units looks too simple compared to the 2 other plans or we should destroy much much more units.

Also Unwichtig, I like your idea for Norway, this game give you the option to make it historic or to create another one and I find this event should be a perfect example

When you asked me for a French event, I told you about Battle of the Yser, I recommand you to watch this French video with English subtitles : "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYIo6SK ... euxConnard", this guy made few videos of funny facts during the war which could inspire you for more events.
About this event, you could call it "creation of the Ronarc'h brigade", in 1914 wich should create a Reserve Corps with the General Ronarc'h at his head in Paris or in Brittany, very very strong in defense but with no more bonus points to attack. The consequence is that France do not have a lot of sailors in his ports so they cannot create new ships until 1916 ? Or they cannot repair them also ? It creates a choice for the Entente player : do you prefer to defend France with another good unit in defense or have a good navy for many turns more and be able to fight the Austrian Navy. This can help CP to make choices also if they hear about this event.
What do you think ?
The wikipedia page of the admiral (I recommand you to read the French one translated) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Alexis_Ronarc%27h

Cheers,

[Unwichtig]

When you asked me for a French event, I told you about Battle of the Yser, I recommand you to watch this French video with English subtitles : "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYIo6SK ... euxConnard", this guy made few videos of funny facts during the war which could inspire you for more events. About this event, you could call it "creation of the Ronarc'h brigade", in 1914 wich should create a Reserve Corps with the General Ronarc'h at his head in Paris or in Brittany, very very strong in defense but with no more bonus points to attack. The consequence is that France do not have a lot of sailors in his ports so they cannot create new ships until 1916 ? Or they cannot repair them also ? It creates a choice for the Entente player : do you prefer to defend France with another good unit in defense or have a good navy for many turns more and be able to fight the Austrian Navy. This can help CP to make choices also if they hear about this event.
What do you think ?
The wikipedia page of the admiral (I recommand you to read the French one translated) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Alexis_Ronarc%27h

I learn something new everyday - Never heard of that. I watched the video, it it interesting.
So its basically 5000 french navy sailors fighting a major German Army to stop them for 4 days.
Andy they made it. Is sounds remarkable. I ll try to read some more about this.
I do see the option for an Event here.
I.e.: One additional Small Garrison in the port of Calais at the price of an Armoured Cruiser which will be removed from the game.
(France starts with 2 Cruisers, so that should work). But France already has plenty of Generals and its difficult to Siege Paris as its always blocked by multiple Generals and their defence bonus. So if a General is added, i would suggest he only has a range of Zero. A defence bonus ia okay, but only for this unit.
I dont think that adjacent Army units would have been inspired by an Admiral

[Robotron]

This will be hard to implement. 5000 troops would at best represent a "small garrison" and the Germans are attacking with whole Army Corps.
It would require a French commander with a ridiculous defense value of about 15 to have a chance to avoid instant destruction from multiple attacks.
And I know my players: they would detach that commander and transfer him to Paris the next chance they get, n'est pas? Nice try, but not going to happen.
Besides there also were 50.000 Belgian troops involved in the Battle of the Yser.

So, what hex are we talking about here anyway?
In my opinion it should be the hex northeast of Calais at X:83Y:25, which by the way is blocked if the modified Schlieffen plan was chosen until the Race to the Sea event triggers.
This is also swampy terrain which fits the flooding of the region background.

I would suggest to spawn either a French Reserve Corps if Belgium has already surrendered or else the "newly rallied remains" of the Belgian army which would amount to a half strength Belgian Army Corps.
If Antwerp has already fallen and the hex is still connected to Antwerp it would be a full strength Belgian Army Corps to represent the retreating Antwerp garrison that has joined them.

In any case the event will unblock the hex and trigger the "Race to the Sea" event in favor for Entente.

Should a CP unit capture the hex before the event is played, then playing the event will damage the CP unit on that hex.

The event will be available as soon as...well, quite early, haven't decided yet.
The event is discarded at the onset of winter in 1914 because of bad weather conditions.

P.S. "small garrisons" in Potzblitz are called "garrisons", which leaves room for misunderstanding. Maybe we should rename them to "Home Guard" or something like that?

P.P.S.

The third option to destroy 3 Russian units looks too simple compared to the 2 other plans or we should destroy much much more units.

Surely there must have been a misunderstanding because I can't understand what you are referring to.

[Unwichtig]

[/quote]
How about a third option that focuses on a pure military victory/aggresion - no matter where it takes place.
Destroy 3 Russian Army Corps - Nothing less. Cavalry/Garrisons do not count. This forces the player to act purely "all out" aggressive.
The Entente player should not see what the CP Player decision was. So its a bit of a surprise -
Entente can send Army Corps to key points to defend or "secure them" and strike back in 1915.
The third option is just a thought. If not, never mind. Your two options will do it.
[/quote]

I suggested the third option few days ago, he refers to me. Idea was just to destroy the Russian army no matter where they are to achieve a decisive demoralizing victory, something like a greater tannenberg that forces Russia to withdrawal and reorganize their troops.
But don't worry I think your option 1 and 2 will do it they are great.

[Robotron]

I've implemented the Battle of the Yser event as described above and also the choice event for Aufmarsch Ost with one little change:
Failing the easier plan A (Poland) will only cause 1 collapse point to Germany and Austria each.
Failing the more difficult plan B (Baltic+Belarus) will cause 2 collapse points to Germany and Austria each.

The more severe punishment for failing plan B is to balance out the later war entry of Britain.

[Unwichtig]

I've implemented the Battle of the Yser event as described above and also the choice event for Aufmarsch Ost with one little change:
Failing the easier plan A (Poland) will only cause 1 collapse point to Germany and Austria each.
Failing the more difficult plan B (Baltic+Belarus) will cause 2 collapse points to Germany and Austria each.

The more severe punishment for failing plan B is to balance out the later war entry of Britain.

Good evening,
I like both options.The only concern i thought about was, that both options are clearly visible for the Entente player, i.e.:
I will be very obvious, which aim the CP has chosen, just monotor the army movements and is will be clear.
i have a feeling this will make it easy to prevent the CP from achieving this objective.
If i observe a large army moving to Riga and Minsk, I will put an army corps inside just one of the cities until december 1914 to make sure both major enemies get 2 collapse points each. That sounds like a big penalty for CP that is pretty easy to achieve from Ententes perspective. I dont know yet, maybe i am wrong.
Same with Poland. But thats just a thought, i think we need to testplay this. For now, keep it as it is.
I have no other idea, just few worries that 2 collapse points might be to much (actually its 4).
As Entente i would do all i can to just defend at least one city (preferably Minsk due to its range) just until december and then start the counteroffensive.
We will see. We can trial this if you want. I start MP, you play CP i play Entente and the only aim is to get Minsk, Vilna and Riga until Dec.
Dont need to play full game, just until dec 1914 and see what happens.

[Unwichtig]

P.S. "small garrisons" in Potzblitz are called "garrisons", which leaves room for misunderstanding. Maybe we should rename them to "Home Guard" or something like that?

Yes! "Home Guard" sounds more realistic to me. Actually thats exacelty what they are as no player can move them any further than 1 Hex away from a city.
So they are only protecting their "Home" anyway. I like that change.

And because you mentioned it, i had another idea (sorry!) for a final Event that could be played on any side that is "Losing the War".

Condition:
- It is at least 1916
- The annual Morale Check has been lost my your Alliance (I.e.: The other side is "Confident" winning the war)

Event: "Send in the Reserves!"
Players can play an Event that removes ALL "Homeguards" from their home towns.
The risk will be, that there is zero protection left, but it could be seen as a final attempt to gather a few extra units to prevent a loss.
This could be usefull as once the game shifted to one side is it almost impossible to turn the tide anymore anyway.
This could be a highly risky option to have a "come-back" which comes at a high penalty and risk as well.

- Cities are no longer protected
- Selected Nation suffers a collapse point
- national Morale minus 5
- Train Moves for selected nation to Zero for this Turn

But:
3 Reserve Corps and 1 Cavalry Unit are immediately available in "Troop Pool" to be ready for deployment.
(They could be used to close a gap in a frontline, which might be attractive)

Just a thought, its up you.

[Robotron]

Sorry, spawning units directly into the production queue is impossible, at least I don't know of any way and I've tried to accomplish that for a LONG time without results.
+3 manpower per dissolved Home Guard would be easy to implement though.

[Unwichtig]

Ok, thats fine its not that important anyway.
If thats easier for you its totally okay. I like that, at least it give u an option to do something with the homeguards.

This gives the players a chance to increase their manpower just a little bit which is also a little advantage.
It could help Serbia to survive a few more turns as they are running out of recruits quickly.

[Unwichtig]

Hi everyone,

@Robotron just for information, strange observation:
I attached a screenshot from a bug i never had before.
This is from a MP game, i play CP and just activated the Tarnov-Offensive Event that lasts until next winter.
I then wanted to attack the train with a Reserve Corps and please see the Stats below on the screenshot.
I attacked and then both units (train and reserve corps) completely disappeared from the map and left over empty hexes.
I could continue the turn, then attacked Warsaw.
The Train in warsaw then escaped into the now empty hex (?) south of it - So i took Warsaw.
Then i pushed the NEXT TURN button and the game crashed.
The crash log had nothing in it - no errors, nothing special. It just said "End Turn". Looked normal to me.

I replayd my entire move, the same happened again. (Same event played, same statistics, so i took this screenshot)
But this time i did not take Warsaw and did not attack any trains - then it worked.
I can continue to play now - I just recommend to all players: If you see funny statistics like on this screenshot: Dont attack!!!
The Turn will not finish and crash instead!

Bug and Crash.jpg (145.29 KiB) Viewed 631 times

[Robotron]

Okayyyyy....very weird indeed. o_O

I'll have a look at the combat script, something with the combat bonus for the Tarnov-Gorlice event must be wrong in combination with units having the quick-retreat ability.

Please ask your opponent if he is using the current version of the mod V11.21.

Who are you playing against anyway (just being nosy)?

I've uploaded a bugfix that should fix the issue, and for a change it is safe to apply to a match in progress and should be applied ASAP.
All players currently in multiplayer matches should inform their opponents too.

http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 47#p891847

[Unwichtig]

Good evening,

thx for the rapid scriptfix, once again.

The game actually runs without crashes, it was only this very strange attack on the train that was weird.
But i just did not do it and then it worked. So we are still playing right now.

YES, my opponent has 11.21. I know how important it is to have the same version of the game when starting a MP game, so i now always double check that.
He definately has the 11.21 version of the MOD, 100% sure. I saw the popup screenshot when starting the game.

I play versus "damien", a brandnew MP player. We know each other in real life.
Its an epic game because we know each other very well - both of us are very interested in history and ww1.

I ll tell him to update the script.

By the way i have few players that contacted me during recent days on steam after my post.
Looks like we get few new competitors soon.

[Robotron]

I've expected some influx of new players for CTGW because of the Black Friday Deal AND your favorable review for the mod on STEAM.
This is excellent!
As of now I'm myself locked in a struggle with mrdozer from Canada, with a time difference of 9 hours and therefore a paltry turn-per-day ratio of 1.
Well, at least the two of us will have something to enjoy until well into January, or until either one throws in the towel before.

[Unwichtig]

Yes i also played two games versus MrDozer. It was a 1-1, i just wrote the AAR about my victory but he won the 2nd game in Turn 40 (?!).
I did not know he is from Canada, at least on the weekends we played many turns on a single day, i guess we both played the entire night
Its nice to see that there are some more competetive players out there.

I think this is my 10th MP game now, easily. Still fun.

I hope some players will join us here in the next few days after the played the basic version of the game.
3 players contacted me on steam, they were looking for new challenges...
Well okay, Potzblitz is definately a challende. I will recommend the Rupprecht Plan for a real challenge

[Unwichtig]

Good evening,

finished another MP game with zero crashs. Game ended with the collapse of the Entente in early 1917. Another fantastic game.
Key Observations:

1. My ´enemy´ tried to influence Persia from very early on to get them on the side of Entente. This did seem to work, but then when the countdown in the diplomatic window appeared and said "Persia 1-3", nothing happened. The countdown (the letters/numbers) turned red and it stayed like this for 8-10 turns.
What does it mean when the diplomatic countdown is displayed red instead of black and why did they never join?
I felt sorry for my enemy because it seemed he invested all influence for nothing, so i had to declare war on them to reward him for his efforts.

2. The "Rheinbridges Event" that was implemented a few months ago after we discussed it here in (july?) just does not seem to be happening. I have been waiting for it for few months now and at i have done at least 10 Schlieffenplans, but there was never an option to choose it. (The Event that costs 35PP and allows Germany to move units into Belgium via train without the cost of train moves after the construction of the bridges is completed few turns later). What do I have to do that this takes place?

3. USA seems to be joining the war too late or even never. Actually i never played a match that made them join early enough to play an important role. Even if i sink many UK convoys and the Lusitania and USA joins, the war is already decided in Europe. I have already crushed France completely or UK is just about so run out of supplies and suffered Collapse points because their fleet is ´gone´. I dont know what other players think, personally i think USA could join a little faster?!? I know that does not really match with the US election event.
The other option could be that the Game does not completely end when a fraction surrenders. Just to keep going and finally try something like an CP invasion to USA, the CP Navy fighting the US Navy in the Atlantik or actually conduct an amphibius assault to the UK. The game ends to early to make this happen, but i think it would be great fun.

4. Finally I am looking for an "Immediate all out world war" MP opponent. This is my plan:
CP declares war on USA and Spain at Turn 1.
Entente declares war on Italy at Turn 1.
Both alliances start with ´double strength´.
Anyone? Think this could be a major Battle in the Atlantik Game.
I just want to see how this plays out. Anyone? Let me know.

[Robotron]

@1: when the numbers go red it means the nation's alignment has stopped shifting towards the preferred alliance. This happens when the "enemy-to-be" alliance has grown too powerful and declaring war on it would be deemed suicidal. Usually this happens when one alliance has lost a major ally and/or the other alliance has gained a powerful new ally thereby tilting the balance of power too far. Most likely your opponent's alliance was on the it's last leg, so Persia decided to refrain from joining the lost cause.

@2: You need at least 35 German PP for the event to be available. Once German PP drops below 35 the event will be removed from the pool of available events for that turn. The event will be completely discarded from the game at the start of 1916 if not played until then. In V12 it will cost only 15PP because on hindsight 35PP is too expensive for what the event does and be available until 1917.

@3: In V12 the war in Europe will last longer because of less collapse point being imposed on all nations for surrendering allies and army exhaustion. Therefore the US will have time to make an impact on the war.