Potzblitz V24.2b JAN 1st 2024

[Robotron]

@unwichtig: Yes, a separate event for allowing CP subs access to Spanish ports of Cadiz and/or La Coruna (a title is needed btw.) is intended with the Paper War being a pre-condition.

The Paper War event should be available soon after a deadlock situation in France is achieved to emphasize CPs desire to backstab France and Entente's desire to keep this from happening.
Both alliances should be able to play it.

[Unwichtig]

Field Post Event
Condition: Jan 1915 – Dec 1915. (=After illusions of being ´home for Christmas´ have faded)

Failure to win a quick victory; worn down by permanent thunder of detonating iron; supply lines on the edge - Undoubtedly, morale has taken a first blow! Homefront is grasping longingly for signs of living: Sons, brothers, fathers, where are thou? Relatives need a proof of living: A personal letter! Use all rail & ship moves of the alliance to guarantee on-time-frontline-mail-delivery preventing a morale penalty


If not played in 1915: 10% Chance per turn that the morally important Field Post will collapse at some point, then causing a morale penalty of 1D6 of all countries that are currently in the alliance as zero letters arrive anywhere...

“Field Post Collapsed”
(Grey Popup): Devastating delays in letter and parcel deliveries caused significant worries and doubts among the wives, sisters and mothers of the many million soldiers.
If the country can´t deliver letters on time, how can it even be able winning the war?

Sounds all a little dramatic actually

[Unwichtig]

@unwichtig: Yes, a separate event for allowing CP subs access to Spanish ports of Cadiz and/or La Coruna (a title is needed btw.) is intended with the Paper War being a pre-condition.
The Paper War event should be available soon after a deadlock situation in France is achieved to emphasize CPs desire to backstab France and Entente's desire to keep this from happening.
Both alliances should be able to play it.

Excellent. Then i adjust my suggestion a little.

I like the trigger that the westernfront has come to a stand still and germany seeks to get another partner in the south to backstab france.
Trigger could be "Paris not taken" prior to winter 1914 and/or Moltke is sacked.

Text can be the same as suggested, i personally like the influcence aspect of it as it simulates the struggle for public opinion.
Entente and CP both influence and whoever does it first (=gets 15 points) will be rewarded with a big boost of support, so an additional infuence of plus 30).

I think once Spain is 70+ in favour of CP, the submarine event can be added to the event pool and then just activated.
I know you have so many events under construction and i dont want to make it too complicated.

I personally like the idea that CP then could "Pressure Spain to open Atlantik Ports"
One extra port should be enough, so a choice event between cadiz or la coruna?
And it would be a difficult choice between the two ports. one is excellent for biscay, the other one for southern atlantik.

[Robotron]

1. Nice text for the Field Post Office event and I like the "bombard Gibraltar" idea but it should be tiny and only apply to capital ships: a tiny cruiser shooting at "the rock" won't impress anybody.

2. I wonder if a choice event about whether to open La Coruna or Cadiz to CP is necessary because I'm not sure if one port would be more preferable to the other. Cadiz is close to Gibraltar though...

3. A tiny pro-Entente shift per turn a CP sub spends in either Spanish port to reflect Entente pressure would be okay I guess.

[imp44791]

Latest game v AI as CP. Historical Schlieffen.

Super interesting situation with the "German wet dream" working out diplomatically: Italy entered on the side of the CP on Turn 6, Romania on Turn 12 (i.e. the pre-war alliances as envisaged). Belgium also yielded to the right of passage request! Doesn't get more perfect.

But the game was ruined by two strange events/bugs:

(A) Serbian morale was shattered on Turn 9 or 10 (I can check, I have the saves on every turn start) even though they were actually doing well. I had slipped around in the south and taken Tirana, but they had taken Cer, Catarro and still held Belgrade. Next turn they sent for surrender. I think the triggers on the Morale Shattered event may need a look.

(B) Even more bizarrely, Germany surrendered (!) at the start of Turn 13. I went back to the start of turn saves and noticed that its morale was bleeding every turn and ended up to zero on turn 12. This is clearly a bug, because I was actually winning. Technically Schlieffen "failed" which is probably the reason, but these triggers may need a look as I had taken all the channel ports up to Rouen. Paris was besieged and should have fallen after a couple more turns (I was bringing in more arty). I had weathered the Russian assault with only Gumbinnen and the fort next to Konigsberg lost, but no other towns. In general the war was basically won: Austria was holding the Galician front (Lemberg and Tarnopol were lost but nothing else, and the army was doing well. Romania was about to go wild in the South. Italy was besieging Marseille. The Russian dreadnought was sunk. How could the German morale bleed to zero?

As I said, I have all the saves, let me know what you would like to look at.

[Robotron]

I've already found the problem with A so I only need savegame B.

One question though: did you mange to trigger the "Victory at Tannenberg" event?

[imp44791]

Yes to Tannenberg, but that was already as the morale had drained (turn 12). I had also appointed Hindenburg early.

Which turn do you need? I have 13 start of turn saves. The bleeding seems to have started as early as Turn 7. Turn 6 morale was 115%, then 100% on turn 7, then 82% on turn 8 and so on. If anything this was the high point of Russian advance, having taken Quednau and Gumbinnen but I was already starting to isolate and kill off some of their spearheads.

Silly question: how do I attach a file? The add files button seems to only accept images.

[imp44791]

Never mind, it accepts rars.

Here's the start of Turn 8.

[Robotron]

Here is the answer to your problem:

Yes to Tannenberg, but that was already as the morale had drained (turn 12)

You must trigger "Victory at Tannenberg" as soon as possible or else each Russian unit on a German hex will cause your morale to drop.
This will be made even worse if the events "Crisis in East Prussia" and "East Prussia" devastated are triggered by not managing to force that victory.

See PDF manual, chapter 3.12 "Russian invasion of Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1914 or 1915" on page 11.

There's also a bug in the current version of the mod that causes even more morale drain. Again, triggering the victory solves the issue. It will be fixed in V12.1

"But that's SO unrealistic! After all East Prussia is only some swamps and woods!" you might think.
Yes, I agree, but else the game would be no challenge at all because the AI is not very efficient.
Forcing the player to at least mount some offensive in the east helps to balance the game and is also historically correct.
Usually a 2nd army corps and cavalry corps will be enough to overpower the Russians.

[imp44791]

I still think that the morale drops of 15-20% per turn if no big cities of fortresses are lost are too high. The early turns of the Russian attack are so powerful that a supple defence line is necessary until reinforcements can arrive. OK, if Konigsberg, Krakow or Przemysl fall the player should suffer, but this rapid drain imposes gamey responses that detract from immersion. In my opinion of course.

[Robotron]

Just destroy 1 russian army corps or 2 other corps with german units early on and you'll be fine. I can't see anything gamey about that.

[nehi]

I still think that the morale drops of 15-20% per turn if no big cities of fortresses are lost are too high. The early turns of the Russian attack are so powerful that a supple defence line is necessary until reinforcements can arrive. OK, if Konigsberg, Krakow or Przemysl fall the player should suffer, but this rapid drain imposes gamey responses that detract from immersion. In my opinion of course.

i agree, its insane especially if combined with russian surprise attack

by nehi » 24 Mar 2021 12:31
i tried to play without events for CP historical schlieffen, maybe just unlucky, but russia surprise attack happened in 3rd turn

no capital lost, german morale dropped almost immediately to 16% without any chance to stop it
(przemysl captured by frontal attack during initial russian turn, they have some hyperboost?)

germany surrendered at the end of 1914 (just quick advance in france and capturing pairs gave them few more turns or they would surrender sooner)

lost breslau, gumbinen, lotzen and quednau

only 1 or 2 collapse points in the end

as usually, i suggest lesser or no penalty for losing empty hexes

or give germany some collapse point instead of such huge morale hit

by nehi » 24 Mar 2021 20:47

except army (saved thorn and danzig), cavalry (saved koenigsberg - russians even didnt tried to kill it, fully encircled after initial phase, miracle in the east) and lucky ones in fortresses all other germans in the east were anihilated

just later russian focus on krakow saved rest of germany

at point of surrender i finally made coherent line of defense, reserve corps only facing trenched russian armies

before paris was captured, german morale was at 4%, continuously dropping, if i moved them out of west front, it would end +- at turn 9, capturing paris prolonged it by like 5 turns

if russians would kill koenigsbergs cavalry, it could be finished at 5th turn, without any real chance to counter it

[imp44791]

The problem with the setup as it stands is that it makes Aufmarsch Ost much much safer for the Germans - also the reason why I never witnessed this problem in the past as I rarely play Schlieffen
(I like the counterfactual setup). With A.O. you have so many units there that the war takes place in Poland and the Baltics. But with Schlieffen the player is incentivised to do something gamey just to trigger the saving event. The correct strategy is to play a flexible defence, as indeed the Germans did in real life. Fall back a little, shift to another section, bring up reinforcements. The latter bit was as important in real life. Even with Tannenberg/First Masuria, the Russians were still slightly inside East Prussia by the end of 1914, even as the Germans threw reinforcements towards Lodz.

The better option is to give a collapse point for East Prussia being violated and remove it when all towns are retaken.

[Robotron]

@imp: this is from your savegame:

1. play event & choose "Bring Hindenburg" if available. You have enough diplomatic points for 2 attempts, so the event is pretty likely to show up at turn 8.
By playing the event you will only have to kill 1 russian unit to trigger the Tannenberg victory.

2. attach Hindenburg to the army corps at Danzig
3. attack the russian cavalry northeast of Danzig with army corps commanded by Prittwitz
4. attack the russian cavalry northeast of Danzig with the cavalry at Königsberg
5. swap position of the reserve corps at Danzig with the army corps now commanded by Hindenburg
6. attack & destroy the russian cavalry. Victory event triggered
7. you can now advance Hindenburgs army corps to unblock the rail connection to Königsberg to rail in new units, for example the unit at Breslau and deploy units from the production queue to the Danzig area. Problem solved: no further morale drains and you can continue your game.

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[imp44791]

I get all this (now that I know where the morale drop comes from) but I still think it's an unrealistic simulation of history in this case. If Germany was in my position in Turn 13 (Paris about to fall, Serbia defeated, Austria holding everywhere other than Lemberg and Tarnopol, and reinforcements rushing East) there is no way it would collapse. I also get that you are trying to make it tough for the player vs the AI - a correct approach in all events. But the way it's done (basically a countdown timer) is not the best in my opinion. Give a one time morale hit. A (couple of?) collapse points. Remove generals. Anything. But not a timer - it just makes things gamey. The East Front strategy is already the best for the human vs the AI (it keeps Britain out for a year, the French AI never manages to push through Alsace). This just makes it even more optimal. It should be the other way round: there is a reason why the Germans did not go East first in real life - it was too much of a long shot.

Perhaps you could still use a timer if Konigsberg falls - that would be a big enough defeat to upset the German morale until retaken.

Of course it's your mod and you do all this work for free. I am grateful, so please don't take this as an aggressive suggestion. I wouldn't be bothering if I didn't feel that this is a fantastic simulation of history already.

[Unwichtig]

Still working on this stuff. Just an update about my current thoughts.

1. “Paperwar”
a. New: It Is initially impossible to influence Spain. This can be unlocked with the paperwar event which can be played by either side. (Like the event when Belgium suddenly becomes able for influence which can be played by Entente, I can’t remember what it was called)
b. Added to CP event pool: When German Offensive in the West becomes static.
= Paris not occupied before winter or Moltke sacked.
So Germany is looking more offensively for an additional ally that could backstab France as you said.
OR: First French units enter German Hex (In case Germany strikes east and France is offensive. So Germany starts looking for a new ally that forces France to remove troops from the west to the south)
Both should be possible, otherwise the Spanish event tree would not be accessible at all if Germany strikes east.
c. Added to Entente event Pool: French government flees from Paris.
(= German offensive looks strong, unstoppable and France start searching for another ally that could help them regaining the lost territory.
OR: Italy joins CP. This then simulating that France is worried that a combined Italian German invasion into France would outflank them north and south. So France is grasping for an additional ally to rebalance. A successful German campaign in Russia often leads Italy joins CP, so Spain comes more into focus.
d. If played by any side: Spain can be influenced by both sides.
e. Starts the race for information superiority in Spain: Both sides can start influencing Spain.
f. The Text for this event is written neutral, as I don’t know who will play the event under which condition. I could change the text, but then it would no longer fit to all mentioned circumstances. Change it anyway if you want, I am not a native speaker so some things might sound ´too wordy´.

2. The side that plays it first gets 2D6 influence for free. (This is just to have a little bonus for being the first that launches a propaganda advance in Spain).

3. The side that reaches a total of 15 Influence first, gets an additional 30 influence for free. (This hopefully makes it more attractive to invest in Spain)

4. CP can gain 3D6 additional influence in Spain for a naval attack on Gibraltar with a BB, BC or Pre-Dread. (Once only, this is more as a show of force maneuver to show Spanish that they have the same enemy.) The good thing: CP gets influence for free, but at a risk that their ship will be trapped in the western med…France will see that happening, so there might be navel action on completion.) A symbolic attack would probably be enough; I think anything else would be a bit too overstretching. An amphib on Gibraltar would have been impossible, and I think it won’t work anyway in the game!?)

Pop up event “Your enemy is our enemy!” (Comparable to the ones when a city is captured)
Text: To gain additional Spanish support and attention, Central Powers launch a symbolic naval bombardment on the British enclave of Gibraltar. The Rock is covered in thundering smoke. Casualties are limited, but the message is clear: People of Spain, we are here! Deeply impressed, newspapers are flooded with pro CP headlines. “Libera Gibraltar!” The UK and Portugal react outrageous.
Effect: 3D6 free influence for CP on Spain + Portugal shifts closer to Entente.

5. If Spain total alignment +70 to CP: Germany has gained enough influence to successfully request the use of Spanish ports for german subs: The “Atlantic Submarine Base” Event is added to the event pool.

6. Event “Atlantic Submarine Base”
Text: As German submarines operate further and further away from their homeports, German Navy Command is desperately searching for new, forward based Atlantic logistic sights to threaten Entente convoys at range. Agents have secretly approached Spanish port authorities to gain their logistic support. As pressure on Spain increases, the ports of Cadiz and La Coruna finally become available for resupplies.
Condition: Spain Alignment +70 to CP
Effect: Both Spanish ports are open for German and Austrian submarines

Questions: (German submarines only, right?! Austrian submarines as well? How about ships? Ships would be great to do something with Gibraltar, but it would be very unrealistic as well and very offensive from Spain allowing that as it would be impossible keeping that secret. I suggest we start with German and Austrian submarines only)
Ger & Austria can still use ships once Spain has fully joined.

7. If CP achieve a miracle: They, somehow, capture Gibraltar. I don’t even think that’s possible. But if they do it anyway, they should be given the option to hand it over to Spain under the condition that they join the war. This should massively convince spain, so something like +90 Alignment towards CP. But I honestly can hardly believe this is actually even possible. (I will try now and test it)

8. Everytime a german submarine enters a spanish port, entente gets 1 influence in spain. (!?)

9. Question: What´s better, adding influence in an event or directly shift the alignment to one side or another? I would not mind removing all the influence stuff if that’s to complicated and just directly move spain closer to a side. I just thought that would be to quick and easy. Spain should not be cheap to get…they never officially joined the war, so it should still cause some efforts to making them join. That’s why I keep recommending influence changes only.

[Unwichtig]

Q – Ships
Condition: Entente has lost at least two convoys (French or British, does not matter)

Text: Unsustainable losses in shipping cargo, war-decisive resources and the absence of modern anti-sub weapons: The stunned UK is almost isolated from its Empire. The Navy adjusts its tactics: The deceptive, masked Q-Ships are introduced. German subs would soon find out…these easy sinkable merchants were not that easy to sink after all. Unlock next Anti-sub tech, adds 25% chance that UK convoys return fire on subs.

Effect: (If possible) adding a 25% chance that newly spawned convoys (UK only) are appearing as Q-ships (or have Q ships included in their group/convoy). In this case, every submarine receives an automatic counter fire, instantly damaging 1D3 of its strength. Idea is, that CP can still see and destroy all convoys, but once Q ships are activated, Germany never knows if fire will be returned automatically. If every fourth UK convoy is a ´Q ship´, that’s sounds fine to me. German Player will see it once the convoy is attacked. It will be a bit of a gamble. If you think that’s too strong, delete the extra anti sub tech that UK gets.

[Unwichtig]

Die Piraten des Kaisers (the Emperor's Pirates): (Graf Luckner)

Text: Stuck in port, unable breaking the blockade, frustrated: A young, capable and enthusiastic Imperial Navy officer attempts to fight his very own battle: What many ships can’t achieve, he surely will: Graf Luckner. Break the Blockade. Cross the Atlantik. Raid merchants. Escape the Royal Navy. Alone. Spawns Luckner and his Seeadler near Emden. Sail to the Southern Atlantic to activate his merchant raiding campaign.

Condition: 1916+ & Northsea Blockade is active

Effect: Spawns a German Light Cruiser “Seeadler” (Tech Level 1) with Captain Graf Luckner attached. He can’t be removed from the ship, does not give bonus to other ships but adds defense to the LC. Suggest spawning him between Emden and Wilhelmshaven. Objective is to sail the LC to a southerly hex of the Atlantic. The LC then disappears and Luckner automatically continues his ´expedition´ until reaching the Pacific in 2D6 more turns. Per turn: 15% chance that UK suffers an extra 10PP loss due to merchant raiding if the check is okay. (Or any other penalty, don’t know. Morale loss, loss of supply level, rise of german morale, whatever is easy for you to put into the game). His campaign ends automatically once his Seeadler runs ashore with him ending up in New Zealand prison.

I really hope this is possible; it would be a completely new hunt in the Atlantic forcing the RN to chase a ship in a vast Ocean. Sounds like a brilliant cat and mouse game forcing the Entente player to use ships in the Atlantic to intercept him before escaping.
Watch his incredible journey here (It is said he sank 14-16 merchant ships, I don’t know exactly)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... 916-17.png

[Unwichtig]

Defuse the Irish Question:

The Irish Question – An unsolved problem that has divided Ireland and the UK for countless years. But now, as the world is on the brink of a global conflict, local uprisings must come to a pause. Unite the Irish and promulgate an overarching objective: The English speaking Islands have a common enemy: Germany! Adds a tickle of PP and manpower per Turn until the Easter Uprising occurs. Delays Irish-revolution.

Condition: Available from Turn 1, must be played in 1914.
(UK fearing the break out of the war, even though they do join later. But this simulates their attempt uniting the irish on time to focus on war preps instead)
If NOT played, event will be discarded dec 1914 & the Irish Revolution Event will be added to CP Event pool 1915.
If played, the Irish Revolution Event is added to Germany 1916.

[Unwichtig]

European War Office (EWO)
At the moment, I have no ´good´ idea how this could be a choice event. Maybe just a pup up message for info? I can’t think about a good effect that this could have on any side. Basically, this event makes Spain perfectly neutral. But this would destroy all other ideas about Spain and make all the influence, paperwar, bombard Gibraltar or Atlantic port events useless as they are all linked to influence and alignment. My only idea is the following:

Condition: Turn 1-2 (Will be discarded after turn 2)

Text: A catastrophic defeat in the US-Spanish war 1898, outdated military equipment, wasteful and expensive colonial wars in Morocco – Spain had no remaining capacity joining this upcoming clash of European superpowers – To keep Spain out of war, the wise King Alfonso XIII founds the EWO - A neutral point of contact for all future combatants and diplomats. Spain alignment switched to neutral, unlocking POW exchanges.

Effect: Switches Spains alignment to 50-50 neutral. Spain claims neutrality and will remain blocked for influence during the rest of the war.
The good thing is, that the start events are hard to choose. I think during the first 2 turns, both fractions have a large event pool and if this is also added to the starting event pool, I assume many players won´t even play it. It´s basically a historically correct event filling up the event pool making decisions more difficult. After turn 3, all other Spanish options could become available with their respective conditions.

The only realistic idea could be that once the EWO is activated, it could be contacted by both fractions once during the game. So at a later stage, CP or Entente could send diplomats to the EWO to organize a POW exchange or something like that. This could increase manpower and rise morale a little for the country that plays it. But I think I am overcomplicating things now.

If you don’t like the POW part, it maybe we just have to accept that Spain stay out of war?! Hmm.