old Potzblitz thread (discontinued)

[Robotron]

@Zombo: the "bad events played by enemy" feature will stay in, though I'll add measures to prevent them. PP reduction via suicide attacks will also stay in for the moment until I've done some test games. The sheer number of changes in stats and procedures I made for V4.0 up to now makes it difficult to ascertain whether the game is in need for even more stuff before testing and I'm still at the coding stage. However, like I said before, I'm still quite interested to hear about suggestions for new multiple-choice events or adding choices to existing events listed in the PDF accompanying the mod's last version.

[Moreau]

Can we have a french mutiny event where we can violently suppress it or maybe lock the french army from attacking a few turns /if its possible of course

[tyro]

I think it would make sense to give cp a buff to production in first five turns then take it away event maybe?

[Zombo]

Can we have a french mutiny event where we can violently suppress it

kinda counterproductive. Pétain is widely credited for having optimally handled the affair by being very discriminate in the repression

[Zombo]

Robotron,

I've gone through the events and have the following suggestions. These are broad comments, feel free, if any of this interests you, to further inquire and I'll study whatever we discuss with more attention and detail.

All of the events retain their prerequisite conditions, unless (rarely) stated otherwise.
I've divided the events into different categories:
Automatic: event' occurence is beyond player's control. No change. All events that are not listed are of this category.
Purchasable: event has 1) a small chance of happening automatically (typically somewhat smaller than listed) 2) a good chance of happening if "fate" points are spent to trigger an event 3) a much higher chance of happening if individually selected for a very high cost of "Fate" points
"purchasable but no chance of happening automatically" a strategic option that should be entirely left to the player's discretion. same as above without option 1
"may be prevented" is triggered automatically, but option is purchasable to lower its chance of happening




Commander killed: automatic, although I would reduce the % ( to 5) of having a land commander killed, and add a small % of killing an air commander (2-3) every time an air unit takes a hit.


Military research: purchasable by both sides

Women in the workforce: purchasable by both sides

Boehm-Ermolli: purchasable by CP

Hoetzendorf attacks: Automatic, may be PREVENTED by corresponding CP option ( option “No Hoetzendorf Attack”)

Mazaryck comitte: purchasable by Entente


Triple Monarchy reforms: purchasable by CP (no chance of happening automatically)
(BTW, event text relating to “unit in Vienna” is unclear)

Anthony Fokker: purchasable by CP

Battlecruiser raid: Purchasable by CP (no chance of happening automatically). Condition: rather than having a Battle cruiser in the North Sea to trigger the event, simply remove a battlecruiser when it triggers. Then return the Battlecruiser if not destroyed. Replace British PP loss by Morale loss.

Blockade runner: purchasable by CP

Congress Poland: Purchasable by CP (no chance of happening automatically)

Ersatz: Purchasable by CP

Bruchmuller: Purchasable by CP

German East Asia squadron: option to assign the Goeben/Breslau to it, or to regroup in Germany ( Pre-war options)

German Military mission: Purchasable by CP

German minority in the US: Purchasable by CP

Kaiser abdicates: Automatic, may be PREVENTED by corresponding CP option ( option “No abdication”, which increases significantly the chances of “Demonstrations”)

Kaiser's Gold: purchasable by CP (Pre-war options)

Kriegsanleihe: Purchasable by CP (no chance of happening automatically). Raise to ten occurences maximum for each (Germany historically used nine, AH eight ). Chance of causing a collapse points based on number of previous Kriegsanleihe and National morale.

Operation judgement: Purchasable by CP (no chance of happening automatically). I would add Fortress bonus ALOT LESS effective against german ART (combined effect of german 380mm and French dissafection of forts) or else very hard to inflict historical losses on the French (who lost more than the Germans while being on defense)
I must say I totally fail to see the point in dissociating this event and “Siege of Verdun”, IMHO they should be merged
(event text unclear – German units in russia loses25% attack but GAIN 25% defense? Why?)

PLAN XVII: Automatic at start (but cancellable via pre-war options): effect: damage to all French units adjacent to Alsace Lorraine and slight French morale loss

Submarines called off Purchasable by CP (no chance of happening automatically): add effect that it removes chance of further neutral US sinking

Unrestricted sub warfare: Purchasable by CP (no chance of happening automatically)

victory at Tannenberg: Purchasable by CP (would rename Tannenberg manoeuvre )
overhaul: may trigger within the first turns of German-Russian war, higher chance if wireless intercept was triggered.
Hiundenburg appears as a one-hex leader on a infantry/cav adjacent to a Russian unit in Germany and his unit's attck stregth is doubled for the turn if Russian unit is in Germany.
If Russian unit is removed or retreats, GErman, morale boost

Disquieting silence: Purchasable by both sides

abadan oilfields : purchasable by Entente

arab revolt : purchasable by Entente

arthur Bopp: Purchasable by CP

bergmann offensive: Turks lose PP to pay for spawned units” ( or else no point for a Russian player to do it)

Caucasus attack: idem, Russia loses point for spawned infantry

constantinople Express: Purchasable by CP



fires in the desert: Purchasable by CP

forcing the straits: purchasable by entente

gallipoli campaign : Purchasable by entente (does not happen automatically)
Entente pays PP points for spawned units. Preferably” spawned” naval units are removed from elsewhere. ( ships don't just appear like that)

Goeben/breslau
option to send it to East Asia squadron or regroup in Germany (pre-war options)

jihad purchasable by CP

koweit Revolt purchasable by Entente

ottoman Warships purchasable by entente (does not happen automatically) (pre-war option)

Van resistance: russai or Persia pays PP for spawned units

north Sea blockade broken : option to remove cruisers to increase chance. If triggered, cruiser is recuperated after a while, possibly damaged.

Bulgarian mobilization: purchasable by CP

espionage: purchasable by both, various possibilities
effect overhaul 1) may detect enemy units beyond reconnaissance range
2) may inspect enemy stats national morale, current production upkeep expenditure)
3) may inspect enemy research panel
3) may be informed of enemy event option individually selected

ANZAC purchasable by Entente

British shell shortage may be prevented by corresponding event

conscription introduced purchasable by Entente (does not happen automatically)

Ernest Swinton purchasable by Entente

the Big Push purchasable by Entente (does not happen automatically)

attaque à outrance: automatic at start, may be cancelled by corresponding event option

French army of Africa purchasable by Entente

French army mutiny: overhaul: 50% chance of losing 1 efficiency. 10% chance of losing one damage (desertions). Attack value is divided in half until event (new) “Pétain deals with the mutiny”

brusilov: purchasable by Entente (does not happen automatically)
should also cost Pps

kerenski offensive: purchasable by Entente (does not happen automatically)
should also cost Pps

Lake Naroch offensive purchasable by Entente (does not happen automatically)
should also cost Pps

Lenin arrives in Petrograd purchasable by CP

polivanov purchasable by Entente

Russian mobilization delayed: may be prevented by corresponding option, adds “Fate” points to Entente

Russian surprise attack reduces Entente “Fate” points

shelling of Sebastopol purchasable by CP

stavka purchasable by Entente

tabriz purchasable by Entente

Tsar resigns may be prevented by corresponding option, increased chances of demonstrations

d'Annunzio purchasable by Entente

italian interventionism ( I would rename “irredentism”) purchasable by Entente

uncle Sam purchasable by Entente

Zimmerman telegram may be prevented by corresponding option

Anti-German propaganda may be purchased by Entente

Brzail declares war may be purchased by Entente

Room 40 overhaul: same as espionage

Add "Kaiserschlacht offensive" events, "Russian desertion" event and "Pétain deals with the mutiny" event

[Robotron]

@Zombo: fantastic post! Although almost all of your suggestions already got implemented the way you proposed I'll have an extra close look at the ones which aren't. Thanks a lot for taking the time to write all this up!

[Zombo]

I am honoured by this convergence of views

[Vokt]

That's quite an amazing amount of events added. I like the fact that many of them can be purchased.

Cannot wait to start testing!

[Zombo]

Addendum: (just a few raw ideas, to be developed if necessary)

Hoetzendorf attacks & Plan XVII & Attaque à Outrance automatically in effect on first turn, except if cancelled by pre-war fate points

kriegsanleihe success in terms of PP gain, and limiting morale loss dependent on the number of turns since last Kriegsanleihe
BTW, shouldn't there be some sort of equivalent on the Allied side?

Gallipoli: while the bridgehead is Allied-occupied, British convoys are reduced by one

french mutinies: French Attack and defense adjusted so that DURING FRENCH ATTACKS, probable outcome is 0 on each side ( French simply don't leave the trenches).
While Mutinies is in effect, every damage inflicted to french non-small garrison land units WHILE ATTACKING = 1 morale loss)

Pétain deals with the mutinies ( cancels French mutinies) : higher chance of success: per Tank unit and american unit in France, automatic if French hex recaptured.

add wireless intercept event, increases chance of triggering Tannenberg manoeuvre

Pre-War fate points:

players may spend a certain amount of pre-war fate points on:

CP: cancel hoetzendorf attack
change war plan (no Belgium, East first, original von Schlieefen)
Kaiser'"s gold
ammo stockpiled (small bonus in ammo)
war enthusiasm (small bonus in morale)
Send Goeben/Breslau to East Asia squadron
Send Goeben/Breslau home
Send East Asia squadron home (most of)

Entente:
cancel Plan XVII obstinacy (reduces PlanXVII first turn effects)
ottoman warships
cancel delayed Russian mob
Russian surprise attack (must purchase "cancel delayed Russian mob" first)
french ammo stockpiled (small bonus in ammo)
war enthusiasm (small bonus in morale)

[Robotron]

BTW, shouldn't there be some sort of equivalent on the Allied side?

I've added generic low-yield "War loans" events for Entente since they already have enough PP. Also I'm not adding events for every historic Kriegsanleihe, one per year starting from 1915 must be enough.

Gallipoli: while the bridgehead is Allied-occupied, British convoys are reduced by one

Not possible: convoys can only get blocked as a whole, not separately.

french mutinies: French Attack and defense adjusted so that DURING FRENCH ATTACKS, probable outcome is 0 on each side ( French simply don't leave the trenches).
While Mutinies is in effect, every damage inflicted to french non-small garrison land units WHILE ATTACKING = 1 morale loss)

Instead of meddling with the combat result I'd rather deny French troops affected their attack until the mutiny has passed. Good idea about the morale hit though.

Pétain deals with the mutinies ( cancels French mutinies) : higher chance of success: per Tank unit and american unit in France, automatic if French hex recaptured.

Why tanks? Because they instill a morale boost derived from their perceived invulnerability?

Gallipoli: Preferably” spawned” naval units are removed from elsewhere. ( ships don't just appear like that)

The game is extraordinary susceptible to crashes when ships get removed, so: no. Besides I'm of the opinion the Entente player should scrape together his own invasion forces from units in the vicinity if he wants to have a Gallipoli.

Still undecided about what to do about Brussilov, Naroch & Kerenski though. These were designed with singleplayer vs Entente AI in mind to counter early exploitation of frontline gaps. Probably should be removed from multiplayer altogether.

[Zombo]

Instead of meddling with the combat result I'd rather deny French troops affected their attack until the mutiny has passed. Good idea about the morale hit though.

It was to prevent them from being damaged ( since in fract they're not really atatcking) so I thought maybe the trick could be done by reduicing their attack value while increasing their defense value DURING ENTENTE turns;
but I guess just reducing attack should be dissuasive enough

Why tanks? Because they instill a morale boost derived from their perceived invulnerability?

Yes. Pétain said "on attend les Américains et les chars". Their presence on the battlefield (the latter, efficient models) did confer a good bit of confidence on accompanying infantry.

Still undecided about what to do about Brussilov, Naroch & Kerenski though. These were designed with singleplayer vs Entente AI in mind to counter early exploitation of frontline gaps. Probably should be removed from multiplayer altogether.

I think that if you have Verdun, the Big Push and possibly Kaiserschlacht offensives you might as well have Russian ones. What is important is to make them costly enough (in PP and manpower) to be a balanced choice

[Robotron]

I think that if you have Verdun, the Big Push and possibly Kaiserschlacht offensives you might as well have Russian ones. What is important is to make them costly enough (in PP and manpower) to be a balanced choice

With the difference being that Verdun, Somme and Kaiser don't spawn any units, they are meant as challenges to achieve a given historic objective within a certain time limit, causing collapse points and morale loss to the enemy if successful and vice versa.

But okay, let's just say for the moment that Naroch will require 100PP/100MP, Brussilov 200PP/200MP and Kerenski 100PP/150MP to be available in the event pool, the resources getting deducted when the event is chosen.
The high cost reflects that the troops will be instantly spawned.
The relative low cost for Kerenski (about 8 units on average for a mix of inf, garr or cav) reflects that those only come with a strength between 6-8 and the event causes 2 collapse points.

[Zombo]

It's all about balancing.

I actually think these offensives make really interesting choices for players. Choosing one of these offensives is actually betting that they will be successful. If they are, it will benefit you, if they aren't , you made a bad choice; a sort of All or Nothing gamble

The "cost" of these offensives must be a balanced combination of PP/manpower (if units are spawned) and negative consequences if unsuccessful.
for example, the Kaiserschlacht offensives should give, for free or little cost, effectiveness & attack bonuses, plus Inflitration tactics to German infantry on the Western Front, but the "cost" is present in weight of negative consequences in case of failure.
For Verdun, I imagine significant artillery damage bonus (rather than ammo bonus, in fact, because the ammo could be used elsewhere) for a little PP cost too.

[Moreau]

Hyped for the new update

[Robotron]

Signs of life!

Used the holidays testing the mod and made good progress. As foreseen the unpredictability of the new choose-your-event system causes (less and less) problems leading to a multitude of crashes when stuff is not where is expected to be.

NEW FEATURES:

Event for low-chance German right of passage through Belgium included. Will cede Liege, Namur and surrounding hexes to Germany . Will slightly delay British war entry. French will be able to do likewise to counter that event once triggered, even more delaying British war entry.

Russia will have a dread in the Baltic at strength value 3-5, representing heavy stuff still under construction.

Austria will start with arty near Temeschburg to bombard Belgrade from turn one, shielded by two garrisons.

Austrian Siege Howitzer event must be triggered by choice-event and will last for three turns, using up some Austrian ammo everytime a German arty fires or no additional damage will be done.

French choice-event to switch back from Plan17 to Plan16, redirecting troops from Elsace-Lorraine to along the Belgium border, losing some efficiency and strength while doing so. Also added French event to cancel possibility of "Attaque a outrance" for good.

"Play bad stuff on enemy via event without causality" policy abandoned. Felt wrong after all...thanks to Zombo.

Choice event for Goeben to be sent to either Med or Pacific included. If sent to Pacific, Von Spee will automatically escape with a badly damaged Battlecruiser instead of an armoured cruiser and the North Sea Blockade will be delayed. If neither choice was taken, the German pre-dread in the Baltic will be upgraded to a battlecruiser.

Option for Germany to cede Tsingtao and PP+diplo points to keep Japs out of war, delaying shipping of Anzac to Egypt until Turks cross Suez. Might even lead to 2nd Russo-Jap war if incredibly improbable conditions are met.

Dropping manpower levels will aggravate manpower cost for repairs even more. Breakpoints are 90, 80 and 66% for a rise of 25, 33 and 50% in manpower costs. French manpower lowered from 1300 to 1200, British raised from 1200 to 1400 to reflect colonies, Turkey lowered from 1100 to 900, Italy lowered from 1100 to 1000.

US convoys to France must be triggered by choice event. All convoys will have a randomised starting turn averaging on the default values. Entente cargo load will be the lesser of two die rolls, while CP will net the higher roll in MP.

Foreign Legion event added, spawning French garrison with eternal elite status, will cause French colonial revolts if French Army of Africa also deployed to Europe.

Higher values for SIGINT in diplo section will cause multitude of effects like immunity to mines, higher LOS for land/sea/air units, "surprise" combat bonus and (once I figured out how to do it) displaying enemy resource panels, alike to kill/casualities display.

Choice-event for Austria to suppress the urge to do suicidal attacks in Galicia.

Choice-event for Entente to send medical aid to Serbia to combat the Typhoid epidemic's effects and duration.

Choice-event for CP to suppress AH/German generals conflicting while defending in the East (new feature: AH/German generals might leave for a few turns when in command radius of the other, checked at start of every turn).


This thing ain't over!

[Robotron]

double post again while misclicking, sorry!

[Zombo]

Hurray!
(executes little happy dance)

My usual comments (can't help it): Belgium ceding free passage: I'm not sure that this would discourage the Brits from joining the war. The violation of Belgium's neutrality was the formal justification for joining, but what the Brits couldn't accept in reality was a German-held port on the Channel - and that would have happened even faster. Also, they would have - very rightfully - considered Belgium's decision as a coerced one, basically a violation of its sovereignty all the same.

Austrian siege guns: I hope the Austrian ammo expenditure is not too high, the guns were just a few biggies lent to Germany, 99,99% of Austrian ammo expenditure certainly still was Austria's own artillery park.

could you clarify that manpower thing?
I don't quite understand this aggravated manpower cost thing...
I always felt manpower was an area with much room for improvement left. What is the manpower added to the pool each turn (if I remember well, it's a % of something - which I'm not sure is adequate anyway - but of what?)

SIGINT: looking good! What about also getting some tech points for techs the enemy is well ahead in ( industrial espionage)
It would be GREAt if the player could be notified what effect he obtained through the successful event. also, in the case of expanded LOS, maybe it should happen away from air units, in order not to superimpose both LOS (thus negating the Intel one)

Naval: I suggest making the Austrian sub 6 SP at start ( there were only nine subs at the start of the war)
and reduce the at-start strength of cruisers against subs... (unless that's redundant with the new "retreat" sub ability)

Russian mobilization & poor railroad network- organization : Russian exaggerated staying power in current version made me think of how to mitigate that and feel more "Russian". i believe most of what I'll suggest here must be harcoded and therefore not moddable but hey, you never know:
either one or combinations:
Russian production of units should cost one turn more
Russian set-up area for reinforcement should exclude close to front cities
turns when Russia sets up reinforcing infantry ( or alternatively, random turns if it's easier) , Russia loses its railroad transport point

also, regarding CP units in Russia, maybe increase effectiveness loss when moving and in Winter east of some determined hex coordinate in order to represent logistical difficulties due to distance/poor road and rail network, and prevent CP from pushing too far if the Russian army liquefies ( as happened in 1917/18 and will hopefully happen in podblitz 4.0)



suggestion of events. Gunther Adolf Burstyn, for some free "Tracked vehicle" tech. It could be a pre-war (the tank prototype was presented in 1911 for the first time ) and in-war event, both for AH and Germany. (Falkenhayn is reported by Allistair Horne to have turned down an Austrian tank prototype, little info on that, but I know Burstyn approached the Germans as well). If it's successful, it should slightly increase the chances of success for British Tank prototype event. I have a picture of a model, if need be.

Russian desertions: If the desertions phenomenon in Turkey translates into an event, so should it for Russia, the phenomenon was a important if not more ( I think I have lobbied for this one before)

Pétain handles the Mutinies: see previous post

It would also be very helpful if there was a little summary of the effect of the event ( could be in discreet small text) under the event's historical description. there's a lot of them, so remembering which one does what is not easy, and having to browse through the list is necessarily very handy

I think this whole game is involving in a fantastic way, my pals and I are demanding wargamers and this really rouses our enthusiasm: we can't wait to have a go at it

Keep up the good work!!!

[Robotron]

My usual comments (can't help it)

*groan*

Belgium ceding free passage: I'm not sure that this would discourage the Brits from joining the war.

They'll do so. Just a few turns later.

Austrian siege guns: I hope the Austrian ammo expenditure is not too high

2-3 ammo points if extra damage was caused. Extra damage will be caused if AH has at least 3 ammo and a roll of 2D6 is equal to or less than AH's ammo reserves.

could you clarify that manpower thing?

Manpower cost for unit repairs will rise the lower a faction's manpower drops.

What is the manpower added to the pool each turn (if I remember well, it's a % of something - which I'm not sure is adequate anyway - but of what?)

0,2% of maximum manpower per turn in 1914. 0,4% per turn from 1915 onward.

SIGINT: looking good! What about also getting some tech points for techs the enemy is well ahead in ( industrial espionage)

Good idea.

It would be GREAt if the player could be notified what effect he obtained through the successful (spy) event.

Okay. I'll also make it so that opponents will only be informed of the enemy's more "secretive" events if they have invested enough in SIGINT. This might lead to some nice surprises.

also, in the case of expanded LOS, maybe it should happen away from air units, in order not to superimpose both LOS (thus negating the Intel one)

I've already changed that again: instead of enhancing LOS for units, I'll have enemy hexes cleared from FOW with a % chance for each depending on the level of advantage in SIGINT.

Naval: I suggest making the Austrian sub 6 SP at start ( there were only nine subs at the start of the war)

Actually AH starts with no subs anymore. It will receive some subs via choice-event once Italy has joined Entente.

Russian mobilization & poor railroad network- organization : Russian exaggerated staying power in current version made me think of how to mitigate that and feel more "Russian". i believe most of what I'll suggest here must be harcoded and therefore not moddable but hey, you never know:
either one or combinations:
Russian production of units should cost one turn more
Russian set-up area for reinforcement should exclude close to front cities
turns when Russia sets up reinforcing infantry ( or alternatively, random turns if it's easier) , Russia loses its railroad transport point

That's just not feasible as it would mean completely rewriting the whole deployment code, sorry but no.

Gunther Adolf Burstyn, for some free "Tracked vehicle" tech. It could be a pre-war (the tank prototype was presented in 1911 for the first time ) and in-war event, both for AH and Germany. (Falkenhayn is reported by Allistair Horne to have turned down an Austrian tank prototype, little info on that, but I know Burstyn approached the Germans as well). If it's successful, it should slightly increase the chances of success for British Tank prototype event. I have a picture of a model, if need be.

Surely you mean raising chances for a CP tank prototype, since Ernest Swinton is already included for Entente. Good find though, will be included.

Russian desertions: If the desertions phenomenon in Turkey translates into an event, so should it for Russia, the phenomenon was a important if not more ( I think I have lobbied for this one before)

Turkish mass desertions will not occur via choice event.

It would also be very helpful if there was a little summary of the effect of the event ( could be in discreet small text) under the event's historical description. there's a lot of them, so remembering which one does what is not easy, and having to browse through the list is necessarily very handy

If you mean the actual "Special Event" popup: sorry, I've already spent weeks typing the PDF and doing yet another 400+ event copy-paste job after I'm done with about 200 choice-popup text descriptions (see examples below) is beyond what I'm willing to do for this hobby project at the moment.

[tralala43]

Sorry for not responding earlier. I installed patches as described, and the mod works now. Thank you!

[Zombo]

Manpower cost for unit repairs will rise the lower a faction's manpower drops.

But... what's the rationale behind that, if I may ask? Units don't change their manpower needs - if anything, it drops because they are reorganised to include less... And is it not going to create a down spiral where higher manpower cost causes manpower levels to drop faster, resulting in even higher manpower costs, etc?

It is important to remember that neither Germany nor France, the major countries who suffered most casualties in terms of % of their total pop, experienced annual losses superior to the annual supplement of manpower obtained by drafting the new 18-year old class... No country resorted to sending under- or overaged men to the front on a wide scale

I can imagine gradual manpower consumption to affect morale, effectiveness ( declining training), etc, but not the raw manpower cost of units