Bill101

Hi Karhu Thanks for posting this and you do make a valid point. It's on my list of things to focus on! Bill

Hi Dragon99 Thanks for the feedback and it's great to hear that you love the game! Bill

I think one problem with penalizing someone too much due to their country having low NM is that often a Major with low NM is likely to be losing. If you are losing and this were to cause a big loss in unit morale then it would make any hope of counterattacking and turning tide rather difficult. Given that it's our hope that we can turn things around and change the way things are going that provides one of the fun elements of the game, indeed that keeps us on the edge of our seats and looking forward to our next turn, it would perhaps be a mistake to change this. There are already other penalties in place, e.g. a Major that is taking a hammering will often be feeding units directly into the front line the moment they are formed (i.e. at lower unit morale than is desirable), they may have lost HQs which provide bonuses to their units, and their income will also be suffering due to foreign invasion and/or industrial unrest. Pile on too many penalties and even the best general would be unable to change the course of the game once a certain point has been reached. This doesn't mean that an NM effect on unit morale would be a totally mistaken move, just that we need to be very careful that by introducing something here it wouldn't have an overall negative effect on the game.

Some of them are just pointers to the players that their NM has fallen below a certain level, but some carry over into triggers events such as industrial unrest, riots, and of course both Russian Revolutions are tied in with Russia's NM levels.

It was certainly was Jim's work at the end, and I really liked it too!

Hi No problem, I'll take another look at this! Bill

Hi What we found when a low NM had more impact on unit morale was that it made unit's virtually unable to launch attacks if their opponent's had higher NM. The impact was far too excessive. But here, the way it is now, everyone goes to war full of enthusiasm, but once the initial battles are over, the reality has set in and pretty much everyone's unit morale will be slightly lower as a result. Unless of course someone manages to do really well without suffering heavy casualties...

That would be it, as if the Ottomans join the war before the decision fires then there won't be a chance to prepare an expedition to land at Basra. But in August, that is amazingly lucky to get the Ottomans to join then!

Not if Spain is inactive, but when does the mod start?

That's right. You may way want to try something else, depending exactly on what you want to represent. For instance, if it's so that their units deploy with variable strengths then you could always have a number of unit scripts that only fire if their GV number comes up. Each unit script in the variable could be set to provide a different strength unit, e.g.: GV 1-50 provides a strength 10 Corps at Madrid. GV 51-75 provides a strength 8 Corps at Madrid. GV 76-89 provides a strength 7 Corps at Madrid. GV 90-100 provides a strength 5 Corps at Madrid. A similar method is used in both of the main 1914 campaigns to make the Italian navy deploy at unpredictable locations.

Hi Austria-Hungary gains 1,000 points providing they didn't hand Trento-Trieste over to Italy. Bill

Hi Thanks for mentioning this and I have an idea that might fix this. Bill

Hi Canada1 Glad to hear that you're enjoying the game, and thanks for the feedback too. Once you've played some more against the AI it would be good to hear how you get on in multiplayer. Bill

Is Spain a major and has it got a mobilization value of zero percent? If so that is the reason. It won't generate any MPPs to expand the armed forces until its mobilization value starts increasing.

Impossible to say at the moment as everything needs testing. Perhaps a couple of weeks away, but it's impossible to predict exactly because if we find an issue then we'll have to deal with it and re-test again.

Hi Wushuki I've been thinking about this because while I can see what you're saying, I've also found them to be more useful than you have, though my use of them is mainly as German rather than with the Entente. Admittedly they aren't useful without upgrades but I usually use them in conjunction with some Zeppelins and then we can really pummel a target unless it has good fighter protection or AA. The necessity to have a few levels of upgrade to turn them into something decent does mean that we are very unlikely to see them develop into anything very powerful early in the war. But by the end they should have more potential as in real life. Germany already has a build limit of two and perhaps the easiest and best solution might be to increase the build limits for some of the other nations too? Bill

The effectiveness of units in combat is closely entwined with their strength, morale and readiness, so a hit of 25% on their morale by a Tank attack will reduce their abilities quite dramatically. The effect wears off after a couple of turns, but if combined with other attacks, especially heavy artillery bombardments, if the target unit hasn't been destroyed by the end of your turn then it's certainly going to need a break out of the front lines for rest and recuperation before it's going to be useful again. Attacks go in a sequence, with the defender getting steadily more demoralized as more attacks go in, so you are right in that infantry attacking after a tank has gone in will do better.

Hi Every MPP casualty knocks 1 point off your National Morale. So those figures you mentioned will decrease every time you suffer any casualties, and as naval units are more expensive than land units, losing a Battleship will knock far more off your National Morale than just losing a Detachment. There is a section near the start of the 1914 Call to Arms Strategy Guide which explains this in a bit more detail, and it's worth a read!

Hi The disbanding of naval units isn't allowed in the default scenarios. No country of the time would have done it as the amount of prestige invested in their navies was immense, and it would have been considered a shameful act. There is the ability to allow it in mods, so this can be adjusted in the editor for use in either modified versions of the default campaigns, or in your own mods.

Hi Amadeus I've taken a look and sent you an email. Hopefully what I've written will be useful, but please do come back to me if you want to discuss anything further or have any questions. Bill

Hi Amadeus I'll be happy to take a look at any saved turns and offer some advice if that would help? If you'd like to then please send them to bill.runacre@furysoftware.com Have you played a PBEM game as the Entente yet? I wonder if doing so could help see what German players are doing that works. Bill

Thanks Karhu, and I agree that it is amazing how inaccurate maps can be. It can really drive me mad sometimes. If only there were a "Google Historical Earth"!

Reims is one of the mobilization locations so that could be why, as units can be deployed in any square adjacent to the town if the town itself is occupied by a friendly unit. It's probably worse on the French if they do deploy very close to the front line because on deployment their morale and readiness will be pretty poor, being only freshly mobilized and all.

Hi Both the railways mentioned above are based on the maps in the West Point Atlas for the Great War. Map 42 shows the railway from Baghdad stopping at Samarrah, while Map 32 shows a railway passing through Sarajevo to the sea, roughly parallel to the Montenegrin border. No town is marked on the Adriatic coast, but as Dubrovnik is the largest settlement in the area for game purposes, I have had it end there. Now, one thing I've learned since I started designing scenarios some years back is that Atlases are far less reliable than one might have thought. I even have one which doesn't have the Vistula entering the Baltic at Danzig, instead it stops about 100 miles south of the city!! Considering that it is The Times Atlas of the Second World War, one would have expected better from them! I'm happy to make corrections where applicable, depending of course on its effect on the game, so please feel free to post links to details of any along with information on the correct railway lines at the time.

It's best he checks out the demos and decides which he likes the most. The WWI demo will at least show him the grand map he'll be fighting the WWII campaign on once it's ready.