New official patch is out.
Various bug and scenario fixes, but there are 3 things which I would note:
-bug letting the German AI zerg ROTW areas fixed
-bug making the strictly-turn-based (ie. original boardgame rules) AI being passive fixed
-PBEM mode introduced. There were some people (even a 4 players group) testing this successfully during open beta, so it works. It is like the other AGEOD PBEMs a bit file-exchange heavy, but with TCP/IP still very prone to falling out of synch, this is the best MP way
I imagine this must be pretty cheap nowadays. Go and buy it. If you have it, patch it and try it again, in the strictly turn based mode (but for the love of God play it in the 2 players campaign, the boardgame was meant to be played that way, don't fuck around)
No thx, your opinion is pretty useless.
Quote from: garbon on October 09, 2011, 01:59:49 PM
No thx, your opinion is pretty useless.
We are lucky we have you around on this forum then.
Still trying to polish this turd? Good for you.
Quote from: Ed Anger on October 09, 2011, 03:05:45 PM
Still trying to polish this turd? Good for you.
You tried/bought the pre-gold version, right? That's what I am trying to tell you: there has been huge improvements since then. BTW there is patch for the demo as well (though yeah, you have to install then patch the demo).
I keep bringing this game up because I played enough with some people here to feel they would like it if they were to learn the rules and how it works. And no other game comes close to simulating WW1 this well. Yes, too bad it is doing it through an interface which needs some serious getting-used-to, but still.
Is this the game where they tilted the map at first?
Quote from: The Brain on October 10, 2011, 08:15:27 AM
Is this the game where they tilted the map at first?
Yes, but retreated from it in the Gold edition. Made it brighter, too.
Quote from: Tamas on October 10, 2011, 12:23:34 AM
Quote from: Ed Anger on October 09, 2011, 03:05:45 PM
Still trying to polish this turd? Good for you.
You tried/bought the pre-gold version, right? That's what I am trying to tell you: there has been huge improvements since then. BTW there is patch for the demo as well (though yeah, you have to install then patch the demo).
I keep bringing this game up because I played enough with some people here to feel they would like it if they were to learn the rules and how it works. And no other game comes close to simulating WW1 this well. Yes, too bad it is doing it through an interface which needs some serious getting-used-to, but still.
I could barely get the damned game to work. It was optimized for an operating system that had been discontinued years ago.
I am heavily into WW1 at the moment, yet I hesitate to get this. :hmm:
Quote from: The Brain on November 29, 2011, 03:35:41 PM
I am heavily into WW1 at the moment, yet I hesitate to get this. :hmm:
Do not. I am not hiding that it has a steep learning curve. But it is a great simulation behind the cluncky interface with a decent AI.
Just make sure you get the latest patch from the ageod forums.
Strategic Command WW1 is an alternative and it is a nice game, but it is actually slower, with a lot less simulation value.
Quote from: Tamas on November 29, 2011, 03:56:40 PM
Quote from: The Brain on November 29, 2011, 03:35:41 PM
I am heavily into WW1 at the moment, yet I hesitate to get this. :hmm:
..... But it is a great simulation behind the cluncky interface with a decent AI.
I would actually like it, if not for terrible AI.
Quote from: szmik on November 30, 2011, 12:46:03 PM
Quote from: Tamas on November 29, 2011, 03:56:40 PM
Quote from: The Brain on November 29, 2011, 03:35:41 PM
I am heavily into WW1 at the moment, yet I hesitate to get this. :hmm:
..... But it is a great simulation behind the cluncky interface with a decent AI.
I would actually like it, if not for terrible AI.
is not. Patch it, dude, latest (and probably last) is 1.08O or something, you can get it from the forum
I bought it. I'm rich enough that I can be crazy like that.
Quote from: The Brain on November 30, 2011, 01:58:05 PM
I bought it. I'm rich enough that I can be crazy like that.
http://ageoddl.telechargement.fr/3rd...ch_v1.0.8o.exe
OK the map scrolling and mouse cursor are slow as fuck. What's up?
Quote from: The Brain on November 30, 2011, 02:52:28 PM
OK the map scrolling and mouse cursor are slow as fuck. What's up?
if you launch the "configurator" there is an option to load all of the map at start alá' other AGEOD titles. It will make the launch of the game slower but it wont have to load the map graphics on the fly on your apparently old computer.
Also if you only have a single core CPU there should be a separate exe file optimized for that, but I think that's just for some people who had crashes.
Old? Old??!?? STFU, Asian.
Have you been hardcore enough to start in the "strictly turn based" mode?
Quote from: Tamas on December 01, 2011, 06:59:47 AM
Have you been hardcore enough to start in the "strictly turn based" mode?
Is that the best mode?
Quote from: The Brain on December 01, 2011, 08:40:16 AM
Quote from: Tamas on December 01, 2011, 06:59:47 AM
Have you been hardcore enough to start in the "strictly turn based" mode?
Is that the best mode?
It is the direct conversion of the boardgame rules, except that there are sub-options to turn stuff on and off, but of course you want everything on except maybe retreat before battle, I always hated that one :P
Basically, the default mode is like other AGEOD games: you give orders to all armies, AI does too, you hit end turn, they simultanously move and something will happen. I never preferred that, but until this latest patch I linked, the AI was buggedly passive in the turn-based mode. Now it's fine so it shouldn't stop you.
In the turn-based mode, the hearth of the movement is the activation of armies.
Depending on Initiative (that is a roll with a lot of drms, you can find links to the boardgame rules on the official forum if you are so inclined), one player starts the turn. He must activate his main army first, which you can identify by it's HQ stack having a more shiny icon IIRC. This is not just for posterity, as you can put more corps (units) into the main army.
So anyway, once you moved your main army you are free to activate the rest in whichever order. Your movement phase ends when all activations end. Yes that means you have to activate/hit done with armies you dont want to move, but that's life.
You can also coordinate once per turn, it means once you hit the activation button on an army, you get the coordination button (at the place of the activation one) for the other armies. You can try and add up to two other armies to the same activation, but this is again a dice roll, with stuff like general's abilities and distance factored into the whole thing. There a few cases of automatically successful coordination attempts (if you choose them), most notably the German 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Armies in Early August if you choose the Schlieffen Plan.
A pro tip is that if it is not you taking the moves first, hit pause asap and book your relevant armies for interception, you have to do that per turn IIRC.
Also, if you are the inactive player, you are entitled to one Reaction, which means you pause, hit the reaction button on the army, the game rolls if it's succeed, and if it does, you just have to unpause and wait for the current AI activation to finish, then you'll have an activation with the Reacting army before the AI turn continues.
Stacking units via drag and drop is a pain in the ass until you learn the idiocies of the interface in that regard, but there is, since some patches, a reorg button, where you get a screen to create new stacks in the hex and move units back and forth between stacks and also -most notably- change their army assignments.
Great Invasions wasn't that way. :P
Did a quick game as Serbia in that 4 turn scenario. Interesting. With boardgame rules of course. :)
"Central Powers Win! Draw!" :hmm:
BTW, for combat, the key is morale. Each unit has a little flag to the left of its picture:
orange: elite (+2drm on 1d6 morale checks)
yellow: veteran (+1)
purple: active duty (0)
grey: reserves (-1)
white: conscripts (-2)
The morale "damages" you can receive are also very important For most of these you lose a manpower point from your reserves as well, beside the unit being flipped (IIRC if it was already flipped you lose an additional manpower point)
shaken: the unit is taken out of combat for a single round.
disorganized: the unit is taken ouf of the entire battle, but will remain on the map with it's stack
out of combat: out of the battle and removed from the map, will return to be place freely in the next turn
eliminated: as the name suggests
Artillery is king, as you get column shifts on the CRT, assuming you have ammunition for it of course. Defending forts serve as artillery, for the first three rounds at least. I can't remember if the original "they shoot 3 rounds for free then must get ammo" rule has been implemented, but I think it wasn't.
Speaking of ammunition, in the GC you have all these factories (ammo, planes, zeppelins) placed all over your map, but the icons for most of these will be crossed over initially.
That's because you still have a high civilian production rating, this is something you must reduce gradually via political actions, at a cost of national will loss. It will also cost National Will on the long term as well, since a quarterly check is performed on NW and while high civilian production makes it easy to keep people content, lower can be very bad.
National Will is the hearth of everything, you win or lose the war through it. There are elaborate rules for the loss and gain of it, including strikes, revolts, mutinies, various kinds of revolutions and such. The game actually calculates these well but it is very opaque on them when it comes to enemy countries, that's probably my biggest annoyance with it right now, but it is unlikely to change at this stage.
This can be very confusing for a newbie, since when countries enter the instability zone (NW 20 or lower), some WILD swings in National Will are possible as revolts attempted and fail, new governments are elected, new war-preferring (or anti-war) governments take over via revolutions and such. But getting actual news on those when it's not your country, well it's pretty hard. You just end up being happy for almost-collapsing Russia at one turn, and being dissapointed at them having 27NW again the next one. Of course, if you have some routine, you know that this means their parlaiment wasn't full pacifist yet and they managed to enact a new government which gives you 27NW.
National Will also affects morale check bonuses for all units. But, morale checks are also affected by nationality, and this is most apparent in Austria-Hungary: you do NOT want to send slavs against other slavs, but they will serve well against Italians. After Franz Joseph dies, all your nationalities except hungarians and austrians will get a morale penalty.
Speaking of A-H: plz don't be gay and don't play the GC as a 4 players game. The boardgame was always meant as either a two player game, or a close team play 4 player one (actually in the board game, in case of 4 players one player controlled a major front, not a country), which is of course impossible to recreate with an AI.
Quote from: Tamas on December 01, 2011, 11:49:34 AM
Speaking of A-H: plz don't be gay and don't play the GC as a 4 players game.
OK. OK.
Tamas, you should have said there was a gay option. Marti would have purchased it for sure.
I don't usually play multi-player, so how is this game with the AI? It looks a bit interesting, and I'm thinking about getting it.
Quote from: KRonn on December 02, 2011, 08:07:11 AM
I don't usually play multi-player, so how is this game with the AI? It looks a bit interesting, and I'm thinking about getting it.
I think it is decent. It is an AI of course, but among the better wargame AIs I have seen. In 1914 it follows the plan it choses (you must select a plan from the given choices. For Germany, for example, you have Schlieffen, but also a plan to go straight the French border, or to an East First strategy, or even a schlieffen through the easy terrain or Switzerland), then in trench warfare it choses Great Offensive targets like a human and acts accordingly (though it's levels of preparation for big offensives wary).
IIRC you have two sliders to tweak the AI: one is agression, the other is the level of bonus it has on fog of war. Once you have some routine I would suggest a slight increase on both from the default, that seems to yield the best results for me.
Thanks for the info Tamas. The game also seems to have some production to work with, according to your posts. You need to move production from civilian to military, pacing it to try and avoid unrest? Is there any research on new items/tech, or is that all abstracted? Such as tanks were brought in late in the war. Do they just appear or do you have to make some effort towards encouraging their development?
Also, how are air power and navies handled in the game?
Quote from: KRonn on December 02, 2011, 12:45:35 PM
Thanks for the info Tamas. The game also seems to have some production to work with, according to your posts. You need to move production from civilian to military, pacing it to try and avoid unrest? Is there any research on new items/tech, or is that all abstracted? Such as tanks were brought in late in the war. Do they just appear or do you have to make some effort towards encouraging their development?
Also, how are air power and navies handled in the game?
Production: Civilian production level starts from 9-7 depending on the country. You dont have a separate indicator for military production: the lower the civilian is, the higher that is meant to be. The most dramatic change in that is the number of ammunition you can produce per turn. (The Entente powers can receive munition-production capabilities from the US relatively easily).
You buy stuff from economic points, the lower civilian production is, the higher your ECs. Beside ammo, you build units of course. Now, each country has a monthly flow of manpower points. Except that for each infantry or cavalry unit you build, the monthly flow for that quarter is reduced by one. So if you cover the fronts sufficiently, don't spam units: you may regret it. For example, you flip back units via spending manpower points, but you can't spend more in a turn than the half of your total reserves. Deplete and collapse. Besides these things, you can build extra diplomats, ships, mines, and allocate money to tech.
Tech: It is actually much much more custom than in the boardgame, I assume to avoid bitching over lack of control, or I don't know. In the boardgame you drew two tech chits and chose which one you attempted to research, and of course there were some date stamps. The date stamps are here as well for a few things, but you can actually choose from a list to what try and research.
Regarding the naval stuff: the awesomness of the boardgame design while technically is implemented fully, looks less sexy, due to the interface probably.
The tactical battle part is intact, so is the potential to some huge NW losses if you run into a sever beating. Formations, surprises, distances, are present but abstracted.
The operational part is also kind of there: paying economic points for fleet actions, various missions, control of sea zones for supply, you name it. It's just.. feels cluncky. But the end result is roughly the same: due to the high potential cost of failure, you don't dare to move out much.
Air units are attached to HQs, and you select the mission for them on the menu of the HQ. There is a roll to be made, and it is very very heavily influenced by the attributes of the planes, which in turn are mostly decided by the various air-related techs. So don't expect to be flying CAS missions regularly until you built some decent 1916s airplanes and invented some stuff. You are better off sticking to recons in the early game. When planes end up performing missions around the same place, an air battle may ensue. Occasionally, an Ace would surface from one of these battles.
So Tamas, the game seems o me to have pretty good depth to it, but not overwhelming. And it's good that you need some research, like with aircraft, before you can just do everything, as is probably more accurate.
Quote from: KRonn on December 02, 2011, 04:49:10 PM
So Tamas, the game seems o me to have pretty good depth to it, but not overwhelming. And it's good that you need some research, like with aircraft, before you can just do everything, as is probably more accurate.
Yes it has great depth, and I haven't even told about political actions, diplomacy, and great offensives durings trench warfare.
But I dont want to mislead you here: the game is a one man project and it shows where it usually shows for wargames: the interface. I can go around in it with no problems but I have been with the game since early beta.
I am not saying the interface is a barrier for learning the game (look for tooltips btw, if you purchase), but it is sure as hell not helping you to learn it.
But under that hood is the best WW1 simulation out there, computer and board games included.
Downloaded the game, and installing now. Do I need the Upgrade Install kit? It's an additional cost. Or is there a free patch? I also saw a 1.7 patch, I think it was.
Never mind. I must have the latest version, since I just downloaded it. The kit and 1.7 are to upgrade to the Gold edition.
So what is this DivX plus, and PC tools it's just loading onto my computer? I don't have an option to say no to these. :huh:
Quote from: KRonn on December 02, 2011, 06:12:24 PM
Downloaded the game, and installing now. Do I need the Upgrade Install kit? It's an additional cost. Or is there a free patch? I also saw a 1.7 patch, I think it was.
Never mind. I must have the latest version, since I just downloaded it. The kit and 1.7 are to upgrade to the Gold edition.
I hope you did buy the Gold version!
For that, I linked the latest patch here, in reply to a post of The Brain. You definetly must apply that patch. IIRC last of the known bugs were eliminated by it.
Quote from: KRonn on December 02, 2011, 06:20:09 PM
So what is this DivX plus, and PC tools it's just loading onto my computer? I don't have an option to say no to these. :huh:
for playing the intro video or whatnot. Don't worry.
I already have 1.0.8 version, so I should be good with the latest update.
I selected to load map at start, added to mouse sensitivity, and use monitor resolution. That's about it. Now to check it out. Well, read some of the directions maybe too. :)
Quote from: Tamas on December 02, 2011, 01:39:57 PM
Air units are attached to HQs, and you select the mission for them on the menu of the HQ. There is a roll to be made, and it is very very heavily influenced by the attributes of the planes, which in turn are mostly decided by the various air-related techs. So don't expect to be flying CAS missions regularly until you built some decent 1916s airplanes and invented some stuff. You are better off sticking to recons in the early game. When planes end up performing missions around the same place, an air battle may ensue. Occasionally, an Ace would surface from one of these battles.
But can I dump phosgene on London from a zeppelin?
Quote from: KRonn on December 02, 2011, 06:33:19 PM
I already have 1.0.8 version, so I should be good with the latest update.
I selected to load map at start, added to mouse sensitivity, and use monitor resolution. That's about it. Now to check it out. Well, read some of the directions maybe too. :)
Yeah but the patches were 1.0.8lettercode :P Download the 1.0.8O patch.
It was in a making for a quite a while, and it was the one that eliminated two very ugly bugs: one was that the German AI could get around shipping stuff to Africa, the other was the too much passivity of the AI in the turn-based mode
Quote from: Ideologue on December 03, 2011, 01:44:41 AM
Quote from: Tamas on December 02, 2011, 01:39:57 PM
Air units are attached to HQs, and you select the mission for them on the menu of the HQ. There is a roll to be made, and it is very very heavily influenced by the attributes of the planes, which in turn are mostly decided by the various air-related techs. So don't expect to be flying CAS missions regularly until you built some decent 1916s airplanes and invented some stuff. You are better off sticking to recons in the early game. When planes end up performing missions around the same place, an air battle may ensue. Occasionally, an Ace would surface from one of these battles.
But can I dump phosgene on London from a zeppelin?
There are zeppelins and IIRC there are strategic missions against cities, yes :P
Thanks again Tamas. I got the latest 1.0.8O patch.
I've been playing a bit before that patch, and so far it's been ok, though I haven't gotten very far. Bit of a good learning curve, as you say. Now to play with the latest patch. :)
How ironic that the last patch has finally died.
I've been liking the game pretty well. But it crashes a dozen or so turns into the game, in the couple of games I've played. Seems when I get some kind of events happening, but hard to say. :hmm:
The CTD event. WAD.
Quote from: KRonn on December 03, 2011, 03:46:58 PM
I've been liking the game pretty well. But it crashes a dozen or so turns into the game, in the couple of games I've played. Seems when I get some kind of events happening, but hard to say. :hmm:
UAC perhaps? Try running the exe as administrator (right-click on it).
Or maybe you have a single core CPU?
Ah well, too bad. Game is nearly unplayable it seems. It will stop between turns, saying the AI is taking its turn, and nothing happens. I can't escape out or anything. Sometimes the AI finishes, but sometimes afer five or more minutes nothing is happening. I did run it by right clicking on the start icon, selecting to run as admin. You mentioned turning off UAC. I wouldn't think UAC has to be turned off to play the game?
Quote from: KRonn on December 03, 2011, 10:37:45 PM
Ah well, too bad. Game is nearly unplayable it seems. It will stop between turns, saying the AI is taking its turn, and nothing happens. I can't escape out or anything. Sometimes the AI finishes, but sometimes afer five or more minutes nothing is happening. I did run it by right clicking on the start icon, selecting to run as admin. You mentioned turning off UAC. I wouldn't think UAC has to be turned off to play the game?
Running as administrator should solve that, but I do remember this was a major pain-point for some people, and turning UAC off completely solved it. Also if you are having this problem, make sure that AI logging is turned off in the configurator (altough it should be by default IIRC), as it is logged in html files and that can piss off some antivirus softwares for some reason.
So yeah, turn UAC off, it is a travesty anyway :P
edit: yeah, even in the 1.0.8O thread someone had problems until he turned UAC off.
Quote from: KRonn on December 03, 2011, 10:37:45 PM
Ah well, too bad. Game is nearly unplayable it seems. It will stop between turns, saying the AI is taking its turn, and nothing happens. I can't escape out or anything. Sometimes the AI finishes, but sometimes afer five or more minutes nothing is happening. I did run it by right clicking on the start icon, selecting to run as admin. You mentioned turning off UAC. I wouldn't think UAC has to be turned off to play the game?
For this one it does. For me the game just didn't work with UAC on. It didn't work that well without it. For me the whole game ran like shit.
Running as administrator should solve that, but I do remember this was a major pain-point for some people, and turning UAC off completely solved it. Also if you are having this problem, make sure that AI logging is turned off in the configurator (altough it should be by default IIRC), as it is logged in html files and that can piss off some antivirus softwares for some reason.
I saw some of these suggestions on the AGEOD fourm. I did turn off AI logging, but that was in the middle of a game, so maybe issues were already there. I also used the trash can in the options menu, which clears out AI memory files or something like that, which can cause problems if it gets too large.
Other people reported they had issues with crashes still, though a lot less frequently. I'll be trying it again with more of the suggestions.
Turn off UAC
I think it is perfectly reasonable for a game developer to require the user to modify the configuration of his operating system in order to keep his software from crashing all the time.
Oh wait, no I don't.
Quote from: Berkut on December 04, 2011, 11:41:29 AM
I think it is perfectly reasonable for a game developer to require the user to modify the configuration of his operating system in order to keep his software from crashing all the time.
Oh wait, no I don't.
well yeah. however, unless you are not paying attention on what the hell are you clicking on the Internets, UAC is pretty useless and annoying for most users.
Do you all still install games in the Program Files folder in Vista/Win7?
Quote from: sbr on December 04, 2011, 12:57:36 PM
Do you all still install games in the Program Files folder in Vista/Win7?
I installed this game in a separate C:\Games folder, not in the Program Files folder. I try to install most games that way.
I didn't know that at first with Vista, and installing games in the Program Files folder makes things a bit messy for finding save files, etc.
Quote from: KRonn on December 04, 2011, 01:13:46 PM
Quote from: sbr on December 04, 2011, 12:57:36 PM
Do you all still install games in the Program Files folder in Vista/Win7?
I installed this game in a separate C:\Games folder, not in the Program Files folder. I try to install most games that way.
I didn't know that at first with Vista, and installing games in the Program Files folder makes things a bit messy for finding save files, etc.
As a general rule of thumb, I would keep a separate partion for the operating system. Makes for much less pain when said OS needs to be reinstalled
Quote from: Berkut on December 04, 2011, 11:41:29 AM
I think it is perfectly reasonable for a game developer to require the user to modify the configuration of his operating system in order to keep his software from crashing all the time.
Oh wait, no I don't.
Well it's really made for a operating system that had been discontinued years after the game was released. Which is a novel way to go about things. Perhaps for the next game they can optimize it for windows 95.
Decided to give this a spin and I must have been seriously the luckiest guy ever in the early August turn.
I went with Diplomatic poker/ultimatum accepted and decided to concentrate on Russia via the Moltke/Kaiser plan combo. Not only did I get a Italy war dec on the CP side but Britain didnt join the Entente (so far at least). In october now and have rebuffed the French offensive in A-L and captured Marseilles in southern France while I´m about to bag the entirety of Poland in a huge pincer cutting off 3 or 4 Russian armies. Losses have been a bit high though. Serbia is getting overrun since I could redeploy the VII and VIII armies from the Italian front to the Danube and Galizia respectively and 2 armies is enough to chew them up badly.
Diplomatically I´m getting close to get the Ottomans into the alliance which should nab me Bulgaria as well. Bulgaria will help in Romania which is close as well. Much of my diplomatic clout is spent in Britain though fighting to keep them from deccing me for as long as possible. Played the diplomats events in the first turn who get me a 3 and a2 rank diplomat and those guys really help with that. Greece could swing either way but if OE/Bulgaria/Romania swing CP I should be able to keep them at least neutral. Thats what the info indicates anyway. Tamas, have some info on what happens regarding to events when the balkan nation joins either side?
The classic alt-hist scenario :) Lucky on Italy indeed, if you did not choose the Austrian concessions in Tirol. With those, it is much easier to get the Italians going.
I think you misunderstood the Balkan minors: if for example Bulgaria joins the CP, Romania moves one or two steps toward the Entente! I am not sure if the actual modifiers on this are in the manual or not, but they are in the boardgame rules' diplomacy booklet which is available from the official forum, and you could alternatively decipher the csv file governing these (it's a shame this game never got off the ground as almost everything is moddable - a Balkan Wars scenario with event chains would be in text-editing range but who would bother).
Point is, every nation who can potentially join the conflict in Europe reacts to developments. eg. if the Ottomans join a side, Bulgaria and Greece move two steps toward the other side, Romania moves one. If Italy joins a side, the Turks move toward the other etc.
But beside that, there are lots of drms and other rules. There is the concept of "pro-CP" or "pro-Entente" which is a big boost toward the given side. And that's not all as some countries can gain or lose such pro- stances. Like if the Entente player gets the "promise Macedonia to Bulgaria" political decision through, Bulgaria loses it's pro-cp allegiance IIRC, while Greece gets majorly pissed obviously. And there is the D'anuzzio or whoever rule for Italy which basically makes the pro-stance of Italy completely random in each diplomatic phase, until near the edges it gets locked one way or the other. Not to mention that Italy and Romania start with random diplomatic value (within a range, which is fairly wide, 1-6, for the ROMAnians).
Are the Romanìans as good as they were IRL?
Quote from: The Brain on December 06, 2011, 03:31:41 PM
Are the Romanìans as good as they were IRL?
lol yes, kinda, altough they can stirr some shit up if you leave them alone to capture Temesvar and assorted Transylvanian cities. But if you can spare an Austrian army and have the Bulgarians on your side, you can contain and slowly roll them up with no particular trouble. For their sudden collapse though you would need to amass the historical force though.
It is one of the questionable moves of the AI I guess - it likes to try and pull Romania to the Entente soon, and altough that can be useful when you must divert at least two or three Austrian units to be sure they don't fuck around with your supply lines, the extra frontline length is not really that ideal for the Russians if you as CP can start kicking around in Romania.
Then again, if the ROMAnians are left alone, you may find the Russian 7th marching through it.
Oh, diplomacy: the German blockade. It is rolled at every interphase, with various modifiers. You can have plus EP flow from it in the early times, actually, symbolizing a not very effective blockade but that will be a thing of the past later. A lot of modifiers to the roll are coming from grain shipments. From Italy, Netherlands, Romania, maybe a few others as well. You can gain or lose this depending on the diplomatic levels of these countries.
I think the AI´s willingness to attack despite no odds at winning needs a tuning. I´m in mid 1915 and I have the national will of Russia at 5 and France at 17 mostly due to them launching offensives in areas they have no chance in hell of breaking through. France in particular seems to have a serious hardon for Metz.
Quote from: Cecil on December 09, 2011, 11:25:52 AM
I think the AI´s willingness to attack despite no odds at winning needs a tuning. I´m in mid 1915 and I have the national will of Russia at 5 and France at 17 mostly due to them launching offensives in areas they have no chance in hell of breaking through. France in particular seems to have a serious hardon for Metz.
I guess it's not a major offensive (you would notice that as you would be required to select a tactice before the battle)?
It's a tough balance, one wouldn't want the AI to sit ildly either because if you let the opponent pile up manpower and ammo at their leisure, it is bad. But yes, it can go overboard.
Can be made worse if the general of the army there has a high obstinency.
BTW, the AI keeps logs and draws conclusions from those, I wonder how much proof it needs to stop those Metz attacks :P
Quote from: Cecil on December 09, 2011, 11:25:52 AM
I think the AI´s willingness to attack despite no odds at winning needs a tuning.
So they went with the historically accurate AI rather than requiring modders to step in and do it.
Quote from: crazy canuck on December 09, 2011, 01:43:45 PM
So they went with the historically accurate AI rather than requiring modders to step in and do it.
To be fair the offensives usually had all sorts of reasons the planners believed they might work. WWI was just a special sort of war.
Quote from: Valmy on December 09, 2011, 01:50:37 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on December 09, 2011, 01:43:45 PM
So they went with the historically accurate AI rather than requiring modders to step in and do it.
To be fair the offensives usually had all sorts of reasons the planners believed they might work. WWI was just a special sort of war.
In the game, IIRC, you have to do great offensives to a) keep national will up and b) to battle test new tech/doctrines.
Quote from: Syt on December 09, 2011, 01:53:16 PM
Quote from: Valmy on December 09, 2011, 01:50:37 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on December 09, 2011, 01:43:45 PM
So they went with the historically accurate AI rather than requiring modders to step in and do it.
To be fair the offensives usually had all sorts of reasons the planners believed they might work. WWI was just a special sort of war.
In the game, IIRC, you have to do great offensives to a) keep national will up and b) to battle test new tech/doctrines.
Yes, but the AI IS prone to overdo minor (normal) offensives. As I said, it is a pretty hard balancing act.
Especially since, not really surprisingly, you just can't have any hopes of success with minor attacks on the western front. The range at which all HQs can supply a trench-period battle with reserves is iirc. infininte (on the Western Front), so when you go to battle, you are going to battle with your one or two armies against everything which is not guarding the actual frontline for the enemy (and that is also not even true as excess units from on-map stacks can also be used as reinforcement IIRC. I could be wrong though).
In earlier versions, it was a problem that the French AI not really realized this and sometimes retreated like it was still movement war, this was improved upon, but I haven't played much trench war with the latest patch.
But I am very satisfied with the battle AI in general. It is better for movement war than trench, but it has a very good idea on how to rotate the available troops during battle.
I am by the way experimenting with furthering the "board game mode". In my latest game I just started, I lifted FoW on stack positions since you can see that on the board normally. One of the reasons I am doing this is because I have the suspicion that somewhere between the "O" patch public betas and the release version the turn-based passivity bug might have been reintroduced.
The bug was that when an AI army failed it's coordination roll, it didn't move. I saw this being fixed earlier for sure, but recent Russian moves I saw made me suspicious.
So Tamas, I aquired the cd version of this game, it's titled 'World War One Gold Gold Edition Le Grande Guerre 1914-1918'
I've downloaded the 1.08q patch from Calvinus's website, so am I good to go?
Oddly the day after it arrived I got an alert saying Gamergate have the centennial gold edition version at 90% off, so is that the same set up or a better version, maybe the matrix one?
I may get it anyway as it's only like $3. :)
IIRC Centennial edition was made and released without ever getting permission from the actual license holders (khm khm) which meant an early end to it.
Quote from: Tamas on November 30, 2018, 05:32:26 AM
IIRC Centennial edition was made and released without ever getting permission from the actual license holders (khm khm) which meant an early end to it.
Thanks. :cheers: