Battle for Galicia and Poland scenario - 3.5th version ready!

[HalfTauter]

"The Austro-Hungarian Army had been completely beaten (vollständig geschlagen) and was retreating beyond the San, sustaining exceptionally heavy losses, and pursued by the Russians. It was necessary to help the Austro-Hungarian Army if we did not want to see it destroyed.... It was necessary to give it immediate support, and no help could be too great.

We were no longer in a position to send troops to the Western (French) Front." - Erich Ludendorff

Hi all,
The third version of the Battle for Galicia and Poland is downloadable!

See: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing
You have to place the files at C:\Users\name\Documents\My Games\Strategic Command WWI\Campaigns
Btw if you have an older version, delete the old files (also the dat file)

The scenario is a map of ~80x60 hexes large (each hex being 10 km in diameter, stretching from Pinsk in the Far North East to Raab in the Far South West), and is set in August 1914 at the Eastern Front, when three Empires fought in a brutal fashion over what is now Western Ukraine and Poland. Will you conquer Russian Poland as the Central Powers? Or play as the Russians and take Galicia and open the way to Berlin by taking Silesia? Or break through the Carpathians and go to Budapest? All possible!

If you enjoy operational/divisional campaigns in Strategic Command, this one is for you! The scenario has a high pace and has its strategic twists... The Austro-Hungarians will enjoy a small numerical advantage initially, but the Russians keep on mobilising and will have a strong force to be reckoned with. But the Germans won't sit idly...

The scenario includes many decision events, different units, different victory goals, the possibility of Romania entering war, many AI scripts, and more. The scenario will take place from August 1914 to the end of October 1914.

I hope you enjoy it! If you have feedback or questions, I would very much like to hear them!

splash_16x9.png (4.12 MiB) Viewed 2422 times

[BillRunacre]

It might be best to scroll through Part 2 of the Manual on designing your own campaigns, as it covers all the various editable areas and what they do.

I think that should hopefully resolve many of the questions you have, playing around with the Editor at the same time.

If not, please post any outstanding questions here and we'll be happy to help.

[HalfTauter]

Thanks Bill! I think I've figured it out, most of my questions can be done through "Edit Country Data". And morale must be done through scripts. I think I start to get the hang of the scripts. Next step is to create Decision events! I have already a few in mind... And in the end an AI...

I will keep this thread updated. I think if done this scenario will be epic because it is basically two campaigns (the Galician and Polish battles) in one...

I would be eager to hear any tips/feedback/insights/suggestions/ideas/questions etc. that people might have!

[Jazon]

Hi!
It looks pretty cool!
What's your units list? I got some maps...hope your Russian is at least basic, because they are huge help:
This one shows front from 18 to 23 August 1914. This theatre is far more intresting then the west from gaming point of view, because there was some manevour at least. I am looking forward to see this scenario! I can help you also with test play.
Cheers Jazon

Galica.png (1.54 MiB) Viewed 3296 times

[HalfTauter]

Thanks Jazon! Wow, that's of great help that map, thanks for showing interest! I will use this. And I would like any playtesting! I do have some work left however, currently only the Galician part of the scenario is sort of ready (it misses decision events though, and pop-ups). I do plan that after the Battle of Tannenberg, superior German reinforcements will trickle in Silesia, so the Central Powers player can go for an attack against Poland and the Russian player will have to sent reinforcements there. But I also want to give the Russian player the possibility to try to break through the Carpathians as I also have mapped a substantial part of Hungary.

The Russian order of battle was not easy to deceipher. Der Weltkrieg (German official history of the war) has a map of Russian Corps at the beginning of the war, and coupled with https://web.archive.org/web/20031204135 ... html#CORPS I plucked the divisions that were in each Corps.

Der_Weltkrieg.png (1.87 MiB) Viewed 3271 times

The Austrian official history "Österreich-Ungarn Letzter Krieg" also has a very useful diagram showing the divisions of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empire facing each other, however only for 1st October.

However, I found out that the number of divisions summed together in these Corps (from the picture of Der Weltkrieg) do not fit the total number of divisions the Russians wielded. I think this is because it omits the divisions that were held in army reserve. To get these divisions, I did perhaps a bit of heresy and went to a competitor game of Strategic Command WW1, namely To End All Wars, and looked there in every Russian army to see which divisions were held in army reserve. With this I could get the right number of Russian divisions.

My Russian battle of order is currently:
4th Army (Von Zaltsa, Lublin assembly area):
XIV Corps (18th ID, 13th and 14th CD),
Grenadier Corps (1st Gren ID, 2nd Gren ID, 1st CD),
XVI Corps (41st ID, 47th ID, 5th CD, also 45th ID but not sure if that belongs in this Corps),
and as army reserve 64th and 65th ID and 2nd Kazakh Cavalery Division.

5th Army (Von Plehve, Kowel assembly area):
XXV Corps (3rd Gren ID, 46th ID),
XIX Corps (17th ID, 38th ID, 7th CD),
V Corps (7th ID, 10th ID),
XVII Corps (3th ID, 35th ID),
and then 66th and 67th ID and 1st Kazakh Cavalery Division as army reserve. I also added the 61st ID and 70th ID, as well as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Don Cossack Cavalery Division because they were added to this army according to the 1st October unit deposition map by the Austrian official history.

3rd Army (Ruszky, Rovno assembly area):
XI Corps (11th and 32th ID, 11th CD),
IX Corps (53rd and 44th ID),
XXI Corps (5th and 42th ID, 9th CD),
XX Corps (28th and 29th ID),
X Corps (9th and 31st ID, 10th CD),
III Cacausian Corps (21st ID and 52nd ID, 3rd Caucasian Cossack Division),
and as army reserve 63rd and 62nd ID, and 6th CD and 3rd Kazakh CD.

8th Army (Brusilov, Proskurov assembly area):
VII Corps (13th ID, 34th ID, and a made up Crimean Cavalery Division, but in essence many separate Crimean horse regiments belong to it, like Host Atamans Denisov Don Cossack regiment)
VIII Corps (14th ID, 15th ID, 8th CD)
XII Corps (12th ID, 19th ID and 12th CD)
XXIV Corps (48th ID and 49th ID)
Army reserve: 68th and 69th ID, and 6th Kazakh Cavalery Division

Now there is also a Ninth Army, under Lechitskii, amassing near Ivangorod. It has the Guard Corps and XVIII Corps, and 80th ID and Nowikow Don Cossack Cavalery Division. To be honest this is the most confusing army, because it apparently gets two Corps from the 4th Army and then forms as an independent army.

I compared your picture with my order of battle, and it fits!: the right corps with the right army etc. I assume those circles filled with diagonal reds are cavalery divisions. It fits as well, because for example the 3rd Army has the 11th, 9th and 10th CD and they show on your map!

Currently I follow mobilisation scheme roughly according to the following sketch of Russian mobilisation by Golovin (a Russian officer from WW1), note that these are purely infantry divisions:

Golovin_mobilisation.png (190.83 KiB) Viewed 3271 times

Currently how I exactly mobilise for the Russians is kind of arbitrarily chosen, I check where the original assembly areas are of the Corps, so that for example a Kazakh Corps takes longer to arrive. But in general pretty much every Russian division arrives in August, with 30th August the last tranch. Perhaps not exactly accurate. I also have to think how I am going to do with Siberian units. Apparently there were also armies near Petrograd and Odessa (guarding any German naval invasion and Romanian attack), which were then moved eventually. Maybe decision events where the Russians can get these extra units.

The Austro-Hungarian army is luckily much easier to decipher as the Austrian Official History is online and freely accessible, it also shows when each unit of the 2nd Army from Serbia arrives for example.

[Khancotlette]

Looks great so far!

A few comments regarding the terminology and spelling.

It's not "Kazakh" (which is a Turkic nation), but "Cossack" (which is a warlike Slavic peasant estate and a type of light cavalry).

The Generals are:
Either "Fon Zaltsa" (Zal'tsa) if you use Russian or "Von Salza" if you use German;
Either "Fon Pleve" or just "Pleve" if you use Russian or "Von Plehwe" if you use German;
Ruzsky or Ruzskiy or Ruzskij (yes, I hate the fact that there's no standard Romanization of Russian);
Never heard of "Nowikow Don Cossack Cavalry Division", all Don Cossack divisions had numbers, but anyway if that's its commander's name, it should be spelled "Novikov".

Best of luck with your mod!

[HalfTauter]

Thanks Khancotlette for the feedback! I'll adjust them. Currently I do tend to use the German spelling because I used the map of the Austrian official history which was... well, in German. So I use Rowno instead of Rovno, and Kowel instead of Kovel. So if I want to be consistent I should use Von Saltza...

That said, were Cossack Divisions not different from Kazakh Divisions? Through the link in my previous post, which I used to find the divisions per Corps, they're named Kazakh Cavalery Divisions, not Cossack Divisions.

Edit: wait, I cannot find the term "Kazakh" there. I think I got confused somewhere down the line. Maybe in To End All Wars they use the term "Kazakh" instead of Cossack. Will change this!

The Nowikow Cavalery Division is a made up division by me. In the official Austrian history unit deposition of 1 October there is a cavalery group under Nowikow under the 9th Army (if I remember it correctly). It were multiple separate regiments. Like with the "Crimean Cavalery Division" I just grouped these separate regiments into a made-up "Nowikow Cavalery Division".

Anyway I appreciate your tips and your kind words. With help like this it's going to be even better!

[Jazon]

Hi,
I agree, Der Weltkrieg 1914-1918 is an essential position for WWI, I got my cipy whole scanned
For Russian side, the Kamensky project is a HUGE resource, absolutely goldmine for research. The bad thing it is in Russian, for me, although it is not my mother tongue, I know it, because long time ago I spent one year in St. Petersburg, and since then I grabbed the language in talking, listening and reading(I can't write good). However the site is in web view, that's not a scan, therefore you can go there and switch on the translator!
http://www.grwar.ru/library/list?page=1
That's the link for archive
http://www.grwar.ru/library/Strateg_Ess ... 01_03.html
That's the link directly from Russian version of "Der Weltkrieg... from 1922. You can look it up with translator. In index there is also index of maps, plenty of them. Just try it out! If you will compare both Weltrkieg and Русская армия в Первой мировой войне ( title is Russian Army in WWI) you will be golden!
Keep it going, when I will have time I might look it over for you, but this weekend I am pretty busy.
Cheers!
Jazon
PS
Pop-ups are easy to do, decisons are a bit more tricky, but remember that they give a scenario an unique flavor!

[HalfTauter]

Oh wow, that's a real epic tome of information. I will surely use it. Thanks for sharing! For the Russian side I am currently reading David Stone's "The Tsars Army in the Great War" but that covers mostly briefly every major operation. I really liked Wawro's book "A Mad Catastrophe", it's like "The Guns of August" but for the battle of Galicia.

But what you have shared gives much more in-depth information. Luckily I'm able to auto-translate it lol. Chapter 3 I see talks about the Southwestern Front and its concentration of troops. I'm gonna compare it with what I have now... Also pretty cool to read upon the battle logs of the Guard divisions. I'm gonna try to delve the information regarding the 9th Army out of this lol, that army confuses me...

I found this image on that website, really useful as it lists the divisions per corps on the left (Beloy, 1929):

Beloy_1929.jpg (195.67 KiB) Viewed 3162 times

Anyway I'll scan that website for more useful stuff

Have a nice weekend!

[HalfTauter]

So an update:

Units:
- Divisions are now more expensive to build (as well as cavalry), as well as higher percentage to reinforce
- Divisions are much stronger (cavalry as well)
- Artillery is very strong (can de-entrench and delivers much demoralization). Artillery was important during the battle of Galicia, hence why I made it stronger
- Every nation can build one rail artillery, which can massively de-entrench
- Airplanes have longer strike range. A reason why Austria-Hungary failed in its intelligence regarding Russian mobilisation was because of a lack of airplanes: Russia will have more planes available compared to Austria
- (Conventional) Units take 8 to 12 turns to build, that's 2 to 3 weeks ingame time

Nations:
- I halved the MPP that Germany and Austria-Hungary gained every turn. Now every faction earns ~100 MPP per turn. I want players to have limited funds and therefore force operational pauses to build/reinforce units, and not able to spam units. I do plan to initially lower Germany's MPP per turn until the Battle of Tannenberg. I have to figure out how I am going to do that...

Mobilisation/order of battle:
- I adapted the Russian order of battle to better fit the Russian sources (thanks Jazon). I used Beloy (1929): http://www.grwar.ru/library/Beloy-Galicia/BG_016.html
- I adjusted the names of Kazakh Divisions to Cossack Divisions, also changed Zaltsa--> Saltza: thanks Khancotlette!
- The German Ninth Army now starts to form on the 15th of September! Already a Landwehr division (Bredow) will appear at the 5th of September. The 9th Army will take roughly 10 days to assemble in Lower Silesia, and will be led by Hindenburg. The troops will be very experienced.

German 9th Army (without Landwehrcorps and Bredow Landwehr division)

9th_Army_behalve_Landwehr.png (879.84 KiB) Viewed 3110 times

Other stuff I did:
- I added morale hexes for many towns/villages. Especially Lemberg is obviously crucial, and will cost the Austro-Hungarians 7500 NM. The Austro-Hungarians will however receive morale back if they manage to recapture Przemysl and Lemberg.
- I added pop-ups. Still looking for more events to include.
- I changed the font and size of texts. Now I use the same font and size as the base game. It looks nicer now I think, my previous version had text strings just screaming to the player because of their size lol

I played against myself, and the Austro-Hungarians are definitely the harder side to play (as should be):
Krasnik and Komarow (Fourth Army on the right already got pummeled by the Russians). This is before I halved the Central Powers' income:

23rd_August_4thNovemberVersion.png (3.53 MiB) Viewed 3110 times

Eastern part of Galicia:

23rd_August_4thNovemberVersion_EasternPart.png (3.62 MiB) Viewed 3110 times

Things I still want to do:
- Make operating more expensive
- Add decision events. I have already a few in mind, such as granting the Russian player heavy artillery to deal with the forts near Przemysl when the Russian player is near there, replacing Von Saltza with Evert, granting Austro-Hungary mountain divisions, forming Polish legion etc. If people know more fun decision events, I would very like to hear them!
- Lower initial German MPP until Tannenberg.
- If Russian player decides to cheap shot Silesia before 15th September, add an event that mobilises strong German forces when enemies are detected
- And many smaller things, like what to do with Romania (small part visible on map) and Russian reinforcements from Siberia and more

[HalfTauter]

So great news, I have come to a point where I feel confident to release the first version of the scenario! I have changed quite a bit since last post, tested quite a few times and changed/added where I felt it needed to be changed/added. The only part I haven't touched is the AI, however, you can still play against AI and it does rational-ish moves (I suggest playing as the Central Powers with veteran difficulty). But I will work on the AI!

Here is the download link: (I will also adjust the first post)
[deleted because new version available]
Obviously if there are any problems you can send me a PM or post here.
I think you have to place it at C:\Users\name\Documents\My Games\Strategic Command WWI\Campaigns

Bit of an outline how I experienced my own scenario by playing against myself: the Austrians will enjoy a slight increase in manpower at the start of the game, but their (historical) offensives to Lublin and Chelm will pretty quickly be stopped by Russians, which are mobilising more and more. Eventually, the Russians will have a superiority of about 25 divisions over the Austrians. At first I thought the Austrians were hopeless, but actually withdrawing towards rivers and giving up terrain is very strong. The Russians are very weak namely when having few supply, and you can defend more easily. It actually gets pretty tricky when the Germans start arriving in numbers and Russia needs to send troops to Poland. On the flip side Russia has many cavalry divisions and can annoy/encircle the Austrians a lot with it.

I'd very much like to try it against a human opponent , so if you want to play it with a human don't hesitate PMíng me or sending a post here!

Anyway, here is what I changed/added:
Decision events:
I added multiple decision events for both Russia and the Central Powers, as well as "hidden" decision events that give/substract MPP (for example Germany sending MPP to other regions before Tannenberg, or sending MPP to defend against Romania if that faction joins the war against you). The decision events differ from creating divisions, elevating someone to HQ, getting extra MPP from call-up of disqualified Landsturm, making a super heavy artillery to bombard Przemysl, to sending entire armies to the frontier (like German Fourth Army, strategic reserve, to Silesia after the failure at the Marne). I also wrote for each DE notes giving historical background.

Romania:
Romania can now be an active participant. If Russia takes Lemberg or Cracow, Romania will shift to the Entente, while vice versa will happen if the Central Powers take Chelm, Lublin or Warsaw. Further, when King Carol I dies, Romania will also shift towards the Entente. Romania will mobilise its North Army (multiple divisions, HQ) at Botosani (a bit a-historical since in 1916 the North Army mobilised somewhat more to the South, but I wanted multiple Romanian units at the map) when in war. Further, Romania joining the war increases morale for the side that has Romania while lowering that of the other. Also, the side that must fight Romania will have to pay extra MPP per turn (sort of abstract notice for off-map units fighting/containing Romania). If Russia has moved the 7th Army (DE) to Galicia, which originally is to protect Odessa against Romania, while Romania joins the Central Powers, it will have to pay extra (sending 7th Army to Galicia will also slightly draw Romania to the Central Powers). Diplomacy towards Romania is also cheaper than base game.

MPP/economy:
Russia earns about 220 MPP a turn, Austria-Hungary about 130 MPP, Germany 120 MPP. However, Germany will send 70 MPP to other parts of the country up to Tannenberg. Germany can now also send a convoy to Austria-Hungary of up to 35% of its MPP. Historically Austria-Hungary had to heavily rely on ammonunition from Germany as they had spent much of their own stock.

Divisions cost 110 MPP, mountain and cavalry divisions 120 MPP. Further, it takes 12 turns to produce a division. I wanted to avoid players being able to spam units. It doesn't feel right that a player can instantly replenish a division within a day of fighting even though it is far into enemy land, so I tried to limit that. So now, players will be forced to now and then pause to replenish and buy units.

Victory:
Decisive victory happens when one side can make another faction of the other side to 0% morale. Major victory for the Central Powers will occur when they control Warsaw, Lublin and Chelm, while Lemberg, Przemysl, Cracow, Breslau and Posen are not in Russian hands. Central Powers' minor victory occurs when they have one or more of the first three cities, while the latter five cities are still not in Russian hands. Russian major victory is when they control Lemberg, Przemysl and Cracow, and Warsaw, Lublin and Chelm are in Russian hands as well. Minor victory when one or more of the following cities (Lemberg, Przemysl, Cracow, Breslau or Posen) is in the hands of Russia, while Warsaw, Lublin and Chelm are in the hands of Russia. All the rest is stalemate.

I do get a problem that the game does not end at 1 November, even though I specifically set the end-date at 1 November and even included a stalemate picture in interface Map (I thought it was maybe linked to that). Do I have to specify in-game what a stalemate is?

Aesthetics:
I changed the strategic advice pop-ups so that they are more readable and better present the objectives. I also changed the fonts and colors for river names, they look nicer now IMO. I also added many pop-ups, giving insight in what is happening in Europe off-map. They're even slightly interactable: if Germany decides to send the 4th Army to Silesia, one will get the pop-up that German forces need to withdraw even further after the Battle of the Marne, and the Race to the Sea Pop-up will happen later. I further changed the fortresses of Przemysl, Ivangorod and Novogeorgievsk to full blown fortresses, with not just entrenchments around but actual fortresses.
I also gave my scenario its own loading screen and mini-figure when shown in the scenario lists.

Units:
Nations can buy super heavy artilleries which do massive de-entrenchments. Normal artillery can now not de-entrench anymore, but does extra damage now, and has a AP of 3 instead of 2. Recon planes have massive spotting bonusses, and a large strike range. I changed the Russian unit scripts here and there so units are better placed for historical accuracy (3rd Army, 9th Army). German units are also better placed. Also, if the Russian player/AI decides to send units to Silesia (Kattowitz area), parts of the German 8th Army will be send to Silesia to defend Germany. Did this to avoid the Russian player trying to cheap shot the many German NM cities there early.

Weather:
I added four zones (Poland, Hungary, Galicia and Russia), for each weather is calculated.

I'm probably forgetting something.

Enjoy the scenario!

Retreating AH troops (4 September 1914):

Terugtrekkende_AH_troepen.png (3.6 MiB) Viewed 2896 times

[OldCrowBalthazor]

This is beautiful. Really like that Przemsyl is a real fortress now. Like the font color for the rivers. Heck, I like it all.

At a later date, I would be interested in doing a MP test..(currently overcommitted). I'll download your file and take a peek.

Been following this thread since you started it. Again, this looks great!

[HalfTauter]

Thanks a lot for the kind words Old Crow Balthazor! I think it looks a lot better now, first I had huge text strings littering over the map lol, and obviously Przemysl should be the mighty fortress it is (it is also a primary supply now so it should be a hard nut to crack). I'd very much like to do any MP test, so feel free to reach out when you have time and want to. I'm interested in what you or other people think of the scenario... Btw keep up the great videos

[Beriand]

Hi I played the campaign a bit in hotseat. The scale is nice and play fluid, even though I'm not a fan of short, battle-like campaigns in SC series. Some quick things to point out:

As for Germans. They have only a single capital in Breslau, yes? And pretty exposed in the first stages of the war. They definitely need some alternate capitals in like Posen and/or Gleiwitz They also need 'industrial center' in Silesia, as when capital is cut off from the south, no new units can be placed in Silecia.
Moreover, it feels like it might be easy to push Germans in the first weeks. Like, take Posen, Breslau, maybe more. I think there should be some artificial scripted blockades against that. Mostly because of the map - in reality, any attack on Posen/Breslau is pretty terribly encircled by remaining German territories, but here, it is just edge of the map, super easy to hold for Russia.
Now for 4th Army event... if feels like it is way too much of a swing? Also it is no-brainer. NM change is not so important. I can have 10 divisions or not... if not, Russian situation looks really great. If I take the army, there is powerful German flood up to Warsaw, maybe preventing major victory for Russia

For other things.
'Super heavy artillery' is a bit silly name Maybe just 'siege'?
Units/towns on the eastern edge of the map are barely visible on the max zoom, I think you could add 1 to the width of the map?
HQ management is a bit oppressive, is it by design? They could use like +1 command range and +2 command limit. Otherwise, many units must be unattached to any HQ, and one have to manage this every turn depending on fights, which is tiring.
In scripted events descriptions, NM values could be stated. Like, text states that nation morale will suffer, but we would like to know by what amount exactly (without checking the files).

In my games, I played once and restarted in mid-September, then in a second game got to beginning of October for now. Situation was initially pretty slow push, things are chanelled extremely by supply. In time, Russia took eastern Galicia and Lemberg, approaches Przemysl, and Austrian army look pretty broken by now (depleted and decimated). Germans were molested in the beginning, but then powerful counterpush with 20 stronk divisions of two armies, oof. Will take Lodz soon and move further, denying Russian offensive plans into Cracow etc.

[HalfTauter]

Hi Beriand, thanks for playing and giving feedback, really appreciate it! Your last game really sounds historical, I like that , enjoyed reading your little synopsis.

You make good points. I only mapped Silesia so Russians can invade its Northern Part and not worry about their Northern Flank. That's indeed a bit silly. Currently, I do have a script for when Russians invade Southern Silesia (with all its mines), calling up parts of the German 8th Army (protecting Eastern Prussia) that will arrive at Kattowitz. I think I will do something similar for the Northern/Middle approaches to Silesia. Makes sense IMO that if the Russians were invading Silesia, the 8th Army would respond. Perhaps bind a DE to it, so the German player will perhaps have to trade MPP and NM for it.

Currently most of my DE are pretty much no-brainers. Although the MPP costs can stack quite a bit. I agree that the 4th Army event can really upset the game. Which was actually my intention. It's the German strategic reserve that was historically used in the Battle of Ypres, instead of being send to the East. But yeah it is a no brainer considering German NM is pretty high around 15 September since it hasn't fought as much as the Austrians. Maybe I will up the MPP costs, or increase the NM penalty... Also I made German units a bit stronger than their AH and Russian counterparts since German divisions had historically more artillery/machine guns with them.

I haven't changed anything with HQ's from the base game. But you make a good point about that, I hadn't really thought about it. A HQ will now control more units than a HQ in the base game, so makes sense to increase the command range and points. Super heavy artillery indeed sounds silly, it's actually an ingame unit. But I will change the name.

I do think I have made Posen a secondary capital as well as primary supply (like Breslau), but this also just might be completely wrong. Will check it and fix it if necessary. I'm not sure if I can expand the map with one more hex. If I can, I might also do it for the west and the South. You can't really see Budapest but it's actually on the map lol.

Also will add the NM costs for DE, good call.

Again thanks for the feedback and have fun with the scenario! Btw are you interested in trying a game with me?

[Beriand]

Also I made German units a bit stronger than their AH and Russian counterparts since German divisions had historically more artillery/machine guns with them.

Yeah, obviously Generals also probably could use even further +1 rating or something, though maybe not with magic 4th Army and total 20 divisions, hmm...

I'm not sure if I can expand the map with one more hex. If I can, I might also do it for the west and the South.

Well I think it is only by 2 hexes, but east/south is luckily just trivial change of size, without any shifts, yes. Ok, then probably adding some terrain

I do think I have made Posen a secondary capital as well as primary supply (like Breslau), but this also just might be completely wrong.

Nope, it looks like Breslau only. And Breslau/Posen are very close anyway.

Ah, I also think Warsaw could use some fortified hexes adjacent, lots of shovels to dig I guess

Again thanks for the feedback and have fun with the scenario! Btw are you interested in trying a game with me?

I'm not sure about my availability, but sure, I could play this next slightly modified version, turns should play quickly at least

[HalfTauter]

Hi Beriand, thanks again for replying! Again much appreciate all the feedback.

I have incorporated much of your feedback (among other stuff I have been adding). I expanded the map two hexes to the East, and two hexes to the South (added terrain and stuff ofcourse ). I also buffed HQ's. Now all three factions' HQ's have an attachment range of 8 hexes, and 8 attachable units (up from 5 for both). Maybe I will give Germany some extra buff. You were right about Posen being not a secondary capital: changed that, as well as made it an industrial center. I haven't added NM for DE, but will do it in the future: I plan to change DE's here and there anyway.

I also added a new unit, just for Germany, the Brigade. They are weak in the offense but fine for defense. Germany won't be able to buy them though, they will arrive due to scripts, and Germany spawns with one of them in the Kattowitz area. I removed the script that sends the I Corps of the German Army (8th Army) to Kattowitz if that area is attacked; felt unrealistic as long as Tannenberg hasn't happened. Instead, two Ersatz brigades will be called up. This will also happen if the Russians invade the middle part of Silesia (within the range of Namslau detected). As well as the Russians invade the Northern Part: two Ersatz Brigades, but also a Reserve Division (35th Reserve, Thorn garrison), which is activated if Russians are near Wreschen.

I also added extra entrenchments near the border for Germany. I do feel like a good defense of Silesia in the early game means the Austro-Hungarians need to take the offensive. Every Russian sent to Silesia cost MPP to send and will weaken defences against AH. Also the Germans are instructed to take the towns directly East of the border, so Russia cannot operate units directly against the border.

Lodz is also instead of a primary supply, a secondary supply now. Lodz apparently was a huge city back then, according to the Russian Imperial Census of 1897 it was the 5th biggest city in the whole Empire. But it is very vulnerable to there is some logic to it for not making it a primary supply (that would easily give up weapon depots to the Germans, so to speak). With it being a secondary supply I hope supply for the Russians is slightly worse in West Poland, making invasion of Silesia less plausible.

---

Now for the more intricate stuff. I have thought quite a bit about how to handle the Northern Silesia thing. Because indeed it makes no sense for the Russians to freely attack it without having to worry for their Northern Flank. But only for the Northern Part, or also the other parts of Silesia? The Germans made a choice when they stripped off their defences for Silesia...

Currently the Northern part of Silesia gets the best reinforcements when it is attacked: but I'm also thinking about a certain radius in which Russian units will lose points/morale (just like the typhus events for the Ottomans and Serbs in the base game), "mimicking" an 8th Army attack on those positions.

But I like sandbox style gameplay, and I don't want to discourage too much an attack by the Russians on Silesia.

I will keep on thinking how I will do it.

---

About the 4th Army event: I think I will limit the number of troops send to the East: instead of 4 Corps, 2 Corps for example. And I will definitely up the NM and MPP costs. And let them spawn later: they need to travel over a longer distance then Corps of the 8th Army (which constituted much of the new 9th Army), so makes sense to let them arrive a bit later than the 9th Army.

I was also thinking to link this DE to a new DE for the Russians, where the Russians can call up the 10th Army (or parts of it) to help defend if the Germans indeed call up the 4th Army. But maybe it gets too crowded then.

Btw, here are the entrenchments I placed around Warsaw currently:

Fortificaties_Warsaw.png (917.81 KiB) Viewed 2678 times

I think I will release the next version when I feel like I have added the things I want to add right now, so if you rather play the new modified version it's perhaps better to wait I guess. But one day for sure we can meet on these Galician and Polish battlefields

[HalfTauter]

Btw, I have some small questions in regards to scenario making:

- How do I increase active spotting radius of recon planes? Currently, passive spotting radius of recon planes is increased, but I don't understand how to increase the active spotting radius (when a hex is "attacked").

- I want to make use of the Symbol hexes; if I recall if you hover over those, you get a text box. I don't understand how I can add those text boxes.

- Currently, the game does not end at 1 November 1914, even though I specifically set the end date as 1 November. Again, not understanding why.

- Romania does not surrender right now if Botosani (the only capital of Romania) is taken. How do I force a surrender of Romania if Botosani is taken?

- is it possible to only deploy troops from the production queue on hexes with say supply above 5. Now I feel I can place units from the production queue anywhere.

Thanks for answering any question!

[BillRunacre]

Hi

Some answers:

1) If you increase their Strike Range this will have that effect.

2) There are examples in the POP UP scripts, as it is using them that text boxes appear under certain conditions on the map.

3) Is the option to disable the game end date disabled when playing?

4) If Romania has units still in the field then there is a chance it will not surrender straight away. You can always use a Surrender script to force it to surrender when it loses its capital.

5) Not directly, though maybe there is a way around it, e.g. by changing an Industrial Centre to a Primary Supply Centre. It really depends on the location on the map.

[HalfTauter]

Thanks Bill for the answers!

1. Ah I see. I already increased the strike range but I also wanted to increase the radius of discovered hexes around the attacked hex. But that would perhaps make it too OP and also unrealistic (the plane flies in a straight path).

2. Thanks, I will look into that.

3. I was kind of dumb, yeah I had end game date disabled and this option didn't pop in my head at all. Now it works!

4. Romania does have units in the field. I think I will force the surrender of Romania if Botosani is taken (else the opponent can just hide the Romanian units and continue the burden on the other side as the side warring Romania has to pay MPP each turn).

5. Uhm, I will look into this. Currently for the Russian side it is OK as Russia has more low supply hexes, while the Austrians have good supply in most hexes so they can place units at pretty much every spot on their controlled areas. So AH can very quickly plug a gap, I kind of want to prevent that. But perhaps it does make sort of sense.

Thanks again!