Icarus Mod, Versions 6 and 7 in Preliminary Release

[shri]

So, my views-
1. Torpedo boats, maybe reduce it to 1 for all except UK and Ger.

2. Keep entrenchment as it is, Russia with level 5 trenches is a-historical, historically entire Fortress Poland fell extremely easily, was almost a cakewalk as compared to the supposed 3 layered defensive labyrinth. Russia should be brittle and keep leaking men/corps.

3. Keep the level 3 HQs as it is. As it is, CP has only 1 attacker faction - Germany, the Entente has 3, though UK takes time to pick steam and Russia loses it by then (or France is losing by then), so theoretically 2.

4. Get Storm Troopers in 4 waves in 1916 (1 wave) and 1917 (2 waves) and final wave in start of 1918, in Berlin (and surrounding hexes) by decisions. Fully upgraded. But just 2 Corps in each wave, for a total of 8 corps. They should start with level 2 (irrespective of research and with at least 2 extra attack and 1 extra defense as compared to normal corps and with 2 experience pips) and at 11 strength, but once destroyed, not being able to rebuild.
These were literally irreplaceable troops and shouldn't be rebuildable if fully destroyed but should start out very strong. They should cost a lot to build. Maybe 300 MPPs per corp, so 600 MPPs, spread over 4 turns. That's substantial investments for something which is unable to bought back.
Reinforcements should also cost more (comes back to being irreplaceable).
This should allow a German attack starting from mid/late 1916 onwards using these weapons.

5. Do push both Serbian detachments to 10 at start, Belgrade shouldn't fall. But remove the Serbian research to compensate. Serbia being able to research anything is too humorous, they lacked uniforms in the real war. Serbia infact needs to lose more men in Typhus 1914 Winter. It destroyed the Serbian army more than any offensive (pre Mackensen offensive).

6. Austria shouldn't have those desertion waves before 1917, it is a-historical, only after Franz Joseph died in winter of 1916 did the Hapsburg armies turn into memes, earlier they weren't bad.

7. Italy shouldn't get an Artillery and definitely not at the start, historically Italy performed terribly. No need to buff them up at all. They need to leak MPPs and should be a drag on the Entente not a boost.

8. France and UK should get their artillery earlier, maybe in Winter of 1914, to be in position for a spring 1915 all out attack. Infact the spring and summer French offensive would see more French deaths (in each campaign) than even 1914 Battle of Frontiers. France was bled white in 1915 doing futile attacks, is the reason why Falkenhyn felt so confident attacking them in 1916.

[Taaff]

There apparently was a Czech Legion in Italy. It only formed for active service in spring 1918, and its numbers were formed into 2 divisions, with roughly 25,000 men total.

So it should form later, in spring 1918. Authorized in January 1918 and effective from April-May 1918.

[OldCrowBalthazor]

So, my views-
1. Torpedo boats, maybe reduce it to 1 for all except UK and Ger.

2. Keep entrenchment as it is, Russia with level 5 trenches is a-historical, historically entire Fortress Poland fell extremely easily, was almost a cakewalk as compared to the supposed 3 layered defensive labyrinth. Russia should be brittle and keep leaking men/corps.

3. Keep the level 3 HQs as it is. As it is, CP has only 1 attacker faction - Germany, the Entente has 3, though UK takes time to pick steam and Russia loses it by then (or France is losing by then), so theoretically 2.

4. Get Storm Troopers in 4 waves in 1916 (1 wave) and 1917 (2 waves) and final wave in start of 1918, in Berlin (and surrounding hexes) by decisions. Fully upgraded. But just 2 Corps in each wave, for a total of 8 corps. They should start with level 2 (irrespective of research and with at least 2 extra attack and 1 extra defense as compared to normal corps and with 2 experience pips) and at 11 strength, but once destroyed, not being able to rebuild.
These were literally irreplaceable troops and shouldn't be rebuildable if fully destroyed but should start out very strong. They should cost a lot to build. Maybe 300 MPPs per corp, so 600 MPPs, spread over 4 turns. That's substantial investments for something which is unable to bought back.
Reinforcements should also cost more (comes back to being irreplaceable).
This should allow a German attack starting from mid/late 1916 onwards using these weapons.

5. Do push both Serbian detachments to 10 at start, Belgrade shouldn't fall. But remove the Serbian research to compensate. Serbia being able to research anything is too humorous, they lacked uniforms in the real war. Serbia infact needs to lose more men in Typhus 1914 Winter. It destroyed the Serbian army more than any offensive (pre Mackensen offensive).

6. Austria shouldn't have those desertion waves before 1917, it is a-historical, only after Franz Joseph died in winter of 1916 did the Hapsburg armies turn into memes, earlier they weren't bad.

7. Italy shouldn't get an Artillery and definitely not at the start, historically Italy performed terribly. No need to buff them up at all. They need to leak MPPs and should be a drag on the Entente not a boost.

8. France and UK should get their artillery earlier, maybe in Winter of 1914, to be in position for a spring 1915 all out attack. Infact the spring and summer French offensive would see more French deaths (in each campaign) than even 1914 Battle of Frontiers. France was bled white in 1915 doing futile attacks, is the reason why Falkenhyn felt so confident attacking them in 1916.

Agree with the above except 1 and 7

1: Torpedo boats. If you restrict nations like France and Italy to 1, the Entente will be hard pressed to take on the CP U-boat menace. As it is, Italy and France will be hard pressed to find the MPPs to do ASW and buy those boats. Restriction to 1 takes away player agency to make the hard choice to indeed buy the others. U-boats handled correctly by the CP can absolutely cripple the Entente.

7: Italy with its poor economy definitely needs a field artillery upon war entry. Even with it, the Italians will be extremely hard-pressed. So this change is for balance reasons.

[hannaj]

2. Keep entrenchment as it is, Russia with level 5 trenches is a-historical, historically entire Fortress Poland fell extremely easily, was almost a cakewalk as compared to the supposed 3 layered defensive labyrinth. Russia should be brittle and keep leaking men/corps.

Right now Russian and Ottoman entrenchment is lvl 3, German is lvl 5, everyone else is lvl 4 in Icarus.

This means that at least on plain fields and with a lvl 2 German general you can still take out fully entrenched Russians corps _without any artillery_
and with a positive kill ratio. At least after some standard NM disparity because the fall of Serbia and Warsaw (which will happen anyhow quite easily
before max entrenchment is reached).

I think this is very a-historical. The eastern frontier was less static because of maneuver, not because the Germans could attack Russian trenches
head-on loosing less attackers than defenders.


Thus, my plea is to increase Ottoman and Russian entrenchment to lvl 4.

hannaj