Please post your playtest reports here...

Which version of the mod did you use? (If you added any extra changes or tweaks to the published mod yourself, please describe them).

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Amalgamation of 0.2 with a few improvements in terms of more converted events, a few scenario changes for balance and some AI tweaks.

Which country did you play as? (If you play a 'hands-off' game, that's useful to know too)

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One as Germany, one hands off.

How long did you play for? (If you abandoned the game, it's still helpful to know what happened)

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Germany until mid 1915 (not done yet) and handsoff until the detruction of the central powers (1917)

When did war break out in your game? (Was it at the historical time, earlier or later?)

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Historical in both (except for Germany declaring war on Luxembourg a few times, but I manualy fixed that).

Please describe the general course of the war. Which countries did well, and which did badly? If countries were conquered, how long did it take?

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In handsoff, Germany did very badly and in the end was conquered, taking Austria and Bulgaria with it.
In my German game, everything is so far going historically except for the Ottomans invading parts of Egypt and the British landing in Poland, France and the Ottoman Empire (beaten back in first two).

If the AI did anything really stupid or unhistorical (such as a country lending its entire army to an ally), please let us know.

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Germany declares war on Luxembourg, refuses to garrison it's borders with France and Belgium and has to get help from Austria-Hungary.

Please let us know if there were any actual bugs in your game - such as events failing to work, ships appearing in land provinces, techs with no effect, pictures of jet fighters appearing in the unit roster, etc)

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All ships cost 0 IC.

StephenT said:

Which version of the mod did you use? (If you added any extra changes or tweaks to the published mod yourself, please describe them).

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Standard 1914 version 0.2

StephenT said:

Which country did you play as? (If you play a 'hands-off' game, that's useful to know too)

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British Empire

StephenT said:

How long did you play for? (If you abandoned the game, it's still helpful to know what happened)

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Currently in July 1915

StephenT said:

When did war break out in your game? (Was it at the historical time, earlier or later?)

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Historical time, with the events triggered like they are supposed to

StephenT said:

Please describe the general course of the war. Which countries did well, and which did badly? If countries were conquered, how long did it take?

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Everything started out historically. Was very nice to see both the Austrian and the German AI start moving troops around after the murder of Franz Ferdinand event. The Germans then decided to end the war in 40 days in the event and they attacked Belgium and Luxembourg. This triggered the event for me if I wanted to join the war over Belgium and I decided to aid the Belgians and joined the war.
The Germans then annexed Luxembourg two days later and moved into Belgium making great progress and capturing Liege after a week, then they halted.
The Austrian AI impressed me when I noticed that they were actually holding back the Russians while at the same time attacking Serbia and they had conquered Belgrade by late August and were still moving forward against the Serbians.
On the German east front the Russians and the Germans were sitting still watching each other for a couple of weeks, then the Russians moved into Eastern-Prussian and managed to take Köningsberg before the Germans halted them.
At the same time in the west the French/Belgian and the German AI had started trench warfare. The Germans had taken Metz in France and moved into Belgium capturing the three provinces east of the Meuse River before both sides started digging in it seemed.
In Africa the Germans were doing well in the beginning.
In West-Africa they had managed to capture most of the British colony before I managed to halt them and the French AI moved in against them. By November we had captured all German holdings there.
In East Africa I moved against them at once, but I moved one of my divisions to far and to fast and the AI took advantage and encircled and eliminated one of my divisions. This caused me to be more careful and send two cavalry divisions form Indian to aid. Using these, together with the local troops I had the Germans encircled and destroyed by December 1914.
In South-Africa little happened until the Germans conquered Kimberley. This caused me to move against them and by January 1915 I had taken all German land there.
In the east Japan joined the war and they took most of the German pacific holdings, with me taking the German provinces closest to Australia, the ones that are Australian in HoI2, can’t remember the name of the place…
In the Middle East the event the Mittlemeer division has been sunk was triggered and the Ottomans decided to stay out of the war, so nothing happened there.
In Europe it was deadlock by September with the Russians having been halted in East-Prussia and at the Austrian border.
And in the west the line went from Liege, down through Metz and to Switzerland.
In the North Sea the Germans insisted on sending their fleet against the Grand Fleet over and over again and by April 1915 most of the German fleet had been destroyed in battle mostly with the British navy.

By December 1914 things began to develop. In October the Austrians had been halted by the Serbians and they had been removing forces from the Russian border to send to Serbia, and in early December the Russians managed to create a giant breakthrough and moved quickly into Austria. This caused German to send forces to aid Austria and by January the Russians had managed to create a breakthrough in East-Prussia as well.
Now things developed quickly, the Austrians and the Germans were retreating from the Russian army and in February the Russians had reached Budapest and in early March Berlin. In April the Russians were moving close to Vienna and Kiel and this caused me to land in Kiel, capturing Kiel and Kolding before the Russians arrived. By this time the French and the Belgians managed to break out as well and moved quickly into Germany. I had the BEF ready in France and now I sent them to fight with the French as they French moved into Germany
This is the situation in early June 1915.



By the end of June Germany had become even smaller, and they would fall during the summer of 1915. Also Italy entered the Entente in late May through an event, but they have yet to make any impact on the war effort.
So I ended the game there when it was clear that both Austria and Germany would be defeated.

StephenT said:

If the AI did anything really stupid or unhistorical (such as a country lending its entire army to an ally), please let us know.

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At the start the AI did well, but the troubles started when the Austrians moved to many divivisons away from the Russian border, and then when the Russian managed the breakthrough the Germans sent approximately half they army to aid the Austrians.

StephenT said:

Please let us know if there were any actual bugs in your game - such as events failing to work, ships appearing in land provinces, techs with no effect, pictures of jet fighters appearing in the unit roster, etc)

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None that I could see

1. Standard 0.2 version
2. France
3. From January 1914 to December 1914
3. Outbreak- historical
4. In the beginning of war Germans deployed 13 divisons in every border province that they had with France. Actually there where also A-H divisons as well (even in north provinces). I thought that they concentrated armies in the east but in first months of war the amount of Germans there were about 1:1 with Russians. They started with victory in Łódź but that was all they could achieve in the east. They act just like a truly undecided player and were transporting troops from west to east and back without some major prioritetic offensive. In west theater they were defensive all the time so I started to take their provinces nearest to Belgium (like Aachen). Meanwhile the Russians went through Karpats to Hungary but then A-H started to defend rather correctly to the end of the game(they lose huge piece of Bohemia). The only problem was Germans which couldn't defend in the east and west. They launched only one good attack to take back Wilhelmshaven but in November 14' it was too late for them. I presume that in early months of 15' they would be destroyed.
Bug: after A-H bombardment-Unknown String Result (or something)
December map

Which version of the mod did you use? (If you added any extra changes or tweaks to the published mod yourself, please describe them).
-Normal 0.2

Which country did you play as? (If you play a 'hands-off' game, that's useful to know too)
-Ottoman empire

How long did you play for? (If you abandoned the game, it's still helpful to know what happened)
-Stopped at about December of 1916

When did war break out in your game? (Was it at the historical time, earlier or later?)
Historically

Please describe the general course of the war. Which countries did well, and which did badly? If countries were conquered, how long did it take?
German and AH got their asses kicked by Russia at start so I saved them, then went to fight GB which would had kicked my ass if I hadn't blocked them at Suez, Russia sucked against me in Caucasus and I got all important areas there easily. In the end Germany started kicking both Frenchs and Russian ass and when I stopped (I had made Italy fight against us too) France had 4 provinces left and Germans were next to Moscow and Petrograd.


If the AI did anything really stupid or unhistorical (such as a country lending its entire army to an ally), please let us know.
-Nothing that I noticed :/

Please let us know if there were any actual bugs in your game - such as events failing to work, ships appearing in land provinces, techs with no effect, pictures of jet fighters appearing in the unit roster, etc)
-Nothing of this sort

-Which version of the mod did you use? (If you added any extra changes or tweaks to the published mod yourself, please describe them).

Version 0.2

-Which country did you play as? (If you play a 'hands-off' game, that's useful to know too)

Hands-off as Norway

-How long did you play for? (If you abandoned the game, it's still helpful to know what happened)

November 1918

-When did war break out in your game? (Was it at the historical time, earlier or later?)

Historical

-Please describe the general course of the war. Which countries did well, and which did badly? If countries were conquered, how long did it take?

Austrians started out very well capturing almost all of Serbia, leaving only two provinces in Serbian hands when the Austrian AI stopped its advance.
The Germans annexed Luxembourg after some days, but it was soon captured by the French. From there the French marched into Cologne, before the Germans moved against them. Then the Germans moved forward reaching Liege in November, but then they are pushed back by the French and Belgians in a constant struggle for the border provinces with the provinces changing hands all the time.
In the east the Russians captures Köningsberg and Elbing quickly and in October they break through the Germans line marching forward. At the same time they breakthrough against the Austrians as well.

East front October 15:


No British troops in France, but almost the entire British army is in action in Africa, making sure the Germans lose in Africa by October. Few naval battles, the British sit in the Channel while the Germans watch outside Kiel.
Again the Ottomans decide to stay neutral.
The Italians also stay neutral.

Situation July 1 1915


From now the Russians and the Germans fight over every provinces, with the Germans capturing back some one week and the next week the Russians capture them.
This goes on until 1916 when the Russians and the French have the Germans and the Austrians captured and encircled and both nations are annexed by Russian in October 1916

-If the AI did anything really stupid or unhistorical (such as a country lending its entire army to an ally), please let us know.

I was just looking at the Russian armies when I noticed that a lot of the Russian forces were actually British, they had Russian flag, but British names and commanders. I then notice that the British had sent almost its entire army to Russia and the AI had turned them into Russian forces…


-Please let us know if there were any actual bugs in your game - such as events failing to work, ships appearing in land provinces, techs with no effect, pictures of jet fighters appearing in the unit roster, etc)

Well the British army turning Russian, something I have seen in normal HoI2 as well, but there it is normally the British forces turning French.

I also notice that Norway had no leaders present in the game, although there are Norwegian leaders with pictures and a Norwegian leader file is among the files in 1914, no leaders were actually in the game. It could seem like the Norwegian leader file had been turned off or something, but this is maybe only because there is still work being done on the file? I just thought I should mention it

Response:

Very interesting information. I had wondered why the British had only 9 divisions in my game in 1916 - and why the Russians were so powerful. Good that you caught that. Perhaps the British AI should have more garrison units, plus figure out how to send those expeditionary forces to France instead of Russia.

We all seem to have the same issue with the German invasion of Belgium. I assure you that I spent 8 hours trying to resolve this issue to no avail. You'd think copying portions of the TGW Schlieffen AI, or the HoI2 benelux invasion AI would do the trick - but this was unsuccessful in promoting the importance of capturing Belgium. This form of AI was only successful in prolonging the inevitable destruction of the Germans.

Also, adding the new resource makeup for Germany (essentially more rares) didn't do much to improve the AI.

Hmm, in my game Germany and A-H managed to win after I sent 20 divisions to save them from Russians :/ . Small things can make a difference I see.

Perhaps we ought to remove the event for Belgium joining the entente? As it currently looks, the french army moves into Belgium as soon as war is declared instead of massing near the german border. Perhaps the lack of an alliance event will remove this problem? (although the belgians will probably just sign an alliance with France in any case)

I've just played my first game as Austria-Hungary, simple v 0.2, historical outbreak. It's 1915 febr now. At first I was doing well on the eastren front, I even occupied Kiev, after that I had to draw my forces back to Tarnopol-Beltsey. Now there is a trench war there, but I think after the winter I'll be able to break the Russian lines. The Germans are holding back the French , there is a typical trench war there, as well. The Ottoman Empire is attacking all the time, they are already in Egypt. I annexed Serbia in november. Now I'm planning the invasion of Italy, I want to get my cores and open a second front against France, so that I can attack them directly. I don't plan a major attack in the East, I think Germany and me are able to hold them until 1917, during this I try to finish France. I haven't noticed any bugs. The Germans sometimes leave a decent number of divisions 2-3 provinces away from the front line, altough those have full org and strenght.
edit:
And I think A-H is clearly too weak, we have less IC than Italy or Japan. I agree that A-H wasn't the strongest participant of the war, but 54 base IC is a bit low.

I just went through a hands-off game. Here's the review.

Which version of the mod did you use? (If you added any extra changes or tweaks to the published mod yourself, please describe them).

Standard 0.2. As an experiment, I modified the game at the start so that the United Sates was a member of the Central Powers, and made them an interventionist, hawkish military autocrat (to prevent them from leaving the Central Powers.

Which country did you play as? (If you play a 'hands-off' game, that's useful to know too)

Cuba.

How long did you play for? (If you abandoned the game, it's still helpful to know what happened)

Until early 1916.

When did war break out in your game? (Was it at the historical time, earlier or later?)

Historical.

Please describe the general course of the war. Which countries did well, and which did badly? If countries were conquered, how long did it take?

In the beginning, Austria-Hungary captured a few southern Russian provinces while the Germans held at Danzig. The border with France became fluid. The Ottomans joined the Central Powers and while they lost 2 Northern provinces to Russia, they exploded into undefended Egypt. Meanwhile, British Canada crumbled in the Maritimes and the North-East, but in the Western Heartland made it as far as Oklahoma!
The tide then turned. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire collapsed like tissues, finally being annexed in late 1915, Austria-Hungary becoming totally Russian, Germany taken up to Berlin and annexed by France and Russia in the Eastern provinces, and the Ottomans annexed by Russia with Britain taking a handful of Palestinian provinces.
America had taken all of continental Canada but the British Empire had turned its sights on them. Then I left the game.

If the AI did anything really stupid or unhistorical (such as a country lending its entire army to an ally), please let us know.

Not to my knowledge. However, America never sent any divisions to help its European allies, despite their great IC and large armies.

Please let us know if there were any actual bugs in your game - such as events failing to work, ships appearing in land provinces, techs with no effect, pictures of jet fighters appearing in the unit roster, etc)

Some ships use rocket images on the roster. Nothing other than that.

Well, uh, that's my first post.

Uber Amoeba said:

Some ships use rocket images on the roster. Nothing other than that.

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Yes that's right. I've looked into the 1914-02-II.rar and there is rocket model 1+2 and the Battleships as model 21.

I have played 3 "hands-off" games, and every time Germany concentrated it's whole army along it's sea coast, so when war broke out, the were almost no divisions in the west and only a few in the east. The western front always came to stand somewhere around cologne, while in the east austria-hungary was always almost completely anihilated by russia within a few month. Sometimes the russians even broke through into south germany. I think something must be done about the german AI, so the don't concentrate their army in the north when the war starts. And the russians must
be slowed down somehow.

Version: the latest download 0.2., No mods.
Country: Germany, sometimes reloaded as Cuba.
War outbreak:
First try: Historical date, but Serbia accepts ultimatum, AH installs puppet state, no war.
Second try: Russia too weak to support them, no war.
Third try: Russia too weak, no war.
Fourth try: war broke out historically.
(I always reloaded the autosave of August 14)
Course of the war:
The Schlieffen plan worked, French army utterly destroyed by mid September, the Russians steamroll the east, AH massacred by them, Serbia and Montenegro annexed by Mid October by AH, Mid October german army redeployed east and starts to roll back the Russians. No british unit to be seen in combat, even in Africa.
Bugs/AI:
1. Germany starts with VERY low raws stockpiles. I restarted my game five(!) times to gt it right, but always after a few weeks my economy crashed. Trade deals must be set up which are reguarly cancelled by AI nations. Cuba has the same starting stockpiles as Germany. Without looking it up, I suspect every nation starts with so low stockpiles.
Given this facts, low stockpiles, not enough trades possible to get enough steel and rares, the german economy will always crumble very early. Playing as Cuba and reloading as Germany later showed the German AI running an economy clearly weaker than its capacity.
This might partly explain the generally weak german performance described in the playtests above.
I solved the thing by cheating and giving the Reich sufficient stockpiles of steel and rares by cheat commands. (After I spend around two hours trying to set up working trades)
2. British AI leaves UK, Egypt and India totally void of troops. Instead, all islands of the West Indies or places like Aden or Diego Garcia are garrisoned by Indian and Home divisions.
Examples 15th March 14:Haigs 1st Div. on Cypern.
Grierson 3rd Div. Toronto Canada, 5th Div from Ireland in Aden, 2nd Div Canberra Australia, Indian Light Divs on the West Indian Islands. South African Permanent Force in Melbourne Australia. South African Citizen Force in Gibraltar and so on.
Likewise, all US forces are concentrated in Washington DC, having left their starting places.
3. French air bombardments came up with "Unknown string wanted".
4. Names of newly build ships and raised militia by event have WWII names.
5. Main problem: The mod doesnt give the feel of World War I, because the battles dont last very long and strong attackers will always prevail easily.
Carrying owls to Athens, in WWI the defensive was superior to the offensive due to weapons firepower. This was modelled very well in TGW, as battles lasted very long and armies lost great amounts of strength instead of org.
In here, battles are short, units loose few strength but org quickly.
Another problem in this respect is the tech tree. All great nations have 1912 infantry and cav, their is no quality difference. In TGW, the Germans very a bit superior at start, and Russians were usually bogged down in the East, while the Western Allies could gradually turn the tide by modernizing their armies and building up british forces.
Here, theres no quality difference whatsoever between the Kaisers army and the Czars.
The one and only factor deciding battles is numbers. As the Russians have numbers, they steamroll west.
Many playtesters complain about Germany not building up in the West. If Germany would do so, they would be steamrolled in the East like AH and Russians would be in Berlin by September 14.
Generally, the MOD gives the impression of the war the generals in 1914 thought of. Fast, and at home when the leaves fall. Colonel deGrandMaison could have contributed to this mod from the grave, so to speak.
Offense always win, only numbers counting for success. IMHO very serious problems.
Hate to say it, but IMHO HOI1 was better suited to modell WWI than HOI2.
You should try to distinguish armies in quality, which I know is difficult given the HOI2 tech tree limitations.
And units should loose strength, not org, so battles last longer and become the slaughterhouse WWI was known for.
Could have posted some screenies, but imageshack is failing me at the moment.
All that said, nonetheless great work guys, and I wish you enough determination and time to make 1914 a real winner. (Even if I still regard HOI1 superior to HOI2 and would have wished you continued with TGW instead of this here )

The thing with the German IC is that the resources are still that of HoI in 0.2. So Germany has a great lack of rare materials and this leads to a downfall of the real IC.
What I think of the HoI II engine for a WWI game is that the Support Attack is very bad for a WWI game, because so you can bring up a huge force against an army which has (even with trenches) no real chance of holding the territory. With France I attacked with nearly 60 divisions against a German force of approximately 20-25 division. With such a force it was easy to overwhelm them. Maybe the fortress level in the trench events should be increased to give the defender a better chance.

Version 0.2, with province.csv resource revisions, StephenT's OOB for Germany, and AI revisions to Britain, Belgium, Germany. Handsoff game as Uruguay. War broke out historically. Played until January 9th, 1915. Broadly historical pace of war.

AI/Country Reports:

Germany/Austria-Hungary/Russia/Belgium
Germany finally attacks Belgium immediately after war declaration! Moves into Liege, Bastogne, and Arlon and stops. No movement on the western front except for the occassional capture of Arlon or Liege by both sides from Sept-Dec. Germany holds on to eastern Belgium about 95% of the time. The German heartland is much more secure in this setup.

There are still a large number of A-H troops in Germany for some reason in spite of the no_exp_forces_to = { GER } tag in the AI.

On the Eastern Front, the AI is working well, but it has battles against oddly large forces of Russian troops. I would normally see 35-40 Russian divisions fighting back and forth over Torun with 15 German divisions. If the Germans and Austro-Hungarians can hold their line, I can live with the 1914 Eastern Front AI.

Thoughts/Possible Revisions:
1) Order the French to not garrison Central Belgium until 10-20 days after the declaration of war. Currently the troops zoom in there after 4-6 days, which isn't historically plausible assuming the invasion of Belgium caught the French by surprise. This would reflect the time to organize the French into Belgium.

2) Increase the passivity of the Russian Winter AI, they seem to overly offensive in the winter in relation to every other nation.

3) The 1915 Russian War AI must be hampered to reflect the severe losses in the 1915 campaign. It's a fine line between historical accuracy and flexibility, but the 1914 AI would still probably overrun Germany in 1915.

4) The German and Belgian AI in the colonies aren't really a problem.

Britain/France
Working with this British AI code is frustrating to the utmost.

1) Britain, ordered to send expeditionary forces to France - decides to send 37 divisions to central Africa under French command while the Western Front is roaring and the Ottomans are invading Egypt. These 37 divisions are from all over the empire. There are 11 Ottoman divisions in Egypt against 1 British division. 0 divisions in France. It's almost working, but in reality it's still a disaster. Perhaps the French AI also needs to be edited.

2) The naval AI is working well.

No bugs.

Pic of Europe:

StephenT said:

Please let us know if there were any actual bugs in your game
After the Vera Cruz incident, Villa and Zapata replace Carranza as leaders of the Revolutionary Mexico faction - which is correct - but Carranza is supposed to take over from Huerta as leader of the Government faction. He doesn't - Huerta remains in charge.

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This has been noted and fixed. You might want to check the "events" thread.