Strategiclayabout

Yes hodling Warsaw was critical for victory conditions and it was a very long and hard battle . 4 December - 4 March battle of the woods After some time to rebuild their supply and offensive power Soviets came back trying to use their usual advantage in winter attacks. Combats concentrated on the woods around Radom and Siedlce especially the ones between the two towns taken and retaken multiple times. Radom was lost again early but russian progress on the road to Warsaw from there was gruesomly slow with two tiles gained over three monthes. Actually the whole affair became more of a WWI thing than anything else with so many units in the area that only frontal assaults were possible.

@ xwormwood Actually those smart bast**** dowed CP just to be recorded as being on the "nice guys" side without spilling any blood, clever move .

Actually I find the game very well balanced as it is, both sides more or less have the same overall power but with different weaknesses/advantages. Have you tried the "expert" and "+2 exp stars" settings (max difficulty) vs AI ? It makes things a bit more... interesting . USA Arn't what you think: they give one marine infantry and 17 naval units when mobilizing. They suck out 500 MPPs (50x10 turns) from both FRA & UK to reinforce their land army. Main effect of their entry is a NM one with hits on several countries: FRA = +6% base NM ITA = +10% base NM GER = -5% base NM When the game depends on a NM finish between FRA-GER it's just HUGE ! They also give 5 more diplo chits to EN covering the usual loss of Russia. MPPs help a bit too but arn't at WWII levels (around 240). RESEARCH Not designed to get full levels in all fields, you have choices to make. Infantry 2 for Germans more or less happened at the end of 1917 at best. Same thing for planes with Germans only scratching max levels late in the war and staying behind in tanks. DIPLOMACY Any investment below 50% (10 chits) in diplomacy can give very random results and don't forget the other side can invest on the same country as you. You can't "diplo" all Europe with balanced chits (14 vs 14) it's more like a MPPs war and rolling the dice to see if you're lucky. The best way to use diplomacy is to stack MPPs and pour all chits on one country in one turn giving you the advantage over several turns. (even better if the other side already has some chits invested somewhere else) You can also wait to see where enemy chits are used and try to counter them (not easy) or target another country. There is also mind game side where you can try to scare your foes with the threat of opening another front. Or you can spread some chits over the map to confuse your opponent and/or see if you get a lucky result somewhere. * Many neutrals have strings/events attached to them regarding NM, units or whatever. You have to decide if you target NM gains or more down to earth ones (land, units...). Think targeting Norway/Holland/Sweden as EN can hurt Germany a lot NM and MPPs wise. Going for Switzerland or Romania can yield interesting results too as CP. Even Italy can be considered depending on what Austria do with Trieste. USA are the big prize but will cost a lot. * CP = 14 (9 actual chits at start) (GER has 2 on OE at start and OE is out) GER = 7 AUS = 4 OE = 3 * EN = 14 (12 actual chits at start) (ITA out while UK has 1 on Portugal and Russia 1 on Albania) UK = 5 FR = 5 RU = 4 ITA = 3 (USA = 5) So the best shot at diplomacy for CP is just at start (more MPPs) or between OE and Italy entries. (and of course after a russian and /or italian collapse giving a 4 chits advantage) EDIT: forgot to say you can see how many MPPs other countries have invested in diplomacy (stats screen MPPs diplomacy)

I'll add one last series after this post the next day to summarize the last battles of the war but the game was more or less over at this point . Operation Red October Stats You can see on the strategic map that Germans managed to concentrate all they had around Warsaw on a narrow/central front to stop the Soviets. Enemy mobile units suffered horrendeous losses with 6 tanks, 2 cavalry & 1 mech vs only 1 panzer while infantry losses were more or less balanced. The carnage is even more obvious on MPPs charts with a clear peak for Stavka in October after a low ebb in August-September despite battle of Lublin. Overall in one month Stalin lost around 6,000 MPPs to 3,000 with a staggering 4,000 to 2,000 between 17 & 31 October alone and well over both incomes.

17 October - 16 December siege of Koenigsberg A vicious battle lasting two monthes ending as a russian tactical victory with the capture of the city but a german strategic victory as no other gain was made in Prussia. Each time the Festung was about to be isolated on land the coastal path was reopened and our heroic 267th div was able to hold firm despite overwhelming odds. In the end though snow slowed down german counterattacks and it wasn't possible to get supply through the port once Soviets completed the encirclement. Evacuation of remaining men by sea was decided on 16th December and the enemy only captured empty ruins when they attacked again the following day.

Thanks for reading , 5 October - 22 November Tarnow corridor & kessel of Krakow German swift answer in the center also had one major consequence as it suddenly put enormous pressure on the narrow corridor feeding soviet offensive west of Tarnow. Red defenses were unprepared in the area and crumbled easily leading to the creation of several kessels around Krakow on 17 October despite several counterattacks. However it took time to reduce all trapped units though they lacked mobility because of bad weather and combats were still raging around Radom till the end of October. Once panzers were able to shift to the south freely it was over quickly and the remaining pockets of isolated Russians surrendered on 22 November.

17-31 October Battle for Radom This was probably the turning point of the whole campaign with an unexpected battle leading to brutal fighting and atrocious losses over two weeks. Soviets surprised Germans with a strong attack in the center on 17 October which took out Radom and Siedlce quickly opening the road to Warsaw. Fortunately OKH reserves were already starting to deploy in the rear and panzers were free to counterattack at will unsuspecting Russians. It seems Stavka completely underestimated Speer tremendeous efforts to reequip and replenish battered units from the summer debacle. * Radom was retaken as fast as it was lost but Stalin refused to let go and red reserves were diverted to push a pincer move on the town that was close to succeed. However it was too late for that kind of move as german mobile forces had already gained a decisive advantage and doubled down by breaking the pincers. Soviets had such numbers in the area that confused units were unable to advance and had no space to maneuver creating chaos in the lines and ultimately defeat. The results of Operation Red October were a stunning victory for the Reich and crushing losses for red arms with 5 main units destroyed to 13 including numerous tanks.

BATTLE FOR WARSAW - OPERATION RED OCTOBER At that point you can see an encirclement of the whole Warsaw area becomes quite possible leading to the decisive battles of October. Soviet northern pincer was blocked using Koenisgberg as an anvil with the hammer using the marshes to the west as a shield while constantly wearing down enemy units. Southern pincer was left free to advance with focus on holding roadbloacks in the back and keeping Tarnow's gap narrow to allow an easy counter. Goal was to reduce pressure in the center while buying time to replenish panzers and get all those PQ infantry units scheduled to arrive over the coming month. * After some feints and probes here and there the whole thing more or less unfolded as three different battles though they were all connected. Actually the main event surprisingly happened in the center but was delayed for a while because Soviets started slow. They voluntarity stalled nearly two weeks to let SS units crush polish partisans so they wouldn't have to deal with them afterwards. In the end it was a very bad move by Stalin that costed him dearly since it gave OHK much needed time to reorganize its forces. * 5-16 October Warsaw Uprising

23-30 September retreat to Warsaw On 23 September Russians launched a three-pronged attack on Siedlce Radom and Tarnow while simultaneously advancing in East Prussia. All towns held but red divisions made easy progress in the south where they ran throug wide undefended gaps around Tarnow. Pressure became unbearable and OKH had to trade ground for time again evacuating the Lublin salient to reinforce the Krakow area. Local counterattacks to cover the retreat yielded some good results allowing resting mobile forces to stay out of the fight.

5-23 September defense of Siedlce With panzer units spent and red reinforcements pouring in from Belarus and Ukraine pressure kept increasing and OKH went full defensive. Germans regrouped on the Radom-Siedlce line and entrenched themselves around the town covering the main roads to Warsaw. The move was quite successful as casualties dropped significantly for nearly no loss of ground while 1 army 1 tank & 1 mech were destroyed. Still past mid-September situation became critical again southwards where only a light screen of troops was guarding Krakow.

Hi steelwarrior77 , I'll answer that later if you don't mind as I still have the main front in Poland to post here and "finish" the AAR: POLAND 24-30 August Lublin counteroffensive Failing to take Lublin had immediate consequences as 48Pz and mobile artillery were destroyed by receding Reds breaking out of the unsealed kessel. Despite that germans were still strong enough to slice through fleeing enemies and 1 HQ 1 tank & 1 AT were destroyed after furious combats. However any further advance was discarded on 30 August after the fall of Brest-Litovsk which provided another logistical base to Soviets. Till 5 September Russians launched several infantry-led attacks to stabilize their lines enduring severe casualties but also wearing down german forces.

ROMANIA-CARPATHIA Static front for monthes though there was a low but constant pressure on Bucharest situation never became critical which was quite the surprise. After several botched attempts to take down Romanians by opening a path to their capital evil communists tried some kind of a "pincer" move near mid-September. The left wing threatened Constanta for a while but wasn't strong enough to keep pushing and only minor german help was needed to stop that offensive. Further north red divisions were able to cross an undefended mountain range but supply couldn't follow and they fell short of flanking Targu Orcna. At the end of October Stavka decided to commit enough forces to actually reach its objective there but only after two weeks of vicious fighting. However it was unable to apply any kind of pressure along other parts of the romanian front and all attacks slowly died. One last effort was made in February to turn the tables with tanks getting some action around Galati and Constanta but to no avail due to the lack of support.

HUNGARY-CARPATHIA Very quiet area for a long time with Reds limiting themselves to probing defense here and there for several monthes. One division sneaked through the mountains towards Budapest but was ignored since it was out of supply. The surprise came on 16th December with heavy tank attacks around Targu Orcna followed by massive paradrops in the rear. Fortunately snow came in just between and some unusal troop movements had alerted Germans beforehand. Mountain passes were held and panzer reserves ultimately massacred red paratroops though they survived for more than a month. Overall result was a clear victory for Germans as other fronts wern't threatened by the shift of numerous mobile troops.

BALTIC STATES-BELARUS Nothing much happened there with Germans mostly trying to gain some time while evacuating to the Reich in early September. Most of the delaying units concentrated around Kaunas Vilna & Bialystok and were able to leave hell in good order despite heavy pressure. Sadly 22nd security division wasn't mobile enough to keep the pace and was left behind to die at Baranavichy. In the end Russians captured Riga with ease despite Marinov's last stand and reached Eastern Prussia in two weeks. * Still there was some kind of twist as Hitler ordered to move all (depleted) panzer reserves to the area. The idea was to use Koenigsberg as a bait and launch a major counterstrike against unsupplied pursuing Russians. Actually it never happened as Soviets stopped short of the city for vaious reasons and Panzerwaffe was sent back to Warsaw.

Oops sorry fot that seems I forgot to tell game was over and I was too short on time to continue the AAR ! I'll try to give at least give a quick summary of events with some pics after above fight in Poland. Well I more or less learned the bad and good things to do an AAR so it wasn't a complete failure . EDIT: here is the first part about Finland FINLAND Nearly crumbled with 8th corps destroyed at Lappeenranta and Finns pushed back on a Kouvola-Kotka line at the end of August. Kouvola had to be evacuated quickly only two weeks later followed by Kotka as no reinforcements were available due to russian pressure on the Reich's borders. Then starting October Mannerheim was forced to fall back again towards his last defensive line before Helsinki (Lahti-Lovisa south of Lake Päijänne). At that point bad weather came in and helped to hold the narrow front but Soviets attacks also slowed down and even stopped due to what happened in Poland.

Hi NWJB , Yes I think it was designed like that. There are only 3 ways to defeat France: 1) drop its NM to 0 2) capture its 3 capitals (Paris, Bordeaux, Marseilles) 3) eliminate Russia and UK first * France is very hard to take down, as was actually the case they are able to take heavy punishment without breaking (just look at WWI casualties tabs or think "Verdun"). Schlieffen could have taken Paris if nothing went wrong and plan wasn't changed but logistics were already a disaster once Lille was left behind. There is no way France would have surrendered in 1914 (1940 blitzkrieg AoD style is still decades away after all). Schlieffen won't work vs experienced human players anyway: you will be stopped on the Somme in most games (that is if you do well ). And you may even take heavy losses in the process if you're not cautious enough !

Swap move: * Left click on one of the two units Hold down "shift" (keyboard) Mouse over the second unit (you should see a small black double arrow) Left click on the second unit and they will swap * Just remember a swap move will burn all of your units Action Points safe one. So they will only be able to attack once or move one tile (if terrain/zoc allow 1AP movement) after that. * Experience: * The fastest way to gain/keep exp is to kill/finish enemy units. That usually gives between 1/4 and 1/2 star exp. So don't worry if exp doesn't appear after a kill, it will probably do after two . * You can actually buy elite steps (double the cost of normal steps) but only for units: already at 10 steps at least with 6 supply not adjacent to enemy units that still have 1 AP AND you can only buy 1 elite step per turn (even if you have a 3 stars exp unit) ! * It's very hard to "build" elite units in WWI Break and it's a good thing. As it was the case in the actual war, elite troops were quickly wasted/decimated in major offensives though they often achieved big results. It's still possible but you have to bet on a small group of units and manage them well (best HQ, supply, odds...). Unit experience isn't affected if they only lose elite steps in combat. Use them to finish wounded units and retreat/protect them once it's done to avoid counter-attacks. Elite units can usually deal quite well with the casualties from one combat (especially at 2 stars exp or above) but not multiple ones. Also try to keep them out of enemy artillery range. * Artillery units are your best bet for elite building because they stay in the back and avoid direct combat, they will stack experience quickly. HQs can also gain experience quite quickly BUT they can't build elite step. The best starting unit is UK I infantry corps (BEF) with 2,5 exp stars but only 10 steps (appear by event turn 1). You better keep it safe and take the time to build its elite steps if you play Entente. (upgrading starting UK HQ to 8 from 4 will also increase its efficiency) Another unit like that is the canadian corps (later in the game) but only if you let it complete its training in England. Germany has a lot of 1 star exp units but only 1 (guard) with 11 steps, that can be a good start if you manage it well. * Bad rolls: It happens often, the "0" for your side is only a possibility, the best you can achieve. Many things can go wrong during a fight even against any 1 step unit (here come the heroes ). So no free meal in the trenches however losses with "0" odds are less likely if: you have a wide margin (0-4 and above) you attack clear tiles (without entrenchments/ground cover) you have elite unit vs regular one you have better stats/HQ you have prepared attack (not moving before attacking) you have tech advantage/upgrade your target is at 0 supply * Of course actual odds more or less use all of that but most of the time you can't see/know if an enemy HQ support your target and what is its level. Also remember Cavalry and detachment CAN'T deentrench on their own so it's better to send an infantry corps first to reduce ground cover to 0. (you can also use artillery of course but shells are precious especially early: better keep them for main objectives/fortifications-trenches) (rec bombers can help but you need ground attack lvl 1 to have them able to deentrench) Hope it wasn't too hard to read .

"Joyeuses Fêtes" as we say in France, have a great time SCGC team !

Hi Korut Zelva , Great answer by Bill as always though I'd add some things to it that may help, please correct me if I'm wrong: Conquered majors will remains in the hands of their conqueror if surrendering early. (meaning no popped minors/neutrals and you get MPPs/NM from them and can use their ports/railroads/infrastructure). In a test game I have Russia in control of all of AH and actual Turkey in 1915. That isn't likely to happen in any actual game though, even vs AI . * However there are some specific cases: France can lose Morocco ("liberated" as a minor by CP) while Algeria and Tunisia will somehow remain "french" while being 100% Entente. Well France is VERY hard to subdue so don't worry too much about that . OE will lose its empire to UK. (say Russia takes OE capital, Russia will control actual Turkey while MiddleEast will go to UK as a bunch of "liberated" minors) Many of the "liberated" minors won't have any units. * Bulgaria and Romania have specific events to them making for various strategies Bulgaria leans more towards CP while Romania leans more towards EN at start. Advances in Serbia will ultimately bring Bulgaria on CP side by events. However using some diplo chits there can certainly speed up the whole process. You can always declare war on them if they block your way by being neutral but there are benefits to "get" them by diplomacy. Romania Treaty of Bucharest event will give bonuses from Romania to Germany while reducing the front. I think I remember Romania giving bonuses to AH instead if they join CP as an allied minor. If you go for full conquest, remember you can always decide who will get the MPPs (plunder/ressources tiles) by capturing the capital with any unit from that side/country (AH, GER or even OE). Romania also has a bunch of events making it closer to Entente including russian advance in AH (capture of fortresses) or even the loss of Gallipoli by OE. * There are many possibilites and combos of events leading to sometimes unexpected outcomes. Even experienced players can be surprised by some of them (the Gallipoli thing was a shocker ).

Nobody else interested so I'll just cancel the whole thing, thanks for your interest Rafal ^^ ! Well I understand dealing with events and turn sequence would cause trouble with that setting. Who knows maybe SCGC engine will somehow allow more than two players later on .

Ooops forgot to answer that one, thanks for doing it Furchtlosundtrew . * Yes HQ bonuses are immediate. Here for a german corps under HQ lvl 5, no HQ, then HQ lvl 7 the same turn: Readiness 80-68-85 Morale 80-80-80 * About surprise contact/ambush at port I agree it can be annoying but as you don't know the kind of naval unit or its strength/upgrade level. As Furchtlosundtrew said it can yield big results vs wounded units but if you "find" an upgraded 10 step battleship, it can end very badly. (unti in port will be able to attack you with very good odds next turn or just reinforce without any delay) That's why it's usually better to do that with subs (somehow like raiding ports) though you can stumble upon destroyers ^^ .

You're welcome , Diplomacy can be very random at time with no results for several chits or big hits with only 1. That said having 50% chance (10 chits) ususally brings more steady/certain results. The other side having chits on Bulgaria can also negate your efforts. Bottom line for Bulgaria: capturing Belgrade and advancing in Serbia will help you a lot to "convince" them . * And I'm not part of SCGC team or anything btu I agree WWI Break offers a lot to players !

HQ Right click on HQ to get scroll menu Mouse over "Select mode" to get submenu Left click on "Manual" (you'll get a M on your HQ as a reminder) * Unit Left click any HQ Right click unit to get scroll menu Left click on "attach" or "detach" as needed That's it !

It depends on many things including side and strategy but there are some basics: * COMBAT Infantry (cost 125): you can only have 1 chit invested at any time so delaying investment there can hurt you badly Trench (cost 50): you can have up to 5 chits at the same time so it's a cheap way to boost your defense very very quickly * RESSOURCES Industry (100 or 125): most countries start with 1 chit already there, you can have up to 3, you need it but it costs a lot early on and reduce your capacity research in other fields Production (75): quite cheap but not as powerfull as industry, can wait unless you plan to mass produce units early or have 75MPPs remaining to reach full research capacity (reduce the cost of producing/reinforcing/upgrading units with each level) * SUPPORT Artillery (125): PRU and AH have lvl 1 at start which is enough to deentrench 1 level by shot, most needed for Entente side (as well as... artillery units ) lvl 2 don't increase denetrench capacity only attack/shelling results vs land units (more demoralization and chances to hit/produces casualties) Shell prod (100): each of the 3 levels adds 1 shell per turn to artillery unit increasing your deentrench ability big time BUT only if you already have artillery level 1 ! * Most of the other tech can wait or depend on what/how you play like subs (mostly interesting for Germans especially at 50 MPPs). Intelligence (100) can be interesting but has no immediate result. You also have to match your investment to your research max capacity (usually 800 or 1000): 1x125 infantry 3x125 industry 5x50 trench is already 750 out of 1000 (675 for AH out of 800) remaining capacity can be used for special fields if you plan to develop "special" weapons early (bombers, subs, tank, whatever) or gain specific advantage (intelligence/research, production/MPPs, motorization/mobility...) or answer enemy threat/superiority in any given area (antisub or AA for Entente) * So you have many possible combos to fit the bill depending on your strategy (more MPPs first, more units, offensive, defensive, land, naval, even air...). 50 or 75 MPPs fields don't look that great but you can invest more chits in them for the same cost and achieve fast results. * Well trying to optimize research is part of the fun .