Bill101

Hi Aryaman He's possibly swopping units after they have attacked. This is described in this thread: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=107356&page=3 But he will be paying a penalty in terms of unit effectiveness for doing so. It can pay off for a while, but once his units have taken casualties and swopped and/or force marched then they will generally be noticeably less effective for a while until they have had a few turns rest and been reinforced. Entrench your units, don't force march unless necessary, rotate out of the line those that are really battered, and research Trench Warfare like crazy. Also buy back destroyed units and keep your HQs fairly near the front line, but no closer than 2-3 tiles of the front line. Losing them would be a powerful blow. As to Italy, there are some starting units on the map, and more will mobilize when it enters the war. These should be enough to defend the north eastern border, possibly even going on the attack depending on how many units the enemy fields against them. But their HQs start off at half strength, and the Italians lack artillery, so be careful not to overextend them. A defensive posture is safest, but it might miss out on one or two opportunities. A factor here would be how much pressure Russia and Serbia and putting on Austria-Hungary when Italy enters the war. The less well they are doing, the better it might be to sit on the defensive. The Italian navy will also deploy, and its deployment locations vary from game to game, but the good thing is that it will give you a distinct superiority in surface naval vessels in the Med.

Two of our divisions have been lost near Nancy, but there’s been no German attack on Belgium or Holland and it’s now the 5th August. This suggests more and more that Ivanov has ditched the ideas of the late Count Schlieffen and is going to follow a much more direct strategy in his attempts to defeat us. The bad news is that this means that the British won’t be entering the war as soon as I would like. We’ve made our point near Belfort and retire back to the fortress. It’s interesting to see just how many German divisions there are here in the south. The fighting continues near Nancy, with five German infantry and cavalry divisions being shattered! Our mobilization is continuing and reinforcements are arriving, so we will see over the next few turns whether or not Ivanov’s aggression will pay off.

General Smuts has walked into our trap! Thinking that Dodoma was undefended he ordered an advance on the town, but now his forces are being attacked from three sides. They are low on supply and weakened by long marches, so they can expect heavier casualties to come next turn. All hail our brave African levies and their great stand near Dar-es-Salaam. This has held up the enemy advance and we can see that the British forces here are also rather low on morale. They seriously need a rest! All is quiet at Neu Langenburg as we rest and refit following our successful defence of this position. Things are also quiet near Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika as the enemy are no doubt building up for their next attack there.

This is something I have thought of, but hasn't been developed. It is a bit tricky because for those historic situations like you mention, there are plenty of situations where we wouldn't necessarily want it to apply. The combat bonuses provided by HQs are also a reflection of the quality of that nation's military doctrines, high command, general staff etc, and even though von Mackensen was in overall command, his orders had to flow through the subordinate ranks of the Austro-Hungarian command down to their troops. Thus he can provide supply to Austro-Hungarian units, which does raise their effectiveness, but he doesn't provide combat bonuses like the Austro-Hungarian commanders do to their own units. I'm not totally averse to some sort of mechanism whereby the HQs could command units belonging to an allied major power (they can already command those belonging to a friendly minor power), but working out the correct mechanism would be important. What complicates matters is that German units sometimes came under Austro-Hungarian command, e.g. the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army included a German Corps in May 1915, so it's very hard to find a simple solution that would fit all situations. If you highlight the HQ, look in the box which appears in the bottom left of the screen, and this will show you the rating.

Hi That's right, the blockade doesn't have to be total to be effective, though the more ships there are, the more effective it is. It depends on how successful your subs are at staying alive, and as the Atlantic is large they can sometimes keep going for some time. I normally send mine back to port when their supply is about 4-5, and can often send them out a number of times. As the Germans have a lot of subs, and can build more, if sent out en masse this can help their survivability. The MPP effect on the UK is also stronger if you use unrestricted warfare. Yes, that will increase the likelihood of success, and is recommended. Aim at a tile where there are no enemy units, and they will spot anything in that tile and along their flightpath. This doesn't guarantee no losses, but will on average incur less than if you aim at enemy units.

This is exactly what Haig feared, the British being driven back to the sea! In reality, the French sent a lot of troops to support the British, so it's very interesting to see how this different approach works out, and good to see French troops advancing on German soil. As to the US forces that have been mentioned, according to David Stevenson's With our Backs to the Wall, page 269, by the end of the war they actually had both more troops than the British in France, and occupied 162 km of front, 23km more than the British. 1919 would have been the year when they could really have been the spearhead of an Entente advance, but by late 1918 their role was very important too. US income should suffice to buy an infantry division nearly every turn, depending on other expenditures.

Hi Two player is really what is referred to there, i.e. one against another. There is a method of involving more players per side that can be found here: http://www.battlefront.com/community...hlight=hotseat And yes, the sequence is IGO/UGO.

General Joffre’s Advice The Germans have begun their advance, by invading Luxembourg, capturing the mines at Briey, and advancing on Nancy. Are the Germans up to anything else as well, such as preparing to invade Belgium? We cannot yet tell, but there are hordes of Uhlans to the south of Metz, so this would suggest not. This advancing mass of Uhlans is a foolhardy move as they blunder into de Castelnau’s 2nd Army and are bloodied, losing one division and almost losing another. A German infantry division south east of Nancy is also severely damaged. Not a good start to the Kaiser’s war! In the south, we have crossed the German frontier near Belfort and are advancing to contact with the enemy.

Following on from our recent Russian Civil War AAR, Ivanov and I have decided to refight the German invasion of France in August 1914! I will be commanding the Entente forces, which to start with means just the French as the British are neutral and enemy actions will determine when the British enter the war. Will Ivanov follow the legendary Schlieffen Plan and march through Belgium, even Holland, into northern France? If he does, how will France cope with this bold stroke? Or will he thrust directly into France, marching on Verdun?

They might do, it's certainly worth a try.

Taking advantage of the tiredness of General Smuts’ troops, who were thinking that capturing Morogoro meant that they were safe from attack, we’ve battered the 1st South African cavalry and their accompanying East African Brigade of infantry! Another unit of the King’s African Rifles succumbs near Neu Langenburg! This isn’t the way to invade German East Africa, especially not when von Lettow-Vorbeck is in charge. Mimi and Toutou aren’t looking very ship shape after their brush not only with the Goetzen, but also with some artillery from the Konigsberg. It also looks as though the British have advanced up to replace their Belgian allies in the attack on Ujiji. Can this place really be that important?

It's a resource that if it has 4 enemy units adjacent to it will start to serve less well as a source of supply, decreasing in effect by 1 point per turn, though capitals and fortresses aren't affected by this rule.

When it first came out, the differences were massive, and I think the list can be found in the New Features thread. The most important of course relates to trenches. In WWII games, units can entrenchment values at the start of their turn. But in WWI games, they gain entrenchment values when they entrench, or move into a trench, and these rise at the end of their turn. If not entrenched, units benefit from what is called Ground Cover, gaining it at the end of the turn, and this equates pretty much to entrenchment in WWII (i.e. it's beneficial, but not as good as being in a trench). Plus the benefits of being in a trench rise with every level in trench warfare. Enemy trenches cannot be seen through, so it is impossible to see what is behind the trenches without either breaching the enemy line, or using Recon Bombers. Recon Bombers are much less effective in WWI in the ground attack role, and without research are only useful at spotting, though with a bit of research into Ground Attack Aircraft they can become fairly useful at that. In WWI the unit slot for rockets has the characteristics of Airships, whose evasion for air interception increases with every level researched, as does their range and strategic attack. In WWI, Seaplane Carriers use the slot normally used by aircraft carriers. The Seaplane Carriers really aren't very useful except for reconnaissance, and don't have the same options as do aircraft carriers, e.g. they don't have any fighters so cannot intercept or escort. In WWI, the slot used by anti-tank units in WWII is occupied by cavalry, who are good at scouting but not at all good at defending. This probably isn't comprehensive but it should give an idea of some of the major differences.

Yes please, that would be great!

Glad you got it sorted, and welcome to the forum!

Definitely, please send me a saved turn. bill.runacre@furysoftware.com Thanks!

Thanks Wushuki. This would be a lot harder to do in Gold as with Italy being a Major a connection with Venice would keep German supply up. Providing Mussolini hasn't thrown in the towel of course! Perhaps adding in Vienna as an Industrial Center might be a backup solution? Bill

Thanks Aryaman, I'll have a think about what to do, and in the meantime I welcome more feedback from yourself and others on the game balance in due course.

Yes please, as I'm having trouble finding that unit.

Victory at Neu Langenburg, as a unit of the King’s African Rifles bite the dust! Practicing for the Victory Parade in Neu Langenburg In the north east, Major Kraut has abandoned Morogoro and withdrawn his forces. We could have fought there, but have decided to keep mobile for the moment. Judging from the reports we’re getting from the area to the west of Lake Victoria, Crewe hasn’t joined up with the Belgians but is instead advancing on his own. Interesting.

Hi Aryaman Thanks for offering the info on the Bulgarians, and I'd love to see it. Regarding the Ottoman deployment, I took the conscious decision to give them a chance to rewrite history as their starting MPPs represents the opportunity for them to have adopted a different strategy to defend the Balkans. I realize that this does mean that their actual deployment won't necessarily fit with the historical one, but the hope has been to increase re-playability through adding the possibility of trying out more "what ifs". In my playtesting of this scenario (admittedly more against the AI in this one) I have found that the Turks are quite easy to beat, as cutting the rail link from Constantinople to Salonika will immediately reduce the supply and therefore effectiveness of their forces in and to the north and west of Salonika. The Turks are hard pushed to stop both that and attacks on their cities and units. However, I'd welcome hearing the results of both multiplayer and AI games as this will help give a better feel for balance before any changes are made.

Hi Jbeigie Because they are on the offensive the Central Powers' income does tend to allow for some expenditure on research at a stage when the Entente can only normally dream of doing the same. It's also possible that they may have replaced a good number of their destroyed units. However, the AI does also receive some extra units because it is not as wise as a human, and it will need to have some key locations securely held to give it the confidence to advance. Which is why you're doing fine despite the enemy's numerical advantage. To delve any further I'd have to see a saved turn, and you can always send me one at bill.runacre@furysoftware.com if you'd like me to take a more in depth look. Thanks Bill

Please can you send a saved turn of this to me at the following email address: bill.runacre@furysoftware.com Thanks! Bill

Fixed too, thanks!

I'll get these two things fixed too. Thanks, that's great to hear and in due course we'll get it even better once these issues are cleared up!