Bill101

Hi If Winti's suggestion doesn't work then I would recommend visiting the Helpdesk: http://www.battlefront.com/helpdesk/ And if the answer to the problem isn't found there, please submit a ticket there and someone will reply in due course to help you.

It’s now January 1919 and the time has come for some decisive action! The Ukrainian government has been oppressing its workers and crushing their attempts to achieve freedom. By acting now we can free our comrades and also strike a blow at the White hierarchy in the Ukraine. So, Trotsky orders the Red Army to move into the Ukraine. Kharkov is liberated, our Political Standing with the workers and peasants is rising, and just look at those mines that are ripe for the taking! One other positive result from this move is that our units in the Crimea will now have an opportunity to move north to join up with our advancing forces. Maybe the next step is for us to see if those unruly peasants led by Nestor Makhno can be enticed to enter the fray. We could certainly make use of them, though they are a troublesome bunch who will need to be brought under party discipline one day, whether or not they side with us. Elsewhere, the changing situation at Perm is of little concern to us, and the battle for Tsaritsyn is just beginning, despite what White propagandists might think. As predicted, the French have landed at Odessa. But we’ve got a surprise in store for them and all the others who think they can come to Russia to destroy our revolution: beware the forces in your own countries who will soon take power and overthrow you. To speed this process, we are sending agents and propaganda to spread the Bolshevik message of Peace, Bread, Land, and the World for the Workers!

This thread has been very useful as it's provided me with a few ideas: 1) To ensure the British can always have the Basra option. What I can do is give them the Decision earlier, but not charge them the cost until the expedition is actually sent from India to seize Basra. Effectively, the UK will be able to decide now, pay later. 2) To make it so that a diplomacy success won't bring the Ottomans into the war quite so soon. 3) Make it so that if Italy is attacked in 1914 then it will collect some MPPs in her first turn. The reason that Italy had no MPPs is because as well as being faced with the costs of mobilization in its first turn, it was also presented with the Decision on whether or not to employ Commander Rizzo to attack the Austro-Hungarian navy. Saying yes to that made her income less than her expenditure for that turn, which was a bit much. The solution seems to be to make that Decision not happen until 1915. That way if the Central Powers do attack Italy in 1914 then Italy will collect some MPPs in her first turn at war. To even it out, it might be best to make the Austro-Hungarian option to sabotage Italian ports also not happen until later. Hopefully that covers everything!

Someone just made an attempt on Lenin’s life! Such treachery, and just to show that he’s alive and well, here’s a picture of our great leader reading Trotsky’s latest report from the front: We need to consider what the Whites are likely to do, especially as their main strength is in the south. In view of this, the immediate priority is strengthening our forces at Tsaritsyn, and Red Army units are now heading in that direction as fast as they can. This map shows the historical situation and the main forces at play in Russia around the outskirts of Bolshevik territory. Fortunately the Whites are divided by geography and politics, whereas we can make use of an iron leadership and interior lines. Because the overall strength of the Red Army is not as high as we would like, we are preparing some Militia units to prevent the enemy from advancing into our territory unopposed before we can fully mobilize our war economy and start fielding large numbers of highly motivated and highly disciplined troops. We just have to hope that we can muster enough strength at Tsaritsyn to hold the enemy there, at least for a while, until Trotsky can take the pressure off by attacking elsewhere.

It's possible, though we would need to consider what would the French colonies be doing if there really is a stiff fight going on between Allied and German forces around Paris, and Paris is liberated and remains so for a while. Do the French colonies remain neutral, or rejoin the fight?

Excellent, and no problem!

Hi What happens when France is ready to surrender is that the Axis get to choose whether or not to form Vichy France, and as a result, various Vichy regimes have been set up in southern France and in the French colonies. The liberation of a country works by having a friendly unit enter the capital of a conquered country, hence the British unit achieved a liberation. Liberations only liberate the territory occupied by friendly forces, so that in this instance, the Germans will continue to hold parts of France until Allied forces can arrive to drive them from it, just as in real life after Paris's liberation in August 1944. Admittedly, what you've seen is an unusual situation with an outcome that undoubtedly caused some surprise, but I hope this explains what you've seen and why it happened. Bill

It isn't intentional, though I have wondered whether it should be and welcome thoughts on that. If we agree that the Basra option should remain open no matter when the Ottomans enter the war (apart from in the Central Powers' or Entente's first turns, which fortunately isn't possible unless the Entente declare war on them) then I have today worked out a foolproof way to allow for the Basra expedition irrespective of the Ottoman war entry date.

Thanks Peter, I'll take a look at both points.

Hi Pacestick If you have a saved turn of the first Entente turn when Italy is in the war but doesn't receive any MPPs please can you send it to me? We've tried to repeat this in both Breakthrough and with our current version of the base game, by attacking Italy in August 1914, but in both Italy did receive MPPs in its first turn after entering the war. Admittedly, Italy doesn't receive as many MPPs in its first turn as it will later on, due to the cost of mobilization, but it certainly should still receive some. Please email me at bill.runacre@furysoftware.com Thanks!

The campaign begins with White forces massing in the south and preparing to both finish off our scattered forces in the Caucasus, and to advance on the important city of Tsaritsyn. We’ll be hard pushed to hold them here, but we’ll have to try, and under the leadership of Comrade Stalin, there will be no retreating in the face of the enemy. There are Anarchists under the leadership of Nestor Makhno preparing to stir up trouble in the Ukraine. This is something we could make use of, especially if we decide to invade, as the resources of this country would prove very useful to our war economy. Further north, we need to maintain a force around Minsk to discourage the Poles from trying to take territory from us. War with Poland is ultimately inevitable, but we wish to fight it on our own terms rather than theirs, when we’re ready and can attack them with a huge superiority of force. Moscow and Petrograd are both securely in our hands, providing we can contain any White advances either from the newly independent Baltic States, or from Murmansk and Archangel where there are small British and American forces helping the enemy. Garrisons are being maintained at both, because control of these cities is vital to the success of the revolution. It is in the east and to the south that the main threats exist. Fortunately, the White forces in the Urals are not receiving much aid from the Interventionists, but that isn’t the case in the south where the British are providing significant amounts of aid, and a French expeditionary force may soon be sailing to Odessa. An immediate priority is to delay the Southern Whites, and to this end we launch our first attack against some Don Cossacks to the south west of Tsaritsyn. We’ve also sent some reinforcements to Tsaritsyn, and are massing forces further to the west… more will be revealed regarding their orders soon! The coming year will be a tough one, but if we can survive that then time will be against the Whites. Workers, to Arms!

Hi To highlight this grand campaign set in Russia in the aftermath of WWI, here is an After Action Report of a war that shaped much of the twentieth century. I am in the Red Corner, commanding the Bolsheviks, and I am up against one of our beta testers, Michal Senajko, aka Ivanov, who is controlling the Whites. I expect to be under a lot of pressure right from the start, as Ivanov, who has played this campaign a few times, knows that in the long run the Whites cannot afford to let the Red Army get too strong before attacking. Will Lenin triumph, or will the various White factions win the day? Follow the action to find out!

Hi I think it's the case that a unit can always move 1 tile if there is a friendly tile available. If there had been more than 1 friendly tile available, then the mountains wouldn't have been highlighted, because movement elsewhere would have been possible. Hopefully this explains the difference between here and what you've seen near Sian where, if you are able to Forced March then friendly tiles must be available as Forced March is only possible if you're not adjacent to the enemy. I hope that makes sense and explains it?

France's morale is brittle, and can be broken by defeats outside Paris, despite military successes such as you've achieved, coupled with the loss of resources like Marseilles. This is to match real life where their fighting spirit was broken and Paris declared an open city so that the Germans could waltz in and take it without a fight.

Hi Wolfe1759 Glad you like the video, and putting it as a bonus was just our way of highlighting the Russian Civil War campaign as it's not strictly a WWI campaign. We will be starting an AAR shortly, so stay tuned! Bill

Looks like the Russians are going to lose some units there!

Hi Mike It's arrived thanks, and I'll take a look and see what we can do about that. Thanks! Bill

Hi Mike If you could send me the turn that would be great, to bill.runacre@furysoftware.com Thanks!

I'm not sure that there is, so using the find function to find them all will be the best bet.

Hi Mike I don't think it's because the Japanese killed those units, but there must be something else. One for us to investigate so thanks for pointing this out! Bill

Hi Cantona If you use the Edit - Replace function then you should be able to change #FRIENDLY_POSITION= to #ALIGNMENT_POSITION= It shouldn't change anything else, but if you have any problems send me an email. Bill

Hi On the question of Germans in Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, four German Corps of ten Divisions were serving in the Balkans, forming the bulk of von Mackensen's Army Group: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_von_Mackensen These were the forces that spearheaded the completion of the conquest of Serbia, forcing the Serbs to evacuate to exile in Corfu. Great AAR so far, I'm enjoying this and looking forward to seeing how it ends up! Bill

Hi A suggested mechanism on playing with more than two people can be found in this thread: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=91324&highlight=hotseat It would be great to see another After Action Report like that, and hopefully it won't be too long! Bill

Hi No countries will actually switches sides, though Russia can, and generally does, leave the war. As to multiple players, there is a thread here that suggests a mechanism: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=91324&highlight=hotseat Yes, Nato counters come with the game, and when loading up a campaign, in the Options screen you can untick the 3-D units box, so that Nato counters will display instead.

One thing I've wondered is what effect an Allied build up in the Med, clearly directed at a neutral Italy, might have had on US opinion at the time. I don't know exactly, as of course it didn't happen like this, but if we make it so that when Italy mobilizes it isn't automatically at war with the Allies, then the Allies will have to declare war on Italy and this should cause some upset in the USA.