Strategiclayabout
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Posts posted by Strategiclayabout
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Hi Bill
,- Yes there is the neutral country part of it. Though you can consider small Pacific countries are too afraid of the mighty Rising Sun to even protest. That said an amphibious assault force or small combat fleet parking next to a major port in a minor territorial waters is quite close to an act of war
.- But other than minors Japs can do a lot of close scouting without consequences near/adjacent to allied ports as UK won't attack/DoW on them early because of the diplomatic price.
- In my mind they should have to use planes/carriers to recon instead of just putting ships/amphib adjacent. Actually Japs can also do that before sending italian or german raiders in to avoid ambushes
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Thanks for the change Hubert
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Ash is right
,- Though less important than in WWII campaigns, intelligence main effect is to reduce the probability for CP to be overteched by Entente. Even if you're not lucky wityh infantry tech the window where you'll have to deal with enemy superiority will be short. If you're lucky it will increase the time you have to make a decisive offensive (just 4-5 turns with infantry advantage over Russians can change the game flow).
- It's also good to know that UK starts with 1 chit already invested in Intelligence. A possible investment strategy is to put 1 chit in every field you want to research first then max out the fields you want to go heavy on. That will send things rolling early and increase chances of quick breakthrough.
- The point you raise about Shells vs Intel is an interesting one and actually depends on you overall strategy. If you go against UK instead of France with high naval power, shells won't be a priority.
- If you go for shells you better be ready to produce all german artillery units early to get the most out of it. You'll also have to consider bringing Bulgaria in as fast as possible as they will provide another buildable artillery unit. It's also a good idea to consider a chit in artillery level 2 to get the maximum power out of those units as soon as possible.
- So as you can see there are many choices, some mandatory (1 chit in infantry) other much needed but not decisive. One field players tend to ignore is motorization. It gives increased mobility to cavalry, tanks, artillery or HQs and can be a bad surprise for an enemy counting on ZoCs to stop you.
P.S.: oh I nearly forgot Intelligence also increases your chance of diplo hit
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Hi
,- I saw in many games Axis players (and I do it myself) attack Holland early and separately from Belgium using good weather in winter.
- What about mobilizing Belgium for Allies when Holland is attacked to force Germany to take both of them out the same turn or face a more difficult situation ?
- It would give a decent chance to make the historical move in Belgium for Allies even with just a division to delay Germans.
- It would also make those early grabs a bit more difficult and challenging. So what do you think people ?
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- No problem steel32 the point was to discuss things and hear other opinions
.Actually what I said was the amphibious extra long ranges can be equally bad for Axis and Allies so it's balanced but perhaps excessive.
- My main concern is the ability to just park amphibious next to targets for 1 or several turns with no reaction. They should have to come from several tiles away without being spotted for a "surprise" assault but well only my opinion
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Hi lofty12
,From what you say the port is probably under 5 supply ?
If that's the case you can only unload 1 unit per turn and only if it's already on the port tile. Under 5 supply the port is considered damaged and with reduced capacity.
That's why Malta is a pain in North Africa making naval transports there very vulnerable.
I hope that will solve the issue !
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- Yeah the thing I had in mind was Anzio vs Salerne more than Overlord: Allies could have advanced to Rome nearly unopposed early but were too cautious and the whole thing turned into a giant trap once Kesselring understood what was going on
.- Another option would be to increase casualties for landing outside clear tiles instead of eliminating them. That would push players to avoid risky tiles unless they're ready to take great risks.
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I'm still lurking around, nice to see both of you are playing mind games already
.Good luck to the Panzerwaffe in wiping out the decadent Allies ^^ !
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Not much time to comment this one but I keep an eye on it
!Good luck with your plans Ash !
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Hi GermanPlane
,- I think you can't because Axis has an advantage in diplomatic chits once Italy joins and France is out.
- The only thing you can do is prevent Spain OR Turkey from becoming Axis by investing all chits on one of them (before Axis do if possible).
- A more costly and risky option is to diplo Spain or Turkey very early using UK+FRance+China chits.
- If you can get some hits before Axis do you'll buy time and will be able to use soviet and then USA diplo chits later to win the backstage war.
- Another option is to let Axis burn chits on Spain and Turkey and use yours on USSR or USA unopposed. It can bring great results quite quickly but cost a lot.
I hope this will help but you'll probably get other/better answers by SCGC crew ^^ .
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Yeah but I'm playing Sokulsky now so I understand where he comes from ^^ .
Can't agree with some points presented in this thread regarding CP weakness.In my opinion, balance of this game is currently on the CP side of the barbed wire, mostly due to the Captain Hindsight abilities that allow you to act differently than in reality.
- Can't agree completely as it works for Entente too: no silly Nivelle "Chemin des Dames" offensive with a 2,000 casualties rate per minute
.Proper play by CP involves:
- hyperteching the Industrial Technology with Germany (similar effort on Entente side requires much more MPP's as research in their case is much more expensive and doesn't provide the similar effect really <single centralised MPP power in Imperial Germany vs divided economies, of which the strongest has the weakest army - Russia and all of them have to pay for tons of different, really necessary things early in the game)
- Indus tech is 125MPPs for all major majors (UK-France-Russia-Germany) so you mean more expensive vs income I suppose ?
- Game only allows 3 chits in industry at any time and most 75/100/125 fields so you can't hypertech indus. You can hypertech trench tech however (5 chits allowed in 50 fields) but you have to consider german research limit of 1,000 MPPs:
1x125 infantry
3x125 industry
5x50 trench
- That's already 750 then you have those combinations remaining to max out:
2x75 & 1x100 or 2x50
1x50 & 2x100
3x50 & 1x100
2x125
5x50
- However with only 4x50 in trench you free some very interesting ones:
2x125 & 1x50
1x100 & 4x50
1x125 & 1x75 & 1x100
3x100 (3 chits in shells or intel from start Mmmmh ^^)
4x75
- hyperteching the trench warfare with Germany (Yet again, just 250 MPP's and soon your line in the West is very safe and you can go on a rollercoster with german army vs Russia - similar effort on Entente side is pretty much impossible due to early "pay for this, pay for that" events and it's yet again more costly (Russia needs to put a lot of MPP's to stop Serbia from falling too quickly, while taking Lemberg is often an impossible to do effort)
- Here you have to consider how those events (especially for UK) save a lot of MPPs in the long term:
1) the Basra event gives a great strategic chance and MPPs/NM per turn with the city and oil field
2) deploying units near Arras help France a lot and saves a good chunk of naval transport costs
3) the event to get "free" corps by raising a new army is a great bargain
4) and so on...
5) UK also has the Sultan Osman event which if declined will provide Russia with 30 MPPs per turn (Dradanelles trade) for several turns. With some luck it can end above 200 MPPs for the Tsar. Sure OE will get a battleship but the cost and NM target it will be can be more of a burden than anything.
- Furthermore Germany also has many events to pay for (Hindenburg HQ, help to OE and such).
- keeping OE alive by conserving it's forces (not that hard, just don't attack Russia, defend everywhere, invading Gallipoli is very pricey anyway but keep troops around there as well)
- OE is clearly the weak link for CP as they can't cover everything. Taking Gallipolli is great and pricey indeed but just landing on the strait tile to send Entente ships to Marmara Sea can hurt OE a lot and it's cheaper
. Some good amphib moves with only detachments can truly break OE apart.So Captain Hindsight for CP is pretty much:
- go for 5 chits in Industrial tech ASAP (with Imperial Germany)
- go for 5 chits in Trench Warfare ASAP (it's a no 1 choice for AH to make Italian forces useless in 1915 and 1916)
- Go for full Schlieffen instead of cutting it short towards Marne like Von Kluck did) - all 3 players I started Breakthrough! games followed it
- There is a reason to cut short and it's to save MPPs and maintain german units efficiency. Any counter on german units after forcemarch can hurt you badly and cost a lot of MPPs !
- Usually I only do that when I deploy all starting german units in the West but most players will deploy some in the East.
- Go for Russia with Germans as soon as possible with German forces - all 2 out of 3 players I started Breaktrhough! games followed it
- deploy 2nd AH army in Galicia - 2 out of 3 players I started Breakthrough! games followed it, it can easily stop Russian offensive there
- It's interesting but has downsides. Actually it depends on what you do with german starting units. You don't need 2nd AH army in Galicia if CP can shorten the front quickly in Poland.
- Furthermore those units and the HQ are enough to at least capture Belgrade securing a good supply source in Serbia for 1915 and providing some MPPs while pushing Bulgaria towards CP early. You won't need to send german units (except artillery maybe) and they will go to Poland instead where anything they conquer will give you NM (not the case for Serbia).
- keep Holland on your side of the fence (quite easy really)
- don't waste OE forces vs Russia (easy, even with artillery unit there, Russia can hardly bite OE there w/o losing hard vs ahistorically large war effort on Imperial Germany side), just go for the trench warfare
What to do with initial german deployment?
- there are 2 great opportunities, one is the Belfourt move (capture it on-instant in turn 1) or put it all (except for arty) in Prussia and save a lot of MPP's for operating units there later on (I tend to call itKleine Ostaufmarsch option), both are great and both give better-than-historical outcomes as you will capture Arras anyway, arty or not if you force march efficiently enough
- There is at least a third option in Poland as said before. The main downside of deploying in Prussia is that it doesn't shorten the front (quite the opposite actually
).Why to go for Russia with Germans ASAP?
- to gain large NM pool quickly that will stop the North Sea blockade effects (totally ahistorical btw. as gained territory was unable to prevent the blockade effect of hunger even after the defeat of Romania and effects of socialistic agitation while currently in game German NM goes slightly up even with a full blockade ON due to the amount of captured Russian territory).
Why to go with 2nd AH army vs Russia?
- do that and stop them from taking Lemberg (it's quite easy, tbh too easy) and prevent some NM boost to Russia + stop Romania from taking interest in te conflict. You'll take Serbia anyway with German help.
- It can be quite interesting to appear weak in Galicia to bait Russians down there even if you lose Lemberg. The line will be weaker somewhere else for Germans.
What to do with Austro-Hungary?
- 2nd army to protect northern border vs initial russian offensive (if you're lucky enough you might retain both Lemberg and Oil fields with german help), entrench on Italian border and use superior trench tech to be protected there + assist in German push vs Russian army (best area is ofc Ukraine), do it well and your NM won't go below 90, later on use your army vs Italy or France as a meat shield to keep German NM on a good level
What to do with OE?
- sit tight on Gallipoli, sit tight in Palestine (get some German help in case of increased Commonwealth efforts), protect Baghdad and... see how supply problems kill most of the GB player efforts (tbh it wasn't that hard)
- Build all small units and even air to protect against amphibious moves and gain more strategic mobility. Keep an eye on partisan tiles once arab rebellion starts. Put an unit in Aqaba as soon as possible to delay Brits unless they seize it right away with an amphibious move.
What to do with Kaiserliche Marine?
- don't go for Jutland, keep it in Baltic and hunt Russians as your march progress ; go for submarine tech and launch undersee campaign once you will get a lot more U-boots than initially - destroyers efficiency vs subs lacks a lot even on a parred level and they can hurt larger ships easily anyway, so just just play the cat & mouse with them and who knows, perhaps you'll be even able to sail against Royal Navy if you'll do well enough. Generally speaking they need 2 destroyers to stop your 1 U-boot.
What to do with Kaiserliche Marine und Königliche Kriegsmarine?
- keep it in port and reinforce, until that time shield with subs and in the end try to sail to Mediterrean after 1917. Even if it will get hunted early in the war, it doesn't matter as Trench Warfare hyperteching willl stop AH from any chance of crumbling for sure, so yet again, a risk on Entente side.
Do I want to go with Unrestricted Naval Warfare?
- of course you don't!
Positive Captain Hindsight for Entente gives following possibilities:
- save most of the Belgian army
- save a lot of Serbian army and use it in defending Greece
- don't go for Gallipoli (but it may be a mistake in the end)
- invest early in anti-submarine warfare with GB
- keep Russian army in coherent state via massing a lot of troops and leaving the area of Poland soon enough
- entrench ASAP in western front (still won't stop germans from taking Arras)
- amphibious attacks on AH from Italy (only if AH navy is going to be defeated, which is not that easy and tbh not that efficient due to Italy MPP limits and small army size)
- amphibious attacks on OE from Russian side (hardly possible if CP players uses his initiative well)
Now, what's wrong with Entente in addition to Captain Hindsight effects:
- France has to pay for too much things in 1914 and 1915, it's army cap in historical option seems to be too low in term of amount of corps when compared to total amount of mobilised soldiers (almost 8,5 million), in initial turns you're forced to "shield&dig" because MPP's have to be used for other things (sure, try not to pick up Foch or take Marines - tell me when you'll do it, because I can assure you that it won't be 1914 anymore), so there's no place for that initial punch vs punch battles of 1914 as it's either reinforcements or LT1&Trench Warfare parity for France
- The fact is french historical mobilization effort went beyond limits. France had 40 millions people vs Germany's 65 millions and couldn't do more than what you have ingame. The war bled the country dry.
- However France has a great advantage with mostly good defensive terrain, short front, ability to share losses early with UK and a great array of supply sources to keep morale high. It's nearly impossible to destroy french units in low supply so their casualty replacement rate is very high. They also have 2 tanks instead of one coming with hard builds.
- Italian army often enters the war underequipped to the point of being useless vs high trench tech and can't be used efficiently until rearmed and hyperteched which is hard as hell with their low-MPP abilities
- Italy adds cannon fodder and diplo chits to Entente as well as several ships and threatens the soft belly of Austria with its ports and navy. Even without offensive it's a constant problem for CPs.
- GB has to pay tons of MPP's for events and yet again, tons of MPP's for moving units to France (how the hell is it logical for the transport costs to be fixed? In terms of moving units, it doesn't matter if you're going for Suez or Calais - you're still going to pay around 36MPP's for a corps and 15 MPP's for a detachment which is a lot and can only be countered by investing in Infrastructure which just doesn't pay off in terms of transport at this moment)
- if CP will hypertech in industry, there's a significant lack of resources for diplo-action to pull USA into war, as it's just very expensive (it's enough to read MP AAR's on forum to see that they almost never enter on Entente side), it requires a few thousands of MPP's and it's a hard to achieve effort espescially that Northern Sea blockade sometimes kill your efforts to some extent and not a single wise CP player will go for Unrestricted Naval Warfare vs GB, knowing what's behind it (same with Zimmerman telegram)
- Here you have to notice that Entente diplo chits for USA cost 150 MPPs while CP ones cost 200 MPPs !
So basically speaking, NM mechanics and Captain Hindsight cost Entente additional tons of MPP's, while CP can just chillout until beating Russians prudently. Later on, try to stop Ludendorff, as you had to go with additional diplo-hits on USA. Your diplomats prolly won't beg hard enough before Kaiser will take Paris.
IMO, without a serious (I'll stress it, serious) mistake on CP side, Entente can just play along the CP initiative (which is quite easy to maintain, largely due to it's land connection).
- Entente has the initiative against OE especially with Bulgaria out of the war. And while CP have more strategical mobility it cost a lot to operate units from one front to another. Overall combined NM is also weaker for CP and Russia can be a pain for Germany as long as it can maintain a continuous frontline. The possibility to hit CP NM/MPPs with diplomacy is also a great advantage (Holland, Norway, Sweden, USA...).
I hope all of that will help have even more fun with the game ^^ !
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Good point too Ash
,- It could be interesting to limit amphibious landings to clear terrain tiles and coastal towns/cities if possible while allowing them only from clear seas tiles.
- I think amphib and paras have 1 AP after landing: they can attack or move one tile not both. I find that mechanism quite good: no exploitation unless there is no enemy.
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Hi
,- I saw a lot of discussion about axis capitals vulnerability against sea assaults in the ladder thread. However I think it can be equally bad for Allies as there are some things that don't make much sense with amphibious assaults.
- Concerning island hopping maybe the best thing to do is just to reduce amphibious transports range at least by half and problem solved
. Because having Japan invading USA or Australia in the summer of 41 without any nearby logistical base is fun but well, you know :eek: ...*
- The main thing that bothers me is the lack of consequences when amphibious transports just sit next to a neutral minor port/capital for 1 or several turns just waiting the good time to land.
- I know there is an event to pop australian units when jap naval units comes near Australia proper. But jap amphibious transport can be spotted in attack range of Port Moresby with no reaction at all by Allies.
- I don't think USA would be happy to see jap units in the Coral Sea before Pear Harbor and Australians should be a bit worried by the move to say the least.
- Same thing with amphibs leisurely parading in front of DEI's capital though here it can be ok if you consider DEI early jap leaning. You can say Dutchmen just prefer to look the other way
.So what are other players opinion(s) on that ?
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Thanks for the comments both of you
,@ Ash:
- Actually making NM more significant without going the WWI way was the idea with that +500 NM. In my mind capturing a minor is more or less the same morale blow as losing a main unit (upgraded HQ or big ship) for majors except it has more side-effects (MPPs/strategy) so I rounded numbers up.
- If you consider a starting NM of 100,000 500 is 0,5%. Germany usually captures 7 minors before Barbarossa (Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Greece) that's +3,5% already. Add NM locations, some events plus units destroyed in low supply and it continues to climb.
- So it helps to reach 110 but isn't decisive while pushing Axis to be a bit more cautious with ships or units in low supply. There is also the fact that Axis NM grows while Allies one tends to go down early in the game. Then the final result can be quite significant for combat abilities with a NM gap of 15-20%.
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Hi
,- I just experienced a big balance issue in my last ladder game because of the morale/readiness boost to axis units from conquered minors. Having a one turn small bonus is fine but the cumulative effect completely destroys game balance in my opinion.
- I saw axis units between 6-8 supply (not even 10 or 9) have up to 140% morale and 120% readiness. It can be utterly devastating with elite units, good/experienced HQs and tech advantage.
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- That alone would be "manageable" but there are other problems:
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1) the bonus affects ALL axis units
(meaning Germans can time their western gains to boost Japs and back)
(you'll then have panzers with full morale readiness in Sept-Nov 41
')*
2) the bonus only decreases by what gives a conquered minor each turn
(so if you get 3-4 minors then 1 per turn the bonus stays for several turns)
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3) the bonus more or less negates weather/terrain defensive bonuses
(so you can keep attacking in mud or snow with quite good effect)
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4) the bonus can be used to maintain combat efficiency for amphib units
(move them to 1 supply, pile bonuses and you can attack 100 tiles away...)
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5) the bonus allows easy experience/elite step building
(Japs will gain it in China then roll over half the world unopposed)
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6) the bonus makes air/carrier units deadly
(they will wipe out unentrenched land units with barely any loss)
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7) I probably miss some other points but you get the idea...
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- You can see in the pic below one of the worst consequences: nearly invulnerable units even in very low supply. The Hungarians with 2 supply have better stats than the soviet corps at 10 supply (didn't move for at least 4 turns as you can see entrenchment 4 level).
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- What I propose as possible solutions:
1) eliminate that bonus completely
2) eliminate its cumulative effect
(only 1 conquered minor per turn can give it)
3) replace the morale/readiness boost by a NM bonus for the conqueror
(something like +500 a bit above the bonus for sinking a carrier)
Thanks for reading !
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@StrategicLayabout;
Thank you, as always, for your insights. Of course, with a game as complex as this many things are down to preference and the individual player, would be interesting to see if there are more takes on the strategic angles you mentioned?
- You're welcome as always
.Interesting about Italy, with their large army. Lousy commanders, less experienced troops, and to a smaller extend worse equipment hampered them the most it seems. Does the game model those disadvantages well? I'm not sure actually. The inf tech is easy to invest in early and then hope for an early hit, the bad commanders replaceable.
- Somehow yes because Italy need to be at least some kinf of a threat to Austria otherwise CP players would just ignore that front. Actually it's quite easy to keep them under control in the mountains as in the Isonzo battles.
- One thing to do is to build all detachments for Austria quickly so you'll have 3 extra ones with the free border detachments, add an HQ in the low supply area when you can and entrench your men early where their ZoCs will prevent movement in your back then you're set ^^ !
One thing I would actually really like to see in the WWI game is a sizeable penalty for dismissing commanders outside of events. Prestige loss, rigid seniority structure, disruption to operations and so on. Less experienced... hm, that would mainly be the commanders I guess? As discussed early in this AAR its pretty hard to maintain elite steps on inf in this variant.
On soft builds, yeah thats probably it! Do people use soft builds or hard generally in this campaign? I usually like soft builds, but there might be a point to the hard ones here. What would be the down and upsides?
- I think I remember seeing somewhere this campaign being best played with hard builds (historical force pools) but difference isn't that great and costs for units above pool limits climb quickly.
* downs:
less detachments so hard to cover all weak spots for CPs
less artillery for CPs
(Germany 4 Austria 2 OE 2 Bulgaria 1)
* ups:
less infantry/corps for France
less tanks for Entente
Any thoughts on US entry? They raced ahead wildly faster than the event we looked at in the AAR.
- You have to win before they come or diplo them before Entente do to delay their entry further
. More seriously as the trigger lies with Russia's surrender it comes down once again to how you "control" that to squeeze NM and MPPs from the Tsar while not eliminating him too quickly.- Other than that I think the numbers in the manual were changed at some point because players found the cost to bring USA on Entente side wasn't worth it as they came in too late to change anything before. Now it's an actual threat and CP can't just sit behind trenches waiting for french NM to reach 0.
The current bugs and oddities list stand like this then;
1. Fixed treaty of Bucharest “earliest” date regardless of Russian surrender
2. The “spend MPP to raise morale” option did not appear for either Russia or Germany at 25%
3. Railway gun bug, when bombarding a resource/city with a unit on it, it suddenly “drove over” the unit and the unit vanished.
4. German commanders often bug out with their command, meaning that they can only command four units. If you remove all assignments, they can often command 5 again, but that is not good in terms of combat power
5. Romanian occupied Varna not returned to Bulgaria after treaty of Bucharest
6. Us entry (see separate post).
7. Diplomatic chits from surrendered majors being still active ?
8. Redeeming diplomatic chits do not yield half their investment cost back
- For 8 I think that's quite logical to have a difference here between research and diplo chits. Once you begin to give diplo "gifts" you can't take them back or you'll upset your new "friends".
@Bill101 Yeah, I think that could be an interesting choice, with the second event!
- One more thing about french NM objectives: Paris is close to the front so you don't need that many special NM tiles for Germans. Verdun and Belfort don't seem like much but their one time NM hit bonus plus their 30 NM value per turn is huge (growing NM gap of 120 per turn between France and Germany, 170 if you add Nancy, over 200 with 2 more nearby minor towns).
- If you add the usual NM locations gains in northern France it can quickly become an endless bleeding for France as they don't have that many enemy NM locations available unless they go after the Turks.
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Strategy and reflections
In hindsight, I would have been well served to cede Trento and Trieste to Italy. I easily lost that much morale in the continuing slaughter of Austrian units and captured cities. Their strength just completely surprised me, and I was stuck in historic thinking of them being near useless. Aside from that, ceding those cities deny the Entente another front, and most importantly three diplomatic chits.
- Here you have to consider Entente can still bring Italy in the war with diplomacy and their are other penalties for Austria than just NM: combat efficiency with morale/readiness shock for units, losses of MPPs/supply, vulnerable border, loss of ports making austrian navy even more vulnerable...
- In my opinion it's a very dangerous gamble if you have no other plan than just keeping Italy out. The decision of course depends on what happens on other fronts but oen strategy is to cede those areas to buy time before invading Italy with CP by surprise.
I'm curious about what you guys think of the Ceding to italy strategy, in terms of diplomatic and military consequences. Also, is the strength of the Italians at start accurate? I know this was wildly skewed by lucky inf hits and lacking commitment on my part, but the basic strength was still there...
Yes. They had masses of infantry hence the infamous "Isonzo battles":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_the_Isonzo
You also have to think about the events allowing Italians to reinforce their troops using french and british MPPs.
Still, the west held beyond all expectation, and I slowly clawed my way to a small shot at victory.
At the very end, I think a lot of people would have thrown everything at the western front and let the other fronts crumble. I made a different choice, partly based on erroneous assumptions, but I think I would make the same choice again nonetheless. As was immediately clear once the real fighting started, german Nm dropped like a stone and the gap between French and german nm quickly grew despite more than twice the casualties on their part. I needed NM somehow, to allow me to reach Paris.
Another issue is that I never found a good way to deal with tanks, tanks in fortresses are beastly. Artillery is extremely random, perhaps a massed and upgraded airforce?
- That is also an effect of you playing with soft builds (I think ?). Too many tanks on the field
. The only way to deal with them is tank vs tank plus artillery. Heavy air force support with ground attack upgrades can help finish them or soften them but usually it's better used against artillery and HQs.I’m also a bit concerned about the viability of just sitting around with the Russians, withdrawing and skirmishing and “keeping them alive” passive aggressively that feels extremely wrong in the context of the historical period and imperatives that drove the warring nations. Sure, the Galician nm spots look nice, but keeping the Russian an annoyance and a threat in being until 1918 and beyond by playing an “army in being” doctrine could well be much more effective.
- You don't have to sit around but early in the game you have to be cautious. It's easy to waste russian corps when your economy can't keep up.
There are many corps arriving by events soon enough to build a near continuous line quite quickly.
- What Russians have to do is THREATEN CP vulnerable spots to force troop transfer and MPPs burning. Air and cavalry are keys to spot thsoe weaknesses as it's hard to cover everything in the East at start for CPs.
- The silesian mines are usually a good target but of course it depends where CPs deploy their extra-units at start and by event (austrian reinforcements). I also think taking out the oil wells in Galicia is a more attainable and effective objective than the nearby fortress.
- Also remember Russia amphibious moves can be a pain for OE. Another little trick is to let the Sultan Osman shop go to OE for Brits. Why ? Because it delays OE war entry meaning Russia will keep receiving 30MPPs per turn thanks to Dardanelles trade :cool: !
Nevertheless, it was an awesome game, and close to the finish!
On to bugs and oddities.
I’ll summarize some of the things from the entire thread here;
1. Fixed treaty of Bucharest “earliest” date regardless of Russian surrender
2. The “spend MPP to raise morale” option did not appear for either Russia or Germany at 25%
3. Railway gun bug, when bombarding a resource/city with a unit on it, it suddenly “drove over” the unit and the unit vanished.
4. German commanders often bug out with their command, meaning that they can only command four units. If you remove all assignments, they can often command 5 again, but that is not good in terms of combat power
5. Romanian occupied Varna not returned to Bulgaria after treaty of Bucharest
6. Us entry (see separate post).
- I think you can add diplo chits from surrendered majors being still active ?
@ Altaris:
Not invading Belgium at all is VERY dangerous. A well coordinated attack with Brits and French can roll over Belgium and threaten your industrial heart in 2 turns. From there they can even Dow on Holland later to hit your NM while flanking whatever defense you have. Not a good deal in my opinion.
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Thanks and glad you tracked it down
.I hope that won't cause too much trouble for teh other events of the chain.
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Congratulations for your victory Will
!A hard earned one at the end of continuous butchery. Once more we can see there are many ways to win in this game including... losing
! The Will (to fight
) was a decisive factor no doubt hihi. -
So we're nearing the end of this great AAR with german NM down to 1...
Great effort for you final offensive Ash it's a clear morale victory at least huhu ^^ .
Entente is retreating everywhere !
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- I disagree with you lettowvorbeck as I believe CP would have won by invading Belgium on turn 1
.- I think not having french NM locations worth around 100 NM/turn for 2-3 years and more ground to defend in the West made the difference.
- Furthermore, german population would be eager for peace after four years of butchery when USA are 100% fresh. And CP couldn't have many more available men to enlist: the NM break also reflects that exhaustion of manpower.
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Hi Hubert
,- Those mines/oil wells at the edge of the map equal 90 MPPs with 10 supply but they don't go over 3 supply for 9 MPPs each it seems.
- So 3 mines would give 27 base MPPs then 16 MPPs with chinese 60% IM. Still half what's announced by the event...
- With things as they are you would have to add 3-4 mines instead of one to reach around 30 MPPs.
- I don't think you need to change the DE text. It's just there is quite a gap between 30 MPPs and what China actually receives.
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Pacestick (axis) vs Strategiclayabout (allies) March 1942
PGtomli (axis) vs Strategiclayabout (allies) May 1941
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- For USA mobilization maybe there was a diplo hit on the same turn. No idea for 4% turn instead of 1-2% maybe the manual isn't up to date for that event
. - It's possible the rate was increased with one of the patches because otherwise it was quite hard to have USA in the war without Russia diplo chits.
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- Other than that just one thing to say: push your panzers to the West, if you take Dunkerque it's your win
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Hi again Bill
,- Sorry seems I have a hard time explaining this in english
.- Actually no: the mines are activated and provide max 3 supply/9MPPs each but it's nowhere near the 30 MPPs announced.
- China lose 10 MPPs when Japs capture Nanning (and some more in the north due to trade disruption but those locations recover by themselves so I don't count them).
- China should gain 30 MPPs with the US AID event. When all is said and done China should have an income of 20 MPPs more than before.
(if Japs don't take other ressources of course but I let them sleep in my hotseat games after capturing Nanning).
- If I include 2 mines at 9 MPPs it's 18 MPPs. With chinese industrial modifier at 60% I guess it becomes 10 MPPs...
- So the net chinese gain for the event with the fall of Nanning would be what I see ingame or around... 0 MPPs :confused: .
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Ash N will "WWI Revisited" Post game discussion thread
in Strategic Command - World War 1: The Great War 1914-1918
Posted
Thanks for that Bill
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My bad was quite sure there was a marginal bonus in diplomacy with intel tech.