The changes in 1.04 - Discussion thread

[Rabelesius]

Hi guys, I would like to start a discussion about the changes in 1.04.

The first ones I can comment on are the Belgium changes, the mountains and the changes to the U-boat war.

1) Belgium. My initial impression is reinforced. Capturing Belgium still is possible, but at a much higher cost in time and resources. The Germans usually can achieve the same gains as in 1.03, but they need approximately two turns more to achieve them. Now, this gives us the meaningful option of a) attacking and conquering Belgium or doing the historical advance. However, this historical advance puts the CP into the risk of being flanked.

2) The U-Boats. They are now really important. In my currrent game against Sharkman, my U-boats wage an aggressive war against England and German morale and British NM are really affected greatly. Britain stands at way below 90 in mid 1915, whereas the Germans still have about 90 and gain app. 1 NM per turn.

3) The mountain changes: excellent, simply excellent. The formerly impregnable mountains now can be challenged. The Serbian front finally works as historical. The Caucasus as well.

All in all, exciting stuff which needs to be explored further. I hope others can comment.

[Kommandant]

It's true about the situation in belgium, but you said that the historical advance put german forces in a flanked positon, and that is exacly what happened, fault of the german high command.. In general i just agree with everything

[Kommandant]

I just got my self thinking, is the CP player obligated to leave 4 corps in warsaw or the player can leave dettachments, because it's easy to just leave dettachments in there and move all the main forces back. Just wandering about it.

[lettowvorbeck]

Good question. I was also wondering about the Syrian partisan tile. When does it become "active". Once the TE player chooses to support the Arab revolt or does some other tile like Damascus or Jerusalem have to be occupied first?

[Bill101]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, it's always appreciated!

As to the Kommandant's question, it doesn't matter what type of unit is left around Warsaw, just as long as they are German.

This may make it fairly easy, but if you've had your starting Detachments destroyed then you'll have to repurchase them for this use. If not, then at least there is a responsibility on the Central Powers that didn't exist before, and in the long run the number of units can always be adjusted if we feel the need to do so.

One thing I had to be very cautious with when making 1.04 was that while there were various issues raised in the discussion on Call to Arms a few months back, the consensus seemed to be that the campaign itself was very well balanced.

As a result I didn't want to penalize the Central Powers player too much by making the number of units required very high. I'm sure that after we've all played some more we'll begin to get a better idea as to whether or not the balance still is on the knife edge!

[Bill101]

Good question. I was also wondering about the Syrian partisan tile. When does it become "active". Once the TE player chooses to support the Arab revolt or does some other tile like Damascus or Jerusalem have to be occupied first?

You're right, the partisans will only appear in Syria if the British have sponsored the Arab Revolt, and Jerusalem falls to the Entente.

[Rabelesius]

I must say so far the balance seems to be good.

I am in the midst of a full force submarine campaign against Great Britain and the effects are dramatic. With just 7 u-boats, the British are under heavy stress and almost completely have to drop out as fighting power on the Western Front. The downside is an entry of the US December 1915 already!

I will update you on the further development of the campaign.

[lettowvorbeck]

Thanks, Bill.

You're right, the partisans will only appear in Syria if the British have sponsored the Arab Revolt, and Jerusalem falls to the Entente.

[lettowvorbeck]

That's a pretty big downside! Ha. I would be interested in hearing how it turns out.

I must say so far the balance seems to be good.

I am in the midst of a full force submarine campaign against Great Britain and the effects are dramatic. With just 7 u-boats, the British are under heavy stress and almost completely have to drop out as fighting power on the Western Front. The downside is an entry of the US December 1915 already!

I will update you on the further development of the campaign.

[Kommandant]

I must say so far the balance seems to be good.

I am in the midst of a full force submarine campaign against Great Britain and the effects are dramatic. With just 7 u-boats, the British are under heavy stress and almost completely have to drop out as fighting power on the Western Front. The downside is an entry of the US December 1915 already!

I will update you on the further development of the campaign.

Realistic, US entry because of unrestrict naval warfare is a coleteral effect that the CP player must handle.

[Bill101]

It's certainly good to see a bold strategy like this tried out!

[lettowvorbeck]

For it to succeed you'd either have to knock the UK out completely (which won't happen b/c the US Navy will arrive to put an effective end to any more German naval ops plus the combined navies can them easily enforce both blockades fully as well as chase down all German subs and surface ships) or knock UK NM down so far that the enlarged German NM buffer can always keep ahead of it even in the face of US military intervention. A huge risk, but like Bill says, I love that someone tried it and am interested in seeing how it turns out.