A couple quick newbie questions

[slazer33]

Hi everyone,

recently got the WW1 game and I must say it's been a lot of fun and bad for my productivity. I have a couple questions though that I do not feel were answered in the manual/strategy guide.

I searched the forums to find answers, and didn't see anything pertaining to these questions.

1) How do I effectively use my navy? I've tried to be aggressive both as CP and Entente, and in both cases I usually do poorly. I understand that ships in ports tend to do poorly. Just that the computer seems to do much more damage to my ships than mine to theirs. Is there anything beyond using bigger ships against smaller ones?

2) I have not yet played a game at beyond 50% difficulty, so may be a silly question. The computer rarely seems to launch any sort of offensive at all, except once when I played a Russia-first game and Britain attacked Belgium. In my most recent game as CP, I got Paris in 1914, still took another year to finish off France (and drive Britain off the continent), then took some time to take out Italy. Aside from Memel and a brief interlude into AH, Russia did NOTHING. They didn't even seem to do much research.

3) Is it possible to swap funds among countries? Can Germany give the Ottomans MPPs for example?

4) How do I get more troops from Britain to the Middle East? I saw that there is a red-arrow section saying to send troops at the bottom of the map, but it appears to already several turns of transport away.

5) What causes Finland to randomly cleave off of Russia and declare independence long before Brest-Litovsk sometimes?

6) Is it me or does the AI spend way too much energy on airplanes? They usually develop fleets. I usually don't research planes or buy them. buying more corps or diplomacy seems to be a better investment. Again, could be a failure of difficulty level.

Thanks all!

[Kommandant]

1) How do I effectively use my navy? I've tried to be aggressive both as CP and Entente, and in both cases I usually do poorly. I understand that ships in ports tend to do poorly. Just that the computer seems to do much more damage to my ships than mine to theirs. Is there anything beyond using bigger ships against smaller ones?

To effectively fight with the navy, you need to use upgraded ships. An upgraded BC deals 7 naval demage and an non upgraded BC deals only 4, as far as I recall. You use cruisers agaisnt destroyers and BCs, if they are weak or non upgraded, you use destroyers agaisnt subs, you use BC agaisnt both and you use subs agaisnt BCs and if possible cruisers. With Germany, try to upgrade subs so they can destroy the enemy fleet, even if they are in their ports. Upgrading ships is expansive, the subs are cheaper, just remember that, the way you use your navy depends on your overall strategy.

2) I have not yet played a game at beyond 50% difficulty, so may be a silly question. The computer rarely seems to launch any sort of offensive at all, except once when I played a Russia-first game and Britain attacked Belgium. In my most recent game as CP, I got Paris in 1914, still took another year to finish off France (and drive Britain off the continent), then took some time to take out Italy. Aside from Memel and a brief interlude into AH, Russia did NOTHING. They didn't even seem to do much research.

The AI is an easy target, mainly in 50% difficuty, try to go up, to 100% or even 150%, or try to put some exp to AI units, this will give ou some hard time, or you can play some multiplayer, just leave your email in the multiplayer thread and wait for an opponent.

3) Is it possible to swap funds among countries? Can Germany give the Ottomans MPPs for example?

No, it's not

4) How do I get more troops from Britain to the Middle East? I saw that there is a red-arrow section saying to send troops at the bottom of the map, but it appears to already several turns of transport away.

You choose in the DEs to send the units to egypt, but if you really want to make that front something to work with, transport the brit corps, they move at 25 tittles a turn, so you can transport them via the mediterranean sea, I thnk it's faster, but you need to fave the danger of enemy fleet, or transport the units down to those arrows, in the bottom mid atlantic ocean, takes 1 turn for the transport get to thge red sea.

5) What causes Finland to randomly cleave off of Russia and declare independence long before Brest-Litovsk sometimes?

Finland did decleared independence long before Brest-Litovsk, I'm sure this happen all the time for you, or atl least it should.

6) Is it me or does the AI spend way too much energy on airplanes? They usually develop fleets. I usually don't research planes or buy them. buying more corps or diplomacy seems to be a better investment. Again, could be a failure of difficulty level.

Yes they do, spend money on airplanes, might pove usefull in the long run, but before 1916, or depending on your situation, it's not a very good idea. tactical bomber with upgrade can help a lot when you try to make some advance in the west, and break the lines of trench warfare.

[Bill101]

Hi Slazer33

Welcome to the forum and it's great to hear you're enjoying the game.

Just to add to the above about Finland, it will split away when Russia's National Morale has fallen below 25%, and the first revolution will also happen at this time.

Bill

[slazer33]

Thanks guys!