Russia

@Krieghund

Good to know.

@krieghund ok, I think I got it. Thanks a bunch! :+1:

Yeah France first is super rough.

Reading the rules again, I begin to get a bit fussy about the RR rule. We have always run with that Moscow have to be contested in order to RR to occur. I now realize that perhaps thats wrong and that for example  holding Ukraine, Polen, Belarus and Livonia is enough?
IN our games AH have to put enough units in AH% in order for Russia not to be able to kill them all in R5. However if we have been wrong about RR, the 4-7 remaining Germans from G4 is enough since Russia cant advance untill they have been destroyed… And in that scenario AH can have its entire stack moved from Ukraine to Sevastopol in round 5, very much changing Britians advance.

In the west Germany usually have to tactically retreat in r2-r3. However since all buys from G1 and forward will be moved into the west they wont need to retreat further. And even with Belgium and perhaps an orginal German territory gone they will have an income advantage against France alone and therefore push them back r4 and forward.

Same goes for Italy really. AH will use all its income towards Italy (exept 5 planes in r1-3 = 30 IPC). And by r4-5 AH will push Italy out of Trieste/Tyrole for good.

@Texas:

I believe the basic line of thought is, the sooner Russia loses units, the sooner they are eliminated from the game.  Making a stand in Poland causes Russia to begin losing units turn 1, not to mention Germany has a pretty short supply line there.  Russia will lose its units on the defensive anyway, but if you can delay it until turn 3, 4, 5… the longer they will be around.

Good post this is very true

AH stacks in Galatia AH1 and attacks Romania with whatever can get there but cannot get to Galatia. Also attack Serbia obviously and I think you have to hold off on Venice till AH2 or so
Russia is more important than Italy, especially early on

@Auztria:

Yes. If they truly had a historically accurate setup, Russia would have almost as many troops at start as Germany and Austria-Hungary combined. The Ottoman Empire would have no fleet, Germany would have extra cruisers in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, Britain would have just 1 infantry, and Africa would be even more barren. Of course they can’t do that, simply for gameplay reasons. If Russia could conquer Galicia and East Prussia effortlessly every game, people would quickly grow bored.

But you see… I went to school to be a historian! I will have to do a little bit of experimenting with the Russian infantry bordering Galicia and East Prussia. Naturally, it raises my hackles that the Russians can’t do much more than poke the CPs on this front. The Russian TTs containing six infantry probably ought to have eight (on the western border). Any attack they make in Prussia or Galicia is going to be bulldozed by a massive A-H or German attack with at least 12 infantry in each case to throw at the hapless Russians.

I have a soft spot for those intrepid Bulgarians c. 1915. This has led to some experimenting on my end to make them a playable country in lieu of a country in the direct Ottoman pale. Instead of collecting income, they would do something like China does in A&A:Pacific 1.0–crank out people or arty (no planes, tanks or ships). I even thought about allowing the Germans to give them a subsidy (1 IPC or something along those lines). Australia is often talked about for its commitment to the war (and justly so), but I was blown away when I read the Bulgarian stats. 1,200,000 mobilized out of about 5 million people!!  If Italy is in this game, surely Bulgars can’t hurt…

Russia starts with a lot of units. At first it doesn’t look like much until you start mobilizing those minor powers. I need to play another few games tho.

My guess is that they decided it was too close to Germany. Almost certainly this is why they’ve vandalised the map to give East Prussia to Poland. Also Moscow is more central and so, with plodding infantry movement, its needed for Russia to be able to reinforce the southern front with new units.