NML 1914 - Team Game #1

[FMErwinRommel]

@dawgoneit this is for Dawg [dice 1d100]

[dicebot]

1d100: 57

[FMErwinRommel]

Dawg you choose next. If you don’t take France and Serbia, then that’s my choice.

[dawgoneit]

@fmerwinrommel U.S.A.

[Elrood]

@dawgoneit USA and UK are already taken. Pick sth else please

[Private-Panic]

@witt said in NML 1914 - Team Game #1:

Adam said America . He is fed up of losing to me, he confided.

I am. It happens so very rarely that I hate it on those odd occasions when @Witt stumbles un"witt"ingly upon a decent strategy! :joy:

[Elrood]

@private-panic said in NML 1914 - Team Game #1:

@witt said in NML 1914 - Team Game #1:

Adam said America . He is fed up of losing to me, he confided.

I am. It happens so very rarely that I hate it on those odd occasions when @Witt stumbles un"witt"ingly upon a decent strategy! :joy:

PP - the conquerer of rhetoric :-D

[dawgoneit]

@elrood Russia

[FMErwinRommel]

Rommel France and Serbia. Elrood up next

[Entek]

What are the teams, and is there a new thread for the new game?

[FMErwinRommel]

@entek No new game thread yet. Interestingly, everyone so far has chosen Allies. Elrood is next

[Elrood]

@fmerwinrommel : Few things before I reply.

Witt and redrum are arguably two of the better players here. Between these two and some blunders made by entente we were able to pull a victory after a long and tedious struggle.

Witt always said that Centrals need a bid to stand a chance against a well played Entente.

Proposition: a Central Player (but not Redrum nor me) receives a small bonus to his Forces in some kind, to level the playing field - looking at AeV and Entek, who are both fairly new to this mod.

What do you think?

[FMErwinRommel]

@elrood I prefer not to give a bid to the last choosing CP player. In a 1-on-1 or 2-on-2 game, it might be fine to give a less experienced or skilled player a bid to play CP. But in an 8-player team game, individual levels of experience or skill become a factor in the matchups between opponents. The only Allied position left is Italy/Arab, and it’s likely to go to Entek or AEV, who are fairly new as you say. To give the Turk or Austrian player a bid against Italy/Arabia, makes that last Allied position even more hopeless than it is already. Austria has a secure, rich, home base with big ICs. Commies usually seriously hurt Russia. Turkey has weaknesses and Germ can be ganged up on and contained, but not be easily conquered; but give them a starting advantage, and it upsets the balance to their neighbors.

[Elrood]

@fmerwinrommel I see your points, but the main issue is, that the game is not balanced. (in Witts and my Opinion)

Everyone chose Entente (Allies) so far, as you yourself noted. You do not see that in G40 for instance, where it is widely accepted that Axis have the Edge in a OOB game setup.

[Elrood]

I simply fear that the weakest player is just wiped out and then we can likely give up.
On the other hand, if an Entente Player gets crippled is of no big consequence.

But a Central Player who only goes for defense only early on puts a clock on any chance Centrals have on victory.

Entente win the game when Centrals cannot advance any further, so a stalemate helps them - Centrals need to overcome the ridiculous cheap defenses of the game to make progress.

[FMErwinRommel]

@elrood You and Redrum are very good players and most certainly will choose CP. With some guidance to the third CP player, CP can still be competitive, even though the Allies (particularly me) aren’t likely to mess up the opening and early game as bad as the first game. I intend to redeem myself, which is why I chose France again, aside from the element of dice luck. I will accept what the majority decide.

[Elrood]

@fmerwinrommel ok then. I choose Turks (and Commies, I presume?)

[redrum]

So is this when I’m supposed to choose Italy? :)

[Elrood]

@redrum said in NML 1914 - Team Game #1:

So is this when I’m supposed to choose Italy? :)

you so funny… ;-)

[redrum]

I’ll take Germany to make things interesting.

Regarding balance, at low and high experience level 1v1, the game is fairly balanced. For intermediate experience and team games, the Entente definitely have the advantage. The main reasons for this compared to higher level 1v1 game play is that the CP openings need to be fairly optimized to get early gains before all the defensive lines are created and the CPs need to coordinate more than the Entente as they are the aggressors which is harder in team games. There is probably enough team games here on the forum to show that with fairly equal experience level teams Entente probably win 2/3 to 3/4 of the time.

I believe we have tried a few games giving the CP a small bid in the past, @Witt and @Private-Panic probably remember, which I think did make it a bit more balanced for team games. The only thing you need to be careful of is giving Germany too many land units in a bid as they can potentially steam roll France or Russia as the balance there is pretty close early on. So I would generally support either a pretty small bid that any CP can use (most will probably go to Germany) or a slightly larger bid that only non-German CPs can use.

But I’m fine either way if folks want to just play it as is or try a bid out this game.