[1914] Good house rule for round 1 fleet battle?

[Avapocalypse]

I’ve been playing 1914 with the standard rules for a few months and one of the things that bugs me about it is how crucial the G1 all-out attack on the British fleet is.  If the Germans succeed with it the CP at least can have a shot at winning the game if eveything else goes well, since the British are prevented from reinforcing Russia or the Western Front for a few turns; if they choose not to try it or get bit by the dice they are basically hosed.  Not only is it pretty ahistorical but it’s kind of annoyingly constraining.  Does anyone have a good house rule to give the Germans a few more viable options here without changing the game too drastically?

Moderator’s edit: Added tag [1914] to title.

[1Bean432]

Allow sea units to enter and exit land territories with a friendly port.

‘docked’ sea units on land participate in land battles as if they were normal units. They roll dice, and can be treated as casualties like any other unit. Docked sea units require an infantry you control to be present.

This allows Germany to hide his navy, and threaten Britain from the safety of the Kiel harbor.

You could also create a canal that requires the player to control either Kiel OR Denmark/Norway to move through SZ 10 to SZ 11.

[Flashman]

The protection of home ports is meant to represented by the minefields. But there is merit in the idea, just not sure about submarines firing at infantry…

I prefer just one round of naval combat, with the attacker able to retreat afterwards (even if he eliminates all opponents). Hit and run attacks are more authentic than to-the-death naval battles.

Perhaps the only reason this was not originally implemented was the difficulty with planned amphibious assaults; but then the PTR allows such assaults to be called off anyway as a result of casualties, so why not make it a general rule?

One round for all 3 combat types (including air battles as described elsewhere) would speed the game up altogether.

[alejsgo]

This post is deleted!

[Cow]

It is a 5v3…. after sea mines 4v3 maybe. You will be okay.

[Mukremin]

@alejsgo:

My apologies for the lateness of this response.
I believe the rules of 1914 may already have an option for Germany. Simply move the Germany fleet to the coast of Britain, but do not roll dice there. By contesting the sea zone the British fleet must fight through Germany flight to load or offload.

How? So just move in there and not attack and let the mines roll?

[A Former User]

Here are couple rules
Ships at Port:
When moving to a friendly sea zone, ships can choose to enter a friendly territory.  While not at sea, the ships are not subject to combat nor do they interfere or add with any other ship movement, combat, or amphibious assaults.  Movement into the territory is free, but costs 1 MP to leave.  If the territory is captured while ships there, then they are lost (scuttled).  Land units may move to a territory and finish their move on a transport that is also in port.  At that point the transport can sail loaded to the adjacent sea zone.  Once a transport is in the sea zone it can unload as normal.  Ships must leave by the sea zone in which they entered the territory.
Mines vs. Transports: Mine hits on transports can be absorb by loss of a load.