WWI

[DrLarsen]

Hmm, the more I look at the map, the more I think that eastern Germany and Austria-Hungary need redrawn.

1. Their boundaries look oddly mis-shapen: they need some smoothing out.  Remember, these aren’t the jagged battle-lines of a mid-war situation, but boundaries that had mostly existed since 1815 here.

2. Also, Vienna and Budapest should have a more circular shape (especially Budapest: I’m guessing you just created a random territory to divide Hungary, but it looks almost like you were trying to draw a circle and messed up.  With so many less-important cities getting circles, you might as well give Budapest a circle, too.)

3. If you need another division for Hungary, divide off Galicia, which is basically the slice of Poland that was awarded to Austria in the partitions.

4. Rename “Western Romania” Transylvania, which was its actual territory name at the time.  The modern Kingdom of Romania had never possessed it up to this point, and its population, while majority Romanian-speaking, was probably at least 30-40% Hungarian, with a significant German minority.  Naming it as you did could be seen as taking a political stance that it “ought to have been” part of Romania, which amounts to taking sides in an old Hungarian-Romanian rivalry.

5. You could also consider dividing Romania into its two principle components, Wallachia and Moldavia to make it more than a 1-province country.

[DrLarsen]

Romania really ought to be a separate country, perhaps divided into two parts (Wallachia and Moldavia as I mentioned above) but it definitely ought to be a separate country, not a region of Russia.  Bessarabia should be the region just north of Moldavia (or the northern arm of Romania) under Russian control, not a random chunk of Poland.  The entry of Romania into the war on the allied side was a significant (regional) event in the war and it is the counter-weight to the German-allied Bulgaria in this period.

[DrLarsen]

I just looked back through the thread to make sure my comments weren’t redundant (I know, should have earlier…)  Take a good, hard look at the map image FMG posted and see if you can use it to clean up some of those eastern boundaries: I think that would make all the difference in improving it.  Contrary to popular belief, the boundaries of most of eastern Europe had been fairly stable for about a century before the war, so using the fluid 1942 boundaries as a foundation are hurting you here.  In fact, when it comes to “sovereign” boundaries, the only changes to the map were really products of the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the “Sick Man of Europe” as it was called in the 19th Century: Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia had all been carved out of Ottoman domains, and even the Austrian occupation (and eventual annexation) of Bosnia were more-or-less a result of the power vacuum created by the Ottoman decline.  So the Germany-Austria-Hungary-Russia boundary should be fairly set.

Also, Italy should be smaller.  Austria’s big naval base was Trieste… which would eventually become a part of Italy.

[i rock]

So should I give north east Italy to Austria? About your other comments… well with paint its hard to make big changes to the map (tonnes of effort) but I’ll try. So don’t expect much.

[DrLarsen]

@Variable:

Interesting project. I had worked on a similar one myself using IL’s rules as a base and simplifying them for a more “A&A” feel. My game board ended up being so huge to fit all the pieces that I currently don’t have a table to support it. Play testing is temporarily suspended…

What is your suggestion for the non-A&A pieces like bi-planes, cavalry, etc? Just curious what others are using. I bought a bunch of Central Powers pieces from Jack (Table Tactics) a while back, but had to invent some stuff to go with it.

The Conflict game on the sticky thread above looks to have some decent bi-plane fighters and bombers.  Between it, Central Powers and A&A, we should have almost everything, though we have a while to wait yet for the Conflict to be available.  It lacks cruisers and airships and country-specific infantry and cavalry, which seem to be its biggest deficits as far as pieces, but most of the A&A infantry would work pretty much just as well for WW1 (British, German, French would do just fine for WW1, though Russia, US, & Italy not so much…)

You could go to the HO figure market for more troops if you’re a bit of a uniform purist like me.  Hat has the best selection of WW1 infantry and Strelets*R for cavalry.  Check Plastic Soldier Review for even more options.  To order such pieces online, check out the following 3 sites: The Toy Soldier Company, the Michigan Toy Soldier Company, and Classic Toy Soldiers, all of which have a huge variety that you can order online.  (From just about every period you can imagine, really, though WW1 is the topic at hand; WW1 has been a bit of a weak area until recently for HO’s, but it has filled out considerably over the last 10 years or so…)

Between all of these a fairly complete WW1 piece set can definitely be built, though the different components wouldn’t match each other as well as I’d like…

[DrLarsen]

@i:

So should I give north east Italy to Austria? About your other comments… well with paint its hard to make big changes to the map (tonnes of effort) but I’ll try. So don’t expect much.

I understand on the map changes… you can only do what you can do, but it definitely points to the need for a definitive, collaborative WW1 map along the lines of the Global War 1939 map, but with legit, WW1-style boundaries eventually.

To your question above: I’d say yes.  Rename it Trieste (which saves you some space in that territory to boot) and make it one of Austria’s 2 naval ports, along with Croatia.  It’s a tricky Q, though, because the territory in question also contains Venetia, I think, which WAS a part of Italy at that time…

[i rock]

well here what i got for my map I have finaly figured out how to post it in 1 pic :-D so here it is!
also setup and rule changes.

French NA
#4 American pilots: until turn 10 france may buy 1 fighter per turn costing 5 ipcs.

Romania political rulez
Romania
Romania consists of Moldova and Wallachia. On turn 3 Romania is at war with the central powers and if Russia sends any units in there territories they gain control of them.

Setup change
Austria
Trieste: 2 infantry, 1 naval port
Galicia: 2 infantry, 1 artillery
Note hungary loses 2 infantry

Romania
Wallachia: 2 infantry
Moldova: 1 infantry, 1 artillery

[DrLarsen]

I’d say that that’s a significant improvement right there.  I’d still like to see some of the shapes smoothed out significantly and Romania enlarged a bit, but those would be largely cosmetic changes…

How difficult would it be to change the French and Italian roundels to standardize them with FMG and/or HBG’s designs?  That would prevent any need for a new set of WW1 roundels.  Russia probably ought to get a new roundel, too, as the “hammer and sickle” is a distinctly Bolshevik symbol… but I imagine that’d be more difficult and introduce a whole new “non-standard” roundel.

[i rock]

Well to make a new roundel is really time consoming I could try though. The only reason I didn’t change the Russian one is so it would be standard to FMG and HBGs peaices plus I can’t find a non communist one.

[i rock]

Here’s the pic with my horrible roundels I made :cry:

[DrLarsen]

Eww, you’re right, those didn’t come out so good… better to go back to the old ones if you can’t get cleaner circles than that…

[i rock]

yes with paint.net it takes alot of effort to make nice circles like my other roundles have about a 48+ hours of attempts but i just didnt have time for those ones.

[i rock]

I’ll be able to print this when I get home!

This is pretty much a bump.

[cminke]

lolz

[Shakespeare]

anyone know of where one can buy AA scale airships?

[i rock]

Ask imperious leader I remembering him posting a link to a site that does awhile back.

[i rock]

Srry for the late update been on vacation. So here it is.
NAs
Russia
#6russian victories: if Russia hold 5 territories from the central powers on turn 10 they post pone the starting of there surrender roll till they lose 3 original russian territories and have no troops in original central power territories

France
#5colonial wealth: Frances convoy is worth 3 ipcs more

Italy
#3surprise strike: the first round of every combat the Italians make once they declare war( invalid if there attack before round 4) all there unit fire pre-emptivly

I’ll post the rest later cause my family getting mad at me!

[i rock]

The first rule page have been completly updated
map update + NAs + setup changes + rules

NAs
French
#6 joint operations: twice per game on the French players turn he may skip his conduct combat and combat move phases so then on the British players turn he can use both French and British units to attack.
now i only need 3 italian NAs!!!

Setup changes
The British Empire:
Far East Command: 1 infantry, 4 conscripts

Rule Changes
Far East Command
The British may deploy units in the far east command box up to a total of three each turn. From there they can attack Iran and with ships Iraq via the Persian golf. The british player may deploy up to 4 infantry or conscripts and 1 other unit here per turn.

Neutrals
Some neutral countrys control multiple regions those countrys are:
Spain: Northern spain, southern spain and spainish morrocco
Denmark: denmark, and island
Sweden: Swenden and lapland
if you attack 1 region of any of those powers all other ones are considered pro other side.

Saudia arabia
is at the start of the game an Ottoman protectorate, so the ottomans may move troops in to saudia arabia and they get the entire ipc value of it.

[i rock]

does anyone have ideas for the last 3 italian NAs ive looked on the internet but nothing i find would work as one.

[i rock]

okay ive found a place to print my game board pretty cheaply ($25) but before i do that id like one last Critique of my map any and all coments valad to the map would be appriciated.

update
setup
Russia
warsaw: 2 infantry, 1 artillery, industry

Germany
South Germany: 2 infantry