Balancing 1914

[Cow]

You do not take switzerland with germany @_@? You do the Belgium thing. That is fine just move Munich down. You are going to switzerland soon soon anyway.

If Italy moves a mid size stack into your 4 ipc territory… you just go Italy instead crush it with Hungary. Italy needs those guys. He can send 1 unit sure. Woopy do.

[Cow]

All Germany sends towards Russia is Purria, Silesia, and maybe Berlin. That is up to you. Everything else is better off going towards their nearest line.

[Cow]

As Germany the only thing you really care about is never losing Ruhr. Usually you contest belguim  Your buys go berlin, hunover, ruhr,  Alsace  switzerland if possibru.

Sometimes the line is at the swiss, sometimes alsace, if you are losing the line gets pushed back to ruhr… that is when you in deep doo doo.  If you got Russia out of the game, you will be able to push back.

[Cow]

If you want to bleed the Russians out of the game an take it over in a slower fashion by all means, I would send Berlin Prussia that other spot towards Russia. The bulk of Hungary at him. Starting round three 7 inf a round set it aside and move it to him the rest for Italy. Eventually you will Take Russia. He will make so little money.

[Oddbjoern]

Well then I agree, If you send Everything From AH incl the first buy towards Russia plus Everything from Berlin, Prussia and Silicia Russia will be in Revolution R5 no question (though they would not have taken Moscow only contested).

Though in this scenario with Germany sending Munich into Tyrol, Belgium would have fallen by r5 (most likely r3). Italy would take and hold Trieste for 2 rounds, making 20 IPC R2 and R3(maybe even 22IPC R3 since serbia would be weak then).

Lets look at the IPC at the end of R5:

AH: Taken Ukraine, Serbia and Romania. Lost nothing: 34 ICP
Germany: Africa is clear of axis by the end of turn5. Which means minus 4 IPC. Germany would ahve taken most likely Polen, Livonia and Belarus, which means plus 7 IPC. And taken Swiss, plus 1 IPC.
Total IPC: 39
France: 24+Portogal+Belgium = 28 IPC
Britain: 30+Persia+Meso+Africa(easier to just assume 1 Ally took all of Africa): Total: 39 IPC
Italy would still keep Venice and Albania in r5 in this scenario: 16 IPC

So in total: Allies: 83 IPC (plus 20 from America), Axis: 73 IPC

During R6-R10, The Ottomans would fall to Britain. Afterwards shipping would commence to reinforce Italy who would not have lost more than at most Venice and Piemonte. Germany would not have gotten anywhere with France yet with the assistence from America. R10-R15: Axis would loss slowly but surely.

With very lucky dice, R6-R15 may turn out in the favor of the axis but not in a lowluck game.

[Cow]

Munich is strong enough to hold the top one.

[Cow]

If you are playing with economic and political collapse rules your strategy should be different.

Since you can force economic collapses on Russia if Germany and Hungary take different routes. Also sharing the burden of Russia makes more sense in this situation, because you do not need to defeat the capital.

[Oddbjoern]

Oh I agree, Italy never invades or take Tyrol, the Munich forces are more than capable to hold on to that one. I also believe that Italy would have to make a retreat from Trieste in R4.

The main issue is that the Turks will fall R10 if both Allies and Axis play close to optimal and by that time AH would not have made much progress in Italy nor Germany in France, its just not possible.

With maximum luck perhaps the Turks wont fall untill R11 and with maximum dice luck Germany would have taken Belgium, Swiss and AH would have taken Venice and Piemonte by R10. However even in that scenario, the axis would have a hard time winning.

The times the allies accually lose is when they do stupid things like buying a grand navy with Britain(and perhaps even France) in R1-R3 and trying to press Germany not making any headway in Otto at all. With this flawed tactic the Ottomans would eventuelly crow into Africa and contest India which will lead to Axis win.

[Cow]

I am still a firm believer of a Russia first strategy. Even if all you end up doing is stacking up next to his capital and holding that spot, you deny so many ipcs and boxing him in is so good. It is also super awesome for Germany to no longer have to send units that way. It also makes Hungary in the mid game so much easier to play. Take Russia or not, you pretty much know exactly how many units Russia produces each round and you just have to match that.

I do recommend growing a pair and attacking.

Remember optional rule is optional you should decide if you are playing with it or not before the game start. So you do not go super all in.

[Cow]

Once you have the Russian situation handled, you do want the money south of Russia, eventually you run into British troops.

The leftover air you bought to gain air superiority should help the turks out, send what you need to get superiority over Italy and the rest towards the turks.

Air superiority is huge.

[Oddbjoern]

Dont think we can get anywhere with this, without going into specifics. Ive tried to be as specific as I can but I cant do much with comebacks without numbers =)

And I agree all-out eastern attack with AH (perhaps leaving the 6 inf for defence in the west against Italy and Using Berling+Prussia+ Silicia towards Russia as well, the best possible strat as Axis. However even with optimal Axisplay like that you are bound to lose most games against optimal Allied play, sorry.

[Cow]

It is because you play low luck for some reason. When this game comes out on battleboards or triplea, sure I will break things down for a low luck game.

For dice games, it is much easier to deal with the Russians on a heavy Russia strategy.  Just imagine all the units on berlin Prussia and that other space as suicide bombers, you do not care about what happens to them as long as they die fighting for money and taking russians with them, you are doing it right. The more they kill the easier it is for Hungary to take Russia. If they get ignored, take more money, your goal is to broforce with Hungary, get his back, handle the west, help out, bro it up.

You never win axis and allies games playing scared with the axis. They always make it so you have more stuff but make less money, forcing you to be aggressive.

[Oddbjoern]

As Ive said, I completly agree with the heavy Russia tactic, I play Axis almost exacly the same way (I usually Use Hannover from Germany as well but use less of the AH troops, I let them defend Italy by themselves).

And as Ive said even with this optimal Allied play-style you are still in a disadvantage against optimal Allied playstyle.
I dont think I can make this any clearer.

[Cow]

I disagree. The axis have a pretty clear advantage. The only weakness is with the Ottos.

You can have AH defend against Italy itself as long as you are moving aggressively.

The critical difference is buying strait fighters 2 rounds before attacking the capital to get them into position for that main attack, is critical, given the importance of air superiority and that they do roll as a 2 as well and they close the gap quicker as well as adding to your cannon fodder factor. This is where I have Russia falling at round 5-6.  I cannot take Russia easily without planning ahead and buying strait fighters exactly 2 rounds ahead of time to hit at the right timing, having that 1 infantry ready to be in place to allow the air units to be in position for the attack.

~

Russia first is an all strategy, you have to treat it as such.

[Cow]

I do hate that Russian revolution optional rule. I do hate Italy starting at war, sort of a historical, but whatever.

Maybe play without Russian revolution bs. Make bank. :)

[theROCmonster]

@Cow:

I disagree. The axis have a pretty clear advantage. The only weakness is with the Ottos.

You can have AH defend against Italy itself as long as you are moving aggressively.

The critical difference is buying strait fighters 2 rounds before attacking the capital to get them into position for that main attack, is critical, given the importance of air superiority and that they do roll as a 2 as well and they close the gap quicker as well as adding to your cannon fodder factor. This is where I have Russia falling at round 5-6.  I cannot take Russia easily without planning ahead and buying strait fighters exactly 2 rounds ahead of time to hit at the right timing, having that 1 infantry ready to be in place to allow the air units to be in position for the attack.

~

Russia first is an all strategy, you have to treat it as such.

My question for you Cow is what % of AH and Germany do you send towards Russia? I don’t play OOB anymore, so I’m kind of curious.

[Cow]

AH restricted - everything

AH unrestricted. Everything minus the two stacks attacking Italy round 1.

[Cow]

No point ����ing around. You screw around, Russia trolls you and lives longer… then you lose, so annoying. I do not even remember Russia in WW1, I remember seeing him on the maps of WW1, but it never existed, they lost 2 million guys fighting to accomplish nothing. They trolled so hard they trolled themselves and made America enter WW1, 12 million strong army, worthless.

Larry Harris communicates through the board games he produces, he said so in his intro. The obvious strategy is Russia first, because Russia was a troll country in WW1, they even have a troll optional rule that trolls the allies and the axis. It trolls the allies because no more fighting so all the axis units get to go where they want. It trolls the axis because no more money. So troll! Just like real WW1, Russia troll everyone.

[El Stef]

I like the elegeant solution of chacmool:

_To avoid the unhistorical Austrian attack the turn Sequence should be changed into

1. Italy
2. Austria
3. Russia
4. Germany
5. France
6. Britain
7. Turkey
8. USA

with Italy beeing neutral and unattackable R1 so the game still starts with Austrias march into Serbia._

nice and simple!

[Flashman]

Sorry, how does that avoid the unhistorical attack?

Austria shelled Serbia, but not march over the border until some time after.

Given the choice, most Austria players would probably avoid attacking Serbia R1.

I also think USA should not automatically go to war until Russia has suffered a revolution/collapse, so the Central Powers have to balance crushing Russia versus bringing the Americans in.