Railroad idea

Only problem is the game is designed for, and playtestet for, no railroad

@Razor:

Only problem is the game is designed for, and playtestet for, no railroad

Although its early, a lot of the play reports I have seen suggest Germany cannot move fast enough to have a decent chance at winning.

I would support Germany being allowed to move two spaces from Berlin to Ruhr (and vice-versa) if Hanover is CP controlled, if a faster movement is necessary for Germany.

@vonLettowVorbeck1914:

I would support Germany being allowed to move two spaces from Berlin to Ruhr (and vice-versa) if Hanover is CP controlled, if a faster movement is necessary for Germany.

The map is the problem. France and Germany are cut into too many and too small territories, making movement a headache, while Russia is cut into too few and too big territories, a fact that currently force the game designers to make new rules to prevent frog-leaping

Could it be that during playtesting the Germans were taking Paris too easily and they decided for game balance that there should be an extra territory wedged in there?  Additionally, in Russia perhaps there were too many territories for the CPs to get through so they made the front a bit easier for balance purposes?

In the real war, Russia was ‘knocked out’ for the most part due to their revolution- it we make it too difficult or time consuming to do that, then perhaps it would not happen very often.

Just theorizing here…

Yep, Russia should have more territories for sure. I’m not keen on that aspect of the map design, I must say.

@Lozmoid:

Yep, Russia should have more territories for sure. I’m not keen on that aspect of the map design, I must say.

Or at the very least they should have been smaller and the Western front could have been bigger. Original Europe was quite out of scale, but it worked nicely.

How about using MEGAEINSTEIN’s idea?

Each home territory (excluding colonies) is considered adjacent to the capital.

Thus Germany can move units from Berlin to Alsace in one turn and the Ottomans can quickly bring a force to Trans-Jordan.

I’d be OK with allowing railroads to drop units in contested home territories, but we’d have to exclude home territories under enemy control.

Yeah but the ottoman rail network wasn’t exactly first class.

@wove100:

How about using MEGAEINSTEIN’s idea?

Each home territory (excluding colonies) is considered adjacent to the capital.

Thus Germany can move units from Berlin to Alsace in one turn and the Ottomans can quickly bring a force to Trans-Jordan.

I’d be OK with allowing railroads to drop units in contested home territories, but we’d have to exclude home territories under enemy control.

Russia into Poland kills this as viable in my mind.

What about:

Units that start in your original territory can move 2 spaces (as long as both territories are worth 2 IPCs or more)

The Munich factory is a simpler solution, as it means that every tt in Germany is within one move of a production centre.

New German units needing 3 turns to reach Alsace is killing the German push to Paris; Munich would solve this nicely.

Well, we added a sort of railroad movement as a technological improvement – my game group has striven to avoid actually changing the rules outside of the tech tree.

BUT… I had an idea. The problem with the game seems to be, like hinted at above, is that the game drags on because of the slow movement. Germany can get into France no problem, but once the front line troops are some 4 or 5 spaces away from Berlin, well, the tide will turn because France and Britain are only 1 to 2 spaces from the front. The idea here, maybe someone can expand upon it, is to have a “strategic movement phase”.

I haven’t figured out where it would fit in, but initially I think it would happen just before the normal movement. Basically, and this is more to do with the time scale than it does with the railroads, but perhaps a nation can move all of their ground and air units as far as possible, any number of continuous spaces, as long as they are controlled by them and they do not move through, into or out of contested territories.  So basically, they can reposition all their forces just behind the contested front line areas. Then when their movement phase starts, they then make their normal moves (moving into or out of contested territories for example, or moving into enemy territories to make them contested).

If nothing else I think it would speed up the game.  I am playing a game at the moment and we are on turn 8 (at about 1.5 hours per turn) and it doesn’t seem like there is an end in sight any time soon.  Just an idea.

Actually, after I have opened my big mouth, it seems like it would be better to have this Strategic Movement Phase at the end of your turn, not at the start of your turn. So basically, it would happen before you place your new units. I say this because it would allow you to reinforce those places you just took, which are now devoid of infantry and full of fat stacks of your artillery that survived and will soon-to-be wiped out by the enemy’s counter attack.  This would make it (Strategic Movement) more of a defensive movement, which seems to fit the conflict better I think.

Just another idea for consideration. I mention this because it really does kind of represent railroad movement. ;)

Edit:

Actually, I just dreamed up replacing my Advanced Rail Network tech with something like this in version 10 of my optional tech rules. I will have to test it out at our next game… but my guinea pigs might be getting exhausted.

This makes it too powerful.

Just have one movement phase. The best approach is that all combat movement must be made first, then all non-combat movement (which includes all rail), but before any combat.

Units can be railed into contested zones, but not those where there was combat this turn.

Just give Germany a railroad that runs from Prussia OR Silesia through Germany and Kiel OR Hanover and into Ruhr.

Any German units can move 2 spaces along this route so long as the 2 spaces are German controlled and NOT contested at the start of Germany’s turn.

Could even buy some railroad markers from HBG and place them in these 4 tts.

Don’t think any other nations or tts should have railroads.

Think this is the simplest way to solve CP balance issues and historical accuracy without over complicating it.

@Flashman:

This makes it too powerful.

This remains to be seen. What seems like it may be too powerful is probably exactly what the game needs to keep up attacking momentum that always runs out at the gates of someone’s capitol, especially when they are still buying and placing troops in said contested capitol. So no, not too powerful IMO, but yes it is if it is being combined with a host of other house rules.

It took time to establish and defend railheads in warzones. Hence, it is unrealistic in my view that a power can rail units into combat, or into tts they have just fought over.

I have no problem in being able to rail from Portugal to Moscow in one move if you control all the relevant tts from the start of your turn.