How long has this defective game been out & still no definitive Rules changes?

@UKcommander:

That does not preclude a player from moving from a friendly territory, into a second friendly territory, and then into a hostile territory two spaces away does it?

That is exactly what the rules prevent. You must use your full movement to enter a hostile territory (one that contains no friendly units); think of this in the same way that you can’t move ground units before loading onto a transport.

You can move units multiple spaces into a contested territory though, and they would participate in an attack in said contested territory if you made one.

That’s always been my problem. It isn’t too hard to get your troops outside the capitol, bit you have to make sure you’ve brought enough to get the job done. If you only contest the territory the defender can reinforce during the battle and you can’t. So if you don’t take the capitol quickly you’re screwed.  Sounds like an entertaining game.

Has anyone else tried a French tactic of (F1) A. Taking Spanish Morocco, B. Mobilizing Portugal and consolidating the transport fleet; (F2) Borrowing the mobilized Portuguese to swing down to SZ 23/ Togoland with a significant force; (F3) Move French transports back towards Canada and using the French African Task Force to Gain IPCs for France and to eliminate the Germans in Africa?

Yes.

AH softening France’s air force up to open the way for Germany to have air supremacy: this will henceforth be known as the “Happy Artillery” strategy.  Thanks for making my day, WB.

@WILD:

Yep, makes sense for the CP to have Germany go full tilt in one front, and Austria the other. We have seen Germany push France back to the brink, and Austria start off defending against Russia (and those damn Italians) then actually gaining the upper hand on their front as well with an aggressive Russia (they will need some inf from Germany, and the Turks). It is also helpful to have say a 10 unit friendly force with you to take out smaller adversaries, or grab more land so you don’t splinter off your main force. This can also help you to gain air superiority for the larger partner. Like Austria sacrifices a few inf and ftrs into a French stack just to force a dog fight and kill off a couple allied ftrs. Then Germany goes in full force, finishes off the air, and has very happy artillery.

@Auztria:

Yes. If they truly had a historically accurate setup, Russia would have almost as many troops at start as Germany and Austria-Hungary combined. The Ottoman Empire would have no fleet, Germany would have extra cruisers in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, Britain would have just 1 infantry, and Africa would be even more barren. Of course they can’t do that, simply for gameplay reasons. If Russia could conquer Galicia and East Prussia effortlessly every game, people would quickly grow bored.

But you see… I went to school to be a historian! I will have to do a little bit of experimenting with the Russian infantry bordering Galicia and East Prussia. Naturally, it raises my hackles that the Russians can’t do much more than poke the CPs on this front. The Russian TTs containing six infantry probably ought to have eight (on the western border). Any attack they make in Prussia or Galicia is going to be bulldozed by a massive A-H or German attack with at least 12 infantry in each case to throw at the hapless Russians.

I have a soft spot for those intrepid Bulgarians c. 1915. This has led to some experimenting on my end to make them a playable country in lieu of a country in the direct Ottoman pale. Instead of collecting income, they would do something like China does in A&A:Pacific 1.0–crank out people or arty (no planes, tanks or ships). I even thought about allowing the Germans to give them a subsidy (1 IPC or something along those lines). Australia is often talked about for its commitment to the war (and justly so), but I was blown away when I read the Bulgarian stats. 1,200,000 mobilized out of about 5 million people!!  If Italy is in this game, surely Bulgars can’t hurt…

So one of the issues here is that a player can leave a single infantry in a contested territory as a rear guard, holding up the advance of, say, 20 infantry and 10 artillery for an entire turn.  Well, here’s a possibility:

If combat takes place in a contested territory, and the player whose turn it is scores enough hits to kill each defending unit at least 3 times, that player can advance any or all of his victorious units into a new enemy controlled territory, initiating a new combat.

Or, like, this morning.