Balancing 1914

I am not a huge fan of Turkey’s situation, which is why it is so necessary to deal with Russia first as Germany and Hungary. Otherwise add Russia to Turkey’s problems and Turkey is done for.

The countries that are braindead easy to play are France and Italy.

Everyone else has stuff going on. Except for USA, which is barely in this game.

Germany has two options. Britian or Russia. Otherwise Turkey is screwed.

An Italy First strategy is pretty good. You do run into problems with Turkey down the road and the Russians will be on your back.

America needs to start with more units. They are a non factor resulting in the allies losing every game.

The weakest country is Turkey and the allies really need to bring the full might of the British to take it down. If USA is unable to get in the game and help out right away, How exactly are the allies supposed to answer back to losing Russia, because from there on it is all downhill for the allies.

Russia does not last a long time. It is pretty easy to take.

So I played with Hungary Restricted Round 1 house rule. Can only attack Serbia to kick off the war, no other combat actions.

I found the game to be a bit more balanced. The Central Powers, played by me, still won, but it was less of a one sided game.

Would be good to hear what your opening moves are Cow, as I dont agree at all that the axis have an advantage and I would really like to hear a good way to stop an all-in India strat with Britain (7 inf and 2 art per round every round except r3 where u buy 5 inf, 2 art and 1 plan).

The all in India strat is the only thing the Allies have going for them.

Turkey tends to hold out much longer than Russia. That should be your answer right there.

I am not sure what you do with the units leftover from taking over Russia… I send them towards India, you can attack one of the stacks of units marching over at the very least.

You dont have to race fo destroying the turks with the India strat you can funnel them into Russia via Sevastopol, making sure that the revolution does not happen.

The Turks usually make a stronghold at Mesopotamia, you can totally intercept the India forces as they move up.

So on round 3 you get 4-6 infantry 2 arty on Tartarstan. That is not exactly impressive.

The ottos also start with lots of men. So you cannot send everything to Russia anyway for very long before those units move into position.

The Mesopotamia stronghold can always move up you know. So when you go to Tartarstan you get hit by the Ottos. That is kind of silly.

Stronghold in Mesopotamia? After r1 the brits will have (appr.) 5 inf and 2 art in TJ, 2 inf and 1art in Arabia (activate with 1 inf from Arfica with transport) and 4 inf and 2 art in Persia and 7 inf and 2 art in India.
Standard T1: attack Arabia with Meso+Syria (killing 1,5(2) troops and losing 1,5(2) moving Ankara to Meso and Const to Smyrna and 1inf from  Const to Bulg.
B2: Retreat TJ to Eqypt. Reinforce Arabia with 2 inf from India(transport). Move 5 inf and 2 art to persia (9 inf and 4 art total. Buy: 5 inf, 2 art and 1 plan
T2: Turks have to move the Meso-units (6 inf and 1 art) or risk the attack from Persia B3, which is stupid (they lose 4,66 units and only kills 3,5).

Therefore The brits are free in B3 to reinforce Sevastianpol with 9 inf, 4 art and 1 plan (give or take) r3.

Feel free to point out any obvious mistakes on my account.

Yeah you can do that round 3. How does that help Russia? Russia dies on round 5? You show up a round late. To liberate it? Germany goes before you. Reinforces the capital so Hungary can hold.

Also if you do lose 2 units attacking Transjordan, it becomes favorable for the axis to counter attack you barring any additional reinforcements coming.

7 inf + 1 arty is the favorite vs 4 inf 2 arty.

I can understand not wanting to take the territory itself, because of the battleship offshore bombardment thing.

Transjordan is still a very risky move unless you plan to reinforce it in the event that you lose 2+ infantry (ll you lose 2 inf half the time, in dice games sometimes you lose 3 infantry and you end up with a really sad look on your face, especially if 4+ units survive sit on TJ after the ottos turn ends). The Ottos in Africa become real and things get stupid out of control for the axis.

Well in regards to TJ you could counterattack, which stil means B2 will retreat to eqypt. France would be smart to use its their 3 tranports to have the NAfrica and Portogal (5inf, 1art) troops in seazone outside Italy at the end of r2 (reinforcement for eqypt).
What is your play by play with axis on the eastern front r1 and r2, assuming Russia stacks Polen? How many units and where? Assume lowluck dice to keep it simple.

Anyway since Hungary is 3 turns from Russia it is pretty easy to take it by round 5. Germany also has units already in position to skirmish with the Russians.

You really want to do an all in strategy and get Russia out of the game ASAP.

Italy first is a nice alternative, the problem is you are 4 turns away. However Italy is much weaker. Also Russia territories are worth so much more. Those juicy 3s,

What do you mean retreat into Egypt? I guess in low luck you would have 1 artillery left and the Ottos would retreat instead of suffer a counter attack from your transports and bb. They would come out +1 infantry 50% of the time, that is a pretty conservative style of doing things.

I would rather take the territory personally.