I’m not complaining about the slow pace of battles, I think 1914 got battles absolutely right. I’m annoyed over how slow it is to get units from Point A to Point B; it should not take Germany 3 turns to reach Alsace. Cavalry would help alleviate that a little, and I find it, yes, “monotone” that until T5 at least it’s just infantry, artillery, and the occasional plane slamming each other back and forth. It’s not like the use of cavalry at this time was entirely ahistorical, and the fact that you could have large cavalry armies at the start which slowly lessen as their obsolescence becomes apparent would follow what actually happened pretty well.

I think that for a more fluid game we need cavalry units as well as adjusting the price of tanks. Tanks are devastating in large groups, but it’s hard for most nations to produce large groups of tanks at 6 ipc’s. Plus the early game is pretty monotonous with only masses of infantry and artillery attacking and counter-attacking. Cavalry could help spice it up a bit, maybe with 1/3 atk/def and a movement of 2 with blitz. If they cost 4 but could be boosted by artillery, they’d be a fairly viable unit but would probably fade a lot when tanks arrive.

While I admit 1914 is one of the better A&A games I’ve played, I’m still rather disappointed over some of these omissions. Land movement is still too slow, the ground war feels too monotone until tanks get involved, and while the map plays well, it’s irritating to look at Bulgaria or Moscow and think, “That’s not right.” If we get a Second Edition, I think it would be extremely good if it included cavalry, battlecruisers/destroyers, and either rail lines or some other way to get units to the front faster.

And looking back I probably should have named this “Most depressing/annoying oversight” rather than “Worst part of the game”.

I would’ve posted this in a TripleA forum, but couldn’t find a dedicated one, so I figured this was as good a place as any to ask. Who created TripleA? Was it WotC, or a group of fans who wanted a new way to play online, or what? I looked on the TripleA site, but it didn’t really help.

I do an all-out Balkan attack aimed mainly for Romania and Albania with a comparatively token force in Serbia. Stack in Tyrolia and Trieste for an A2 attack on Venice; Italy won’t attack you and if he does it’s suicide. Buy a sub A1 to strengthen the Adriatic fleet, and a fighter and 2I/2A in Vienna. The Romania attack is the most important. Try to, if not outright capturing it, neutralize the Romanian army so any Russian counter-attack can be crushed by your forces in Galicia. Albania is taken to prevent an Anglo-Italian expeditionary force operating on your southern border and drawing valuable troops off the Russian or Italian fronts. Serbia is not particularly important; you just have to send enough troops that the territory is contested. I’ve played 2 games as the CP so far, using this opening both times. The first time I didn’t send enough soldiers to Italy and overextended myself in Russia, so I was doomed when the Russians smashed my army in Ukraine R3 and the Italians fought me to a standstill in Venice. In the second game I sent more Germans to the East freeing up more Austrians for Italy, and managed to capture Moscow and push to the gates of Rome before the Americans overwhelmed me.

@rjpeters70:

Batman.

No way. Iron Man.

You’ll only buy it if Syracuse wins the tournament? Sorry you’re missing out on such a great game, then.

Gas Attack: Once per turn starting on Turn 3, countries can promote 1 extra attacking infantry in one territory only to the “Infantry with Supporting Artillery” dice box for each artillery in the territory.

Morale Defeat: Optional morale victory conditions can be: Morale starts at 0 and ranges from 10 to -20 on each side. The Russian Revolution rules are not used with Morale Defeat in effect. A country gains morale by: Capturing a territory(+3 morale), liberating a territory(+2 morale), liberating an allied territory(+1 morale), destroying an enemy battleship(+1 morale), capturing a capital(+5 morale), liberating a capital(+3 morale), or ally capturing a capital(+2 morale). A country loses morale by: Losing a territory(-2 morale), losing their capital(-7 morale), losing a battleship(-1 morale), ally losing a capital(-3 morale), every ten casualties suffered(-1 morale), or not mounting an attack in a turn(-1 morale). In addition, the morale of all countries declines by 1 at the ends of turn 1 and 2, by 2 at the ends of turns 3 and 4, and so on. When morale drops below -10, the country is considered to be in a state of disorder and must roll every turn before each attack. If the roll is a 6 then the attack does not take place. If morale drops below -20, then the country undergoes Revolution. The country loses its turn and its units turn hostile to all. This counts as +3 morale for each enemy and -4 morale for each ally. The United States does not suffer from morale loss while not at war. Victory conditions are: Allies force out 2/CP force out 2 (Armistice), Allies force out 3/CP force out 3 (Capitulation).

Unrestricted Submarine Warfare: When Germany declares USW, they roll a d6 every British and American collect income phase for each submarine in a USW zone. IPCs are subtracted from the corresponding Allied power for the total number of the dice roll(s).

Königsberg: Germany starts with 1 cruiser in Sea Zone 26.

Askaris: France, Britain, Italy, and Germany can raise Askari units in certain African territories. They can buy max 1 askari per territory per turn. Askari units have attack of 1(artillery 2), defense of 2, movement of 1, and cost of 2. Germany can raise askaris in Kamerun, German East Africa, and South West Africa. France can raise askaris in French Equatorial Africa. Britain can raise askaris in Union of South Africa and Nigeria. Italy can raise askaris in Somaliland.

Naval Flight: When an attacking power in a naval battle chooses to disengage and retreat, the defending fleet rolls a d6 against it, scoring a hit on the retreating fleet with a 2, if the defending fleet has no cruisers, or a 3, if the defending fleet has cruisers.

Spain: When Spanish Morocco or Balearic Islands are attacked by a power, Spain spawns its artillery and 7 infantry under the command of a power of the opposing alliance to the one that attacked the Spanish dominion, and Spain is now allied to the power that commands its army.

Seaplanes: Fighters may fly out to sea and grant air supremacy to battleships and cruisers in the sea zone the fighter(s) is in. Fighters attacking this way do not get to strafe, and can only do this if there is a transport with space in the same territory. The fighter provides air supremacy allowing allied battleships to attack at 5 and allied cruisers to attack at 4. Once combat is over, the fighter must land on a transport and become cargo.

Repair Work: Damaged battleships can be repaired at a cost of 3 IPCs.

Swiss Alps: Switzerland is impassable.

Rail Lines: During the movement phase of your turn, move as many of your units as you would like from one friendly, uncontested territory into another friendly, uncontested territory. The two territories (the one you are moving from and the one you are moving to) need not be adjacent but there must be a safe path between them. This means that you must be able to travel from the first territory to the last territory through territories that you or an ally control. If you have to pass through an enemy controlled territory, a contested territory, or a neutral territory then you cannot use rail movement between the two territories. Rail movement is restricted to Europe, Constantinople, Smyrna, and Ankara.

Heavy Armor: Battleships cost 14 IPCs.

Hellespont: Sea Zone 20 is split into a northern(SZ20a) and southern(SZ20b) half. Powers must control Constantinople to cross through SZ20. Powers controlling Constantinople with ships in SZ20 are considered to be defending both halves of the sea zone. It costs two turns of movement to pass through the entire sea zone.

Torpedoes: Submarines have a first-strike capability.

Many of these are the creations of others, and I don’t plan to use every one of these. They’re all here just for speculation.

I think it’s very good!

The new methods of combat- air superiority, contested territories, coastal artillery- are brilliant. On their own they are enough to make this one of the best A&A games to date.
The map is flawed, but if I really want to look at maps I’ll read The First World War again. I don’t mind the lack of sculpts either. The problems I have with the game are USW, Russian Revolution, and the slowness of Central reinforcement. They can all be fixed with simple houseruling, which I do mind a bit, but it doesn’t break the game. Overall, I’d give this game an 8.75 out of 10.

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.