Posts made by Texas Holders

@GeneralTuna:

Just ordered the game and haven’t played it.  But I’m looking at the starting unit numbers and the Central Powers heavily outnumber the Allies on the Eastern and Western Front (which is historically wrong in terms of the size of the armies in 1914).

Observe:

Central Powers
Germany (63 inf, 23 art) (actual size of army 1914: 4.5 million)
Austria (48 inf, 12 art) (actual size of army 1914: 3 million)
Turkey (23 inf, 6 art) (actual size of army 1914: 210,000)
Total (134 inf, 41 art) (actual combined size of army 1914: 7.71 million)

Allies
Russia (36 inf, 13 art) (actual size of army 1914: 6 million)
France (30 inf, 8 art) (actual size of army 1914: 4 million)
UK (34 inf, 10 art) (actual size of army 1914: 1 million)
Italy (22 inf, 7 art) (actual size of army 1914: 1.25 million)
U.S. (6 inf, 2 art) (actual size of army 1914: 200,000)
Total (128 inf, 40 art) (actual combined size of army 1914: 12.45 million)

What I find most bizarre of all is that austria-hungary is significantly stronger than Russia, which is laughable.  AHO was as everyone knows “a corpse shackled to Germany.”  Yet in this game AHO is a huge power stronger than every other power outside of Germany.

Furthermore, the central powers are poised to flatten Russia with all that power thus making it pre-ordained that Russia falls due to sheer numbers deployed on the eastern front.  I look forward to seeing how things play out but my first impression is that the Central Powers should be the clear favorites in this game.

You forgot to count the units for the minor allied countries, the Allies actually start with more units when you include them in the count.

I am still working the feasibility of this particular plan, so the details are still fuzzy.  Responding to you comments:

1. This is the biggest obstacle of the plan, however, for every IPC the UK spends on warships, the less it is spending on troops to land in Europe or India.

2.  This is less than what France starts with, so not necessarily a deal breaker.  I also don’t thin it is possible to capture London on a single landing either.

3.  France can dump 30 IPC or in Paris as well, not to mention everything else that has fallen back.  I also have ruled out SZ 9 as a feasible option.  One, you have to deal with mines and to prevent having to move transports back and forth risking mines each time you would have to load through an uncontested Belgium (not easy to keep it that way).

The best option I am considering now is to funnel through Norway with half you transports in your home port and the rest between Scotland and Norway.  This option also provides a boost in income.  Also, half your transports are better protected.  This option also puts pressure on Russia from the north.

As far as your comments regarding Germany’s efforts being hampered in mainland Europe is true, you also don’t have to do as much.  You don’t even need to attack France since you don’t need to capture Paris.

Like I said, I am still hammering out the details, but I am favoring 6 transports at the moment.  Picking up Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland (12 IPCs) helps offset the expenses.

@loki17:

To answer your inital question…The same reason there wasn’t enough pieces or IPCs or the game could only be won by one side–
money.

What do you mean there wasn’t enough IPCs?

The ones with two flags stand up troops.  For example, Portugal has a French and Portuguese flag.  For the true neutrals, only the ones with larger flags, for example Ethiopia will stand up troops, Sp. Morocco will not.

It doesn’t generate much income advantage, but that is only half of the economy.  What it does is increases the cost of the Allies.  It costs the Allies more at sea due to the cost of transports and both the US and UK need their own escorts.  I also don’t think anyone said buy just one and you are good to go.

A little more detail on you strat would be helpful.  That strategy appears to be what most people have been trying with little success.  what are you doing differently.  What is as fast as possible?  What do you do with France in the mean time?  How do you prevent the Ottomans from getting crushed with the Brits dumping their entire income in India or shuttling them in to northern Russia.  You seem to be stuck on just focusing on the income difference without focusing on the cost of the war.  A hyper aggressive plan is expensive and it typically widens the gap you are attempting to reduce.  Not to mention your supply lines are getting longer, so if you are losing units faster than the resupply you will have issues.  Perhaps the details resolves these issues and they aren’t readily apparent from your brief explanation.

Which furthers the need for a German navy.  Dropping a ship in SZ 8 or 9 will prevent transports from being loaded.  If the Germans control SZ 9, it delays another turn since the UK would have to load from Wales.

@xxstefanx:

AH must NOT waste any money on ships!

Germany must not waste any money on ships!

Ottoman Empire must not waste any money on ships!

Ground forces and fighters that’s all there is for the CPs to win - nothing else!
And even then it’s difficult enough!

How do you resolve the problem of the UK, France, and US putting 75-90 IPCs worth of units in Paris every turn?  The only way I know of is to disrupt it with a CP navy.

@Flashman:

Can Germany afford to have that much wonga sitting in the bank? You still need infantry to soak up hits when the tank stack is attacked. The Germans should still be able to afford, say 6 tanks on turn 4 then 6 more turn 5.

You have a good amount if infantry to start with, the idea is to not be so aggressive before tanks make it to the front lines and conserve the infantry.

@xxstefanx:

AH must NOT waste any money on ships!

Germany must not waste any money on ships!

Ottoman Empire must not waste any money on ships!

Ground forces and fighters that’s all there is for the CPs to win - nothing else!
And even then it’s difficult enough!

For those not familiar with brainstorming, the idea is to generate ideas, not shoot ideas down.  As far as your comments on ground forces, can you provide a bit more on what your plan is?

I have been thinking that as well.  Reserve 12 IPCs each round in the first three to dump a bunch of tanks turn 4.  I like the idea.  In my opinion tanks are the key to winning with the CPs, the earlier you can get a large stack of them, the better.

@Uncrustable:

This validates my overall point that you and your A&A partners are simply not very good at this game and that is why you get scewed game results from the rest of us

I don’t understand the point of this statement at all.  I haven’t used this strategy in a live game, I am throwing it out there for feedback.  It is also part of a larger game plan that I have been working on over the past couple weeks.  Most of the ideas that I have posted are just that, ideas.  They haven’t seen a live game.  I have no idea how anything in this thread reflects the playing ability of anyone.

@Uncrustable:

Or in Texas’s case, throw away the AH fleet round one to block the UK cruiser from doing nothing lol  :-P

Seriously?  If you are going to repost my ideas at least get them right.  I said the UK cruiser is likely going to clean up the Ottoman fleet.  Posts like these make you sound like you are either 12 years old or lack reading comprehension.  If you are going to insult me, do it to me directly or better yet, in a PM.  These posts add nothing to the discussion.

What if AH buys two battleships turn 1?

Everyone is a beginner on this game, it has only been out a little over a month.  You can’t use WWII strats in this game, they don’t work.  You don’t have the Air Force to blitz the Allies with, you have to grind it out.  The CPs have to bide their time until they can dump a bunch of tanks and then hit the Allies first.  Both the land and sea mechanics are so different from previous games that we all are figuring this out on the fly.

Yes, I am willing to try anything and everything during play testing and strat planning, but why not? You have nothing to lose.

What I don’t understand is this:

• The Allies begin the game with more land units than the CPs;
• The Allies begin the game with more income than the CPs;
• So then why is the prevailing strategies that cause the CPs to lose units at a faster rate the only logical strategy;
• Additionally, why when these hit the Allies fast strategies don’t work, why does everyone go complain to the designers rather than try something else entirely?
• Also, why is it that those of us that exercise our creativity ridiculed?  Are you afraid we will be successful and Larry won’t make changes to enable your strategy to work?
• Finally, I am glad a kill France/Russia fast strategy doesn’t work, otherwise this game would lose a lot of replayability and would quickly collect dust on a shelf somewhere.

Bottom line… Don’t be afraid to try something different, what do you have to lose?

@KimRYoung:

• the French and Italian fleets are now damaged and susceptible to counterattack on A2

By What?

Kim

They were damaged from their attack on the Austrian fleet.

@Uncrustable:

@Texas:

@KimRYoung:

@Aristokles:

I don’t understand, what’s the advantage to having the AH fleet in the Med, but not attacking with it?

Really. France will attack the Austrians on her turn, and the Italians will finish them off on theirs. They can absorb the hits on their BBs, repairing them the next turn. Austria sacrifices her fleet for no reason whatsoever.

Kim

Yes, that is exactly what I wanted to happen.  Thanks for confirming.

For the reason, I already stated the reason.

Wow so your strategy involves throwing the starting AH fleet away to no purpose?
This validates my overall point that you and your A&A partners are simply not very good at this game and that is why you get scewed game results from the rest of us

Geez, I guess I have to spell it out for you, here is what it achieves:

• pulls the French fleet east, they wouldn’t be able to support the UK now
• blocks the UK cruiser from heading to the Atlantic, but it may attempt to finish off the Ottomans anyway
• Albania goes the first round inactive
• the French and Italian fleets are now damaged and susceptible to counterattack on A2

@KimRYoung:

@Aristokles:

I don’t understand, what’s the advantage to having the AH fleet in the Med, but not attacking with it?

Really. France will attack the Austrians on her turn, and the Italians will finish them off on theirs. They can absorb the hits on their BBs, repairing them the next turn. Austria sacrifices her fleet for no reason whatsoever.

Kim

Yes, that is exactly what I wanted to happen.  Thanks for confirming.

For the reason, I already stated the reason.

Well no, don’t attack, just move the fleet into the Italian sea zone.  You only have to roll for mines.

@Tavenier:

I see. I know transports can be handy for Germany. Forcing England to keep an eye on an invasion, invading Russia, invading Scandinavia and fast move your units. But still it seems like a too big of an investment that you just can’t spare.
I hope you can get the time to write about it!

Yeah, the cost is a big issue and taking the neutrals helps with that.

@Tavenier:

TH, I would so love to see a game report from you. Not like every single inf moved around, but just globally, like G1 Holland taken, F1 Belgium reinforced, or whatever.
Maybe its my limited imagination, but I an’t see how you can survive as Germany without going Russia or France. Sure you can take quite some IPC from Den and Hol etc, but still.

I am still in the planning process and haven’t had the chance to execute.  It is part of a larger plan to assault the UK directly and figured since the transports are there, might as well use them for taking Norway and Sweden.