Hi Markus
Enjoy your game with crockett :)
Game History
Round: 9
Puchase Units - Ottomans
Ottomans buy 1 artillery and 2 infantry; Remaining resources: 0 PUs;
Combat Move - Ottomans
Turning on Edit Mode
EDIT: Removing units owned by Neutral_True from Greece: 1 artillery and 3 infantry
EDIT: Adding units owned by British to Greece: 1 artillery and 3 infantry
EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
Combat - Ottomans
Ottomans creates battle in territory Greece
Battle in Greece
Ottomans attack with 7 artilleries and 20 infantry
British defend with 1 artillery and 3 infantry; Americans defend with 4 artilleries, 1 fighter and 5 infantry
Ottomans roll dice for 7 artilleries and 20 infantry in Greece, round 2 : 9/27 hits, 11.33 expected hits
Americans roll dice for 5 artilleries, 1 fighter and 8 infantry in Greece, round 2 : 8/14 hits, 7.67 expected hits
8 infantry owned by the Ottomans, 4 infantry owned by the Americans, 1 artillery owned by the Americans, 1 artillery owned by the British and 3 infantry owned by the British lost in Greece
Americans and Ottomans reach a stalemate
. Battle score for attacker is 5
Casualties for Ottomans: 8 infantry
Casualties for Americans: 1 artillery and 4 infantry
Casualties for British: 1 artillery and 3 infantry
Combat Move - Ottomans
Place Units - Ottomans
1 artillery and 2 infantry placed in Constantinople
Turn Complete - Ottomans
Ottomans collect 6 PUs; end with 6 PUs
Combat Hit Differential Summary :
Americans regular : 0.33
Ottomans regular : -2.33
@The_Good_Captain
Game History
Round: 9
Puchase Units - Italians
Italians buy 1 artillery and 5 infantry; Remaining resources: 0 PUs;
Combat Move - Italians
Turning on Edit Mode
EDIT: Adding units owned by Neutral_True to Venice: 7 artilleries and 24 infantry
EDIT: Removing units owned by Italians from Venice: 7 artilleries and 18 infantry
EDIT: Removing units owned by Italians from Tuscany: 6 infantry
EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
2 artilleries and 3 infantry moved from Smyrna to Ankara
1 infantry moved from Venice to Switzerland
7 infantry moved from Rome to Tuscany
Combat - Italians
Italians creates battle in territory SZ 18
Combat Move - Italians
Turning on Edit Mode
EDIT: Adding units owned by Italians to Venice: 7 artilleries and 24 infantry
EDIT: Removing units owned by Neutral_True from Venice: 7 artilleries and 24 infantry
EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
Place Units - Italians
1 artillery and 5 infantry placed in Rome
Turn Complete - Italians
Italians collect 17 PUs; end with 17 PUs
Combat Hit Differential Summary :
Italians in Venice decline combat.
@The_Good_Captain
Game History
Round: 9
Puchase Units - Americans
Americans buy 1 artillery and 6 infantry; Remaining resources: 0 PUs;
Combat Move - Americans
Turning on Edit Mode
EDIT: Adding units owned by Neutral_True to Greece: 1 artillery and 1 infantry
EDIT: Removing units owned by Americans from Greece: 1 artillery and 1 infantry
EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
Turning on Edit Mode
EDIT: Adding units owned by Americans to Coastal Barrage 1: 1 coastal_attacker
EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
2 artilleries and 1 fighter moved from Greece to Albania
3 transports moved from SZ 17 to SZ 16
6 infantry moved from Spanish Morocco to SZ 16
6 infantry and 3 transports moved from SZ 16 to SZ 17
6 infantry moved from SZ 17 to Piedmont
1 artillery and 7 infantry moved from United States of America to SZ 1
1 artillery, 7 infantry and 4 transports moved from SZ 1 to SZ 14
4 transports moved from SZ 14 to SZ 1
1 artillery and 7 infantry moved from SZ 14 to Spain
1 artillery and 1 infantry moved from Portugal to Spain
Combat - Americans
Americans creates battle in territory Coastal Barrage 1
Battle in Coastal Barrage 1
Americans attack with 1 coastal_attacker
Contested defend with 1 coastal_artillery
Americans roll dice for 1 coastal_attacker in Coastal Barrage 1, round 2 : 1/1 hits, 1.00 expected hits
Units damaged: 1 coastal_artillery owned by the Contested
Contested roll dice for 1 coastal_artillery in Coastal Barrage 1, round 2 : 1/1 hits, 0.50 expected hits
1 coastal_attacker owned by the Americans lost in Coastal Barrage 1
Contested win with 1 coastal_artillery remaining. Battle score for attacker is 0
Casualties for Americans: 1 coastal_attacker
Turning on Edit Mode
EDIT: Changing unit hit damage for these Contested owned units to: coastal_artillery = 0
EDIT: Removing units owned by Americans from Spain: 1 infantry
EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
Battle in Spain
Americans attack with 2 artilleries and 7 infantry
Neutral_True defend with 1 artillery and 7 infantry
Americans roll dice for 1 battleship in Spain, round 2 : 1/1 hits, 0.67 expected hits
Americans roll dice for 2 artilleries and 7 infantry in Spain, round 2 : 3/9 hits, 3.67 expected hits
Neutral_True roll dice for 1 artillery and 7 infantry in Spain, round 2 : 5/8 hits, 4.00 expected hits
5 infantry owned by the Americans and 4 infantry owned by the Neutral_True lost in Spain
Neutral_True and Americans reach a stalemate
. Battle score for attacker is -3
Casualties for Americans: 5 infantry
Casualties for Neutral_True: 4 infantry
Combat Move - Americans
Place Units - Americans
1 artillery and 6 infantry placed in United States of America
Turn Complete - Americans
Americans collect 22 PUs; end with 22 PUs
Combat Hit Differential Summary :
Americans regular : -0.33
Contested regular : 0.50
Neutral_True regular : 1.00
Greeks decline combat. Did not convert the Spanish to CP side in case you want them to decline combat on your turn you won’t have to waste time making them neutral again.
I was going to wait until next round to move on Spain, but your big push convinced me to speed that up slightly.
usa9.tsvg
@The_Good_Captain
Russian turn may be skipped over if AH buys no navy.
Game History
Round: 10
Puchase Units - AustroHungarians
AustroHungarians buy 11 infantry; Remaining resources: 2 PUs;
Combat Move - AustroHungarians
2 units repaired.
Turning on Edit Mode
EDIT: Removing units owned by AustroHungarians from Tatarstan: 1 infantry
EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
11 infantry moved from Trieste to Venice
2 infantry moved from Tyrolia to Venice
2 infantry moved from Vienna to Tyrolia
9 infantry moved from Vienna to Trieste
Combat - AustroHungarians
Battle in Venice
AustroHungarians attack with 8 artilleries, 2 fighters, 26 infantry and 2 tanks
Italians defend with 7 artilleries and 24 infantry
AustroHungarians roll dice for 8 artilleries, 2 fighters, 26 infantry and 2 tanks in Venice, round 2 : 21/38 hits, 16.67 expected hits
Italians roll dice for 7 artilleries and 24 infantry in Venice, round 2 : 15/31 hits, 15.50 expected hits
Units damaged: 2 tanks owned by the AustroHungarians
13 infantry owned by the AustroHungarians and 21 infantry owned by the Italians lost in Venice
Italians and AustroHungarians reach a stalemate
. Battle score for attacker is 24
Casualties for AustroHungarians: 13 infantry
Casualties for Italians: 21 infantry
Combat Move - AustroHungarians
Place Units - AustroHungarians
11 infantry placed in Vienna
Turn Complete - AustroHungarians
AustroHungarians collect 34 PUs; end with 36 PUs
Combat Hit Differential Summary :
Italians regular : -0.50
AustroHungarians regular : 4.33
Round 8, Ent -8.16 / CP -13.66
Game History
Round: 10
Puchase Units - Germans
Germans buy 15 infantry; Remaining resources: 2 PUs;
Combat Move - Germans
2 units repaired.
Turning on Edit Mode
EDIT: Removing units owned by Germans from Alsace: 2 fighters
EDIT: Adding units owned by Germans to Hanover: 2 fighters
EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
Turning on Edit Mode
EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
Turning on Edit Mode
EDIT: Adding units owned by Germans to Berlin: 1 fighter
EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
2 infantry moved from Kiel to Ruhr
2 fighters, 8 infantry and 1 tank moved from Hanover to Ruhr
1 infantry moved from Poland to Ukraine
5 artilleries moved from Moscow to Ukraine
2 infantry moved from Prussia to Poland
2 artilleries and 1 infantry moved from Moscow to Ukraine
1 infantry moved from Livonia to Karelia
1 infantry moved from Hanover to Munich
2 infantry moved from Berlin to Kiel
4 infantry moved from Berlin to Prussia
1 infantry moved from Berlin to Kiel
9 infantry moved from Berlin to Hanover
1 artillery moved from Alsace to Munich
1 infantry moved from Alsace to Munich
Combat - Germans
Germans creates battle in territory Alsace
Germans creates battle in territory Finland
Battle in Munich
Germans attack with 1 artillery and 3 infantry
French defend with 1 infantry
Germans roll dice for 1 artillery and 3 infantry in Munich, round 2 : 2/4 hits, 1.67 expected hits
French roll dice for 1 infantry in Munich, round 2 : 0/1 hits, 0.50 expected hits
1 infantry owned by the French lost in Munich
Germans win with 1 artillery and 3 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 3
Casualties for French: 1 infantry
Battle in Finland
Germans attack with 4 artilleries and 2 infantry
Germans roll dice for 4 artilleries and 2 infantry in Finland, round 2 : 4/6 hits, 3.00 expected hits
Russians roll dice for 2 infantry in Finland, round 2 : 1/2 hits, 1.00 expected hits
1 infantry owned by the Germans and 2 infantry owned by the Neutral_True lost in Finland
Germans win, taking Finland from Russians with 4 artilleries and 1 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is -3
Casualties for Germans: 1 infantry
Casualties for Neutral_True: 2 infantry
Battle in Alsace
Germans attack with 10 artilleries, 2 fighters, 19 infantry and 2 tanks
French defend with 10 artilleries, 15 infantry and 2 tanks
Germans roll dice for 10 artilleries, 2 fighters, 19 infantry and 2 tanks in Alsace, round 2 : 15/33 hits, 16.00 expected hits
French roll dice for 10 artilleries, 15 infantry and 2 tanks in Alsace, round 2 : 17/27 hits, 12.83 expected hits
Units damaged: 2 tanks owned by the Germans
15 infantry owned by the Germans, 14 infantry owned by the French and 1 artillery owned by the French lost in Alsace
French and Germans reach a stalemate
. Battle score for attacker is 1
Casualties for Germans: 15 infantry
Casualties for French: 1 artillery and 14 infantry
Air Battle in Ruhr
Germans attacks with 2 units heading to Ruhr
British launches 1 interceptors out of Ruhr
Attackers Fire, : 0/2 hits, 0.67 expected hits
Defenders Fire, : 0/1 hits, 0.33 expected hits
Attackers Fire, : 1/2 hits, 0.67 expected hits
Defenders Fire, : 0/1 hits, 0.33 expected hits
1 fighter owned by the British lost in Ruhr
Air Battle is over, the defenders have all died
Battle in Ruhr
Germans attack with 2 fighters, 10 infantry and 1 tank
British defend with 1 artillery and 6 infantry
Germans roll dice for 2 fighters, 10 infantry and 1 tank in Ruhr, round 2 : 5/13 hits, 4.33 expected hits
British roll dice for 1 artillery and 6 infantry in Ruhr, round 2 : 3/7 hits, 3.50 expected hits
Units damaged: 1 tank owned by the Germans
2 infantry owned by the Germans and 5 infantry owned by the British lost in Ruhr
British and Germans reach a stalemate
. Battle score for attacker is 9
Casualties for Germans: 2 infantry
Casualties for British: 5 infantry
Combat Move - Germans
Place Units - Germans
15 infantry placed in Berlin
Turn Complete - Germans
Germans collect 42 PUs; end with 44 PUs
Combat Hit Differential Summary :
French regular : 3.67
Defenders Fire, : -0.67
Attackers Fire, : -0.33
Russians regular : 0.00
Germans regular : 1.00
British regular : -0.50
G10.tsvg The edit add fighter to Berlin is the only way I know how to change your purchase after clicking past the purchase phase. Before rolling any dice I added in the fighter and left it there to signal the purchase change. Did the combats then subtracted two infantry placements at the end of the turn. Feel free to adjust your French casualties in the Alsace.
@The_Good_Captain
Game History
Round: 10
Puchase Units - French
French buy 1 fighter and 7 infantry; Remaining resources: 1 PUs;
Combat Move - French
2 units repaired.
Turning on Edit Mode
EDIT: Adding units owned by Neutral_True to Alsace: 1 infantry
EDIT: Removing units owned by French from Alsace: 1 infantry
EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
8 infantry moved from Picardy to Lorraine
1 fighter moved from Paris to Lorraine
9 artilleries and 2 tanks moved from Alsace to Lorraine
2 battleships, 1 cruiser and 3 transports moved from SZ 8 to SZ 9
8 infantry moved from Paris to Picardy
Combat Move - French
Place Units - French
1 fighter and 7 infantry placed in Paris
Turn Complete - French
French collect 27 PUs; end with 28 PUs
Combat Hit Differential Summary :
French decline combat in Alsace.
@The_Good_Captain
Game History
Round: 10
Puchase Units - British
British buy 2 artilleries, 1 fighter, 9 infantry, 1 tank and 1 transport; Remaining resources: 2 PUs;
Combat Move - British
Turning on Edit Mode
EDIT: Adding units owned by Neutral_True to Ruhr: 1 infantry
EDIT: Removing units owned by British from Ruhr: 1 infantry
EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
12 infantry moved from Sevastopol to Romania
6 infantry moved from Persia to Sevastopol
1 artillery moved from Ruhr to Belgium
1 artillery and 5 infantry moved from London to SZ 9
1 artillery, 5 infantry and 3 transports moved from SZ 9 to SZ 6
1 battleship moved from SZ 9 to SZ 6
1 artillery and 5 infantry moved from SZ 6 to Karelia
1 battleship moved from SZ 28 to SZ 17
1 tank moved from India to Persia
1 artillery moved from India to Persia
1 infantry moved from India to Persia
6 infantry moved from India to SZ 29
7 artilleries, 1 fighter and 16 infantry moved from Smyrna to Ankara
1 tank moved from Mesopotamia to Sevastopol
6 infantry moved from Mesopotamia to Ankara
6 infantry moved from SZ 29 to Mesopotamia
Combat - British
British creates battle in territory Tatarstan
Battle in Romania
British attack with 12 infantry
Germans defend with 1 infantry
British roll dice for 12 infantry in Romania, round 2 : 2/12 hits, 4.00 expected hits
AustroHungarians roll dice for 1 infantry in Romania, round 2 : 0/1 hits, 0.50 expected hits
1 infantry owned by the Germans lost in Romania
British win, taking Romania from AustroHungarians with 12 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 3
Casualties for Germans: 1 infantry
Battle in Karelia
British attack with 1 artillery and 5 infantry
Germans defend with 1 infantry and 1 port
British roll dice for 1 battleship in Karelia, round 2 : 1/1 hits, 0.67 expected hits
Germans roll dice for 1 infantry in Karelia, round 2 : 1/1 hits, 0.50 expected hits
1 infantry owned by the Germans and 1 infantry owned by the British lost in Karelia
British win, taking Karelia from Germans with 1 artillery and 4 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 0
Casualties for British: 1 infantry
Casualties for Germans: 1 infantry
Battle in Tatarstan
British attack with 2 infantry
AustroHungarians defend with 1 infantry
British roll dice for 2 infantry in Tatarstan, round 2 : 1/2 hits, 0.67 expected hits
AustroHungarians roll dice for 1 infantry in Tatarstan, round 2 : 0/1 hits, 0.50 expected hits
1 infantry owned by the AustroHungarians lost in Tatarstan
British win, taking Tatarstan from AustroHungarians with 2 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 3
Casualties for AustroHungarians: 1 infantry
Combat Move - British
Place Units - British
1 transport placed in SZ 9
1 artillery, 1 fighter and 7 infantry placed in London
1 artillery, 2 infantry and 1 tank placed in India
Turn Complete - British
British collect 55 PUs; end with 57 PUs
Combat Hit Differential Summary :
Germans regular : 0.50
AustroHungarians regular : -1.00
British regular : -1.33
UK declines combat in Ruhr.
uk10.tsvg
Most A&A fun I’ve had all year, which I’ll include 2023 in that since 2024 is still early ;).
Game History
Round: 10
Puchase Units - Ottomans
Ottomans buy 2 infantry; Remaining resources: 0 PUs;
Combat Move - Ottomans
Turning on Edit Mode
EDIT: Removing units owned by Neutral_True from Greece: 1 artillery and 1 infantry
EDIT: Adding units owned by Americans to Greece: 1 artillery and 1 infantry
EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
4 infantry moved from Greece to Constantinople
3 artilleries moved from Greece to Constantinople
1 infantry moved from Constantinople to Bulgaria
Combat - Ottomans
Ottomans creates battle in territory Greece
Battle in Greece
Ottomans attack with 4 artilleries and 8 infantry
Americans defend with 1 artillery and 1 infantry
Ottomans roll dice for 4 artilleries and 8 infantry in Greece, round 2 : 6/12 hits, 5.33 expected hits
Americans roll dice for 1 artillery and 1 infantry in Greece, round 2 : 1/2 hits, 1.00 expected hits
1 infantry owned by the Ottomans, 1 infantry owned by the Americans and 1 artillery owned by the Americans lost in Greece
Ottomans win, taking Greece from Americans with 4 artilleries and 7 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 4
Casualties for Ottomans: 1 infantry
Casualties for Americans: 1 artillery and 1 infantry
Combat Move - Ottomans
Place Units - Ottomans
2 infantry placed in Constantinople
Turn Complete - Ottomans
Ottomans collect 8 PUs; end with 8 PUs
Combat Hit Differential Summary :
Americans regular : 0.00
Ottomans regular : 0.67
@Eqqman said in Eqqman (Entente) v TGC (CP), 1914, OOB + RR:
@The_Good_Captain
Game HistoryRound: 10 Puchase Units - British British buy 2 artilleries, 1 fighter, 9 infantry, 1 tank and 1 transport; Remaining resources: 2 PUs; Combat Move - British Turning on Edit Mode EDIT: Adding units owned by Neutral_True to Ruhr: 1 infantry EDIT: Removing units owned by British from Ruhr: 1 infantry EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode 12 infantry moved from Sevastopol to Romania 6 infantry moved from Persia to Sevastopol 1 artillery moved from Ruhr to Belgium 1 artillery and 5 infantry moved from London to SZ 9 1 artillery, 5 infantry and 3 transports moved from SZ 9 to SZ 6 1 battleship moved from SZ 9 to SZ 6 1 artillery and 5 infantry moved from SZ 6 to Karelia 1 battleship moved from SZ 28 to SZ 17 1 tank moved from India to Persia 1 artillery moved from India to Persia 1 infantry moved from India to Persia 6 infantry moved from India to SZ 29 7 artilleries, 1 fighter and 16 infantry moved from Smyrna to Ankara 1 tank moved from Mesopotamia to Sevastopol 6 infantry moved from Mesopotamia to Ankara 6 infantry moved from SZ 29 to Mesopotamia Combat - British British creates battle in territory Tatarstan Battle in Romania British attack with 12 infantry Germans defend with 1 infantry British roll dice for 12 infantry in Romania, round 2 : 2/12 hits, 4.00 expected hits AustroHungarians roll dice for 1 infantry in Romania, round 2 : 0/1 hits, 0.50 expected hits 1 infantry owned by the Germans lost in Romania British win, taking Romania from AustroHungarians with 12 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 3 Casualties for Germans: 1 infantry Battle in Karelia British attack with 1 artillery and 5 infantry Germans defend with 1 infantry and 1 port British roll dice for 1 battleship in Karelia, round 2 : 1/1 hits, 0.67 expected hits Germans roll dice for 1 infantry in Karelia, round 2 : 1/1 hits, 0.50 expected hits 1 infantry owned by the Germans and 1 infantry owned by the British lost in Karelia British win, taking Karelia from Germans with 1 artillery and 4 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 0 Casualties for British: 1 infantry Casualties for Germans: 1 infantry Battle in Tatarstan British attack with 2 infantry AustroHungarians defend with 1 infantry British roll dice for 2 infantry in Tatarstan, round 2 : 1/2 hits, 0.67 expected hits AustroHungarians roll dice for 1 infantry in Tatarstan, round 2 : 0/1 hits, 0.50 expected hits 1 infantry owned by the AustroHungarians lost in Tatarstan British win, taking Tatarstan from AustroHungarians with 2 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 3 Casualties for AustroHungarians: 1 infantry Combat Move - British Place Units - British 1 transport placed in SZ 9 1 artillery, 1 fighter and 7 infantry placed in London 1 artillery, 2 infantry and 1 tank placed in India Turn Complete - British British collect 55 PUs; end with 57 PUs
Combat Hit Differential Summary :
Germans regular : 0.50 AustroHungarians regular : -1.00 British regular : -1.33
UK declines combat in Ruhr.
uk10.tsvgMost A&A fun I’ve had all year, which I’ll include 2023 in that since 2024 is still early ;).
Awesome! Well, for this game - we can play as long as you like but the CP will offer concession. Been a uniquely rough one.
@The_Good_Captain said:
Awesome! Well, for this game - we can play as long as you like but the CP will offer concession. Been a uniquely rough one.
The offer is accepted. I was happy enough to even contest Ruhr last turn, but after I took it outright with such minimal loss I immediately thought “I think this game just ended!” Not sure what lessons (if any) I want to take away from this game since the big shellacking the CP navies took the first turn skews it… having 2 UK Transports immediately available is pretty huge.
As it is I’m completely satisfied with my defense of Russia and the US’ Balkan adventures, they more than met my expectations. I actually didn’t want to move into Karelia last turn but figured I should even though Belgium is now way too thin, since if I didn’t you could split your Artillery between there and Finland making it too dangerous to land back up there again. But since now all your spare Infantry up there are gone splitting up is no longer possible so I always have an outlet to drop somebody off safely.
If you were curious about the Italian attack into Tyrolia I figured it was the last chance I could make such a move given that you were relying on the Ottomans and not AH to clean out the Balkans. Since it’s guaranteed to be contested on the AH turn that’s an 8 IPC swing in my favor already before we add in the combat results, and maybe you might even move some Germans there if you thought I wanted to stick around.
At the start of French turn 5 I was wishing I had moved up to Picardy instead of Burgundy and the French Fleet was in the channel. In that situation I might have loaded Kiel with both the British and the French plus hit both Ruhr and Alsace, with the goal of causing a crisis on where to move your reinforcements and lower your income by keeping your territories contested. Not 100% sure that plan might be worth it as I didn’t crunch all the numbers. But of course the French fleet is not there, as it isn’t clear to me what the best Entente play is for their ships once the CP navies are out. In the future I may make going to the Channel a standard move for the French so I at least have it as an option. I belatedly did it this game and was worried you might get suspicious as to why I was moving those ships of a sudden. One possible kink in this scenario is that based on what Krieghund said, when I take Kiel with France, they risk the mines but the UK will not on their turn. Now if the Germans move in to contest Kiel, then the mines are back. So that’s something to consider there.
From my end of the board it looks like the biggest risk you took was using the Ottomans instead of AH to deal with the Balkan threat. My own general staff would likely conclude it’s just far too risky since the ground you cede in the Middle East is likely not recoverable so your gains are forfeit due to the UK enrichment. And now the onus is on AH and Germany to keep Russia sealed since you declined the RR. But of course my whole overall plan calls for you to make exactly those kinds of hard choices. Maybe the only yellow card I give you in that area is not using that last smidgeon of AH troops to clean out the small amount of UK left in Sevastopol to make sure that the Ottomans had full freedom of movement on their turn, as I mentioned earlier.
So I obviously watched all your 1914 videos beforehand-
Patton said :
Rommel you magnificent b-, I read your book!
And I don’t think you went into a full discussion on Tanks, so I wasn’t sure what would happen when they became available in this game. To me they are like Bombers in the WWII variants, really awesome when you have a bunch but the opportunity cost to get them is quite high, so buying enough to make them a real game-changer is a calculated risk. The best use feels like just having a few around to help take the hits when picking off blockers, so in this particular game I might have just only ever used them in India. But when you started buying them for Germany, it felt unwise to let you be the only player over there to have any. In a similar vein the air war fascinates me since it gets to resolve completely while the ground battles don’t (plus you still get your strafe shots in!). You only need a surplus of 1 plane to get the Artillery bonus, so any surplus you have over that is potentially a waste of money. If I’m the economic leader I’m quite happy to match you plane for plane as you keep spitting them out since the opportunity cost for you to have such a large air force is so high. From my end of the board the biggest mistake I made was losing the 3 French Fighters, I should have staged them in Venice to support the Italians since I could have flown them back to Alsace/Lorraine if needed in an emergency. I do still support the concept of making such an attack, though, since if your response is to crank out more planes instead of Infantry then strategically I count that as a win.
Hmmm… that covers just about everything… oh, wait, the Americans. I debated a lot trying out the “Spain First” strategy in this game but decided against it. All my instincts keep telling me not to go there because of the extra delay and the lack of mobility you get from not having Transports in the Mediterranean. As you can see I’m not opposed to getting around to it eventually. With the movement rules, I can move units into contested Spain from the US and move a matching number (if any) out of it without any disruption to the flow of units into Europe. But as I said in this game I was going to be more patient and only start that process when I could hit Spain with 12 units rather than the 10 I went with (10 being what I consider the bare minimum to even attempt moving into Spain, YMMV).
Alright now I think I’m done. ;)
David S. Pumpkins said:
Any questions?
For my part, I will say that in all my games, this is the first time I have seen the CP “no go” on all of the big four:
Romania cleared?
Serbia cleared?
English fleet cleared?
Canadian fleet cleared?
the “no, no, no, no” was definitely new. While missing one is totally understandable and missing two sometimes happens, I’ve never seen three go bad let alone all four. Otherwise, when playing out of box, the CP are very, very brittle and can’t stand up to much punishment from the dice regardless of strategy on either side. To that end, the first four rounds ended with a 16.5 point spread in favor of the Entente. If this wasn’t our first game, I would have, without shame, offered concession on these two points. But since it was our first game, I felt it best to let things shake out until they were truly hopeless. I think that was good for both of us. But I would be remiss if I didn’t offer another game. Though the end result can easily be the same (Entente win), I feel nearly certain that I can bring the game to round 15 or even 20 and keep it looking competitive if not outright threatening a CP win. I don’t feel this game was a good example of something ‘typical’ of even an out of box game. Let me know if you’re interested. Otherwise, thanks much! Always good to see more people jump into this game.
@The_Good_Captain
If you would care for a rematch of the same sides and settings so I can try and remove the asterisk from my win I can do that. I know there’s a faction of players that say your strategy should be so brilliant that the dice don’t matter, but I don’t think you should be expected to win in any and all circumstances when somebody is basically constantly plucking your pieces off the board.
My only nitpick is that it would be appreciated if I get an “ooo” or “darn” from you once in a while. We already sacrifice a lot of the fun of board gaming by not being able to witness your opponents’ reactions in real-time (even if all they do is frown once in a while) so when I get nothing at all I might as well just play an AI. I get that you likely don’t want to give anything anyway but a total poker face (if that phrasing even applies online) doesn’t feel necessary. I thought when I doubled-teamed Albania with the French and UK so I could bag that and Greece in the same round that might have spawned a reaction, or maybe you didn’t plan on me hitting Mesopotamia from both Persia and all the guys in Africa. A player needs a little fix once in a while… plus I think it does our fellow players a disservice if they want to check out the game but have no idea if the players thought anything that happened was especially good or bad.
This is also one of my big nitpicks with the Beamdog version of A&A online, I get that they didn’t want to deal with people abusing in-game chats but that wouldn’t have stopped them from implementing some kind of reaction pop-ups. They do allow you to write notes to players on your same side, so they crossed the abuse bridge as it is. Anyway, enough of that random tangent.
It’s a shame this variant doesn’t get more love. I can’t find any real (recent) serious strategy discussions anywhere and most people are just discussing how much they love buying CP navy. Oh, after reading one of your video comments I did go back and look at the Diplomacy map. If the WWI map designer tries to tell me that board didn’t influence this design, it may be true but I won’t believe them. I’ll stop here, after commenting you say too little I would not be surprised if you thought I say too much!
@Eqqman sending you a PM