What should I do? 1914

@barnee Thanks for the replies, the CIS ones sound good, and I like the idea of Gibraltar actually being important in 1914. I might also give the Spanish objectives in North Africa to motivate them to spread out a bit more. Not quite sure what to do with China yet, but they will probably be with the Central Powers (I know they weren’t historically, but it balances the game better). I’m thinking maybe I will give them IPCs for capturing Korea and parts of south Asia.

The flu season of 1918 hit a perfect storm of conditions that caused this outbreak to be one of the worst ever in history.  500 million people were hit with the virus (type H1N1), and it ended up killing close to 10% of those infected.  No place on the planet was safe, with North America and Europe getting hit the hardest.

In Europe, with the war and a supply of wounded soldiers, malnourished civilians, wet and cold weather conditions, lack of proper medicines, the flu showed no mercy.  In fact, research done years later, speculated that this virus variant strain was unusually aggressive and may have caused a condition known as a cytokine storm with the immune system.  This causes strong healthy adults to be hit harder by the disease than those with a weakened immune system.

In the game, to handle this event, starting with turn 6 the virus is possible for next 3 turns.  Roll 1d6 to see if the flu has come to Europe. The virus is in effect with these rolls; Turn 6, 1 to 3; Turn 7, 1 to 5; Turn 8, 1 to 3.

To show the virus impacts, do the following; This is for Europe and North America ONLY.  Not Turkey, Middle East, or Africa.
Roll 1d6 for every territory.  1 thru 3 and the territory is hit.

Remove 10% of infantry units, with 1 removed at a minimum, but only down to a minimum of 1. The IPC value of the 1d6 is lost to the controlling player.  USA is 2x the 1d6 roll.

I have found 2 changes to the map that enhance the game play - thought I would share.

Darfur - Minor Aligned with Ottoman Empire (1) IPC.  This new territory sits between French Equatorial Africa and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, with Belgian Congo keeping a border on AES.  This change provides more action in Africa, without it just becoming a big waste of space by turn 3 or 4 and an IPC pump for the British.

Sea zone 31 - A new sea zone that splits SZ17 in half.  SZ31 borders SZ16 to the west, SZ17 to north, SZ19 to the east, and Libya/Egypt to the south.  All of Greece borders the new SZ31 and SZ20.  This change provides much more freedom of movement of any CP ships that leave their home ports from mine rolls.  From the Allied powers standpoint - protects from an AH early thrust into the Black Sea or Eastern Med.

I’m curious if anyone has played only rolling for mines when resolving an amphibious invasion and ignoring them otherwise. My idea is that mines are ignored for movement (unless Allied ships attempt to move through SZ 11 to SZ 10 or 12 while Germany controls Berlin or Allied ships attempt to move through SZ 20 to SZ 17 or 19 or 21 while the Ottomans control Constantinople) and naval battles on the high seas. Mines are rolled for when a player attempts an amphibious invasion in a mined SZ. If a naval battle has to occur before the amphibious landing, then mines are rolled before the naval battle.

Haven’t tried this yet, but I thought it would encourage slightly more naval action, but was curious to get other’s thoughts. Would this unleash the High Seas Fleet or encourage a greater degree of turtling than that already encouraged by the current rules?

(My apologies if this has already been discussed, I haven’t done an exhaustive search of the forums).

Here is a rule we have been trying…

Engaged Land Combat:

The attacker has 3 options after each round of combat;

continue the battle, 2) retreat, 3) partial retreat, or 4 ) stand.  Options 3 and 4 end further combat by the attacker, and allow the defender a one-time only play of any of these 3 actions; retreat, stand, and/or counterattack.  Defending unit retreats follow the same retreat rules as attacker except the destination territory is any that is under friendly control.  Counterattacking units get one round free combat using attack dice.  Defending air units must retreat and cannot counterattack.  After the counterattack, the counterattacking units are considered engaged and cannot be moved on their turn and must become the attacker.  Attacking or defending units that stand and are still in a territory that contains unfriendly units on their turn, must either attack and/or move to territories that were in friendly control or had friendly units at the start of the their turn.

In 1914, the African continent is a large part of the board that quickly becomes very irrelevant.  Here are some changes that can bring some interest back.

At start of game,

Place 1 German CA in SZ26 to represent the active German presence in the Indian Ocean. Place 1 French infantry in Fr. Equ. Africa. Add 1 German artillery in Ger. East Afr. Change German artillery in SW Afr to infantry. Add 1 German infantry in Kamerun. Make IPC value of South Africa 2 (reduce Canada to 3).

I have something new in mind. A game with OOB.1-tt-movement. A Major power is only allowed to attack once in a turn.

First Three powers have mandatory attacks: Austria -> Serbia. Russia -> GE. GE-> Belgium.

A power collapses if 3 of its Home-tts were captured by the enemy. (Russia 4 tts) (or if the capital is lost) Game is over if two CPs or three Allies are finished.

OE, Italy and other minor powers enter war as they did historical. It is not allowed to attack them before their entry.

Neutrals are impassable.

Capturing tts doesnt pimp your income. Minor powers if not captured generate their own units (they can spend their own IPCs every turn they survive)

Not sure about the initial Setup-armys:

Maybe:

Belgium 6/2
Portugal 1 (it will after entering war consequently produce one Inf per turn surely without getting captured)
Bulgaria 8/2
Romainia 7/2
Serbia 6/2
Montenegro 3/1
Arabia 2
Greece 3/1

India can build max. 16 IPcs per turn.

Rest you can see on the map.

USW means a 12-sided dice if one Sub manages to be in a zone when US/GB collect income.

US-initial Setup has 6 more Inf.

6 more Infs for Russia.
Austria gives 3 Infs and 2 Art to GE.

GB gets one more transport in India.

1914NEWDEAL.png

Well under your ‘train’ of thought (hehe) all planes and boats in WWII games should have unlimited movement.

You cannot approach it like that lol it would wreck the game.

Railroads give land units +1 movement just like shipyards and airfields in G40 give planes and boats +1 movement.
You should not be able to rail into a contested tt.