[1914] Overly Detailed Modified Version

@Guderian1 Maybe I can’t send a PM, when I click your profile I don’t see an option for it…

@Eqqman

Nice personal story.

It’s amusing, for almost every point you wrote I heard someone say that was a World War 1 myth. I’m not saying it is.

So yeah, thank you for letting me know. As demonstrated by my games with The Good Captain, the Central Powers can indeed win in the game if the skill level between players is different enough.

@barnee I am not able to recreate the bug anymore, I suppose it’s only the first time I loaded, the result above was done by your method, with the renamed folder instead of the zip file.

@MasterMark26 Glad I could share the ideas !

For the trucks, I 3D-printed some models on Shapeways and added them to my collection after painting them. Here is the link to the model in my shop :

https://www.shapeways.com/product/RK9QJAH6V/wwi-truck-x12?optionId=128058468&li=shop-inventory

You can see the end result on the Plastic Commando’s YT channel once he painted them (and he did a great job) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADQnU6f0gKQ

There’s other options like gun-mounted trucks, which could be a hybrid mobile-artillery / AA battery, armored cars, and more ! So if you want to make things more interesting, feel free to be creative !

For your tank idea, I wonder if the increased cost would make them appealing. They sure would boost your offensive power by boosting your infantry, it’s just a question of would you be able to buy enough to make a difference. Let me know how it turns out !

Happy gaming, good sir !

These house rules are meant to make the game more realistic while staying as simple as possible.

Battleships cost 14 IPCs. They cost 1 IPC to repair.

Switzerland has an IPC value of 4.

The U.K. can only produce up to 4 units per turn in India. If India is captured by the Central Powers, the Central Powers cannot produce units there.

If a capital is captured, the IPCs are discarded and not taken by the capturing power.

Neutral territories that are not home territories still get units if invaded.

Sea units, except submarines, must end their movement when they enter a sea zone with enemy mines.

Units that retreat from a contested territory cannot move into another contested territory. They may move into any adjacent friendly territory.

There is a combat move and a non-combat move. During the combat move, units can move into neutral, contested, and enemy territories. The non-combat move comes after combat. During the non-combat move, units that did not move during the combat move and did not conduct combat can move into friendly territories. Land units can move an unlimited number of territories during the non-combat move within their original territories.

Optional Manpower Rule

Keep track of the infantry that are destroyed for each power. If a power has had 2x the number of their infantry destroyed as their starting IPC value (rounded up), they may only collect half of the total IPC value of their territories when they collect income (rounded up). If a power has had 4x the number of their infantry destroyed as their starting IPC value (rounded up), they may only collect the IPC value of their capital territory when they collect income.

Make these changes:

Map:
SZ31: Create new SZ31 by splitting SZ17 in half at a point on border between SZ16 and SZ17 below Sicily and extending to point where Albania borders Greece.
Switzerland: Is impassable.

Setup:
Move any 1 GE SS from existing SZ to new SZ31.
Add 1 GE CA to SZ26.
Remove UK TR from SZ2.
Add 1 UK SS to SZ8.
Remove 1 OE CA from SZ20.
Add 1 OE TR to SZ20.
Remove 1 RU CA from SZ21.
Add 1 RU SS to SZ21.

Play:
Delayed Ottoman Entry:
Ottoman Empire or Bulgaria cannot be attacked unless the Ottomans first do one of the following; mobilize any additional units (including those for attacked neutrals), make any attacks, or allow CP units to enter any OE occupied territories.  While OE is sitting out the war, their mines are not in play, and their naval forces are restricted to SZ19 and 20.  
Notes: If other CP ships are attacked in a SZ with OE ships, OE can choose to enter the battle on defense - but must declare that intention before AP player decides to make their attack roll.  
If OE enters Bulgaria, they can defer the mobilization until the build phase when OE enters the war.  If OE does not defer, OE enters the war immediately.
Neutral Albania:
Albania starts game as a neutral.  At start of turn 3, it becomes minor-aligned with Italy or France (AP choice).
Neutral Portugal:
Portugal is neutral, unless CP attacks Angola or PEA.  If ANG or PEA attacked by CP, Portugal becomes minor-aligned FR or UK (AP choice).  If ANG or PEA are occupied by AP, Portugal remains neutral.

@CWO:

Interesting hypothetical scenario.  It raises all sorts of questions, both from a point of view of weapons technology and politics.

Assuming that WWI had lasted for another 20 years (meaning, I assume, 20 more years after 1918, which brings us to 1938, one year short of the starting date of WWII), weapons technology would certainly have progressed further and faster (though not necessarily in the same directions) than it did historically.  To quote one example as an illustration, just look at the classes of battleships and battlecruisers that many WWI combatants had planned or were actually building at the time the war ended in 1918, but which were then abandoned.  The British, for instance, were planning a class of battleships armed with 18-inch guns that would probably have entered service in the early 1920s; in the real world, it was only in the early 1940s that an 18-inch gun battleship class (the Yamatos) entered service.  Many of the weapons that achieved maturity in WWII existed in WWI, albeit at the infancy stage – notably tanks and aircraft carriers.  The same was true of certain tactics: had the war lasted until 1919, there were plans on the Allied side to mount attacks by massed tanks working in close coordination with motorized infantry and aircraft support…essentially an early version of Blitzkrieg.

However, even though I can see some WWII-type weapons being used on the WWI game board under such a scenario, the part I think is problematic is the political element: the idea that the same 8 powers who are the contestants in the A&A 1914 game could still all be in existence, and still fighting each other, in 1938.  Remember, after all, that three of those states – Tsarist Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire – were already politically and/or economically unstable in 1914.  Russia had already seen one revolution against the Romavov dynasty in 1906, and this had done nothing to persuade Nicolas II to liberalize his regime.  The Austro-Hungarian Empire was a mish-mash of restless ethnic groups led by an elderly ruler who, like Nicolas II, believed in absolute monarchy.  The Ottoman Empire had been in decline for a long time, and its leaders were both divided and paralyzed by indecision.  Frankly, I’m surprised that Russia managed to last till 1917 and the other two until 1918, so I don’t see any of those regimes surviving a further two decades of war.

I said another 20 years was highly improbable for the very reason of political (as well as economic) instability. I highly doubt the war could have gone on for twenty more years without several nations collapsing from the strain.

But as you correctly pointed out, technology would have advanced much faster had the war continued. I know for example that Thompson sub-machine guns were developed during WW1, but never saw action, and that they would later be used in WW2. So let’s say the war only goes on for another 2 or 3 years. This would bring many weapons used in WW2 into the conflict.

Now that we have a somewhat alternate-historical basis, can we design rules for allowing WW2 era A&A units such as TcB, StrB, MechInf, and CVs? As I’ve said, I haven’t actually played 1914, but I know there’s a rule for when tanks can actually be built, could a similar rule be implemented for other units? I plan to buy 1914 and try it out.

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.