@the_good_captain Yeah I had lots of stuff go completely sideways on me this time.
I poorly distributed my initial guys in Poland and botched the dice on dealing with the German fleet (in hindsight, I probably should have tried attacking with the R Battleship to try getting a lucky hit in), which more-or-less locked me out of getting any British guys to Karelia in time to impact things at all. That in turn snowballed the Russian front out of control to the point where Russia died way too early, which in turn negated the benefits I’d carved out for myself on the Western Front (you were able to literally send 100% of the German build west on G5, which was basically the last nail in the coffin).
If I were to try that “hold Poland R1” move again, I’d probably have to be content with leaving Ukraine empty, which creates its own problems as I’m sure you can imagine.
@the_good_captain Last note on this: Charging Kiel is an absolutely awful idea due to the extremely devastating impact mines can have on the game if a few go off in an untimely fashion.
@domanmacgee I agree with the Russian battleship move. At this point, its a “fixed” move as the Entente in my opinion.
I’m starting to move towards the opinion that fighting or otherwise being aggressive at all with Russia is perhaps not most optimal. I’m up to twenty games completed now and whenever Russia is belligerent, it seems to go down sooner rather than later - even when the dice are cutting down the middle or even in Russian favor.
Actually, something you said in one of our first games comes to mind. In the game where I botched my understanding of the Revolution, you said something about the “nature of the game mechanics with a large army on defense” and “how much time it takes to grind it down” or words to that effect.
It’s not a complete thought - just a pattern I feel like I’m seeing start to materialize. I’m also close to the opinion that in a KRF, the Russians are going down - they just need to make it to round 8ish to keep the game going. I’m fully aware that you are working on the UK helping Russia strat though and feel there might be something too that. I can’t bring myself to try it just yet as I feel like it waters down UK influence in Turkey and the West - where they are badly needed (in my current opinion).
@the_good_captain said in TGC(CP) v DoManMacgee(Entente) [game 6]:
I’m starting to move towards the opinion that fighting or otherwise being aggressive at all with Russia is perhaps not most optimal. I’m up to twenty games completed now and whenever Russia is belligerent, it seems to go down sooner rather than later - even when the dice are cutting down the middle or even in Russian favor.
Actually, something you said in one of our first games comes to mind. In the game where I botched my understanding of the Revolution, you said something about the “nature of the game mechanics with a large army on defense” and “how much time it takes to grind it down” or words to that effect.
It’s not a complete thought - just a pattern I feel like I’m seeing start to materialize. I’m also close to the opinion that in a KRF, the Russians are going down - they just need to make it to round 8ish to keep the game going. I’m fully aware that you are working on the UK helping Russia strat though and feel there might be something too that. I can’t bring myself to try it just yet as I feel like it waters down UK influence in Turkey and the West - where they are badly needed (in my current opinion).
Alright, I’ll admit that you’ve caught me on these points. I more or less agree with your assessment is that the optimal Russian gameplan (as far as I can tell) is to just hold on for as long as possible while UK tries to kill Ottomans as a form of compensation for Russia dying (I’ve said this much before to both you and in way older threads/youtube videos I’ve commented on). I’ve largely been trying to use these games as means of experimenting with out-of-the-box moves for the Entente in the face of the well-established Central Powers strategy of dog-pilling Russia ASAP (such as the UK convoy into Karelia). Admittedly, though, these alternative strategies haven’t been working out the greatest for me (in most of the games where I’ve won so far, I’ve either gotten you on the technicalities of game mechanics or taken advantage of you getting diced in a critical early battle). With that being said, I’m leaning towards the “traditional” Entente plan of:
With the overall game flow being:
I was/am probably going to make the opposite concession.
This is a bit soon but I have as of this writing played 19 games. In 12 games where I played the CP, I won five and two of those losses were very close games that almost went the way of the CP (almost exactly as you described as regards Rome/Constantinople).
I have played seven games as the Entente and won them all. But its a bit worse than that. I just cleared a game where the Entente lost something like 90% of their starting fleet in the first two turns - a complete and utter disaster and it was STILL a fairly solid Entente win - finished by turn 6-7.
It feels completely intuitive to play the Entente. To play the CP is to play a brittle set of countries that might be able to take one “dicing” in a big battle and that is if you play them immaculately.
To expand, half the time you get a turn from me, I not only took several practice turns, but I have played through the next world turn to project your side. I do this to uncover “the best” move my opponent can make so I am not caught off guard by anything. Of course I do less and less of this as I stack more games but - this game favors the Entente in my opinion. At the very least I will argue that the Entente is more intuitive and more forgiving of poor dice (of course not in certain quantities as we have seen).
*To be clear, this is not my preferred method of play (running my turns several times and then running my opponents turns to make sure its “right”). I’m just doing this to figure out what is going on and what moves are “best”. If axis and allies had a “gym”, then TripleA is where you go to “work out”. I’d like to stack over the board games without all these tools and work on translating these findings into a “real-world” game. I might do so at the 2023 tournaments in LA… anyway
Otherwise, I very much agree with what you just wrote as regards flow. I wouldn’t change a word actually. Well written as usual.
@the_good_captain said in TGC(CP) v DoManMacgee(Entente) [game 6]:
I have played seven games as the Entente and won them all. But its a bit worse than that. I just cleared a game where the Entente lost something like 90% of their starting fleet in the first two turns - a complete and utter disaster and it was STILL a fairly solid Entente win - finished by turn 6-7.
It feels completely intuitive to play the Entente. To play the CP is to play a brittle set of countries that might be able to take one “dicing” in a big battle and that is if you play them immaculately.
That’s an interesting point. I’ve had a similar experience in these games where it takes several screw-ups from the Entente dice-wise before the game is lost but a single bad die roll in Ukraine or on the Ottoman Vs. UK front basically ends the game immediately. That is probably a point in favor of the Entente being favored overall.
I guess my point was more that my initial assessment of the Central Powers’ chances were even more bleak than what you’re outlining here. If you’ve ever looked into them, you’ll find that the LHTR for this game version specifically are a for more drastic departure from the OOB rules then you’ll find in basically any other version of A&A, to the point where it might as well be a completely different game. This is largely due to the view held by the folks on here at that time (~2014) that the Central Powers literally could not win the game under basically any circumstances, barring miraculous dice. Compared to that, saying “The Entente has a major advantage” is still a major improvement for the CP.
To expand, half the time you get a turn from me, I not only took several practice turns, but I have played through the next world turn to project your side. I do this to uncover “the best” move my opponent can make so I am not caught off guard by anything. Of course I do less and less of this as I stack more games but - this game favors the Entente in my opinion. At the very least I will argue that the Entente is more intuitive and more forgiving of poor dice (of course not in certain quantities as we have seen).
*To be clear, this is not my preferred method of play (running my turns several times and then running my opponents turns to make sure its “right”). I’m just doing this to figure out what is going on and what moves are “best”. If axis and allies had a “gym”, then TripleA is where you go to “work out”. I’d like to stack over the board games without all these tools and work on translating these findings into a “real-world” game. I might do so at the 2023 tournaments in LA… anyway
Yikes.
Okay I take the part about being blatantly inferior regarding tactics/fundamentals/etc. back (although that still may be the case!). I was thinking ahead a bit during our games but aside from using Battle Calc I was more-or-less treating these as an Over-the-Board type of deal. I didn’t think to go as far as simulating turns in advance. That’s some rock-solid dedication (especially considering you were juggling multiple games against multiple opponents).
At least now I feel a lot less bad about getting pummeled. If anything, I’m surprised I was able to keep up as well as I did.
@domanmacgee that’s exactly the sentiment I wanted to convey. Your experience with the game definitely came through. You had to school me several times on the rules even (much appreciated btw).
During the Anniversary series I realized I had to run my TripleA games in this way to save time. I needed to learn as many lessons as I could as quickly as I could to get good fast and so playing in the way I described quickly became the standard. Yes, there is a level of dedication. I am particularly motivated with regards to 1914 because even before I played my first game, I saw that most of the YouTube videos on the topic were severely lacking - even the bigger channels seemed to make a mess of things (rules errors were particularly irritating and prevalent). I felt 1914 deserved better than that.
@the_good_captain Yeah 1914 is really REALLY weird with the rules. As you saw during our games I stepped on a lot of rakes myself.
Anyway, if you wanna start up another round I’m game (let’s swap off again though). I won’t be ready to go until tomorrow or Tuesday though.
@domanmacgee lets shoot for wednesday evening? I have a trade show Monday/Tuesday.
@the_good_captain Works for me. I’ll make the thread once I’m ready but take your time and reply when you’re good to go.
