Eqqman (Entente) v TGC (CP), 1914, OOB + RR

@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.

@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 ;).

@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?

@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!