Guys, I really gotta point out, he specifically mentioned “rules and setup should remain the same”.
djensen, Flashman does bring up an interesting point, though–Russian Revolution, or no? It’s an “optional rule”, and how you treat it will affect your victory conditions.
Sorry, D, I’ve only really played two-and-a-half games, but I’ll try to stick to “signal”.
Tough question. My initial impulse is to lean toward a territory-control goal, something like “CP must control a total of six original French, British, or Italian territories.”
An income target might be workable as well, but I think that might be more prone to being “gamed”.
Played our second game last night. The Central Powers did much better this game, I think, but still didn’t win. Some of the success was from slightly better-than-average dice over the course of the game, but they weren’t tremendously slanted.
The Americans did save all their money for the first few rounds, not even buying until round four, so didn’t mobilize 'til five. That was by choice, though, as they wanted to bring a seven-stack of tanks on their first transport convoy.
Overall, the plan for the CP was to not attempt to expand in all directions simultaneously, but to mostly play defense in the west while eliminating Russia, then turn around in force. It went fairly well. Austria and Germany did give some ground in the west, with France even taking Ruhr for a couple rounds (that hurt). Russia was forced in revolution Round 5, which was actually a mistake. Germany really needs that six+ bucks down the road. After Russia fell, though, the CP was able to push back pretty strong in the west, with the Austrians able to take Venice, Piedmont, Burgundy, Marseilles, and Bordeaux and the Germans in control of Belgium and Lorraine.
We actually called the game with a sizable Austrian stack sitting outside Paris, but Germany had finally lost the naval war in the North Sea (the French spent a round buying boats to turn the tide), Americans were landing in Spain, and the Ottomans had stalled out contesting India after Americans landed in Constantinople and a stack or two had to turn around. They had gone almost straight there with nearly everybody–I did divert one round to kill Brits in Arabia, which was a mistake (survivors transported back to India for defense, and my attackers were out of position now).
Review: This is only game two for us, but I’m more convinced now that some balance factors might could stand to be addressed. India is almost impossible to take out, I think. The Central Powers also have no real way to begin to contest the Mediterranean, it doesn’t seem. I haven’t experimented with Austrian navy yet, but it doesn’t look promising.
@Texas:
@Uncrustable:
This validates my overall point that you and your A&A partners are simply not very good at this game and that is why you get scewed game results from the rest of us
I don’t understand the point of this statement at all. I haven’t used this strategy in a live game, I am throwing it out there for feedback. It is also part of a larger game plan that I have been working on over the past couple weeks. Most of the ideas that I have posted are just that, ideas. They haven’t seen a live game. I have no idea how anything in this thread reflects the playing ability of anyone.
Yeah, the purpose of this thread is for thought experiments of somewhat off-the-wall ideas. I don’t get to play often enough to spend time on offbeat ideas, nor are my teammates often willing to entertain harebrained schemes.
Having said that, I don’t see much benefit to advancing the AH navy without a follow-up threat, and probably not even then. I guess it might keep the French in the Med for one round, though, which might could help Germany. Heavy cost, though, to give up the Med so early.
@Texas:
What if AH buys two battleships turn 1?
Hmm, that’s interesting. i guess it depends on what the other Powers are doing. It seems like either Germany or Austria one has to go ground troops just to maintain, so I don’t know if they can afford to do that while Germany also goes boats, but maybe. Actually contesting the Med might theoretically draw some money from France, even–Italy can’t afford to fight a naval war once their initial stuff is gone.
Anybody have any input on the Germans saving up to buy like ten or twelve tanks round four (like, with a ground-based, defensive strat–not Kaiserliche Marine)?
Purpose here would be to force the French navy to support the Italians, keeping them from sailing up to support the British, and thereby hopefully allowing the Kaiserliche Marine to gain naval superiority in the north Atlantic.
Talking about attacking first round with the Austrians? Hmm, might could help, but it’s an awful dicey gamble. In conjunction with the Germans going naval, though, a win there would apply more naval pressure to the Entente. I could maybe see that, and since the Austrians go first, the CP could use the outcome of that fight as a go/no-go signal for such a strat.
Whatcha think about saving money for extra tanks round 4?
Played one game, dunno when I’ll get to play another. It looks rough for the CP, but we’re gonna play OOB a few times before we start playtesting new rules and/or setups. Having said that, I’m thinking about ideas for different, less conventional, approaches. Just kinda thought-experiments here–love to get feedback or hear any other theories.
The first thought that occurs to me is the strength of tanks come round four (see the “CP Wins First Game” thread). What do people think about saving money, like round-three income, to buy a double-stack of tanks asap? It would probably mean ceding a territory or two as either Germany or AH falls back for a round, but by planning for it early, it’s possible the effects could be mitigated.
A more wild strategy would be to focus primarily on Britain/India, with Germany buying boats early to threaten Scotland while the Ottomans go all-in to close out India, while A-H plays defense on versus the other Allies. I don’t know if this is at all possible, but with the unlimited India builds in OOB, it seems at least worth thinking about. Seems like the only way the Ottomans even have a chance is if the Brits are forced to spend less money there and buy at home instead. Is it possible to hold off France long enough for the Ottomans to clean up the corner of the board and turn around?
Heh, it just occurs to me that it would be an absolute riot if Sea Lion turns out to work better in 1914 than any of the actual WWII games.
Just played our first game (-and a half) today. Played one to about turn three to get a feel for the rules while waiting on our fourth player, then ran pretty much a full game. First one was starting to look rough for the CP, and the Entente won the second, fulll game pretty handily–Russia was never even put into revolution, primarily due to a series of really awesome Russian rolls in Poland.
Just a first game, and I’m looking forward to giving Hungary a whirl, but it looks to be a tough road to hoe for the Central Powers.
Our group generally plays on Saturdays, scheduling from 9 a.m. to midnight. We don’t really finish, but we usually get close enough it’s no longer in doubt.
Haven’t played with any kids yet, but I’ve had some success introducing (or re-introducing) new players with it. The coolest thing for me is being able to play a game on a weeknight, in one of our normal fourish-hour slots.
Mexican Amercians…like education…so they school…and take Spanish…and get a B!
Let’s see who gits Brits:
BH: 
Rolling 1d20:
(13)
MR: Rolling 1d20:
(1)
Yap, I get the Japs.
Amercia:
BH: Rolling 1d20:
(7)
MR: Rolling 1d20:
(1)
JF: Rolling 1d20:
(19)
RF pulls down Italy. For the last of the Axis powers, Japan.
JF: Rolling 1d20:
(1)
MR:Rolling 1d20:
(7)
BH: Rolling 1d20:
(1)
YT: Rolling 1d20:
(20)
Jeezmus Creezmus…I knew knew KNEW R.L. was gonna get Germany, somehow. I so almost changed it to roll for Japan first, but third-guessed my second-guess.
Up next, Italy.
JF: Rolling 1d20:
(7)
RF: Rolling 1d20:
(19)
BH: Rolling 1d20:
(16)
MR: Rolling 1d20:
(1)
Me: Rolling 1d20:
(6)
Okeydoke, picking countries for 7/21 G40 game.
Players: J.F., R.L., M.R., B.H., R.F., Y.T.
Highest roll in this post get Germany. We’ll be using d20s.
JF: Rolling 1d20:
(14)
RL: Rolling 1d20:
(15)
MR: Rolling 1d20:
(13)
BH: Rolling 1d20:
(10)
RF: Rolling 1d20:
(9)
Yours Truly: Rolling 1d20:
(5)
In the first game, I played Russia attacked W. Russia with more units than described and was captured by G2.
Did Germany bring the two guys from Italy? How much of the airforce? And did you pull the Far East guys back?
Yeah, I don’t think the Ukraine attack is a good one for Russia. Gotta commit everything, and it’s still only slightly better than 50/50.
I agree Karelia is probably a write-off.
While I’m absolutely on your side, Vance, I’m not sure I can think of when I would use a period followed by a single space to denote anything but the end of a sentence. I am curious, however, about the treatment of semicolons; Â does the computer only hate the doublespace after periods? I wish computer programs conformed to existing language rules, rather than forcing their modifaction, personally.
So, on to rambling…what to do with Germany? Figure Karelia has three infantry (skipping the Norway infantry poke for now), West Russia has 4-5. Â Caucasus probably has five guys and maybe some armor. All four German tanks can steer to Caucasus, a factory next to the capital. Â Three infantry can walk in, and, if we forgo Africa for now, we can maybe float two more in on boat. If they put more than one tank there, we can bring a fighter or bomber to supplement. Â That puts a pretty sizable force there, even if we spare a tank to hit Karelia with our seven other guys from Eastern and Norway. Fuck, I think I’ve been double-spacing. Sorry. Â Anyhow, throw one fighter at the ground, wherever needed, and you’ve still got three more, plus a bomber, to use at sea. Battleship & sub vs. B-ship, sub, and two fighters. Destroyer, sub, fighter, bomber, versus carrier and fighter. Take the shot at a two-fer off of Canuckistan with the lone sub. Non-combat three guys from Germany to the east. I think things will look pretty awful for Russia after G1.
If I were trying to win quick, bomber is the obvious buy, as it can strike Moscow round two. If I were after a slow win, probably infantry. Tanks are the German standby, though, it seems.