Posts made by Starlight Sniper

I noticed this in our last game as well. After a dogfight win, my army would crush with all the cannons I had. But lose the dogfight and the enemy would be almost unstoppable. I like your idea of only one round of air combat with the upgrade being awarded only if all enemy planes are downed. Making the planes hit on a three would make sense if there was only one round of combat.
A great idea I had was to use the US or Italy as a “Planes Only” country. Let them follow around the allies with a few troops and a huge air force. Sacrifice the guy you must bring in with you and take out a Central Powers air force in a dogfight. You’ll soften up the enemy for either of your allies and hopefully give your buds the Artillery Upgrade. It’s similar to the “Gord Maneuver” but focuses all your buying power towards air. I think it would work best with the US because they are the least susceptible to attack. Also, they can produce a transport and 2 fighters per turn. Just an idea.

Justin - U.K.  Gord - U.S.  John - Germany                                                              May 24      2014

The beaches were reluctantly cleared by the UK first, then the US - clearing the northern blockhouses last.  A steady stream of UK reinforcements quickly captured Caen. Germany saved his ‘flooding the lowlands cards’ until it was of vital importance.

After the capture of Caen the german forces played the move-and-posture game until a weakness opened up. The 'States managed a late game ownership of Cherbourg, but it was defended to the last unit and the potential for a german recapture force was real until about turn 5. The allies hit an astounding ammount of 1’s on their strafing shots however, and with some awesome and timely gambles and relentless backup they almost secured the three cities . . . . .

Caen proved the downfall. An attack on all German troops from UK troops garrisoning Caen and surrounding areas resulted in a fatal loss of troops for the UK in that area of the board. With American troops out of range the UK lost Caen, the Beaches were refortified with a Panzer tank and other units, a new blockhouse (card) and flooded lowlands (card) to prevent the 10 bonus UK troops from landing, the only UK backup was quagmired and by turn 9 Caen was not retakeable.

In review, the US and UK should have acted as a unified force when taking out blockhouses, they never bombed a single blockhouse and Germany took out some serious high dollar targets. Germany attempted to bolster the beaches in Omaha landing but was outmatched by the tactic  - GAMBLE ON ALLIES ATTACK, Win and you attack on a 2, Lose and you can have a soft landing without attack  -  a clever maneuver good sir, well played. The allies lost both bombers and half the airforce. It was Justins first time playing D-Day and like all of us, got a kick out of flipping the cards for the first time.
Cheers,

Starlight Sniper

Impressive that you were able to secure Moscow with only the two central powers. Another big play seems to be the clearing of the Med. by the CP Navy. I’m surprised that the US or UK didn’t mobilize a force for attack, after all . . it’s only the single nation navy you had rolling, correct?  As to Africa, my buds always seem to maximize it’s dollar potential. As the Allies, Africa is easy, just don’t lose it. As the CP, the Turks are the obvious way to go, but if you can clear the med like you did, you can transport troops from AH into N. Africa. Interesting thoughts.
I’m a huge fan of this game, although there is barely enough pieces to set up and I’m often struggling to find a guy or a gun, geez. There’s a pic of a home-made AandA game I made I’ll post later. 
Great to read good strategy from other gamers.
Cheers,

Starlight Sniper

Simple yet effective. I sometimes use a little card with my (and my enemies) national objectives.

“Where the allies and central powers take their turns together…”

1. I think it would really speed up the game play (I find our games sometimes drag on till the wee hours of the morning)
2. I’m thinking about the devastating triple hit on Russia. Do you think she could survive ?

I’'d be curious to hear more about your enlarged map, was it hand drawn and do you have any pics? I make some D&D maps and am always looking for new ideas. I’ve lent my maps out and don’t have any photos, sorry.
What sort of results have you had with your  CP / Entente alternating turns? It sounds like it would be one huge cluster . . . .  attack every single turn with little chance of the defender surviving a 3 (or up to 5) on 1 engagement.
I liked in A&A D-Day where both US and UK troops move simultaneously.

May the dice stay hot,
Starlight Sniper

In our games, the submarine warfare rule rarely (in fact never) comes in to play. If Germany is spending money on a navy big enough to contest the Atlantic, Russian and French troops should be able to establish solid lines on each front.

I like the idea of increasing the value of the hits, but maybe consider making it a 1 and a 2 to bring the US into the war. The US is in after turn 3 or 4 anyways, so I think there would need to be a 1/3 chance of accidentaly bringing them in but an even bigger reward for the sub warfare move should you decide to engage it early. I’m a big fan of the fact that planes can’t engage naval ships. If I’m not mistaken the first aircraft carrier was devised in the Great War.

Starlight Sniper

Unfortunately, we ended up playing the Europe side of the Global Axis and Allies. I achieved a Victory by Surrender playing as the Allies. A steady purchase of cheap destroyers as the UK prevailed against the Axis navy.

I’ve been reading some of the replies on this posting and I’m getting the idea that attacking France is not the way to go. I am in agreement. Russia is the easier, hitable target and best to get out of the game early. But this is such an easy and standard option, I was looking for a new way to beat up on my friends, lol. On the next game night I’ll suggest the 1914 edition and hopefully I can put some of the suggestions to good use.

If France does nothing but defend and retreat then it’ll be a very hard nut to crack. We’ll have to see what purchases the French player makes (they sometimes try for an attack force instead of a defensive core).  Sticking to the coast seems the safest way to go as long as you’re not short on men for defense. I’d try and hit Paris a little later than Turn 5, maybe allow the Ottomans to take the first strike or at least knock out the air force in Paris (a great sacrifice move I call "The Gord Maneuver )  If somehow you can clear the Med of allied forces, you could also transport Ottomans or Austrians to France. Like I said, I’ll post the results on the next game of 1914 we play. Wish me luck in the takedown of Paris . . . . .

Starlight Sniper

Thanks for all the great opinions. I’ll let you know what the final battle looks like in about a week.Here’s some of my thoughts.

-  It always seems the French bite me in the ass because I don’t give them enough credit (based on previous versions).
-  I’m intersted in repulsing landing, british troops with the artillery prefire shots.
-  The 1 + 2 punch of the Austrians then Germans could spell the end for the French.
-  A cheap german sub fleet might be enough to delay british amphibious re-enforcements.
-  The Austrians could help by keeping Italy pinned down and wiped out at the same time as Paris.

I’m not usually a fan of the battle calculators. I like to try and crack the numbers in my head. But in this game, given the large number of units involved in battle, it should come in handy.
Thanks
Starlight Sniper

I’m playing a game of A&A 1914 tomorrow and plan to advance on France as my main objective. I’d like suggestions from you as to the best way to assault France.
Cheers

I do not understand the Spanish invasion - why give the CPs 8 free units?
I feel confident I could clear the zone in one attack, but if not, my backup is there the next turn. I like the idea because you only need two fleets of transports, and in a few moves you’re mopping up what france can’t do on her own. It’s a slow grind but the supply lines rarely falter for the States this way. The other main reason is the extra cash. Valuable land is hard to come by for the US. If you go for spain you know where the money is and how many defenders there will be. If you set sail for CP zones, there’s no way of knowing what will be waiting for you when you get there. It’s also a good jump of point if you want to sail the Med. Just making conversation after all and in a game as complex as this, the more strategy you can get under your belt the better.

I’d rather send the Yanks to where they’re needed straight away.
Where would that be? The other options I’ve tried have been an allies focused attack on Turkey, and I failed when I landed in the Holland/Belgium area and make little difference.
Cheers  8-)

When playing recently with my buds, the CP have purchased navies with all 3 CP to great effect. My solution was to make the US the main Navy Combatant and let the CP waste their money on ships. This clearly depends on what the CP decide to do with their currency.
If the seas are clear:
As the US I’d love to hit spain on turn 4, and then you’re in every turn.
As France, can’t do much with a navy and we’re not at war with England, best to stay dry this war.
As Italy, if the seas are clear marching east to grece is a strong supply line to some good coin. Like France, stay dry like a martini.
The sneak move as far as I see it for the Allies is for Russia to build transports/navy in Sevastapol and take some Mediterranean area cash, Mines be damned!!
I figured the only people who need to transport are the UK and US, so take the UK out of the equation by building mainly in India then the US has only one option left, the destruction of any CP naval forces threatening Europe.

How many ships do the Allies build after round one?
Except the US, after round 1, zero, nil, zilch, nadda.

The UK will usually make an all naval build R1 after the German attack has wiped them out, and maybe a couple more transports R2; but that’s usually it.
The R1 UK naval buy is a great move I agree. But then get down to business and make India your main production facility.

These ships are needed immediately to get British units into Picardy or Karelia, but thereafter the Allies have more than enough naval power, and can easily match anything the CPs might spend on shipping.
Agreed. My main thought was not to waste allied cash on navy, let the US clean the slate after turn 4. By then any money spent on CP navy is going to show in their lack of troops as your 4 vs. 3  (India, Russia, Itlay[if lucky] and France  VS  Central Powers) gets underway. Gameplay is always fluid though, and adjustments are needed from time to time.

Now, if the game gave more power to CP submarine warfare, then American navy would be more valuable, but as things are I see no need for more US ships than are needed to carry the infantry across.
We’ve never thought the sub warfare for Germany would ever do enough damage to make it worth the cost. Also, while you’re buying subs to take a few bucks from the Allies France is teaching French to your citizens and storming the Capital. Subs don’t defend against any land unit.

Thanks for the reply.

Everyone wants to get some us troops into the game. We’re all guilty of it at one time or another.
I’m thinking in this version of A&A the US might want to stick to Naval Warships only. This lets the UK/India, France, Russia, Italy focus on destroying the ground troops the C.P. already possess in quantity.
By turn 4 the us is rolling and ready to strike and it makes the navies purchased by the C.P. a waste of money because only the US is buying warships. I think England can defend herself from any german threat and still produce good forces from the Indian factory. If a co-ordinated attack can be patched together from the Allies then the ridiculous naval arms race becomes a joke, a waste of everyones time and something you don’t spend all your cash on.
Finally, I don’t think trasnports will ever win this game for the US or UK, you would just need too many to move your army.

I’ve found that Germany can afford a few ships per turn and still bring the hurt to the allies on the ground, and even defending the Austian fleet for the first little bit helps, because the allies won’t be able to attack so easily and usually spend their cash on a Med. fleet, making Italy even weaker. The strong German navy keeps England from buying transpors, troops or India and makes them buy a defense navy. It’s a great stall tactic for the Centrals keeping Italy, US and UK busy buying ships to fight a naval battle, meanwhile you (CP) can focus on the ground and pound to bring someone to their knees!!!

Gords Gamble :  My buddy tried a daring move early one Sunday morning. He stacked a large Austrian force with two planes outside Moscow, backed up by a small German force (but 4 or 5 planes). Germans turn he attacks with his planes and takes out my 75% (3/4) of my defending planes and some of my infantry. Then of course Austria marches, cleans up the air and sacs Moscow, taking it a turn later on the Russian counter (ha ha) attack. I think the idea to take away is to maybe have a force of planes (why not just planes) to fly around and take out air forces for your team-mates.  hhmmm. . . . . .

Chacmool,
Thanks for clarification, they make more sense now. I may use some of them (or variations) when we make our house rules.

I’ve got two great strats. that I discovered while playing a game of D-Day late one Saturday night.

The Great Wall Of Planes -
This uses three zones to block off axis reinforcements to Cherbourg. Starting with the zone containing Catz/Carentan, moves left to St Jores/LaPuits and ends in Portbail. You can stack two planes per zone (or variations) and slow any help to the top city. It gives you a buffer of 2 zones at least to help out with the north.
And now for . . . …

The Cherbourg lure  - 
If the germans pull out of the city and group in Valognes for defense/attack positioning, they’ve made the fatal error. Quickly fly in a few planes to the city and another wave to wherever you want to move your (probably) US troops.  Now the Germans can’t deke back to the city and attacking your position would be tough too. You can now destroy those Cherbourg blockhouses before they’re ever defended or put to use. The Germans are now scrambling for options up top. Good luck !:  Those planes’ll getcha in the end.

PS - Gambling on the “Allies Land” card would allow US troops to land in Montebourg, only two spots away from Cherbourg.
    - Gambling on the “Allies Land” card would allow US troops to avoid Omaha Beach (1 defender or 9 defenders)
    - Consider landing planes in Montebourg and gambling your “Allies Land” card. You’d have a great defensive spot.
    - Gambling results may vary.

@Chacmool:

Another idea is to give each of the eight powers national (dis)advantages:

Germany: 3 tt movement

Britain: Is allowed to produce land units in Bombay

USA: Infantry costs 2 IPC

France: Is allowed to mobilize 1 Inf per turn in one of its original uncontested Colonies

Italy: Because of its membership in the Dreibund its not attackable in Round 1

Ottoman Empire: Dschihad allows them to mobilize 1 Inf in Arabia/Persia/Afghanistan or Egypt if theyre controlled by OE

Austria Hungary: If attacked by Russian units they lose automatically one Inf because of Slavic Desertion

Russia: Infantry is not pimped by Artillery (Inf was actually weaker than others in ww1 because of lack of riffles/Obedience )

I’m liking some of these ideas.
I’m concerned that if Germany can move 3, is everyone else still at 1 or 2 movements/territories ?
USA - This would make a big difference, allowing an actually effective battle force.
France - I think this is too weak to help the French, only 1 extra unit? How about this idea …. 
DEFENSE  -  If the French are under attack and all units are in original French territories all land/air units cost 1 less IPC,
                                                    A N D
ATTACK  -  If the French have any units outside original French zones (attacking/supporting land/air forces of any kind) all                units cost 1 IPC more.
                                                    A N D
STAGNANT  -  If France keeps all units in French Zones but is not under Attack, all land air units cost the normal ammount.

This would alter the French battle tactics a little and possibly give them a long term advantage. I know it seems like a big house rule but I think only one of these three situations could exist at once.

Autria - That’s tough, one guy per round every defense! You’d have to send them West and let the other two take down the big Bear.

Italy - Phew !! At least one turn to breathe. Question - Are they allowed to attack on the first round?

Ottomans - is it one total or one per zone ?

Russia - Without the hustle and muscle of a pimped artillery russia has no attack options. This one seems to unfriendly to the unit values. It would seem they only defend,buy guys and wait for turn 4. I don’t have a good suggestion for a Russian rule though.

One of the best sets of custom gamerules I’ve seen yet. My buds and I are still adjusting to the style of 1914 but really enjoy it.

This wasn’t the first time we played ww1. The first time setup and subsequent times we’ve noticed there are not enough pieces/chips etc.  But with a little creativity it’s no problem. Also, the new countries make it harder to amalgamate previous sets (eg. ottomans have only existed in this game, whereas the UK has a HUGE ziplock bag of old units to draw from.)
I own several editions but not 1914. Sam knows about ordering extra tokens but will they ever be ordered ?? The question lingers like gun powder in the morning fog.
This post is hopefully the first of many. I’ve read almost all the posts on these pages over the years and have only recently signed up an account. The guys and I have hundreds of games under the belt and I look forward to some good forum posts.

Starlight Sniper

My friends and I had our standard Saturday Board Game Night last week and it was pretty awesome.
We decided to rock the new WW1 edition, with standard out of box rules. Sam had some great strategy he wanted to work out and claimed ownership of the Central Powers.
ALLIES -     Gord and I as the Allies decided to focus out attacks on the hardest enemy to get to, the Turks. Figuring that the US1 purchase could be activated on turn 4 just as it reaches the Turks, that was our focus. With France sending transports to Turkish Soils and the UK shunting troops to Arabia etc. the Turks were hard pressed for $ and land. We decided to create a 4 zone line from Italy, through Swizerland and up to the chanel. Our goal was to hold the line and allow our attacks on the turks to work. Italy’s Navy combined with the french and uk med. fleets destroyed a rebuffed and reinforced Ottoman navy. After the Med. was cleared the path towards Turkey was open. While Russia defended the harbour of St. Petersburg, taking with it the German Battleship, one sub and a transport (thanks in part to the mines) the germans took much of the russian northern zones. A decisive advantage in airplanes allowed heavy Russian artillery to crush divided CP forces in the russian homelands. In the West the allies held true and kept a relative 4zone line against the advancing CP forces.
Central Powers   -    Sam was a strategist from the get go, seeming to force Russia into retreat almost the entire game. Had the revolution rules been in play, he most suredly would have triggered it. He didn’t seem to reinforce the Ottomans that much, and left the southern power to pretty much fend for itself. Sam took and kept Poland for most of the game and dominated all advancing attacks in the East. In the West however, he lost several large stacks to French counter attacks and homeland recalmation. Most of the problems for sams attacks were not the idea of them or the time they occured but rather his ability to maintain supply lines to his fronts. German stacks were eliminated one by one over the course of the game.
CONCLUSION - In the end Sam surrendered and the Allied forces prevailed. His ending strat was to buy german subs in an attempt to slow down the Atlantic naval forces (good luck). France was rolling with big stacks in western Europe and getting ready to march on German owned zones. Even Italy was pushing the 4 zone defense line East. The Turks were getting bombarded by the US, India, French and Italian transports and was looking to be in a dismal state of affairs, preparing for a final defensive in Constantinople. German forces were able to maintain a hefty income throughout the game.

I look forward to any replies to this article