Allies vs. Skynet

[John B.]

Meanwhile, in the Kaiserbunker, Wilhelm rages on about England and how they are an evil race. He has directed his Uboats to continue the unrestricted campaign against British shipping. He had to be talked out of rounding up British citizens and sticking them in camps "They did it to our cousins the Boers, it would give them a taste of their own medicine!"

The English, no aware of the threat to their countrymen. Press on and cross the Rhine to the north taking one German City and threatening key mines. German die-hards, however, continue to hold out and are forcing the French to bring up their aritillery as France, again, starts to upgrade it's infantry. Joffre is credited with developing these new assault tactics and weapons. "I call it our 'infanterie d'tempete' tactics and it really destroys the German linear defenses" Joffre was quoted as saying.

Really, it can't be too long now. The Central powers are just piling up dead for no purpose.

[John B.]

It all started to fall apart when Bulgaria dropped out of the war and its Tsar abdicated in August 1916. Romania joined the Entente and pushed into Transylvania. With the Russian capture of budapest A/H collapsed and the new nations of Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia) joined the Entente. As the British pushed into the Sinai and isolated Wilhelmshaven the French army (new motorized) captured Munich. A Berlin mob, desperate to stop the slaughter, stormed the Kaiserbunker and Wilhem I was barely able to flee before he abdicated and made it to the Netherlands. An attempted Bolshevik coup in Germany was swiftly crushed by Entente troops.

The Allied victory and total destruction of A/H and German led to a revival of the Triumphalist School of British poetry led by Wilfred Owen and the famous line from his poem "what passing bells for victory in battle." France and the new small countries of central Europe began to warily eye the new Russian colossus that lay astride a prostrate Central Europe. Meanwhile, in Germany, with militarism destroyed and the entire country under occupation by one power or another a strong sense of pacifism took hold led by Ernst Junger and his scalding anti-war memoir "Storm of Sorrow." The US, happy to have avoided the entire ruckus and fat from fulfilling large Entente war contracts stayed focused on its own internal development. The Young Turks, the only member of the Central Powers that maintained it's boarders, kept a tight grip on Anatolia, Syria, and Iraq.

[John B.]

That was a very fun game! I can't think of a better WWI game out there and I think it captures some of the feel of WWI.

Here are the suggestions I have.

1. Make it easier to see trench facing at levels 2 and 3 in mountain or forest terrain.

2. Make the AI a tad less aggressive. Germany could have held out much longer if it had not hurled itself against fortifications time after time inflicting no loss on the French. Also, the AI goes too all in on submarines. Germany was on the ropes yet it was still spending money reinforcing damaged sub units. For that matter, perhaps the AI should only do convoy raiding with subs and its ships should stay in port. It is too easy (IMHO) for a human player to outmaneuver AI at sea and Germany is best served leaving it's fleet in port anyway.

And, a couple of ideas for events.

1. Some sort of peace offer to the other side. This could, perhaps, raise national morale at the cost of production.

2. German sabotage in the US. This could hurt US exports to Britain with a small chance of enraging the US assuming that it finds out who is behind it.

Again, I really enjoyed this game. I slacked off on doing turn by turn at the end because I was eager to see what happened if I did just one more turn!

[eightroomofelixir]

Great AAR series!

[John B.]

Thanks!

[BillRunacre]

Thanks for the AAR, I've enjoyed following it! [:)]

[operating]

I too enjoyed the AAR..[;)] I have the earlier version of SCWWI w/Breakthrough, however this version you just played looks to be a lot smoother with hexes. I was a long time player of Commander the Great War and did many MP AARs, so can appreciate the effort it takes to edit for each post. When you did screenshots where were they stored? Like in a file of SCWWI or elsewhere? To me the Matrix forum was fairly easy to upload pics to compared to Slitherine forums. Once again, thanks for the AAR.[:)]

[John B.]

Hi operating! It was my pleasure.

I stored the screenshots in microsoft paint. I would edit them to get the file size down with Irfanview.

[FOARP]

I’d second a lot of the things John B. Says here. The Central Power AI is just a bit too aggressive on the Western Front. Really, post-1914, unless Amien has fallen (meaning an advance on Paris is possible) then the AI should dig in and only attack targets of opportunity (I.e., units surrounded on at least three sides) until Russia is knocked out of the war. At the moment the German AI attacks on the Western Front so much that it grinds itself down to nothing by late 1916.

However I’ve got to say the balance in this game is still better than that of other SC games, most of which appear far too slanted towards the Germans.