AAR/Quick Guide Central Powers 1914

[TheBlackhorse]

You so need to PBEM...

[Hanal]

ORIGINAL: Blackhorse06

You so need to PBEM...

Different strokes for different folks.........

[TheBlackhorse]

PBEM is such a different experience from playing against the AI. It ratchets the tension up by several orders of magnitude.
 
 

[Hanal]

Strategic Phase Nov-Dec 1914

Now that I have enough Trench points, I can entrench units if I wish....clicking on a unit will bring up this new option....

[SMK-at-work]

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

Strategic Phase turn 2

My advise is to use the next button to survey your entire army to see what condition each of your corps are in before allocating any points. Do not waste a precious 2 points to refit a 22 point corp to 24 points when you might have bigger problems awaiting you.

My general rule of thumb is to get as many of my corps at least up to double digits, before I use whatever is left over for final tweaking...

My strategy for this in the Beta was to pick a figure I wanted all my units in a particular sector to have - then I would not reinforce anything over that, and would only reinforce weaker units up to that.....startign with the ones most likely to have to fight!!

Any left over after I'd done this for the whole of an army would go to either further reinforcing the front line, or reguilding truly shattered units.

Some countries are actually "blessed" by having more points than they can spend if circumstances work out right - Austria Hungary would often be in this position if the Russians ran out of steam early on, as their units are quiite weak so you don't get to use that many reinforcements on them to get them to full strength!![X(]

[Hanal]

Nov-Dec 1914 Strategic Phase

A couple of mistakes I have made........

I did not spend enough industry points on naval assets, the result is that I cannot perform any naval actions this turn (see below)...the TE will have control of the seas...

I miscalculated when my 4 HQ activation points would be available. They will be there for me on the next turn not this one. It should not be too much of a problem because I plan to only do one limited offensive action and attempt to take Antwerp. For the rest of the turn, I hope the French AI and Germans can organize a football match during an unorganized Christmas truce........

[Hanal]

Nov-Dec 1914 Activation Phase

I had 3 air recon missions. Antwerp is being defended by a 22 point French Corp, but Lille only has an Artillery battery.

[Hanal]

Here is an example of using Strategic Movement.

When you click on the strategic movement option you will notice that it says "eligible" in the information bar below the map, and as you move your cursor to where you want to go, you will see the number in parentheses increase to show how many rail points it will cost. If it suddenly says "ineligible", it will give a reason why you cannot strat move to that hex, whether it costs more rail points than you have, or an enemy controlled hex. It is an efficient way to keep track of your rail points.

I will be using my rail points to bolster my East front. I have 36 points to spend and I will use 2 of them to move the 42nd Corp to Hindenburg's army....

[Hanal]

The Eastern Front reformed via Strategic Movement.......

Hindenburg orders the 34th Corp into Kovno...

[Hanal]

Well I stunk up the joint with my West Front plan..........

Oh I captured Lille allright, and I have units follow up on their rear to occupy Brussels, but the TE launched a major offensive against Brussels forcing my Corps back. Lille is now cut off....The small number 1 on each French corps means they are entrenched as I discovered from another helpful thread on this board.

..a firing squad probably awaits me

[modrow]

Thanks for providing this AAR... [&o] I am pondering whether I should buy or not and consider this very helpful for decision-building.

Looking at what happened to you one re. Lille if this was a game against a human opponent I would have said this was a trap... if this is AI's doing, I'm impressed by that AI. Have similar "smart" actions been observed by other players out there, or was that some sort of coincidence ?

Hartwig

[sol_invictus]

I have found that the most difficult part of controling my forces, is the management of Activation and Barrage points. If you skimp on either or place them in the wrong area, a brilliant offensive will quickly grind to a halt. This is so critical. The French Army is very resilient. Damn AI.[;)] Great AAR. On to Paris!

Hartwig, I have found the AI very quick to mount effective counter-attacks.

[Hanal]

ORIGINAL: hartwig.modrow

Thanks for providing this AAR... [&o] I am pondering whether I should buy or not and consider this very helpful for decision-building.

Looking at what happened to you one re. Lille if this was a game against a human opponent I would have said this was a trap... if this is AI's doing, I'm impressed by that AI. Have similar "smart" actions been observed by other players out there, or was that some sort of coincidence ?

Hartwig

It was a trap that I fell right into...thanks for making me feel a whole lot better....[;)]

[Richard III]

Sorry to intrude on the excellent AAR...

If the enemy retreats, are you forced to advance into the now vacant hex ?

Other then Subs, what`s the point of shuffling your German Naval Forces about ?

Thanks

[sol_invictus]

You have to enter an enemy hex to attack, so you are already in the hex after a victory.

It is good for Germany to control the Baltic, so she needs to destroy the Russian fleet. Germany starts with a small fleet in Rostock, but it is much better if she can transfer more force to face the Russians.

[Moltke71]

Great AAR.

[JD Walter]

Thanks for the grat write-up, J P!

I'm learning a great deal from your explanations in the AAR; please keep them up! [:)]

[Hanal]

Thanks Def........

Damn!!!!  This is what happens if you do not spend industry points on Diplomacy. This is all I need, a delay of my Bulgarian ally entering the fray!!!!

[Hanal]

So I have finished the 3 turn game and I have won a marginal victory. Nothing to brag about though because overall I made some ghastly mistakes....the most recent was that I spent an activation point  for Hindenburg to give orders then forgetting to go back to him during the orders phase. An embarassing brain fart!!!!!!

[Hanal]

So there you have it....I hope this Quick Guide AAR was beneficial to some of you, as I think I covered most of the major facets of Guns of August. I find this a facinating game to play as you have to make so many decision, even before launching a single offensive, that I believe it has a high replayabilty value. You have so many choices to make, with limited means, that each game can play out a bit differently as you make different decisions. I neglected Diplomacy and it looks like it could eventually bite me in the butt. In my next game I will pay attention to Diplomacy, but what do I give up? R& D? Arms points? The choices and sacrifices are endless. Remember earlier when I bought 4 HQ activation points? Upon reflection I should have bought only 2, 3 tops.

The frustration of not just being able to launch "blitzkrieg" like battles will eventually be replaced by patience with small gains here and there, where winning a single hex is a big deal and losing it again is a big blow.......

This game veers away from what we are used to which is a good thing and though Guns of August took a hell of a long time to get here, it was well worth the wait.