Gameplay questions

[AEWHistory]

Okay, got the game a few days ago and have been playing the CP poorly. I'm a little frustrated, but for the most part I think this is a very good game. However, I have some questions, some of which might be subjective. Here goes:

1. Is there any value to declaring war on neutrals? For example, as the CP I constantly eye the addtl PP I might be able to get by taking Holland and Denmark, but I haven't yet experimented with this. Has anyone?

2. Is there any way to affect neutrals? The manual makes it seem like some neutrals entrance is affected by how successful one side or the other is. OTOH, is there a way to play politics that I haven't discovered? Send PP? Some sort of political point system perhaps? I can't find anything.

3. I have found repeatedly that I get to Jan 1915 and Germany doesn't have anywhere near enough units to maintain its fronts properly. The only way to flesh out the front is with garrison units instead of actual infantry units. But the garrisons aren't meant to be used this way, right? So how is it possible to build out the front and maintain enough units without using substantial numbers of garrisons?

4. What does buying additional research facilities do? Does it speed the research? The carrying costs can be pretty substantial, so I have been reluctant to experiment.

5. The tool tip says there are major NM losses for disbanding a battle fleet. Does that mean just battleships or does that include cruisers as well?

Thanks! I'm sure I'll end up with more questions later, Aaron

[AEWHistory]

Okay, so I answered no. 5 on my own. No, there is no penalty for disbanding Cruisers. But what is up with the small garrisons? Anyone notice when you disband them you LOSE manpower? It's like the guys leave the town militia and disappear into the wilderness!

[Connfire]

1. If you have enough spare troops to defeat the neutral, as well as whatever help the Allies send, AND be able to hold it after they surrender, then sure, you can gain extra PP by attacking them.

2. Declaring war on certain countries affects certain neutrals. Success or failure on the battlefield, as well as certain benchmarks like first use of poison gas and unrestricted submarine warfare can also affect the neutrals' stance.

3. This question would be better answered with practice and strategy. Remember the Schlieffen Plan called for knocking out France quickly, then moving on Russia. Is that possible? Maybe the reverse is true? Maybe a different combination of units? Technology? Opening a an unexpected front? Lots of possibilities for you to discover through trial and error!

4. Yes buying additional facilities increases research, and yes it is currently expensive. Ultimately you need to decide if the benefits outweigh the costs. Note there is an additional price to upgrade the units with the new technology you research.

5. I don't know much about disbanding garrisons, someone more knowledgeable then me would be better to answer that. But I know they are due to be completely overhauled once Kirk's patch is released by Lordz.

[Hellfirejet]

NB : This is not official yet,just a possibility at this stage.


One game play change I'm play testing,is increased Central Powers Convoy Value,previous Convoys could be destroyed after just one attack,since they only had a value off 3,my theory is if I increase this to the same as British & French convoys,then maybe just maybe,Germany might manage to get a convoy to port,that will give Germany much needed PPs.[;)]

The biggest benefit for Germany is this,should the Central Powers gamer decide to,concentrate his efforts naval wise in the Baltic, protecting the Convoys from Sweden,once the Russian fleet in the Baltic has been taken care off,Germany really only needs to bother about British submarines in the Baltic,and the most effective way to attack the British subs,is to use Zeppelin's.

[Hellfirejet]

Another bone of contention,was that gamer's were unhappy about Serbia having to much PPs in game,this has been looked at in depth,and play testing is in progress,the Serbian front is now much more backs to the wall and protecting what you have.[;)]

[Hellfirejet]

NB : As yet none of this is official.[;)]

Not forgetting the Eastern Front,at the start off the war in the east, Russia initial thrust was conducted by Cavalry,well check this out,history is repeating itself,this setup ensures that the Eastern Front is much more fluid,with very little entrenchment early war.[:)]

[Hellfirejet]

Also not official but hopefully will be,is this Naval change,historically Germany had the best damage protection,even superior to Great Britain,so I'm also play testing with Germany having a defensive tech advantage at wars start.[;)]

[amtrick]

Kirk:

When playing as the CP, I find just being able to control the South Atlantic and Norwegian convoy movements and routes is enough to get them through (if you read my post in another thread you'll see how I managed to do that). Don't know how well that would work for the AI, though. I still think you should give the Human players the ability to move their convoys w/o the work around I discovered.

[AEWHistory]

Hi guys,

thanks for all the replies. I am continuing to experiment. I've tried getting rid of a chunk of the German Navy in order to build up faster and more completely. I've also made some minor changes to some other strategies. However, as I slowly get further into my games I am finding more issues that I want to ask about:

1. I knocked Serbia out of the war in Feb 1915. This is a major coup IMHO. Amazingly it says Italy is now only 6-8 turns from entering the war on the allies side! This doesn't seem right to me. The Italian entry into the First World War was a strongly calculated maneuver to benefit the state--they wanted to side with whomever could offer them the most AND deliver. So Serbia's very early fall should give Italy tremendous pause. After all, it means that AH isn't fighting on two fronts already. Going further, there was a chance, albeit much lesser, that Italy might join the CPs but I don't see any situation where this might occur. Anyway, I'm concerned about the diplomatic element of the game as it seems like it is missing something. Any thoughts?

2. How in the world do the Ottomans stop the Brit offensive from Sinai? The OE just isn't built up enough and their troops seem inferior. Ugh!

3. Is there any way to tell just how long a tech is going to take? It seems you only get this info once it is within 5 turns, but I'd love to have a better idea just how much time those bars represent. Do they all represent the same amt of time?

4. I thought that you where supposed to get half the prod of a conquered city rounded down but I'm seeing way less. Skopje was 8 but I'm getting 1. I'm no mathematician but I believe that is 12.5% and not 50%. did I miss something?

5. Can anyone give me good strategies how to use my subs? So far hunting in the North Sea/north atl has been ineffectual. Otoh, in the med I combine the German and AH subs and really smack the Brit convoys thru suez. Works like a charm.

Thanks again for the previous replies. I'll try to reply to those shortly.

[AEWHistory]

Thanks for the info. I think I have nailed down that disbanding garrisons really adds nothing and might actually cost manpower (I need to double check that).

I am trying some new strategies, but like others I have read, the Russians not only force me to turn east, they are capable of doing amazing damage. It seems to me one of the strategies to consider would be to build enough to hold all fronts and sink everything you can into research to try and get some sort of advantage that can be carried forward. The problem is that I'm not at all certain how long the techs truly take to get or if the CP stand any chance of outpacing the entente technologically. Maybe I should try a game as the allies now just to give it a go.....

One last question: I have been playing on balanced but just how hard is it for the CP on balanced?

[Hellfirejet]

ORIGINAL: AEWHistory

Hi guys,

thanks for all the replies. I am continuing to experiment. I've tried getting rid of a chunk of the German Navy in order to build up faster and more completely. I've also made some minor changes to some other strategies. However, as I slowly get further into my games I am finding more issues that I want to ask about:

1. I knocked Serbia out of the war in Feb 1915. This is a major coup IMHO. Amazingly it says Italy is now only 6-8 turns from entering the war on the allies side! This doesn't seem right to me. The Italian entry into the First World War was a strongly calculated maneuver to benefit the state--they wanted to side with whomever could offer them the most AND deliver. So Serbia's very early fall should give Italy tremendous pause. After all, it means that AH isn't fighting on two fronts already. Going further, there was a chance, albeit much lesser, that Italy might join the CPs but I don't see any situation where this might occur. Anyway, I'm concerned about the diplomatic element of the game as it seems like it is missing something. Any thoughts?

2. How in the world do the Ottomans stop the Brit offensive from Sinai? The OE just isn't built up enough and their troops seem inferior. Ugh!

3. Is there any way to tell just how long a tech is going to take? It seems you only get this info once it is within 5 turns, but I'd love to have a better idea just how much time those bars represent. Do they all represent the same amt of time?

4. I thought that you where supposed to get half the prod of a conquered city rounded down but I'm seeing way less. Skopje was 8 but I'm getting 1. I'm no mathematician but I believe that is 12.5% and not 50%. did I miss something?

5. Can anyone give me good strategies how to use my subs? So far hunting in the North Sea/north atl has been ineffectual. Otoh, in the med I combine the German and AH subs and really smack the Brit convoys thru suez. Works like a charm.

Thanks again for the previous replies. I'll try to reply to those shortly.

Hi AEWHistory and welcome to the CTGW forum.[:)]

In answer to your first question,Italy logically should delay their entry,especially since as you say you have just defeated Serbia,the diplomatic side of the game is one of its weakest areas,as there are very few ways you can directly influence how or when a Country will join the war and on which side,this side off the game is being looked at,and will be improved.

Your second question : How in the world do the Ottomans stop the Brit offensive from Sinai? Well to start Britain does have a tech advantage,so one way is to transfer extra men from say Germany if they can spare a garrison or two,if you can grin a bear it until the next game play patch,believe me Britain won't get it so easy,and Turkey will be able to resist more.

Your third question on tech build times: Different tech all have varying build times,but as a rule of thumb,unfocused tech takes about 12 - 18 turns to complete,focusing this tech speeds up its completion,but its slows down other techs within that area of tech.

Your 4th question : Was Skopje bombarded before Serbia surrendered,if so it would return less PP. ( I will look into this issue )

Your 5th question : Simple answer is build more Submarines,they are more cost effective, than they have ever been, in any other patch off the game,if Germany builds up their U Boat arm of the navy,it can be a war winning strategy![:)]

[Hellfirejet]

I'm play testing with reduced BEF strength,Britain's early war did not have a large land army,so this is being reflected in game,Britain now only has 2 Garrison sized units,ready to support the Entente on the Western Front.[;)]

[Hellfirejet]

French now have more Cavalry units on the Western Front 1914.

[amtrick]

AEWHistory:

Played quite a bit as CP on balanced against the AI. Never had to demobilize my German fleet to win ... in fact I recommend against it. Go to this thread

tm.asp?m=3556676&mpage=4&key=

and scroll halfway down the page and you'll see my two cents worth on how to win as CP. (It's page four in the Re:1.4.2 thread)

You have to keep banging away against the Entente, but you usually can wear them down to the point where losses > PP replacements, then the front sort of crumbles. It can happen over just a few turns.

Mindless frontal assaults are pretty wasteful. Create an open flank somewhere (English Channel, Romanian border, Baltic Sea) and roll it up, isolate their exposed units in salients and eliminate them, etc. You can even bait the AI into foolish advances (heh, heh, heh) and then counter-attack to destroy the advancing units. Completely destroy units rather than allowing them to slip away with 1 or 2 points left. USE GERMAN AND AH SUBS TO DESTROY THE INCOMING CONVOYS AND STARVE THE BRITISH AND FRENCH FOR PPs.

You can win as the CP ... but it ain't easy.

[Connfire]

The increases in French and Russian cavalry make sense, at least from what I think I know historically. Since the British received a boost in their fleet in one of the patches, it makes sense to reduce their land forces. They had a very small army relative to their neighbors at the onset of WWI, anyway.

[operating]

HI,

Kirk wrote:

Your 4th question : Was Skopje bombarded before Serbia surrendered,if so it would return less PP. ( I will look into this issue )

When you hit the space bar to see what the cities have what PPs, if a city's # shows up in RED, it means it is still economically recovering from it's devastation, eventually Skopje will go up to a 4. Cities worth a 2 will recover in enemy hands to a 1, cities worth 1 only recover to 0.

good luck, Bob

[AEWHistory]

Amtrick,

After reading your msg I discovers that sometimes I could move my own convoys, much to my relief. The problem is that I can't always do it, so I'm thinking this is the work around issue you're mentioned. Problem is I don't really understand the work around? What is it? Getting these convoys for Germany is a major life line!

EDIT: just noticed the link you gave lower down. I will check there. Thanks again to you and everyone else!

I haven't won yet as the CP but the games are getting more interesting and competitive. Perhaps soon I will be ready to lose to a human!

[AEWHistory]

ORIGINAL: operating

HI,

Kirk wrote:

Your 4th question : Was Skopje bombarded before Serbia surrendered,if so it would return less PP. ( I will look into this issue )

When you hit the space bar to see what the cities have what PPs, if a city's # shows up in RED, it means it is still economically recovering from it's devastation, eventually Skopje will go up to a 4. Cities worth a 2 will recover in enemy hands to a 1, cities worth 1 only recover to 0.

good luck, Bob

I'm playing on the ipad so I don't think there is a way to bring up the keyboard to do this here, is there another way? Or perhaps I'm missing something else? That wouldn't surprise me.

[amtrick]

AEWHistory:

To move your own convoys, load the "Autosave" file at the beginning of your turn. The convoys created this turn will not be movable (until next turn) but all the others will be. Generally you can let the South Atlantic convoys mosey on up to Spain before taking control of them. Then get them to go around the English Channel. The Swedish and Norwegian convoys are another matter. I usually mass the German Grand Fleet in the eastern Baltic and wait for the Russians to come out. You'll take losses knocking them out, but it can be done. Also remember that dirigibles are very effective against subs, so have one up on the Danzig coast to attack the Russian and Entente sub(s) whenever the show up.

[AEWHistory]

ORIGINAL: amtrick

AEWHistory:

To move your own convoys, load the "Autosave" file at the beginning of your turn. The convoys created this turn will not be movable (until next turn) but all the others will be. Generally you can let the South Atlantic convoys mosey on up to Spain before taking control of them. Then get them to go around the English Channel. The Swedish and Norwegian convoys are another matter. I usually mass the German Grand Fleet in the eastern Baltic and wait for the Russians to come out. You'll take losses knocking them out, but it can be done. Also remember that dirigibles are very effective against subs, so have one up on the Danzig coast to attack the Russian and Entente sub(s) whenever the show up.

Thanks for the info, great! I generally try to do the same in the Baltic--mass the German fleet, lure the Russkies out and them BLAM! It does get expensive, but less than letting expensive than letting the Russians interfere with the Baltic shipping. My current problem is dealing with British subs in the Baltic. I've only managed to keep the two BB fleets and one cruiser fleet by early 1915 and disbanded the rest, so anti sub options is a PITA. German needs it's fleet, however, I'm just not far enough along in my strategizing in this game to find that sort of balance... yet.