Neutral Belgium. Warspite vs Ulver

[Orm]

So now Belgium is an open front?

[ulver]

ORIGINAL: Orm

So now Belgium is an open front?

No. He hasn’t invaded Belgium. He just ended British neutrality under 2.5.2 of the house rules. That voids section 1 of said rules not section. That will apply until he attacks Belgium

[ulver]

Anatomy of a near-death experience

In the end the 3rd republic made it – just.

Around mid October a there were a few pieces of good news mixed with the disasters from the front. As the French army had been demobilized as a cost-saving measure not everything had gone into technology and bomber production. There had also been substantial investment in three armored trains for garrison duty. Those would play a significant role in slowing the German juggernaut. Even so panic was gripping they city as France issued a call for the Levée en masse


Turn 9 –October 15th 1914. Panic grips France while she pleads in vain for British support

[ulver]

As the German advance rolled ever westwards British Government offesr to meditate the conflict took on an ever more assertive tone. The French were happy to accept British meditation with a view to a ceasefire but Germany turned down the British offers flat.

With German troops actually entering the outskirts of Paris Britain finally decide that the German objective was nothing less than the complete destruction of France and hegemony over the continent – something Britain couldn’t accept.


Turn 11 –November 12th 1914. Edward Grey's warning is not taken seriously in Berlin and Britain intervenes.

[ulver]

Turn 14 – December 24th 1914. Christmas Eve. As fighting gives way to the Christmas truce for a single night British forces rush toward the front while the doomed defenders of Verdun gives their lifes to tie down German troops.

[ulver]

Turn 19th – Marts 4th 1915: The arrival of the BEF in force appears to allow a stabilization of the front. For now at least.

[warspite1]

All over - Italy join the war and I have no units left on the Western Front and nothing to defend against Italy with. Well played Ulver!

[ulver]

The second French crises.

Turn 21 – April 1st 1915: Just as the French thought they had weathered the crises a second massive German offensive was unleashed and a huge army-size whole was punched in the front with Germans pouring into southern France threatening an envelopment.

[ulver]

Turn 23 – April 29th 1915. A series of brutal army-destroying battles to cut off the German breakthrough. it has to succeed – there is no way to find the troops to contain it.

[ulver]

Turn 24 – May 13th 1915. France’s second salvation. Joseph Joffre pulls off yet another miracle and close off the salient.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

All over - Italy join the war and I have no units left on the Western Front and nothing to defend against Italy with. Well played Ulver!

warspite1

I think our posts crossed [:)]

[ulver]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

All over - Italy join the war and I have no units left on the Western Front and nothing to defend against Italy with. Well played Ulver!

You are conceding? You are totally kicking my ass in Russia – I am in the process of fortifying Petrograd as you are rapidly approaching. Was going to to a bit of AAR there about the Armored Train hero cities.[;)]

I would love to see a post about your grand strategic thinking in this game from the onset. You totally did the opposite of what I expected pretty much every turn. I figured that the short western front and initial British neutrality is an invitation to Go east and seek to knock Russia out of the war in 1915. Yes the price is that France gets to build a stack of bombers and turns the Ruhr to rubble ( or alternatively gets high tech artillery with obscene amounts of ammunition) but I figure that is a price worth paying.

You went west in a big way - why?

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: ulver

ORIGINAL: warspite1

All over - Italy join the war and I have no units left on the Western Front and nothing to defend against Italy with. Well played Ulver!

You are conceding? You are totally kicking my ass in Russia – I am in the process of fortifying Petrograd as you are rapidly approaching. Was going to to a bit of AAR there about the Armored Train hero cities.[;)]

I would love to see a post about your grand strategic thinking in this game from the onset. You totally did the opposite of what I expected pretty much every turn. I figured that the short western front and initial British neutrality is an invitation to Go east and seek to knock Russia out of the war in 1915. Yes the price is that France gets to build a stack of bombers and turns the Ruhr to rubble ( or alternatively gets high tech artillery with obscene amounts of ammunition) but I figure that is a price worth paying.

You went west in a big way - why?

warspite1

Why? Because I am in the mould of Alexander, Caesar or Napoleon; a tactical and strategic genius without parallel....

..well, either that or I just got lucky because I didn't even consider going east! The fact that I then put a French unit within one hex of Paris confirms I am in fact, a complete moron [:(]

What I achieved in Russia proves that that should have been the way to go, but.....

On a more serious note though - I must say that any games I play in future will be on the proviso that a) there is no disbanding and b) strategic bombing needs to be curtailed massively. It wasn't a feature of WWI, but can be a killer in this game.

Another fun game though Ulver - thank-you. You are a very good player, and with your ability to exploit rules and test things to the limit you really should be a beta tester [&o]

[ulver]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: ulver

ORIGINAL: warspite1

All over - Italy join the war and I have no units left on the Western Front and nothing to defend against Italy with. Well played Ulver!

You are conceding? You are totally kicking my ass in Russia – I am in the process of fortifying Petrograd as you are rapidly approaching. Was going to to a bit of AAR there about the Armored Train hero cities.[;)]

I would love to see a post about your grand strategic thinking in this game from the onset. You totally did the opposite of what I expected pretty much every turn. I figured that the short western front and initial British neutrality is an invitation to Go east and seek to knock Russia out of the war in 1915. Yes the price is that France gets to build a stack of bombers and turns the Ruhr to rubble ( or alternatively gets high tech artillery with obscene amounts of ammunition) but I figure that is a price worth paying.

You went west in a big way - why?

warspite1

Why? Because I am in the mould of Alexander, Caesar or Napoleon; a tactical and strategic genius without parallel....

..well, either that or I just got lucky because I didn't even consider going east! The fact that I then put a French unit within one hex of Paris confirms I am in fact, a complete moron [:(]

What I achieved in Russia proves that that should have been the way to go, but.....

On a more serious note though - I must say that any games I play in future will be on the proviso that a) there is no disbanding and b) strategic bombing needs to be curtailed massively. It wasn't a feature of WWI, but can be a killer in this game.

Another fun game though Ulver - thank-you. You are a very good player, and with your ability to exploit rules and test things to the limit you really should be a beta tester [&o]

The Entente needs to be able to reduce cost if faced with a serious U-boat effort. You also need the ability to disband to get the cash to repair damaged corps.

If you have two damaged corps and no PP to repair them it makes sense to be able to disbanded one to repair the other, eliminating the ability to disband would cause other problems that might be as big as the ones we have. I actually rather like that you have a constant balancing act in the trade-off between the size of your army and production. Makes sense to me – you keep your workers in the factories and farms or do you send everyone to the front? Nations did disband forces as various times to send workers back to industry and farming.

The ability to strategic bombard is very powerful and massive 4 engine bombers were being built in 1918 to bomb Berlin
http://www.thecrossinthesky.com/2008/10 ... -bomb.html

They didn’t quite make it before the war ended but it does make sense that strategic bombardment is a path to pursuit It is just that you can get it far too early in this game. I would suggest a nation can only build a number of bombers equal to its bomber technology. Nothing wrong with plauserbal what-if technology. The problem is the devastating bomber raids in 1915, that should only be possible in 1918 with a massive investment in researching a specialized strategic bomber.

EDIT: Make that bomber technology -1. Italy enters the war with bomber technology 2 and Russia with 3 (the latter dosen't matter much they will never be able to build more then 1 anyway but having 2 Italian bombers in 1915 is just crazy. Capping it at bomber tech -1 makes more sense anyway.