AAR/Quick Guide Central Powers 1914

[sol_invictus]

Lava, yeah, I saved my last refinement before I went to bed last night. I guess I need to take the plunge and actualy test my strategy in the crucible of war tonight. This is the first computer wargame I have ever played that has given me the feeling I had when I was younger and playing boardgames. I used to plot and plan for hours stooped over those old boardgames and now i'm doing it with this game. Thanks Frank for restoring my youth.[;)] I hate to think that the crafty AI will turn my brilliant strategies against me.[X(]

[Hanal]

We are now at the Strategic Phase of turn 2. There are some additional functions that were not available at turn 1. Let's first take a look at the victory screen again. It was a bloody month and all countries save Belgium are rated excellent.

[Hanal]

Strategic phase 2

We will now go to the National status screen. This is the place where you spend your industry points on various goodies. The most important is the "buy HQ" option. This is not to be confused with the building of a HQ unit but is in fact the purchase of more offensive/activation points for your HQ's to use for orders. They are expensive at 3 industry points for 1 but you have to weigh this agianst what you want to do. Buying too many will deprive you of other items, buying too few will once again cause your offensive campaigns to stall. I buy 4 HQ activation points. One point for trenches, 2 points for artillery, and my last point for arms refit.

By the way, if you open this screen during the turn one strat phase, you will find you can click on the buttons all you want but will see nothing happening. That is because you have not gained any industry points yet.

[Hanal]

Strategy Phase 2
 
I keep the air fleet operations the same as turn one.
There are no Diplomacy Points or Research points to spend this turn.
I finally send my fleets out to sea, correcting my previous screw-up.

[Hanal]

Strategy Phase Turn 2

Now we come to the very important refit screen. On the bottom panel, you will see that you have a choice of refitting HQ's, Corps and artillery. We will select corps first. You can select auto reinforce, but I think it is better to do it on your own.

Clicking on the corp button gives you the first corps information to the right. Among the information you will see its' maximum strength and current strength. The position of the corp is highlighted on the map.

[Hanal]

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.

You see? Here is my 31st Corp with a current strength of 4.

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...and if by chance you are planning to move some units out of the front line, so it's possible they might see little or no action, delay spending points on them until the next strat turn.....

Clicking on the reinforce button will add 1 point per click........

that's it for now...more later

[TheHellPatrol]

[&o]Awesome job J P! Thanks to this i will jump right into a "real" game as the CP[8D].

[ojnab_bob]

Thanks a lot, J P.  One question though - were you tapping the spirit of Sir Douglas Haig in your "attack the well-dug in French west of Alsace-Lorraine" strategy?  O, the humanity! [;)]

[Hanal]

ORIGINAL: ojnab_bob

Thanks a lot, J P.  One question though - were you tapping the spirit of Sir Douglas Haig in your "attack the well-dug in French west of Alsace-Lorraine" strategy?  O, the humanity! [;)]

Well I sure did take a beating as you observed but I did make a bit of headway so we'll see if it pays off in the future....I wanted to test the spunk of the French defence and it proved tough...their artillery really diced my corp up!

[flintlock]

ORIGINAL: elmo3

Can you overspend or am I missing something?

The screen you're referring to which shows 20 naval assets is the new value post purchases. If you look on in the lower right hand column, you'll see the sub, (UB)(3), and the two transports, (Tr) (2). So in answer to your question, no, you can't overextend yourself.

Edit: Sorry, just realized I replied to this without noticing there were two pages to this thread.

[Hanal]

Strategic Phase Turn 2

So we now come to the HQ refit which means you allocate offensive/activation points to your depleted HQ's....I have only 2 to dole out as the 4 I just purchased will not be available until the turn 3 strat phase....luckily my two reservist in the West,, Prittwitz and Heeringen have 2 points each, so I can launch some offensives. In the East, Hindenburg has 1 but I must increase him to his full complement of two because he is going to be a bit busy......

[Hanal]

Strategic Phase Turn 2: conclusion

Regarding builds, I added one cavalry, one artillery, and one siege artillery to the German queue....

Austria only had three industry points to spend so I used it for one HQ activation point....I built another cavalry and artillery unit.....Austria had two HQ refits so I used 1 on the Serbian front and the other on the Russian front...Unfortunately Austria had no available arms so there was no refits to their Corps...

Turkey joined the CP at the end of turn one and they have a paltry 1 industry point...I used it for their navy...

The impulse phases for Turn 2 will prove to be most interesting...I have  very limited offensive capabilities for the next two months and if you think about it in historical terms, this is quite accurate. The month of August  in the game was a grindhouse with staggering casualities on both sides, so a lull in the fighting will now occur as fronts are re-evaluted, tactic re-examined and I await those 4 extra activation points for turn 3. I plan to keep a tally of how many attacks the TE AI accomplishes during this turn. Are they limited in their attacks like me, or will they have the capabilities to launch an effective counter attack? Tomorrow we begin the battles of turn 2 and then we shall see.

Have a good night everyone..............


THE WEST FRONT AT THE START OF SEPTEMBER 1914

[JD Walter]

Thanks, J P. Greatly enjoying your AAR. Appreciate the insights you're providing into CP strategy...

[LarryP]

JP;

Thanks a ton! You pushed me over the edge and I am going to the Matrix store now. [&o]

[Hanal]

Sept-Oct 1914

Activation Phase....

Now that I finally sent my fleet out, there are some naval battles...I lose the Blucher and the result is that the North Sea and Baltic Sea are contested....

On the Serbian front the Serbs had pulled out of Belgrade during the final August impulse phase. I activate my only Austrian HQ on that front so that I can occupy it this turn...

I decide to take a gamble on the West front and not activate any of my HQ's. I will save them for later impulses and use this time to reorganize

I had 2 air recon points so I was able to spot 2 French hexes

I activate Hindenburg in the East....

[ASHBERY76]

That is a strange looking England.[:)]

[Hanal]

Activation Phase Turn 2

So much for planning not to spend any HQ points on the West Front, because when I used one of my air recon missions over a crucial hex, I discovered a weak section of the French line. Now it could very well be that the AI will reinforce this hex but I will take the chance that I can capture it...

[Hanal]

Impulse 1 Resolution

My attack on the French line failed and so I retreated with a lose of 10,000 men

I finally captured Belgrade but that will be the last Offensive move that I can make on this front for now.

The Russian's spent 2 activation points on offenses this impulse but both attacks failed.
Interestingly, the French shelled my lines three times but did not attack...REMEMBER that artillery do not need to be activated in order to barrage so the French reduced my forces by 16 points without spending an activation point!

[sol_invictus]

Artillery, "The King of Battle".

[Hanal]

Impulse Phase

Victory!

I take the French ground....All other fronts were quiet. With one impulse remaining, the TE might have no more offensives planned....I might risk spending one more in the West....