Schlieffen Plan

[06 Maestro]

The Battle of Soisons was a disaster for the French Army. I assume the ai was attempting to cut off the advance of the German Army to protect Paris-it did not work. This was the main body of the German 4th Army, including the artillery unit-and the French had to attack accross a river.

[06 Maestro]

The effects of these major battles are felt by both side of the war. Here, you see the results of France's represented by a loss of NW. Germany and her allies had an increase of 3 NW.

[06 Maestro]

Here is the map of the Italian front. It has been quiet so far, but Italian units are moving north. The A/H Army has prepared a defensive line with 2 corps in each of the critical provinces. It is believed that this will suffice, as the terrain is very good for the defensive side, and the Italian Army is not that strong-yet.

[06 Maestro]

Great Britain has long since implemented a blockade. Fortunately, I (as CP) drew the event card for a very strong blockade, so it has not really hurt so far.

The T.E. have used various events to try to move the U.S. to their side. Sometimes, there is a tough choice in keeping with that plan. Here, they are tightening the blockade, but there is a price.

[modrow]

Ahhh... finally the next update. Presently, I check at least once per day for updates in this thread. Thanks for sharing your experience with us [&o]

Could you tell us some more about

a) how much time running a turn takes you on average
b) how you process a turn (i.e. what do you typically do in what order, do you need to spend a lot of time scheduling, how much care about logistics do you need etc. I should note that I am a WitP addict, you may derive from that scheduling and logistics are good things )
c) the main "results" of your playing so far, i.e. what game mechanisms to be taken (more) care of next time did you gain insight on ?

Thanks again !

Hartwig

[06 Maestro]

ORIGINAL: hartwig.modrow

Ahhh... finally the next update. Presently, I check at least once per day for updates in this thread. Thanks for sharing your experience with us [&o]

Could you tell us some more about

a) how much time running a turn takes you on average
b) how you process a turn (i.e. what do you typically do in what order, do you need to spend a lot of time scheduling, how much care about logistics do you need etc. I should note that I am a WitP addict, you may derive from that scheduling and logistics are good things )
c) the main "results" of your playing so far, i.e. what game mechanisms to be taken (more) care of next time did you gain insight on ?

Thanks again !

Hartwig

Sure Hartwig, no problem.

a. Turns last me anywhere from 10 minutes to over a half an hour. It depends on various things such as; new ambassadors, reinforcements, Interphase, offensive planning and how many screen shots. I would say that currently, an approximate average turn length would be about 20 minutes. I would expect that to drop in the future as I become more accustomed to the game.

b. The ‘military phase” begins with the reinforcement phase. I willdeploy those units while checking the overall situation. Then I allot the available replacements to the areas were they will do the most good, then I make the movement commands which result in combat, then move the units which are engaged in RR repair. All the while, I try to keep an eye out for units with the “out of supply” mark. I have had one corps on the western front get bounce after a couple of turns (fairly sure it returned as a damage reinforcement)-it had swept into Dijon and was resting.

c. Keeping in mind that I was (and still am not) an expert at this game, there are several areas that I will improve on in the next game.
1. RR repair needs to be streamline somehow-should not be using more than one or two units.
2. It is a good idea to be prepared to cover the entire front by the time “trench warfare” starts. One corps can do a decent job of holding the line, but it will take a whole lot more to recapture a province.
3. The use of the “Grand Offense” planning should have been made use of earlier. If successful, you gain far more NW than doing anything else (is my impression anyway).
4. I would use the “breakthrough” option on the battle screen much more often to make a more rapid advance in the beginning.
5. Events are a very important part of the game. Just which ones you keep is dependent on your overall strategy. I just grabbed the ones that looked good in a generic way-that is not really the smart way to do it.
6. Unit construction would be modified. I should have built far more artillery than what I did. I currently have ammo coming out of my ears, without enough tubes to put them through.
7. Diplomacy is a tricky part of the game. It seems that AMB's should be massed for quicker results, but I really need more info for this area.

There is still much to learn about this game. The complete manual is still being worked on, so various questions are being asked at the Ageod site daily. It has enough “depth” for me-with some very crafty attributes. It is nowhere near as complex as WitP-which I have owned fro years, but only played about 6 months into the war a few times. The initial setup for turn one in WW1 would take about 1/10th the time as WitP. The supply issues are really basic in WW1, repair RR's and stay within 2 provinces of the railhead. It is enough to have an impact on operational planning. There are variable too, like if you get the "truck" tech, you can have a three province range. There are other supply variables of which I'm not sure about at this time. Unit construction needs to be "in tune" with your strategy-this takes a little bit of planning.

[modrow]

Thanks a lot for your additional information. Looks like I will get the game at some point of time; but probably I'll wait for the manual... unless your AAR makes me want it badly at an earlier point of time [8D]

Hartwig

[06 Maestro]

Your welcome.

I would wait for the manual unless you have time to burn trying to figure things out on your own. If I was not on vacation, I would have had to "table" this thing for a while.

[06 Maestro]

Now that RL is back in order, I can get back to the big war...

The Serbian situation is looking grim. For a time, I thought a German Army would be required to pacify the Serbs, but apparently that won't be necessary. Each time there is a great battle somewhere that the T.E. looses, the Serbian NW is also affected. The A/H Army is now in a dominant situation. This is a good thing as at least one army needs to be sent back to the Italian Front very soon.

Note that the Serbian force partially cut off between the 7th and 6th Armies is tagged as out of supply (a small icon in the upper left corner of the unit).

[Ingtar]

Is it just me, or does the out of supply icon look like a "no beer" icon?

[06 Maestro]

The summer battles in the west were a mix of give and take-except in the major battles. The French had lost a couple of big ones which cost them dearly. The Battle of Paris took two turn (July-August) for the Germans to wrap up. At the end of August the French lines were just opened up to the east of Paris. The only thing stopping the German Army from flooding into central France is the supply situation. The Railheads will be beyond Paris and Dijon by October, at which time one more big push will be launched.

French, as well as Russian and Serbian NW is in single digits. Belgium has not surrendered yet (due to the BEF keeping a toe hold in Belgium), but their are protest/riots in Belgium. I suspect they will not last much longer.

This map shot is the situation in Northern France at the start of September. Langres has finally fallen, thus opening up another route into southern France-as soon as the supply catches up.

[06 Maestro]

France is showing some signs of collapsing in September of 1915.

[06 Maestro]

Serbia is going the same route.

[histgamer]

Jeez you have 15 event cards!!! 

[06 Maestro]

ORIGINAL: flanyboy

Jeez you have 15 event cards!!! 

Yep-every time I restart, they all seem to come back again. I think they are going to do something about this in the next patch. In the meantime, I have to resist the temptation to reuse the "breakthrough" cards over again.

[06 Maestro]

ORIGINAL: Ingtar

Is it just me, or does the out of supply icon look like a "no beer" icon?

Didn't they have a beer ration in those days?

[06 Maestro]

The Russians are maintaining a front line for the time being. They have been slowly pushed back and have just lost Warsaw. Their NW is not quite as low as France at this point, but as soon as I can transfer units east, they will be done for. German and A/H NW is standing at the mid to upper 30's which near max. This allows for some advantages to be brought to bare.

There is a lack of replacements for the CP at this time, so I cannot really take advantage of the current superiority. As much RP as possible needs to be used in the west until the French crack.

[06 Maestro]

The O.E. seemed to be in a good situation for their required Grand Offense-one could hope. The result was a reliefe. The NW must have a significant impact on the combat. The Russians have better units and were defending in the mountains. I did not know what they had to defend Kars with, but I was aware that units were being moved to the Polish, Galician areas. I figured on a good numerical superiority-at least.

This success on the Tukish/Russian frontier leads me to believe that this war is about done.

[06 Maestro]

The British moved into Turkish territory early in the war capturing El Arish in a small, but one sided battle. It took a while to get enough O.E. units into Gaza, but eventually there was enough for the counterattack. The British were driven out.

[histgamer]

Germans thought the war was over in September 1914 but they were just off by a little bit... still looks like you will be victorious, interesting read, helping me with my game a lot thanks. Once my demo runs out I will probably buy this... who knows maybe it will be stable enough for a online game vs you...