1933 Diplomacy again

[ernieschwitz]

Turn 12,

Soviet Russia is proud to march its glorious units through the streets of Helsinki. No longer will Finland threaten the Soviet security. Of course its citizens will be treated as equals.

A similar planned march for Warsaw has been postponed, thanks to the tenacious defence of units in that city. Never fear, Russia is still here... and will remain here for a long time. Russian units stand ready to fight even the Germans should aggression become part of the German way.

[Bombur]

Attaturk is even more confused[&:]
First the Soviets make peace with minors and declare war in the following turn. Then the Germans seems to be attempting an invasion of the British Isles, bypassing France...those infidels are so crazy...

[ernieschwitz]

Alright, i admit, that the make peace with all minors was a mistake. I had an idea of what i was doing, but then i saw an opportunity the next turn to make a very tempting attack and did it...


As for this "invasion" of England... Stalin would like to see it happen, before he believes it. No Germany is interested in striking against its biggest foe first, Soviet Russia...

[tweber]

Turn sent. No DOW's yet.

[ernieschwitz]

turn 13,

Soviet Leadership is falling over its own feet to congratulate itself on a campaign well fought! Warsaw has fallen, and the Polish Army is in complete dissarray after their main HQs was caught, and its staff taken prisoner or executed. There has been no sign of the Polish Airforce. Likely it is hiding in Poznan, the sole remaining Polish city.

In Finland a few remaining resistance pockets are being eliminated, and soon all of Finland will be liberated!

Here is a map of how things looked at the end of Stalins turn.

[tweber]

Turn sent, nothing new to report.

[ernieschwitz]

Turn 14,

Soviet forces continue to move towards Poznan. In Finland the last resistance was crushed.

Stalin wonders what to set his glorious workers army to do next.

[RufusTFirefly]

The British government signed a treaty with the goverment of Ireland: Britain will pay the bills for Ireland, the Irish will join the Emipre. Her Majesty is amused and sent Prince Andrew to Dublin to welcome the Irish people within the glorious British Empire.

[tweber]

German turn sent. Yugoslavia joins the German Confederation. The German defense minister claims, "We will defend the North Eastern border of Italy down to the last Bosnian, Serb and Croat".

[tweber]

Overall, this scenario is very interesting and worth further study. Germany starts really weak but has the iniatitive at least until 1937 when it's diplomatic block expires. I was asked about my strategy for taking minors. Right now, I was able to take, in order:

1. Hungary
2. Austria
3. Switzerland
4. Czechoslovakia
5. Rumania
6. Bulgaria
7. Denmark
8. Yugoslavia

My priorities for countries were based on a combination of the economic payback of the country (cost in political points / gain in production + value of units inherited) and the geographic position of the countries. The table below shows the payback of the different countries (assuming 'gentle occupation' is not played). The countries in yellow are the ones I wanted to secure off the bat:



It would have been nice to get Finland due to the high return, but I wanted to secure the Italian border and the Soviets attacked before I could grab it. I would have also liked to grab Poland if it was available, but I would only do this in the turn before I was ready to go to war. So, overall, I am pretty happy with how the chips fell. Note also that some countries like Portugal and Ireland were so off the beaten path that I did not bother to figure out the return. Finally, this list applies only to Germany the way the game is set up. Poland, for instance, is cheaper for the Western countries. Their list, and the Soviet list, would be different.

[Bombur]

Well, tweber improved German´s position a lot. From the scenario designer point of view, I would say it´s too cheap to annex countries. This should be fixed in a future release. Also we should consider to remove diplomatic block as Germany annex a certain number of countries, this would force the German player to pursue a more balanced strategy of military buildup an diplomatic pressure (I believe that tweber spent massive amounts in pp´s and created few military units). As I said before in a private exchange, if there is a way to win the game as Germany, tweber will discover it....

[ernieschwitz]

Well,

As the Russian player, I was able to spot this tactic early, and react to it. Thus Rumania lost one of its key cities, to invasion, and Finland too was taken. For me it made sense to take the Baltic countries via diplomacy... not dead cheap, but very important to the security of the Soviet Union. Taking Poland proved to be a necessary, and diplomatically it would have been very expensive.

Overall I am satisfied with my position... I am sure that my forces, can hold back the Nazi hordes for some time... Of course, this is Tweber I am playing against, maybe i should be less confident.

[ernieschwitz]

BTW: The cost for Portugal should be equal to that of Greece, and the cost of Ireland that of Switzerland.

As scenario designer, i am feeling pretty good that I finally came up with a scenario, where twebers dictum does not apply. That is, attacking as fast as possible is the best way to go about your buisness. I think there is real potential in this scenario

[tweber]

I am not sure that you need to force a balanced strategy. This is afterall, 1933 so the conflict is quite a way off. Germany will, at some point, be forced to build a competitive military to compete with the others. I also do not think Germany is a lock to get all the countries that I got. France, Britain and the Soviets collectively have more production so they can collectively align more countries. Also, it is too early to tell if my strategy will actually work.

I do agree that the scenario is very interesting. I would not change too much.

[tweber]

Turn sent. Nothing new to report

[Bombur]

The countries of Spain and Portugal are United again, after more than 200 years. We are ready to defend the catholic faith and willing to start a Crusade against infidels wherever they are[:D]

[ernieschwitz]

Finally the aristocratic and oppressive Polish yoke has been removed from the shoulders of the Polish People. The Soviet Workers army, has marched into what is left of Poznan. Long live the Soviet Union, long live Stalin

[Bombur]

The Spanish people is worried that another Christian country fell under Soviet domination and again the world did nothing....what about a little crusade????

[tweber]

Turn sent. No new countries joined - only Holland, Belgium and Sweden are not spoken for at this point.

The German ambassador is not please with Soviet artillery on the border so close to Berlin and fires off another terse note. The minister of armaments calculates the year by which Germany will have a 2:1 advantage in artillery over the Soviets.

[ernieschwitz]

Turn sent.

To placate the Germans some, Artillery is withdrawn from the border. These terse notes get irritating in the long run
Otherwise it was a peaceful turn.