Oddities

[sbaxter1]

I think this only happened to me as CP fighting in Italy, but it happened twice in the same turn. Attacks failed, which happens, but in one attack there were 59 highly ready Germans attacking four low readiness Italians. The Germans suffered no losses, the Italians lost half of their four strength points and the Germans lost? The next impulse, similar result with 49 attacking 15.

I found that sending German cruisers as a fleet to raid TE shipping much more effective than Uboats (which, in my experience, never sank a single transport ship, but merely damaged them sending them back home to be repaired and set sail the next turn). However, at some point, I think it was late 1915, the cruisers would set sail and go right back to port, even if undamaged, costing me a lot of naval asset points with no gain in destroyed shipping. Any ideas on what causes this?

[SMK-at-work]

I had a whole round of attacks a few games ago where improbably small numbers of AI CP troops wiped out the Russians for 0 losses in every case - no assault or gas involved.

Then next round results were all "normal".

I'd never seen anything like it before.

As I understand it, whether an attack is "successful" or "fails", and the hex is vacated or not, is down to chance, and there is an very small chance that what you describe could happen - most often it won't, so if it happens once every now & then that's just the roll of the dice. And even twice in close succession is probably still random.

Randomness is not well understood by most people - if you show them 2 pages covered in dots, one with dots spaced all over it, the other with some clusters of dots and some areas with none, they will mostly say that even one is the most random - but it is not - it is the most regular! So clusters of improbble events do happen randomly.

The cruisers thing I don't really understand sorry - they were not damaged and did not fight at all? Were you sending out al lthe cruisers at once, or in waves?

U-boats do not siunk transports - they only ever damage them. But damaging a transport & sending it back to port means it carries no supplies that turn - do that to enough transports for a few turns and Britain starves.

[sbaxter1]

I send the cruisers out together (seems that I have better luck that way). I paid attention and, during my latest game vs AI, the mutiny started in 7/15. The squadrons would be selected, they would sail out and fight (maybe) but be right back in port. When the screen for control of the seas shows up (displaying the type and number of ships in each body of water), no cruisers at all, anywhere (I am used to some ships heading for the Atlantic being detained temporarily in the North Sea).

If the game creators had set GOA up to keep German capital ships in port after the date of the Battle of Jutland, I would understand. I wouldn't like that, but would understand, but my problems begin up to a year earlier.

[Ralph1961]

another oddity which I have ran across several times including a current game that I am playing with Central powers advantage; I go to transfer food etc and I get a list of ports such as Cherbourg Italian port Brest Belgian port etc. It really stops me from transfering needed materials. I guess the CP needs all the help they can get!!

[hjaco]

If your fleet sorties into an sea area against overwhelming odds there is a great chance they will instantly return to base. The designer changed that in an earier patch, but documentation in general lacks in this game This is why patrolling in the North Sea is effective against cruisers.

SMK is quite right on randomness off pattern. If it happens consistently then there is something wrong.

A clarification to SMK - also SUBS sinks transports though usually they only damage them which actually is preferable as each sunk transport hurts US entry but otherwise not.

Transfering items can be done by land if there is a land connection else you must do it by sea which you can do even if it is not strictly necessary say in anticipation of losing your land connection. So until Serbia og Romania has been taken out and Bulgaria is on your side, CP has to ship resources from Turkey to Germany.

[SMK-at-work]

Subs must only sink TR when unrestricted U-boats are operating then? Last game I played vs the AI I had TE advantage and tried unrestircted U-boats - I didn't sink any TR, but also didn't seem to upset hte Americans at all.

Can Turkey ship to Germany? I thought they only operated by the land link when Serbia fell & Bulgaria joined?

[hjaco]

Unrestricted increases chances for finding by 25 % - think its stated in the manual? Don't know the basic odds but weather in the sea zone also have some influence.

Each TRS sunk have a chance of advancing entry by a turn so sinking a lot of TRS can be both called an succes as well as a failure....

Dunno on Turkey. Try checking it on turn 2 strategy phase. But its rather academic anyway to create a sea link to Germany, as you can't use Trieste if I remember correctly?

[SMK-at-work]

I found the 25% thing for U-boats - it is in the update for 1.20 - item 35 "Addressed Unrestricted sub warfare (25% increase in finding and sinking)".  Don't see anything there or in the manual about ships unable to break through the blockade tho.

Regarding shipping RM's etc between countries - he 1.32 "read me" states:

"Countries can no longer transfer food and RMs to Britain without using naval transport. All transfers over water now require naval units on shipping missions in that water. The naval orders display now updates these requirements. So for example if on the nat'l status screen you decide to transfer 10 RMs to Britain from France the naval orders screen will tell you you need 5 transport ships on a shipping mission in the Atlantic, on top of other requirements. "

So you need 1 ship per 2 RM's or Finished goods or food in a "chain" between the sending and receiving ports in the same manner as for Amphib assault or transfer.

This was a major change in 1.32:

"Completely rewrote transfers of RMs, food and Industry points between countries. There are now overland and overseas transfers, the overseas requiring a port which is a national port if available or an allied one. It should now be possible as an example, to transfer food from Britain to Russia by using shipping in the Atlantic, West Med and East Med to the Greek port of Salonika and then overland through a conquered Bulgaria and an allied Romania to Odessa. I still have some tweaks to do on this but it should be pretty close. One thing that is not done at this time is the limits on transfers caused by the value of the route and another is allied minor country resources are not available. "

For those who haven't checked the Read me - it includes the notes for all the updates, and he FAQ from Flintlock that is stickied here in the forum.