German First Turn Western Front (grand campaign)

[Chernobyl]

How do you guys like to advance into France on turn one as Germany? I have watched a few youtube let's plays and I haven't witnessed a decent push into northern France. Either they fail to force march any of their units, or they don't declare war on Belgium.

Here is one version of my turn one advance

[Chernobyl]

And here is the variant where I capture Lille instead of the Loos mine. You get less space but I have found that a human entrenching a corps at Lille would be annoying.

EDIT: This is the improved version:

[Chernobyl]

Notes:
-This attack does require some luck. You need to use two corps to weaken Brussels down to strength 4 or below. Average luck or better will succeed, but you only have two infantry corps that can attack Brussels (unless I'm mistaken) so any failure here will preclude you from charging ahead with both cavalry corps.
-In playtesting I found that force-marching a corps to the 155,82 hex (two south of Brussels) is vulnerable to a French counterattack on the Entente turn #1. So it may be best to not put any unit there. Not sure about that. But the point is that it is weak in open terrain and several French corps have access to attack it, while your corps in Reims has more natural defense and the others are more or less out of reach to the Entente player.

[lwarmonger]

I prefer to take brussels while pushing cavalry to Lille. Against an allied player who effectively counters, this sets you up for a push to Boulogne by the end of 1914, completely clearing Belgium, and then a 1915 grind to Paris supported by upgraded artillery. Against one who doesn't... well you can be mopping up in the West by December of 1914.

Your thrust looks very vulnerable to a counterstroke, high risk/high reward. But I will agree that more then 50% of the people I have played against have tried an "east first" strategy (which usually means my entente is in the Ruhr by 1916 at the latest... long before Russia begins to collapse) or a very tentative thrust into Belgium... they don't get enough depth to hold the West.

[FOARP]

This makes forced march look like a bit of an exploit TBH. Could real-life soldiers without motorised transport have really made that march and not be basically dead on their feet at the end of it? Even just retreating from Mons to the Marne in about twice the time covered by this turn completely exhausted the BEF.

[Chernobyl]

Thank you for your opinions. I will do some more playtesting.

[Taxman66]

Maybe Forced March should not flip unoccupied/no enemy ZOC territory/hexes.

[Chernobyl]

I improved my attack and uploaded the pic (second pic from the top, the one where I take Lille).

Also if you want to, you can actually force march in another cavalry and another infantry division. The downside is they are both vulnerable to counterattack.

Here is what it looks like if the German player goes balls to the wall on turn 1:

[Taxman66]

Yeah, I think this thread just killed any hope of my wanting to play this game via pbem.

[Chernobyl]

Ha why? I think it's a good fight. Fun!

I tried it hotseat and both sides were losing corps. Paris is totally safe, and I'm not sure whether the Germans will be able to push the British out of Amiens. Ypres and Boulogne are pretty much doomed but so what? Is that too ahistorical for you?

I'd be willing to play Entente against my own style of attack.

But if you really hate it, then you can always implement house rules.

[lwarmonger]

Yeah... all those mobilization events put a lot of units in front and on both flanks of that offensive... plus, without Brussels you are constrained as well. I would happily play Entente against an opening gambit like that. Just need to play aggressively in both the west and the east.