Home Before the Leaves Fall 4.1 Hellen (Germans) v. Raver (Entente)

[Hellen_slith]

My new friend Raver has kindly stepped up to command the Entente forces in this great scene.
As noted before: This is WWI. Forces move slowly, supply moves slowly.

after Germans turn 5 (August 6, 1914)

Germans invade Belgium!!!
The assassination of the Prince in Serbia shall not go unpunished!!

The Boche are not quite ready to begin eating Belge babies,
but they are smacking their lips in anticipation of the Great Feast!!

Da King of the Belge scoffs! "They shall never break our great fortresses!!"
Boche: "Challenge accepted!" <orders up Siege Artillery>

The game starts slowly, most German formations are still in garrison mode,
but soon .... soon

[Hellen_slith]

after Germans turn 7, still a very slow start for the Kaiser,
almost all Germans still garrisoned.

Send in the cavalry! Sabres drawn!! Saber? Sabre?
well, you know.
Charge!!!

Hey, there's Maastricht!!! Beautiful place, amazing Cathedral there.
When I was there, there was a naughty book shop right around the corner of the Cathedral.
Crazy place back then, I wonder if that shop is still there?

[Raver508]

Hey awesome to see this Hellen - I feel like I'm famous being in an AAR like this.

It surely is a slow start, and its interesting watching the French units come online across the line. I'm probably defending too far forward with all that cavalry, but we're determined to find glory!

[Hellen_slith]

Oh HEY! Glad to see you here! I just sent move, am in process of gathering some historical sources to put some flavor into AAR. There is a really cool set of "encyclopedias" at my local Uni, I think it is called The War Illustrated (well, it is just like that one for WWII they did) it is SO cool but unforch library there is still closed to me (I am just a visitor, still no visitor allowed L0L, fighting them about that but soon ... soon.)

Anyway, yes, game starts a bit slow. I have only played Entente before against Elmer mostly. Looking forward to giving you a go, when the Brits and all the FR reinforce get on the line it gets heavy gruesome w/ trench warfare!! will post screenie here of my very meager progress so far

PS while nosing around the intertube I find this DVD set, I think it was from BBC? Looked interesting, wonder if anyone here has seen these, are they good? I'd like to get but not sure if they will play on my Americanski DVD player that's like 10 years old L0L

[Hellen_slith]

After Germans turn 8,
Germans take Malmedy area, No More French they say,
round up local Walloons for big Walloonian Stew!
<Kaiser smacks lips>
(Maybe this will spur French to action!!)

TOAW4: not just a wargame, but a history and geography lesson all rolled into one!

[Hellen_slith]

after Germans turn 9, still very little progress.

I see from earlier AAR that Germans don't really get rolling until turn 15 or so?
In the meantime, II Kav has ridden into Walloon country,
I haven't found a lot about this area, it was actually territory of Prussia at this time?
Just occupied by the Belge / French Walloons? Not sure.

Well, they ain't going to be talking that Frenchie parles-vous no more!
So sayeth the Kaiser!!

[Hellen_slith]

My friend Mr J (a/k/a Raver) mentioned that a-HA I see your plan to stretch me thin!
But in reality, just moving who I can where I can
will be big war when German garrisons come out to play

[Hellen_slith]

Germans are riding into Belgium with von der Marwitz leading his II Kav.
What seems to be an endless parade of the Cav stretches almost 40km!

I hope that von der Marwitz is in the Kermannders thing.
But he sure is goofy looking, ain't he?

[Hellen_slith]

Germans turn 14

The Kaiser's Army begins to activate

[Raver508]

And the exclusion zone is lifted too! Although the French army isnt quite ready to advance just yet ...

[Hellen_slith]

at Germans move 16 ... Disaster at Liege! (for the Germans)

[Hellen_slith]

We have finally reached the beginning of the Big Show!
That is to say, the R man and I have reached German move 18
and it will be a big one compared to the first 15 moves (the SitzKrieg of WWI).

This morning as I was donning my Kaiser's uniform to conduct the forces,
I realized that this great scene could do with a nice firm tweaking of those first
15 sitting moves where the German can move only a few of his eventual many chits.

I believe such a modification would greatly improve the enjoyment of this iteration of
the classic board game upon on which it is based.

It is tiresome to exchange moves for a few weeks before getting to
the juicy stuff. Might we not "convert" those first two weeks to something like:
neither player can move ANY forces. Instead, both players (e.g.) would be presented with
a few Theatre Options to choose that will affect future events.

That way the players still have a few choices to make that will be of strategic importance in future, and the game would move more quickly and players get to shoot more guns more quickly.

IOW, "shrink" the first 15 moves into just two w/ a few interesting choices,
the game moves onto move 15 in just a few moves (via Event Engine?),
and then ... BANG, there ya go. Easy peasy. Right? Piece o' cake for the experienced design wog.

And by the way, if you have any misgivings about modifying this scene due to misunderstandings about copyright infringement or fair use, rest assured that the OA ("Original Author") has already
given his blessing to enjoy his creation as a "sandbox" for additional design. Just give
credit where credit is due.

So I hope Mr. Zovs or another of you design geniuses will take up the task
and somehow shorten the Sitzkrieg in this one. It is my opinion that players who might fire this one up will quickly tire of the 15 moves of waiting for the real War to start--that needs to be shortened.

As always, my opinion is my own except when it comes to Fair Use: that is not an opinion that I
dreamed up on my own. That's what we call "in the biz" BLACK LETTER LAW that has been solidified
over time in the forges of Stare Decisis.

It would be interesting to see what Corpus Juris has to say about the history of Fair Use
and its applications. But I ain't got time for dat. If you do, look it up.

Good reading.