Holding frontlines after opposition get better artillery

[Chuske]

In my learning games as the Central Powers (Call of Arms vs Intermediate AI) I'm finding I do well in the first year or so of the game but when the French tech up their artillery it gets harder to hold hexes in the west in particular.

In the latest I'm in late 1915 and have trenches at level 4, artillery at level 2, infantry weapons at level 1, shells at level 2. I've had a great start but now the beefed up French artillery + infantry are each turn ganging up on a particular hex and wiping that unit out. I'm doing the same back to the French but as I have a lot of units still battling in Poland this exchange hurts me more. Is there anything I can do so I don't lose corps? Or do I have to reinforce France and weaken my Russian offensive?

I was planning to get as far as Brest-Litovsk in Russia then move forces to France. Warsaw has just fallen to me. Serbia I've taken Nish, Pec and Pristina but then run out of steam due to needing to send units to Italy. Italy is now holding after I got artillery behind Trento to do defensive fire.

Morale is UK 76%, France 55%, Italy 83%, Serbia 46%, Russia 54%, Germany 126%, AH 113%, Ottomans 90%

Any advice on minimising losses in the west or tips on finishing off the Entente in general from this position?

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[mdsmall]

It is a fact of life in this game that despite high levels of trench tech, once your opponent has level 1 artillery, they will be able to de-entrench a given unit and destroy it with concentrated attacks. So, the only way to counter this is to have sufficient corps and artillery of your own to counter-attack and retake the lost hex, or to inflict comparable losses on another hex on the same front. It is essential not to position your artillery in locations where the enemy can easily attack them once they have captured a front line hex in front of the artillery. Unfortunately, that usually means placing your artillery in hexes where they can not defensive fire at every likely attacking enemy units (in other words, don't place your artillery directly behind a corps holding a salient that can be attacked from three hexes by the enemy, unless you reckon your opponent is not strong enough to capture the most exposed hex of the salient). In this game, the war of attrition plays out at the level of an entire front, rather than on a hex by hex basis. If the attacker does not have substantial reserves of fresh corps in a second or third line, he will not be able to sustain an offensive that eliminates one of your corps every turn.

In the situation you have described above, I would say you are already winning as the Central Powers. German NM is already at the max; the Russians are barely over 50%. The normal strategy would be to tolerate losses on the Western Front provided the French and British are not able to push you back into Germany and go all out to take out Russia as quickly as possible. You have to drive Russian NM down not only past the level that triggers the First Revolution (25% NM, but to the point where it triggers the Second Revolution (15%NM), so that the Bolsheviks sue for peace. Once that is accomplished, you can pivot back to the Western Front with a clear superiority in corps and eventually push the French back to the point where you will take Paris. Keep just enough corps on the Italian front to make sure you don't lose anything more than Trento. Reinforce the Ottomans sufficiently to make sure they don't collapse in either the Caucasus or on any of the fronts facing the British.

Good luck!

[Chuske]

Thanks really good advice and very helpful. Feel like I'm starting to get a better sense of what to expect now. The change from solid unattackable frontlines up to late 1915 to ones which you cannot prevent corps losses is quite jarring! This game is interesting as you really have to think what to spend MPPs on and to really work hard to create enough offensive power on one front to make progress while leaving enough to hold the others.

In terms of finishing off Russia what is more effective to get their NM down, taking NM objectives or inflicting casualties?

[mdsmall]

In terms of finishing off Russia what is more effective to get their NM down, taking NM objectives or inflicting casualties?

Normally, the Central Powers do both in order to knock Russia out of the game as soon as possible. What many beginning players do not appreciate is the NM cost of losing towns, cities and ports, even if they are not marked as special NM hexes. You can see the NM values of each resource in the text box if you put your mouse over it. Once the CP have captured all of Poland and most of Lithuania and Latvia, the Russians are losing over 300 NM points per turn (i.e. on both CP and Entente turns) just due to the loss of resource hexes. This means that the CP have the option of just holding territory and waiting for Russian morale to drop below the threshold that triggers the First Revolution. It is a matter of judgement whether this slower approach to bringing down the Russians is a superior strategy for the Central Powers versus launching an all-out assault that will require putting most of their forces on the Eastern Front.