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What I ended up with was :

The CP can only attempt to keep Italy out of the war, if I recall the only way Italy will join the CP is if France has fallen at which point the game is as good as won for the CP anyway.

Romania can go either way.

Thanks for the reply Frank. Concerning Belgium; in a previous post in this thread, you mentioned the partial activation of Britain would proceed to full mobilization if Germany continued with offensive operations against France. Could you elaborate a bit on the possibilities if Germany stays completely on the defensive in the West. Is there even a slight chance that Britain would stay neutral with no German invasion of Belgium and no German advance into France, or would the best Germany could hope for be only a limited British mobilization? Really looking forward to this game.

The best that Germany can hope for is only partial British mobilization. What that would entail for the most part is only a few corps in France but a heavy naval blockade. I believe that would only last a year, so by the autumn of 1915 Britain would switch over to full.

I should mention that I'm playing this thing to check out these kinds of issues. Playtester feedback will also determine whether or not any rule changes are required. But until that begins these are the current rules.

Some rules may seem straitjacket-like but its only because I want the game to still be WW1 regardless of differences here and there. Just nothing that would turn it into Diplomacy where a Turkey-Russia alliance will push to the Atlantic

Sounds fine. I don't think anyone wants any wacky alliances popping up. Just so long as there are some logical consequences for certain strategic decisions; I think everyone will be happy.

Of course, this brings up the question of whether once Britain enters the war, would France and Britain be free to invade a neutral Belgium without large penalties? I have confidence that you and the testers will iron out these knotty questions.

If France and Britain invade Belgium it could spark an "outrage" that could keep America out of the war altogether, and seriously delay the entry of Italy and maybe even swing Romania, Greece and Holland the other way.

How "outraged" they are is determined randomly, so its a risk.

Excellent, those are exactly along the lines that I was thinking would be appropriate. Damn I'm really looking forward to this game. I think a four player email game would be great.[&o]