A couple of questions

[ojnab_bob]

- I am having trouble moving more than a tiny amount of units using strategic movement - apparently you only get 4 hexes of movement per rail point (not 5 as the manual says), and there seem to be very few rail points available per turn. Is it because the German rail system is not "pumped up" yet in 1914, or do I need to purchase more strategic movement during the strategic phase? Perhaps I am missing something.

- There is a 1918 scenario in the files, but no place for it in the opening menu.

- When Turkey declares war, do their reinforcements show up in the egyptian/mesopotamian fronts? All of them are sitting in Istanbul and the Caucausus right now, and I am concerned that (due to the difficulty of strategic movement in point 1) that the british are going to walk into the levant...

Great game!

[SMK-at-work]

You cannot buy extra strat move points.
 
And yes, Turkish reinforcements all start in Istanbul - it was a very centralised country and virtually everything in it did have to come from Istanbul.
 
The Brits can't just walk across 'cos they don't have enough activation points in theatre, and they REALLY can't afford to spend production giving them to backwaters like Palestine and Mesopotamia in 1914.....or even 1915 or usually 1916 for that matter!!
 
Can't comment on the 1918 scenario sorry

[ojnab_bob]

Thanks SMK - guess the Turks will start walking to Baghdad... they should get there by 1916!  Maybe they can find someone going south and willing to take on 200,000 hitchhikers.

[SMK-at-work]

IIRC the Turks get enough strat movement to send 1 corps to the Caucasus or Baghdad or Jerusalem each turn don't they?

[FrankHunter]

The 1918 scenario was planned and was even included in an earlier version but I ended up dropping it and forgot to take it out of the manual.  Sorry for the confusion.  I did go over the manual looking for changes I'd made but apparently missed some.

No country had the capacity to redeploy massive numbers of corps in a single turn.  It would have "felt" wrong to allow deployments of entire armies from one front to another in 1 turn.  Which is why it might seem you never have enough SM.  There's enough there for Germany to transfer a few corps from one far-flung front to another and for the Ottoman Empire to slowly shore up a new front but generally, it feels limited, which was intentional.

[ojnab_bob]

Actually, the strategic movement increased dramatically at the end of 1914 - I can now move 3-4 corps per turn anywhere in Germany, which in my opinion is _exactly_ the right amount of allowed rail movement .  I assume the low strat. movement allowance in 1914 is because of all the mobilization eating up the railnet... once again, bravo Frank on a superior game design.

[FrankHunter]

I assume the low strat. movement allowance in 1914 is because of all the mobilization eating up the railnet.

Yes, that was the thinking for reducing SM during 1914

[7th Somersets]

And the Turkish lack of strat redeployment is historically accurate. They pretty much marched everywhere (and at great cost to their men who were often not fed properly en route). Despite German pre-war efforts there was no railway from Baghdad to Basra - all strat movement was by boat (water levels depending).
 
 

[JudgeDredd]

For what it's worth, I found the strategic move very "balanced". I could move units to the East front, but not too many...not that I wanted to move too many...damned French!