The Schlieffen Plan - An animated AAR

[*Lava*]

Hi!

I just finished a long campaign and scored a Major Victory as the Central Powers in the 1914 campaign.

My strategy was to knock out France and Serbia first, gobble up the Balkans and then turn on Russia. Not everything went as planned as the Russians were far more aggressive than I expected and checking and turning the tables on them proved far more difficult than I thought.

Overall... a realllllly fun game.

I have created an animated AAR entitled "The Schlieffan Plan" from the first portion of the game that I played.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Hope you enjoy the animation!

The Schlieffen Plan:



Ray (alias Lava)

[LarryP]

Excellent! Good job on your score too. I didn't know we could post gif images like that. [&:] Now I do.

[tgb]

I thought France, Britain, and Russia all had to surrender for a complete CP victory. Or did you just choose not to play further.

[*Lava*]

ORIGINAL: tgb

I thought France, Britain, and Russia all had to surrender for a complete CP victory.

Actually...

For a complete victory you probably do.

I played to the end that the game will allow - Nov-Dec 1919.

At that point I finished with 120 points. But there were plenty of points still to be had.

Sooo.. it probably won't be too long before someone does far better.

Ray (alias Lava)

[Bossy573]

ORIGINAL: Lava

Not everything went as planned as the Russians were far more aggressive than I expected and checking and turning the tables on them proved far more difficult than I thought.

According to your awesome movie above, they really gave you a battering. Is the 1917-1918 revolution in Russia a hard-coded event or does it depend on Russia's military success to kick in?

[*Lava*]

ORIGINAL: Bossy573

According to your awesome movie above, they really gave you a battering.

I neglected the front in order to concentrate on Serbia and France. But you are correct...indeed, a far greater battering than I was expecting. The Russians built up their forces and started hammering away on the Austrians and I went from thinking "they will move to slowly" to stop me, to "damn, if I don't do something quickly they are going to knock Austria out of the war." You can notice how my concern slowly grew in the annimation as the odd German division pops up in the Austrian line to shore up the defense.

ORIGINAL: Bossy573

Is the 1917-1918 revolution in Russia a hard-coded event or does it depend on Russia's military success to kick in?

Dunno... good question though. Perhaps we should post it in General Discussion.

Ray (alias Lava)

[FrankHunter]

Is the 1917-1918 revolution in Russia a hard-coded event or does it depend on Russia's military success to kick in?

No, its not hard-coded, its a random event triggered by a collapse in Russian national morale. 

[rjh1971]

ORIGINAL: Lava

....

I have created an animated AAR entitled "The Schlieffan Plan" from the first portion of the game that I played.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

....

Ray (alias Lava)

Cool AAR first time I've seen an animated one, so here is the obvious question, how do you do it? is it difficult and takes too much time? what program do you use?

About the game how long does it take to play each turn/ a full campaign?

Another game I wish I could add to my stock [;)], if I had more time [:)]

Thanks

[*Lava*]

ORIGINAL: rjh1971

how do you do it? is it difficult and takes too much time? what program do you use?

About the game how long does it take to play each turn/ a full campaign?

Hi!

Learned how to do it from a small tutorial by Larry Fulkerson on the TOAW forums. Here is the thread with the tutorial and a site to download the small .gif program that you need:

tm.asp?m=1538915

The process goes like this:

1) I save after I complete the strategic phase of each turn, when the game is over, I decide what I want to animate and go back to my saves.
2) For each save or turn you take a screen shot and save it with Paint.
3) I cut out the exact section of the screen so that the map doesn't move, only the counters
4) Then create new images but this time I save not as a .bmp but as a .gif.

From there... follow Larry's tutorial on how to make the animation itself, it's well done.

It's not difficult though placing the images in the correct order can sometimes be a pain.

Game wise I think I take about 20 to 30 minutes to complete a full turn... which is two to three months game time, which I believe is 6 turns per year with a campaign beginning in Aug 1914 and ending in Nov-Dec 1919.

Lot of fun... a "just one more turn" kinda game.

Hope I was helpful.

Ray (alias Lava)

[rjh1971]

Thanks for the info I appreciate it.