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I just finished my second game of this masterpiece and did quite well as the CP player. Needless to stay I've played a LOT, since this came out (no life)!!!

My first game was also playing CP and I finished it around late the fall of 1917, managed to conquer France, but only in the summer of 1916 and due to that, and because I stayed on the defensive in Serbia (Why?... I don't know! Maybe I was put off by the historical A-H difficulties there...), I lost the iniative as the Russian army grew powerful, I also almost completely ignored the naval war which turned out to be a huge mistake. Had I continued the game I probably would have slowly been pushed back to Germany/Austria.

So this educational experience in mind I decided to tackle again as the CP player.

West Front Starting Strategy

My strategy here was pretty much the standard: March through Belgium and advance along the channel coast and then turn south.

My attacking techniques had improved a great deal at this point and I was able to keep up the pace. I also tried to surround the French army wherever possible and managed to create few pockets.

When Paris was in imminent threat, the AI started to strip the Belfort-Verdun line. I took this opportunity to launch a massive attack from Alsace Lorraine region. My other attack from Paris to south was also gaining ground and after Verdun, which was the last possible supply city in the pocket was captured, quite a few corps were effectively eliminated.

I dashed towards Dijon and Lyon to keep up the pace and complete the victory. France fell at Jul-Aug1915. And I was free to rail the Germans east.

East Front Starting Strategy

This time I decided to finish Serbia quickly as I knew I had my hands full at holding down the Russians. Idea was to attack from two areas. One attack to take Belgrad and advance Nish. Other attack to take Scutari (and deny any possible British reinforcements) and advance to Skopje. Careful planning and pace payed of and Serbia fell in 4-5 impulses.



My previous game taught a lot on how to organize my eastern fronts defense. Looking at the map it's pretty obvious where you can afford to lose ground and where not. Big AH cities and resource hexes run on Krakow-Lemberg line, Vienna is also close if you need to retreat here, so I decided to defend this area with my best units. Southern area is much less significant and I kept only a light force there.

In the German sector defence was organized the same with focus on holding resources and large population areas.

This tactic worked out well and the Russians only made limited gains.



Continue later...

Not good at posting pictures.. (or maybe posting in general!)

Above is the AH mobilization for the Serbian attack.

Below: Situation the same turn France was conquered.

Closer look.

Naval Strategy and Diplomacy

I decided to challenge the British in the Atlantic with the German fleet, and in the Eastern Med with the Austrian/Ottoman fleet. All warships were sent on "Patrol". Submarines on "Anti-Shipping". I also sent all transports to benefit from the Atlantic trade.

I didn't have very high hopes of succeeding with this tactic as I was outnumbered by the British and French. But I ended up controlling the Atlantic and East Med almost every single turn, with Baltic and North Sea usually being contested. This eventually led to a British trade collapsing and their surrender in the late 1916, even though I fought very little against their ground army. Where was the British fleet? Sitting idle at home ports or something else? Maybe this is something that should be fixed for the patch, as I think they could have easily take control of these areas with the resources available. Instead I never had to meet warships in large numbers that would have hurt my navy.

I spent one diplomatic point every turn to delay the Italian entry and later I switched it to delay the American entry.


Russian Campaign

With the Germans still in good shape I decided to attack immediately.

The plan was to attack from Thorn and Przemysl to envelope the Russian army between Ivangorod and Warsaw. Few impulses later mission was accomplished and future was looking bright. After this it was towards Minsk and Riga and I was few hexed away from Petrograd as the game ended.

The Russian front gives you so much room to manouvre that the AI really doesn't keep up. It looks like it doesn't recognize the danger of being pocketed soon enough and also fails to defend important areas, such as large cities, properly.


Romania was conquered almost imediately it entered. I also made some limited attacks in Italy and Greece, but the game ended before I really had the chance to attack them.

Russian Revolution began late 1916 and few turns later the game ended (in Russian Surrender).

Russian Pocket

CP victory

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ORIGINAL: Ratsumies

Naval Strategy and Diplomacy

I decided to challenge the British in the Atlantic with the German fleet, and in the Eastern Med with the Austrian/Ottoman fleet. All warships were sent on "Patrol". Submarines on "Anti-Shipping". I also sent all transports to benefit from the Atlantic trade.

I didn't have very high hopes of succeeding with this tactic as I was outnumbered by the British and French. But I ended up controlling the Atlantic and East Med almost every single turn, with Baltic and North Sea usually being contested. This eventually led to a British trade collapsing and their surrender in the late 1916, even though I fought very little against their ground army. Where was the British fleet? Sitting idle at home ports or something else? Maybe this is something that should be fixed for the patch, as I think they could have easily take control of these areas with the resources available. Instead I never had to meet warships in large numbers that would have hurt my navy.

The Allied AI doesn't seem to handle the Atlantic well - agree that this should be looked at. And I think AH naval is probably too strong - no expert on this, but didn't their fleet spend almost all of its time in port?

ORIGINAL: Szilard
The Allied AI doesn't seem to handle the Atlantic well - agree that this should be looked at. And I think AH naval is probably too strong - no expert on this, but didn't their fleet spend almost all of its time in port?

I think thats true of pretty much all the Central Powers' navies. [;)].

Though theres no reason why a player shouldn't be more aggressive than was historical with their fleets, needless to say...

ORIGINAL: EUBanana

ORIGINAL: Szilard
The Allied AI doesn't seem to handle the Atlantic well - agree that this should be looked at. And I think AH naval is probably too strong - no expert on this, but didn't their fleet spend almost all of its time in port?

I think thats true of pretty much all the Central Powers' navies. [;)].

Though theres no reason why a player shouldn't be more aggressive than was historical with their fleets, needless to say...

Actually, the AH navy seems to have been more active than I'd thought: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adriat ... orld_War_I

I had some vague recollection that the ships couldn't leave port because they didn't have any coal; and anyway none of the Germans on the bridge knew how to tell the Croats in the engine room to make steam or something

ORIGINAL: EUBanana

ORIGINAL: Szilard
The Allied AI doesn't seem to handle the Atlantic well - agree that this should be looked at. And I think AH naval is probably too strong - no expert on this, but didn't their fleet spend almost all of its time in port?

I think thats true of pretty much all the Central Powers' navies. [;)].

Though theres no reason why a player shouldn't be more aggressive than was historical with their fleets, needless to say...

I think part of the reason players can be so aggressive is the remarkable lack of lethality to naval conflict. You can fight jutland every two turns or so and never lose a ship. So the historical fear of losing your fleet and hence ceding your opponent control of the sea isn't really there.

AH can only afford to use its fleet if it has spare resources - against a decent PBEM opponent that's not likely to happen - you'l be needing that 1 pt per turn for somethign more useful - like troops or arty or research or planes....
 
Wanna game??!!

Furthermore it takes time (and further naval assets) to repair those AH ships so that part is not a problem.

But there are more cunning uses of AH & OE fleets than that which are too cunning to reveal here [;)]