Matrix Games Forums

Hi!

Personally opinion here...

But it seems that a human can be far too efficient in advancing with the Russians because of the vast amount of cavalry at its disposal.

The Russians start the game with 12 units of cavalry. That is enough to line the entire Prussian border. Using the one infantry one cavalry rule the TE player can then begin a relentless "creeping offense" with his cavalry that is quite difficult for the Germans to stop.

The Germans start with 4 units of cavalry and can't buy any at the beginning of the game, although the Austrians can.

As a result of the creeping "Purple Peril" the CP must fairly quickly get infantry in place to stop their advance.

Understanding how the Russian cavalry can eat up a lot of terrain per move, as the CP player I now know that cavalry is sufficient, and I also use strategic movement to place badly damaged corps as a fire break as well.

But I'm not so sure this is what was intended, or if it is a really good simulation of Russian potential.

Now... I can live with the situation... so I don't want to be seen as complaining...

However, it would be nice if the CP had the ability to buy cavalry units at the start of the game, especially if he chooses a France first strategy.... or... change the 1 cavalry 1 infantry rule to 1 cavalry 2 infantry.

Just to slow the Purple Peril a tad.

Just some thoughts...

Ray (alias Lava)

Someone is having nightmares from a recent defeat [:D]

Well, I've been on the CP side as well and know that Russia is a real beast that cannot be ignored.

That said they do at least have a hard time getting arms refits.

I think that the costs to move the Russian cavalry by rail is too low. From reading Norman Stone's 'The Eastern Front 1914-1917', I understand that I & II Army (Rennenkampf & Samsonov) had a total of 9 cavalry divisions between them. To move these by train, an amount of 40 trains was needed for 1 cavalry division (4.000 men and 12 guns, excluding the fodder) against the same amount of trains for an infantry division (12.000 men & 54 guns).
 
Maybe strategic cavalry movement should cost you the double amount of points?
 
Also, to refer to Lava's original post, according to the same author, the Russians made no real clever use of these huge amounts of cavalry.
 

ORIGINAL: hjaco

Someone is having nightmares from a recent defeat [:D]

Nope..

Actually came from a PBEM game I played awhile ago as the TE. The guy was doing a France first strategy and I steadily moved to within 2 hexes of Berlin before he was able to mount major resistance.

You just overwhelm the guy using cavalry to gobble up territory.

I think I pretty much know how to stop that now, though I haven't tried it yet.

Ray (alias Lava)

I don't think changing their strat move is ralistic......cavalry units were small....infantry Cosrps were 2 divisions each of 16,000+ men (at full sttrength of course) plus corps troops, probably including more horses than a cavalry division....a cavalry unit is miniscule in comparison.

IMO there's 2 things that need to be done to make strat movement totaly realistic:

1/ multiply the availabe amount by a lot, and make the cost per strength point for infantry and cavalry or activation point per HQ

2/ put rail and shipping (river) routes on the map -  units would move on these as now, but could also be able to move off these by strat movement, but by a limited amount and with higher readiness costs (ie wear and tear on boots and legs)

But IMO even as it is the strat movement system is better than most other strategic level games.

I disagree, if the German don't do something to stop the Russians, it is only fair that they can advance.

Cavalry can advance only if unopposed. Even a HQ stop it. And the CP has quite a bit too (6 Austrian I think, and 4 German that won't have much to do in the west).

Historically, the eight army had to fight to stop them, first reinforcement were sent from the west in early september and a lot of the new units were sent there too (9th was already in place in the early autumn, with 10, 11 and 12 to follow ...).

If anything, advancing in empty space is too hard right now, not too easy. It's easier to kill 40 strengh point with artillery than to enter an empty town.