First Turn Rail Moves?

[jimwinsor]

Is there a reason why no one gets any rail moves on turn 1?

I seem to recall there being some major redeployments early in the actual war, that are impossible to simulate here as no one gets rail points in August 1914. The emergency shift of German corps to East Prussia comes to mind, as would the early Austrian redeployment from the Serbian front to Galacia; both early redeploys brought on by unexpectedly aggressive Russian opening moves in the east.

Also, with no rail moves it is really impossible to get the BEF into it's historic starting position at the northern end of the French "line" via Dunkirk. Best you can actually do w/o strat moves on turn one is get them into northeastern Belgium via Antwerp.

Maybe sides should get some (but perhaps not all) rail moves on turn one?

[SMK-at-work]

Yep - all the spare rail capacity is presumed to be being ued to mobilise and move the troops that you get at the start. Also of course Augsut 1914 is only half a full move anyway - jsut one month instead of the normal 2.

IIRC you can amphib the Brits to Dunkirk, and then move them normally to the end of the French line without too much bother, however usually Antwerp or Ostend is more useful.

the austrian 2nd army is a bit more problematic - it had started moving to the Russian frontier from Serbia by the start of September, but it was still assembling and offered no resistance.  In GoA an army is either there, or it is not.  The current system lets the Austrians continue to attack Serbia with the 2nd right up until the 2nd move, then move it "instantly" to somewhere useful on the Russian front.  This isn't ideal, but it's not bad as far as wargaming approximations go, but IMO allowing the army to move earlier would be worse.

The major shifts of German troops didn't happen until the end of September with the 9th army forming about the 28th north of Krakow, so it's in the 2nd turn already.

[boogada]

The redeployment of the Austrian troops that first went to Serbia and were sent back to Galicia had nothing to do with aggressive initial Russian attacks. In fact it were the Austrians that attacked first (and were thrown back when the Russians started their own attack)! When Austria mobilized war was declared on Serbia but not on Russia. Not before August 5th war was declared between those powers. Thats why two of the three Austrian army groups were first sent to the Serbian border. After it became clear that fighting against Russia was inevitably the troops were sent back to the north after they had done little help at the initial Austrian campaign.
So this was more a problem of troop deployment during mobilisation than a redeployment because of actual events.