Game Start

[ILCK]

Trying to jump in, much thanks to Lava for his tutorial and also to Falcon for his work. Cripes that makes things much less dense.

Question, is there anything to be gained by not attacking Belgium as the CP? I gather from the speed of the UK response in Falcon's work that there is no keeping the UK on the outs by not attacking the neutral Belgium since they appear to already be "in" the game. Is that correct?

[Sewerlobster]

ORIGINAL: ILCK
Trying to jump in, much thanks to Lava for his tutorial and also to Falcon for his work. Cripes that makes things much less dense.
Question, is there anything to be gained by not attacking Belgium as the CP? I gather from the speed of the UK response in Falcon's work that there is no keeping the UK on the outs by not attacking the neutral Belgium since they appear to already be "in" the game. Is that correct?

Correct the UK is in. There can be some diplomatic advantage as some other countries are occasionally mentioned as upset over the CP aggression.

[dpstafford]

ORIGINAL: ILCK
Question, is there anything to be gained by not attacking Belgium as the CP? I gather from the speed of the UK response in Falcon's work that there is no keeping the UK on the outs by not attacking the neutral Belgium since they appear to already be "in" the game. Is that correct?

As I recall, the Brits cannot be moved my sea until Belgium is attacked, or Turkey enters the war.

[BossGnome]

As the CP I actually usually prefer not to attack Belgium; I believe that a "Russia First" strategy is probably the most competitive way for the central powers to play the game. If Beligum is not invaded, the CP has the following advantages: 1) Diplomatic advantages as no neutrals are upset. 2) Delayed British involvement (1 turn). 3) Much greater amount of resources availible for the eastern front without compromising the western front's defenses.

[ILCK]

ORIGINAL: BossGnome

As the CP I actually usually prefer not to attack Belgium; I believe that a "Russia First" strategy is probably the most competitive way for the central powers to play the game. If Beligum is not invaded, the CP has the following advantages: 1) Diplomatic advantages as no neutrals are upset. 2) Delayed British involvement (1 turn). 3) Much greater amount of resources availible for the eastern front without compromising the western front's defenses.

Good info because where I can't see how the CP's survive right now (and this is my weakness as a new player) is against the Russian hordes who overrun the AH defenders quite easily and their numbers swamp the Germans in the East so far.

[BossGnome]

If the CP can make Russia surrender sometimes in 1916, then they can be quite a formidable opponent for the entente. I am certainly not the most experienced player of this game, but, at least in my experience, GoA is as much about economics as it is about strategy. The CP NEED to secure resources (or deny them to their opponents) if they mean to continue the war any lenght of time. There are a few ways to do this: 1) Knock Russia out early 2)Protect the Ottomans (and maybe take a few Russian resources in the Caucasus) 3) Play an agressive naval game against Britain. Every time you manage to deny them control of the North Atlantic, their economy basically stops, as does almost all of their food income for that turn.

I find Germany needs to succeed at least somewhat at all of these strategies to win. If they don't, they just dont have the economic backbone they need to support themselves