Help Me, Help Myself

[ILCK]

OK,

Ive made about 4-5 passes at the game. Always in the 1914 scenario and from both sides.

Things seem to go ok during the first turn but rapidly go downhill. Part of it is my issue that I want to move faster than the game, or the age, really allows. I'm looking to blitz and that won't work.

Anyways a few questions/comments:

1. Activation points are really sparse after turn 1. Keeping any offensive moving is tough - especially since any movement into even unoccupied hexes involved an HQ activation. My lines tend to get thinned out and then gaps emerge. There also do not seem to be many refit points out there to use or buy. Germany picked up 4 or 5 refit points after the first turn ended. That really hurts in the wide open east where just to inch forward means you need that many HQ's. Is this the way the game works or am I doing something wrong.

2. The CP navies are useless and just get sunk. Is there any reason to deploy the German surface fleet outside of the Baltic other than some masochistic impulse?

3. Refits are my ongoing issue now. Basically I run out of everything. After turn 1 I felt pretty good and rebuilt my battered western front armies holding off the French and then reinforced the troops hammering away at the Russians. Problem was after turn 2 there were no more arms refits so I was lost. Is that pool of refits not refilling constantly? Because what I can purchase doesn't seem to go very far.

4. Strategic moves. I'm not sure how strategic moving one hex is but that is what my German reserves are able to do.

5. Supply. I did a nice job of encircling the Russian armies in western Poland and also pinning the Serbs again the Adriatic coast. Thing is 2 turns later they are still there, do surrounded armies ever give up/wither away?

[boogada]

1. Activation points are really sparse after turn 1. Keeping any offensive moving is tough - especially since any movement into even unoccupied hexes involved an HQ activation. My lines tend to get thinned out and then gaps emerge. There also do not seem to be many refit points out there to use or buy. Germany picked up 4 or 5 refit points after the first turn ended. That really hurts in the wide open east where just to inch forward means you need that many HQ's. Is this the way the game works or am I doing something wrong.

HQ points are sparse. The key is to deploy your troops and HQ in the most effective way. Try not to attack at the entire front all at once, select specific targets and get them.
There is also one alternative to using HQ points: If you have a Cavalry unit together with an infantry unit, the cavalry can move into an adjacent enemy hex (not into mountains or towns though). If there is no enemy unit in the hex, it will be yours. If there's one, your cavalry won't move. This is very useful in the East, Balkans and Mesopotamia fronts.

2. The CP navies are useless and just get sunk. Is there any reason to deploy the German surface fleet outside of the Baltic other than some masochistic impulse?

If you can control or contest a sea zone, you can make amphib movement impossible for the ET. This is handy if there is a large amount of British reinforcements or if your enemy does any naval attack on e.g. Gallipoli.
Also: if you are lucky, you might be able to get your own transports into action, getting you a bunch of resources. Especially food is a sparse resources for the CP. See this thread for further discussion:
tm.asp?m=1697003

3. Refits are my ongoing issue now. Basically I run out of everything. After turn 1 I felt pretty good and rebuilt my battered western front armies holding off the French and then reinforced the troops hammering away at the Russians. Problem was after turn 2 there were no more arms refits so I was lost. Is that pool of refits not refilling constantly? Because what I can purchase doesn't seem to go very far.

Well yes. But that was a problem for both sides historically: huge losses and it was hard to keep the war going. You have to try to limit your losses (built trenches, only attack if you are strong, don't attack at the entire front all at once...) or at least inflict as much damage as you take, because this will make the life of your opponent as bad as yours.

4. Strategic moves. I'm not sure how strategic moving one hex is but that is what my German reserves are able to do.

I don't exactly understand your question? You can strat move your units. There is a limit though depending on your rail points and distance you travel. Also moving fron/into a hex with ongoing fighting does not work.

5. Supply. I did a nice job of encircling the Russian armies in western Poland and also pinning the Serbs again the Adriatic coast. Thing is 2 turns later they are still there, do surrounded armies ever give up/wither away?

Yes, first they will loose readiness and then slowly die away. It depends on whether they are still in supply and if there is still a city in the area. If there is a city it will take longer to starve the enemy. But usually readiness goes quite fast, so if you attack you will beat the enemy with very little own casualties.

[boogada]

So basically: dealing with the sparse resources and keeping your economy/supplies going is as important as the military aspect of the game. I often attack some areas just to secure food or resource hexes. (or to take them away from my enemy) In the long run this is essential to win the game.

[ILCK]

ORIGINAL: boogada

1. HQ points are sparse. The key is to deploy your troops and HQ in the most effective way. Try not to attack at the entire front all at once,

2. Well yes. But that was a problem for both sides historically: huge losses and it was hard to keep the war going. You have to try to limit your losses (built trenches, only attack if you are strong, don't attack at the entire front all at once...) or at least inflict as much damage as you take, because this will make the life of your opponent as bad as yours.

3. Yes, first they will loose readiness and then slowly die away.

Thanks for the answers. A lot of my questions really boiled down to "am I even doing this right" when I was running out of activation and refit points. A few further questions:

1. I have 4-5 points? Is that normal in terms of what I can refit with after a turn in 1914.

2. Similar sort of question as above, I have like 50 or so arms points to refit with. I can buy arms refits during the strategic phase but that is a piddling number (2 might be good for German and Austria would be hopeless). Does the arms point bucket auto-refill in someway or am I really looking at managing my initial stockpile + the purchased refits?

3. How is "in supply" determined? Example, as the Germans I have pinned the Russians in the Polish pocket right up against the German border. Do I need a full ring of units around them on all sides or can enemy supply not cross German held hexes? Can supply make long range detours if I've cut off the Russians in the east but there is a "clear" path from Moscow to the Russian corps if you turn noth at Warsaw, go left near Koingsberg and then loop south before turning east sort of thing? You mentioned cities can supply units, is there a limit on how many units a city can support? Sorry to ask so much but I don't see anything about Supply in either the ToC or Index of the manual.

[boogada]

1. I have 4-5 points? Is that normal in terms of what I can refit with after a turn in 1914.

You get some HQ refits in the first turns. After that you get those that you bought during the strategic phase. HQ points are expensive. That's why you need to focus on spending them as efficient as possible.

2. am I really looking at managing my initial stockpile + the purchased refits?

yes! what you can do is disband units and you'll get half their current strength as arms back. so if you have a few units that only have like 4 points left and have no other use for them you can disband a few and use the points to refit other units.

3. How is "in supply" determined? Example, as the Germans I have pinned the Russians in the Polish pocket right up against the German border. Do I need a full ring of units around them on all sides or can enemy supply not cross German held hexes? Can supply make long range detours if I've cut off the Russians in the east but there is a "clear" path from Moscow to the Russian corps if you turn noth at Warsaw, go left near Koingsberg and then loop south before turning east sort of thing? You mentioned cities can supply units, is there a limit on how many units a city can support? Sorry to ask so much but I don't see anything about Supply in either the ToC or Index of the manual.

I'm not 100% sure about all supply details. I think a unit gets supply from the closest town that you control. if there is no way to a friendly town the unit will run out of supply. you don't need to surround the enemy unit with your own troops, hexes under your own control are enough. supply gets lesser the farther you are away from your own towns. mountains are especially critical in winter time. its easy to loose supply in mountain areas. if its out of supply a unit will loose readiness and starve away. a HQ unit cannot be activated if its out of supply.
towns can run out of supply too if they get disconnected from the capitol. but usually they will not go to 0 at once, they have some supplies in stock to last a little longer.
you can check the amount of supply if you move the cursor over a hex. in the data line the percentage of supply is shown.

[Sewerlobster]

As for the CP fleet, especially against a human, remember the TE must protect its transports. I've found sending the fleet out right away gets it sunk but wait a turn or two and now some of the TE fleet is back in port.
 
Also even if you are patrolling, using a raid mentality can be productive. Send the fleet out and then have the whole fleet return. This helps keep your fleet bigger and the TE guessing.