Matrix Games Forums

Question/Request:

Can the UK be set as a neutral?

I know it can't be now but in playing around with "what if" scenarios I was wondering how the Germans would have fared if their diplomacy hadn't been so dim bulb in the years leading up to the war?

Allow Germany to forego a navy in return for Britain staying neutral? Interesting what-if.

The Kaiser's decision to build a navy to rival Great Britain was probably the most decisive military decision in WW1. It may not have been clear at the time, but in hindsight, its hard to see how Germany could have lost a war against France and Russia that didnt include the UK.

And in any event, if they had put far more naval resources into UBoats before the war, in lieu of the surface fleet, they might have won the war anyway. Hitler's Germany made the same mistake. (Admiral Raeder actually came to Hitler around 1936, and presented two naval plans: one for a war that would happen in the next few years, and heavily emphasized Uboats, and another plan for a war that would start in the mid 1940s, and emphasized the surface fleet. And of course Hitler chose the surface strategy, but started the war quickly, and ended up with the worst of both.). In both wars, a decisive investment in Uboats might have starved Britain and won the war long before America could have intervened. Coulda woulda shoulda.

ORIGINAL: EdinHouston

The Kaiser's decision to build a navy to rival Great Britain was probably the most decisive military decision in WW1.

And letting the Reinsurance Treaty expire in 1890, break with the Russians and eventually get into the two front situation they ended up in.

ORIGINAL: EdinHouston

The Kaiser's decision to build a navy to rival Great Britain was probably the most decisive military decision in WW1. It may not have been clear at the time, but in hindsight, its hard to see how Germany could have lost a war against France and Russia that didnt include the UK.

After playing the game it would certainly seem that way. I don't fear the Russians or French as the CP's but I do fear the BEF as the CP's.

One think, not having the UK would make life much harder when playing the TE.