Matrix Games Forums

Played my first game thru to 1917 as Central Powers - Austria surrendered and USA came in early 1917.

Q1 - I hit France very hard - captured Paris, Rouen, Verdun, etc; France was 'wavering' but never fell. They lost far more than Austria. What does it take to get France to fall?

Q2 - Germany captured several food resources, along with other resources, but I saw little, if any increase to food production or economy. Do you have to garrison the captured spots or something?

Q3 - Bulgaria, even with 4 economic points, could not buy an HQ refit - why?

Q4 - Does Germany get some benefit for putting transports in the Black Sea and North Atlantic?

Q5 - Can cavalry never go into mountain hexes, even friendly ones?

Q6 - Does the computer get some benefit in purchasing HQ refits? I was playing balanced resources and Russia, Italy, France, and GB were going wild with attacks and barrages every single turn. As Germany, my economy was normally 12, so two HQ refits is usually the most I could do and keep some barrage and armament potential.

Q7 - Related to Q6; I never saw an air war develop, or come close to purchasing gas or assault troop tech. With only 12 points to spend, feeding the front consumes everything. Is it just me, or are the economies too limited to explore many options besides refits, barrages, and trenches?

Q1 - I hit France very hard - captured Paris, Rouen, Verdun, etc; France was 'wavering' but never fell. They lost far more than Austria. What does it take to get France to fall?

The simple answer is "more"!

It depends on losses of course, but also on starting morale, and I think the French are given a better start point than Austria.  There are some posts here covering most of your questoins - I'm aboutto go out, so I'll just post brief answers for now & see if I can find various posts from long ago that explain it better later on.

Q2 - Germany captured several food resources, along with other resources, but I saw little, if any increase to food production or economy. Do you have to garrison the captured spots or something?

No here is no need to garrison them, but they can of do disappear - I forget the exact ratio, but IIRC there is a chance you will loot them and wreck them immediately, and if you do not wreck them ther is a chance they will disappear every strategic turn.  Also, again IIRC, you only get 1/3rd their value, and fractions count for nothing - so you have to capture 3 food to produce 1 extra for your country

Q3 - Bulgaria, even with 4 economic points, could not buy an HQ refit - why?

The minors have a different production system - their points are 0only worth 1/3rd the value of a major power's points - so they need 3 times as much to do the same job - hence a HQ refit costs Bulgaria 9 points.

But if you transfer production from the majors you get 3 minor points for every major point.

Generally the minors are not worth spending major points on!

Q4 - Does Germany get some benefit for putting transports in the Black Sea and North Atlantic?

Yes - Germany gets resources from the Tr in the Baltic, and food from any that survive in the Atlantic......the key word being survive!

Q5 - Can cavalry never go into mountain hexes, even friendly ones?

They can strat move into friendly ones

Q6 - Does the computer get some benefit in purchasing HQ refits? I was playing balanced resources and Russia, Italy, France, and GB were going wild with attacks and barrages every single turn. As Germany, my economy was normally 12, so two HQ refits is usually the most I could do and keep some barrage and armament potential.

12 is very low economy for Germany - normally I'd expect it to be up around 16+, 20+ if doing well - if you do not have tr in the baltic that's 2 extra resources per turn you are missing.  Also transfer any excess resources from Austria ant Turkey - they boost Germany a lot!

England gets a massive surplus of points if you don't kill its troops - so can often!

Other than that her is no AI advantage I know of.

Q7 - Related to Q6; I never saw an air war develop, or come close to purchasing gas or assault troop tech. With only 12 points to spend, feeding the front consumes everything. Is it just me, or are the economies too limited to explore many options besides refits, barrages, and trenches?

Yes I think that at 12 for Germany your economy is too limited - I would normally spend 1-2 on tech for Germany every turn - a minimum of 1 if I was strapped for resources - if you havent' got enough to spend points on tech you are struggling!

Hope that helps - got to post an AAR, then away....

Edit - get the quotes right!

I found a post about food disappearing - didn't find one about resources tho.

IIRC resources have the same chance of disappearing - 20% per strategic phase.

Also, the more that food/resource hexes are fought over or bombarded, the greater the chance they are destroyed by combat regardless of who owns them.

I agree with SMK in some things.
You definitely want the transport in the Baltic, the North Atlantic can be problematic.
France can fall, you probably weren't far. Unit losses also are important -- the big cities can fall but if France still has high quality units, she'll fight on.
The minor HQ thing is annoying but you just have to be super judicious in using them.
Even with a robust economy, don't expect to get to the end of all the r&d stuff. The air is really helpful on your barrages, and can be worth the expense. I suspect the more you use your air, the more the AI will respond.

I played a second game and researched air - the computer did the same thing and we just started losing a plane each now and then.

Against the AI, the best bet seems to leave air research alone, at least as the CP.

If your air tech remains close to the enemy then that is what happens.

But if 1 side stays ahead for any period of time they will massacre the other - at a difference of 1 the lower side might lose  perhaps 1 1-2 more per turn, but I've seen entire airforces (5-6 planes) get shot down at a difference of 2.

And the lower side will get fewer recce successes while the higher will get many more.

Of course if the higher side hasn't put any research into artillery then recce loses much of its usefulness....but if they have you can be in for a world of hurt!