What does Austria do in MP?

[shri]

As Austria what do you do to survive? Your armies are too weak, you have too less units, the Russians and Serbs are stronger, do you retreat or attack or counter-attack or just keep quiet?

[Fafnir]

Finish up the Serbs as quickly as possible while delaying the advance of Russia.
Germany may protect the western part of Austria.

[shri]

Serbs are quite tough, i once got Belgrade in a game vs Computer but in my 2 MPs so far, have never got it and lost a lot of MPP for trying.
Also, Krakow, Prezmysl, Lemberg and the Oil Fields are all close to the border, only 2 are forts, the other 2 are very vulnerable.

[Fafnir]

You can get Belgrade in the first turn 80% of the time if you do it properly.
Krakow shoud be guarded by the Germans the other targets will get lost, but it will
take russia some time and casualties.
The Austrians entrech in the mountains where Russia has low supply.
Once the front in the west is stuck Germany will attack Russia in the east and throw them out of Austria.

Works at least in my games

[PanzerCro]

ORIGINAL: Fafnir

You can get Belgrade in the first turn 80% of the time if you do it properly.
Krakow shoud be guarded by the Germans the other targets will get lost, but it will
take russia some time and casualties.
The Austrians entrech in the mountains where Russia has low supply.
Once the front in the west is stuck Germany will attack Russia in the east and throw them out of Austria.

Works at least in my games

Can you give me some tips ?

[Fafnir]

First move the HQ so you can connect HQ supply to all units.
Then move the units one step after one so you will see the units behind Belgrad.
Now start attacking Belgrad with the weakest units to de-entrech the defender.
Using all 4 units works 80% to destroy the unit in Belgrad.

[OldCrowBalthazor]

I can attest that holding Cracow with a KuK cavalry unit and not moving a German Corps in there quickly isn't the best way to do things when facing Fafnir's Russian steamroller. [X(]

[Fafnir]

I use this as defending positon for Austria in 1914

[shri]

I lost Krakow held by a lone cavalry and lost units trying to hold those blasted oil fields. I will try to retreat henceforth.

But doesn't loss of NM hurt the Austrians?

[OldCrowBalthazor]

Yes, it hurts Austria losing Galicia, but it hurts even worse losing half your army defending that indefensible real estate at the beginning of the fandango with The Bear.

[hottegetthoff]

I dont defend the oil fields usually, My main starts around rawa ruska Hex near Lemberg, to use the river crossing penalty north of Lemberg to my Advantage. Stanislau is covered at first, but usually i fall back from Chernowitz, and even Kolomea after some time. You need to counterattack with brain in galicia, and sometimes i leave Lemberg to form around Przemyśl. Cities like Krakow can be hard to protect, but i rely on pressure from germans taking Kutno and Lodz to discourage Russians from attacking here.

Russia has to be tied up in Caucasus by offensive ottoman positioning, and at some point you need to push towards Warsaw from Austrian and German side. Or make a deep push towards Riga. Overall, Russia has to thinly spread and you need to actively attack it after initial defense, so that it doesnt get to concentrate.

In serbia, i ignore belgrade usually, although it works quite well to take it early. If you take Valjevo, and take Uzice, Serbs will be too spread out to defend and fall on their own. Theoretically, you could also try to push through Cetinje, but this city cant be bombarded from sea easily so its pretty hard. You need to take the diplomatic game into account, as Greece/Italy/Romania joining can bolster their defence. Bulgaria is yours to use, of course.

The key to playing Austria, is managing their navy. You get only some subs, destroyer and a dreadnought, so losses must be managed carefully. If you send Goeben to Pola instead of Constantinople, you can try to force a good fight before the italian fleet with 2 dreadnaughts, and 4 pre dreads + 2 CAs (if i remember correctly) joins. Northern italian front is hard to manage, Trento, Bruneck, can fall. You have to Bombard italian army on the coast and defend every inch of land in the eastern part of the italian front, and regularly counterattack in here.

Adriatic must be firmly in your grasp, which is why an early push towards Cetinje is useful. There are many ways to spread italian forces, but you have to preserve your navy use subs to raid only in small parts of meditarenean, in support of the ottomans and just try to damage capital ships at malta/taranto. Meditarenean is as complicated as the Northern sea, but you need to learn it.