The hexes gain increasing levels of entrenchment as long as the same unit sits idle on it. The increase is +1 per turn until the max entrenchment for that country is attained. The hex will retain that entrenchment value until a unit leaves. Any entrenched hex left vacant will lose -1 entrenchment per turn until it reaches zero, or until another unit enters the hex and remains idle for one turn.
I begin my turn with the Serbian front. Sarajevo is important to me, so I want to make sure that I don't lose it. Therefore, I've decided that a Garrison unit is just not strong enough to hold such an important location. I want an Infantry unit to protect Sarajevo, and there just happens to be one in the hex north of Sarajevo. This gives me the opportunity to demonstrate another useful feature which will be much-used during the game: The unit swap. To swap two units' positions, I select one of the units, then mouse over the other unit. This makes the double arrow "swap" icon appear.
To perform the actual swap I now need to hold down the ctrl key while clicking the left mouse button. Voila! As you can see, the units switched places. Also, note that both units still have half-shaded globes, so they both may attack after the swap.
Btw, if you forget to hold down the ctrl key while left-clicking, the swap doesn't occur, and the unit with the "swap" icon over it will become selected. Ask me how I know.
The only move I made on the Serbian front besides the swap, is to position that Garrison unit to the SW of Temeschburg, in order to support the Infantry unit above Belgrade. I purposely kept this unit only one hex away from Temeschburg because if I need to, I will be able to rail this unit up to the Russian border next turn. Units that are one hex away from a city that contains a railroad link can be railed to another part of the map.
In East Prussia, I've set my scant forces up so that a nucleus of a protective ring will form around Koenigsberg and Danzig. My fighter unit can see three hexes in all directions, but I must keep it well behind the front line to protect it from a very opportunistic AI that enjoys attacking exposed auxiliary units. My hope is that before the Russians enter the war, the hexes where my units are positioned will be entrenched. It's going to be touch and go on this front until I can send reinforcements from the production queue.
I had to make a decision on whether I wanted the German High Seas Fleet to defend in the North Sea against any British excursions, or whether to head into the Baltic via the Kiel Canal to take on the Russian fleet when Russia enters the war. Since my supply convoys bringing valuable iron ore(PP) from Sweden travels from north to south in the Baltic, and eventually unloads in Koenigsberg, I make the decision to head to the Baltic. My fleet will fight together and hope to overcome any Entente naval forces. Once again, I keep my fleet units in the green dot hexes whenever possible, due to the bonus this gives them in combat.
Here's a tip: Entente naval units cannot pass through the Kiel Canal unless their land forces capture the two hexes I've placed hot pink dots in. Also, they have to capture the port of Kiel as well in order to traverse the Kiel Canal. But at any rate, any of you playing in a multiplayer game looking for a sneaky way to deny your opponent access to the Baltic Sea had best take note!
On the western front, I have a few options of what to do. I could go defensive right away, consolidate my line and start railing units to the East Prussian front. But since I've always been a "what if" guy, I want to see if I can make the Schlieffen plan work as intended. Besides, I want to have my picture taken in front the the Eiffel Tower to send back home to mein frau!
First, as was historically correct, the Fortress of Liege needs to be reduced and taken before we can proceed to roll up the Belgians and their pitiful army. And what better way to do that than to soften them up with a little artillery? In the pic below I've selected my Artillery unit and have moused over Liege. I can see from the popup that an attack requires 10 Ammo(AM), which I have. Also, since Artillery units can target hexes up to two hexes away in any direction, It's hammer time!
Before I fire, let's take a close look at the Combat Prognosis box. In cyan, my Artillery unit's bombardment attribute is 2. This is not great, and will increase as I upgrade the unit with more technologies. But for now, it'll have to do. In hot pink, we see that the Belgian Garrison unit(not the hex!) has an entrenchment value of 8. That's pretty good, but not good enough(I hope). In yellow, we see that the prognosis is that the artillery attack will cause a -2 Strength and -2 Efficiency hit to the Belgian Garrison unit. Remember, Green represents the potential casualties the enemy takes, while red indicates the potential casualties your units take. "Green is good, Red is bad". Just remember that and you'll be ok. Fire in the hole!
The Artillery attack didn't quite fulfill the combat prognosis: The Belgian unit took only 1 strength point of damage, and 2 points of efficiency damage. Nonetheless, I swarmed the Belgian fortress with multiple attacks from my other Infantry units and took the fortress down to 3 points of strength remaining. At this point, I send in my Cavalry unit for the coup-de-grace. Cavalry is VERY effective at finishing off wounded units. especially Garrison and Infantry units.
Remember about the two globes on the bottom of the terrain panel? Something about them looks different than last turn.
That's all the moves for me this turn, as my Schlieffen plan develops and the last man on the right hopes to brush his sleeve into the channel soon. We'll see what the AI has to say about that!
Alright, let's finish off this turn by purchasing units for both AH and Germany. Notice that the big flag on the upper left is still Austria-Hungary's flag. That means any unit we purchase will be purchased by and for AH. If I want to purchase units for Germany, however, I need to first click on the small German flag where my mouse pointer is right now. That will change the large flag to a German flag.
Now, I know your thinking right now "But Slick, what happens if I accidentally purchase the wrong unit?" Not to worry. The Lordz have thoughtfully provided a "Cancel Production" mechanism. Below, you can see that I've purchased a German Garrison unit, when I meant to purchase an Infantry unit instead. To cancel production and get all of the PP and MP back, I simply click on the unit in the production queue, and answer the question by saying "Yes". Nice.
Now then, as to my own purchases this turn, I ended up purchasing one Austrian Infantry unit, one German Infantry unit and one German Garrison unit. I generally don't build many Garrison units because of their fragility, but in this case I need some boots on the ground ASAP in East Prussia before the Russians enter the war. Infantry units take 3 turns to produce, while Garrison units take 1. That Garrison unit will come in handy next turn to shore up the defenses around Danzig or Posen.
Next up, I'll show you what else there is to spend your PP on in CTGW.
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