Slitherine

how about delaying Britain's ability to produce infantry until "industrial warfare" tech has been researched? That would be around winter 1914 so after production and transport the first infantrys would arrive around summer 1915. Seems okay to me.

perfect! But I would probably lower British PP at start to prevent them from over-investing in Infantry labs to accelerate that, since there won't be many other critical things to spend the points on.

Regarding the Russian thing, it sounds great, but I have concerns about balance on the Galician front: the two Russian artilleries are crucial if one expects anything close to the historical result (still EXTREMELY difficult to achieve). If the Russian can no longer use his ammo for bombardment ( as I suppose to would be a silly way to accelerate the Supply Crisis penalties) I'm afraid things will never get too scary for the Austrians. Solution? Increase Hoetzendorf attacks penalties? Add Assault bonus to Russian leader? Replace one Inf on the Galician front with a garrison ( I would recommend doing that anyway)? I would definitely apply an automatic Hoetzendorf attack on the turn Russia enters war...
Probably a combination of all the above... The thing is, with the current version, the Galician front in 1914 is probably the only aspect that is lacking in tension compared to History, as it generally degenerates into underwhelming static trench war on the Prezmsyl - Lemberg line, with very little hope of a Russian breakthrough

One of the things I had thought of originally, because mainly the problem is that the AH will face the Russians entrenched, when historically they were caught with their pants down, is to make the AH troops on the Galician front APPEAR there on the turn Russia enters war - in an aggressive deployment, so they have had time to entrench, and they would have had the option to fall back preventively to a shortened defense line in the rear (abandoning the forward city in the process)

Zombo wrote:

how about delaying Britain's ability to produce infantry until "industrial warfare" tech has been researched? That would be around winter 1914 so after production and transport the first infantrys would arrive around summer 1915. Seems okay to me.

perfect! But I would probably lower British PP at start to prevent them from over-investing in Infantry labs to accelerate that, since there won't be many other critical things to spend the points on.

Investments into additional infantry labs would severely curtail Britain's spending on ammo factories to bombard the Germans on the coasts and even more important would delay their ability to amass enough PP to build that all important 3rd sea transport point at 120 PP. Anyhow, investing into an additional inf lab would accelerate the "industrial warfare" tech by only one turn per lab at most, so I don't see a problem there. And by the way: the Canadian inf will arrive about 3-4 turns later, forgot to mention that.

@Russian Supply Crisis: the ammo requirement will only kick in once the event fires and any ammo stockpiled will be lost, so the Russians can happily blast away all their stuff until the crisis occurs.

that all important 3rd sea transport point at 120 PP.

Oh. I never really bothered, for that price. Is it just to facilitate troop transport, or is there something else I overlooked?

Zombo wrote:

that all important 3rd sea transport point at 120 PP.

Oh. I never really bothered, for that price. Is it just to facilitate troop transport, or is there something else I overlooked?

Well, even with 3 British sea transports I'm struggling to keep the Western, Palestinian and Mesopotaminan fronts properly reinforced in singleplayer, so I'm assuming British transport capabilities should be even more important in multiplayer. If my assumption is wrong, please fill me in.

It's a question of strategy. I haven't tried it yet, so I can't judge ( I generally favour investing in ART labs and ammo and pound the Germans in France).

Building British ARTs for use in France seems a highly wasteful strategy to me. ^^

Robotron wrote:Building British ARTs for use in France seems a highly wasteful strategy to me. ^^

player is not as dumb as ai, without arts u wont be never ever able to break enemy line of defense, maybe few years later with mass of airforces

player is not as dumb as ai, without arts u wont be never ever able to break enemy line of defense, maybe few years later with mass of airforces

Precisely. without 4 artilleries in France it is very difficult to achieve any ,which is fine to me, although a more powerful than historical, as the Allies generally manage to grab an hex or two in 1916, while their historical counterparts never did. I still have to appreciate the value of German counterbattery as a defensive measure, btw.

For the British infantry thing, we just have to make sure the Brits have enough to cover the Sinai front when Turkey enters war... if I remember well, there are only two garrisons at start for a three-hex-wide front.

BTW, I have a little request for multiplayer: could you replace one AH infantry in Galicia with a Garrison, and give Ivanov an additional Assault bonus to offset AH trenches?

All the test we ran show that if the AH are willing to take a defensive stance in Serbia, they can make Galicia nearly impregnable...

I'm feeling generous today and I grant thee 1D3 extra attack strength for ALL Russian units until Tannenberg has happened or winter has come.

That's the Xmas spirit! ... but won't it make them too strong against the Germans? it's already quite impossible to Tannenberg the Russians in 1914...
What about 1D3 points less for the AH in Galicia?

which made me think... what about granting a big attack bonus to one random attacking German (against Russians) to simulate the wireless interception/flanking/encirclement affair of Tannenberg and obtain a similarly successful result, while putting the Russian defense off-balance and creating opportunities for mobile developments? the current Tannenberg is often very underwhelming

You mean something like an additional 1d6 attack strength bonus for all German troops in the east within the command range of the Hindenburg unit for one turn?

I was thinking more like giving ONE attack from a Cav or Inf a super bonus (representing the wireless intercepts and subsequent flanking and encirclement), likely to destroy the opposing unit. That would IMHO better represent the actual event (a rather localized affair, after all) rather than diluting it over time and space, over the whole front over several turns (which is a bit anti-momentous)

Actually I did propose a one-turn effect.

Anyway, it's a good idea for an event. However by my most unbudgeable decree that code-breaking event shall not happen automatically.
So what will the probability be for this event to fire? Number of labs? Number of Russian units next to German units? Suggestions, please!
And a good link to a picture for the event.

Well, the success of Tannenberg was not only due to the "code-breaking" ( if I remember well, there wasn't much code to break as the Russian broadcasted in clear!) it was also the expert generalship of von François and competent leadership of Hindenburg, Ludendorff and Hofman.
I would incorporate the randomness simply into the variable attack bonus

I'll look for pics...

Zombo wrote: I would incorporate the randomness simply into the variable attack bonus

denied!

okay, okay...


http://hissingfuse.blogspot.be/2014/08/ ... -1914.html

https://www.google.be/search?q=tannenbe ... lLW9y2M%3A

Hi there and happy new year for all of you!

Robo: there's something weird with that hex between Tarnopol and Czernowitz. It's part of Romania at start but then it becomes Russian when the Russians enter war and so they can attack the city directly: I lost Czernowitz to that evil trick on one of my current games...

Putnik: could you keep Putnik's bonuses limited to the +3 defense in multiplayer? ( and I suggest in singleplayer Entente too): the Serbian infantry just blasts everything Austrian that dares approach it, it's been happening in nearly every game and it feels quite exaggerated...