Slitherine

Well, I have had the game for just under 3 months and I have played about ten games online now. There are a lot of excellent features about the game, not least the map and the depictions of the units. The land and air warfare is also very good and I expect naval warfare will be improved considerably in the new patch. Nevertheless, I am going to stop playing now as I am beginning to find the game extremely repititious and one-dimensional. I feel that I can actually predict the outcome of the full campaign game by the time winter starts in 1915. If the Central Powers have not struck a decisive blow either on the western or the eastern front then they have had it. And the Turks will be defeated every time if the British take artillery to Palestine. Basically, the game just consists of two players blasting away at each other for 100+ turns (over 2-3 months) and hoping your opponent will collapse - there is no real subtlety involved at all.

There are a number of things that could improve the game but I don't know whether they can be added at this stage or not. Maybe it would require a CTGW2? If you look at other WW1 games out there then they have tried to model some of the elements that I am suggesting here . . .

i) a realistic diplomatic system that would allow many, many more historical what-ifs to occur
ii) a "home front" aspect to the game
iii) some form of espionage system to break down the current "fog of war" whereby you have no real idea of the state/morale of the opposing powers
iv) more realistic surrender rules (and territorial settlements) for each power, no more fighting to the last city.
v) many more events, particularly involving the politicians who are strangely absent from the game
vi) a colonial aspect

Having said all this, I certainly feel that I have had my "moneys-worth" from the game and I wish the developers good luck with their future productions. Cheers also to all my opponents and I will continue to follow the progress of this game over the coming months.

stockwellpete wrote:. And the Turks will be defeated every time if the British take artillery to Palestine.

Not allways. The game is different each time you play different player (in my opinion). I got one game that British sent arty to Palestina and I defeated Russia( I play as CP). Now I captured Suez Cannal and have lot of problems in France. War isn't over. Keep trying new players

I look forward to an expansion addressing these issues, much as GS addressed many issues with CEAW.

I am still finishing off my last game in multi-player - it will probably take another month! Just a thought really for any later renditions of the game (CTGW2, for example), maybe 118 turns is just too long for the main campaign game? What about monthly turns instead PLUS allowing the game to run into 1919 and 1920 if necessary? Most of the ten or so games I have played in multi-player have ended in resignation - I think that I have had only one that has gone the full distance.

Some issues arising from the new patch 1.30

I played a solo game as the Entente on “privileged” level and I encountered a number of things that I feel are very problematic for the game.

i) Suicidal attack by both German battleships in the English Channel on turns 5 and 6 leading to a loss of 20% morale for Germany. After this, the main English fleet had very little to do. This was a disaster for Germany and it seems that the AI does not use the Battleships and Cruisers in conjunction with each other.

ii) Canadian infantry unit still originates in Canada despite “event screen” saying they have arrived in the UK.

iii) The “German ports blockaded” event was triggered by a Russian cruiser sinking the Swedish convoy in the Baltic Sea on turn 13 whereas the text of the event refers to things happening in the North Sea. Nothing happened in the North Sea on turn 13. (I was only able to sink this convoy because a German cruiser was docked in Koenigsberg preventing the convoy from completing its journey).

On the next turn, turn 14, a German convoy appeared in the English Channel where it was quickly destroyed and another German convoy was sunk off the coast of Norway. On turn 19 another German convoy appeared in the English Channel and it was sunk as well. I had placed the main English fleet in cordon between Scapa Flow and the Norwegian coastline.

iv) The Belgians managed to hold onto Antwerp throughout the game, but as they lost Brussels they were unable to build new units (as per normal). But technological improvements still continued even though no research labs were available to me for that country. By the time Brussels was re-captured in 1917 the Belgians had accumulated over 100 PP’s to use and were able to build 4 or 5 units very quickly making them very powerful. I was also able to deploy three of these units in hexes around Antwerp in the same turn as the hexes around Brussels were all occupied. Normally only one unit can be deployed around a city per turn unless it is the capital.

v) The Serbians survived throughout the game even though Belgrade and Cetinje were completely surrounded by enemy troops from late 1915 onwards. All it needed was for the Central Powers to bring up artillery to capture those last two places but this never happened. Like Belgium the Serbs accumulated a very high number of PP’s that they were able to use to repair any damage. Belgrade was not attacked to bring its PP value down at any point.

vi) The “Soviet Revolution” event occurred in March 1916!! (Did Lenin take the fast train?! ) The Bolsheviks took power with Russia’s national morale at 53% and their remaining manpower at a whopping 93%. The Russian forces were comfortably holding the Germans outside Riga and Minsk and they had naval supremacy in the Baltic. The Turks had made some minor inroads in the Caucasus. Then, on the next turn, the “Revolution in Petrograd” event came up demanding the Tsar’s abdication. So the two revolutions occurred in the wrong order!! Russia then immediately surrendered and the morale of Britain and France dropped sharply.

vii) The “French Mutiny” event occurred in October 1918 at a time when the Entente was finally winning the war and when French morale was actually rising to around 65%.

I eventually achieved a “Major Victory” with the Germans surrendering on turn 117 and the Austro-Hungarians and Turks surrendering on turn 118. I have to say that my overall feeling about the game now is one of disappointment. Several of the things that I have mentioned above are quite ludicrous, in my opinion. Of course, other players may take a different view about these things. I also feel that the “re-playability factor” is quite low. I am unlikely to start any more games in multi-player and I have none in progress at the moment.

The way Russia is portrayed in the game is just plain wrong to me. At the set-up they are not really in a position to defend Warsaw and Poland - because if they try to they can easily get surrounded and cut off. They have too many garrison units there for my liking. But if they withdraw towards Riga and Minsk (as I did in this game) then they lose a lot of national morale as their western cities are captured. In my view, Russia should be like an enormous sponge that is capable of absorbing a great deal of punishment before it succumbs, but in this game the Russian forces seem to be extremely brittle from the outset.

Then, there is the handling of the February and October revolutions that the game manages to get back to front. This is just ridiculous. There needs to be a clear passage of time between these two events with the possibility that the October revolution could be avoided, or delayed, if the Russians are able to avoid further heavy losses after February.

It seems to me that with correct play the Entente should win every time in contests between players of similar skill levels. Having said this, Russia definitely needs to be made stronger while Italy and Portugal seem to be far too strong. So I think the Entente side needs to be re-balanced and then the behaviour of the German navy needs to be modified to give players a better game with the AI. One last thing – I must have played over 20 full campaign games now, both in single and multi-player, and I still have not seen an American unit. Not one. They need to come into the game more often than not, but if they do then the Portuguese need to play a much more marginal role as there were just not the transport ships available to get their forces to the European theatre of war.

Please see my first post in this thread for other ideas that I have. To be brutally honest at the moment, I think CTGW constitutes about two-thirds of a World War One game. What there is is mostly good and it does look great and it is easy to learn - but without a nuanced diplomacy system involving the politicians (this should be a major part of the game), as well as espionage and colonial events (these are less important aspects than diplomacy but they should be represented), I think the game is quite limited once the basic system of play has been mastered.