Destroying Will952: An AAR

[KorutZelva]

I don't generally give my ally any mpp. Germany is too poor for its responsabilities. I'm loathe to do it myself because of its unhistoricalness but technically any conquest in the balkan should go to Germany to prop them up more. Artillery are worth saving for though, they are the engine that drives your offensive from mid-game till the end.

[KorutZelva]

I'm at the stage of the game where I dread each turn for the bad news it will bring. Entente show they already caught up with Germany in inf tech. Russia is essentially as strong as Germany now but has way less fight to pick. Even fully de-entrenched troops gives me crap odds. Ugh. Stalemate in France and Prussia. Gains in Italy and Serbia. OE falling back on all fronts. Austria northern border cracking...

[KorutZelva]

Feeling pretty down mah dudes... It seems a strategy that does not include wrapping up Serbia with Germany in 1914 is doomed to failure. Too many units tied for too long. Russia morale at 105%... dang it.

[BillRunacre]

That Ottoman Cavalry Corps in Basra is going to be a pain for the Entente! Still, it should be possible for them to besiege Basra and take it back at some point.

[KorutZelva]

Bill! Meant to ask, do you have stats on the CP win rate? What's the % of victory in game lasting more than 5 turns? [&:]

[KorutZelva]

Germany getting thin everywhere (but Italy). Serbia can't fall fast enough... I won't be able to hold on to Danzig and others for very long. Who will surrender first? Italy, France or Germany? (Answer: it's the OE)

[KorutZelva]

After Turin I'll assume defensive position in Italy. It's been beat up enough and I can just wait out the rest the MN drain for the rest. I'm starting to ferry troops to deal with the deadly russian threat from this front and from the Serbian one. In Serbia, I'll leave one Austrian HQ and the Bulgarian one to conquer Albania and make a probing attack in Greece. Ottoman low-tech artillery ear marked for Italy and France. Germany, Italy and France all go under 50% on the same turn. OE under 25%...

[KorutZelva]

I hate seeing Will posted in his AAR because he mostly post when he made a significant gain. Horrible foreshadowing before I play my turn...

Against the russian super morale boys I'm pretty much reduced to suppress them by artillery barrage just to drive their readiness down so that they struggle in offensive operation, I only have enough infantry reserve bust one a turn or so. Managed to get the cavalry trapping my rail artillery so it got away. Small victories! UK and France pushing towards Lille but I don't have much to check that. Lost on no-mans land in France so I move one gun east so it's not idle. The Ottomans guns give a bit of a hand but they have no shell tech so only research at snails pace and OE will tap out soon. Token defenses offered in the Balkan... perfidious Albion leaving Greece to the wolves.

[KorutZelva]

OE on the cusp on surrendering, about to deal a deadly blow to Germany morale. I still don't grok the MN game. Maybe some takeaways... I guess can't let the frontline congeal with any land occupied or you're in for a bad time. Getting land in France is just not prestigious enough to compensate pastoral prussian land. (:P) Getting Warsaw early seems necessary to prevent Russian morale from being too high. Nobody cares about Italy but France and Austria. If Austria morale is not in deadly danger, it's worth to sacrifice the contested land as it gives a reprieve to the German morale one of the few ways to transfer MN from one country to another. Italy ain't particularly strong but the reward is kind of meh also and ties up lots of troops to do.

[Bavre]

Capturing Warsaw also gives a substantial (instant) boost to German NM.

[FOARP]

Interesting reading this and KZ's AAR side-by-side. Excellent work. Keep it up!

[KorutZelva]

Slowly being pushed back in the West. Stalemate in Prussia. Russia advancing in the Carpathian. France MN is higher than Germany's 40% to 39%... and the OE withdrawal from the war hasn't kicked in yet!

[KorutZelva]

Mission failed, Will is not destroyed!

1918 happened early.
My troops ability for offensive operation is completely shot. Russia and France essentially caught up to Germany tech (command, warfare)... despite having not max Spying and germany investing more and earlier. MN in the drain means the troops don't have it in them.

No mas! No Mas!

Congratulation mr. Will, you stayed cool under duress and took it home! [&o]

[Will952]

Good game KZ, well played!

Russia is just a beast if left to its own devices. You gave me quite a scare early on in France, I thought there was no way Belfort could be taken without artillery - how wrong I was...

I think you also got very unlucky with the German navy uselessly pounding the Russian ships in port - it may not have made a massive amount of difference, but it would've hit their NM a little and freed up your navy earlier for exploits elsewhere.

A fun match all in all.

[KorutZelva]

ORIGINAL: Will952

Good game KZ, well played!

Russia is just a beast if left to its own devices. You gave me quite a scare early on in France, I thought there was no way Belfort could be taken without artillery - how wrong I was...

I think you also got very unlucky with the German navy uselessly pounding the Russian ships in port - it may not have made a massive amount of difference, but it would've hit their NM a little and freed up your navy earlier for exploits elsewhere.

A fun match all in all.

Yeah, when I saw your battleships were guarding the close blockade I was «aaaah potential source of MN». But I was committed to see the three ships in non-st-petersburg port sunk before that. I knew I was on a timer before the subs and dreadnoughts appear... None of them got dented in time, arrrrrg! After that my subs have been used to the canadian mission and were a year long journey back so I couldn't do it.

After playing both sides, I think CP getting a raw deal balance wise.

-One of the issue is that OE is a total push over that can't last to 1917. They can't do any offensive operations. I guess the balance assumes a quick railroad clear and massive german help which forces as quick serbia strategy.
-Town in the France and Italy are not worth enough NM. Large industrial areas are worth the same as some stop over city in the steppes. Fighting is cramped in the west and you have very little you can show for it.

[BillRunacre]

ORIGINAL: KorutZelva

Bill! Meant to ask, do you have stats on the CP win rate? What's the % of victory in game lasting more than 5 turns? [&:]

I'm afraid that I don't have any official statistics as such, only the great feedback that you all provide on this forum and elsewhere.

There have been threads that have discussed this, and I'd like to think we've got it fairly close to 50/50.

[KorutZelva]

ORIGINAL: BillRunacre

ORIGINAL: KorutZelva

Bill! Meant to ask, do you have stats on the CP win rate? What's the % of victory in game lasting more than 5 turns? [&:]

I'm afraid that I don't have any official statistics as such, only the great feedback that you all provide on this forum and elsewhere.

There have been threads that have discussed this, and I'd like to think we've got it fairly close to 50/50.

Other than through the Montenegro gambit were there any CP-winning AARs?

Sigizmund vs Bavre - Entente win Sept 1916
Will vs Ash - Entente win Sept 1917
KZ vs Ash - Entente win Spring 1917
KZ vs Will - Entente win Sept 1916

One could argue that Germany did better than historically in each of these too but none of them even made it to 1918.

[Will952]

I must say I agree that it feels CP have it tough. Maybe it's the case that at the very top level it's even, but certainly at the (I'd say reasonable) standard me and KZ are at it's very very difficult for CP.

In the old SC game it felt a lot more even, which I think was down to a couple of things;
- Germany started with level 1 artillery, making east-first or west-first both very viable strategies
- German, British and French infantry were all +1 statistically superior to Russian and Ottoman infantry, so the threat from the east was lessened

[AshFall]

Nice game you two! Well played!

The Russian juggernaut got punching, seems they're impossible to stop when they do.

I would be game for another game if you like KZ, I can grab the CP this time and we'll see if I can reverse the trend!

I'm not sure I have another AAR like the last one in me though, but you could do one if you like

[Bavre]

ORIGINAL: KorutZelva

Other than through the Montenegro gambit were there any CP-winning AARs?

Sigizmund vs Bavre - Entente win Sept 1916
Will vs Ash - Entente win Sept 1917
KZ vs Ash - Entente win Spring 1917
KZ vs Will - Entente win Sept 1916

One could argue that Germany did better than historically in each of these too but none of them even made it to 1918.

I must say I have currently a very good feeling about the balancing. Those 4 games above are also in no way representative. In both his games KZ tried experimental new strategies that just did not fully pan out and in my game I managed to spring a rather nasty turn 1 surprise on my opponent that gave me a huge advantage for the rest of the match.
It's of course difficult to be sure without extensive statistics like in a long running Elo tournament etc, but I have made the following observations:
In all mirror games I have played, I have always either won or lost both of them.
VS all opponents whom I have played multiple times switching sides never changed which player won.
It's very subjective of course, but I never had the feeling that I loose because my side is fundamentally weaker. It was always because I ducked up and/or my opponent did something brilliant.

And I'm as always available for a test match to try and back up my claim.