FAQ - Guns of August

[flintlock]

I've sifted through some threads and have kept a running FAQ for Guns of August. I've taken the the liberty of editing many of the questions for brevity. I hope some find this list of some value. I'll keep it updated as future Q&As get discussed.

At the start of a turn there was a message that Belgium had surrendered. Will their army reappear?

No. If Belgium surrendered, their army won't return.

Is there a requirement for the Germans to maintain levels of forces in the east, after a Russian surrender?


effect is on the amount of activity within a turn, i.e., the number of impulses.

How does artillery become damaged, requiring refit? Sometimes I notice my artillery appears as 3D, instead of 3.

When artillery fires into a hex containing enemy artillery, it can damage that artillery. If the artillery is already damaged, it may be destroyed.

Is their any advantage to enjoying air superiority to available air support? (Aerial reconnaissance).

Air superiority is taken into account when computing the amount of air support you'll receive. So 5 air points with air superiority should usually generate more air support than 5 air points on a contested front. Aerial reconnaissance allows you to see the strength within an enemy hex.

Is there any defensive benefit to occupying rough terrain?

Yes. Within the combat display next to the word "Terrain," you'll see the modifier for terrain type.

In rough terrain, are you better off occupying a clear hex by stacking the maximum number of corps within the hex? This strategy could force my opponent to attack from a lesser capacity hex, thereby limiting his total attacking force.

That would probably be more a useful way to exploit rough terrain than the combat modifier. In the Alps especially it can be very difficult to attack in force due to the terrain constraints, not the combat modifiers.

Is there a "next" key to cycle HQ's and other units?

No.

What does the designation, S, refer to in an artillery unit counter?

That's a siege artillery unit. Very effective for attacking fixed fortifications like Liege and other fortified cities.

Can you deploy corps outside your national boundaries at the start?

No, 1914 deployment is within your own nation only.

Trenches are assigned by hex in the strategic phase. Can new units move to that hex in an impulse or strat move, and still benefit from the trench that turn?

Yes.

During an impulse or strat move, do units moving out of a hex with a trench effect the trench level in any way?

No.

If all units in a hex with trenches are forced to retreat through combat, are all the trench points lost?

No, but trenches do get destoyed by combat so they might be gone anyway.

Are trenches lost if the enemy occupies the hex after your retreat?

Yes.

I have captured some resource hexes, food in particular, but I haven't noticed a rise in food production. What requirements must be met in order to start receiving benefits of captured resources?

Capturing food does help you but it's only counted during the next Strategic Phase. Captured food hexes only count for 1/3, so you need 3 captured food hexes to add one food point to your stocks each turn.

What sea zones do the city ports of Southampton and Plymouth give access to?

Southampton is considered on the North Sea side and Plymouth on the Atlantic side.

Does the AI cheat?

The AI does not peek at your stacks. On the other hand it does have a memory of past games and if a pattern is repeating it may have a good idea of what you have. Then again the situation could look similar but the AI could be very wrong.

What are the levels of national morale?

Assuming a nation's morale was 100 to start, each subsequent level be 80, 60, 40 and 20.

Does national morale effect an army's exhaustion level?

No, exhaustion applies only to an army. Exhaustion does effect national morale, but not vice versa.

Is it possible to increase morale through the recapture of cities?

Yes.

Do units stacked within a hex along with a HQ benefit from an increase in readiness levels?

No.

Can industry be eliminated?

Yes, through combat, capture and loss of key cities.

For assault troops to benefit from their bonuses during an attack, is it necessary for the entire stack to be composed of them?

No, one per stack works fine.

Will reinforcing depleted units cause a degradation in quality?

Eventually, yes. For example, a corps unit of 24 strength will drop a level in quality once it has absorbed 48 reinforcements.

______

[SiTheSly]

Excellent work flintlock - hopefully it will be pinned

just a couple of comments

1) There is a typo about seige arty it should be an S not L (which means loaded)

2) Southampton is on the North Sea and Plymouth is on the Atlantic

3)You can tell the level of entrenchment when in a town by looking at an infantry counter. In a non entenched position the thrid value will be just a letter eg A and denotes the quality. If you place this unit in a town and build two entrenhments it will read 2A. Also if a town already has fortifcations eg Verdun then you can add entrenchments up to your entrenchment tech level. It took me a long time to work out you could build entrenchments in cities since the fortification level stays at 0 and I thought I was just wasting my trench points.

[LarryP]

FlintLock;
That's a lot of work! I am printing this out and keeping it near my PC. Thanks a bunch! [&o] [:)]

[sol_invictus]

Nice to know about Entrenchments in Cities. I thought it was pointless.

[Hanal]

Nice Work!

[randell765]

Great Faq,
 
Frank should seriously consider adding this to a faq section in the rulebook(pdf),it answers a lot of questions.

[randell765]

If you enjoy air superiority, is there any effect beyond having more air support available?

No, the effect of air superiority is taken into account when computing the amount of air support. So 5 air points with air superiority should usually generate more air support than 5 air points on a still contested front.

 
This is a bit confusing, this sounds like the same sentence said a different way.

[flintlock]

Good point, randell765. I've edited the question and answer slightly so it reads a little clearer. That'll teach me to post so late in the evening.

[randell765]

no problem, I think this game is 1 or 2 tweaks away from perfection,but in the meantime, there really needs to be a comprehensive faqs. There are just way too many gray areas that don't seem to be covered(at least from what I have read).

[Erik Rutins]

Thanks Flintlock, pinning this one up too! [8D]

[SMK-at-work]

What is the advantage of enjoying air superiority?

Air superiority is taken into account when computing the amount of air support you'll receive. So 5 air points with air superiority should usually generate more air support than 5 air points on a contested front.

 
This is a bit confusing, and isn't really what happens at all.
 
what happens is that there is no aerial combat at all until one side has tech level 2 for aircraft, os "air superiority" is kind of non-existant until then!!
 
After that your aircraft can shoot down enemy aircraft, and it is the remaining number after combat that determines how much recce you get - REGARDLESS of how many aircraft the other side has left.
 
so can I suggest something like:
 
"the number of aircraft you have determines how many hexes you can spot.  The more aircraft you have the more hexes you spot.  Enemy aircraft can shoot yours down if they are tech level 2 or higher (and vice versa), thus reducing the number of your aircraft, and hence the number of hexes you can spot."

[flintlock]

Air superiority within the context of the question refers to your "Air Pts" versus your opponents. The question is whether or not there's any advantage in air reconnaissance to the player who has more aircraft on a front. I have edited the question to reflect this point more accurately.

I think this should clear up any inadvertent confusion.

[JD Walter]

Thank you both for the clarification on air superiority above. Frank certainly was cryptic here!

And, Flintlock, thanks also for summarizing these here. Appreciate all you hard work. I will continue posting new questions (for Frank and/or the devs) to answer in my "Initial Questions" thread, so as to allow you to concentrate on synopsizing them here and (hopefully) keep this thread much shorter for our dial-up friends.

[*Lava*]

When will the game end?

The last turn is Nov-Dec 1919.

What do the symbols and numers on the counters mean?

[Hanal]

I had HQ refits due, but during the strategic turn when I tried to allocate them to my HQs, I found that they disappeared. Where did they go?
 
Remember that HQ refits and Arms are used both for refits and new unit builds. So if you build a new HQ unit first, 2 of your HQ refits would be used. If you only had 2 HQ refits to begin with then you would not have the ability to allocate any activate/offensive points for that turn as they were used for the build.
 
The same rule applies to Corps. The more Arms you spend on new builds, the less you will have available for refits, and visa-versa.

[uncc]

ORIGINAL: Lava

When will the game end?

The last turn is Nov-Dec 1919.

What do the symbols and numers on the counters mean?

And just what does that "A" for Troop Class actually mean and how many other types are there??? [;)] Thanks...

edit: OK, I figured out the "A" probably means assault, but are there other types??

[*Lava*]

ORIGINAL: uncc

And just what does that "A" for Troop Class actually mean and how many other types are there?

There are four classes of troops, A through D, with A being the best and D being the worst. So for example, German Guards are class A. Use your A class troops to spearhead your offenses.

Each country has it's own set of troops classes, also A through D, with A being the best the country can provide and D being the worst.

However, the classes are not comparable between countries. Thus a German A class division is qualitatively better than an A class Russian division but probably equal to or inferior to the British (also remembering that the Brits have much larger divisions... nasty).

I do not know for sure how the A class divisions compare country wise. That is, who has the better troops in class A divisions.

I would suppose it is something like this:

1) Britain and/or Germany
2) Germany
3) France and/or Austria
4) Austria and/or Russia
5) Russia
6) Everyone else

So basically you don't want Austrians fighting the British and Russians fighting the Germans... no matter what the class.

Ray (alias Lava)

[SMK-at-work]

There was an E in hte betas - IIRC I saw it for Turks and Serbians, so keep an eye out...

[uncc]

 much...

[:@] OK, now I'm seeing classes like 2A, and 3A, and L and S-L, etc. (for my Austrians)

MANUAL ...

but I'm still holding out high hopes for GoA

[flintlock]

I believe you're confusing unit names with unit classes. The L denotes the artillery unit is loaded. S-L means that a siege artillery unit (unique from regular artillery) is loaded.