AGEOD's WW1

[Tamas]

Keep up the AAR, it's very interesting!

I tried downloading the demo from AGEOD's website, but apparently the zip file is corrupted. Bleh.

Yesterday I had problems downloading forum attachments from there for a while, so perhaps there was a server error, you should try again.

[HisMajestyBOB]

Keep up the AAR, it's very interesting!

I tried downloading the demo from AGEOD's website, but apparently the zip file is corrupted. Bleh.

Yesterday I had problems downloading forum attachments from there for a while, so perhaps there was a server error, you should try again.

I just did. 
The file downloads ok, all 200+mb of it, but when I try to use WinRar to unzip it, I get an error.

[Norgy]

Use 7zip.

[HisMajestyBOB]

That worked. Dunno why WinRar didn't - it's usually pretty good.
Gonna try out the tutorial tomorrow.

[Tamas]

So what happens in gamey terms if you knock Russia out of the war? Does your supply situation get any better with the blockade and does the borders change around a bit?

My blockade situation should get better due to grain in Ukraine - altough I can't remember if that's implemented TBH, since in the boardgame it had some tricky conditions.

Anyways, IIRC there wont be actual map changes, not that it matter much.

What matters is the way Russia surrenders. The top list, VP-gian wise, from the top of my head:

3. Separate peace
2. Communist revolt
1. "default" surrender due to total pwnage in war (like Romania and Belgium in this game)

You see, when I will push Russia's NW low enough, a revolution will probably occur. The question is if it will be a military dictatorship, a democratic regime, or a communist one. Its ony the latter which stops the war IIRC.

This is a general rule for all major powers BTW, so I may end up turning Italy to communist this game or something.

And the number of communist regimes at the end of the game determines the victory level.

[Tamas]

JUNE 1916

In the May Interphase, Turkey attempted and managed to crush the rebellion in the Hedjaz, while Austria launched Szent István, causing some minor hapiness among the public (+1NW). Germany concentrated on ordering nearly all the available siege artillery units, and some fairly modern airplanes (the latter would only be ready mid-1917).

Earlier capture of Warsaw actually helped the leaders of Russia rising patriotic spirits. But June was still not nice to them.

Low NW gives a morale check penalty, and this proved crucial in the fightings in June, and seemed eventually in the fate of Russia itself. They started the month with the NW of around 10, but things went downhill fast.

Actually, the Grand Offensive of Germany was getting slower. They regularly met numerically superior Russian forces. But sooner or later, one of the reserve Russian units would break into Panic (worst possible morale check result) further causing damage to other units in their army, and triggering defeat. Most notable was this at the Russian minor fort of Rozan. (it's a bit SE of Tannenberg, and NE of Warsaw). The AI there made a good call massing about 4 corps there: I could not ignore that province in my advance, and a fort provides artillery support for 3 combat rounds.  So it started out as a though battle, but then one of the conscript units was rotated into battle, and panicked, and it seemed some other Russian units also got at least temporarily out of map because it became a major defeat for Russia, further decreasing their NW. They started July with only 1NW, after suffering yet another mutiny following that major defeat.

There was only one battle where Russia showed its older form, and yet it lost it as well: the 12th German Army, moving out of Königsberg toward the East to join the general offensive, met some stiff resistance from the well-rested Russian forces there, but in a bloody battle forced them to retreat.

In the West, France continued the Grand Offensive in the Ardennes, and I had a good call going with in-depth defense, as Joffre, general leading the assault, opted to try Flash Bombardment, but in-depth defense decreased its effect so they could not break through.

JULY

Not only Russia started barely in the positive NW field, I drew the Lenin event! Still, pushing them to revolution was needed.

The bad news this month was that due to mostly my negligence, the Italians managed to conquer Villach, completing their Grand Offensive!

But Austria-Hungary also did good as well: After winning a major battle west of the city, their breakthrough infantry corps reached and captured Brest-Litovsk.

Other than this, July was unusually quiet.

AUGUST

This month started with a big diplomatic blunder: sinking of the Lusitania! This pushed the USA enough to become Pro-Entente, which did not only mean that they would highly crank up economic support for Entente countries, but that they would begin their turnly slide toward joining the war.

Will continue later.

[Tamas]

That worked. Dunno why WinRar didn't - it's usually pretty good.
Gonna try out the tutorial tomorrow.

Also, make sure to have the 229 pages long proper manual at hand.

[katmai]

I demand screenies!

[HisMajestyBOB]

That worked. Dunno why WinRar didn't - it's usually pretty good.
Gonna try out the tutorial tomorrow.

Also, make sure to have the 229 pages long proper manual at hand.

Originally I was going to dive right in and see which would defeat me first, the enemy or the interface.
But since there's a tutorial, I might as well give that a shot.

[Tamas]

The biggest problem with the game when it was 1.00, was not just the interface, but that it gave back way too little information about what was happening.

I did not notice that until after release, to be honest, because having played the boardgame, I knew the rules "under the hood", but most players did not.

So I do encourage you to look up stuff in the manual as you go along, particularly combat. Just knowing what exactly each morale check result mean goes a long way in helping understand the game.

And altough with patches the information thing got better a lot, it still has some problems.

[Syt]

I have to say I still don't understand battles and battle reports. I know how they work in theory, but often enough I'm left to wonder, "Why did I win this battle?"

[Tamas]

I have to say I still don't understand battles and battle reports. I know how they work in theory, but often enough I'm left to wonder, "Why did I win this battle?"

With latest patches the individual round results are displayed much clearer, for longer, so it gets pretty easy to understand where a battle is going. In 95% of times you win/lose because you run out of units (disorganized or worse morale result puts them out of battle) or AI decides to retreat.

[Alcibiades]

Give us more!  And om a related note, are you not able to give casualty reports?   

[Syt]

I have to say I still don't understand battles and battle reports. I know how they work in theory, but often enough I'm left to wonder, "Why did I win this battle?"

With latest patches the individual round results are displayed much clearer, for longer, so it gets pretty easy to understand where a battle is going. In 95% of times you win/lose because you run out of units (disorganized or worse morale result puts them out of battle) or AI decides to retreat.

Maybe, but the results float *somewhere* on my screen, and nowhere near the units concerned.

[Tamas]

I have to say I still don't understand battles and battle reports. I know how they work in theory, but often enough I'm left to wonder, "Why did I win this battle?"

With latest patches the individual round results are displayed much clearer, for longer, so it gets pretty easy to understand where a battle is going. In 95% of times you win/lose because you run out of units (disorganized or worse morale result puts them out of battle) or AI decides to retreat.

Maybe, but the results float *somewhere* on my screen, and nowhere near the units concerned.

Uhm, not anymore, its clear wether the text concerns your unit (bottom half) or the enemy (upper half).