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Visibility of enemy war plan choices to the enemy

Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 5:48 pm
by alexander seil
Is this WAD? I would think that one of the main interesting game-theoretic aspects of the original boardgame would be that the sides don't get to change their war plans in response to their enemy's choices? :w00t: There really has to be Fog of War on those kinds of decisions...granted, it's easy as a player not to abuse it, but what about multiplayer?

Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 7:10 pm
by calvinus
Only some war-plans are detected by the enemy (Moltke, XX, Berlin...). The other ones are revealed (simultaneously) only when the phase ends.

In Multiplayer mode you can go in private chat with your ally! In fact, the inner game chat allow private messagings.

Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 8:33 pm
by Drakken
alexander seil wrote:Is this WAD? I would think that one of the main interesting game-theoretic aspects of the original boardgame would be that the sides don't get to change their war plans in response to their enemy's choices? :w00t: There really has to be Fog of War on those kinds of decisions...granted, it's easy as a player not to abuse it, but what about multiplayer?


That's the whole point: Some of these warplans are so "obvious" that the secret service picks on them, and allows their government to adapt accordingly.

So if Russia learns about Germany taking the Moltke Plan, for example, Russia can react by taking the Berlin Plan to concentrate on Germany.

Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 8:36 pm
by calvinus
But there's a trick for Multiplayer! :D

If you adopt a warplan that can be detected by the enemy secret service, and then you change idea and you immediately abandon the plan and adopt a new one, your enemy is not informed..... :siffle:

But this behaviour is not typical of gentlemen!

Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 8:48 pm
by Drakken
calvinus wrote:But there's a trick for Multiplayer! :D

If you adopt a warplan that can be detected by the enemy secret service, and then you change idea and you immediately abandon the plan and adopt a new one, your enemy is not informed..... :siffle:

But this behaviour is not typical of gentlemen!


Indeed. In fact, I believe the warplan choice should be locked after the choice is done, both in single and multiplayer. Once the choice is done, it's done.

In real life, the main fact why the march towards war was unstoppable in 1914 was because all four powers were prisoners of their own interlocked warplans. They couldn't change their warplan out of a Wilhelmian whim, because their allied powers' warplans were built in coordination with theirs.

Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 8:50 pm
by calvinus
In theory you are right, and so it was when ww1 1.0 was in beta testing. But we realized that in case of a wrong choice, this could generate a lot of compliants...

Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 8:51 pm
by Drakken
calvinus wrote:In theory you are right, and so it was when ww1 1.0 was in beta testing. But we realized that in case of a wrong choice, this could generate a lot of compliants...


Screw the complaints. None may ignore the law. :wacko:

Perhaps a confirmation window explicitely stating that the choice cannot be unmade would have been a decent enough warning. But as it is now, it can be dealt with by a House Rule instead.

Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 8:59 pm
by calvinus
Yes, surely this is a matter for a house rule!

I also adviced players to inhibit the Diplomatic Poker in Multiplayer! It's totally unbalancing to my opinion...

Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 9:20 pm
by Tamas
calvinus wrote:Yes, surely this is a matter for a house rule!

I also adviced players to inhibit the Diplomatic Poker in Multiplayer! It's totally unbalancing to my opinion...


that's something to come out in extensive multiplayering I think :)

eg. the entire russian and french army getting a pre-turn is not something to threat lightly even against the AI, let alone a human player!

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 12:50 am
by enf91
Tamas wrote:that's something to come out in extensive multiplayering I think :)

eg. the entire russian and french army getting a pre-turn is not something to threat lightly even against the AI, let alone a human player!


But with Austria's "Concessions to Italy" war plan option, Italy has a very good chance of entering the war with the CP (Triple Alliance), so the French get a pre-turn only to find Italians in Marseilles.

>>Eh, I probably should have quoted calvinus instead. Or together with this.

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 7:16 am
by alexander seil
calvinus wrote:Only some war-plans are detected by the enemy (Moltke, XX, Berlin...). The other ones are revealed (simultaneously) only when the phase ends.

In Multiplayer mode you can go in private chat with your ally! In fact, the inner game chat allow private messagings.


I swear both Russia and France must have picked war plans that are detected then, since I got notice of both. I guess I'll need to pay more attention.

EDIT: It was Plan XIX for France and the Berlin Plan for Russia

Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 12:58 pm
by AndrewKurtz
I was just told that the French had selected a plan prior to me selecting and there was nothing about "automatically detected" in the text. The Russian's plan was automatically detected.

Any chance if one is automatically detected, they call get revealed?

Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 4:20 pm
by Tamas
No, I am pretty sure this works correctly. You are only getting info on the enemy warplans you are supposed to learn about.

Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 4:35 pm
by Fastsnake
Are all plans detectable?

Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 4:43 pm
by calvinus
No, only someone.