Sun Sep 27, 2015 2:24 am
British rebel alignment: I have been very disappointed that the developers & beta testers have not responded to my posts regarding your LP's dilemma with 100% rebel alignment for months and months on end and not having the British revolt and surrender as the game's manual indicated it would. I think the alignment needs to be tweaked and explained when in the nation's diplomacy box what requirements are needed when RA hits 80% (the 70% Russian exception seems to be working as developed and explained in the manual). Regarding tweaking, in your LP, the British were certainly capable of continuing the war, as evidenced by their late game heroics against our beloved peace-loving, CP forces. Understandably, some nations have more will-to-fight during the war, so if possible, Britain should be hard-coded to increase rebel alignment more slowly or have the 80% rule bumped up to 95% to signify the unlikely possibility of this event occurring. Maybe even having more than just rebel alignment affecting surrender. How about a tooltip stating that army combat PWR must be less than 50% of the CP's PWR rating as an additional factor? That would certainly be the case with the Russian surrender and be a good reason why the UK didn't surrender. When a player depends on what is printed in the manual and there is no clarification in the forums, it is very disheartening, because we put so much emotional effort into playing this great game!
The Italian game crash incident. Very bad luck, but nothing we can do about that but dream of what could have been . . .
NM: Do I ever have a post that doesn't include NM??? I think that your use of RGD's contributed to your NM demise, which resulted in late game battle losses that probably would have been wins otherwise. I obsessed about NM (starting with the first year balancing events that I have already posted needs tweaking, IMO). I only used gas attacks once so far in my game (it was a pivotal and successful early game use that eliminated the WE surge into Mulhouse, I believe) and I printed State Funds maybe 8 times (with three inflation sunrise events to have a 5% inflation rate). Mid-game use of this RGD was not needed due to lack of conscripts and just pouring money into replacements and the tanks build limit and one super heavy artillery. By doing this, I have been able to keep my NM over 100 so far.
RGD's with significant NM hits for CP's: It's historical and needs to be kept. Back in June '16 Franz Joseph died and my NM went from 126 to 116, built it back up to 136 by Oct. '16. Lost 10 NM due to taking Lenin event May '17 and NM dropped from 133 to 123. I cannot explain why my battles resulted in NM gains for me and your battles resulted in rebel alignment increases (that proved useless in regard to the UK) for you. It's baffling and I would love clarification on this.
Replacements: I think on your last turn, you tried real hard to get your units more replacements so they could fight better. This late attempt may have contributed more to your downfall than even the NM disparity between the WE and CP. Back in summer/fall of 1916, my German line infantry went into the red after some poorly thought out attacks on my part with the need hitting up to 1200 if I recall correctly (didn't keep notes on this one). I immediately upped my turn purchases from 5 to 10 chits and was able to get it down to under 300 by Jan '17. I was able to keep the Italian and Turkish need for replacements under 100 during this time. I believe most, if not all my units for every major faction have at least 1 replacement chit in reserve every turn (with the exception of line infantry and Austrian militia - I like to garrison with Austrian militia!). As a result, my forces are always fighting at close to or at 100% efficiency without worrying about losing a unit (and NM hit) from fighting with mostly depleted forces.
All in all, this was a great Let's Play with plenty of ups and downs (the game simulated beautifully the ebb and flow of the war and I will dispute Boomer's opinion that the game engine can't handle the scope of the war - in fact, it is my fervent hope that AGEOD's grand campaign (double entendre) to have a fully updated European map is due to their desire to make a WWII companion to this fabulous WWI game) and urge everyone to watch the series and look for more to come; especially CW2 as the Confederates!