Predictably, as I am the unlucky type, Germany took Moltke and AH took Prinz. So, I was yet again caught in the familiar Moltke-Berlin-Plan 17-Prinz bind, just like my current 4-player game as Russia.
I breezed through the Events and Diplomacy phase to go to Military phase and, OH BOY, did I feel way, way more in control of what was happening, like, you know, in a WW1 grand-scale maneuver warfare in 1914.
German I and II Army coordinating their MO, then me coordinating my own I and II Russian Army to counter-attack, and so on. In otherwords, I was witnessing, at last, some chain of reaction as the Germans take their initiative. I did not feel like in WEGO, with whole Armies passing in front of one another without any combat because one had the Initiative and moved away first, which was unthinkable in 1914 on any fronts (I can't imagine whole columns marching miles long on roads, passing beside one another without some sort of engagement occuring somewhere, yet in WEGO the German III Army can casually bypass three armies to reach Ivangorod because we must wait the end of everyone's turn to resolve combat).
This time, you see what it does and you can choose to intercept or continue your offensive. I can feel the different offensives are linked in a narrative, and that frontage can be created, even when I am in fact facing a scripted offensive.
Yeah, I know that supposedly the AI is "less aggressive" in A-to-A, whatever that means, so I do not know what to expect. Still, I feel why the original board game was balanced around A-to-A, because the situation becomes quickly muddy and frontages are less credible in WEGO (as I have seen with the German armies ending accidentally isolating themselves in WEGO on the Eastern front). This time, I can plan to isolate them on purpose, which will inevitably provoke some reaction or interception from my opponent.
That was my comment. Flame on, me loves A-to-A.
