Campaign

[Aurelin]

Is the Entente player really limited to playing either the East or West side?

[Altaris]

You can always play both sides, just save your orders each turn, then reload as the other side. Once you have orders saved for both sides, process the turn.

[arsan]

I bet you can load as both entente sides and give order to both and let Central Powers to the AI. In fact you could even give orders to the three sides and play a solitary game, with no AI.
At least this is possible on the rest of the AGEOD games. You only need to go to the Load Game screen and select the save file of each side, load it and give your orders.

Regards

[Aurelin]

So I can play both as Eastern and Western Entente then? (Going to play by PBEM)

[Altaris]

Yes

[Aurelin]

Silly question, but how does this work exactly with a CP player? (I feel like a noob.)

As an aside, it turns out a third player wants in as the West guys. This could be interesting.

[Owl]

You mean one player playing both Entente factions and one the Central Powers? If the Central Powers player is the host, have the Entente player do his turn for one Entente side, save the turn to an ort file, then make him load the game again as the other side, make his turn, and save an ort file, then make him send both of those files to the other player for resolution. If the Entente player is the host, simply load the game for both Entente factions, save the turn, get the ort file from the Central Powers player and then resolve.

[Aurelin]

Yes. Thanks all who answered.!!!

That is the plan. I play both East and West. But a third player would like to play the West. Should be interesting.

[FroBodine]

So, I am trying to understand this process. What if I want to play as the Entente, both East and West, against the Central Powers as AI?

Do I have to set up a multiplayer game, and make East and West Entente human, and CP a computer AI player? Is this possible? If so, how would I do both Entente turns myself, then process the turn for the AI to play their CP turn?

This is kind of confusing to me.

[James D Burns]

So, I am trying to understand this process. What if I want to play as the Entente, both East and West, against the Central Powers as AI?

Do I have to set up a multiplayer game, and make East and West Entente human, and CP a computer AI player? Is this possible? If so, how would I do both Entente turns myself, then process the turn for the AI to play their CP turn?

This is kind of confusing to me.

Do your orders for one power, then save your turn and go out into the main menu without executing a turn yet. Then re-open the game but select the other power you want to play and do its orders, then execute the turn.

Jim

[Owl]

What you would do is start your game with one Entente faction as usual. Then, once you are done, you don't hit end turn, instead you save your turn. Then you go back into the main menu, load your game, but pick the other Entente faction this time. Then you do your turn and resolve. Rinse and repeat.

[FroBodine]

Perfect. Thanks James and Owl!

[H Gilmer3]

Kind of unwieldy. I wish there had been an option to play all the Entente.

[FroBodine]

Kind of unwieldy. I wish there had been an option to play all the Entente.

Yeah, I agree. I have no idea why they didn't include this in the game. Hopefully they will patch it in.

[Owl]

You're welcome.

As for a scenario with an united Entente, it's also a balancing issue I'd reckon. You'd have the resources of both Entente factions in one and could thus really heavily favor one front in favor of the other through additional unit production.

[H Gilmer3]

You could keep their money and points separate, couldn't you, and that would mitigate that issue.

[vonRocko]

You have to be kidding me. You can't play as France, Britain, and Russia without all this nonsense? I can't believe it!

[FroBodine]

Keeping money and resources separate would probably work. But, if resources were shared by the entire Entente, what would be the harm? It would sure be a different strategy. But, the user should be able to play as he sees fit, and if he wants to swarm one front and leave another wide open, go for it. He will get creamed on the weaker front. Seems ok to me if that is what you want to do.

The bottom line . . . we should be able to play the game the way we want, trying our own strategies. It's a game after all.

But, keeping money and resources separate would also be good, in my opinion.

[Ace]

Of course it's a game, but some historic limitations have to be considered. WE and EE had different agendas, and I don't think French would tolerate sending half of their army to Poland. The similar goes to the Russians. Do you really think French would tolerate sending resources for their big guns to help the Tzar while Verdun is in danger - I don't think so...

[Owl]

You could keep their money and points separate, couldn't you, and that would mitigate that issue.

I think this would theoretically be possible by creating own variants of the resources (e.g. Money West/Money East), so that you could not trade assets between the factions. It would probably be a bit of work though, as it would also require a GUI change.

Who knows, maybe somebody will make a mod for those that seek an united Entente?

[gekkoguy82]

From the little bit of reading I've done about the war, it seems to me that having a unified command and decision making structure between the East and the West (i.e. you, the player) would be an enormous advantage. My understanding is that one of the biggest hurdles was getting things between the two fronts coordinated, if they coordinated at all. But maybe I'm wrong, I don't know.

[PJL]

Probably the simplest solution to this would be have a 2 player Entente button at the campaign menu. Then when it came to the game itself, you could then play the Western Entente first, but instead of the End Turn button, it would show the play Eastern Entente button. Only after the Eastern Entente turn was finished would there be an End Turn button.

That way, you still get the different dynamics of playing both sides, without having to go in and out of the main menu to save it each time. Would also be a lot easier than trying to balance for a unified Entente player.

[vonRocko]

Other WW1 games have no problem separating the resources of the different countries. I just don't understand, Do you mean Germany/A.Hun. share the same resources? England/ France share the same resources? Seems like a strange design.
Am I wrong about this?

[Ace]

You are right. I guess they didn't want to clutter the game with too many resources.

[Respenus]

Let's not forget how the Adaptive Game Engine works in general and that is with factions (VGN being the only one where you control a specific nation as a faction). As far as I know (I could be wrong), controlling each nation would mean having separate factions for the UK, France, Russia, Serbia, etc, etc. This would make playing the game even more difficult, as you would have to plot separate moves for each of those nations. So at the end of it all and wanting a decent level of historical accuracy, the WE/EE/CP factions are the best way to go around simulating the war.

[Lindi]

You are right. I guess they didn't want to clutter the game with too many resources.

That work because the cost in mony of each side troop is more hight when you buy unit so you need buy unit of any faction of your side if you need to have good price for unit.

[Aurelin]

So in a three player game, how does it work? I've been told that the host sends the hast file to both of the Entente players, then they just send their ord files back. So the host has two ord files?

[mariandavid]

There was just about as much co-ordination and detailed sharing of plans between France/Britain on the one hand and Imperial Russia on the other as there was in WW2 between the West and the Soviet Union. In other words very little. There was more transfer of weaponry (lots of French guns to Russia) and even troops - Russian infantry to France and Salonika - but that was all, with very little co-ordination of offensives. Which is why Germany was easily able to transfer multiple corps at a time to and from Russia and the Western Front.

Put another way I agree with the designers: If you want to have something even approaching historical you do have to separate the play as well as the assets of the two parts of the Entente.

[Owl]

So in a three player game, how does it work? I've been told that the host sends the hast file to both of the Entente players, then they just send their ord files back. So the host has two ord files?

Three even, including his own.