Request for some game tips - ?

[sandman2575]

Having pored over the game manuals many times (and continuing to do so), I hope some of these questions aren't of the "just read the manual" answer variety.

After a couple of false starts (aka 'learning the hard way'), I'm into 1915 playing as Germany vs. the AI in the 4-player grand campaign. I'm playing strictly turn-based, "Army-by-Army", with all the 'challenging' boxes ticked in the Options screen.

Sorry -- some of these are a bit wordy -- mostly I'd just love whatever info. I can get from veterans out there:


1. Interceptions. I fear I'm not using these very efficiently. I usually choose the "Intercept with Full Forces" option when an interception is in the offing. I guess I'm not quite sure why you would Intercept with *less* than your full forces? Sending a minimum 1 corps to intercept seems like almost certain suicide for that corps, although I suppose such an Intercept would at least have the benefit of stopping your opponent's Army's move through your territory. I'm a little confused too as to *where* your forces wind up after a successful interception? If my Army is set to Intercept, and I select "full forces", assuming I win the Intercept combat, is my entire Army now moved into the territory where the Intercept took place? If Yes, is this the drawback of 'overusing' Interception-- that if you intercept with several of your Armies along a front, after it's done, your front is going to be completely disorganized and full of gaps - ?

2. Does GHQ have a combat function during "Movement Warfare" doctrine (1914) - ?? I understand that once you get to "Trench" doctrine, your GHQ can serve as a massive "reserve" for offensives (and on defense?) -- i.e. if your army is attacked and within range of GHQ in Trench combat, the entire slate of GHQ's corps are made available in the Reserves area (correct?). But this does not happen during "Mov't Warfare". I guess I"m just hoping to confirm that, for all intents and purposes, there's no real reason to load up GHQ with Corps before Trench warfare is initiated.

3. Railroad conversion. It seems to me that the conversions are happening automatically. I take an enemy territory, say in Belgium. The "signpost" sprite is placed on the conquered territory, with a number that I assume = the RR capacity of the territory (?). The manual suggests that you have to *dedicate* an infantry corps to select "Convert RR" -- but I've never done this, and after a turn, the rr conversion seems to have happened automatically (the sprite disappears) -- am I missing something here?

4. Events cards. I don't quite understand why cards not meant for your alliance are made available -- for example, playing as Germany, during one Events phase the only card I could draw was the "Lawrence of Arabia" card. Given that my ally is Turkey, there is no reason for me to play this. Is the point, then, that I'm holding it so that the Entente can't use it? Also, I may be mistaken, but it often looks like the AI is playing cards *against* itself that produce harmful effects in their own countries -- like France playing a "Mutinies" card on itself - ? Maybe I'm not seeing this correctly, but it sure looks this way from the Event message descriptions and from what I see on the map itself.

5. Is there a way to cycle *all* your stacks on the map -- not just armies, or stacks within a single territory?

6. Generally, and a big question I know -- how do I know how much I should be Producing, in terms of armaments and new units? Some units are automatically queued up and will become available to me. How aggressively should I be producing new units? I'm being very conservative at the moment -- but should I be going all out on production as Central Powers??

7. Breakthroughs. Just want to confirm: if your Army can do a Breakthrough (after combat, not one planned during combat), your stack will show up with a "Purple" glow - ?

[Random]

Opinions mostly but based on many WW1G games...

1. Forces committed to interceptions may not execute their orders or may do so after the interception and with any casualties. Intercepting with one unit may trigger a successful counter move but should also give you hard data on what's there. I find interceptions generally a trade-off and they may distract you from your own goals, reacting to the enemy move might be war-saving or could prevent a killing stroke so each needs to be evaluated carefully for cost-benefit. The timer is a nice feature.

2. I have had to throw a GHQ and GQG into the line on occasion but doing so should be a desperate measure. I will, if possible place rebuilt units, those destroyed out of combat the previous turn, into the GHQ so they are available when the transition to firepower doctrine kicks in. Once the trench lines form redeploying units to the GHQ takes time and there's seldom an ideal opportunity to funnel forces into the reserves.

3. Conversion is more problematic on the Eastern Front. Breakthroughs will tend to leave unconverted lines but generally it seems the units retain enough movement to self-repair the lines during the turn. I suspect (but do not know for sure) some of this depends on how many rounds were fought to gain possession of the province.

4. If you have enemy event cards, they cannot play them so the Entente holding the Bruchmuller event (for example) denies the German's this big artillery bonus. Likewise if you have cards that hurt you the enemy cannot play them while discarding them means they might acquire them on a future draw. The AI will play events that hurt itself, I suspect (but do not know) it sorts and plays events at random. Some events are re-shuffled and can appear multiple times but others are single use only. I do not consider the AI playing events that impact it negatively to be a problem and can create opportunities: the ways of fate are strange in R/L. There's a fix for the Battleships to Turkey event several threads down the page (shameless plug...).

5. Sadly none that I have found.

6. WW1G forces you to think ahead and determine what your force structure will be in the future and this drives your options. Therefore you should consider what you want to achieve vs. what you have in the way of resources. Your coinage are money and manpower and you are unlikely to have enough to do everything you want every interphase. If you have enough of both during any interphase you are probably doing well. The massive Central Powers naval advantages in the stock game open the door to Germany sitting on the defensive after destroying the Grand Fleet and establishing control of the North Sea, making the blockade irrelevant. This will not always work but there may be opportunity there; I modded away the super High Seas Fleet to take this option away (and posted them here), your mileage may vary.

It takes about a year to create new land and air units and you may burn through a complete army or two by 1916. Tanks and artillery are expensive but essential and are needed in significant numbers to be decisive. Aircraft effects are subtle but very real and grow so that by 1918-19 they can be real assets. As you pour more resources into the war effort NW may suffer particularly if your forces do not achieve success. The long range planning concerns and the trade off's between building new units, funding technology, funding naval sorties and keeping the home-front happy usually provide new riddles to be solved in every new game. If there is any one rule it is plan ahead, build the forces required to implement your plan on your timeline and try to frustrate the enemy. Don't forget building mines and diplomats either and try to leave yourself a bit of a cash reserve each interphase.

7. I think so, unfortunately I tend to be more often on the receiving end of breakthroughs although it is far better to give than to receive.

Hope this helps, good luck.

[sandman2575]

Many thanks, Random -- very informative.

The RR conversion thing still kind of baffles me. Having to devote a corps (even mobilized or reservist corps) to RR conversion seems a high price to pay, which is why I haven't gotten into the habit of manually converting, especially since it seems to be taking care of itself automatically... with the odd province here and there that mysteriously remains unconverted.

[Random]

The RR conversion thing still kind of baffles me. Having to devote a corps (even mobilized or reservist corps) to RR conversion seems a high price to pay, which is why I haven't gotten into the habit of manually converting, especially since it seems to be taking care of itself automatically... with the odd province here and there that mysteriously remains unconverted.

Have seen this too and am not above editing a save to fix this sort of thing. The requirement to allocate an entire corps, (perhaps 45,000-75,000 men plus equipment) to fix a rail line in friendly territory and in the absence of enemy opposition for one or two entire months seems excessive at times.

WW1G occasionally does some things that may seem beyond the realms of probability, counter-intuitive or downright nasty but most of the really egregious stuff is easy to fix with a text editor an an understanding of the information format in the *.SAV and *.MAP files of the ...\SaveGame folder.. I think long and hard before amending saved games and do not do so to provide advantage or turn defeat into victory but find that the ability to correct the occasional blatantly unhistorical, physically impossible or doctrinally implausible game situations represents a strength rather than providing an exploit. Other players of course, are free to disagree. Fortunately you can mod many of them away to greatly reduce their occurrence.

[calvinus]

1. Interceptions. I fear I'm not using these very efficiently. I usually choose the "Intercept with Full Forces" option when an interception is in the offing. I guess I'm not quite sure why you would Intercept with *less* than your full forces? Sending a minimum 1 corps to intercept seems like almost certain suicide for that corps, although I suppose such an Intercept would at least have the benefit of stopping your opponent's Army's move through your territory. I'm a little confused too as to *where* your forces wind up after a successful interception? If my Army is set to Intercept, and I select "full forces", assuming I win the Intercept combat, is my entire Army now moved into the territory where the Intercept took place? If Yes, is this the drawback of 'overusing' Interception-- that if you intercept with several of your Armies along a front, after it's done, your front is going to be completely disorganized and full of gaps - ?

Intercepting with half or minimum forces can be useful to keep covered the area where the intercepting army is located. Think, for example, when the enemy splitted his army into two stacks, moves first a detachment to an area where you can intercept and then the HQ against that area, where you have an HQ. If you intercept with half forces, for example, then you can combat the enemy HQ attacking your own HQ. Otherwise, the enemy HQ takes the area without battle. And it can also breakthrough (in Army-by-Army play mode), thus cutting your supply lines in the worst case!

2. Does GHQ have a combat function during "Movement Warfare" doctrine (1914) - ?? I understand that once you get to "Trench" doctrine, your GHQ can serve as a massive "reserve" for offensives (and on defense?) -- i.e. if your army is attacked and within range of GHQ in Trench combat, the entire slate of GHQ's corps are made available in the Reserves area (correct?). But this does not happen during "Mov't Warfare". I guess I"m just hoping to confirm that, for all intents and purposes, there's no real reason to load up GHQ with Corps before Trench warfare is initiated.

Let's say the GHQ in Movement Warfare can be used as an independent detachment... you stock there your spare corps, ready to be used as GHQ reserves during Trench Warfare, but in the meanwhile you use that stack to cover your second line...

3. Railroad conversion. It seems to me that the conversions are happening automatically. I take an enemy territory, say in Belgium. The "signpost" sprite is placed on the conquered territory, with a number that I assume = the RR capacity of the territory (?). The manual suggests that you have to *dedicate* an infantry corps to select "Convert RR" -- but I've never done this, and after a turn, the rr conversion seems to have happened automatically (the sprite disappears) -- am I missing something here?

In a very old version of WW1, there was no automatic conversion (that now takes place during the Interphase or the Political Phase, I do not recall exactly). It was possible only to convert manually. Now you can fasten the RR conversion by doing manually, but you must employ a infantry corps with 1 unspent movement point, or a cavalry corps with 2 unspent movement points. This can be useful for the crucial supply lines in early war, think for example of Belgian RR in August / September 1914...

4. Events cards. I don't quite understand why cards not meant for your alliance are made available -- for example, playing as Germany, during one Events phase the only card I could draw was the "Lawrence of Arabia" card. Given that my ally is Turkey, there is no reason for me to play this. Is the point, then, that I'm holding it so that the Entente can't use it? Also, I may be mistaken, but it often looks like the AI is playing cards *against* itself that produce harmful effects in their own countries -- like France playing a "Mutinies" card on itself - ? Maybe I'm not seeing this correctly, but it sure looks this way from the Event message descriptions and from what I see on the map itself.

Many people asked about that in the past. Card Hand limit is 10. Take such cards to avoid the enemy draws and uses them against you...

5. Is there a way to cycle *all* your stacks on the map -- not just armies, or stacks within a single territory?

I remember no. Check anyway the readme file, shortcut keys section.

6. Generally, and a big question I know -- how do I know how much I should be Producing, in terms of armaments and new units? Some units are automatically queued up and will become available to me. How aggressively should I be producing new units? I'm being very conservative at the moment -- but should I be going all out on production as Central Powers??

Every time you schedule the production of a new corps, you see (Production screen) the impact on RP flow. The more you spend on new corps, the less RP you will get during following turns. So you have to find the best balance, mainly for your major offensive plans during Trench Warfare! Major Offensives need of many RP and many Munitions.

7. Breakthroughs. Just want to confirm: if your Army can do a Breakthrough (after combat, not one planned during combat), your stack will show up with a "Purple" glow - ?

Yes, I recall this in Army-by-Army play mode, that introduces the Breakthrough sub-phase.

[sandman2575]

Many thanks!