Detachments from Serbian I Army

[TheDoctorKing]

Playing as the Entente in the Grand Campaign game. I have been messing around with this game for a while but there are still many elements that confuse me.

One thing: when I detach a corps from the Serbian I army, like for example to create a solid line of corps during the Redeployment phase, I can't seem to make the detachment part of I Army. They are created as independent stacks and when I go to the unit management screen and drag them to I Army, they won't change or else they change temporarily and then switch back automatically. The message window is giving me a red message about corps limits. Serbian I Army is very large, 15 or so corps, but it seems from the rules as if the normal corps limits that apply to major power armies don't apply to minor armies, like the Serbs, Bulgarians, etc. Is this true or am I misreading? If true, how come the Serbs (and I think?? the Romanians and Bulgarians also) have way more corps in their armies to start than the army limits?

[Random]

Until somebody smarter comes along here's my take...

The minors have more Corps than they can control but this imposes on both the AI and the Player(s) a realistic restriction on minor country capabilities. Although Bulgaria and Romania had more than one Army HQ in the event, they never had the resources to effectively conduct operations on more than one axis. In WW1G, units that are independent cannot attack but defend and move normally. Units under Army command but outside of the range of their HQ may suffer loss of command and control and so be unable to be used effectively in any offensive role. This forces limits on what the armies can do that reasonably prevents them from behaving in too implausible manners.

I think this is a subtle but effective method of managing the Balkan minor nations without imposing hard movement and combat restrictions or artificially degrading their combat effectiveness or unit ratings.

[calvinus]

Excellent Random!

[Baris]

Is it similar for German east army in Königsberg? Can not make detachments belong to VIII army. In fact VIII army invisible for any corps attachment in manage forces interface.

[poweraxe]

It shouldn't, perhaps the army is immobilized, at max corps capacity, or the units you re trying to add are fortress units (which should be assignable at start for Germany, can be bugged at times).

[Baris]

Maybe related to corps capacity. 3 Detachments for VIII army in 3 separate regions, the are mobile including main army. They can not be made independent detachments. But interesting, manage forces interface does not ever show VIII army. Maybe it has special rules.

Edit: When detachments created from the VIII main army in same region, they appeared as independent. To make them as VIII detachments they should be dragged to "create independent stack" box. It did the trick.
But still army assignment screen does not show VIII army.

[Random]

You can edit the maximum numbers of Corps that an HQ can command but the new values become global and it's easy to see all sorts of potentially ugly consequences of doing so.

Open [color="#008000"]...*:\World War One Gold\Data\DB\GameRules.csv[/color] and save the original somewhere safe. Look for the lines:

[color="#008000"]NHQ;[color="#FF0000"]7[/color];1;Max corps per HQ in Normal Armies
MHQ;[color="#FF0000"]12[/color];1;Max corps per HQ in Main Armies[/color]

Edit the values in [color="#FF0000"]Red[/color] to taste and standby for the Laws of Unintended Consequences to kick in when you play next.

There is also a nasty little game exploit that the AI cannot use but the Player can.

As soon as you designate any Army HQ as the Main HQ for a Front, its command capacity is increased to 12 Corps immediately. So you can designate the Serbian HQ as the Main HQ, attach all Serbian units to it and then designate another HQ of choice, repeating the process until there are no more independent Corps. Once Corps are under command there are no penalties for keeping them with their HQ even in excess of the maximum of seven-Corps normally allowed. I suppose a possible fix would be to impose a cost on designating Main Armies but given the 'coinage' in WW1G, (money, manpower and National Will) it's difficult to apply any of those to the purely operational considerations of designating a Main Army and so the alliances' strategic direction.

I discovered this trick by accident and do not know if it can be exploited in PBEM. You can however, designate minor nation HQ's as a Main Army, I just tried it with Switzerland and Serbia.

Was of two minds about passing this exploit on but decided that enquiring minds might want to know...

-C

[calvinus]

Let's say that trick is a hole in rules, yes... you can use it in PBEM, but my advice you state it as not allowed by house rules.

[Random]

Let's say that trick is a hole in rules, yes... you can use it in PBEM, but my advice you state it as not allowed by house rules.

Agree 100%. I found it by accident and have to resist temptation to use this exploit, particularly when the AI is handing me my head in a box.

-C

[TheDoctorKing]

Nice thought, Random.

Actually, the Serbian independent corps stacks are defending themselves pretty well. I played a few more turns last night and although the Romanians joined the war on the side of the Central Powers (?), the Serbs are still holding out. I think that because the Romanians are Centrals and I made promises to the Bulgarians, they are staying neutral.

Which reminds me, why can't I send diplomats to Bulgaria now? The message window says I can't send diplomats except through friendly or neutral territory but Greece is neutral and Serbia is friendly. But I can't send any new Entente diplomats to Bulgaria. The ones in Bulgaria can be assigned to move to other countries, though.

[Random]

The independent stacks usually work pretty well but it's too easy to "forget" to reduce former Main Armies to the authorized maximum of seven-corps when a new army is designated as the Main.

The possibility for Romania joining the Central Powers was certainly there as Ferdinand I was a pretty well a full-blooded Hohenzollern. By way of a blinding glimpse of the obvious it tends to complicate things for Russia and not in any positive way.

As for the Diplomats to Bulgaria, can you not use the 'Merge' function to increase your diplomatic presence in Bulgaria? With Romania in, keeping Bulgaria sweet is really vital but of course you know that already. An option is to write-off the Balkans entirely and fight defensively in the East.

Good Luck!

-C