Eastern Entente - Manageable as a Novice?

[Don Powell]

Before getting EAW, I was intrigued with the thought of playing Russia in such a conflict.

Scanning some of the forum entries however, it seems that Russia (game-wise) is really in for a hard time, unless it pretty much has total success.

Would that be true - even with all the AI settings set down to minimum ?

Could a EAW novice have a chance as the EE with such adjusted settings?

[epaminondas]

I think you're right on the money, Don. The task facing a stand-alone Russian player is daunting indeed. As you suggest, one way of dealing with it as a newbie is to crank the AI settings down as far as they can go. The problem with this, however, is that you end up playing a game that misrepresents the scale of the task facing you so that you don't really learn a lot that's likely to be useful to you when you scale back up.

I'd suggest instead that you play the full Entente at medium settings. This way you can throw your allies under the bus when you need to shift the CP's attention away from you. That will give you a better read on the combat and movement factors you'll have to deal with when you do get serious with a Russia only game.

[pantsukki]

One thing to consider is the ability of the AI. If you have any experience with AGEOD you should be able to do pretty well in SP, as the AI will be doing its best to ruin its own war effort. Of course that also applies to any allied AI factions.

[Don Powell]

Thanks for the guidance guys.

I have been playing PON for a while as Russia and am having a real blast in the 1700+ turn campaign.

A lot seems familiar in EAW - so perhaps I'll give it a shot at normal difficulty.

I may try the full Entente eventually but the real draw for me is the fascination of what could have been done to avoid the fall of the Romanov dynasty and the rise of Communism in Russia.

RUS is also obviously on my shopping list.

In PON, I am trying to be a kinder, gentler Tsar of the people in order to bring about a happier, more modernized Russia.

In EAW, it's all too late for that ... unless we are highly successful.

So - time to put away my PON Development Hat and shine up the old sabre ....

[epaminondas]

Not sure that you have to be highly successful to keep Lenin at bay - I think it's more a case of avoiding being unsuccessful. The earlier revolution thresh-hold together with the greater revolution possibility once you get there obviously place you at greater risk. But to get back on an even playing field you only need to do 11% better than your CP opponents in the alignment stakes and that's by no means impossible.

If you're playing Russia alone things do become tougher since you only have your own forces on hand to do harm to the CP. But if your playing both EN and EN1 you can use Britain and France (and later the US) as your battering rams to knock down CP alignments while you protect Russia's with conservative play. Not a gung-ho strategy but, as Britain proved for three hundred or so years, certainly a viable one.

[Don Powell]

You guys make some very persuasive points about playing the full Entente

At some point, I did want to try my hand as the CP, using the Moltke Plan - so getting a feel for both fronts would be useful.

Thanks for your comments.