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[Baffler]

So how much armor were you thinking of dropping? Something like half of the regiments?

Regarding placement, I don't think we can afford to leave any straight up gaps in our lines, but if we do end up with a numbers advantage that big at the start of the war we should for sure exploit it.

Spoiler: Top Secret (click to show/hide)

This is all assuming that the national borders on the map in the OP are the ones we'll be using for the game. If we have historical 1914 borders this is all useless.

The actual border between France and Germany is kinda rough, with the Vosges and Palatine forest on our side of the border and the Black Forest and Eifel on their side both being pretty serious obstacles. I'd prefer to take a hard defensive stance on the north side of the border around Metz and Strasbourg, maybe with some light defenses further back along the Moselle river if we can spare the troops for it, and concentrate on getting a foothold across the Rhine by attacking near Freiburg and advancing through the Black Forest and up the East bank of the Rhine toward Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. From there we can outflank the troops they'll undoubtedly have dug in between Saarbrucken and Frankfurt, advance east toward Munich, or push toward the Weser river as the situation permits. We'd also probably be smart to station some troops to defend our border with Belgium and Luxembourg too, but how many is a question for later once we know what they bring to the table better.

Alternatively, we could be cheesy and take a defensive stance all along our shared border and invade nice flat Belgium and Holland ourselves, and probably race them as they redeploy to protect the cities on the northern Rhine. If we do end up outnumbering them at the start of the war a wide front is to our advantage, but I'm worried about those "unexpected things" that may happen. Violating Luxembourg's neutrality is also an option. It'd let us outflank Frankfurt through Trier, and also give us a route toward the Northern Rhine, but the terrain there is much rougher and it wouldn't take much for them to redeploy to meet our advance. They may even have troops stationed there from the start. It'll be much more tempting for them, since our side of Luxembourg is flatter and it gives them a more direct route to Paris.

[Stirk]

So how much armor were you thinking of dropping? Something like half of the regiments?

Regarding placement, I don't think we can afford to leave any straight up gaps in our lines, but if we do end up with a numbers advantage that big at the start of the war we should for sure exploit it.

Spoiler: Top Secret (click to show/hide)

This is all assuming that the national borders on the map in the OP are the ones we'll be using for the game. If we have historical 1914 borders this is all useless.

The actual border between France and Germany is kinda rough, with the Vosges and Palatine forest on our side of the border and the Black Forest and Eifel on their side both being pretty serious obstacles. I'd prefer to take a hard defensive stance on the north side of the border around Metz and Strasbourg, maybe with some light defenses further back along the Moselle river if we can spare the troops for it, and concentrate on getting a foothold across the Rhine by attacking near Freiburg and advancing through the Black Forest and up the East bank of the Rhine toward Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. From there we can outflank the troops they'll undoubtedly have dug in between Saarbrucken and Frankfurt, advance east toward Munich, or push toward the Weser river as the situation permits. We'd also probably be smart to station some troops to defend our border with Belgium and Luxembourg too, but how many is a question for later once we know what they bring to the table better.

Alternatively, we could be cheesy and take a defensive stance all along our shared border and invade nice flat Belgium and Holland ourselves, and probably race them as they redeploy to protect the cities on the northern Rhine. If we do end up outnumbering them at the start of the war a wide front is to our advantage, but I'm worried about those "unexpected things" that may happen. Violating Luxembourg's neutrality is also an option. It'd let us outflank Frankfurt through Trier, and also give us a route toward the Northern Rhine, but the terrain there is much rougher and it wouldn't take much for them to redeploy to meet our advance. They may even have troops stationed there from the start. It'll be much more tempting for them, since our side of Luxembourg is flatter and it gives them a more direct route to Paris.

Basically, just enough so we could use up all our guys instead of leaving 4k sitting around.

So how much armor were you thinking of dropping? Something like half of the regiments?

Regarding placement, I don't think we can afford to leave any straight up gaps in our lines, but if we do end up with a numbers advantage that big at the start of the war we should for sure exploit it.

Spoiler: Top Secret (click to show/hide)

This is all assuming that the national borders on the map in the OP are the ones we'll be using for the game. If we have historical 1914 borders this is all useless.

The actual border between France and Germany is kinda rough, with the Vosges and Palatine forest on our side of the border and the Black Forest and Eifel on their side both being pretty serious obstacles. I'd prefer to take a hard defensive stance on the north side of the border around Metz and Strasbourg, maybe with some light defenses further back along the Moselle river if we can spare the troops for it, and concentrate on getting a foothold across the Rhine by attacking near Freiburg and advancing through the Black Forest and up the East bank of the Rhine toward Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. From there we can outflank the troops they'll undoubtedly have dug in between Saarbrucken and Frankfurt, advance east toward Munich, or push toward the Weser river as the situation permits. We'd also probably be smart to station some troops to defend our border with Belgium and Luxembourg too, but how many is a question for later once we know what they bring to the table better.

Alternatively, we could be cheesy and take a defensive stance all along our shared border and invade nice flat Belgium and Holland ourselves, and probably race them as they redeploy to protect the cities on the northern Rhine. If we do end up outnumbering them at the start of the war a wide front is to our advantage, but I'm worried about those "unexpected things" that may happen. Violating Luxembourg's neutrality is also an option. It'd let us outflank Frankfurt through Trier, and also give us a route toward the Northern Rhine, but the terrain there is much rougher and it wouldn't take much for them to redeploy to meet our advance. They may even have troops stationed there from the start. It'll be much more tempting for them, since our side of Luxembourg is flatter and it gives them a more direct route to Paris.

Well it worked in WWII, if reversed. They might be expecting that though . I like the "Cheesy" plan, but we have to keep an eye out for any political expenditure on their part. I'd say its worth the risk if the countries really are neutral, better off ignoring if they arn't.

[Aigre Excalibur]

My thinking is that they need the increased survivability more than they need the speed, since militia likely won't be doing much other than holding the line anyway.

Still, GM, is it possible to manufacture trench armor for infantry after they've been trained?

Yes. You just spend the metal and the infantry are equipped. Like magic.

Stand by, counting stuff for turn.

[Aigre Excalibur]

(Inventory accounting for the win, yes the GM is an accounting-finance major)

February 1914

Resources Available 1 February 2014

Available military volunteers: 50,000
Political Points: 5
Steel stockpile: 2,960 Metric Tons
Production: 2,500 Metric Tons


In Training:
36,000 Regulars, Available 1 April 1914
9,000 Armoured Regulars, Available 1 April 1914
375 Light Guns (15 Batteries) Available 1 April 1914
125 Heavy guns (15 Batteries) Available 1 April 1914

The Baffler Plan wins the most votes in the Marseille parliament!

Add:
36,000 Regulars, Available 1 May 1914 (360 tons)
9,000 Armoured Regulars, Available 1 May 1914 (180 tons)
375 Light Guns, Available 1 May 1914 (750 tons)
125 Heavy Guns, Available 1 May 1914 (750 tons)

Total Manpower Expenditure: 50,000 humans
Total Steel Expenditure: 2,040 tons

Strategic Incomes:
PP Expenditure: 5 on Recruitment. for 50,000 Manpower
Income from existing steel industries: 2,500 tons of steel.

Resources Available in March 1914
Manpower: 50,000 humans
Steel: 3,420 tons

Force in training as of March 1914

Delivered April 1914
36,000 Regulars, Available 1 April 1914
9,000 Armoured Regulars, Available 1 April 1914
375 Light Guns (15 Batteries) Available 1 April 1914
125 Heavy guns (15 Batteries) Available 1 April 1914

Delivered May 1914
36,000 Regulars, Available 1 May 1914 (360 tons)
9,000 Armoured Regulars, Available 1 May 1914 (180 tons)
375 Light Guns, Available 1 May 1914 (750 tons)
125 Heavy Guns, Available 1 May 1914 (750 tons)

[Stirk]

Alright. We finally get to see a political point in action. Looks like a random roll with fairly small effects. Its probably compound well if continuously hammered in, but it would be hard to say its worth its point value in troops at this point in the game. We need guns, not dubious allies!

Probably shouldn't go marching through the Netherlands now, just to be safe (since even if the political power doesn't sway them, more might).

Reanalyzing their plan, they were not buying steel to increase their artillery they were buying it to offset the penalty for Mobilization. Mobilization is worth a lot strategically, so this really is a decent plan. We might wish to consider doing the same.

Quick analysis:
1 Mobilization increases the PP's worth by 10%. After 10 PP is spent on Troops, it breaks even. That is only 2 months worth of PP.
 -Spending one point on mobilization increases 1PP to 55,000 troops.
 -Spending an additional point on iron-working to keep your steel levels stable means that it takes 20/PP 4 months worth to break even.
 -There are 4 turns/ 20PP left. If they spend that all on Troops, they would break even with their PP investment.
 --We would still have the numerical advantage, as they spent plenty on non-troops
 -Thus we could immediately benefit from Mobilization, but not mobilization and steel increase.
 -Currently it would take 1000 PP/ 200 months to exhaust the entire population.
 -- With mobilization, it would take 909~. The cap might as well not exist .

In the end, I think mobilization would be good in the long term, but right now its a waste. You would only see a small increase in troop size under the best circumstances, and you waste the several months worth of free training. We should have a respectable advantage at the start of the fighting.

Since we now know how the armor equipment works, it might be best to just wait until we need them and then magically buy them. That way we can ignore the speed penalties until we are in place, then get the health benefits without having to deal with the drawbacks.

For now, we continue the Baffler Plan!

12 Regiments of Regulars (36,000 men)
-Infantry Equipment: 360 tons of steel
3 Regiments of Regulars (9,000 men)
-Infantry Equipment: 90 tons of steel
-Trench Armor: 90 tons of steel
15 Light Artillery Batteries (3,750 men)
-Artillery Guns: 750 tons of steel
5 Heavy Artillery Batteries (1,500 men)
-Artillery Guns: 750 tons of steel

[Baffler]

Alright. We finally get to see a political point in action. Looks like a random roll with fairly small effects. Its probably compound well if continuously hammered in, but it would be hard to say its worth its point value in troops at this point in the game. We need guns, not dubious allies!

Probably shouldn't go marching through the Netherlands now, just to be safe (since even if the political power doesn't sway them, more might).

Yeah, I can see why they'd want to keep the Netherlands on their side rather than ours, but the way I figure our only interest in them is potentially marching an army through their territory, and I reckon they wouldn't be too keen on their country being made into a warzone regardless of their politics. Maybe we could spare a political point or two on influencing Belgium after the war starts.

Reanalyzing their plan, they were not buying steel to increase their artillery they were buying it to offset the penalty for Mobilization. Mobilization is worth a lot strategically, so this really is a decent plan. We might wish to consider doing the same.

Quick analysis:
1 Mobilization increases the PP's worth by 10%. After 10 PP is spent on Troops, it breaks even. That is only 2 months worth of PP.
 -Spending one point on mobilization increases 1PP to 55,000 troops.
 -Spending an additional point on iron-working to keep your steel levels stable means that it takes 20/PP 4 months worth to break even.
 -There are 4 turns/ 20PP left. If they spend that all on Troops, they would break even with their PP investment.
 --We would still have the numerical advantage, as they spent plenty on non-troops
 -Thus we could immediately benefit from Mobilization, but not mobilization and steel increase.
 -Currently it would take 1000 PP/ 200 months to exhaust the entire population.
 -- With mobilization, it would take 909~. The cap might as well not exist .

In the end, I think mobilization would be good in the long term, but right now its a waste. You would only see a small increase in troop size under the best circumstances, and you waste the several months worth of free training. We should have a respectable advantage at the start of the fighting.

Makes sense to me. We still outnumber them at the start of the war this way, and it's easier to press an advantage than to win it back. That and a loss of steel production will be easier to tank once the war starts and we're not trying to equip 50,000 men per month, even if we may suffer a bit from having a non-existent stockpile during the first month of fighting. Mobilization should for sure be a priority after we're done here though, we don't want to let them snowball their recruitment ahead of our own and roll over us.

[Stirk]

Don't forget that they have been using the first few months for non-troop deployment. These first months are the only way to get artillery and regulars in the dirt when the fighting starts. Currently, it looks like they are steadily putting 30k men per turn to our 50k. So 60k to our 100k, with these being our best-quality troops until at the very least months into the war.

If they don't try to counter our movements, we are looking at ~190k v ~300k troops at the start of the war. Its enough to give us a great advantage, we should have no problem pushing the advance for at least several months in. If we can push the advance, we will have plenty of time to "steal" their political points away from them. That should be enough to snowball our troops while keeping them from snowballing, especially if we can capture a couple of towns.

...I just realized there is no "win" condition, so lets crush them as much as possible.

Now that we talked about plans and placement, the one thing we are lacking is Officer Placement. Any ideas here?

[Baffler]

Well the 100% morale boost to a single company (250 men) is pretty massive, but a single company is sort of limited as scope goes. A colonel can give a smaller 25% boost to a battalion, 4 companies. Much more flexible, but also much more limited. Considering we're playing around with regiment-sized blocks of troops that's a very localized bonus. It seems like a truism but I guess officers will, generally speaking, do the most good attached to the units that are doing the most fighting. It's hard to say where exactly that'll be without having detailed deployment plans, though.

[Stirk]

It might be best to hold them back and use them as a "Moral Healer" for when we need it. Moral can't go past 100, so boosting a group up to that could win us the battle.

[Aigre Excalibur]

For now, we continue the Baffler Plan!

12 Regiments of Regulars (36,000 men)
-Infantry Equipment: 360 tons of steel
3 Regiments of Regulars (9,000 men)
-Infantry Equipment: 90 tons of steel
-Trench Armor: 90 tons of steel
15 Light Artillery Batteries (3,750 men)
-Artillery Guns: 750 tons of steel
5 Heavy Artillery Batteries (1,500 men)
-Artillery Guns: 750 tons of steel

Resources Available in March 1914
Manpower: 50,000 humans
Steel: 3,420 tons

Force in training as of March 1914

Delivered April 1914
36,000 Regulars, Available 1 April 1914
9,000 Armoured Regulars, Available 1 April 1914
375 Light Guns (15 Batteries) Available 1 April 1914
125 Heavy guns (15 Batteries) Available 1 April 1914

Delivered May 1914
36,000 Regulars, Available 1 May 1914 (360 tons)
9,000 Armoured Regulars, Available 1 May 1914 (180 tons)
375 Light Guns, Available 1 May 1914 (750 tons)
125 Heavy Guns, Available 1 May 1914 (750 tons)

Matériel Changes:
Add:

36,000 Regulars, Available 1 June 1914
9,000 Armored Regulars, Available 1 June 1914
375 Light Artillery, Available 1 June 1914
125 Heavy Artillery, Available 1 June 1914


Resources Available in April 1914

Manpower: 50,000
Steel: (3,420-2,040+2,500) 3,880

Forces in training

Delivered May 1914
36,000 Regulars, Available 1 May 1914 (360 tons)
9,000 Armoured Regulars, Available 1 May 1914 (180 tons)
375 Light Guns, Available 1 May 1914 (750 tons)
125 Heavy Guns, Available 1 May 1914 (750 tons)

Delivered June 1914
36,000 Regulars, Available 1 June 1914
9,000 Armored Regulars, Available 1 June 1914
375 Light Artillery, Available 1 June 1914
125 Heavy Artillery, Available 1 June 1914

Undeployed Forces
36,000 Regulars
9,000 Armoured Regulars
375 Light Guns (15 Batteries)
125 Heavy guns (15 Batteries)

Force Deployment:

[Stirk]

Its....April right?
Continue the Baffler Plan!

12 Regiments of Regulars (36,000 men)
-Infantry Equipment: 360 tons of steel
3 Regiments of Regulars (9,000 men)
-Infantry Equipment: 90 tons of steel
-Trench Armor: 90 tons of steel
15 Light Artillery Batteries (3,750 men)
-Artillery Guns: 750 tons of steel
5 Heavy Artillery Batteries (1,500 men)
-Artillery Guns: 750 tons of steel

Total: 50,000 men, 2040 tons of steel

Its may/June that we should consider changing a bit.