esteban
Posts: 618
Joined: 7/21/2004 Status: offline
|
Ok, its not "gamey" if you didn't know about the bug beforehand. But considering the bug is in place you should evacuate Constantinople and let the Allies move in troops. Have him keep 4 full strength corps in Constantinople as the "OE garrison", allow no advances out of Constantinople for the Allied player. In return, you pick up the rest of Turkish Thrace in return (so you get a food hex) and then "demilitarize" the area. That way the bug doesn't affect the game much, the TE player gets his reward for taking out OE but has to keep several corps there as a garrison, and no TE offensives are launched out of OE territory against Bulgaria. That seems to be a good compromise under the circumstances. As for going after Italy first, my reaction as the TE player would be "please do". You would have to conduct the invasion with mostly Germany forces Since the Austrians would get creamed in Galicia if they pulled enough troops from Serbia and the Russian border to conduct the offensive themselves. That means that the Austrians would place at least 3-4 corps to protect Trieste. Then you either declare war on Italy in August 1914 and wait for the Germans to make the two impulse march from Bavaria to the Italian border (and the Italians can move forward into Trent and the adjacent hexes unless the Austrians put more than 3-4 corps in to protect the border). Either that, or you move the Germans into place from Bavaria in August 1914, then declare war on Italy in the September/October turn. But that delays your offensive a couple impulses and allows the French and Brits a chance to start naval and strategic moving in troops to help out the Italians. So you pretty much lose your shot at destroying France or Russia without a long and painful campaign, lose any chance to take Serbia out of the game in 1914 and possibly tick off the United States a little bit when invading neutral Italy. This in return for a second-rate major power that the TE doesn't "need". The CP needs the OE, because its the only country they have that has spare raw materials to feed German industry. So taking out the OE hits the German war effort hard. To the TE, Italy is not nearly as important because its navy is decent but smaller than France's or Britains, it doesn't provide any resources to the TE that can't be got through other means and its army is mostly useful for taking a few Austrian and Bavarian cities that will only be taken if the Germans or Austrians are pretty much completely tied down with Russia and France anyway. Also, taking out the OE early on draws in so many Russian troops that it forestalls any Russian attack to save France or Serbia or to have enough troops to effectively defend Russian territory if the CP hits Russia first instead of France.
|