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brian brian -> RE: Groundhog Day AAR (7/29/2016 12:05:39 AM)
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OK so what I was saying was...
Perhaps we have just hit the first point in the AAR where it would be interesting to play out the game with two different decisions rather than two different die rolls.
I would say that rule 19 has been a part of the game for a very long time, and though this game has a whole lot of rules, it is only partially an opponent's fault when another player doesn't know a rule. It's different when a player is learning the rules of course. The possibility in question here does take advantage of a "for all purposes" clause.
So though I hardly want to take advantage of someone not knowing a rule, as that is not a nice way to play a wargame, it would be interesting to see what happens when Adolf had no clue that those pesky Serbians would launch another one of those infamous stabs in the back that Adolf always blames for all of Germany's problems.
Also I would note that I wondered if perhaps I wasn't being set-up to try this line of play by a very experienced German player with a deliberately weak set-up on the Rhine, though not so completely weak that I could do this without a land attack in Germany. The decision does have it's pluses and minuses as I noted in the intro to this AAR, and it was a tough decision, as is so common in this game.
Ultimately a bit of local history where I am at finalized my decision. I have been working in the Allegheny Mountains of Virginia and when I am out on a fuel run for that special no-ethanol 93 octane I need for my chainsaws, I have been studying the beginnings of Stonewall Jackson's first independent military campaign by literally looking at the terrain personally, always a fascinating way to study war, though the forest cover today is usually quite different than during the American Civil War (the geology is the same though). And many Civil War battles became victories or defeats due to operational or strategic concerns beyond the tactical battlefield, ultimately changing wins to losses and vice versa at times. It wasn't Stonewall's decisions at the following battle that convinced me to try this line of French play, but the operational tactic employed by Union Generals Schenk and Millroy:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_McDowell
In the long run Jt14 should play it however he wishes and he should probably move on with knowledge of what France can choose to do here on their impulse; before I could respond he asked what "4 corps in Germany" even means and I don't quite wish to take advantage of rules ignorance. I would have answered his question honestly over a face-to-face table game with no communications lag. Or perhaps a Japan/Italy player would have pointed out the possibilities to their lead playing Ally.
In other notes:
I probably won't answer every direct strategy question immediately as we will be playing this game more than once. Eventually I will answer such questions however.
Also not shown is that the German Heavy Cruiser Blucher and the fanatical SS Infantry division that volunteered to ride on the escorting destroyer squadron went forth to the bottom of the North Sea. Blub, blub, blub, the fate of all infantry that dares to approach the shores of Brittania. There was either a 70% or 65% (67.5% ?) chance of that happening - 5 or less for the CW roll OR 4 or less on the German roll (first probability + 1/2 the second probability - how does that work?). Anyway if the Royal Navy deploys correctly with how the rules systems work this will basically happen 2/3 of the time.
The Chinese Kwangtung front had to make an important decision, and it decided to retreat a bit back towards Kwangsi and Hunan.
Edit: to use MWiF spellings.
On the historical note, imagine Hitler's position with OKH if he launched General War, his surprise invasion of the Netherlands was foiled and the specter of Blockade was raised once again, his army staggered in an ugly assault on Danzig, the Serbians took Vienna, and the French began to threaten Munich itself (the birthplace of Nazism?). Hitler got the war started with a nice run of events going his way through the late 30s. If that had ended...
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