Oui Surrender! Bobchillingworth of France

[Bobchillingworth]

I have no idea what I'm doing!

[Mardoc]

I have no idea what I'm doing!

And yet you have the best thread title

[Lewwyn]

And yet you have the best thread title

Try not to die.

[Bobchillingworth]

Hah, thanks.



Okay, some total newb questions coming up. I've read the instruction manual PDF that someone linked to earlier, but my eyes glazed over at several parts and so I'm still pretty clueless about a lot of basic stuff.



First, do I start with armies in each of my "strategic" supply territories? Or is one or more of them a fleet or something?


Second, can fleets capture provinces?


Third, if I want to capture a province, I have to leave an army / maybe fleet in there not this cycle, but at the end of the next one (fall), correct? If I move to the territory at the start of fall, I still get it, right? I don't have to move there in the spring first and then sit there for a turn, or do I?


Fourth, once I move my starting armies people can just waltz into to supply centers they abandon, correct? I guess that's where the "diplomacy" part figures in




More questions sure to come!

[Mardoc]

I may not be good at the game, but reading threads in Diplo1 at least taught me enough to answer these questions:

Also - someone, I think Scooter, pointed to a much more readable explanation of the rules. I'll see if I can dig that up. It doesn't cover all the exceptions and corner cases, but it at least explains the basics.

First, do I start with armies in each of my "strategic" supply territories? Or is one or more of them a fleet or something?

The unit in Brest is a fleet.

Second, can fleets capture provinces?

Yes, fleets can do anything an army can do except move or support to a landlocked province (and they can also convoy).

Third, if I want to capture a province, I have to leave an army / maybe fleet in there not this cycle, but at the end of the next one (fall), correct? If I move to the territory at the start of fall, I still get it, right? I don't have to move there in the spring first and then sit there for a turn, or do I?

You've got it right, moving in during the fall turn captures it. Sitting there from Spring to fall also captures it. All that's checked is the armies' locations after Fall moves are resolved.

Fourth, once I move my starting armies people can just waltz into to supply centers they abandon, correct? I guess that's where the "diplomacy" part figures in

Yes and no. There are ways to protect a province without occupying it, mostly relying on bouncing with opponents. Plus, once you gain new supply centers, you can build new units in the Winter.

But yes, you'll never have enough units to defend against every possible attack, no matter how clever you are tactically, diplomatic agreements are more valuable.

[T-hawk]

Yes, fleets can do anything an army can do except move or support to a landlocked province (and they can also convoy).

There are some moves that an army can make but a fleet can't, since a fleet must move along a coastline if it's moving from one land province to another. Gascony to Marseilles would be such an example, an army can do that but a fleet can't.

[scooter]

Okay, some total newb questions coming up.

Mardoc answered your questions nicely. If you have more, feel free to poke me on chat, and if I'm around I can give you some quick answers.

[Bobchillingworth]

Cool, thanks guys

[Bobchillingworth]

K, I should probably post a brief update here to explain my thinking.


England was the first player to contact me. I proposed, in good faith, a plan to divide up Germany between us. But I quickly became suspicious of England's intentions- in discussing the split of German territories he didn't seem overly enthused about the planning, and actually offered me a more generous split of the land than I had suggested in email, implying that he wasn't taking the plan very seriously. He also had an unseemly interest in taking the English Channel, a region which was not critical for our plan and which would have given him the perfect setup to take Brest from me. I also didn't like his suggestion that he be allowed to take Spain and Portugal, which are clearly in my dominion and I have no intention of surrendering.


Chatting with Germany latter confirmed my suspicions that England was trying to play us off each other and stab me at the first available opportunity. So I decided to work with Germany on a plan which would give me Belgium and hopefully keep England locked up- I'd pretend to agree to England's plan, bounce him in the Channel, and then take Belgium in the Fall with Germany support. Seems to be working so far, we'll see if Germany comes through. I should probably talk with Russia more about plans vs. Germany, but I don't want to conspire with too many people too early lest word get out that I can't be trusted at all and I end up on the wrong end of a dogpile.


Immediate goals are to grab Portugal, Spain, Belgium. Then I'll need to start fighting people for territory- I'll have a better idea where to push later. I'd like to work with Russia as a long-term ally, since I'll need support to take out Germany and England.

[Bobchillingworth]

Haha, well that went pretty well! Looks like I picked the right ally for the time being. England is pretty screwed now, Germany suggested we divide it so that I get London and he takes the other two, and then he marches against Russia while I hit Italy. I didn't see any reason to argue with him about that, so I agreed. Once England is gone (assuming we do in fact take it together), I'll see what Russia is thinking about Germany, and if Italy is indeed vulnerable. Wish I had more fleets in the north, though.


Not sure wtf is going on with Austria. I think Sciz is falling apart for no reason vs. TT. Every chat I've had with him has just been him talking about how upset he is about the guy- at first I thought he was exaggerating for propaganda purposes, but nope, apparently he does that for everyone else too including TT. Weird.


Need a map before I can properly visualize what else everyone did. I still have to run to the forums pretty much every time someone hits me up on chat and wants to shoot the breeze about strategy.