From: Daniel Duldig Subject: Re: TGWIE after the battle Finished a solo game of TGWIE on my new vertical gaming board (eat your heart out) last night and thought the list might be interested in a short report. The game started with a spectacular first turn by the Germans who managed to destroy the entire Belgian army and folllowed it up by complete occupation of Belgium in the second turn knocking Belgium out of the war. In the east, figuring the AH were the weak link,the Russsians began a slow methodical hunt of weak AH units ,whilst in Serbia there were a few minor exchanges. The western front quickly stablised by turn 4-5 with the CP flank resting one hex from Dunkirk but without the historical central bulge in the line towards Paris. The Serbs and the Austraians continued to trade punches without much joy whilst I made a serious playing error in the east by trying to defend to forward with the AH's again the Russians.In hindsight they should have pulled back to the carpathains and better defensive terrain,but instead tried to hold the original setup line around the border fortresses. Chit pulls were uneventful until early Bulgarian entry outflanked the Serbs forcing them to beat a hasty retreat south from which they never recovered.Second lesson,as soon as the Bu chit is ready to go into the cup,pull back the Serbs to the 3 hex wide neck of land in the south of the country as this is eminently defesible. The Gallipoli chit was pulled but the Allies saw no benefit in using it and it lay as a not so hidden threat. The serbs were ground to dust by Oct 1915 and exited the game for the time being. Unfortunately the AH victory was not celebrated for long as the Italians entered the turn of Serbian destruction and needles to say this caused frantic movement of AH units to the Italian front. Lesson 3.same as 2 but this time for the Italian chit. The Italians launched an offensive against the AH and made signifciant early gains,but were beaten back by reinforcements because they are vulnerable to concentric attack being fairly much unable to enter alpine hexes(they only have 2 mountain units) whilst the AH had plenty of mountain units to infiltrate through the aalp hexes.Also the italians really miss not having an HQ early on as this restricts their advance and makes attacking in difficult terrain fairly costly.Their army is brittle..actually weak..so lesson 4 be very prudent with Italian attacks until they either have an HQ or the Allies can assist in 1917. The CP were,despite their peripheral successes having some difficulties,since they had failed to touch the British army and had not inflicted significant losses on the French early on,although the Germans had taken some pretty heavy exchanges.This was aggravated by the AH being spread thin by the Serbs,then the italians and being slowly pulverised by the Russians.Althought the Germans could demolish russians stacks at will,they were becoming too spread out to launch offensives in the east as the AH line contracted and got pushed back,whilst all the time the British with monster stacks were grinding up 6+ german units a turn whilst the French picked off a couple more.Things became more and ore serious in the middle of 1916 as the Western front consisted of Allied stacks varying from 3-6high against German stacks of 2 high.The Germans were so busy plugging holes on the western front they were unable to divert further troops to assist the AH who were finally pushed back to one hex from budapest in Sept 1916.Then the Allies landed in Salonika and the writing was on the wall. The axis conceded in Oct 1916.... Great game,would play considerably differently next time as I learnt some hard lessons on proper tactics. I thoroughly recommend it .Might try one of the scenarios next,once I finish with Proud Monster/D&D..should be ready about this time next year.. Daniel dduldig@werple.mira.net.au PS Does Serbia accumulate resource points if it is completely axis controlled and there are no serbian units on the map,not even the HQ?