It seems something of a consensus is forming regarding naval setup.
Is this for play balance or historical reasons? I’m not convinced that there is enough supporting evidence yet to suggest the game is significantly biased to one side or the other and as such it is too early to make any changes solely on that.
For “historical” reasons, I tend to agree that France has too large a navy, and for sure no way should she have 2 battleships while the Germans have only one. It should be more like England 3, Germany 2 and everyone else no more (if any) than one.
As for giving Austria a sub, she started the war with 7, Germany started with 20, But the British had 74 Subs!! So if you want “historical” then the UK has got to start with some subs.
Italy being neutral makes historical sense, though don’t know how it would effect play balance.
German cruisers (Goeben and Breslau) were actually in Messina in early August, so if Italy is neutral, they should start in SZ 19 if you want to go that route. Making Turkey neutral would allow the Russians to move into the Med, the Turks would never have allowed that even if neutral.
Can’t change the map, sorry.
Kim