We played several games where the Germans/Austrians attacked side by side w/30+ units each in one direction, and played def together on the other (still no CP wins). Defensively it’s not bad because they can all def together (in one strategic territory), or can split to sacrifice one army to gain advantage with the other in a counter attack and could possibly advance.
Offensively you would have two decent size forces that can support each other, but generally one army ends up melting itself into a defensive wall and not able to make a big enough dent, leaving the other attacking army with more then it can handle. So we decided (as CP) to go all in w/Germany against France, and have Austria handle the defensive duties against the Russians just as someone posted above.
The Germans only left 9 inf to help Austria def against Russia, and everything else went towards France. The Germans moved 3 inf and 6 art from the Russian front line back to Berlin, and bought a ftr and the rest ground units to come into France with a 2nd wave. We had the Austrians attack the Italians w/everything that could get to Venice just to put them in a defense posture right away (so they don’t end up helping to def Paris), and the Germans attacked Switzerland G1 to open up that avenue as an alternative to move units to Burgundy w/o having to be exposed to English attacks along the coast.
The Allies knew what was coming (you can’t really hide it when the Germans pulls away from the Russian front), and Russia moved everything it could to the Ukraine R1 (over 40 units). Austria was ready for this because nearly every game we played so far the Russians fortify the Ukraine, so the stage was set. There was some minor scrimmages in Poland/Romania in the 2nd-3rd turn as a distraction for the main Russian army to drain some units, but they pretty much sat on the Ukraine and faced off against the Austrian army in Galicia (with a handful of German inf), neither one really gaining an advantage. The French activated the Albanians F1 to put Italian units in the Balkans when Italy starts its turn, and Italy bought a couple transports to force yet another front for the Austrians to contend with in the Balkans. The Austrians wanting to squash this Balkan rebellion pulled its army out of Venice back to Trieste. This left the Germans alone against France, which was not good. I wanted them to be there maybe to help deal with English intervention, or to take some out lying French territories so I could keep my force in tact.
To my surprise the English didn’t spend a dime in London first few turns, and spent everything in India (yeah the Turks were in trouble). I thought ok, this just might work, its the Germans vs the French with no out side help. As it turned out the French bough only inf and moved back w/o ever making a stand. When I got to Burgundy/Picardy, the English finally landed on Brest next to Paris w/10 units (too late for the 1st Battle of Paris). I got to the French capital w/60+ units for my attack (small secondary force moved up to Burgundy), the French had about the same (60+ units). I won the dog fight, so my artillery were ecstatic. I only killed 29 French units though (my artillery must have partied to much after the dog fight), and the French killed 32 German inf. Now the UK moved their units into Paris, and the French still had more income then they start the damned game with to drop more units although I held Belgium and their 3 eastern territories or 1/2 their land mass before I attacked Paris. I don’t understand how the French can loose 1/2 their main territories, and still have over 20 IPCs because they make it up w/neutrals?. Why are the German border territories worth 3/6 IPCs, and the French border territories only worth 2 IPCs. They don’t miss it because of the Portugal, and in this game they ended up w/Greece for a while plus their African holdings that are pretty much untouchable.
Anyway the French didn’t have much help, but were able to defend against the entire might of the German army. WE didn’t continue the game after the assault on Paris, because now the UK could continue to reinforce, and Germany only had a secondary force, with nothing else on the way. I knew Paris would survive, and I would run out of units before they do.
The Allies made what I though were several mistakes. Like spending nothing in London the first two turns, and moving most fleet to the Med (where it really didn’t need that much). I did make one drastic error though when I attacked the Russian battleship to kill it turn 3 (stupid), and tried to land some inf in Finland. I ended up loosing my transport to a damn mine, and my navy was out of position to stop the UK from building transports to get to the French coast. Honestly though the UK/French fleets could have easily out numbered me though with minimal effort, so in most games it wouldn’t have made much difference anyway. The simple fact that the Germans were unable to take out the French nearly 1 on 1 is very startling to me. I’m really starting to think that when the tested this game they always set up kill zones in contested territories to thin out the defending army. In our games we are seeing complete withdraws on the part of the allies, because they just simply don’t need the income, and someone can easily be there to help def the battle for their capital. The assaulting CP force will eventually lose steam because (I hate to say it) there’s no way to quickly bring in rienforcments, and will be backtracking where the income difference will overcome them because the CP border territories are worth about 2X-3X on average of what the allies are.
The next game we may experiment with a capital giving +1 to ground units that start there, as long as they stay on original friendly territories throughout their movement. Can’t be used to enter enemy orig territories (even if captured), or contested territories.