Have you been able to try these house rules, Guillermo?
Historical Entry Rules
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After going into the history I’ve come up with a very workable time table for entry with six month turns in mind.
Turn 1 Fall/Winter - All turns are normal with the exception that Italy is unattackable on turn one as they are a Central Power. Turkey enters the war on their turn and are unattackable by the Entente before Turkey’s move.
Turn 2 Spring/Summer - Italy enters the war during their turn. They cannot be attacked by the Central Powers untli turn 3. Italy enters the war for better promises of Austrian/Hungarian territories. Greedy Pigs.Turn 3 Fall/Winter - Bulgaria enters the war as a Turkish Ally. The reality is that Bulgaria was strong enough to be a player country having around 850,000 in their military and whooping up on the Serbs, Brits, and French. But to make the game work we bring them in as a Turk minor ally when they historically entered the war. Again, they entered the war being promised lands they lost to the Serbs in 1913. Their entry put an exclamation point on the Serbian defeat.
Turn 4 - Spring/Summer - March 1916 - Portugal enters the war as a British Ally. Portugal and Britain have the oldest active alliance in the history of the world(1386, Treaty of Windsor). Additionally, prior to Portugal’s entry in the War, the British transported Portugese troops to their African colonies to protect them from German aggression. And they were tied to Britain economically as Britain was the most important trading partner of Portugal’s. Why larry made these guys a French controlled ally is beyond me…
Turn 5 Fall/Winter - Romania Enters the War as a Russian Minor Neutral. Just like Italy and Bulgaria, they are promised land (transylvania in this case) and enter on 27 Aug. 1916. Note, Romania was a Central Power and cannot be attacked by the Central Powers until entry. They were just neutral and didn’t see the need to involve themselves as there was nothing to gain for them. Greedy bums!
Turn 6 Spring/Summer - US Enters the war.
Now a couple of things we do differently.
1. We allow the Central Powers to conduct 1 turn of USW as this is what initially angered the USA and caused much consternation in 1915 which caused the kaiser to pull back on this strategy until January of 1917. If the CP use USW in the Atlantic a second time in the game, this will immediately bring the USA into the war. By the way, even with this action and the Zimmerman Telegraph, Wilson did not bring the USA into the war until the Russians fell. He felt that it was a “good” war to be on the side of an alliance made up of mostly republican govts.
2. Neutrals cannot be attacked by the Entente with the exception of Persia, Afghanistan, Greece, and Denmark. The Greek Legislature kind of invited the Brits and French in to Salonika w/o the Greek King’s consent (he was pro-German since he was married to the German Kaiser’s sister). This resulted in fighting as the Army was mostly pro-royalist.
3. The Bosporus and the Dardenelles are a chokepoint allowing the controlling power to move to either sea zone. Take a look at a topographical map and you will realize how narrow these straits are. We allow subs to try to traverse this, but they are subject to mines and the treachorous currents flowing both ways and turns.p Additionally we have made a new territory that we call the Hellesponte/Dardenelles. This is where Gallipoli was fought as the Brits/Aussies and French found was needed to be taken to get to Constantinople. We make it worth one IPC and take away one IPC from Mesopotamia.
4. Kiel Naval base/canal - This is added to the map to allow the Germans to traverse back and forth from the Atlantic to the Baltic Sea without violating Dutch Sovereinty. If the Allies want to get into the Baltic Sea, they need to take Denmark which is a nasty business.
5. Each Neutral the entente attacks Pushes US entry back one turn. Democracies are not aggressors! Persia, Afghanistan, and Greece are exceptions to this. Greece is an exception as the entente was welcomed in by the Greek Govt. without the approval of the Greek King who was married to the kaiser’s sister as stated before. The Majority of the military was royalist. And Persia along with Afghanistan… well, they were not thought much of by the West/USA…Go figure…! To be honest neither was Czarist Russia…
This cures the unhistorical attacks by the Austrian/Hungarians on Italy in the current timeline of the game. The reality is that Italy was the aggressor throughout the war and at one point had made 11 seperate offensives on Isonzo alone! It wasn’t until around 1917 that Austria/Hungry actually attacked with German aid.
Additionally, allowing Turkey to enter during their turn (they entered the war in November) solves the unhistorical situation where the Russian forces end up in Basra on turn 1. Now Turkey can man Mesopotamia and not have to worry about economic collapse by turn 6 which happens consistantly in our games.Feel free to criticise this all you like! � � :-o
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The note triggered the war, get over it.
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That along with the USW. But what do you think about the historical entry?
13Foxtrot
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I still love these rules and am going to try them out as soon as I am back from my holidays.
And the note did not trigger the war. It was at most an excuse people used to convince the anti-war politicians. But let’s not discuss this here as it doesn’t do justice to these well thought out rules!
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Some of these changes to the rules were similar to things I was thinking of. Part of the changes I was considering toying with had to do with making the Balkan countries a bit more feisty. A lot of that would involve giving Russia an initially stronger setup in some places (though with no bump in artillery) and making Bulgaria a playable country in its own right (i.e. think about how China works in A&A Pacific). Serbia would give Russia a couple perks, but Romania would be a sad sack. It would make the Balkan area of the board a whole lot more interesting.
I like your Kiel Canal idea; I was thinking of the exact same thing. To that I might add a mine roll of 1 or 2 when attacking German units in the North Sea off of Germany. This would represent the very heavy mining and the defenses of Helgoland. And that plays right into a major part of the German naval strategy for the High Seas Fleet: run away!
Along with this would be Britian’s battleship off of India going to the North Sea and being replaced by a cruiser off the coast of India. I would have to find out exactly what they had off of India in 1914, but nothing that would be represented by a BB in the game. About the only dreadnought worthy of the name east of Suez was HMAS Australia, not counting Japanese units operating with the Royal Navy on convoy and patrol duties.
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The note triggered the war, get over it.
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LOL! And your point is?!? :roll:
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The point is TRUTH
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I smell an extra account that follows you around voting you down.
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A simple look at the logged IP address would confirm that. But of course none of us have that access…
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I smell Gargantua…
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Now now, he’s taken enough of beating lately. Let’s leave him alone, and perhaps he will come to that conclusion Peters.
No sense flogging the dead horse any longer.
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The Zimmerman note triggering the war IS the conclusion.
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