Why isn't France a Central Power?

The emblem (or emblems) on the territory is more important than the color.  Since colonies don’t have small major power emblems on them, they aren’t considered to be aligned territories.

Using artillery as coastal defense/reinforcements en route is a good strategy.  Going for Paris first isn’t. Why? You cannot stop the Russians and the British will be destroying Ottomans.  Austria Hungary will get hit badly as well by combined Italian and Russian forces. Alternatively, the Allies can divert Italian and British units to France to stop you from taking it.

From a simple math min/max perspective which some are intersested in, a naval strat is extremly unwise. Simple plus/minus math will tell you you need to add appr. 81 IPC worth of naval as CP in total accross the board (using the starting naval as ref) to even break even which means if you wanna “controll” something you will need to add more than the competition.
As CP you cant ever get into a building race with the allies as your starting income is so much less, but rather you need to as fast as possible close the incomecap.

Consider sz17. (I will assume the ottoman and russian navy cancel each out). Allies can after turn1 have 2 BS (France+Italy)+3Cruisers(UK+Italy+France which means AH wont be able to break even, even if the go all out navy. After turn2 the allies will have additional 1BS+Crusie (UK) in the zone and again AH wont be able to break even, even if they spent all during 2 turns. After this france plus Italy can with great ease together spend equal to AH for each turn.
So I have to ask how in hell are AH suppose to get controll over sz17?=)

I suppose you can counter and say “the allies dont counter my moves in my games” but then what is the point of argue the value of strats. I can  ask what do you think about my “attack-AH-first-as-Italy strat”, assuming AH dont defend their borders?=)

Yay!  Played a real live 1914 game. Four players total, read the work in progress write up here:

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=37252.0

That would be wherever they’re most needed; though it could be argued that if the Central Powers haven’t achieved their objectives before the Americans start arriving in Europe in significant numbers then they’re unlikely ever to do so. US entry is the ticking clock the CPs have to beat, though as I’ve suggested its start could be linked to Russian collapse rather than a mandatory turn 4.

Therefore plugging the gaps in Allied lines, notably stopping western capitals falling, is the most usual use for US imports.

Persia provides a bit of a conundrum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Campaign

It could be considered anything from a joint UK/Russian colony to a pro-Turkish neutral.

All 24 pages of them!

I once had an idea for a version where hit points were equivalent to firepower, so:

Battleship 4-4-2 (4 hp)
Cruiser 3-3-3 (3 hp)
Destroyers 2-2-2 (2 hp)

Each ships would have the appropriate number of gun turrets, which can be removed when a hit is taken to indicate damage and reduced firepower.

Two hits slows down a BB, one a destroyer.