A quick stroll down memory lane with a play thru of S&T 51 WW1, on vassal solo.
Summer 1914
Situation starts with the Germans having ‘superiority’ over all other elements so they go first. We skip movement phase for the Central Powers[CP] & Allies in turn 1.
In assessing the opening attack for Germany it is interesting to see the CRT and look at some of the ‘odds’ of losing units or steps in the game. Each Side has a track of points that allow losses to be taken without eliminating the unit. This nicely portrays the industrialized nature of the mass murder of soldiers due to technology getting ahead of tactics and good leadership.
These differential based attacks mean often that more is not better on the same die roll. See the plus one and plus 4, 5 columns where a two rolled will earn 1 loss to the attacker or 2, then 3 losses for the same enemy loss.
Does this capture the mass casualty probability of those charges across no mans land? Probably!
Whereas more surgical attacks with ‘leaner’ odds or differential yield lower losses for both sides. This matters as the CRP -Combat Resource Points.
There are a number of attack options and given the above we elect to make more smaller attacks versus fewer higher odds attacks.
These attacks yield the following results. 2/2, 3/1, 2/2, 1 /2, 3/2
These initial Western Front attacks yield 11 CRP losses out of 40 at start CRPs for Germany. The French lose s third of theirs and the Netherlands is eliminated while the Belgians lose one and retreat one. Another interesting effect is the difference in Attack & Defense values. The Allies in essence need to bring two units to the fight against a single German unit. To earn a ‘greater than 0 differential’ attack. This forces the Allies up into the +2 column automatically. Increasing the chances of higher losses.
In the corresponding inferior player attack phase the Allies elect to only attack in the East using the 2 Russian Armies to take on the Austrians. This ends up as a +3 attack and generates a 1d6=6! Worst possible result. 5/1 Dropping the Russians from 30 to 25 CRP. The Austrians retreat one.
2nd Superior Attacker Phase Sees the German central push stall, with CRP dropping down to 21 [8 losses]. French losses push the CRP down to just 6 but they give up no ground! Belgium is removed from the game. Second Inferior the Allies elect not to attack given disposition of forces and the current CRP count for France.
Third Superior Phase
Allies retreat one hex and give up 3 CRP, the Germans lose four.
After the CRP allocation phase and unit construction, Central Powers will have Superiority in turn 2 the Fall of 1914:
