I joined a game at day 1. It is a 30 player game, the largest, featuring Europe, some Middle East, Northern Africa, and part of North America. First of all, this wasn't a gold round. In a gold round you have to pay gold marks to enter, but in exchange the game will have, at later stages, nice extra features like plains and submarines, and it will also give you the choice of deciding you nation. In gold rounds the amount of players that stay active till the end is slightly higher, so if you do not have gold marks to spend, you know from the beginning that more than half of the players will have left before day 7, and after day 10 an average of 9 players out of 30 will have remained.
Let's jump into the round. I was randomly assigned Austria-Hungary. I was extremely happy about this: this was the pivotal nation of WWI, and it gave me the chance of impersonating the Kaiser, put some random w/b aged photo of myself (yes, you can change it), and name myself Franz Joseph I. I decided from the start to play an authoritarian leader, but not a totalitaristic nation: just the old-fashioned nationalistic rhetoric. Here in the picture below you see the initial situation, with fog of war etc. My capital city is Vienna, and I had 10 provinces, each of which is controlled by a city. Each player starts with some 10 troops in each province, plus a piece of artillery somewhere in case this is your first round ever. Each province generate a specific kind of resource, and the production can be boosted by building special infrastructures, namely factories, rails, and ports, as we will see.
Everything was peace, harmony and Disney cartoons, until Romania (light orange) attacked Bulgaria (pinkish) at day 3. Following the attack, Greece decided to invade Serbia (blue). The victims of these vicious attacks are the only two AI-controlled nations of the region, and the invasions clearly aimed at taking control of natural resources and strategic position at an early stage of the game. Moreover, none of these attacks was preceded by a War Declaration, and this is what led me to decide to move myself. After warning Romania, I publicly blamed their aggression, which destabilised the area so early, on the Daily European newspaper. So I first worked an alliance (sharing map) with the Ottoman Empire, then declared War to Romania and invaded Alba Iulia (which produces oil, a very scarce resource in the area; in fact, that is the only province producing it in a large radius). In a few hours, I took control of Alba Iulia and Baia Mare, then declared a truce with Romania, intimating them to stop the invasion of Bulgaria.
The situation stalled for a couple of days, as Romania got the message: don't mess with Austria-Hungary! In the meantime, Greece continued its expansion, and pursued the invasion of Serbia. Now, as the Kaiser, I did not like having a foreign mediterranean nation sizing control of provinces at my borders, as this would eventually cause some attrition. In general, I would advise to identify as soon as possible the players around you that show some initiative and authority in the way the communicate with you (yes, establish contacts on day 1!), and never grab lands on their border. Having some neutral land between you will always work better, at least for a while. By the way, Greece did not respond to my warnings, or to the Ottomans. Inevitably, we attacked Greece together, while Romania stayed neutral, probably still deciding which side to pick. In a couple of days the job was done. Also, I helped the Serbian troops to get back their land, and Serbia actually expanded as a result of the conflict (do not underestimate AI armies). Good one, Kaiser!
At this point, the Ottomans, Austria-Hungary and also Caucasus became the major powers of the region. Romania started amassing troops at his borders, but they were not a concern yet. Elsewhere, Arabia and Egypt formed an alliance and, controlling almost all the oil market, built a considerable amount of infrastructures. South Canada as well were expanding, invading North Canada and preparing to grab lands from the States. Ukraine went inactive as well, and Poland had a war with Lithuania. Spain attacked France (already inactive), but lost the war and part of their lands, so quit the round as well.
As you see by the colours of their troops, I had Right of Way with many nations around me (the trick for AI nations is to give them the right, so they will reciprocate in around 3 days. It is a major advantage, and it is highly recommended). Also, my emblem at the top-left corner went gold, as I won 2 days of premium in the daily wheel of fortune (sic).
Finally, war with Romania. They started the aggression thinking to win in a couple of days, as at the time my troops were on the northern front with the German Empire. Obviously, they were wrong. I won the war quite quickly, even though it required to get online more than usual during those days (be prepared: a real war will force you to do so, hence don't start one if you can't be there). As you see, this was the first major conflict with artillery, armored cars and tank units. The Ottoman Empire (still my allies) joined later the conflict, when Romania was already retreating (and this told screamed: "don't trust the Turks!" to me). It was a blood bath, but I won.
In the meantime, Arabia invaded souther Italy as they became inactive, taking advantage of the fact I was fighting on two fronts. They should have never done that, but I was not ready to deal with this right now.
So it started, the Great War the lasted for the rest of the round (game). Arabia, Egypt vs Austria-Hungary and Caucasus. But it was not going to be like this forever: Norway had control of all Scandinavia, and South Canada had conquered the entire North American continent, including Greenland, and my sentinels told me they were moving armies across the ocean to Northern Africa. Luckily, I had built my first battleship from Sarajevo. Arabia, however, had already two, and started bombarding my troops from the sea, in Constantinople and Albania. So the first naval battle took place in the Ionian Sea, and by winning that, I secured my invasion of Southern Italy. But the turks, who moved their capital to the inland, were resisting my troops, so it wasn't until Caucasus concretely joined the war, that the situation started to progress,
The proportions of the war got bigger and bigger, but we were prevailing on our enemies. In the meantime, Egypt became an allied of Arabia and the Ottoman Empire, but did not join the war. The same happened for Canada, the superpower of that time. Norway was neutral, but we agreed to keep our border, in Denmark (controlled by them), demilitarised.
There are two things you need the most to defend a coast: troops to move on the beach (not cities, the actual landing spot!) when enemies are disembarking, and railguns to keep enemy battleship away. I finally built my first railgun and moved it to Greece. At that point, by coastline became more safe and protected, and Arabia had nothing more to do than help the Turks in the mainland.
From there, the situation escalated quickly. Norway broke our pact and declared war, moving armies to Denmark and attacking also Caucasus in Russia. While a convoy of my ships was passing in the English Channel towards the warzone, Canada, who just then took control of England in his expansionistic attitude, declared war and trapped my three ships (which, btw, were sinked not before sinking two of theirs, plus a decent number of troops on the coast). Three days later, Egypt joined the War, and attempted to land in Turkey. From there, a city-to-city war was fought in every corner of Europe, 5 countries vs 2. Our enemies were so convinced to win, that their military operations proved to be inconclusive, attempting desperate landings in Turkey, Greece, Italy, Belgium and France (still free AI countries), and Denmark, which I conquered after days of artillery bombardment.
After losing half million lives in two days of war, Canada invaded northern France, using railguns from England to force my defenders away. France then became the major war zone, in which I helped french AI troops to defend, and constantly launched small attacks on landing troops in western France, Spain and Morocco, who failed for days to step foot in continental Europe. By then, the death toll that Canada payed was 1 million deaths.
Arabian troops were destroyed as well, so they retreated to Cyprus, and transformed that island in a fortress, with railguns watching the waters. Egypt was hit by small expeditions, that destroyed their infrastructures and forced them to declare war on Algeria to reclaim lost provinces (which had join the neighbour after various rebellions of the population). This gave me time to bring railguns, artillery and infantry in Sardinia, Sicily, Greece, and build a strong defensive line which, together with a series of fortifications on the French front, gave me the opportunity to attack. In the meantime, Canada lost almost all his troops and most of all his battleships, so had to waste precious days rebuilding and recruiting, and Norway, having lost Denmark, changed its war strategy to the "retreat-and-regroup" one, guarding their coasts. Eventually, I launched a vast offensive, with two major landings supported by battleships and railguns in Denmark, while Caucasus was hitting them in Russia, and we completely invaded the country, forcing the high command to flee to Iceland, which they controlled.
At this point (even though this was not the first time I used this strategy), I discovered the power of propaganda on the enemy, and started to post regularly on the news. This had the effect of pissing our enemies off, and they did a series of naive mistakes that costed them the control of provinces in France and Spain, which I gained, securing the front with Morocco as well. So we were in control of all Europe, and counterattacked.
After two months from the start of this game, Canada was forced to retreat from Europe and Africa, as austro-hungarian troops sized their lands everywhere, from Morocco to Iceland, and then Greenland. At this point, Austria-Hungary had lost, in total, 1.7 million lives, but their enemy (against us alone, so excluding Caucasus), payed an higher price: 2.1 millions Canada, 0.5 millions Arabia, 0.4 millions Egypt, 1 million Norway, 0.4 the Ottoman Empire (reduced to 1 province). At this stage, Arabia, Norway and the Ottomans left the game, giving control to the AI. Which left us to deal with Egypt and South Canada, plus AI enemies (no to be underestimated).
en
.it