EP '14 mechanics/balance

[Volcano Man]

No! This is correct. The releases are assigned to them for the other strategies (when they choose a defensive strategy, otherwise they would get a "head start" on the move over the offensive strategies in some places). Historically they were marching into the Ardnennes before the Germans were.  I appreciate your evaluations, but don't worry I have it under control.  ;)

If you pick the historical options, it deliberately doesn't play out like it historically would? That seems odd, as the Ardennes area is the only area where that seems possible. Further to the (south)east and in Belgium the movements can evolve in such a way that they will be close to the situation in the start of the normal early campaign, but in the Ardennes the French have an edge over their historical counterparts.

I have no idea what you mean, nor how you came to your original deduction just by looking at it for a few minutes. You are not doing the work any justice with the observation. ;)

But to explain: historically the German 1st and 2nd Armies started there attack well before the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th did, and the French started their advance into the Arndennes well BEFORE the Gemans were finished with their concentration of the latter armies. The German 1st and 2nd Army were on the move well before this, but the 3rd, 4th and 5th were delayed, each by a day respectively. Everything did not start moving at the same time.

The French start well outside of the Ardnennes, and they are given about a one or two day march so they can evolve their approach in different ways from game to game. The Germans are then released and they both collide. I could just have both the French and Germans spawn into the Ardennes, but, rhetorically, how much fun would that be? I cannot do much with the German start situation, but I want to provide approach options to both sides.

All I can say is that I am playing it right now and it has turned out very historical in the Ardennes, as far as where both sides collided with each other.  It has been a blast so far. Instead of us wasting all this time speculating, you could just try it out yourself (preferably after the next update). That said, I won't be making major changes to it when the next update comes out because I am extremely satisfied with how it plays out (well, taking in mind the comment below).

The caveat here is -- it turns out historical *as long as the French do not use rail movement to blitz into the Ardennes*. This is why there is mention of a house rule here in the notes in the next version. At some point I hope to introduce a rule into the series that has rail capacity vary based on the date, so that it can start at 0 here (or very low) and then build up as the campaign progresses.