Thanks for commenting! Our game changes have really made this game feel like WWI. I don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but we have given Italy a 3 IPC bump. Sicily and Sardinia are now worth 1 IPC each and Venice is worth 3. Italy probably could use a bit more in my opinion since they enjoyed more manpower on their front, but this could all be due to very bad luck on the A/H part in the real war. A funny thing that has happened in a couple of our games is that the happless dice rolling of two of our A/H players have actually caused the Serbians to stick around for 3 turns! So, when the Bulgarians arrive on turn 3, they make a big splash just like they did in history. Additionally, Having Romania come in on turn 5 pretty much forces the Turks/Bulgarians and the A/H's to garrison vital territories. Certainly, we have had games where Russia has been on the ropes early, but most of our guys can make it survive into turn 6 when the Brits bust through Afghanistan and pump in 10 infantry/Arty a turn in Russia's support!
What's really interesting is our Unrestricted Raiding Warfare Rules. In these, we allow surface ships to raid just like subs and it goes both ways! German IPC's in Africa or those that can only trace a line back to the home country by sea are also subject to allied raiding (and CP Raiding). Also, we allow one turn of Unrestricted Sub Warfare in the Atlantic (this is the one that causes the USA to initially whine) before the option to use a second one that will bring the US into the war. Surface raiding can happen all the time as Cruisers and BB's can take on survivors and thus keeps the USA Happy! USW is fully allowed in the Med and around Africa where there is little or no US shipping.
Another interesting thing we do is, BB's are now a "0" when attacking an all submarine force and when part of a mixed attacking force on an all sub defending force cannot be tipped as it is not the function of BB's to hunt Subs ref. Flashman's website he offered pertaining to this. When being attacked by an all sub force, they defend at a "2." If two mixed forces fight, the BB's fight as normal until the conditions above are met. We figure that those(Battleships) units represent a task force of Dreadnauts and a lesser group of cruisers and destroyers that support the BB's but not so much that they would be used to actively mess around with subs rather they defend their task force of Dreads. To be honest, a battleship taskforce's role is to kill other surface ships and support naval landings. Because of this, we have seen a marked increase in the purchase of Cruisers which represent more of an anti-sub role. Also, there has been a much increased number of subs produced, especially by the Central Powers.
Now here is one that you might find surprising. The Ottomans can't produce any naval forces. The only ships that they added to their fleet during the whole of WWI according to Navalwarfare.com were the two German Cruisers, Goeben and Breslau and that was just before they came into the war. They added one French sub that got caught in a anti-sub net in the dardenelles. The only other ships they had in the making were contracted by Great Britain who chose to keep them even after the Turks paid up front in Gold. This was just another factor that pushed the Turks into the arms of the Central Powers... I think I failed to mention that much of the existing Ottoman Navy was former German/French/Brit at the begining of the war. Believe it or not, the Ottomans seem to do well without the unrealistic ability to build naval units. We are also discussing allowing the Ottomans to purchase ships from the Germans (in the form of subs) or from the A/H's.
We also allow the Germans to produce one sub a turn in Trieste. This can start on turn 2. The subs become Austrian untl 1916 (Italy formally declared war on Germany in 1916, WTH!

If I think of anything else, I'll try to mention it here. I just want to let you know that all of your suggestions that you made are an improvement to the Potential Tournament Rules just as I feel ours are. And I truly appreciate your thoughts and comments as I've enjoyed your posts here and regarding the Global rules! Cheers,
13Foxtrot
