Thought I'd post some thoughts on the titanic game of PoG played between myself and Karl over the last weekend. We agreed at the start to play with all the optional set-up and use the 8 card hand. I personally like the 8 card hand option as it allows you to plan your strategy a little more.
We also used a home-brewed variant that allows you to keep the 5/5 cards when played as events as 4/4 cards with the replacement points of 4/4 card. We were essentially trying to get the Americans in for once and also increase the possibility of the treaty of Brest Litovsk.
The game opened with GOA with the attack on the French. The early moves in the west put pressure on the French. This was partly achieved by the 3 German army move to Sedan which managed to avoid being outflanked by the French throwing a 1, ouch!
The Serbs acquitted themselves very well initially getting the better of the AH who eventually used brute force to hammer down the threat and left an army in the south to guard against a future Salonika. Meanwhile the AH were suffering elsewhere along the eastern front and the dead pile started to grow.
CP got to limited war first (1 bonus VP) and shifted some German support to the east. Italy entered the war with CP not in a position to take any immediate advantage. This soon changed however and 1 British army was not enough to stop the Italian border and then the entire country being overrun. The German armies in west also gained ground and took VP spaces in the north of France. The VP tally soured during one turn to a massive 23 VPs! only to be brought down to 20 on the Allied 6th action and then to 19 thanks to it being a winter turn with Blockade in play.
Then fortune turned in a big way. As both sides reached Total War simultaneously the Allied drew both Sinai pipeline and Allenby in the first hand. The Near East started to fold and the VP total slowly but surely reduced. Fresh Allied armies arrived in Italy and started to retake lost ground. Another winter turn, more blockade. A few war status Events later saw the first Zimmerman Telegram Event played followed a little later by 14 Points. Two more VPs off the total. At its low point it reached 6 after the French Army of The Orient had captured Constantinople and collapsed the NE. This was annoying for the CP because by this stage two Turkish armies (one reduced) had destroyed Yudenitch and had flipped Allenby and had even managed to build 2 trenches. The Turks were looking to go back on the offensive having started to rebuild their corps. But the French put a stop to all this. Large green armies, the likes of which had not been seen before, started to arrive in France by late 1917. The CP had to do something else it was goodnight Vienna and Budapest and Berlin and........
The offensive was taken up again in Italy with fresh armies and the German armies in the east built up to 5. The western front slowly retreated from its entrenched positions in France. Ostend, Amiens, Cambrai, even Sedan at a level 2 trench supported by 2 AH armies kept in reserve had to yield in the end. But these advances were but nothing as compared to those made in Italy and Russia. All of Italy was eventually retaken and only 1 reduced Russia corps sat on the map staring at Odessa now in CP hands. Joint Italian, French, and Serb armies were now moving forward from their base around Salonika and had taken Sofia and were advancing on Belgrade. Even the Greeks had pitched in to assist the Allied cause and had to be chased down and guarded against. The final tally was 14 VPs. This was certainly the most tense game of PoG and of probably any game I've played. Either side could have won really and it was nice to see the full counter mix used. I don't propose the 5/5 to 4/4 card swap as anything else but an interesting house rule. But I can say it's been tried at least once and seems to work. Nice one Karl, enjoyed it immensely, I'll play you again just as soon as I've got brain back from the land of LaLa!