POG - Newbie Questions - Calling Andy, Joel or Repo

Andy's post Friday inspired me so I played through the first month solo. On my first month I was probably a little too hyper focused on the Western Front but Paris seem so close to German lines. Germany made it to limited war in the first month, I'm really not sure if that's good or bad. I can see how POG is compared to War of the Ring with a crazy amount of possible things to do each turn.

But before I continue butchering the rules I figured I make sure I'm getting things correct. The rules aren't the worst but they're not the best either.

Key questions about loss and replacements:

When you take losses an Army will be first flipped than if it continue to take losses it's replaced by a Corp in the reserve. If you don't have a corp in the reserve you're screwed because the Army will be permanently out of the game. Armies are also eliminated that are OOS are also permanently out of the game.

When a Army is replaced I guess you just put it in your force pool not in the reserves?

I guess if Corp is eliminated it will never be permantly out of the game.

So we have 5 levels of troops:
1. Troops on the board
2. Troops in reserve. Can be used as replacements or place on map with SR.
3. Troops in the Force pool. They can be build during replacement phase.
4. Army's not on the board at the start that can come in with a card play. Can you just build these armies during the standard replacement stage or do you need an event card to build these units?
5. Army's permently out of the game.

- You have a dead pile and reserves.

- Anything either not yet recruited or permadead via lack of replacements or OOS
goes right into the game box.

- Any army unit that doesn't start on the board can ONLY enter play through the recruitment cards, and each power can only recruit each nation once per turn. The new armies go onto the board, the new corps into the reserves.

- The recruitment box only ever contains corps; armies go right from the dead pile to the map. Dead corps go from the dead pile to the reserves with RPs. In either case, replenished armies or corps come back weakened (flipped) until you pay extra.


The key consideration is how many corps should be moved onto the board, especially on the Westfront, Turkey, or the Baltics. At the beginning of the game it looks like you have a ton of corps, but they can go down fast. Being forced to replenish corps through RPs is a sign that a nation is very vulnerable to attrition. Of course, using too few corps will result in far too many army casualties.

Only other advice I can give is to never stop digging trenches. Newer players usually attack far too often.

Yes as SaMoKo said,

One of the key concepts is to remember the difference between "Replacements", that is rebuilding units that have been damaged via "RP's" at the end of the turn and "Reinforcements" which are new units entering play.

When a unit takes enough damage to remove it from play it goes to the "eliminated/replaceable" holding box until the Replacement phase of the turn sequence.

By spending your RP's you can move Armies from the Eliminated/Replaceable box directly to the map but only to a Supply Space or a nation's Capital space. (Paris is a Capital but not Supply while Essen is a Supply but not a Capital). Whether it comes in full strength or reduced depends on how many RP's you spend.

Spending RP's on Corp you can move them from Elim/Replace box to the holding box at either full or half strength depending on how many RP's you wish to spend or flip a reduced corps in the holding box to full strength. These guys do not go directly to the map.

Reinforcements are new guys brought into the game through card play. Only one reinforcement even per nation per turn. (Not side. So you can play one for England, France, and Russia all on one turn but not two for England) Same placement rules. Armies to map, corps to holding box.

Stacking rules apply when putting guys back on the map and you can't play a Reinforcement if you can't put all the units on the map. If a country does not have control of it's Capital it gets no RP's. Usually this happens to Austria. If it loses either of it's capitals it gets nothing during the Replacement phase.

When you take damage, you must assign the damage points in such a way as to take it all if you can. An army will flip to reduced side and then if you still need to give it damage it moves to the Elim/Replace box and a corp is put in it's place from the holding box. This corp can be full or reduced strength depending on what you desire or have available.

You are correct that if you have no corp. The Army is destroyed permanently. That is what we call "bad". Same for Armies destroyed for being Out of Supply at the end of the turn. That is what we call "very bad". Corps however, are not ever destroyed, they go to the elim/replace box even when it's for being OOS.

As far as beginning strategy. It is perfectly viable as the Central Powers to hammer on France early. With a few lucky die rolls you can really do some damage. It is unlikely but possible to take Paris but the map layout is such that to do so without leaving yourself open to being cut off and OOS is very hard. Usually you are trying to cut off the main line of French defense. If you can swing that, you've won the game.

As the CP, you must be aggressive. Delaying will only let the Allies get stronger and stronger. They have better RP's and lots more Reinforcements, if they get the chance to play them. Gotta hit em hard and often and keep them on their heels.

Also, tip #2: never lose Constantinople as the CP. That is a sure sign that you're screwed. The Baltic area seems useless at first glance, but it is the route to ship German corps to defend this critical supply centre. If it burns, the entire Near East and 6 VPs are gone. Make the Allies fight for it with as many actions and casualties as possible.

Thanks Repo and SaMoKo. It's starting to click. I'll be ready to play somebody by WBC.

[derail]Oh man, I thought this thread was going to be about:



[/dereail]

PoG is not my favorite CDGs anymore... it cooled. Something to keep in mind is that it is very easy to replace dead units as long as they don't permanently die. Do not get caught up in just attacking over and over, even if you feel like you're about to win something. It's beyond easy to replace every loss you take with a 5 card for RP.

As I understand it, for top players this game is a pure efficiency game with way fewer ops played than you think should be played.

SaMoKo wrote: Also, tip #2: never lose Constantinople as the CP. That is a sure sign that you're screwed. The Baltic area seems useless at first glance, but it is the route to ship German corps to defend this critical supply centre. If it burns, the entire Near East and 6 VPs are gone. Make the Allies fight for it with as many actions and casualties as possible.

Inexplicably the Bulgarians are quite powerful for use in the Middle East. So IIRC the classic CP strategy is to open up and ship the Bulgarians (or German corps if you're lucky) into the Near East to bolster the Turks.

Great game, but I completely suck at it so I cant give you much advice, Put. All I know is that being out of supply is a bitch in this game and I'm dumb so my units find themselves out of supply often. Then game ovah!

KingPut wrote: Thanks Repo and SaMoKo. It's starting to click. I'll be ready to play somebody by WBC.

In open gaming I hope ? The PoG event at WBC is one of the biggest shark tanks at the whole convention.

metalface13 wrote: [derail]Oh man, I thought this thread was going to be about:

[/dereail]

Totally came in here just to suggest picking up a Poison slammer, preferably featuring an 8-ball/skull, if you really want to get some respect.

Msample wrote:

KingPut wrote: Thanks Repo and SaMoKo. It's starting to click. I'll be ready to play somebody by WBC.

In open gaming I hope ? The PoG event at WBC is one of the biggest shark tanks at the whole convention.

Absolutely, in open gaming.