German Army to Silesia

Greg Brown

German Army to Silesia. What are you, nuts? You upset the Russians and miss out on the Lowlands. You can't defend yourself against an Anglo-French onslaught. Anyone dumb enough to do that deserves to get trounced. Yes this is possibly true, but the fact of the matter is that Germany is usually destroyed either by English convoys or Russian armies. And this generally happens when the German back is turned. These are the great worries for a German Kaiser in 1901.

Instead of just blindly arguing against the move, let's take a critical look at times when and reasons why people might counsel you not to move to Silesia in Spring 1901.

  1. Friendly Russia
    Nope; move to Silesia! Russia is lying through his teeth, even if he doesn't know it. There is no such thing as a pro-German Russian. If he grows at all he will be in Berlin quicker than you can say Ivan the Ter.... See, told you.

  2. Austro-Turkish Alliance
    Nope; move to Silesia again. Try to get your piece of the Russian action while there's some to be gotten! Warsaw, Sweden, and maybe something else. An Austrian army in Warsaw is worse than a Russian one because it's got no where else to go but west.

  3. Russo-Turkish Alliance
    Run to Silesia! A German army in Silesia coupled with two Austrian builds can hold out a long time against a juggernaut. The bounce in Sweden will help lots too.

  4. Austro-Russian Alliance
    My advice: move to Silesia. This one has its ups and downs. But anything that makes for a big Russia is bad news. A Turkey-Italy-Germany Pact is not bad and hopefully will offset the Austrians-Russians enough to make some gains. You were supposed to be buddies with the Austrian anyway, what happened? Can he honestly think that cozying up to the Tsar is good for the hun to his north? Do what you can to make the Tsar a bit less cozy.

  5. French-English Alliance
    Doesn't matter, if they're dead set against you and you engage them in battle, you may as well quit. Everything you read tells you that to have hope you need to get one of them to be your ally. Some, but not many, tell you that they both should be trying to befriend you, too, and if they're not, you either need a lot of help or a lot of persuasive arguments to use against them. What better way to ensure that they're not dead set against you than to head for Silesia, let them have their little party in the Lowlands, and show them that you are insterested in active cooperation and expansion from the western triangle area instead of getting involved in long wars in the west. If you can convince France that you are not going to be anywhere near Burgundy and that he can have Belgium, that is pretty good. He may take your side. Offer England Belgium and St. Petersburg and no Russian fleets in the north. Not bad. Anglo-German alliances, I am told, favor the English. I assume that is if the two sides have an equal number of centers. The idea, then, is that you will need to be the larger of the powers in any alliance arising from the western triangle. These extra centers would be Russian, and how better to start getting them than by starting to move toward them? So if you plan to have any hope for an English ally, you had better look to move on Warsaw before England gets the jump on you and unbalances the alliance.
So, you see, if you have any of the above situations in your game, a move to Silesia, I argue, is in order. And if you don't have any of the above situations in your game, then chances are you don't have any situations yet. Everyone is still fumbling around, sitting on their hands, claiming to "just be worried about the neutrals for now," wanting to see what breaks before they pull their heads out of the sand. Well, this means that someone has to break something. Why not you? Move to Silesia and I bet you will actually cause one of the situations described above. And then you're on track. A man with a plan.

The whole idea here is to do it to Russia before he does it to you. A small investment of an army in Silesia and a bounce in Sweden makes life difficult for any Tsar in any situation. Limit your meddling westward to Denmark and Holland. You get your two builds and are less of a threat to the powers in the west. This is good. The English alliance can last but the Russian one is a lie from the beginning. Don't do it. Russia and Germany will certainly go to war in the middle game if Russia is a viable power. Therefore, make that move to Silesia and watch the nasty mail roll in.

Greg Brown
(folkestone@sk.sympatico.ca)
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