Admiral Serak vs Operating (finished 63 turns)

[operating]

Admiral Serak (Entente) has been besting me (Operating, CP) in this match. It's the waning turns of the match, which ends on turn 62. We have another match going where we switched sides, surprisingly the results ended up with similar victory conditions and very close on game ending turns.

CP is on the run here in the West, low on PP and surviving units from earlier action. CP is the defensive mode for survival, so what you see in the SS is a delaying line of German units west and southwest of Hannover trying to buy time for reinforcements and for units by Hannover to build entrenchments. AH is covering the southern flank or German's left flank, but they have no staying power and are on the move towards Munich, at the same time scoring hits on French units.

The Admiral has been utilizing a strategic bombing campaign with much success and a large fighter presence. As you can see, the German units in yellow are suffering from efficiency loss caused by fighters and whatnot.

[operating]

Italian Front: It's become needless to try and hold this front with meager PP to support it. Trento was of no value, it was a time to maneuver or die in place, for once the rail line to Munich was cut, it would be a long slow march through the Alps while under attack (not good). Same with Trieste, except I will put up some defense there while using my one AH RR point to transport AH artillery to Vienna for the final showdown.

Getting bombardment support from the only AH surface fleet I have left, which is getting protection of it's own, from a sub screen.

My goal here is to get all stragglers and reinforcements to Capital cities .

[operating]

Balkan Front: Bulgarians were in Diplomatic "red" limbo till the Admiral DOW'd them to draw them into a fight. I think the Admiral was setting me up for a trap. If my Bulgarians decided to go down and attack Constantinople or Gallipoli, more than likely they would be greeted by the Admiral's navy on all sides (orange circles), basically narrow kill zones, so I'm just going to hold my ground and build up techs and PP. Put AH subs by Adriatic port cities to prevent their being naval bombarded. Have only one airship, so try to make the most of it attacking cities, but only having one airship as a strategic bomb force at this late stage of the match is just about futile, however what it does do is: Gives me intelligence on enemy movement.

[operating]

Ottoman Front: Turkey is close to collapse, everything north of Aleppo has been captured, as well as Palestine and nearby cities, Aqaba soon to follow. Chose to maintain a fighting withdrawal from Erzurum to join forces with armies from Syria (railed them out of Aleppo to Mosul) before either armies became encircled or marooned. As you can see (yellow line) the RR connection was close to being severed. Setting up 2 lines of defense for Mosul, which is actually looking pretty good right now. Moved the Turk fighter to near Bagdad (should have disbanded it) hoping somehow I may get some extra PP to repair it, even if I did, it will never be stronger than a Class I, the Russians have class II or III's. Should Turkey offer to surrender during turn change and the offer is refused, I have at least a decent army to slow the Russian advance to capture my last Turk Capital (Bagdad) in place..

[operating]

Eastern Front: This front has been stable and able to go on the offensive once in a while, such as the 2 German artillery strikes followed up by infantry practically destroyed the Russian infantry targeted, unfortunately I have been thinning the eastern ranks heading units west that are desperately needed there, leaving with no reserve unit to do a follow up attack (or, rather a breakthrough attack) to open up the Russian line. Lack of RR points means I have to walk AH units back towards Vienna.. Eventually this whole front will have to withdraw in stages... Also Romania is not that far off from entering the war, presenting another problem...

[operating]

Eastern Front: Holding strong protecting Koenigsberg. The problem with this is that requires a fair amount of units, would love to send some of these west, however, this front has the best entrenchment possible. The Russians have tried to break it a number of times and failed. Not sure what to make of the Russians? I think they are moving to the southern end of the front to put more pressure on the Austrians, hoping for a breakthrough. I think the Admirals problem is: He has heavily invested troops and airpower to Turkey and has not been able to disengage, nor wants to disengage till Turkey is subdued, then his next problem heading north is getting around/or through Bulgaria before winter arrives (I know it's aways off), the expanse those units would have to travel will eat up time, upkeep costs and efficiency. Will have to wait and see what he does, intelligence is limited..

In the meantime, I try to keep German convoys coming down the Baltic, if I get a couple more convoys, I'll be in good shape for a little while. The Admiral does not know my state of affairs, none the less, his aim is to make it as bad as he can...

[operating]

Western Front: Positioning units behind river to gain a defensive bonus if land attacked. Deployed reinforcement at Wilhelmshavan, every homeland city is to be contested whenever possible. Railed from the east an artillery unit for the Berlin defense. Hindenburg is in command of this shaky front and needed for his adding 4 defensive points to local units. The airforce is placed to strictly help to defend from offensive air attacks on front line. More reinforcements are on the way. You can see the Entente buildup, very difficult to counter such strength... The only advantage CP has is: It can place it's reinforcements close to the front, whereas, Entente has to burn turns getting units into CP territory...

[operating]

Italian Front: AH is still holding at Trieste, buying time to build new units with what meager PP it has left. AH cruiser is bombarding Venice to keep PP at "0" there and lowering unit efficiency. Entente subs are vigorously attacking sub screen trying to get at AH cruiser. Moving other AH units to block Entente advances or at least slow them down... Innsbruck is not worth the cost to defend, plus it is vulnerable to being cut off, time to abandon it..

[operating]

Ottoman Front: Aleppo and Aqaba have been captured, Turkey has no spare PP, even labs have sold off (some time ago), unless I disband units will I have any points to do repairs, again the objective here is to delay the inevitable. Moved the cavalry to start building entrenchments on the weak side of Samarrah, just in case Turkey does not surrender before then.

[operating]

Eastern Front: Starting to withdraw AH from front line positions, this will give the Russians an opening to flank my line, hate to do it, but I have to, Vienna and Budapest are more important to rally forces to, later I will regret these moves. To help the Austrians, German artillery gave 2 of the Russian lead elements a headache, more of a harassment than an offensive. The Admiral positions a balloon in Kovno I think more for intelligence than to attack with, I'm still attacking his cities and soft targets with my airships every turn, upgrade them whenever possible, they're great sub-hunters...

[operating]

Western Front: The Admiral has worked his way into Germany, threatening Berlin. He has brought up his airforce (circled in orange) at least what is visible , I'm sure there is more. As you can see, I have put together a formidable defense of Berlin and to considerably less so at Hamburg (more reinforcements coming). Up until now I have kept the High Sea's Fleet intact, however I am dire need of PP, so had to put class IV or V cruisers into port for disbanding, otherwise I will not be able to maintain the army. The Admiral has the Baltic pretty much plugged up so that convoys are not getting through. It's a tough decision not to pursue the Entente subs, but can ill afford a constant win/loss of little effect on his sub fleets with surface fleet attacks, plus I could be putting my fleets into a situation where they could get trapped and unable to return to port (subs are excellent blockers). Deploying other units to put up defenses of other cities (yellow circles), which could change as needed.. During the next several turns there will be a lot of action, unfortunately much can only be seen on replay, as you know, it goes pretty fast.

[operating]

Eastern Front: Objective here is to protect Koenigsberg. Withdrew to Novo-Georgievsk and Warsaw opening a big gap in the Eastern Front, figured to use the fort as an anchor for another front. Only in hindsight did I wish to have maintained the front, however felt naked without reserves there and felt it would be better to pick where I wanted to go, instead of being pushed by the Russians to where I did not know where units would end up and in what kind of condition.

[operating]

Western Front: Somewhere between turn 50 to 53 Turkey surrendered, you might compare NM to see the effects of this surrender. The Admiral is not having as easy a time trying to take Berlin: His tank unit (circled) just took an artillery hit weakening it to be temporarily. Zeppelins attack French bomber, plus reduce city production. Lost Cuxhaven and Hamburg, Kiel is threatened, however is kept in supply by armored cruiser, don't expect it to hold out long... English fleets are waiting to pass through the Kiel Canal, trying to keep them out. Disbanding sub fleets, next will be one of the dreadnaught fleets, that will cost me -30 NM, could be a game ender for Germany.

Most of the screenshots (SS) have the management stats for "kills/loses" on alternate SS, if you are paying attention to that aspect of a game/match, personally I do, as well as the production screen for PP and NM, MP, ect. .

[operating]

Vienna: Have a entrenched defensive ring around Vienna, but no air-force to support it. There are a few other strong points that are spread out in Austria, it's the best I can do for now, reinforcements consist of garrisons, I can only hope they do the job of holding the line, till the Infantry in Krakow rails in, or perhaps the cavalry will recover to come down to assist against the Entente infantry onslaught. If Vienna falls, will try to defend the Budapest Capital in a last ditch effort... AH still has some room to take losses to the NM.. All my defenders around Przemyl Fort have been sacrificed to buy time, it won't be long before the Russian horde comes knocking at my back door..

[operating]

Balkans: I'm sure that the unexpected consequences of the Admiral accepting Turkey's surrender would aid in the defense of the Bulgarians, by creating a buffer zone that the Entente cannot enter, unless they declare war on neutral Turkey. If you remember: Turkey was left with a fairly potent army by Mosul at the time of surrender and more than likely "all" Entente armies have left that region to go against Bulgaria. So the prospect of Entente to having to go back there would be a serious headache and by the time they did so, the Turks likely would have recaptured cities..

Over on the left, Italy landed a garrison I suspect to capture Centjevo and Cattaro, denying AH it's last port. In the meantime I have been disbanding AH subs, knowing the day would come that my ports would be gone, Thus fleets isolated in a sea of red dots.

In the orange circle the English airforce is waiting to pounce, to kill subs and attack ground troops.

[operating]

New threat: In 2 turns Romania will be entering the war.

[operating]

Western Front: The Berlin western front is still holding strong, been focusing attacks on French infantry that are only 2 hexes away from the Capital. Kiel is looking real shaky right now, don't expect that garrison will last beyond this turn. Entente air-power has been just pounding that city. Getting ready to disband my last sub fleet at Stettin. The Russians exploited a gap in my lines to capture Posen costing Germany 4 PP and a hit to it's NM. Should that Russian armored car not be dealt with, that little PITA could go on to the coast and cut Germany in half, disrupting rail-lines in the process.

[operating]

Vienna: Ya, the Vienna defense is starting to show it's weakness, but is still putting up a fight, as you can see in the red faced French infantry. I'm worried about the Italians: Their cavalry should have spotted the open back door to Vienna, but they may not have enough units to stretch their line to get there, will find out next turn. The Russians are roaring in from the east, had to leave my AH infantry in Krakow (9 PP) to slow them up. Damn it! Another Ruskee armored car is drawing a bead on another AH city (1 PP). I guess this is part of the Admiral's "Under-lord" plan! Flew my weak airship to another city to prevent another easy capture. On a bright note: CP is still alive and kicked the Jesus out of England's tank unit, putting it out of action for awhile. The end is not far off...

[operating]

Balkans: Entente has only 2 small corridors in which to invade Bulgaria from Turkey without crossing a "Red Line" with the Ottomans. The armored train cannot go anywhere but south or used as a blocker, should Bulgaria DOW's Turkey/Ottomans. If Romania stayed out of the war, the Bulgarians could hold out for quite a while with reinforcements on the way...

[operating]

Eastern Front: Looking at where the Russian fighters are positioned, an attack on Warsaw is imminent. The Posen breakthrough screwed up my plans to tighten up this front, it's not like I was going to win anyways, I'm just trying to put up a defense to hold-out as long as I can..