ICARUS MOD Version 5 - Shri vs Wassmus

[shri]

Spring 1915 opens with new promises -
First my bad luck, despite 2 chits in artillery i have not yet had a break-through yet in level 1 artillery.

Now one thing i want a feed back from Michael and other veterans who have read this AAR (OCB, Bavre etc.) as to whether -
A fortress fully surrounded for more than 1 turn should drop morale and readiness and entrenchment or not?

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I am all set to assault Verdun and Nancy but i do not want to without aircraft doing reconaissance and artillery first softening up my enemies. KronPrinz Wilhelm even though a somewhat lesser commander has been chosen for this honour as the next in line for the throne (KronPrinz Rupprecht is furious as he didn't get this chance, he has been promised leadership to take Paris if the chance comes up this year)

I have replaced the "Old & Deaf" von Bulow and "not so efficient" Grand Duke Albrecht in the winter turns with von Hutier and von Below, 2 of my best Army commanders.

Austria in Galicia has the 3 Corps strong Mackensen army to help them defend Lemberg so is stable (for now)

Italians are slowly creeping up to join the Entente, have crossed 60% in this turn, maybe 2 more turns max.

Ottomans are struggling. Sinai is stable (due to low supplies) but in Caucasus a huge Russian build up of several corps, some divisions and some detachments has taken one town and is threatening Van now.
In Mesopotamia, the English troops have very good supply, i think they have a general in Kuwait with 2 detachments.

[shri]

CP Plans (broad plans)
First the Germans-
1. Western Front
I will take Verdun and Nancy ASAP and then focus on Toul and Epinal. These will secure my left flank fully. Further, all these are NM objectives and can be easily held even after a strong artillery bombardment. Once i get 2 heavy artillery regiments (1 being built now) i will start my assault on the road to Paris (but this will be in 1916 only)

2. Eastern Front
i will take Warsaw and fort Novo-George ASAP then focus on Ivanograd, Grodno and Brest-Litovsk to push the exceptionally high Russian morale (currently around 96-97%) to below 75% forcing a replacement of command and decrease in MPP and combat abilities. This will force them to commit more troops to face the Germans, allowing me to liberate Galicia with Austria.

The Austrians-
Italy-
Have started to build 1 mountain infantry, eventually want to build as much mountain divisions as possible and have requested Germany to build their 2 mountain infantry ASAP and send them to help against Italy

Serbia-
Combine with Bulgaria and eliminate Serbia and Monte*****

Galicia-
Survive till the Germans take all of Poland and then liberate Galicia

Romania & Greece
Future potential enemy (s), need to take Serbia and Monte***** before they enter the war and use our and Bulgarian forces to take on them (with German support)

Ottomans -
SURVIVE till Germany sends a strong army to help.
Try and build 1/2 mountain divisions for the Caucasus provinces and free my detachments for the upcoming ARAB revolts.

[shri]

This is from May 1915
CP gains level 1 artillery for Austria and Germany and immediately launches attacks in Serbia, Warsaw and Western fronts using the same.

Forts of Verdun and Novo-George fall.
1 final Serbian city falls and the Russian supply network is finally cut off. Serbia can only receive MPP from France now, no longer from Russia.

Ottomans are pressed hard by Russia, Enver Pasha is going to be sacked if we can gain MPP and Liman von Sanders will be sent to Baghdad to save it.

P.S.: Germany and Austria both force march 1 corps each to Italy. the sudden Italian entry into war hits the CP hard, bad planning on my side.

[shri]

From 10th July 1915 CP Turn

Warsaw and Nancy have fallen

German Morale - 101% (has fallen a bit due to loss of Norway to Diplomacy) may rise a bit more by end of 1915 due to more combat in East and West.
Austrian- 84% (has recovered due to capture of Belgrade etc., but Bulgaria refuses to Join as of now) - will rise more once Serbia and Monte surrender.
Ottoman- 86% - will fall if i keep losing so much troops every turn.

Serbian - 74% (has been lucky to escape with 1 strength corps twice, anyway it's land connection to Russian supplies is now lost and Nish is under light attack)

French - 77% (has heavily fallen due to Verdun and Nancy is only trying to defend but has sent a brave Foreign legion corps to help the Serbians but without HQ support)

British- 88% (British are strong in Egypt but haven't launched a major offensive, but in Mesopotamia, they have a HQ and 2 detachments, 1 marines and 1 Cavalry, a major offensive is underway, Ottomans have 2 weak detachments and 1 under-strength corps)
British lost 2 pre-Dreadnoughts and 1 Battle cruiser and 1 Cruiser in the naval game to kill 1 German cruiser and 1 destroyer.

Russian - 84% (was above 95% till March 1915, loss of a few corps + Warsaw and the fort nearby has dipped it a bit, still Russia is strong and earning a lot of Income and has launched a very strong offensive in the Caucaus, i have counted 5 corps, 2 detachments so far + 1 division
Yudenich is the best Russian HQ and he commands in Caucasus
Russia has almost lost a submarine (escaped with 1 hit point), 2 cruisers, 1 destroyer and 1 old type cruiser to German ships so far. Some subs have lost hit points due to Russian mines.

Ottomans have 5 Corps and 3 Detachments in the caucasus but 0 reserves left and if Bulgaria doesn't come soon and Nish doesn't fall, they are going to be in big trouble very soon )

Italian - 100% (Italian offensive has been superb so far, 2 detachments killed, 1 corps badly injured, 1 HQ hit badly of Austria)

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Right now Sweden and Netherlands are at 25% each, Denmark at 15% but Norway has swung against CP, causing loss of 18MPP per turn. Germany had to spend 250 MPP and further force Austria to spend 200 MPP to counter allied dump of nearly 1000 MPP spread across Britain, France and Russia into diplomacy

In the west, last 3 turns, the CP has taken, Verdun and Nancy using their level 1 artillery and frontal attacks by better morale infantry (due to higher NM and better HQs) also killed 5 French corps.

In East 3 Russian corps killed and 2 more badly hit, Warsaw and Novo-George has fallen

In Balkans, Udice and Belgrade are fallen, Montenegro holds very strong with 1 Corps + 3 detachments.

In Italy, i mistimed, Italy jumped from 78% to War in 1 turn and on Allied turn, resulted in loss of 1 detachment and severe crippling of my HQ and 1 corps (both i have managed to save by operating 1 German and 1 Austrian corps right now)

At sea, i am slowly killing the Russian navy one naval base at a time, by early 1916 it will be hopefully dead.

In Adriatic, the Allied 3 subs + 3 DDs +1 Aircraft carrier make life hell for my 2 Austrian subs ( i am bad at the Naval game)

Ottomans are now fighting on 3 fronts + fear a Gallipoli attack + fear naval landings along coastlines + have no reserves left.

---

The next 3 turns of the game will be crucial, if i can stabilize Italy, conquer NISH and get Bulgaria into the War, i will be somewhat safe. Also i need to take Toul & Belfort in the West and Ivanograd & Brest-Litovsk

[shri]

Russian morale falls as the 1st anniversary is completed on 1st August 1915, though this turn is of August 7th 1915, it is now down to 76% and maybe next turn it will drop below 75% and the Tsar will take over. By Winter Ivanograd and other Forts should be gone (hopefully)

British NM rises after capture of a few towns in Mesopotamia, but with 2 Corps and 2 detachments, Ottomans have a decent blockade force in front of Baghdad and can hopefully hold till the English get their artillery to blast me out.

Sinai front holds till the English artillery comes. I have given up the town and retreated due to bad supply (his ships keep reducing my supply)

Also he has invested good money into airforce, his airforce is bombing me on all fronts on all turns now and has forced Germany to stop buying mountain divisions and forced them to buy 2 fighters and 3 chits into fighter upgrades.
In addition, the Italian offensive is strong on the Isonzo, a German corps escaped with 1 hit point (finally luck benefits me)

I have had to operate Hindenburg here to save the Austrians and i am force marching 2 corps and will operate 1/2 more corps to save this front from Collapse.

In Serbia my offensive as Austria has stopped due to diversions to Italy. France has sent 1 marines and 1 corps to Serbia, decent forces.

On Warsaw front the Shell crisis forces the advance to slow down to a crawl. Artillery has few shells despite putting a chit into level 1 shells long ago, it is moving too slow.

On Western front i wait for my heavy artillery to come before assaulting Toul and Belfort. French morale is down to 65% vs German 103%

In the Caucasus a serious fight is ongoing with Russians pouring several corps but now after a great advance have slowed due to lack of supplies. Ottomans also lack supplies. It is a chaotically evil front. His forces have even advanced from Persia towards Mosul forcing me to divert 2 cavalry corps urgently to that area.

End of year 1 TLDR-
1. Germany is strong in the West but Paris will hold. Toul and Belfort will fall by end of Winter (hopefully) and push French morale into 50s - my German 2 heavy artillery are in queue and 1 will come in about a turn.
2. Serbia holds strong on the NISH line, Bulgaria is yet to come
3. Germans re-took Lemberg and saved Galicia but this delayed the offensive on Warsaw front from March 1915 to May 1915 and minus 1 HQ and 3 Corps thus the offensive is too weak and slow to be decisive. Now Russia has a good trenchline and is somewhat safe though the Tsar will soon come in
4. British are very very strong, i didn't dare any submarine warfare as my subs are still level 0 and i don't want USA joining too soon.
5. Loss of NORWAY a big blow to CP, ~18 MPP per turn. But denmark, netherlands and sweden are safe (for now)
6. Galicia is a stalemate till Russian artillery comes.
7. Austrian MPP is too low, perhaps Germans need to feed them some MPP soon to help them buy 1 heavy artillery.
8. Failing to take Belgrade in 1914 proved to be my major mistake.
9. I should have anticipated my opponent investing in Norway and in the air-war. But air-war i guess over the Winter i can play catch-up, loss of Norway is a blow i have to accept and regret.

[shri]

Balance screenshots -
P.S.: Ottomans got a small boost i think around 1-2% NM due to Gallipoli not happening.

[shri]

2 pics which failed to attach

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Warsaw.png (754.18 KiB) Viewed 2509 times

[shri]

Some funny and weird experiences with respect to my game and AAR -

1. My opponent has brilliantly used the Russian Aircraft and Anglo-French Aircraft, he reduced 2 subs of mine to strength of 3-4 and killed my 1 cruiser (of-course his one Russian pre-Dreadnought and 1 Russian cruiser helped, i in turn killed his pre-Dreadnought as revenge). He got level 1 airforce very early in war (luck or something else)
2. His British forces have level 1 infantry for 3 turns now. Ironically, he has sent a strong French army to the Salonika/Serbia front consisting of 2 marines, 1 detachment, 1 HQ and 2 army corps (which i have noticed so far, there maybe more units which i haven't seen yet) but a full British army of 4 Corps is positioned on the left flank of Paris in defensive mode with level1, maybe he intends to counter-attack me and lacks artillery or maybe it is something else.
3. As Austria i received the first artillery break-through despite it being Germany which had 2 chits in Artillery from very early on. Luck or something else?
4. The MOD enables a Persian advance, this forces the garrisoning of Mosul and nearby towns as Van etc. got outflanked and killed off early.
5. Bulgarian army starts off with 3 Army corps and 2 detachments, pretty strong and even historically correct, my query is - If Germany hits level 1 before Bulgarian entry, should they start level 1 or level 0 only? I can also buy an airplane and an artillery as Bulgaria which will help a lot in Salonika (Greece)-Serbia-Monte***** quagmire henceforth.
6. Russia and France also hit level 1 infantry before Germany, though i am quite sure Germany invested in level 1 infantry before them (i invested as early as turn 2 or something). Luck or something else? or is it because UK got it very fast due to a breakthrough and hence they got follow-on breakthroughs?

Anyway, in late September 1915 i will have to stop the German offensives on all fronts as Russians and French are dug-in with level 1 infantry and have artillery and aircraft behind lines, i don't want to lose too much strength as my infantry is not yet upgraded due to my urgency to keep attacking. The autumn and winter of 1915 and early 1916 will be a CP defensive zone (except maybe Italy which is at level 0 and low in trench strength) and thus this turn maybe the last screenshots or turns i post before Spring 1916 when i hope to have decisive action again.


For Spring 1916-
I will have 2 Heavy Artillery (with 1 more in pipeline) and level 1 infantry as Germany which may be enough to push and take Paris. (if luck holds) and i also will have 3 fighters with level 1 technology to help in the air-war on the western front. The Anglo-French may experience a true Fokker Scourge and a Kaiserschlacht in Spring 1916 on the Western Front.

One advantage of taking NISH is Bulgarian entry into the War and the splitting of French forces into 2, they are now trapped in Serbia/Monte***** unless they escape by sea through my submarine cordon. Also finally Ottomans will start receiving some help, just a measly 33MPP per turn, but still ok, this will help them purchase 1 new corps in spring 1916 or re-purchase any units lost in Autumn/Winter and upgrade that useless HQ of Enver to Mustafa Kemal my best Ottoman HQ.

The Austrians will continue to be defensive in Galicia, they have level 3 entrenchment which even against artillery attack with level 1 infantry will hold in Winter, but will collapse in Spring.
Austria will hope to finish off Serbia and Monte in Winter and reach Salonika front. Clear the Adriatic of enemy presence completely at sea. (High hopes maybe)

Germans want the Baltic sea cleared of all Russian vessels bar none.

The Ottomans just want to hold on to what they have till a strong German Army arrives to help them. I propose to send Mackensen or Hindenburg with 3 German corps once Italian front stabilizes.

Austria will hope to have level 1 infantry and 1 heavy artillery by Spring 1916, Ottomans will not aim to buy artillery, they lack the MPP, they will aim for just level 1 infantry and try to upgrade everything possible.

Mesopotamia.png (122.26 KiB) Viewed 2469 times

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Caucasus.png (531.18 KiB) Viewed 2469 times

[shri]

NM
British at 87-88% very strong
French morale flags at 62% and may drop more if Epinal and Belfort fall.
Italy at 94% down from over 101% now due to loss of 2 corps + 2 corps down to 2/4 hit points due to a strong Austro-German offensive without any artillery or airplanes. Just attritional warfare.
Serbia down to barely 50% and will drop more once the cities fall soon.
Russia is a respectable 72% and Tsar is in command.

---
Germany is strong at 101%
Austria at 81%, will get a boost when Serbia and Monte finally fall, also get a Windfall in MPP to help buy Heavy Artillery.
Ottomans at 84%, got a minor boost due to no Gallipoli campaign by Allies.

Western.png (248.49 KiB) Viewed 2468 times

Galicia.png (313.41 KiB) Viewed 2468 times

Brest Litovsk and northern.png (548.51 KiB) Viewed 2468 times

[shri]

3 probable mistakes made by my opponent so far -
1. He didn't use the British on the frontlines in Western front, perhaps he is conserving them for a gigantic Somme offensive in 1916 using Artillery and Heavy Artillery, he has 4 level 1 corps just sleeping from the beginning of the war.
2. He did a great retreat by Russia when just Ivanograd fell, his lines hadn't collapsed and autumn is coming followed by Winter, he could have delayed me till Spring or even Summer by using Attrition.
3. Biggest flaw i think he could have used the Royal Navy in attrition in 1914, he may have lost half his battle-ships but the German naval threat could have been permanently over.

[shri]

3 major mistakes by me in game (so far)-

1. Not taking Serbia in 1914. Disastrous blunder
2. Not pushing to Paris in 1914, frankly i panicked due to the Russian advance in Galicia. It was quite fast and Austria lost 4 corps in 3 turns (it also killed 2 Russian corps and damaged a few more, overall hit points Russia was losing 10:7 or so, but still Austria couldn't sustain it)
3. Not being prepared for Italy, almost lost an Austrian HQ and actually lost 2 detachments.

As for the Ottomans, i don't know how i could have played them better, IMHO they are far too weak to launch a strong Sinai Offensive when Caucasus and Mesopotamia are under attack.

[mdsmall]

Hi Shri - for your reference (and anyone else reading this AAR) here is the explanation in the Guide to Version 5 of the mod of the morale boost your Ottomans seem to have received:

"If the Entente says YES to the Gallipoli campaign DE, the Ottomans will be rewarded if they can contain or defeat the invasion. Specifically, the Ottoman Empire gets a 500 NM boost if the Entente has only captured the town of Gallipoli by August 1915; and a 2000 NM boost if the Entente holds no Ottoman towns or cities between Smyrna, Constantinople, and the Bulgarian border by January 1, 1916."

Given the date of your game so far, I would infer that the Ottomans have received the 500 NM boost already and will the much bigger one on January 1, 1916. It is not common for the Entente to accept the Gallipoli DE and then fail to launch the campaign. But your opponent may have decided on second thought that the costs of losing the amphibious force outweighed the NM boost that the Ottomans receive.

Cheers

[shri]

I took some screenshots which unfortunately got deleted. But will write a TLDR of the last 6 months-

Western Front
Level 2 artillery with 2 heavies and 1 medium, has meant a huge spring offensive by Germany, i had 4 corps in the front-line with 11 strength, level 1 fighters (2 Nos) and 2 reconaissance aircraft and i have blown up 5 French corps in a single turn in May 1916, the war will soon be over.
French have lost a full army in Serbia and now 5 Corps on the Marne line, Paris is level 7 trench and needs some time to be taken, but the French are below 50% morale vs Germans 98%.
Russia is also below 65% in morale, Serbia is fully out. Italy and UK are above 80%
Austria and Ottomans are around 85% each which is fine.
Over the Winter the forts of Toul and Epinal fell to level 1 heavy artillery, but the idea to take Belfort was postponed to give a very strong attack in front of the Marne.


Serbia
Serbia is dead, Monte will die next turn. French lost 1 HQ + 2 marines + 1 detachment + 2 corps and English lost 1 marines trying to save Serbia (they postponed the inevitable by 6 months at an epic price)


Sinai Front
The Ottomans with level 1 infantry destroyed the Anzac and Indian Corps and put the English offensive to flight, the Arab revolt has started strong, they hold Riyadh, in addition the Marines have landed in coastal Arabia. Ottomans in trouble but can survive


Mesopotamia
Level 1 infantry + low English supply situation means i lost 1 corps but have survived so far, Baghdad is still quite secure and several key points away


Caucasus
Russians have advanced a lot but due to problems elsewhere have had to pull back


Galicia
Level 1 infantry of Austria stop a Russian attack, lose 1 corps but not much more



Italy
Udine is taken and attrition warfare ongoing on Land and Sea. A lot of MPP lost for little gains. His Airforce keeps hitting my submarines badly which guard the mouth of the Adriatic desperately.


Poland/Lithuania
a mad cavalry dash has killed General Evert (he was already Injured), now Brest-Litovsk has fallen, Kovno, Grodno will soon be under siege (German infantry are just outside) and we shall push onto the Riga-Minsk line.


Summary-
I expect Paris, Kovno to fall soon and Monte surrender next turn, after which Salonika will be attacked (a lone French corps without reinforcements is there) vs 3 Bulgarian and 4 Austrian corps. Without immediate Greek entry it will fall.
I would expect my opponent to surrender if Paris falls, but let us see.

P.S: Level 2 heavy artillery with 8 shells is like insanely powerful.

[shri]

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mesopotamia.png (894.3 KiB) Viewed 2239 times

So, finally my gallant opponent surrenders
British & Italian NM - 83%
French - 40%
Russian - 50%
Russia has level 2 infantry but has run out of troops at the front (temporarily at-least). My opponent perhaps spent way too much on R&D than buying back troops to counter me.

France proved the reason to resign, my heavily artillery and 3 corps surrounding it means Paris will fall and result in further heavy loss of NM, French collapse will trigger significant Russian and English NM losses.

Also i have 9 level 2 submarines between the 2 blockade lines ready to jump onto the English convoy boxes triggering a sharp decline in NM and a sharp increase in American mobilisation.
Greece has now swung to CP due to fall of Salonika and is giving 21MPP to Austria.
Galicia guarded by Brusilov and Yudenich is still under Russian control.
Italy with a horde of corps for Austrians may lose Venice & Piave in about 3 turns and thus start to leak a lot of NM.

[shri]

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Sinai and Arabia.png (1.02 MiB) Viewed 2238 times

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[DustyJenkins560]

Excellent AAR Shri. You seem to be quite the tactician. I'm hoping to learn some lessons from this. I think I sometimes make the mistake of investing too much into R&D when I should be making more troops. Compared to you, I feel you certainly have more experience than me. I've only ever played against my brother. I look forward to continuing the game we've started on the 1916 start. I'll do my best to put up a good fight!

[shri]

Excellent AAR Shri. You seem to be quite the tactician. I'm hoping to learn some lessons from this. I think I sometimes make the mistake of investing too much into R&D when I should be making more troops. Compared to you, I feel you certainly have more experience than me. I've only ever played against my brother. I look forward to continuing the game we've started on the 1916 start. I'll do my best to put up a good fight!

Hey Dusty, it is an interesting game we have on in 1916 Icarus. All the best to you for that.

As to the AAR, i am glad someone other than me & Michael found it useful. I wrote it to popularise this excellent mod by Michael which pushes the game towards more Historical/realism path. Also to help me understand what mistakes i make.

As for research, i think Research is absolutely essential. But some research is more essential as in not all research is the same. So, if you have a dilemma of trench warfare chit vs buyback, i would say put trench warfare chits, but if it is Zeppelins (Airships) or Airplanes then i would say buyback your troops is probably a better option unless you are sure that all your borders will hold for the next 3 turns. Basically it is a compromise based on data available to you.
Some research is essential, some is comfort and rest luxury. For example, mobility research or ASW or Naval research by Ottomans or Italy with their meagre resources is personally speaking a wrong way to play.

Historically speaking, the French started with the worst uniforms (literally Napoleonic era) of the Great powers but changed quickly in the winter and introduced the Adrian Helmet in Spring, gaining a sizeable advantage in 1915 over all other troops. But the Germans introduced the Stahlhelm which has proved the most outstanding helmet design in modern history and is now copied by all major armies but to achieve this perfection, they let their men suffer in 1915 (though they did introduce metal skull caps inside the Pickelhaube to decrease head injuries by some extent).

The British introduced the Tank, though it proved a dud initially it later revolutionised warfare. The Germans never managed to introduce a Tank in any sizeable numbers throughout the war.

The Ottoman or Italian or any minor powers never had the industry and technology to even give proper modern rifles, ammunition and guns to their troops and depended on majors for armaments and money. The Russians and Austrians are somewhere in between, they had the technology and Industry but not in sufficient quantities needed.