Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

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ulver
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Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by ulver »

Whenever I set up a game as the Entente I always feel I can’t possible lose and I’m always right. Except when playing the Hjaco evil mastermind monster who somehow always manages to find the fatal flaw in my setup that causes the complete and irrevocable collapse of the Entente by 1916. How he manages to knock out France in 1915 or Russia and Italy by 1916 is a source of continual mystery to me but somehow he always does.

Anyway, looking at the map and correlation of forces favouring the Entente pretty massively I foolishly felt confident enough to swear on my favourite stuffed teddy bear that I would stay in the game to the bitter end, not concede until he has knocked every Entente power out of the war. No doubt it will be interesting to se him march into London somehow – and yes, don’t be surprised if he manage to make me paranoid enough to keep reserves to counter such a possibility. We are talking about the unbeaten evil mastermind here.

My one hope is that he has run out of brilliant plans by now. Stay tuned and find out if Ulver can stop Hjaco’s road to Weltmacht this time.

Based on past performances currently bookmakers given about even odds that the Kaiser will be in Washington by 1917. Non the less I’m playing the Entente - it would take in idiot to lose.
hjaco
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RE: Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by hjaco »

It had been a long and warm summer. Moltke was swearing while frantically looking through the traditional German war strategy and every time came to the same result. There simply wasn't enough troops and assets to go around. The enemy held all advantages and time was working against Germany. If war had to come then better now than later.

The international situation had deteriorated during the last month and dark clouds was on the horizon. And these Entente warmonger was rattling their sables while faking weakness and incompetence. Moltke knew better. This was a sham. The opponent was infamous for creative warfare and his industrial potential was awesome.

And now the Kaiser with short notice had summoned Moltke for a strategy consultation tomorrow morning where Moltke had been specifically instructed to give his assessment.

The sudden pain made Moltke bent over the table smashing a glass on the floor. His wife was there instantly. "Is it that ulcer again liebchen?" You really must remember your warm glass of milk my dear.

Gradually the pain subdued and Moltke threw away his chart in disgust. This was to no avail - it was his duty to tell the Kaiser this. But der Kaiser was not known for his tolerance of ability to forgive failure.
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hjaco
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RE: Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by hjaco »

Moltke was in good time. The Kaiser hated to wait. A waiter stated "you have one hour Herr General. The Kaiser is going for a hunt. Please follow me". Moltke was led through a big double door into a large room with an impressive large desktop in the far end of the room. Kaiser Wilhelm turned away from the window "Ah there you are my dear Moltke. It seems the French bastards are scheming against us again. They need a good thrashing again. How is the situation. Will our Schlieffen plan succeed?".

"Ahhm, well, maybe that is...".

"You do not seem to be confident? Tell me the truth now Moltke. Hurry up man"

"The plan is a masterful theoretical strategy but only that. We never really had the necessary troops."

"Hmm. Just as i thought. Have you developed a new strategy then?"

"Not yet but i was just going to..."

"No problem" The Kaiser interrupted. "As it happens laying cunning strategies is one of my hobbies. I always try to have a plan ready in my desk drawer. Now let me see. That is strange. I was sure it was here somewhere. I personally drafted it half a year ago. Ah yes here it is"

A dusty document labeled "Top secret. Kaiser clearance only" was handed over to Moltke. "Read it through while I take care of other important matters to the state" the Kaiser told Moltke beginning to polish his hunting rifle. Putting his monocle in place Moltke began to read through the greasy pagers. His monocle quickly fell to the floor. "But, but my Kaiser this plan calls for other conditions than is actually existing. According to the newest war rule 1.23 some of this is obsolete". "Baaah" Wilhelm replied "The plan is daring but should be achievable. We are Germans and must fullfill our destiny. See to it". Kaiser Wilhelm wawed Moltke away "and now I really must turn my attention to the hunt. Did you know.......". Moltke was no longer paying attention on his way out.

Later that evening Moltke once more took forward the plans and looked them over. Maybe this was it. Maybe this would achieve strategic surprise. Only time could tell. Moltke slept well that night.
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ulver
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RE: Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by ulver »

While Europe is at peace enjoying an unusual warm and pleasant summer the evil overlord strikes an unsuspecting world throwing, in his own words, a wide array of kitchen sinks at me.

The dreaded master once again attains total and complete strategic surprise, launching a simultaneous surprise attack on Luxemburg, Belgium and – wait for it – The Netherlands.

Why do I feel like it’s 1940 and I’m staring down Gurderian about to break though the Ardennes?

To makes matters worse the German high fleet sorties into the North Sea completely surprising the lone British Transport there planning to move the BEF to France.

The scary part is the with Central Powers in control of the North sea I’m actually paranoid enough to keep the BEF back to protect against a German invasion. It really does feels like 1940
hjaco
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RE: Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by hjaco »

It was a tuesday night in Wilhelmshaven. It had been a rainy evening so the streets were empty when the blackened out ships left port. Perfect thought Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl while thinking back on his orders and the recent change in German naval doctrine.

Ahh there was the brand new König Dreadnought passing by which was surpassing its opponents in the Royal Navy with brand new technology. What a marvel German engineering was.

The cruisers had left long ago to secure the sortie. Everything seemed quite and the Brits was apparently unaware or at least unprepared for a strong German presence in the North Sea.

There finally came the transports loaden with battle hardened Guards troops. Possibly they were all hopeless seasick by now von Ingenohl snorted in quiet disgust. Hopefully they were not going to engage Royal Navy until after the transports were delivered safely to their destination.

This was most daring but the benefit could prove to be the decisive action. In any case it should scare the hell out of the western allies keeping them in dark about the German strategy.

The fleet continued at marching speed with course heading due west....
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ulver
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RE: Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by ulver »

It may take an idiot to lose with the Entente but then I seem to be doing my very best, suffering a series of disastrous defeats in the opening months of the war. The French army is caught out of position and is just slaughtered suffering something close to 2-1 losses of men as well as the crippling loss of her key industrial districts.

This is a combination of badly losing the paper-sissies-rock gamble of initial deployments, some bad decisions, and a few instances of really terrible luck where Central Power attacks succeed in the face of superior Entente firepower.

While the French army is being slaughtered the Russian offensive to relive pressure in the East manage to inflict exactly 0 causalities on the enemy although it does gain considerable ground in the South-East of Austria bypassing the border fortifications in a strike directed at the Austrian grain producing heartland.

Even so – inflicting 0 losses on the Austrians with a major offensive. Lucky for the Russian imperial general staff I’m not Stalin. He’d have them all shot on the spot!


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Situation at the end of the July/August turn. Note that every single Entente loss is French. Another turn like this and France is pretty much finished
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hjaco
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RE: Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by hjaco »

Your defaitisme is legendary but I must object. My Austrians have shot on the Serbs and some Dutch/Belgian Corps is in the bag as well.

Still my own´count is 199 dead French to 157 German and my artillery is almost still unspend [:D]

With a brilliant timed counterattack France closed a dangerous breakthrough south of Verdun but unfortunately for them got a bit carried away in their success and berserked in a frency attack against a fully stack of Germans with predictable results.

So instead of bolstering the frontier front for an additional summer turn fatigue may come to cost you dearly.

Or so I hope [;)]
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ulver
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RE: Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by ulver »

Wow – I Looks like I managed a new low: Getting myself killed in just 2 turns. I got hit be a 1-2-3 punch, disastrously losing the setup gamble, being unable to rail at all in France on turn two for some reason, and finally having the best elements of the French Army isolated. I’m ashamed to admit this but I was actually unaware that I could not activate isolated HQ’s confidently expecting to be able to just fight myself back in supply: No such luck.

Anyway I promised that I would once again detail my utter humiliation and with operational security being rather theoretical at this point I thought I’d document in detail just how badly I screwed up.

Given his attack my initial setup was just about the worst possible.

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Initial setup 1914: Germany Goes all-out in the West.
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ulver
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RE: Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by ulver »

So deploying considerable French Forces at the Italian border in anticipation of an Central Powers strike - probably not the best idea

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ulver
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RE: Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by ulver »

And the ultra defensive placement of the Russians: Not the brightest move either.

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ulver
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RE: Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by ulver »

The one bright spot? The second half of the Russian army ready to strike south into Austria.

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hjaco
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RE: Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by hjaco »

So this is where those annoying buggers was! I always go to a great pain in the opening stages identifying the opponents forces to get a pretty precise picture and the absence of those corps had me puzzled.

So when on top of this you made that brilliant counterattack in the center I was seeing phantom armies everywhere [:D]
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ulver
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RE: Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by ulver »

Despite the terrible set-up things didn’t look catastrophically bad at the end of the first turn. I actually manage to win some frontier battles and the BEF was successfully landed at Brest.

The entire time I was absolutely paranoid about where the German invasion force was planning a sea landing. Oddly enough he never actually landed it anywhere.

At the end of the first turn things didn’t actually looked that bad. Except for one corps the BEF was ashore around Brest and the reserves had been walking up from the Italian border.

I figured I would be able to rail sufficient reserves to see off the crises until the Russians could take some pressure off.


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hjaco
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RE: Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by hjaco »

Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl had been nervous and ill tempered all morning. The Hochsee Flotte was holding position well off the coast of Cherbourg waiting for the Amphibious assault fores to arrive. They had been due for a long time and there were unconfirmed rumors from British propaganda of German transports in the Atlantic but this was ridiculous off course [&:]

The High Command had been clear enough. This was supposed to be an all important part of a super Schlieffen flanking maneuver invading Cherbourg thereby outflanking Paris in conjunction with bypassing the heavy fortresses at Liege through Holland. At the very least it was supposed to scare the hell out of the British and force them to keep some covering forces in England.

"Telegram from Berlin Herr Admiral" a sailor said delivering a despatch.

von Ingenohl snapped the Telegram and quickly went it through. "WHAT! he screamed. This is outrageous. Incompetent idiots" [:@]
Known for a bad temper everyone stayed clear of the Furious Admiral.

For a long time von Ingenohl looked at the ocean finally sighing "set course for Wilhelmshaven - full flank speed. Let's get the hell out of here".

"But. What is wrong Herr Admiral. Why are we heading back?" the First Lieutnant asked.

"It would seem that our colleagues in the Merchant fleet accidentally ended up in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Could happen to anyone they claim - HA! Can't even read a compass and a chart".
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ulver
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RE: Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by ulver »

Now I feel all guilty, cutting the rum ration after my navy reported swore they had inflicted hits on German troop transports in the Atlantic
ulver
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RE: Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by ulver »

Begging everyone’s forgiveness: I have now successfully drowned my sorrows with some really excellent XO cognac. Regrettably in overcoming my despondency at being beaten in 3 turns I fear I’ve forgotten all the interesting details of the battle. Short story: He conquered France – making developments elsewhere rather irrelevant.

He actually declined playing one from there pointing out that it would just be to easy.

Excuse me while I go beat up on some newbies more my size. Anyone have a not to bright 12 year old sister I can play?
hjaco
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RE: Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by hjaco »

You must have drunk too much Cognac - your memory is faltering [;)]

It was you who declined to play on unless i did not attack Italy and America would enter the war. In summer 15' [:-]
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ulver
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RE: Weltmacht oder Niedergang – Hjaco strikes again

Post by ulver »

I just re-read the last turns email correspondence. I explicitly asked if you wanted to play on to the conquest of Italy and you replied that would be a waste of time since you were all ready to take them out.

Obviously true and I completely agreed but still…. You must be the one raiding the drinks cabinet a bit much.

I did say I considered defeat certain but would be quite happy to play on.

Specifically I said:
Idet du tager Italien en turn efter og jeg ikke har en chance for at åbnekommunikation til Rusland så mener jeg helt klart det ja.Spiller naturligvis gerne igennem idet idet jeg har lovet min tøj elefantdet men et 1915 fald af Frankrig kræver at Ottoman er død og eller/Italiener inden og gravet ned før der er noget at spille om.Du have givetvis vundet stort under alle omstændigheder med det set-up jegvar dum nok til at lave men manglen på rail og omringningen er nu en surmåde at tabe på


I only asked if you considered it interesting not to take out Italy for testing purposes but that could not reasonably be interpreted as some sort of demand. especially since I explicated said I was happy to finish

Jeg antager du er klar til at slå Italien ud denne turn?

Ville det være interessant ud fra et test og AAR synspunkt bevist at lade være? Eventuelt kombineret med at lade USA komme ind? Grunden til jeg spørger er at US entry er ret tæt på som du kan se på screenshot


When testing US progression they would have Entered Jan/Feb 1916 in case you are interested assumning neither had used additionally diplomacy and no further actions to anger the US had been taken.

Mind you that wouldn’t have made an Iota of difference.
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