Ulver vs. Geoffrey or Germany goes East while France goes to the Desert

[ulver]

Geoffrey, having pointed out he actually managed to face down the Hjaco, graciously offered to play the poor doomed Central Powers.

Anyone who can face the Hjaco and live is a figure of respect for me but even so I felt pretty confident.

It takes a bit of a dimwit to lose with the Entente and this time I promised myself I’d be ultra extra cautious



August 1914 – German East Front setup

[ulver]

When he went all-out East for a knock out Russia ASAP strategy I felt pretty good. I had after all deployed with a defensive cavalry screen and was reasonably optimistic I could redraw in good order.



August 1914 – Austrian East Front setup

[ulver]

My defensive strategy was simple. Have a cavalry screen in front to be pushed back with no losses and make “traps” by occasionally rush a full stack of infantry into a front hex to inflict horrendous casualties when one or two corps attack expecting a cavalry screen.

For the first few impulses it worked just as planned and I padded myself on the back for my strategic genius as both the Austrians and the Germans got a bloody nose running into such stacks suddenly advancing into the cavalry screen.

3rd impulse of August 1914: Central Power losses actually exceed mine. As it happened pride went before the fall as disaster was about to strike.

[ulver]

Basically I got cocky. Wanting to inflict one bloody nose to many on the advancing Germans, I rushed forward into Vilna and – just as intended - the advancing Germans got their ass kicked. Unfortunately the stacks advancing on either side was faster then I could redraw afterwards and easily beat my stack retreating out of Vilna. Result: the flower of the Russian army was trapped to stave to Death.

End of the first turn: Bloody and unmitigated disaster

[ulver]

It was obvious that I need to do something to relive the pressure on the Russians. An attack across the French/German border was a complete fiasco as indeed I had expected it to be. With no siege artillery there was just no way to attack directly into Germany. That left a number of options.

a) A reverse schlieffen plan by attacking Benelux. Here the problem was that the lack of siege artillery would make Liege practically invulnerable and I expected serious political complications with regard to US entry,

b) A massive sea-lift of French forces to assist Serbia and draw forces away to the Balkans.

c) Trying to open up lines of communications by knocking out the Ottomans.

As it happened I had set up two French HQ’s in Toulon. Figuring they would make no difference in a defensive battle for France. In the first turn he made no attempt to contest the Mediterranean – in fact he didn’t sortie his fleet at all except for the Baltic – I moved the French HQ’s to Serbia determined to use the offensives to advance with the Serbians and force him to respond by redirecting reinforcements away from the East front.


Sep/Oct 1914 – French supplies used to attempt to force him to divert forces from the East front

My planned follow up to the HQ’s with French Land forces was, however, foiled by the Austrian navy:

Sep-Oct 1914 Navy action:

Baltic:

German 8th (DD) firing on Br 1st (Sub) : 1 hits

North Sea:
British Achilles (CA) firing on Ger 1st (Tr) : 1 hits
British Minotaur (CA) firing on Ger 1st (Tr) : 1 hits
British Argyll (CA) firing on Ger 1st (Tr) : 1 hits
German 1st (Tr) sunk

What!!!???? Have the German admiralty gone stack raving mad?


Atlantic:

German 1st (UB) firing on Fre 1st (DD) : 1 hits
French 1st (DD) firing on Ger 1st (UB) : 1 hits

East Med:

British Donegal (CA) firing on Aus Maria Theresa (CA) : 1 hits

Austrian Prinz Eugen (DN) firing on Br 8th (Tr) : 4 hits
Austrian Tegetthoff (DN) firing on Br 7th (Tr) : 3 hits

Austrian Prinz Eugen (DN) firing on Br Leviathan (CA) : 4 hits
Austrian Tegetthoff (DN) firing on Br Leviathan (CA) : 4 hits
Austrian Prinz Eugen (DN) firing on Br Argyll (CA) : 3 hits
Austrian Tegetthoff (DN) firing on Br Minotaur (CA) : 3 hits
Austrian Prinz Eugen (DN) firing on Br Donegal (CA) : 3 hits
Austrian Tegetthoff (DN) firing on Br Donegal (CA) : 5 hits
Austrian Prinz Eugen (DN) firing on Br Minotaur (CA) : 4 hits
Austrian Tegetthoff (DN) firing on Br Achilles (CA) : 4 hits
Austrian Prinz Eugen (DN) firing on Br Minotaur (CA) : 4 hits
Austrian Tegetthoff (DN) firing on Br Achilles (CA) : 4 hits
Austrian Prinz Eugen (DN) firing on Fre Jean Bart (DN) : 2 hits
Austrian Tegetthoff (DN) firing on Fre Courbet (DN) : 4 hits
Austrian Habsburg (PD) firing on Fre Courbet (DN) : 1 hits
Austrian Prinz Eugen (DN) firing on Fre Courbet (DN) : 4 hits
Austrian Tegetthoff (DN) firing on Fre Jean Bart (DN) : 6 hits

German 2nd (UB) firing on Br 11th (Tr) : 2 hits

French Courbet (DN) firing on Aus Maria Theresa (CA) : 2 hits
French Jean Bart (DN) firing on Aus Maria Theresa (CA) : 4 hits
French Carnot (PD) firing on Aus Maria Theresa (CA) : 2 hits
French Courbet (DN) firing on Aus Prinz Eugen (DN) : 5 hits
French Jean Bart (DN) firing on Aus Prinz Eugen (DN) : 4 hits
French Carnot (PD) firing on Aus Habsburg (PD) : 1 hits
French Courbet (DN) firing on Aus Tegetthoff (DN) : 4 hits
French Jean Bart (DN) firing on Aus Tegetthoff (DN) : 4 hits
French Carnot (PD) firing on Aus Habsburg (PD) : 0 hits

British Achilles (CA) firing on Aus Habsburg (PD) : 1 hits
British Argyll (CA) firing on Aus Habsburg (PD) : 2 hits
British Argyll (CA) firing on Aus Habsburg (PD) : 1 hits
British Donegal (CA) firing on Aus Habsburg (PD) : 1 hits

[ulver]

With sea communications to the Balkans being cut of for now French forces rolled into position for an attack on Belgium - siege guns or no siege guns. Even without Liege it should be possible to strike North though the Netherlands and force Germany to allocate considerable forces to the West front.

On November 1st Belgium and Luxemburg received a French ultimatum demanding military access.


November 1914: France begins the occupation of Belgium.

Oddly enough at exactly the same time as France was about to strike northwards their fleet cleared the Med – thus opening op the option of pursuing the original Balkan strategy.

Nov/Dec 1914 navel action:

East Med:
Austrian Prinz Eugen (DN) firing on Br Formidable (PD) : 1 hits
Austrian Tegetthoff (DN) firing on Br Indefatiguable (BC) : 1 hits
Austrian Habsburg (PD) firing on Br Goliath (PD) : 2 hits

British Formidable (PD) firing on Aus Habsburg (PD) : 1 hits
British Indefatiguable (BC) firing on Aus Prinz Eugen (DN) : 4 hits

French 4th (DD) firing on Ger 2nd (UB) : 2 hits
French 6th (DD) firing on Ger 2nd (UB) : 2 hits
German 2nd (UB) sunk

I got an Austrian DN!!!!!!!

[ulver]

This presented the French army with a wide array of possible actions:

a) Reinforce Serbia.
b) Attack the Ottomans
c) Strike further northwards into the Netherlands
d) Mass an Army along the French-Italian border in anticipation of an attempted Central Powers knockout against Italy.

The problem was that I simply did not have anywhere enough strength to do them all. While the French high command agonized the British army got busy driving into the Middle East.


November 1914: Haig decides the French can handle things themselves on the West front and commits the entire British army to the liberation of the Holy Land.

[geoffreyg]

Excellent AAR as ever from Ulver.
I think the German Imperial and KuK General Staffs were pleased with the way the Eastern offensive was going but at the cost of being late into Serbia. Hopefully the trade off will prove worthwhile.
In the past as the TE, faced with a Russian first strategy, I have always attacked in the West a le Haig accepting the potentially unfavourable rate of exchange. Ulver’s attempt at outflanking me through Belgium was very interesting although I am hoping that it will upset the US.
By the way I only claimed to have been holding my own with Hjaco!

[ulver]

As expected the Drive on Belgium proved to be child’s play, except for the level 3 fortresses at Liege that just refused to surrender despite repeated French assaults. I could really have used some assault guns to crack this nut.

Throughout my Belgian offensive the German army remained strangely passively – even refusing to reinforce the battered defenders of Liege. Their only attempt to interfere with my offensive was an attempted move into Luxembourg when I declared war. A move I easily brushed aside – apart from that he contented himself with digging in. Air recon reveled full stacks of A class troops facing me across the Belgian German border and I was not about to try pushing into those.

The question was whether to try flanking him further by driving into the Low Countries.


Jan/Feb 1915: Poor Belgium – always in the way.

[ulver]

On the East front he was more or less content letting starvation do his dirty work for him. Except for constant and repeated attacks on Riga incurring heavy losses he simply held his position and let starvation do his killing for him. I was dismayed to find I was receiving reinforcements in isolated Russian cities in Poland. In any case with the new rules there is little point in leaving even nominal garrisons in border fortresses when redrawing.


Jan/Feb: 1915 – For now Riga holds but some of the best Russian corps are going to just melt away.

[ulver]

With the Germans stubbornly refusing to move troops into the Liege Fortress the French finally manage to take it on the 3rd attack by the simple expedience of eliminating every single defender with overwhelming firepower.

Looking at the correlation of forces the French decide against driving into the Netherlands for now. The reasoning of the French government is that the mere threat of being able to do so at any moment is likely to tie down almost as many German troops as actually doing it while a neutral Netherlands allow France to hold a remarkably short front with comparatively few forces and enable her to mass them elsewhere.

If the Germans should attack the Low countries the French are in an excellent position to easily reinforce them since Rotterdam is just adjacent to the French border while it is far away from the Germans enabling the French to need fewer forces to screen against the possibility of a German attack on the Netherlands then the other way around.

Everyone’s diplomacy has been remarkably active with the Central Powers influencing Italy and the United Status successfully every turn. The same is true of the Entente who is also putting maximum pressure on Rumania in an effort to get them in before the CP can line up the classic knock out Rumania in on turn strike. I get away with my aggression against Belgium without any reaction from the neutrals and with Italian entry getting close priority is given to mass French troops along the Italian-French border in an attempt to save her from the inevitable attempt to knock her out in the opening turn

Also with the Central Powers making no attempt to contest the Med France feels confident enough to ship considerable forces overseas but where? Should we reinforce the Serbians in force or should we aid the British drive into Syria/Iraq.

May/June 1915: The unification of the French Speaking people

Meanwhile Mar/Apr 1915 sees the resumption of navel hostilities with a breakout of Germany raiding cruisers into the Atlantic.

Atlantic
German Blucher (BC) firing on Br 1st (Tr) : 2 hits
German 1st (UB) firing on Br 1st (Tr) : 1 hits
German Roon (CA) firing on Br 2nd (Tr) : 1 hits
German Koln (CA) firing on Br 2nd (Tr) : 1 hits
German Blucher (BC) firing on Br 3rd (Tr) : 2 hits
German Graudenz (CA) firing on Br 4th (Tr) : 1 hits
German Blucher (BC) firing on Fre 4th (Tr) : 1 hits
German Blucher (BC) firing on Br 10th (Tr) : 3 hits

Bloody amazing – I have the entire grand fleet at sea

Fortuna is a fickle mistress however and the following turn I nail his battlecruiser

May/Jun 1916 Navel action

British Bellerophon (DN) firing on Ger Blucher (BC) : 3 hits
British St.Vincent (DN) firing on Ger Blucher (BC) : 3 hits
British Colossus (DN) firing on Ger Blucher (BC) : 3 hits
British Orion (DN) firing on Ger Blucher (BC) : 3 hits
British King George (DN) firing on Ger Koln (CA) : 2 hits
French Carnot (PD) firing on Ger Yorck (CA) : 1 hits
French Charlemagne (PD) firing on Ger Roon (CA) : 2 hits

German Roon (CA) firing on Br Colossus (DN) : 1 hits
German Yorck (CA) firing on Br Orion (DN) : 1 hits
German Koln (CA) firing on Br Orion (DN) : 1 hits
German Roon (CA) firing on Br King George (DN) : 1 hits
German Graudenz (CA) firing on Br King George (DN) : 1 hits
German Yorck (CA) firing on Fre Martel (PD) : 1 hits

One of them gets away and sink a poor British convoy - in fact sink it twice[X(]

German Roon (CA) firing on Br 12th (Tr) : 1 hits
German Koln (CA) firing on Br 12th (Tr) : 3 hits

While the German subs continue being useless:

French 6th (DD) firing on Ger 1st (UB) : 1 hits

Meanwhile the Russian fleet gets hammered by the German DN’s

German Nassau (DN) firing on Rus Rurik (CA) : 2 hits
German Nassau (DN) firing on Rus Petropavlovsk (PD) : 5 hits
German Nassau (DN) firing on Rus Rurik (CA) : 1 hits
German Nassau (DN) firing on Rus Petropavlovsk (PD) : 3 hits
German Nassau (DN) firing on Rus Petropavlovsk (PD) : 2 hits

Russian Petropavlovsk (PD) firing on Ger Nassau (DN) : 1 hit

[ulver]

Despite heroic resistance Riga eventually succumb in the spring of 1915.

May 1915: Woe to mother Russia

[ulver]

Apart from massing 10 Corps along the Italian border the French decides to dispatch forces to the Middle East. Partly this is due to fear of getting the expeditionary force crushed in a Balkan pocket if the relief mission fails and partly it is due to the Russians deciding that they have no chance of achieving anything Against the Germans on the East Front who seem content to dig in after sizing Riga.

On the other hand the Russians haven’t used their activation points. Looking for a victory to boost flagging Russian morale the Tzar decide that the Ottomans look awful weak.

The combined Strategic offensive for 1915 is thus set for the Middle East to take advantage of the fact that Serbia still blocks communication with the Ottomans The goal is somewhat less ambitious then trying to knock them out of the war. It is assumed that German forces will have broken though Serbia before then and been able to dig in in front of Ankara

However it should be possible to size all Ottoman Resources, thus dramatically reducing the value of them to the German cause and capture Ottoman cities – something that will boost Russian morale.

As it turns out I likely committed my typical mistake and massively overcommited for the mission as the ottomans refuse to stand and fight. I really didn’t need to ship French field artillery to the Syrian Desert.

May 1915: Russia is in dire straights. The obvious move is to send a massive allied intervention force into the Asian wastelands.

[ulver]

Britain does eventually deploy a few corps to Serbia in an effort to slow down the Central Powers offensive and delay to moment when the Central Powers can reinforce the tottering Ottomans.

It is a case of to little to late; even so the time gained may actually be worth it as it gives both the Russians and British time to advance virtually unopposed in the Middle East.


Jul-Aug 1915: The rape of Serbia. Soon the heroic defenders will perish. Stabbed in the back by Bulgaria. They will be made to pay for this!!!!

[ulver]

Fighting, heat, thirst and sand – but very few Ottomans - the Anglo-French force push though the desert while their Russian allies face horrible supply problems in the mountains.

By early July the great armies are about to link up in Eastern Anatolia in a gigantic pincer movement that will totally cut of the entirety the Ottoman resource base and deprive them of their Arabian empire.

The Russians even dream of capturing some Anatolian food. We shall see how that dream turns out in the face of the German army.


Jul-Aug 1915 strategic phase: The Germans can forget about Iraq oil.

[ulver]

From the moment hostilities broke out on of my primary goals have been to get Italy to enter the war and being able to keep them in in the face of an expected massive all-out Germany push to knock her out on the turn she enters.

To reassure the Italian Government a massive French army was concentrated on the Italian-French border ready to rush to her rescue. I was constantly worried about the risk of a German pre-emptive strike.

On July 1st Italy finally entered the war and was immediately massively attacked by a huge German army unleashing poised gas on Both Venice and Milan but France was ready.

Western front defenses were stripped to such an extend that that large sectors of the front was only held by a cavalry screen while the overwhelming mass of the French army was rapidly re-deployed to stiffen Italian defenses. This was considerably aided by uncontested Entente control of the sea allowing large British forces to be shipped in.


Jul-Aug 1915: The Italian front after two impulses. If not counting the former Belgium as part of France there are far more French corps in Italy then France

With the swift arrival of some 20 British/French corps the Italians were quickly reduced to bystanders in the battle for Italy.

[ulver]

Meanwhile the combined grand Entente offensive was going rather well, trapping considerable Ottoman forces in central Anatolia and linking up the Ottoman and Anglo-French forces cutting the Ottoman Empire in half. Not that this had any appreciable effect on ottoman morale, which remained strong despite losing half her territory.

Jul-Aug 1915: End of the Ottoman Empire and the birth of modern Turkey?

[ulver]

Of course going for the Anatolian food hex turned out to be one bridge to far for the Russians.

Sep-Oct 1915: The Russians got a little too ambitious. With the arrival of German reinforcements the game is up.

[ulver]

Neither side has put much emphasis on air power. As the combined British-French air forces redeploys to the Italian front it is an even fight.

Sep-Oct 1915 air combat: So far neither side have suffered any losses in the air. Planes are used for recon – shooting at other planes would be so unsporting

In September the navy was heats up again after a long period of inaction with another attempted breakout of German raiding cruisers into the Atlantic. This time the Royal navy intercepts and chases the intruders back to port:

Sep-Oct 1915 navel action:

North Sea:
German Roon (CA) firing on Br King George (DN) : 1 hits
German 1st (UB) firing on Br 2nd (Tr) : 1 hits
British Orion (DN) firing on Ger Graudenz (CA) : 2 hits
British King George (DN) firing on Ger Yorck (CA) : 3 hits

Atlantic:
German Roon (CA) firing on Br Orion (DN) : 1 hits
British Orion (DN) firing on Ger Yorck (CA) : 5 hits
British King George (DN) firing on Ger Koln (CA) : 4 hits

East Med:
German 3rd (UB) firing on Fre 3rd (Tr) : 2 hits
German 3rd (UB) firing on Br 6th (DD) : 1 hits
British 6th (DD) firing on Ger 3rd (UB) : 1 hits

[ulver]

November 1915 brings a piece of very bad news for the Entente

November 1915: Fall of the Tsar. Almost two year ahead of schedule. This is not Good.

This is likely bought by starvation in Russia facing ever-greater food shortages.The Austrian managed a drive to size more Ukrainian grain while the best of the Russian army was busy in Anatolia


November 1915: Austrians drive on Odessa