Dazo vs. 1775Cerberus

[1775Cerberus]

Dazo has kindly offered a PBEM game and I have gladly accepted. If you have not yet read his study of executing "the plan" in 1914 you should do so. Well written, explained, and illustrated. I personally agree with him in is conclusions. I added an addendum to his study in that thread. Long story short, I believe we have both read the others posts on the board and found kindred spirits.

I expect this ARR will trail our game by several turns. As Dazo has said, "No need to give away grand plans".

With that said I do have some general views on playing WW1 vs WW2. The game system is at its base the same. However if you forget that "horse power" is almost exclusively the perview of the horse in 1914 you will find yourself over extended quickly. Self discipline, patience, and a certain cold heartedness will serve you best in this game.

This is the last war of the infantryman. By 1916 Artillery and the Machine Gun, (which most armies TO&E placed in the artillery establishment), would be well on the way to dominating the battlefield for the next decade. By the late 1920's it would be combustion horse power on land and air that would return some balance to the battlefield.

For now however France burns for revenge, England stands on treaty, Russia seeks to support its fellow Slavs, (as well as distracting from internal issues), and the Serbs? One can find examples of statements ranging to wanting peace to welcoming yet another war.

I hope you will find the following AAR fun and thought provoking.

[Dazo]

Game started, thanks for the advertisement 1775Cerberus [:D].
We indeed seem to share some ideas about strategy and how to do things in this game so it should make things interesting.

You kindly offered to play Entente and I gladly accepted so I'll play CPs.
I used one of the many variants of Schlieffen plan to spice up things a bit but the main moves remain the same.
(added your addendum with a quote to the first post of the Schlieffen thread in the war room, hope you don't mind ^^)

I'll avoid looking at this thread from now on just in case but it will surely be a great AAR so read it !

[BillRunacre]

Excellent, I look forward to reading how you both get on. [:)]

[1775Cerberus]

And so it begins... The August 1 turn

Dazo opens the first act of putting out the lamps across Europe by executing "the plan" with admirable precision that would make a Junker drill master titter with delight. To get to a blow by blow of how he accomplished that I direct you to his treatise on that matter in the War Room forum here on the SC:WW1 forum if you have not read it already. There was two variations that I observed that I believe were 1: caused by a combat result in my favor; 2: a wrinkle introduced by himself so as to not be completely predictable at the start of the game. I leave it to Dazo to speak on that point.

My part in the act of dousing the lamps is to be rather "Fochian" in my thinking and throwing off the prevalent idea of the time that not one inch of land is to be given up at any cost.

At the start of the game the balance of forces favors the CP player. Not only numerically, but also in the positioning and readiness of those troops to take action. Dealing with the situation as it is, and not how I wish it to be, the French Plan 17 is kicked to the curb.

The troops will entrench along the Franco-German border up to Verdun. Here I move to take the hex to the NNW of Verdun and slowly begin to form a front line entrenching where I can in a generally WWS direction back toward Paris. Here I make the first of several early war hard decisions and do not send the Belgians any help. I do not have the troops in France at this point to throw a Corps in front of a steam roller that is Dazos opening. As I say it is a hard choice; but as I preach the long game is the thing.

The naval war is offering no surprises yet. Just the slow gathering of fleet units to set the stage for future operations. Dazo did poke down toward the channel getting a Pre-Dreadnaught bump into. First blood at sea to Dazo it seems.

[Chernobyl]

I believe you can use the "embed picture in post" checkbox when you create or edit your post

[1775Cerberus]

ORIGINAL: Chernobyl

I believe you can use the "embed picture in post" checkbox when you create or edit your post

Thank you for the point in the right direction Chernobyl. Looks like I need to convert the screen shots to an acceptable file type before I add them.

[Chernobyl]

Looking forward to reading the AAR

[1775Cerberus]

Week ending Aug 22, 1914.
The game is moving as expected so far with one surprise of IGA troops already showing up on the lovely, picturesque, Adriatic coast. Woe poor Montenegro!!! The free peoples of the world will remember you as we remember the brave Belgians who will soon fall under the iron heel of the brutal hun!

The hard choices present themselves once again in turn two of the game. I believe that I can hold Serbia for the next nine to twelve months. To do that I sacrifice Montenegro. The Bulgarians are already showing signs of leaning toward supporting the AH and Germans. Serbia will fall against a talented, determined opponent like Dazo. It is up to me to turn Serbia into the virtual hedgehog who will make the pain of digging them out one that will be remembered.

The second hard choice is in the sacrificing of Belgium. It does me no good to save Belgium and loose France in 1916/17. If Dazo had not executed a solid opening act I would be in a better space to try to save Belgium. Once again, what I want and what it is are two entirely separate things.

Here you can see the penetration made by Dazo onto the fields in front of Paris and through the industrial north of France.

[1775Cerberus]

In the east Dazo has been aggressive with the AH army as the Russian forces have gathered. He has done an excellent job of fighting favorable battles which has hindered the build up a bit allowing the AH some breathing room before the inevitable steamroller.

Part of that Russian build up is giving up exposed positions. Know when to fight and when to wait till a better time. As in the west the balance of forces does not favor the Russians or Serbs. A local counter attack to smack an over extended force is almost always called for. Launching a counter attack into the main body of the enemy at this time isnt.

As I said the Serbians are going to have to hedgehog up soon and I will show a picture of that front soon once the information isnt of a sensitive nature.

[Bavre]

I am very curious how this is gonna develop!

[1775Cerberus]

Turn ending 9/5/1914

Weep free peoples of the world for the brave people of Belgium!!! Poor, brave, defiant to the end Belgium!!! There is no doubt now to the true warlords living among the true Christian peoples of the earth. We must gird ourselves to fight utterly to break the swords of these warlords and return the subjugated peoples to the natural state of freedom! We free nations of Europe look to our kin across the world and wait for them to turn and join us in defeating the beasts that rule over the warlike peoples who have turned their backs on true Christian ways.

As you might have guessed at this point; Belgium has fallen. Dazos excellent execution of the plan made me take the hard choice last turn to abandon Belgium instead of sacrificing troops,(NM & MMP to rebuild),in a fight that I felt would be lost anyway. There was not a right decision here. Against an opponent that had stumbled the choice would most likely be reversed.

I can not think of a better advertisement for an aggressive attack in the west before pivoting to other fronts than the situation in this AAR.

The east continues to see local fights as the AH get a bit bold with IGA help coming their way in Galicia and Serbia. The Russians continue in gathering strength for a local counter attack that will hopefully cause a further shift in IGA troop movements. I hope this will lead to an understanding why no Russian front pictures accompany this post.

Serbia continues to dig in and slowly build into a hedgehog. The enemy and friend there is now time. Can the IGA with the AH helping defeat the Serbs before they become to much to dig out without a significant IGA presence? I believe that next turn I can post a picture showing how efficiently Dazo has executed the Serbia strategy.

It is also becoming a test of Dazos striking out in multiple directions at once using MMP to support many different attacks at once going to fare against a long game strategy of building up the ability to fight a long war. Points spent shifting troops are not available to improve the war fighting capabilities of those troops.

[1775Cerberus]

Gents another turn has passed, but as I pulled a 14 hr day today I hope that you will allow a delay in the turn report.

[OldCrowBalthazor]

A most excellent AAR!
....and may I say, I'm rooting for both sides.

[1775Cerberus]

The reports that are being smuggled out of brave Belgium are almost to atrocious to print in this newspaper. We warn those of the fairer sex and children to stop reading now. The barbaric warlords of Germany have allowed all discipline to be loosed so that the common soldier is no better than any member of the murderous hordes of the Kahn. Reports of children used for bayonet practice, men shot for trying to protect their women, and what we will not print is happening to the women of Belgium.

This is not a war between nations, but one for the survival of a Christian mankind!

Dazo finishes off Belgium and continues to grind slowly forward on the Channel coast. In Serbia the IGA has already sent an expeditionary army and joined the fighting there. As a strategy I champion I knew it was coming. The real tip of the hat is to Dazo who is using the AH cavalry to raid disrupting communications. By stalling the Russian attack on Galacia from starting he has bought additional time in Serbia. Right now the Entente are stubbornly holding on. Darker days are coming but there is light visible at the end of the tunnel. I just hope it isn't a Dazo steamroller...

The real question for me at this point is how deeply has Dazo invested in R&D? The answer I believe will be tellable in 1916.

[Chernobyl]

Ooooh an update

One request: include the date in your description.

Tip: check the charts to see how much they have invested in research/diplomacy every turn. You can even guess which research they bought based off the prices

[Dazo]

Cerberus is currently unavailable to play so I thought I'd let you know ^^ .
Not sure when he'll be able to resume the game.

[Espejo]

Impressive, the Germans needed you Dazo in WW1

[Dazo]

ORIGINAL: Espejo

Impressive, the Germans needed you Dazo in WW1

Or ThisEndUp as admiral haha but a peacefull Kaiser would have been better for everyone...

Sadly we had to end the game so this AAR was short lived sorry for that -_-' .

[shri]

ThisEndUp is surely master of the waves and surprises. [&o]