One year of War
Sooo. Where has one year of fighting gotten us? Deaths in the hundreds of thousands?
Well, I think I’ve come out fairly well so far, though that is a statement with many Caveats.
Russia
The Russians have held up decently so far, they have been giving up quite a bit of ground, but do have a buffer NM income for the time being. Their army is still in existence, which is always good. The plan to keep them intact while retreating to give the West time to get into the swing of things has worked out decently.
Unfortunately KZ will have a golden opportunity for the next 5-6 turns to attack all out, and I might well suffer catastrophic losses if that happens. If it doesn’t and I can upgrade my own infantry as well as get some hits in other areas I might hang on for a while.
So what’s the plan here, I can’t keep retreating forever. In fact, we’re getting close to the river lines and a new batch of NM objectives that I don’t much want to lose.
I have managed to develop the Russians economy so that it isnt complete crap, in fact, it’s about equal to the Germans. That leaves much else to be desired though. I’m going to need to invest more into artillery and shells, and should probably put that second chit into Command and Control. After that it’s all building units and trying to die as slowly as possible.
I’ll do my best to pull the Germans away through Greece and France, and if I manage that really well I might even be able to fight back with the Russians.
That’s something I need to learn actually, how to manage to start fighting back with the Russians in situations like these. I think artillery is probably essential… hm. Note to self, dont down prioritoze arty even in these situations like I have done with the Russians here. It’s a critical tool for both offense and defense.
Ottoman Empire
The Ottomans have gotten completely dumpstered, which always happens if the Entente can spare the troops I have for them and they don’t have an open channel for almost immediate help. At this point I can collapse them at will, or keep them alive to act as a lifeline for the Russians morale.
They are losing 233 NM per turn off conquests, less 100 if both the boosting events are active. I’ll check if they are turn after next. That’s still about 0.6% per turn. I can also take Baghdad for 2000 points, or accept the revolt for the same.
With about 4600 morale remaining the question becomes when and how to collapse them.
Conquering them outright is probably a bad idea if Bulgaria has entered the war, Constantinople is hard to defend and we don’t want the Central Powers to liberate the Ottomans.
I think I’ll accept the Arab revolt despite the cost, to make absolutely sure that I can collapse the Ottomans when I want to. It’s going to be a balancing act between using them for a buffer for the Russians and getting rid of their diplomacy.
Greece
This will be the new theatre for the year. I’m getting ready to pull back troops from Serbia in the face of it’s probably surrender. I want to send Hamilton and his units here, making sure the central powers cant secure this front and send those forces elsewhere.
The west
Once the Bulgarian issue is resolved one way or another I’ll re-distribute my diplomatic chits. I think I’ll go with a dispersed strategy, committing 25% each to Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands, targeting German economic interests. Maybe I should switch one of those for Belgium and attempt to get them into the war on my side. That’s a long process though, I’m unsure if it’s worth it or if I should just attack them despite the hefty national morale penalty.
No matter what I need to keep hammering Germany from this direction as hard as possible.
The naval war
This is an area of concern. The exclusion of Italy strengthens the CP naval position considerably.
As of the moment, Germany has 29 naval units to UKs 32. Especially as a lot of the French navy is defending the mediterranean, and not doing very well at it.
Basically, a massed and upgraded attack could do a lot of damage. I’m researching anti Submarine warfare pre-emptively, it’s not expensive to do and can save a lot of trouble later.
I need to scout the German navy and see what it’s doing, before I invest in naval weaponry and naval warfare. I’ll do that as soon as I can.
Research and Economy
Well then. At this point the Entente have collected an equal amount of income in total compared to the Central Powers. Most of this catchup is due to Russia, who have doubled their income since the end of 1914.
This is clearly reflected in their almost maxed out research budget, and I’m continually prioritizing Trenches and Industry. This last chit I should probably have gone with Artillery rather than more industry, but done is done. I’ll go with another Arty chit and a gas/shell chit next.
I prioritized spying and intelligence immediately as the campaign started with the British and have made continual smaller investments in other techs since.
The French got lucky and scored an infantry weapons advance early, I’m hoping the Brits and Russians follow soon. Both France and Russia, being the two nations who will be most exposed to direct combat, have invested in production tech to help take the sting our of those losses.
The Central powers have suffered about 1500mpp more losses than the entente, but have spent about 2000 more on units so they have recuperated those losses better.
The Germans still hold a sizeable lead, by 600, in technology investments on top of their starting advantage. I’m not sure where those have gone, but I need to keep investing in tech to keep up. During 1915 I should start making forays into tanks and aircraft.
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.a ... age=1&key=
Should have moved corps up and entrenched instead of attacking. Stupid.
