just a little summary about our amazing match.
@Mrdozer: Well played, often i thought i am lost and i will suffer a defeat. I was closer to defeat than you think.
I attached the final screen to show you my final stats...France surrendered and UK had 9 collapse points, Serbia Zero manpower...
- Pyrrhic Victory.jpg (374.51 KiB) Viewed 2441 times
But lets start from the beginning:
Mrdozer (CP) goes Schlieffen, supported by Autrian Howitzers. Ultimatum to Serbia fails.
Unwichtig (Entente) is rapidly under severe pressure and totally surprised about the extremely offensive stance of the CP.
Germany and Austria acting as "dozers" in both France Serbia. Defensive, delaying posture is the only answer the Entente can provide, hoping for an early Russian war entry easing the pressure from the French.
Patriotic movement in first German turn, Brussels fallen immediately. But above the average amount of Austrian troops at the Serbian frontline allow the Entente to make an educated assessment...Galicia must be almost open for invadors!
Serbians fall back and allow Austrians to march deep into the Balkans, making it more difficult re-deploying them rapidly once the "Russian rush deployment" is completed.
And Russia strikes fast, and precise. All four cavalry units commit a feint attack on Krakow as they surround the city - but ultimately outflanking it deep into Austrian territory. Budapest falls way too early into their hands. Shocked by the early loss, Austria redeploys its armies to stop the invasion - for now, Serbia is secured.
A promissing start for the Entente in the east...but less so in the west.
France...what happens to France? Stunned by the rapid invasion, once again the French fall back quickly behind the Seine-Paris Frontline using the river as a natural barrier. The Schlieffen fails, however, France is tumbling from the start. As King George did not inspect his fleet on time, the Royal Navy is stuck in port for multiple turns making it impossible to stop the Germans winning the race to the sea.
Paris is secured, but too many industrial areas have been lost to the CP.
From now on, the French are a sitting duck with lack of industry, a shattered morale and a government that fled from Paris.
No doubt - with not Brits on French soil, this is a decisive blow for the Entente.
But the Brits dont arrive...they planned a pre-emptive attack on the Ottoman Empire declaring war on them before they were even thinking about joining the CP.
As a consequence, the majority of British forces is lined up at Suez. Even an early landing at Gallipoli is prepared with troop transporters ready to land on the turkish beaches. Medina is taken from a 3rd frontline that opened up from the Red Sea. An Additional Landing at Kuwait is initally stopped, but as more and more Brits arrive via the Persian Gulf, Basra and the adjacent territories are finally captued as well. It is obvious - UK is doing its very best to kick the Ottomans out of the war before they are even in. A fifth frontline is opened by the russians while taking Trabzon in a rush-assault via the Black sea.
Amazing moment: CP did all they could to re-deploy the German Cruisers into the Black sea. After multiple seabattles and the loss of half of the Austrian, French and British naval forces the Goeben is finally stopped in the Ägäis - only a few nautical miles away from the Dardanelles. A French cruiser finally sacrifices himself to block the final attempt to prevent the escape. The German Cruisers are now under Austrian command. Bad news for the Ottomans.
The Russian amphibious assault into Ottoman territory is secured.
The Budapest blow cripples Austrian morale. More and more cities fall into Russian hands and the Austrians do not seem to get a "grib" on the situation.
Germany does not seem to help...it is pushing harder and harder into France using all its artillery and recce aircraft to seek a major breakthough in the French trenches.
France fights a lonely battle. Is is obvious - France will fall in late 1915.
Entente has only one objective - ´Ottoman and Austria first´ - they must fall as soon as possible to re-balance the predicted loss of France.
Combined Russian and Serbian offensives demoralize the Austrians...and the Entente have learned from previous wars.
Enough medical supplies are provided just on time to minimise the losses of the Typhoid crises...and the Russians have invested heavily into ammunition, stockpiling huge ammounts of ammo reserves to continue the offensive during a potential Supply Crises.
And it works. Austria surrenders in late 1915 - a miracle, that came at a high price. France falls just two months later.
The Germans arrive too late to help their Austrian allies.
Germany cannot win this war alone. It needs a new partner. Bulgaria is successfully influenced and mobilizes early.
But the Entente are ready...After defeating the Austrians, Russian and Serbian troops have been preparing for this for months.
Waiting at the Bulgarian Border, not less than 2 russian and 2 serbian army corps are ready to strike Sofia first.
Artillery support is provided by Serbia as well as multiple small garrisons to cover the gaps in the overstretched frontline.
After getting the intelligence information that Bulgaria is preparing for war, Serbia declares war immediately, pre-emptively.
Overconfident troops take Sofia before Bulgaria has even joined.
A Russian amphibious assault on Varna fails - the russian Pre-Dreadn. is sunk and cannot provide mandatory supplies.
The trapped army is stuck with no supplies left. But the Ottomans position armoured trains and other units in key positons to stabalize Bulgaria.
For now - the frontline is stuck at Sofia.
An then...offensive Russian Naval Forces sink a Swedish Convoy...accidently, of course.
Sweden joins the CP opening up a new frontline in the North. Soon Swedish troops arrive in Königsberg.
Meanwhile the German Navy has constructed a formidable U-Boot fleet. Entente Naval units spot at least 8 or more submarines in the North Sea trying to break the british dominance. After one year of constant Naval Battles the RN finally suffers a major defeat.
The Blockade is broken - Two Dreadnoughts and a Battlecruiser are sunk in an attempt to sink the German Battlefleet.
But a surprise counter-attack of multiple, very well positioned submarines push the RN vessels ´under the sea´.
After Britan gave up France too quickly, this next blow starts crippling UK morale.
And Germany continues its demoralising campaign. The German public is screaming out..."Gott Strafe England!"...Twice...
Multiple Zeppelins start bombing the industrial cities in the UK, German Subs keep sinking british convoys. Every month british morale is lowered and lowered.
Germany sends its best pilots and submarine commanders into this decisive battle.
Famous German Air Aces are now more and more often unwelcome guests in british airspace.
Meanwhile the Ottomans are running out of supplies. The Railroad to Germany is blocked - tha fortress of Nis was never captured.
Zero supplies reach the Ottoman Empire. The first deserters are running away...
The Russian invasion into Germany stopped only at the Oder-Neiße River - That was as far as the russians could get into Germany by early 1916.
Just before the supply crises hit the Russians, Germany managed to re-organize their entire army to protect Berlin. Highly developed German troops now supported by multiple railroad guns and additional artillery started an impressive counteroffensive that cracked the frontline within two turns. Swedish troops landed in Prussia, German Bombers could not be stopped by a non-existing russian airforce.
Advanced Field-Hospitals were invented by Germany to recover from the heavy losses that could no longer be shared with austria as they surrendered too early.
To prevent the Bulgarians and Ottomans to take Serbia, more and more Russian Forces had to be moved to the balkans which opened gaps for the germans.
At this time, mid 1916, serbia hat ZERO manpower left and could not privide any assistance anymore.
A desperate British led invasion into occupied France ended with a disaster. Ultimately a few british army corps in France were supposed to prevent the Germans moving all their forces to the east. This distraction move near Calais, supported by the last few remaining Royal Navy units, was sadly not able to establish a bridgehead in France. The last RN ships were sunk, the armies died without being able to capture a city. This catastropy, an uprising in India and South Africa and finally the Irish Revolution forced UK to give almost up. Being surrounded by German Submarines with no partner and no Navy left in the West, defeat was in sight, hope was little.
Meanwhile the Ottomans had started a final attempt to attack the caucasian region taking Tiflis and Grozny.
In the end, it was the Brits that kicked of the domino effect...Ottoman surrendered in late 1916.
Ottoman armies could not defend their motherland quickly enough...they were stuck in the mountains instead.
Two months later the last Bulgarian city was captured. The Germans were on the offensive and almost about to re-take Warsaw and Krakau. But it was too late. The German Army was exhausted and after losing two additional allies within a few months, they gave up.
Fantastic game. CP bad performance with Austria was re-balanced by Entente´s bad performance with France.
That kept it balanced.
Good Game Mrdozer, keep going
