August 1914
The British 1st Army has arrived in Arras. Yay!
However, the Russian High Command's wishes leave me a bit, uhm, surprised. Without having East Prussia secured they make it mandatory for me to plot my units' advance to West Prussia in what looks like a feeble attempt at a blitz on Berlin.
Let me illustrate:
You have known enemy units in red, and my requested movement in blue. This will be messy. Very messy.
Attacks in Alsace-Lorraine are also to resume. BEF, Belgian army and the French 5th Army will attempt to hold the German advance in Belgium. I have a feeling that that will be mightily messy, too.
Checking the colonies, it appears the battle in Togo was won, after all. Somehow I have trouble understanding the cimbat results, it seems. It would be really nice if it would say who won and if someone has to retreat etc.
The Austrians invade the Russian border. For now our valiant troops have to retreat. One reason is that they lack sorely in artillery.
Thionville has been successfully defended against a German counter offensive, while the remaining Belgian infantry corps was destroyed. Rennenkampf was not so lucky in East Prussia. Losing one corps he has to retreat and was annihilated by Hindenburg on the flight. Brusilov was doing better.
Our own attack on Metz was repulsed after a probing attack. The attack on Mulhouse was similarly lacking. The offense on Colmar was faring much better. Nevertheless, the remainder of Dubail's army managed to initiate a siege at Metz, but except increasing the bloodhed nothing was achieved while trying to storm the fortress. Brusilov faced a similar dilemma in Posen. Even though the fortress had only a minimal crew no storming was possible.
Small skirmishes also occured in Montenegro, but they remained rather indecisive.
September 1914
We are drowning under a sleuth of results of our political decision making. Most were successful. Russia failed to appoint a new leader. Also, they lose two national will points due to combat losses (now at 24). Unfortunately, the message log's memory is not very long, because it doesn't seem I can scroll all the way through the messages to see some I know I had pop ups for.
We are also blessed with two new events: Fokker (improving airplane research) and Surprise (giving a surprise bonus in one combat). There's complaints about 2nd French Army being out of the main Frontline. They are in Thionville with an almost open road to the Rhine. I guess that's a bad thing? I'd be more concerned about the gap in the Vosges mountains and Val de Moselle thanks to my mandatory attacks on the German lines in Alsace-Lorraine. There's a similar complaint about the 1st Army, spread out in Birey and Metz (into which I attacked because I had to attck somewhere there).
The situation on the West Front (red = enemy, blue = friendlies):
I should start on filling those gaps a.s.a.p.
The Prussian front looks better. For now it might actually be the road to Berlin is open.
The Austrian "Front". Not really sure what to make of it yet, to be honest.
I just noticed I can switch to 2D NATO icons, so I guess the next screens shouldn't be as messy.
I think I'll be calling it a day for now. Update tomorrow, I guess.