Lieb Vaterland (3 player pbem AAR)

[seathom]

[B]EARLY APR, 1916[/B]

Diplomatic Situation: The dangers of cut and paste - I forgot to change these numbers!: USA 52%CP; Italy 8%CP; Greece 49%CP; Bulgaria 9%CP; Holland 50%CP; Persia 97%CP; Arabia 0%CP. The current Russian alignment is 67%.

WESTERN FRONT

[color="#0000FF"]Belgium & N. France:[/color] The landscape looks much different in April than it did in March. The traiterous Konig Albert I remains in Genth with a decent-sized force. The region of Alost is void of troops. Charleroi has the cagey Smith-Dorrien leading an over-commanded armee there. Douai has an armee there but the real megastack is rebuilding at Saint Quentin's depot. The First Battle of Bruxelles was victorious and will be celebrated with a holiday worthy of the 4NM received. The Second Battle of Bruxelles was fought 5 days later and saw von Bayern face off against a new protagonist - Marie Georges Picard. Piquart's 81k men were no match for von Bayern's 550k men and Picquart realized that and retreated but lost 41k men to our 4.5k. This victory earned 1NM and 2200 more prisoners. Three days later saw the third and final battle for Bruxelles as the WE tried another commander but with the same results! Von Bayern's 671k men faced off against a retreating Smith-Dorrien's 100k men. Foch was present but his forces were overwhelmed and he barely escaped. We lost a hefty 14k men and the WE lost 61k men. We gained another 2NM for a total of 7NM in saving Bruxelles! The total losses were 105.5k dead Germans and 274k dead WE and we took nearly 16k prisoners.

Bruxelles was not the only success for von Bayern as he and von Bulow railed from Antwerp to Dinant to find a way for two isolated armees to get back home. Von Bayern's 683k men faced off against Joffre's 451k men. Much of our attack occurred crossing a river, but we were successful in getting Joffre's Armee out of Dinant and we lost 29.5k men to Joffre's 44k. We took an additional 2500 prisoners and 1 more NM.

Von Gallwitz' Armee still cannot march straight through to Dinant but von Preussen's poorly-supplied Armee can make it there in 15 days.

Our two fleets in Antwerp are targeting Gauchet's blockading fleet.

Inactive generals will prevent other armees to move. We will not make the same mistake as last time when we hastily moved to recover Belgian lands vacated by a losing WE armee. We need to maintain a good defensive position at least until the two retreating armees are recovered.

[ATTACH]38545[/ATTACH]

[color="#0000FF"]Southern France:[/color] Gdk. Kprz. Rupprecht von Bayern's assault on Saint Mihiel once again was not considered a success. Von Bayern faced off against Sir James Willcocks with even numbers and even losses (lost 27k to their 33k), the defenders managed to hold the city, but are very weak. We will attempt to siege the city.

Von Demling will hold Belfort as the OHL goes on conservative attack at Epinal.

[ATTACH]38546[/ATTACH]

[B][B]EASTERN FRONT[/B][/B]

[color="#008000"]Baltic States:[/color] The mud is gone but inactive leaders persist. WE are railing the korps out of Wehlau to attack the unit in Rutzau. We will be hoping to meet up with the advancing units coming from Poland in the near future.

Dang it. Same problem as last time ... not loading screenshots ... will continue.

[seathom]

EARLY APR, 1916 (CONT.)

[ATTACH]38547[/ATTACH]

I didn't realize at first, but Serbian leader Bojovic is in Olita with three Serbian korps being led by three Russian commanders!

[color="#FFFF00"]Poland:[/color] Von Hindenburg had a successful battle against Plehve at the Depot in Crasnik and will rest there. We lost 6k men to 25k for the Russians. An AH korps is moving out of Lublin to Lubertow while von Krasnik's Armee recuperates a bit more. A korps from Ivangorod rails to Lublin. Von Hotzendorf is railing from Krakau to Craznik.

[ATTACH]38548[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Central Russia:[/color] Von Frank's Armee was victorious in Kremenetz but will hold to regain cohesion before besieging Dubno. A korps is railing to Vinnitza for defense.

[ATTACH]38550[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Southern Russia:[/color] The three Romanian units will move onto Odessa to siege the fort. The ominous-looking Alexseev to the west, which recon tells us has only one korps under his command, will probably march back to Odessa.

[ATTACH]38551[/ATTACH]

[color="#8B4513"]Serbia:[/color] Von Brudermann's Armee, after a victory in Pristina that gained 1NM after destroying Stepanovich's Korps, will chase his remaining force to Novi Pasar as we continue to establish MC over the rail to Skopje.

[ATTACH]38552[/ATTACH]

[color="#00FF00"]Ottoman Empire:[/color] The Armee's from the Dardenelles finally reached rails and will rail back to Constantinople in one day and rest before their attack on Moudros. Our korps in Basrah will march to Kuwait to take on the Arab Kavallerie unit there. We won't reach Kuwait until day 15.

The Overall Situation: The fortunate turn of events in Bruxelles was a huge shot in the arm to CP morale. We shot up to 117NM and I am glad Franz Joseph saw the day as this pretty much neutralized his upcoming death (except for the -20 alignment hit AH will take). The WE NM is now 70 and the EE is 74. The Triple Entente's deaths is now 850k more than ours. The next turn we should be receiving the first of 5 tanks ordered for the next 4 turns as well as a new fighter unit. Our air war continues with great success. All sorties happened in Belgium and we shot down 186 planes while losing NONE! You'd think the air war would contribute to NM as ace pilots motivated the masses, but it doesn't.

[ATTACH]38553[/ATTACH]

[seathom]

LATE APR, 1916

Diplomatic Situation: The dangers of cut and paste - I forgot to change these numbers!: USA 51%CP; Italy 5%CP; Greece 50%CP; Bulgaria 8%CP; Holland 51%CP; Persia 99%CP. The current Russian alignment is 65%.

WESTERN FRONT

[color="#0000FF"]Belgium & N. France:[/color] The only battle occurred at the Rhine Gate and Admiral von Ingenhol's 176 ships defeated Gauchet's 158 ships. We lost 1 and they lost 3 and we destroyed the East Indies Cruiser Squadron. Alderson's Korps finally took Mauberge and there doesn't appear to be any megastacks around, just normal sized armees and korps. Von Preussen made it back to Dinant and will rail to Antwerp for replacements. Von Gallwitz will need to go through Sedan and stay there the next turn before making it back to Dinant so the two armees in Dinant will stay to help out in Sedan if combat arises. Von Kirchbach's Korps will move to Neufchateau to face the unit that has been camped there for quite some time.

[ATTACH]38556[/ATTACH]

[color="#0000FF"]Southern France:[/color] The OHL was successful in battle against the enemy at Epinal, losing only 2.5k men to nearly 15k for French korps guarding the outskirts of the fort. Currently, only Dubail's Armee of 240 PWR composed of the original fort garrison units is in the fort so we'll assault it.

[ATTACH]38557[/ATTACH]

EASTERN FRONT

[color="#008000"]Baltic States:[/color] Von Beseler's and von Richtofen's Korps will attack Rossieny.

[ATTACH]38561[/ATTACH]

[color="#FFFF00"]Poland:[/color] Von Hindenburg, von Hotzendorf, von Frank and Potiorek's Armees will march to Lubieszow to take on the 1042 stack of three korps. The korps in Tarnopol will march to Chepetovka.

[ATTACH]38563[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Central Russia:[/color] Lauterbach's Korps orders have been changed to meet the Rjussian force in Piriatin and von Bohm-Ermolli's Armee will rail to neaby Nossovka. A militia unit moves to the east of Rowno to connect the rail line to that important city.

Sorry, don't know why screenshots have become such a problem .....

[seathom]

LATE APR, 1916 (cont)

[ATTACH]38564[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Southern Russia:[/color] The two active Romanian stacks will conservatively assault Odessa.

[ATTACH]38565[/ATTACH]

[color="#8B4513"]Serbia:[/color] The two korps will assault Skopje and the 88 PWR Uzice Armee in the city.

[ATTACH]38566[/ATTACH]

[color="#00FF00"]Ottoman Empire:[/color] The Ottoman Navy is transporting the first armee to Moudros. The island appears to have three korps there so the landing will be tough. It will take 10 days to get there so the landing may not occur the next turn. The Arabian Kavallerie unit that was in Kuwait ran back to Arabia so we are sending our kavallerie unit there to retake the city. Our armee moves closer to Port Said.

The Overall Situation: The WE PWR did shoot back up to 86 so they obviously had a lot of replacement chits. Hopefully if we take Epinal and if battle occurs in Sedan we may be able to hurt the WE more. We just ordered our 6th German tank and also two infantry divisions to be deployed on the eastern front to fill out a korps.

[ATTACH]38567[/ATTACH]

[seathom]

EARLY MAY, 1916

Diplomatic Situation: USA 50%CP; Italy 2%CP; Greece 50%CP; Bulgaria 7%CP; Holland 50%CP; Denmark 49%CP. Persia joined the CP. The current Russian alignment is 63%.

WESTERN FRONT

[color="#0000FF"]Belgium & N. France:[/color] Two surprising results on the western front. The first being von Gallwitz' attempt to move to Sedan and avoid the large enemy forces. They didn't, not surprisingly, but the battle plan chosen was Prepare to Withdraw & Defend the Escape Routes. Von Gallwitz' Armee withstood the withering attack by the more numerous Creagh's forces and then von Bulow's Armee from Dinant made it to the field just in time and hammered the enemy forces. Von Bayern's Armee joined the battle on the third round and we were able to rout the enemy. The forests of Sedan had proven disastrous for us in the past, but von Gallwitz will remain there and rebuild from the captured depot. I don't see withdrawals end up a success to often, but this went perfectly.

Kirchbach's Korps met Anthoine's Korps in Neufchateau, and although being outnumbered 153k to 111k men, we won the day and inflicted 46k losses to our 25k. Von Kluck, who is in Mechelen and is our best offensive leader in Belgium will march to Bruxelles and switch places with von Hausen, our worst offensive but best defensive leader. Von Heeringen is moving out of the safety of Namur to take on Barrett's small korps in the Ardennes. Vice-Admiral Scheer met Gauchet off the coast of Belgium and was the victor, losing one ship to 2. Our two fleets will return to Antwerp for now.

[ATTACH]38568[/ATTACH]

[color="#0000FF"]Southern France:[/color] The second surprise occurred at Epinal. I thought the assault would have succeeded, but it was a technical defeat. Actually, I thought the OHL would have attacked the unit outside the fort first, then attack the fort if successful. Instead, the unit outside the fort stayed out of the fight and we only assaulted the fort. The OHL lost 29k to 14k for the fort garrison; von Falkenhyn will remain on defensive for a turn to recover a bit. The first tank did make it to the OHL, but after the fighting occurred so an infantry division is moving back to Belfort to prevent a command penalty.

Von Bayern's Armee has been sitting in Saint Mihiel with nothing occurring except the use of supplies. With the increased attention from the WE nearby, we'll move back to Metz.

[ATTACH]38569[/ATTACH]

EASTERN FRONT

[color="#008000"]Baltic States: [/color] The Russian forces fled Rossieny. Our korps in Dorbiany will move north to attack. The active korps in Rossieny will move to Nevesna for another attack. Our recon informs us the only large enemy force is in Grodno. We are splitting off a korps in Osewiecz and Suwalki to for a conservative attack on Augustowo. If Ruzski's Armee in Grodno decides to help our adjacent forces should be enough to beat him back.

[ATTACH]38570[/ATTACH]

[color="#FFFF00"]Poland:[/color] Although inactive, von Komarow's Armee will march into Ostrov to possibly meet Lechitski's Armee. Von Konta's Korps will march too but will probably be too late. Von Bojna's Korps in Lubertow defeated Deniken's Korps, losing 2k to 12k for the Russians. In nearby Lubieszow, we defeated Artamonov's forces with both sides losing 14k men. The Russians fled to Rawa Ruska and we are following. Von Brlog's Korps almost destroyed the infantry division in Chepetkova and will try to finish them off even though they are very low on cohesion.

[ATTACH]38571[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Central Russia:[/color] Lauterbach's Korps met up with the Czar in Piriatin and won a victory in a close contest. The Czar retreated to Volkonskya and we'll follow with von Bohm-Ermolli's Armee.

[ATTACH]38572[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Southern Russia:[/color] The assault on Odessa was a draw, which frankly is not that bad for Romanian units. We are besieging Odessa, have 95% MC and level 3 entrenchments, so we can hopefully wait it out a bit on defensive posture. We are railing back two supply trains to Galati.

[color="#8B4513"]Serbia:[/color] We are railing von Brudermann's Armee towards Italy. Von Straussenburg's Korps will move to Monastir to attack the Serbian unit and the two weaker units will follow on defensive posture.

[color="#00FF00"]Ottoman Empire:[/color] We landed on Moudros Island. There is an armee of 579 PWR plus other units. Attacking it doesn't make sense and a siege is too risky because the armee can come out to attack us so we are hopping back on the fleet and returning to Smyrna to regain cohesion for the attack on Port Said.

Our two armees in the Caucasus are active and will attack the main Russian force in Gole.

[ATTACH]38573[/ATTACH]

The Overall Situation: The WE is just shy of 900k more losses than the CP. Italy will enter the war this coming turn or next.

[seathom]

LATE MAY, 1916

Diplomatic Situation: USA 49%CP; Greece 50%CP; Bulgaria 4%CP; Holland 51%CP; Denmark 50%CP. Italy joined the WE. The current Russian alignment is 61%.

[color="#0000FF"]Belgium & N. France:[/color] The simple battle I was expecting in the Ardennes was in fact simple. We destroyed a British korps, lost 21k men to 49k for Foch and gained 4NM! Once again, the hero of Brussels lead the battle smashingly! Von Preussen's Armee was patched up in Antwerp and is being sent out to Mechelen so von Hausen can attack Genth as the WE seems to have moved the bulk of their troops southward (in response to the assaults in Epinal and Saint Mihiel?) Von Kluk's Armee will rail to Genthe and arrive on the same day that Von Preussen marches in. Von Bayern's Armee will march to Guise as von Bulow will stay in Dinant. Von Heeringen's Armee will stay in the Ardennes and try to eliminate Barrett's tiny korps. Von Kirchbach's Korps in Neufchateau will rail to Luxembourg for reinforcements. There are four fleets in Ostende so our sub will patrol there to see their strength.

[ATTACH]38577[/ATTACH]

[color="#0000FF"]Southern France:[/color] The OHL will march back to Belfort. No fighting should occur on this front.

EASTERN FRONT

[color="#008000"]Baltic States:[/color] Von Luttwitz' Korps won a close battle against Ruzski's Armee (of one korps) and will move back to attack the korps in Rossieny while Ruzski fled to Kowno. Von Beseler's Korps took Nevesna and established MC but will need to stay put until activated. The two korps in Augustowo joined forces and will attempt again to battle the Russian unit there.

[ATTACH]38578[/ATTACH]

[color="#FFFF00"]Poland:[/color] Von Komarow's Armee is marching to Zambrow where Lechitski's Armee is located. Von Konta's Korps is moving to Ostrov. The korps in Biala, which defeated a slightly larger korps lead by Deniken is railing to Wien. The two AH armees in Lubieszow are railing to Wien and Gyor while von Hindenburg will remain there. We had a victory in Rawa Ruska, losing 18k to 29k for the Russians and we gained 1NM. Von Krasnik's Armee will move from Rawa Ruska to Chelm. Von Frank's Armee will stay in Gorokhov.

[ATTACH]38579[/ATTACH]

I'll need to finish this later .....

[seathom]

LATE MAY, 1916 (cont.)

[color="#008000"]Central Russia:[/color] Von Boehm-Ermolli's Armee had a good victory against the Czar-led forces in Volkonskaya and will chase him down in Priluki. Lauterbach's Korps will also rail in there two days later.

[ATTACH]38587[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Southern Russia:[/color] The three Romanian units continue to besiege Odessa. Another Russian unit is moving in the area so the situation is getting tenuous.

[ATTACH]38588[/ATTACH]

[color="#8B4513"]Serbia:[/color] The Romanian High Command won a battle in Monastir against Bozanovic's Korps of militia who retreated to Makedonia. The three active units will attempt to chase him down.

[color="#00FF00"]Ottoman Empire:[/color] My subordinates made a big mistake in Constantinople! They forgot to give the orders not to use land bombardment when leaving Moudros Island. We lost all our transports and much of the navy. It will be out of commission for a long time. The armee will instead be moved towards the Bulgarian border town of Erdine. We successfully defeated Dashkov's forces in Kars but cannot push the fight on this turn.

The Overall Situation: Italian aggression will be a headache. I am totally unprepared for the fight and am being stubborn in moving more forces to the Italian Front in exchange for hitting the Russians a bit harder. The forces will be arriving in the area not this turn but the next so the fighting will definitely be done on AH soil but we should be able to roll them back successfully but no doubt they will be taking some prized property (Trento and 3NM loss) for a short time. NM stands at CP 118, WE 65, EE 75 and the Triple Entente has taken 950k more losses than the CP.

[seathom]

EARLY JUN, 1916

Diplomatic Situation: USA 48%CP; Greece 56%CP; Bulgaria 1%CP; Holland 50%CP; Denmark 50%CP. The current Russian alignment is 62%. Our diplomats are now trying to counter the WE in the USA and Denmark. Greece was a nice surprise! They moved 5% because of Italian entry and 1% from our ambassador. They may tilt towards us again next turn when Bulgaria joins the aggressors. Unfortunately, they need to hit 80% before they stop returning to neutral.

WESTERN FRONT

[color="#0000FF"]Belgium & N. France:[/color] We won the battle in the Ardennes yet could only destroy 1400 men and take 400 prisoners out of a measly force of 5700 menand the enemy stayed in the region. The battle for Genth was equally small. Dubai's Korps was able to withdraw after the first round and only lost 12.5k out of 93k men; we lost 6.5k. Dubail did have to retreat to Bruges. We also shot down 60 planes while losing none on this front. For the first time in a long while, the WE seems to have spread out their forces and recon cannot find one megastack. Von Kluck's Armee will assault the units inside Genthe. The two fleets in Antwerp will go to the Coast of Belgium and Cote de Flandre. Von Kirchbach's Korps in Luxembourg will rail to Metz and von Bayern's Armee in Metz will rail to Neufchateau to take on Maud'huy's small force. The only other movements are munitions going back and forth for resupply.

[ATTACH]38589[/ATTACH]

[color="#0000FF"]Southern France:[/color] The OHL will continue to rest and receive reinforcements.

[color="#008080"]Italian Front:[/color] We caught a big break and the Italians must not have been activated as they didn't move.

EASTERN FRONT

[color="#008000"]Baltic States:[/color] Von Beseler lead the victorious attack on Aliev's Korps in Rossieny and will move to Wladislavov for better supply. Von Luttwitz' Korps, which did all the fighting, will rail back to Memel for reinforcements. Von Richtofen's Korps will go on all-out assault and hopefully take the unit inside Rossieny and then move onto Aliev's Korps in Teshe. Von Mackensen's Korps in Augustowo is experiencing the same problem the OHL had in Luxeuil and cannot attain any MC in a region and will have to move to Osewiecz.

[ATTACH]38590[/ATTACH]

[color="#FFFF00"]Poland:[/color] Von Komarow's Armee defeated Lechitsky's Armee in a close match-up at Zombrow and will attack again and will be joined by von Konta's Korps from Ostrov and von Boehn's Armee from Osewiecz. The kavallerie will move to Bielsk to possibly cut off the rails. Von Krasnik's Armee was involved in the defeat of the four korps in Chelm lead by Gorbatovskaya (who fled to Stara Vyjenka) but must march back to Crasnik to get on the rail line for the Italian Front. Von Hindenburg will march to Gorokhov on offensive against Artamanov's Korps. Von Frank's Armee will stay there to attain enough MC.

[ATTACH]38591[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Central Russia: [/color] The only battle occurred in Priluki where von Boehn-Ermolli's Armee defeated the Czar but he escaped to Backhmak and we'll follow him. From there on, we'll need to turn our attention back towards the AH border with Russia as they are starting to come back to the area in force. Lauterbach's Korps is railing back towards the Italian Front this turn.

[color="#008000"]Southern Russia: [/color] The three Romanian units were not making any progress in the siege of Odessa so will rail back to Kishinev.

[color="#8B4513"]Serbia:[/color] The remaining units will fan out a bit to try to catch the militia unit they defeated in Makedonia but escaped to Tetovo.

[color="#00FF00"]Ottoman Empire:[/color] The Turkish Armee, rather than risking an attack across the Nile against Birdwells Korps, will attack the Indian Infantry unit in El-Qatar and then move north against Port Said.

[ATTACH]38592[/ATTACH]

[seathom]

LATE JUN, 1916

Diplomatic Situation: USA 45%CP; Greece 55%CP; Holland 51%CP; Denmark 50%CP. The current Russian alignment is 60%. Bulgaria has joined the WE. Our ambassadors continue to find it hard to establish relations, this time in the USA; this has been an ongoing concern and we'll try again.

WESTERN FRONT

[color="#0000FF"]Belgium & N. France:[/color] This was a very, very busy and bloody turn so we'll go through the battles in the order they occurred. Von Kluck's Armee, lead by von Preussen, immediately assaulted Genthe and captured the Medium Artillery unit of 30 cannons left in the city. The next day, the assault continued and we destroyed one balloon observation unit and captured another one that was under construction. On day 5, off the Coast of Belgium, Vice-Admiral Von Scheer caught up with Rear-Admiral Goodenough, who was not nearly good enough (too obvious) as he lost 26 of his 90 ships including two torpedo boat squadrons and one small submarine flotilla. Von Scheer lost 5 ships but no units. Von Scheer was tenacious and chased the cowardly Goodenough to the Cote de Flandre and destroyed another 12 of his 60 ships (4 must have been badly damaged and scuttled in his retreat) including another torpedo boat squadron and the Gibraltar Submarine Flotilla. Von Scheer lost only one ship.

On day 8 Joffre marched 421k men, 13k kav and 1902 artillery to Genthe to retake the city. Again, the assaulting von Kluck stood strong with only 336k men, 13k kav and 1380 artillery. The battle raged five rounds and the end result was we lost 69.5k men, 357 kav and 66 artillery. Joffre lost 132k men, 700 kav and 139 artillery and we gained 2NM.

On day 10, Joffre led his Armee Francaise to beautiful Bruxelles. The same magnificent city where the WE was humiliated just months earlier but can history repeat itself? Well, only if you don't learn from it! Joffre brought with him 203k men, 7k kav and 840 artillery. Bruxelles was defended only by von Wurttemberg, a 3-3-4 leader, with 294k men, 30k kav and 1866 artillery. Joffre ordered a breakthrough deployment against our balanced deployment and 317% entrenchment. It was bloody - for Joffre - as he lost the entire 48th Korps and almost the entire 94th Korps. Needless to say, the second round kavallerie breakthrough was a failure for Joffre as he lost the 78th Korps and 69th Reserve Division. Round 3 was pretty quiet as Joffre switched to balanced deployment. Round 4 saw the 94th Korps destroyed and in round 6 we destroyed the entire 22nd Korps, the 65th Korps, 25th Infantry Division and a supply train. We took 32,200 prisoners and captured 2 units and 169 WS. We lost 50k men, 260 kav and 48 artillery. Joffre lost 166k men, 3k kav and 486 artillery. We gained 7 more NM thanks to Bruxelles! Clearly, the WE had not learned from history and GO Hrzg Albrecht von Wurttemberg will join Leopold von Bayern in the annals of Belgium and history.

Joffre had switched from offensive to defensive posture and planned on waiting it out in Bruxelles instead of retreating to fight another day. He figured that d'Urbals 215 PWR stack would come and help him out next week. Well, von Wurttemberg was not about to rest on his laurels. What great leader would not take advantage of one great success and follow it up with another, even though he remained on defensive posture too!

On day 13, von Wurttemberg, with 246k men, 30k kav and 1818 artillery faced off against Joffre's force of 93k men, 6k kav and 744 artillery. We immediately destroyed the battered 65th Korps then the 35th Infantry Division, the 63rd Korps, 28th Infantry Division and 15th Telegraph Regiment and finally in the 6th round the 22nd Korps, 80th Korps, 1st Korps, 21st Korps and 66th Medium Artillery Regiment.

Whew!

All told, during the 4th Battle of Bruxelles, we lost 26k men, 100 kav and 18 artillery. Joffre lost 86k men, over 3k kav and 546 artillery - almost his entire force. We took 31,900 more prisoners, captured 6 units and 130 WS. We also gained another 6NM.

Although the immediate border areas are looking weak for the WE, they do have sizeable armees in Dunkerque and Douai and a few korps in Mauberge, Craonne and Rethel. Von Preussen's Armee took the brunt of the losses in Genthe and will move to Bruxelles for replacements and von Hausen will rail to Mechlen. The two fleets will go back to Antwerp.

[ATTACH]38600[/ATTACH]

[color="#0000FF"]Southern France:[/color] Unlike the north, the southern border is much better defended. Will forces be moved up north? I would have like to press the matter in Neufchateau with von Bayern's Armee, but will rather rail him back to Thionville to support both Luxembour and Metz. The British Armee is in Saint Mihiel and way over-commanded to just sit there. The OHL is not gaining cohesion. Something is awry, however the armee did regain reinforcements and I'll target Chaumer's Korps in Epinal for conservative assault. Von Deimling's Korps will also march to Epinal for a conservative assault on the fort. We'll rail one of the two infantry divisions in Colmar to help in the defense of Belfort.

[ATTACH]38605[/ATTACH]

[color="#008080"]Italian Front: [/color] Oops, since I didn't have units in position on this front while doing the AAR, I meant to go back after I moved my units from other fronts on the eastern front to let you know who's moving where. I forgot. We caught a big break and the Italians did not invade our peace-loving AH Empire in large numbers and did not take any land yet - but THEY were the aggressors and marched onto Bozen, Sachsenburg and (captured) Spittal.

We were able to rail Potiorek's Armee to Bozen for defense just in time for the warmongering Giraldi to invade. Von Hotzendorf was also railed to the Objective Town of Trento and actually took command of the defense of Bozen. We outnumbered the Italians 220k to 50k and dealt them a stinging loss of 14k men while we lost 8k. We also managed to get von Brudermann's Armee to Flitsch and Boroevic's Korps to Trieste (although we are railing him to adjacent Gorizia).

[ATTACH]38606[/ATTACH]

EASTERN FRONT

[color="#008000"]Baltic States:[/color] Von Richtofen's Korps (under the able leadership of von Beseler) went on all-out assault and captured the Supply Trains in Rossieny and then marched into Teshe (falling under the leadership of von Luttwitz) to take on Aliev's Korps (with assistance and leadership from Gorbatovskaya's Korps). We lost 10k men to 18k for the Russians, took 1k prisoners and they retreated to Moscheiki. Although low on supplies, von Richtofen's and von Freytag's Korps will target Aliev's Korps on conservative attack. Von Richtofen's Korps will also pick up the recently captured supply train from Rossieny so hopefully he makes it to battle.

Bielostock is lightly defended with only a garrison unit. Grodno, however, has Babich's Korps of 517 PWR and Lechitsky's battered armee of 76k men. Von Boehn's Armee of only 77k men will go on conservative assault. Von Mackensen's Korps in Osewiecz, although it has no supply the region has 800, will also go on conservative assault but stay in its region and hopefully MTSG.

Von Konta's Korps and von Komarow's Armee defeated Lechitsky's Armee in Zombrow, losing only 5k men to almost 23k for the Russian (who then fled past Bielostock to Grodno). We also captured 1500 prisoners. These two forces will rail to Bielostock.

[ATTACH]38607[/ATTACH]

[color="#FFFF00"]Poland:[/color] Von Hindenburg met Artamanov and defeated him in battle at Gorokhov. We lost 15k men to 38k for the Russians and took 4k prisoners and gained 1NM. The Russians then fled to Lutsk so fast they left a supply train so we took it in a later battle. Our two armees will move on to Lutsk to take on the 824 PWR stack there. Von Krasnik's Armee will rail from Crasnik to Wien. That leaves Crasnik to Warsawa very lightly defended and we'll need to rectify that next turn.

[ATTACH]38608[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Central Russia: [/color]OMG, thank you AGEod! I thought I lost my reply when viewing a screenshot from last turn. In frustration, I went out for fresh air and a dark chocolate carmelizer. I came back and restarted this AAR and saw the go back to auto-save feature and voila - 3 hours of work saved!

The one loss we encountered was in Schmerinka. It is a confounding loss, but one nonetheless. Von Wuerttemberg's stack with two full korps met Krasnov's one korps and engineer brigade. Krasnov was led by Plehve (who also had one korps which did not take part of the fight but did bring the two sides with equal number of soldiers, kav and artillery although we had a very slight lead in all three and we had 6 less planes than they did). Our two korps lost 1/9 and 1/7 of our cohesion and only 2 manpower. The Russians lost 2/3 of their one korps. On top of that, we lost 820 of our 54k men and the Russians lost 13k of their 53k men plus some kav and artillery. They even succeeded on one retreat attempt. And we were on defensive posture. Yet we lost. Go figure! Plehve must lead with an iron fist! Krasnov stayed in Schmerinka with his 79 PWR and we retreated to Vinnitza with our 507 PWR.

As for Plehve's iron fist, he then went on to actually fight in the battle of Novaia Ushitza (well, he led as he is an armee commander) and lost to Lauterbach. We lost 2k and the Russians lost 9k men plus an additional 1k as prisoners. Von Bohm-Ermolli's Armee could not find the Czar cowering in Bakhmach so he'll be railing to Konstantinov to meet the enemy there.

[ATTACH]38610[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Southern Russia: [/color] The Romanian units are going in for a conservative assault on Odessa. It doesn't look like there are any troops there so we'll see if nearby units move back in time. Supply trains are raililng back to Galati.

[ATTACH]38611[/ATTACH]

[color="#8B4513"]Serbia:[/color] Still trying to catch the elusive remnants of the Serbian Armee. Very sizeable Bulgarian forces are on the border so we'll need more help.

[color="#00FF00"]Ottoman Empire:[/color] Somehow, the Turkish Armee leader lost his command so I previously redeployed him to Enver Pasha and this turn redeploying him back to Edirne. Selivanov's Korps attacked Kars unexpectedly and fortunately for us. All 20k of his men were killed except for 5800 prisoners and we garnered another 2NM. All that remained was Selivanov and a supply train so we are sending two infantry divisions out on assault to capture them. The Indian Infantry Division that was defending El-Qatar fled to Port Said so our Fourth Armee is heading straight there on all-out assault badly needing the supplies stored there. Our supply trains are making there way to Port Said too.

The Overall Situation: Gaining 18NM from battles certainly helped but the fight definitely wages on. NM now stands at CP 134; WE 51 and EE 73. The Triple Entente has lost almost 1.3 million more men than the CP. The PWR ration currently stands at almost even between the CP and WE with the EE having an additional 52% of our forces so we are still facing numerical superiority on the battlefield and must continue to have large victories. We will see if the NM difference continues to help us on the battlefield against the WE as their cohesion must be suffering quite a bit.

[ATTACH]38612[/ATTACH]

[Ripster8]

Seathom, thank for posting your ongoing campaign. I am learning a lot reading along. As a newbie struggling with EAW - it is just overwhelming - I was hoping you could comment on your build strategy, your use of RGD's and diplomacy. I guess I don't know if I should max out my available build resources every turn (as the AI seems to do) or if I should save up for a rainy day. Any insights as you go along would be helpful! Thanks!

[seathom]

EARLY JUL, 1916

Diplomatic Situation: USA 42%CP; Greece 64%CP; Holland 50%CP; Denmark 49%CP. The current Russian alignment is 58%. Greece shifted 10% towards the CP because Bulgaria had joined the Entente. We are attempting again to send a diplomat to the USA and now Sweden to counter the enemy's diplomats already being present.

WESTERN FRONT

[color="#0000FF"]Belgium & N. France:[/color] In the Ardennes, since von Heeringen was inactive, he split off his 6th Korps to attack Maud'hui's Korps full korps. The initial encounter was a success and we destroyed an infantry division composed of only one field artillery regiment. The second and last round had korps from von Heeringen's Armee as well as from von Bulow's Armee in Dinant. In total, we knocked out a division and captured a supply train, 400 prisoners and 4 WS while forcing Maud'hui to flee to Neufchateau. No other battles occurred.

Chetwood's over-commanded korps moved into Genthe while French's Armee over-commanded armee railed to nearby Ostende, which clearly means that the WE will be attacking in Genthe this turn. We're moving von Hausen's Armee from Mechelen to Alost to try to eliminate so many areas of attack the WE have against Genthe. Von Kluck will be outnumbered in this attack and will hopefully get some help from von Hausen or Wurttemberg. Joffre and his 66 PWR remains in Bruxelles, will they attack again? The WE only has 4% MC so I believe they have to go on offensive (although I don't think that happened in the last turn with the same 4% MC!). I'm railing von Bayern's Armee from Guise to Alost to add some more muscle to the area. Guise is not as important right now. Von Heeringen will move to Thionville and von Bayern will move to Metz to help in case the megastack in Briey decides to move. That's not likely this turn. I also think it's better to lose the level 6 entrenchment now and build it up in Metz before a planned attack occurs. Athena seems more inclined to attack only when they move a small force into a region first but I can't overlook 7500 PWR. No offenses this turn; we'll just defend, although moving into Alost should initiate an attack.

[ATTACH]38624[/ATTACH]

[color="#0000FF"]Southern France:[/color] The OHL's assault on Chaumer's unit outside of Epinal did occur. This was the first time we attempted tank breakthrough (although unsuccessfully) but still managed to win a bloody contest. We lost 27k men to 33k for the WE and we took 1800 prisoners and they did retreat. Unfortunately von Deimling did not have a battle for the fort but did take substantial hits so he'll move back to Belfort for replacements. Birdwood crossed our borders and is besieging Saarbourg so von Oven is detaching his korps from Luxembourg to rail to their defense. Unfortunately no leaders with siege defense ability are available in this region.

[ATTACH]38629[/ATTACH]

[color="#008080"]Italy:[/color] Two battles occurred in Gorizia where we sent Boroevic's Korps and von Brudermann's Armee in the adjacent Flitsch. Boroevic's Korps held out one round before von Brudermann's forces arrived on round 2 and it was six long rounds of balanced deployment from both sides with each round being slightly in favor for our side. We lost 21.5k men to 31k for Brusati's Armee and we captured 1500 prisoners. The next battle was a repeat of the first but only lasted until von Brudermann's forces arrived on round 2; thus the losses were 800 men for us and 8.6k for Brusati.

No other battles occurred however the Italians did manage to cut the rail lines in Sachsenburg and Spittal. We'll send a mountain brigade out to each region to repair the lines. An Italian unit made it to Rosenheim in a play for Salzburg; we'll definitely move in more reinforcements there to make them pay.

[ATTACH]38630[/ATTACH]

EASTERN FRONT

[color="#008000"]Baltic States: [/color] Events did not go as well on the Eastern Front.

It appears that I detached a korps from von Boehn's Armee and sent it to Augustowo where battle did occur. Jakolev's Korps was fatigued and fought cowardly, but their 300% entrenment made it a close battle with our Marine Brigade having to face the entire brunt of two enemy field artillery regiments. Our forces won the day and sent Jakolev running back to Grodno (where all chicken Russians seem to flee!). Mackensen (5-3-3) actually commanded the battle. We lost 5.7k men to 7.3k for the Russians and will rail the korps back to Bielostock to join von Boehn.

That was fine, but then disaster struck in Moscheiki. I pushed the troops too hard and should have let the rest. The battle commenced with just von Freytag's korps and he had a river crossing penalty and the defending Russians were led by Brusilov, a 6-4-2 commander, enjoying 255% entrenchment. The Russians got the better of us in the first round. When Richtofen's Korps arrive in round 2, his two korps were fatigued and exhausted but went toe-to-toe with the defenders and inflicted slightly more damage. But by round 4, one korps was fatigued and three were exhausted so our losses were heavier and the battle ended with our side losing 27k of our 96k men to the Russians losing 26k of their 59k men. Brusilov also managed to capture 1000 of our brave soldiers who refused to lay down their arms until encircled by the enemy and would have been executed instead. I am sure they will escape and rejoin the war asap. We also lost 1NM. Von Richtofen's Korps was actually 5 days away from Moscheiki so I ordered them to stay in Teshe and fall back to Memel. Von Freytag's Korps is inactive we're detaching his two korps and sending an active leader to Rossieny with the depleted supply train and the inactive korps will try to make it back to Teshe on g/g in 18 days.

[color="#008000"]Western Russia:[/color] Two battles occurred in Bielostock. Von Boehn's Armee had no problem destroying the garrison, eliminating 12k men (1.2k were prisoners) while losing 2k. Three days later, under the leadership of von Komarow, von Boehn's Armee encountered Radko-Dmitriev's Korps (under the command of Ruzski) and destroyed it. The second round saw Mackensen's Korps entering the fray as Ruzski's Armee made it to the field. Mackensen's Korps was the star of the round as both he and his subordinate, von Heineccius, led their troops well against a much more numerous foe but dealt out much more damage than the meager amount we received. We continued to dominate through the 5th round when Epanchin's Korps was destroyed and the Ruzski ordered his armee to retreat to Grodno. After the dust was cleared, we lost 20.5k men while Ruzski lost 65.5k. We also took 2500 prisoners and gained back 1NM. Our forces will stay in Bielostock and rest.

Von Hotzendorf's and von Frank's Armees did indeed meet up with Sakharov's force in Lutsk. We defeated Mischenko's and Artamanov's Korps in the process. It was a bloody battle as we lost 79k men to 95k for the Russians. We also captured 4600 prisoners and 68WS. Von Frank's Armee will fall back to Gorokhov and its rail line while Von Hindenburg will hold defend against Ruzski. Plehve's Armee is nearby and on rails so they may be coming to help.

[ATTACH]38631[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Central Russia: [/color] We won a battle in Vinnitza and are splitting the korps up; one for defense and the other to attack Khanzin's Korps in Ivanov. Kirchbach's Korps from Tarnopol is railing to attack Krasnov's Korps in Schmerinka. We are abandoning Berdichev and Korosten for Jitomir and Konstantinov for Novaia Ushitza. This is to safeguard our supply lines as the Russians will be able to cut it off from either of those two cities we are abandoning due to more Russian manpower in those regions.

Von Bohm-Ermolli's was exhausted from his train ride from Bakhmach to Jitomir where he met Gorbatovskaya's Korps and lost a close battle so he is railing from his final destination from last turn of Konstantinov to Novaia Ushitza for rest. Once rested, his armee, with the help of the three korps in this area should be able to plow through the Russian forces assembled here.

[ATTACH]38632[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Southern Russia:[/color] In a tough battle at Odessa, Cristescu's First Armee and Prezan's Third Armee defeated Rennenkampf's forces. We lost nearly 16k and the Russians lost 27k as we also took 1000 prisoners. Three days later the Third Armee assaulted Odessa in a brave move. We destroyed the Citadel Artillery, captured a magazine and damaged half of the fortification batteries but at a heavy cost of 11.5k men, 400 of our prisoners captured and 4WS stolen. Prezen's Armee will rail back to Kishinev for replacements while Cristescu's Armee will continue the assault with the help of the captured magazine! This is another gamble as the 40k men in the Third Armee will be missed but their cohesion and manpower are so low I don't want those forces to be lost forever.

[color="#8B4513"]Serbia:[/color] The disasters continued on the Eastern Front, this time in Varos where The Romanian High Command lost a battle to a combined Serbian/Bulgarian force. We lost nearly 18k men to 11k for the enemy and they captured 600 prisoners and we were forced to retreat to Skopje. Skopje does have 80k men there so we will see if they attack us while we defend and wait for reinforcements to arrive.

[color="#00FF00"]Ottoman Empire:[/color] The main Bulgarian forces seem to be in Serbia but a good-sized force is just to the ne of Edirne. Since both armees are inactive, we'll detach three korps, two combined korps will go to Haskovo which has a regular unit in the forest region and one korps to Kisyl Agatch which has two infantry divisions in the woods. The remaining forces will stay in Edirne.

We captured the supply train stranded in Kars with Selivanov defending it. He fled to Kumany, but Djavid Pasha's Korps captured it and will remain there to establish MC of the region and rail. Just to the ne is a Russian unit defending the rail to Tbilissi.

Kazim Pasha marched into Al Ryadh and defeated the loathsome Emir Faisil I who appears to have betrayed his people and fled to Yemen. We'll rest a turn before deciding on attacking Yemen.

The battle for Port Said did not go well. Our supplies did not last and we were exhausted from marching in the desert. Both sides ended up losing 2k men and we decided to fall back on El Qatar where we should meet up with a supply train if we make it out of Port Said with another supply train one turn away.

The Overall Situation: We did manage to gain a net of 2 NM and lead with 136 to 72 for the EE and 49 for the WE. We have managed to kill just over 1.3m more men than the Triple Entente but they continue to have plenty of combat power. I could probably end this game by sending a naval invasion force adjacent to Petrograd then move onto the city before the EE can react (that's how I won my first campaign) but I don't want to repeat the same play from the game book, as I am enjoying the see-saw battles with the fronts moving up and then back and would like to see how this plays out.

The way I play is I am making my moves as I do the AAR, when the AAR is completed I post it but go back and cycle through my units. I almost always miss units that aren't too close to the fighting so that's why some moves aren't reported in the AAR until after the fact, plus I never know if Athena is reading this and don't want her to know everything I do

[ATTACH]38633[/ATTACH]

[seathom]

Ripster8, I know what you mean by how overwhelming the game is at the beginning!

Build strategy: At the very beginning of the game your cash will be your biggest limiter on how fast you can build units & buy replacement chits. Taking out a loan every turn or so is a good idea for awhile to fill out your existing armies. You really want to get your armies at maximum command of 48-57, depending on the extra command you get from officers, signal units, balloons, etc. Making sure all four corps within the army are maxed out really helps (basically 2 infantry & 2 artillery) because the units fight better. This is easy to do if you are winning big battles and capturing objectives because of the 1 NM hit from taking loans. There really isn't too much of a need to save up for a rainy day unless you need to buy something very expensive (like super heavy artillery because of the WS requirement). Once the armies are maxed out, how the game is going will probably dictate whether you should be buying new units and/or replacements.

RGD's: Use them if they will help you but don't feel like you need to use them just because you have excess Engagement Points. If it helps your strategy, do it. Everything has a cost involved and sometimes its just not worth it. As the CP, I would rather fight Italy than lose 10 NM and have AH lose 25% alignment, but you can disagree. I talk a lot about NM because it affects cohesion of your units. Right now in my game, I have a huge lead in NM and all my units become stronger because they can last longer in battle. The units themselves increase in combat power. An infantry division that starts the game at like 66 PWR keeps getting better and is currently like 102 PWR. That is a big difference. I buy all the investments in research with the exception of chemical warfare and u-boats as soon as I can.

Diplomacy: Never have an idle diplomat. You must keep an eye on this each turn. Just because you send a diplomat it doesn't mean he'll be successful. You may have to try a few times. I had super bad luck with Bulgaria and couldn't get my diplomat there for so long that now I am fighting them. My first campaign had Bulgaria with the CP shortly after the Ottoman's joined because he was successful on the first try. Once a diplomat is in a country he will not leave there unless you take him out or the country joins one of the alliances, then you'll need to move him elsewhere. I don't think the developers have fixed the problem with some countries doing nothing when joining because they have no army (Sweden, Brasil). I have only tried to get the more historical choices in the game so I'm not sure about this. I do believe Altaris' super Mod fixed this but it's not in the DLC to my knowledge. I have only played CP and EE (who don't get diplomats) so not sure how you'd go about with the WE, but just go for the nations that can help you or hurt you. I also generally try to keep my diplomat in Italy before moving him to the USA because having Italy out as long as possible is important for my strategy. The USA comes in later in the game and if all goes well (or more goes well than poorly!) then the USA's forces are not as big a threat because I should be winning decisively by then

I am not keen on min-maxing my game. I do it for fun and stress relief. In this current game, I could have a naval invasion off the coast of Petrograd then grab it in battle in one or two turns (did that in my first game) and the game would be over. I won't do it this time because for me, it's been done and I'm enjoying the more historical flavor of the front lines moving forward and backward and seeing what the game can look like until the last turn. I'm still trying to win and will take the opportunity to inflict a loss on the enemy or gain important objectives and if another crazy turn like that 18 NM gain from battles occur and the game ends then that's OK too because I'm going to do another AAR as the EE next.

Hope this helps.

Seathom

[Ripster8]

Seathom, thanks so much for the great input. I can see I have been too slow to expand my army. Basically I was just trying to fight with the army I started with and just add specialty units and artillery. I guess I play too much Thirty Years War where if you over-expand your army you end up not being able to afford the upkeep costs, let alone any replacements. In any case, I still have a long way to go before I understand EAW but your comments have really helped. I look forward to reading more of your AAR and ON TO PARIS!

[seathom]

[color="#0000FF"]LATE JUL, 1916[/color]

Diplomatic Situation: USA 41%CP; Greece 63%CP; Holland 50%CP; Denmark 50%CP. The current Russian alignment is 56%. Lady luck has not been on our side with diplomacy this game. Once again, we fail to stay in USA and also in Sweden this turn. We'll try again!

WESTERN FRONT

[color="#0000FF"]Belgium & N. France:[/color] Certainly, my over-cautiousness in moving another army to Alost will pay off in the expected defense of Genthe! My nearby armees will MTSG and save the day! Not. Something went terribly wrong. I think I railed a tank brigade to von Kluck's Armee in Genthe on g/g and it might have turned the stack's order to g/g. I've seen this happen before and clearly it was the devious plans of the British to intercept the orders and give von Kluck orders to retreat to Mechelen, which he did and took 42 hits in the process. I will have to be more careful when railing in newly built units up to the front line! Instead, Von Hausen, who had railed to Alost, MTSG as von Kluck was retreating and fell for the devilish British trap. Von Hausen defended well against the more numerous British swarm but lost and went back to Alost very damaged. We were outnumbered in all aspects and lost 68k brave men. The WE, led by French, lost 185k and stole 1000 men to be tortured as prisoners. We decisively won all five rounds and even destroyed a korps, an infantry division and a militia division, but in the end an extra 160k men were too much for our force of 220k. If only von Kluck had stayed in Genthe the outcome would have been far more favorable for us (thus the blue lettering for the date ... to represent my feeling blue).

Eight days after the debacle in Genthe, a damaged but valiant von Hausen engaged in battle with the venerable von Bayern (stationed in Bruxelles) in command against the defending Dubois force. The first round of battle was a stalemate but the next round had von Bayern's Armee joining the fight and sealing the victory while destroying a French korps in the process. We lost 19k men, Dubois 48k. We also captured 6700 prisoners, 4 WS and gained 1NM. Confusingly, Von Bayern is only 2 days away from Charleroi and I doubt he targeted Dubois, since he is in Mons. He would probably win that battle, but I think I need him in elsewhere as Genthe, with its depot is more important. Charleroi is nice, because it has two river borders and can only be marched into on land through Mons and if things went differently, that would have been a very nice objective.


Von Bayern's Armee, which railed from Guise to Alost met Dubois force and routed him. Actually, von Hausen's Armee did most of the fighting and this battle happened 8 days after the debacle in Genthe.

To add to our misery, Gallieni led a WE force into lightly defended Luxembourg. Our one korps defended well and even destroyed a British korps, but in the end fell back to Thionville because von Heeringen's Armee failed to help out. Von Heeringen will attempt to retake Luxembourg even though he is inactive. This could be madness because of the megastack in Briey.

Von Kluck will need to hold fast in Mechelen. Von Wurttemberg will go on conservative attack in Genthe from Bruxelles. Von Bayern is being called back from entering Charleroi and instead will go to Alost because von Hausen needs to go back to Bruxelles for replacements. Von Preussen also needs to stay in Bruxelles. Armees in Dinant and Sedan will hold for now. Two fleets are going out in search of fodder. Unfortunately, forces will not be receiving replacements this turn as I rushed to "end turn" so I could get to work on time last night.

[ATTACH]38642[/ATTACH]

[color="#0000FF"]Southern France:[/color] Here is yet another case of "if only...". If only I had remained cool about the British siege of Saarbourg and kept von Oven's Korps together in Luxembourg, we probably would have won the battle. Instead, we lost Luxembourg and von Oven fought well in Saarbourg, but was outnumbered and we had to retreat. He'll now move back to Thionville for reinforcements and rejoining his other korps. By the way, the British were unable to breach the walls of the level 2 fort. Von Kirchbach will now attempt to move to Saarbourg with two korps while being inactive to see if he could push the Brits out.

The OHL again failed to breach Epinal. Once again, his cohesion doesn't seem to be regaining. I am going to jot down their cohesion and see what happens next turn. We do have 95% MC of the region and I don't want to lose that again and level 6 entrenchments make it harder for the enemy to attack even though they are starting to bring in some more force down south.

[ATTACH]38643[/ATTACH]

[color="#008080"]Italy:[/color] Last turn was quiet on the Italian Front. They did manage to cut the rails in Rosenheim and Gorizia. The Italian forces in Gorizia are growing so von Brudermann's Armee will go on conservative attack. Potoriek's Armee will do likewise in Bozen and will be joined by the korps from Innsbruck and the KUK should MTSG even if inactive. Two active korps from von Krasnik's Armee will detach and attack the Italians in Rosenheim. Unfortunately for now, I can't bring any more forces from the other fronts to push back the Italians.

[ATTACH]38654[/ATTACH]

EASTERN FRONT

[color="#008000"]Baltic States:[/color] A better turn of events in this region. Von Richtofen made it back to Memel, the active korps from Moscheiki made it to Rossieny and the inactive korps is only 1 day from Teshe. Kowno is somewhat lightly defended so von Beseler will attempt a conservative assault. Grodno is interesting. For the eastern front, it has a large force of 2231 PWR and we have four active units adjacent with almost 2500 PWR. Some of the Grodno forces have been defeated recently and may not be up to full-strength. Do we risk an attack so they can't reinforce the assault on Kowno? Instead we'll send von Komarow's Armee and Konta's Korps south to Brest-Litovsk where forces are endangering our Polish cities and take care of that area first before facing Grodno. Von Boehn will stay in Bielostock. Hopefully, that will be enough to make the Russians think twice about attacking; but I've been wrong before (like the last turn!). So we'll see if this gambit pays off.

[ATTACH]38644[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Western Russia:[/color] I would love to rail von Frank's Armee to the Italian Front but we cannot afford it right now so he'll rail to Crasnik to defend the depot and regain cohesion. Von Hindenburg needs to meet up with von Boehn up north but this is not going to happen soon, instead, he'll need to defend until more force can arrive. If the Russians decide to gang up on him, he'll need to move back to Lemberg.

[ATTACH]38645[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Central Russia:[/color] Yet once again, splitting off a korps resulted in disaster. We had split a korps to do battle in Ivanov against Khanzin's Korps and that is what happened in the successful first round where we even destroyed at least one enemy element, although it was Batyanov who led the battle from Konstantinov. The second round actually saw the korps that was left in Vinnitza to join the battle but unfortunately, Batyanov's two korps joined the fight as well as three other russian korps. We fought bravely, but being outnumbered 2:1 took its toll and in the sixth round our two korps were destroyed, both leaders being left with only their battered artillery. To add insult to injury, 8400 prisoners were taken captive and the Russians snatched 30WS and gained 2NM.

Lauterbach's Korps did not do battle in Schmerinka and will have to march back to Vinnitza, hopefully in time to defend it. Von Brlog's Korps will need to save the day by establishing MC in Ivanov (first it will have to win the battle there). Did I just say last turn we were going to steamroll the Russians here; I much prefer dinner rolls to steamrolls, the taste isn't bitter. Von Bohm-Ermolli's Armee needs another turn to rest and receive reinforcements in Novaia Ushitza before he can help out. There are almost 67k men defending Kiev with plenty of supplies for now, but we need to regain control of this area and its not looking good as shown in the supply filter map mode below.

[ATTACH]38646[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Southern Russia:[/color] On the same day Genth fell, Cristescu's First Romanian Armee destroyed the Odessa fortification batteries and we raised the German flag on this Russian port city, which will give us 7 money each turn as a level 7 port (I was hoping it would be more). We also captured 800 prisoners and took 240WS. The Russians were also building a destroyer squadron there and will be ready in 181 days. Can we hold it given the amount of Russians around and the Bulgarians itching for a fight?

[ATTACH]38648[/ATTACH]

[color="#8B4513"]Serbia:[/color] Our retreat into Monastir did not prove safe and we lost another battle, this time against Putnik's 88k men to our multinational forces of 90k that had 322% entrenchments. We lost 27k to 14k for the Serbian-led Bulgarians. They also took 1500 prisoners. Putnik is actually weaker than us but we are also cut off from supplies and will try to defend and retreat back into Skopje. Wasn't Serbia supposed to be a success story? This is why I like to go immediately for Bulgarian diplomacy on my first turn. They have tons of troops (not enough officers, but they can be bought through RGD's).

[ATTACH]38652[/ATTACH]

[color="#00FF00"]Ottoman Empire:[/color] A rare success at Haskovo. Our detached korps defeated a lone Bulgarian infantry division. We lost nearly 6k to their 8k and forced them to retreat to Plovdiv. A single korps from Kisyl Agatch will march back to Edirne because the enemy fled. The active partial armee in Edirne will rail to Czerkezvoy to target the Bulgarian unit there and hopefully prevent it from cutting the rails.

[ATTACH]38653[/ATTACH]

In the Caucasus, we will attempt to catch a Russian force just to the west of Kars. At the Suez, our almost destroyed Turkish Fourth Armee is limping back towards Jerusalem for replacements. Egypt is out of our grasp for now.

The Overall Situation: Things went from going well to very iffy right now. We'll see what tomorrow brings. NM stands at CP 134; EE 76; WE 49. Losses are still around 1.4m more for the Triple Entente.

[seathom]

EARLY AUG, 1916

Diplomatic Situation: USA 40%CP; Greece 64%CP; Holland 50%CP; Denmark 50%CP, Sweden 49%CP. The current Russian alignment is 54%. We finally succeeded in getting our ambassador to the USA but not yet in Sweden.

WESTERN FRONT

[color="#0000FF"]Belgium & N. France:[/color] The only battle occurred in Genth, as expected. Von Bayern commanded von Wurttemberg's Armee and Joffre commanded Dubail's forces. In two rounds, we lost 6k men to 39k for the WE and took 7200 prisoners and 12WS. We destroyed an infantry division and a field hospital and gained 2NM.

Von Heeringen's Armee was able to retake Luxembourg. The British Armee megastack in Briey broke off 900 PWR and is besieging Thionville. This inevitably means that they will attack next turn so we are railing von Preussen's Armee from Bruxelles and von Kluck's Armee from Mechelen to Thionville on defensive posture. That will bring 2670 PWR to Thionville and 2300 PWR adjacent to it and that may well be enough to prevent an attack or repel one.

[ATTACH]38655[/ATTACH]

[color="#0000FF"]Southern France: [/color] The OHL has been gaining cohesion but at a very slow rate (about .7 to .8 per day) and there is no good chance to assault the fort at Epinal with no breaches so he'll march back to Belfort for now. Von Deimling's Korps will rail to Saarbourg on offensive to add more punch to Kirchbach's Korps already there facing off against the British Korps. That will take 15 days because of broken rails, which Kirchbach is trying to get fixed.

[color="#008080"]Italy:[/color] Von Hotzendorf commanded Potiorek's Armee against Giraldi's Korps and defeated him, losing 800 men to 11k for the Italians who retreated. The korps from Innsbruck had targeted Giraldi's Korps and caught up with him in Vittorio Venetto. Another victorious battle ensued as we captured 500 men and lost 2500 men in battle to 5300 for the retreating Italians (who did manage to make it back to Oderzo and Bruzati's Armee).

There was a hard-fought victory in Rosenheim against an Italian korps, who then fled to Berchtesgarden. We are detaching to korps to go after him while leaving one korps to rebuild the rails in Rosenheim.

We suffered our first defeat to the Italians at Gorizia. Von Brudermann's Armee lost to Frugoni's forces in a tough battle. We lost 11k men to 8.5k for the Italians but von Brudermann retreated back to Flitsch and Bojna's Korps retreated back to Trieste. The level 2 fort should hold out at Gorizia, so our forces will rest a turn while rails are repaired to more help can arrive soon.

[ATTACH]38656[/ATTACH]

EASTERN FRONT

[color="#008000"]Baltic States:[/color] As expected, Kowno was lightly defended and no reinforcements made it in time so von Beseler had a good showing and almost took the fort in three rounds. His korps destroyed an infantry division and a field hospital on the third round. In the retreat phase, we destroyed the Kowno Garrison and captured a supply train and munitions train. We took 4k prisoners, 4WS and 1 NM. We lost 6k men to 25k for the Russians and only a 97PWR Citadel remains in the fort. In a second battle of Kowno, von Beseler's Korps defended against a lone infantry division and lost only 410 men in the battle to almost 13k for the Russians. We also took 2k prisoners. The formidable Brusilov does have two korps under his command in Koschedair so we are railing von Luttwitz' Korps from Rutzau to Kowno as von Beseler will assault the fort.

[ATTACH]38657[/ATTACH]

[seathom]

EARLY AUG, 1916 (cont.)

[color="#008000"]Western Russia:[/color] Moving von Frank's Armee to Crasnik paid off; he arrived just before Ohlov's Korps did and defeated him in battle. We lost 3k men and the Russians lost 5.5k and retreated back to Chelm. The armee is damaged and will need to rest one turn if possible. Hindenburg will fall back to Zlockow and will need to defend Lemberg for the time-being. Fresh off their victory against a lone Russian korps, Von Komarow's Armee and von Konta's Korps will assault Brest-Litovsk.

[ATTACH]38660[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Central Russia:[/color] Von Brlog's Korps entered battle against Krasnov's Korps in Schmerinka. Lauterbach's Korps from Vinnitza MTSG and saved the day on round 2, destroying the Russian's korps and then finished off the Engineer Brigade the next round. We took 4.6 of the 6.5k men prisoner; the rest lay dead. Our victory in Schmerinka re-established our supply lines for now. We will press our advantage here with Lauterbach and von Brlog Korps' moving to Ivanov while von-Bohm-Ermolli's Armee rails to Letishev.

[ATTACH]38661[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Southern Russia:[/color] So far, we've been able to hold on to Odessa. If we can clear out the Russian forces in Central Russia better then reinforcement will be sent over to push the Russians out. It doesn't make sense to push further out of Odessa as the next objectives are too far away; we just need to secure the area.

[color="#8B4513"]Serbia:[/color] Our trio of forces were able to reach Skopje without battle so will now move onto the next region of Vara. We've regained a bit of cohesion and will now enter the region in defensive posture rather than g/g.

[color="#00FF00"]Ottoman Empire:[/color] Mukallah Pasha's Korps was victorious against the Bulgarian infantry division in Plovdiv and took 1k prisoners and will march into more dangerous territory in Stara Zagora and probably face a korps rather than a division so another korps will detach from Edirne, led by Abuk Pasha and will arrive two days later. Mustafa Fevzi Pasha's Armee will target the Bulgarian force in Kirk Klareli. For the moment, the Ottoman's seem to be in control.

[ATTACH]38662[/ATTACH]

In the Caucasus, Sanders Pasha's Armee scared the Russian force and they ran to Arpasay. The armee will move to retake Ardahan while Djavid Pasha's Korps will attack into Arpasay. The Ottoman's also appear to have this area in control.

[ATTACH]38663[/ATTACH]

In Iraq, we are in firm control and have already started moving most of our forces away from Kuwait and Basrah but will leave a decent garrison until Arabia is totally out of the war and the British stop sending them back and forth.

In the Suez, we control to fall back but do have another armee, led by Zeki Pasha waiting in El Arish.

The Overall Situation. The Western Front stays hot and we'll see what happens in Thionville. It is possible the WE will still attack and we will need to depend on active armees MTSG. We should be able to hold the Italian Front until more forces are freed up after rescuing Serbia. The Eastern Front is beginning to look better but western Russia still has a manpower shortage and no more needs to be said about Serbia!

We've moved over 1.5m more losses for the Triple Entente. NM stands at CP 137; EE 74; WE 49. Franz Joseph is overdue to pass away, but we are much better prepared NM-wise than a few months ago.

[ATTACH]38664[/ATTACH]

[seathom]

LATE AUG, 1916

Diplomatic Situation: USA 39%CP; Greece 61%CP; Holland 49%CP; Denmark 50%CP, Sweden 48%CP. The current Russian alignment is 52%. We have yet failed again to get our diplomat in Sweden. We are playing the Senussi Uprising event which will require the Italians to send forces to Libya.

WESTERN FRONT

[color="#0000FF"]Belgium & N. France:[/color] The WE surprised us with an invasion into Sedan. Von Gallwitz stood alone with 161k men 12k kav 1272 artillery and 95 planes. The WE forces were led by the notorious Earl Kitchener and had an overwhelming force of 274k men, 11k kav and 1332 artillery. Von Gallwitz was prepared for this attack and dealt the initial British invading korps a strong blow in the first round. Two korps from von Bulow's Armee in Dinant arrived in the second round and we continued to outperform the enemy forces and in the fifth round we destroyed a French Korps. In the final round we destroyed the initial invading korps plus another British korps and a British Infantry Division. Our final losses were 50k men, 227 kav and 42 artillery. Kitchener lost 152k men, over 2k kav and 133 artillery. We captured 16k men, 10WS, a French field hospital and 4NM. Kitchener's British Armee fell back to Montmedy. An equally-sized force is in adjacent Aisnes and recon shows both are trying to make it to Sedan.

We are detaching two korps from von Wurttemberg's Armee in Genth to attack two infantry divisions in Bruges with two French korps in adjacent Ostende. Von Hausen's Armee is attacking Charleroi from Bruxelles. Hopefully, these two moves will force the 3 megastacks in central France to move up north a bit and not attack Sedan again. Tournai was left undefended but until Bruges and Ostende are taken there is no reason to advance there.

There is a small French force in Luxembourg which probably means an attack from the megastack in Briey via Longwy. There is also a British force in Thionville. Will the Megastack split their forces and attack both of our positions? I didn't realize that Luxembourg controlled its capital so we are going with a feint/probe assault to quickly take the Luxembourg.

[ATTACH]38667[/ATTACH]

[color="#0000FF"]Southern France:[/color] Kirchbach's Korps had great success in the first two rounds against Duchesne's Korps (commanded by Chomer in Vosges) and when von Deimling's Korps arrived in the third round as well as Chomer's over-commanded 4 korps, we managed to destroy Duchesne's korps and still inflicted more damage on the WE but it was considered a defeat and both of our korps tried to retreat to Strassburg (a very damaged von Deimling is actually 4 days away). The OHL will stay in Belfort where the cohesion regain rate is basically doubled what it was in Epinal.

[color="#008080"]Italy:[/color] The rails were successfully rebuilt in Rosenheim and we caught up with di Savoia's Korps in Berchtesgaden and had a glorious victory. Von Osterreich's Korps arrived first and fought di Savoia to a stalemate but in the second round, not only did Kosak's Korps arrive, but the two korps left in Rosenheim and Salzburg MTSG and slugged it out with the Italian's korps until the fifth round when we finally destroyed the korps and then captured a retreating supply train. We also captured 4700 prisoners, 38WS and 2NM. The three korps will meet up with von Krasnik's Armee in Salzburg save an infantry division which will repair the rails in Berchtesgaden. Once van Krasnik's Armee is assembled again they will move into Gorizia to free the eastern part of this area up.

Both von Hotzendorf and Potiorek Armees' will move to Asiago to take on the Italian forces in the western part of Italy.

[ATTACH]38668[/ATTACH]

EASTERN FRONT

[color="#008000"]Baltic States:[/color] The conservative assault on Fort Kowno was more difficult than expected. The Citadel Artillery remained standing with 58PWR and von Beseler's Korps was badly damaged. He'll go on defensive but von Luttwitz will go on assault this time. Brusilov's Korps did not join in the defense of Kowno so we'll hope to get one more crack at it. Von Richtofen's Korps is in better shape and will rail from Koenigsberg to Wladslavov.

[ATTACH]38669[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Western Russia:[/color] The assault of Brest-Litovsk was a success. The defending force of 23k men is no more, except for the 3200 prisoners, captured ammo dump and magazine, 320WS and 1NM. Our forces will rest a turn. Von Frank's Armee is inactive so we won't try to move north this turn. Von Hindenburg will move to Kremenetz to take on Dragomirov's Korps.

[ATTACH]38670[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Central Russia:[/color] Due to inactive leaders, the units around Konstantinov will not move. The korps in Vinnitza is basically all artillery so it will rail up to Kiew to pick up some infantry units. The badly depleted infantry and militia division in Kasiatin will move to Novaia Ushitza for replacements.

[color="#008000"]Southern Russia:[/color] We still hold Odessa but Alekseev's Armee is gathering in Petrovka. There were two battles in Bucharest. Prezan's Third Armee went up against a small Russian force of kavallerie and artillery. We took 1.4k prisoners, captured the medium artillery and destroyed the rest.

[color="#8B4513"]Serbia:[/color] We reached Varos and won a tight victory against Hristov's Bulgarian Korps. We can now attempt to rail to Belgrade. This will be a moral victory if we get there and let the enemy throw themselves against the walls.

[color="#00FF00"]Ottoman Empire:[/color] Abuk Pasha did make it to Stara Zagora and commanded four korps of 79k men against an Infantry Korps, Militia Korps and 2 Infantry Divisions of 99k men, led by Toshev. It was a close battle but we ended up losing 26k men to 34k for the Bulgarians, who also captured 3200 prisoners. Our two heavily damaged korps are marching back to Plovdiv on defend and retreat and hope the still comparatively strong Bulgarian korps does not chase us or cut us off by taking Haskovo. We will detach yet a third korps from the armee in Edirne and rail it to Plovdiv where at the least we could fight our way out of trouble. The lone korps in Edirne will leave the level 3 entrenchments outside the city and move into the level 6 entrenchments inside the city. The other armee will march to just east of Edirne.

[ATTACH]38671[/ATTACH]

In the Caucasus, Sanders Pasha's Armee did take Ardahan and will stay put for a turn. In Arpasay, Djavid Pasha's Korps did meet up with Lesh's Korps and won a close victory. We lost 11k men to 18k for the Russian and we took 500 prisoners. Both forces remain in Arpasay so we'll detach a korps from Ardahan and rail into Arpasay and try to finish off the Russian.

[ATTACH]38672[/ATTACH]

The Overall Situation: We have 1.65m less deaths than the Triple Entente. NM stands at CP 142; EE 74; WE 44. Our replacement chits are not in a bad situation, I remember missing over 1000 German Infantry elements in my first campaign and am managing to keep it at 500 or less so far so that's an improvement. As always, the western front with its megastacks is the most disconcerting area so we'll see how that goes.

[ATTACH]38673[/ATTACH]

[seathom]

EARLY SEP, 1916

Diplomatic Situation: USA 38%CP; Greece 62%CP; Holland 50%CP; Denmark 51%CP, Sweden 47 %CP. The current Russian alignment is 50%. We have yet failed again to get our diplomat in Sweden.

WESTERN FRONT

[color="#0000FF"]Belgium & N. France:[/color] The WE made a daring and immediate attack on Genth on the two korps we were sending off to Bruges. The surprise "ambush" was made by a small British Korps and we easily beat them back and they retreated. Von Wurrttemberg was not prepared and did not engage in the battle. Fortunately, von Bayern, as always was in command and sent his entire armee to MTSG and we were easily victorious over the small remaining force in a minor battle. We sustained 13k losses to 30k for the WE. WE also captured 4k prisoners. Picquart's force retreated to Ostende. The German populous was very pleased with our endeavor and we gained 1NM.

I might have misread the situation in Luxembourg and was lucky it didn't go badly. I thought we needed to assault the city because I saw the Luxembourgian flag flying over it. The WE force actually retreated back to Longwy and no battle occurred. I noticed I was able to put a korps inside the city and in the diplomacy section it stated Luxembourg was aligned with us. The assault I ordered could have gone badly with the megastack nearby in Briey so I count myself lucky in this. We are sending an infantry division to rebuild the rails in Luxembourg.

Von Hausen's Armee then marched into Charleroi from Bruxelles but was led by von Bayern again and delivered a one round knockout to the French forces there under Dubail. We lost 9k and took out 19k men and Dubail ran to Mons. However, there is a strong British contingent inside Charleroi with 719 PWR so we didn't take the city, which is being besieged.

Von Wurttemberg's two korps, after the victorious defense of Genth, made it to Bruges and defeated the infantry division in one round. In the retreat phase, we were able to destroy the division. We also took 1900 prisoners and 4WS. There is a very small division inside Bruges so we haven't taken the city yet, but it is besieged.

Admiral von Ingenohl had a naval engagement against Rear-Admiral Jerram's fleet in the Sea of Flanders. Our dreadnoughts were too much for his cruiser fleet and we destroyed a heavy armoured cruiser squadron and two light cruiser squadrons in sinking 14 of his 66 ships while losing only 1 of our 180 ships.

The WE still does not look like it is taking their northern front seriously. The two korps in Bruges will stay and go on assault. Von Wurttemberg will stay in Genth. Von Bayern will march to Charleroi in 6 days and assault the force inside the city. Von Hausen, who is inactive, will rail to Alost in 2 days. Hopefully no forces will slip out and end up in Bruxelles, but I wouldn't mind if the force in Charleroi retreated because the assault could be bloody. Von Bulow's Armee in Dinant must stay there until Charleroi is cleared of enemy forces and only then can move to an undefended Guise. Von Gallwitz will stay in Sedan as will von Heeringen in Luxembour and both von Preussen and von Kluck in Thionville. I'm not sure if those two armees are preventing an attack from the megastack in Briey but I am not willing to find out quite yet. Rupprecht von Bayern will also stay in Metz. The two fleets will return to Antwerp.

[ATTACH]38674[/ATTACH]

[color="#0000FF"]Southern France:[/color] Foch's Korps has made its way down to Epinal so the OHL will stay in Belfort and the two korps in Strassburg will rail down to Muelhausen for defense. It leaves Colmar exposed but that is a risk I'll take for now. It may very well require one of the two armees from Thionville to make its way down south but that will be for another day.

[ATTACH]38675[/ATTACH]

[color="#008080"]Italy[/color]: We can finally call this Italy and mean Italy and not inside AH as we have beaten back the Italians from our homelands and now control Vittorio Veneto and Asiago. In Asiago, von Hotzendorf led the attack against the Italians led by Nava. Capello's three korps immediately tried to retreat when they saw our forces approach with a strong center deployment. It was Potoriek's Armee that did the initial fighting and had the better of Capello's troops. Von Hotzendorf's Armee joined in the second round as more Italian korps also entered combat. The Italian's counter-march failed against our wave assault but the round was very quiet. The fighting picked up a bit in the third round and we destroyed an infantry division. It was a close battle overall and we lost nearly 23k men to 41k for the Italians. We captured 400 prisoners, 6WS and gained 1NM.

Von Krasnik's Armee will rail from Salzburg to Trento and we'll hold in Asiago due to both leaders being inactive. Von Brudermann's Armee will stay in Flitsch and Boroevic's Korps will march to Gorizia from Trieste.

EASTERN FRONT

[color="#008000"]Baltic States:[/color] Von Luttwitz's Korps assaulted Kowno and destroyed the small force inside while capturing the magazine, 1400 prisoners and 320WS. Von Richtofen's Korps will rail to Wehlau to better defend against the force in Taurogen. Von Luttwitz will rail to Wladislavov. Grodno remains at a stand-off until reinforcements come.

[ATTACH]38676[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Western Russia:[/color] Von Komarow's Armee will march from Brest-Litovsk to Wegrow to deal with the only Russian unit between them and Warsaw (which has also finally been better garrisoned). We are moving a kavallerie and a single korps to Lubertow for better recon and assistance whenever von Frank's Armee decides to activate. Our kavallerie unit in Ruzhany had two battles to capture two retreating supply trains and got them both. They will be railed to Bielostock.

Von Hindenburg, who is really standing all alone with no reinforcements in sight, took on Dragomirov's Korps as planned. Plehve, from Dubno, actually commanded the Russian forces. Von Hindenburg, as usual, was outnumbered 79k to 106k but his breakthrough deployment badly damaged Dragomirov's Korps in the initial battle and he retreated to Dubno. Sakharov's Korps then came onto the battlefield and saw he was alone so he delayed battle against our kavallerie breakthrough but was nearly destroyed before making it back to Ostrog with 19 PWR. We lost a total of 4k men to 49k for the Russians, took 6500 prisoners and gained 2NM for the resounding victory. Should we follow up this great victory with an assault on Dubno? It only appears to have only 355 PWR there with badly beaten korps and a 48 PWR Citadel inside the level 1 fort with weak forces around it. I'm not sure what's in Rowno, but we will find out as the rail to Rowno goes through Dubno!

[ATTACH]38677[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Central Russia:[/color] Only Lauterbach's Korps is active and it will move to assault Konstantinov. Von Brlog, though inactive, will march there also just to get on the rail line. Khanzin's Korps is inside the city but recon says it is only a supply train. There may be two korps in Berdichev but we'll find out and hopefully get MTSG if needed. In Kiew, Barensfeld's Korps has been reconstituted but will stay in the region for now. Saltza'a Armee of one korps is formidable and will probably take Vasilkov to cut off supply for Kiew, but hopefully the Konstantinov assault will go well so one of the units can move up to relieve Kiew.

[ATTACH]38678[/ATTACH]

[seathom]

EARLY SEP, 1916 (cont.)

[color="#008000"]Southern Russia:[/color] I am beginning to think holding Odessa is not a good idea. We are railing Zottu's Korps out of Odessa to retake Kishinev and will hold for one more turn before deciding. Bucharest should be able to defend but forces seem to be closing in; it depends on how "well" the Romanian's fight. We may just need to pull back to Romania and defend the capital and fight from there.

[color="#8B4513"]Serbia:[/color] No moral victory - we were intercepted in Nish and lost a battle which most likely will spell the doom of the three units that just got pushed into Serbian controlled Leskovic. The forces will try to get to Tran in Bulgaria without enough supply to last the turn which will probably destroy the units (better this way than in battle, I think). With a ton of luck, the Ottoman's will be able to move deeper into Bulgaria, but this is more wishful thinking than anything else. More importantly, we will need to get reinforcements into Belgrade or lose it and bring the tough Serbians back into the war.

[color="#00FF00"]Ottoman Empire:[/color] With Edirne sufficiently defended, Mustafa Fevzi Pasha's Armee will rail to Tatar to meet a Bulgarian militia unit. It may be foolhardy, but we reorganized Ahmed Abuk Pasha's Korps and are going back to Stara Zagora for battle.

In the Caucasus, Esat Pasha's Korps did make it to Arpasay and defeated Lesh's Korps in a small battle. Lesh did manage to retreat out of the region this time with about 11k men. Djavid Pasha's Korps will go to Batum on conservative attack while Esat Pasha will rail to Ardahan. Another korps will detach from the armee in Kumany and will join in on the attack on Batum.

[ATTACH]38679[/ATTACH]

The Overall Situation: The Triple Entente has lost over 1.7m more men than the CP and the WE's combat power is finally under 100% of ours at 93%. NM stands at CP 145; EE 73; WE 42. No matter if all but one battle goes your way there is always something to fret about in this game - and I say you gotta love it.

[seathom]

LATE SEP, 1916

Diplomatic Situation: USA 37%CP; Greece 61%CP; Holland 50%CP; Denmark 50%CP, Sweden 48%CP. The current Russian alignment is 50%. Our diplomat was finally accepted in Sweden.

WESTERN FRONT

[color="#0000FF"]Belgium & N. France:[/color] Two korps were going to assault Bruges, however, they surrendered and lost one unit while we gained 200 prisoners, 2VP, 1NM and Bruges.

Von Bayern's Armee assaulted Charleroi. His forces of 233k men, 15k kav and 1710 artillery would have to break through the WE forces of 161k men, 6k kav, 756 artillery and 145 planes led by Dubois. The assault began with the entire armee using breakthrough deployment against Alderson's two korps inside the city who immediately began to prepare to withdraw but were outclassed by the German juggernaut. In the second round d'Urbal's Korps joined with the British korps as von Hausen aided von Bayern's HQ and brought von Quast's Korps with him to continue the onslaught. By the third round, one French korps was destroyed and in the fifth round d'Urbal's Korps joined his countrymen's korps in the graveyard of history, leading Alderson withered British korps to stand alone until the last round when his korps was also destroyed leaving only a French Field Hospital which was captured when retreating. In the end, we lost 23k men, 162 kav and 30 artillery while the WE lost 66k men, 1977 kav and 364 artillery. We also captured 14,400 prisoners, a field hospital, 118 WS, 5NM and Charleroi was our again.

No other fighting occurred.

[ATTACH]38681[/ATTACH]

[color="#0000FF"]Southern France:[/color] The south continues at a standstill although the megastack in Briey now consists of only several korps and recon tells us Kitchener's British Armee is in Aisnes, consisting only of support staff and 35PWR and on its way to Sedan.

[ATTACH]38682[/ATTACH]

[color="#008080"]Italy:[/color] Both sides settled for moving forces around. Von Krasnik's Armee moved down to Trento and Boroevic's Korps to Gorizia. The Italians are abandoning their eastern borders in favor of sending most of their korps to Treviso so they can be under the command of 3-star leader Frugoni who has not been given armee commander status (and thus 117 command points are required but only 27CP are provided). Their other 3-star leader, Brusati, is in Udine commanding an Infantry Division. Needless to say, the Italians are totally disorganized but can we blame Athena for that or is that just simulating history?

[ATTACH]38683[/ATTACH]

EASTERN FRONT

[color="#008000"]Baltic States:[/color] Gorbatovskaya's Korps, which has had some success against us, made a daring attack on Memel guarded by two korps. We defended well in a small battle. Both sides remain in Memel and we are well-situated for another victory.

The unit that took Gumbinnen is now in Goldap and possibly headed for Loetzen, which is well defended for a Russian force of one regular unit and 8 supply trains. Grodno's force became a bit smaller.

[ATTACH]38684[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Western Russia:[/color] Von Komarow's Armee battled Denikov's three korps in Wegrow. We won a small battle and forced a tattered Denikov to retreat to Siedlce. Von Frank's Armee is finally active!

Von Hindenburg assaulted Fort Dubno against five Russian korps led by Plehve. Once again, we were outnumbered 78k to 101k yet destroyed one korps, the garrison unit and captured a magazine while taking the fort. We lost 14k men to 46k for the Russians and gained 4600 prisoner, 4WS and 1NM. The 7-7-5 von Hindenburg continues to live up to his reputation.

[ATTACH]38685[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Central Russia:[/color] Lauterbach's Korps, under the leadership of von Bohm-Ermolli, assaulted Konstantinov and Batyanov's Korps that was defending the city. The assault was a one round success and we took the stubborn city.

[ATTACH]38686[/ATTACH]

[color="#008000"]Southern Russia:[/color] Zottu's Korps defeated the Russian korps in Kishinev and we took back the city. Odessa continues to stand firm! and Bucharest is in our firm control.

[color="#8B4513"]Serbia:[/color] Our forces miraculously made it to Tran safely and intact.

[color="#008000"]Ottoman Empire:[/color] We were too ambitious in moving a korps to Tatar. They should have gathered in Plovdiv for its defense against Toshev's three korps. Instead we suffered a defeat, losing 26k men to 29k for the Bulgarians, who also took 1k prisoners.

[ATTACH]38687[/ATTACH]

In the Caucasus, we have three korps ready at Batum and the Russian force is not daring to move against our forces adjacent to him.

[ATTACH]38688[/ATTACH]

The Overall Situation: I was surprised that Franz Joseph had not died yet because that event can occur starting in 1916 and would have resulted in a 10NM hit for the CP. Instead ...

[ATTACH]38689[/ATTACH]

The NM stands at CP 152; EE 71; WE 41. The CP lost 5,493,645 men and the Triple Entente lost 7,317,889. Almost 13m died because Serbian nationalists shot our beloved Ferninand Francis and his lovely wife on their wedding anniversary.

On the forums, someone replied to me that the fun of AGEod games is not the final victory but the process of getting there. This game can surely continue but won't. The process of getting here was a blast and I hope you enjoyed it. The back and forth movement of the lines was more enjoyable for me than the steady grind of advance I had in my first campaign that didn't end until Early June 1917 with the capture of Petrograd. In that game, I was at the doorstep of Paris and had won all of northeastern France but NM jumped from 128 to 150 with the 18NM gain from Petrograd and the victorious battles that occurred.

I am now looking forward to doing an AAR as the EE and writing it as a diary written by Czar Nicholas II.