The War Report. Entente vs. Central Powers.

[Jinx]

Reserved for

The War Report, Early March, 1915. Turn 16.

[Jinx]

Reserved for

The War Report, Late March, 1915. Turn 17.

[Jinx]

Greetings Gentlemen!

A rather droll turn. No large battles except a mess of air battles where I lost a pile of airplanes, the whole airplane battle report is pretty buggy. It becomes semi-transparent and doesn't interact with the mouse well.
But anyways! My fighter airplanes will finally be built within two turns, thank goodness. :-)

The snow and wet weather have muddied up the whole Alsace-Lorraine and Italian Karnten Fronts, which postpones the Great Metz Offensive until late April or even later if a late winter snow falls. But! We shall take it as an advantage and shift over another corps and a few pontoon brigades over too Nancy to outfit our armies there.
Although, I've been debating if I should redeploy my Striker Armies into Italy and shock the Austrians there. But, after a little thought, I think it may be better if I postpone that attack until a little later, as that surprise will be unexpected almost at any time. Whereas our armies in Alsace-Lorraine may be detected early, or the fronts reinforced.
So our current stance in Alsace-Lorraine is to hold, to fake, and shift in preparation.

In Al Basra, I think Halil Pasha has escaped us. My guess is that he will have to leave his supply wagon behind, so with a little luck we may be able to capture it. Although honestly I don't think we will be able too, with the evasion values the way they are he will most likely dodge us and try to meet up with his horsemen in Al Zubayr and late get picked up with the returning riverboat.
But even if he escapes, I think we may safely say he wont try to take Kuwait again, and if he does we will spring the same trap again. He will probably ignore Al Basra completely now, too risky and too time consuming. I've decided that after Basrah falls to us, and if the Ottoman Empire chooses to ignore this theater, we will probably do the same. We cant build riverboats, and without them it would be nearly impossible to reach anywhere significant.

The Sinai Entrapment. I still haven't figured out if the Sinai railway works without holding Port Said. But eh! Let him batter away at us across the Suez if he likes, At this point I am not too concerned just yet.
But we are postponing the Sinai Operation for a little bit because of heavy rains in the area. Besides, an Ottoman Army has dropped into El Arish, and although I may have missed my chance against Camel Pasha...hmmm, I still think I don't want to spring that operation until we are better situated.
Also, we have a opportunity eliminate Fehreddin Pasha Corps in Yemen. So we will shift Kitchener's Army into position to land in force against Fehreddin.
Our South Africa Corps haven't landed again, which is getting really irritating.

On The Sea.

Very little to report. Rotating fleets through the blockade boxes. No luck with my Anti-Raider fleets. Possibly I should split my three cruiser division fleets into single cruiser divisions...hmm. Any thoughts?

I'm shifting Kitchener to the Suez, to meet up with the marines in anticipation of landing in Yemen.

Welp, that's it for now. We ordered our usual fighter airplanes as well as artillery pieces, Italian mountain troops, and a few french reserves for the cold war.

Cheers for now!

The War Report, Early April, 1915. Turn 18.

[steelwarrior77]

Lets see what the unlucky BEF can do now ;-)

[Jinx]

Lets see what the unlucky BEF can do now ;-)

I think their luck is about to change. General Kitchener has a few tricks up his sleeve. :-)
There is an isolated Ottoman corps beseiging Yemen. Kitchener is about to teach the Turk to never ever risk attacking British sovereign territory within the reach of the Royal Navy.

[FlumenSV]

I think their luck is about to change. General Kitchener has a few tricks up his sleeve. :-)
There is an isolated Ottoman corps beseiging Yemen. Kitchener is about to teach the Turk to never ever risk attacking British sovereign territory within the reach of the Royal Navy.

Yep...underestimating the navy can be tricky

[Jinx]

Greetings Gentlemen!

Sunny skies has dried up the mud on the Alsace-Lorraine and the Tirol Fronts! Excellent luck! Our Armies have been ordered to march! Victory will be ours! :-D

To sum up the last weeks action, only a couple air battles not worth mentioning, both resulted in French defeats. The Austrians have moved a fleet of raiders into the Mediterranean shipping box and at least ten German raiders have been spotted in the Atlantic shipping box, successfully avoiding my counter raider patrols.
The Germans have shifted an equal force to face off against General Lanrezac's Holding Army in Mulhouse, and German Militia and Cavalry units move to fix the damage caused by to their railway lines by my raiders.

Beyond that, things where quiet.

But not anymore! With the clear weather, and the dry fronts, things will be heating up in the spring offensive!
General Joffre and General Pau of the Striker Armies have reported they are active and ready to move and have been ordered to cross the Mosel River and then to march north to Metz, excluding any delays, they will arrive in 8 days.
General Humber's Holding Army will join them in 11 days by crossing the Mosel at St. Mihial, not arriving in time for the battle, but possibly to finish off a tired enemy if my Striker Armies are defeated.
General Ruffey's Striker Army has been found inactive, but has been ordered to split his army in half and march both halves to Morhange so as to arrive within the next few weeks. If my theory is correct, the enemy at Morhange will MTSG to Metz, leaving Morhange wide open to occupation.
General de Cary's Holding Army has embarked on a risky venture, crossing from Luxemberg to Saar, to envelope Thionville from the north, between de Cary, Humbert, and Pau who will attempt to march into Lorraine, and if I manage supply correctly through my experience at Eifel, we may be able to envelope Thionville completely and at the very least, force the Germans to attempt to break through our hold on Saar and Lorraine to relieve the army there.
That is extremely likely, considering that if the force at Metz retreats to Thionville, he will have two armies (about 2000 CP) sitting in Thionville, and if he moves up his German Force from facing off against Mulhouse and drags a few Corp from the North Rhineland, he may have at least another 2000 CP available to attack.....Saar I would guess. If he attacks Lorraine I would have five armies present, if Saar then possibly I would have only three, or even two if we cannot MTSG across the river.

Either way, an exciting next turn!

We turn next to the Tirol Front, where the Italian Striker Army under General Armata Real, march across to Bozen, supported by an extra two Corp. The plan here, again risky in regards to supply, is to occupy Bozen and cut off the Austrian Army in Trento from supply, forcing them either to wait in hopes my theories on supply will crumble, break out by counter attacking my forces in Bozen, or to try march over the mountains to better positions, leaving me in virtual control of Trento.

Interesting again, it hinges on my theories of supply based on my experience at Eifel.

Then to Arabia,

I am quite pleased with this situation, Fahreddin Pasha's Corp is situated all alone in Yemen, possibly oblivious of the hammer blow that is about to fall. If he is aware of what is happening, all he can do is hope that my ships fail to sail and are delayed for 10 days. Otherwise 1500 CP Army of General Kitchener is about to hammer him to bits, and if he retreats, he can only retreat to Hijaz, where a full Corp of South Africa Troops will be landing to shatter him into even smaller pieces.
Hehe, with any luck that is...:-)

Our attempted entrapment of the Ottoman Halil Pasha's Corp in Al Bashan has fallen through, he has boarded his riverboats and whisked himself away leaving his supply cart behind. We failed in capturing an elusive supply train but may still see it in our grasp yet in the next coming turns. Once Al Bashan falls, within the next month or so, we will probably re-board our British India troops and plan to finish taking Africa.

Kamerun still fails to fall after being besieged for.....at least three turns. Plucky little colonists. Ah well, we must bide our time.

On The Sea.
Nothing to report really. We sent our French fleet to attempt to stop the Austrian Raiders in the Mediterranean shipping box, probably a fruitless attempt.
The British Royal Fleet has formed in the Blockade Box in the Atlantic and we will begin seriously take our role in blockading the German shipping, giving it our undivided attention.

On the Diplomatic Front.
As Bulgaria is near to joining the Central Powers with 94%, I have removed our Diplomat from Persia and replaced him on Greece, at 84% Entente. As I understand it, after Bulgaria joins, and as long as Greece is neutral, we will get the Salonika Event that when fired, removes much of Greek sympathies towards the Entente.
I think overall, we are doing quite badly diplomatically. Bulgaria is strongly CP, Romania is nearly as bad. Persia, although the no CP diplomats where sent, and we have spent at least five turns influencing, is 54% CP. The Lowland Nations are holding fairly steady, but all in all, a bit of a waste so far.

I think that about covers everything!
If you have any thoughts and requests for specific information, please let me know! I'm more than happy to comply.

Now....to finally open up the next turn................mauhahaha!

[Jinx]

Hmm a good turn! Although I do have one gripe. An independent cavalry raider division got wiped out in Metz, shot to the last man and horse. I lost 1 National Morale.
Then, I won a nice victory of 48800 French Losses to 54000 German Losses and the capture of Metz, but.........I didn't gain any Morale.

I am shocked that my nation was so distressed at the loss of a single division of Cavalry. The division amounted to the lives of 2800 horses and men. But the whole nation did not seem to care much that I WON a victory in a battle involving close to a million infantry alone!!!

[steelwarrior77]

Ha, yeah NM system could be overhauled ;-) Exciting turn - do you print money and if, how often in game?

[Jinx]

Ha, yeah NM system could be overhauled ;-) Exciting turn - do you print money and if, how often in game?

Hehe truth!
Well in my last game I chose not to print state funds, but that was rediculously hard right at the start. So I resolved in this game to print funds right at the start so I could rapidly deploy many troops, but after that initial splurge I haven't really printed anything.
All in all, about 3 or 4 times altogether. Possibly five as my inflation sits at 5%.

Thanks for asking! Haha! It's nice to get some feedback! :-)

[PJL]

I wouldn't put that diplomat in Greece just yet. Bulgarian entry into the war on the CP side will automatically increase Greek WE alignment by 10%, which could mean Greece automatically entering the war on the WE the following turn. If that happens, the Salonika event will never fire then.

[steelwarrior77]

Thanks for the answer - somehow I tried to play without printing money untill beginning of 1916 with the CP - but then due to a bug - that USA is always angered about sinking merchant ships - as long as there is any sea unit in the shipping box (even transport and merchant ships arrrghh!) - the USA entered early 1916 and now I am getting severly outnumbered...

[Jinx]

Thanks for the answer - somehow I tried to play without printing money untill beginning of 1916 with the CP - but then due to a bug - that USA is always angered about sinking merchant ships - as long as there is any sea unit in the shipping box (even transport and merchant ships arrrghh!) - the USA entered early 1916 and now I am getting severly outnumbered...

Did you have to print state funds after 1916? I think not printing anything makes the game pretty challenging for any side. You are forced to build up only slowly at a time when you need units in the field fast while the war is not quite static yet.

Did the Luisitania event fire in your game even though you only had merchants and transports??!!
USA seems way to likely to join the war, in our game the Luisitania was just sunk with only enemy light cruisers in the shipping box. Seems a bit unrealistic.

[Jinx]

I wouldn't put that diplomat in Greece just yet. Bulgarian entry into the war on the CP side will automatically increase Greek WE alignment by 10%, which could mean Greece automatically entering the war on the WE the following turn. If that happens, the Salonika event will never fire then.

Oh shoot. I didn't realize we would gain a boost to alignment in Greece. Hopefully it's not too late...

[steelwarrior77]

Did you have to print state funds after 1916? I think not printing anything makes the game pretty challenging for any side. You are forced to build up only slowly at a time when you need units in the field fast while the war is not quite static yet.

Did the Luisitania event fire in your game even though you only had merchants and transports??!!
USA seems way to likely to join the war, in our game the Luisitania was just sunk with only enemy light cruisers in the shipping box. Seems a bit unrealistic.

Never printed before - but now I do as much as I can before I get overrun in the West - also very annoying - since 15 turns I have the UK on 100% rebel alignement - but they do not retreat from the war...

The event did fire - and even with only my merchant and transport ships there ouuuuch....

[Jinx]

Never printed before - but now I do as much as I can before I get overrun in the West - also very annoying - since 15 turns I have the UK on 100% rebel alignement - but they do not retreat from the war...

The event did fire - and even with only my merchant and transport ships there ouuuuch....

That is completely idiotic. I think the devs need to fix this on the next patch. It will seriously unbalance any game.
I am surprised you got the alignment that high with only Merchants and Transporters in the shipping box! I've never really liked the whole rebel alignment thing as a means to withdraw from the war. It should be more along the lines of........HOI3, or even Crusader Kings 2 or something, by battles as well as territory. Much more reasonable.

[Jinx]

I wonder to what extent my raider units are causing irritation to the Kaiser. Is it just a mild annoyance? Or has it been a serious harassment to his railway lines and deployments.

Judging by the deployment of his militia brigades, I would cautiously say we are mild inconvenience. haha! Knowing Lance a little, if we where anything more I'm sure we would be hearing about it all over the forums!

But from my angle I can't really tell, the units have only a couple turns before their cohesion crashes and they get trapped, so I always miss the results of any railway line cutting. But I see an army stopped behind the lines, so I wonder if I managed to halt an his army from deploying.

But I believe it costs a little war supply to fix, and it ties up three times as many units as I use to conduct the raids. Halts any troop movement, and potentially cuts off supply in the corners.

I honestly think it's a viable tactic! Yet, I've never heard it mentioned on any of the AAR's and Lance hasn't fussed about it :-p (I say this with the utmost respect, if I had time to fuss about bugs on the forums I would, and as a result of his actions in sure the Devs have made a few changes for the better.)

But I do think I'm a bit of an experimenter, even though that could bite me any turn. I sent subs into the Baltic, I did a weird buggy escape out of Aachen that I could of completely suicided, possibly raiders (even though I understand CW2 also utilizes them?), and...my Striker armies, although I don't think I can claim credit for that. That goes to the Austria-Hungarian player in the massive TEAW multiplayer game on paradox (the one that finished recently) who gave me the idea.

But I will talk about Striker Armies in another post. Oh, and I will outline an idea for my next tactic that I will employ within the next few months: Collapsable Armies.

[Jinx]

Gentlemen, anything I write here is strictly confidential, and I will take amiss any hints and suggestions given to Lance where the thought originated on this thread. Likewise the same goes the other way.

Luxembourg must be supplying Thionville. It would. Although it is under WE military control, it's colors are still it's own and its flag still flies. That means that the two armies and the corp in Thionville will always be in full supply unless I can capture the territory. Thereby either bouncing them out into Lorraine, or sharing the territory with them.

This means I can either attempt to engulf and liquidate their army by not allowing it to escape through Lorraine (even though we never made a house rule about Aachen escaping with surrounded but non-besieged armies.
Or I can just envelope them behind my lines, which would be my last option. Enemh forces fully and eternally supplied (as long as they are sharing a territory with Luxembourg) 2500 CP Armies in Theonville behind my lines? Impossible and a disaster in the making.
Thirdly, I can pull the striker armies and attack elsewhere. Hoping the Kaiser doesn't realize that Luxembourg may be capable of supplying his armies.

Risky to attack, but the rewards may be huge if I manage to trap his armies in Thionville. But it will be very hard to do because as it stands, my forces will only outnumber his by a small margin.

I think I may hold back, hoping he evacuates and at the same time charge my striker armies against his troops elsewhere.

But this will have to be thought through carefully.

[Jinx]

(Written on Dec 11, 2014)

Greetings Gentlemen!

My apologies for the late update, I spent an inordinate amount of time deliberating over my next turn. I had a relatively easy day at work with at least 6 hours of paid standby time, but I spent that time puttering around going from two different battle plans and options. I actually think I did the Alsace-Lorraine front at least three uniquely different times.
Last turn was a stunning success! The three Striker Armies marched from Nancy, two armies under Joffre and Ruffey marched through Vale de Mosel and into Metz, meeting up with Humberts holding army in an aggressive attack against the German army Entrenched there.
Prior to the battle, our cavalry raider division was caught crossing the enemies trenches in Metz. They where all shot, man and horse, with no survivors. Our great nation was so dismayed by this battle that national morale dropped, and even the following victory we won in Metz a few days later, did nothing to improve the countries spirits.

A few days later, the great battle at Metz brought the German Corp from Morhange hurrying in, and the German Army in Thionville marched in to aid in this epic struggle which took place on the 10th day. On the 11th(?) day, Pau's Striker army marched into unoccupied Morhange and took it with a minor skirmish, wiping out a cavalry division and leaving only a few pitiful prisoners in our hands.

Then the great blow struck against Metz. Outnumbering the enemy almost two to one. The battle raged for three hours (hours? rounds? okay, seems a bit short.). But the enemy was overcome by sheer numbers and broke into a retreat.
The German Morhange Corp, realizing that Pau's army had taken Morhange behind them, fled in retreat with the rest to Thionville. Leaving the French army victorious!

I may not understand this battle report, but it seems both Humbert's Army and Ruffey's where not present for the fight, as well as the German MTSG forces. But regardless of this report, the German force did leave Morhange to join the fight in Metz.
These battles validate more strongly my Striker Army tactics. Of course this is only possible because of the Germans focus on the East, while only trying to keep the balance of forces in the west equal.

Then, the Lusitania was sunk, which is a little silly. All that Germany had in place on the shipping box is light cruisers, and therefore would not have to commit to unresricted submarine warfare! I think this event should be tweaked.

[Jinx]

Now we turn to the next turn.

In Africa it appears that the German Corp in Ost Africa has de-entrenched and is on the move to either British Africa in the North or Mozambica to the South. I'm assuming they are going North because....well because the card stack is higher up in the province rather than lower down. Haha! To counter this, I've trans-shipped my colonial forces from South Africa north, if they decide to move. They are extremely picky on where they go to and how long they take to get there.

In Al Basrah, the Ottoman river boats have arrived back to load up their supply wagons, we only have one more shot at capturing them. But my hopes are low, so I am beginning to clean up my troops and stack them in Basrah in anticipation of the cities fall, and then transhipping them other parts.
I'm purposefully picking off cities with a garrison, as when the garrison surrenders we gain a national morale point. As soon as we capture Basrah, the city itself is useless to me, and I plan to vacate it completely and only come back if it appears that I can crush an Ottoman Corp again.

In Arabia, General Kitchener is about to land in Yemen with his army, defeating them and sending them scurrying north to Hijaz, to be again defeated and either chased back south, or completely wiped out.
After his landing in Yemen, he will either be sent to try trap the Sinai army if at all possible, or to try wipe out the German Corp in Ost Africa.

I was trying to fit a screenshot of the Sinai here, but I have reached the limit of five pictures.
Either way, the Ottoman army is struggling back across the Sinai desert in full retreat. If my transports had arrived in my harbors in time, I would have loaded up an army and landed them right on top of the remnants of the Ottoman army. But that appears to be out of my hands for a while, possibly next turn an opportunity will come up.

Now we turn to the the Italian-Austrian Tirol Front.
After our bloodless (why?) victory in Bozen, we have somewhat trapped the Austrian Army in Trento. They can either escape over the mountains in Cima Vertan, hold in place waiting for my supply situation in Bozen to fall apart, counterattack into Bozen, or attack south into Italy (highly unlikely).
I think they will either wait me out, or try escape over the mountains. If it is the first case, we may have a nasty fight on our hands as I have sent the entirety of the Real's Italian Striker army against him with support from the south, but ultimately we may win and the ensuing Austrian retreat will either have him try going into the mountains at Cima Vertan where it will face my Italian mountain corp, or he may retreat to Bozen, resulting in another large battle.
If he does choose to retreat over the mountains, we will find ourselves in control of Trento, a strategic objective, and in a much less risky supply situation for Bozen. It will allow the Austrian army to escape, but other opportunities may come up in the future.

Now for the big one. The Alsace-Lorraine-Baden-Rhineland Front.

After deliberating over this for several hours, I have finally decided on a course of action.
I looked into the Luxembourg supply suspicion I had, and ran a test game where I had the Entente take everything around Thionville including Luxembourg, and leaving several German armies in place in Thionville. The German armies remained in full supply even though they where completely surrounded by French armies and had no land connection to German territory.
This result meant that I had to redo my initial turn plan, where I was only going to surround Thionville and starve them out. It also meant the Kaiser could leave everything in Thionville and no matter how far I get into Germany, they would remain in full supply and in full health! Their troops would recover any loses because of the depot and city there, and they would be a constant and dangerous menace to my supply lines.

Therefore, I have to eliminate their forces in Thionville.
Which also means I have to have enough forces in place to defeat the German retreat from Thionville.
Also enough forces to defeat any rescue attempt from outside Thionville.

So every other front is being stripped of any numerical superiority and even (in the case of the Rhineland) numerical equality. To cast into this vast pot around Thionville to secure and wipe out his armies there.

Joffre, Ruffey, and Humberts armies in Metz all have been ordered to attack Thionville on day seven, while Pau's army has been ordered from Morhange to Metz to secure against a German retreat from Thionville. Every other available corp's has been stripped from every front to secure against an attack in Alsace-Lorraine.
Along the Mosel River, anticipating a victory in Thionville, we have stripped away the Corps there to hurry to Lorraine.
In the Rhineland, the difference in strength between the French and Germans have tipped vastly in the favor of Germany, with 2-1 superiority. But we have risked this venture in an effort to eliminate Thionville, and preferring to lose our gains in the flat Rhineland in favor of keeping our gains in the mountains on our southern borders.

If we eliminate the three German armies in Thionville without allowing them to escape. We will force the Kaiser to shift a bulk of his force from the Russian front and to the French Front while he builds new forces, giving us a chance to catch our breath and possibly helping Russia enourmously. It will give us a massive national morale boost, allow us to possibly capture some of his artillery, capture some war supply, capture prisoners, eliminate his generals, eliminate his OHL, and secure Thionville from the supply of Luxembourg.

We must make the attack this turn, while the Kaiser is still reeling from his battles and before he has a chance to replenish his ranks and before a break-in or break-out can take place. We must keep up the initiative and drive before our chance is spent and before Russia falls.

[steelwarrior77]

Wow - brutal fights ;-) One thing that really works well with the game is creating tense and exciting situations...

[marek1978]

So what are striker and holiding armies?

Now we turn to the next turn.

In Africa it appears that the German Corp in Ost Africa has de-entrenched and is on the move to either British Africa in the North or Mozambica to the South. I'm assuming they are going North because....well because the card stack is higher up in the province rather than lower down. Haha! To counter this, I've trans-shipped my colonial forces from South Africa north, if they decide to move. They are extremely picky on where they go to and how long they take to get there.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]32643[/ATTACH]

In Al Basrah, the Ottoman river boats have arrived back to load up their supply wagons, we only have one more shot at capturing them. But my hopes are low, so I am beginning to clean up my troops and stack them in Basrah in anticipation of the cities fall, and then transhipping them other parts.
I'm purposefully picking off cities with a garrison, as when the garrison surrenders we gain a national morale point. As soon as we capture Basrah, the city itself is useless to me, and I plan to vacate it completely and only come back if it appears that I can crush an Ottoman Corp again.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]32644[/ATTACH]

In Arabia, General Kitchener is about to land in Yemen with his army, defeating them and sending them scurrying north to Hijaz, to be again defeated and either chased back south, or completely wiped out.
After his landing in Yemen, he will either be sent to try trap the Sinai army if at all possible, or to try wipe out the German Corp in Ost Africa.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]32645[/ATTACH]

I was trying to fit a screenshot of the Sinai here, but I have reached the limit of five pictures.
Either way, the Ottoman army is struggling back across the Sinai desert in full retreat. If my transports had arrived in my harbors in time, I would have loaded up an army and landed them right on top of the remnants of the Ottoman army. But that appears to be out of my hands for a while, possibly next turn an opportunity will come up.

Now we turn to the the Italian-Austrian Tirol Front.
After our bloodless (why?) victory in Bozen, we have somewhat trapped the Austrian Army in Trento. They can either escape over the mountains in Cima Vertan, hold in place waiting for my supply situation in Bozen to fall apart, counterattack into Bozen, or attack south into Italy (highly unlikely).
I think they will either wait me out, or try escape over the mountains. If it is the first case, we may have a nasty fight on our hands as I have sent the entirety of the Real's Italian Striker army against him with support from the south, but ultimately we may win and the ensuing Austrian retreat will either have him try going into the mountains at Cima Vertan where it will face my Italian mountain corp, or he may retreat to Bozen, resulting in another large battle.
If he does choose to retreat over the mountains, we will find ourselves in control of Trento, a strategic objective, and in a much less risky supply situation for Bozen. It will allow the Austrian army to escape, but other opportunities may come up in the future.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]32646[/ATTACH]

Now for the big one. The Alsace-Lorraine-Baden-Rhineland Front.

After deliberating over this for several hours, I have finally decided on a course of action.
I looked into the Luxembourg supply suspicion I had, and ran a test game where I had the Entente take everything around Thionville including Luxembourg, and leaving several German armies in place in Thionville. The German armies remained in full supply even though they where completely surrounded by French armies and had no land connection to German territory.
This result meant that I had to redo my initial turn plan, where I was only going to surround Thionville and starve them out. It also meant the Kaiser could leave everything in Thionville and no matter how far I get into Germany, they would remain in full supply and in full health! Their troops would recover any loses because of the depot and city there, and they would be a constant and dangerous menace to my supply lines.

Therefore, I have to eliminate their forces in Thionville.
Which also means I have to have enough forces in place to defeat the German retreat from Thionville.
Also enough forces to defeat any rescue attempt from outside Thionville.

So every other front is being stripped of any numerical superiority and even (in the case of the Rhineland) numerical equality. To cast into this vast pot around Thionville to secure and wipe out his armies there.

Joffre, Ruffey, and Humberts armies in Metz all have been ordered to attack Thionville on day seven, while Pau's army has been ordered from Morhange to Metz to secure against a German retreat from Thionville. Every other available corp's has been stripped from every front to secure against an attack in Alsace-Lorraine.
Along the Mosel River, anticipating a victory in Thionville, we have stripped away the Corps there to hurry to Lorraine.
In the Rhineland, the difference in strength between the French and Germans have tipped vastly in the favor of Germany, with 2-1 superiority. But we have risked this venture in an effort to eliminate Thionville, and preferring to lose our gains in the flat Rhineland in favor of keeping our gains in the mountains on our southern borders.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]32647[/ATTACH]

If we eliminate the three German armies in Thionville without allowing them to escape. We will force the Kaiser to shift a bulk of his force from the Russian front and to the French Front while he builds new forces, giving us a chance to catch our breath and possibly helping Russia enourmously. It will give us a massive national morale boost, allow us to possibly capture some of his artillery, capture some war supply, capture prisoners, eliminate his generals, eliminate his OHL, and secure Thionville from the supply of Luxembourg.

We must make the attack this turn, while the Kaiser is still reeling from his battles and before he has a chance to replenish his ranks and before a break-in or break-out can take place. We must keep up the initiative and drive before our chance is spent and before Russia falls.

[Jinx]

Greetings Gentlemen,

Even though I find myself always behind, all of these updated are written before I view the next turn.

I must say that after I reviewed the results in this turn, I was pretty upset.
I risked much last turn so that I could bear down on the German Armies in Thionville, stripping other fronts for the sake of trapping and crushing his three armies encamped with that ridiculous advantage of being continually supplied from Luxembourg.

Yet, a simple spoiling attack out of Thionville by the Germans was enough to stop my crushing attack against them. Why would the Kaiser send...260,000 Infantry up against my 840,000?? Utter nonesense and suicidal.
Yet that attack against me saved them. They attacked on day seven, the same day my attack was to take place. Yet it completely threw out every plan of engagement and let them sit idley by.
Meanwhile, because the risk I took by stripping away forces too crush Thionville, in the Rhineland the Germans won a series of victories that set the my two holding armies there reeling and staggering.

I felt utterly cheated of victory. Where does this stop? Theoretically, could I launch little cavalry raids against territories where I expect an attack? Could I leave a gaping hole in my lines, yet fill it by sending forth small divisions of troops in spoiling attacks against the enemy?

Sure I'm glad we won, our losses where half that of the Germans, but they more then made it up this turn in the Rhineland. Therefore the risk I took was utterly pointless as absolutely NO attack was made by my armies. Wasting their cohesion, supply, and a turn where they could have been better suited with my original plan of dodging north and making a quick strike IN the Rhineland.

I find this game is a lot like herding cats. Especially in Africa. Where for.......oh......15 turns now, certain divisons have persistantly been disinclined to be transported anywhere, and contentedly offloading themselves the second the next turn is being processed.

My frustration already was built up over certain events in my personal life. A friend of the family, who has lived 18 years without kidneys, passed away quietly at home alone at age 36.
I let the frustration boil over and spill into this game the second Joffre and the Striker armies failed to attack Thionville, and I was within a hairs width of quitting outright.

But reason has prevailed.

First we suffered a defeat at sea. In an effort to catch the German raiders in the Atlantic. I had divided my ships into single division units, with the idea that if one catches a raider, the others would join the fight.
Which, seemed to work for the most part, except, possibly because all my ships are set to G/G posture, when the battle was waged on the sea; my cruisers where also set to G/G postures.
We each lost two ships.

In Yemen, General Kitchener landed his troops and struck a victory against Fahreddin Pasha. Causing the Ottoman Commander to retreat to Meinah.

Where Commander Smuts of the South Africa British Corp met him and roundly defeated him again, wiping them out as a fighting force.

In Al Basrah, our forces there where not as lucky, and the Ottoman supply cart was loaded up on their riverboats and shipped up the river.

On the Tirol front, the Austrians Army trapped in Trento dashed over the mountains to safety, briefly engaging my mountain troops in Cima Vetana and dealing us a nice defeat. They will be out of our reach now. I am slightly surprised that the Austrians didn't attempt to hold out in Trento and wait for my supply in Bozen to fall apart.
But I imagine he didn't know how percarious my situation there was.

[Jinx]

We will now turn to the Alsace-Lorraine and the North Rhineland Fronts.

The attempted breakout into Metz from Thionville was battered back easily. We won a nice victory, but the victory that was snatched from our grasp in our planned maneuvers into Thionville was a great defeat for me.

In the Rhineland, the Kaiser saw his chance, and with 2-1 superiority of numbers, first fell upon us at the Battle of the Depot.

Then on to Trier, where he dealt us an unpleasant defeat and chased our troops back north to the Depot at Eifel.

A definitely unpleasant turn of events. Though I could possibly gain a victory if I sent my Striker Armies into Thionville in an attempt to repeat last turns orders. This might be predictable and could potentially be foiled again by another spoiling attack.
To add to that, it very well could risk the whole Rhineland conquests and my two armies there. Therefore, I decided to temporarily give up on Thionville, railing my Striker armies north to make a quick attack in the recent enemy gains in Trier, while sending one of my holding armies at the Depot to attempt to gain ground in Bonn.
Through defeat, we may possibly gain more ground then what we could have done if the Kaiser had played more cautiously in the Rhineland. At least this is my hope.

In regards to Thionville, we can only hope that the enemy will withdraw part of his forces through Saar, thereby decreasing his presence in the magically supplied place at Thionville, and allowing us to remove this menace to our supply lines.
My hopes is that he will attempt a withdraw, although I find it highly doubtful. I think his best bet would be to attack while I have holes in my fronts, maybe even another attack against Metz! With a supporting attack into Lorraine from the east.

Either way, we shall have to see how this plays out. All we can do is wait.

In Tirol, the Italian Striker army will rail into Venice to meet up with new troops and supply, and to recover a little cohesion. We will make one more push with this army before I set up a second stage in this theater, one of either railing in the French Striker armies for a surprise attack on multiple fronts, or landing the B.E.F. here in an equivalent strike down the coast of the Adriatic.

General Kitchener is being rapidly sent to stamp out the remaining German presence in Ost Africa, after wiping out the German Corp there, he will be sent north to the Mediterranean for a possible attack against Austria.

His other forces in Arabia are in an awkward position of not having much to do. I imagine we are drawing a large Ottoman Army against us in.....Jerusalem or something. Which is well and good! Because once Kitchener wipes out the German African Corp, the whole B.E.F. will secretly land in Italy for a quick strike into Austrian heartland.
In the meantime they must be a threatening presence, yet not get very far from the coast, so that we may load them up at a turns notice.

In all likelihood, this stage of the war in Italy will not happen until late in the year, or early next year. But there is always a chance of quick successes in Africa and a rapid deployment to Italy and possibly even a quick battle or two before the snow flies.

We are having some complications in ordering up some replacements in the War Production page in the Ledger.
This will be the second turn I was unable to order anything up.
Paul was the only one who had any luck, so I sent my turn to him so that he could order up some replacement chits. But even he couldn't order up anything for the French.

I've tried re-installing TEAW, and the also re-downloading the latest patch for my game. But still no luck.
Once I have a good internet connection, I'm going to see if I can find the previous version so that at least I can order up some units.

A puzzling note I have to talk to Paul about. I left upwards of 500 money, plus an additional 600 tied up in research that he could use, along with plenty of conscripts and war supply.
Yet I'm told that he has used all the money, and then suggests printing funds as well to buy enough replacements. Which seems very odd, why did my guess at chits required hit so far off the mark?

I recall I've read somewhere that one is to only order roughly 10% of the required chits needed every turn, that way nothing is wasted, and at the same time, that is all one needs.
I've tried this out, supply carts are expensive to get more replacement chits, so what I've done is that even if it says I need 32 odd chits, I only ordered 1 every turn.
Next turn it said I only needed 23 or so chits. Again I ordered 1.
Next turn I believe it was at 11 or 12 or so.
This could be a complete fluke, and I could be doing it wrong. Which would explain why Paul suddenly needed more moneys and such to boost my chit reserves from 10% needed, to 100%! Or even laying some by for the future and putting it at 110%!
Please if you have any info on this, please don't hesitate to let me know!

Cheers!

[PJL]

I think you're misunderstanding how replacements are shown in the replacement pool. The number at the top shows how much HP is needed to fill up all the damaged elements to full. However the tooltip will show the max allowed number of elements (total in the field?), how many are in reserve, and how many have been ordered this turn (the last two are also shown at the bottom of each unit type icon). But since HP is only part of an element (15 HP for example for an infantry element), that is why the top figure goes down so rapidly for each element you order.

And the reserve ratio (5% or 10% for example) is what you should build compared to the max number allowed as shown on the tooltip.

Ideally, the top figure should be in elements as well (any remainder rounded up, so for example if the top figure for infantry shows 18 HP then the equivalent element figure should be 3).

[Jinx]

I think you're misunderstanding how replacements are shown in the replacement pool. The number at the top shows how much HP is needed to fill up all the damaged elements to full. However the tooltip will show the max allowed number of elements (total in the field?), how many are in reserve, and how many have been ordered this turn (the last two are also shown at the bottom of each unit type icon). But since HP is only part of an element (15 HP for example for an infantry element), that is why the top figure goes down so rapidly for each element you order.

And the reserve ratio (5% or 10% for example) is what you should build compared to the max number allowed as shown on the tooltip.

Ideally, the top figure should be in elements as well (any remainder rounded up, so for example if the top figure for infantry shows 18 HP then the equivalent element figure should be 3).

Hmm, I see. I don't think I was that far off though Paul! Maybe I didn't explain my reasoning very clearly.
But thank you for explaining it more thoroughly! I didn't realize that a person was ordering elements but viewing HP (in the upper part of the box). Like you say, it would be ideal to have the upper figure in elements, or conversely, the lower figure in HP.

But does it conserve the leftover elements? In the case of infantry; I have 13 damage or HP or hits, I order one element or have one in reserve (15 HP). The next turn rolls in and I have suffered no hits, the one element is utilized and the top figure is deducted 15 hits. Are the 2 remaining hits wasted? Or are they carried over somehow and kept in memory for the reserve?

Or will the game not utilize the element UNTIL I suffer sufficient hits? (and those damaged units all are in a place where they can recover hits e.i. cities, depots etc.)

Because in the case of the former, I think I would suffer the hits temporarily and operate with no reserves until I suffer sufficient hits to utilize the purchased element fully.

[Jinx]

So what are striker and holiding armies?

Haha! Sorry for taking so long to get back to this! I'm always behind with everything. But I do want to talk about this sometime soon!

[PJL]

But does it conserve the leftover elements? In the case of infantry; I have 13 damage or HP or hits, I order one element or have one in reserve (15 HP). The next turn rolls in and I have suffered no hits, the one element is utilized and the top figure is deducted 15 hits. Are the 2 remaining hits wasted? Or are they carried over somehow and kept in memory for the reserve?

Or will the game not utilize the element UNTIL I suffer sufficient hits? (and those damaged units all are in a place where they can recover hits e.i. cities, depots etc.)

Because in the case of the former, I think I would suffer the hits temporarily and operate with no reserves until I suffer sufficient hits to utilize the purchased element fully.

As far as I know, the 2 remaining hits aren't wasted. The replacements are allocated to a depleted unit in a random way, but you get more in depots, forts and cities than in the open. And units that have elements totally destroyed can only receive a new element in a province with a structure.

[Jinx]

Morning!

Has anyone tried playing around with the traffic penalty? What are your thoughts and observations?

In our PBEM, we recently switched to v1.02 and with that came a traffic penalty option. Since there was no description on what the levels of the penalty did; I started up a fresh game, set the penalty to half and began moving various sizes of armies and corp across the plains in various weather.

Some interesting results!

It seems on average that armies did decently well, loosing a bit more cohesion then without a penalty. But anything upwards of a single army seems to have strong effects.

For example, two armies worth about 2000 CP marched on a clear day across the plains, at the end of the turn, they lost about 30% - 50% cohesion.

Those same to armies traveling in mud across plains, suffered 80% - 90% cohesion loss.

Another interesting case is where a force of 1500 CP crossed the plains in clear weather north to south, while a second 800 CP force crossed east to west on the same territory a day or two after the first force cleared an area and suffered 80% - 90% cohesion loss. Ending with only 119 CP and failed to engage the enemy at the end of their march.

These results could be because my TEAW files being possibly a bit scrambled and not the cleanest install. So don't take it as gospel truth. But it's interesting.

This may see the end of anything more then a single army and perhaps a couple attached corps making any attacks. Which will definitely be a game changer, and may provoke a more spread out advance, hard won gains, and more easily held territories in the face of numerical superiority. As it is (at medium penalty), I hesitate to make any attack unless I have under 1500 CP and still in clear superiority against the enemy.

It may need to be tweaked a bit, as all new features go, but I think this is a good thing, and it makes it nearly impossible to make any advance unless specific conditions are met.
It will eliminate any super stacks and therefore it will most certainly mess it up royally for the any attacker in a war of entrenchment. It will change the face of entrenchment warfar to one in which any attack against an enemy army will require armies to attack from multiple adjacent territories.

I'm excited for how it could change the face of the eastern front too! Russian defense will be a lot easier! We may even see an entrenchment line being formed!

Interesting indeed.

In our game though, I think it would be unfair to use the medium penalty, even the lowest penalty, especially at this stage of the game. After all, the bulk of the Central Powers advances is behind them, and they begin to drift into a more defensive war.

Russia would heap only a little benefit of any change, and the WE would definitely suffer the most.

I would consider possibly a switch to the lowest penalty over then winter. But to change now in mid operation is a little unfair.

Anyways! Has anyone tried this out?

[Jinx]

As far as I know, the 2 remaining hits aren't wasted. The replacements are allocated to a depleted unit in a random way, but you get more in depots, forts and cities than in the open. And units that have elements totally destroyed can only receive a new element in a province with a structure.

I see, thanks Paul! Good to have you on board!