Schlieffen Plan (Gold)

[Tamas]

Calvinus, for this 13 beta patches, only the IA is improved or others parts of the game ?

Don't forget that the interface and map improvements were already in place. We (the betas) have only encountered very few bugs (obscure situations) which Calvinus promptly solved so I am really very happy about this Gold version. The combat logs, the reorg window, the NW summary in the ledger, and minor touches like the sub warfare info on the map really made the game much more transparent and easy to use, which allowed us to concentrate on the AI. It has seen some major improvements.

[Franciscus]

I only have the ai set at about 60% and difficulty at about 50%. Those were the standard settings with the old game and I just continued with that. In the past I found that the slight increase in aggressiveness worked well. If the ai starts to get lazy I will bump it up a notch. I think I will try that later on as a test and comparison.

I am starting to be afraid of this AI . Great job, Calvinus !

[06 Maestro]

I am starting to be afraid of this AI . Great job, Calvinus !

I am already in that club. It is tempting to increase the aggressiveness right now just to see what will happen. However, in view of the current pre-stage of the "race to the sea" situation and the odd situation of 2 Russian Armies on German soil; I may just be crushed by the AI.

That would be-eh, embarrassing. I'll wait a bit longer before doing that. However, I can take a beating by the AI-life will go on.

The November turn has not been done yet-shall I max it out on aggressiveness?

[Franciscus]

The November turn has not been done yet-shall I max it out on aggressiveness?

Yes, do it ! After all, we only live once !

(PS: I am also impressed with the apparent "historicity" - ie, relative faithfulness to what actually happened in history - of your AAR. Seems much better in this aspect also relative to what I saw in my few pathetic attempts at playing WW1 (1st version). Have you also this opinion ? - or is it just the amazing map ?? :neener

[Tamas]

Yes, do it ! After all, we only live once !

(PS: I am also impressed with the apparent "historicity" - ie, relative faithfulness to what actually happened in history - of your AAR. Seems much better in this aspect also relative to what I saw in my few pathetic attempts at playing WW1 (1st version). Have you also this opinion ? - or is it just the amazing map ?? :neener

Needless to say, a human will always learn ways to trick the AI, so whenever I praise an AI I afraid of raising expectations too high, but my last game as Entente saw the German AI doing a Schlieffen which ended in the forest of Compiegne, one hex from Paris, where I decided to intercept with the French 6th Army in September, since it was dubious the BEF would reach it in time. The AI kept pushing and pushing until almost the last round, but of course I knew full well I could not retreat, and managed to hold them. At the end, I chased them back to the French-Belgian border but the AI did try very hard to knoc France out as per the warplan.

In the Entente game before it, they attacked straight through the border (Kronprinz Plan), swept me away near Luxembourg, and were stopped only after they repeatedly failed to take Reims on their push toward Paris, but it was tough call which one of us was more exhausted.

[06 Maestro]

Yes, do it ! After all, we only live once !

(PS: I am also impressed with the apparent "historicity" - ie, relative faithfulness to what actually happened in history - of your AAR. Seems much better in this aspect also relative to what I saw in my few pathetic attempts at playing WW1 (1st version). Have you also this opinion ? - or is it just the amazing map ?? :neener

The Western Front does resemble the historical campaign somewhat. The 2nd Army is now way out of position, but this could be a benefit for Germany in building the northern front. The French move into the Rhineland is another twist. The fall of Metz is not too unusual, but the move further north is-my fault. I could have used reserves from someplace to maintain the front-lesson re-learned.
The Eastern Front is quite a bit different. The Russian AI chose the plan targeting Berlin. This has made things much easier for the A/H forces-and made things quite a bit more difficult for Germany.

I need another vote to let the AI go banzai.

[enf91]

BANZAI!!!!!!! Show off what this baby can do.

[06 Maestro]

BANZAI!!!!!!! Show off what this baby can do.

Well, I decided to wait one more turn before letting it rip-I will have a better defense by then.

[06 Maestro]

It is getting close to the inter-phase period where various political and production changes come about.

The Political options are several pages long. I have chosen two different views of the German and A/H choices.

The first is Germany's options. Calling up conscripts is a given. There are a few that are obvious choices each time-some are more strategy specific.
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The Austro/Hungarian Empire have most of the same choices. This is a few of the next couple of pages of choices.

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[06 Maestro]

Even though Germany is running a slight budget deficit at this time, it seems like a good idea to help out the A/H's. There is a handy little mechanism to do this.
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The "national moral" is doing fine among the CP nations. A/H is the blue line in the graph. The only reason that is would have dropped slightly is because of the growing battle losses-they have not lost a major battle yet.

Turkey is doing great because of its victory in Kars at a fairly low cost.

Germany has taken a light dip both because of high losses and the loss of Posen.

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[06 Maestro]

Technological research has been moving long fairly well. I still have the special event to speed research, but am saving that for the more difficult projects ahead. These are the projects already completed.

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Unit construction is well underway in Germany. The 14th Army will be the next big reinforcement coming-it seems like a good idea to add to that arriving force. Another big strike force will come in handy for the Grand Offensives.


A/H is building some mid grade infantry corps. They may need some low grade outfits too in case of rebellions-always a possibility for all the powers.

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[06 Maestro]

As luck seems to be on the CP's side, a major sortie is planned for November. The BC Fleet will conduct a raid on the south east English coast while the HSF wil make a "control" mission in Dogger Bank. With some luck a small part of the RN will be caught and destroyed.

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[06 Maestro]

The planned raid on the English coast did not materialize. As it were, there was a rather large RN Fleet-like the whole navy very close to Germany. I knew there was a fleet there from Uboat action, but thought is was a small outfit-not so.

The following battle took perhaps 5 rounds. I tried to withdraw (flee) a couple of times before it worked. It was night time before I was able to escape-not really sure if that was a factor or not.

I must admit that I really do not have a good understanding on how the naval battles are to be fought. I did notice rather quickly in this one that I began by choosing the wrong contact option-live and learn.

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I was able to get a picture of the RN-it appears very briefly during the battle. It takes a couple rounds before you get a feeling for what is out there.

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And the conclusion of the great battle. It could have been worse-the HSF was clearly getting the worst of it as the battle wore on.


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[06 Maestro]

There was some other naval actions in November-but without loss-the German Navy was lucky. In addition to this close near the Falklands, the Karlsruhe was almost caught on its belated raid on the Congo port.

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[06 Maestro]

A/H -Russian Front
November 1914

The Aggressiveness of the A/H forces needed to be toned down. Defenses were stiffening and the front getting thicker with Russian forces. It was time to put the new defense doctrines to work-and save manpower for next spring.

There were a few more actions that had to fought to achieve a good defensive line-then there would be rest.


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[06 Maestro]

The Serbian Front was also beginning to solidify.

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[06 Maestro]

The Turkish fronts were in good shape as the year closed. The British were in Egypt in strength, but some units were seen moving back towards Suez-possibly for movement to another theater.

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The Turk Army in Gaza was quite a strong force. Perhaps the ai deduced it would not get far by attacking there.

The Armenian Front is cut up by some large mountains. About 50% of the area is impassable. After the front solidifies in this area, any advance will come at a very high price.

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The English Army has shown up in Kuwait. Turkish forces will move forward, but supply problems may force them to go back to Baghdad.

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[06 Maestro]

In East and West Prussia the pressure was put on Russian forces. Although there will be no crushing defeat of their forces this winter, the Russian forces will have to withdraw or risk being cut off in the spring.

The 10th Army did a good job in threatening the Russian north flank with a successful attack and breakthrough.

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[06 Maestro]

Western Front
South Sector
Nov/Dec 1914

The southern sector saw one large battle, at Metz and several small ones. Metz was attack by the 6th Army-from the south. It was an expensive contest, but it had to be won. In the end, the French were driven out, this dooming all their forces in the Rhineland.

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[06 Maestro]

Western Front
Overview
Nov 1 1914

The overall situation is not looking too good for France at this time. I think that it still has the armed forces, but there are key units cut off now-not close enough to help in the critical coming battle.

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[06 Maestro]

Western Front
Northern Sector
Nov 1 '14

As the decision was made to capture aris, not too much else was pressed for. It was desired to insure the right flank was covered and that the French Army in Soissons was tied down so it could not interfere with the movement of the main body of the 1st Army.

The second Army had to move into Ghent otherwise the front would lengthen even more-a possibility of a big battle with the BEF, but it had to happen.

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There were two small battles-one in which the German attack had to be broken off. Again, the prize was Paris.

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[06 Maestro]

Western Front
Paris
November 1914

A strong detachment of the 1st Army pushed straight through Compiegne with the main body of the 1st Army following behind. In case of a major battle before the siege, several corps were placed into reserve.

As it developed, there was no French Army to fight-all were busy elsewhere. There was one corp in the city as a garrison and the forts were intact.

Going into this situation without siege artillery makes it difficult to count on victory. Siege artillery was en route from Belgium with a detach corp from the 2nd Army, but they were still far away. In any event, the 1st Army was close enough to possibly make a decisive push. Under this circumstance, the infantry were going to have to carry the battle-and eliminate the forts. This is a very expensive way to fight. It would be foolish except in the circumstances of ending the war. (in the game, capturing Pris before 1915 is an automatic victory).

The first Army pushed on...
This is the better part of the 1st Army actually in Paris.

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I started off the siege with the obligatory barrage. Unfortunately, the barrage did not destroy the forts. It would now fall almost entirely on the infantry. Before conducting an assault, I used the besieging operation-which can be used only once as the bombardment can. Next up was the assault. I put a veteran Inf corp (28th) on the assault line with the field artillery (which I never tried before). It was damaged in one attack. It was replaced with another veteran corp, the 10th INF. The 10th was also damage and placed into reserve. Next up was the Regular corp, the 33rd-it was battered and removed from battle. The 28th was then thrown back into the attack-again with the artillery. At some point in all this the fortress was neutralized-and another corp was withdrawn from battle. after the 5th or 6th attack-Paris surrendered!

To make a habit of capturing forts like this will bring on defeat for sure. In this case, it worked out well.

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[06 Maestro]

So, not quite home before the leaves fell, but close.

I have run through this scenario multiple times in the old game. The opening of this campaign was about average for the "proper start". What really made this work all the way was the French capturing Metz. Normally, there would have been more French forces arriving around Paris.

This plan is not the easy way to go to win this war as the German player-there are easier options. To make this work you can't miss a breakthrough attempt in the first 3 turns. The advance is slow enough even getting two provinces per attack-some of the time.

I got caught up in the game and sort of got away from making comparisons with the old version. Other than the obvious appearance differences, there is a whole new feel for the game. The scrolling and cursor accuracy is vastly improved. Also, as I mentioned before, the battle AI is much better. It may look like this was too easy, but I know that it would take me another 3 or 4 tries to achieve this same win.

I was not planning on this ending so soon-this means I must start another one. I will try one that I never attempted before-either hitting the nice Swiss folks-or just hitting France. To keep England out of a long term war is a good thing-maybe I can win after a few years.

Hope you all enjoyed this installment of WW1 (I did)-be back real soon!

P.S. Next game I will set the AI on full power. This time I had it on a little over half-I'm sure it will make a difference. We will find out soon.

[PhilThib]

That was absolutely thrilling and extremely interesting....

The most interesting part is that what happened in your game is so close to von Schlieffen's wildest dream... in his plan, capture of Paris was not necessary and would come later...but a key element in his plan was that French would attack in Alsace-Lorraine...and his recomendation was "please let them in..." as he knew this would trap them too far away for reacting to the move through Belgium...

Bravo

[Tamas]

Indeed, it appears that the French doomed themselves to failure with their breakthrough into A-L.

Personally, I hate the Schlieffen Plan because the AI seem to be more adapt in it than I am :P
But I think its actually a good warplan. You get to have max. possible National Will, and even if you miss Paris you can to a degree choose where to achieve numerical superiority against the French forces and hit them there.

For example, the Kronprinz Plan, the direct attack accross the French-German border is a big cointoss, altough I certainly enjoy the carnage. The rate at which manpower reserves dry up for both powers can be staggering and pretty dramatic.

[Clovis]

Just a point. I would like to have the J MASS graphical mod for Battle windows as an option...

http://www.ageod-forum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=6306&d=1235817881

[calvinus]

06 Maestro started his AAR before the introduction of an important AI improvement, that we worked out 1 week ago: abandonement of warplan priorities in case of big danger!

That means the French AI would have abandoned her willingness to attack Metz and the surrounding areas when he had realised the threat to North France! And probably she had moved all those forces to defend Paris.

I think the game would have been somehow different...

[Lannes]

I am excited to see the gold version

[06 Maestro]

Thanks for the comments. It was good fun,challenging and interesting.

I'm considering the Kronprinz Plan next time around-should be much more of a battle of attrition.

In my haste last night I forgot the final game view; the victory screen-without further adieu...

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[Lannes]

Great victory commander, same if against my country.