Bill101

I'd like to give my well deserved thanks and congratulations to Ivanov for soundly thrashing the Entente and reaching Paris! That was great fun to play, I really thought my French could hold them for a while but eventually the dam broke and it was very hard to stop them from then on. I did overestimate Foch's effectiveness in launching a counter-attack from the south, and perhaps should have used my numbers in the north to greater effect. We have made one small change to this campaign since, which was included in patch 1.02, which was for the French fortresses to provide some fire against any German units in their vicinity.

Case Neptune, that takes me back, and yes, it was a lot of fun!

Glad to hear you're en route to a solution Mike!

This looks really interesting, what war is it from Xenon141?

Wintgens attack on the Portuguese continues successfully, and we are now poised to strike either Mueda or Mocimboa da Praia. Or both. Von Lettow-Vorbeck captures Fort Maguire and the Entente’s defensive strategy in this area looks to be in a bad way, depending on what reinforcements may be on their way. Those Portuguese are going to be lucky to escape to Fort Johnston with their lives! Major Kraut now makes his surprise move at Neu Langenburg! He’s advanced round the British northern flank, liberated Mbejahof, and now has the enemy caught between two fires.

Reinforcements are arriving! We have one British division and three French to deploy, so the British occupy Versailles and the French form up in front of them. De Castelnau, one of our best generals, has arrived to command the defense. Epernay is liberated to the north east of Paris, and further south, to stop von Moltke crowing about his successes against the BEF, they destroy the German division that was occupying Fontainebleau. Never, ever, underestimate the British soldier, Mr Moltke! Foch’s survivors also take a toll of the enemy – even though they can only follow the last orders he gave from his Headquarters before it was overrun by the enemy. But his last orders were to stand firm and attack the Boche wherever he can be found, and they are doing so just as well now he’s gone, as they were when he was around! The Germans only have a few turns left in which to capture Paris if they are to win the war. They’d better hurry up!

Palma is taken from the Portuguese! Their defenders are destroyed as Wintgens leads his men to victory. Meanwhile, von Lettow-Vorbeck now has Fort Maguire directly threatened as the 4th King’s African Rifles were defeated in a valiant but futile attempt to halt our advance. Neu Langenburg is re-garrisoned and an enemy unit of Levies destroyed. The situation here is a little precarious, but that is the price of our commander’s advance into Portuguese territory. It looks as though the enemy spotted my small force that was advancing on Dar-es-Salaam from the south. It was too weak to liberate the city, but sufficiently strong to distract the enemy from operations elsewhere. So, mission accomplished!

Sir John French extricates from the B.E.F. from the enemy’s proximity, marching south towards Montargis, while Foch is regrouping his army to the south east of Sir John French. Both are satisfied with their actions because large numbers of Germans have been kept occupied in fending off our counterattacks, preventing them joining the march on Paris. Now that Verdun has fallen, our forces there are withdrawing to take up new positions in the Ardennes, though Fort Marre to the northwest of Verdun will be held to the last. Our defences at Paris are being strengthened and the Germans on the outskirts are digging trenches. Oh yes, last but not least, von Bulow’s HQ is attacked and damaged. Who said that we have lost our bite?

Wintgens and von Lettow-Vorbeck continue their respective advances into Portuguese territory, down the east and western sides of the colony. Enemy resistance is overcome, though it looks as though the British are shoring up their defenses near Fort Maguire, and the Belgians have sent some Recon Bombers too. Wahle rests his men at Ujiji this turn, pending the next bout of fighting. Meanwhile, Kraut discovers that an enemy advance on Tabora was merely a distraction, as the village of Kitunda to its south west was taken by the British, but then evacuated. A little operation elsewhere is also planned, details to follow once all can be revealed…

Hi Mike Within the game's main folder there should be an ERROR folder. Hopefully there will be a Error.sav file along with an Error.txt file within that. The best thing I can recommend would be to send these to Hubert at support@furysoftware.com so he can take a look. Whether or not that is the problem is of course a different question!

Our advance into Portuguese territory is going well, both in the west and in the east! Portuguese African Levies are really no more than speed bumps, and two are destroyed with another badly damaged. The British Nandi Scouts also take a hammering. Given their low supply level, one has to wonder what are they doing North East of Fort Maguire. Were they planning an ambush perhaps? Wahle carries out a successful mobile operation at Usinge, to the east of Lake Tanganyika, to free our Askari at Usinge from the clutches of the British advance there. The British lose a regiment in the process.

A German division wins a medal for retreating the furthest away from the enemy, as its leaders cannot convince their men to stand up to our French infantry. Still, it took a good hammering each time we attacked before it fled, so we’re happy! The mission to cut the German spearhead off from the rear was successful and has achieved its purpose: to disrupt German supply and therefore weaken the fighting capacity of the units at the front. Now we must regroup and survive. With that in mind, Verdun itself will be given up as it no longer has the strategic importance it had before.

Thanks, this does help and I'll do what I can to address the issue. I don't want to prevent strategic possibilities arising from a different, and bold, deployment, but certainly the risks need to be balanced.

We've been looking into this some more and as the two Russian units arrive by script, by taking their destination locations, it is preventing them from arriving. Changing them so that they arrive in the Production Queue, designated to arrive at the same locations, would fix the problem of their non-appearance, as the Russians would still be able to deploy them nearby if they lost these towns. However, while I'm happy to make that change, a necessary one given what you've explained, I wonder if it's the whole answer. The question is, if those Russian units were still to arrive nearby, how useful to the Germans would this bold advance on Grodno and Bialystok be? If it's 50/50, then I'll just fix the unit non-arrival issue. But if it's a very useful move for the Germans to do, even with the problem fixed, then perhaps a different solution is in order. For instance, we could have a Russian Corps start the game at Bialystok, so that the German cavalry can't just march in unopposed, but the Corps could be at strength 5 so that it isn't yet fully mobilized. Russia could be given some extra MPPs to compensate for having to reinforce the unit. Please let me know what you think. Thanks! Bill

Yes it does thanks, and I will have to look into this further. In terms of the unit name still being available in the purchase screen, scripted unit names are always available until the unit deploys.

The Portuguese lose Kionga and their Askari unit too! Wintgens is our hero in the east, and von Lettow-Vorbeck may well be our hero in the west, as a large German force is now advancing south down the eastern side of Lake Nyasa. Wahle succeeds in destroying those pesky South African cavalry near Lake Tanganyika. Despite the joint attacks of thousands of British and Belgian troops, Germany still retains a strong presence here, and we intend to hold it for as long as the war continues. Here is the situation in April 1918:

A German division is destroyed at Verdun, proving that France has not yet lost its bite! Another German division succumbs near Nogent, this time to a joint British and French attack. Let us say this again just so that the Kaiser gets the message: Is the B.E.F. downhearted? No! Foch destroys a third German division at Chantilly, and sends his forces northward to join up with de Langle de Cary’s troops who are advancing south from Bar le Duc. By advancing on St. Dizier, which our reconnaissance planes showed to be undefended, then German supply near Paris will be even lower than it currently is – and it isn’t very good at the moment. Paris is now fully garrisoned and it awaits the enemy’s attack with high hopes of success.

Thanks very much for running this, it's been great to read and to see how the battle has turned around. I seriously thought we were going to see the Kaiser having dinner in Paris at one point! By late October, historical factors like the withdrawal of Bulgaria, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire from the war would seriously impact on Germany's National Morale - especially if the Germans weren't near Paris at that time. So given the situation, the Germans have made the right decision to spare lives. Great stuff!

Hi The chances are cumulative, so get all your ambassadors to lay it on real sweet and hopefully you'll be rewarded with better relations/a new ally in due course. Providing of course that the enemy hasn't also had the same idea...

Hi The engine should allow the unit to be deployed at a nearby resource, so the unit is not lost but merely diverted from its intended location.

Nice one Jakub!

Von Lettow-Vorbeck has very bold plans to win the war! I've deleted the message now. I realized I'd posted it in the wrong thread straight away, but for some reason didn't manage to delete it properly last night. Must have been tired!

Dar-es-Salaam has finally fallen, and we must salute its brave defenders for their heroic stand. Wintgens has outmanouevered the Portuguese, and is now poised to liberate Kionga. The most surprising thing is that the Portuguese forces are deployed along our frontier, but have failed to garrison Palma! Wahle succeeds in liberating Usinge and beating some South African cavalry to within an inch of their life. Was it a wise move on Wintgens part? It’s too early to tell, but it was certainly a bold move!

Von Moltke is definitely piling on the pressure and it cannot be denied that the fighting is very intense. But we succeed in launching numerous counter-attacks this turn to weaken the enemy’s assault units. Foch is the most successful, destroying a German Brigade that was threatening Bar-sur-Aube. Sir John French is steadily withdrawing the B.E.F. in the face of the German advance, and he was disappointed at one German infantry division which fled when attacked by the British 3rd Division. Is that a sign of the Hun’s falling fighting spirit?

Ah, I thought I didn't recognize the event image just above! Can you email me the original to me please? To: bill.runacre@furysoftware.com. I must admit that I have lost the place in previous games, but that might be due to not considering its retention a high enough priority when the Whites are advancing en masse everywhere else. Hence I left one unit to defend it, and that obviously isn't enough. I'll take a look at the terrain as I think we just need to add a little river to it.