Airboy's Central Powers AAR

[airboy]

Germany WWI 1914 Strategy

The Central Powers are fighting a three front war in 1914: France, Serbia and Russia. The UK is almost certain to enter the war against the Central Powers which brings about a blockade of Germany. The Central Powers can easily win a one front war. The more fronts that are open, the more likely they are to lose.

Future Allies & Enemies:

Potential future allies that will commit troops are the Turks and Bulgarians. Potential future allies that will engage in trade are Holland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

Potential future enemies are Italy, Romania and the US. A US entry could easily lose the war. An Italian entry provides yet another front to fight on.

War Goals:

This is likely to be a large scale war of attrition. The war can be won if the number of fronts are limited and if technological efforts produce superior troops. Production centers and booty are more likely to be gained in the East than in the West due to relative troop strengths and defensive terrain features. If Serbia and Russia can be knocked out of the war, then African possessions of the UK and France are easy targets.

Given the terrain in the West, knocking France out of the war quickly is probably impossible. There are two important reasons for this. First, there are a series of rivers running east to west that make natural defensive lines. Second, the UK can easily reinforce France and the British Navy can be used as mobile heavy artillery along the Atlantic coast.

The East is a different story. Both Serbia and Russia cannot be easily reinforced with ground troops. Serbia is a very tough nut to crack given the mountainous terrain. Russia is wide open. Warsaw is a strategic morale center. If Russia loses it, the national morale takes a big hit. The Central Powers can get additional ground troops from the Turks and the Bulgarians if they can be persuaded to enter the war. The Turks add another front to Russia, making the Czar’s job even harder. The Central Powers also control the Baltic.

If the US enters the war the Central Powers will probably lose.

Naval goals are to prevent the British from gaining entry into the Baltic and to damage UK trade. Preserving the Baltic fleet is vital. Damaging UK trade should not be done at the expense of risking a US war entry.

1] Prevent US entry.

2] Prevent Italian entry.

3] Concentrate on knocking Russia out of the war.

4] Entice the Turks to enter the war.

All of these goals suggest not declaring war on Belgium!

[airboy]

August 1 - 1914

Several major tactical decisions must be made to make my tactics follow my strategy.

The set-up for this scenario cannot be adjusted by the player. This is reasonable given the strict WW1 mobilization plans used by all major combatants. Russia, Serbia and France have declared war on the Central Powers. The UK will declare war almost immediately (leaning 99% to the Entente).

I start using operational movement to shift troops from the Belgium frontier to East Prussia. Calvary corps are all traveling by foot as are some corps located towards the east.

All troops on the German/French border remain. I take the French city of Sedan and Luxemburg which are both open. German troops take up defensive positions just inside the French border. No attacks are made.

German morale cities are easy to defend. Konigsberg in East Prussia has had multiple corps use operational movement to screen it. Strasbourg and Metz on the French frontier have all of their original corps on that front. It is easy to defend with hills, woods and rivers. Only Metz could be directly attacked in turn 1, and it is a fortress city that would be darn hard to hit.

I start moving my heavy artillery unit from the Belgium frontier towards the French frontier.

I have two subs in the Atlantic and they start moving towards UK shipping lanes. Several more subs in port in the Baltic or the North Sea are launched. Main German and Austrian fleets stay in port.

No research or diplomatic investments. Everything is being spent towards getting my German troops in position to hammer Russia.

I decline to use unrestricted submarine warfare. Although this is more effective against the UK, it will make the USA mad. Also, Germany will not win this war on the seas. They are a land power.

I disregarded Moltke the younger's advise to attach France through Belgium. The Kaiser is ignoring him.

Austrian forces are moving to defend the national morale cities of Przemysland and Lemberg. The Galacian Oilfields are defended by a corps. Tarnopol and Czernowita are left undefended on the Russian frontier. They cannot be defended against the huge wave of Russian troops that are coming.

[i have the saved games, but don't know how to do screen shots. If someone can PM me how to do that I can add pictures. And don't tell me to look up how to do it on my own - I'm way too busy right now].

[airboy]

The UK enters the war even though Belgium was not attacked by Germany.

The UK has started to blockade Germany. Not much can be done about it. Germany does not have the Navy to challenge the UK outside of the Baltic. Germany is going to suffer. I need to win before the blockade eventually strangles me. But this will take a long time.

The German troops continue to slog (or ride on horseback) across Germany towards East Prussia. Hindenburg comes out of retirement (this costs points but is well worth it).

Only 3 German Corps remain on the Belgian frontier close to the city of Liege. They are retained to guard against a sneak attack on Belgium by the Entente or against an attempted invasion of my close ally Holland.

A huge wave of Russian troops start attacking Austria. Several corps are damaged but none are destroyed.

No units on either side have been destroyed. The central powers have not spent production points on new troops, research, or diplomacy. Everything is going towards operational movement.

Austria decides to take most of their mobilized forces and send them to the Russian frontier. Serbia can wait. Serbia cannot knock me out of the war. Russia could potentially crush Austria before the German army arrives.

I need to take a moment and describe victory conditions. The key element is national morale. If national morale drops to 1%, then the nation surrenders. National morale is impacted if your cities are captured and if valuable units are destroyed (not damaged). The more expensive the unit is to produce, the bigger the morale hit if the unit is totally destroyed. This is not easy to do as land units start with 10 steps. You must knock a unit to 0 before it is destroyed. For this reason it is critical to kill off weak enemy units when you get the chance and also vital to reinforce your own damaged units.

You take a huge morale hit if "morale cities" are taken. This is why I'm careful about certain Central Powers cities. If you lose your capital the morale hit is massive. As a country's morale drops, the fighting ability of the troops also tends to fall. This is why my 1 year objective is to take Warsaw - a national morale city of Russia.

Smaller morale hits are taken if your ally loses an important city. Bigger morale hits are taken if an allied country is knocked out of the war.

Right now I'm fighting a totally defensive battle on the German/French border while trying to survive the Russian onslaught.

In the first couple of turns I give the Ottoman Empire a very good cruiser and also give them a bunch of industrial points (think money or supplies) as a big "scripted event."

Again, make strategy drive your tactics. Suck up to the Turk to lure him into the war to weaken Russia. Don't do anything to make the USA angry (unrestricted submarine warfare or attacking Belgium). Take out Russia first. Don't send the Baltic fleet surface units out to prevent the UK from entering the Baltic.

[airboy]

Western Front:

German heavy artillery and one rail gun are on the French frontier. 4 Corps on the Belgian frontier to protect against the massive buildup of French/UK troops on the Belgian border.

Serbia:

Have taken Valjevo and have started attacks on Belgrade.

Russia:

I now have 9 German corps and several detachments (weaker infantry units) in East Prussia. Have pushed German attacks towards Kutno and Novo Georgievsk in Russian Poland. Heavy attacks on the Baltic area of East Prussia have caused the destruction of a German detachment and the loss of Memel.

Russia has committed the vast majority of their mobilized corps to a massive attack on Austria. Austria is holding the major morale cities, but have lost some peripheral cities.

The AI attack pattern for Russia has left their morale city of Warsaw weakly defended while trying to push attacks on the most strongly defended terrain in the east - Austrian mountains. They are also pushing attacks in East Prussia on a front that is narrow because of large marshes.

The first German calvary units will hit the German/Russian Polish border at the end of the turn! Looks like I may be able to hold off the Russian hordes in Austria and in East Prussia. Infantry is slowly marching across Germany. I'm still using operational movement to push a couple of corps every turn.

Overall, I spend most of my military points reinforcing damaged units in Austria and Prussia. It is far less expensive to reinforce heavily damaged units than it is to replace them. Also, heavily damaged corps that are not actually destroyed do not cause a morale hit.

Foreign Policy:

Several factors have pushed the Turks to an 83% position towards the Central Powers.

1] I gave the Turks an advanced Cruiser

2] The UK refused to turn over a modern battleship that was due to delivery to the Turks

3] I gave a large amount of material support to the Turks (scripted event).

4] Turkey is nervous about the Russian attacks on Austria and East Prussia.

Total Losses to Date:

2 French Corps

3 Russian Corps & 1 Detachment

1 German Detachment

1 Austrian Corps

I had to sacrifice the German Detachment and the Austrian Corps to buy me enough time to reinforce the Eastern Front.

Atlantic:

Have one sub attacking UK commerce and another sub moving into attack position.

[airboy]

October 24, 1914 - Start of Turn

Rains have come to Belgium but have not gotten to the Franco-German Border. But this is a sign that winter weather will start bogging down everything soon.

Atlantic: 2 subs are on UK convoy lines.

UK is blockading Germany which causes a slow loss of national morale and loss of trade with Norway and Sweden.

Diplomatic:

No movement. Turks still at 83% Central Powers. If you hit 90%, it is hard to stop a war entry. What is keeping the Turks on their hookah pipes and off the battlefield? Have one diplomatic influence point spent on the Turks.

Research:

Germany has one research point in Infantry Warfare, 1 in Production Technology and 1 in Industrial Technology. Having industrial points, the ability to produce units inexpensively, and have better land attack would be a real plus. I have a level 2 (out of a max of 5) technology in Trench Warfare. This makes French attacks very expensive.

Austria ha 1 point in trench warfare and 1 point in industrial tech.

Western Front:

Trench line runs from Sedan to the Swiss border. Have taken several squares close to Switzerland. I can now attack Nancy with 4 corps. My goal on the Western Front is to use my artillery to slowly grind away French forces until I have taken the morale cities of Verdun (1st goal) and Belmont (2nd goal). No big hurry.

My biggest goal in the Western front is to prevent the Entente from having a successful large scale offensive. My level 2 in Trench Warfare will make this expensive. There have been many futile French attacks on the entrenched German Corps at Sedan.

Your only real spotting now that we have full entrenchment is to fly a plane blindly over the border. Cannot spot very deeply when there is a solid line of entrenchments.

Serbia:

Continue slow attacks on Belgrade. Terrain does not favor offense.

Eastern Front:

1] East Prussia on the Baltic:

Huge Russian attack in East Prussia. 7 visible corps and 1 Russian General. Generals are very expensive but help massively with supply and morale. Units not under command of a general are far weaker on offense and defense. There is a flanking attack through the Masurian Lakes region and a direct attack on Tilsit and Gumbinnen. This has gotten very dangerous. It is possible that the Russians might cut off the troops in East Prussia by possibly getting to Konigsberg.

2] East Prussia/Russian Poland

Huge wave of German Corps (13 corps and 2 generals) are in Russian Poland or about to cross the border. Russia has reinforced the Warsaw area with 6 visible corps.

3] Austria:

Russians have not penetrated far into Austria. Very difficult mountainous terrain for an offense. This is where the bulk of the Russian units have been committed.

National Morale:

Morale is still high. Russia has the lowest at 94% (fallen due to troop losses). Germany is at 96% and Austria (which lost a couple of cities) is at 95%.

Total Losses to Date:

3 French Corps

3 Russian Corps & 2 Detachments

1 German Detachment

1 Austrian Corps

Overall:

The war is going well. It is very difficult for the Entente to attack me in the West with full entrenchment at technology level 2. The winter rains have started. In the East my German troops are arriving in Force. The initial Russian onslaught was blunted in Prussia and in Austria. The German Navy is intact and denying access to the Baltic. Turks are likely (hope, hope, hope) to enter the war soon.

[airboy]

I have finished this game. I tried to save the start or the end of every turn.

This AAR is being posted on www.wargamer.com where I am a very long standing member.

I'll post here after posting there.

This is not going to be the most heavily edited AAR that you have ever seen. Although I write a lot professionally, it takes a lot of time to write, rewrite, etc..... until you get a really smooth final product.

I ended up buying this game after reading the AAR of the Central Powers posted on this forum. I don't have the time to do a PBEM, so the "official" AAR did not do as much for me. If the AI is uninteresting, then I'll probably never end up playing the game.

[Colin I]

Nice AAR - good to see your strategic thoughts.

I went the other way - threw everything at France and killed it but at the cost of losing Austro-Hungary (though it is now back in the war as Russia DOWed it again). The real success was the Turks who are not the strongest nation but who have less problems and enemies than AH. They took North Africa very nicely.

This can work too - UK aid is a real problem, Italian to some extent but US find it hard to have a major impact.

The game looks beautiful with an elegant interface though many of the prettiest elements (aircraft, tanks) actually have limited strategic impact. Strategic bombing with Zepellins is nice and quite effective at high technology levels, though. Suspect the replay value not as high as WWII due to slow pace. The naval game really needs to get sharper - sea battles go on for many weeks right now. I believe Churchill said that Admiral Jellicoe was the only person who could lose the war in a day.....! Not currently, the battle of Jutland takes a very long time......

[Hubert Cater]

Great stuff Airboy and thanks for posting this... with the upcoming patch I suspect you'll find the new features and AI improvements will only add to the experience.

I'll pop over to the Wargamer to take a quick look over there as well

[Bill101]

Agreed, it's great to see this and as Hubert said we have many improvements coming up.

In the forthcoming patch everyone will find the tempo on the Eastern front somewhat hotter right from the start!

[airboy]

November 11, 1914 Start

This was an eventful turn.

First, the calm fronts.

Battle of the Atlantic is very slow. I had one sub with damage, but it got away and is sailing back with 8 of 10 steps towards the Baltic. 3 additional German subs are heading towards UK shipping lanes.

Western Front:

I took Nancy. St. Mihel can now be attacked by 4 German Corps. 4 overstrength (11 strength) corps are left on the Belgium frontier. I'm slowly taking ground and grinding my way westward towards Verdun - a national morale city for France.

The rains also stopped on the Western front - but Belgium is very muddy.

East Prussia:

This has gotten less dangerous. A wave of attacks by Russia got overextended and I managed to destroy multiple Russian infantry and cavalry corps. The situation now is 6 German infantry corps and 1 detachment under my best leader (Hindenburg) vs 5 damaged Russian infantry corps and 1 cavalary corps. The Russian troops are also not in a well defended line so they could be flanked.

Germany/Russian Poland:

The Germans have taken Kutno and Lodz in Poland. The fort of Novo Georgievsk is under attack. 11 German corps (4 are cavalry), 1 detachment and 2 leaders are attacking 6 Russian corps in the vicinity of Warsaw. There are 6 Russian corps on this immediate front. An additional Russian 2 leaders, 2 corps and 1 detachment are visible around Ivoagord. But even more German troops are coming up.

There are additional Austrian troops supporting the attack towards Warsaw in the form of 6 infantry corps, 2 cavalry corps, 2 leaders and 1 heavy artillery.

Eastern Austria:

The Russians have been expelled from Western Austria. Only in Lamberg and the Galician Oilfields are still under attack. I think that I have secure flanks and dug in troops. I doubt that the Russians can break this line, especially with the pressure in Prussia and around Warsaw.

Serbia:

Very little action.

The Turks Have Entered the War!

Russia attacked a Turkish detachment at Rize on the Black Sea and severely damaged the unit (2 steps out of 10 left). But the unit survived and will be reinforced.

Turkey is a really different country. Germany has a couple of 4 national morale cities with one in East Prussia, 2 close to the French border and Berlin. France has 3 national morale cities: Paris, Verdun and a city on the German border close to Switzerland. Turkey has a huge number of national morale cities spread throughout what is now Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Arabia, etc....

When Turkey enters the war the only immediately available troops are on the Russian border, on the land routes around Constantinople, and in Anatolia. They have a handful of naval ships and no subs. The big advantage so far is that Russia has put troops on the Turkish border and taken them away from Germany and Austria.

Total Losses to Date:

5 French Corps (1 of which is cavalry).

15 Russian Corps (4 cavlary) & 3 detachments

1 German Detachment

1 Austrian Corps

National Morale:

UK 99%

France 95%

Russia 87%

Germany 100%

Austria 97%

Turkey 99%

The huge Russian troop losses are taking a toll on national morale. It is very dangerous in the game to allow expensive units to be totally destroyed.

If I get screen shots perhaps the forum masters will add them to the AAR.

[airboy]

I have screenshots up of the first 5 turns at

www.wargamer.com under general gaming in the forum.

It does not look like I can add screenshots here.

Airboy

[Hubert Cater]

Thanks for posting this Airboy and yes the screenshot KB size here is very limiting as well

[Bill101]

Here's one of the Central Powers advance into Poland:

Meanwhile fighting continues in Galicia:

[Bill101]

Two turns later, here's a shot of the action in East Prussia:

There's more on the wargamer.com forum, but I thought I'd post these here as a taste of the action!

[xwormwood]

airboy, to grab and upload graphics i can recommend you

a) a programm called "Hardcopy", which allows you to safe parts of the screen or the complete screen

http://www.gen.hardcopy.de/

or, if you are using Windows 7,

the "snipping tool" (just use the search function of Windows 7 to find it).

To upload graphics, you can use free services like "photobucket".

http://photobucket.com/

[airboy]

December 19, 1914

Entente Declares War on Belgium!!!!

Due to the Declaration of War, Belgium joins the Central Powers. This brings in 6 cities, 2 ports, 1 mine, 2 infantry corps, 2 detachments and a General. This will boost my long term production and give me more ports on the Atlantic.

The timing of this action is something that no human player would have done. It is raining hard throughout Europe. The Entente did not have any units on the border ready to rush towards Brussels. There were no amphibious landings. Just the DoW and some flanking attacks towards Sedan. A human player would have done this much differently.

Belgium joining the central powers gives me more troops, a bunch of undamaged cities, and better sea access to the Atlantic (useful for the subs if nothing else).

Reporting on this turn is a little different. I saved both the beginning and the end of the turn.

Research:

At the end of this turn I had points invested in Infantry Warfare, Aerial warfare, airships, trench warfare, production technology (2 points) and Industrial Technology (2 points). Production tech makes it less expensive to buy units while Industrial Tech gives you more production points out of your factories.

Western Front:

Germans rush troops to Belgium and the Belgian troops start to form a line. It will take me a few turns to get enough units on the line and to entrench them. I'm leaving part of the Atlantic largely undefended above Ypers. I would rather have to defend the interior cities than get mouse-trapped on the Atlantic by enemy troops and the British Navy.

I will attempt to take San Mihiel this turn in order to close in on fortress of Verdun.

Serbia:

No action.

Atlantic:

Several subs sitting on convoy lines. Storms at sea.

Eastern Front:

The Russians are horribly exposed with damaged units ripe for the picking (even in the rain). They are dangerously exposed from the Baltic through to Warsaw.

Turkey:

The British took the undefended city of Basra. This was a national morale city of which Turkey has many. This caused an immediate hit on national morale. I'm spending most of my Turkish points buying additional units to garrison the morale cities. I hope that I can get enough units there and in the Jordan/Israel area to prevent the British from taking the area and the host of national morale cities.

End of Turn:

Western Front:

Have firmed up the Belgian line. Other than Ypers the Atlantic is not sealed off (see screenshot). Destroyed the French infantry corps and took San Mihiel. Verdun is now on the "corner" and could be attacked by multiple units once I reprovision my artillery and the weather clears.

Eastern Front - Debacle for the Russians

I destroyed 7 Russian Corps this turn. 7 corps killed in the rain!.

Other than the Baltic port city of Memel the Russians have been expelled from Prussia.

Warsaw is in great danger of being surrounded and cut off. The troop ratio there is horrible for the Russians.

National Morale:

UK 99; France 95; Russia 83; Germany 99; Austria 96; Turkey 89

The screen shots show the Eastern Front breakthroughs.

[Omegaman1]

Airboy, thanks so much for an excellent AAR. I am enjoying how you decided to focus on the Russian front first and forgo the early attacks in the west. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

Dave

[Wushuki]

Not declaring war on Belgium sounds like an interesting cheesy strategy. With such a tiny front it will become impossible for France and England to attack Germany and Russia will be facing massive armies that they can't possibly hold back.

Will Belgium not eventually join the entente on their own? Otherwise the central powers get Belgium for free, because France is forced to attack it. This will likely have negative diplomatic consequences for the Entente as well.

[Stalins Organ]

A question - why does the Atlantic blockade stop German trade with Sweden??

Wushuki - it is a common factor in other WW1 games too - Germany making a massive offensive against Russia & leaving Belgium alone, and making the TE declare war - if they don't then the limited frontier with Germany is a real hinderance.

Moreover other games allow Germany t oset up in order to do this, so not requiring tiem to move troops to the east (I dont' have SC WW1 yet - jsut going from teh description above where airboy has had to move rather than start setup for the easten campaign)

[Bill101]

A question - why does the Atlantic blockade stop German trade with Sweden??

Hi

It doesn't, but it may be that Entente naval vessels in the Baltic are interdicting Germany's trade with Sweden.

That is the only way of cutting off Germany's trade with Sweden, apart from using diplomacy to make the Swedish government swing towards the Entente.

[Stalins Organ]

Yes well that makes more sense - although only the Russian Fleet & subs from the others should be able to do so if they've got things right, but the comment was that the blockade is doing it......

[airboy]

January 15, 1915

Start of Turn

Austria gave the port of Trieste to Italy in response to Italian threats to declare war on the Central Powers. Austrian morale immediately tanked to 62 (from 96). There were riots in a number of cities which damaged their productivity temporarily. Parts of several Austrian units rioted which damaged their combat effectiveness.

This was part of a scripted event. I could have held onto Trieste, but Italy would have almost certainly entered the war. Opening up a 4th front (Western Front, Eastern Front, Serbian Front & Italian Front) seemed to be too big of a risk to the overall Central Powers war strategy.

This turn I concentrated on reinforcing and resupplying units.

Western Front:

A British detachment worked its way behind my lines in SW Belgium

A British corps worked its way behind my lines and took Nancy

(Read as came in on the diagonal with square hexes). This is a bad move because these units are now in low supply, low morale, and are surrounded. they will probably be destroyed.

Atlantic:

Total of 5 German subs are now either on or heading towards shipping lanes.

Main German fleet still guards the Baltic.

Serbia: No movement. I must reinforce Austrian troops that partly rioted.

Russia: Mainly reinforced and maneuvered troops.

Turks:

Still buying units and moving then to guard national morale points. Large sandstorms occur in the Sinai.

National Morale:

UK 99; France 94; Russia 82; Germany 99; Austria 62; Turkey 89

[airboy]

March 27, 1915 Turn

Spring has come. Rain and mud throughout Europe. This is the turn that has totally reversed the tide in Russia. I also took 2 major risks on the Western Front. One of those risks I am really wondering if my decisions were idiotic.

There was no turn in February. There are far fewer turns in bad weather in the Strategic Command series.

There are quiet areas. Nothing happening in Serbia. The Turks are still buying units and moving them into position. Still have 5 sub units in the Atlantic West of the British Isles.

The Brits moved a Seaplane carrier off of the Belgian coast and strafed some Belgian units. Although the attack was ineffective, it provoked me into a dangerous response. I sent 3 destroyers, 1 sub, 1 heavy cruiser and 3 battleships out and sank the carrier. Carriers can easily spot subs and it had moved within striking range of my gateway to the Atlantic from the Baltic Sea. Still, this endangers my overall strategy of keeping the Baltic closed to the British fleet.

Western Front:

I have taken the French city of Maubeuge on the Belgian border. My lines are firming up although a British cavalry corps is moving up the coast.

I can now attack Verdun from 5 squares. My heavy artillery will have built up a full complement of shells (10) by the start of next turn.

I took a chance and broke open the lightly defended front around the French national morale city of Belford on the Swiss border. The fort is almost surrounded. This did leave some German corps with highly exposed flanks. But the Entente seems to have moved most of their troops from this region of the front.

Russian Front:

I took the Russian national morale city of Warsaw. The screen shots will show the front before and after my attack. In central Poland (Russia) the visible force mix is 11 German infantry corps, 4 cavalry corps, 2 detachments and 2 HQ units. There are also 4 Austrian infantry corps, 1 cavalry corps, 1 heavy artillery and a HQ. They are opposed by only 5 Russian corps. I am close to a massive breakthrough.

Losses to Date:

UK: 2 corps (1 cavalry), 1 detachment and 1 seaplane carrier.

France: 6 corps & 1 detachment

Russia: 27 corps (4 cavalry) & 4 detachments

Germany: 1 detachment

Austria: 1 corps

Turkey: 0

I'll give the national morale breakdown next turn. The Russian loss of Warsaw will be reflected next turn.

[airboy]

April 24, 1915 Turn

I saved the beginning and the end of the turn.

In March of 1915 Germany took two big gambles. First, I sortied some important units of the German surface fleet to destroy a UK Seaplane Carrier off the Belgian coast. Second, I left some units exposed on the Swiss border in an attempt to isolate the French national morale city of Belmont.

Both gambles paid off.

Atlantic:

The German surface fleet successfully retreated back to the Baltic. There were no attacks on fleet units. Either the Brits were caught napping, their units were screening transports moving ground troops to France, or their surface units were out of range. Whatever the reason this was a successful gambit by the German surface fleet.

Several German subs were heavily damaged in the Atlantic West of the British Isles. They will slowly move back to port to be repaired.

Western Front:

There is rain and mud over most of France and Belgium. The Belgian front has been stabilized and entrenched. The French and the UK keep pounding away unsuccessfully at Sedan. I reinforce the corps after almost every turn, but they lack the strength to kill it outright.

My big gambit on the front from Verdun to the Swiss border also paid off. Although some German units were damaged, I ended up the two month campaign with both Verdun and Belmont under siege. Verdun can be attacked by 5 units next turn. My exposed units were integrated back into the line and reinforced.

Strategically, the French morale cities of Verdun and Belmont are in a very bad position. Unless the Entente counter-attacks and drives the Germans away, both cities will probably fall this year. The Entente keeps pounding away at Sedan and in Belgium while leaving their national morale cities exposed.

Eastern Front:

The Eastern Front has two theaters. The front on the Baltic has stabilized. I had to reinforce with additional corps to protect my flanks. There were some Russian counter attacks, but German troops are outside of Prussia and threatening Russian cities. This front is closest to the Russian capital of St. Petersburg - which may explain why it is the most heavily defended.

The second theater of the Eastern Front is Russian Poland through the end of the Austrian/Russian border. This front has been blown wide open. Several Russian HQs are on the front line. The HQs cannot attack, defend poorly, and are very expensive units. There are almost no Russian infantry units left in Russian Poland. It looks like the massive Russian losses have bled them out on this front.

If Russia cannot mobilize an entire additional Army it looks like they are going to be chewed up.

During this turn I took 4 Russian cities and destroyed 5 more corps. Russian national morale is starting to tank.

National Morale at end of Turn:

UK 97; France 92; Russia 71; Germany 95; Austria 60; Turkey 89.

German national morale slowly drops due to the Atlantic blockade. Austrian morale is low because I gave up Trieste to keep Italy out of the war. The Turks lost the undefendable national morale city of Basra.

Losses to date:

UK: 2 corps (1 cavalry), 1 detachment & 1 capital ship

France: 7 corps (1 cavalry)

Russia: 32 corps (4 cavalry) & 4 detachments

Germany: 1 detachment

Austria: 1 corps

[airboy]

May 22, 1915 Start of Turn

Eastern Front:

Baltic/East Prussia area has roughly equal numbers of Russian and German troops. Mine have better supply and morale due to the outstanding Hindenburg HQ unit and better national morale.

The Central Powers have a crushing force ratio from Russian Poland to the far Eastern tip of Austria. My strategy of breaking Russia seems to be working.

Western Front:

I reinforced and stabilized my lines in France.

I'm getting hit with heavy artillery and heavy bombers in Belgium.

A reinforced and over strength ANZAC corps has penetrated my lines along the Atlantic coast in Belgium. I'm moving several infantry corps up to secure the front.

Other Fronts:

Atlantic is roughly unchanged. Serbia is static. Turks still moving troops to cover their morale cities and generally weak front in Arabia and the Sinai.

Overview:

Russia has lost 34 corps (4 cavalry), 1 HQ and 4 detachments. The Russians have lost so many units that they cannot guard their frontiers. They have me blocked in the Caucuses on the Turkish border. This is not a problem since the terrain favors defense. They have me partly blocked on the Baltic front. But I still have superiority and can grind them away. But the rest of Russia is largely undefended.

National Morale:

UK 96

France 92

Russia 68

Germany 95

Austria 59

Turkey 89