SerbiAAR: a veteran Serbia-only AAR

[FOARP]

11 September, 1915, Serbian Front - Calamity strikes as my dug in, full-strength cavalry division is destroyed in just two attacks by the Austro-Hungarians, and the infantry corps holding the line near Belgrade is driven into retreat and nearly destroyed by another two attacks. There is clearly something wrong with morale in the Serbian ranks! Greece has joined the Entente, and so I get my allies to rail an infantry corps directly in to fill the gap left by the precipitate retreat of the Serbian army. A counter-attack will have to go in to restore the front, though, and my cavalry division cannot be easily rebuilt as the men who made it up were unable to retreat.

The Austro-Hungarian corps encircled in Bosnia is destroyed and my men advance towards Mostar. At least not all our efforts are in vain.

Russian Morale falls below 50%....

[FOARP]

25 September, 1915, Serbian Front - The brave detachment of volunteers dug in near the Iron Gate is destroyed, and attacks elsewhere on the line badly damage a Serb detachment and force it to retreat. I push the Greek corps on the most desperate part of the line opposite Novi Sad to fill the gap created. A division of British marine also reaches me (slightly bending the rules, I've moved the British division that normally sits around doing nothing on Lemnos onto my front) and I've put it on the front line. The situation is grave, despite our recent advances in Bosnia.

Elsewhere things are not better for the Entente. Boulogne has fallen. The Russians are smashed in Poland. Trento is back in Kaiser Franz-Josef's hands, and the armies of the Central Powers are at the gates of Brescia. Baddest of all for the Serbs, the Austro-Hungarian navy has had unexpected success in the Adriatic and my convoy lines from France are now seriously threatened.

[The Land]

ORIGINAL: FOARP



Elsewhere things are not better for the Entente. Boulogne has fallen. The Russians are smashed in Poland. Trento is back in Kaiser Franz-Josef's hands, and the armies of the Central Powers are at the gates of Brescia. Baddest of all for the Serbs, the Austro-Hungarian navy has had unexpected success in the Adriatic and my convoy lines from France are now seriously threatened.

Sadly I think this is likely to continue... the Central Powers AI will be getting huge bonuses against the Entente AI, unless you can destroy enough Central Powers troops with the Serbs, the situation will probably deteriorate...

Still, a fun AAR, thank you!

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: The Land

ORIGINAL: FOARP



Elsewhere things are not better for the Entente. Boulogne has fallen. The Russians are smashed in Poland. Trento is back in Kaiser Franz-Josef's hands, and the armies of the Central Powers are at the gates of Brescia. Baddest of all for the Serbs, the Austro-Hungarian navy has had unexpected success in the Adriatic and my convoy lines from France are now seriously threatened.

Sadly I think this is likely to continue... the Central Powers AI will be getting huge bonuses against the Entente AI, unless you can destroy enough Central Powers troops with the Serbs, the situation will probably deteriorate...

Still, a fun AAR, thank you!

Yeah, I think this one will be over for the Entente by the end of 1916 - but we'll see!

[FOARP]

23 October, 1915, Serbian Front - The situation remains grim. The Greek corps was smashed after enduring a ferocious artillery barrage and the K.u.K. army advanced over the Danube at Novi Sad. In Bosnia a detachment was heavily damaged, and very strong German forces have now been moved onto that front. Seeing a gap in the centre and wishing to prevent a pincer attack on my position at Valjevo, I make an advance in the centre - perhaps this will distract the forces of the Central Powers a bit?

In Russia, a wave of desertions and mutinies strike the forces of the Tsar...

[FOARP]

20 November, 1915 - Wet weather on the CP turn serves to frustrate their attacks on the Serbian front and elsewhere. The only place where their attacks are met with success is south of Sarajevo where the Montenegrin corp is drive to retreat. I destroy the Austro-Hungarian detachment south of Novi Sad but have no fresh troops to advance to fill the gap. The convoy line to France is clear for the moment - but this is only because the K.u.K. navy has broken out into the Mediterranean and is ravaging various other convoy lines.

In far away Latvia, the Russian fortress of Libau has fallen, and their salient around the fortress of Ivangorod (now the Polish village of Dęblin) is in danger of being surrounded, with the inevitable loss of much of the fighting strength of the Russian Army. The Palestinian front is also looking bad for the Entente.

[FOARP]

18 December, 1915, Serbian Front - The close of the year brings little news. The front is stable though German reinforcements are bound to be used in offensives in Bosnia in the coming year. French morale has fallen below 50%.

[FOARP]

29 January, 1916, Serbian Front - The winter weather continues and Serbian forces successfully fight off an attack on Belgrade. A gap open before Novi Sad which a Serbian corps attacks into taking a couple of point of strength away from an Austro-Hungarian artillery unit that had been troubling Belgrade. Serb forces are heartened by the arrival of further Greek reinforcements on their front (I'm buying a few using UK resources, I think this within the spirit of the rules). In Bosnia a Montenegrin corps is badly mauled and forced to retreat.

In Italy, Udine has fallen to Franz-Josef's men.

[FOARP]

25 March, 1916, Serbian Front - The front remains quiet. Whilst a gap did open through which I might have attacked the Austro-Hungarian artillery, the only unit that could have gone through was weakened and in need of refitting, so I thought better of it.

The situation in the wider war remains grave. The Central Powers continue to wear down France, Italy, and Russia. The fortress of Ivangorod has now fallen, the Polish salient is cut off, and three Russian corps face inevitable destruction within it. This situation requires a re-think on my part. Previously I had thought that a good performance for Serbia against the forces of the Central Powers opposite Serb forces would help sufficiently to enable a Franco-Russian victory. Clearly this has not been the case.

One course of action might change this: the destruction of (for the moment neutral, though favourable to the Central Powers) Bulgaria and a thrust against Constantinople. At a stroke this could re-open the Dardanelles to Entente traffic, re-invigorate the Russians, and potentially knock the Ottomans out of the war which would certainly raise Entente morale from its present low point. I also have the perfect instrument to do this with - the Greek army. Therefore my plan for the rest of 1916 is to build up Greek strength and then - if they have not already joined the war - invade Bulgaria, knock them out, and quickly overwhelm the Ottomans.

There will be some trade-offs involved in this, since Greek strength can only be built up at the expense of the British war effort. The French will just have to hang on in the West for a bit longer with little UK support.

[FOARP]

22 April, 1916, Serbian Front - April has been a bad month for Serbian forces. An infantry corps was badly mauled and a Serbian detachment was destroyed on the Serb front facing Novi Sad. In France four German corps were destroyed, but this barely seemed to phase the Germans.

Something needs to change, otherwise the Prussian jackboot will crush all Europe!

[The Land]

Interesting idea about going for Constantinople! That would be a tough one - what forces can Greece and Serbia make available to do it? Will you be able to take artillery?

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: The Land

Interesting idea about going for Constantinople! That would be a tough one - what forces can Greece and Serbia make available to do it? Will you be able to take artillery?

Basically this is a counsel of desperation. I could put the Greeks into the front line against the CP but this would simply delay the inevitable. I haven't been able to save up enough to buy the Serbian artillery unit, so I'm going to have to steal a turn's worth of production from the UK and buy the Greek artillery.

Of course even being able to carry it out is going to require the Serbs holding the line until late 1916 without diverting too much from the Bulgarian operation...

[FOARP]

20 May, 1916, Serbian Front - A mixed bag on this turn, the Central Powers advance near Novi Sad but retreat near Temeschburg. A lucky hit with a bomber destroyed the Albanian detachment which had been withdrawn from the front in Bosnia and which I had not been able to afford to bring up from minimum strength.

On the Western Front the allies make a bit of progress this turn, though in Russia the situation appears dire, with a full-scale breakthrough in place near Rovno. Only the re-opening of Dardanelles promises a reversal of this negative trend.

[FOARP]

17 June, 1916, Serbian Front - More losses on this front, this time the British naval contingent was destroyed in a massive Austro-Hungarian push. I've made a modest withdrawal near Valjevo in order to try to stabilise the front.

Elsewhere things remain dire. The Royal Navy has been defeated in the North Sea, with four dreadnoughts lost. Short of US entry into the war it is hard to see what would turned the tide in the West. I'm hoping re-opening the Dardanelles will achieve this in the East, though the Greek artillery is not due to arrive until August so these will be desperate months.

(apologies for taking so long to update this - I've been concentrating on trying to make progress with my mod)

[FOARP]

8 July 1916, Serbian Front - The Tsar has fallen! Meanwhile Romania prepares to enter the war, which means I may have to bring the attack on Bulgaria forward as there is a strong risk that the Central Powers will simply smash through the Romanians when they enter the war making an attack on Bulgaria and an advance on Constantinople pointless.

Can the Entente hold? On my own little stretch of front this is dubious in the long term - an Austro-Hungarian artillery unit has just appeared north of Belgrade. I've put a full-strength upgraded infantry corps into Belgrade to defend it but if the AH artillery has a full load of ammo then there's a chance that they won't be able to withstand the AH attack, even dug in in urban terrain with a river in front of them.

One note of positive news: the Serbian Air Force is finally taking to the skies!

[FOARP]

22 July 1916, Bulgarian Front - With Romania's entry into the war, there was no option but to bring up the date of the attack on Bulgaria if it (and the planned descent on Constantinople that depends on it) was ever to have any chance of success. To do otherwise would mean Romania would be stabbed in the back whilst her forces were busy invading Transylvania.

The attack went spectacularly well. The Greeks easily destroyed the garrison of Sophia and occupied the city, swatting away a Bulgarian detachment and encircling a Bulgarian army corps in the process. Greek detachments have advanced over the Ottoman frontier and are now at the gates of Gallipoli. Assuming the Bulgarians capitulate, only a handful of Ottoman units stand between the Greek army and the waters of the Bosphorus - though those Ottoman troops are well dug in. Good thing an artillery unit is on order!

[FOARP]

22 July 1916, Serbian front - The defences at Belgrade were battered, but held. My hope now is that the entry of Romania into the war sees a significant draw-off of enemy troops in order to meet the Romanian advance. In the long term the downfall of the Ottomans, if that can be achieved, should bring significant reinforcements onto this line.

[FOARP]

5 August 1916, Serbian Front - The Bulgarians have capitulated! This is the first real victory of the war for the Entente and welcome good news, boosting the morale of the Allies and depressing that of the Central Powers. The Romanian advance is going well though it remains how far they will be able to actually go - it seems likely that they will get held on the line of the Mures river.

Russia's situation remains dire - the Central Powers are at the gates of Minsk, and even Kiev is threatened - so a re-opening of the Dardanelles cannot come soon enough.

[FOARP]

19 August 1916, Balkan Front - There has been some draw-down in CP forces facing the troops of the Serbian Kingdom, but also the deployment of a German artillery unit there that threatens to break the front. In Bulgaria the Greeks have now surrounded Adrianople, and once that falls the road to Constantinople is clear. In Russia, however, the army continues to totter.

[FOARP]

2 September 1916, Balkan Front - Adrianople is now fully invested by the Greek army and the guns have been brought up, the assault will come next turn. Near Novi Sad the Austrians leave a gap in their lines that a couple of Serb corps attack into, destroying a KuK HQ. In Transylvania the Romanian advance has slowed, necessarily so as the Romanians respond to the Austro-German breakthrough to the north of them along the Russia front.

(apologies for the low picture resolution, which is forced on me by the 200kb maximum file size, which really should be raised to 5000kb as it is on the WIE forum)