For the TsAAR! - A veteran Russia-only AAR

[FOARP]

2 January, 1915, Galician Front - Disaster struck Russian forces in Western Poland as the Germans took Kutno and threatened Lodz. Lodz is a valuable city in terms of manufacturing (9 MPP per turn) but losing a corps or two to hold the city for a turn or two more did not seem worth the cost, so I have withdrawn my forces from Western Poland to more easily-defended lines south of Warsaw. Tarnow has also been re-taken by the Austrians.

In contrast a couple of lucky attacks against the Austrians has taken the fortress of Przemysl. Whilst the cavalry corps that encircled the fortress to the south is almost certain to be destroyed in the Austrian counter-attack I deemed this a price worth paying for the hit to Austrian morale that the fall of the fortress would bring and the obvious usefulness of the fortress in anchoring a defensive position in central Poland.

[FOARP]

2 January, 1915, Caucasian Front - The Turks have thrown their hat in with the hated Teutons and my forces in the Caucasus have begun their attack as a consequence. My basic plan is to turn the Ottoman lines from the south, but how easy that will be in this rough terrain, and whether that will be possible with the slender forces available, are open questions. At best I can draw forces away from the British and give them the opportunity to land a knock-out blow by an advance through Palestine and Mesopotamia.

[shri]

Haven't played against AI recently, but in earlier patches, AI on high difficulty got more MPP and also some free units. Did those appear?
Also what is NM like? anyone below 75% yet? armies get worse as NM drops.

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: shri

Haven't played against AI recently, but in earlier patches, AI on high difficulty got more MPP and also some free units. Did those appear?
Also what is NM like? anyone below 75% yet? armies get worse as NM drops.

From lowest to highest currently in the war -
Austria-Hungary: 78%
Ottomans: 88%
France: 90%
Serbia: 96%
UK: 98%
Germany: 102%
Russia: 103%

The collapse in Austrian morale makes me consider a strategy of simply investing in trenches and trying to hold the line. With Austria's eastern national morale hexes occupied their morale will continue to drop and I will be able to continue destroying their units, perhaps the Germans will become over-stretched trying to cover for them and become more vulnerable?

My present worry is that the German artillery is yet to put in an appearance, and once it does my forces are just going to take a pummelling.

[FOARP]

27 February 1915, East Prussia Front - The German garrisons at Tilsit and the fortress south of Johannesburg have finally fallen However the advance of the German forces in the Marienburg area continues to be concerning - they are close to linking up with the Konigsberg garrison and I have no choice if I want to bring about the fall of this fortress to but to mount a stiff defence east of west of Konigsberg whilst my artillery is brought up to strength to assault the city.

[FOARP]

27 February, 1915, Galician Front - The Germans pursued my retreating forces to the line before Radom and Warsaw but a swift counterattack against one pursuing corps North-West of Radom resulted in its destruction. South of the Vistula my forces pinched out the Austro-Hungarian salient at Tarnow, capturing the city and destroying two Austro-Hungarian corps. Finally, in the far south of the line the city of Czernowitz was capture and its garrison crops destroyed.

A successful turn on this front. Particularly the collapse in Austro-Hungarian morale appears to have severely weakened their forces and leaves the Central Powers open to a strategy of destorying Austrian units in order to over-stretch the Germans.

[FOARP]

27 February, 1915, Caucasian Front - Rounding out a successful turn for the forces of the Tsar, a weakened Ottoman cavalry corps was destroyed near Eleskirt and the corps garrisoning the city heavily damaged. It appears the city may fall next turn, which gives the Russia forces the option of either turning south to seize Van or north-west to seize Ezurum. Of the two option the second is obviously better as it opens the possibility of capturing an Ottoman national morale objective and further weakening them, however a Van offensive would offer the possibility of linking up with the British in Mesopotamia.

In total seven Central Powers corps have been destroyed this turn (the two German corps garrisoning the Johannesburg fortress and Tilsit, the German corps destroyed in the counterattack near Radom, the three Austrian corps destroyed at Tarnow and Czernowitz, and the Ottoman cavalry corps).

[FOARP]

10 April, 1915, East Prussian Front - A German attack breaks through the line North-West of Allenstein, destroying a Russian infantry corps in the process. A Russian counter-attack in turn destroys the German corps restoring the line. Near Warsaw a sally from the Russian-held fortress of Novo-Georgievsk destroys a German corps approaching the defence line to the South-West of the fortress.

This is a good result all consider, but the Germans will likely be able to re-form their two lost units and thus far I simply have not had sufficient resources to re-form any of the units lost.

I have, however, been able to reinforce the units investing Konigsberg and bring my sole artillery unit available on this front up to full strength. With the line holding at least for this turn, the possibility of a storming of the Konigsberg fortress is coming into view.

[FOARP]

10 April, 1915, Galician Front - The advance near Tarnow continues, with the destruction of an Austrian corps north of Gorlice. An Austrian artillery units seems not to have got the message about what is happening on this front as it was ambushed and destroyed debouching through the Dukla pass - a very important move as any CP artillery deployed to this front is going to instantly change the balance of power in favour of the CP given the scarcity of Russian artillery. The fall of Gorlice should be expected next turn.

Further south Kolomea has fallen and its weak K.u.K. garrison brigade was destroyed. advancing through the gap Russian forces now threaten the encirclement and destruction of an A-H infantry corps.

The war seems to be swinging heavily in favour of the Russians on this front, but any collapse elsewhere will obviously have a knock-on effect here.

[FOARP]

10 April, 1915, Caucasian Front - Eleskirt has fallen with its garrison destroyed. The road to the north from Eleskirt towards the defences of Erzurum now lies open from a Russian pincer attack against that important city. Far away on the Black Sea coast Russian forces are repelled from Rize with heavy loses amongst the defending brigade.

The ability of the Ottoman forces to absorb loses of this kind is not clear to me - we will have to see whether they can sustain this rate of units being destroyed.

[FOARP]

8 May, 1915, East Prussian Front - The eastern section of the defences of Konigsberg have fallen to the Tsar's men, the final redoubt being taken in a wave assault by Russian infantrymen chanting their battle-cry of "Urah!" Whilst theoretically I could have assaulted the city without first taking this redoubt, I did not trust the ability of the Russian army to capture such a fortress without it being fully invested - Russian loses were heavy in this fighting.

Another Russian corps was lost defending the front - a full-strength Russian unit was moved in to replace it. In turn a German corps was destroyed south-west of Warsaw.

[FOARP]

8 May, 1915, Galician Front - Gorlice has fallen, though its defenders were able to retreat from the city in reasonable order and the Russians suffered heavy loses in the attack. The Russian army is exploiting the whole created in the Austrian line by the capture of Kolomea to advance over the Carpathian mountains and capture of foot-hold on the Hungarian plain.

[FOARP]

8 May, 1915, Caucasian Front - With the poor state of supply in the Eleskirt area my forces restrict themselves to some attacks against the ill-supplied and poorly-motivated garrison of Van, where an Armenian uprising has also just taken aplace, heavily damaging but not destroying the garrison there.

[FOARP]

5 June, 1915, Polish Front - Little movement on other fronts in this turn as my artillery is still being prepared for the assault on Konigsberg and my forces are unable to advance out of the salient at Kolomea or Eleskirt. However in Poland an Austrian unit that advanced through a gap in the line has been surrounded and will in turn be destroyed.

[FOARP]

17 July, 1915, East Prussian front - Konigsberg has fallen! A Russian Orthodox Te Deum is sang in Konigsberg cathedral, and the ancestral home of the Hohenzollerns at Konigsberg castle now hosts the Romanov Tsar Nicholas II on his visit to survey the newly conquered city!

Russian loses were heavy, but the loss of the city will be a heavy hit to German morale. Memel is the only remaining German garrison still holding out east of Allenstein.

[FOARP]

17 July, 1915, Galician Front - At present the Russian army in this sector is limited to holding its ground as it lacks the supplies and the reinforcements need to exploit the gains of the winter and spring here. I have in mind an attack on Krakow to further demoralise the Austro-Hungarians but this would require the freeing up of the Russian artillery from the East Prussian front.

[FOARP]

17 July, 1915, Caucasian Front - Van remains in Ottoman hands but the defenders between Erzurum and Eleskirt have been pushed back opening up the possibility of a two-pronged attack on Erzurum. In Palestine Gaza has fallen so it may be possible to knock the Ottomans rapidly out of the war.

The attack along the Black Sea coast has now entirely stalled as a full Ottoman corps has been brought up to defend Rize, so I will switch the Russian mountain corps from this sector to the central thrust against Erzurum.

[FOARP]

31 July, 1915, Caucasian Front - not much doing on the Prussian and Galician fronts this turn as I am merely consolidating previous gains. However, in the Caucasus Van is taken and an Ottoman HQ unit is imperilled. A good Russian concentration against Erzurum can now be carried out which will hopefully capture the city.

[Platoonist]

Now that you've breached the Carpathian Mountains can the end be far for Austria-Hungary? Or at least the Hungary part.

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: Platoonist

Now that you've breached the Carpathian Mountains can the end be far for Austria-Hungary? Or at least the Hungary part.

Germany is quite capable of pumping enough air into Austria-Hungary to keep them afloat for a while. Meanwhile Verdun and a whole load of other French cities have fallen as well as Belgrade so I'm not sure just standing on the defensive is going to cut it.