If at first you don't succeed, invade Belgium!

[John B.]

Upon further reflection perhaps I should not have reminded my esteemed opponent KorutZelva that the game could be continued. Basically my goal now is to hang on long enough to embitter my pixel citizens and make them thirsty for revenge! Yes, things are that bad. Here is the remnants of my fleet that limped back to Germany. The losses were kind of equal (a little more for me) but no major victory to carry me forward. I have one oos sub that is at 1/3 strength sitting on the unrestricted warfare hex that is giving me a small morale boost each turn but otherwise the Germans are a bit melancholy about the whole thing.

[John B.]

A good example of how the German heart just isn't in it anymore is here in Poland. You see the Russian corps with 6 strength left? I took out its trenches with 4 artillery strikes and attacked it 6 times with German infantry who have level one weapons and did 4 points of damage. I may need to make a Downfall meme about this.

[John B.]

In the mid-east Jeruselum fell (again) and the Russians are pushing in the Caucuses. In Italy it's a stalemate and in serbia my guns are lumbering forward. Here in France Belgium and Luxembourg have been liberated and he's taken Aachen. The morale of German infantry hovers in the mid-50s while the A/H morale is in the 80s. Still, I'm not beaten yet and the war continues!

[John B.]

We made it into 1916. No change in Russia although apparently the Ruskies are sitting on 1,200 MMP and just waiting to upgrade their troops.

[John B.]

I killed another Serbian corps as the grind down on that front continues. Bulgaria is only 7% pro-Central and clearly not joining in. The Arab revolt has struck and the Ottomans are blaming the Germans for the war and assaulting German officers. This is not a good sign.

[John B.]

And, just waiting on the Western Front. I think there is a WHOLE LOT of allied artillery that will pound me to dust but I'm not dead yet.

I did just get a German upgrade in infantry warfare. Not sure what good that will do me, but, it's unlikely to be bad.

[John B.]

It's February 1916 and I have big news. I killed a French Corps. That's right, it's dead! I wonder if this means the game needs a new patch or something since that has not yet happened in the game. It died under a hail of shells. But, at least it died!

[John B.]

And a Serbian corps!!!!

[John B.]

And even a Russian corps.[X(] Now, note the bad news that the Russians have inf. level 1 weapons as well. And, I'm not posting the Turkish front, it's very sad. On the good news, Germany just developed artillery weapons 2 and A/H has Gas shells so I may be able to pound a bit more before I collapse. Both Germany and Turkey are now bribing their people to stay in the war. Oddly, he has left my little sub alone in the unrestricted warfare box. We'll have to see why that is.

[John B.]

It's May 1916 and things are continuing along about the same. He's killing corps faster than I can build them. Here on the Western front three corps have died. In fact, it may not show up in this picture, but the A/H have sent a corps to help out.

[John B.]

In Russia I did kill another corps and took another hex. A long slog to Brest Litovsk. Let's see if I'm still around by the time that I get there.

[John B.]

And Serbia where the serbs have an artillery unit, but they are also looking just a little creeky.

[John B.]

Well it's July 1916 and, as you can see from this photo from the Western Front, it's all over but the shouting. My hope had been to hold long enough to make progress elsewhere (it was a faint hope, but a hope nonetheless) but that has not panned out.

[John B.]

Even the Italians have no trouble breaching my trenches. This means Cardona is going to be hailed as a genius so expect random executions to become the order of the day in the world's armies after this one is over.

[John B.]

The big place I needed to make progress was Serbia but, even with the artillery, by the time I got going it was too late.

[John B.]

My main mistake in the opening was letting the Russians run into NM cities and I was never able to make up ground. I kill a corps here and there but even taking Warsaw it was not enough to make a difference.

I did have one secret plan that I have aborted since it won't help in this game. But, in the next one.

[BillRunacre]

That does look a bit painful in the west, but hopefully you'll have better luck next time!

Thanks for the AAR, I've enjoyed following it. [:)]

[Robotron]

Another defeat for Central Powers where no "Russia first" strategy was employed. [8|]

Is it even possible to win with CP in this game with a strong (historical) gambit in the west against an Entente opponent of at least average capability?

Do AARs from such a match exist on this forum? I'd like to read one of those, maybe I just missed any.

[John B.]

"What? Over? Did you say over? Nothing is over until we say it's over! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell No!" (thank you John Belushi)!

Good news this time. The Ottomans left the war so no more whining about picayune issues like "we're starving" or "the Entente is conquering all of our territory." They got a perfectly good battlecruiser out of the deal so they should shut up and be happy. Even better, it will cost my opponent a fortune in MMP to transfer all of his troops! Meanwhile, on the Western front, as you can see I'm going to be saving a lot of money because I don't have nearly as many troops to civilians to feed.

[John B.]

Not much happened on the eastern front or serbia. The Russians killed more troops and basically conquered Galicia. But, I killed another Russian corps!