The Churchill plan

[ulver]

With the combined Anglo-French-Italian-Serbian expeditionary force wasting time material and even lives in Anatolia achieving absolutely nothing both the Russian people and army is starving to death. Even at the height of summer the best-supplied hexes for the Russian in their own cities are in the twenties with single digit supply in non-city hexes.

Incidentally this is not a bug but a consequence of the Extreme food shortage suffered by the Russians – yet another elegant and quite realistic game feature. The loss of Constantinople really hurts in so many ways.

Obviously an army with readiness like that is not going to stop anything and a Russian collapse in the autumn of 1916 is looking increasingly inevitable. Central Power offensives are cutting through my lines like a hot knife though butter. In a sense an almost wasted effort as starvation is killing Russia to the tune of –3 moral a turn anyway.

Icy fear is gripping tight. Total collapse of the Entente cause is looking probable by 1917.





Jul-Aug 1916 strategic phase. Collapse of Russia is just a matter of time – and not that much time at that.

[ulver]

Just as despair and defeatism was threatening to overwhelm the Entente and the march to German Weltmach seemed unstoppable two fronts would inject new hope in the faltering Entente cause. The all but forgotten Serbians come up with a plan to liberate their homeland from the South via the just-joined Greek port of Salonika. This would also isolate the Central Power forces in Constantinople, force Bulgaria out of the war and join up with a Rumania looking increasingly likely to join the Entente.



Jul-Aug 1916. Marshall Stepanovic has found a few friends to join his project to liberate Serbia from the South.

[FrankHunter]

Just a note to say I've found and fixed the Russian supply collapse problem.  It'll be in the next patch.

[ulver]

There is one area where the Entente is gaining unquestioned success. Over the West Front my planes are blotting out the sun over German lines accurately directing vast amounts of murderously accurately massed artillery. Almost by accident the Entente may have stumbled into the answer to the West Front stalemate.

[boogada]

ORIGINAL: ulver

Over the West Front my planes are blotting out the sun over German lines

"Then a Spartan answers: “In the shade, therefore, we will fight!”"

- oh wait wrong war.

[hjaco]

Yeah well let the Germans try defending with 300 soldiers [:D]

[ulver]

ORIGINAL: boogada

ORIGINAL: ulver

Over the West Front my planes are blotting out the sun over German lines

"Then a Spartan answers: “In the shade, therefore, we will fight!”"

- oh wait wrong war.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TI_3bJkrOA

Nice to see I’m not the only one reading Herodotus. I remember his Persian Wars from high school although we read the modern translation where he answers the Persian envoy threatening that their arrows will blot out the sun simply: Excellent! We shall fight in the shade.

Herodotus really was writing the creation myth of Western civilisation and I rather thought the movie captured the mood of the Greek storytellers.

[EUBanana]

24 air points????  god almighty.

I think the most I've ever seen is 12 odd.

[boogada]

ORIGINAL: ulver

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TI_3bJkrOA

hmm you just made me watch that whole 10 episode documentary that was linked there...it was quite good. it's been a long time since I read Herodotus though.

[ulver]

After the dismal failure of the Entente grand offensive in the summer of 1915 allied leadership was absolutely determined that there would be no more massed offensives against defended positions. Never again would hundreds of thousand young men be thrown away in futile attempts to push entrenched Germans out of Northern France – or anywhere else for that matter.

Instead an alternative strategy was conceived. Only minimal investment in arms was to be made and what there was used mainly to refit and massively expand the Anglo-French artillery corps. Investments in technology and airpower would be given absolute priority. The German air force was to be ruthlessly driven from the skies of France opening the way for massed and persistent bombardment along the entire front aided by clear skies while denying any air support to the enemy. Front lines were to be occupied, as far as possible only by artillery and a thin cavalry screen. The goal a lot less grandiose then a breakthrough or even seeking modest territorial gains. I simply seek to achieve a favourably rate of attrition only attacking with a single corps when the defender is hopelessly depleted, simply abandon the hex or is evaporated by the massive artillery fire.




Sep-Oct 1916 German forces gradually fall back as their trenches are pulverised by obscene amounts of artillery.

[hjaco]

Well your infantry corps would seem ahem not quite up to full strength [:D]

[ulver]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TI_3bJkrOA

hmm you just made me watch that whole 10 episode documentary that was linked there...it was quite good. it's been a long time since I read Herodotus though.

"Athens needed thirty years, and then she would shine as no city had shone before or has shone since. For all her faults she would take humanity with her a long, long step—but on that day she was nothing but a pain in the neck of the King of Kings, who had the greatest army in the world poised at her last gate."

"It is not just that the human spirit reacts directly and beyond all argument to a story of sacrifice and courage, as a wine glass must vibrate to the sound of a violin. It is also because, way back and at the hundredth remove, that company stood right in the line of history. A little of Leonidas lies in the fact that I can go where I like and write what I like. He contributed to set us free."

William Golding "The Hot Gates"

http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~sparta/topics ... olding.htm

[ulver]

ORIGINAL: hjaco

Well your infantry corps would seem ahem not quite up to full strength [:D]

That is rather the point. If I give my offensive minded generals the men they ask for and reinforce the corps they will just throw lives away needlessly in infantry attacks. I’ll rather expend shells then lives.

Every corps reinforced behind the line is one less artillery corps or air point build and I really am seriously determined to avoid great offensive infantry battles. By the spring of 1917 I plan to have well over 30 artillery corps in action gradually pulverising anything in their path. In theory he could launch an offensive but once he actually gains ground his corps will be exposed in the open subject to just murderous bombardment.

[ulver]

I believe historians will record September 1916 as the month where Germanys dream of homogony in Europe collapsed.

Two countries enter the war, each decisive in her own way, making the Entente an 8-power coalition of Serbia, Russia, France, Britain, Italy, Greece, Rumania and the United States of America.

The entire world is pulling together against Central Power aggression and I sense the tide turning decisively in my favour.




Even the Russian revives from week morale upon hearing the news. With the Russian fleet heroically contesting the Baltic this turn I will even be able to feed them with British grain for now.

[ulver]

The allied drive north from Salonika is hard going in rugged mountains suffering more from dreadful supply attrition than at the hands of the Central Power forces. The Bulgarians are well entrenched in their fortified capital and the Entente forces are forced to lay siege to Sofia from 10-15% supply hexes.

With perfect timing Rumania enters the war and changes everything. Bulgaria is now caught in the jaws of a terrible pincer movement with the Rumanians poised to strike south to meet the allied advance.

Even more critically the Excellent Rumanian supply net is now available for operations in the Balkans.

As a harbinger of things to come the 40 strength point US corps arrive to bolster my drive on Constantinoble.

Instead of defeatism the Entente high command is now brimming with confidence.




Sep/Oct 1916 – The US first corps deploy straight to Greece the impulse after the Americans enter the war.

[ulver]

That fact that Russia still holds the field is really something of a miracle. As 1916 draws to a close she has already outlived my most optimistic projections. None the less she is running out of rabbits to pull out of her hat.

[ulver]

I can always console myself with the fact that there isn’t that much of a Russian army left so their loss shouldn’t matter that much.




Nov/Dec 1916 – the endgame in Russia

[ulver]

No so long ago the impending fall of Russia was a source of real concern, even some measure of defeatism but the US entry has changed everything.

The extra 10 production a turn is nice of course but they pale in comparison to the vast stockpiles of food and raw material – 72 of each – she bring to the Entente cause.

Most critical of all obviously is her vast army that should utterly crush the Central Powers. She starts of with one corps mobilized. The 40 strength corps may be nice but one corps won’t win the war. One her second turn she gets two 36 strength corps. Again nice but not really decisive but check out this screenshot of her turn 3 reinforcements:




I think this image more eloquently then any words explain why I believe the Central Powers are finished. I simply refuse to believe they can ever find the reserves anywhere to deal with 15 strength 36 US corps.

The one diplomatic point the Entente spend each and every turn on the United States was a war-winning investment. No way anyone can resist this onslaught for three years.

[FrankHunter]

oops, I'm going to have to fix that.  That didn't happen in 1.0, its only in 1.1 that that happens.

[SteveD64]

Holy jesus.  Do you have to use transports to ship them or do they arrive in France?