mrdozer2379 vs operating (active match)

[operating]

ORIGINAL: Robotron

Looks like Italy and Turkey will be gone by 1916 and Bulgaria is nowhere near joining CP.
Also almost no convoy war in the Atlantic.

Is this behaviour deemed standard for a standard vanilla CTGW multiplayer game or are you guys trying out some wacky-stuff tactics?
I like seeing a big AH submarine fleet quite a lot for a change but I liked the Entente landing at Beirut even more.
Wicked![:D]

Italy has a lot of fight in it with an advanced tech tree can turn the match around rather quickly if not pushed hard. In another match Italy (me) in 13 turns is knocking at Vienna's door. My OE is nothing but a rag doll and will never recover enough to even make it past 1915 (read on). In another match I was not able to naval bombard OE (Constantinople, Izmir, Gallipoli) as others have successfully done and saw quite a formidable OE army develop, to tell the truth I was impressed.

Early on in this AAR had minor success with a known convoy route, however it becomes futile with the the low number of convoy kills it takes to have the USA go on the march to war, so investing in wolf packs there at a significant cost does not shine all that much, especially where several Entente sub fleets can cut Baltic merchant fleets to ribbins plus surface fleets that need constant repair. Take a look at my recent Baltic posts as an example. In another match as CP I sank somewhere around 200 convoy points before getting warning events (some of which I cannot find in the lua files).


Beirut landings (Aqaba, Adana, Allepo, Kuwait, Kut landings) and such are not uncommon in MP, both in English and French and sometimes jointly.

[operating]

Turn 31

Eastern Front:

Russia is keeping up harrying attacks along the entire front with some results, nothing that is affecting the CP main offensive. AH's lack of artillery ammo prevented it from firing while the German artillery upgraded to phosgene. CP did attacks/counter -attacks with ground and air on weakened Russian units. The target of the next push is at the Russian salient southeast of Brest-Litovsk, by rights it should be a tough job against an infantry. One thing about being in a swamp hex: The defender get's a +1 to defense vs most other hexes. Just starting to notice Russian fighters at Vinnyesia.

[operating]

Turn 31

Eastern Mediterranean:

Located the French dreadnaught and attacked doing no damage except to my own fleet. CP's only local port for repairs is Izmir (as long as OE can stay in the game), so have to form a kind of repair ratline to keep pressure on the French fleet. The remnants of the Damascus OE army are starting to gather at Aleppo and hopefully escape to the north, but looking to the east (white circles) of there has me worried about being cut off from full supply. Sacrificed a OE garrison to hold up the English advance near Beirut.

[operating]

Turn 31

Black Sea: Sailed the German raider to Odessa and returned the OE cruiser to safer waters. With OE's NM dropping to 20 I may have to abandon Odessa and sail both the raider and transport to the west of Gallipoli. The Russian sub fleet was reduced to a 2 from attacking the OE cruiser while in port, the cruiser was close to being sunk itself. A Russian balloon has been randomly bombing OE cities within it's range (16 hexes) from Crimea.

[operating]

Turn 31

Erzurum:

The English infantry by Izmir died from attrition allowing the OE AC next to it to disband producing 1 PP which was used to repair a garrison by Erzurum, at the same time withdrawing other units westward and reattaching a general there. Left an 5 AC in place as a token sacrifice. Ironically by offering sacrifices it helps OR's NM form falling faster due to eliminating upkeep for these units (that's my appraisal). Next turn will put the OE cruiser into port and decommission it and glean whatever PP becomes available.. I know that OE is doomed and there is no negotiating so I'm just trying to keep OE alive as long as possible so that mrdozer's troops cannot go elsewhere to menace other CP locations, the farther his troops are drawn away from ports and such the harder it will be for him to regroup them elsewhere..[;)]

[operating]

Turn32

Belgium:

The French and English concentrated air attacks are creating havoc with this line's center and with meager reserves to plug the holes could lead to an Entente breakthrough. Up north the ACs and supporting fighter have been doing a good job circumventing Entente bombing runs on these high production cities. I'm hoping Russia surrenders soon so as to reinforce this front..[&o]

[operating]

Turn 32

Italian Front:

The amount of Italian reinforcements is testament to this country's production strength. Italy has lost 3 cities (-!6 PP) and Rome has been reduced from 21 PP to 16 PP, also Turin, Genoa and Taranto have lost PP, yet Italy is still able to produce fresh units of decent quality, if not equal to CP's. With the hex captured northwest of Florence will solidify a front, but will also completely make available a rail-line from AH to the Florence front. Heavy light blue line indicates a solid front. Now I can concentrate on the march to Rome and can see the defensive buildup there when moving air squadrons to support this battle. More bombing runs on Rome hopefully will prevent further Italian troops from arriving. Am concerned French and English troop transports could arrive in this part of the country, none so far.. Should Russia surrender first Italy will soon follow is my guess..[:)]

[operating]

Turn 32

Baltic:

Originally planned on supporting Tallinn with an extra garrison, now decided to try and take Helsinki, at the very least cause the Russians to deploy units there instead of the Eastern Front. What's concerning to me here is the possibility of my main German battle fleet from being completely hemmed in by attacking English sub fleets. Other German fleets are either repairing or upgrading or both. Bombarded Helsinki for who knows if I'll be able to capture it?[8D] Fleets are counter-attacking when the odds are "definitely" favorable, or at least mutual losses, for it's harder for the Entente to repair with only 1 port accessible vs the 3 ports nearby to CP. Chose not to engage enemy subs up north after making contact, I'd rather wait till sub reinforcements arrive back up here before giving away my positions and it's not clear to me that Russian Balloon corps are still around.[&:]

[operating]

Turn 32

Eastern Front:

OK, success with eliminating the Russian salient, making it near impossible for the Russians to retake Brest-Litovsk.[:)] Where to go next?[&:] CP's best bet is to start it's push north from the fort and stockpile AH ammo for the effort. This is slow going, none the less progressive. I can see the Russians now have AA tech and are getting ready with an attack of their own a little north of here. So opted to have an infantry in place with general's support to take the heat. Clearly the Russians have superior infantry numbers, but have not been able to stop the CP offensive, however winter is somewhere around 6 turns away, which may slow CP down. Trouble is brewing down by Vinnytsia in the form of multiple of Russian class II fighters, of which I am not sure how many they number?[:(] If those fighters stay there while CP heads north, I think the offensive will be OK as long as AH maintains it's reserves. The orange circle in Germany is an indication of air defense corps, a cheap one and seems to be effective. Also notice the navy is preparing for the expected upcoming naval battles.

[operating]

Turn 32

Turkey:

Erzurum is long gone leaving the OE homeland of Turkey as a reference point now. Lost 2 units in Eastern Turkey, the locations of these maybe incorrectly detailed, none the less the Russians are in pursuit of those that remain. The units by Aleppo could not reach the mountains to their north and decided to put up a last ditch fight weakening an English infantry and driving a Russian AC into retreat. Lost the OE cav on the coast, if that had survived the rest of the army may of had a chance to escape around ZOC. Sailed the OE cruiser into port and caused slight damage to the French dreadnaught, that's good news If the AH subs can keep up strong attacks. I tried as best I can to demonstrate the cycle repair to keep pressure on the Entente navy. Keeping 1 sub fleet in Izmir Bay to prevent city bombardments and any possibility of further transport deployments and at the same time hoping Izmir starts producing PP again. I leave 1 sub fleet halfway between port and battle as a reserve in case it is needed either way.[;)]

[operating]

Turn 33

Stats: AH receives armed aircraft tech (enables class II fighters)

[operating]

Turn 33

Belgium:

Much of the French air-force left here for Italy thank God.![&o] Hopefully my reserves will recover to take front line positions. Swapped line positions with cav so a healthy infantry will be near the German salient. Not sure how my Hannover fighter got damaged defending cities unless it was directly attacked by a balloon corp, which I'm sure the Entente regretted.[:)] When you see an orange line at Stuttgart it means the zeppelin is striking somewhere in Italy. Otherwise, it's fairly quiet here. It would be nice if the reader could see each turn's replay to get more of a feel about what is happening where.. [:'(]

[operating]

Turn 33

Italian Front:

This front is going to really heat up with the arrival of additional French fighters, which tells you and myself how concerned my opponent is about losing Italy as an ally.[;)] This was a very busy turn in a tight area making it hard to replicate all the detail. The Italians were able to kill off my AH cav by Florence with the help of the Italian dreadnaught bombardment that sailed there undetected. AH counter-attacked destroying an Italian garrison allowing for a 2 hex advance towards Rome, at the same time boxing in the PITA Italian infantry from moving.[:)] Was also able to destroy the last remaining Italian fighter squadron by the lead AH infantry. The other Rome Italian garrisons are damaged from attacking on their turn, with the exception of the garrison on the Adriatic coast that repaired and was assaulted again this turn with a combined CP effort. Likely the Italians will be forced to withdrawn towards Rome on their turn allowing for significant CP advances from the mountains. Knowing that the garrisons with AA will likely occupy Rome got in as many bombing runs as possible on the city. German artillery has had a great influence on many of these small battle victories. The Milan German cav was forced to RR out to Venice after being cut down to 1 strength. The longer CP leaves it's units unmoved on it's right flank here the stronger the light blue front get's. Would like to hang onto Milan despite the Entente buildup to it's south and west. Most if not all AH fighters received the armed aircraft tech and repaired, many CP fighters moved base closer to Rome for a final showdown at Rome.

[operating]

Turn 33

Baltic:

Disembarked garrison next to Helsinki unopposed..!![:D] By being able to do this no Russian units can deploy from the queue directly into the capital, although they may deploy beyond the garrison's ZOC, which I will not know till next turn when/if capturing the city. Some may wonder why the kriegsmarine is not trying to save the merchant fleet up north? The reason why is: Because the English sub fleets are already in position there for maximum effect and felt it would have been futile at this point to come to the rescue, if Germany is to gain a foothole in Finland then perhaps I can send zeppelins there to bring the North Baltic into range for counter-sub measure bombing greatly enhancing Kriegsmarine attacks on the enemy. Plus I may be able to recapture Turku and deny Russia of PP. I can only imagine mrdozer's angst at having to pay and redeploy ground units back in Finland with the carnage happening at the Eastern Front. And you know by capturing Helsinki denies Entente sub fleets another port from which they can deploy and repair fleets.[;)] Deployed sub fleets to the west of the main fleet to allow access both in and out of the Finland Sea. There's a garrison at Koenigsberg ready to embark for another mission. Tallinn is the key to this whole operation, if the Germans lose Tallinn that could spell a lot of trouble in making Helsinki a success.[:(]

[operating]

Turn 33

Eastern Front:

CP can see there are no Russian reserves to prevent a breakthrough. Softened up the Russian general Evert for next turn's big push now that the AH artillery is in place, even pulled a German infantry out of the line to participate. Moved up the AH general to support the action. I don't think the Russians can see the behind the lines maneuvering which will add to this push. Cav are in place to take advantage of any breakthrough and perhaps to kill off retreating survivors. AH fighters have upgraded and as you can see Kriegsmarine are still refitting. Would love to get my hands on the Russian artillery, it's grasslands north of the swamps excellent for ground movement..[:)]

[operating]

Turn 33

Black Sea: With OE's NM at 17 and close to losing Aleppo decided it's time for the AH garrison to abandon Odessa and leave with the German raider to the Mediterranean for another mission, for once OE surrenders these units will not be eligible to pass through the Bosporus Straights to the Med.. Also taking advantage of the OE ports to repair AH subs while possible.

[operating]

Turn 33

Turkey:

OE is just starting to generate PP at Izmir and Constantinople again, however the Crimea blimp has taken it's toll on Ankara's PP. The Aleppo army is trying to escape north after being cut off from full supply there's little hope they will survive in a sea of superior enemy units looking for blood. The Eastern Turkey army is still on the run trying to avoid annihilation, they are just 1 step away from the grim reaper. Well that's the end of the good news..lol[:)] AH subs did sink a English light cruiser fleet off the coast by Adana, but had to give up cornering the French dreadnaught. If the other Entente fleets stick around for battle that may lead to other successes. Hard to say what will happen..?

[operating]

Turn 34

Stats: Both Germany and AH received flash spotting artillery techs which costs 5 PP each unit to implement

[operating]

Turn 34

Belgium:

Hindenburg was forced to swap out of the front line after a strong combined Entente attack, French fighters took heavy losses during the attack. It's never a good idea to have the only commander for a region to be in such an exposed position in the first place, but at least the reserves here have recovered morale to be front line units again.[8D]

[operating]

Turn 34

Italian Front:

Managed to destroy a French fighter squadron at Genoa.[:)] Felt this was important for that unit could see far behind CP lines spotting for possible Entente bomb runs. Also this was in retribution for the areole attacks that nearly wiped out the AH fighters based near Trento, forcing them to flee over to near Zagreb for repair. An Italian combined attack on Milan forced the German unit there to withdraw and be replaced with an AH garrison that has a general's support. Did counter-attack the English infantry here with fairly good results. Repositioned units for the push on Rome while upgrading the German artillery with flash spotting. Had good results forcing a Italian garrison to retreat on the Adriatic coast and inching CP units closer to Rome to where they have a ZOC that prevents new Italian units from deploying in (white diamonds) from the queue. I expect the 2 Italian garrisons here will have to withdraw to protect Rome proper, there's just no way they will allow themselves to be surrounded..[;)] An Italian pre-dreadnaught has arrived to join the fight bombarding AH coastal infantry here. I'm leery about chasing this fleet with my AH fleet for fear the 3 French sub fleets may intercept them putting my fleet in jeopardy.