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West Front
June 1917

Large forces have since arrived from the eastern front. There are more than 40 German corps on the western front. Each army has at least one artillery division, some with two units. The 6th Army also has a siege artillery unit. The 3rd Army has taken its position in the line. The 2nd Army is in reserve waiting for an opportunity to exploit.

An intelligence break exposed the current weakness of the French and British forces. Due to this new info, the invasion of Belgium was cancelled. Instead, it has been determined that a broad front offenssive along nearly the entire front will break France.

The attacks started in May-all succeeded except the 13th Army. It has been reinforced so it can participate in the next, and larger round of battles.

West Front
July '17


The Peace Offense continues.

The June battle were successful, with light to moderate losses for Germany.

Battle of Charmes
July '17

Toul
July '17

The siege lasted one month. Bombardment alone ended it.

Italian Front
July '17

July '17

The Italian Army pressed its attacks. The French won several battles in the south during this period, but lost more. Most of the Italian Army are non veteran type units which led to some high losses. There are also some top rated units, but very few and cannot fight the whole battle. This results in some high losses.

Italian Front
July '17

Here we have another battle that went better for Italy. The results of these battles were that the French lines where broken and some forces surrounded. Victory looks to be guaranteed.

Palestine
July '17

After nearly 3 years and several battles, the British have withdrawn into Egypt. However, while withdrawing, they sent one corp into an attack at Jaffe. It was an easy victory for Turkey.

Germany now has excess production capacity-there is even a battleship due to arrive soon. Naval building was largely ignored except for U boats until recently. The Air Force has been drastically expanded. A/H also has a large number of artillery and air units under construction. If the war was to continue, both would engage in a large scale naval buildup. The A/H Navy has had several battles with the French. The last one was costly in damaged capital ships.

CP Losses
July 17

Both Italy and Germany suffered some NW loss due to battle losses in June.

Armenian Front
July '17

The Turkish Army had finally finished off the Russians in the South. For some time O.E. units were able to advance at will. It seems that one detachment went just a little too far too fast. I did not notice the isolation marker on the unit-that was an "oops" on my part.

France
July 1917

I knew that France would be beat when Russia began to fall apart. It was just a matter of time before adequate forces could be sent back west. The Attacks that started in May of 1917 were large and growing in number and intensity.

By the end of July the German Army was still a good distance from Paris, but the AI decided it was beat. It could have gone on for another few months, perhaps 2 more turns, but the end was clearly in sight.

The terms of the peace treaty are most gracious.

The finale western theater view in the Diplomatic Mode.

Even if France had enough units to cover the front, they would be in a bad position. The British Army was only a little late in joining the war, but very late in starting conscription. There forces were never deployed in very large amounts in France.

All units visible on this map are CP corps.

The UK is still in the fight, but with a NW of about 15. Russia actually has not surrendered, but it is nearly fully occupied.

Other than naval battles and working though the colonial areas, the war is over. I could possibly build up the German Navy before 1919-just in time for one big battle with the Royal Navy. I may revisit this particular effort if I ever feel the urge to overwhelm the RN. As it is, I am claiming victory in this game so I can try again from another angle.

This AAR was suppose to explore the possibilities of Germany avoiding war with Belgium and the UK and concentrating on defeating Russia first. It is clear that it would have been impossible for Germany to force Russia to surrender in 1914, it is possible that it could have accomplished that by 1916. It did work as planned in this game, but perhaps a little too easily. The Russian AI tried to hold certain areas after any human would have withdrawn. Even so, I think that under the strategic circumstances, Russia could be defeated by the CP while German forces remained in good defensive positions in the west.

This strategy worked well in this game. There are some AI improvements in the works for WW1 I'm sure. The next time I try this it may be a little more difficult, but I think it is still a good way to go if you are the CP side-and really want to win.

I hope some found this interesting. Please fell free to comment on the strategy or game play.

Congrats on your victory [:)]