Great War AAR - from Austria/Turkish perspective

[jjdenver]

[Turn 13]
No real progress in Bulgaria - and the Turks are forced to send an an army to confront the Greeks to prevent them from advancing on Sofia.

[jjdenver]

[Turn 14]
The Austrians continue to advance into Greece. You can see in the screenshot the Italian army in the Alps just south of Munich. This offensive should soon pull the Italians there south - freeing up the German army in Munich.

[jjdenver]

[Turn 15 Sep 25, 1915]
Austrians in Italy have yet another successful turn, taking Venice (Trieste was taken earlier).

Unfortunately word comes that the French have taken Bonn - things are even worse than I realized for Germany.

[jjdenver]

[Turn 15, Sep 25, 1915]
Bucharest finally is assaulted after 2 turns of artillery bombardment and falls! The Turks are now free to move on Greece.

[jjdenver]

[Turn 16 Oct 25, 1915]

The Italians pulled their troops out of the Alps last turn but it does no good as the Austrians cross the Po into Bologna and send a column marching toward Turin. Italy is in great danger.

Austrian high command received a shock - when the turn came from Germany there was a note that the bridges into Austria are exposed. On looking at last turn's map I should have realized that the Cracow bridge in southern Poland was vulnerable last turn but I didn't think it serious. All available transport is used this turn to send troops toward Cracow and also toward Prague to defend Austrian production and river lines.

A difficult decision is also made to pull out of southern Russia. This is in part because the Russians are now threatening Prague and the entire Austrian norther border- but also because a turn or two ago forward Austrian units got a glimpse of some very strong Russian armies waiting for them - so I don't think it would be possible to advance quickly to Kiev anyway.

[jjdenver]

[Turn 16 Oct 25, 1915]
The Turks march south into Greece in strength.

[jjdenver]

[Turn 16 Oct 25, 1915]
Here is a shot of Austrian casualty and kill totals to date. They are very favorable.

[jjdenver]

[Turn 17]

My German ally sends a screenshot of the situation. Because of the absolutely horrible situation pictured here, the decision is made by my German ally to sue for peace - there is no chance with Germany in this much trouble - even if Italy is conquered there is no way to come back from this. Germany has lost most of its army in the west.

Overall I can't imagine ever doing better with Austria and Turkey - this was I think a best case scenario for these countries as they had success everywhere they went - only being thwarted in Egypt by a massive Brit build-up. I really can't think what I would do different with Austria/Turkey if I play again.

At the end Austria is about to conquer Italy I think, is holding its own vs Russia.
Turks still hold Crimea, are in good shape in Egypt, conqured Romania, and are probably going to be able to conquer Greece. Still all of this is small stuff compared to the impending fall of Germany.

It was a fun game and I think all involved learned a lot. This was Germany's first time playing this tough scenario so I think he is ready for another go as it's not easy to bear the burden of playing Germany for the first time.

FYI - production at end: Allies 110,000 Central: 90,000

See my AAR as Germany for another point of view from a different game where Germany had ridiculous success.
tm.asp?m=1689320

[IRONCROM]

 I hadn't given any serous thought of playing this scenario until I read this AAR. I think I will have to give it a try.[:D]

[jjdenver]

ORIGINAL: IRONCROM

I hadn't given any serous thought of playing this scenario until I read this AAR. I think I will have to give it a try.[:D]

Glad you liked it - I think it's a crazy fun scenario - see my German AAR (game still ongoing) for another perspective.

The biggest thing to get used to is the power of counter-battery artillery fire (which I think needs to be toned down a little) - but once you develop strategies and doctrine to deal with this you will be fine. I won't lay them all out here because I have to keep some tactical secrets so that everyone else can go through the agony of discovery too lol.

[yoggi75]

Yeah, and if you decide to play JJ, be careful. As you've seen in this AAR he's really good. I would also subscribe to the fan-list of this scenario. The limit on what you can produce really forces you to be careful when to attack and you usually get fronts that flows back and forth, no blitz here.

I did some noooob mistakes leaving Sevastopol open for example. I detached units to move to Crimea but they didn't arrive in time, I should've built units there already in turn 1.

On the other hand you could also say that the success for Austria in the south ultimately lead to the downfall of the Axis. JJ focused hard on Belgrade and later on Greece and Italy which allowed me to go almost all out on Germany. Which I realized were the only chance of winning this game. Also I had a very thin line in the back. Those strong formations mentioned in the AAR were there, but they were few and I would've had a hard time keeping up a front should JJ have decided to go through with his eastern invasion.

In all an interesting and fun game.

[bwheatley]

This was a great AAR! Like i said in my other post i'd like to see another AAR from turn 1.

Hopefully vic will code up some better alliance code so you share Line of Sight and move through allied territory for supply purposes.