AustriAAR: An Austria-Hungary-only AAR

[FOARP]

Turn 11 and a look at the Italian front right before the Italian declaration of war. Only a thin screen of forces are ready to defend Austro-Hungarian territory but as soon as the Serbian front can be wrapped up a stream of reinforcements will pour in.

[FOARP]

Turn 11 in Serbia - Only two of the Serbian strongholds remain standing: Uskub and Bitola. Even the route of retreat through Albania is now cut-off. How much more can the Serbs take before they give in?

[FOARP]

Turn 11 in Galicia and Poland - Radom and Lublin have fallen (with substantial German support) to KuK forces. Maybe we can knock these Russians out?

[FOARP]

Turn 13 on the Italian front - the Italians had an early victory in taking Trento, but a rapid KuK attack seized Udine, and an attempt to advance through the gap left in KuK defences after the fall in Trento has ended with an Italian Corps being surrounded in the Alps.

Elsewhere, Serbia and Albania have surrendered and Bulgaria has entered the war.

[The Land]

Enjoying the AAR! thank you!

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: The Land

Enjoying the AAR! thank you!

Thanks! Always good to know that people actually read these!

[FOARP]

Poland, 21 August 1915 - exploiting the breakthrough at Lublin, Austro-German forces have slashed across the Russian rear, with cavalry units surprising and destroying an artillery formation and a bomber unit during their advance. The Russian army group around Warsaw is now cut off, albeit only be a relatively thin screen. Warsaw must fall for this encirclement to become effective, however.

[FOARP]

Poland, October 1915 - the Russian forces trapped in the Warsaw pocket have been reduced to from the original 7 corps and a detachment to a couple of corps which will soon be destroyed. A great victory, but the war is far from over.

[FOARP]

Ukraine, December 1915 - rather uncharacteristically (!) the snow is yet to fall in Ukraine where it looks like Austro-Hungarian forces, having liquidated the Warsaw pocket, are now staging a breakthrough towards Kiev and the Black Sea.

[FOARP]

Greece, December 1915 - Venezelists have seized power in Greece and brought the country into the war on the Entente side. A rather unwise decision as the a large part of the Balkan army of the Central Powers, which had conquered Serbia earlier in the year, was waiting for them having finally been upgraded and reinforced. Already the French corps that had been deployed to Salonika is heavily damaged and Salonika itself effectively surrounded. Corfu fell to a rapid dash by an Austro-Hungarian detachment, and three Austro-German corps are pressing across the centre of the Hellenic peninsula.

[FOARP]

As an aside, I'm thinking the war might be swinging too far in my favour right now (although the Germans are still not doing too great on the Western Front and are basically losing the fight in the North Sea) so I might declare war on Spain, the US, and Romania to even things up a bit if things keep going this way. Maybe Denmark too because I've always wanted to try a strategy of occupying Iceland and Greenland.

[FOARP]

February 1916 - War with the USA and Spain!

With the armies of the Central Powers victorious on most fronts, and the recent blitzkrieg through Greece and Ukraine, the leadership of the Central Powers became hubristic. An aggressive submarine campaign was unleashed in the North Atlantic that resulted in the sinking both of the RMS Lusitania and - astoundingly - of the Spanish Royal Yacht! The result was war with both an old European power, Spain, and the new power of the United States!

[FOARP]

Greece, April 1916 - The Greeks have been reduced to a collection of isolated garrisons surrounded and besieged by the Central Powers. Salonika has already fallen. Maybe there is help coming from the Americans, but it will not arrive in time for the Greeks.

[FOARP]

Italy, April 1916 - desperate for reinforcement, the Italians handed over key sectors of their front to recently-arrived Portuguese troops. This turned out to be an unwise decision - the Portuguese detachments that guarded Venice and Padua were poorly armed and badly motivated, and crumbled at the first blow from the forces of Kaiser Franz-Josef. Now the men of the Kaiserlich-Königliche Landwehr parade in the Piazza San Marco, with sullen gondoliers looking on at their new occupiers.

Withdrawing further into Italy, the Italian troops ask at every turn - where are the Americans?

[FOARP]

General situation, May 1916 - The Tsar has been toppled and replaced with Kerensky's republican regime. Meanwhile Finland has broken away. The western Entente members are thus now spared the embarrassment of having to support the Tsar's autocracy, and Russian morale is temporarily boosted - maybe there is still life in the Russian bear?

[FOARP]

Romania, July 1916 - With the slight revival of fortunes of Russia under Kerensky, the Kingdom of Romania takes the opportunity to intervene in the war. The Romanians are poorly armed and need soon need Russian support, which is sent in the form of three infantry corps. Pitesti falls to a strong Austro-Hungarian counterattack and K.u.K forces reach the gates of Bucharest.

[FOARP]

January 1917, General situation - The German collapse on the western front, having reach Lille, Epinal, and Nancy in their initial advance, continues, with the Germans be forced back to Liege and almost out of France altogether. In Romania Bucharest has fallen and the rail connection via the Black Sea coast to Russia has been cut. Greece has surrendered after a prelonged, and pointless resistance in the Peloponnese after the fall of Athens. The British are defeated in Palestine but have advanced in Mesopotamia to link up with the Russians coming out of the Caucasus.

[FOARP]

January 1917, Russia - the Bolsheviks seize power! Surely Russia is finished now?

[tarfman]

Cool AAR!

[FOARP]

Italy, April, 1917 - With the Peace of Brest-Litovsk now signed forces are freed up for an offensive in the west. The German collapse on the Western Front is continuing with the fall of Liege to a British-American force (the first appearance of the Americans in land combat) however I do not intend to reinforce them there as I trust that the vast forces now freed up to them should be sufficient to hold that line.

Instead I am reinforcing my forces in Italy and conducting an amphibious attack across the Adriatic simultaneously with a renewed offensive in Northern Italy where Verona and Brescia have fallen in recent months. At the same time an army has deployed to Syria in order to force the British out of Mesopotamia and potentially invade Persia.