If at first you don't succeed, invade Belgium!

[Bavre]

Hi John,

if I see that correctly your bombardement of Belgrade was with a lvl 0 cannon, right? Well those things do practically nothing (atk 0, deentrenchment 0, demoralization 5). Give them one tech level however and the change will be DRAMATIC! Kind of the reason why in MP everyone rushes arty tech. Since you made a few remarks on your research: as far as I understood it so far, the first few techs to research are basically mandatory in MP:
trenches (4 chits)
cannons (2 chits)
shells (3 chits) + always keep max chits in those 3
Any deviation from that is usually a certain way to defeat, because those techs are vastly more useful than the rest.

[John B.]

Bavre,

Thanks for the tips! I'm pretty close to your suggestions but I will adjust accordingly.

John

[John B.]

Sorry for the lack of updates but, frankly, not much has been going on. This is pretty much bad news for the Central Powers as I have not had any good attacks since I last posted and I'm basically stuck everywhere. A good example was last turn where I attacked a Russian detachment with two corps and I lost 6 points to the detachments 4. Here is Poland/ East Prussia. Not much change here.

[John B.]

In Serbia there has been zero change. Any proposed attacks start off with me losing 3:0 so I'm stuck here as well. This is extra bad given that Italy just entered the war but no sense throwing away forces. Bulgaria has been moving towards the Entente. I have three chits there but it's not been enough. Can't say I blame them.

[John B.]

Galicia, wait for it, you guessed it. No change. I did send a cav down to cut the Serbian supply line. Moral victory!

[John B.]

France, the Belgians retook Antwerp. I'm just waiting for the hammer blows to start falling. My research has been awful as you can see I'm still on level one trenches and the allies are nice and toasty in their higher levels. The naval war has gone ok. The English have the blockade but my subs have been getting some good results. Turkey is in the war and not much is happening with them.

[John B.]

It's August 1915 and with a year of war under our belts I'd have to say (quoting that old optimist Emperor Hirohito) things have not necessarily developed to my advantage. Here in France I've been pushed back into Germany and it does not look like that's going to change anytime soon. My only hope is that he needs a couple of turns to rest before the next round of attacks.

And, you can see in the upper left hand corner, he's starting to gloat. Always a bad sign.

[John B.]

Sorry for the picture size in the last report. Things are not much better in Sinai where Jerusalem has fallen and the cav corps that took it is clinging on with one SP left (that has been my real curse in this game almost, but not quite, destroying the enemy). In the Caucasus we're beating each other up.

But, a spot of good news. I finally took a Russian fortress now that my artillery is upgraded and in a couple of turns I may be able to take Warsaw.

[John B.]

And, in Serbia I finally, finally, managed to take Belgrade. Both A/H and German artillery are upgraded and my German aritllery has seven shells and waiting to pound the next line. I think my one hope is to take out Serbia and use the units to shore up the Western front.

[BillRunacre]

Well done, taking Belgrade will help bring Bulgaria into the war!

[John B.]

Bill thanks for the kind words. Alas, Bulgaria hovers around 10% pro-Central and Greece just entered the war so this is not going to go well for the Ottomans and it will help the Serbs. Speaking of them, I did kill another Serb corps so progress is being made. And, as you can see, the Germans are just now able to upgrade their infantry. I have not seen any allied infantry upgrades yet so this could help.

[John B.]

Bigger news is that the German fleet sailed into the North Atlantic. After this round I sank three British light cruisers and 1 DD. Now, I have to wait and see how much push back I get from the allies. My basic plan is to run away after this with whatever survives. I also started unrestricted uboat war because it gave me a NM boost and I don't care about the Americans, I'm just trying to survive!

[John B.]

Had to leave that last picture full size so you can see the whole battle. In France, he has a whole lotta artillery and he's building more (as am I). I did just get a trench upgrade so that should help somewhat.

[John B.]

No real news in Poland. Stockpiled shells and did a whole lot of infantry upgrades.

[John B.]

The situation in Sinai. With the Greeks in the war some Ottomans may have to head back north. I did recapture Jerusalem but Palestine surrendured.

[KorutZelva]

The new patch put a stop to our game. Seeing germany with the lead in inf tech would have certainly kept it spicy for a little while.

gg John B!

[John B.]

Oh no! Did the game end?

[KorutZelva]

Yeah new patch means the games are wiped from the server.

[John B.]

I just downloaded the patch and was able to continue another game that I have going and our game still appears. Did it disappear from your end?

[Robotron]

If the match can be continued after all then by all means do so. [:)]