RE: Argentum vs operating 92 turns

[operating]

Turn 75
The chase is on
Yep, my opponent was paying attention, he picked up on my now failed gambit., although I truly think if he had no units in his queue I'd be owning Tripoli and he would have lost the 9 PP and even more importantly a 10-15 NM loss, this could have been a real headache for him.. Now he knows what I am up to, so all I can imagine is that he has his navy in pursuit of this defenseless transport. Plan is to draw his navy as far away from the Adriatic as far possible, or maybe find another city that I might be able to capture, preferable one with a port..

[operating]

Turn 75
Suez
Things are heating up in this sector: The Brits broke ahead of their line and paid a price, however he is keeping me off the canal. An Italian armored cruiser bombarded my right flank, then was pounced on by my sub fleets almost completely destroying his fleet. Other fleets are frantically doing repairs getting ready for the next skirmish. Units are moving north to join the Suez fight..

[operating]

Turn 75
Medina
OK the Turks have beat the rebels and recaptured Medina. This usually means enemy out of supply will suffer attrition dying off in a few turns, or as in this case their so called capital is captured, which usually means this units get retired off the map. At least that's my thinking and experience with other nations being captured, it's over.. Now my units are freed up to head north, mission accomplished. [:)].

[operating]

Turn 76
Prague-Vienna
Once again Argentum's air armada softens up my ground units by Prague eliminating a Bulgarian infantry and reducing another to only a strength of 3 with English infantry arriving to mop things up. Any survivors are heading for the backside of Vienna.. AH was able to put an Italian infantry out of it's misery to the southwest of Vienna. It was tough choice: Either attack the Italian artillery for partial damage or finish off an infantry to leave a hole in their line. Soon Entente will be pushing on Vienna proper with fresh troops and air power...

[operating]

Turn 76
Vienna Zagreb
Even with a very weak army and just a few air assets had been able to push back the Italians, killing off 2 of their infantry and damaging others while recapturing Zagreb.. Can't figure out why he did not recapture Venice where he had the opportunity to do so?[&:] Had the game had set limits on air units or had lessened their capabilities the whole game would have been better off..[;)]

[operating]

Turn 76
Suez
Whoops! My cav just spotted the second English line behind the canal, but it's too late to withdraw, will do so next turn. Had to use my air to disrupt unit in Ismailia was hoping to use that air in combination with an assault, but not now. There's no English units at Cyprus, so loaded up a transport at Beirut for a strike at Nicosia[8D].. Hopefully Argentum stays distracted with Suez Canal activity.

[operating]

Turn 77
Vienna
Lost Prague, now AH has gone into red NM. It won't be long before Vienna will be under the Entente boot, his airforce is just killing my troops... If he captures Vienna the -30 NM would just about knock AH out of the war..[:(]

[operating]

Turn 77
Vienna-Zagreb
Lost an AH infantry to the southwest of Vienna. Continued attacks on Italian Infantry, however he is bringing up fresh units to the Zagreb front. I have a couple of new arrivals to this front also, never will there be enough, AH's economy is in shambles... To the northwest of Zagreb the viewer get's a partial view of the enemy airforce, a lot more can be seen doing strikes during replay.. The order of the day is: "To die in place"..![:-]

[operating]

Turn 77
Suez
Continuing to withdraw to form a line from Gaza to in front of Aqaba with my best troops. My subs did a 3 strength damage to the English cruiser while blocking a way to bombard Gaza, plus it is drawing his attention away from Cyprus where my Turk transport has gone..

[operating]

Turn 77
Nicosia
Looks good for an uncontested amphib landing and capture of Nicosia, placed "unseen" [8D]subs to transport flanks for much anticipated naval strikes on transport.

[operating]

Turn 77
Riyadh
Well it does not look like the rebels died with Medina's capture and I do not know how much attrition has affected their strength, I can imagine their efficiency should be at about zero, however I am not taking any chances and ordered up an AC and garrison to be deployed to Riyadh albeit somewhat late (could have ordered this army makeup as soon as when Medina fell).

[operating]

Turn 78
Vienna
Well Vienna is turning into a meat grinder, unfortunately it's my units that are getting ground up.[X(]. The red "X"s are where their graves are row on row.. Soon there will be more to join them in Vienna proper, there is not going to be a major upset against the invaders, I'm certain of that now..[:(] Fortified positions mean nothing when relentlessly attacked from the air melting unit efficiency down to zero, a bunch of powder puff cheerleaders could capture those positions after such aerial harassment. Hey, what can a player do when the dev's abandon the game (shame on them)... Trying to set up secondary defensive lines, but have no faith they will hold. If Vienna falls, that only leaves Budapest as my last bastion for a capital city and as you can see, there's not a whole lot there to defend it with..

[operating]

Turn 78
Zagreb
Finally Argentum recaptured Venice, not of real importance till it started producing points.. I have no general to the north of Zagreb that can support units, my strategy is to hold at Zagreb for as long as possible, no march or die stuff.. The AH artillery is the only effective tool against the Brit tanks, so I'm giving it all it's got to buy time.. Was able to support Vienna with a cav who received a general, a kind of last ditch effort there.. Been trying to keep what air units I have healthy for a select target. I have no illusions of making it the whole 118 turns, what I am doing is showing Argentum and the readers that this dog still has bite till the bitter end. [:)]

[operating]

Turn 78
Adriatic
I'll take a small victory here sinking a Brit pre-dreadnaught fleet and taking it's crews prisoners. I was surprised there were no enemy subs protecting this fleet, nor have any enemy subs surfaced any where for sometime, I'm getting the feeling he scraped them for airships..[&:]

[operating]

Turn 78
Nicosia
What I can't remember here is if I sank one or 2 cruiser fleets that were trying to sink my Turk garrison transport? I do know positively I sank one Brit cruiser fleet, but all my naval units show that they had all attacked something. IIRC cruiser fleets came at the transport from both sides, but ran into subs by chance and gave attack at considerable losses, then my guys finished them off, either way, I accept this small victory, besides the capture of Nicosia and Cyprus. Bet ya that will really piss my opponent off..!![:D]

[operating]

Turn 78
Suez
The Brit tanks came out in pursuit of the withdrawing Turks only to find out the infantry has anti-tank weapons then being counterattacked themselves and struck by my fighters for a net loss of 6 strength points... This action also gave my infantry in yellow a breather to repair and regain efficiency. What I hate about this game is that tanks and airplanes can repair at the same rate as infantry, which I don't think was the same during WWI. Where it takes 4 turns to produce a 10 count infantry it takes I think 6 or 7 turns to produce a 10 strength tank.

[operating]

Turn 78
Riyadh
MY garrison could not deploy directly onto Riyadh because of enemy ZOC, however I could place next to it and the AC next to Kuwait city.. I can't see the enemy, they are there for sure and likely to capture the city during their turn. In some ways it was a pretty good gamble on Argentum's behalf to attempt the unknown, but also a seasoned player would have had some perception as to what was about to occur and anticipated it earlier than I had. This was a first for me to see this gambit...[8|]

[operating]

Turn 79
Vienna Falls

[operating]

Turn 79
Budapest
Obviously Entente has recovered from it's near fatal run into Germany and is taking revenge on AH. The AH infantry defender of Vienna fought to the last man, a glorious death, the cav and general withdrew to Budapest for a last stand there. The AH artillery has no hope of out running tanks and infantry so stayed and fought for the Fatherland.. Fully expect the AH will offer to surrender at the end of this turn (lower left panel indicated AH's NM is at "0"). If Argentum accepts AH's surrender it will mean the elimination of the entire AH fleet, thus eliminating a major thorn in his side in the Mediterranean. Also what will happen is: Units in the AH production queue will cease to exist, this all part of "Accepting Surrender" of a major power and add to that the minus NM effect on other CP allied nations of -30 NM.. This does not include the fact that all Turk and Bulgarian units on AH soil will be repatriated to the production queue, further removing any threat to Entente from this AH front. Should Argentum not accept surrender offer that would mean that AH would receive a positive +30 NM and an additional +30 PP, which certainly keep AH in the fight for awhile longer.

[operating]

Turn 79
Suez
Forming a defensive line (entrenching) from Gaza to Aqaba and continuing to withdraw troops to support it.. AH is replenishing it's fleets after the small victory around Cyprus.. It will be unlikely that the Turks will be able to go on the offensive again, but should be able to hold out for quite some time with reserves.. Once AH subs are up to full strength they will be able to help defend sea hexes next to Gaza and Beirut.[;)]