FEAR GOD and DREAD NOUGHT: A PBEM

[racndoc]

This AAR covers my 1st GoA PBEM. I am playing as the Allies vs Lascar as the evil Huns. Ive played a few turns as the TE against the AI but it never made a serious attack against France....always going east. Trying to defend Paris against an experienced human player will be quite a challenge.


TRIPLE ENTENTE STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS(in order of importance)

1)Keep France in the war
2)Maximize Allies economic potential
3)Open a shipping lane through the Baltic to Russia and send as much industial production over as possible.
4)Use diplomacy to coerce Italy and USA into the war ASAP
5)Maximize technological advantages in the late war



AUGUST 1914: OPENING MOVES

All the RN DNs were sent to the North Sea to allow Britain to send reinforcements to France as quickly as possible. Britain builds several transports so that max trade can be enabled as quickly as possible. France also builds a transport.

To help France survive, Russia sends its mighty armies into East Prussia and Silesia to put pressure on Germany. Another offensive is launched on the food hex near the Austro-Russian border.

Serbia masses around Belgrade.



SEPTEMBER 1914: WESTERN FRONT

Germany breaks through the French frontier on the hex between Verdun and Nancy.

[racndoc]

SEPTEMBER 1914: EASTERN FRONT

Trying to alleviate some of the pressure on France, Russia drives deep into East Prussia and Silesia.

[racndoc]

NOVEMBER 1914: WESTERN FRONT


Germany creates a dangerous salient west of Nancy and captures 2 resource hexes....the front threatens to break but a couple of desperate French counterattacks drive the overextended Germans back and help to reduce the size of the bulge. The German army has advanced within 2 hexes of Paris.

[racndoc]

NOVEMBER 1914: EASTERN FRONT


While Germany advances within 2 hexes of Paris in the west, the Russian hordes drive to the hex adjacent to Berlin...another Russian thrust drives to the Baltic to capture 2 food hexes and isolate East Prussia. Russia reaches their "High water mark" on the 2nd impulse of the Sept. 1914 turn as they reach the outskirts of Berlin...then a large German counterattack destroys an overextended Russian corps and the Purple Menace is pushed back towards the steppes.

Most importantly Germany is forced to commit some of its western forces to rescue Berlin and Paris is saved.


Farther south, Russia captures the food hex on the Austro-Russian border but too much Russian force was commited here....if commited farther north a bigger hurt could have been put on Germany. Now Russia has cpatured 3 CP food hexes and is actually saving 1 food point per turn...this will be important later in the war.

[racndoc]

JANUARY 1915: WESTERN FRONT


The front now stabilizes as both sides dig in a trench network that will extend from Switzerland to the North Sea.


At sea, Germany sorties the High Seas Fleet and a massive 5 on 4 DN naval battle breaks out in the North Sea...both sides lose 3 dreadnaughts and the remainder are heavily damaged. The French DNs are sent to the North Sea to maintain naval supremacy but the amphibious transport system is jumbled up and the Brits are delayed in sending reinforcements to the continent. In the eastern Med, the 2 Austrian DNs sortie and punish the RN PDs.....the amphibous transports are shot up here also and no reinforcement of Alexandria is possible. The Turks enter the war and launch an offensive on Egypt. Badly outnumbered, the Brits are foced to retreat to Alexandria and entrench and Cairo is lost.

Meanwhile, France and Britain keep building transports for shipping and factory production is maxed out every turn with resource and food reserves growing in both countries(in case Germany uses unrestricted sub warfare later).

[racndoc]

JANUARY 1915: EASTERN FRONT

Meanwhile, Germany deploys nearly 20 corps to the eastern font to drive the Russkies out of Silesia...about a half dozen Russian corps are destroyed in the withdrawal.

Austria pushes the Serbs back to their most southern city and then redeploys most of their forces to the eastern front....apparently content to let let Serbian morale wither until they surrender.


Turkey captures Cairo and entrenches a corps in Basra before Britain can redeploy an HQ to India....again due to the TE naval fiasco in the easten Med.

[racndoc]

MARCH 1915-AUGUST 1916


WESTERN FRONT:


No action for 17 months....Lascar remarks that this is the longest quiet spell he has ever seen in any GoA game on the western front. As both sides reach level 4 trenches, even the artillery fire becomes intermittent as its effectiveness is greatly reduced. The BEF finally is completely deployed to the continent as France and Britain build over 20 transports between them....both countries economies are humming along at max production with ample reserves of food and RM being built up.

As it becomes apparent that Germany will try to win the war by taking out Russia, a year long naval effort is launched by both France and Britain to control the North Sea, sortie into the Baltic, and then establish a string of shipping transports from Britain to Russia in an effort to send desperately need industrial points to the hard pressed Russians.

The TE tries and tries and tries and tries again in conjunction with Russian sorties from Petrograd but are unable to enter the Baltic Sea. The orders for the DNs and the transports read "Baltic Sea" but the ships appear to stay in the North Sea. I have come to the conclusion that British and French ships are hardcoded from entering the Baltic. TE eyes now turn towards Constantinople and the possibility of transport through the Black Sea......we will need to take out the Turks.

Meanwhile, Italy enters the war and their fleet is mauled in the eastern Med by both the Austrian DNs and the BC Goeben.....French DNs are sent to restore the situation but not before several French and British transports are mauled and the amphibiouos transport system is again in shambles.

As Italy joins the TE, French and British units are redeployed from France to the Austrian Alps and break out into Austria to threaten Salzburg and Munich. Quick redeployment by Germany soon stops the onslot and the TE is forced to withdraw back to the Alps.

Italy, France and Britain are producing a combined 44 industrial points per turn....enough to research 5 techs and build up their barrage and armament reserves. The TE will attaempt to gain superiority in artillery research, mass produce artillery, and then blanket barrage the entire front once level 3 artillery is researched.


EASTERN FRONT:

Initially Russia is in good shape after the massive reinforcements of late 1914. A trench line 3 hexes deep and stacked 3-4 corps high stretches the length of the eastern front. Germany then decides to win the war here and begins launching hammerhead offensives with the use of green cross and yellow cross gas. Russian industrial production hovers at 3 points for a few turns, inches up to 5 points, then back down to 4 points as their troop losses mount. The western Allies unsuccessfully try for a year to open up a passage through the Baltic to augment Russia's industrial production. Eventually Russia manages 6-7 industrial points per turn but the situation is getting desperate...Russian troop losses cannot be replaced. Germany inches across Poland and takes Warsaw and 2 Russian food hexes....Russia now needs to use her early war food surplus to feed her population.

Serbia finally surrenders, Bulgaria joins the CP and Greece and Romania join the TE. By summer 1916 Russia sends out a plea for the other members of the TE to launch offensives to take off some of the pressure from her crumbling front.

[racndoc]

SEPTEMBER 1916: EASTERN FRONT


After taking Warsaw and the 2 food hexes in western Poland, Germany changes the axis of her advance towards the Ukraine and its western food hexes.

[racndoc]

SEPTEMBER 1916: WESTERN FRONT


Germany thins out her defenses in the west to support her great offensive in the east. After lying dormant for nearly a year and a half, France and Britain launch a massive assault that tears open a 2 hex hole in the front line and threatens to unhinge the entire German defense in the west:

[racndoc]

SEPTEMBER 1916: MIDDLE EAST


After a year of repairing DNs and building transports, the Allies are able to crush the remnants of the Austrian and Turk fleets in the eastern Med to gain complete control and 8 amphibious transports enable then to simultaneously invade at Beruit and reinforce Alexandria and India. Concurrent offensives capture Cairo, Jerusalem and Basra and put heavy pressure on the Ottomans.

[racndoc]

SEPTEMBER 1916: BALKANS

Russian calvary is redeployed to Romania and an offensive is launched into the soft underbelly of Austro-Hungary...Kronstadt is captured.

Another offensive thrust enters Bulgaria.

[racndoc]

SEPTEMBER 1916: ITALY

Both sides are locked in a stalemate in the Alps. The TE troops here act as a strategic reserve for the Middle East.

[racndoc]

JULY 1917: WESTERN FRONT


During the 1916 offensive in the west, the Allies briefly capture Verdun and the Ardennes....but a huge German counterattack with the use of an even more lethal gas....Blue Cross....throws them back with heavy losses. At a cost of nearly 200,000 dead the Allies push the trench lines 1 hex to the east. Even worse, another 10 Allied corps are completely demoralized by the gas attacks and take 3 months to recover. Both sides, exhausted, dig in again and the western front is again stalemated...albeit with much higher troop levels on both sides.

Allied production goes into high gear...Russia puts out 9 industrial points per turn (even with a food shortage of 2/turn) and the Big 4 TE put out 53 industrial points per turn. Allied tech research is paying off...air superiority is achieved when we get to level 3 aircraft and Germany loses 1 AC per turn. By the time artillery research reaches level 6 , we have built every artillery piece allowed in game for France and England and routinely fire over 102 barrage points per impluse just in the west. Lascar informs me that the brave Germans are starving and being bled white.

The USA enters the war in June and adds another 10 industrial points per month.

A new offensive is launched in June 1917 and the TE enters Germany just south of Metz:

[racndoc]

JULY 1917: ITALIAN FRONT


A TE offensive here in early 1917 is pushed back by the CP and the front is again stalemated. Italy has really helped the TE...she has built 4 transports to help amphibious ops in the eastern Med and gives 3-4 industial points per turn to France. Her AC helped to gain air superiority over the Italian Front.

[racndoc]

JULY 1917: MIDDLE EAST


The TE has completely routed the the CP here and stand poised to take Bagdad and Mosul as well as thrust towards central Turkey. Eventually we hope to open a land bridge to Russia so we can ship in some industrial points. Turkey's morale is reduced to "wavering".

[racndoc]

JULY 1917: THE BALKAN FRONT


Things arent going so well here for the TE. Greece is in bad shape and nearly out of the war.

In Romania, we tried to get the CP's attention here and we certainly achieved that...it looks as if the CP is making their major effort for 1917 here and things are now looking grim for Romania....even with massive reinforcements from Russia.

[Sewerlobster]

This is a great AAR, keep it coming.

[racndoc]

Thanks SSF....I just started playing this game in May and learned from reading other players AARs....hopefully other new players will find this AAR helpful.



JULY 1917: RUSSIAN FRONT....THE NORTH


After taking Warsaw and the 2 food hexes in western Poland, the front here has remained strangely quiet for the last 18 months or so as Germany has changed the focus of her offensives to the south. Russia originally had a 3 hex deep trench line with units stacked 4 high on the front line but as Germany has reduced their forces here the Russians have redeployed to the Ukraine and Romania. Even with a shortage of 2 food points per turn, Russia is producing more than ever..9 industrial points per turn(125% efficiency with morale of 99%). With German attention redirected to the other fronts, Russia has gained some breathing room and has not only rebuilt all of her damaged corps but has purchased 4 new corps in the last 2 turns along with some artillery barrages.

[racndoc]

JULY 1917: RUSSIAN FRONT....THE SOUTH


Germany keeps pounding forward towards the food hexes in the western Ukraine with the help of Blue Cross gas....here is the use of either their last or 2nd to last gas attack. Once the Germans have used their final Blue Cross gas attack.....they will be incapable of counterattacking TE offensives in the west...so Im not too upset about this attack!

[racndoc]

JULY 1917: RUSSIAN FRONT...THE SOUTH


OOPS ....THAT LAST ATTACHMENT WAS JUST BEFORE THE GAS ATTACK....HERE IS THE RESULT OF THE GAS ATTACK: