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Facing once more the dreaded unorthodox creative Ulver with the house rule that CP can not declare war on Italy and the Entente not make any declaration of war I went into strategy building mode with great anticipation with Ulvers last "crush them in last impulse 1919" game against a strong defensive CP position in mind [&o]

As Ulver no doubt is better in writing AAR this is just intended as a warm up.

Prelude

It had been a long beautiful summer and the thunder clouds gathering on the horizons were man made clouds of conflict soon to be unleashed once more upon poor Europe. Entente aggressive behaviour and Serb terrorists had deteriorated the situation in peaceful Berlin. Intended upon showing strength and war preparedness towards the disdained French a propaganda movie had been made....

If the Entente wouldn't settle to just German demands the iron fist was ready!

Turn up the volume sit down and relax: Ironfist

First private communiqué from Churchill to the Kaiser:

Either the German Emperor has gone insane or he is a genius [8|]

As there have been some updates of international agreement upon conduct of war it has been agreed upon to follow the new version 1.30.

Preliminary reports suggests massive international outrage amongst neutral against German violation of Belgian neutrality.

Well I am the Kaiser - who cares [8|]

The military leaders of the Central powers entered the war with high spirits quite certain they had adopted a good solid strategic plan leading them right to victory for the greater glory of the German Reich.

Oh and for their allies as well of course but as the German national anthem goes "Deutschland über alles" [8D]

Regrettably the master plan had to be scuttle during impulse 2 as the Kaiser much to his dismay realised the futility of the enterprise so no harm done in revealing it as an alternate crash plan is now in development [:(]

The plan required a controlled German offensive against Russia in the 2 opening turns to advance as far as Riga and Minsk going in the defensive while a smaller thrust went southwards towards Brest-Litovsk. The bulk of the German forces was then to be deployed against Ukraine to get to those vital food resources.

The more fragile Austria-Hungarian army had setup a small marauder contingent against the Serbs consisting of 1 Army Group of reservists beefed up with cavalry, artillery and HQ to give the impression of two fully deployed armies. Their purpose was to shun battles advancing to the Bulgarian border largely with cavalry advances thereby locking the Serbs into their mountain eagle nests with cities isolated from each other.

The Austrian navy sortied full strength to prevent Entente reinforcements to the Serbs.

The bulk of the Austrian-Hungarian army was setup against Russia leaving the gateway to Vienna more or less open. The cynical calculation at the German high command (Austria was not invited) was that even the fall of Vienna would not mean surplus of raw materials and the morale would be regained in course of the game anyway. This would only hasten the downfall of the Tsar.

Boy was I wrong.....

In west I went for the Lascar plan setting up some 20 corps with all artillery and airforce to take advantage of the weak French position in the opening turns with the objective of gaining the border hexline and begin a steady attrition towards the French. Later in the war when the Italian, Balcan and Russian fronts had been pacified and America was close to enter anyway a swift sweep through first Holland and next turn Belgium should give me a short defensive line in enemy territory.

German setup in East Prussia

The impressingly two Army groups

An offensive part of the Austrian-Hungarian Army

Lots of Russians around here.

We shall not forget France.

Ooops - perhaps that Austrian advance was a bit ambitious [X(]

No wonder that the Russian forces in southwestern part of Poland was moving eastwards but as it turned out the Russian defenders in the Ukraine actually went into a strategic offensive.....

Did the Tsar know something that I didn't? What had I overlooked [&:]

Time for a cup of tea and deep thought about our strategy and the position of Russia.

Perhaps I have tought Ulver a bit too much.

After having taken that hex south of Verdun with a full Army group all what remains after a full concentrated barrage by French artillery and their prompt counterattack is a meager 8 strength points.

This only proves once more that the key to succes in GOA is to mass your artillery ideally with air support to maximise your enemys total combat losses and reducing your own.

Well done Ulver [&o]

The indifference of the Tsar towards my offensive made me wonder and I went on playing with myself for an hour or so.

In GOA hotseat you dirty minded..... [:-]

My plan was to take 3 food resources from Russia in the north and the southernmost in early summer 15 with an assault upon Romania depending on when Bulgaria joined the fun. With Russia loosing half morale rounded down for cities an advance to Riga in the north and a moderate advance in the south would cause Russia to loose 28 moral. Some morale would be lost on the fall of Serbia, Romania and Luxembourg. Say a conservative number of 7 morale.

So with a combined loss of 35 in morale I would still need to inflict 45 morale loss to get down to that magic number 20 and definitely not more than 65 in total.

I have disregarded random morale loss due to strength point losses in the equation. If I only count the 3 lost food resources in the north that equals 6 lost morale per turn. Russia has enough surplus at start for 2 turns. So with some calculation Russia should hit the revolution barrier around late 15' or early 16' making them quit in the first half of 16'. Everything would fit with a summer 16 Götterdammerung showdown offensive through the low countries so what did I miss in the equation?

Some hotseat experimentation quickly made me realise that Britain can ship their at start 10 food resource reserve to Russia in turn 1. Its debatable how realistic such a "presight" is.

Worse I deployed 5 British transports in the North Sea on shipping orders in the next strategy phase and ordered the transfer of some additional 10 food resources to Russia. Sure enough the turn after they arrived as trade in Russia. [:(]
Let's continue this analyzation. I have only concentrated on this northern shipment of resources disregarded the mediterranean routes.

One solution would be to take Petrograd. Counting the number of hexes from East Prussia that would make a summer 15' battle against a no doubt hornest nest full of Russian troops walking directly to the front. With the addition of poison gas and concentrated CP effort I can see this work albeit at a large strategic cost elsewhere. So how much food could the western powers accumulate and send to Russia before the summer of 15' ? I began counting the surplus of western food production and just one or two turns food transfer through the North Sea would solve Russias food problems possibly for the duration of the game.

What about cutting the link thorugh the North Sea then? Regrettably I had build transports so a large scale unrestricted SUB warfare was out of the question anyway. Come to think of it by the time the SUBS would have been build substantial amounts of food would have been sent to Russia anyway and Britain only had to leave the Atlantic empty for a turn or two when the transports returned each half year stuffing the North Sea with 12 destroyers and 20 transports on shipping orders.

What about the surface fleet then? Control of the North Sea would not stop the transfers so it would have to be physically stopped meaning first to beat Royal Navy then the merchant fleet - for the duration of the Russian campaign right from the beginning of the game. I have great faith in the capability of the German fleet but that would perhaps be a bit too much.

So the conclusion was that the only hope of winning the campaign in the east would be to march up to Petrograd thereby ruining Russian production and fight down the complete Russian army hopefully causing enough exhaustion levels to make Russia surrender as city loss from morale and starvation would not be enough.

Well this was not what I had deployed for neither do I think this is in the reach of possible for the Central Powers.

No wonder the Tsar was so prudently arrogant and had deployed all out against Austria. His large reinforcements in the winter could be given the task to stop the hun concentrating on digging in making Germany pay the steepest price to get to Petrograd. In the meantime Russia would bulldozer Austria in combination with a western supported front in Serbia. Only way to prevent that would be to abandon all hopes of reaching Petrograd to come to the aid of Austria thereby abandoning all hopes of victory in the east.

I could hear the screaming laughter of the Tsar crazed by victory fever making new maps of Russia extending all the way to Vienna [:D]

Another soultion could be to forget everything else than a strategy based on knocking France out of the war as nothing less would give CP a fighting chance with the transfer rules as they are at the moment in 1.30.

I could have overlooked something - in that case where and what?[:D][:D][:D]

So with the conclusion that victory in the East was out of the question and knowning nothing to defeat the Kaiser promptly concluded that if victory could not be won in the east then it must be won in the west [8|]

The orders went out to Albrecht and Wilhelm to execute an all out offensive before France and Britain could deploy their full forces. Reinforcements would come from a stripped eastern front as their commanders was ordered begining to march westwards which had the generals in command puzzled for a long time wondering whether the Kaiser believed himself to be some new Columbus?

Meanwhile the Austrians was screaming for help when told the sudden change in strategy. The scattered remnants of the Austrian army hopeless spread out across several fronts were ordered to disengage and prepare defending Vienna which were the first and only defence line to try and stop the Russian all out frenzied strategic pursuit no doubt to be unleashed upon the virginity of the very Austrian-Hungarian heartland.

Sickened with realisation of what to come and the futile in the offensive the order was given none the less.

Over the top boys.

Wawes after wawes of brave young German soldiers advanced in endless columns tactical unprepared for combat without adequate support with the very predictable result. They were slaughtered to a man. The deepest thrust came west of Verdun but sadly the army group lacking reserves were cut of from the rear area.

The slaughter had made a deep impression on the Entente commanders quietly stating at the end of august that they thought the war was won.

No shit Sherlock! At least the poor buggers in the trenches had the hope of surviving. I was fully aware that there was no alternative to to new prolonged offensives to try and wear down the French army as the alternative was to break for certain in late 16' suffering the inevitable and utter defeat in 17'.

Not so creative clash after all i fear [8D]

Thanks for a great and very informative AAR.

I should probably confess that I was not nearly as sneaky as your essay indicates. I honestly had no idea that it would be possible to ship food to Russia merely by deploying British transports in the North Sea and, frankly, I think it is the wrong design decision. To enable food transfer there should be allied shipping in the Baltic as well making things a lot harder – I would be happy to play with a gentleman’s agreement to that effect.

As always the bulk of the Russian army was deployed to thrust toward Vienna. I feel that is the only objective critical enough to the Central Powers to force them to divert force from the Western front quickly enough. When I saw a massive German army in East Prussia my instinct was to run away as fast as my rather short hairy Russian legs could carry me.

The only issue for me was which direction. A cursory glimpse at the map showed what appeared to be a fairly substantial thrust Northwards by the Austrians with another going eastwards toward the Ukraine. Since my army in Western Poland had to get out of there anyway it made sense for my two army groups to attempt to link up behind Austrian lines – hopefully trapping and destroying the Northward Austrian thrust before the Germans could get to them.

Essentially I was fighting by attacking backwards in conjunction with a reliving thrust.

August 1914: Russia stumbles into a pincer movement against the Austrian advance pretty much by accident

After watching the Austrian navy sortie in the first turn I send the entire French fleet supported by the Substantial British Mediterranean squadron out to hunt them. Despite being heavyly outnumbered the Austrian kicked the British/French fleet all over the place.

Baltic:
Russian Petropavlovsk (PD) firing on Ger Elsaas (PD) : 1 hits
Russian Petropavlovsk (PD) firing on Ger Elsaas (PD) : 2 hits
German Elsaas (PD) firing on Rus Petropavlovsk (PD) : 3 hits

East Med:
Austrian Prinz Eugen (DN) firing on Br Goliath (PD) : 2 hits
Austrian Tegetthoff (DN) firing on Br Formidable (PD) : 2 hits
Austrian Habsburg (PD) firing on Br Donegal (CA) : 2 hits
Austrian Prinz Eugen (DN) firing on Br Goliath (PD) : 3 hits
Austrian Tegetthoff (DN) firing on Br Formidable (PD) : 5 hits
Austrian Habsburg (PD) firing on Br Goliath (PD) : 1 hits
Austrian Prinz Eugen (DN) firing on Br Goliath (PD) : 2 hits
Austrian Prinz Eugen (DN) firing on Br 5th (Tr) : 4 hits
British 5th (Tr) sunk
Austrian Habsburg (PD) firing on Br Leviathan (CA) : 1 hits
Austrian Prinz Eugen (DN) firing on Fre Jean Bart (DN) : 1 hits
Austrian Tegetthoff (DN) firing on Fre Jean Bart (DN) : 1 hits
Austrian Tegetthoff (DN) firing on Fre Courbet (DN) : 1 hits
Austrian Habsburg (PD) firing on Fre Charner (CA) : 1 hits
Austrian Prinz Eugen (DN) firing on Br Indefatigable (BC) : 2 hits
Austrian Tegetthoff (DN) firing on Br Indefatigable (BC) : 1 hits
Austrian Tegetthoff (DN) firing on Br Indefatigable (BC) : 3 hits

British Formidable (PD) firing on Aus Habsburg (PD) : 2 hits
British Goliath (PD) firing on Aus Habsburg (PD) : 3 hits
British Leviathan (CA) firing on Aus Habsburg (PD) : 1 hits
British Indefatigable (BC) firing on Aus Maria Theresa (CA) : 2 hits
French Courbet (DN) firing on Aus Tegetthoff (DN) : 1 hits
French Courbet (DN) firing on Aus Tegetthoff (DN) : 3 hits
French Jean Bart (DN) firing on Aus Tegetthoff (DN) : 3 hits

North Sea:
German 2nd (UB) firing on Br 9th (Tr) : 1 hits

In the following turn the Central Powers would take advantage of the Austrian victory by sorting the entire High Seas Fleet into the Atlantic, allowing German trade and cutting the British lifeline.

Nov/Dec 1914: Disaster at sea, Germany controls the Atlantic

Oddly enough this action would not generate any navel combat activity at all. With 10 transports unescorted in the Atlantic I suppose I should be counting my blessings. Non-the less the economic consequences in terms of increased raw materials for Germany would be significant.

Even more devastating his food problems are likely to be permanently over with some 14 food going to Germany in overseas shipping.

Der Kaiser is now in exile in Holland September 1915 after a humiliating defeat. No doubt the Entente propaganda machine will boast about their great victory.

Suffice to say a certain corporal will make life difficult on Europe 20 years time later as Germany would have crushed France and Italy in 15' after having begun a Russia first so this defeat is the result of a zionist conspiracy no doubt. This I consider quite an achievement given the circumstances.

If only Germany had not been linked to the sick man of Europe which is of course the Habsburgian corpse Austria-Hungary [8D]

Well done Ulver. You are at your very best when I am lying down [:D]

I’ll try to add some detailed later but if it is a conspiracy it certainly isn’t the Stab in the back legend from our timeline. The endgame would se an utterly crushed Italy and France begging for peace after having been comprehensively defeated by the German field army.

The Western Powers, specifically France, is in no position to dictate terms. The decedent hapless democracies have showed themselves utterly unsuited to the crucible of war. They had their great trial by fire and have been found wanting.

The winner is Russian autocracy and when the peace conference convenes in Moscow – or possible in a Russian occupied Vienna - there won’t be any silly talk about the right of self determination or suggestions to introduce week democratic governments on the defeated nations.

Nicholas II of Russia is not the type to break up Empires, rather he will impose a new European order designed to prop them up. If the corporal tries to make trouble in 20 years time he is unlikely to find any week small nations surrounding Germany - he will be facing an autocratic Imperial Russia having no scruples about sending in troops if Germany re-arms in violation of the Moscow Treaty.

There is no reason to think the German Kaiser is about to be deposed by the Russians – Nicholas is not happy about the precedent of deposing his nephew ruling by divine rule right of kingship.

If anything expect to se the French Kingdom restored to cleanse the country of the poison left by the French revolution.

If there is a World War Two replay it will be a very different one from what we had in our history.