SMK vs Boogada - the rematch

[SMK-at-work]

After my last drubbing by Boogada I decided to take the CP again, but to do a radical rethink - Schlieffen was a fool - Russia was the real threat, so this time I determined to knock out the bear ASAP.

So here's how I started on the eastern Front - nothing subtle here - a massive army aimed at Warsaw, and smaller ones aimed at Riga and to protect Silesia

Hmm...it's not letting me upload the image.....

[SMK-at-work]

Strange.....it seems to not like the name I gave the file....never mind - here's the plan for East Prussia!

[SMK-at-work]

In Galicia the Austrians have massed 2 groups - 1 aimed at the Ukrainian wheat fields, the other north into Poland and/or d fending the Carpathian passes.

[SMK-at-work]

Serbia is left with only a small army facing it

[SMK-at-work]

And last but not least - perhaps the strangest part of the plan - the "refused flank" against France.

My thinking here is that the border mountain hexes have low stacking limits, so are hard to attack out of, while the 2 fortresses of Strasbourg and Metz will be tough for the French to crack unless they buy some siege artillery!

Also not invading Belgium means no amphibious movement for the British in the 1st turn, which means a few less troops to worry about here - by the time the British arrive I will have reinforcements to bolster the line.

[SMK-at-work]

And from wha I can see of the Russian setup it looks like Boogada has gone for a strike at Austria and the Silesian mines - there's virtually nothing facing hte German steamroller, and if he doesn't get out of Poland in a hurry that big stack of armies just north of Krakow stands a good chance of being cut of!

[SMK-at-work]

T1 - each of the combats highlighted here resulted in the complete destruction of 1 corps - except the Austrians vs the Russians where they got 1 infantry and 1 cavalry corps - so a great start!

[SMK-at-work]

Jumping forward to January 1915 - the German offensive has carved off huge amounts of Russian territory - the yellow line shows roughly where the original border was.

An assault on Riga by tired elements of the northern army has already been repulsed and the Germans are settling in for a siege.

Some advanced elements of the German and Austrian armies have been roughly handled by the retreating Russians who managed to escape the trap in Eastern Poland, but on the whole it has been a spectacularly successful campaign.

In other areas the Serbs attacked the Austrians and gave hem a bloody nose, but couldn't really advance far, and the Turks roughly handled a British corps in the Sinai, but were crushed by a Russian offensive in the Caucasus.

[SMK-at-work]

Lest it be thought that the French were sitting around doing nothing - these 2 attacks are typical results of French assaults on the German defences in the west!

[SMK-at-work]

Bulgaria enters the war with the Serb army in completely the wrong place...much like it did historically, only several months earlier.



Also Riga is taken, and the 1st of the Ukrainian food resource hexes. An unexpected Russian attack destroyed a corps just south of Riga, and French cavalry continues to try to edge its way around the German lines in the west....perhaps it will go a bit too far one day??

[SMK-at-work]

I seem to have missed a turn - it is the start of July-August turn now, and there is plenty happening!

1/ The French have attacked in the south and have swept around the German line, capturing Stuttgart.
2/ The Russians almost overwhelmed the smaller German army that had captured Riga, and recaptured the city.
3, 4, 5/ The Austrian thrust south towards Odessa gained another food hex (5), but was threatened with being cut off by a Russian counter attack (3)...however that attack was instead met by German and Austrian reinforcements and crushed (4), resulting in 1 or 2 Russian units themselves being cut off.

6/ Bulgaria seized Skopje and Belgrade is cut off, but the British are coming to help, and
7/ The Turks seize Cairo.

So it has been an action packed couple of turns!

Oh and somewhere in there I think the Turkish and Austrian navies sank a British Battle-cruiser in the Eastern Med too! But they were pretty roughly handled in return and are unlikely to sail much more themselves, if ever!

[SMK-at-work]

An action packed turn - lots of attacks in the West - the French cut off Metz, but the Central powers threaten to cut off the French in Bavaria.

Sorry the picture is a bit of a mess - I was never an artist! :/

[SMK-at-work]

But to cap it off, Italy decides not to join the war just yet, and Russians decide perhaps they don't want to be in it either!

[SMK-at-work]

It's been a while since I posted sorry - here's an update

By Nov-Dec 1915 the French attack into Germany had been cut off - massive attacks in the directions shown had mostly worked for Germany, and mostly not worked for France!

Metz remains cut off and likely to fall, but the TE pocket looks to have more forces to lose!

[SMK-at-work]

The winter turn sees no action - however the French forces in the pocket disintegrate in the bad weather for lack of supply - Metz holds out a little longer....

[SMK-at-work]

It's been 10 days since I updated this - sorry - time flies when you are having fun!

Some overview - the Russian revolution was defeated, and the Russians hung on for several more turns, finally surrendering just yesterday - late 1917. So Germany now has a surplus of food! A bit late tho...:/

Alas America joined quite early - mid-late 1916 - I had thought it was further off - I'm sure I checked the diplomacy screen! As a result I ended up with diplomatic points that I could only spend on Romania!

In the west the TE has pushed the CP back with some ease - there were a lot of failed attacks and high casualties, but with the production advantage they have they could, and did, just keep trying.

Low German morale means that now the TE often succeeds in an attack even if they take substantially hight losses

There have been a couple of interesting little aspects to the game that I'll give a bit more detail on.

Firstly the sub war - after America entered I belatedly realised there was no point in not having unrestricted Submarine warfare! So here's the result from the strat phase at the start of Nov-Dec 1916 - as you can see I do have 1 extra sub...more would have been better but I found myself distracted

As you can see it was a resounding success - I'm not sure what effect it had, but Boogeda certainly remarked upon it! This continued for a couple of strat phase, with his destroyers being completely ineffective until recently - I think he might have invested something in ASW...

[SMK-at-work]

The other interesting bit, from my p.o.v. at least was the Macedonian front - here's what it was like at the start of the Nov-Dec 1916 move - the same time as those u-boat victories above.

the TE has some troops there...but apparently not too many, and they are contained

[SMK-at-work]

But some judicious use of gas sees them bundled back into the biggest POW camp of the war where they belong...this is impulse 2 of the Mar-April 1917 move



Boogada noted that we had a unit from every belligerent on this front, excepting only Russia.

[SMK-at-work]

Here you can see how far the front has moved - 1 hex at a time, often with heavy casualties to the attacker - many attacks failed of course.

But it is slow & inexorable - more so with the Americans here....

We will get to 1918 tho - which is an improvement for me playing the CP!

[SMK-at-work]

And in case you were wondering what had happened in Macedonia, it looks like this - it is currently the start of the July-August turn: