After the Russian Armistice - What Happens to Entente Forces?

[mdsmall]

I have just completed a play-test of my Icarus mod with Bavre and we encountered the following curious result which would happen in a regular game too.

I was playing the Central Powers and was pursuing an East-First strategy. By late August 1916, Russia was teetering on collapse and the Bolshevik Revolution had fired. However, the UK had sent most of their land forces to Russia (via Archangel) and were counter-attacking in front of Minsk to very good effect. In the Middle East, the Ottomans decided to attack Persia in order to seize the oil resources there and in the hopes of plundering Tehran. When Russian National Morale dropped to 12%, the Russians automatically offer to sign an Armistice with the Central Powers, which the Germans readily accepted (DE 621 - the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk).

As expected, the game engine automatically transported the German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman forces in Russia back to their respective home countries. However, rather than transporting the British army back to Britain, or maybe France (as I expected), the game engine dumped all the UK ground forces in Persia. My inference is that this was because it was the closest Entente-controlled territory and the only one that had a land border with Russia. Meanwhile, the several Entente air units that were also in Russia were transported back to France. This left the British Army in a situation that would have been familiar to Xenophon and the Ten Thousand in 401 B.C.

We chose to end the game there and did not find out if the "British Army of Northern Persia" would have battled its way to the Persian Gulf and found their way home via transports from Basra. But it would have been fun to play this scenario out to see what would have happened.

I have thought about this outcome afterwards. It is a quirk of the game engine but in my view not a glitch that needs an immediate fix. If the Entente chooses to send other Entente forces to shore up Russia, the situation should get tricky for them if/when Russia collapses. Ideally, there would be a "cooling off period" for couple of turns when outside forces from each side could organize their own withdrawal from Russia without being able to attack each other. However the game engine mechanics governing an Armistice do not allow that (if a country is not at 100% mobilization, no other forces can be on their territory). So, being teleported to Persia is not the worst thing in the world. If other Central Powers players find themselves battling allied Entente forces in Russia, consider declaring war on a nearby minor just before Russia collapses so the game engine sends the allied forces there. It might be interesting to try doing this with Sweden, as an alternative to Persia.

[shri]

Interesting.

Quite a-historical.

If the British had substantial forced on say the Central/Northern Front in the general direction of Minsk including marines and aircraft, then -
I doubt the Tsar would just surrender without using say the Coldstream guards to force his way. Now, whatever "DEMOCRACY" we talk about, a Bolsheivik revolution against the interest of the UK while substantial troops (i am assuming an army of say - 3 corps or more with air assets) is present in the near vicinity of Moscow/St.Pete then the UK would have launched an immediate counter-revolution taking along all "loyalist" forces.