The real purpose of war: an alternate WWI gameplay AAR

[unmerged(77251)]

update IV: October 1914

WHEN THE BEAR GETS ANGRY​

On the advice of a brilliant lieutenant of his (strangely called "Robou"), Rupprecht finally chases the retreating British division in China. Given his speed bonus, the time left between the end of the battle and the beginning of his movement might help his purpose greatly, by catching the British just after having been reinforced, when moral is lowest. Arrival is due to October 15th; we all hope the date will match.

Somewhere in the first days of October, Japan joins the UK in there war against us. This could compromise our plans in China.

On October 3rd, we have enough reserves of corned beef to start our first round of division commissioning. Because of the international shortage of that commodity, our overall pace of division training will entirely depend on the availability of canned_food on the world market.

First on the list are engineers, since on top of taking less time than guards to be ready, they are deeply required on the eastern front.

A few days later, we oder 3 new guard divisions. With the 3 we already have, once the new ones are ready, we will be able to form our first offensive corps.

As expected, on October 11th, the first batch of mobilized troops is ready.

We use them to reinforce both fronts. First West:

The divisions moving behind the lines will form our first offensive corps​

Then East. Note that this allows us to disband the remaining artillery in Prussia, and to launch a liberation offensive on Kattowitz.

Gosh: that makes a lot of Russians !​

By doing so, alarming news reach our headquarters: a massive Russian army has been spotted in Poland. This somehow pushes us to check out when the next mobilization troops will be ready: not before January ! God help us until then ...

January ! You must be kidding !​

On October 12th, the Russians finally occupy Allenstein (first division spotted just after the begging of the war, back to August).

Our mid-october budget still looks pretty good:

October 15th shows some action:
1- The Russian attack again in Memel, we don't even bother to check that one out.
2- Our liberation troops arrive in Kattowitz
3- Rupprecht arrives in Weihaiwei

Unfortunately, he was too fast and caught up the British division before it could be reinforced. We will have to defeat them in the old fashioned way.

The battle of Kattowitz only lasts 2 days:

And the Russians loose another 30k man in Memel:

On October 26th, the Russian attack in Gleiwitz. Somehow there has been a mis-understanding about the man in charge (?!?!?), because no known Leader steps in. Nevertheless, this won't change the outcome of the battle.

The day later, Kattowitz is liberated, just in time to hold the Russian counter-offensive.

On October 29th, Rupprecht defeats the British army in China, having lost over 1200 man.

Towards the ends of October, we can again afford new troops: the first batch of 6 guards is ordered ASAP. Still 72 to go...

On October 30th, we repeal both Russian offensives in Silesia:

Run Ivan, run !​

And we finish this update with our monthly overview:

OVERVIEW: NOVEMBER 1st 1914​

Western Front: still quiet, even though more and more soldiers are showing up there.

The Eastern front looks good for us, and bad for Austria-Hungary.

Let's have a closer look to find out how bad things have turned. While the 460000 Russian in Poland are still undergoing strange maneuvers (perhaps some sort of diversion?), the Russian high command has launched a massive assault in Galicia: Austria has to face 52 divisions over only three provinces. This looks VERY bad.

Looks like we will have to garrison Bavaria ...​

However, they managed to occupy Beograd in Serbia, even though the Serbian army is still intact.

Game stats :

Still getting richer ...​

Daily income: +947
Debt: 0

 

[unmerged(81979)]

Lesson learned, don't tick off Russia!

 

[unmerged(77251)]

Feedback

demokratickid: If there is one lesson to be learned, it's probably "avoid declaring war". Even though this AAR is quite a challenge, making money would be far easier in peace times !

 

[unmerged(77251)]

update V: November 1914

A VERY QUIET MONTH​

November starts with our diplomacy being successful in the middle east: after having promise them everything they would be able to grab, the Ottoman Empire joins our alliance. This is a cynical move, since we are perfectly ware the "sick man of Europe" won't be able to withstand any major assault from the Western powers; but hey: it will divert some Russian/British soldiers...

Days passes, with nothing new but money and stockpiles. On November 19th, we can order our 2nd batch of 6 guards. 66 left.

A few days later, we send another emissary to China in order to improve our relations:

On November 21st, Rupprecht reports the fully occupation of British Weihaiwei in China. Note that, since the war started, this is our first real gain.

And thus ends the month of November. As always, we finish with our monthly overview.

OVERVIEW: DECEMBER 1st 1914​

Western Front: All quiet, though troops stationed in Verdun could easily become a threat.

Eastern Front: No change on our border, but heavy losses for Austria - as expected. Nearly all of Galicia is gone. Nevertheless, there are good news:
1- The widening front results in smaller Russian armies
2- Austria somehow manage to divert 12divisions from the southern front, heading straight towards Galicia.

In the Balkan. Serbia is doing surprisingly well, having liberated most of its core territory and on the verge of a massive liberation offensive on Belgrade. This is no good for Austria.

Bad news continue, with the opening of a new front in northern Turkey; the war has just begun there and 3 of 4 Russians offensives are already successful.

Hello ? Somebody in there ? There is a war going on, you now ...​

Game stats:

MORE MONEY !!!​

Daily income: +265
We order new small_arms imports; hence new expenses
Debt: 0

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

Well, Austria is doing as expected... when you'll ride to Paris?

 

[unmerged(77251)]

Feedback

Kurt_Steiner: As explained, I'm waiting for new guard divisions to launch the offensive, though it will probably be in the East.

 

[unmerged(77251)]

update VI: december 1914

MORE SOLDIERS​

In early December, Austria decides she has too many troops, and sends us the 20th expeditionary corps, stationed in Kattowitz. We gently send the two division to Zator, and give back control to Austria. Lets hope this incident won't happen to often.

On December 12th, we can again order 6 new gards divisions. This leave us with 60 others to go.

Over last last few months, new ships had been finish. The SMS Pillau is just one of them; but posting a new Screenshot at each launch would be quite boring .

On December 17th, the Russian attack again in Kattowitz. Strangely, they DON'T attack in Memel this time.

With 11 Russian divisions vs 6 of ours, we take no chance and call for 2 more division from Gleiwitz as support.

Our income stabilizes again at around +1k in mid december, as no new small_arms are needed.

The French are eager to occupy the provinces we left empty in Kamerun:

Our support troops arrive on Christmas Eve, just in time to trigger the Russian retreat. Christmas 1914 is celebrated with yet another victory over the Russian. Notice that since the beginning, we did not loose one single battle against the them...

On December 25th, a new batch of guard divisions is ordered (enough stockpiles). 54 left.

In the last days of 1914, the British launch a heavy assault on Tanga. We are outnumbered 3 to 1, and will probably have to retreat soon.

Monthly + yearly update to follow ...

 

[unmerged(77251)]

update VII: Yearly report 1914

YEARLY OVERVIEW: 1914​

New year is a good opportunity to get a wider look on our current situation and discuss about tactics; thus comes a more detailed end-of-the-month report.

1- Front Situation in Europe

a. Western Front: no change. The French army marches from one provinces to the other, with no sign of any offensive by now. This is good for us.

b. North-Eastern Front: as already mentioned, the Russian army currently occupies two provinces of East-Prussia (red dots). We left those Provinces in order to shorten the frontline; though the minimalistic Russian presence might encourage us to reclaim them as soon as possible.

c. South-Eastern Front: Looks grim for Austria. Red arrows are Russian offensives; blue one are Austrian responses. The Russian somehow decided to avoid steamrolling the Hungarian basin in favour of simultaneous offensives in Moravia and Transylvania. Although the Austrian are heavily outnumbered, they still have enough troops to seriously slow down the Russian advance.

d. Balkan: The battle for the control of the Serbian capital is still raging, with Serb troops having the upper hand. Although Serbia doesn't seem to be a real threat by now, she succeeds in diverting valuable 8 divisions from the main Russian front.

e. Turkey: Reinforcements from the West are finally arriving; but the situation still look very fluid.

2- Colonial Situation

a. Central Africa: we basically gave up the territories of that Region because it would be impossible to defend them correctly, while still keeping 2 divisions in Togo and Kribi. The Entente lost no time to occupy the empty provinces (red dots).

b. East Africa: we try our best to hold this territory, but hare heavily outnumbered. The battle of Tanga is nearly lost, and the British already occupy Mwanza. We count on the new divisions we ordered to reverse the situation.

c. South-West Africa: the Situation is about the same in south West Africa: the one division we have there is heavily entrenched in the mountaneous province of Windhoek, but we can't stop the South African army without reinforcements.

d. Pacific: no plan to keep that territory, besides the provinces already garrisoned. We lost control over 2 provinces (red dots): one to Japan and one to Australia. Long-term plans would require good naval support we cannot spare right now. So we simply let go ...

e. China: through an intelligent Defense (which we finally turned into a successful offensive), we gained control there over one British province. We have no other plans there but to keep Qingdao until we can sell it back to china for a good price

3- National Armies comparison

a. Army: The combined French + Birtish army is surprisingly small. Is this because of WoftN ? Not sure. The fact is that I added some events triggering for those 2 countries within the next couple of month to increase their armies to a decent WWI size.

b. Navy: As we saw very few naval action over the last month (besides the loss of half of the Pacific fleet), the present screenshot has essentially a comparison purpose, once we can move the High See Battlefleet out of the Baltic.

c. Losses:

The savegame file gives following values:

        losses = { tag = MON value = 30.644 } 
        losses = { tag = SER value = 414.887 } 
        losses = { tag = TUR value = 92.600 } 
        losses = { tag = AUS value = 6951.111 } 
        losses = { tag = RUS value = 3719.718 } 
        losses = { tag = GER value = 1811.828 } 
        losses = { tag = BEL value = 30.803 } 
        losses = { tag = ENG value = 1627.276 } 
        losses = { tag = FRA value = 4014.171 } 
        losses = { tag = SAF value = 21.960 } 
        losses = { tag = NIP value = 14.481 } 
        losses = { tag = AST value = 14.292 } 
        losses = { tag = NWZ value = 15.000 } 
        losses = { tag = CAN value = 15.000 }

(MON stands for Montenegro, SER for Serbia and so on)

Since I have no other reliabe counting method, you may think of it whatever you want

3- International Situation

a. Diplomatic Situation: During the last month, Japan joined the Entente side while we gain the Ottoman support. (the opposite would certainly have been more helpful).

Our allies are: Austria and the Ottoman Empire (2)

We are at war against 11 nations: France, UK, Russia, Belgium, Serbia, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, New Foundland, Montenegro and Japan.

We are fairly isolated, with very few good relations over the world. Best is China: +28

b. War Exhaustion

Besides the Serbian level, WE is still reasonable, though fairly high, especially for the French, given the amount of battles which took place ...

4- Domestic Situation

a. Overview

Game stats:

Daily income: +591
Debt: 0

b. Revoltrisk:

c. Misc

We still have emigration. This must be addressed soon.

I left out the Political overview, because nothing noticeable occured: we are still a constitutional monarch, with conservative in power (hence emigration). Only thing to notice: next election is scheduled on June 5th ...

 

[robou]

Hmm, a ok year; a few things I'd like to debate. Sending those reserves to the West would be one point. You have enough troops dug-in with nice fortifications to not worry about more men; perhaps a couple of divisions ready to support each province, but most should go to the east if you ask me. You need to prop up Austria before April, otherwise Austria is going to be fighting a war on three fronts, when she could barely survive one. I reckon you need a minimum of 30 Divisions to be sent south. Certainly sending both Austria and the Ottomans some extra army techs would be a good start. What they start of with is very poor and if you sent them a couple they will have a serious advantage over the Russians who are also plauged by a lack of techs. I'd also advise trying to build another division in China so you can garrison both provinces. East Africa, once you get the divisions, must have its borders re-secured. Those are all the imperative things I can think of at this time

 

[unmerged(81979)]

Pull out of Memel as well, IMHO, that wouyld make the line better. Thus, you can concentrate on throwing the Russians back in the centre much faster...

 

[Searry]

You don't have to care about money, if you ever want that war finished, build a lot of inf-art. Keeping the western front like that will drain your manpower, so i advice you to advance to the french forts at all costs.

 

[unmerged(77251)]

Feedback

robou: 1. In the West, basically, I'm doing what you suggest. 8 divsions will remain in each province, until the start of an offensive campaign. The weak point is Arlon, since there are no fortifications there; at some point, the french are going to attack there. That's why I'm keep one 7-div strong (currently only 4) support Army in Trier, ready to jump in.
2. Sending techs is impossible for now, because I have no spare DIP points. The one left is an emergency point, required to rapidly send expeditionary force if necessary. Also, I'm NOT planning to support Austria in any extensive way (besides protecting my border). In the long term, a loosing Austria and a winning Germany would mean total hegemony in Europe for me . But I don't think it will happen, since the start of the offensive in the east is very close...
3. No plans for China too. The province is to be sold somewhere in April-May.

demokratickid: Memel is the favorite target of the Russian army. With overwhelming naval support, this is my best manpower drain. So there is no way I would leave it !

Searry: Theoretically, you are right. But as explained in the beginning, the goal of this AAR is to make money (winning comes only in place 2), thus I'm sticking with my guards strateg

update to follow ...

 

[Enewald]

The austrian war exhaustion looks bad, they might collapse due to some nice event...

 

[unmerged(77251)]

Feedback II

Enewald: Code for Austrian surrender event in WotN looks like this:

	trigger = {
		OR = {
			war = { country = AUS country = RUS } #Russia still in war
			war = { country = AUS country = ENG }  
			}
		atwar = yes
		OR = {
			desperation = { country = AUS data = 25 }	# 20% (was 3% or more national provinces in foreign hands
			war_exhaustion = { country = AUS value = 7 }	# was 5
			flag = { name = flg_German_Loss value = 1 } #German surrenders
			NOT = {
				control = { province = 752 data = AUS } #Vienna fell
				}
			}
		NOT = {
			OR = {
				event = 28519
				event = 28569
			}
		}
	}

I did not find out what events are referred to on the end. Besides this, only the amount of foreign controlled provinces counts, and it is still low.

 

[unmerged(77251)]

update VIII: January 1915

FIRST OFFENSIVE​

New year starts with the planned retreat of Tanga. At a 3:1 ratio, we had no chance to win that battle.

On January 10th, we have again enough canned food to order the next batch of guards. 48 left. Note that the world supply of canned_food has increase by 1t, which means faster troops commissioning. I'm expecting the last commissioning in mid-1915.

Looking at the Austrian front, we discover a nice opportunity to further drain Russian manpower in Zator. The province is Montaineous and target of the next Russian offensive. We reorganize the defense of upper Silesia to free some 3 divsions sent to support the Austrian defense.

On January 11th, new Reserve divisions are ready. (still from the starting pool).

We use them to man exclusively the Eastern front. Each province will be defended by 6 infantry divisions. The remaining divisions + cavalry are ordered to rally in East Prussia in preparation of the next offensive.

One day later, the Russian call off the attack on Zator, even before we were able to bring in new troops. The support operation is canceled with more troops sent to Prussia.

On January 17th, troops are ready to launch a liberation offensive in East Prussia targeting occupied provinces of Gumbinnen and Allenstein. Our main objective is to liberate those provinces, in order to control revolt risk there, and stop massive emigration; but the scale of operation is not yet fully define, with further advances towards Russian territory left open.

The battles do not last very long, with Gumbinnen won on January 25th:

and Allenstein one day later:

By the end of the month, we order a new set of 6 guards (42 to go), while the supporting colonial divisions we ordered in August are ready.

3 more divisions are added to the defense of East Africa. We use them to start a liberation offensive on Mwanza. Note the 2 British divisions moving from Tanga; we hope they are not going to reinfroce our target province.

The last 3 divisions are ordered to defend South-West Africa. Once the attack on Okavanora repeale, we might launch an assault to retake Goxas - depending on the reinforcement status of the south African army.

Overview on February 1st:

Western Front: No change on the border line, but a heavy stack in Epinal, showing the Union Jack.

We investigate this by scrolling up the status bar, and discover a whole batch of mobilization events for the Entente.

No completely sure, but I might have added the British one in an earlier Game ...​

On the Army comparison table, France shows some 27 new divisions !!! Given the size of the British army, they probably got some expeditionary forces.

On the north-easter Front, we are currently retaking the lost provinces.

On the Austrian border, things look a little brighter, whith Transylvania and most of Slovakia under control. Looks like they might even win ...

In the Balkan, Austria seems to play cat-and-mouse with Serbia, while still fighting in Montenegro. This could become dangerous given the size of the Serbian Army stationed in Beograd, and the cheer Austrian garrisoning of Bosnia.

No change in Turkey. The border moves forward and backwards at a regularly basis. Still too fluid to make any clear prognostic.

Game stats: Notice the alarming drop of manpower. 980 wasn't too much !

Daily income: +321
Debt: 0

 

[Enewald]

Wow, a lot of manpower already used!

 

[Nikolai]

I'm getting slightly worried here.,..

 

[robou]

Thereare always more people to funnel into the military services. And you'll need them; looks like, for once, us Brits and the French might work together well. If so, you'll have quite an assault coming down on you...

 

[unmerged(81979)]

Talk about reserves! Those will surely help! Nice work, sir!

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

Perhaps you should finnish Russia ASAP...