[PBEM] Brotherhood & Unity

[bogh]

The Bosniak government forms the Patriot League, bolstering a couple of damaged brigades in Eastern Bosnia and increasing strategic will by two.

End of turn 2, round 3

[bogh]

 

[Habbaku]

File up! Did some maneuvering mostly to get my elites into position for...defense.

Tamas up.

[Tamas]

Croats entrench their border with the Bosnians via an event card.

[bogh]

Inspired by our Croat "allies" and the "defensive maneuvering" of the Serbs, the Bosniaks decide to entrench a couple of central positions.

Board position after turn 2, round 4.

[Habbaku]

Serbs play Bosnian-Croat War as event to force a discard on both enemy hands. In addition, the 2 OPs granted are used to entrench in Banja Luka and perform a spoiling attack on a hapless Bosniak brigade near Sarajevo.

[bogh]

Curses. The infighting with our Croat "allies" discards the last card from my hand. That's the end of turn 2 for the Bosniaks.

[Tamas]

Croats discard, then play the even of international recognition of Croatia, slightly improving their strategic will, and foreign attitude towards them.

Out of cards as well, off to Habs to finish the turn.

[bogh]

The Serbs finish turn 2 off with two major offensives, annihilating the Bosniak positions in the East and taking Gorazde, Srebrenica and most places in between. Though the military succes brought to them auto-win levels in strategic will, the lack of two Serb key regions denied Habs an immediate win. Serbia is in a strong position going into round 3, but the international community is hostile to them and NATO airplanes are incoming.

The late war cards have been added, early war cards removed and all the decks have been reshuffled. The Bosniaks have reinforced their positions in Sarajevo and the central parts of the country with the turn 3 reinforcements. Next up is Tamas to place the 3 Croat reinforcements (the Serbs get none this turn) and then Bosniaks will start the turn - turn order flips on turn 3.

Board status after Bosniak reinforcements going into turn 3:

[bogh]

The Bosniaks have basically been eliminated everywhere but central Bosnia around Sarajevo (and the north western enclave around Bihac, which has seen no action thus far). With lots of reinforcements added, the Bosniak position is very compact and really needs to break out of Sarajevo and push back out. After NATO planes softened up Serbs positions around Illidza, an initial attempt was made, but failed. Round 1 was spent by Tamas upgrading a couple of brigades to elites and by Habs bringing the international community heat down to stop the air sorties against him.

Second card play saw the Bosniaks attempt another attack on Illidza, this time eliminating the opposition and allowing supplies to flow from Croatia into Sarajevo, relieving the siege of the city. Emboldened, Bosniak forces attacked Serbian held part of Sarajevo (Vogosca) from the North and the South, eliminating the Serbs forces there and taking the key space and asserting control of Sarajevo (for the first time raising eye brows internationally as images of Serbian civilians fleeing the city streamed out). Finally Bosniak troops attacked Croat forces in Gornji Vakuf, reducing the brigade, but were unable to push into Srednja Bosna.

Board position by turn 3, round 2 (after Bosniak card play, before Croat/Serb card play):

[Tamas]

Croats are feeling the pressure of the Bosnian betrayal and have used the 66th Pioneer Regiment to shuffle units around, including moving their two elite units south of Mostar to prevent any further Bosnian aggression.

[bogh]

After securing Sarajevo and breaking the siege, the Bosniak forces are starting to push back the Serbs north of the city.

[bogh]

Turn 4 begins with the Bosniaks rebuilding the forces for the final push.

End game scoring right now would be 52, 45 and 23 respectively for Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks, so the central government has some serious catchup to do, but the Croats might be able to push the Serbs into second place with a succesful final turn.

State of play after Bosniak replacements:

[bogh]

Turn 4, round 5.

Bosniaks have pushed back against both Serbs and Croats, but have no real chance of winning the game. Whoever can fend off the Bosniaks better will probably win it as Serbs and Croats are pretty close in terms of score and aren't really in positions to directly affect each other.

Current score is:
Serbs: 50
Croats: 44
Bosniaks: 26

[bogh]

And it's over.

Final score is:

Serbs 64
Croats 40
Bosniaks 31

Massive victory for the Serbs, presumably leading to the unification of Republika Srpska and Serbia proper.

Congrats to Habs, well played. Thanks to both of you for a good game and a decent speed. I enjoyed it.