AGEOD's WW1

[Tamas]

I have just started a CP game with the latest beta patch, and since it started interesting, I think I will cover it here.

I deliberately went historical plans. France however opted for Plan 16, which is something like an immediate full-blown assault on Alsace, more radical than Plan 17 (you event get a chance to change it back to 17 after seeing the CP plans, for a penalty of course, for which the AI did not opt), and Russia went with attacking A-H first, not Germany. Both Allieds went with the option of strengthening their respective minor allies, so Belgium and Serbia is free to deploy all reinforcements at start.

And not only the UK joined the war immediately in the August diplomacy phase, but so did Italy, against me. Japan did as well.

The turks weren't pro-Centrals enough for the Goeben to go Istanbul-way, so it was sent to the Adriatic. It joined the small A-H task force which was originally meant to blockade Montenegro. With that in mind, I decided to try and send out the Austrian fleet. Too bad I played an event to reduce likelihood of naval operations, before the diplo phase....

But at least, the Italian treason convinced the Turks to join my cause.

BTW I will probably not bother with screenshots unless the AAR goes along long enough. If you don't know the general picture of the European map on the opening of WW1, you should not be on Languish.

EARLY AUGUST
All the moves I did was a somewhat historic opening for Schlieffen, and sent out the main AH fleet to patrol the Adriatic, while the other Austrian task force, with the Goeben and being commanded by Souchon, raided (successfully) the Italian coast. No enemy contact was made.

The other option Russia choosed (beside making Serbs stronger) was extra artillery which is a good move. So the first battle, taking place at Ravka Russia, Russian 3rd Army vs. AH 4th, saw heavy artillery on both sides.
But still, the Russian units weren't fully mobilized, and Russia had less ammo than A-H (I went with the extra ammo option) so I decided to make a stand, and it worked out: after a bloody battle, with all Russian arty ammo spent, the Russian 3rd retreated.
Brusilov, though, swept through the lone slavic AH corps guarding the border in front of him and reached south of Tarnopol.

The Belgian Army, free of restrictions, deployed some forces to Namur, where they were pushed back by my 3rd Germany Army. Liege also fell.
The French attack was repulsed from Luxembourg down to Mourhange.

AUGUST
A successful month, apart from the German 1st Army somehow getting tied up in Antwerp. King Leopold made a determined stand in Bruxelles, but 2nd Army emerged victorious. By the end of August everything east of Bruxelles was controlled by Germany. The French came close to capturing Metz, but got almost totally depleted of manpower in trying there and elsewhere, so altoug barely, but I held the city.

The Russians were also kept in bay both in East Prussia and Gallicia, but A-H's manpower and arty reserves plumetted. Especially since she was forced on the defensive against Serbia, who crossed the river Sava in force, and had to be intercepted by the 5th Army, and pushed back in desperate fighting.

In other news, Horthy's Austrian fleet (its a mistake also in the original boardgame to have him as admiral from the start) surprised and defeated the tiny force of an Italian cruiser and a destroyer, sinking the former. But two old AH battleships received considerable damage. That, together with the huge cost of keeping these fleets on the sea, made me decide to only leave the Goeben task force raiding, the main fleet shall rest.
Speaking of fleets, Schanhorst, trying to make its way to Africa encountered the Japanese fleet but managed to escape before any shots fired.
The Japs did land on Qin Tao and started a siege, while the British 6th Army landed in Mesopotamia. The italians had been passive, but they do start the war with a rather dispersed army, so it was as expected.

[Tamas]

SEPTEMBER

A big naval battle took place in the Gulf of Venice, Jutland-style. The Goeben task force was intercepted by something I suspected to be the main Italian task force, with some BBs and Bs. Retreat attempts by me repeatedly failed, but only light losses were suffered, then Horthy's fleet managed to reinforce the battle, while an other Italian task force also joined in.

Eventually, an Erzherzog Karl type old battleship and a Budapest type AC was lost on my side. The Italians lost two ACs, IIRC.

The Russians flanked A-H in two crucial spaces: finally giving up on taking Rawka Russia with a head-on charge, the Russian 3rd Army just flanked that city and took Lemberg, altough that did cause a national resurgence in A-H giving them some National Will. The other flanking came in Austrian Poland, where the Russians captured Gorlice, and thus it became absolutely urgent to withdraw the AH 1st Army and seal off the Carpathian passes.

The BEF stopped my 2nd Army at Mons, so all that remained at that point was the race to the sea, my chances for Western victory were gone by and large. I suck at enacting von Schlieffen's plan.

[Tamas]

OCTOBER

Some interesting happenings: Strikes in Germany, national rebellion in Russian Poland. And Bulgaria joined the Centrals, and luckily the Entente failed its diplo-check on Romania because even so, the pesky hair-feeted scum got very near to joining them due to Bulgaria's choice of side.

And quite the indecisivness in battles: The Belgians tried to take back Bruxelles, it was a pretty bad idea. Russian advance was halted, some minor advances against Serbia which saw Belgrade being taken. Antwerp also fell thanks to the Austian siege guns moved there. The French started a major battle in Metz, but were again repulsed.

I decided on taking the Goeben TF back to port. With some luck I could get something out of a naval battle with Italy but I want to wait with that until I finish off Serbia and concentrate AH forces against Italy, so hopefully getting the combined negative NW effect of losing land battles and ships pushing the shaky Italians into some kind of revolution.

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER

God damn Croats started an uprising in Trieste, while I activated the Senussi in Lybia.

Austrian diplomats made the goatfuckers in Afghanistan stearing up trouble for GB, and Belgium surrendered to Germany!

No major action took place against the Russians, only minor battles here and there, and an annoying and dangerous war of manouver persisted against the Serbs, altough with the Bulgarian army crossing their borders, their defeat had become assured.

German 1st Army managed to gain good ground after the Belgian surrender, reaching Dunkerque, Hazebrouck, and Lille, with the British 2nd Army blocking further advance.

The Italians tried to cross the Isonzo but were defeated.

During the interphase the Croatian rebellion was put down successfully, and some standard building and war economy raising took place.

The Brits and French tried a coup in Greece but failed, pushing the Greeks to declare war on them and thus joining my side. Neutrals blockade, and limited submarine warfare had been started, as war escalated.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1915

The Greeks were closely followed by the Romanians joining the Entente, so by early 1915 all major diplomatically activable countries joined the war, except for the United States.

Technology research was very successful: Austrian researched trench mortars while Germans invented the chlorine gas. Now I need to decide where to try it first.

[Valmy]

Belgium surrendered to Germany!

But...the Brits stopped you at Mons!  Cowardly Belgians.  I bet this was all the Flems doing, as they are a craven and treacherous people.

[Norgy]

I bet this was all the Flems doing, as they are a craven and treacherous people.

Actually, those are the Walloon traits. Flems are just Nazis.

[Valmy]

Actually, those are the Walloon traits. Flems are just Nazis.

I read a book written by an American who served in the Canadian Army in Flanders and he remarked at what a huge security risk the Flems were for the British Army.  They would keep the Germans informed at whatever the British were doing.  Then you consider how many joined up with the SS in the Second World War....well you can see the Flems were natural Quislings.

[Norgy]

The moral is never trust a Belgian!

[Sophie Scholl]

The moral is never trust a Belgian!

Aside from their beer.  Mmm...

[Valmy]

The moral is never trust a Belgian!

Wise words

[Norgy]

They also have: Chocolate.
Downside: Poirot, Tin-tin.

[Tamas]

Sooo.... to continue January-February:

I got to spy on the Western Front and saw that cowardly British AI ran back behind Calais, so I moved in and captured it, the frontline becoming roughly a line between Calais and Mons (Mons becoming mine). The French National Will plumetted to 6 by this time, due to starting a bit lower than usual because of Plan 16, then suffering horrendous losses, and then losing precious cities recently. But their parlaiment was still strong so all they had to do is survive until the next Interphase to name a new government.

Rape of Serbia started with the Austro-Hungarian forces, deployed to a stable frontline north of Belgrade during the winter, launched their offensive, with the Bulgarians and Greeks pouring in on Southern Serbia, but the clock was ticking as not only the Romanians started their (slow) advance, but a force of the 3rd Italian Army, using the passivity of my fleets, landed in Trieste and put the fort under siege!

MARCH-APRIL 1915

Altough by March two Austro-Hungarian corps of slav origin were recruited, which were initially meant to face Italians, only one of them could be deployed in Laichbach to face the Italian threat, because the other had to be used to block the way of one of the several Romanian units advancing on Transylvania.

At least the Persians were convinced to send an expeditionary force to help the Turks. Which came just in time, as the British AI just discovered it needs the port of Basra to continue the advance with the 6th Army.

The trench tech discovered by the Austrians kicked in this month, helping the Western Front, where the French desperately tried to break through in the Ardennes, pushing their Marines and Arabs forward, but were easily massacred. (here, and in the boardgame, 1915 can be very very very bloody for the attacker because of trench levels starting to rise, but offensive techs to counter it usually missing, and more importantly, not yet enough number of arty support and/or munition for a major offensive preliminary bombardment. this particual attack was just a minor one though).
A more successful attack by the French was the recapture of Dunkerque. Being overstretched in that sector, I had to rush in cavalry reserves but they did not prove enough. Garrison of Calais suddenly had the task to fight its way back to own lines.

The Brits tried, and failed, to utilize nerve gas against the Turks in the Sinai, as their ANZAC corps launched an offensive through the Egyptian-Turkish border.

The Turks, on the other hand, made some good progress into Armenia, but supply started to become a problem.

Oh and regarding Trieste: My lone corps which was rushed to repel the invasion was driven back before my other reserves could arrive. The fort did not surrender though.

[grumbler]

Interesting AAR.  Please continue, bitte.

[Berkut]

Tamas, how is the interface? Any improvement?

[Tamas]

MAY 1915

Here is the northern part of the Western Front, after the bit of confusion caused by the French breakthrough:

[img=http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/2549/ww1a.th.jpg]

Despite all that, I decided to try and break French will. The only army having the numbers and artilleries to try with hope of success was the 2nd Army. So, I planned a Major Offensive for June, with the aim of capturing Maubegue.

Also, Lemberg appeared to be lightly defended, so an A-H Major Offensive on it had been scheduled for June as well. The Germans planned to test combat gas, the Austrians to do the same with massive bombardment.

The breakout from Calais was not successful, altough the corps there were still in supply, thanks to Calais itself being enough of a supply source for them.

On the East, apparently Brusilov was transferred to the 12th Army, which attacked the Prussian city of Thorn, and was repulsed in heavy fighting.

A British incursion in southern Sinai held ground against a Turkish counter-attack, while the now Persian-Turkish 5th Ottoman Army dared to move out of Baghdad and took defensive positions along the anticipated future advance line of the 6th British Army. Speaking of which, Afghanistan recently openly declared war on the UK, making the Brits keeping two corps in India or face National Will penalties.

The Italians landed in force in Trieste it would seem, as apparently by May the entire 3rd Army was besieging Trieste, which did hold due to lack of Italian heavy artillery, but my rag-tag counterattack force could not push them to the sea. With the Serbs making me pay for every province I push them out of, I was facing the hard task of drawing my 5th or 6th Army ouf of Serbia to crush the Italians ASAP, without letting the Serb army out of the giant encirclement I had been developing.

But luckily, as it turned out, I could cheat and use the May Interphase's Redeployment Phase, which should not be there (Redeployment is only during Winter Interphase), to move the 6th Army next to Trieste. 

In the interphase, Germany invested heavily in several mountaineer corps, which were planned to form the backbone of the upcomging 16th Army, which in turn was planned to be Bane of Italy, putting that nation out of action.

As a note of interest, the French, being desperate, approached A-H with an offer of separate peace. I had to decide: attend the conference or not. If you attend and it turns out to be a bluff, you lose NW. If you do not attend, but it is a sincere proposal, you receive penalty for the dice roll which could, ultimately, result in A-H (or Russia) singing separate peace! But considering my good position, I did not attend, and indeed the negotiatons had no effect, altough being a sincere offer.

[Tamas]

Tamas, how is the interface? Any improvement?

Well there are improvements in terms of it is being much less jerky, but it is still the same interface. Speaking of jerkiness, the momentary freezes at music track changes are completely gone, luckily.

For the AI, note that I am using default agressivness and FOW settings.