RE: The Churchill plan (Full Version)

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ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/7/2007 10:30:32 AM)

The great Entente counteroffensive launches with massive artillery bombardments and over a million men going over the top. With the France surging northward from Paris and the entire BEF breaking out from their bridgeheads in Dunkirk and Antwerp confidence is high that we shall soon clear Northern France.

It is a bloodbath – Anglo-French losses are staggering without an inch of ground being gained anywhere. This is my battle of the Somme, throwing away lives and material to no avail

It takes awhile for the true magnitude of the disaster to sink in. A staggering loss of 208 strength point infliction only 136 in central power losses. My offensive have been utterly and comprehensively defeated


[image]local://upfiles/4201/FB49B4D2AC1D4755B644920088DCB72B.jpg[/image]

The British bridgeheads have linked up and ready to launch a pincer movement with the French liberating Northern France and Belgium.



ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/7/2007 11:01:54 AM)

A total and unmitigated disaster. This is the first time since the outbreak of war I’m hit by the sickening realisation that it is possible I may lose the war. Not just the game but the war.

The psychological blow is aggravated by the giddy optimism prior to launching the offensive. I was so sure I was going to sweep them out of Northern France. Instead the allies have essentially been broken as an offensive force until 1916.

Is this a good simulation or what? It even manages to recreate a hopelessly optimistic mindset to be dashed by the grim reality of mud, rat infested trenches and the futility of infantry assault against entrenched machine guns.

Now I should stress that the the Entente armies are by no means broken. Only about half the BEF on the Western front and a fairly small fraction of the French army was committed to the attack. Supplies of both arms and shells are reasonable good, critical sectors of the front are both well entrenched and adequately garrisoned, the entente air force is more then holding its own and I think I called off the offensive in time to avoid inflicting a deathblow on myself. Nevertheless I just demonstrated my complete impotence and inability to take the offensive and the initiative now rest firmly with the Central Powers.

It remains to be seen if I have weakened myself enough for the Kaiser to order massive wave attacks of his own and if so if German valour can succeed where Allied planning failed.

Time to abandon dreams of a breakthrough and start digging in


[image]local://upfiles/4201/334AC1932FE3472FB40679B03CCB0C07.jpg[/image]

Complete and utter humiliation. Note from Berlin: LOSER!!!!!



ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/9/2007 11:37:01 PM)

After my disaster I frantically dig in while I wait for ships to evacuate me from Dunkirk. In the heated atmosphere of London there is grave concern that the entire British force in Northern France will be driven in the sea and eliminated. Notwithstanding that having to evacuate the BEF from Dunkirk could be taken as a bad portent for France, getting away ends up being surprisingly easy.

Twice the Germans attack the entrenched city and twice they are repulsed: Nice having the entrenchment work for me for a chance. Eventually he just gives up, contenting himself with shelling the city until the BEF is fully evacuated.

In an odd twist he then decline even bothering to re-take the hex: Guess that is just his way of saying he isn’t too worried

The BEF are transported out and re-landed in France using Cherbourg with The Anglo-French forces concentrated around Paris expecting him to make the final decisive push to knock France out of the war.

As usual he does the opposite of what I expect – launching a major puch into Southen France. I desperately fall back calling on the just-joined Italians to help me bolster the line.


[image]local://upfiles/4201/238AAA5DB91C4DDA989940B784A7E847.jpg[/image]


Sep/oct 1915 - Under pressure in southern France



ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/9/2007 11:50:00 PM)

I was absolutely confident that the decisive blow would fall in the West you see. The East front is solid and Russian morale is sky high. France was in danger, Russia was not. Or so I thought. Events would prove – once again - just how wrong my assumptions were as he was about to embark on a stunningly successful Eastern strategy that would doom Russia while I, fiercely determined not to repeat the mistake of a suicidal offensive, would attempt two counterstrokes – one being a dismal failure while the other just might turn out to be a formula for success.

[image]local://upfiles/4201/ABD762D3EF944649AC07A55568EF1DF0.jpg[/image]

Sep/Oct 1915 – an impregnable defence. At least I won’t have to worry about the Russians. Also note the heroes of Warsaw holding out for half a year.



ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/10/2007 12:17:05 AM)

So confident was I of the Russian position I had no problem dispatching an A class unit left over from the conquest of the Ottomans to work as a trench digger in the last remaining Serbian city. For some strange reason he stopped the offensive just before capturing it and I wanted to keep them in so I could use the HQ activations elsewhere. As it turned out they will end up playing an important role liberating their homeland.



[image]local://upfiles/4201/FF4867B3042C4707890E1AEDBF7A53AF.jpg[/image]

Autumn 1915 - Russian elite troops from Anatolia despatch to Scutari on digging duty.



SMK-at-work -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/10/2007 5:52:26 AM)

Great AAR guys - keep it up! :)

As an aside....if you're using MS paint to do the screen shots you can get rid of the excess white border by resizing the picture before you save it - click in the white and you should get little blue drag buttons on each side that yuo can pull in to encompass just the picture.



ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/10/2007 9:08:00 AM)

After my disasters in Northern France I expected it would be the Central powers that would go looking for new fronts to expand the war exposing my thinly stretched lines. I, on the other hand, was desperate to shut them down. The Italian front is a good example on how digging in is so much easier when no one is bothering you. The digging in would continue until everyone had level 4 entrenchments along the entire front allowing me to dispatch most of the Italian army for service elsewhere – I felt I really needed them in France.


[image]local://upfiles/4201/6DC79ECF46A842AF905134B6D757877A.jpg[/image]

Autumn 1915: Italy enters the war for the purposes of implementing their brilliant “victory through digging” strategy. It turns into a smashing success with the most impressive trenches of the entire war. Straight, artistically pleasing and so much prettier with no fighting to scar the landscape. Not a single shell will be fired here for over a year.




ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/10/2007 9:59:23 AM)

As a matter of fact the gravest blow against the Entente would fall in the one place I was absolutely confident my position was unassailable: Russia.

I was unaware that a defeated Ottoman empire was unable to defend its neutrality and thus simply redeployed my forces away. To the Eastern front by land, to the Western front by sea, even to the last Serbian stronghold hoping to utilise their HQ’s.

So, the sneaky Central Powers simply walk the Bulgarians into Constantinople taking control of the Hex after the Ottoman Empire surrendered.

That dastardly plot sort of wrecked the whole point of me knocking out the Ottomans and is a death sentence for Russia. Without British grain supplies Russia is basically going to stave into revolution. This is fully expected although it would turn out to be less critical then I though with the Russian Baltic fleet intermittently managing to open up the Baltic sea for grain shipments.

The real, and completely unexpected, disaster is a total and utter collapse of the Russian supply net.

Take a look at this screenshot of the Central Powers launching their deathblow against Russia and check the readiness of Russian units. Having below 10% supply in the entire country will do that to you. There was never any chance of mounting a defence with no supply to my army.



[image]local://upfiles/4201/832EB267546C4905B88062F7A86401DD.jpg[/image]



hjaco -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/10/2007 10:32:30 AM)

Yeah - happened to me in a game against "King Nana" too.

Kind of hard fighting a war under those conditions.

Sadly it did not changed after a years game time so i think you have to lay your game dormant for a while and get Frank to look at the save file.

It apparently starts in the winter with Russian supply beginning to drop and keep dropping.



ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/10/2007 10:47:47 AM)

Needless to say I was frantic to somehow restore communication with Russia, hoping this would relieve the disastrous supply situation on the Eastern front. Ordering my forces to move across Anatolia proved a costly mistake as they staved to Death. An India corps ended on 0 readiness in a 1% supply hex and had to be disbanded as it was unable to move at all.

[image]local://upfiles/4201/318E4A2221DD4302B0E265060DA84B19.jpg[/image]

Worse was to come. As I finally approached Constantinople I found supply dropping to well below 10% and in the end even the use of offensive points did not allow me to move into hexes adjacent to the City on the Asian side. With the troops nearing mutiny the whole project was yet another disaster.



ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/10/2007 9:37:31 PM)

With the combined Anglo-French-Italian-Serbian expeditionary force wasting time material and even lives in Anatolia achieving absolutely nothing both the Russian people and army is starving to death. Even at the height of summer the best-supplied hexes for the Russian in their own cities are in the twenties with single digit supply in non-city hexes.

Incidentally this is not a bug but a consequence of the Extreme food shortage suffered by the Russians – yet another elegant and quite realistic game feature. The loss of Constantinople really hurts in so many ways.

Obviously an army with readiness like that is not going to stop anything and a Russian collapse in the autumn of 1916 is looking increasingly inevitable. Central Power offensives are cutting through my lines like a hot knife though butter. In a sense an almost wasted effort as starvation is killing Russia to the tune of –3 moral a turn anyway.

Icy fear is gripping tight. Total collapse of the Entente cause is looking probable by 1917.



[image]local://upfiles/4201/420BD3BBB46A41EEBB29D97DBDD0F450.jpg[/image]

Jul-Aug 1916 strategic phase. Collapse of Russia is just a matter of time – and not that much time at that.



ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/10/2007 10:07:18 PM)

Just as despair and defeatism was threatening to overwhelm the Entente and the march to German Weltmach seemed unstoppable two fronts would inject new hope in the faltering Entente cause. The all but forgotten Serbians come up with a plan to liberate their homeland from the South via the just-joined Greek port of Salonika. This would also isolate the Central Power forces in Constantinople, force Bulgaria out of the war and join up with a Rumania looking increasingly likely to join the Entente.

[image]local://upfiles/4201/90D3D923390B4A3CA25D3D91F5F36071.jpg[/image]

Jul-Aug 1916. Marshall Stepanovic has found a few friends to join his project to liberate Serbia from the South.



FrankHunter -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/10/2007 10:49:42 PM)

Just a note to say I've found and fixed the Russian supply collapse problem.  It'll be in the next patch.




ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/11/2007 12:14:38 AM)

There is one area where the Entente is gaining unquestioned success. Over the West Front my planes are blotting out the sun over German lines accurately directing vast amounts of murderously accurately massed artillery. Almost by accident the Entente may have stumbled into the answer to the West Front stalemate.


[image]local://upfiles/4201/8B42C131E10C4EE0ABC7048EBF2EB36F.jpg[/image]



boogada -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/11/2007 12:21:03 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: ulver

Over the West Front my planes are blotting out the sun over German lines


"Then a Spartan answers: “In the shade, therefore, we will fight!”"

- oh wait wrong war.



hjaco -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/11/2007 12:28:11 AM)

Yeah well let the Germans try defending with 300 soldiers [:D]



ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/11/2007 12:40:52 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: boogada


quote:

ORIGINAL: ulver

Over the West Front my planes are blotting out the sun over German lines


"Then a Spartan answers: “In the shade, therefore, we will fight!”"

- oh wait wrong war.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TI_3bJkrOA

Nice to see I’m not the only one reading Herodotus. I remember his Persian Wars from high school although we read the modern translation where he answers the Persian envoy threatening that their arrows will blot out the sun simply: Excellent! We shall fight in the shade.

Herodotus really was writing the creation myth of Western civilisation and I rather thought the movie captured the mood of the Greek storytellers.




EUBanana -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/11/2007 1:46:14 AM)

24 air points????  god almighty.

I think the most I've ever seen is 12 odd.



boogada -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/11/2007 12:05:37 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: ulver

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TI_3bJkrOA


hmm you just made me watch that whole 10 episode documentary that was linked there...it was quite good. it's been a long time since I read Herodotus though.



ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/11/2007 1:31:19 PM)

After the dismal failure of the Entente grand offensive in the summer of 1915 allied leadership was absolutely determined that there would be no more massed offensives against defended positions. Never again would hundreds of thousand young men be thrown away in futile attempts to push entrenched Germans out of Northern France – or anywhere else for that matter.

Instead an alternative strategy was conceived. Only minimal investment in arms was to be made and what there was used mainly to refit and massively expand the Anglo-French artillery corps. Investments in technology and airpower would be given absolute priority. The German air force was to be ruthlessly driven from the skies of France opening the way for massed and persistent bombardment along the entire front aided by clear skies while denying any air support to the enemy. Front lines were to be occupied, as far as possible only by artillery and a thin cavalry screen. The goal a lot less grandiose then a breakthrough or even seeking modest territorial gains. I simply seek to achieve a favourably rate of attrition only attacking with a single corps when the defender is hopelessly depleted, simply abandon the hex or is evaporated by the massive artillery fire.


[image]local://upfiles/4201/3FCCF35CD91C4437AC499D22E7665927.jpg[/image]

Sep-Oct 1916 German forces gradually fall back as their trenches are pulverised by obscene amounts of artillery.



hjaco -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/11/2007 2:57:33 PM)

Well your infantry corps would seem ahem not quite up to full strength [:D]



ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/11/2007 6:36:47 PM)

quote:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TI_3bJkrOA

hmm you just made me watch that whole 10 episode documentary that was linked there...it was quite good. it's been a long time since I read Herodotus though.


"Athens needed thirty years, and then she would shine as no city had shone before or has shone since. For all her faults she would take humanity with her a long, long step—but on that day she was nothing but a pain in the neck of the King of Kings, who had the greatest army in the world poised at her last gate."

"It is not just that the human spirit reacts directly and beyond all argument to a story of sacrifice and courage, as a wine glass must vibrate to the sound of a violin. It is also because, way back and at the hundredth remove, that company stood right in the line of history. A little of Leonidas lies in the fact that I can go where I like and write what I like. He contributed to set us free."

William Golding "The Hot Gates"

http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~sparta/topics/essays/academic/golding.htm



ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/11/2007 8:16:25 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: hjaco

Well your infantry corps would seem ahem not quite up to full strength [:D]


That is rather the point. If I give my offensive minded generals the men they ask for and reinforce the corps they will just throw lives away needlessly in infantry attacks. I’ll rather expend shells then lives.

Every corps reinforced behind the line is one less artillery corps or air point build and I really am seriously determined to avoid great offensive infantry battles. By the spring of 1917 I plan to have well over 30 artillery corps in action gradually pulverising anything in their path. In theory he could launch an offensive but once he actually gains ground his corps will be exposed in the open subject to just murderous bombardment.



ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/11/2007 10:13:09 PM)

I believe historians will record September 1916 as the month where Germanys dream of homogony in Europe collapsed.

Two countries enter the war, each decisive in her own way, making the Entente an 8-power coalition of Serbia, Russia, France, Britain, Italy, Greece, Rumania and the United States of America.

The entire world is pulling together against Central Power aggression and I sense the tide turning decisively in my favour.


[image]local://upfiles/4201/93B14887148D4571B907BC1FE0A3631E.jpg[/image]

Even the Russian revives from week morale upon hearing the news. With the Russian fleet heroically contesting the Baltic this turn I will even be able to feed them with British grain for now.



ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/11/2007 10:35:21 PM)

The allied drive north from Salonika is hard going in rugged mountains suffering more from dreadful supply attrition than at the hands of the Central Power forces. The Bulgarians are well entrenched in their fortified capital and the Entente forces are forced to lay siege to Sofia from 10-15% supply hexes.

With perfect timing Rumania enters the war and changes everything. Bulgaria is now caught in the jaws of a terrible pincer movement with the Rumanians poised to strike south to meet the allied advance.

Even more critically the Excellent Rumanian supply net is now available for operations in the Balkans.

As a harbinger of things to come the 40 strength point US corps arrive to bolster my drive on Constantinoble.

Instead of defeatism the Entente high command is now brimming with confidence.



[image]local://upfiles/4201/0D12B3F6D6C64F09BAFB3DF68F26F616.jpg[/image]
Sep/Oct 1916 – The US first corps deploy straight to Greece the impulse after the Americans enter the war.



ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/14/2007 1:28:07 PM)

That fact that Russia still holds the field is really something of a miracle. As 1916 draws to a close she has already outlived my most optimistic projections. None the less she is running out of rabbits to pull out of her hat.



[image]local://upfiles/4201/8BB25A03E585479EB10F81A40BDFF5A7.jpg[/image]



ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/14/2007 1:33:35 PM)

I can always console myself with the fact that there isn’t that much of a Russian army left so their loss shouldn’t matter that much.


[image]local://upfiles/4201/58F28D6E721A411FAA007B75A5F58D8C.jpg[/image]

Nov/Dec 1916 – the endgame in Russia



ulver -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/14/2007 11:31:44 PM)

No so long ago the impending fall of Russia was a source of real concern, even some measure of defeatism but the US entry has changed everything.

The extra 10 production a turn is nice of course but they pale in comparison to the vast stockpiles of food and raw material – 72 of each – she bring to the Entente cause.

Most critical of all obviously is her vast army that should utterly crush the Central Powers. She starts of with one corps mobilized. The 40 strength corps may be nice but one corps won’t win the war. One her second turn she gets two 36 strength corps. Again nice but not really decisive but check out this screenshot of her turn 3 reinforcements:


[image]local://upfiles/4201/A62D2A5539FD43C28FC74F5C447987C2.jpg[/image]

I think this image more eloquently then any words explain why I believe the Central Powers are finished. I simply refuse to believe they can ever find the reserves anywhere to deal with 15 strength 36 US corps.

The one diplomatic point the Entente spend each and every turn on the United States was a war-winning investment. No way anyone can resist this onslaught for three years.



FrankHunter -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/14/2007 11:37:11 PM)

oops, I'm going to have to fix that.  That didn't happen in 1.0, its only in 1.1 that that happens.






SteveD64 -> RE: The Churchill plan (9/14/2007 11:38:48 PM)

Holy jesus.  Do you have to use transports to ship them or do they arrive in France?



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