So mostly, my intention is to give a peek on how the trench warfare part looks like. For the equally crucial movement war part (1914) of the game, there is an excellent beta AAR of Maestro06, which I highly recommend.
I have been writing this for a while now, so what I will do is copy over what I have now, then continue later.
Images are on Imageshack so be patient with them.
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/wink.png)
My initial plan was to stick to the historical warplans, but then I get the notification (certain warplans get detected by the enemy) of France applying Plan XIX. This is basically the "offensive, free army placement" plan. It greatest asset is that France may mix up the Army placement as it feels like, and it can move into Belgium/Switzerland in case of a German attack there. However, as with the plans offering the most flexibility, they start at 29 National Wall, a quite shaky setup (max. is 40NW, instability zone beginst at 20NW).
So I figured I would not duke it out with the French on the plains of Belgium. Rather, I decided to enact the Moltke Plan, aka. the Russia First strategy. To support the matter, Austria-Hungary would also go against the Russians.
It turned out, the Russians also went with one of the more free-form plan, the Czar Plan which is also about an initial attack in East Prussia, but with free placement of the 1st and 2nd Russian armies.
This can be a very effective counter of the Moltke Plan, as German 1st and 2nd Armie start out from Eastern Prussia.
In my effort for an all-out strike on Russia, I concentrated most of my diplomats on Romania throughout 1914. This surely contributed to Great Britain declaring war on me very early despite no neutral country invaded, and altough Turkey followed me into war with the same speed, my progress with Romania was modest.
SUMMARY OF 1914
My fear regarding the better positioned Russian armies at East Prussia turned out to be right. I tried to storm pass them, which resulted in both sides trying to outflank the other, the Germans ending up not gaining much, until the end of the year when Russian resistance up north seemed to collapse and the German 1st and 8th Armies made some progress there. Is the screenshot of the front there right at the start of 1915:
![Image](http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/9204/snapshot00000.png)
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In Poland, the comperatively small German 3rd Army made some good progress, quickly capturing Lodz then pushing toward Warsaw. Reaching its border, they had to turn back near the end of year, because the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army failed to seal its flank, and a pretty dangerous Russian counteroffensive started to take shape there. That was in turn countered by the new German armies incoming, with the whole thing standing at the end of the year like this:
![Image](http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/5039/snapshot00001.png)
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From that screenshot you can also see most of the Austrian sector. It may look like a failure, and yes it was. Instead of a concentrated attack or two I intended the Austro-Hungarians to tie down Russians but one-on-one fighting is not the strong side of the A-H army, especially on the offense.
while all this was going on, Romania finally joined me in November. This could turn out to be decisive because by that time, altough the Russians faired well against me, the prolonged fighting against superior enemies drained their manpower near dry so they could end up too stretched (the very idea behind lobbying for a Romanian declaration of war).
In the Mid East, Turkey failed to make any big impression, and out of negligence I almost let the British 5th Army break out into the Holy Land.
There is no need for a screenshot of the West. In August, the French captured Metz, and were still holding it as of January 1915, but this was all their success. Needless to say of course that they were determined and it took a great deal of effort and luck from the Germans to hold them.
France suffered so many losses that it was forced to name a new government during the autumn, but had been stable ever since.
Speaking of political turmoil, the end of the year Interphase was really quite unlucky for Austria-Hungary, remaining at the edge of the instability zone, which helped Russia when they played a Mutiny event on Austria. Due to A-H's low National Will they actually succeeded and mutiny weakened all Ausro-Hungarian armies.
Low on manpower, ammo, and national will, with a parlaiment becoming shaky, they could not have ambitious plans for early 1915.
On the other hand, Germany was solid as a rock, and Russia was showing serious signs of growing weak. They had the Czar personally commanding the forces since September, and they were unlucky enough to get the Rasputing event as well.
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1915
A good diplomatic result with Bulgaria pushed them near joining the Central Powers, but Italy was also on the edge of utilizing Austria's weakness and declaring war on them. Bulgaria was essential since the Serbs kept holding the Austro-Hungarians, and Romania basically emptied its country of military in an effort to pose as threat to Russia, so an Entente Bulgaria would spell catashtrophe.
This was the last turn before trench warfare kicked in, and it saw the Germans mounting a big offensive with the beefed-up 5th Army to finally retake Metz, partly due because a determined and brutal, but utlimately failed French offensive north of it, which left French ammo stockpiles very low. So as soldiers awaited Spring, at the west they faced each other on unchanged borders.
At the East, both sides had minor successes: the Russian 1st Army managed to get behind German lines somewhat east of Memel which was to prompt a backtrack by the sector, and the German 10th Army were cautiously advancing toward Warsaw from the Nort-West. They layed siege on Novo Georglewsk, the last obstacle before the Polish capital.