Greetings Gentlemen.
My apologies for the ahistorical newspaper. I've given up trying to get the right dates and just going for the headlines now. Whats the take on the Newspaper clippings? I'm not sure why I put them up. I used to read them when it halfway went with what the game was doing, but now they are just......there and I'm considering doing away with them.
Anyways. I'm being slaughtered in Cattaro. Two big battles with two British victories! But the Austrians can replenish their ranks, whereas I cannot.
The British are still calculated to be landing their troops and I have to deal with another penalty on top of everything.
We gained one National Morale over this battle! A stunning success considering everything, and yet...we haven't gained any military control.
The second battle of Cattaro, the fatigue is beginning to show and we took double the casualties of the Austrians. Yet we still won a tragic victory in this battle.
My men are holding up decently well, although supplies are running short.
Lance has approached me again over coming to an agreement, dropping the qualification of the B.E.F. excluded from the Adriatic coastline. Citing that he doesn't want to win the war because the British got wiped out in Cattaro, as it would severely unbalance the game to the point that Central Powers odds for victory rise dramatically.
Other people might have just taken the buggy gift the game gods sent them and exterminated the British Force without a qualm. But Lance is an honorable chap, and I think I may have to agree with him on this point.
So in the end, after exchanging a few emails back and forth between all players, we agreed that it was an okay thing to do all around. The Austrian Army in Cattaro would withdraw, suffering an attack by the hapless British Army who cannot help but attack since I have 0% MC. Then, IF I gain any Military Control on the next round, I would board my transport ships and depart for Malta.
I did make one qualifying condition with Lance though, even though he has been more then accommodating already. It was that he wouldn't attack my transport ships with my armies on it. Theoretically, if he did attack them, I may have just as well left them in Cattaro. But he agreed and plans where set in motion.
In Aachen.
My two armies are starving. They will most likely surrender this turn or the next, all 35 shabby Units. You cant see them here as its pretty packed now, but the Germans have 1900 CP sitting entrenched on top of Aachen with +800 CP that could possibly MTSG. I have 1600 CP in two armies in Eifel.
So, you can't really make it out whats happening in this screenshot, I will explain what I'm doing in a minute. This will either be my greatest shame or my stupidest and weirdest move ever.
This current game, in an effort to attract more attention towards the West, and in possibly a futile and slightly wasteful attempt, and because I have loads of them. I've been sending cavalry divisions racing across enemy territory, passing through enemy entrenchments and armies, snipping railway lines and pillaging territory. I was relatively successful up until the snow came, bogging down my units and trapping two (or three?) of them. I did manage to attract a lot of German militia and dragged a couple corp after my cavalry. In the process I learnt a few things.
It seeeeeems to me, that a unit in half strength is less easily detected. It also seems that if I switch my units to D/G and evade combat, I can actually pass through enemy units fairly easily. Slipping in and out and through enemy armies without being nabbed. That went for the nimble cavalry units.
A turn or two ago, in part of a joint attack later canceled, about six supply wagon trains wandered into Bonn, I realized this, and immediately ushered them back out.
These two events give me the impression that I can probably sneak away my Commanders out of Aachen, set to G/G posture and on evade. Commanders should be easy to get out.
So I started by ordering my commanders out.
Then I thought, what about supply trains? They got out of Bonn, they may be able to get out of Aachen too, and if I'm going to lose Aachen anyway, I might as well take my airplanes out of it too.
So I left it at that. But after some thinking, and since I'd tried the last turn to sortie out with my armies in Aachen as a desperate last stand but failing due to lack of supply. I decided, if its either surrender or a mad dash to freedom where SOME of them might get away, I might as well try it.
I don't want any units to accidentally set off a shot, so instead of D/G, I set all 35 units to G/G and evade. I hope that at the very minimum, my cavalry, planes, supply carts, and commanders will get out.
So, that's what that mess over there is all about.
I'm happy if at least I get my supply wagons and my commanders out. I'm most likely charging each and every one of my troops individually into the enemy bayonets, set to G/G, enemies casualties will be virtually non-existent.
On the Sea.
Loaded up all my transports in Africa and shipping them for simultaneous landings in Kamerun, Togo, and Ost Africa, the Portugese Army and the French Colonial Army against Kamerun, the South African Army against Togo, and the British Indian Army in Ost Africa for a tentative landing.
Japanese Navy move to secure the seas around Africa against German intervention.