The Lev
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Britain stays out, I hope: a curious AAR as the Central Powers

Wed Mar 11, 2015 1:15 pm

Hello there, might as well begin at the beginning

I've been playing this game for about a month or so, but Revolution under Siege was something that I've been playing since it was released. Most games, you see, that I start i get engrossed about the map, can't get over a minor detail or hope for crazy luck the first time around-But this time was different. I'd always been sympathetic to the Central Powers-and while one could replay each move infinitely, sometimes one must sit back, analyse, prepare-and launch one's self unto that battlefield of Europe, send forth our armies into that Glorious Spree!

[ATTACH]33110[/ATTACH]

The cornerstones of this policy are a knockout blow against Russia's western armies, keeping the war of maneouvre going (I'm relying on you, Kluck), getting Greece and Bulgaria on-side before dealing with Serbia and, of course, keeping Britain out of the war.

The Germans open with the Moltke Plan (I'm guessing the elder, you know, the good one),
The Austrians open with the Kaiser Plan (Or whichever one has them massing on the Galician Front)
The Russians (Although i didn't know this at turn one) open with the Polska plan
And the French, well, they open with plan XX....

[ATTACH]33111[/ATTACH]

Well I might have switched the plans, but hey It'll probably fare better than a headlong charge into Elsaß-and no more tampering on my behalf, the table is set-and turn one is finished
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Joseph_Joffre_Nw_joffre_02_nw.jpg
sissi-and-franz-joseph-5.jpeg

The Lev
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Wed Mar 11, 2015 2:28 pm

The game is currently in Late September, and while i could go back and take some screenshots of previous turns-I'd rather not risk losing what's come so far. So we begin where the war started: Diplomacy.

[ATTACH]33112[/ATTACH]

The Diplomatic game opened up much as it normally does, the Big two diplomats covet Britain, Entente diplomats try and get Romania, Greece, Portugal and Japan on-side. Placed the CP ones in Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal and Japan-mostly just to block Entente efforts, not really expecting to get any of them on my side apart from Bulgaria.

Turn two saw the Austro-German foreign ministers downcast. Minor gains in Bulgaria, several nations slide slowly towards the Entente-worst of all, the big mission to Britain didn't even happen due to lack of funds. They landed at Dover and couldn't afford the tickets to London, the last telegram mentioned they had to sell the telegram machine for a row-boat, trying to make their way back to Heligoland..."Ein Ruderboot...."
At that point, the reply from the Japanese mission came through-

"私たちはここにあなたの同盟に加盟する私たちのプロのフランスの傾向を私たちに警告し、あなたの高貴なミッションを通してあなたの優雅な皇帝からの言葉を受けた。私たちの軍隊と艦隊は我々の敵ずっと困惑を招くおそれ"

Probably nothing, pity they'll likely end up joining the allies-Just send back that they could do with French Indochina as they see fit in case of our victory. The message in return read "メッセージには、インドシナへの完全な力を展開、受け取っ" Ah it'll probably take a while to decode....

Ah, the Battle plans-the Alsatian, Bavarian and Badenese units hold the Franco-German border, the two Hessian corps act as a reserve, along with the VII Westphalian corps, V Army, reconstituted to hold V West Prussian and VI Silesian corps will, once there's enough rolling stock-move to the support of Austria in Silesia.

In East Prussia, Bulow's 2nd Army moves out first, taking Kowno before swinging south to Grodno and establishing positions there.
Kluck's 1st Army, following on, will advance East in the direction of Vilnius & Minsk-aiming to destroy in detail any Russian armies sent to try and stabilize the front there.
The 3rd Saxon army deploys in a screen to the west, seeking to draw in as many Russian armies in Poland as possible.
The 8th Prussian Army is the area reserve, to be deployed in support of the 1st or 2nd armies with the aim of reaching Austrian forces and cutting off the Russians in Poland.
The VIII corps moves north to pre-empt any attack made from Riga.
Reserve Corps remains around Tannenberg in case of a Russian attack.
[ATTACH]33113[/ATTACH]
The first three turns see everything go to plan, Kluck and Bulow are the sword and shield of Prussia, sweeping away the small forts and corps the Russians had in the area, only hoping that the spearhead of Hindenburg's 8th will be able to reach the Austrians before it's too late. Kluck, on the other hand, could even go for Moscow....
[ATTACH]33114[/ATTACH]
Or maybe not,
[ATTACH]33115[/ATTACH]
Well....
Attachments
Tempting.png
Maybe not.png
Eastern Front turn 3.png
Diplomacy turn 3.png

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Erik Springelkamp
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Wed Mar 11, 2015 3:30 pm

The Lev wrote:The game is currently in Late September, and while i could go back and take some screenshots of previous turns-I'd rather not risk losing what's come so far. So we begin where the war started: Diplomacy.


You can safely copy your saved game to a directory with a new name, and then move the files from one of the backup subdirectories into the new top level directory to go back to older turns without risking anything.

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BBBD316
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Thu Mar 12, 2015 1:34 am

Looking forward to following this, so what is the current UK alignment?

The Lev
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Sun Mar 15, 2015 2:01 pm

Nice, Once the thing's finished I might look through the opponents' dispositions and see if my estimates were correct or not

And without further ado-the East!

[ATTACH]33125[/ATTACH]
Below's 2nd Army has succesfully taken the Osewiecz-Grodno-Bielostok triangle, with two reserve corps under Below holding Osewiecz, the Guards holding Bielostok and the IX & X Corps acting as a mobile reserve. After taking the forts all they had to contend with were three corps diverted from an attack into Thorn.
Below's army will advance towards Brest, hoping to cut the Warsaw-Brest-Kowel-Pinsk-Gomel line, which is currently their only escape from the Polish encirclement

Kluck's first has effectively spent its' offensive power in taking Vilnius and Minsk, as well as halting sporadic attempts to cut the Kovno-Minsk line from the north, It's currently regrouping for offensive purposes.

Hindenburg's 8th followed up on the attack on Minsk, I Corps took Baranovichi while the other two batted away the remnants of a corps and are now facing a supply problem, the Reserve corps, however are rested within Minsk and are ready for the big push south

The plan? Cut the last line of retreat, Bulow's corps and the Guards engaging anything that tries to come through Brest, 8th Army preventing a breakthrough at Pinsk and Baranovichi. Hopefully the Austrians will do their bit, the Russians seem to have noticed after Minsk fell-but they hadn't reckoned with the hidden 8th!
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Eastern Front turn 8.png

The Lev
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Sun Mar 15, 2015 2:17 pm

The Central Front Was rather more saturated than in OTL, with the 3rd, Reserve and later 5th Armies all deploying to engage and draw in the Russian mass around Warsaw. Below is the situation at turn three
[ATTACH]33126[/ATTACH]
Hausen's force is dispersed, launching a spoiling attack on Kolo, which managed to draw in a few corps when Lodz was threatened. The Reserve army held Plehve around Posen, and by rotation and fighting a battle every time-plus a bit of luck (that spoiling attack on Kolo cut one of Plehve's supply lines) the Russian attack faltered, and the Reserve army was none the worse for it-meanwhile unknown quantities of Russian forces advance into Silesia, but fall short of attacking Festung Breslau.

On the Austrian side, West Galicia under Dankl merely blocks a Russian force, but is redeployed apart from three Polish divisions that'll hold the gap between Krakow & Przemyshl-Not suprising that the Russians arent committing in Poland, but they aren't withdrawing en-masse either
[ATTACH]33127[/ATTACH]
By turn 8, the only Russian army to actually attack on the West, Plehve's-has had its' supply lines cut and is attempting to break through to Russian Poland, although that spoiling attack by the third probably delayed several Russian corps long enough to be trapped in Poland-All going to plan so far!
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Central Eastern Front turn 8.jpg
Central Eastern Front Turn 3.png

The Lev
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Sun Mar 15, 2015 2:56 pm

The Galician Front
From the Starting positions, Dankl's first was to hold between Krakow & Przemysl,
Brudermann's 2nd was to defend Lemberg in-depth against an attack from the West
Bohm-Ermolli's 3rd was to deploy to Zloczow to prevent an attack on Lemberg from the North
Komarow's 4th was to advance as far as possible with the final aim of seizing Berdychiv & Zhitomyr, with half its' strength under Bojna preventing it from getting cut off.
Frank's 5th was to take Chotin, or at least draw in the southernmost Russian army away from 4th army's attack
[ATTACH]33128[/ATTACH]
And for all intents and purposes, it worked! And perhaps i was too cautious
1st Army didn't have much to do, besides throwing back two corps from Tarnow and isolating some cossacks at Gorlice, and as such was moved to replace 3rd army north of Lemberg, leaving only the three divisions of the Polish legion to screen West Galicia-with support from a Silesian corps.
AG Lemberg (Brudermann, later Conrad) 2nd, 3rd & Assorted elts defended against the armies of Brusilov and Kaledin, currently debating as to whether to attack or not-meanwhile Dankl has turned into a 433 General, with which I'm more than pleased-During the 1915 reorganization i see himself, Eugen, Conrad and Bojna as the heads of the Austrian army
AG Ukraine (Komarow, later Eugen) 4th, 5th & Cav army not only took the rail hubs, but held them and a thin line to them, drawing in what looks like three corps-two of which were defeated in-detail around Zhitomir, the third decided to fortify the approaches to Kyiv. Bojna saw a fair bit of action, and while he was supposed to keep the supply going to Komarow, the failure of 5th army's offensive drew him south in support-his two corps were nearly destroyed by the Grenadier corps and three others-but he saved the remnants of the 5th and put the Russians on that front out of action-Here's the remnants of his victorious force

Hmm, seems it doesn't want to upload-needless to say out of four divisions they are now roughly an overstrength brigade-It was tough but they did well

Ah yes, Woyrsh group and the 5th Prussian army under the Crown Prince arrived to take Chotin and Kamyanetsk
One of 5th armies' corps was delayed around Silesia, and the second blunted its' teeth against Chotin-only to be denied by the last 200 men of the fort. The Reserves, along with Woyrsh will advance and sweep aside the southern Russian army. Such is the Austrian front, I'm sure old Franz Joseph will be quite pleased
[ATTACH]33129[/ATTACH]

Britain, however, is only at 19% pro-CP, and the second diplomatic mission hasn't returned any good news as of yet-Seems I'll be lucky if i can delay them until mid 1915-Here's hoping that isn't the case
Attachments
Galicia turn 8.png
Galicia Turn 3.png

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Kensai
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Sun Mar 15, 2015 10:07 pm

Mid 1915 is long enough to do your thing against either the Russians or the French. The British blockade and navy really made life for Germany difficult.
Care to unify Germany as Austria? Recreate the Holy Roman Empire of the 20th Century:
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Are you tough enough to impersonate the Shogun and defy the Westerners? Prove it:
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The Lev
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Mon Mar 16, 2015 6:13 pm

Pretty much the Russians, the Western front is bogged down around Liege and Bastogne, the French are massing opposite Metz and around the Belfort area-More than happy to let them break their teeth against them.

I'll stick to pictures of major events rather than every turn-succesful enough with other AARs

I was hoping Britain would be slowed by the unusual step of getting Belgium invaded by the French-but that thing goes down 2-3% per turn-short of some amazing diplomatic rolls, but I've yet to have a single roll yield anything-or even a "Our diplomatic mission has increased support in Britain by 1%" Guess short of modifying the game files Britain would stay in the war...

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Field Marshal Hotzendorf
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Tue Mar 17, 2015 6:06 pm

Great AAR so far, The Lev! Very much enjoying it.

The Lev
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Thu Mar 19, 2015 10:51 am

Cheers Kensai & Conrad, the latest installment sees the campaigns in the decisive stage yet bogged down by the onset of winter.

The Western front hasn't much going on-there's a fortified line from Antwerp to Bastogne through Louvain and Liege, the French having breached the Louvain defences with a 1700 power stack-aside from that all's much the same as it started.
The African theatre has gone very well, managing to hold Togo and succesfully raid Madagascar-Portugal has also entered the war, so mopping up those takes priority.
The Pacific theatre, for all my pleisure at having Japan join has seen one failed expedition to Indochina that wore both the French and myself out, and the destruction of the French far eastern fleet, so nothing much.
The Mediterranean has seen the Austro-Hungarian fleet move out, succesfully engaging the French force there in the battle of Maddalena Island, which had low casualties in itself, but the dispersed squadrons were picked apart by the KUK Navy sailing home
The Baltic and other naval theatres have seen much the same situation-a decisive victory in the opening few moves against both navies, followed by sporadic encounters.

Diplomatically, everything is reaching a rather important point. Britain is only 4% CP. The very aim of this AAR is on the verge of failure, and, although i might yet regret it-I've moved my diplomat over to Italy. Here's hoping its not too late to bring them in on my side to even the naval side of things in the Med. Also throws my dominance in Africa and the Pacific into the mix, but that powerful Japanese fleet might yet have its' moment of glory.

The Priority, Ladies and Gentlemen, Is still the Eastern Front-and there the news comes fast and the news is good!

The Lev
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Thu Mar 19, 2015 11:28 am

GALICIA 1915

Operations have gone well, after engaging three corps at Kamianets' the Eastern campaign has resulted in the Southern Russian army trapped in Vinnytsia, while elements try and prize open Zhitomir. I have overwhelming superiority in the area but in the winter conditions I've gone for the elimination of the Vinnytsia force-After which the Austro-German armies will be free to liberate Ukraine as quickly as the percentage of control on Railways goes up. Hope getting Ukrainian grain under CP control in 1915 (Before the large estates collapsed) would lessen the effect of the blockade-haven't gotten this far in any of the campaigns so only time will tell. As soon as the mud clears we'll see the advance into Ukraine yet
[ATTACH]33136[/ATTACH]
Meanwhile, in the Central front-Austrian units under Kirchbach meet Gallwitz's Guards army west of Kovel, closing off an estimated six corps in Poland. West of Kovel, Nikolai Nikolaievich's attempt at a breakthrough falls back on the fortress triangle of Kovel, Lutsk, Rovno and Dubno-with two more corps isolated further north. Brusilov has managed to break out, and is hastily organizing a defence in the North. The plan now is for Bulow's 2nd and Hindenburg's 8th to squeeze the Russian Breakthrough force as close as possible and wear them down. Those further west will be dealt with later, for now the Reserve army will whittle down the lesser forts, while Austrian forces are to advance on Liublin from the South East
[ATTACH]33137[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]33138[/ATTACH]
Oh and all is quiet on the Serbian front, Bulgaria is at 77% CP and Romania seems to be following suit, Greece is very much Neutral, going down from 58% to 50% in one turn, but I did get Japan which was only 33% CP onto my side, so swings and roundabouts i guess
Attachments
Poland turn 14.jpg
Eastern Front turn 14.jpg
Galicia turn 14.jpg

The Lev
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Mon Mar 23, 2015 5:46 pm

Hmm, well things have gone rather strangely with this campaign-In the west especially

Britain couldn't be kept out, so the High Seas Fleet gets ready to engage any elements of the British fleet that get too close.

The Belgian front has progressed as follows-(Including fortresses) 800+ power stacks in Antwerp-Leuven-Liege-Bastogne, the French readied themselves for a big push with a 1700 stack and pushed my forces out of Leuven (Which oddly enough took barely any casualties), and then out of Hasselt and Liege (Also with barely any casualties). I then prepared a break out of Antwerp with the two German armies against the cohesionless stack at Hasselt, supported by the two armies at Liege (One of which was forced to withdraw from Bastogne by a single French army corps, again without loss)

This was the result of the counter-attack
[ATTACH]33156[/ATTACH]
A french 3k stack managed to beat my armies in detail around Antwerp and Liege, and hats' off to them for that-yet oddly enough the (Still unscathed) Antwerp armies withdrew into an unoccupied province to the south-I thought they were goners but next turn the Antwerp armies found themselves behind French lines.

Guess they passed themselves off as prisoners or something, in any case-faced with a choice of surrendering or facing the doomstacks closing on Liege, the Antwerp breakout force is going to attack Paris. Its' the only sane thing to do

Across the Frontiers, a French army attacked Saarbourg and despite being surrounded escaped with minimal casualties-that's about it on the Frontiers

The Japanese entry into the Central Powers proved neigh-on useless, after being whittled down both in Indochina and Hong Kong (every battle saw French casualties eclipse my own, but somehow i almost always lost the battles) Their fleet, meanwhile, has accomplished bugger all due to a lack of cohesion and not engaging any of the troop convoys that passed them by-pity that
Attachments
Western Front April 1915.png

The Lev
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Mon Mar 23, 2015 6:22 pm

POLAND 1915
[ATTACH]33157[/ATTACH]
Von Kathens' Reserve armies and the Saxons have kept seven corps' worth of Russian forces trapped in Poland. My attempts to tighten the encirclement were squarely beaten off, and-seeing the opportunity I prepared an assault on Warsaw through Kolo.

Two reserve corps and Beseler's regular & militia corps had been making inroads there for some time, and seeing an overstrength corps of Pflug (Or Flug, either way sounds about right) recuperating in Warsaw, I went ahead and had the Saxons besiege it. That's when four corps decided to force my supply route around Lodz, and while they initially succeeded-a Silesian corps and the Ostsee Reserves pushed them back across the Warta, only to be faced with Six corps pushing north. They've since regrouped, and the Polish Legion managed to reinforce the siege of Warsaw, but its' a convoluted battle for Poland going on right here.

Below's two corps have been busy reducing fortresses, while Falkenhayn leads two corps to reach Warsaw from the East. North of that the Niemenarmee's overstrength corps fights off sporadic divisions attempting to surround him, and Kluck-bored of the lack of action around Minsk heads north to take Dvinsk as a base of operations against Riga

EASTERN FRONT
[ATTACH]33158[/ATTACH]
After having destroyed most of Scherbachevs' northern pocket, the noose tightened around the armies in the Volyhnian fortresses. Nikolay Nikolaievych's force attempted a breakthrough in the south-managing to destroy an Austro-Hungarian corps in the process but only partially succeeding, he's now at Rava Ruska and might be hoping to salvage something from within the Polish pocket. Either way, a fair amount of his force is still left within the fortresses-and after the fall of Kovel looks close to being captured entirely. Some corps have moved tenuously through Zhitomir into the Pripet forests, but my constant harrassing of that line slowed their task, and a recent attack on Zhitomir has threatened to cut these forces off as well

In the East Vinnitsia witnessed an inspired defence, but is about to fall-last round only 3000 infantry and the artillery firing at point-blank range managed to hold the final onslaught, but now I suppose even they have run out of ammunition. With the Winter behind us and the ground hardening-1915 looks set to hold great things in Ukraine. Oh and two newly formed corps and the Cavalry Army are pushing into Bessarabia as we speak, although the Vinnitsia forces will probably cut them off near the border anyhow.
Attachments
Eastern Front April 1915.png
Poland April 1915.png

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FlumenSV
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Mon Mar 23, 2015 7:21 pm

Great AAR, just keep it coming :)
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JodelDiplom
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Sun Mar 29, 2015 12:46 pm

West front looks terrible. East front however smells like VICTORY!

Do you think you are going to bag the Russian army in 1915? What's the plan for the western front, until then? Fall back on the Rhine?

The Lev
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Wed Apr 01, 2015 10:18 am

Into July 1915 and the East is looking pretty good

The Russians seem to have bought their Siberian and Caucasian reserves into play, aside from that the majority of their army seems to still be stuck south of Warsaw, incapable of breaking out they've sent three corps for a dash on Vienna. We'll see how much of a Russian army there is left after the Polish pocket falls.

In the West, a reorganization to compensate for the three lost armies-Bulow is in charge of Malmedy, If the siege of Liege can be lifted then a Liege-Bastogne perimeter would be held-aside from that the plan is to hold Malmedy. Falling back on the Rhine would only be an option if i had enough of a force to make it worth my while-I'm raising new units and reshuffling my western front but hopefully there won't be a need to (Shudders) Withdraw forces form the succesful campaign in the East...

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Sir Garnet
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Wed Sep 09, 2015 10:16 am

The diplomatic results are not all bad - delaying British entry is a help, and swinging Italy is worthwhile since it looks like the war in the east will soon be won.

I applaud the textbook operation to cut off the Polish salient, and the related drives into Russia. Have you targeted St. Petersburg or Moscow in addition to the Ukraine?

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