Solo Empires & Alliances December 1914

The end of the year has come, and with it the realization of of so many broken promises.
"It's just a punitive expedition, to get the Serbs to stop supporting terrorism." "We just need to pass through your country for a little while to deal with the French, we're not here to stay." "It's just a continental war, we don't need to get involved." "Elan will see us through, they have no weapons to counter our spirit." "We will restore lost lands and redeem our national honor." "We will finally be accorded the respect we deserve." "We'll be home before the leaves fall."

December saw the advent of snow in the East, and continuation of mud in the West. Three of the battles from November continued this turn, along with one new one.


The entrenchment markers make it difficult to see which nationality the stacks are, so I've drawn a line between the Allies and Central Powers marking the front line. The line is blue where French troops man the Allied line, Red where British troops do. The black arrows signify Germany attacks, the black "explosion" is the site of battle.

WESTERN FRONT

Upon discovering that the battered French territorials defending Amiens had been replaced by the powerful BEF, a decision was made to attempt to bloody the BEF despite the risky 2:1 odds. Results were as desired; with one German and one British Inf XXX eliminated. (The BEF corps start out as superpowerful 7-9-5 units, but are "fragile" and can only be rebuilt as 5-7-5s.) Trench lines are completed almost everywhere on the front, and German troops finally move in to contain the French incursion in the Lörrach district of the Grandy Duchy of Baden, though mud slows their arrival.


In the two photos above, blue arrows show the Russian attacks. "Explosions" show where the battles occured; blue indicates Allied success, black indicates stalemate.

EASTERN FRONT

In Poland the Germans closed upon the Vistula, while both German and Russian Troops poured into the region around Lomza, with the Russians finally lauching a desperate 2:1 attack in an effort to slow down the German efforts to penetration around the Northern end of the Vistula defense line. The battle was a moderate success, with each side losing an Infantry XXX.
In Hungary the situation for the Hapsburgs has become dire. An audacious 2:1 Russian attack in the snowy Carpathians eliminated 3 Austrian XXX and shattered their defensive line, with Russian troops pouring into the Hungarian Plain. At this point the only thing holding back the Russian hordes is poor weather and lack of supply.

Red arrows indicate Central Powers attacks; blue arrows, Allied attacks. In both cases, red "explosions" indicate Central Power victories.

BALKAN FRONT

While the East Front has been an absolute disaster for the Austro-Hungarians, the war against Serbia has been incredibly successful. The Austrians were able to chase down the shattered remnants of the Nis defenders in the Mountains southeast of the city and reached the Bulgarian border, pocketing 3 divisions of the Serbian army. Already short on ammunition and with no prospect of getting more food, the Serbs made a desperate attack to recover Nis (1:3 odds), which failed miserably. Meanwhile the Montenegrins continue to race the Austrian 9th Inf XXX to defend their capital from capture.

OBSERVATIONS

The Austrian situation is fascinating; they've had stunning success in Serbia and stunning failure in Galicia. There is no option now but that the Germans MUST send troops down the Budapest-Lemberg rail line to stop the Russians, which will mean a reduction of pressure in Poland.
January will bring the prospect of Italian intervention ever closer, and a strengthening of their Army. It is hard to imagine Austria-Hungary being capable of fighting on a third frontier; I will need to re-read the rules but the Germans are limited in what they can do against Italy for some period of time.
The turns are playing faster now, and the action is still very exciting. I find myself constantly thinking about what I will do to solve various problems for each side. Kudos to Compass Games and Rob Beyma.

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