Solo Empires & Alliances November 1914 Turn

BU SAVAŞ!

It's War! Turkey joins the Central Powers, and, um, ho-hum so far (with the Middle East and Caucasus abstracted in the game to off-map boxes, there's just not much going on here). Technically, the British can deploy any forces in the Middle East Box anywhere in on-map Turkey, allowing for, say, a Gallipoli campaign. But so far it doesn't look very appealing.

Overall, this is a much less violent turn than October, with only 3 battles resulting in the loss of a total of 5 Infantry Corps and an Artillery Corps.

WESTERN FRONT

There is no 'Miracle of the Marne'; the French are not strong enough to throw the Germans back from Paris, but maybe there is a lesser 'Miracle of the Somme', as the Germans assaulted the three French territorial corps defending Amiens with eight corps and two artillery units. French losses were heavy (2 corps eliminated vs 1 German corps lost) but the line held. The Territorials were then shifted South to bolster the line there as the expanding BEF took over the defense of the Amiens sector.

There was very little other activity in the West; the Germans strengthened their forces along the southern part of the salient, but probably not enough to launch an offensive. The French completed their entrenchments. The Germans withdrew several corps from the Alsace-Lorraine region, but are not sure yet where they will go.

In the final oddity, the French had early on conquered a hex of Germany along the Swiss border, which the Germans were content to do nothing about as the French didn't have the strength to go further. Now the French are cautiously experimenting, using a replacement corps and pulling another corps out of Belfort to extend their territory one more hex to the East.

EASTERN FRONT

I've divided the Eastern Front pictures into two to give a better picture of this area. In Poland there was no fighting but a lot of maneuver; the Germans again put the vast majority of their replacements/reinforcements East. Some went to the Cracow sector to extend the line there, some went to the Tannenberg sector to work on turning the Russians' Vistula line. And one corps moved out from the Masuran Lakes to sever the Warsaw-Grodno railroad line. This is an interesting development. Alone it won't achieve much; the Minsk-Brest-Gleiwetz rail line should be enough to keep the Russians in supply, but the Russians are concerned and sent all their Replacements/Reinforcements to the area.

The only battle in the East was the battle of Nagybánya; a major victory here saw the Austrians lose a regular and a LandWehr infantry Corps and an Artillery Corps for the cost of one Russian infantry and artillery corps. With this success the Russians broke through the Eastern Carpathians and turned the Austrian Southern flank.

BALKAN FRONT

(Sorry, the photo has disappeared). There was a major success for the Central Powers here, as the Austrians launched an assault on Nis and threw the defenders out in disarray. With this success the race to Skopje is on--a combined Serb/Montenegrin force is hoping to beat the Austrians there. The other Montenegrin division has begun a retreat back to the homeland as the Hapsburg forces have sent a corps to Sarajevo. The remaining Serb forces (4 divisions, 1 of them demoralized) are almost cutoff against the Bulgarian border. At the end of the turn I realized I'd forgotten to spend Serbian RPs so there is now a 2-3-4 Inf XX defending Skopje, which does change things a bit.

LOOKING AHEAD, THOUGHTS, ETC

There wasn't much action this turn, (which meant I got through it rather quickly, ~30 minutes to play both sides) but that doesn't mean there wasn't a lot going on. The Germans tried one last 'easy' assault, and while they hurt the French they didn't punch a hole in the line so now things are stabilized and changing the front lines in the West will require massive efforts.

As expected, the situation in the East is much more fluid. The Germans have increased their forces roughly threefold since the beginning of the war (8 units with a combined 39-51 att-def factors vs 24 units with a combined 109-147). The Russians have only doubled in strength and are almost identical in combat factors with the Germans in the area. Meanwhile the Austro-Hungarian Army has declined about 10% in Galicia, with the Russians declining by a similar amount, maintaining a slight edge. The Russians feel highly insecure in Poland, the Austrians feel highly insecure in Transylvania. But neither the Germans in Poland nor the Russians in Transylvania are likely to be able to pocket and isolate large numbers of enemy; their own supply lines limit their excursions, though they can turn flanks, gain local superiority in those areas, and grind the opponent down.

The Austrians have to wonder what to do in the Balkans. They're having great success; they've taken some low-odds attacks and generally been successful. The Serb/Montenegrin forces are half what they were; while the Austrians have lost about 15% of their strength. So the Allied decisions are fairly easy. I'm going to hope the Russians can keep the Germans from hurting them too much, while trying to cause as much damage to the A-H army as possible. Everything else is just a delaying action. For the CP, there are more dilemmas: Should Germany completely give up on offensive action in the West and shift forces East? Probably. Should Austria stop their assault on Serbia? That's less clear. They can probably move 2/3 of their Balkan Front forces back to face the Russians, leaving a few units to destroy the isolated Serb forces in the East, knock Montenegro out of the war, and hold a line somewhere around the headwaters of the Morava. Or they could keep their forces there and possibly knock Serbia out in a few months.

I feel the political rules are letting me down a bit, here. If Serbia is knocked out of the war (and their army surrenders) I personally don't see how the Allies can justify intervention in Greece, which means the Balkans basically close down. One might think the threat of Russians would force the Austrians to stop the attacks in Serbia but given the amount of success they've already had I think you can see an argument for continuation of the campaign that goes something like this: "1. Serbia started the war. 2. We only want to punish Serbia. 3. Russia only in it to protect Serbia. 4. If we force Serb surrender, Russia can be reasoned with--they no longer have the pan-Slavic cause to fight for, they are having trouble with Germany, let's end the war now that Serbia has been dealt with." Mind you I don't think this scenario would have happened in real life, I just think the Hapsburgs could have seen this as a realistic strategy and reason not to halt the Serbian offensive in favor of facing the Russians. Also, I wonder if the Bulgarians would be sitting on the sidelines so long with a so badly battered Serb army. I will admit I don't know a ton of the decision-making that went into Bulgaria's entry, but the rules of the game, even if using the variable entry rules, don't allow Bulgaria to even consider joining the CP for another 6 months! And all their decision-making seems to rest on the overall conduct of the war; Serbian defeat does not factor in.

Still, this is all just food for thought right now. I'm enjoying the game still very much and I'm looking forward to how 1915 shapes up, especially what Italian entry means.