Russia's only standing Corp, which also happened to be it's most recently comissioned, had been sent out to the Georgian area to quell a Turkish uprising there. It had succeeded in turning away the Turkish Corp by showing it's futility in advancing. But there had been a few stragglers that stayed in the SE hills. This week the most prominent of these stragglers, harassing the locals outside of Tiflis, was eradicated. Sweeping down from the North, the Corp took out the Turkish Infantry unit quickly, but with heavy losses (6/14) before regrouping.
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At Strassburg, 155mm shelled an R-Inf for 1HP, the 2nd 155mm hit the Rupprecht Army Group for 1HP.
At Essen, an R-Inf kills a red-lined A-Inf. A pair of 15mm outside of the city fired off a series of rounds into Essen and one of them hit the Est Army Group for 1HP, while the other only managed to hit a Bratwurst stand. There was pommes frites and mayo everywhere.
Just so the the British are aware, Germany has gathered most, it not all of it's Army Groups in the area East of Essen. Shown below are the strength and formations.
French expansion continues.
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Year End Report
Russia ~ In the very begining of the war it was determined that a large amount of Workers needed to be produced to build roads around the cities and complete the Railroad to Odessa and the far end of the Black Sea. These projocts are almost complete.
The search for luxuries to bring some joy to Russia was fruitful as sufficient items were found to keep the Motherland content.
Frustration mounted in Petrograd, as it was determined by the ruling class that Russia's lack of potentcy in its military was going to be a huge problem against the Germans, who had over-whelming strength in their ranks, due to better training and technology. Then came the Lodz Campaign. No need to rehash the terrible losses suffered by the Russian people that tried to push back an exploratory force of German Infantry outside the border city. It was belived that Nicolas was just trying to show the futility of this war. But the loss of Lodz galvanized the Russian people and no more major losses have occured since those dark days.
The Black Sea and Georgian region have been fairly quiet. Battling the Ottoman Empire, whose troops are equally weak as the Russians, has become more of a hobby for the locals than a war. Most of the Naval action for Russia has taken place in the Black Sea, as its Naval forces are to weak to face the Germans in the Baltic Sea.
Russians have prodded and probed into Austria, but nothing has been accomplished - or even planned for that matter.
Overall, Russia has a great population, capable of recruiting many young soldiers. But the lack of equipment and training counters the number of troops and make the military mediocre.
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France ~ France's military has one redeeming factor, and that is it's 155mm cannons. These units have helped the French not only save it's cities, but advance into German territory. Also, much is owed to the French Resistance, as heavy local support bolsters the 155mms.
France was not meant to be a military machine. Most of it's mineral resources are mid-country, but the government decision of keeping a rural French central region means most of these resources go unused. The major cities are on flatlands and mainly produce foodstuff. I find Southern France more productive than the Northern area.
The French Navy is mainly concentrated in the Mediterranean Sea. Moderate success has been made in the shelling of the Ottoman coastline. The small bit of water between Italy and the Austrian held lands have proven to be quite treacherous for the French ships.
As Germany has kept it's mounting forces at bay for the most part, it now has a very large, potent Army. France has taken advantage of the multi-front efforts of the Entente by advancing independant units across enemy lines. Some of this culminated in the retaking of Liege for the Neutrals, although th French have wisely not given control of this city back to it's original owners. The multi-front efforts, the Resistance, and the 155mms were the powerhouse combo that allowed the taking of Metz also.
To close, I would like to say that this scenario can seem very much like WWI. Slow, methodical advances with a lot of killing and lot of dying. At one point I believed the effort to be useless, that Germany would walk right in and take France. Luckily the Germans and the Austrians found other areas to plunder. But at this point, it seems the Entente are doing well, even in the face of massive German Army Groups around Essen.
The lack of trading in the scenario is disturbing. Techs and luxs should be able to cross some borders to help the lesser countries.