New PBEM adaptation of TGW-Div 1.6: Playtesting!

[Tigranes]

Britain

A black day for Royal British Marines!

British command was planning a surprise attack on Beyrut for quite some times. ROyal Marines secretely arrived from Arabia to Cypros, Medeterranean Fleet was sent there too. Even a very strange type of ship, very first purposely built seaplane tander Ark Royal has joined the operation. The plan was to yellowline 2 Beyrut defenders by Naval Bombardement and kill them by Marines, without taking city. Everything went wrong from the very begining. Only one BC has hit the turkish infantry (defense 9), one has missed, and the third one unexpectedly run into a minor mining craft, creating Survivors, but spending bombardement opportunity. Overconfident Marines (attack 13) charged anyways, in both cases defenders got redlined, but in both cases they prevail!
We have lost probably the most valuable troops in our Army

A submarine was sunk near Denmark by the Grand Fleet, Survivors were sent to London for interregation. Minefields between Denmark and Norway got yellowlined.

Recuperated Egyptian Army returned to continue the First Battle of Gaza.

Iraqi Army spotted Bulgarian Corps in Basra. They simply do not belong here! Go back to Bulgaria!

A shippment of War Materials arrived to save Paris from starvation.

Italy

Thanks to the British gold Venice has produced a battleship, which was unhistorically named Venice. All the 5 Italians ships (2 BB and 3 CA) scored good hits this turn, German Army Corps Sud went down to 9 HPs (does Sud mean South in German?). 3 other German Corps have left Isonzo area, I wonder where are they now...

Veteran Counterbattery from Milan managed to destroy 210 mm gun of the VII German Army.

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

gps Cyc...Update to follow within the hour.

Iraqi Army spotted Bulgarian Corps in Basra. They simply do not belong here! Go back to Bulgaria!

Turkey has been mercilessly deprived of building any useful units with the recent Entente strategic bombing campaign. We are left with no choice and must use all available units to defend ourselves.

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

Week 50, 1914


Ottoman Empire:

Coastal Battery sinks French Semi-Dreadnought. An Arab Rebel is killed in Mesopotamia.



Austria-Hungary:

Nothing to report.



Germany:

Lone British DD Flotilla sunk in North Sea after being bombarded by German BBs. No survivors were picked up by the victorious German DD Flotilla. Elsewhere in the north tip of Denmark an unknown is sunk near the minefields.

Lodz - Two Russian Cossacks who ventured across the border were defeated by German Cavalry and Rifle A.

Venice - British stack is bombarded yet again and the great offensive picks up momentum. A fierce German infantry charge is ordered. This is preceded however by counter battery fire which manages to destroy 2 British counter battery guns.

Then the main assault begins. German troops leave their trenches and enter no mans land. Fortunately there were gaps in the barbed wire which the assault teams passed through. 5 German Rifle Rs and 2 German Rifle As fall under a withering blast of machine gun and light artillery fire. Even a British armored car fires in defense of her comrades. It is not enough however. The remaining German forces reach the British trenches and destroy 12 British Rifle Rs, 2 HMGs including the elite unit, and 2 British Trench Artillery.

French Belgian border - The French stack that entered German territory was shelled by German artillery. No units were destroyed in the bombardment however several units suffered casualties.

 

[Tigranes]

This all was possible for 1 silly reason -- BEF needs Iron to build trenches and barbedwire... In the final version Calais is British from the start and sits on Iron...

 

[Cyc]

The Pre-Dreadnought craters the tile WSW of Eregil.
__________________________________________________________

The Taking of Liege ~
Sent a Counter Battery down the newly made road to Liege in search of German Artillry there. We found none and lost the CB to Infabtry. So the 155mms were sent instead. 13 of them. The 1st destroyed the Walls of Liege. The 2nd took 2HP from an Elite Inf. The 3rd also took 2 HPs from an Elite Inf. The 4th takes 1 HP from a Vet Inf. The 5th takes 1 HP from a Vet Inf. The 6th takes 2 HP from a Reg Inf. The 7th takes 1 HP from a Vet Inf. The 8th takes 2 HP from an Elite Inf. The 9th misses. The 10th takes 1 HP from an Elite. The 11th takes 1 HP from a Reg MG. The 12th takes 2 HP from a Reg MG. The 13th takes 1 HP from a Reg Inf.

The Petain Corp kills a Vet R Inf and loses 2 HPs after eluding the MG fire, creates a Worker. Joffre Corp kills Elite Inf. losing 4 HPs. Petain strikes again, killing an Elite Inf. and promoting to Vet Corp. Joffre kills Vet Inf. The the Corps pull back and send in the Divisions. Reg Artillery takes 2 HP from R Inf. Vet Artie take 1 HP from R Inf. R Inf dies taking 1 HP from R Inf. R Inf Dies taking 1 HP from R Inf. A Inf dies red-lining R Inf. A Inf dies against R Inf. R Inf dies taking 2 HP from R Inf. R Inf dies. Reg R kills Reg R. Reg T Inf kills 4/8 Elite R Inf. Reg T red-lines 3/4 MG. Reg T dies against 3/4 MG. Reg T dies against 3/4 MG. Reg T takes 2 HP from MG. Reg R dies against MG. Reg R takes 2 HP from MG. Reg R kills MG and promotes. Reg R takes 1 HP from Reg A Inf, which promotes. Reg A takes 2 HPs from A Inf. Reg A red-lines Landwehr Armee. Reg R kills Landwehr. R kills R. R kills R. R kills R. Reg R red-lines MG. French MG takes 1 HP from A Inf., which promotes. Reg R kills 4/9 Elite A. R dies against R. R kills R. R red-lines R, which promotes. R redlines R, which promotes.R red-lines Elite. R kills R. R kills redlined MG. R kills red-lined A. R kills 1/8 R. R kills Anti Aircraft Gun.

R kills the Falkenhayn Leader and takes the city of Liege, liberating 239 gold. The Dye trade flows to France. Reinforcements arrive.

gps to Tigranes.

 

[Tigranes]

 

[Tigranes]

Britain

Iraqi Army destroys railroad near Basra.

In Jordanan Cavalery dies trying to kill a Recruit! Now that Turkish Recruit is Regular. Bombarded Gaza by Light guns and 3 BCs.

BEF returns to Calais after astonishing losses this turn.

Grand Fleet redlines minefield. DD kills a mine(?), picks survivors and headed toward London.

Italy

Italy feel completely lonely after the departure of tough British lads. German troops are shelled and 1 Counterbattery kills 220 mm gun.

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

gps Cyc

Week 51, 1914


Ottoman Empire:

Turkish DD Flotilla sinks British DD Flotilla outside the Smyrna area. An Arab Rebel dies. There's got to be another way to restore railroad links. I'm not liking the fact that the only way to do so is with the war materials. Plus Turkey has no coal.


Austria-Hungary:

Can't remember which ship did it but an Austrian DD or CL sank the Italian Transport outside Bari. I wonder if a spy went down with the ship too?


Germany:

German DD Flotillas engage British DD Flotillas in the North Sea and sinks two of them for no losses. There were no survivors.

Venice - Venice is shelled and 3 armies are brought up which kill an Italian Rifle A, a HMG, and a special fortress before retiring. Then a German counter battery gun kills the Italian counter battery gun. The Germans try to press their luck by sending in another counter battery gun to take on an Italian light artillery but the German dies.


Meanwhile the German high command is thinking about what to do about the recent French offensive.

 

[Tigranes]

Just wanted to give you a graphical update about my slow-going reshaping of this adaptation. Here are new "blitz" French 75 mm gun (best light gun in the game and the real War), mines renamed factories, radar towers replaced by balloons, and VISIBLE barbed wire around the trenches (right now it is so hard to tell barbed wire apart from trench, look at Venice trench for example).

RE: Turkey. Germany was a major coal producer in Europe. Centrals need to trade with each other. There is a coal for Turkey on the map, but I am not telling you where Everyone was complaining that railroads make it easy to do very unrealistic jumps back and forth for the entire stack of units, so I thought to at least restrict railroad building...

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

This is starting to look really professional Tigranes! Nice work. Can't wait to try out your finished product.

Now about that coal. I think I did see where it was actually but I won't give away where I saw it.


But yes, I do realize that there must be some trade between the CP. I know that a road link must be established first between Turkey and Austria somehow. Until then though they are really suffering under an overwhelming Arab Rebel and Entente attack. I suppose though that this situation does simulate the Allied desire to break the deadlock somehow on the Western Front. Maybe for the next version you can give Turkey a few extra troops with which to at least defend herself against the Arabs. Right now I'm scrapping the bottom of the barrel looking for men but can't find any. LOL

 

[Cyc]

The Germans have set Lodz ablaze!!! Or maybe it was disgruntled patriots....

The Pre-Dreadnought craters the road 2 tiles SW of Eregil.
_______________________________________________________

Artillery in Liege has red-lined both the R-Inf. and the Machine Gun nest NE of the city. A Div 1 Armee dies attacking them. Then an R-Inf. dies promoting the MG unit, which a 155mm soon redlines again. 155mm then take out the road, the Barbed Wire, and the Trenches there, making it much easier for an R-Inf unit to snuff the MG nest and promote to Vet. Observation Planes spot Hanover in flames.

Photo from one of the more heavily shelled areas in Liege...

_______________________________________________________

gps to Tigranes

 

[Tigranes]

Britain

Week 51 was a payweek for the Great Britain. Ark Royal delivered Turkish survivors to Ports Said, and Transport Lusitania delivered War Material possessing former Neutral Infantry, captured before by German Submarine and recaptured by British, after that submarine was sunk by the French, whew... !

Evil German Howitzers destroyed Dye road, denying basic happiness to the stylish French folks. BEF does not have enough MPs to punish them this turn, but sends some Corp protected Counterbattery guns to deal with those Howitzers next turn.

Veteran DD sinks German DD near Denmark. No promotions, no survivors.

British workers from Gibraltar arrived to French Morocco and help allies by building a mine (Factory in the final version).

Iraqi Army destroyed rail to Basra.

Neutrals have 46 guerrillas in the Middle East now, too many at this stage of the war... Need to increase their shield cost for AI for sure (it is 20 now). However Ottomans can simply check Pedia entry for Guerrillas to get a clue how to stop this Arab Revolt.

Italy

Final week of the bloody 1914 marked by a breakthrough in Italian science. The country steped into the new Era and was rewarded by a random tech, which happened to be the War on Land Tech. Massive dissatisfaction has spread throughout the Kingdom, since this tech makes Cappella Sistina obsolete

Shelling Isonzo troops yellowlines German Corp. Due to the General unrest even with the British gold Italy cannot rush anything. Well, almost, Turin and Florence where the only cities which were content with the War on Land...

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

gps Cyc

Week 52, 1914


Ottoman Empire:

Arab rebel killed. An unknown was sunk near Haifa.


Austria-Hungary:

Nothing to report.


Germany:

Venice continues to be the scene of fighting. German artillery shell the road vacated by the British last week. Venice shelled and then two German armies attack killing 2 Italian Rifle A. German infantry attack and kill 1 Italian Rifle R but lose 2 German Rifle A in the process.

German mine outside of the Memel area is laid down in front of the massive Russian BB Gangut. The Russian beast goes down thereby saving the German country side for now the same fate that the Ottoman country side has been experiencing.

 

[Cyc]

Ole Nicolas shakes his head and pours another Vodka as he hears the news about his new Gangut in the Baltic. He dabs a cracker in some caviar an returns to the couch...

More shelling in the Turkish Capital area.
_________________________________________________

A French Expiditionary Infantry Division that crossed the Alps finally arrives NW of Venice. The situation does not look good. The French Commander imagine his forces have been seen by the Germans, but does not attack.

gps to Tigranes

 

[Tigranes]

Britain

(Actual recruiting poster of 1914/1915, appealing for volunteers for the Highland Regiments. Postcard from the National Museums Scotland.)

Final week of 1914 kicks off. Despite the big losses British War cabinet is satisfied with bloody 1914 results -- Germans could not use their initial superiority in heavy guns for any breakthrough (not counting Lodz). Liege is retaken, war can go on German territory any time soon.

The only regrettable part is impossibility to help AI in Balkans.

Great Fleet action feared almost exactly at the actual Jutland spot after minefield redlining operation near Southern Denmark. 1 Old Battleship (4 MPs) overlooked by Jelicoe made it so that the entire stack of Grand Fleet slowed down...

BEF cleared some road on the German side near Liege/Metz.

Lieutenant General Sir Edward Stanislaus Bulfin arrived to Calais as a general without troops. Venice carnage left Britain without A divisions in Europe...

Last preparation where taken before the great First offensive of Gaza.

Basra and Gaza are not connected to Ottoman Empire anymore.

Italy

Italy start the new 1915 year right after the "bonus" discovery of War on Land tech. Peacetime agriculture (Granary+Mass Transit combination in our adaptation) became obsolete, so Rome and Naples both badly need some Food Rationing office. Food shortages already made 2 tiles go orange this turn .

No Corps left in Italy, just a big pile of artillery, MGs and Infantry. Shelled them all, but feels like they get healthy next turn even though Germany has no Battlefield Medicine yet!

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

gps Cyc

Week 1, 1915


Ottoman Empire:

Arab rebel killed. Unknown sunk near Beirut. Survivors interned in Beirut.


Austria-Hungary:

Unknown sunk near Fiume. No survivors.


Germany:

Some naval action in the North Sea to kick off the new year! A British CL sunk by German unknown. Encouraged by this victory a German CL ventures out and sinks a British DD Flotilla that was adjacent to her stricken comrade. She too goes down. There were no survivors in either incident.

Venice - The great battle around Venice has ended with the withdrawal of German forces from the area. The abandoned trench and road network was destroyed to prevent their use by the enemy. The German general staff is happy with the results although the prize was not captured. Enough damage however was done to our enemy and we hope they have been bled white as a result of this titanic struggle. Our staff has deemed our losses acceptable considering what was done to Italy and Britain here.

Outskirts of Liege - Since there was a nice quiet Christmas here, with the exception of the Entente recapturing Liege, the German general staff decides to start a new party here. Brand new big guns are brought up along with Army Group Sud (German for South), Army Group West, and Army Group Lodz supported by infantry rush up to the front. 6 German counter battery guns wipe out the 4 British counter battery guns for the loss of one of ours.

Then the bombardment begins with Braithwaite and another British Corps receiving shrapnel and lead from our field guns. These guns are not as big as our 210mm giants however they do quite well at 16 bombardment value. Dicke Dora is also brought up and lends her deadly fire. Then the German armies rush in just as the bombardment subsides. First Army Group Sud attacks Braithwaite. We hold our breaths as the two armies are locked into fierce hand to hand fighting. It's a contest between two giant mobs as all organization is lost. Army Group Sud almost loses but they better Braithwaite who dies a heroes death on the field.

Then Army Group West attacks the other British Corps. This fight is not as chaotic as the first. The British Corps succumbs to the terrible assault. Finally Army Group Lodz, fresh from it's recent victory in Poland, joins the fight and kills a British Rifle R.

The remaining forces dig in for what looks like a bitter fight up ahead. German troops take note of the two French Armies in the distance.

 

[Tigranes]

I really feared for a big Naval disaster! Man, I lost 4 Corps in total outside of barbed wire trenches... If we ever capture Metz with Iron I will trade it for Calais!

 

[Cyc]

A lot of Russian troop movement in anticipation of the new German offensive.

The Nicolas Gang craters the road and mine 2 tiles East of Eregil. The Pre-Dreadnought takes 1 HP from the newly stationed Bulgarian Inf unit on the newly built road East of Constantinople.
__________________________________________

155mm takes 2 HP from an Elite A-Inf 2 tiles SE of Liege. A Lite Artie misses, as does the next 155mm. But the following 155mm tkes 1 HP from the same Elite, which falls back. The last 155mm takes 2 HP from an A-Inf. Trenches were to be dug, but the Field Engineers forgot to bring the shovels. The men dig in with their helmets.

The Infantry unit NW of Venice watches as the German units retreat. A feeling of pride comes over the French R-Inf. In the end there was only left 2 units comparable the over-sized ego of the French commander. He had better fire power, but had to cross the river. It was even odds, and he decided to attack. His entire unit was lost and he didn't even scratch the german unit.

 

[Tigranes]

Britain

From First World War.com:

Spoiler :

The First Battle of Gaza​

The Turkish force was outnumbered two-to-one by forces led by General Sir Charles Dobell, Murray's subordinate and commander of Eastern Forces. Kressenstein was nevertheless ordered to hold the position by Djemal Pasha.

Dobell assembled the core of his force 8km from Gaza near the coast and behind the Wadi Ghazi. Advancing under the protection of a dense sea fog his cavalry successfully cut off the rear of Gaza east and south-east on the morning of the attack's launch, 26 March, meanwhile deploying so as to / prevent the supply of reinforcements to the town.

The central infantry advance, conducted by 53rd Infantry Division, was launched across difficult terrain from the ridge of Ali Muntar and was greatly assisted by the encircling cavalry.

Inexplicably with victory apparently in sight towards the end the of the day Sir Philip Chetwode withdrew his cavalry forces under orders from Dobell, the latter mistakenly believing that the infantry advance was proving a failure.

Kressenstein coincidentally arrived at the opposite conclusion and cancelled his own call for reserves believing Gaza a lost cause.

Resumed again the next day the British unsurprisingly found that Kressenstein had hastily reinforced the town's permanent garrison of 4,000. A combination of Turkish counterattacks combined with a lack of water supplies finally persuaded Dobell to call off the attack.

In the encounter Dobell suffered 4,000 casualties set against approximately 2,400 Turkish losses. Disastrously however Murray wrote to the War Office in London suggesting Turkish losses to be three times their actual figure while implying that the battle was a clear-cut British victory (rather than the draw it was).

Order of battle The First Battle of Gaza:

Turkish defenders numbered 6 Light Guns, 3 MGs (defense 15) , 6 Turkish Infantry (def 9) and 1 Bulgarian Div ( def 10).

Naval bombardement yellowlined 2 MGs, but failed at the third one. Just like in real First Gaza British had very little artillery in our game too, so the rest 3 guns only yellowlined the third MG.

Then seven 4/5 A Divs charged against Turkish Divs. Only 2 prevailed, both capturing POWs, but the rest died. "A combination of Turkish counterattacks combined with a lack of water supplies (remaining A Divs were 3/5) finally persuaded Dobell to call off the attack."

In Arabia A Div easily captured Al Taif. Mecca is the last city Ottomans possess in Arabia proper.

Old Battleshiped caused so much fears last turn was ordered to go home. Accidentely while obeying the orders it rammed a submarine. No Survivors.

BEF crossed into the German territory first time during the War! German retreat from Venice and capture of Liege allowed Entante to focus on Belgium/NW Germany.

Italy

Joy and tears were evident on the streets of Venice after the heroic siege was lifted by Germans. Official propaganda presented it like a landslide national victory failing to aknowledge British support and disproportion in casualties with Germany.

2 German Landweher Divs were left in Isonzo though. The only Elite Italian Div (promoted by repeated German attacks during the siege) continues to show valor and gives birth to Cordona Jr, who forms a new Corps and kills the second Landweher.

Then, in a sadden burst of after-Venice euphoria Italian goverement sends troops to Belgium, the very same tile Brits left to attack Germany itself. 3 Counterbattery guns destroy 3 Germans Counterbattery, but the 4th one gets destroyed after trying to hit German Howitzers.


Italy scored 5 kills and 1 Leader this turn, probably the most successful turn for Italy since the destraction of Austrian Fleet!

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

gps Cyc

Week 2, 1915


Ottoman Empire:

Turkish navy attacks a Russian DD flotilla near Constantinople. The Russian goes down to one of our CLs. Then the Yavuz attacks and sinks a Russian Pre-Dreadnought near Constantinople. The Turkish captain looks over the horizon and sees the approach of another Russian Gangut BB. He smiles to himself as he retires from the engagement.

Elsewhere in Mesopotamia three arab rebels are rounded up and shot like the jackals they are.

Near Eregil a Turkish submarine attempts to sink a Russian DD flotilla but the Turks are not as good at submarine warfare as the Germans are. The Turk dies inflicting minimal damage to the Russian.


Austria-Hungary:

Nothing to report.


Germany:

With the evacuation of the Venice battlefield the defense of the Reich can begin. Massive artillery bombardment on the Italian positions outside of Liege does much damage to the stack allowing the follow up infantry assault an easier time. It seems like the same troops that were facing Italians in the Isonzo now meet up with their enemy on the fields of Flanders. The fighting therefore has special meaning. Two Italian Counter Battery guns fall down for the loss of one German Counter Battery gun.

Then the infantry assault begins. Our men go "over the top" and face the massive amounts of Italian machine gunners there. The enemy is well defended but our men reach the enemy trenches and hand to hand fighting breaks out. Bodies are twisted and lacerated beyond recognition as the two sides literally beat each other to death with trench clubs, medieval style maces, and bayonets.

When the carnage is over 9 Italian Rifle Rs are killed along with 1 Italian HMG. As the Germans fall back to their start lines they leave behind 1 Rifle A and 1 Rifle R dead.

British troops are spotted headed towards Metz. A series of German trench mortars are brought up to welcome the English guests.