TGW-Div 1.6 -- World War I

[Tigranes]

I keep thinking how one could contribute to the improvement of this scenario and how the lack of Chilean nitrates used to fertilize German fields contributed to the Food shortage in Doicheland... I think I came up with a good trick to simulate
this situation. After some testing I will post a Biq file in Ricoteh's thread... Basically, if you rename Pollution to Shortage and generate Raw Materials flag unit which is the only unit that can be both cashed and used to clean Damage, I mean shortage, this can do the trick

 

[Lanzelot]

detected lightly damaged BC [I]Yavuz[/I], former German Elite BC [I]Goeben[/I][/QUOTE]

:confused: I'm pretty sure I don't have a ship of that name?! Do you mean the [I]Sultan Selim[/I]? Or was it a Neutral ship?

 

[Lanzelot]

France

French forces led by Joffre and Petain recapture Nancy for no losses.

How did you get to Nancy?!? I thought a 3-movement unit would be necessary to get there. Or did Verdun get a culture expansion?!

Anyway, good that the Balkan campaign and the Scandinavian campaign are over. The coverage on the Western Front was getting a bit thin lately... Time to start counter measures!

Expect to play tonight.

Lanzelot

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

How did you get to Nancy?!? I thought a 3-movement unit would be necessary to get there. Or did Verdun get a culture expansion?!

It must have been a Verdun cultural expansion because I noticed that I could not reach Nancy in two moves before. But sure enough when I started this turn I noticed I could do it.

It's too bad that when you start your new turn the screen is initially blank until all production queue popups complete.

 

[Tigranes]

I'm pretty sure I don't have a ship of that name?! Do you mean the Sultan Selim? Or was it a Neutral ship?

The full name for your Ottoman BC is Sultan Selim Yavuz, and Yavuz was a common short form of the name, but game has it as Sultan Selim

 

[Lanzelot]

Played late last night and then it was too late to fire up the modem, so I just sent it out now.

Ottoman Empire:
With fresh coal from Germany, Ottoman railway engineers can finally built a bypass railway line in order to substitute the "broken" connection between Adalia and Adana. Bombardment of Russian forces continues. Using the new railway line, Kemal attacks "Andranik" and takes revenge for the 4 divisions that died last week.

Austria-Hungaria:
Bombardment of Nish.
Radetzky sinks transport near Fiume and gains elite status. Rest of Austrian battleships bombards Army Group Diaz (4/12)

Germany:
Following the British and French offensive, the situation on the Western Front has indeed grown critical. Fortunately, last week most German Army Groups took a week off, healing and relaxing. (Only one Army was in action, taking Skopje.) Together with a just finished Army fresh from the factories, we can now throw 6 Armies on the Western Front and hopefully destroy some of the exposed Allied Armies. Originally they were resting for a different assignment, but one must adjust to circumstances...

Light Cruiser on its way home from a raid against the Neutrals last week, sights and shells British destroyer in North Sea. (Unfortunately our cruiser was heavily damaged and running with only one cettle, so an attack culd not be dared.)

Pre-dreadnought tries to shell British Inf Army in Rotterdam, but hits ships?! If these are the ones that red-lined the infantry group protecting our road squad, there must be at least 12 ships in Rotterdam. Railguns continue bombardment of Rotterdam, but don't hit any more ships?! Instead the Army is reduced to 1/10. A Pre-dreadnought again hits ships?! Flamethrower Army takes Rotterdam (6/12).

Road crew now finishes road to Antwerp, and under much sweating and cussing, German artillerists drag their heavy guns through the Flanders marshes. Marshall Haig is bombarded down from 17/27 to 5/27 and Marshall French from 11/27 to 5/27.

Another British Army appears, wounded at 4/18! Ludendorff attacks and wins (13/23).
After more shelling and killing two 4/4 units, Marshall French is the top of the stack.
Moltke takes up the challenge and wins (16/20).

Finally Haig has to defend Antwerp. Hindenburg attacks, wins, but takes heavy losses (2/17).
After defeating 9 more British units, Antwerp is back in German hands.
German losses: 2 Inf A
Two more Inf A die trying to take out the British 2/4 Inf protecting 3 Artillery units!

This must have been a bad week for the British Expeditionary Force, loosing 4 major Army Corps.

German Cavalry defeats French Cavalry near Liege 2:0.
Cavalry from Tirana deletes Italian Counterbattery.

The new formed Army (25/27) defeats Diaz at Fiume.
The wine rations in the Italian trenches are nearly empty, therefore the German Venice group retreats to Austria...

Germany foreign Minister decides to return Tayma to the neutrals, turning them from "polite" to "gracious"... Who understands the AI in this game?!?
BTW: I don't remember: do we have a rule regarding gifting of cities? I can understand that you might oppose to gifting the Netherlands coastal cities back to the Neutrals, once you are at peace with them, but I guess towns like Tayma should be ok? I did it for 3 reasons:

• to turn them gracious and hopefully prevent any future attacks by them
• to prevent war weariness, when you take the town...
• to allow you taking neutral towns, so they will hopefully soon talk to you as well

Lanzelot

 

[Redman]

Wow! That's a major blow for GB, France and Italy! The lost of 5 armies is huge!

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

Nice turn Lanzelot! We didn't expect such a fierce German counterattack so soon and all of Britain mourns the loss of Haig and French. Many are weeping at Diaz's death but he was a gallant soldier.

I think now all that is left in France is the French armies so this turn for me will be a tough one.

I agree with your thoughts on returning cities back to the neutrals provided you're comfortable with losing those positions back to them. I might do the same with Marabella when our war with the Neutrals is over and give it back to them. If only to keep the game as close to history as possible. After all there was no fighting in Spain at this time.

 

[Arexander]

Pre-dreadnought tries to shell British Inf Army in Rotterdam, but hits ships?! If these are the ones that red-lined the infantry group protecting our road squad, there must be at least 12 ships in Rotterdam. Railguns continue bombardment of Antwerp, but don't hit any more ships?! Instead the Army is reduced to 1/10. A Pre-dreadnought again hits ships?! Flamethrower Army takes Rotterdam (6/12).

Are you sure you kept bombarding the same city? As there are notes from both Rotterdam and Antwerp. It seems that there are ships in Rotterdam and army/armies in Antwerp according to the text.

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

I don't remember putting any ships in Rotterdam. I may have put a submarine or two there though but I thought those were in Antwerp.

 

[Lanzelot]

Are you sure you kept bombarding the same city? As there are notes from both Rotterdam and Antwerp. It seems that there are ships in Rotterdam and army/armies in Antwerp according to the text.

Sorry, a typo in my post. Should be Rotterdam in all cases. Corrected it now.
There was one Army ((8/10) or something) in Rotterdam, which I tried to hit by Pre-Dreadnought, but both of them hit ships. (The animation was too short for me to recognize, what kind of ship(s) it was, and whether it was the same or different ones. So could have been the submarine that Moff mentioned.) In any case, the Railguns that shelled Rotterdam, didn't hit the ship(s), even though they were definitely not yet red-lined?! (As can be seen by the final Pre-Dreadnought attack.)

In Antwerp there were three Armies. Bombardment with 220mm artillery and Zeppelins didn't show any ships. But then: I didn't shell Antwerp with ships. Perhaps ships can only be bombarded by ships, when inside a harbour?! Wouldn't make sense, though.

 

[Lanzelot]

We didn't expect such a fierce German counterattack so soon

Well, it was good luck on my side: I had refrained from using my Armies last turn (even though I had two healed ones), because I wanted to start a "surprise attack" with them plus three more that were currently healing plus the new one that would be produced this turn.
Last turn I had been thinking a bit, whether I should use the two healed ones for reducing the resistance in Nish, but then I thought, they would not suffice to take Nish anyway (still too many defenders) and I can't really use the Austrian troops somewhere else anyway, so just leave Nish to the Austrians. They can make slow but sure progress there, and Nish won't run away. Better "hold back" the Armies this turn and then do some real damage with all of them fully healed next turn. (Won't tell you, though, what kind of "damage" I had planned... )

 

[Tigranes]

Mother Russia has no military story to tell this week. Bombardments at Erzerum, Memel and Trabzon.

On the Home front Baltic fleet gets it's first modern battleship -- Gangut class Petropavlovsk left the dry dock in Riga and destroyed a railroad near Memel. Baltic fleet is officially resurrected and ready for actions!

In Serbia Nish holds fast building walls and bombshelters.

 

[Tigranes]

I think there is an unfortunate little bug in the scenario. Russian Millitary Academy was suppose to produce an Imperial Guard every 8 turns, it's turn 9 now and no Guards created. They require Uranium -- can it be a reason?

My reworked PBEM version of TGW Div 1.6 is almost ready for playtesting. I think I found the right balance for food and attrition phenomena. But surprises are there at every step, as it was with a Imperial Guard. How sad, Russia really needed that unit!

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

Week 39-40, 1914

Very quiet on the Western Front. France has no action to report. Britain is sent reeling from the German counterattack. During the withdrawal a lone British Rifle R unit that survived the counterattack tries to break into Antwerp. They are stopped by the German rifle fire.

The Royal Navy shells Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam. Two German Pre-Dreadnaughts are redlined.

In the Adriatic the Italian fleet shells Ragusa where Austrian ships were attempting to undergo repairs.

In Saudia Arabia Indian troops capture a Turkish worker who wandered too close to Tabuk area.

 

[Lanzelot]

Ottoman Empire:
Bombardment of Russian forces continues. Despite not being fully healed Kemal attacks twice and kills two Infs.

Austria-Hungaria:
Bombardment of Nish.
The three heavily damaged ships from Ragusa get relocated, but on their way send a few "revenge shells" over to the Italian fleet. Afterwards the Viribus Unitus attacks and sinks Guiseppe Verdi(?), but takes heavy hits as well (3/8). Afterwards Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and Zrini shell the other two Cavour ships.
In a surprise attack an Austrian Pre-Dreadnought destroys British vine-yards in Nikosia... No vine for the British Empire this week...!

Germany:
Bombardment of Nancy first destroys courthouse, barracks, granary, marketplace and then redlines all units. One unit destroyed by counterbattery. Kluck attacks and deletes an MG (6/19). Mackensen, returning from the Balkan, attacks and deletes Inf A & R. Two elite Inf A retake the city. Zeppelins bombard the furs near Arras. No furcoats for the nice French ladies this week...

 

[Tigranes]

10 weeks have passed since the War started. Russian army lost close to 1 mln men and almost entire Serbia. Thankfully no offensive were commenced on Eastern Front, so it gave Russia time to build up. Both shield and commerce are up 85% then 10 turns ago. Russian Black Sea Fleet is now undisputed masterof Turkish waters. Defenders near Trabzon were shelled, as well as bombardement of Erzerum continued. More Forces landed in Pontus. One day Kemal well pay the price. Unfortunately no Russian Imperial guard is buing built in Petrograd, so that may take some time

Baltic Fleet completely cut Memel from the Germany. What do the Germans do in Latvia anyways?

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

Week 40-41, 1914

France

French women all over France revolt at the news that there will be no fur coats this month! The factories are not churning out ammunition, rifles, or uniforms and the boys at the front are feeling the effects. No action taken on the Western front this week.

The French Mediterranean fleet makes it's presence known in the Adriatic.

Britain

The Royal Navy shells Antwerp and Rotterdam this week bringing all the defenders of Antwerp to the red line and damaging the troops in Rotterdam. A lone British gunman (rifle a) makes a probing attack into Antwerp. The result was the loss of a British infantry for no losses inflicted on the enemy.

No other offensive action to report.

Italy

Italian artillery fire destroys the railway at the abandoned Austrian border fort new Trieste. The Italian fleet shells Austrian ships in Fiume and hit the railway line to the city. No other action to report on this front.

 

[Lanzelot]

Ottoman Empire:
Bombardment of Russian forces continues. Elite Inf (8/8) attacks Cossack (3/4) near Ezerum and dies?!? But reg Inf defeats the (1/4) Cossack. More Russian units sighted in East Armenia.
Bombardment of British forces approaching Gaza.

Austria-Hungaria:
Bombardment of Nish destroys walls.
Ships bombard Italian Fleet. Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand (4/6) attacks a Light Cuiser (thinking it is a Destroyer...) and sinks.
This week the Austrian Pre-Dreadnought destroys British dyes in Nikosia... But that will probably be his last action... Accompanying Austrian submarine sights small British Battleship group and attacks, but only damages one Battleship. (Why can't I choose, which ship I want to attack?! Didn't want that Battleship...)
Austrian Cavalry kills two Cossacks near Galatz. A large body of Russian troops is sighted there!?

Germany:
Zeppelins bombard two Iron Dukes. German Baltic fleet bombards Petropavlovsk, but not enough forces there to sink any Russian ships.

Reports from Istanbul as well as Wien say that large parts of the Russian Army are currently deployed in Armenia and on the Balkan. The German Headquarter wonders, how many Russian forces can be left on the Eastern Front? They decide to use the temporary grogginess of the Western Allies, to try a "probe attack" on Warsaw.

After light Railgun bombardment, 5 Armies take Warsaw, killing 5 Infs. Apparently Poland is not so heavily defended. German Headquarters now decide to launch a major offensive on the Eastern Front, taking advantage of the low resistance met there and of the fact that Lodz is now cut off from Russian reinforcements.

 

[Tigranes]

German jumps back and forth greatly distress Russia. German Armies move too fast! But not anymore. Our resurected Baltic fleet distroyed railroads in Eastern Prussia, so it will take all 5 Armies at least 2 turns to get back to the Western front, giving Alllies some time to recover and get those trenches ready!

Russian forces digging up in Russian Poland for a long fight. Long awaited reinforcements allow to deploy 161 Reserve divisions, spread around entire country and the front.

Usual bombardements in Erzerum and Tranbzon.

Russian Cossack finally killed someone -- Hungarian Ulan in Romania.

New Gangut type battleship -- Gangut itself left a drydock in Tallinn. East Prussia should brace for more troubles soon!

Silly Neutrals sue for peace and payed 80 gold. New PBEM version make sure that nothing like this will ever happen

P.S. You can only choose your target if unit has Stealh attribute. Currentely only Subs have one.