Part 21: Turns 47-50
Turn 47: March 30, 1916
More bombers are starting to roll off of the assembly line. Terror bombing will reduce national morale and production capacity of British cities. Unlike airships, they can also attack soldiers in a pinch if they have to as well.
Production
Lots of new planes on the way. Austria will spam fighters to eat efficiency if Italy insists on the meat shield Line Corps wall. Germany will bolster its airforce too.
Research
Diplomacy
Nothing exciting but with surface fleet attacks on British shipping the US may shift eventually.
Management
Italian Front
Even with air and artillery we can only hit where we have a 3 hex front. Slow going until the new weapons of war show up.
Ottoman Front
We move the line and throw the British into disarray. I can't exploit the gap though because any unit pushing too far up will be shelled and hit from at least 3 or 4 sides.
Sea Lion
Ireland surprisingly holds out for one last turn but it will soon be ours. It is only 1 production but every bit helps.
We can't push through that army without multiple full supplied armies but we start to shift north and deploy another army. The first bomber corps shows up with a second getting ready to move into position.
We hit weakened armies where we can, but the supply issues continue to persist. The fighters here destroy enemy fighters and we get a new event.
Allied Response
Their garrisons never fucking end. This front is such a chore.
A combined arms attack without any follow-up. This could be the breaking point. If Britain doesn't have the troops for an attack this may be our chance to break the stalemate.
Britain launches a massive counter attack against our weakest and least supplied armies. They destroy one and nearly bag another. If not for the eastern reinforcements this could turn back into a small and highly well supplied salient.
Turn 48: April 13, 1916
Italian Front
We pour more into artillery and more into shell making as we try and break this open.
Until those go through though, it is just the planes wearing down one army at a time and having Italy switch it out.
Ottoman Front
There it is. The two Line Corps are destroyed and we hit their artillery and airbase hard. The full sized armies are weak as it is, and without the combined arms they will have to fall back to their fortress and pray that they can hold against superior numbers.
Sea Lion
Well we get our consolation prize at least. Ireland is ours. 1 PP once it builds back woooo.
If we can't take London then we will reduce it to rubble. Our first bombing runs knock the city down from 18 production to 17. With multiple squadrons we can whittle this down faster than they can build it back up. Eventually their army will starve and have to reduce.
Though we lost one army and a second is sure to follow, artillery and our cavalry shatter a force and push north while our battleships rip apart their artillery. To the east, we take another city and start working on the defenders of London. New troops continue to embark and we start railing corps just to have bodies ready to keep the pressure on Britain.
Allied Response
Fuck! A convoy shifts in to bail out the British. Luckily for us, the convoy arrives in one turn and it takes another to assess the bonus.
Italy can't mount an effective counter-attack but they can continue to rage-level anything they can.
I feel like Russians from War in the East went back in time to teach Italy defense in depth with weak units. What I can't see is their morale and manpower dealing with constant stagnation and mediocrity.
Britain reestablishes their line but still doesn't have much offensive push. The advantage still lies squarely in Ottoman hands.
Another army lost to the ages in the fight for continental supremacy. Britain still can't manage to exploit it due to having had to rail reinforcements to and fro in order to plug gaps.
Turn 49: April 27th, 1916
The Austrian airforce is shaping up to be massive. Helmets to protect against shrapnel are useless since Italy isn't going with artillery ahead of the endless army of meat.
Italian Front
Our air force marches on and bombs Italian men and cities alike. Three hex attack still isn't quite enough to move the line but we continue to pump production into shell production for Austria and Germany.
Ottoman Front
We attack across the line and our southern tip routs an artillery unit. We have to repair the hinge army there but it seems like this whole front is about to give way and open up North Africa. Maybe the Sick Man of Europe will be healthy once more!
Sea Lion
The Cavalry destroy an army and have an open route to Liverpool past a completely demoralized British force. Another British army is destroyed and soon we will close the noose around London. You just had to jump in to protect Belgium, didn't you? Couldn't just let us have it out with France. For fuck sake, you don't even like them all that much.
London comes under increasingly heavy bomber raids. This marks three attacks on their capital. Our ships also continue to shred their artillery and prevent it from firming up their western line. There are just too many openings for the British and overusing rail to plug them just weakens what few forces they have.
Found the battleships! Our submarines can't make a dent in them, but it is nice to finally know where the remainder of the Grand Fleet stands.
Allied Response
Italy finally stops shifting and attacking.
They are still assholes though.
It's fucking happening!
No, that's wrong. Germany and Britain ended on a peace with honor terms in Kaiserreich. This is total European domination!
Turn 50, May 11, 1916
Only one country left. The backstabbing assholes who jumped in due to Britain's one triumph. They thought they could snipe our exposed underbelly. They are the only nation left to stand against the might of the Central Powers.
Bombers start leveling anything Italian and our fighters break the will of the only real army Italy has left.
Though their army can't flee through their allies, they are reduced to just over a corps with no morale or integrity. With each passing turn we will bring more bombers, more artillery, more fighters. The era of industrialized war is upon us!
Allied Response
It's over! Austria set out to punish Serbian terrorists and two years later it is over! Even with abstract manpower terms, Germany has lost close to 20% of its military aged forces while Austria and the Ottoman Empire have lost close to 15%. Though not as brutal as the actual Great War, this is still a conflict of millions.
Hope you guys enjoyed and got to see most of the mechanics you would want to know. The campaign never got to tanks or US intervention, although in my experience Grand Campaigns often don't. They do have 1917 and 1918 scenarios for that.