Part 13: Turn 25, Turn 26

Turn 25: May 27th, 1915



Better artillery and our battleship is ready.

High Command has decided to go with a policy of blocking the eastern part of The Channel while we ferry across our troops. Our fleet is more powerful but about the same overall size as the Grand Fleet. Hopefully we can hold our supplies open; if we lose our whole fleet the best we can hope for is half supply if we hold a city until we can take London.

Production



Our expansion to the High Seas Fleet is finally here and we have a new general for the Caucasus to hopefully break the stalemate there.

Research



Gas for the Austrians and shit tons of new techs for the Germans on the way. Having some of this stuff ready for Sea Lion and for breaking the Russians should hopefully reduce casualties. Though we are winning on all fronts, we need to keep our eyes on the German manpower pool. Mobile warfare is great and fun but it really depletes manpower.

Diplomacy



Nothing interesting here. Bulgaria is still preparing and Italy still wants no part of this.

Management



Economy is still chugging along as we repair captured cities and push further into Russia. Not having Italy to distract Austria will hopefully let us add the juicy underbelly of Russia to our coffers.

Eastern Front



AGN is having some morale issues so they refit, hold the siege, and our reserve pushes away a Russian Corps. We can outlast them here as long as we are careful.



AGC pushes back more Russians and gets ready to encircle that cavalry if they refuse to evacuate the fortress. We take more casualties than I would have liked but it shifts the line and will force Russia to respond.



AGS is going to take advantage of supply schedules. Once the turn is over that corps should be back in full supply and then their supplies will drop to half before the Russians can go. It will drop them to half supply and if that little corps can hold we can consolidate the pocket and bag two full armies.

Two new groups of veterans from Serbia show up and the rest are on the way.

Ottoman Front



Our new commander, adding 1 to attack gets 1-3 results and further takes efficiency down.



We have a line! We also finally take Aqaba back. A new army is put into production and hopefully the British still need more time to set up their artillery battery. The cavalry is tired but off the line now and we will have two armies in reserve once the new one reaches the front.

We also take shots at a poor British corps that wasn't able to be entrenched.

Fortress Britannia



Our fleet is ready, but I notice that there is an issue. Our battleships, commissioned months ago are slightly obsolete. It will take another turn to upgrade them.



Our U-Boats scout a bit for the Grand Fleet. It seems they are hiding in Scapa Flow. I am fine with that because that will make it slightly harder for the entirety of the fleet to meet us once we launch the invasion.



Finally. Two extra reserves and another airstrike break the Belgians and we now control a fortress and a port. This will help us be able to launch 4 troops per turn instead of just 3. The risk there is that Antwerp is east past the smallest point in the channel and where the High Seas Fleet will be positioned.



We are at the staging points but we still have a lot of efficiency to recover. Once our fleet is upgraded and we have some of the troops at Antwerp we are ready to go.

Before we resolve the turn, Austria jumps into the 20th century and works on their air force and Germany commissions a second cruiser fleet. It will take four turns and though Sea Lion may start before it is ready, it may reinforce a battle underway or something.

Allied Response



The British launch a massive bombardment and blow our lines open in Egypt. Fortunately we have reserves and Aqaba is dealt with but this is going to be a headache for the sick man of Europe. The silver lining there is Britain will hopefully have fewer troops for defense of their island due to being so aggressive here.



Opposing AGN the Russians pull back and leave Kovno and possibly Vilna to their fates.




After really bloodying von Falkenhayn the weakened recruits flee and leave their artillery battery wide open. Though the general will have to pull back, we will make those gunners pay for this.

The Russians also fail to open the pocket bagged by Army Group South. Our corps was still scrambling for supplies but the attack on the Russian corps left it too weak to try and open things up.



I barely caught it but a cruiser squadron dashed into the middle of the English Channel. If they are by themselves and away from the bulk of the Grand Fleet this would be a great start to the naval battle and Operation Sea Lion.

Turn 26: June 10th, 1915



With nothing left, Belgium is officially out for now.



Eastern Front



We destroy a Russian corps and find out Vilna's defenders aren't at full morale. Kovno is taken now that our morale is back up for very few casualties.



Sweet revenge for von Falkenhayn. We destroy the 3 step battery and bump into a full strength one. After pushing that reserve out of the way, AGC finishes off the second battery. Though Falkenhayn is still weak, AGC's greatest enemy for now will be Brest-Litovsk and the marshes of Pripyat and their hindrance on movement.



AGS reduces the pocket and we continue bringing up reinforcements from Serbia.

Ottoman Front



Still a grind but efficiency is 9-5 so eventually this will be ours.



We shift our lines and start repairing the Gaza Force. Izzet Pasha's men repair and even with the artillery they can only bit hit by one army where they are located. Our two line armies destroy Haig's force and this hole in the line will hopefully prevent another nasty artillery led strike against us.

Fortress Britannia



Well this is it. Our fleet is now fully upgraded and uniform. Even without the extra cruisers we can launch the invasion when prudent.



Interesting. Either I forgot submarine detection rules or the entirety of the Grand Fleet is on the move. This is scary as hell but quite exciting in all honesty. Hopefully the AI can keep this fun.





Well we have efficiency recovered for at least enough to launch a first wave. This is it. We may deploy the fleet and begin next turn.

Also, it seems London is open. are the British so confident in their fleet that their entire armed forces are over in the Middle East?

Allied Response





Aha. Their fleet is split! This is great because we will have an actual numerical advantage on them and we have better hulls than they do. The disadvantage of this is we will have to deal with the cruisers or they will have open access to our embarking troops since we can't get there in time.



Two fucking batteries unload on us and though the British are mostly reserves they have seriously warped our lines. Although that cruiser will be a bitch, it looks like the Ottomans can only last so long at this rate.



Russia retreats and upgrades from the center and south.



In the north, not much happens.

Well now. plan A still won handily but though we will surely beat the British fleet now that it is split, we have a bit of an issue with the Ottoman line being blown wide open. The new army won't arrive for one turn and if we lose the Holy Land we take a massive hit to National Morale. That said, if we block the channel we deny the battleships access to our men and we can deal with the cruiser on turn two of the invasion but they will get a free hit and probably destroy half or slightly more of one of the first waves.

I am thinking we go next turn for fun but if we want to be prudent it will take two turns to send our whole fleet to sink the cruiser and another to redeploy to block the channel after that.