The Entente reinforce Lille and continue to entrench their second defensive line. Some slight movement occurs to maximize the second line and improve the placement of reserves.

The Central Powers are unable to react with an attack on Lille, however they do manage to pull a surprise attack on the Belgian 3rd Corps adjacent to Lille. The Belgian reserves are unable to move up to reinforce the line in the bad weather and one Belgian division is cadred. The Entente lost 7 Belgian Manpower Points versus the Central Powers loss of 3 German Manpower and 1 Equipment Point lost.

Tom: It is strange how this CRT works. The DX result on the 8:1 odds on the Positional CRT caused the Belgians to lose half of their defense factors and the Germans to lose half of my losses. A DL result would be the same to me, but the Germans would lose only a quarter of my losses. The DD result is the deadly one, but is very hard to get, even at maximum odds. Consider, though, that if the German assault had been at only 4:1 odds, the result would have been a BX which would have caused me to lose all of my defensive strength and the Germans to lose the same, although I still would hold the hex, I would be too weak to hold against another BX result. Thus, it costs more casualties to attack with the lower 4:1 odds, but it is more effective on weakening my hold on the hex. What I really fear is an AX result. The attacker loses one half of his attack strength while the defender must lose half of the attacker’s losses. A quick way to die if the attack is a 3:1 or 4:1. Fortunately, Carl has not yet made the adjustment, but it is only a matter of time.

Another ineffectual bombing raid on London by the Zepplins. The Belgians are attacked again for another division cadred. Lille is attacked and the French defenders lose heavily while the German attackers are equally bloodied. The British 1st Corps adjacent to Lille is also attacked with bloody results on both sides.

Total losses for the Central Powers were 32 German Manpower, 2 Bavarian Manpower, and 86 Equipment points. The Entente lost 7 Belgian Manpower, 16 British Manpower, 46 French Metropolitan Manpower, 8 French African Manpower, and 10 Equipment points. The British National Will was reduced to 4 in result of their losses, negating their slight benefit over the German National Will.

The Belgians react and reinforce their front lines. The French use their reactions to strip any excess from the front line and their reserves and start sending the troops towards Lille.

Carl: I have started widening my attack on Lille to the adjacent Belgian and British troops. The Belgians will never have a high manpower replacement rate (at 0.5 Manpower Points per production phase because of the loss of their native major city) and the British are low at the moment. I think he may have spread the British too thin trying to free up French troops to hold Lille. The British NW is now equal to the German NW, removing his brief advantage there. The French lost another 10 morale points this turn, down to only 185 left. If I can continue reducing his morale by 10 each turn, by fall of 1915 he will be in BIG trouble. While I would like to capture Lille for the factory, railroad deterioration effects, and the adjustment on the Italian entry, perhaps keeping it as a place to bleed the French dry would be nice. Instead of bleeding them at Verdun, I will bleed them at Lille. Eventually something will have to give, and with German morale at 765, I hope it is not the Germans.