The weather remains the same, clear everywhere but mud in the Alps. The French and British quickly spend their new manpower points on rebuilding their cadres to full strength. This is also the first time that the Entente production has matched the historical production – if you do not include the Italian front in the historical production. It is the closest it has every been so far.
The French withdraw their 1st Corps, surrounded by enemy ZOCs with the destruction of the Belgian army. The Belgians are able to rebuild one of their two cadres, but it will be over a year before the other can be brought back up to strength. The British continue to strengthen their front lines and construct another line of entrenchments behind them in case of need. The Italians shift some more troops to the 3rd Army and continue to press their advance towards Triest.
An attack by the Italian 3rd Army is repulsed with the retreat of the Italians out of the mountains leading to a quick advance into Italy by an Austrian fortress unit. The Italian 4thArmy attacks towards the East just north of Triest. The 7th Corps is stopped while the Austrians retreat in front of the 6th Corps. The 5th Corps and the Cavalry attack becomes a disaster as the Italians are nearly destroyed. The Italians end up losing 41 Manpower and 3 Equipment points overall while the Austrians lose nothing.
The Austrian R(10) Army reacts and two more Austrian units invade Italy following the 3rd Army.
Tom: This has been a bad turn. The attack on the Belgian Army was a small surprise – the result however was devastating. To see him attack, destroy, and capture a hex with 30 some defense points (about the average for my entire line) from only two attacking corps is extremely bad news for me. This hints that he could potentially attack at advantage any hex held by the French Army. To add to the hurt, I had to withdraw from another hex in order to save a French Corps from being surrounded. This is really bad news. I only hope that the Eastern Front will take away more of his troops. The Italian front gave me more bad news with the lousy die rolls almost destroying two corps while the Austrians have invaded Italy following the 3rd Army’s retreat. This probably has saved Trient from any serious danger, the only bright spot is my continued advance around Triest. Perhaps this will be able to be saved, although if any troops come south, I could be in big trouble with the Italians.
Production sees the Central Powers get enough manpower and equipment points to catch up on its reorganization. The rest of the turn sees the French front get reorganized with the new divisions. The Austrians redeploy their defenses to stop the Italians attacking near Triest.
Carl: A quiet turn on my part. The major portion of the turn has been reconfiguring and moving around the German troops to best use the reorganized troops best. It seems as though I have managed to survive the worst of the shipments eastward for the next few months. I really do not have the combat supply to really press the French like I would like to, but I will continue to build up my supplies and forces looking forward to that. I have sent some resource points south to aid the Austrians in their fight with the Italians. I am still playing with the thought of what one good German or Bavarian corps could do against the Italians if used between Trient and Triest. Perhaps when the Bavarian Alp Corps is formed next turn.
Leave a Reply