At last the true elite combat forces have come to the fore! The elite combat formations, in terms of National Will are now the Portuguese! Having the princely morale of 2 (I would be tempted to say that the Americans are doing well with 4 (but so far, after the Jul I rolls if have rolled up – in total only 5 units from their Red Eff state! Given this sorry state (Attack factor quartered) the Americans hardly count as superior at this point of time!)

Every other combatant has a NW of 1, with both the Italians and the Germans going from 2 to 1 this turn. Fortunately (for the Germans) they managed to avoid going becoming Shaken.

The turn was however brutal with 3 very large exchanges, the biggest on 133 factors. All up in the turn the Germans lost 430 attack factors to the Allies 400 (A DX on Lille being the difference)

The other significant factor in the game is now the state of the German airforce. The air war has continued to go the Allied way, and with the scant German fighters the Entente air forces elected to go on an airfiled bombing raids across the front. The Germans have more air units in the dead and aborted piles than they can replace using both the Jul and Sep Air Replacement Point allotments – and it will get worse.

The game has now developed a new twist. To compensate for the rapid decline in morale, the Austro Hungarian forces are now attempting to knock Italy out of the war. Italian NW is taking a pummeling as the Austro-Hungarians are now attacking along the front, with the hope that they may be able to knock Italy out of the war and advance on France via the Alps!

As for the Germans, Their main fear is that the Entente will roll Influenza. Germany lost 27 morale points in the last turn (balanced by gaining 2 points for capturing a French fortress). The arrival of Influenza and the effect on National will could drive them into collapse in a single game turn.

The game is hanging by a thread – for both sides!