Tag: OT (Page 3 of 5)

Entente Turn

The first half of October 1915 passed in France, Belgium, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy with half-expected clear weather, a variety of rare events, and violence borne of hapless confusion.

The never ending process of pushing fresh meat into the grinder began the turn, as usual, but a “first time” event led the month nonetheless: the French navy expended one of its plentiful naval repair points to replace a destroyer flotilla, sunk by danger zone contact in September and the first real combat ships to be replaced in this version of World War One. The French air force followed that with an uncommon event becoming commonplace as flak defenses grow and air combat happens occasionally: repairing an aborted air group. A variety of ground force upgrades were more routine:
French: replace 10-4-2 siege III and 2x 1-5 engineer III’s
Prussian: rebuild 13-15-5 rifle XX from cadre
Italy: replace 5-7-5 field artillery [X] and 2-3-5 field artillery III
Britain: replace 1-5 engineer [III]; rebuild 2x 10-15-5* rifle XX and 11-14-5 rifle XX from cadre
Indian: rebuild 10-15-5* rifle XX from cadre

Surely the most interesting aspect of early October was naval as the Entente fleets attempted to use their weight on and near the battlefront more directly than in the past. The bulk of Entente naval transports and landing craft, carrying two unsupported British rifle divisions and their separate divisional artillery, washed up in the Adriatic Sea blockade box, essentially dropping anchor in Brindisi, Italy to wait a favorable opportunity that might develop somewhere nearby. The vast bulk of the French combat fleet, together with most British armored cruisers and some pre-dreadnaughts and destroyers, and some Italian cruisers and destroyers, put to sea from their putrid Venetian anchorage, avoided Austrian light forces repeatedly, laid a minefield near the mouth of the Isonzo River, silenced coastal batteries near the front, and began to pound the Austro-Hungarian Army with heavy guns. The Italian air arm naturally failed to coordinate adequately with French and British admirals too angry about their duty to employ translators (two failed reconnaissance rolls) and the bombardment failed to inspire Italian infantrymen to leave their rifle pits. In practice, after entrenchments modified the rolls and aerial spies failed the same, Entente accuracy displayed itself as usual in bombardments, with only four hits scored on 134 points of gunfire. The Italian ground assault would have been suicide and did not follow.

Elsewhere on the Italian Front, Italian forces continued to thin their lines around Trient in favor of massing toward the Isonzo. Entente leaders hope that the Italians can at least hold that one relatively inactive and forbidding sector of the Western Front, despite their reduced army, criminal equipment, and inept tactics. The British Army in Italy continued to hold the east side of the Trient salient, sixty-five miles of mountain passes extending into the impassable central Alps. A couple of British cavalry divisions continued to assist a crust of Italians to hold the sector between Switzerland and Trient. A few French units wandered toward Lake Garda apparently intent upon replacing Italians on that most important sector of the entire Italian Front.

On the main part of the Western Front, between Switzerland and the North Sea, French and British forces aggressively continued to try to achieve something, really anything, in the face of German resistance that continues to wear thinner yet never grows any weaker. Along the Netherlands border, British forces wistfully considered how much more powerful their attack could be had the Germans taken Oostende and been accessible to the Grand Fleet. Absent so many heavy guns to bombard the defense, the Army having only six regiments of heavy guns at the front and their use being effectively impossible of achieving notable effect (and the British siege and combat engineer arms being gutted), the usual straight-up charge into the machineguns inevitably followed. A German interception mission failed to drive away British reconnaissance aircraft, one of two groups of which achieved their mission, so that after national will and entrenchments the attack went forward with a +1 bonus. A risky 2.4:1 attack rolled downward but decent leadership at the battalion level (roll 5) kept the result a sadly welcome Both Exchange.
British losses: RP eliminated; 3x 10*-13-5 rifle (1 Indian, 2 British) and 9-12-5 rifle divisions to cadre
German losses: RP eliminated; 12-14-5 rifle, 10-13-5 rifle, and 9-12-5 rifle divisions to cadre

French forces, in the midst of redeploying their best forces from the sector east of Maubeuge to the sector west of Metz, cast about for any target they could plausibly hit and rested their gaze upon one of their usual fields: grid 1120. The defenders enjoyed the usual woodlands, entrenchments, and the protection of a river on one of their two hex sides. French forces brought successful aerial reconnaissance, two successful attempts of two brigades of engineers each, and national will to bring the balance to a net +2 modifier. French gas engineers failed their sixteen percent possibility to be a positive influence. Odds of 2.6:1 rolled upward but bad tactics at all levels (roll 2) yielded another sadly welcome BX result.
German losses: (not an RP, using the same one as in the earlier battle); 12-14-5 Prussian rifle and 16-18-5 Bavarian rifle divisions to cadre
French losses: RP and 1-5 eng III eliminated; 2x 10*-13-5 and 9*-12-5 rifle divisions to cadre

In reaction, the Central Powers actually moved to attack despite missing, as usual, the vast bulk of their army activation rolls. German forces massed against the stout Belgian force defending the tip of the Entente salient east of Maubeuge but decided not to actually pull the trigger in view of limited stockpiles of ammunition (the Germans are nearly out of resource points after a long summer of heavy combat) and the failure of their one aerial reconnaissance mission. Elsewhere in the air, three zeppelin groups missed Milan and one missed London, after a British fighter conducted the first patrol attack of the war, but another Zeppelin group successfully bombed the headquarters of The Times, causing a noticeable drop in British morale. In the south, one of two Germanic bombing missions against Italian ammunition stockpiles torched a resource point.

The only interesting aspect of Entente exploitation was a visit by three reconnaissance groups of the French air forces to the zeppelin base at Koln. Flak sent one group scurrying and the other two missed their chances, but it is noteworthy that the French now have enough air units to both support a ground attack and try bombing something significant on the ground. As if to point that out further, a couple of groups of French bombers missed German ammunition dumps in Belgium.

Central Powers Turn

The Central Powers turn of the first half of October 1915 passed with a bang and an attempted bang, both in reaction. First, however, replacements flowed in relative rivers for several countries.
Prussia rebuilt 9-12-5 rifle, 2x 12-14-5 rifle, and 10-13-5 rifle divisions from cadre
Bavaria rebuilt 16-18-5 rifle division from cadre
Italy rebuild 6*-9-5 rifle division from cadre and 2x 4*-5-7 mountain brigades from remnants
British generals dictated an Indian division be rebuilt to 10*-13-5 from cadre
French troops replentished 2x 10*-13-5 and 9*-12-5 rifle divisions from cadre
Austria-Hungary rebuilt 2x 0*-1-2 fort [III] and placed them on coast defense duty

On the main front, German forces adjusted to their continuing losses and tried to keep up with their endless conversions, but found time and assets to render the bulk of the Ardennes Forest almost unassailable, bumping defense values by something like 25-percent thanks to an array of reinforcements from elsewhere.

Austria-Hungary likewise strengthened its own position, moving units to protect the coast, but especially the seaward flank of the main line on the Isonzo River. Austrian units also began to move to threaten the inland flank of the Italian line extending from the Isonzo into the previously impassable Alps that Germanic high mountain units are suddenly rendering less protective.

In the air, the Central Powers did not enjoy early October. Three groups of zeppelins missed Milan and two missed London. Two reconnaissance groups attempting a counter-air mission against the French suffered 25-percent losses to flak while a French counter-air mission in reaction destroyed half a group of Alb C1’s on the ground (the Germans will enter the next air cycle without a maximum savings in ARPs, another first for this game). Various Italian, Austro-Hungarian, and German aircraft missed targets or were rendered harmless by flak.

On the ground, in reaction, three notable things happened. Italian forces shifted considerable force away from the Lake Garda sector, though still leaving what they expect to be enough to hold the ground briefly until the French come up or the Italians come rushing back. The French headquarters in Belfort activated and tried to put together an attack across the Rhine River near the Swiss border. The attack would have gone forward had both air groups not failed their spotting missions. In a bloodier event, the British again assailed the German front on the Dutch border. National will and air reconnaissance more than countered entrenchments and 2.3:1 odds rolled upward so that a competent combat roll resulted in the usual BX result.
British losses: RP eliminated; 3x 10*-13-5 rifle XX (1 Indian) and 9-12-5 rifle XX to cadre
German losses: RP eliminated; 12-14-5 rifle, 10-13-5 rifle, and 9-12-5 rifle XX’s to cadre

Entente Turn

Central Powers Turn

The bottom inning of September 1915 became an unexpectedly busy moment in the war, with everything rare happening again, another first, and an unjustifiably belligerent Entente military pressing for action. Part of the reason for the urgency was the weather, which threatened to turn muddy with the arrival October (it did not; the sun will shine). A larger part of the reason was that after suffering a range of results from abject failure to middling commonality earlier in the month, the Entente continued to quest urgently for some path to victory.

Even the initial phase of the turn witnessed considerable activity. While many German and Austro-Hungarian units changed organizational structures late in September, the news was that the backlog of planned changes is finally in the low single digits. Bavarian recruits fleshed out a 16-18-5 mtn rfl XX with which to threaten the Italians, whose manpower flowed to rejuvenate their lone 7-10-6 lt XX. On the main front, Prussian men and Rhineland guns repaired 13-16-5, 2x 13-15-5, and 8-11-5 rfl XX’s, besides replacing 2-4-7 mtn MG [III], and replacing a 7*-8-5 rfl cdr. Fresh pilots joined ground crews for an Alb C1, as the air replacement point system finally began to get a sustained workout. On the French side of the line, 2x 13*-16-7 and 3x 8*-11-5 divisions absorbed hordes of conscripts into their depleted infantry battalions.

In the far south, along the Adriatic Sea coast, a variety of Austo-Hungarian Army formations followed the combined Entente fleet’s move to bring all British landing craft, various naval transports, and plenty of gunfire vessels to bear against the Dual Monarchy. The French admiral in charge will find no easy targets across the sea of grief east of Italy. Austrian submarines, one captained by a future singing refugee, engaged that Entente fleet near Venice and sank several French destroyers by confusing them with gunfire and getting them rammed and shot-up by a squadron of confused British armored cruisers (danger zone hit against DD-1).

In the air, nothing good happened for the Central Powers. Three zeppelins missed Milan, one by navigation and two by bombing, while two zeppelins hit only the Thames River in London. Austro-Hungarian and German fixed-wing aircraft missed several Entente ammunition dumps. An MS-3 escort sent a bypassing group of Alb’s scurrying in a first for the war before two Cau bombers destroyed a German ammunition dump. Another group of MS-3’s demonstrated their superiority by killing, in another first for the war, an entire group of bypassing LVG’s while escorting recon aircraft attempting to bomb another German ammunition dump. In a rarity, flak smashed half a group of MF-11’s, the pilots of which were busily missing the zeppelin base in Koln. Only Italian pilots failed utterly, their Ca2 bomber group not regretting the absence of interceptors and dodging flak successfully only to miss the Austro-Hungarian fleet in Trieste.

On the ground in France and Belgium, German forces massively restructured their defenses after the long series of bloody battles throughout the month.

In response, while several French generals pulled units out of the front line, including an entirely overstacked corps of heavy guns, one British general sent a couple of divisions south toward the Mediterranean Sea and waiting transport vessels.

Another British general was more direct in his irritation about the failure of his ongoing offensive near the Netherlands border and he continued to push his units into the fire. After British pilots successfully spied out the reorganized defense, a brigade of siege engineers committed suicide by giving their friends a slightly better chance of success. British morale cancelled German trenches as 2.1:1 rolled downward and yet another Both Exchange poured names onto casualty lists.
British losses: 2x RP and 1-4-5 sg eng X eliminated; 11-14-5 and 3x 10-13-5 rfl XX’s to cadre (one Indian)
German losses: RP and 2-3-7 jgr III eliminated; 2x 13-15-5 rfl and 8-11-4 nvl XX’s to cadre

German forces exploited to cover the new weakness near the Dutch border.

Entente Turn

The production phase of September 1915 proved interesting to war watchers across the world. Entente production, 12 RP and 18 EqP, with the maximum tithe in South Africa and withdrawals to South, was immensely welcome and would be sufficient for waging the previous style of war with the current supply of personnel (the Entente will run out of people before ammunition), but will not last long once siege engineers start performing their art. Central Powers production, 8 RP and 13.5 EqP after withdrawals to East and South, could almost be small enough to allow a shortage to develop if clear weather remains in effect for two more months. Again, the United States retained strict neutrality; to roll 9+ on 2d6 is hardly impossible, but the US could also manage never to enter the war and the Entente player would bet no better than even that a tilted neutrality will be achieved before 1918 or active participation before 1919. Canadian artillery and mounted rifle formations achieved full effectiveness, the latter after some turns of delay, and the Canadians are almost strong enough to allow the Empire to make a single elite attack before spending a year accumulating Canadian replacements sufficient to compensate for such folly. At sea, small casualties inhibited the morale of Britain and Germany not at all. The railroads of Italy, France, and Germany all deteriorated; the Entente will be moving all of its rail engineers to Italy, where they will suffice to make a difference; the Austrian network is already too shambolic to deteriorate further.

Italian forces rejuvenated 6*-9-5 rfl XX from cadre; repaired their (constantly abused) Ca-2 bomber; replaced a 6-2-2 siege regiment, 2-7 mtn fld art III, and MW task force 1; upgraded 0-1-4 eng III and 2-3-7 mtn X to 1-3-4 and 3-4-7 respectively; and disbanded the country’s final two static artillery units.

French forces replaced 2x 1-5 eng III’s, 7-5-4 hvy art III, and 2-5 fld art II; rejuvenated 12*-15-6 AFR lt XX, 9*-12-5 COL rlf XX, and 2x 10*-13-5 rfl XX’s from cadre; and disbanded the 3-10-0 hvy art XX in Toul (the last easy choice to disband; the others are in/near the front line)

Belgian forces converted 0-1-4 eng III to 2x 1-5 eng III’s at the cost of a cycle worth of infantry replacements (.5!)

Imperial forces rejuvenated 10*-13-5IND rfl, 13-16-5CAN rfl, and 2x 10-13-5 rfl XX’s from cadre. The Royal Air Force also fielded a second reconnaissance group in France, doubling the chance that British arms might strike during any given fortnight.

To plan and execute the Entente movement of I September 1915 consumed considerable time, however much the front line always seems to look as it did for many turns before.

In Austria, British forces took full control over the fifty mile stretch of Alpine no-man’s land furthest into the mountains, northeast of the German-garrisoned Austro-Hungarian fortress of Trient. Italian forces meanwhile continued to shift out of that sector while optimizing their line along the Isonzo River and maximizing their critical frontage around Trient, where the Germans perpetually threaten to break free on both sides of Lake Garda and drive across the middle Po River in a war of movement the Italians could not possibly win.

Entente ground forces in Italy contented themselves with trading pasta for beer for the umpteenth turn in a row, but in the air events heated up from the already ‘wild’ norm. The Italian Ca-2 made its usual bombing run through Austro-Hungarian interceptors and flak, survived both unscathed for the first time, and missed the Austro-Hungarian fleet in Trieste, probably due to shock. Italian and British reconnaissance aircraft combined to hunt and hit a German Alb spotter squadron on the ground, thereby at least preventing its use in the reaction combat phase even though the Germans have plenty of unused air replacements every cycle (in late summer 1915, it is extremely difficult to achieve a flak shot that can inflict an abort and the intercept range is still zero hexes).

In France, Belgium, and Germany, Entente forces shifted considerably in a continuing process. The British Territorial Army is taking the field on steadily increasing strength and Imperial forces expanded their grip on the front to 100 miles in early September, en route to assuming control over at least another twenty or thirty miles before mud sets in. Despite this spreading and the previous month’s nasty AX, the Empire also massed forces and attacked sector 0521 in an effort to get the Germans that last bit of the way into National Will Three. Meanwhile, the Belgian Army continued to shift southward; it appears likely to come to rest in the area of the front inside southeastern Belgium when the British stop expanding for a while. French forces meanwhile, suffering even after their gush of replacements from a significant backlog of cadre divisions awaiting fleshing-out, contented themselves with shuffling forces. The never-ending flow of lower quality French units toward the Vosges Mountains continued, as did the balancing movement of higher quality forces toward the Ardennes Forest. The Germans naturally buffed their southernmost sector after the French coup de main attempt and high quality French units from near Switzerland therefore disengaged and began moving back toward the sea. If not for the steadily growing British, the French would be having trouble holding their sector in secure strength; as is, they have plenty of abysmal units that the Germans nonetheless cannot easily afford to attack given their relative poverty in ammunition.

Three French bombing missions against German resource points failed to connect, quickly draining any prospect of actually finding an advantage during this production cycle due to German ammunition shortages.

British forces, meanwhile, pounded away on the ground in Flanders. Aerial spotting, the precondition, succeeded, cancelling the effects of German entrenchments. A single attack by a pair of engineer regiments succeeded, giving the British a clean die roll advantage. Siege engineers spent prolifically, but failed to impact the battle despite having a 50-percent chance of some success and a 16% chance of a column shift. Odds of 2.7:1 rolled upward and the overconfident Germans apparently blundered somewhere as a roll of “6” yielded a DX!
British losses: 2x RP, 1-5 Eng [III], and 8-4-7 Armd Car [X] eliminated; 10*-13-5 Rfl XX to cadre
German losses: RP consumed; 13-15-5 Rfl and 16-18-5 WUR Rfl XX’s to cadre

Central Powers Turn

The Central Powers version of early September 1915 began with relief on the part of the Central Powers and ended with disgust on the part of the Entente. Precious little happened in between.

During the initial phase, replacement points flowed in rather stingy fashion, despite the relative abundance of a production-cycle-beginning moment. Austro-Hungarian quartermasters chased a 2*-6 Mtn Rfl III off the beaches of Croatia by finally issuing them boots and rifles. French sergeants in three 9*-12-5 Rfl XX’s received new meat to bring their generals entourages back to full strength. British volunteers flooded into a trio of 10-13-5 Rfl XX’s with the enthusiasm of the late August victory in their hearts and nothing at all in their brains. Prussian bureaucrats in spiked caps sent replacements to the cadres of 15-17-5 Rfl, 13-16-5 Rfl, and 9*-12-5 Rfl XX’s; refilled 3-4-7 Jgr and 2-3-7 Jgr III’s; and sent fresh pilots and machines to their aborted Alb C1.

On the ground, German and Austro-Hungarian forces continued reorganizing formations internally and shifting them on the battlefield both to allow that process and to compensate for continuing Entente aggression. Of singular note, Austro-Hungarian heavy flak moved from frontline ammunition dump guard duty to Trieste, to protect the fleet from continuing Entente air attack.

In the air, the Central Powers suffered apparently poor weather at the local scale as every bullet, flak shell, and bomb – and some entire zeppelins – missed their targeted cities and ammunition dumps; eight failures in all.

During reaction, Entente forces repaid the favor on smaller scale as the Italian Ca-2 bomber and a pair of British reconnaissance aircraft missed German ammunition dumps.

On the ground, in reaction, the generals fumed and some troops moved, but no significant combat added to any casualty lists. Italian 3rd Army continued to pull out of the mountains northeast of the alpine fortress of Trient, leaving behind British forces that should suffice to hold inviolate fifty miles of nothing leading nowhere. The Belgian Army sprang to life too, moving heavy artillery into a thirty mile front south and west of Maubeuge (the British hold everything from there to the sea). On the Swiss border, French units moving northward from their failed ‘surprise’ attack across the Rhine continued marching northward as if little had changed, because little had changed. One of many French armies facing the Ardennes Forest, headquarters at Charleville-Mezieres, was likewise active, moving units quickly and competently before discovering that the best French effort against the targeted German sector 1219 would resolve at 2.1:1 with a guaranteed net -1 and probably one or two more bonuses from engineering. To the disgust of the air force, successful reconnaissance is what got the French that far and the goggle-wearers would have been better employed bombing German ammunition dumps. British generals “rested on their August laurel,” an intended slight by a disgusted editor in London, rather than possibly hitting the Germans the first of a set of double blows during this last bit of clear weather.

If that double failure on the battlefront was not enough, perusal of the French replacement chart indicates a devastating and immediate problem: the French are out of men. From late 1915, the French metropolitan manpower replacement rate goes ever further into the toilette, joining the ever abysmal rate of colonials and the vanishingly small rate of foreign enlistees. French heavy artillery, already not as good as their field due to lousy tactics besides being tactically immobile, looks good on paper and will continue to look gradually better, but it is unimaginable that bombarding Germans in fortified woodlands from normal stacking will ever produce enough effect to make it worth the time. French armor is beginning to show up in the forming pool; by late 1918 the French will have something like a hundred attack points of it that will be functionally irreplaceable while providing their only non-artillery offensive power. Entente aircraft remain a feeble shadow compared to their opponents, but neither side is remotely close to having anything like a battle where air power contributes even 5-percent of power. With the French rifle forces now on the road to being entirely cadre, one might be forgiven for wondering how historical France made it through 1916. Meanwhile, the Italians are on the road to extinction in the face of what can be an overwhelming German buildup – our Verdun will probably be a German breakthrough of the Italians that might drive them out of the war – the Belgians are never going to get any larger, the Portuguese will arrive in another year with almost a corps, and the British lack almost any combat support to go with their increasingly powerful rifle armies. This will be a new experience: playing a long, large war where one major force consists almost entirely of equipment rather than manpower. The French are not there yet, but being able to rejuvenate only half a dozen cadres per cycle in 1916 is going to be excruciating, and then things will get much, much worse.

The Entente needs more than one new plan and is already forming several. After they fail, Plan M is to beg the Americans to finally roll 9+ on 2d6 to get on the road to war.

Entente Turn

The latest session of the DJ05 grand campaign of Over There began and ended with consecutive Entente combat phases on both sides of the September 1915 production cycle. The session happened in a slightly different tone because in a free moment months before we had actually calculated the effects of many turns worth of steadily trickling morale point losses from dozens of battles and cyclical events – and the sums of the losses in question astounded us in their magnitude and timing. With the most recent battle results included, national will had finally shifted for the French and was just about to for the Germans, while long-term trends continued to become clearer. French Will had just dropped to four, leaving their armies on the field without an accustomed advantage for the moment but meaning that during the annual February check France shall almost certainly rebound permanently to a Will of probably five and certainly perpetual superiority. British Will, meanwhile, still stood solidly within the four band and, after just a few more battles, would surely stand in superiority to that of any Central Power for the remainder of the war. On the debit side, for the Entente, Italian Will stands at such a low level that the annual February checks will surely not help the country and that a steady German pressure can be expected to force surrender, probably before American entry into the war. On the other side of the line, Austria-Hungary is suffering almost its only losses – and they have been huge – in the South and East (out of play) and can expect not to surrender during the war unless the British, French, or Americans conduct serious operations against them or the Austro-Hungarians contribute dramatically to fighting the Italians, through extremely vexing terrain and a temporary morale inferiority. Most dramatically, however, German Will dropped in August to three and after a few more battles both the British and the French should enjoy permanent battlefield moral superiority while even the Italians will for a while enjoy morale equality with their northern opponents.

During the beginning of late August, replacement depots busied themselves on both sides of the front. Italian factories sent a couple of dozen new machines to the ill-starred Caproni-2 bomber group (which immediately took the skies and was again halved, cut to pieces by Austrian Loh L’s over the Pola naval base in our first air-to-air hit). More mundanely, a variety of divisions were refreshed with manpower: 10*-13-5 Colonial, 10*-13-5 and 9*-12-5 metropolitan, 12-14-5 and 12-15-6 Prussian, 13-15-5 Bavarian and 6*-8-5 Saxon. The French also replaced a 4-5 field artillery regiment.

British excitement about a soon-to-drop German Will apparently led to overconfidence in tactical planning in late August as a rare British attack went horribly wrong. The Empire massed is forces in Flanders against grid 0621 and enjoyed the rare success of aerial reconnaissance that is a precondition for Entente attack decisions (effectively countering the entrenchments of the defenders). Thereafter, everything went sideways. High Command neglected to consume supplies using siege engineers and wasted space in the trenches with a gas battalion that could not possibly succeed in influencing the combat (-1 for battalion, -1 for Entente…the battalion then went back to London to stay out of the way until it is upgraded by OB to something big enough to possibly be useful). Less forgivably, the British engineer force did not move into the combat sector because it is small and rebuilding and being saved for more intensive efforts later. Odds of 2.6:1 rolled upward, nicely, but the combat roll resulted in an AX and would have done so even without the uptick. This was not an efficient method of reducing German morale!
British losses: RP consumed; 2x 10*-13-5IND XX to 4*-6-5 cadre (the last time the Indians can suffer losses without reducing the post-rebuild power of their two rifle divisions), 5x 14-17-5 rfl XX to 6*-7-5 cadre (the pre-war BEF finally being reduced to post-fragile state), 13-16-5CAN XX to 6*-7-5 cadre (the first Canadian losses)
German losses: RP consumed; 12-14-5WUR XX to 5*-6-5 cadre, 2x 10-13-5 rfl XX to 4*-6-5 cadre, 9-12-5 XX to 4*-5-5 cadre

French forces further south likewise flailed against the Germans, though with a distant hope of forcing a German withdrawal somewhere in order to strengthen the line in the face of massive and continuing casualties. This time, sector 1219 in the Ardennes Forest again played the battlefield. Shattered woodlands, entrenchments, and aerial reconnaissance influenced the combat, 2.6:1 odds rolled downward and gave the Entente a huge lump in its throat for a likely second AX for the turn, but the troops came through with a roll of 6 and the usual BX result.
French losses: RP and 3-4-4 fld art III eliminated; 10*-13-5, 9*-12-5, 2x 8*-11-5 rfl XX’s reduced to 4*-6, 4*-5, and 2x 3*-5 -5 cadres
German losses: RP, 5*-6-5 cadre, and 3-4-7 jgr III eliminated; 13-15-5 and 12-14-5SAX rfl XX’s reduced to 6*-7-5 and 5*-6-5 cadres

French forces also kicked off another feeble attempt at a surprise offensive just along the Swiss border. French railroad capacity is less of a limit to operational mobility than it has been in the recent past, but Entente heavy artillery disrupts when moving, which gives advance notice of everything, so that the Germans were hardly surprised. A French AX could have taken the position, a pyrrhic victory at best, and reconnaissance hardly came close to counterbalancing severe penalties from the defending fort and wooded rough terrain (net -3), so that a DL was virtually impossible to achieve. The severe weakness of the Germans was a reasonable result of the severity of the problem for the French attacking across the Rhine River into such terrain and 6.1:1 odds reflected the thin German force, but the odds rolled downward and another BX came to pass in what was effectively a small French victory.
French losses: RP consumed; 6*-9-5 rfl XX to 2*-4-5 cadre
German losses: RP and 3*-4-4 rfl X eliminated

The Germans had been bloodied, not quite to National Will Three, while the Entente offensive bolt was nearly shot at the end of probably the last fair weather production cycle of the year.

Facing the Italians, no Central Powers armies reacted in late August, while most army headquarters in Belgium and Germany did react, merely to pull a great many units out of the line for conversion during the upcoming initial phase.

Entente forces exploited a few specialist units out of the line, shifted to cover weaknesses revealed by casualties suffered, and to mass French ‘quality’ in the vicinity of and west of Luxembourg.

Central Powers Turn

Aside from the usual array of German conversions and reorganizations, neither side in the Central Powers initial phase of II August 1915 acted notably. None of the powers held much in the way of reserves of replacement points and neither side expected Germanic attacks, so both sides held tight and waited for developments to spur actions.

Germanic forces did move during their turn, but not so as to spur any particular action or even annotation. Three zeppelins flew against Italian cities, two reached their targets, and neither scored a hit.

The Entente reaction phase at the very end of August proved somewhat more interesting than did the movement and absence of combat during the Central Powers portion of the turn. Two of three Italian army headquarters activated, along with British 2nd Army in Italy, and the British expanded east and northeast of Trient to a front of 50 miles of mountains and the passes leading there through. Eight of nine French armies failed to activate; 3rd Army west of Jarny succeeded in withdrawing many specialist and high quality units from the line in its sector, to prepare for possible attacks along a wide front in September. 1st British and the Belgian Army failed to activate in the north, but British 2nd Army did activate and furiously shifted units across the British sector after their hideous AX. British and French aircraft attempted to bomb several German resource points and did destroy one, nicely but not sufficient to cause any near-term effect.

Note: Due to a significant error in rule interpretation, the Africa part of the game was reset in December 2015 and completely replayed. this turn report it therefor obsolete.

After a six year hiatus in real world play, during which our war in Western Europe progressed almost one year of game time and far surpassed in date the activities in Africa, the DJ group resumed its grand campaign of Over There with play in that dark theater in June 2011. Unfortunately, the hiatus left us woefully ignorant of the theater-specific rules while setup, eating, and child self-mutilation contributed to a relatively unproductive gaming session.

Few details of the dramatic events of December 1914 in Africa will make it to the world press – the raging Great War is orders of magnitude fiercer in Europe – but events dramatic there were regardless. In November, the Sanussi erupted into the broad Sahara Desert, flipping two of three units of French Touaregs to the Brotherhood’s side and one each raising and beginning to organize units of rebellious tribesman from particularly large oases in the deep desert. In December the French struck back feebly, a couple of battalions of camel riders threatening a lone battalion of Sanussi and encouraging them to retreat safely before combat. Italian forces, meanwhile, continued to hold strongly on to Tripoli and Sirte and to contest a couple of oases near those cities.

French forces continued to manhandle Berber tribesmen in Morocco in December. French attacks pushed the Berbers out of the coastal lowlands in August and from their easternmost stronghold in September before an elite force of Frenchmen swung south of the Berbers to trim the southern edges of their region in October and November. Now, in December, the same French struck against the Berber stronghold a hundred miles southeast of the High Atlas, where the well-paid Grand Caids continued to hold court – separating the rebel Berbers into two distinct regions. With the aid of a strong pincer from coastal Morocco, the inland force struck at grid 0479. All of the defenders attempted to flee, unwilling to lose the only stockpile of ammunition available in the southwestern pocket should events go as predicted, and half the Berbers did escape with all of the supplies. The remaining defending “unit,” without much ammunition, fell easy prey to the French, who thus subdivided the southwestern Berber pocket into one tiny and one large area.
French loss: supply point
Berber loss: 1-6 irr [X]

In West Africa, a lone and quite minor rebellion among tribesman in mid-nowhere did not even slow down the continued exodus of Entente units from the region for duty in Cameroon and France. Some residents of frontier towns throughout the region began to report distant dust clouds over the Sahara and to wonder who would protect them from the Sanussi horde with the European garrisons at minimum levels.

In East Africa, the struggle between low excitement and high trepidation – no combat but high fear of tsetse flies – continued apace. In November, British vessels withdrew a bit of force from Kenya and in December the strong remainder simply began to move to positions in which they could shield the colony from any serious aggression; both sides lack the ability to do much more. In the west and south of the area, British and Belgian forces sat passive in their garrison regions, too fearful of rebellion in their rear for their local political partners to allow the field forces to move either forward or back. Portuguese reinforcements continued to arrive in Mozambique, to prevent rebellions like those threatening the viability of Angola and its grossly insufficient garrison. The only real excitement in the theater came from insects, as South African railroad engineers and native laborers moved to build a railway from the south to connect to the Belgian river transportation network; the bugs sickened many but work would begin on schedule.

The struggle for Cameroon proceeded with as little adrenaline as did that for Tanzania, but events in the former pointed toward a much more imminent climax. French forces, just a couple of battalions, finally reached the southeastern border of the colony after collecting in and marching forward from French Congo and Gabon. British forces from Nigeria simultaneously collected on Cameroon’s northern border and well inside its northeastern corner. French units from West Africa, landed in Nigeria earlier, pushed forward into coastal Cameroon. Widely spread and grossly outnumbered German forces could only watch as their supply source – their network of friendly towns – was about to fall apart even as the weather was about to turn clear.

It was in the South Africa Theater that events in on that continent leapt forward with both Sanussi-like vigor and Cameroonian decisiveness. The Boers had revolted early in the war and been decisively crushed after the catastrophe of their attempted coup de main in Johannesburg; by the end of November, the last three Boer brigades had fled to Upington on the border of German Southwest Africa. While a small German force met the Boers at the border and the politics of the situation prevented good cooperation between them, the larger German force threatened Portuguese Angola and supported rebellious tribesmen there. British forces both followed the Boers from the south and invaded South Africa’s empty new colony (the name Namibia was kicked around) amphibiously. By the end of November, the German supply network collapsed, German forces near Angola fled eastward toward Tanzania, and the Boers and Germans in the south hunkered down to make the British pay in the media for having a city in South Africa being held by the Central Powers. In December, the British consolidated the situation, hemming the Upington pocket – virtually guaranteeing its quick surrender through lack of food if a more immediate destruction in combat was deemed unwise, the Germans enjoying one supply point for seven and a half regiments in the cauldron. Elsewhere across South Africa and its dependencies, the thin coverage of garrison units shifted in preparation for returning to civilian life and protecting themselves from Germans and natives in the meantime.

The German and native ripostes to Entente aggression proved broadly unexciting in December 1914. Berbers in Morocco and Germans in Cameroon and East Africa merely shifted their positions to meet as well as possible apparently overwhelming Entente threats. Some wager, however, that the Berbers will remain almost as strong for years to come and certainly East Africa is unlikely to be seriously threatened until late 1915.

The South Africans having seized every German town in Southwest Africa, the colony’s defenders fled. In the south, a cavalry regiment and artillery battalion consolidated with the Boers at Upington and broke their supply point down into 30 general supply points, exactly enough for four initial phases. In the northeast, the stronger German force, about three regiments and with further supplies, splashed further toward Tanzania on a trek that will be epic and, for the British rail construction effort along the way, may be unfortunate.

The Sanussi explosion seemed anti-climactic in December. The vastness of the Sahara and absence of opposition rendered only distantly interesting roving columns of camel-mounted irregulars imposing an anarchic will on oases along a two thousand mile arc. The only French-loyalist Touareg regiment in the region did not escape destruction in December as it had in November, but otherwise the Sanussi merely moved potentially useful forces to within distant striking range of British and French garrisons in Algeria, Mauretania, northern Niger, and northern Nigeria. Strong Sanussi units meanwhile pinned the solid Italian (even the phrase caused some laughter) defenders of Sirte and Tripoli against the strand, able to move a bit but not to join together, reach Tunisia, or really threaten their besiegers.
French losses: 1-0-7C irr [III] (one suspects that the foreign special replacements from this unit will end up in a Legion Etranger regiment somewhere)

Entente Turn

The Entente initial phase at the beginning of August 1915 passed with considerable note in press, but with less heat than light nonetheless. French replacements re-filled two metropolitan and an Army of Africa divisions from cadre and also rejuvenated a pair of engineer regiments besides putting a regimental-group of siege artillery into the field. British and Italian troops replaced engineer regiments too, a mixed duet in the latter case. The Central Powers’ replacement system merely idled through the phase.

As promised, the British expanded their hold on the front line to include not only their fifty miles nearest the English Channel from Oostende inland but also another fifteen miles on the far side of the Belgian sector. In the rear, while some divisions marched northeast from Caen toward the main front others took train from the vicinity of Lille all the way to the middle Po River to replace units marching away from there back toward France. A couple of British divisions, en route, paused to provide momentary flak protection to Genoa and Torino as the Italian population grew skittish under zeppelin bombing. Many of the New Army divisions, still lacking their artillery components, widened the British role in rear area protection in northwestern France, taking over from various Belgian and French units the protection of coastal gun positions, rail junctions and the like, as well as manning trenches deep behind the fighting front.

The Belgian Army loosened its grip on its fifteen mile sector behind the upper Scheldt River in early August, preparatory to shifting entirely. The light division backed away from the main front, sidestepped, and began to replace French troops in the front line facing German-occupied Maubeuge. Belgian units that had been on second-line or coastal duty, including an entire rifle division, joined the light division in forming a corps under French Army command in a transitional arrangement. The oddity would dry-up as further Belgians were replaced by the British nearer the coast and could then replace the French facing the fortress.

The French Army, amidst a mass restructuring of its third-line formations and always reeling from battering its head against the German wall, attempted to take advantage of being relieved of twenty-five miles of front line positions. The beginnings of a wave of heavy and siege artillery moved into positions near the Swiss border; more could follow with the prospect of a serious French attack either across the Rhine River into horrible terrain or down the River into the fortress that holds inviolable the shoulder of the German line on the French side of the river. Beyond this, the usual shuffling of units continued in endless procession as first-line formations and specialists edged toward the Ardennes Forest – the most active sector – and less prestigious units trudged toward the relative inactivity of the Vosges Mountains and the lesser rivers in Lorraine and Alsace.

Amidst the increased restructuring of Entente positions, French, Italian and British forces also massed for battle on some common and uncommon fields. The British, for example, re-attempted their assault against the northern extremity of the German line in Belgium, and again cancelled their attack when their lone air group failed to provide useful reconnaissance.

The Italians shifted their focus from the Alpine foothills on the east bank of the Isonzo River to the flat ground nearer its mouth for their continued Battle of the Isonzo. Unfortunately for the Entente, an appraisal of the odds – less than two-to-one after the lone Italian bomber group failed to destroy the only Austro-Hungarian munitions stockpile in the region – made such attacking madness and it did not go forward. In fact, given recent Austro-Hungarian reinforcement of the sector and the fact that the Italian corps in the region are already at very nearly maximum possible combat power, it seems unlikely that the Italians will be able to attack again anytime soon. The river and/or mountains, the additional halving of Italian heavy artillery for its lousy quality, and the German relief of their allies in the Trient salient, have left the defenders far too strong now that an entire army is in the field, for the Italians to seriously threaten. Until something external to this front changes, perhaps German units in quantity entering the fray, or the Italians get a lucky break with their supply bombing, the Isonzo River should be a simple and quiet backwater as the Austrians are likewise too weak to seriously attack the higher-morale, field-worked Italians in what would be mobile combat.

The French, with many more types and qualities of assets available, did not go so quietly into the darkness of inaction in early August. The old Ardennes Forest battlefield of most of June was revisited by an array of French tricks while the gradually weakened German garrison of the iron fields around Briey enjoyed an attack from around a half circle of frontage by the most of the elite, some of the first-line and a bit of the second-line of French rifle troops. In the Ardennes, at grid 1219, two cavalry corps unleashed four brigades of engineers in two successful attempts that cancelled woodlands and entrenchments, employed superior morale and aerial reconnaissance that could have turned the attack into a solid victory, simply forgot to employ gas engineers in the front line, rolled a 2.4:1 attack up to 3:1, and then procured the usual BX result after rolling a “1” in combat. Around Briey, three French rifle corps simply massed 259.5 points of combat power, using aerial reconnaissance and morale to cancel out Falkenhayn’s inspired grand tactics and the defenders’ entrenchments – clever schemes rendered the mining works irrelevant to the battle – before rolling 3.2:1 downward and then rolling “3” for the usual BX result.

Total French losses: 2x RP, 2-7FFL III, and 0-1-4eng [III] eliminated; 2x 10*-13-5, 9*-12-5, and 5x 8*-11-5 rifle XX’s to cadre
Total German losses: 2x RP, 3*-4-4 rifle X and 4*-5-4 rifle cadre eliminated; 14*-16-5, 13-15-5, and 8-11-5 Bavarian rifle divisions to cadre; 12-14-5 and 7-9-5 Prussian division and group to cadre.

If the Entente could conduct attacks of that magnitude every single turn, the Germans would probably run out of morale roughly on schedule. The Entente cannot now do so, but the Entente’s ability has been growing while that of the Germans to resist has been shrinking. As with history, the participants in this game have no idea how things will end up.

In reaction, the Central Powers enjoyed near universal success in army activation, excepting just one German army that would have been very useful, but conducted no attacks. The Austro-Hungarians looked at an attack across the Isonzo, but when not defending their mountains would be even less strong on the attack than are the Italians when attacking into Austrian mountains. The Germans really wanted to attack weak Italians along the Trient salient but decided that the necessary munitions would be a luxury expense when the Entente retains as many as four combat phases before more munitions arrive at the German fronts – the manpower expense of abusing the Italians is barely a consideration, relative to munitions. In the air, German zeppelins and Austrian bombers inflicted no damage to Italian cities or munitions stockpiles.

After an underwhelming, indeed uneventful Central Powers reaction phase, the Entente exploited in early August 1915 largely as a simple continuation of otherwise routing movements. The only notable activity was by the French, whose high command ordered various technical formations out of the line so that they would be more flexible in the near future.

Central Powers Turn

Administratively, during the Central Powers first half of August, various French and Germanic unit commanders received allocations of men and material. French metropolitan troops fleshed out a 10-13-5 rifle and French Colonial troops brought 10-13-5 and 9-12-5 rifle divisions back from cadre status to full strength. Austro-Hungarian volunteers similarly rejuvenated a 5-7-6 mountain rifle division, as Bavarian lads did with a lowly 8-11-5 rifle division. A trail load of pack howitzers fresh from the Ruhr met their Berliner crewmen in the northern Alps to revive a pair of 1-7 field mountain artillery battalions from the Prussian replacement depot. The flood of German divisional reorganizations also continued its interminable flow and the very strong Habsburg force along the Isonzo River continued to grow even more unnecessarily stronger.

The Central Powers conducted no particular moves of note in early August. Reorganized divisions moved into the line; units scheduled for reorganization moved out – the process seems endless and the backlog always lengthens (actually, this reminds me a lot of the US Army Reserve, which seems never to meet a situation for which reorganization isn’t the chosen answer). Austro-Hungarian reinforcements continued to buff their front line, further build their second line, and finally solidly closed the theoretical gap that had long existed in their line in the central Alps.

In the air, in the continuation of what may be a winning Central Powers’ strategy, zeppelins continued to pound Italian cities. This time Milano took a hit. Austrian reconnaissance aircraft also braved flak at Venice to burn half the Italian bomber group on the ground. Simple calculations indicate, it is worth noting, that the Austro-Hungarian Empire won’t be quitting the war due to anything the Italians can possibly do in the next three and a half years. By contrast, the Italians are eventually going to be receiving German attacks on an industrial scale and, combined with intensifying aerial bombing (making a terror hit per turn ever more likely), are the likeliest candidate among Entente powers to surrender, especially if the Germans can push out onto the plains and generate some mobile combats.

Entente reactions to Germanic moves in early August proved quite a bit more spectacular than is usual in our sedate little war. True, the Belgians failed to react, as the British forces in Italy, while the British in Belgium did react and did fail their lone reconnaissance roll and did decline to attack, all as usual in order to avoid consuming their tiny manpower pool in a weak effort. On the other hand, a couple of Italian armies reacted to conduct a serious rationalization of the Isonzo River line, pulling offensive artillery units and specialist formations of the line and rebalancing the defenders with a standard mix of infantry and field artillery: the Italians would be flexible of direction in late August for any good it might do them. The French, naturally, conducted the only Entente offensive activity of note as several armies from the western Ardennes Forest all the way down to the Swiss border reacted successfully.

A mass of French forces, without notable technical support but with several air groups observing, attempted a blatant attack on what had been the heavily garrisoned Luxembourg City. The German garrisoned had thinned in response to pressure elsewhere and in witness to the strength of local defenses and the French sensed a rare opportunity. A defense of 57 points, with entrenchments, making successful use of the resource centers and under the guiding hand of Falkenhayn, neatly stood up the French attack. French forces, enjoying national will and aerial reconnaissance superiority rolled a 3.5:1 up to 4:1 before botching their chance by rolling a “3” and achieving the usual BX result.
French losses: RP and 4-5-5 fld art III eliminated; 2x 8*-11-5 and 9-12-5 Colonial divisions to cadre
German losses: RP eliminated; 12-14-5 and 13-15-5 divisions to cadre

To the great surprise of the French, the next army in line also activated and could not help itself from attempting a make actual progress at weakening and eventually breaking through a sector of the German line. Despite lack of aerial support, facing woods and rough terrain, with Falkenhayn making his sick presence felt on this field too, the French attacked grid 1319 in the worst of the Ardennes. French engineers could have mattered, as six brigades and a flame battalion succeeded well in their tasks, and French morale helped the cause as usual, but the French practice – inevitable if they are to ever get anything done – of attacking at risky odds finally bit them back. Odds of 2.4:1 rolled downward and with a net -1DRM a “3” brought a calamitous AX result, which nonetheless at least played hell with the careful German lineup for receiving a common BX.
German losses: (No RP used, due to the previous battle)3*-4-5 Wurtembourg rifle X and 3-4-7 jager III eliminated; 12-14-5 and 15-17-5 rifle divisions reduced to cadre
French losses: RP, 2-4-7 mot mg III, 1-5 eng III and 8*-11-5 rifle XX all eliminated; 2x 8*-11-5, 2x metro and 1x Colonial 9*-12-5, and 1x each metro and Colonial 10*-13-5 rifle divisions reduced to cadre
At least the next French army in line also activated and shuffled some units to minimize the immediate calamity.

Central Powers exploitation during early August 1915 did its best to cover the extensive damage to the defending order of battle in the area of Luxembourg.

Entente Turn

Given the relative lack of combat during the preceding fortnight, the initial activities of Entente late-July 1915 seemed a trifle boring. No British, German or Austro-Hungarian formations received reinforcements. French men and guns rejuvenated three field artillery battalions into regiments, a continuous process in the face of frequent conversions that robs the pool of equipment that might pay for substantial heavy and siege artillery increases. Italian men and guns rejuvenated three rifle division cadres into full strength divisions besides augmenting an engineer regiment into a brigade and replacing a field artillery regiment.

The only really unusual movement of the Entente armies in late July was the French occupation of the southernmost sector of Belgium. As anyone could predict, the Italian military reinforced and backstopped its western sector, putting paid to any chance of a quick German breakthrough. Beyond those moves, Entente forces largely contented themselves on the ground by merely shifting their balance for their next attacks. The constant shuffle of French forces – quality northward, liability southward – continued at usual. Three British Territorial divisions met their newly fielded artillery components and moved into or toward Italy in the beginning of a move to rationalize what had been an ad hoc deployment in response to Italian desperation. The British seaplane torpedo bomber group also met the Royal Navy’s seaplane carrier for a ride to the Mediterranean Sea, from which it could attack the Austro-Hungarian fleet if only the ships would come out of port (the British would far rather have that second reconnaissance group, rather than a bomber unit that will never have a target it is capable of damaging – the bomber having a printed strength of “1” and thus not qualifying on the bombing chart).

Along the Isonzo, the Italians struck their routine blow, this time in the sector twenty-five miles from the sea. Austrian entrenchments and the rough terrain hindered the Italians, balancing reconnaissance aircraft and morale. Defending flak sent one of three Italian air groups scurrying for home in an odd twist after the Italian bomber group missed the defenders’ ammunition stockpile. Odds of 2.6:1 fell by a tenth as defensive air support played its minor role but then rolled upward, after which the usual both exchange came to pass for the reasonably pleased Italians. Italian losses: RP eliminated; 6*-9-5 rifle and 7*-10-6 mtn rifle XX’s to cadre (love those elite X’s!) Austro-Hungarian losses: 8-11-6 and 5*-7-6 mtn rifle XX’s to cadre; RP eliminated In the long run, the mountain-capable Austrians may develop problems with replacing their losses in the face of the limit of six regiments of the type per month. This problem will not arise very soon, as these losses will be replaced in July.

As British forces again flinched from combat, their lone reconnaissance air group having failed in its duty, the French continued their Ardennes Forest offensive in sector 1219. Shattered woodlands and entrenchments assisted the German defenders to withstand the blow. Morale, reconnaissance aircraft, and two multi-brigade engineer escalades provided the French a potentially decisive edge in their efforts. In a “first” for the war, aerial combat at a noticeable scale raged over the battlefield when a group of French MS-3 fighters intercepted – harmlessly – a handful of LZ-39 airships providing defensive air support. The French also enjoyed their greatest amount of long-range artillery support of the war – enough to increase the odds by a twentieth (in this case irrelevantly). Odds of 2.8:1 rolled upward and a significant French victory lay within reach when the attackers proved only modestly skillful at the tactical level, achieving the routine both-exchange result. This would be a French loss if their morale weren’t so far above the historical. French losses: RP, 4-5 fld art [III] and 1-5 eng III eliminated; 3x 9*-12-5 rfl XX to 4*-5-5 cadre German losses: RP eliminated; 16-18-5 BAV rfl and 12-14-5 PR rfl XX’s to 7*-8-5 and 5*-6-5 cadres

Germanic reaction to Entente aggression in late July proved limited. Two Austro-Hungarian armies along the middle and lower Isonzo River failed to stir; Eugene sent a few reinforcements south from his sector on the headwaters of the river. The German army in the high Alps activated and massed for another attack toward Switzerland but paused at the last moment, realizing that the exact mixture of forces would make absorbing the probable losses highly problematic.

Given the relative lack of combat during the preceding fortnight, the initial activities of Entente late-July 1915 seemed a trifle boring. No British, German or Austro-Hungarian formations received reinforcements. French men and guns rejuvenated three field artillery battalions into regiments, a continuous process in the face of frequent conversions that robs the pool of equipment that might pay for substantial heavy and siege artillery increases. Italian men and guns rejuvenated three rifle division cadres into full strength divisions besides augmenting an engineer regiment into a brigade and replacing a field artillery regiment.

The only really unusual movement of the Entente armies in late July was the French occupation of the southernmost sector of Belgium. As anyone could predict, the Italian military reinforced and backstopped its western sector, putting paid to any chance of a quick German breakthrough. Beyond those moves, Entente forces largely contented themselves on the ground by merely shifting their balance for their next attacks. The constant shuffle of French forces – quality northward, liability southward – continued at usual. Three British Territorial divisions met their newly fielded artillery components and moved into or toward Italy in the beginning of a move to rationalize what had been an ad hoc deployment in response to Italian desperation. The British seaplane torpedo bomber group also met the Royal Navy’s seaplane carrier for a ride to the Mediterranean Sea, from which it could attack the Austro-Hungarian fleet if only the ships would come out of port (the British would far rather have that second reconnaissance group, rather than a bomber unit that will never have a target it is capable of damaging – the bomber having a printed strength of “1” and thus not qualifying on the bombing chart).

Along the Isonzo, the Italians struck their routine blow, this time in the sector twenty-five miles from the sea. Austrian entrenchments and the rough terrain hindered the Italians, balancing reconnaissance aircraft and morale. Defending flak sent one of three Italian air groups scurrying for home in an odd twist after the Italian bomber group missed the defenders’ ammunition stockpile. Odds of 2.6:1 fell by a tenth as defensive air support played its minor role but then rolled upward, after which the usual both exchange came to pass for the reasonably pleased Italians. Italian losses: RP eliminated; 6*-9-5 rifle and 7*-10-6 mtn rifle XX’s to cadre (love those elite X’s!) Austro-Hungarian losses: 8-11-6 and 5*-7-6 mtn rifle XX’s to cadre; RP eliminated In the long run, the mountain-capable Austrians may develop problems with replacing their losses in the face of the limit of six regiments of the type per month. This problem will not arise very soon, as these losses will be replaced in July.

As British forces again flinched from combat, their lone reconnaissance air group having failed in its duty, the French continued their Ardennes Forest offensive in sector 1219. Shattered woodlands and entrenchments assisted the German defenders to withstand the blow. Morale, reconnaissance aircraft, and two multi-brigade engineer escalades provided the French a potentially decisive edge in their efforts. In a “first” for the war, aerial combat at a noticeable scale raged over the battlefield when a group of French MS-3 fighters intercepted – harmlessly – a handful of LZ-39 airships providing defensive air support. The French also enjoyed their greatest amount of long-range artillery support of the war – enough to increase the odds by a twentieth (in this case irrelevantly). Odds of 2.8:1 rolled upward and a significant French victory lay within reach when the attackers proved only modestly skillful at the tactical level, achieving the routine both-exchange result. This would be a French loss if their morale weren’t so far above the historical. French losses: RP, 4-5 fld art [III] and 1-5 eng III eliminated; 3x 9*-12-5 rfl XX to 4*-5-5 cadre German losses: RP eliminated; 16-18-5 BAV rfl and 12-14-5 PR rfl XX’s to 7*-8-5 and 5*-6-5 cadres

Germanic reaction to Entente aggression in late July proved limited. Two Austro-Hungarian armies along the middle and lower Isonzo River failed to stir; Eugene sent a few reinforcements south from his sector on the headwaters of the river. The German army in the high Alps activated and massed for another attack toward Switzerland but paused at the last moment, realizing that the exact mixture of forces would make absorbing the probable losses highly problematic.

Central Powers Turn

Having not played our campaign in nearly three months, and not having notes handy, we began our latest session by accidentally re-conducting the Germanic reaction to Entente activities in late July 1915. The results proved eerily similar.

First, what happened the first time around:
Germanic reaction to Entente aggression in late July proved limited. Two Austro-Hungarian armies along the middle and lower Isonzo River failed to stir; Eugene sent a few reinforcements south from his sector on the headwaters of the river. The German army in the high Alps activated and massed for another attack toward Switzerland but paused at the last moment, realizing that the exact mixture of forces would make absorbing the probable losses highly problematic.

Now, what happened this time around:
Of all the Germanic armies, only two reacted in late July, both along the main front and both merely shuffled a few units out of the main line for conversion.

Entente exploitation during late July 1915 proved similarly unexciting. A few French specialist formations pulled out of the line to make moving to different sectors easier in August. Two Italian cadres pulled out of the line in hopes of receiving drafts of replacements.

The Germanic initial phase of late July 1915 passed with significant activities on all fronts. Italian volunteers re-filled the lone Italian mountain division with fodder and two French rifle divisions likewise received drafts of replacements to hang around their solid cores. Austro-Hungarian draftees plugged the holes in the structure of the lone cadre from that army while one Bavarian and two Prussian 16-18-5 divisions replaced their infantry losses and a 12-14-5 Prussian division did the same. Each Germanic power also upgraded a flak battalion to a regiment to protect the Ruhr zeppelin base and the Trieste fleet base, respectively. In the cases of the Austrians and Bavarians, these actions emptied the depots, while for the French and Prussians the actions drained a majority of the sparse remaining personnel from the system.

Along the main front, German replacements offset the removal of considerable forces from the main line as the German high command continued its effort to catch up with the staggering conversion schedule that is following hard on the heels of the previous wave of conversions that followed the previous plethora of reorganizations and upgrades. Of particular difficulty are Saxon conversions, as the Saxons have suffered disproportionately heavy casualties during the summer of battles in the Ardennes Forest. These problems again point out that when organizations face challenges they tend to reorganize in an effort to appear active, rather than to actually spend effort in attempting to actually solve their problems. The French ground forces are undergoing a similar trauma, except in that they are largely reorganizing trash formations into something every nearly as trashy rather than quality formations into something about as good.

Along the Italian front, the last Austrian unit departed the fortress of Trient while the great majority of Austro-Hungarian forces leaned further southward as another wave of units arrived along the Isonzo River to render the whole position effectively invulnerable to Italian attacks.

The primary offensive activity that the Central Powers took in late July was in the air. Three zeppelins arrived over Firenze, unprotected by anything in the meager Italian arsenal, and achieved one terror bombing hit. A solitary zeppelin squadron over outer London achieved no success.

Entente reaction to the Central Powers air actions should have been useful, or at least interesting, but the usual run of reaction dice “luck” prevented any such thing. The British in Belgium would have attacked, having moved forces appropriately and also preparatory to increasing the British sector and exchanging some forces with the British army in Italy, but once again the lone British air group failed to find useful targets. The British replacement rate is anemic and their ground forces lack a morale advantage, so that as usual when the airmen failed their mission the ground forces aborted their efforts too.

By lack of contrast, the Belgians and every French army in a position to conduct any attacks all failed to react. French armies near Switzerland and in the Vosges Mountains both reacted and conducted a few slight shifts of units, but could not hope to attack into heavy fortifications and terrain with what are, even by French standards, strictly third-line forces. Italian forces along the Isonzo thought (wrongly, in retrospect) that they might attack again across the water, but both armies failed to react, as did General Cadorna’s headquarters in the mountains north of the river.

The Italian army on the east shore of Lake Garda did react, preparing its units for an expansion of the British sector to their east and to firm-up the situation in the mountain passes south of Switzerland.

The British army in Switzerland also reacted, removing some forces from the line for shipment to France in what was the most useful of the pathetic Entente actions of the phase.

The Entente currently expects the German hammer to fall next upon the Italians along the Isonzo River and Entente forces are acting accordingly. A wave of self-supported British formations is taking up the defense of Italy to the east of Lake Garda, which will leave one Italian army to focus exclusively between the Lake and Switzerland while four armies can concentrate force and attention between the British sector and Trieste. The Germans, facing munitions shortages across the West, seem to lack the ability to pound the Italians long and hard enough in the Alps to force a retreat or collapse and appear to be moving to the easier terrain further southeast – essentially pushing west through the Ljubljana Gap. For the Entente this reduces the chance of catastrophe but increases the chance of a slow death, but in either case the Italians need more help and the British are best able to provide it as their deployed forces undergo a steady increase. Specialist British units and fully-supported divisions, plus all the Canadians, Indians and other ‘allied’ forces will continue to deploy into Belgium and France, but the self-supported divisions are finding their way to Italy where each they can defend mountain passes alone or in small corps that the Germans and Austrians should have trouble cracking. Meanwhile, a second British army headquarters is set to arrive in France and will take command of half of what may be an almost doubled British sector adjacent to the North Sea.

Entente Turn

Whatever the state of the Germans, as July 1915 opened the Entente armies drank deeply in relief as gushes of manpower and equipment reached the front. French fortress artillery mobilization continues to provide extensive resources for the front, though the flow is soon to be cut off, and both Italian and especially French fortresses this month spewed forth a bounty of poor units and good ammunition. Factories too, and neutral countries, contributed some of their bounty to the effort – and industry is beginning to be a serious player in the equipment game. For the third time in the war, the Entente allocated substantial industrial capability to transferring rail capacity from Britain to France as French, Italian and German rail networks continued their slow march toward oblivion.

Depressingly for the Entente, the United States continued its balanced diplomatic status for the second time.

Portugal is on the clock and will declare war in October 1915, a long while after which it will eventually field a small force in France. They might be holding an entire hex in the Vosges Mountains by late 1916, if the Entente continues to dribble equipment into Lisbon in the meantime.

The Prussian depot in Austria sent manpower to bring a 5*-7-6 mtn rifle cadre back to full divisional size.

In France and Belgium, German activity was more varied on the same theme. Prussian manpower rejuvenated a pair of 4*-6-5 rifle cadres into divisions. Wurtembourgers flooded into a 5*-6-5 rifle cadre and Bavarians into a 6*-7-5 cadre, strengthening the German front by two more divisions.

Italian men brought a 1*-7 remnant back to full brigade size while others met at the artillery park to bring a 3-7 mtn field [III] back to life.

British youth pushed a pair of 4*-6-5 cadres back to the full-strength roll.

French men and guns did the most work during the initial phase. Algerians drew guns and mules sufficient to re-field a 5*-7-6 light cadre while metropolitan men met other equipment to raise 2x 1-5 eng III’s, 2x 2-4-7 mot mg III’s and a 7-5-4 hvy art III from the destroyed roster. Three field artillery battalions near the front received new regimental headquarters and more men and guns, to bring them back to full size after the previous- and in time for the next- wave of French reorganizations. More normally, colonial troops finished bringing a 13*-16-7 light mtn XX back from cadre status and metropolitan men did the same with 3x 10-13-5, 2x 8*-11-5 and 2x 9*-12-5 rifle XX’s.

The resurgent Entente then commenced attempting some serious battery of their Central Powers opponents, with the usual mixed success. Not far from the English Channel, the full-but-fragile British, without superiority of national will and beneath failed aerial reconnaissance, declined to squander insufficient men and never ample powder in a possibly disastrous attack. The Belgians, secure in their small but heavily defended sector and utterly unable to replace the slightest losses likewise declined combat. Not so the French, however, who struck in both the central and southern Ardennes in order to draw down multiple German munitions stockpiles besides maximizing chances for battlefield success.

The central Ardennes focus shifted slightly, as it has repeatedly over the past few months, this time settling at sector 1219. Woodlands and entrenchments shielded the well-stacked Germans, but morale, one of two aerial spies and none of one multi-brigade engineer escalades exactly balanced the scales. Odds of 2.3:1 rolled upward as usual and it mattered not at all – as usual – when a BX would have resulted either way.
French losses: RP, 3 1/3 morale, and 2-4-7 mot mg III eliminated; 2x 10*-13-5 and 9*-12-5 colonial rifle XX’s to 4*-6-5 and 4*-5-5 cadres
German losses: RP and 2 1/3 morale eliminated; 12-14-5 and 16-18-5 Bavarian rifle XX’s to 5*-6-5 and 7*-8-5 cadres

In southernmost Belgium, artists began painting authentic moonscapes as battle raged across the area for the umpteenth time this campaign season. Entrenchments and woodlands protected the German defenders while morale and a pair of paired engineer brigades contributed more than counterbalancing effects. General Falkenhayn failed to intervene and three air groups of French pilots managed to find only old craters. 3.3:1 odds rolled downward in a rare show but normality returned when the result would have been a BX in any case.
French losses: RP, 3 1/3 morale and 0-1-4 eng III eliminated; 2x 9*-12-5 and 10*-13-5 colonial rifle XX’s to 4*-5-5 and 4*-6-5 cadres
German losses: RP, 3 2/3 morale and 3*-4-5 Wurtembourg rifle [X] eliminated; 6*-8-5 Saxon rifle [XX] to 2*-3-5 cadre; 12-14-5 and 13-15-5 Bavarian rifle XX’s to 5*-6-5 and 6*-7-5 cadres

It is worthy of note that the Germans are currently about half way between their February 1915 and 1916 morale markers, with about half of the good weather of 1915 gone past. The Entente is making progress, no doubt, but the Germans are hardly shrinking at a catastrophic rate after having lost six morale points during one “best” Entente combat phase. On the other hand, the Germans are bleeding themselves now against the Italians and the British are becoming increasingly capable of landing hard blows. Italian morale is itself a brittle thing, especially as they must inflict about 100 morale points of damage to Austria before autumn 1918 and they look to pay at least 150 morale points to do the job at the current rate. French morale, on the other hand, soared in February 1915 to such an extent that it is difficult to imagine the French mutiny ever happening in this game.

Interestingly, the morale and national will situations are only one measure of the war and may be, in this case, a delayed indicator. Our current thinking about the Germans is that it might be a very good operational plan to withdraw from France and Belgium almost entirely, in favor of dramatically shorter and stronger positions closer to Germany. The Entente might then be actually unable to put together an attack with any chance of a DX and with every chance of an AX or AL, thus effectively ending the game in a Central Powers victory with Germany able to protect the Austrians and run out the clock after the Entente is utterly unable to sustain combat. This is the thinking because while the British are still fragile and the French are hardly deep, the German armies are noticeably wasting away due to lack of manpower and equipment. This may be magnified over Summer 1915 by a German munitions shortage after the Entente suffered the same in Spring and managed nonetheless to continue hammering away. German production, four RP in July that did not transfer, is hopelessly inadequate when Germanic consumption during the Entente combat phase of the turn alone was three RP; the stockpile in the rear areas will not long sustain the deficit. Meanwhile, as the French wear down the British armies are starting to deepen their capabilities and sustainability, particularly with additional corps and divisional artillery and combat engineers.

The Central Powers reacted defensively almost everywhere to Entente attacks in early July 1915, but pressed their advantage in the high Alps where the Italian defenders are every bit as passive. Along the lower Isonzo River, the Austrians shifted a few units to cover for losses in the continuing battle across the valley. The German army nearest the mouth of the Rhine also reacted, likewise by shifting a few units to cover weak points, but also to allow a bit of conversion and reorganization within units. With the exception of the German army near the fortress at Trient, every other Austrian and German army in the west failed to move as the war ground toward the second week of July.

In the Trient Salient, the Germans were poised to take good advantage of any opportunity and attempted to force the pass toward Switzerland at 3914. A solid attack here could be followed by another that might isolate the Italian force along the Swiss-Austrian border and then might even lead to movement that could outflank the Italians northwest of Lake Garda. The two-stage attack began in the face of mountains that negated German morale superiority and the first-ever (partially) successful German gas attack. Two groups of aerial spies failed to see many camouflaged Italians in their fieldworks, Italian reserves likewise failed to react in time and only one of three zeppelin groups attempting to reach the battle from the North Sea coast succeeded in buffeting through mountain winds to contribute successfully. Odds of 2.7:1 rolled up and a solid ‘both exchange’ met German hopes adequately. Italian losses: RP eliminated; 6*-9-5 rifle XX to 2*-4-5 cadre German losses: RP eliminated; 12-15-6 mtn rfl XX to 5*-7-6 cadre The result could have felt like an Italian victory, but for the upcoming second phase.

In exploitation, while the Entente continued its endless shuffle all along the front, in one place the move really showed strongly. A weak corps of Italians in danger of being cut-off by the latest German attack slipped southwestward toward but not to safety. The rifle cadre trooped gratefully away from the line as the other half of their small corps continued to try to staunch the German flood.

Central Powers Turn

The Central Powers initial phase of the first half of July 1915 passed in a flash as men and material rushed to the front. From cadre, many divisions were rebuilt: French: 2x 9*-12-5 rifle, 3x 10*-13-5 rifle and 13*-16-7 mtn chasseur Austro-Hungarian: 4*-6-4 rifle, plus a 3*-7-2 fortress brigade from remnant Prussian: 3x 12-14-5 rifle and 13-15-5 rifle; plus 2-3-7 jgr, 1-2-5 rifle, and 1-2-4 rifle III’s replaced Wurtemburger: 8-11-4 rifle Saxon: 15-17-5 rifle Bavarian: 16-18-5 rifle

In the Italian Theater, the Germans continued their assault toward Switzerland while the Austrians contented themselves with further stiffening of their front along the Isonzo River. The last trickle of Austrians also began to move out of the Trient Salient, the stationary artillery of the fortress being mobilized and the final static brigade marching slowly northward. In sector 3914, the few Italians in their mountain rifle pits faced elite Germans who struck with morale superiority, partially effective gas, successful aerial reconnaissance, and three groups of zeppelin air support. The Italians lacked even ammunition and in their dismay failed both to retreat their cavalry division before combat and to commit the tiny reserve. Odds of 8.5:1 rolled downward but a clean breakthrough was thwarted largely by German tactical overconfidence (roll 1) and a defender exchange turned what should have been a notable victory into a significant disappointment. Italian losses: 6*-4-7 hvy cav XX to 2*-1-7 cadre; 2-3-5 fld art III eliminated German losses: RP, 2x 1-7 mtn fld art II, and 2-4-7 mtn mg [III] eliminated

Along the real Western Front, German forces acted without any trace of aggression in early July. As many German fixed wing and rigid aircraft as possible flew over the Alps against the Italians and the tiny remainder stayed unemployed while the absence of gas engineers and much in the way of ammunition stayed any offensive impulse. In most placed, in fact, the majority of German attention was on solidifying defensive positions while maximizing throughput in the infuriatingly endless stream of conversions and reorganizations to which the German military is subject. The one exception to the general activity was in southernmost Belgium, which the Germans evacuated. The withdrawal was from a salient, thereby effectively shortening both sides’ front lines, but the main attraction of the move was to remove a common battlefield from the French menu – one upon which they had regularly feasted with odds approaching 4:1 and therefore with potentially grievous and endlessly expensive consequences.

The Entente reacted sluggishly to Germanic moves in early July. Eight of nine Entente armies in France and Belgium failed to budge; the exception merely slid a few heavy artillery units either out of the line or along it. Two Italian armies failed to react too, while the British and Italian armies in Italy that did react merely shifted a couple of formations each slightly forward and rearward, respectively.

The only notable activity of the Central Powers’ exploitation phase of early July 1915 was the first-ever Austro-Hungarian bombing raid against a non-unit target: the ammunition stockpile along the Po River remained undamaged.

Entente Turn

Initial phase activities during the second half of June proved intensive for the French and Italians. A vast array of independent French infantry formations combined with a small array of good field artillery to form some second-rate divisions. The best and worst of the French army remained largely untouched by this reorganization, but four divisions at the top of the “abysmal” quality list did disband into merely second-rate infantry brigades and some second-rate field artillery. The Entente equipment pool suffered a huge hit in order to field a second rate French heavy artillery brigade. A brigade of Canadian mounted riflemen arrived and went immediately to full effectiveness because they did not want to miss the imminent victory parade through Berlin (they also began selling seeds for a strange new form of tobacco to local peasants). French depots sent men to flesh out seven cadres of 8*-11-5 rfl XX’s and a 10*-13-5 rfl XX. Italian depots were much busier, replacing three 5-7-5 fld art X’s, two 1-2-7 bers III’s, 1-3-4 eng [X], 3-4-7 mtn lt [X], two 1-2-5 rfl X’s and 0*-1-2 frtrs [III] besides rebuilding a 4*-5-7 mtn lt X from remnant and upgrading the last weak rifle division to 6*-9-5 standard.

Germanic depot commanders stayed busy at a lower rate. Saxon men refilled a 15-17-5 rfl XX. Bavarian recruits did the same for a 13-15-5 rfl XX. Prussian schoolboys flooded to meet veterans in 16-18-5 rfl XX and 7-10-4 rfl XX. Austro-Hungarians from Vienna colleges rejuvenated both 4-6-4 rfl XX’s near the Isonzo.

If attrition is the name of the game, all that activity might indicate something. French depots still contain enough infantry to reform another division, but at least four chasseur divisions remain at cadre strength – so the French are losing steam. British depots continue to swell at only the very slowest rate and would shrink if the army even involved itself in serious combat. Italy enjoyed a one-off rush of manpower during a period of minimal losses and is still enjoying the fruits of mobilized fortress artillery, but neither will last long and every attack drains the friendly pool more than those of the enemies. Austro-Hungarian forces are still finding their feet in this theater; whether their loss rates will continue to be sustainable remains to be seen, as will whether the Italians can continue to inflict losses at all as the Isonzo Front stiffens. Wurtemburger and Bavarian contingents maintain their depots at marginal levels primarily through managing to only rarely be in major battles. Saxon and Prussian contingents, much more involved in battles, are once again gazing wistfully at empty depots, a sprawl of weakened divisions and a scattering of eliminated supporting formations. Given that the latest drafts will refill all depots in the very near future, it is difficult to draw conclusions from this situation, except perhaps that if munitions were not so scarce all armies would probably be shrinking at least as fast as the Prussians and Saxons seem to be now and the French did in 1914.

Entente forces in Italy shifted their focus during later June 1915. British rifle and cavalry units relieved Italian forces in several Alpine passes east of Trient and dragged their army headquarters northward with them. Most of the fast or mountain units of the Italian army not already deployed west of Trient shifted in that direction. Aided by those moves, Italian corps commanders along the Alpine battlefront rationalized and strengthened their positions, examining and discarding as flatly impossible several schemes for attacking German forces that would barely be considered a morsel on the front in France but are behemoths in this theater. On the north flank of the Isonzo River line, Italian forces voluntarily relinquished fifteen miles of trackless mountain, into which no supply line could run in poor weather, in favor of a stronger, shorter position; no offensive into the mountains in this area was remotely plausible either. Finally, along the Isonzo, Italian forces continued for a third week their cross-river effort even while continuing to bring up more artillery.

Along the main Western Front in late June 1915, Entente forces conducted no movement of great interest. The fruits of French reorganization continued to slide north or south according to quality while a few key units shifted to replace lost comrades in sectors of offensive activity. A couple of divisions of British infantry pulled out of the line to meet their newly completed artillery components for unified transport to the Middle East; other British formations relieved the French of a considerable stretch of the second line behind the Belgians and the extreme northern French front line. Army headquarters and transportation battalions moved few ammunition dumps from less- to more- active sectors. Broadly speaking, the Entente was poised for attacks and little remained before pushing forward.

The Italian command continued to hurl good men and faulty shells from obsolete guns across the Isonzo River during the third week of June 1915. Historians would later refer to more than a dozen Battles of the Isonzo – and this first one looks to rage continuously for several months – because the Italian and Austro-Hungarian force structures make the Isonzo the only place where a major Italian offensive could be waged with any prospect of avoiding catastrophe. Mountains along the entire remainder of the front lines make an Italian attack anywhere else a nearly guaranteed disaster (1.5:1 with a net -2 DRM is a short path to defeat) and the Austro-Hungarian military had to be bled before it could grow stronger. Italian forces assaulted Gorz under a strengthening hail of shells as their artillery became more comfortable in its positions, providing half of Italian combat power. A pair of Italian engineer regiments came to the fore with successful sapper escapades and the Italian air arm contributed useful intelligence that counter-balanced the rough and entrenched ground. Generals Cadorna and Eugene both remained too far north, near what had almost been a mobile operational area, to interfere in the battle. Odds of 2.7:1 rolled up to 3:1 and a roll of 1, with a net +1, achieved the usual BX even though both AX and DX had been plausible results.
Italian losses: 6*-9-5 rfl XX to 2*-4-5 cadre; 1-5 eng III and RP eliminated
Austro-Hungarian losses: 2x 4*-5-7 mtn X to 1*-7 remnant; RP eliminated
Italian elite brigades made the morale cost probably almost equal in effective terms and seem likely to save the Italians at least ten morale points over the course of the war.

In a long-expected twist, after an entire season of trying, the British air forces found some targets and the long-prepared Commonwealth ground offensive ground ponderously forward against stiff opposition. Flanders provided little terrain to speak of, while air activity countered entrenchments and two engineer regiments made successful holes in the front German positions. A German jaeger regiment pushed the odds down to 2.4:1 by entering via reserve commitment, but when the odds rolled upward anyway the chief effect was to make more dead Germans.
British losses: RP and 1-5 eng III eliminated; 3x 10-13-15 rfl and 10-13-5 IND rfl XX’s to 4*-6-5 cadres
German losses: RP eliminated; 12-14-5 WUR rfl and 2x 10-13-5 rfl XX’s to 4*-6-5 cadres
Rebuilding from this battle will essentially empty the British and Indian depots, but the core of the old British Expeditionary Force remains at original, full strength. Enough supported divisions remain in Flanders that the British might be able to attack again in this sector with an increased effective strength (these cadres replacing poor infantry and cavalry brigades among the non-divisional units in the corps areas) before having truly “shot their bolt.”

French forces struck again into furthest southeastern Belgium in one of two battles in the French sector of the Western Front. Woods and entrenchments protected Falkenhayn’s cleverly controlled defenders while gas, aerial spotting and national will aided the French. A two-brigade engineer attack managed to fail, but not horribly and 2.8:1 odds rolled upward whereupon a 5 resulted in the usual BX result.
French losses: RP eliminated; 3x 10*-13-5 and 2x 9*-12-5 rfl XXs to 4*-6-5 and 4*-5-5 cadres
German losses: RP eliminated; 16-18-5 rfl XX, 13-15-5 rfl XX and 13-15-5 BAV rfl XX to 7*-8-5 and 6*-7-5 cadres
The French inability to rebuild more than two chasseur division cadres to full strength per month is constraining the possibility of using the elite bonus in many attacks, the maximum strength of each French corps and the choice of units among which to take casualties because much, nearly too much, of the French first line is light.

The other French offensive was the routine attack into some sector of the central Ardennes – this time along both banks of the Maas River, across which half of the French force deployed itself. Aside from the river, woodlands and entrenchments aided the defenders. National will and a two-brigade engineer attack with flame support balanced the scales. Aerial reconnaissance failed to matter much but a battalion of long-range artillery and a group of bombers strengthened the assault ever so slightly, including by deterring potential reserve formations from entering the battle. Of course, 2.5:1 odds rolled upward and a roll of 3 resulted in the normal BX.
French losses: RP and 0-1-4 eng [III] eliminated; 3x 8*-11-5 rfl XX’s to cadre
German losses: RP and 7*-8-5 rfl cadre eliminated; 14-16-5 SAX XX to 6*-7-5 cadre
The Germans lost much less morale than the French in this battle, but the cadre seems unlikely to return from the destroyed anytime soon and the non-Prussian contingents are chronically short of replacement manpower. Equipment is the most serious Germanic shortage – for the Entente the most critical problem is shortage of explosives – so that the French consider the result to be something approaching even in longer-term effect.

The replacement situation of Britain, France and Germany magnifies the impact of battles north of the Alps, while flush depots south of the mountains make the much smaller struggle there into a merely attritional event. With this one strike, the Commonwealth reduced its striking power by a small amount in the near term and its sustainability by a large amount in the medium term. The French command will be able to rebuild a single division and is thus potentially vulnerable during both reaction and the next German turn, but has considerable ability to sustain the offensive over the medium term. Had they munitions, the French and British could do more; one attack would have been a DX had a siege engineer operation been attempted and even slightly successful. The Germans will not be able to rebuild any divisions in the immediate future and will doubtless suffer slightly stronger hammer blows from the more resilient French over the next reaction and complete turns. In the longer-term the German replacement pool and cadre supply continue to slowly expand with no respite in sight before winter, and maybe no respite in equipment forever.

he Central Powers reaction phase of the second Entente turn of June 1915 passed astoundingly uneventfully. All three Germanic headquarters in Austria and all except one north of the Alps failed to react. Seventh Army, on the upper Rhine River, reacted by forwarding three engineer regiments northward toward sectors where a huge river and vicious terrain have not largely squeezed decent units out of the order of battle.

Entente exploitation at the end of June was inevitably unexciting. A few Italians closed the front while cadres pulled back from it and a few shifts of units from sector to sector continued slowly. The French slightly adjusted in order to balance corps that in several cases found themselves suddenly flush with cadres rather than divisions.

Central Powers Turn

During the Germanic initial phase at the end of June 1915, depots on all sides flushed their contents as much as possible toward the front. Italian conscripts fleshed the only two 2*-4-5 rifle cadres into full-bodied divisions. British and Indian volunteers did the same with one of each ethnicity’s 4*-6-5 rifle cadres while Frenchmen rejuvenated a single 3*-5-5 rifle cadre; both British and French forces retained cadres on the front, more than a dozen in the case of the French. Austrian conscripts rebuilt a pair of 1*-7 remnants into mountain brigades while another rifle division and an artillery brigade arrived from Galicia to reinforce the Isonzo River front. Excited German volunteers brought a 6*7-5 Saxon cadre back to divisional strength in Belgium while others replaced a 3-4-7 jager regiment and a 1-7 mountain field artillery battalion. An elite division of Bavarians assembled in the Austrian Alps as the final act of the German preparation for Italian defeat.

At the end of June 1915, Austrian forces remained reactive on the Italian Front while the Germans there finally shifted from the defense to the attack. The new Austrian formations moved to the front and higher quality mountain units shifted slightly southward along the east bank of the Isonzo, to help their hard-pressed lowland comrades defend the line against what has been an incessant series of Italian attacks across that river. A couple of non-divisional formations continued to drift out of the Trient salient while the Germans there cast about for likely victims and settled upon the Italian defenders of the pass at 3911.

Given its location, the attack on pass 3911 could only be considered an attritional effort preparatory to more decisive actions later and elsewhere. The pass leads eastward, further into the Austrian Alps, where the thin Austrians declined even to defend in May rather than waste men holding roads to nowhere. The roads do eventually lead to Italy, however, and the Italians defended the region in late June with marginal forces, a crust slightly hardened by the elite half of the quarter-corps. Fieldworks hindered the Germans in theory while German morale and elite status counteracted the mountains. German aerial spotting balanced Italian elite status and German gas troops retained their perfect record of failure to matter, setting a notable record of improbable consistency so that the attack went in with a slight Italian advantage. Odds of 2.6:1 rolled upward and the standard BX caused the Germans to heave a sigh of relief; taking the position through an AX would have been too bloody a victory by far.
German losses: RP eliminated; 12-15-5 Prussian mtn rifle XX to 5*-7-6 cadre
Italian losses: RP, 2-7 mtn fld art III and 2-3-7 mtn lt [X] eliminated; 4*-5-7 mtn lt X to 1*-7 remnant

In France and Belgium, German armies moved only to shore up their positions in the wake of two months of incessant French and a rare British attack. The Prussians had only two divisions and about a dozen regiments in the replacement pool, but the supply of cadres active in the front lines was ample; they no longer merely stacked as non-divisional units for added punch, rather a pair of full divisions backed by cadres and artillery was often the defense even in sectors where French attacks are routine. Being at the end of a production cycle, the Germans had no good options and resorted to mere shuffling of weakness to non-critical sectors and hoping for bad French reaction rolls.

Germanic hope for Entente inebriation came to be justified as Entente commanders all along the front sensed German weakness and celebrated victory rather than attempting to make it reality. British forces in the Alps consolidated their hold on the fifty miles of front east of Trient, and Italian forces to their east shuffled units here and there, but in every sector where Entente forces might have attacked the armies failed to act. Given the temporarily anemic German situation and the upcoming Entente production and refreshment, a couple of stiff attacks by the French and British here might have actually forced the Germans to backpedal in Belgium in July – but it was not to be. Italian pressure on the Austrians would have been merely attritional, but even that longer-term progress was too much to ask for.

Entente Turn

The opening days of June 1915 brought some standard and some new-ish activities. Among the usual activities were dispatching German replacement drafts so as to bring the depots near to empty: 15-17-5 WUR XX and 14-16-5 BAV XX were rebuilt from cadres. A few French replacements and rebuilds are certainly normal, but the scale of activity after the immediately prior heavy losses in rifle divisions was utterly abnormal – and cut the metropolitan replacement pool in half. 8*-5-7 cav XX, 13-16-7 lt mtn XX and 12x 8*-11-5 rifle XX’s were rebuilt from cadre by the French. New equipment and personnel also flowed to replace a variety of units: 2x 1-5 eng III, 6*-7-7 lt mtn cadre, 4-5-5 fld art III, 2-7 FFL III and 4*-6-5 rifle cadre. The French elite units will be back in action – and again devastated – in June. In Italy, the burst of re-equipping of Italian infantry units continued but is essentially now burned out: 3x 0-1-6 bers III and 9x 4-7-5 rifle XXs received additional machineguns. As usual, no Belgian, British or Austro-Hungarian formations transformed during the first days of June. Oddly, the second Canadian rifle division finally reached full effectiveness: the Canadians might now hold a sector by themselves if it were on a narrow front, behind a river and in nasty terrain.

The players of this war then undertook a casual exploration of probabilities inherent in the game situation. British, Belgian, German and Austro-Hungarian morale is broadly in line with historical expectations, but the French appear to have an insurmountable morale advantage. To accompany that problem, for the Germans, the Italians and British seem likely to whittle more seriously than their historical counterparts on the relatively weak and hapless Austro-Hungarians (A later note is that from the CP half of I JUN 15, the problem of A-H being weak and hapless is dramatically less real). To balance the problem, the Germans committed to the Italian front what are surely powerful forces that can expect to use DRMs and column shifts to pound the Italians far more than the Germans did in 1915 and 1916. And that shift naturally will help the French maintain their morale superiority – which is fortunate for Paris as the French military is manifestly incapable of waging any offensive action with probable results as good as an even exchange of morale, replacement or resource points. It appears in this game as though the French can only be defeated on the field of battle, battered to pieces so that they cannot rebuild their army, whereas all of the other powers may suffer on the field but will win or lose based upon morale considerations. These calculations lend the French hope for ultimate victory, which a simple review of military power, morale point expenses and national will would otherwise make seem like fanciful dreaming.

Entente forces shuffled about the Western and Italian Fronts with aggressive intent and nearly complete ineptitude over the next couple of weeks. British Imperial land forces spearheaded the pathetic performance in their fifty-mile sector adjacent to the Belgian coast. The Imperials slightly adjusted their long-running attempt to get an offensive moving – and failed again when both British air groups failed to advance the cause through aerial reconnaissance for the umpteenth fortnight in a row. Given anemic British replacement rates, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff has dictated that his most potent of all Entente armies only strike under cover of omnipotent air cover. There was no chance the Belgians would act any more aggressively; their strong but fragile force continues to hold only fifteen miles of front line and to contribute to holding two separate sectors of the Entente second line.

The French command shifted again its focus as “weak spots” continued to appear fleetingly in the German front. This time, the furthest southeastern point of Belgium attracted French attention, to the exclusion of any other sector. Three groups of aircraft failed signally to observe and report movement in the German defenses and the French consequently failed ever to leave their trenches. Entente munitions shortages make attacking a sometime thing, and surely those times must be when events are trending positively.

Less optimistic Italian forces made more dramatic moves with similarly anemic results in and south of the Alps. Strong German reinforcement of the Austrians made a mockery of previous Italian efforts to encircle the mountain fortress of Trient, so that the Italians pulled back slightly and began to consolidate positions facing the salient. In the central Alps too, the Italian forces that could not advance (due to geography – high mountains and impossible supply lines – as well as German forces toward Switzerland) faced northwest and southeast to hold positions from which they might at least defend with more prospect of success than the pre-war boundary on the plains. Ironically, along the Isonzo River, where the Italians had foreseen disaster and hoped not to go, some chance of a meaningful advance remained and the Italians massed and struck at their enemies. The Italians deemed the upper reaches of the Isonzo to be critical; if the river could be passed or flanked, a critical rail junction would open supply lines into the central Alps and the Austrian front along the Isonzo might be rolled up or driven away.

The first Italian attack was a bludgeon, designed to bleed the Austrians and draw off their reserves while conceivably pushing straight down the railroad around the north end of the Isonzo River, and it failed utterly. Aerial reconnaissance, by the only Italian group of fixed-wing craft, missed its mark. Eugene declined to intervene, leaving his mountain troops to fight a mobile battle that could have thus gone either way rather than committing reserves and turning the event into a guaranteed meat-grinder. Cadorna succumbed to the allure of prostitutes hired by a staff fearful that he would make a critical situation worse rather than better. Both sides spent munitions prolifically and the Italians fled the field as four-to-one odds with morale superiority resulted in an attacker retreat result.

The second Italian attack, designed as a rapier thrust with elite troops against what might have been a vulnerable and important Austrian salient north of the rail junction near the headwaters of the Isonzo River instead did not happen at all. The previous battle having not absorbed Austrian reserves, the Italians would probably have achieved an attacker exchange result, though worse would have been likely enough. Such a result would have been much worse than none at all, given the flight of the mass of Italian infantry from nearby, and the elite troops instead hoped merely to be able to fall back safely from their own salient.

Across the river rather than around it, Italian and British forces combined to pound on the defenders in what had been hopes of significantly weakening the Austrio-Hungarian defenders in combination with other attrition elsewhere. Relatively strong British infantry and very strong Italian artillery provided the main events, except that the river robbed the British of half their power and Italian heavy artillery in the early war is quartered for open combat – and most was also disrupted from moving – so that what could have been devastating instead proceeded at a stately four-to-one ratio and achieved only a both exchange result. Entente morale and Italian engineers contributed positively, but rough and entrenched terrain cancelled the bonuses and language problems left the allies entangled as much with each other as their enemies.
Austrian losses: 3*-7-2 fort X to 0*-2-2 remnant; AS
British losses: 7*-10-5 rfl XX to 3*-4-5 cadre; AS
Italian losses: AS

After the long string of Entente silliness, Austrian generals might be forgiven for partying in their headquarters instead of pushing their forces as fast as did their German counterparts, but their failures would probably cost the Central Powers dearly. Both Austro-Hungarian armies, as well as the German army in the high Alps, failed to react, leaving scattered Italian forces to converge again into their mountain positions. German armies on both wings of the Western Front reacted almost uniformly, though the central armies failed, and masses of German units shifted off of the front for imminent reorganization.

During the ensuing days, reinforcements and replacements considerably changed the armies of the British and both Germanic allies in Belgium, France, and Austria. British replacements rejuvenated their cadre along the Isonzo River. Massive Austro-Hungarian reinforcements of mountain brigades and divisions arrived in theater in a change almost certain to completely stop all Italian offensive activity. Prussian replacements rebuilt one division in Belgium, nearly emptying that manpower pool, while all across the fronts the German armies organized strong divisions and various brigades into a larger number of divisions that still put almost every Entente formation to shame. Of especial note, the monstrously power Bavarian mountain division reorganized out of existence.

Central Powers Turn

In a continuing trend, the reorganization and redeployment of the fielded forces of the Central Powers dictated the actions of those forces far more than did any considerations of attacking, or even defending against, relatively anemic Entente armies. The Central Powers, during the first half of June 1915, would not be making headlines on the Western Front.

Facing Italy, the Central Powers ended the last chance for Italy to wage a war of maneuver and continued to build up for a counter-offensive. Two corps of Austro-Hungarian reinforcements moved from Galicia to secure the Isonzo River front. The almost completely mountain-trained army should have no trouble holding the lowland Italians both behind the river and off of the line’s mountainous northern flank. If the Italians want to hurt Austro-Hungary, they will have to do it across the Isonzo. Weak Austro-Hungarian and German forces, overwhelmingly strong compared to what the Italians could send to starve against them, moved from Poland, Galicia and Bavaria to finally plug the Alpine pass that could have led the Italians to Salzburg. German forces totaling about a weak army, but continuing to drag in all the best offensive units from France and Belgium, continued to filter into Trient and the valleys north and west of the fortress, both to relieve Austro-Hungarian units and to prepare for an offensive that the Italians have no real hope of standing against.

In Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Germany, German army staffs spent the vast bulk of their time arranging for specific units to move into rest camps in preparation for re-orderings of their tables of organization and equipment. Beyond this, German forces merely shifted to bolster sectors weakened or vacated by reorganizational moves.

Across Germany and Austria, railway officials and logistics officers worked feverishly to clear a continuing backlog of munitions stockpiles and reserve formations much more needed at the front than in the warehouses of the Ruhr, the beer halls of Munich, or on the beaches around Hanover.

In no sector of the Western Front did the Central Powers act aggressively during early June, though a few Entente corps reported some patrol activity as the Germans explored and discarded possibilities.

Entente reaction to Germanic quiet – and to the calendar, long-term frustration, and an amazing quantity of army headquarters, was broadly aggressive and equally disappointing. First, along the Belgian coast, the British continued their policy of avoiding combat: there is always either the excuse of having failed to react or of having failed aerial reconnaissance to prevent the emptying of very thin depots. With the British to their seaward and the French to their landward having both failed to react, the Belgians in the middle had no useful reason to do otherwise. Disappointment along the road through Flanders was the result, though at least it was a relatively harmless disappointment.

Between Maubeuge and Metz, on the other hand, disappointment came in bloodier form. A couple of French armies in this region failed to react, costing little, but a couple of French armies that did react cost considerably more. Along the western fringe of the Ardennes forces, sector 1020, French forces pushed for a quick strike of attritional nature and mostly ended by smashing their own thumbs with their hammer. Aerial reconnaissance and an engineer brigade, with morale superiority, more than counteracted woodlands and entrenchments, but another engineer brigade immolated itself and the resulting 2.2:1 engagement rolled downward and pushed six weeks of engineer replacements out of circulation in a BX result.
French losses: AS, 0-1-4 eng [III], 2x 1-5 eng III, and 2-4-7 mot mg III eliminated; 4x 8*-11-5 rfl XX to 3*-5-5 cadre; 5 1/3 morale points lost
German losses: AS and 3-4-7 jgr III eliminated; 14-16-5 Saxon rfl XX to 6*-7-5 cadre; 15-17-5 Saxon rfl XX to 7*-8-5 cadre; 3 morale points lost

The French attacked into southern-most Belgium simultaneously and with similar results despite much more favorable conditions. Aerial reconnaissance, morale superiority and two successful attacks by multiple engineer brigades each helped the effort dramatically – prevailing favorable winds continued to hinder Entente gas attacks – but Falkenhayn intervened in person for the Germans and entrenched woodlands protected the defenders to a large degree. The resulting 3.4:1 engagement rolled upward but became the usual BX in any case.
French losses: AS and 1-5 eng III eliminated; 3x 8*-11-5 rfl XX to 3*-5-5 cadre; 12-15-6 African chasseur XX to 5*-7-6 cadre; 4 1/3 morale points lost
German losses: AS eliminated; 8*-11-4 Wurtembourg XX to 3*-5-4 cadre; 9*-11-5 rfl XX to 4*-5-5 cadre; 13-15-5 Bavarian rfl XX to 7*-8-5 cadre; 3 morale points lost

Three French armies between Metz and the Alps failed to react, preventing possible continued attrition. The army near Belfort, despite reacting successfully, controlled far too few and too pathetic units to consider attacking in that backwater sector.

On the southern side of the Alps, the Entente reacted uniformly but with further disappointing results.

The British army along the lower Isonzo River, without a plausible Austro-Hungarian target and in view of the looming German menace nearer Switzerland, pushed its two corps northwestward across toward or into the Alps.

The Italian army on the lower Isonzo, with many more forces on hand than their allies, continued its attempts to punch a hole across the river, though in reality that cannot happen unless the defenders simply run out of manpower with which to defend the position. On a fifteen mile front, with locally massive and utterly inept artillery support, the Italians struck to continue the First Battle of the Isonzo (it having begun in the exact same location only days earlier). Aerial reconnaissance failed to assist the attack and the defending General Eugene intervened successfully while entrenched, wooded and rough terrain channeled the attackers and more than counterbalanced Italian morale superiority and a successful engineering brigade attack. 2.7:1 odds rolled upward and the usual BX nibbled away at both sides.
Italian losses: AS and 0-1-4 eng [III] eliminated; 6*-9-5 rfl XX to 2*-4-5 cadre; 1 1/3 morale lost
Austro-Hungarian losses: AS eliminated; 4*-6-4 rfl XX to 1*-2-4 cadre; 1 morale lost

On the northern flank of the Isonzo line too, the Italian army reacted. The attackers hoped to mass an elite, mountain-trained force for a coup against the northern-most flank, but aerial reconnaissance failed, Eugene and local reserve units loomed large, and the field-worked mountainsides would have formed the glacis for what would probably have been an AX result. The Italians kissed their last conceivable chance to dislodge the Isonzo line through mobile warfare goodbye rather than squander elite units that will be the only chance for holding back the Germans in the Alps over summer.

I recognition of the apparent hopelessness of any continued Italian offensive activity in the Trient region, the westernmost Italian army also activated and pulled a variety of units off of the front in preparation for whatever plan the butcher Cadorna might dream up next.

The dynamics of the war as a whole continue to evolve in interesting ways as June 1915 passes by. The apparently incredible Italian success of May availed them nothing against Austria-Hungary. The Italian gain of the southernmost edge of the Alps will provide a considerable shield in the face of German forces, but when the Germans open up with gas and a mountain corps the Italians will wilt rapidly and flee to plains that regular German infantry will walk over with ease. Meanwhile, north of Switzerland, the Germans do seem to be wearing slowly down, both in damaged units and in the full-strengths of intact units, and the French are finding it possible to make as many halfway decent attacks as they can sustain with available ammunition – a pace to allow the Germans to remain strong into the 1930s. The British are getting stronger too, but their morale is much more fragile than that of the French and their replacement rate is not going to support any sustained combat until sometime next year. If the Germans can pound – destroy – the Italians while holding off the French and British, as seems likely, the Austro-Hungarians might not end up surrendering in 1918 and the British and French might run out of soldiers before the Germans run out of morale. This war is very much undecided.

Germanic exploitation in the last days of the first half of June 1915 moved in completely routine directions. Upcoming organizational shifts pulled units from the battle line all along the front through Germany, France and Belgium. Optimization of positions along the Isonzo River and through the Alps minimized Italian prospects even more thoroughly. Positions left battered by French reaction combat received some stiffening and notification of the imminent arrival of replacement personnel.