The Italians fall back towards Milano and attempt to build a defensive line. The British take over two more hexes in front of Paris to defend with their 5th Reserve Army. The French spend a long time reorganizing their forces to plug their holes.

The British attack at Lens. They use poison gas for the first time and fail to do more damage to the Germans than their selves. The losses drop the British NW down to 3 and they lose their NW advantage.

The Germans refuse to attack with their reacting armies. The usual London Zeppelin raid is stopped by great die rolling as the anti-aircraft fire (of 5 points) return three of the four Zeppelins.

The Entente lost 20 British, 14 Canadian Manpower, and 16 Equipment points. The Central Powers lost 24 German, 6 Wurttemburg, 5 Saxon Manpower, and 12 Equipment points.

Tom: The bright side was the Zeppelin raid. Great anti-aircraft fire! Unfortunately, the British have lost their NW edge. It was expected, but I do not think I have gotten the desired effect, i.e. stopping or delaying the German offensive against the battered French army. I have tightened up the defense as much as possible. The only thing that I may be able to do more is to evoke CR #2 and call up the training garrison. I hesitate to do so as that would effectively eliminate any further manpower points during the next two production cycles, but if it looks like France will not be able to survive until then it really wouldn’t matter.

The Austrians follow the retreating Italians towards Milano. They have almost completely captured the Alps while the Italians are defending in the Italian plains with fieldworks. The Germans maneuver to continue putting pressure on the French. Zeppelin raids hit the French factory at Lyons and do another terror hit on London. A large air battle over Reims sees the French have air superiority and destroy a German LVG C2.

The Austrians attack an Italian emergency corps and destroys it. The advancing Austrian Corps is now on the Italian plain and is only three hexes from Milano. The Germans attack out of the Alps near Trient and force the Italians back into Verona. The French 9th Corps is attacked near Toul and manages to make the Germans pay (a BX result). The French 15th Corps is attacked near Reims. The Germans lead off with a bombardment which disrupts the entire corps but the French again hold with a BX result. The attack on Reims starts with the bombardment missing the first eight die rolls (+1 DRM) on the 9 column of the bombardment chart (66% chance to hit) and is then stopped as a bad chance. The attack goes on at a 5:1 +1 and achieves a DX result.

The Italian 4th Army reacts and sends all of its reserves to plug the hole near Verona. The French 10th Army sends up two reserve divisions to help the defenses around Reims.

The Central Powers lost 43 German, 6 Bavarian Manpower, and 29 Equipment points. The Entente lost 41 French Metropolitan, 10 French African, 6 Italian Manpower, and 27 Equipment points. The French morale now stands at 51.5 points remaining.

Carl: I started the offensive on the Jan II 16 turn. It has lasted 9 turns but it is about over. I cannot continue to replace the losses. I will have to conduct bombardments and hope for effective ones before hitting with an attack. The good news to all of this is that the British are in the same boat. Without the manpower and equipment point reserves, divisions stay cadred, and you cannot replace the divisional cadres very easily in this game. A division that is destroyed tends to stay destroyed. My offensive lasted 9 turns and cost the French over 100 morale points. There are only 51.5 French morale points standing between me and victory. I will have to play it smart to continue chopping down those morale points and still stay an effective force. The Italian front has seen me break into the Italian plains towards Milano and near Verona. I am surprised at how well the offensive towards Milano has gone. I think that Tom’s preoccupation with France’s troubles have helped.