The war enters its second year. The Italians do a massive mobilization of their artillery and there will be a large amount of Entente equipment points available next turn. The British continue to consolidate their new defensive line while the French continue to move their new reserves south. The Italians manage to entrench their two corps holding the Germans back from the plains. It will now be trench warfare in the south too.
The Central Powers fail to react with anyone.
Tom: I hope to build up my artillery forces for both the French and Italians with the large store of equipment points. I will also be disbanding the French field artillery and the 1-3-5 infantry brigades to get more equipment and manpower points for the French. That is something I have noticed in the game, the Entente actually has more equipment points available because of mobilizing all of the garrison artillery than the Central Powers do. Carl seems to spend all of his equipment points on reorganizations rather than rebuilding lost units. An interesting development.
The Central Powers shift an artillery division to the Italian front along with two more divisions. The French front sees the maneuvering of engineering brigades and resource points into position to build some forts at strategic places along the line. The Austrians and Germans prepare to attack the Italians at the weaker spots of the defensive line.
The attack by the German Alps Corps against the Italian 3rd Corps entrenched in the Italian plain demonstrates the benefits of entrenchments to the Italians. The Austrians, however, force the Italian 1st Hv Cavalry Corps to retreat from the source of the Isonzo river and threatens to surround the Italian 11th Corps near Villach.
The Entente is unable to react.
The losses are 25 German Manpower Points versus 11 Italian Manpower Points.
Carl: The Austrian success will force the Italians to retreat further, perhaps even to pull back behind the Isonzo River. The German attack was unfortunate, but it still bloodies the Italians. I am not sure if the Artillery Division will be very helpful, although the opportunity to bombard the Italians with a +1 DRM could prove to be very interesting. I will begin to build forts along the French front in some of the more vital hexes (such as Nancy, near Reims, and in the British sector). This may dissuade Tom from further attacks, although he really does have to gain some sort of offensive punch to keep me occupied there. I can understand why the Central Powers spent most of 1915 involved in the Eastern Front – unfortunately I do not have the benefits of being able to do things there to keep the game interesting. Trench warfare with a stalemate makes for a boring game. It is sometimes difficult to put plans together for an offensive. I shall have to work on putting one on, probably against a French fortress – probably an early Verdun. The resource points needed for such an offensive are very hard to come by. Equipment points are even more scarce for the Central Powers.
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