Slitherine

Following in the footsteps of Horseman, i have decided to create an AAR from the general's point of view. However, this one is going to be done with my WWI mod, rather than with official content.

Settings:
Difficulty - Colonel (I usually play on Lieutenant, but found that too easy for WWI when i was testing)
Settings - 1.20 Rules, with Standard settings on. No reform units (I don't like that idea much), and combat is at full random.

I used a random name generator to come up with the General's name, and the backstory is made by random things that I just thought of

Units will be referred to as divisions & air units squadrons. Each land "step" of strength is a battalion
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The Diary of General Drossel, 1913:

February 28, 1913

I have received my promotion to General, after spending many years in the army of Germany. My family has been in the German, or Bavarian (before 1870), army since before Napoleon. My great-grandfather fought in the Napoleonic Wars, and my father in the 1870 War against the French.

May 30, 1913

The War in the Balkans ends. Sadly, our friends the Ottomans, lost the war to a bunch of random countries.

September 7, 1913

As tensions rise in Europe, I am ordered to High Command, in Berlin, where I meet General von Moltke for the first time. I have around 20 divisions placed under my command should any major crisis occur in Europe, and am informed of the Schlieffen Plan, which was edited a few years ago.

February 16-17, 1914

I order my troops to do a training program against our supposed "enemies", the Austro-Huingarians. My men prove very capable, and I look forward to leading them into battle one day.

June 28, 1914

Some Serbian idiot murders Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Our allies are not too happy.

July 1914

Serbia rejects an ultimatum, and so Austria declares war on them.

August 1, 1914

Russia and Germany are now at war. I imagine that I will be executing the Schlieffen Plan very soon.

Scenario 1 - Schlieffen Plan

August 4, 1914 (T1)

Today I recieved this telegram (at 7 IN THE MORNING!!!!!)
I also receive a bunch of messages saying:

- Units can "escape" from battle if that becomes necessary
- Zeppelins can't fight
- Minesweepers clear wire with ease
- Flamethrowers are avaliable next year.

Today the weather is clear, tomorrow is forecasted to be similar.

High Command has marked the following objectives as ones I must conquer by the 23rd of August: Liege, Namur, Leuven, Brussels and Antwerp.
I drew up this battle plan to suit those objectives. Blue Armeegruppe has been tasked with Namur and Brussels, while Red Armeegruppe goes through Leuven. Both groups will megre for the final assault on Antwerp, which I hope to begin around the 14th. This began at 8:00 this morning:

I ordered all divisions forward slightly, so that I could begin assaulting Liege, which stands in between neutral Holland, which I am forbidden to attack, and the impassable Ardennes forest. Before firing a shot, I made sure that the 2 front strongpoints were able to be attacked by at least 2 infantry divisions, hoping to pull them down a lot quicker. The Zeppelin flew over to near Hasselt, which was found to be defended by a Belgian Infantry, and an Artillery. This also revealed some enemy Artillery posted outside Liege, which will cause a bother should it be left alive.

Before assaulting Liege, all of my artillery except 1 division (4 auxillary divisions were provided here) bombed the two enemy Artillery - destroying 1 and damaging the other. Then an infantry division assaulted a strongpoint, which it nearly destroyed.
- BNC

(continuing from last post)

The cavalry in the south assaulted the strongpoint next, which brought it down to 1. Rather than waste another division on it, I used my last artillery gun to blow it up, which was done successfully.

Following this, I made the north eastern strongpoint my other target, which was attacked (and destroyed) by 2 infantry and 1 cavalry division.
Defenders of Hasselt: These will hopefully be gone by the 6th of August.

During the night, the defenders of Liege launched a minor counterattack, which destroyed a cavalry division and blew up another regiment of one, while they took 1 infantry battalion and 2 steps of damage for their strongpoint in return. I hope to buy another Minesweeper division or an Artillery with my new core slot.
- BNC

August 5, 1914 (T2)

The battle continues today... unfortunately we could not get through Liege completely. That sets us back 2 days.

However, Liege was effectively broken today, and tomorrow will just involve taking the town and pushing through the last strongpoint, before making for Namur and Leuven.
The artillery marked in green... I requested that from High Command following the loss of an infantry division last afternoon. I did this because of a recon report from the Zeppelin squad, which flew over Antwerp:
How will we get through those in little over a week?

Those stubborn Liege-ians attempted to destroy our advance by launching a counterattack, which resulted in the surrendering of another infantry division. When we capture the town tomorrow, I will personally shoot each and every one of those traitors!
- BNC

This is interesting.
I will have to try this MOD when I finish my current campaign.

Looking good BNC. A good look at how the mod can play.

Looking forward to the next installment.

Sorry that I haven't updated this in a while - I was busy updating the mod. Note that I'm using an older version of the mod than what is being edited on my PC, so there won't be any changes in the setup when GC '14 is out.

hs1611 wrote:This is interesting.
I will have to try this MOD when I finish my current campaign.

Victor_K wrote:Looking good BNC. A good look at how the mod can play.

Looking forward to the next installment.

This AAR was designed for both of those purposes.!

Now back to General Drossel's reports:
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August 6, 1914 (T3)

Today, one of my Lieutenants in the 14th Division, which was supporting the lot who surrendered yesterday, said that the Belgians had put our men back into uniform, and were using them to defend Liege!!

Looks like they will be shot by their own contrymen, which is sad, but I guess what they deserve. We cannot have traitors if we are going to get to Paris by Christmas!

I also received this annoying communique today:
What is this about the French? I was told that the Brits would defend Belgium, not the French! Oh well, so be it.

Back to attacking that damn fortress:
Liege put up a good fight today, and unfortunately we could not take it, but all of its garrison is dead, and it is being defended by a single pillbox to the north.
If that river wasn't there, we would be in the town right now, rather than outside.

############################################################ (TBC)

This turn is not yet finished, but the forum only allows three pictures per post.

- BNC

(continuing last entry)

The zeppelins radioed us a recon report about the defenses of Brussels, which were weaker than I expected:
And tonight, there was no major enemy action, which was quite confusing.

August 7, 1914 (T4)

Ok, I found out why the Belgians didn't attack us yesterday - they were setting up an ambush, which I found out about when part of the cavalry ran into it outside Namur.
Hopefully they can survive long enough for me to move them back to Aachen for reinforcements. Liege fell today, but I was ordered not to host a massive victory parade as I would have liked, as the High Command think we are moving too slowly. but truthfully, it is their fault I'm not at Brussels yet. If only they had let us go through the Netherlands as well...

The zeppelin group messaged us saying that their fuel is at half capacity, and asked to be recalled to an airfield. I granted this request, as long as they would fly over Namur beforehand, so I would know what to expect there.
One of the pilots also claims to have seen a barbed wire trap, but at this stage there are no official reports, so I guess it is all a mirage.

- BNC

August 8, 1914 (T5)

Too much was happening at the front for me to finish yesterday's entry, so I finish it now.

So, the army has had a few problems outside Namur and Hasselt, which are the latest objectives. I have set the date that they must be dealt with for the 10th for Hasselt (Turn 7), and the 13th for Namur (Turn 10). And it seems that the Belgians want me to capture their country, as they moved out of Hasselt, to attack one of our divisions. Annoyingly, the cavalry that were attacked retreated, so it has been proven that that part of the army will go as soon as possible. Now the town has no garrison, and so it is easy pickings. We also lost that ambushed cavalry near Namur, and I WILL avenge that very shortly.
So, this morning I sent out the orders to encircle and destroy the Belgian division that was holding Hasselt. Those orders were carried out so well that even the Belgian artillery got attacked. Double rations for the corps there tonight! The town comprised the western part of the encirclement, and so it is ours as well.
Our "Blue Corps" moved towards Namur, but there were no engagements there. The zeppelins also got back to their airfield, but I will need those to check out these French reinforcements shortly.

The enemy is obviously a bit demoralised after losing Hasselt, and so they moved their artillery away, but that will die soon. Our artillery are getting on to trains at Aachen, as I want those to move on to Brussels and Namur shortly. I will probably need to resupply their ammo before any more fighting however - some reckon that 3 quarters of it has been used.
Tomorrow we destroy Namur!

- BNC

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Sorry I haven't posted here lately. General Drossel will continue his command when the GC '14 scenarios are all finished. I am happy to answer questions and stuff regarding the AAR and/or the mod until then (and after)

- BNC

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Really enjoying this style you took BNC for the AARs, it's nice and short while also being a pleasant read. Can't wait for more (as well as the 14' campaign )

I don't know how I had enough time for this turn, but here it is anyway:

August 9, 1914 (T6)

Not much was done today, mainly marching. I do fear however that we are falling quite a bit behind schedule. But honestly, what was Moltke thinking when he said to finish the conquest of France in 42 DAYS!? Somehow, I don't think that will ever happen.

Anyway, the road to Leuven was opened, as we finally destroyed the last Artillery regiment off near Hasselt. Hopefully Leuven is as easy to take, as I don't think that Blue Corps will get through Namur and Brussels, in time to destroy Antwerp. I'll be reassigning Red Corps to head straight for Antwerp, as there is a huge fort system there.

In the south, the enemy division outside Namur didn't die, even though it lost three quarters of its strength, which is quite annoying. Worse is that those claims of Barbed Wire were correct.
Tonight, one of our divisions was bombed, but luckily wasn't killed. Also, our zeppelins reported seeing some French formations!? Why are they here? I WAS TOLD THAT THE BRITS WOULD COME, BUT NOT THE FRENCH!!!! Oh well, their silly "always attack" doctrine should kill them before long. The zeppelins have been told to fly in circles around the area, so that I know if any more idiots appear.
- BNC

August 10, 1914 (T7)

The advance on Leuven and Namur continued today, with only minor skirmishes around Leuven.
Further South, the Minesweepers continued clearing the Barbed Wire, opening the path to death for Namur. One of their strongpoints was mauled, but at this rate it is looking like Namur will take a very long time to subdue, so the northern force has been ordered to attack Brussels and Antwerp without help from the south.
The Entente counterattack today occured mostly near Namur, though one of the cavalry divisions in the north was harmed.
- BNC

August 11, 1914 (T8)

The battle for Brussels is underway! The Cavalry have gotten themselves across the river, and attempted to blow up the Belgian artillery. This was partially successful, but not as successful as we hoped for (odds 3:2, result 2:1)
A withdrawl was staged outside Namur, so that I can bring some more artillery upto fight it with.
- BNC

Seeing as v1.3 holds so many changes to the mod, do people think that I would be better starting this off again with all of the new stuff or continue as is?

- BNC

BiteNibbleChomp wrote:Seeing as v1.3 holds so many changes to the mod, do people think that I would be better starting this off again with all of the new stuff or continue as is?

- BNC

If you don't mind to repeat all the work you done until now with the AAR a restart would be a good idea considering all the changes. On the other hand considering the amount of effort needed to create a detailed AAR i can fully understand if you carry on from here to safe some time.

Tarrak wrote:

BiteNibbleChomp wrote:Seeing as v1.3 holds so many changes to the mod, do people think that I would be better starting this off again with all of the new stuff or continue as is?

- BNC

If you don't mind to repeat all the work you done until now with the AAR a restart would be a good idea considering all the changes. On the other hand considering the amount of effort needed to create a detailed AAR i can fully understand if you carry on from here to safe some time.

I probably have only spent 1 hr on this so far, so it's not that much lost. I think that I'll restart it as the mod is now quite a bit different to v1.1, especially considering the Transports, Armoured Cars, Bombers and all those other new ones.

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To close the story of Gen. Drossel, a telegram was found by some Revolutionaries a few years later, when Germany had lost the war. It read:

_________________________________
| TO DROSSEL FAMILY...................|
| YOUR SON GUSTAV WAS KILLED IN...|
| ACTION ON 11-AUG-14 NEAR..........|
| BRUSSELS, BELGIUM...................|
|............................................|
| HIGH COMMAND, GERMANY...........|
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Since then, the telegram's location is unknown.

- BNC