The World is Not Enough, a German WW1 AAR

weychun said:

What was it again? Either when u occupy an enemy fort, it's lost or when ur fort get occupy, it's lost, enlighten me please.

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Is this true??? If it is then my whole plan for the western front is flawed, I was planning to capture the French forts, and use them against the French.

Congo said:

The Russians......mmmmm...try to encircle their army with an amphious attack in coordination with a land offensive near the coast.

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I have considered this, or even attepting an amphibious landing at St Petersburg just to mess with the AI, but these will be addressed when I do my naval stratagy post (as soon as I come up with a naval stratagy)

The Austrian Fronts

Austria-Hungary was where it all began, and Austria may well represent the linchpin of success for the Central Powers (or the Dreibund as they were referred to in German). Germany has the massive army, but it is Austria that is in the strategic position to affect some of the most important battles.


Italy will join the Allies no later than January of 1915 (whether they choose to or not). Therefore Austria must take care of its business with Serbia in 4 months or risk fighting on 3 fronts (Italian, Balkan, and Galician). The problem is that the Austrian army is scattered throughout the country and is not in a position yet to launch any offensives.


We have no troops on the Italian border, but when the war starts we will be in a good position for a defensive battle as all of the border provinces are fortified. We will simply need to make sure that troops are in position in time for the war.


The Galician front is open for some aggressive moves, but I think I will hold back for now and take the defensive. I want to take care of Serbia first and foremost. Not all of the border provinces are fortified, but those that are will be minimally defended, with a reserve army held back to respond to any Russian attacks. I will keep a stronger force in Ternopol as it is unfortified, and historically that was the location of a major Russian offensive. I believe that that will be the weak link in Galician defense. At present I cannot say how many troops will be needed to hold the lines, as I do not know how much the Russians will throw at Austria, and how much at Germany.


That only leaves the Balkan front. Historically the Austrians were unable to defeat Serbia in 1914, and it was not until after Bulgaria joined the Central Powers and launched a second front that Serbia was finally overrun. I don’t want to wait on Bulgaria, so I am willing to lose in the Galician front if necessary to wipe out Serbia. All extra troops will be sent to Serbia. I intend to attack in two groups, one from the south and the other from the northwest. My goal is to encircle Belgrade, and then attack it with overwhelming force. After that the rest of Serbia should be a cake walk (I hope those words don’t come back to haunt me). After Serbia we will declare war on Montenegro, if they haven’t already joined the Allies, and then maybe Romania.

The Turkish Problem

And Then There’s the Ottomans…

Turkey in 1914 was a bitter nation. Over the course of the last 20 to 30 years she had lost vast portions of her empire, and was treated as a second rate power. Her entry into the Great War was intended to turn her fortunes around, but in looking at the propaganda pictures, I am not inspired by their prospects.


I see Swords drums, and horses. This doesn’t look like an army ready to fight a modern war against tanks and machine guns. Oh well we’ll do our best. The advantage Turkey has at the start of the war is that there are no enemy troops on her borders. The problem is that those borders are with Russia and Britain. This advantage will not last long.


The plan in Arabia will be to take the lone army and capture the unoccupied British provinces (brilliant eh)


I don’t know what the British have in Africa so for now the plan will be to occupy Sinai and hold there. As a natural choke point I think we can hold the British at bay for as long as necessary.


The Caucasian front is where I want to put most of the Turkish energies. I chose this area for several reasons.
1. It will force the Russians to divert troops from their attacks on the Germans and Austrians
2. If the battle turns against us, we will be in a good position to easily switch to the defensive
3. I like my chances better against the Russians than I do against the British

My biggest fear for Turkey would be Persia joining the Allies. It’s not that I fear Persia; it’s that I don’t want to face to possibility of divisions in India having an easy land access to Turkey.

Beyond that I will need to defend against amphibious landings. Historically Turkey should be able to handle this. In the end, anything I get from the Ottomans will be simply bonus. I’m putting most of my hope in Germany and Austria-Hungary

The next two post will cover our colonial defense stratagy, and our naval stratagy. Both of those are in very poor shape, but if I am to capture London, then I need some sort of plan for dealing with the Royal Navy. After that I will start the war.

And let me say thanks real quick to everyone who has already posted and given feedback to an AAR that hasn't even started yet.
anonymous4401, DerKaiser, GrimReaper, Congo, Duke of Wellington, stnylan, Iron_Skull,
Walter Model, Garuda, lifeless, Estonianzulu, weychun, The Gonzo, GeneralHannible, Carthade, Rensslaer, Drake Rlugia, RossN,

The Naval Stratagy

I promise this will be the last update before we start the war…

I’m going to combine both my naval strategy and my colonial strategy into one post because they are so closely related. The success of our navy will determine what we can and can’t do for our colonial armies. Historically Germany wanted to keep the High Seas Fleet together, and find smaller squadrons of British ships that they could wipe out until they had reduced the Royal Navy to a more manageable size. In practice though the Royal Navy kept such a large force in the North Sea that if the German navy ever left port it would be outnumbered in any engagement (see the battle of Jutland). This effectively kept the German navy bottled up in port.

If this situation repeats itself then I will be forced to repeat the historical German colonial policy of “You’re on your own”. So here are the relative naval strengths of all of the major players.


I do not wish to repeat history (obviously since Germany lost the war) so I see three possible strategies for beating the Royal Navy.

1. Build more ships. This seems obvious enough, but I figure I will need about 35 more dreadnaughts to swing the balance into my favor (this assumes the UK doesn’t build any more units herself). This strategy will take about 3 years to work (if it does).

2. Break my navy up into individual ships, and then go after the Royal Navy. By doing this I can retreat individual ships from the battle and hopefully return them to port to be repaired, while the rest of the fleet continues to pound the British. I also give this strategy about 3 years work.

3. My final strategy would be to sail my entire navy out to the Atlantic or possibly even the Pacific. If I am out there, the British will be forced to spread the Royal Navy out to try and find me, and then I will be able to execute the original German strategy of overwhelming smaller groups. The problems with this strategy is first getting out to sea (I don’t know how close the British will come in, and I am out of long range naval bombers). The second problem is that I will have no navy to defend the Baltic coast from an amphibious assault.

I am leaning towards trying to employ all three strategies, but with most of my emphasis being on the third strategy.

Meanwhile, in the colonies…

German colonies are basically in two regions, Africa, and the Pacific. We’ll start with the Pacific.


In China we will reinforce our lone division, and wait for the lone British division to attack. Once I see him on the move, I will wait a day or two and then send the German division towards the British. In this manner he will attack me first allowing me to have the advantage of being on the defensive. After I win, then my troops who were already on the move will hopefully arrive in the British territory before the retreating British can. Then I will again be on the defensive, and will hopefully wipe out the lone British division. After that I can occupy the city and simply wait until the British come with a much larger force. From there my plan is to die.


In the South Pacific I have 2 divisions, and a whole lot of islands. I also have a small squadron of ships. The Australians and British start going after my unoccupied islands from the very beginning and will eventually come after me. My only hope is that I can get the High Seas Fleet out onto the High Seas, and then see what happens. In New Guinea I will repeat the same strategy used in China.


Afrika is in a little better position than the Pacific. All told I have about 11 units scattered across 4 colonies, but if these units could join then they would create a decent army. That leaves me with two strategies.

1. Reinforce the divisions and allow them to dig in with the hope that they can hold out as long as possible and tie up as many allied divisions in the process. I’ve never been a big fan of this approach. I don’t mind assuming a defensive posture but only if it serves my offensive goals.

2. Try to march my units across enemy controlled Africa and join them into a combined force. (If my navy can escape then I won’t have to march them, I could sail them). The question then becomes where they go to meet, and what would the goal be after they meet. I have picked three possible options.
-South Africa, with the hope of knocking them out of the war
-Egypt, to help the Turks
-Ostafrika, where there are fortifications that will allow us to hold out for probably the entire war.

I have not settled entirely on how I will approach Afrika, because I want to see first off if I can escape the British naval blockade.

And so with that let’s send the High Seas Fleet out to sea…