Chapter 28: Advancing to the Rear
Pants have been changed, and it's time to deal with France's evilly-timed mobilization.
July 12: The mega battle in Besancon finally is over, with France losing two large armies (30+ brigades). I manage to extricate one brigade from Melun alive - but it may not make it all the way home. There will be sacrifices.
Here is a map of troop movements - if my war plan looks like mass panic, that's because it is. I need to retreat completely from France, form a defensive line, and regain ORG.
July 13: I retreat from Dijon before my army can be surrounded and forced to surrender, or break and run in every possible direction. This was with my troops on the defensive, but with a meh general.
July 20: With overlapping retreat paths, I'm able to thrash large yet low ORG French conscript armies in Metz (3600 casualties to 1600) and Metz (3200 to 400).
July 21: Another desperate battle breaks out in Besancon. As you can see, some of my armies have made it to safety, while a few lone brigades are still trapped.
July 22: An Ottoman brigade is trapped and machine-gunned down in Laon. 2 days later, another surrenders in Moulin, followed by one in Troyes, and finally one in St. Etienne.
July 24: French African Theatre plan: Walk across the Sahara to Egypt...where I have almost 100K men waiting.
In Pakistan, an attempt to wipe the French invasion army in Bela fails -they are entrenched in the mountains with a +3 defensive general. We'll just surround them and starve them - if they attack, I can then turn the tables.
August 1: The battle in Besancon ends with a marginal victory (1300 dead on both sides), despite a defensive stand with the Ottomans having a 7:1 numerical advantage. Rolling all 0s can wipe out a lot of advantages. A slightly better victory in Epinal follows on the 4th, clearing the path to extricate myself from French soil.
August 7: The French sent 12 brigades to take out 2 Ottoman brigades in Geneva, and reinforcements are turning this into an epic battle...
August 14: Army check: France now has 286 brigades to my 221. They've lost over 40 already. In Saarbrucken, retreating Ottoman forces are thrashed and forced to retreat east to avoid encirclement and destruction. A lone Ottoman army is holding off French hordes in Metz, but over 140,000 French are cascading into Rheinland. Due to the shock of the mobilization, war score from battles has dropped to 0.
August 25: 24,000 Saxon nationalists rise in Gotha.
September 3: Another forced withdrawal...
...and our last army retreats out of France.
September 4: Holsteinian Nationalists rise in Kiel. Hessian nationalists follow in Darnstadt the next day.
September 7: We finish researching Iron Steamers, which allows us to build the Suez and Kiel canals. We can soon contemplate building some Ironclads. Next up: Empiricism (+50% RP).
September 13: Things are calming down: the French are occupying western Switzerland and Rheinland, the major battle in Geneva is a slugfest, and our armies are moving back and trying to regain some ORG. Our double line of forts on the border should hold off the French for a bit.
In Persia, a nationwide Anarcho-Liberal uprising has occurred. This might be my chance!
The real lesson to take from this forced retreat is when given a narrow front and lots of warm bodies, the AI can kill you with pressure alone. My plan now is to rest, regain org, and then try to set a trap so I can get an advantageous defensive battle where I can encircle and pick off AI armies.
In Africa, I'm occupying French Egypt and preparing a bushwhack for incoming French forces - once they're gone, I can take French Algeria at will, strike across Nejd and occupy French-owned Abu Dhabi, and start pulling forces from Egypt to Germany.