• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Black Guardian

Major
25 Badges
Dec 31, 2005
590
26
  • Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado
  • Cities: Skylines - Parklife
  • Cities: Skylines - Parklife Pre-Order
  • Steel Division: Normandy 44 -  Back to Hell
  • Steel Division: Normand 44 - Second Wave
  • Steel Division: Normandy 44
  • Europa Universalis IV: Rights of Man
  • Hearts of Iron IV: Cadet
  • Stellaris Sign-up
  • Hearts of Iron IV Sign-up
  • Europa Universalis IV: Mare Nostrum
  • Europa Universalis IV: Cossacks
  • Europa Universalis IV: Common Sense
  • Cities in Motion
  • Cities: Skylines
  • 500k Club
  • Victoria 2
  • Europa Universalis IV: Res Publica
  • Hearts of Iron III
  • Europa Universalis IV: Wealth of Nations
  • Europa Universalis IV: Conquest of Paradise
  • Europa Universalis IV: Art of War
  • Europa Universalis IV
  • Crusader Kings II
  • Cities in Motion 2
„The great seminal catastrophe of the 20th century“

- A 1914 Germany AAR-

Kaiser%20Wilhelm%20IIklein.jpg

We write the year 1914.
Europe is the Center of the World, divided between five Grand Powers that has been in a critical balance for over 40 years, since the German Empire was established.
This balance of power granted an era of peace and stablilty for Europe.
Military Alliances and Pacts were the peace-keeping methods of the second half of the 19th century.
Diplomatic men of genius, like Bismarck, had kept the world as what it was.
Yet this era went by in the last decade of the last century.
Now, in the 20th century, the age of Imperialism has reached its cenit.
Tensions between the grand powers are rising, Germanys Monarch, Wilhelm the Second, wants "a place under the sun" for the german people.
Militarism and arms race have turned Germanys Army and Navy into a huge machinery - and it doesn´t seem as Wilhelm would hesitate to use them.



--------------------------------------------

First of all, I want to allude that I don´t play the Original Version of 1914, but a Version that was modified by me.
The most important changes are:
rebalanced unit stats for longer Combat, Army as well as navy.
Ground Defense of 95% for all Countries exept of Germany, which has 100% (as the German Military was the best of it´s time)
New Unit Icons for Naval Units (I don´t like the paradox´ ones)

If anybody is interested, I could release the wanted packs. (Be careful, it´s only for Doomsday-Version!!) Just ask me.

Anyway, I hope you´ll like it.
Have fun!




Strategy and Planning


By January 1914, the German Army includes 116 Divisions,
the majority is Infantry, furthermore 9 Divisions there are cavalry-Divs and around 20 Reserve-Divisions.
The German Navy contains 34 Battleships and around 50 other ships. The Naval arms race of the last years have made us the second-biggest Sea-Power after Great Britain.
However, the coming war is not to be won with ships.
Germany is encircled by Russia and France.
Faced by this two-frontline-war, the German General-Staff worked out a plan to cope with this situation:
The invasion of france should be managed through Belgium:
schlieffenplanfq2.jpg

To sustain the German technological superiority, our research-department was ordered to fulfill the following projects:

techjan1914ha0.jpg

Nevertheless, the troops that were committed to the western front in January didn´t seem enough to bring a decisive victory against France until Russia began to steamroll our eastern border.
More Divisions were sent to our border with Belgium, in May 1914 we had around 70 Divisions at the western front,
57 of them only at the border with Belgium and Luxemburg.
Our Eastern Border garrision was relatively weak, only 37 Divisions were sent to defend Eastern Prussia.
Russia was not supposed to mobilize it´s massive army very fast, so we should have enough time to defeat france first.


The Lamps go out


At the 27th of June 1914 the Austrian Crown-Prince Franz Ferdinand was murdered by a Serbian Nationalist while being at a visit in Sarajevo.
The situation was not yet taken very serious, yet this changed quite fast, as the Austrian Emperor seeked revenge and used the new chance to annex Serbia and make Austria-Hungary stronger.
We supported this attempt and an Ultimatum was sent to Serbia.
However, the Serbians rejected the Ultimatium and asked Russia for help...
Motivated by the idea of panslavism, the Tzar declared war against Austria.
France, as part of the Entente and Russian Ally, was now at war with us.
Time for our plans to step in.

On the first of August the German Empire declared war upon Luxemburg and Belgium.
The Armies began to move and the huge war-machinery started doing their job.

The first World War had begun

 
This will be good,really like your style.D
Cheers!
*subscribed*
 
The_Carbonater said:
This will be good,really like your style.D
Cheers!
*subscribed*

Same thoughts here.

Huzah :D
 
The first week


As the war started, Germanys troops were highly prepared.
With a speed-offensive our troops entered Luxemburg and Belgium in the first week of the war.
Liege fell quite fast against the technical, tactical and numerical superior German troops.
Unfortunately, our attack against the neutral Belgium was not tolerated by everyone:
Britain decided to step in and join the war against us.
From this moment on, we were outnumbered in every field: Army, Navy and the unimportant Airforce.
Nevertheless, the German General Stuff believed in their plans and in the superiority of the Empire.
Nevertheless, we lost Mulhouse to France, which forced us to bring in the fast cavalry-army to repell them from this province to have a secured front-line.

The Situation on the 8th of August looked like that:
firstactionsiw7.jpg

After these quick successes (although Mulhouse remained in enemy hands), our Armies in Flanders met the first real resistance, after taking Antwerp and Brussels with very few Belgian defence: 16 Divisions gathered in Namur to keep the German Army out of Belgium - and out of France.

fallofbrsselax5.jpg

The Battle lasted a little longer than 3 days and caused heavy casualties on both sides.
The German losses were slightly lower, as the french drew in more and more divisions while we had the full striking-power from the beginning.
Furthermore our Army has an offensive spirit, their attacks are more effective.


battleofnamurvs5.jpg

The Situation only hours before the battle was won.

However, we finally managed to break the resistance and to continue with what we had planned.
With the main part of the French Army in the North still beeing on the retreat, our Reconaissence spottet a weak point in the French Front-Line: Metz.
With only 3 Divisions this Province was very vulnerably to our attacks. Although it didn´t fit in our plans to 100%, we used the chance to attack Metz.
The General staff hoped that following to this step, the province of Reims, were important fortresses like Sedan and Verdun are situated.
Fortunately, the enemy divisions at Metz had to handle with obsolete weapons that were 20 years older than the German ones. Having no Artillery or other Heavy Weapons, they couldn´t mess with our attack-force and fell quickly.

metz1du4.jpg

Indeed, we were able to take Metz. The spontanious idea of the general staff to to attack Reims could now be realized...
Meanwhile, the execution of the original plan continued with an attack at Ghent.

ghentreimsaug23bk2.jpg

Despite the positive news from the western front, the war was still far away from beeing won. Quite contrary to.
The Russians had mobilized their Army much faster then estimated, and our weak Garrison was not able to keep Königsberg. The province had to be abandoned.
We could not even think about taking away Divisions from the western front, otherwise our offensive would stuck and we might risk successful counterattacks from the entente.

The Situation worsened.


 
Gotta be fast about France unless you want the Russians to do a lot of damage.

Or build more divisions.

I'm also interested in seeing how stable the 1914 mod is.

(Subby)
 
The_Carbonater said:
This will be good,really like your style.D
Cheers!
*subscribed*

thanks!
It was very interesting (and challenging) to play this game...
It will be good. ;)

laminustacitus said:
Lets see how brutal this will get.


Not as brutal as historically, I guess...
However, my manpower-pool decreased from 1250 at the beginning of the war to around 1050 in December 1914.
Considering the fact that I get 1.6 MP per day, as far as I remember, it is hopefully brutal enough for you :rofl:


Enjoy it!
I´ll update tomorrow.


EDIT:
RGB said:
Gotta be fast about France unless you want the Russians to do a lot of damage.

Or build more divisions.

I'm also interested in seeing how stable the 1914 mod is.

(Subby)

Russia is a awful monster!
In 1914 it´s even more successful than historically.
You´ll see in the coming episodes ^^

1914 is one of my favourite mods, and it is quite stable if you ignore the fact that the game will crash in 1917 if the Russian Revolution triggers (I think i´ll modify the event to prevent this, just for you readers ;) )
Yet it is nearly impossible to win for Germany (played on Hard / Agressive) in the normal Version of the game, as Russia steamrolls Austria-Hungary first and then you, and you can´t really win your offensives in the west...
So, as far as I experienced the original mod, it´s still quite ahistorical - that´s why i rebalanced the unit-values to get a more historical result. Defensive value is now MUCH higher, toughness only a little bit lower - this means that attacker and defender will suffer a similar amount of losses, as it was in real life (if you look at the casualties of the big battles of WW1, you´ll realize that).
 
Last edited:
I'm hooked already!
 
Suscribed
 
The Battle of Öresund

The last days of August brough both successes and defeats.
On the 25th of August, the Battlecruiser-Fleet under Admiral Capelle saw it´s first Action.
On Patrol in the Straight of Denmark, three Battlecruisers, the same amount of Armored Cruisers and some Light Cruisers, supported by Destroyers - all in all 18 Ships and or Flottilas, 6 capital ships and 12 screens - spotted a Russian fleet consisting of 4 Improved Pre-Dreadnoughts, several heavy cruisers and a Ligh Cruiser-Escort.

Admiral Capelle ordered his fleet to attack the Russians, despite beeing outnumbered in terms of heavy ships.
He hoped to sink one or two of the Russian Battleships to inflict some losses on the Russian Navy.

It was 0:12 in the morning, outside it was dark.

The fleets manoveured closer, the fire was opened.
Just 20 minutes after the battle had begun, the German Battlecruiser SMS Moltke got a hit from a Russian battleship into its magazine and exploded.
Although now being in disadvantage, Capelle continues the battle. He seeks revenge for the lost battlecruiser.
He doesn´t want to get fired because of a lost ship for nothing.

battleofresundtx3.jpg


Indeed, a lucky - or just well aimed - salvo from a German battlecruiser penetrated the armor of the Russian ship "Andrej Pervozvanny" and damages it badly.
The Russians have to decrease their speed, otherwise the damaged Battleship would have been forced to leave the formation.
Just 4 Minutes later, the obsolete Ironclad "SMS Blücher" gets a similar hit

The Russians now turn their ships right and manoveur away from the Germans, while they try to get some time to
provisionary repair the damages at their ships and there for turn left.

At 1:22 the Russian Fleet turns left as well, the Russian Admiral doesn´t want to let the Germans escape, because he still has his advantage.
On 1:47 he finally loses the "Andrej Pervozvanny" and turns hard portside to block the German retreat.
Admiral Capelle interprets the Radar-signs and the muzzle flash correctly and orders his ships to decrease speed.
Meanwhile, the Russians increase speed, because they guessed that the Germans were increasing their speed as well to escape from the Russian interception.
However, the German Ships "SMS von der Tann" and "SMS Karl Friedrich" gets heavily damaged during this maneuver,
yet the Russians realize too late, that the German Admiral has chosen another tactic than he had estimated.
Admiral Capelle orders his ships to turn portside once again, he goes on northern course.
unfortunately, the damaged ships constricted him from a quick withdrawal through through the Kattegat, and as the Russians reacts and make a hard turn to the north as well, the German Navy seems to have a problem.
While the German Ships were able to sink another light cruiser, the Russians manage to destroy the Ironclad "SMS Blücher".
After the sinking of this ship, Admiral Capelle orders his ships to turn south to escape.
Some broadside-salvos later, another Russian light cruiser is sunk, yet Admiral Capelle sees no chance to win this battle, as two of his three remaining capital ships are only burning wrecks.
The Russian Admiral, however, seems to be shocked by the loss of two of his light cruisers and ignores the Germans, continuing his original mission of breaking through the German lines into and joining the Entente-Fleet North Sea.

firstnavalbattlejh1.jpg


German Navy during the battle and after the battle / Losses on both sides.



All in all, this battle was a marginal defeat for Germany. The Battlecruisers showed to be very vulnerable to heavy gunfire, while their own Weaponry was able to cope with Ships on the size of a Battleship.
The loss of the Ironclad is nothing to be worried about, yet the shiny new Battlecruiser lost is.

From the around 1900 men on the lost German ships, 678 were rescued by our ships, some more escaped swimming to the close shore of denmark.
On the other German Ships, around 2800 men were lost through critical hits, most of them at the "Von der Tann" and "Friedrich Karl".
The damaged ships would have to stay in the repair-docks in Rostock for the next months, until they would be able for the next actions.

On the Russian side, around 1200 men from the sunk ships were rescued, furthermore they lost around 2000 sailors on the other ships.

All in all, this was something of a tactical standoff.
The strategical value of this battle can be neglected, as the Russian Navy is no real threat, neither in the baltic sea nor in the north sea.
By contrast, it´s better to have them there, because the German fleet there is much bigger than the small Baltic-Sea-Squadron.

Emperor Wilhelm II was angry about the Naval Battle that he called a defeat. He was always a Naval-Proponent, thus it had hurt him hardly that the German Navy didn´t manage to win the first naval battle.
Kaiser Wilhelm didn´t care about the odds.
He didn´t want to know that the German Squadron was heavily outnumbered in terms of capital ships.

He hoped that the Army had better news for him.
 
Me too. It seems that the KGM didn't start the war so well...
 
Kurt_Steiner said:
Me too. It seems that the KGM didn't start the war so well...

Could have been worse - the losses are almost equal.
If this had been a British fleet with 30 Battleships or so... :eek: