The Sick Man of Europe - A 1914 Balkans War Scenario AAR

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By 1912 the once great Ottoman Empire had seen 100 years of constant and steady decline. Once the terror of Europe, the master of the Meditteranian and the overlord of the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire has entered the 20th Century as a mere shadow of its former strength.

Nowhere was this decline in power more apparent than the Balkans, where areas once under Ottoman rule, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and the tiny Kingdom of Montenegro have sucessfully gained their independance from the Turks. These afformentioned nations, on urging from the Russians, created what came to be known as the Balkan League, a secret alliance deturmined to end the final vestiges of Ottoman power on the European continent, and bring the lands populated by Greeks, Serbs and Bulgars under the control of the new nations.

The allied governments intensified their military and diplomatic preparations. During the last days of September, the Balkan states and the Ottoman Empire mobilized their armies. The first state to declare war was Montenegro, on October 8, 1912, starting the First Balkan War.

I have I believe the honor of writing one of the very first reports of a game using the 1914 Mod. As the mod is still a work in progress please dont expect too much, as in a preliminary game I noticed things like leaders pictures etc are still missing. In any case I will be playing as the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan War scenario, 1914 Mod v 0.2. Enjoy

 

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Im going to be following this one

 

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It will be started and finished today so you wont have long to wait. First teaser pic comming... well right now!

 

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[Carthade]

I want more

 

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I want more

Is the old an spamming version of Carthade back?

 

[Spitfire_Pilot]

Wow, looks like a promising AAR. Ive tried this scenario a few times. I lost as the Ottomans but i won a few times as the Serbians and Greeks. Good luck

 

[Lord E]

Nice to see a new AAR using the 1914 mod. The Balkan war scenario is very interesting I think, and as the Ottomans you should really get a interesting time with all those enemies against you. I shall be reading this, good luck

 

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Save your screenies as .jpg, not .bmp, please...

Very nice initiative by the way!

 

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It was a well known fact that the outcome of the new war would deturmine the place the Ottoman Empire would play on the European map for the years to come. When the war broke out the Ottomans still controlled vast territories in Europe, consisting of modern northern Greece and parts of Serbia.

However the troops in these areas were surrounded by enemies, and so the decision was made to sacrifice some undefendable territory and pull several divisions back to safer grounds.

The Major worry for the Ottomans would be the Bulgarians. The Bulgars could sport one of the largest armies in the League and a full 150, 000 Bulgarains were poised to strike at the very heart of the Empire, the Capital of Constantinople. This would have to be remedied.

Despite initial successes, at least against the Bulgars the Ottoman Army was majorly hampered by supply problems. A general lack of supply ment that despite having a superiority (at least on paper) in numbers, the divisions were both undermanded and greatly dissorganised, leading to several stinging defeats at the hands of the army of the Serbs in the North.

The Bulgarian capital had been almost stripped of troops, and this opportunity could not be lost. Ottoman troops advanced on Sofia. The attack, despite initialy being carried by weight of numbers, was soon reversed into a complete rout as Bulgarian and Serbian troops reentered the city.

However all was not lost, the their haste to advance into the south the Serbians and their Montenegran allies, that nation which had started the war, left the Montenegran capital defended by only one division. It did not take long for Ottoman commanders to capitalise on this terrible mistake and an assult by 8 Ottoman divisions soon saw Montenegro in its entirety placed under Ottoman control.

In the south as well the offensive against the Greeks was met with great success depsite some initial setbacks. Fighting not only the enemy but poor supply trains and the fact that large portions of the Ottoman forces were simply "reserves" the Greeks were able the be pushed down their little peninsula and Athens itself, the anciant capital of the greek nation would fall to Ottoman forces.

However these initial successes sadly would come to near nought as the Serbians and the Bulgars continued to press the Ottomans. Whiel several new divisions were raised they were stationed in far off Baghdad and Damascus with no real way of entering the firefight in the near future.

Disaster struck however when units left to defend Constantinople were routed by a massive Bulgarian army. The majority of the Empires troops in the area had staged a successful attack on the Bulgarian territory Varna, however as the Ottoman defenders of Constantinople broke and fled before the assult from 15 Bulgarian divisions with far superior organisation, 11 divisions in Varna found themselves cut off and destroyed.

With the taking of Constantinople the will of the Ottomans to fight was greatly diminished. However it would be the almost complete lack of supplies available to those troops still in Europe that would see the war take a drastic turn for the worse.

Athens was reoccupied when Serbian troops broke through the Ottoman lines and retook the city.

By the end of 1912 Ottoman armies were surrendering en masse, and the League knew it could now bring the Ottomans to the peace table.

The peace was harsh indeed. The Empire was digraced and finaly it had fallen from the ranks of a world power, defeated by this cooalition of Christian nations.

The war had ended, however the League itself soon fell into infighting over the division of the spoils, the Empire would wait, bide its time and regain its strength. Perhaps the near future would bring about a way playing on this new distrust among the allied nations and win back the honor of the Sultan.

 

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That was a short war...

 

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Its not over yet

 

[Von Uber]

That was a short war...

:rofl:

 

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As 1913 continued to pass, there was no questioning the fact that the Balkan League was fracturing. The Sultan and his Generals decided to bide their time, however not much time was needed. Bulgaria, a nation which had carried the brunt of the conflict against the Ottomans only months before was it would seem unhappy with its share of the spoils. Tentions soon increaced to boiling point, and once more after only two months of peace the Bulkans wer eplunged back into war.

Bulgaria declaired war on both Greece and Serbia, pulling the majority of its forces away from the Bosphorous, that thin stretch of water which now held the Ottoman Empire back from Europe.

The opportunity was too good to miss. With 600, 000 troops massed along the straits, it was decided to go to war with Bulgaria once more in a last ditch effort to regain some of the Empires long lost glory.

Turkish forces poured over the thin stretch of water separating the newly expanded Bulgaria from the Empire, overwhelming the few divisions left to guard the ancient city of Constantinople. With over 60 divisions on the offensive, freshly reinforced and having had two months to reeorganise, the Ottomans easily took back their old capital.

It was quickly decided to push far further into the softly defended underbelly of the Bulgarians, and Ottoman forces emerged victorious on all fronts, carrying the day with sheer weight of numbers.

However despite the iminent collapse of the Bulgarian front, it would be Greece that would emerge from the two conflicts as the strongest nation in the Balkans, having defeated both the once mighty Ottomans and then pushing back the Bulgarian assults and making even further territorial gains.
The heyday of the Ottomans had long passed, the new century belong to new nations, however the clouds of war were once more gathering over Europe, and the Sultan can only wonder what opportunities this may present for his fading Empire.

 

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So there we have it, I hope you enjoyed this little AAR, short as it may have been. It was written to give you a small insight into the 1914 Mod and the various battle scenario's available, expect more scenario reports in the same vein as this is the near future. Thanks for reading!

 

[Lord E]

Being defeated in the first war as Ottomans isn’t very strange I think considering all the enemies you have against you, still you did your best. Nice work in the second war, attacking Bulgaria while they were working on other fronts it seems you managed to get at least some revenge there. Nice work, and a nice AAR it was

 

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that was short! too bad you couldnt pull off an ottoman victory eh?

 

[stnylan]

Short, sweet, but good fun. Well done Iron-Chef on this.

 

[GeneralHannibal]

Short, sweet and good, I like this AAR, maybe you could write a few more.

 

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do the spainish american war, or russo-japo war of 1904