Imperial Elegy - Great War

In our game of Imperial Elegy we had avoided the Great War.  However, it could easily have occurred and so we gave it a play through.

Richard has provided this AAR.

From Black Forrest Cateux to Sachertorte 

A Great War of Sorts

Having finished the official game last week, the players decided to fight a Great War on the basis of game end positions. Obviously the Powers are compromised in terms of the type and disposition of units as a Great War was unlikely to have broken out in the last turn, but in order to help us through the rules for the outbreak of the war and the Great War combat rules, the players decided to reconvene and work through the situation as a rules learning exercise.

To recap, Britain and Russia are in the Triple Entente, Germany and the Ottomans are in the Triple Alliance and France and Austria ended the game in the Neutral space.

This situation actually creates some interesting possibilities for the Neutrals as there is an opportunity for Neutrals to join the war. 

A neutral power can stay out altogether or join in the Winter phase which is at the end of each Great War turn. (There are 6 turns in total). There is currently one space available in each alliance. If both France and Austria were to choose the same alliance in the same phase, it is resolved on a competitive die roll the winner going into the alliance of choice and the other to the other alliance.

When there is a Great War, the Powers in the winning alliance win collectively if their Power hasn't surrendered during the war. If neither Alliance wins, the Neutral with the highest VP wins - which would be France.

The VPs for Britain and Germany are adjusted at the start of the Great War as both had "No Great War" as a National Goal. This means Germany starts on 9 and Britain on 6. It is theoretically possible for Austria to win, if they stay neutral and a particular mandatory card comes up during the Great War and the Triple Entente wins as Britain would lose 1VP to 5, behind Austria's of 6.

So what of the prospects?

The state of the combatants at the outbreak of hostilities:

Germany - 5 Standing Armies (1 stuck on the Shandong Peninsula) 3 Reserve Armies. 2 Dreadnoughts and 2 Squadrons

Britain - 1 Standing Army, 3 Indian Armies 5 Dreadnoughts, 6 Squadrons

France - 4 Standing Armies, 4 Reserve Armies, 3 Dreadnoughts, 4 Squadrons

Austria-Hungary - 5 Standing Armies, 0 Reserve Armies No Navy

Russia - 6 Standing Armies, 7 Reserve Armies. 2 Dreadnoughts, 4 Squadrons

Ottomans - 5 Standing Armies, 2 Reserve Armies. 1 Dreadnought, 3 Squadrons

Based on the pre-war dispositions, things look very bleak for the Triple Alliance. Further adding to their woes, France has indicated a leaning to join the Entente at the earliest opportunity. This means they forego the possibility of outright victory to a shared victory assuming they don't surrender during the Great War. Austria needs the Entente to win and have a particular card played in their favour to win.

With the odds heavily stacked against them, can the Alliance pull off an unlikely victory? Surely impossible! They will soon be facing the Russian steamroller in the east, France itching to join the fight in the West, Britain's destined to doom their tiny foes? ...or maybe not....read on... 

The German Strategy

Things look very bleak in Berlin. Defeat is almost certain once France enters the war on Turn 2. The only hope is to quickly knock Russia out of the war. This is a tall order given the difference in the sizes of the two armies. The Russian's Achilles heel, however, is their stability. If the Germans can seize 4 keys the Russians will collapse. Germany is going to mobilise much faster and should be able to strike very quickly in the opening phases of the war, however, everything needs to go the German's way as the front will bog down into trench warfare from the second turn onwards.

Germany will need to maintain a monitoring force against France and possibly Austria who also have an interest in an Entente victory. This means that the Ottomans will need to adopt a Russia first strategy also.

Alas, the Empire in Asia and Africa is going to have to be let go. Asia is already a lost cause, but Africa has initially more favourable prospects. Still an all in effort against Russia is going to be required to have any chance.

Turn 1

The Germans mobilise their reserves and are poised to strike eastwards. Russia calls up their reserves and adopts a forward deployment, The Germans launch an overwhelming attack on two Russian armies in Belorussia and achieve a decisive victory sending these armies reeling and what's worse, the decisive victory costs the Russians a stability moving from 4 to 3. (Dropping to zero knocks a belligerent out of the war).

The Ottoman submarine fleet unleashes against Britain, causing them to lose 2 CP of war budget, but bringing the US closer to the Entente.

Britain redeploys an army to South Africa to head off an Ottoman Expeditionary force moving South to German controlled Rhodesia. They move their enormous navy into each of the world's oceans ready to set up a blockade.

The Ottomans build up their forces and take up positions against Russia on the Caucasus.

The Germans continue their mobilisation, raising new armies and moving the bulk of their forces east as there is one turns respite from intervention by France.

Russia also continues mobilising and builds new armies.

Russia plays their minor power card to activate Japan for Britain.

The Germans march into Russian Poland and West Ukraine spaces. Losing a key normally causes a stability loss, but Russia can ignore the first key lost due to their Scorched Earth rule. So just one stability loss to the Russians. Russia's stability is now 2 and they will suffer a -1 Battle Modifier in any combats.

The Ottomans attack and expel the Russians from Georgia. They move their fleet into the Black Sea.

The turn ends and France and Austria enter the war as belligerents. France on the side of the Entente and Austria on the side of the Alliance.

The Germans declare Sachertorte the new favourite and the name Black Forrest Cake is reclaimed.  

The colonial war is resolved in Asia and Africa. With an overwhelming preponderance of everything, the entente inflicts losses on the Germans in the Shandong Peninsula and takes Manchuria. In Africa the forces are less lopsided and a stalemate ensues.

Turn 2

All keys now have trenches, which makes them significantly more difficult to capture.

The Germans continue their build up in Russia. The Russians are now having to split their forces as they face the Ottomans advancing from the Caucasus and Austria from Romania.

Britain builds up her forces whilst the Ottomans launch a bold and risky Amphibious invasion of the Crimea. Miraculously they narrowly defeat the Russian army there by the slimmest possible margin and their navy flees to the Black Sea where they are immediately engaged by the Ottomans.  With the loss of another key, Russian stability drops to 1. Any further loss of stability will cause the Russians to surrender.

The Ottomans win a decisive naval victory over the fleeing Russian fleet and as a result Russian stability drops to zero and they immediately surrender.

These remarkable Ottoman victories tip the scales heavily in favour of the Alliance. How will Britain respond? With her navy of course.

As the players had not been expecting to fight a Great War, the disposition and types of units were not necessarily ideal and in some cases represented a significant liability. This was the case with the small German fleet based at Schleswig-Holstein.

The British launch a massive naval operation with their entire Dreadnought fleet and attendant squadrons. The Germans are somewhat protected in their harbour and the British suffer mine damage to two of their dreadnoughts. The German fleet is annihilated, and this causes them to drop three stability. One for each Dreadnought lost and one for the British Decisive victory. German stability is smashed from 6 to 3 and brings them into negative Battle Modifier territory.

With the benefit of foresight of a Great War, the Germans would not have bothered with Dreadnoughts and in any case would have dispersed them to avoid the possibility of a Decisive Victory against them and the stability loss associated with it.

In further embarrassment to the Germans, the French land an army in Schleswig-Holstein causing another -1 to German Stability.

The Germans rush armies to prevent further incursions and are now forced to garrison spaces on the Baltic to prevent further raids. The French withdraw preferring to preserve their army from certain destruction.

Elsewhere, the Austrians redeploy to Italy to threaten France, and the Ottomans are set to move against Egypt.

The Colonial war sees the last Alliance unit eliminated in Asia and the Entente takes control of the Shandong Peninsula. In Africa, the Ottoman Expeditionary force is defeated and two Ottoman colonial spaces are claimed by France.

Turn 3

The war grinds on and Austria declares war on Piedmont-Sardinia which is promptly crushed despite French intervention and support, but an important Southern front is opened against France.

France launches a successful attack into Alsace Lorraine, but suffers heavy casualties and withdraws to avoid attritional combat which they are ill placed to absorb.

Britain moves armies to France to shore up the front in the event of a German breakthrough.

At this point the players agreed to discontinue what was essentially a learning game. (There were still two possible turns to play). A lot of valuable rules insights came to the fore and these will be invaluable for future games where a Great War breaks out.

Continuing the war would have required both sides to commit to heavy attritional style trench warfare and as a result of the support rules, there were the barest of net Battle Modifiers available, meaning that all combats would have been extremely risky.

Playing out the Great War is a game within a game and completing it would almost certainly double the length of a standard game depending on when it broke out. As mentioned, it was very useful to go through the exercise as it highlighted a lot of mechanisms and rules which had not come up in the game so far. In particular it shone a very bright light on things NOT to do!