Archduke Ferdinand to the Starvation of Germany - A Paths of Glory VASSAL Game

Paths of Glory is epic. Our three-turn taster from TableTop day would never be enough, so we've jumped feet first into a full campaign over VASSAL. Stupid? Yes more than a little, but at this stage we can't get enough of a good thing.

The Campaign Scenario - 20 turns!!

The Campaign Scenario ends with any of the following:

• if a player achieves an Automatic Victory,
• at the end of the Winter 1919 turn (turn 20),
• as a result of an Armistice (16.2.1), or
• in a draw by a player accepting Peace Terms.

There are two Victory Levels for the Campaign scenario depending on whether or not the Central Powers player played the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk event. The space which the VP marker is in at the conclusion of this scenario is compared to the appropriate levels below to determine the winner.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Event Played Central Powers Victory: 11 or more Draw: 10 Allied Victory: 9 or fewer (the historical result).
 

Germans march into Sedan

No Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Event Central Powers Victory: 13 or more Draw: 10-12 Allied Victory: 9 or fewer.

In our first three-turn game I played the Germans, so this time we've switched it around with GaryB taking the (German led) Central Powers, leaving me with the Allied Powers. 

Turn #1 
The Germans select the Guns of August and power comfortably into Liege using it to brush aside the French 5th army at Sedan. The Allies respond by re-enforcing Brussels with the 1st Belgian army out of Antwerp and by assaulting with the Russian 3rd & 8th armies into Tarnopol on the Eastern Front.

Moving the Austria-Hungary (AH) 2nd army the Central Powers look to protect Czernowitz from the Russian advances. Instead the Russian 8th continues NW to take Lemberg. For a second action running (their 3rd of the turn) the Central Powers manoeuvre their forces, this time into Liege. Trying to tempt an Allied attack at Liege and open the opportunity of a flanking attack into Brussels?

Allies Stretching Their Lines Too Far Too Soon?

Resisting the Allies only move to back-up (Brussels) and maintain their momentum in the East by clearing an AH corp out of Stanislaw and putting pressure on the VP space at Czernowitz.

This was risky. The 3rd, 5th and 8th Russian armies now had very stretched supply lines.

Moving into the final few actions of Turn #1, a few corps are exchanged in Cambai, before a combined German and AH pincer movement besieges the forts at Lutsk and Dubno with some very light corp units.

I knew that I could prevent one of the forts from falling, but the other would be very likely to fall. This sat comfortably with me as I'd already made good aggressive progress in the East and would likely maintain my supply lines by re-securing Dubno.

End of Turn #1

By the end of Turn #1 the Central Powers had broken through at Liege-Sedan, but suffered significant losses to AH armies in the East.