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1.0 Scope: The Standalone Mini AAR serves to provide a place for singular occurrences of activity reports from a game playthrough. 

2.0 Definitions

      2.1 Standalone Mini AAR is an AAR that is not part of a continuing story.  Hence it's duration can be a single post or several posts.  A conclusion is not necessary
           to complete the story.

I'll begin with a small AAR from The Great War Mod version 6.0 which just got released on Christmas day.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=26113.0;attach=16744;image)

Playing as Germany my forces interdict French reinforcements heading north to Brussels.  Note the three German armies in the upper left poised to attack the Belgian capital.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=26113.0;attach=16746;image)

The opposing forces.  Here we see 1560 troops divided into 6 German infantry battalions, 3 artillery pieces, 1 light infantry battalion, and 1 regiment of horse.  The general, Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, sits aside with 32 body guards to watch the battle unfold.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=26113.0;attach=16748;image)

Here we see the French reinforcements heading north composed of 580 men divided into 2 infantry battalions, 2 artillery pieces, and 1 regiment of horse which is also acting as the commander. 

The battle started with both sides trading artillery fire.  The crash of shells and shrapnel was accompanied by shattered bodies, screams of dying men, and horrific booms of thunder like noise.  The French were not expecting to be intercepted and therefore had no real battle plan except to just sit there and take volley after volley of artillery fire. 

Meanwhile the German forces began their advance towards the French positions.  The 6 German infantry battalions began a slow march in unison towards the French.  The march was slow but steady despite the rain of metal bits and shrapnel pestering their every footstep.  The light infantry stayed behind to guard the artillery pieces from a surprise enemy assault.  (This would later turn out to be an unnecessary precaution as no enemy attack materialized)

The German horse regiment began a wide sweeping approach to the left of the French positions.  Using foliage and wooded areas as concealment the horses made their way behind the enemy gun emplacements undetected. 

As the German infantry got closer the two French infantry battalions began a counter charge.  Whilst the counter charge was valiant it was quickly decimated by rapid rifle fire.  At the same time the German horse regiment pounced on the French guns putting an end to their efforts to bombard the German forces.  The battle quickly turned into a slaughter.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=26113.0;attach=16750;image)

Here we see the final results of the battle.  Only 4 French men survived this encounter.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=26113.0;attach=16752;image)

A detailed analysis of the combat units performance reveals that it was artillery that contributed to most of the enemy deaths.  Two rifle battalions also proved quite effective in killing the enemy.  Planners back home are studying these results in the hopes of improving the performance of the never before seen weapons and tactics used on this modern WW1 battlefield. 


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=26113.0;attach=16754;image)

Here we see the post battle situation.  What remains of the French forces continues northward.  Three German armies will assault the Belgian capital soon.  Another French army, commanded by Joffre, can be seen approaching from the lower left of the image above.

Cool idea for a thread.  I'll have to remember to write up some AARs for interesting games and share them here.

I just downloaded and installed The Great War v6.0! Very excited - did you play out any battle yet, W8?

Quote from: Gusington on December 28, 2021, 06:50:45 PM
I just downloaded and installed The Great War v6.0! Very excited - did you play out any battle yet, W8?

Yes indeed I did.  Several fought during the campaign.  So far no crashes.  This is much more stable than the previous version of the mod.   Very happy so far.

This is great - can't wait to try it out! Last time I tried the Great War it was still very much a work in progress (v3.0) and I did not know they were still actively working on it.

Quote from: al_infierno on December 28, 2021, 06:08:09 PM
Cool idea for a thread.  I'll have to remember to write up some AARs for interesting games and share them here.

Yeah I figured we need a place to write short stories about our gaming exploits without committing to a long AAR series.

Quote from: Gusington on December 29, 2021, 08:27:20 AM
This is great - can't wait to try it out! Last time I tried the Great War it was still very much a work in progress (v3.0) and I did not know they were still actively working on it.

It's come a long way since version 1.0
The amount of detail they put into the unit cards, the unit models, and the backstory popups that come up from time to time is amazing.  I've played now for about 2 hours and this version is stable with no crashes or other bugs.

This is a great gaming day.

^It really is Gus.  Now after spending some more  time with this mod I'm realizing that it does a great job capturing the hopelessness of WW1.  Armies can't really move very far in this mod which makes planning your moves all the more important.  You will need to rethink how you play total war games in this mod.

The other cool thing is I've got three stacks parked outside of Brussels [I'm playing as the Germans].  Opposite my forces are 2 Belgian stacks and 3 French stacks.  I tried to bust into the city but was brutally savaged by the mutually supporting enemy stacks.  Yeah, my stacks also appeared as reinforcements but it seemed that the more men poured into the battle the more lost their lives.  Pro-tip; don't try making a human wave assault against defending troops backed by artillery.  You're going to send your men to wasteful deaths. 

I've had much better luck against the Russians as they have not been able to bring all of their stacks against me at once.  I'm destroying them piecemeal but I'm also feeling and endless supply of Russians trying to batter my defenses at Konigsberg. 

What a hoot! 

So it sounds like the modders have finally been able to balance the war's stalemate with playability.

I wonder if there is actually a way to 'win' as any of the factions...

Mini AAR - [Civilization III: Conquests using fan created scenario called Overlord]

Overlord is a fan created scenario for C3C that attempts to convert Hearts of Iron III into a turn based wargame and boy does this scenario succeed magnificently in doing so.  I'm playing as the Soviets and the Axis are 6 months into the campaign having started Barbarossa in June of 1941.  One turn equals 1 week of real world time. 

Shown below is the situation at the end of week 4 of 1942 (January 1942).JAN'42 Overlord.jpg

The Wehrmacht have been besieging Tula on the outskirts of Moscow for about 4 months or 16 game turns now.  Just south of Tula lies Orel which is in danger of falling.  I've got several tank regiments trapped there supported by local militia.  Stavka has been trying to create a corridor between Tula and Orel in an attempt to rush reinforcements in but progress has been tough. 

Further south Kiev is under threat from a large Italian force of mixed units supported by lots of artillery.  Here I have a chance of holding out as the Crimea has not fallen and I'm sending unit over the Kerch peninsula to build up a counterattack.

Meanwhile our scientist have developed the 'Backhand Blow' doctrine.  The tech tree in this scenario as a spot on duplication of the HOI3 tech tree.  I'm blown away at how I'm actually playing HOI3 as a turn based game.  Paradox dropped the ball badly by not going the TBS route.  This scenario is perfect for a person who prefers not to twitch thumbs and fingers playing an RTS game.

Tech discovery.jpg

I'm impressed by the fan-conversion, but I've NEVER twitched thumbs and fingers playing the Paradox RTS strategic engine games. I can pause any time I want and issue orders, and keep the speed down slow otherwise. (Unless I'm only doing strategic development and want to move things along to the next alert.)

I hear what you're saying Jason about HOI.  I've got both 3 and 4 and yes while one can pause and issue orders, for some reason I always feel overwhelmed about what to do.  I suppose it's because I don't spend the time needed to assess the situation.  For some reason I have an easier time doing that in a turn based game. 

I do like the HOI series, I just find that I get information overload when things run at real time speed.

The enemies pressure on Tula has been relieved.  Three Soviet tank armies backed by heavy infantry and artillery support have cleared the area around Tula.  Unfortunately Orel fell a few weeks ago but now that we're gaining momentum in the central front we should be able to take the city back.

Kiev stands defiant despite continued attacks by the enemy.MAY'42 Center.jpg
Further south our forces continue to stream in across the Kerch peninsula on their way to help Kiev.
MAY'42 South.jpg

The allied 'Lend-Lease' program has begun now that the Persian corridor has been established in Shevchenko.

LendLease.jpg