Serbia shall live! Serbia '14 4th Invasion AAR - Central Powers conceded turn 150

[ComradeP]

Day 12, 06:00 October 18th 1915. Mud conditions. Turn 88.

I'll post these zoomed out overview screenshots for days where little has happened on the operational level the previous day.



With there being no more objective to hold in the Beograd sector, and most having been held until they expired, it's time to start pulling back my forces there. In a few days, the Morava II Division will link up with the Sokol Brigade that has been digging in at Valjevo for nearly a week by now.

The Chetniks that were with the border guard units until they withdrew are pulling back behind Morava II's screen. They'll redeploy with the divisions in the area.



The lines are starting to straighten in this sector, I would be surprised if there were Germans further south than the ones I can see.

As to losses, the last time I checked I had recovered about a quarter of my losses in terms of strength gained relative to the initial strength. The big drop in manpower compared to the initial situation in the strength dialog comes from the withdrawn Frontier Guard companies for the 1st and 3rd Armies as well as the Beograd Defence Detachment, all part of the Northern Front.

Aside from a handful of units that were hit hard, I doubt the manpower situation for the Central Powers is problematic for even one formation.

I've destroyed 3 German battalions as mentioned earlier, and "off screen" the Sumadija II Division at Knjazevac nearly wiped out a Bulgarian battalion through assaults when the Bulgarian battalion couldn't retreat due to Serbian ZOCs. With a week or so of rest, that unit should be combat capable again. The scenario is long enough to replace even disastrous losses.

I have only shown the situation in the northern part of the map since the start of the game, and this is a good time to start showing the rest.



Fortress Zajechar sector.

What's inconvenient here is that the border guard companies holding the sector north of this screenshot, where the Krajina Detachment started, belong to 3rd Army and have been withdrawn.

The A-H Landsturm brigade in the area can cross the Danube without being opposed.

The Krajina Detachment is in the woods to the north-west of the screenshot, pulling back south/south-west.

The Negotin Detachment has been moving since it was released and is now at the Velika Morava river at Paracin after following the Paracin-Zajechar primary road west for a few days.

At Zajechar fortress, the Combined Division faces the Bulgarian 6th Bdinska Division. After some initial skirmishing, not much has happened, but the Combined Division is now in position to attack an exposed Bulgarian brigade.

The border guard companies are rationalizing their positions to make sure they're not too vulnerable now that the bulk of the Combined Division will soon be in combat unless my opponent pulls back.



Fortress Knjazevac-Fortress Nis sector.

Fortress Pirot further east has been abandoned entirely as it's little more than a trap against an opponent who knows what he's doing. There are two Bulgarian divisions in the north-east and one moving up from the east along the primary road.

The Sumadija II Division will slowly change positions to a "diagonal" deployment between Nis and Knjazevac.

The Morava I Division is mostly in Nis by now, but I decided to be cautious and sent the southernmost part of the division (as shown in the initial position screenshot earlier in the thread) west through the mountains to the Tumba Detachment as I feared the Bulgarians would cut the primary road before the units could get there.

That was a correct decision as the Bulgarian 1st Sofiyska Division initially came charging up the road as if they were going on a fox hunt. They ran into the rearguard of the Timok I Division and the pace slowed after that.

Meanwhile, the Timok I Division got the heck out of dodge before the two Bulgarian divisions in front of Zajechar could cut the road by moving south.

There are only two border guard companies in the hills around Pirot, there are no other Serbian units east of this screenshot.



Vranje sector.

Here you can see the Morava I Division units I mentioned earlier as they have nearly reached the Tumba Detachment and momentary safety.

The Sumadija I Division, after marching here through Nis from their starting position west of Pirot, has exchanged blows with the Bulgarian battalions that start in the area but I don't think my opponent expected there to be a whole division here. The front has been quiet for days.

You can also see the northern part of the cavalry screen from here to positions east of Skoplje.

Which brings us to the biggest change in deployment compared to the initial situation...




Skoplje sector.

Note that in the initial situation, the only unit here is the New Territories Army HQ.

At the top of the screenshot is The Cavalry Division (not to be confused with the Bulgarian The Cavalry Division) deployed as a screen.

The green infantry counters are from the Timok II Division which moved here by train from positions south of Beograd.

From the east, the Krivopalanska Detachment is starting to arrive.

The purple counters are the lead elements of the French 156e DI that have been arriving by rail.



Further south(-east) in Macedonia, I haven't decided yet what I'll do with the Bregalnica Division after it's finally formed up in a "safe" location.



The Uzice Detachment has redeployed further north and has prepared some defensive positions which, at the moment, I don't intend to hold but which will be useful when/if the Landsturm units arrive. One unit holds Stari Grad castle at Uzice in case my opponent tries to be sneaky.

The Montenegrin forces are 6 men short compared to their starting strength, the Landsturm units on the other side of the river are not doing much at the moment.