Prussia in Peril - East Prussia '14 Central Powers AAR - major victory turn 114

[ComradeP]

Turn 25 06:00 23rd of August 1914



The men of Hauptreserve Koenigsberg are still waiting for the Russians.

1st Army has a release chance of 15% (23rd of August)/20% starting on the 08:00 of each day. In other words, it will never be released on the first daylight turn.



1. Reserve Division changed its deployment to a brigade in front, and heavy weapons to the rear. I wasn't sure where the Russian focal point for the crossing of the Angerapp would be, so choose a more flexible deployment closer to a primary road the Russians couldn't block.



After all that marching, the men probably won't like me, but the column is now approaching Rastenburg.



Still no Russians.



The positioning I chose for one brigade of 37. ID created a small risk of encirclement, but the situation could thankfully be rectified. Moving and assaulting in the woods is impossible, but the timing of the withdrawal of the adjacent units of 41. ID and 37. ID didn't entirely match.



As the Russian advance was not as rapid as expected, a new plan began to take shape. I Armeekorps will be moving west. At this point, I still didn't expect to achieve more than the destruction of 15th Cavalry Division with 1. Kavallerie Division. I Armeekorps would be buying the time to make that happen as I expected 6th Cavalry Division to be east of Soldau.

The placement of 6th Cavalry Division was important because without it, and with 15th Cavalry Division taking a beating, there would be no Russian mobile forces in the area to block any advance.

The curious concentration of cavalry is to keep 1. Kavallerie Division out of Russian LOS. It needed to be close enough to respond to Russian cavalry charges, but ideally wouldn't be released until a moment of my choosing instead of in case of a local emergency.

Russian air recon at Neidenburg and Usdau missed the build-up in those areas by 2-3 hexes (though what it would've spotted would depend on rolls, but enormous stacks are difficult to hide).