Toaw Scenario: Brusilev

Austria, Galicia,
June 04, 1916,

Russian army of 222 units opposed to Austrian army of 234 units
for a battle of complexity 1.38 at Company(I) level
on a 10 Km/Hex map
for 46 turns of Full Day each.

by Dr. R.J. Barendse submited on 04-01-2003

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Briefing
WORLD WAR I Eastern Front Russian/Rumenian Army vs. German/Austrian Army Brusilev offensive - Galicia 1916 45 Turns One Day turns 3 june - 16 july 1916 (For a historic and design decision briefing please see the attached document) Forces: AUSTRIA Austrian Army: yellow on white Hungarian Army: yellow on Green German Army: Grey on white German Landessturm (Militia): Grey on black RUSSIA: Russian Army: Green on white Rumenian Army: Pink on red Units: Regiment/Brigade PLAYERS' NOTES Playing this scenario, the player will probably revise his opinion of those `dumb' World War I generals (`sheep leading a pack of wolves'). It will introduce him to some of the real world dillema's faced by WWI generals. In other words - this is a tough one ! Count yourself lucky if you can achieve a minor victory for either side. In the Russian case the capture of either the fortresses of Kovel or of Lemberg may result (15% chance) in an Austrian surrender. However, these places were heavily fortified and the forces required to capture either will be huge. Otherwise you must try to capture and hold the objectives in the middle of the map. In the Austrian case you will first face an uphill struggle against seemingly unstopable Russian masses. The game will probably go to your side in the middle when powerful German units become available. The situation will begin to deteriorate again by turn 32 when you get both less replacements and supplies than the Russians. Watch out whether there is an offensive on the central front. If that is cancelled be warned that the Russians get 20% more supply ! This is World War One - blood, mud and trenches. You will have to accept horrific losses with whole regiments evaporating even in transit. Austrian player take good care of the German units - particularly the combat-engineers - these are the strongest and best led formations in the game. That this is world War I means a few more things: First - World War I armies are slow ! This is fundamentally a man - horse-power army with very little motorized transport. Even though there were by 1916 substantial numbers of trucks available on the Eastern Front these are armies moving by muscle rather than engine - power. Also, a transit of ten thousands of men and the artillery fire tended to convert the terrain into a quagmire - historically the attack of the Guards in this sector at the end of july were stopped by the ubiquitous mud and don't expect your computer army to do any better. Since all other units are so slow cavalry and other fast units (such as the Honved bycicle units and the German motor-batallions) are absolutely indispensable. Austrian player be wary of sneak cossack units capturing objective in your rear - watch Szegel in particular - cossacks entering Hungary may result in Hungary splitting from the double monarchy and a Russian victory ! Second - once the units had gone over the top command was completely in the dark as to what had happened to them. Beyond the wires of the field-telephones the only way to communicate with units was by carrier-pidgeon or runner. In this game this is represented by giving all units indiscrimately very low proficiency. This is not because the troops are untrained - the Kaiser's infantry may have been the toughest army of the twentieth century - it is because of the difficulties to communicate with troops in the field. Add to this in the Austrian, Rumenian and Russian case that most of your infantry consists of pressed and bewildered peasants with little to no combat experience and you get a pretty dismal overall quality of your force. (Exception ! Austrian mountain-units, Russian Guard and Marine units) Third: in WWI "artillery conquers, infantry occupies" (Petain) Plan around the artillery ! This is particulary the case for the Russians who start with a massive amount of artillery (more than 1.250 pieces of heavy and 4.000 of light artillery !) The Russian replacement-rate is lower than the Austrian though. Conserve your artillery and look out it does n't dwindle during movement ! FORMATION STANCE A major difference between World War I and World War II was that because of the lack of radios and field-telephones coordination between units of the same division was extremely difficult. In addition the Russian and Austrian system of command were ponderous and slow and because of the high losses of both in 1914 most officers were inexperienced. German and Austrian HQ's were constantly at loggerheads too. Within the Austrian army again there was both a deep animosity and a linguistic cleft between the Honved infantry and the Austrian units.Because of this ALL Russian formations except units assigned to armies and fronts have been set to internal support only. Likewise all Rumenian units.In the Austrian army all Hungarian units (yellow on green) are set on internal support only. Austrian units will collaborate with other Austrian formations but not with the Hungarian units Since Austrian and German units detested each other, German will only give limited support to Austrian units. Except units belonging to the two German Army Group present (OK Suedost and OK Karpaten) which - alone - are set on free support. THEATER INTELLIGENCE Though both Russia and the central power had by 1916 a substantial airforce `tactical' airpower had very little impact on the Eastern Front. It was mostly used for intelligence gathering. I have therefore not used air-units. By 1916 the Austrian army was suffering from massive desertions of Slav troops to the Russians. I have vectored this in by giving the Russians a better theater intelligence than the Austrians; this will increase if the Russians enter Czech soil at Uszock. SPECIAL 1.) Effects of other fronts: Since Germany was fighting a war on two fronts and Austria on three fronts fighting on the Eastern Front is deeply influenced by events elsewhere. The fighting in Galicia was simultanuous to that in Verdun and the English/French offensive on the Somme. The beginning of the Somme offensive necessitated Germany to shift men and resources to the Western Front. To reflect this Austrian supplies are decreased to 90% when the Allied bombardment on the Somme begins and Austrian replacements are decreased to 70% from turn 32 onward once the offensive gets underway. 2.)Replacements By 1916 both Germany and Austria were reaching the bottom of their manpower reserves, while their industrial production peaked. Mainly because of an agricultural crisis Russia had more manpower available in 1916 than in 1914 while industrial production was dropping. Most of these new Russian forces were barely trained and little motivated peasants though. Russia gets a much higher replacement rate for rifles and light infantry than the central powers while its replacement rate for machine-guns and - most importantly - artillery is below that of the central powers. 3.)Rumenian entry Rumenian entry was the big joker on the eastern front in 1916. Had the Russian offensive been succesful earlier it is possible Rumenia would have entered the war in july rather than in august (as it did historically) . This might certainly have happened had Russian forces penetrated Transylvania which was claimed by Rumenia.It remained a good possibility only for the Rumenian mobilisation in 1916 was slow and it is unlikely the cautious Rumenian HQ would have risked a war before being prepared. If the Russian player takes Frankofsk in southern Transylvania four Rumenian divisions may become available to the north of Jassy. Since, however, the whole of Europe had long been speculating on a possible Roman entry and German HQ had already made contingency plans two German divisions will appear at Seret at the same time. Player's note: the Rumenian army was a grieviously underequiped and under-trained army which was not on par with the Russian let alone German forces. As was the case historically, the Rumenian `aid' may therefore actually be disadvantageous to the Russian player bringing powerful new German units into the game. Good luck you' ll need it ! Gott sei mit uns

Briefing

WORLD WAR I
Eastern Front
Russian/Rumenian Army vs. German/Austrian Army
Brusilev offensive - Galicia 1916
45 Turns
One Day turns
3 june - 16 july 1916
(For a historic and design decision briefing please see the attached document)
Forces:

AUSTRIA
Austrian Army: yellow on white
Hungarian Army: yellow on Green
German Army: Grey on white
German Landessturm (Militia): Grey on black

RUSSIA:
Russian Army: Green on white
Rumenian Army: Pink on red

Units:
Regiment/Brigade

PLAYERS' NOTES
Playing this scenario, the player will probably revise his opinion of those `dumb' World War I generals (`sheep leading a pack of wolves'). It will introduce him to some of the real world dillema's faced by WWI generals. In other words - this is a tough one ! Count yourself lucky if you can achieve a minor victory for either side.
In the Russian case the capture of either the fortresses of Kovel or of Lemberg may result (15% chance) in an Austrian surrender. However, these places were heavily fortified and the forces required to capture either will be huge. Otherwise you must try to capture and hold the objectives in the middle of the map.
In the Austrian case you will first face an uphill struggle against seemingly unstopable Russian masses. The game will probably go to your side in the middle when powerful German units become available. The situation will begin to deteriorate again by turn 32 when you get both less replacements and supplies than the Russians. Watch out whether there is an offensive on the central front. If that is cancelled be warned that the Russians get 20% more supply !
This is World War One - blood, mud and trenches. You will have to accept horrific losses with whole regiments evaporating even in transit. Austrian player take good care of the German units - particularly the combat-engineers - these are the strongest and best led formations in the game. That this is world War I means a few more things:
First - World War I armies are slow ! This is fundamentally a man - horse-power army with very little motorized transport. Even though there were by 1916 substantial numbers of trucks available on the Eastern Front these are armies moving by muscle rather than engine - power. Also, a transit of ten thousands of men and the artillery fire tended to convert the terrain into a quagmire - historically the attack of the Guards in this sector at the end of july were stopped by the ubiquitous mud and don't expect your computer army to do any better.
Since all other units are so slow cavalry and other fast units (such as the Honved bycicle units and the German motor-batallions) are absolutely indispensable. Austrian player be wary of sneak cossack units capturing objective in your rear - watch Szegel in particular - cossacks entering Hungary may result in Hungary splitting from the double monarchy and a Russian victory ! Second - once the units had gone over the top command was completely in the dark as to what had happened to them. Beyond the wires of the field-telephones the only way to communicate with units was by carrier-pidgeon or runner. In this game this is represented by giving all units indiscrimately very low proficiency. This is not because the troops are untrained - the Kaiser's infantry may have been the toughest army of the twentieth century - it is because of the difficulties to communicate with troops in the field. Add to this in the Austrian, Rumenian and Russian case that most of your infantry consists of pressed and bewildered peasants with little to no combat experience and you get a pretty dismal overall quality of your force. (Exception ! Austrian mountain-units, Russian Guard and Marine units)
Third: in WWI "artillery conquers, infantry occupies" (Petain) Plan around the artillery ! This is particulary the case for the Russians who start with a massive amount of artillery (more than 1.250 pieces of heavy and 4.000 of light artillery !) The Russian replacement-rate is lower than the Austrian though. Conserve your artillery and look out it does n't dwindle during movement !

FORMATION STANCE

A major difference between World War I and World War II was that because of the lack of radios and field-telephones coordination between units of the same division was extremely difficult. In addition the Russian and Austrian system of command were ponderous and slow and because of the high losses of both in 1914 most officers were inexperienced. German and Austrian HQ's were constantly at loggerheads too. Within the Austrian army again there was both a deep animosity and a linguistic cleft between the Honved infantry and the Austrian units.Because of this ALL Russian formations except units assigned to armies and fronts have been set to internal support only. Likewise all Rumenian units.In the Austrian army all Hungarian units (yellow on green) are set on internal support only. Austrian units will collaborate with other Austrian formations but not with the Hungarian units Since Austrian and German units detested each other, German will only give limited support to Austrian units. Except units belonging to the two German Army Group present (OK Suedost and OK Karpaten) which - alone - are set on free support.

THEATER INTELLIGENCE

Though both Russia and the central power had by 1916 a substantial airforce `tactical' airpower had very little impact on the Eastern Front. It was mostly used for intelligence gathering. I have therefore not used air-units. By 1916 the Austrian army was suffering from massive desertions of Slav troops to the Russians. I have vectored this in by giving the Russians a better theater intelligence than the Austrians; this will increase if the Russians enter Czech soil at Uszock.

SPECIAL

1.) Effects of other fronts:

Since Germany was fighting a war on two fronts and Austria on three fronts fighting on the Eastern Front is deeply influenced by events elsewhere.
The fighting in Galicia was simultanuous to that in Verdun and the English/French offensive on the Somme. The beginning of the Somme offensive necessitated Germany to shift men and resources to the Western Front. To reflect this Austrian supplies are decreased to 90% when the Allied bombardment on the Somme begins and Austrian replacements are decreased to 70% from turn 32 onward once the offensive gets underway.

2.)Replacements

By 1916 both Germany and Austria were reaching the bottom of their manpower reserves, while their industrial production peaked. Mainly because of an agricultural crisis Russia had more manpower available in 1916 than in 1914 while industrial production was dropping. Most of these new Russian forces were barely trained and little motivated peasants though. Russia gets a much higher replacement rate for rifles and light infantry than the central powers while its replacement rate for machine-guns and - most importantly - artillery is below that of the central powers.

3.)Rumenian entry
Rumenian entry was the big joker on the eastern front in 1916. Had the Russian offensive been succesful earlier it is possible Rumenia would have entered the war in july rather than in august (as it did historically) . This might certainly have happened had Russian forces penetrated Transylvania which was claimed by Rumenia.It remained a good possibility only for the Rumenian mobilisation in 1916 was slow and it is unlikely the cautious Rumenian HQ would have risked a war before being prepared.
If the Russian player takes Frankofsk in southern Transylvania four Rumenian divisions may become available to the north of Jassy. Since, however, the whole of Europe had long been speculating on a possible Roman entry and German HQ had already made contingency plans two German divisions will appear at Seret at the same time.
Player's note: the Rumenian army was a grieviously underequiped and under-trained army which was not on par with the Russian let alone German forces. As was the case historically, the Rumenian `aid' may therefore actually be disadvantageous to the Russian player bringing powerful new German units into the game.
Good luck you' ll need it !
Gott sei mit uns