samcster94
Banned
What year did they have the best odds in??? I know the most obvious were at the beginning(just a better military strategy might have helped) and towards the end(when the Russian government was overthrown).
1917 - the Entente were running out of everything towards the end of 1916, so a strictly neutral USA would force them to the peace table.What year did they have the best odds in??? I know the most obvious were at the beginning(just a better military strategy might have helped) and towards the end(when the Russian government was overthrown).
1914, when the Germans came oh-so close to taking Paris.
Any specific PODs?At the time of Mons/Charleroi, the Germans had a golden opportunity to eliminate both the BEF and the French V Army; a blow which would have virtually guaranteed the fall of France and Belgium before (probably well before) the year was out.
At least three.
...
Enough to be going on with?
If you managed to string those PODs together in a super combo, its only enough to win the Battle of Marne, but not enough for the immediate fall of Paris. Further, the Germans did not expect the fall of Paris to result in the immediate defeat of the French.
In 1914 the Germans were searching for a truly decisive victory over the French and the defeat or even total destruction of a single French Army does not cut the mustard. However, rolling all those additonal sixes does set them up quite nicely for victory in 1915 or more likely 1916.
It leaves the French line hanging in the air somewhere near Sedan, with three German armies, totalling approx. 700,000 men, on its flank with, at least for a time, literally nothing in front of them.
Paris can wait. If the Germans have any brains at all, they'll swing southward to trap as much as they can of the remaining French armies. If the latter stay where they are, they risk encirclement. If they fall back, they abandon the fortified line between Verdun and Belfort, allowing the other German armies, under Heeringen and the two Crown Princes, to pour across into France and threaten their other flank. And if they are falling back southward, as they probably have to, then even if they get away they probably finish up down in Burgundy or somewhere, leaving most of France wide open to attack.
I missed the POD where the Germans were unfettered by the limitations of logistics.
In reality, even if the Germans win at Marne, they are at the end of their logistical rope. Paris can wait, but it cannot be ignored, it must be masked by multiple German Corps. The same goes for Verdun. Even if the French lose an army, they still have superior logisitics/mobility, superior inteligence (aerial/ radio intercepts) and are fighting on the defensive. No matter how heavily you wank the German performance, France cannot fall in 1914, let alone Imperial Russia.