The Great War

[shoop76]

I guess I am just disagree with Duk's assessment. Shoop has not won this event. It seems participation has been steady throughout and there has been no increase in these last 2 events. I also don't see anyone here posting that change is necessary. I think if you want to increase participation you need to run some smaller tournaments. Most of these tourneys have a high game load which scares people away.

[iAmCaffeine]

I guess I am just disagree with Duk's assessment. Shoop has not won this event. It seems participation has been steady throughout and there has been no increase in these last 2 events. I also don't see anyone here posting that change is necessary. I think if you want to increase participation you need to run some smaller tournaments. Most of these tourneys have a high game load which scares people away.

+1

[lanceeee]

As having just started the tournament within in the last couple of months, I don't have the expectation that I could win it over someone that has already been playing a year. I started playing because I like trench games and there have been some good trench tournaments recently.

Having secondary scoreboards, such as by year or phase (such as a trench phase of the war) would be a way to entice people to start playing or continue playing.

[Dukasaur]

We can postpone a decision for a while.

DoomYoshi has returned, and he was written the next three tournaments for us. They are much smaller affairs than the gargantuan things I've been writing lately, so I'm willing to let them stand as 2-medal tournaments.

Would this make everyone happier: A toned-down version of my previous proposal, in which we keep small, basic tournaments at 2 medals, but still increase the number for the larger ones?

Here they are: borrowing heavily from second Isonzo.

[spoiler=Third Isonzo]Instead of adding more troops, this time Cadorno wanted to add more artillery. What ensued was predictably the same as the last two attempts.

18 players Begin

The Isonzo campaigns were overseen by the Chief of the Italian General Staff, Luigi Cadorna. Born in Piedmont prior to Italian Unification, he was too young to participate in most of the reunification wars, but took up active service in the army at the age of 18 and marched at the final occupation of Rome at the age of 20.

Tournament Phase 1: Luigi Cadorna began his military service during the Italian Unification
Five 6-player Assassin games, No Spoils, Unlimited, fog, and trench, on Unification Italy.

15 players advance

The Austrian defense was organised by Svetozar Borojević. "Sveto" was a hero to his troops, and military historians have rated him as one of the best commanders of WW I on any side. Svetozar Borojević was a true representative of the polyglot Habsburg empire. Descended from Serbian ancestors, born in a Slovene community, he spoke Croatian and always considered himself a Croat. He married a German girl, was educated in Austrian military schools and was a loyal soldier of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the war he attempted to live in Croatia, but was treated as a traitor and humiliated, whereupon he settled on the Austrian side of the border. The linguistic intolerance that began in the 19th century intensified in the 20th. The Croats could not accept this honourable man who was a throwback to a nobler time when fealty was given irrespective of linguistic jingoism.

Tournament Phase 2: Svetozar Borojević, a true polyglot, led the Austrian defense at the Isonzo.
Five 3-player Standard games, zombie, adjacent, foggy, on Austro-Hungarian Empire map.

12 players advance

Adding 1300 pieces of artillery was supposed to be the difference maker in this campaign.

Tournament Phase 3: Additional artillery
Six 6-player Terminator games, flat rate, chained, on a bombardment map: [Castle Lands, Stalingrad, Pearl Harbor, Waterloo, Monsters, Duck and Cover][/spoiler]

[spoiler=Fourth Isonzo]Barely two weeks later, the fighting was renewed. The Italians had made some progress, although in the era of trench warfare that didn't mean much. This was the last of the battles in 2014, as the winter chill began to set in. Both armies had now taken heavy casualties and were under-supplied. The Austrians begged the Germans to declare war on Italy. However, it wasn't until August of 1916 that Italy declared war on Germany.

18 players Begin

The Isonzo campaigns were overseen by the Chief of the Italian General Staff, Luigi Cadorna. Born in Piedmont prior to Italian Unification, he was too young to participate in most of the reunification wars, but took up active service in the army at the age of 18 and marched at the final occupation of Rome at the age of 20.

Tournament Phase 1: Luigi Cadorna began his military service during the Italian Unification
Five 6-player Standard games, flat rate, parachute, fog, and trench, on Unification Italy.

15 players advance

The Austrian defense was organised by Svetozar Borojević. "Sveto" was a hero to his troops, and military historians have rated him as one of the best commanders of WW I on any side. Svetozar Borojević was a true representative of the polyglot Habsburg empire. Descended from Serbian ancestors, born in a Slovene community, he spoke Croatian and always considered himself a Croat. He married a German girl, was educated in Austrian military schools and was a loyal soldier of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the war he attempted to live in Croatia, but was treated as a traitor and humiliated, whereupon he settled on the Austrian side of the border. The linguistic intolerance that began in the 19th century intensified in the 20th. The Croats could not accept this honourable man who was a throwback to a nobler time when fealty was given irrespective of linguistic jingoism.

Tournament Phase 2: Svetozar Borojević, a true polyglot, led the Austrian defense at the Isonzo.
Five 3-player Assassin games, nuclear, unlimited, foggy, on Austro-Hungarian Empire map.

12 players advance

Unlike the Christmas truce of last year's Western Front, this was just one of the problems of fighting in mountains. As the snow begins to fall, the already futile battles became pointless and both sides started to examine their losses.

Tournament Phase 3: The winter brings supply problems and peace
Five 12-player Terminator games, Escalating, Unlimited on Hive[/spoiler]

It seems we haven't had a basic tourney in a while.
[spoiler=Gulf of Riga]Gulf of Riga August 8-19, 1915

As an offshoot to the Gorlice-Tarnow offensive, the German Navy wanted to capture Riga. There are two passages into the Gulf of Riga. One is the Moonsound which runs to the north of Saaremaa and the other is the Irben Strait to the south. The Russians had military camps on Saaremaa, so an attack through the narrow Moonsound would be impossible. The Irben Strait was heavily mined. This battle marks one of the only Russian victories in the months leading up to the Great Retreat.

Many reading this will understand how the plan failed. Some strategist in an ivory tower came up with a design, but without experience in practical issues, failed to present a workable plan. That, combined with some luck for the Russians and British, ended in a total failure. Riga would not fall until 1917 although it was recognized by the Germans, British and Russians as a port of great interest from 1915-1917. It was deemed inconsequential by the Russians not 6 months earlier (before they realized that Poland would fall).

This is a simple, 3 round tournament, with each round representing one failure of foresight. All rounds are 5 2-player standard settings (except where noted) games with a score reset.

Round 1: Nightfall The flagship of the Russian fleet was the Borodino class Battleship, the Slava. It was actually built for the Russo-Japanese war, so it was pretty outdated (i.e. it had a figurehead!). The German fleet was technically superior, and their fleet consisted of 8 dreadnoughts, with accompaniment, but minesweeping takes time. In the early days, they ran out of daylight, even though it was July.

Map: Island of Doom and Dust Bowl (the killer neutrals represent minefields)
Settings: Fog of War

Round 2: Fuel By the 12th, the German fleet would have been low on fuel. They had to return to Kiel to refuel. By this time, 2 minesweepers had already been sunk.

Map: Age of Realms 2
Settings: Adjacent (since you constantly have to "return to base" to refuel)


Round 3: The Second Attempt On the 16th, the Germans returned and lost another minesweeper, a destroyer and a torpedo boat to mines. After finally clearing the minefield, a submarine torpedoed one of the dreadnoughts, and the operation was considered too expensive to continue. The Slava had been hit, but there were no real Russian losses. The battle could have continued, but this already started exposing one of the follies of the dreadnought era. Defensive naval operations currently had the advantage - why should countries spend so much money on these huge dreadnoughts?

Map: Puget Sound
Settings: Trench Warfare (defensive advantage)

Round 4: All the Follies! Combines all 3 previous rounds.

Map: [Island of Doom, Dustbowl, AoR2, Puget Sound]
Settings: [Escalating, Adjacent], [Fog, Sun], [Trench, Normal][/spoiler]

[Tviorr]

As having just started the tournament within in the last couple of months, I don't have the expectation that I could win it over someone that has already been playing a year. I started playing because I like trench games and there have been some good trench tournaments recently.

Having secondary scoreboards, such as by year or phase (such as a trench phase of the war) would be a way to entice people to start playing or continue playing.

Thats a good idea.

[shoop76]

We can postpone a decision for a while.

DoomYoshi has returned, and he was written the next three tournaments for us. They are much smaller affairs than the gargantuan things I've been writing lately, so I'm willing to let them stand as 2-medal tournaments.

Would this make everyone happier: A toned-down version of my previous proposal, in which we keep small, basic tournaments at 2 medals, but still increase the number for the larger ones?

Here they are: borrowing heavily from second Isonzo.

[spoiler=Third Isonzo]Instead of adding more troops, this time Cadorno wanted to add more artillery. What ensued was predictably the same as the last two attempts.

18 players Begin

The Isonzo campaigns were overseen by the Chief of the Italian General Staff, Luigi Cadorna. Born in Piedmont prior to Italian Unification, he was too young to participate in most of the reunification wars, but took up active service in the army at the age of 18 and marched at the final occupation of Rome at the age of 20.

Tournament Phase 1: Luigi Cadorna began his military service during the Italian Unification
Five 6-player Assassin games, No Spoils, Unlimited, fog, and trench, on Unification Italy.

15 players advance

The Austrian defense was organised by Svetozar Borojević. "Sveto" was a hero to his troops, and military historians have rated him as one of the best commanders of WW I on any side. Svetozar Borojević was a true representative of the polyglot Habsburg empire. Descended from Serbian ancestors, born in a Slovene community, he spoke Croatian and always considered himself a Croat. He married a German girl, was educated in Austrian military schools and was a loyal soldier of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the war he attempted to live in Croatia, but was treated as a traitor and humiliated, whereupon he settled on the Austrian side of the border. The linguistic intolerance that began in the 19th century intensified in the 20th. The Croats could not accept this honourable man who was a throwback to a nobler time when fealty was given irrespective of linguistic jingoism.

Tournament Phase 2: Svetozar Borojević, a true polyglot, led the Austrian defense at the Isonzo.
Five 3-player Standard games, zombie, adjacent, foggy, on Austro-Hungarian Empire map.

12 players advance

Adding 1300 pieces of artillery was supposed to be the difference maker in this campaign.

Tournament Phase 3: Additional artillery
Six 6-player Terminator games, flat rate, chained, on a bombardment map: [Castle Lands, Stalingrad, Pearl Harbor, Waterloo, Monsters, Duck and Cover][/spoiler]

[spoiler=Fourth Isonzo]Barely two weeks later, the fighting was renewed. The Italians had made some progress, although in the era of trench warfare that didn't mean much. This was the last of the battles in 2014, as the winter chill began to set in. Both armies had now taken heavy casualties and were under-supplied. The Austrians begged the Germans to declare war on Italy. However, it wasn't until August of 1916 that Italy declared war on Germany.

18 players Begin

The Isonzo campaigns were overseen by the Chief of the Italian General Staff, Luigi Cadorna. Born in Piedmont prior to Italian Unification, he was too young to participate in most of the reunification wars, but took up active service in the army at the age of 18 and marched at the final occupation of Rome at the age of 20.

Tournament Phase 1: Luigi Cadorna began his military service during the Italian Unification
Five 6-player Standard games, flat rate, parachute, fog, and trench, on Unification Italy.

15 players advance

The Austrian defense was organised by Svetozar Borojević. "Sveto" was a hero to his troops, and military historians have rated him as one of the best commanders of WW I on any side. Svetozar Borojević was a true representative of the polyglot Habsburg empire. Descended from Serbian ancestors, born in a Slovene community, he spoke Croatian and always considered himself a Croat. He married a German girl, was educated in Austrian military schools and was a loyal soldier of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the war he attempted to live in Croatia, but was treated as a traitor and humiliated, whereupon he settled on the Austrian side of the border. The linguistic intolerance that began in the 19th century intensified in the 20th. The Croats could not accept this honourable man who was a throwback to a nobler time when fealty was given irrespective of linguistic jingoism.

Tournament Phase 2: Svetozar Borojević, a true polyglot, led the Austrian defense at the Isonzo.
Five 3-player Assassin games, nuclear, unlimited, foggy, on Austro-Hungarian Empire map.

12 players advance

Unlike the Christmas truce of last year's Western Front, this was just one of the problems of fighting in mountains. As the snow begins to fall, the already futile battles became pointless and both sides started to examine their losses.

Tournament Phase 3: The winter brings supply problems and peace
Five 12-player Terminator games, Escalating, Unlimited on Hive[/spoiler]

It seems we haven't had a basic tourney in a while.
[spoiler=Gulf of Riga]Gulf of Riga August 8-19, 1915

As an offshoot to the Gorlice-Tarnow offensive, the German Navy wanted to capture Riga. There are two passages into the Gulf of Riga. One is the Moonsound which runs to the north of Saaremaa and the other is the Irben Strait to the south. The Russians had military camps on Saaremaa, so an attack through the narrow Moonsound would be impossible. The Irben Strait was heavily mined. This battle marks one of the only Russian victories in the months leading up to the Great Retreat.

Many reading this will understand how the plan failed. Some strategist in an ivory tower came up with a design, but without experience in practical issues, failed to present a workable plan. That, combined with some luck for the Russians and British, ended in a total failure. Riga would not fall until 1917 although it was recognized by the Germans, British and Russians as a port of great interest from 1915-1917. It was deemed inconsequential by the Russians not 6 months earlier (before they realized that Poland would fall).

This is a simple, 3 round tournament, with each round representing one failure of foresight. All rounds are 5 2-player standard settings (except where noted) games with a score reset.

Round 1: Nightfall The flagship of the Russian fleet was the Borodino class Battleship, the Slava. It was actually built for the Russo-Japanese war, so it was pretty outdated (i.e. it had a figurehead!). The German fleet was technically superior, and their fleet consisted of 8 dreadnoughts, with accompaniment, but minesweeping takes time. In the early days, they ran out of daylight, even though it was July.

Map: Island of Doom and Dust Bowl (the killer neutrals represent minefields)
Settings: Fog of War

Round 2: Fuel By the 12th, the German fleet would have been low on fuel. They had to return to Kiel to refuel. By this time, 2 minesweepers had already been sunk.

Map: Age of Realms 2
Settings: Adjacent (since you constantly have to "return to base" to refuel)


Round 3: The Second Attempt On the 16th, the Germans returned and lost another minesweeper, a destroyer and a torpedo boat to mines. After finally clearing the minefield, a submarine torpedoed one of the dreadnoughts, and the operation was considered too expensive to continue. The Slava had been hit, but there were no real Russian losses. The battle could have continued, but this already started exposing one of the follies of the dreadnought era. Defensive naval operations currently had the advantage - why should countries spend so much money on these huge dreadnoughts?

Map: Puget Sound
Settings: Trench Warfare (defensive advantage)

Round 4: All the Follies! Combines all 3 previous rounds.

Map: [Island of Doom, Dustbowl, AoR2, Puget Sound]
Settings: [Escalating, Adjacent], [Fog, Sun], [Trench, Normal][/spoiler]

Thanks duk, for listening to our opinions. What do mean with increase the larger ones? 2 medals for the winner? or more? I guess I would be fine with 2. Think this should have been done from the beginning.

[Dukasaur]

Today, December 8th, is the 100th anniversary of the first publication of In Flanders Fields by Colonel (and Doctor) John McCrae. Millions of people who know nothing else about the Great War know those poignant stanzas and the haunting voice it provides to the dead soldiers. He wrote the poem at the Second Battle of Ypres in April of 1915, but it spread slowly among friends, and was not publicly known until December 8th, 1915, when it was first published by Punch magasine in Britain. From there its fame grew, and it was soon one of the unforgettable symbols of the war.

As part of the ongoing Great War mega-event, we have put together a poetry competition:
In Flanders Fields Poetry Competition

This competition features 3 ways to win. Whether you are good at writing poetry, reciting poetry, or herding your friends to liking your posts, we have something for you.

1. There is a poetry-writing competition, where you can privately submit your poem to a judging panel of mods and admins.
2. There is a facebook-building competition, where you can post your poem on CC's Facebook page, and score points by gathering "likes".
3. There is a recitation competition, where you can record yourself reciting the original poem, and demonstrate your dramatic talents.

All three competitions have an independent (and very generous) prize structure. You can enter one, two, or all three. In addition to the announced prizes, there are special unannounced mystery prizes.

Please be sure to visit the Competition Thread and participate!

[Tviorr]

latest tourney is listing 4 tokens for the winner?

Seems a bit steep.

1 for the second place should be okay, I think.

[Dukasaur]

latest tourney is listing 4 tokens for the winner?

Seems a bit steep.

1 for the second place should be okay, I think.

We've been giving four tokens to the winner for almost a year now. That hasn't changed.

[Tviorr]

Sorry. Misread the drop list for first place. I meant medal, I guess, not token. - The one that counts on the scoreboard, whatever its called.

Only one of those for the winner of 4th Iso, so it was just because I cant read

[Dukasaur]

Sorry. Misread the drop list for first place. I meant medal, I guess, not token. - The one that counts on the scoreboard, whatever its called.

Only one of those for the winner of 4th Iso, so it was just because I cant read

Ah!

(It's okay, I get confused with the long list of items, too)

[Dukasaur]

Colonel John McCrae opened today. This tournament is the perfect companion to the In Flanders Fields creative component. This tournament celebrates the life of Colonel John McCrae, the author of In Flander Fields.

So that all Conquer Clubbers can participate in this special time, it is a freemium-exemption tournament.

[spoiler=colonel john mccrae dec 9 to 16]Colonel John McCrae
This tournament is a natural companion to the Flanders Fields event, which in turn is part of the Great War megaevent.

I could go into detail about the life of Colonel John McCrae, but in the end it would just be thinly-veiled plagiarism, so I will just refer you to a couple of excellent websites:
http://www.flandersfieldsmusic.com/johnmccrae-bio.html
http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/first-world-war/mccrae
I earnestly hope you read those, and celebrate them on this, the 100th anniversary of the publication of In Flanders Fields.

I've written a fairly simple tournament to accompany the main event, which is the poetry contest. This tournament is a freemium-exemption tournament, so that all can participate with us.

Incidentally, John McCrae got his first medical degree at the University of Toronto, but he got a second (postgraduate degree in pathology) at McGill University. So you could say that Doctor John McCrae (at least the pathologist part) was invented at McGill University in 1903.

45 players start

(To mark the 45 years of John McCrae's life)

Growing up in the (then) small farming town of Guelph, McCrae was by all reports a gentle soul, kind to both people and animals.

Tournament Phase 1: McCrae was born and raised in Canada
Three 5-player Standard games on Canada map, default settings except trench.

Tournament Phase 2: His first introduction to the horrors of war was while serving in the Boer War
Three 9-player Terminator games on South Africa 1885 map, default settings except flat rate and fog.

Scores reset, 30 players advance

Between the Boer War and the Great War, he spent time as a successful doctor, as well as both learning and teaching at three universities: Toronto, McGill in Montreal, and the University of Vermont. It was a mostly free and pleasant part of his life.

Tournament Phase 3: He studied and/or taught at Toronto, Montreal, and Vermont
Three 6-player Standard games on Great Lakes, Montreal, and U.S.A. Northeast, default settings except freestyle and fog.

Despite reservations about the war, McCrae felt it was his duty to sign up. A letter to his mother says, "I am really rather afraid, but more afraid to stay at home with my conscience." The world was going to war, and like most people of his era he saw it as a contest between good and evil that one could not be neutral in.

Tournament Phase 4: The world was going to war, and John McCrae went with it
Three 6=player Standard games on Europe1914, default settings except flat rate and trench.

The gruesome battle of Second Ypres was the first battle when gas was used at successfully in the war, and also the first time it was used on the Western Front. McRae and his medical staff treated 4600 wounded soldiers. His good friend and former student Alexis Helmer was killed. In a pensive moment, he wrote In Flanders Fields.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields

Tournament Phase 5: Amidst the casualties at 2nd Ypres, McRae wrote In Flanders Fields
Three 5-player Terminator games on Flanders 1302 map, default settings except zombie spoils

Scores reset, 15 players advance

The British magasine Punch was the first to publish In Flanders Fields, anonymously at first. The fame of the poem spread rapidly, and it soon became the best-known poems of the war.

Tournament Phase 6: First published in London's Punch, the poem soon gained worldwide fame.
Three 5-player Terminator games on London, British Isles, and World 2.1, default settings except nuclear spoils.

John McCrae gained rank steadily. He became the Chief of Medicine at the Canadian Army hospital in Boulogne, and was given many honours, including being named Consulting Physician to the British Army. Nonetheless, he grew steadily more depressed, and his original joie de vivre left him. He died of natural causes before the war ended and is buried at the Wimereax Commonwealth Cemetery in France.

Tournament Phase 7: John McCrae died of natural causes in early 1918 and did not see the war end.
Three 5-Player Standard games on Halloween Hallows, Europa, France, default settings

Scores reset, 7 players advance

Phase 8: Finale
Thirteen 7-player Standard games on each of the 13 maps played previously, default except randomly foggy and randomly trenchy.

-- DK[/spoiler]
Please honour the dead and participate in this tournament, and please visit the poetry event and participate in that also.

[muti]

Not sure if it's just me but I don't understand which of the lists of maps in the token criteria are current and which are past. Could it be clarified please?

[Dukasaur]

Not sure if it's just me but I don't understand which of the lists of maps in the token criteria are current and which are past. Could it be clarified please?

As of August 26th:
World 2.1
Classic Cities: London
Germany
World War I Gallipoli
Battle for Iraq!
Italy
Rail Europe
Poison Rome
Land and Sea
4 Star Meats

[muti]

Thanks Dukasaur

[Dukasaur]

Ctesiphon launches tomorrow. Well, later today, I suppose (looking at clock).

[Dukasaur]

A bounty game for Great War fans: [game]16233128[/game]

The password is the name of the British general whom I described as

Almost a caricature of a bad general

(The fact that this is a Gallipoli game should steer you in the right direction.)

[Dukasaur]

Another Whac-a-Mod game for Great War fans.

[game]16236846[/game]

Pass is three words which complete this sentence: The Grand and Petite Morin are reminiscent of the

[Dukasaur]

Another Whac-a-Mod game for Great War fans.

[game]16236846[/game]

Pass is three words which complete this sentence: The Grand and Petite Morin are reminiscent of the

Yes, it's case sensitive.

[Dukasaur]

Finally, the Great War resumes!

[spoiler=Bulgaria Enters the War]Bulgaria Enters the War

The background

Bulgaria's entry in to the war represented a massive and catastrophic failure of Russian diplomacy in the years before WW I.

Since the time of Ivan III, Russia had claimed itself the legitimate heir to the Byzantine Empire and the defender of Christian nations under Turkish occupation. For a long time this was a purely symbolic claim, but from 1695 onward real fighting took place between the Russians and the Ottoman Turks, continuing through many wars including the Napoleonic Era, and culminating in the Crimean War of the 1850s. The Treaty of Paris in 1856 ended the long series of hot wars between Russia and Turkey, but ushered in a new era of cold wars, fought through proxy states in the Caucasus and the Balkans.

The Pan-Slavic movement was strongly intertwined with the new Russian-led cold war in the Balkans. Pan-Slavism began in Croatia in the 1600s but did not gain real momentum until the Prague Conference of 1848. From then on, it became a steadily greater political influence. Russia, by far the largest and most powerful Slavic nation, naturally saw itself as leader of the Pan-Slavic movement, and exploited it deftly in gathering the small Slavic nations into alliances against both the Austrian and the Turkish empires.

From 1908 on, the Ottoman Empire was in turmoil due to an internal civil war, and various nations saw opportunities to gain territory. Austria annexed Bosnia-Hercegovina, and Turkey was powerless to retaliate. Bulgaria declared independence. Italy attacked Turkey, gaining the Dodecanese Islands and Libya. Under Russian leadership, the three independent Slavic nations -- Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro -- formed the Balkan League, first as a bulwark against further Austrian expansion and second as an aggressive movement to liberate the remaining Slavic peoples under Turkish rule.

Greece also joined the Balkan League. Greece was a bit of the odd-man-out. It was the only non-Slavic nation in the League, and it was more of a British ally than a Russian one. Britain was nominally allied with Turkey, but it secretly urged Greece into the Balkan League to reduce Russian influence.

While Turkey was still in disarray due to internal strife, and still reeling from its defeat by Italy, the Balkan League struck, and the Turks were in no condition to fight back. They suffered defeat after defeat and were forced to make peace after less than 7 months of war. This was known as the First Balkan War. Huge territorial gains were made by Serbia and Greece. Much smaller gains were made by Bulgaria and Montenegro.

Serbia and Greece had both broken promises made to Bulgaria, the former in Macedonia and the latter in Thessaly. Bulgaria felt it was being cheated by its allies, and refused to demobilize its troops. On the 29th of June, just one month after the end of the First Balkan War, Bulgaria attacked Serbian and Greek positions, beginning the Second Balkan War. Montenegro immediately joined its Serbian ally, and now three of the four Balkan League partners were united against the fourth.

This was not the end of the Bulgarian troubles. Two weeks later, Romania joined the war against Bulgaria, citing a broken territorial promise. Soon afterward, the Ottomans saw a golden opportunity to regain some of their lost land, and they too joined the fray, quickly re-occupying what is now known as "European Turkey".

The Bulgarian's last hope was the alliance with Russia. If the Russians would enter the war, their huge contribution could negate all five of the nations now at war with Bulgaria. However, forced to choose between their Serbian allies and their Bulgarian allies, the Russians made a statement in favour of Serbia. Bulgaria was now alone and friendless, under attack on every border at once, and was soon defeated.


"Balkan Wars Boundaries". Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... daries.jpg

The treaty of Bucharest ended the Second Balkan War, and Bulgaria had to accept losses on every front. (map above). It was a devastating blow to Pan-Slavism, and to Russian diplomacy. The Pan-Slavic view of Bulgaria and Serbia as brother Slavs united against Turkish and Austrian influence was out the window. In its place was a very hate-filled Balkan region. Bulgaria's enemies were determined not to let it rise again, and enforced an embargo against it. Unable to purchase modern weapons from abroad, Bulgaria felt isolated and vulnerable. It was therefore ripe for German diplomatic initiatives, which were all the more welcome because of connections between the German and Bulgarian ruling families. A centuries-old alignment towards Russia was shattered in weeks, and a new alignment toward Germany began.

At the outbreak of WWI, Bulgaria was officially neutral. Both the Central Powers and the Entente courted it, but the due to the unabated hostility from Serbia and Greece the Entente had the weaker hand. After a year of diplomatic maneouvering, Bulgaria finally entered the war on the side of the Central Powers.

The Macedonia-Serbia Campaign

Bulgaria had many reasons to enter the war, but chief among them was the dispute with Serbia over who should control Vardar (Slavic) Macedonia. Accordingly, the bulk of its mobilization was aimed at Serbia. The latter had arranged half of its army on the Bulgarian border, but was expecting aid from France or Britain which never came. Meanwhile, the Germans were true to their new ally and sent the 11th German Army and the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army to open a line of supply to Bulgaria as quickly as possible. The Serbians had to bleed off part of the force they had arrayed on the Bulgarian border to face the new threat.

Within 2 days of the declaration of war on October 14th, the Bulgarians had captured the town of Vranje and thereby severed the only railway line between Serbia and Macedonia. Soon, unable to resupply and in danger of being encircled, the Serbs began retreating to Kosovo. On October 20th, the first French forces began arriving, but too late to save the situation.

The Serbian army, which had held out for more than a year against the single-front offensive of the Austrians in Croatia, was unable to cope with this sudden three-front war, facing the Austrians in the north, the Germans in the northeast, and the Bulgarians in the south. From the moment of the Bulgarian entry into the war, the Serbians were falling back in greater and greater disarray. By December 4th, all of Serbia proper was under enemy occupation, and the surviving elements of the Serbian army were retreating through Albania, from where 150,000 of them were rescued by an Allied sealift.

By December 12th all of Vardar Macedonia was also fully occupied, and the last Allied units there were withdrawn to Greek Macedonia, Greece still being neutral. The Bulgarians were tempted to follow the Allied armies into Greece and continue their conquest, but the Germans restrained them, trying to either preserve Greek neutrality or even perhaps bring Greece into the war on the Central Powers side.


"Pobedata nad syrbia" by Unknown - post card. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... syrbia.JPG
Postcard commemorating the collapse of Serbia: Kaiser Wilhelm II, Kaiser Franz Josef, and Tsar Boris III are shown over a fallen Serbian flag.

For further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgaria_during_World_War_I#Conquest_of_Serbia

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The tournament:
There will be six rounds of five 6-player games each. The 1st, 4th, and 6th will be on the Balkan Peninsula map. The 2nd round will be on Europa, the 3rd on Europe1914, and the 5th will be on Macedonia.

The 1st round will feature No Spoils, marking the root cause of Bulgaria's entry into the war -- the fact that her Balkan League partners cheated her out of the spoils of the First Balkan War. The 2nd round will feature No Forts, representing the continued embargo against Bulgaria that the former Balkan League nations maintained between the Second Balkan War and World War I. The 3rd and 4th round will feature escalating spoils, to mark the very rapid and dramatic progress of the campaign. The 5th will have a mixture of settings. The 6th and final round will feature Trench warfare, to represent the seven-month pause between the end of the Serbian campaign and the beginning of the Salonika campaign.

24 players begin

Phase 1: Bulgaria's Balkan League partners cheated her out of the spoils of the First Balkan War
Five 6-player Standard games on Balkan Peninsula map, No Spoils, random fog, no trench, random forts

Scores reset, 18 players continue
Phase 2: After the Second Balkan War, an embargo kept Bulgaria isolated
Five 6-player games on the Europa map, No Forts, one of each spoil type, random fog, random trench

Phase 3: A triple alliance of Germany, Bulgaria, and Austria-Hungary hammered the Serbian defenses
Five 6-player games on the Europe1914 map, randomly Assassin, Terminator and Standard, all Escalating, Sunny, No Trench, Chained

Scores reset, 12 players continue
Phase 4: The Serbian army fell rapidly into disarray
Five 6-player games on the Balkan Peninsula map, randomly Assassin, Terminator and Standard, all Escalating, Foggy, No Trench, Chained

Phase 5: Serbia was occupied by Dec 4th, Macedonia by Dec 12th
Five 6-player Standard games on the Macedonia map, randomly Flat Rate, Escalating, and Nuclear, randomly foggy, No Trench, Chained

Scores reset, 6 players continue
Phase 6: For most of 1916 the Balkan front was quiet, while Romania and Greece maintained armed neutrality
Five 6-player Standard games on the Balkan Peninsula map, one of each spoil type, randomly foggy, all Trench, random forts

-- DK[/spoiler]

[shoop76]

http://www.conquerclub.com/player.php?mode=autotournament&tournament_id=2769

Really, screwed by the bs tiebreak rules again. Greenbaize gets 5 free wins because his opponent turned freemium. Fine, it happens. But then you go to the tiebreak of fewest rounds for wins. He gets all those wins at 0 rounds. What an advantage and what usual cc bs. This is just one of the things that are so wrong with this site today. Everyone has known for a while now that these tiebreaks are crap and nothing is done about it.

[thelord]

Link doesnt seem to work to find eligible games?

Tokens

Upcoming change August 26th:
World 2.1
Classic Cities: London
Germany
World War I Gallipoli
Battle for Iraq!
Italy
Rail Europe
Poison Rome
Land and Sea
4 Star Meats

[spoiler=justifications]

• World 2.1 I had already intended to add to the list during Worldwide Warfare Week in April, to denote the fact that this was a worldwide conflict.
• Britain and Germany were the ubiquitous combatants, both involved in some way in every single theatre of the war, so I will try to always have a British map and a German map. Classic Cities: London and Germany get the nod this time, because they're smaller maps and a lot of the others on the list are larger maps. This means no disrespect to any of the other British and German maps; they will all get a turn at some point.
• 1915 was definitely the year of Gallipolli, from February to December. After the end of the year, we really won't have any good excuse to use Gallipoli any more, so may as well use it while we can.
• Battle for Iraq! -- a lot of interesting stuff was happening on the Mesopotamian front. Tiny battles, with participants in four digits instead of six digits like the European battles, but tactically interesting. Since we've already used Middle East recently, I'll give the nod to B for I. Don't worry about the fact that a lot of the issues are 100 years into the future. Our next-best Mideast map is Gilgamesh, which takes us 4000 years into the past!
• Italy. Besides Gallipoli, the summer of 1915 saw the entry of Italy into the war.
• Rail Europe. Rail dominated logistic concerns. A lot of the nations involved were landlocked, so could not be supplied by sea, and motorized road transport was only beginning to come into play. Rail definitely was number 1.
• Poison Rome. For several reasons. The war was definitely a family war, as the closely related Royal Families of Russia, Germany, Britain, and Greece all held to somewhat different agendas and all failed to use their family connection to broker an early peace. Assassination, prominent in Poison Rome, had an impact.
• Land And Sea. Celebrating the importance of the Navies.
• 4 Star Meats. As pamoa said, WWI was a butchery.

[/spoiler]

https://www.conquerclub.com/player.php?mode=find2&data%5Boptions%5D%5BState%5D=W&data%5Boptions%5D%5BMapNo%5D=238,16,209,53,66,132,136,90,244,118&data%5Border%5D=GameNo%20desc&data%5Btotallimit%5D=100&data%5Bjoinability%5D%5BPublic%5D=1&data%5Bjoinability%5D%5BPrivate%5D=1

EDIT:
In 1915, much is happening in the south, as campaigns in Africa and the Middle East heat up. The big operation of the year, however, is the Dardanelles-Gallipoli operation. It's time to update our token-dropping maps accordingly. On February 19th, on the 100th anniversary of the initial naval bombardment of the Gallipoli forts, we will add a new group of maps to the token-dropping list:
Gallipoli (beta) map
WWI Ottoman
Middle East
Europa
Dark Continent
Africa II
Australia
New Zealand

The current list, (Europe1914, Transsib1914, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Unification Germany, England, France1789, and Benelux) will remain active for now and continue dropping tokens for another month, until March 19th.

Original (September 17) list: Europe1914, Austro-Hungarian Empire, King of the Mountains, and Balkan Peninsula
Second (November 17) list: Europe1914, Russia as represented by Transsib1914, Austria as represented by Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany represented by Unification Germany, Britain represented by England, France represented by France1789, Belgium represented by Benelux.

[Dukasaur]

Link doesnt seem to work to find eligible games?

Seems to work fine for me. Did you remember to press "Submit" on the search form?

[Dukasaur]

New tournament launches today.

This was the last tourney written by takman2k while he was still writing for us.


[spoiler=siege of kut el amara]Siege of Kut el Amara (Nov 1915 - April 1916)

In November 1915 Sir Charles Townshend led his infantry force, the 6th (Poona) Division, on a wearisome retreat back to Kut-al-Amara, arriving in early December. His force was exhausted, so they stopped at Kut, a large British interest in the region. The rations were calculated at one month of supply, then two, then almost five months. No fewer than five attempts were made to resupply Kut from Basra, but all failed. The last relief expedition turned back on April 22nd after having suffered heavy losses. One final attempt was made to resupply Kut upriver with the paddle steamer Julnar, and it failed. Townshend requested and received an armistice. The Turks send 10 days of food while the six-day armistice was in effect. Townshend tried to ransom his troops, but Enver Pasha insisted on unconditional surrender. While the talks we ongoing, the British did take advantage of the pause by destroying anything of value in the town. The losses were: 23,000 British (above and beyond what was already lost by the relief expeditions) and 10,000 Turkish troops. It was a lopsided British defeat, one of the most humiliating in their history.

Maps:
Iraq
Middle East
WWI Ottoman

Game Settings:
2 Player
Standard
Auto
Escalating
Parachute
Foggy
20 Rounds
24 hours

Round Details:
16 players to start tourney
Rounds = 3 Games Each Player

Bracketology:
Round 1: 16 Players, Battle For Iraq
Round 2: 8 Players, Middle East
Round 3: 4 Players, WWI Ottoman
Round 4: 2 Players, One of each from previous rounds

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4021/469 ... 9f7a_z.jpg
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/ima ... 00x467.jpg

-- T2K[/spoiler]

[Dukasaur]

New freemium-friendly tournament starting at midnight tonight.

[spoiler=Morava Offensive]Morava Offensive

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morava_Offensive

The Morava Offensive Operation was undertaken by the Bulgarian First Army between 14 October 1915 and 9 November 1915 as part of the strategic offensive operation of Army Group Mackensen against Serbia in 1915. Under the command of Lieutenant General Kliment Boyadzhiev the Bulgarians seized the fortified areas of Pirot, Niš and the valley of the river Morava. As a result, the Serbian forces were compelled to retreat towards Kosovo.

In the beginning due to the harsh weather and the tough terrain the Bulgarian advance was slow but despite the desperate resistance of the defenders, there was a Bulgarian breakthrough near Pirot in 10 days and the Serbs retreated to the Timok and the Bulgarian 1st Army chased them.

The battle continued for 27 days and the Bulgarians penetrated up to 90 km deep into the Serbia's territory. The Serbs lost 6,000 men; 60 guns and a huge amount of military equipment.

The Morava Offensive is generally credited as a Bulgarian victory, and of course it largely is. However, credit needs to also be given to the German and Austro-Hungarian forces converging on Niš from the north. If the Serbians were only fighting Bulgaria, the outcome might have been different. I think of Morava as a tripartite victory.


"Pobedata nad syrbia" by Unknown - post card. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... syrbia.JPG
Postcard commemorating the collapse of Serbia: Kaiser Wilhelm II, Kaiser Franz Josef, and Tsar Boris III are shown over a fallen Serbian flag.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The tournament:
The campaign took place entirely in Serbia, but we have no Serbia map and we've already used the Balkan Peninsula quite heavily in the Bulgaria Enters the War tournament, so we won't base the theme for this one on geography. Here, the theme will be based on the fact that an alliance of three powers contributed to the victory, as shown in the postcard above. We will use the "War of the Triple Alliance" map throughout.


Everything about this campaign seems to be in multiples of three. The battle lasted 27 days (three to the power of three), three major Central Powers contributed troops, aiming at three main objectives (Pirot, Niš and the valley of the river Morava) and penetrated 90 km into Serbia, inflicting 60,000 casualties on the Serbs.

27 players will start. There will be 3 rounds of 3-player Standard games, with only the winner of each advancing. The first will be Escalating No Fog No Trench, marking the sudden beginning of the battle. The second will be Flat Rate Fog Trench, marking slow progress in the early stages of the battle, as some Serbian strongholds held up the invaders' advance. The third will be Escalating Fog No Trench Unlimited Forts, marking the wide-open advance of the invaders once the Serbian lines had cracked.

Due to the small number of games, freemiums are welcome to join. However, this is NOT a "freemium exemption" tournament. In other words, you must keep a game slot open in order to play.[/spoiler]

"Freemium-friendly" but NOT "freemium exemption." In other words, you can join but you must keep a game slot open in order to play.