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Jason came over on June 24th for another round of Pursuit of Glory. Everything went better this time, with Jason getting through traffic somewhat better, and both of us in good practice with the rules and early game events. We reprised our roles from the previous game, and I stuck with the standard opening at Fao, though I went for a bigger Russian attack, rather than trying to pick off cavalry divisions.

Mobilization went about as normal through most of Turn 2. Jason, fearing a repeat of last time, got troops up to the Suez canal during Turn 1, and that’s where things started going wrong for him. Churchill Prevailed, and the British fleet made it all the way through the Bosporus and shelled Constantinople, though it failed to reduce the final fort to open a real supply line to Russia. However, the two elite BR divisions were sent to Pt. Said, and from there I was able to break the Ottoman line and threaten the rest of the area. The Indians also made a little progress in Mesopotamia, knocking out a Marsh Arab tribe on the way, and Secret Treaty allowed me to get parts of Persia, while Jason was too busy to interfere.

End of Turn 2.

I pushed further in Turn 3, taking Jifjaffa in Suez, and Isfahan in Persia. The Russians were doing most of this activity, and also attacked out of Azerbaijan and took Van. I was also having to spend some effort trying to sort out my supply lines as pressure started mounting in the main Russian/Ottoman border. During Turn 4 The Turks hit the Russians hard, defeating Yudenich, and a panicked call to Save Tiflis drove the main line back to Kars. The Indians finally organized two corps in Mesopotamia, and after a lot of back and forth in Sinai, the British landed in Jaffa to support the advance (I really hadn’t wanted to do that, but there was a corps waiting in Adana, and the advance really needed the help in the face of two other corps in the region. In other news Parvus went to Berlin, and Bulgaria entered the war.

End of Turn 4.

Turn 5 saw more pressure from me on all fronts, as the Russians took Hamadan and threatened Mosul. Indian troops in Mesopotamia started advancing, taking Kut, and Commonwealth troops stormed Gaza. VPs fell to 6 during this turn, Jihad was down to 4, and RU VPs were also at 4. CP war status was slightly ahead (8-7), and Gorlice-Tarnow had removed a RU corps.

Turn 6 saw a real setback for me as Jason threw the Brits back out of Jaffa, defeating Maude, and threatening my hold on southern Palastine with his corps. However, Armenian Uprising, while it couldn’t really break any supply, did make things uncomfortable for the Turks around Mus, and took temporary control of Diyarbekir.

But things turned back around as I pushed back onshore with a combined attack (to avoid the water crossing), and then took Jerusalem, and headed north. Meanwhile, the Indians occupied Ctesiphon and Museyib, preparing for a simultaneous push on Damascus and Baghdad at the end of the turn. Jason wasn’t able to re-take anything important enough, and lost at the end of the turn with 0VP.

End of Turn 7, and game.

It was reasonably sure, but I did gamble hard on that last turn, since I burned through a number of units and CC card, leaving me four OPS plays and two 1-OP rounds. If I’d had to go to Turn 8, I might have had some real problems. Jason was having the usual CP problem of recycling units, as the eliminated pile kept growing even with moderate RP use, while I mostly managed to empty my eliminated units box again.

As mentioned, the real trouble started with shelling Constantinople, and getting a good combat on Romani. That turned Palestine into the center of gravity for the rest of the game, followed by my invasion in Jaffa, which gave me the ability to supply regular BR corps in the area, which completely outclass the TU-A ones that are easy to raise there. The advance in Mesopotamia started slower than I wanted, as I took a while to get Indian Reinforcements so I could organize their two corps there.

Jason really needed to find time for at least some action in the Balkans. Any sort of distraction would have been good, and taking Belgrade would have made my end-game push a lot chancier. He also needs to get more used to using SR instead of transferring a bunch of units a little distance, to completely re-organize threatened theaters (I admit to having the same problem as the CP…).