Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-39133133-20200423205640/@comment-35614398-20200507082452

UK Sep-Dec 1917 If you have time on your hands then go ahead and read the whole thing, but otherwise I guess just read about the front relevant to you.

Home Front:

- From airfields across southern Scotland, planes run sorties against the invaders. Bombs and gas canisters are dropped, and fighter planes strafe columns of troops.

- The defenders in the Highlands fall back to the River Ness and its eponymous Loch. The two isthmuses past this barrier, Inverness and Fort William, are hotly contested over, as the former is a major city and the latter is a fort (previously unused then reinstalled per the Antonine Doctrine).

- Reinforcements from the southern Western front arrive to the frontlines, reinforcing the already experienced women's legions. Additionally, a sign that the barrel is being scraped, new recruits from Guyana and the Caribbean arrive in Ireland, to transfer over to Scotland.

- The Royal Navy raids and sinks American troop convoys, though does lose a few of its ships. The battleship HMS Wessex goes down with all hands after sinking two American transports off of Scapa Flow.

Western Front:

- The benefits of Russian aid see renewed offensives in all areas of the frontline. New hope is brought to the fighting troops, that the war can be won, and soon.

- In the north, British and Belgian forces begin a campaign to liberate Bruges. A massive offensive is initiated at Torhout, pushing several miles east until the skyline of Bruges is insight. British leaders call for the Belgians to rise up and throw off their oppressors.

- In the central Western front, Canadian (in exile?) troops liberate Gedinne. Allied forces continue to push forward. By December, the Allies initiate a struggle for the town of Rochefort.

- In the south, the French begin a large-scale campaign to liberate the rest of Alsace-Lorraine. This campaign is slow however, and by December the Allies have yet to reach Strasbourg.

Arabian Front:

- The Ottomans now have been firmly driven from Mecca, despite fanatical opposition. The push continues north as the Ottoman pocket shrinks. Many Ottoman troops, mainly Bedouin, are deserting, escaping into the desert to travel to Arabia.

- Away from the frontlines, the Kitchener Doctrine is passed (right this'll sound bad). In the occupied zones, citizens are moved into "fortified residences", which are basically prison camps but without the beatings. As many as 65% of the population of Ottoman Arabia ends up in these camps by December (its the desert, there's only like a couple thousand people anyway).

- Across the British Empire, per the Kitchener Doctrine, in order to avoid riots or disruption Muslims and Arabian people are detained in camps WHICH JUST PRISON CAMPS (I need to stress this doesn't reflect my personal beliefs, this is war). In the UK the largest camp is at Wandsworth, in southwest London, reflecting the high proportion of Muslims who live in the city.

- In British Raj, Loyalist Battalions are formed comprised mainly of Hindu volunteers. These battalions are sent to Pakistan in the wake of rising anti-British sentiment in the state. In India, various Hindu religious leaders encourage signing up to the Battalions.

- Africa sees emergency measures taken into place, and in some places as a gesture of goodwill the Kitchener Doctrine is not enacted, such as in Kenya and Nigeria. Sudan sees its garrison increased, mostly by South African soldiers.

- Fighting in Medina, by now the last Ottoman stronghold in Arabia (the peninsula), reaches a crescendo of brutality. By now fighting in the city has gone on for more than a year. The soldiers fighting in the city are tired and angry, and there is an orgy of cruelty on both sides, as Ottoman peasants publically burn British soldiers and British soldiers hang peasants from mosque balconies. British tanks head an offensive to encircle the city and cut off the route of escape into the western desert. The British leading general Alexander Hamilton proposes that if the Ottomans in the city surrender, they all will be spared, and the chances of them being released in the future would be greatly increased.

- The British lose Haifa to Palestinian freedom fighters, who are then suppressed by the attacking Ottomans. A British countercounterattack then surrounds the city and forces an Ottoman withdrawal to avoid encirclement. By late-December the British have again reached Acre. Mostly the British in the Middle East are motivated by perhaps going home after their service, and are amazed by the motivation displayed by Jewish freedom fighters serving alongside them.

Balkan Front:

- When I refer to Mount Olympus I'm not referring to the singular mountain I'm referring to the whole range, which extends across the frontline like a giant wall. Anyway, fighting there continues in its stalemate. Honestly Greece as a country is ruined by this point.

- The Greeks and Portuguese at the Adriatic halt their offensive for the winter, entrenching themselves along their positions in the Shushice Valley.

- In the centre of the line, the Greeks battle the Danubians for control of the town of Ptolomeida, and a contingent of British Royal Marines does the thingy that makes Jagdkommando offensives so effective, whatever that may be.

North America:

- American assaults by now have brute forced their way down to the end of the isthmus that connects Avalon to the rest of the island. At the town of Dildo ahahahhah an American breakthrough is suppressed by a unit of tanks, one of the few on the peninsula.

- More soldiers to Avalon from Ireland. It is imperative to the British that they keep a foothold in North America, in order for an eventual counterattack or peace deal.

- British planes from the aircraft carrier Victorious drop leaflets over Gulf Coast cities.

- Various naval bases along the Gulf Coast are shelled, including Mobile and Tampa. British overconfidence is put to an end when a rapid American response at Corpus Christi ends up disabling the attacking British warship. Subsequently attacks on the American coast are less frequent.

Right ok now for the compelling Italian argument