The Point of View of France’s Foreign Minister  

WWI JOURNAL  

A TIME OF TOTAL WAR  

France 8  

YEAR 1913  

To start the year of 1913, it is no surprise that it will be a  challenging war. As Foreign Minister of France, I know how  important each and every decision the President and I make is. Our  alliance made with Belgium today was the start to WWI for us. This  ensures that we will send defense if Belgium is attacked. Once we  mobilize our troops tomorrow I will feel much more secure when it  comes to Germany taking action against us. The President and I plan  to keep close with our alliances and make decisions as a team to be  successful. We know that we can’t win the war without the help of  our allies. Today was a surplus of thinking ahead and making sure  we will be as prepared as possible for the next war years coming.  This will be no easy challenge for us, but we strongly believe that  with smart movement of our troops and with helping each and every  one of our allies, we will be able to make an impact. The allied  powers have high hopes for WW1.

France 8  

YEAR 1914  

The start of 1914 was slow moving. This was a bit nerve  wracking for us Allies, because we had no clue what the Central  powers had up their sleeves. The first few battles did not affect us,  so we choose to highlight our own country and securing it for safety.  We chose to move troops inward and way from the coastlines to  protect our borders. Our reasoning behind this was because we do  not feel threatened by our coastlines. We feel more danger by the  borders because we have Germany and Austria-Hungary that could  come for us. As an alliance we came up with and strategized for our  first battle. It was a little defeating seeing Russia lose to the first  battle in the war so easily. But I think our alliance did and  outstanding job making a comeback. As a group we started to plan  for the attack on the Ottoman Empire. We began to prepare troops to  travel by sea over to began the attack. Both the President and I were  very eager to see Italy join our alliance. We feel they have a lot to  offer, including a shared border with Austria-Hungary. This will  help us attack them in the future. They also have an inside look on  the Central Powers motives and strategies as the Central Powers  were working to get Italy in with them. I see success in the years  coming.

France 8  

YEAR 1915  

1915 was the most eventful year yet. Here we saw every country  in the Allied powers getting involved in battles and helping each  other out. To start off, we were more focused on helping other  countries defend from invasions and planning for attack. We did not  worry about defense for France, as we feel the entire country is off  the Radar of the Central Powers. We moved troops into another  allied country for the first time, which was a huge stepping stone for  us. This felt like a true start to the war for France. We moved over  troops to Italy as backup as we were suspecting an invasion from  Austria-Hungary. We were indeed correct. This battle we were  successful, managing to hold off the central powers. The year 1915  was a successful year for us Allied Powers. We also developed  poison gas, which was a game changer for battle. We helped Serbia  hold off Austria-Hungary yet again. I feel it was our luck though as  they chose to not use poison gas. It was a close battle. Finally our  biggest success was winning part of the Ottoman Empire. This was  the battle that we had been preparing for, for 2 years. We were  successful in doing so and managed to get Bulgaria too. I am proud  to be an Allied Power, and feel we have conquered so much, and are  still not finished. 

France 8  

YEAR 1916  

This year was something else, to say the least. As soon as we  started this year, The President and I were bombarded by the rest of  our group to sign this treaty. The treaty was to make peace with  Germany. We as leaders of France were extremely hesitant and  knew that this HAD to be violating more than just our objectives.  After talking things over and deeply thinking about this, we chose to  agree. Our reasoning behind this was because we were the last  country in the Allied Powers to sign and without our signature, we  were afraid to cause conflict with the rest of the alliance. If we chose  to decline the treaty, we were potentially risking loosing 3 of our  objectives. Plus we just straight up knew that isn’t what we were to  be doing in the first place. It was a tough decision for us, but we  chose to sign. It ended up throwing Germany out of the game, which  I guess was a bonus for us. Later that year we were victorious with  the Russians as the Central powers attacked us in Russia. That  whole year kind of honestly through us off, but we came to  realization that we needed to focus on our original country, before  we put the alliance first. So that is what we plan to do for the years  coming.

France 8  

YEAR 1917  

This year, France decided we shall focus on our individual  country. We focused on how we were going to achieve each and  every one of our objectives. We got in touch with the United  States, and learned that they wanted to take a part of Germany  too. We formed a secret alliance with the US and it was this year,  1917, that it officially became one of us. We are gaining many  countries that benefit France and we all are plotting something  big. This year overall was a year of preparation and placement.  We prepared our troops to go after Germany and Austria Hungary. We have troops waiting in Russia, Romania, Italy and  France. The Unites States and us have come to an agreement to  go after the same place, G2. With this we can finally achieve our  5th and final objective. All of the allied power troops are patiently  but also eagerly ready to take on war. We have completely  surrounded the Central Powers. We are ready for year 1918.

France 8  

YEAR 1918  

And just like that, WWI is over. As foreign minister of France  I am more than impressed with how both the President and I went  through this war. To end things off, both the United states and I  had plotted a huge, game changing attack. Unfortunately we lost  time within the snap of a finger. We managed to get our troops  moved and planned to carry out our attack on Germany. We were  devastated to learn we would no longer receive an offensive turn.  We were forced to make quick thoughtless decisions. This put our  countries leaders, including myself into a quick panic and we  made decisions that was going to help us in the next turn, little  did we know it would end shortly after. The allied powers as a  whole worked tremendously together and there are was nobody  else both the President and I would want to work with. Although  the war did not end that way would have liked to, looking back  we were more than happy with our success. We managed to  achieve 5 of the 6 objectives. We will call this a win for France.

Austria-Hungary 1913 8th

There is lots of pressure in Europe. Tension is building in the European countries and war is brewing. The Slavs in Austria-Hungary are angered and I fear they will attempt to do something terrible. Germany is growing and I believe if war does break out they will be very successful with a large and incredibly strong army. My main plan is to build up my borders and wipe out Serbia while helping Germany fight a battle on 2 fronts.

Austria-Hungary 1914 8th

With the start of war all seemed well. We had a large mass of troops and our German friends were successful in their expansion to the east against the Russians. One thing I am afraid of is France and Italy ganging up on the western borders of Austria. With a large amount of mobilized armies I spread them out between all three regions leaving a large quantity of armies in the capitol fearing that Italy would join with the allies and double cross us. My plan currently is to use German troops to help defend Austrian Borders from surrounding countries that might start war. We have a secret alliance with Bulgaria and are hoping they will help us against Serbia and not flip sides.

Austria-Hungary 1915 8th

With the start of 1915 Italy has shown their true colors and sided with the allies. The mobilization of troops gave us a large mass of troops to attack with. France as I feared helped Italy reinforce the Italian capitol. We still decided to attack seeing as we still had them outnumbered. Unfortunately we could not take the capital and had lost a very large amount of troops. With Bulgaria also announcing they would be loyal to the central powers we thought it would be safe to attack Serbia. With Austrian, German, and Bulgarian troops attacking Serbia we still could not come out victorious. Our German allies continue to march east and weaken Russia. All while the Russians attempt to wipe out the Ottomans. The Ottomans and Austria did successfully defend the eastern Ottoman region from Russia. However, through many troops coming in by sea the Ottoman and Bulgarian capital was taken by the allies. 1915 was tough for the central powers. We lost these battles, but we will win the war.

Austria-Hungary 1916 8th

With the start of 1916 Germany and Russia decided they were going to make a peace treaty. The agreement entailed that Germany would go neutral and leave the central powers. They would move all of their armies out of Austria and force their armies back west out of Russian territories. Doing this they went against their two of their main objectives and the power over Germany switched to the Ottomans and Austria. The leaders of Germany were exiled. The allies all of the sudden were in shock and tactics were changed. With all of the excitement we weren’t ready for the blow in the southeast. Even with the control of the German troops there was no way of helping the trapped Ottoman armies. The leftover Ottomans and my armies decided to push to take back the capitol. The push failed but greatly weakened the armies at the Ottoman capitol. With only Austria-Hungary and Germany left the central powers chances weren’t looking great.

Austria-Hungary 1917 8th

Romania and the U.S. now side with the Allies. Since I controlled Germany and my own armies I decided I needed to pull German armies out of Russia to maintain all of the original territories. As I was doing this, Russia started to push back east so I decided to make a stand with a decent sized German army to weaken the oncoming Russians. With an amazing defense the central powers were defeated but still took out a massive chunk of the Russian army. I used German troops to heavily guard the borders which make it tough for the allies to try and push into the central powers’ territories. I believe that the British and United States navy are going to bring troops into Germany using the sea in the north. Hopefully using the mobilization of 1918 I can easily defend against an attack. I will need to see how the allies move armies to create a plan to defend the central powers’ current territories. I also want to try and keep in mind that I want to annihilate Serbia. I will have to see how 1918 starts. 

Austria-Hungary 1918 8th

War breaks out in the south!!! My plan at the start of 1918 is to finally take out Serbia. My strategy was to use a very small army to distract the armies in Romania to make it impossible for them to help defend Serbia. With a large Austrian army with a small number of Germans and poison gas, we finally succeeded in taking out the Serbians. I then strengthened my territories with no defending armies and waited to make my next move until I could see what the allies would do in response to my move. Sure enough they decided to start making movements. First off Russia tried taking their lost territory controlled by the central powers. My idea earlier was to leave a small reserve of troops there to let them think they can have it. It worked, they sent a small Russian and a very small French army to try and take it back. I seized my opportunity and pushed in a small reserve of reinforcements to easily defend with German troops. I held the Russians in the east. In addition the French and Italians decided to push into southern Austria-Hungary. They succeeded in taking the land, but it cost about half of  their troops. I then decided it was time to strike back. I used the German navy and wiped out the United States navy in the north. I wanted to push deep into the south. I took Romania with ease and with all of the action the war was over.

1913. Looking at the situation, it seems like I need to establish Naval Supremacy ASAP. The Mediterranean Fleet can likely take on the Austro-Hungarians without needing Italy’s help, and the North Sea Fleets can likely cripple any attacks on them by the Germans, and the Atlantic Fleet can reinforce it, that’ll be one of my first moves. Getting Italy on our side should be of the utmost importance given its power, getting the Balkans to help would be great, the US will be harder to convince but also takes a priority. I plan to call a meeting ASAP to talk strategy before we make any moves. Serbia should be abandoned unless we get most of the Balkans on our side, while France should be reinforced and reinforcing Russia will have to wait, France is far more important. Naval superiority, if established, will allow us free movement around Europe and the ability to possibly take the Ottoman Empire. I am extremely concerned about Great Britain’s Navy size after this, however, given that it appears I can’t build a new fleet and what’s left won’t be enough for a Gallipoli 2.0. I also heavily worry about North Africa falling to the Ottomans given our weak troop strength. Update: Italy seems to be more than happy to consider my offers of much of Austria-Hungary in exchange for assistance, Greece is very receptive to offers to Ally with my very generous offers of a larger than OTL Treaty of Sevres, Portugal actually approached us about guaranteeing our Alliance, though they might not join for a year or two. Belgium understands France will likely be attacked by Germany through Belgium, and wants us to help defend Belgium along with France. I said yes, but the French agreed with me afterwards that France’s territories, mainly F1, are far more important than Belgium and troops shouldn’t be thrown away defending Belgium when it greatly weakens France. The Russians were not very happy when I told them that taking the Dardanelles(O1) would have to wait several turns. I seriously hope America joins ASAP. My team has created a program to share our intelligence with each other. Our best guesses at enemy troop ratings based on battles will be recorded, and we are sharing our troop ratings to further coordinate our strategies, so we understand each other’s reasoning and can plan better using forces other than our own countries’ forces. At the request of the other leaders in my Alliance, I created a revolutionary formula designed to give us a rough idea of whether we can win battles. We believe this will greatly improve our decision making, allowing us to better decide where to attack and defend. 

1914. We need to take the Ottoman Empire to help Russia, we’re moving troops and ships to make that happen. The Germans won’t attack France, so we’re drawing their troops and we can’t send our British troops or they could take the British Isles. Things look bad, we are worried that Italy’s prior commitment to our alliance isn’t legitimate. We’re building up for an attack on O1 to save Russia, but that means everyone has to hold out until then. Our Alliance is going through growing pains, no one really knows what to do. I’ve been somewhat forced into the position of being the leader of my Alliance. Russia is being taken over, with my blessing they have pulled back to R1 to try to survive the CP onslaught. I’m extremely worried about Russia’s ability to survive, our main priority is helping them. Nothing much else happened this turn.

1915. This turn, our plan is to take the Dardanelles to relieve Russia, allowing their troop ratings to go up to a (still paltry) 3. We’re going to use our troops in southern France, convoyed by our navies in the Mediterranean, to take O1. The Italians, despite the doubts of my foreign minister and I, held up their end of the agreement and have declared war on the Central Powers. Their foreign minister has proved to be very valuable, coming up with more ideas than a lot of the rest of my alliance. We will have to move some troops to help them, but they will still be a net gain to have on our side. I’ll update this after the turn. We took the Dardanelles! The Ottomans foolishly moved most of their forces to O2 to fight the Russians, but with an admittedly costly attack, the Russians kept them from being able to help. After that, our masterstroke of a move took the Dardanelles despite being down 50% due to having to reinforce I1 with much of our expeditionary force. The always bright Serbians, still fighting despite barely beating back a massive Austrian attack, made a last second move to take over Bulgaria, which had sacrificed its army in a failed attempt to take the Dardanelles! I feel super relieved, in 1916 we will try to exploit our new gains!

1916.  This year was great. Ottoman stupidity led to us taking them out, while we cautiously maneuvered our way into advantageous positions. Russia will survive this year and likely the war. I’m particularly happy with the condition of the British Empire at the moment. Our colonies are safe, we haven’t lost millions of men, and we haven’t bankrupted ourselves trying to prop up the Alliance. We have kept a large standing force and suffered some casualties, but not to the extent that an entire generation of men is crippled and all of our money is used up. Not much happened beyond the Ottomans succumbing to us and us beating off some minor attacks. The biggest event was the German leadership agreeing to a peace treaty with us. However, somehow, despite their universal popularity, they were deposed in a coup. I was infuriated by this, so much bloodshed and destruction could have been avoided by this treaty.

1917. This year was a lot of maneuvering. The biggest events were several neutrals joining us in the war and Russia regaining R2 to put some space between the Germans and R1. My nations are maneuvering their troops. Realizing that the Germans will never attack France, our armies stationed there are beginning the journey south to the Austrian Front. We have a very solid position, with all of the Balkans under our control, Russia firmly not about to lose, France and Britain not even threatened, and Italy pretty safe. We are moving Armies to hit Austria-Hungary and hopefully win the war. The United States has finally given us armies with decent ratings so we can go on the offensive without needing thousands more troops than the Central Powers.

1918. This year was very frustrating. Using our freeze move against us, the Central Powers captured Romania and Serbia. We briefly had success by taking A2, but they recaptured it. The Italians and Serbians bungled their attempt to retake Serbia by attacking Serbia without freezing the nearby enemy troops. The Central Powers got one extra turn compared to us, however. If we’d had that turn, A2 would likely have held for good by us, and Serbia may have been regained. If I had to redo the game, I would have been way more aggressive and moved more troops to Italy sooner. I feel like our strategy with Russia was sound, they lost some land but survived. I also feel that compared to our World War One, Great Britain is in way better shape. We lost some troops, but weren’t gutted like in World War One, most of that generation is alive and we didn’t have to re-equip our Army after it got crippled multiple times like in our World War One. We won the war because Russia survived, and we eliminated a major Central Powers country and one minor one, while only losing some Russian territory and two minor countries ourselves, and being on the verge of finally overpowering them at the end.

United States, Period 8, 1913

A war just broke out between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. It is in my best interest to lay low and not be in the middle of this breakout. If needed, my naval troops can bring support for the Allies. However, I intend not to move any of my troops to fight against countries during this war. To ensure that this happens, I need to make peace agreements with both the allies as well as the central powers in class tomorrow. Another decision that needs to be made is whether or not I should mobilize our army. By doing this, it will allow me to get more troops available for the future, but might cause tensions to arise within other countries. 

United States, Period 8, 1914

Tensions are starting to arise as countries are starting to make secret alliances with each other, with whispers about going to war. I quickly began to put my plan into action. I secretly made an alliance with both the Allies and the Central Powers, allowing peace from the United States. Even though I made plans of peace, I made the decision to mobilize my troops. I need to be prepared for anything that may happen, and the Allies will be able to use my troops in a couple of years when needed. My country’s industrialization is striving during time, which made the decision of staying out of this war very easy. The Central Powers just announced war, and are taking over land from the Allies, staying true of our alliance together. During this time, the Allies are moving their navy troops to create a more dominant sea force, as well as moving their army troops to a more secure area to insure protection for their capitals. I need to be ready to move my navy troops to help the Allies if another war breaks out in the future, however it would be best to not move any of my troops until 1917. 

United States, Period 8, 1915

As more land is being taken and conquered by other countries, the more time is running out for my country’s peace. I plan on talking more to Great Britain as well as France tomorrow during class. I want to insure our alliance, and begin a battle plan. I want to touch base with them to see how many troops of mine that they will need. I also need to make sure that I don’t move my troops until 1917, which is when they plan on going to war. The longer that I wait to use my troops in war, the better outcome for my country. The Allies were able to maintain their control of Serbia after the attack from the Central Powers, which means they are gaining more power and more troops for future attacks. This will be beneficial to me because in the end, I will side with the Allies. Furthermore, if they gain more power, so will I. 

United States, Period 8, 1916

I’m on edge as Great Britain pulls me into a secret meeting, especially after the announcement of peace with the German leaders as the Austria-Hungary president takes over Germany’s power. This was shocking at first, however this move was beneficial to me. With the German leaders gone, that is less leaders for me to negotiate with, let alone one less leader that I have to face after I break my promise of peace with the Central Powers. However, this could also be bad for the United States and the Allies in the future as well. As Austria-Hungary’s leaders gain the power of Germany, they can manipulate and control thousands of troops for their benefit. Putting this aside, in my meeting with Great Britain we agree to align together to help take Germany’s territory. Furthermore, France and I were able to come to the conclusion that in order to win this war, I need to move all of my troops into F1 of France’s capital. This will ensure that we will be able to have enough troops to move around wherever needed, to conquer Germany’s territory within the next year. 

United States, Period 8, 1917

The Central Powers are quickly moving their troops towards Russia, in hopes of taking the capital. As Russia successfully defended their country, we quickly needed to move our troops to prepare for battle. I made the decision to move all of my troops using the British navy to land in France’s capital. To prepare for future battles, I also made the decision to move my navy across to the North Sea Zone. By doing this, my chances of attacking Germany were a lot higher than if I would have left my navy in the Atlantic Ocean. However, my alliance and I are in a tough position. We can’t move our troops through Belgium due to the inability to negotiate a common agreement to pass through their country. Another option that we are considering is to move our troops through Ardennes Forest. The problem with doing this is that we are only able to move 1,000 of our troops through there at a time. If we did this, Germany’s troops would overpower our 1,000 troops, and we would be unsuccessful in conquering their land. The only other option that we have left, is to move our troops to Italy’s capital to provide support in attacking Austria-Hungary. If we are able to conquer parts of Austria-Hungary, we would easily be able to move our troops through that land to attack Germany. 

United States, Period 8, 1918

The German and Austrian troops are closing in on us. They have found a way to conquer Serbia and Romania by moving in all of their troops for battle. Although we lost land, this was beneficial for us by having them lose a great number of troops that would have been used to block my alliance from attacking Germany. We need to quickly move my troops from the capital of France, and march them down to the capital of Italy instead. If the Allies get enough troops down to Italy, we would be successful in conquering A1 of Austria-Hungary. If we are able to conquer this land, I would be one step closer to attacking Germany’s territory. 

Halt! We are under attack by the German navy in the North Sea Zone! My troops need to stay strong during this battle to keep our stance near the German capital. We have a great chance of losing this battle due to the German navy being stronger than ours. 

As I predicted, we lost all of our naval troops in the battle against Germany. Even though we lost most of our naval troops, this can be used to our advantage. If the Germans attacked our navy in the North Sea Zone, that means that Germany thinks we are using the sea to get to their territory. If they believe we are attacking their capital, they will stabilize most of their troops in G1. By doing this, they will leave G2 with very little troops for defending. 

As the end of the year is closing in, we are still under attack from the Central Powers. The Central Powers are trying to invade parts of Italy, being unsuccessful due to the great amount of imbalance in the troops. Given the number of troops that the Central Powers started this year with, I am proud of how far the Allies have gotten and how many troops we were able to take out. At the end of this war, I am proud to be apart of the Allies!