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[sup]Liège, 1914[/sup]
Background
On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia and partially mobilizes after Serbia refuses to acquiesce to all Austro-Hungarian demands following the assassination of Franz Ferdinand on June 28. On July 29, Russia orders mobilization (supporting Serbia against AH and Germany); Austria orders full mobilization on July 31 in response. After some diplomatic back and forth, Germany orders full mobilization on August 1 and declares war on Russia. The French also begin mobilization on August 1, and on August 3 Germany declares war on France after France refuses to stay neutral in the conflict between Russia and Germany.
Germany occupies Luxumbourg on August 2, and presents a "request" to neutral Belgium to allow free passage of German troops through Belgian territory. The Belgians, to Germany's surprise and anger, refuse. In response, on August 3, II Cavalry Corps storms across the Belgian border in the early-morning hours, followed on August 4 by Kluck's First Army and von Bülow's Second Army. Their goal was to seize the Meuse crossings at Liège (about 30km from the German border) and Namur to the south, while the main force of First Army completed mobilization and moved out.
The Schlieffen Plan called for the German 1.Armee to sweep across Belgium. Because of Moltke's modification to the plan to avoid violating the neutrality of the Netherlands, the city of Liège was an obstacle that could not be avoided. This city was one of the most heavily fortified cities in Europe, but it was not without weakness. Specifically, Belgium had not yet upgraded the guns of its forts with newer, more state-of-the-art pieces, and in some places there were rather large gaps between forts in the perimeter. In order for the German 1.Armee to advance through Belgium unhindered, Liège needed to be reduced and the Maas.Armee was created just for this purpose. This mixed force was commanded by General von Emmich (of the X.Korps) and comprised of five German infantry brigades from five different divisions. On the night of the 5th, with skirmishing to the northwest, German infantry moved forward and were in position to commence their crucial assault on Liège.
Units of II Cavalry Corps have reached the outskirts of Liège on the morning of August 4, with the infantry from First Army marching furiously behind it. The Belgian 3rd division under Léman, reinforced by the 15th Brigade of the 4th Divsion, prepares to resist the invasion, manning the 12 fortresses that ring the city.
(Wikipedia has a handy article about the historical battle if you'd like more information. I highly recommend reading it, it's a wild ride, particularly Ludendorff's activities during the battle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Li%C3%A8ge)
Planning
The Meuse river splits the map in half, flowing roughly north to south. High ground rests on either side of the river, forming a narrow valley. There are numerous bridges, but it is assumed that the Belgians will destroy any that they can in advance of Central Powers forces.
For the northern side of the city, we're going to hold with most of our cavalry until the motorized troops can catch up and we can get our artillery in a decent place to shell the opposite side of the river at Vise. We will send a brigade of cavalry to secure the ford at Lixhe, however.
Our main objectives are the citadels in the middle of the city, particularly the two circled here. Together, they're 2000 VP points (as they represent the administrative heart of the defense), which will help immeasurably. The forts themselves are going to be difficult nuts to crack--while they're worth 250 VP a piece, I think we'll be lucky to seize more than the three circled here, barring some crazy luck. We just don't have manpower necessary to invest more than that with any real chance of success. I'll elaborate more on this when our infantry shows up on 5 August.
On the south side of the city, we have less force but larger area for maneuvering. We'll be holding the bridge across that tributary to the Meuse, and seizing the villages of Beaufays and Amblève, but at least for today we'll be acting fairly conservatively.
Here is our initial setup. We have II Cavalry Corps [Höhere Kavallerie-Kommando 2, lit. "Higher Cavalry Command"], comprised of the 2nd, 4th, and 9th Cavalry Divisions [2. Kavallerie-Division, 4. Kavallerie-Division and 9. Kavallerie-Division]. The 2nd and 4th are assigned the northern flank, while 9th Cavalry screens the south and guards the boundary with Second Army.
Each division has three brigades, each with two regiments, plus the divisional artillery (which includes a machinegun detachment). The brigades are a mix of cavalry types, though there's not much difference between the types of cavalry unit present beyond some uniform differences (dragoons wore the Pickelhaube like the infantry, for example). Most still carried lances, particularly the uhlans and hussars.
The Uhlans regiments are broken up into four smaller units, as they're currently assigned to recon duty for the division. These detachments generally have 168 men and a morale of C, which is average. We can recombine them, and we'll probably be doing so for at least two of the brigades to provide better combat punch. Here's an example:
Morale runs from A (best) to F (worst), and represents the quality of that unit. Most of our units will be C morale, with HQ units and reserve units being D. We have a few B morale units, for the elite cavalry units that we'll see in a turn or two.
The other types of cavalry unit are all roughly similar, differing usually only in their morale. Here's a sample:
(These guys are Fixed, which means they can't move yet. This is representing the significant difficulties the Germans had in advancing due to traffic jams, random firing on units, and other disruptive activities by the Belgians.)
We also have some artillery:
These are 77mm towed howitzers, not capable of indirect fire, so we'll have to consider their position carefully, given the rather rough terrain we're in.
Also counted as part of the division artillery is the machinegun detachment:
There's one of these detachments with each division of cavalry. They're armed with the MG08, seen here, mounted on horse-drawn limbers.
In addition, we have two special units attached to 2nd Cavalry: the Guards Jäger Battalion and the Guards Schützen Battalion. These were early examples of "motorized" troops, though they're not the motorized formations we see in World War 2--mostly it's soldiers using whatever vehicles they can get their hands on to ride around, which still provided a significant mobility upgrade despite the ad-hoc nature. Each battalion has a unit of these "motorized" troops, a machinegun detachment, and a bicycle-mounted unit.
North
In the north, we have two main units available for action immediately; the others will be released over the course of the afternoon (to represent delays in the march due to roadblocks, confusion, and reported francs-tireurs). The first is the 9th Uhlans (2nd Pomeranian), on the far northern flank. The other is the 3rd Uhlans (1st Brandenburg) "Emperor Alexander II of Russia," which is currently in the vicinity of Vise and about to engage the Belgians.
We can see what appears to be roughly an infantry brigade manning temporary fortifications in and around Vise. There's three regiments, some artillery, a machinegun detachment, and an engineer company. This is too tough a nut for our currently light cavalry screen to successful engage, so we'll pull back and consolidate a bit around Vise until our own infantry arrives later in the afternoon.
South
In the south, we have a much more open situation. Our available units here are the 5th (Westphalian) Uhlans on the north side of our southern flank, and 13th (1st Hannover) King's Uhlans on the western flank.
The plan is to secure a connecting bridge with the main assault to the north with the 5th Uhlans while probing toward Beaufays, and to begin pressing westward with 13th Uhlans, splitting the regiment in two to advance, meeting near Amblève before advancing further to the north and west.