> After all the original Schlieffen plan was to have the Alsace region slowly retreat and give ground enticing the French further in That actually would be a m

> After all the original Schlieffen plan was to have the Alsace region slowly retreat and give ground enticing the French further in That actually would be a much better analogy to Cannae. Enticing them to break your center, not realizing until they're surrounded that the victory they've charged into is actually an epic defeat. I still don't understand why they'd assume French generals would do that, though. It really assumes a hopeless level of ineptitude on their part for it to work. Seems obvious to me they're better off stalling till Russians are mobilized, no matter how enticing the bait is.