The glorious Foreign Legion

[vaalen]

One of the many joys of playing PON is the detail given to the military and colonial system. In my current game as France, I am really enjoying the benefits of the French Foreign Legion. These units are strictly for the colonial wars, being the size of a brigade, and with the nationality "Foreign Legion" which means that most commanders have a big command penalty when trying to command them.

But they are invaluable as colonial troops, They take only ten conscripts to raise, as opposed to the 67 conscripts requirred by an ordinary colonial brigade. This must reflect that most of the men would not be French, but foreigners. They have no artillery, but the infantry is magnificent. They have very high discipline, very high initiative, are great in assault combat, have much higher cohesion, and the attribute high morale, which usually means that they shine in every battle. They are almost certain to inflict hits in every round, if you do not first wear them out through fatigue, which they are good at resisting.

In addition to this, they seem to move faster, suffer less attrition, and endure the hardships of fighting in the desert and jungle better than any other French troops. Many is the time I have used them to defeat Tuareg raiders, relieve besieged forts, and win seemingly hopeless battles against larger forces. They are not invincible, and they can be defeated and even wiped out by a much larger force of natives, but a single brigade of the Legion is a formidable force, especially in the low supply environment and harsh terrain and weather of Africa and Indochina.

You can recruit only one brigade at a time, but you can maintain more than one. And you can even buy replacements for them.

[Egg Bub]

This reminds me of similar experiences using Gurkhas.

[ERISS]

War was not the worst for them. The worst was training, war was almost a joke for them.
I talk in past sentence, for now with political corectness, the Legion can't stand too many deaths in training.

[czert2]

well, some things chane for worse.

[bwiser]

I think that after my Russia game I will try (again) France. Super-interesting nation in PON with all these special assets, dispersed colonies, the struggle in Africa and Asia and the big nemesis directly on the eastern border.

vaalen - great description - thanks

[vaalen]

War was not the worst for them. The worst was training, war was almost a joke for them.
I talk in past sentence, for now with political corectness, the Legion can't stand too many deaths in training.

So true. The words "March or die" used to be literally true for them. In training.

[vaalen]

I think that after my Russia game I will try (again) France. Super-interesting nation in PON with all these special assets, dispersed colonies, the struggle in Africa and Asia and the big nemesis directly on the eastern border.

vaalen - great description - thanks

My pleasure, bwiser. Yes, France is very interesting, and challenging, especially when you consider how hard it is to keep such a militant popylation happy. Good luck with your Russia game, it is quite a challenge to rule that vast land, with all the rebels and external enemies.

[bwiser]

My pleasure, bwiser. Yes, France is very interesting, and challenging, especially when you consider how hard it is to keep such a militant popylation happy. Good luck with your Russia game, it is quite a challenge to rule that vast land, with all the rebels and external enemies.

Thanks for you good wishes

My Russia game is going quite well so far - it is only 1859 and I have a high contentment level (98%), just recently colonized Afghanistan, just had the Peking and Aigun treaties which made China hand me over Primorie / Haishenwai provinces. Also having colonial wars with Khiva, Bukhara and Khokand which are tiresome, but which I am winning and making new colonies. I am a bit indecisive what to do when this is stabilized -maybe in the long run I will grab India from Britain in a big colonial war as loki100 recommended )

[vaalen]

Thanks for you good wishes

My Russia game is going quite well so far - it is only 1859 and I have a high contentment level (98%), just recently colonized Afghanistan, just had the Peking and Aigun treaties which made China hand me over Primorie / Haishenwai provinces. Also having colonial wars with Khiva, Bukhara and Khokand which are tiresome, but which I am winning and making new colonies. I am a bit indecisive what to do when this is stabilized -maybe in the long run I will grab India from Britain in a big colonial war as loki100 recommended )

Sounds like a great game. I am really impressed that you were able to conquer Afghanistan, with that horrible terrain, miserable weather, and the large Afghan forces. I gave up on that in my last Russian game, seemed too hard. I really like the idea of invading India. The British actually feared Russia would do just that, and it could have happened. I think it would be a fascinating war. In fact, I just might play my next game as Russia with the idea of eventually conquering India.

[bwiser]

What I did in Afghanistan was
1.) militarily, first build up strong supply lines (depot, supply carts) with depots to the Merv border, send in 1 large army and otherwise have small Cossack rider units and sending the supply carts back and forth. The task of the large army was to hold and crush the British armies. The task of the small Cossack units was to build up MC in provinces in order to play higher level CP cards - my strategic pillar described in 2.).

2.) colonisation: The whole Afghanistan campaign would not have worked without concurrently building up CP and finally founding the colony.

3.) As I just remembered I did have good relations to Afghanistan (see my EDIT comment) and was at peace with the Afghans.

Once, I did colonize Afghanistan I immidiately owned the two large and strong native Afghan army stacks which were then able together with the other Russian units to throw the Brits out and sign the peace treaty with Great Britain.

It was quite an experience with lots of thought to be put in and again showing the strong capabilities of PON and its superiority over other strategy titles like e.g. Victoria II

EDIT: I just checked old save games and realized I did NOT fight the Afghans at all (as I have written originally in the post). I only was at war with GB. Actually I did have very good relations to the Emir Muhammed the whole time. After 9 months IRL one tends to remember things differently.

[vaalen]

What I did in Afghanistan was
1.) militarily, first build up strong supply lines (depot, supply carts) with depots to the Merv border, send in 1 large army and otherwise have small Cossack rider units and sending the supply carts back and forth. The task of the large army was to hold and crush the British armies. The task of the small Cossack units was to build up MC in provinces in order to play higher level CP cards - my strategic pillar described in 2.).

2.) colonisation: The whole Afghanistan campaign would not have worked without concurrently building up CP and finally founding the colony.

3.) As I just remembered I did have good relations to Afghanistan (see my EDIT comment) and was at peace with the Afghans.

Once, I did colonize Afghanistan I immidiately owned the two large and strong native Afghan army stacks which were then able together with the other Russian units to throw the Brits out and sign the peace treaty with Great Britain.

It was quite an experience with lots of thought to be put in and again showing the strong capabilities of PON and its superiority over other strategy titles like e.g. Victoria II

EDIT: I just checked old save games and realized I did NOT fight the Afghans at all (as I have written originally in the post). I only was at war with GB. Actually I did have very good relations to the Emir Muhammed the whole time. After 9 months IRL one tends to remember things differently.

Thank you for sharing this, bwiser. Brilliant strategy, and it does show how PON can make the period come alive like no other game. Like no other game, PON rewards planning, logistics, political wisdom, and thought. So much easier to have the Afghans fighting for you rather than against you, something I well know, having lost several wars to them, both as Russia, and as GB.

[bwiser]

Thank you for sharing this, bwiser. Brilliant strategy, and it does show how PON can make the period come alive like no other game. Like no other game, PON rewards planning, logistics, political wisdom, and thought. So much easier to have the Afghans fighting for you rather than against you, something I well know, having lost several wars to them, both as Russia, and as GB.

Yes, for me PON is THE masterpiece by the two Phils - I really hope that we will see a PON 2 in some distant future. I really enjoy also the other AGEOD titles such as CW 2 or RUS and some time in the future also TEAW I'm sure, but PON is special in that you have a way broader scope of also peaceful, diplomatic, colonial and economic strategy options and you may develop your nation over a long period of time.