Hit Replacement & Military Control in Colonies

[shindigero]

Hi, I'm very new to Pride of Nations, although I have played a small amount of CWII, so I was wondering if you guys could help me understand a few things that I've been unable to find in the manual.

The first thing is the hit replacement. I'm pretty sure I understand how it works but I'm one year into my Great Britain campaign and I've found that for several unit types I have almost 1000 hits that need replacing and I'm only able to buy a few replacement chits per turn due to a shortage of recruits. I understand that one chit can replace 10 hits but the number of hits seems to be out of control so that I can't replace them quicker than they're racking up. I have historical attrition on because I wanted to have to realistically deal with the aspect of disease etc in the 19th century so I don't know whether that's the problem. But I have no units out of supply and I only get a message saying men have been lost due to bad weather etc. once every few turns so I wouldn't have thought that would cause such a huge problem. The problem also doesn't seem constrained to the colonies as I have entire fortress artillery batteries in Britian that have almost no men left which seems excessive for only one year. I'm also at war with Burma but there's been no fighting for months and the number of hits that need replacing continues to grow.

Secondly, I'm still not entirely sure how the process of achieving a protectorate should be handled. In this context I've sent merchants to set up tradeposts in Dubai, Qatar and Kuwait and I'm up to 30% colonial penetration. I've read that by that point you should consider building a military outpost but that requires a certain level of military control. How should I go about achieving that? I've recruited some Expeditionary Brigades (one for each of the prospective colonies) but if I send them to those regions will that cause me to be at war with the current controllers? And how do I keep my men supplied? Do I just have to send them with supply trains and hope they have enough to hold out until the fort's up?

Thanks for any advice.

[loki100]

Hi, I'm very new to Pride of Nations, although I have played a small amount of CWII, so I was wondering if you guys could help me understand a few things that I've been unable to find in the manual.

The first thing is the hit replacement. I'm pretty sure I understand how it works but I'm one year into my Great Britain campaign and I've found that for several unit types I have almost 1000 hits that need replacing and I'm only able to buy a few replacement chits per turn due to a shortage of recruits. I understand that one chit can replace 10 hits but the number of hits seems to be out of control so that I can't replace them quicker than they're racking up. I have historical attrition on because I wanted to have to realistically deal with the aspect of disease etc in the 19th century so I don't know whether that's the problem. But I have no units out of supply and I only get a message saying men have been lost due to bad weather etc. once every few turns so I wouldn't have thought that would cause such a huge problem. The problem also doesn't seem constrained to the colonies as I have entire fortress artillery batteries in Britian that have almost no men left which seems excessive for only one year. I'm also at war with Burma but there's been no fighting for months and the number of hits that need replacing continues to grow.

Secondly, I'm still not entirely sure how the process of achieving a protectorate should be handled. In this context I've sent merchants to set up tradeposts in Dubai, Qatar and Kuwait and I'm up to 30% colonial penetration. I've read that by that point you should consider building a military outpost but that requires a certain level of military control. How should I go about achieving that? I've recruited some Expeditionary Brigades (one for each of the prospective colonies) but if I send them to those regions will that cause me to be at war with the current controllers? And how do I keep my men supplied? Do I just have to send them with supply trains and hope they have enough to hold out until the fort's up?

Thanks for any advice.

welcome to what can become a serious addiction.

Your first problem is triggered by a major tech change that means you have a new and wonderful rifle to kill your enemies with. The only problem is the game engine simulates the refit and retrain costs via inflicting hits. Later in the game you can manage this by pre-stocking hit points but so early that is hard. This won't help you (unless you go back a few turns) but the solution is to control how units enter the refit/upgrade cycle. Units in a green stance and on a depot have priority, units in a combat stance (orange) and not on a depot are unlikely to upgrade. If you use this trade off you can slowly cycle your army onto the new tech - in PoN you can't easily control research so its a case of working with the consequences.

If you've not gone too far, I'd be tempted to go back and try to manage the situation this way.

The colonial game needs to be taken slowly. Revolts, ungrateful locals and hostile powers are all real problems and bringing a region to colony status is a long term project. If you use colonial troops they have relatively low supply demands and you'll find that things like missions etc do generate a very small stock of supply. Otherwise anchor a fleet off shore and send supply wagons back and forth (the fleet has more supply than it needs). If the region is not controlled by another European power then there is no risk of a proper war .. but ...

if your relations with the notional local group (they will be an unorganised state) is <0, you will be plagued by uprisings (remember they don't share your views on the desirability of empire). At the extreme you can get caught in the 'large armies starve/small armies get beat' trap - if so I'd pull back and rethink. Can you get the coastal province firmly locked down (a fort plus harbour plus depot)? If so concentrate on that and then spread out. Regulars plus something with high detection are great for defensive actions in the colonial game but rubbish for pushing into enemy territory (at least till you get the late game techs).

Burma is a real challenge as it involves poor terrain (=lots of cohesion hits), plus a strong enemy. The way to play that is to take a province with light units, set up a defense, bring in some regulars, push on and so on

Have fun. You may want to have a look at 'manufacturing Italy', scattered around is a lot of discussion of game mechanics - you can find the posts from the index on p.1

edit: you can raise relations with a tribal state by sending diplomatic missions (forget the exact term), each gives you a small boost and they can't be rejected. You will need to get some areas calmed down or your entire army will be consumed in constant colonial wars

[shindigero]

That all makes a lot of sense now. I was confused as to why the Guards in London seemed to have been ravaged by an unknown plague over the course of a few months while my front-line colonial brigades in Burma appeared to be absolutely fine. If the massive need for replacements is something that can be resolved by a year or so of concerted recruitment then I think I'll just carry on and take it as a lesson learned and hope I'm not in any major wars before I can resolve that whole situation.

In terms of the colonial ventures will expeditionary brigades be enough for smaller holdings like Kuwait etc., they do seem rather weak, or is that going to require a much greater effort and a larger force of several brigades? I think what I'm unsure of is if I'm currently just taking things slowly and setting up trade posts around the world in places where I have neutral or positive relations, maybe bribing some local tribal leaders now and then. When I come to make the next step to build a military outpost does the force that I'm sending to get enough MC to build that outpost need to be just a small holding force or enough for a full blown military occupation ready to fight? I know its a hard question to ask, and I'll probably have to just try for myself but I've generally just tried to avoid antagonising too much or doing anything that's likely to cause a revolt in the hope that it'll let me avoid the large costs of deploying lots of men all around the world. I'm basically attempting slow colonisation by stealth.

In terms of Burma I've tried to take things incredibly slowly. I was attacked at the beginning of my game and I've spent almost the entire first year building depots so I can slowly move forces in and take Burma province by province, particularly focusing on the open fields before I have to go into the jungles and mountains. It seems to be working alright at the moment but if I mess up then its not too big of a problem. It would also break my immersion to see Britain carrying out an invasion without some catastrophe or blunder along the way

Thanks for the advice, its certainly made things seem more manageable. I think my issues have just been the sort that only seem like major problems when you're unsure whats causing them. Your Manufacturing Italy AAR was useful, I'll keep reading through it and I'm sure I'll post again when I inevitably have something else that stumps me. Probably about the time I have to fight my first proper war I'd imagine.

[loki100]

I took the Gulf states in my AAR and was able to use light colonial formations there. Strength of revolts is linked to population so they can be very (and I mean very) annoying but not a serious military threat (unlike in some African regions where you can re-enact Isandlwana if you are not careful). So a small force there should protect your new buildings but in other regions its more risky and it becomes a bit of a gamble. Even the biggest power on the map can't put a regular division into every province so you sometimes just have to accept lost investment due to a revolt and a rampaging group of irate locals.

[shindigero]

I think I'll go with that approach for now then and just send some small forces. One other question, I noticed in your Franco-Prussian War AAR that in the bottom left panel of the window that shows the stats for a unit there's an image of the uniform of the soldiers in that unit. I don't seem to have these. Is it an option in the menu or a bug you're aware of at all?

[Prussia]

The first thing is the hit replacement. I'm pretty sure I understand how it works but I'm one year into my Great Britain campaign and I've found that for several unit types I have almost 1000 hits that need replacing and I'm only able to buy a few replacement chits per turn due to a shortage of recruits. I understand that one chit can replace 10 hits but the number of hits seems to be out of control so that I can't replace them quicker than they're racking up. I have historical attrition on because I wanted to have to realistically deal with the aspect of disease etc in the 19th century so I don't know whether that's the problem. But I have no units out of supply and I only get a message saying men have been lost due to bad weather etc. once every few turns so I wouldn't have thought that would cause such a huge problem. ... batteries in Britain that have almost no men left which seems excessive for only one year. I'm also at war with Burma but there's been no fighting for months and the number of hits that need replacing continues to grow.

I had your setting- Historical for both player and AI during a Sardinia Piedmont run through and I lost more men in Peacetime than in combat- my units were down 1000's of men each, if I recall correctly I had a shortfall of over 30,000 men in several months. I promptly went back to the default settings- I think the historical settings is great for vaporizing units, but that's about it. My Guard Corps and other professional units were leaving faster than I could replace them- very annoying as these were/are career soldiers that were not going home to till the crops during harvest. I just don't think it works; standard is fine.

All the best.

[James D Burns]

The thing to realize about the colonial game is any colonial structure can support three elements (this is not in the manual). The colonial structures don't actually generate supply on map for use they simply allow three elements to remain supplied (I have seen a partially supplied unit become fully supplied this way so it will allow a depleted unit to resupply after some time, but no supply points get generated on map).

My tactic is to build a church and trade post and then send two three element brigades without a supply wagon. Send even one element too many and the buildings won't function as a supply source at all, so three is your max per building (I think leaders count as one of the allowed elements, though I never tried to confirm it).

That force should be strong enough to defeat most native troops that spawn if both brigades have an artillery element. Once you have a military force in the region you can then play military cards to gain military control (MC) if you want, but usually you can get to 35% colonial penetration (CP) via use of bribery cards and other cards that allow you to deal with the local chief. Once you have 35% CP everywhere the protectorate card should be available to play even if you have 0% MC.

I generally like to keep a two brigade force on a coastal region of the minor and eventually build a depot and coaling station there (you will need 100% MC for this). Once you have a functioning depot you can start bringing in more forces and supply wagons and it will make penetrating the interior of the minor much easier. But make sure you establish a good coastal embark/debark location first as its hard to move inland without wagons and actual supply points nearby that they can draw from.

Edit: One last tip. The fastest way to gain MC in a non-aligned minor is via a rebel unit. If you see a rebel unit nearby (black colored unit not aligned to the local controlling tribe in the area), leave your province and let the rebels take it and stay away until they grab 100% MC. Then return and drive off the rebel and take its control for yourself. This will allow you to grab 100% MC without needing to play cards or go to war with the local tribe.

Jim