Shri wrote:Can you guys help me a bit?
I purchased this game after BETA TESTING for TEAW, have only played WW1 Gold before this; not interested in US Civil War history to that extent so the 2 Best AGEOD games possible were- ROP and NCP, but NCP is quite old and people say- NCP2 on cards, ROP was best bet possible. I must say- excellent game, even better than TEAW, lot of complexities though AI does a few deep raids, it is ok. Also MTSG looks a bit out of place in age of Fredrick, it was more a Napoleonic innovation with much larger armies in the field.
I wanted some tips on-
-Artillery- how good is it? Historically, Fredrick was not too fond of it.
-How to attack/defeat the Swedes quickly and clean one front as Austria and France are too strong to be defeated and Russia- too strong and too far.
-Why do AAR's advise leaving Koenigsberg? i think that should mean drastic fall in NM, the Hohenzollern family capital for a long time. I won't leave it even if i lose, it is not Historical. Freddi lost a couple of big battles to the Russians in order to keep it and rightly so. It is more symbolic than Berlin.
-How to anticipate Winter? is March to October the campaign season? or should i retreat earlier?
-Taking Prag in 1756 is tough, AARs said they did it, i think i am a lousy player of ROP or too scared of Winter.
Some answers.
Artillery is vital but not the battle dominating arm it will be. If you are outnumbered (& this is common for the Austrians/French), you'll see it in the heavier losses in the range fire phase - and of course in addition to your losses you take cohesion hits;
My advice is either leave the Swedes or go in very hard. They fight poorly outside the north and suffer for supply (if I recall only have a couple of supply wagons). If you want that flank secure, don't just engage with the Prussian units that start in the north, add at least one, pref two more corps. Also move the fort guns from the mouth of the Elbe to help the siege (Narwhal did this to me very effectively). Even so its risky as you will struggle to get breaches.
Koenigsberg, you just can't hold. In earlier versions, you could exploit the game engine a little to make more of a fight of it. A competent Russian player will construct a terrifyingly effective siege force, even the best forts will be breached a level a turn. But the Russians are very fragile in open combat. So best to wait till they cross Poland and then think of a very strong riposte. A couple of heavy battles will seriously harm their offensive capacity - but as ever with Prussia, you pay a price either way. In the war, the Russians won a big battle on the outskirts in 1757 and then turned back - thats the reason for the sacking and later death of Apraksin (he was very pro-Prussian and suspected of treachery). The next summer they invaded again and took it fairly easily.
Winter in RoP isn't too bad, certainly not as grim as say Wars in America. Best solution is not to move to seek battle (cohesion losses are inevitable) and make sure you have full supply wagons with your force (to take the attrition hits). Both the Prussians and Austrians can use the Elbe to transport wagons up and down to keep an army moving. So you can campaign up to the snow as long as you are close to decent supply, just don't launch a major invasion that would mean moving turn after turn, but I've grabbed a vital fortress from an inattentive opponent by attacking in winter.
Prag in '56 is a 'balls to the wall' gamble. You need to make the Austrians fight, as if they add their intact 56 army to the 57 reinforcements you are in trouble - have a look at the AAR I did with Narwhal for the consequences of misjudging this. So decide - do you want to make the Austrians fight and take losses (in 56-57 as the Prussians you can mostly replace your lossses), or take Prag.
If the latter, you need everything, the forces in both Saxony and Silesia, use the supply trick above, and hope. If it works you can manage it (I have in one game), if it fails it will be game over. To make this worse, the game I took Prag I lost in the end. Its not a game winner, but it gives you a chance to do serious damage to the Austrians before the French and Russians are in the game.
You can eliminate MTSG with modding the game files - but I wouldn't. I think that mutual support is the only tool an Austrian player has to squeeze the movement flexibility of a competent Prussian - but it could be interesting to try the game on this basis. It also allows a Prussian player to defend the Rhineland quite effectively.