Retreat and Embarkation

[squarian]

Two problems in one turn - very efficient:

1) Battle at Frankfurt, French win, Brunswickers retreat across the Rhine, into enemy-controlled territory, and proceed to lay siege to Mainz. How was that again? (And this is not just the same retreat-priority issue, it's even in the same location as an instance I posted before).

2) Maquire trying to embark from Pirna onto boats in adjacent Elbe region, which have orders to move to Prague. In WIA and AACW, it's possible to embark and give orders to the ships to move in the same turn - the ships will wait for the force to embark and then move. Why isn't this working in ROP?

[Bertram]

Those were mine troops - (HES actually).

They were at defend and "green" ROE, as I expected an attack, and wanted them to retreat and delay.

At Mainz they are surrounded by red regions (ALL regions around them are red) so they can not move (unless very lucky). They also will starve there, as the enemy is now between them and their supply, and if they manage to move through the red regions it is a 30 day journey around the enemy...

Another thing we noticed: I tried several times now to attack the Austrians with a Prusian column, with an Army (with Frederic himself) and another column as back up. The first column arriving takes one look, and retreats, even when on attack and "red" ROE. Second column arriving is now unsupported, and does the same. Army never got called upon to "march to the sound of the guns". Is this WAD? Do I need to collect my troops in one big stack if I want to attack another region?

Bertram

[lodilefty]

<snip>

Another thing we noticed: I tried several times now to attack the Austrians with a Prusian column, with an Army (with Frederic himself) and another column as back up. The first column arriving takes one look, and retreats, even when on attack and "red" ROE. Second column arriving is now unsupported, and does the same. Army never got called upon to "march to the sound of the guns". Is this WAD? Do I need to collect my troops in one big stack if I want to attack another region?

Bertram

Did you select "coordinate move" on the Army Group, then move the Army Group to the target region? All the 'columns', must be "Corps" of that Army and start in the same region together, and should then all arrive together at the marching time of the slowest group....

Note: be wary of an Army Group that is "leaders only" as the leader movement type can allow water movement, thus 'breaking' the coordination of the associated Corps.

If you did all of that, then AFAIK it's not WAD...

[Bertram]

I tried to do that.... but to be honest, it is one of the features that sometimes works for me, and sometimes doesnt. Might be me...
I send in Federic (the army) and the column in question from Dresden to Pirna, in a coordinated move (estimated time 6 days). I also send in a column from the east (across the river) (eta 4 days).
The column from Dresden arrived first in Pirna, and retreated at once. No battle, only 34 hits. Frederic arrived second, and retreated at once. Forgot the number of hits, no battle either. Then there was a battle in Dresden, Frederic and column against the whole Austrian army. Prussia lost, and part of the Austrian army (one column) ended up in Dresden. The other column and their army stayed in Pirna.
After that the column from the east arrived in Pirna, and fought the whole Austrian army (and lost).
It seems the Austrians pulled of what I tried earlier: getting the whole army to fight the enemy, when advancing one column to the region, and keeping the army and the other columns one region back. Only my troops refuse to engage - not only when a region back, but even when sended in together. And this isnt the first time this game either, tried it twice before, with the same result, the leading column takes one look, and goes home. (Squarian ran on eof these turns a second time, then they engaged as intended, and won handily).

Oh, and after loosing the battle both the army (under Frederic) and the column ended up retreating across the river. As the (attempted) battle was in Pirna, and then in Dresden (where part of my troops retreated to and Squarian was headed), crossing the river after that was rather unexpected - retreatng along the river was more logical. Now I have to gather my army together again, travel north, and cross the river, before I am positioned between the Austrians and Berlin. If they also move north they can outmarch me easily. .


I noticed this behaviour (the preference to crossing rivers or larger bodies of water when retreating) in WIA, with Whasinghton (the master of retreat - he actually retreated quite often after having won a battle). But at least with hime we could think it historical (he retreated across the Delaware several times in our game).

[squarian]

Update - Having advanced-by-retreat from Frankfurt-a-M to Mainz, Wutginau's Hessians are driven back to the right bank of the Rhine at Limburg by the duc d'Orleans, who pursues and defeats Wutginau at Limburg this turn.

This time, Wutginau advances-by-retreat to the left bank at Koblenz (having now retreated across the Rhine for the third time), where he and his amphibious refugees recoil from the French troops there, retreating once more to the right bank at Limburg (the fourth time across the Rhine), where they are understandably routed.

Not yet sated with fleeing across major rivers, Wutginau's desperate band retreat again (make that five crossings) to Koblenz.

What happened next is unclear. According to the French, the remaining Hessians were crushed once more and forced to surrender. According to Hessian sources, their trigger fingers were so swollen and waterlogged from repeated immersion in the cold waters of the Rhine that they could not use their fusils and were forced to capitulate in the hope of a square meal and a pair of dry socks.

As the echo of the last volley receded in the powder-darkened twilight, a young and brave Hessian faehnrich, mortally wounded and dripping wet, was heard to gasp with his last breath, "Damn you, Wutginau, we could have retreated NORTH, toward our SUPPLY SOURCE, you old fool!"