First game completed. (and opinion/understanding)

[Micf2302]

So here is how my first game went:
Started by reorganizing Elbe army in 4 stack, Keith's column, Wedell's column, Elbe army itself and a Heavy Cavalry column from all the cav lying around. Set one column to siege pirna (Power 1300, or about) let the other columns old the third province needed.

Make Schelsen's (spelling?) army and set it to just siege Trogau (not to sure about the name, south of Kossel). Create a small cavalry detachment to support and scout for this army.

Sent all extra generals to berlin (I think it was 1* 3 star, 2*2 star and one or 2 one star general.)

1956 ends with me only taking Saxony and not much fighting. Saxony fell really quickly, so I tried to move on Prag... But the enemy was not there and decided to go back to Dresden for winter quarter.

Schlesen's army takes winter quarter in Breslau (unsuccesfull siege).

1957:
East:
Pulled all troops out of Koniesbreg (the city in east Prussia, that I expected to be overun by the Russian, turns out it might have been a mistake...) and plan on using them to defeat the Swedes and then react to the Russian. That city fell before the end of the year and I was hit by a severe -10 conscript a turn. I think it might be worth doing the same treatment I did to Kassel and Wesell (see what happened in the west) here. 10 consript a turn is a lot less depot batl.

West:
Took a defensive posture here, decided to reinforce Wesell with all I had. So chose the corresponding option, and sent all infantry and artillery units I could to hold it.
For Kassel, I ordered 2 Fort battery built (after that one fixed supply stock), left a brigade in and pulled all unit into Hannover to fight with observation army (in a lul in the siege of Wesel I sent the infantry in there too, I had pulled Ferdinand to command that area. So I had a ''multinational leader'').
These 2 cities proved to be a problem for the AI all game. I finally pulled almost all unit out of Wesell but a token garrison and it would never conquer it.

South:
I sent Keith's Column to join Schlesen's army since there was much fighting south of Breslau, but no decisive victories. All victories on that front but small and meaningless, especially when you know the Coalition can just bleed you dry. 1-1 or 2-1 casaulties ratios aren't really what you are looking for!

At the end of the year, Reicharmee walks around the Elbe and gets totally decimated by Frederick and my heavy cavalry column (3 brigades of Heavy cavalry grouped togeter!)

And of year NM for me: 160 Austria: 60

NM would slowly go back up for Austria to round 80 while mine would stay around 120-140 for the rest of the game.

1958:
Heavy fighting south of Breslau again! Not much round Dresden. All troops on swedish front are brought back south (All of the north is now mine).

Taking of Koniesgratz (the one east of Prag) early in the season, but it would fall again later. However, since it's not busy around the Elbe, I send the Elbe army to take Prag. Which was not guarded well and taken in 5 turns. The Austrian army, which was fighting south of Breslau is unable to intervene before I take it.

I set up a pretty strong Garrison here and just notice that Supply problems ARE sure to insure if you take Prag before Koniegratz in a PBEM. Cavalry and artillery can cut your supply EASILY. None the less, I'm fighting the AI and I can keep the corridor open easily for supply to flow in.

1959:
Surprisingly the AI keeps pushing for Breslau and leave Prag unattended! So I just push the Elbe army to Brunn, which is not defended and taken in 1 turn. The Whole of the united Russian/Austrian army south of Breslau should now run out of supply pretty quickly. they have only taken Kossel and the life link to there supply is cut. I proceed to take Koniesgratz before the end of the year.


I stop the game there. I have utterly decimated the Austrian, could easily have won by taking Wien and the other objective city, but didn't really feel like it.




My opinion on the game:
AI seems better at avoiding winter attrition then it used to. But it still makes pretty dumb mistake like attritionning it's army off some time. My one concern, is that it didn't seem to change it's plan after the fall of prag. I mean, Prag is central to the Austrian position. Where ever they are fighting, Prag is the key to cutting the supply to the Austrian. I had expected it to be better defended OR at least that the AI would mount very serious assault on it in the next year.

It also seems to have problems dealing with level 2 forts with 3*fort battery in it. They never made any headway with the frenchs because of that. Which made the game quite easy. I will try a game without making battery guns in the west to see.

Game Mechanics: I played BoA, so I'm pretty happy with the game mechanics. But something I noticed: the Heavy Cav Column just ate threw ANYTHING in open terrain. It wasn't funny to see at all. It faced a 40K strong army once, with it's 13-14k strong army. The end result was 80 elements destroyed for me and 400 for the Austrian army... Ouch... Heavy Cav are powerful in this game

that's all I meant to say


Fighting in the mountains: It's the Austrians' dream. Not only do they have more light infantry then you, it facilitate retreats and lower the amount of damage you can inflict. You will still win most engagements, but it will become a war of Attrition, which you can't win. Avoid fighting in the mountain as much as you can. Most things south of Breslau are NOT objective or strategic cities anyways and give you no benefit what so ever.

[Micf2302]

I was also wondering, is this game winnable as the Prussian in PBEM?

The manpower advatage of the Austrians seems just so huge that I fail to see how a patient player couldn't just steam roll Prussia. All it takes for him to win, is one horrendous defeat for Prussia. While Austria can loose some huge battles and still be in fighting shape...

[Anazagar]

I was also wondering, is this game winnable as the Prussian in PBEM?

The manpower advatage of the Austrians seems just so huge that I fail to see how a patient player couldn't just steam roll Prussia. All it takes for him to win, is one horrendous defeat for Prussia. While Austria can loose some huge battles and still be in fighting shape...

It is winnable but it sure does require some risk taking, luck and being aggresive in 57 (like the prague gambit strategy for example or destroing the Reich armee before it fully forms). Also the last activation rule eqalises the chances a lot as it makes the superior prussian leadership rly shine (and Austirans have only 1 good army commander but even he has only 4 in mobility). Don't forget that while Austria does have tons and tons of manpower it lacks money (the opposite of Prussians).

Of course you will face an uphill struggle but if you are able to achieve somewhere between 1:1,5 and 1:2 losses ratio you should be ok, anything less and you're screwed.

[Andy2]

Thanx for the report!

[Stoertebeker]

I also finished my first game.


http://img146.imageshack.us/i/siegu.png/

I have to say, that the AI was rather disappointing: Browne and the whole initial austrian army starved to death north of Prague, in the end of 1756, while I besieged the city and cut their supllies with Hussars. They didn't even try to escape. Saxony had fallen by the second turn, so when the winter kicked in, I had no enemies to fight. I decided to smash the not-yet activated Reichsarmee, which boosted my NM. In 1757 there was some serious fighting with the french and the russians.
But in Bohemia, the stupid AI tried to siege Prague and Königsgrätz, while I could easily cut their supply with Keith and conquer Olmütz and Brünn.

I played with the 1.03rc4 version. The AI had large activation and detection boni, used all behaviours and was given more time. I wished, there was a line like "care for supply=yes" in the AI files.

(By the way: Is there a way to supply the prussian Königsberg-Army? Narwhal somehow seems to have managed it, but I don't seem to get any supplies as soon as the russian fleet blockades the port.)

[Charles]

I also finished my first game.


http://img146.imageshack.us/i/siegu.png/

I have to say, that the AI was rather disappointing: Browne and the whole initial austrian army starved to death north of Prague, in the end of 1756, while I besieged the city and cut their supllies with Hussars. They didn't even try to escape. Saxony had fallen by the second turn, so when the winter kicked in, I had no enemies to fight. I decided to smash the not-yet activated Reichsarmee, which boosted my NM. In 1757 there was some serious fighting with the french and the russians.
But in Bohemia, the stupid AI tried to siege Prague and Königsgrätz, while I could easily cut their supply with Keith and conquer Olmütz and Brünn.

I played with the 1.03rc4 version. The AI had large activation and detection boni, used all behaviours and was given more time. I wished, there was a line like "care for supply=yes" in the AI files.

(By the way: Is there a way to supply the prussian Königsberg-Army? Narwhal somehow seems to have managed it, but I don't seem to get any supplies as soon as the russian fleet blockades the port.)

you could try with a smaller activation, detection bonus. I find that when the AI is given big bonuses, it is too aggressive and it is easy to cut off its supply lines. It also tends to stay out in the winter and starve to death.

I am currently playing a game (103rc4, prussia v. AI), default settings, but historical attrition for player, now up to dec. 1757, the Austrians are not very aggressive, but will fall back whenever I threaten their supply lines and take up winter quaters when the snow falls.

[Stoertebeker]

you could try with a smaller activation, detection bonus. I find that when the AI is given big bonuses, it is too aggressive and it is easy to cut off its supply lines. It also tends to stay out in the winter and starve to death.

I am currently playing a game (103rc4, prussia v. AI), default settings, but historical attrition for player, now up to dec. 1757, the Austrians are not very aggressive, but will fall back whenever I threaten their supply lines and take up winter quaters when the snow falls.

I checked the options again: AI was set to medium aggressive, +2 detection and +1 activation.

Apart from the Bohemian behaviour, AI played well. (To be clear: AI did not attack. My armies around Prague were slightly more powerful than their three columns. They seemed to wait for reinforcements to attack. Maybe it's because Prague has such a high interest value for them ... I don't know. At first I made sure also to block the neighbouring provinces to deny AI their way home. When winter kicked in, I just moved all troops to Prague and AI still didn't move.

Also the Prussian AI seems to ignore supply. One can easily cut their lines to Königsgrätz, for example.

[Narwhal]

(By the way: Is there a way to supply the prussian Königsberg-Army? Narwhal somehow seems to have managed it, but I don't seem to get any supplies as soon as the russian fleet blockades the port.)

First you need to upgrade the depot, and then you need to do a roll-over of your supply wagons by bateaux from Königsberg to the heart of Prussia. In my case, I was losing supply very slowly, and could hold maybe 10 turns without receiving fresh wagons... A long enough time to send my wagons away and have them come back.

In the AAR, I did not focus on that, but you can see the odd bateaux going in or out when I did a SC with a small zoom.