Hello everybody!
Recently finished my first full campaign as Prussia and I must say that this game, like all AGEOD-games I have played, is terrific! I managed to achieve victory in 1760 by accidentally using an AI exploit. For some reason, Austria decided to put its entire army inside Olmutz during winter. In early spring I ordered my smaller Silesian-army to besiege Olmutz, hoping to at least delay the Austrians so my main army could move from Prague towards Brunn. Much to my surprise, the Austrians didn’t try to break the siege but instead surrendered after a few turns. With no Austrian army and the road to Vienna open it didn’t take me long to capture all objectives and achieve victory. Next time I will play with the house rule of not besieging enemy armies that, for no good reason, is inside a structure.
Now to my question,
As I see it, there are two possible strategies regarding recruitment, both with pros and cons:
1) Focus on replacements and use the remaining resources on recruiting new troops.
2) Focus on recruiting new troops and use the remaining resources on replacements
I play with strategy 1 as I like to keep my armies healthy. Due to the long distances from where you construct troops to your frontline, it takes a while for your newly recruited troops to reinforce your armies. This is not true for replacements as they are “teleported” to the frontline. However, focusing on replacements also mean that you will have a lot of troops “off the board” where they are useless. Which strategy do you veterans and PBEM-players prefer and why?