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sionnach
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New to AGEOD games and ROP

Sun Jan 15, 2017 11:19 am

Well as the title says, I am new to AGEOD games and its engine (and strategic games in general) but I read elsewhere that Rise of Prussia was an ideal game to start with to learn the system (plus I am really interested in Prussia in general, so it's a good fit).

Problem is, I have no idea what I am doing really. I have gone through the provided tutorials and manual, but I am still not able to even complete The Invasion of Saxony (the scenario that is recommended for beginners).

Can anyone give any tips - however generic - towards this scenario?

Anything is appreciated, thanks in advance.

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Durk
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Re: New to AGEOD games and ROP

Mon Jan 16, 2017 4:34 am

Learning the AGEOD games is often a initial challenge, but you will be rewarded.

I would suggest this:
Use the Maria Theresa at Bay scenario instead as it is very direct and has few complications.
Take the Prussian side (I assume you are playing AI)
Organize your armies. Take your existing armies and corps and try to make them better.
March your army with its associated corps in a coordinated (parallel) march to any objective.
Pick a fight with any force.

Then, if the battle is really tight, replay the turn.

If it is The Invasion of Saxony scenario in particular you wish to have ideas about, use the cntl F key combination to chase down where the objective cities for the scenario might be, they are in the next to last tab of the Global Atlas F5. Take these cities.

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loki100
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Re: New to AGEOD games and ROP

Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:11 am

Personally I played the Saxony scenario 20+ times till I was winning every game. This helped me a lot with the basic mechanics of setting orders/stances etc.

Beyond that I'd suggest reading two AARs. They are not for the current patch but the basics are sound and they will give you a lot of ideas of how to manage the game.

This was in 1.02 and from the Prussian perspective - https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/in ... rs.513080/ - is the classic RoP AAR.

This is from 1.04 and from the Austrian perspective - viewtopic.php?f=266&t=28582

You might want to look at this series of posts - http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tt.as ... mode=1&p=1. Set the filter at the top from last 365 days to 'all topics'. While they are written for Wars of Napoleon almost everything applies in Rise of Prussia so that might help you with some game mechanics.

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sionnach
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Re: New to AGEOD games and ROP

Mon Jan 16, 2017 12:01 pm

Many thanks for your replies and for all the information contained in them!

I have already read "Learning from Prussia" and found it very detailed.

As luck would have it, while I was waiting for my post to be improved, I played Saxony and won handsomely. Not 100% sure what I did differently. I haved moved on to the Maria Theresa scenario to see something different, but I will try Saxony again.

One thing I do still struggle with is the rearranging of the armies, and reducing any command percentage penalties that exist, but I suspect I will eventually get the hang of it.

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Durk
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Re: New to AGEOD games and ROP

Tue Jan 17, 2017 6:10 am

I too expect you will get this.

The deal is to make sufficient corps to contain units subordinate to your Army or Armies. Within your corps, you need fully staffed brigades.

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sionnach
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Re: New to AGEOD games and ROP

Tue Jan 17, 2017 10:24 pm

Yeah I am beginning to understand the organising armies thing a bit more, I guess it just takes time.

One thing I have noticed is that one always has to leave some troops behind in a region where a city/town is once it has been captured as otherwise the "list of objectives" doesn't mark it as belonging to whoever took it. Any recommendations on what size force one should leave?

I have been trying the "Maria Theresa at Bay" scenario and always run out of time before I manage to even get to all of the objectives, let alone capture them! (and I had some captured ones under siege by the Austrians). But I did better with my second attempt so again I guess I will learn what needs to be done.

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Durk
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Re: New to AGEOD games and ROP

Wed Jan 18, 2017 4:37 am

The unit you leave behind can be a single unit. It must be regular, not militia or cavalry. I put it in the city.

Yep, it takes some time to learn. Hope you are enjoying.

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sionnach
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Re: New to AGEOD games and ROP

Wed Jan 18, 2017 9:42 am

Durk wrote:The unit you leave behind can be a single unit. It must be regular, not militia or cavalry. I put it in the city.

Yep, it takes some time to learn. Hope you are enjoying.


Ah nice, that is what I have started to do, good to know I am on the right track.

Yep, I am so far thanks.

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sionnach
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Re: New to AGEOD games and ROP

Fri Jan 20, 2017 9:13 am

Once again I got further, but am not going to win as large Austrian armies have arrived and are taking back some of the cities and my forces are spread too thinly and are not strong enough to defeat them. I also had problems with supplies, which I think was my fault.

Living and learning!

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sionnach
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Re: New to AGEOD games and ROP

Sat Feb 04, 2017 12:24 pm

Hello! Me again, and again I am looking for more help and tips. I haven't been playing the game constantly, as life doesn't allow that, but I have tried the "Maria Theresa at Bay" scenario as Prussia a number of times, and I just cannot seem to take all the major cities, let alone the strategic ones.

My main pain points (not in the same game) are:

  • Supply. Since the cities are stretched over a wide region, one of my stacks always begins to run out of supply.
  • The French and Bavarian armies appear to be totally useless and couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag (I suspect I am not using them correctly of course)
  • I appear to need to stretch my armies across the region in order to try and take the various objectives, which leads to smaller armies which then come up against a huge Austrian one, which of course defeats mine.

And I have some questions:

  • If a stack is within 3 map areas of a depot, it should be supplied by that depot and not use any of its supply wagons, is that correct? (provided all the territory in between is controlled by me)
  • How can I best use the French and Bavarian units that appear? They are too far away from any of the Prussian generals to be joined to an army (perhaps getting a general close enough should be a priority...)
  • Any general tips on how best to reorganise the Prussian forces at the start of the scenario?

Perhaps I need to play as Austria and see what the AI does and learn from that...

Any help appreciated as I do enjoy this game. Many thanks in advance, and sorry for my basic questions, but this is my first ever proper strategy game, so there is an awful lot I need to learn.

GaiusJulius78
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Re: New to AGEOD games and ROP

Sat Feb 04, 2017 1:52 pm

Hi! As a fellow Ageod novice I can feel your pain! However, with a bit of patience and practice (as well as with the help of the AARs mentioned by Loki above) I can now tackle the two Silesian wars & the Saxon invasion scenarios consistently well (Im now 30 turns into the Great Campaign).

One of the most important things in Ageod games in my opinion is to accept the fact that not always it is possible to end the scenario with a full Victory controlling everything required in the F5 ledger. Very often you end up with a stalemate (I feel I won if my VP are higher than the AI). This is what makes them so realistic in my opinion (and that's what happened historically in many of the scenarios of Ageod games). It is up to the player to decide how well he performed in the scenarios and the final message just gives you the result against the main objectives and has o be taken with a pinch of salt.

SUPPLY
As a rule of thumb, I place a depot every 3 regions (eg city producing supply (check the supply map mode) - 3 regions - depot). Supply wagons enable collection of supply (eg an army without a supply wagon only draws supplies if adjacent to a structure producing supply, if further away you need wagons to kinda draw it).

Basically ensure that you have a depot every 3 regions and that your armies have enough supply wagons with them (and that they are fully replenished) and you should be ok.

Another good tips is to send empty supply wagons back and forth to replenish them (in evade mode to avoid being captured or even better escorted).

If I'm wrong please correct me, but I rarely struggle with supplies in this game using this rule.

FRENCH/BAVARIANS
The French armies that appear southwest of the map are led by terrible generals and their OOB is a mess, I would suggest rearranging units between them in order to reduce the CP penalty. Basically you use the '-' symbols and recreate brigades in a more optimal way. Also the stats of the brigade commanders (especially attack and defense) are quite important. Eg a 1 star commander leading a brigade with say 5-3-3 will perform better than a 4-0-0 one.

I use them to push towards Wien but don't expect them to accomplish much!

Also for Prussian armies I do the same - the starting OOB setup is not the most efficient and it helps to spend some time at the beginning of each scenario rebuilding the brigade composition (I also do it after a big battle to allow elements that received hits to rest a replenish hits).

It is very important in my opinion to try and have the best divisions compositions (eg avoid too many elite units in a single brigade but spread them around as it is less likely they get damaged).

I generally have - GRENADIERS/ELITE INFANTRY/FUSILIERS/INFANTRY 'whenever possible. It works ok for me. I would suggest not mixing cavalry and infantry in the same division and leaving units that don't consume CP (eg artillery etc) out of brigades to maximize CP use. for CP I mean command points btw.

sorry if something is not clear and apologies in advance if there's any mistakes in what I said, I am a novice myself but these tips seem to work for me. More experienced players please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong in anything I said!

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loki100
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Re: New to AGEOD games and ROP

Sat Feb 04, 2017 3:47 pm

All good advice and worth following. In the main supply is not a major limit if you manage the flow effectively - this is not AJE or WiA. But you can get caught out locally. In addition to marching wagons up/down don't ignore the rivers. Putting them on a bateaux and moving back/up that way can be incredibly effective.

More for the main campaign but if you are the Prussians and in Bohemia in winter this can be a life saver sending them back to Dresden etc. The reverse applies with the Austrians in Saxony. It also makes control of the main Elbe fortresses even more cental.

There is also the challenge of mindset. With the Prussians, you need to concentrate and try to take defined goals first. Narwhal used to be (past tense as he is no longer active) a master of this. Give up anything else. Equally never fight (either in the Austrian Sucession or the Seven Years War) a battle where the outcome is likely to be a narrow victory.

Easy to say but hard to do, but a sequence of narrow wins will destroy your army. The ideal is to seriously wreck your opponent so that they need to spend time recovering. Of course with the Austrians the reverse applies - niggly attritional battles are something you need to seek out,.

I managed to lose a grand campaign ignoring this. I'd managed to take Prag (an ill-prepared opponent), besiege Wien but lost focus with small formations scattered over the map. In time I'd run up enough losses that my opponent got the upper hand with the predictable end - great game but a hard lesson to learn.

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sionnach
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Re: New to AGEOD games and ROP

Sat Feb 04, 2017 4:04 pm

Thanks so much for the quick replies!

GaiusJulius78, I completely forgot about the supply map mode, so that will help. And I will try what you suggested with the depots, and thanks for clarifying the rules that surround them.

Also the information on a stalemate being ok, this is the result I always get, with different point variations depending on what I tried, so I guess that is ok then and I am doing well enough, so thanks for pointing that out.

I have been watching H Gilmer3's Let's Play videos on YouTube and have learnt a lot from them (I am still watching them, there are a lot to get through!) and they have helped with the troop rearranging, but nothing I try with the French/Bavarians help, they are awful :)

Thanks for the info on trying to avoid niggly battles loki, I wasn't aware of that. Good to know.

Armed with this new information, I shall tackle the scenario again! :turc:

GaiusJulius78
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Re: New to AGEOD games and ROP

Wed Feb 08, 2017 5:00 pm

shame Narwhal is not active anymore! he truly was a master of the game and I have learned a lot for yours/his AAR.
Yes I enjoy Gilmer's youtube playthorughs as well, they are excellent and very entertaining!

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