The 7 player game with confusions and missed chances

[Shri]

The players are:

Britain - Lucas

Russia – Pre changeover - the former Russian player left and Post change – William took over

Austria - Richard

Spain - Matthew

Ottoman - Carl

France - Pre changeover Ken, Later - Shri

Prussia – Earlier William, Later Shri, after changeover – Richard and finally Paul

7 player game – fight till one side wins.

Lucas is playing the British and is the best player out there, he is hyper aggressive attacking style.
William is the Russian Tsar and has proved to be a brilliant manoeuvre player with an inclination to positioning and defense.
Mathew is playing Spain and has been aggressive when possible with his limited means.
Carl is playing the Ottomans and is being defensive considering his Kingdom's shape.
The Austrians (and shortly the Prussians - for 3 turns) were under Richard who has gone all out on the Ottomans.

The first year saw Prussia, Russia, Austria and Britain team up against France. Unfortunately there was a miscommunication between the Russian and Prussian player and Napoleon managed to slip between their armies to Berlin uncontested. The Prussians made peace with France in order to avoid losing their capital. The British army in northern Germany was then in deep trouble without the Prussians and got hammered.

Austria then made peace with France since it was the next logical target. The Russians had a ceasefire with the French, but the ceasefire broke down and the French attacked the Russians and destroyed some of their army. The Russian player then quit the game and we had to switch people around. William took over as Russia from Prussia and Shri (I, the player who is writing this AAR) became the new Prussian player.

So far the French have not really conquered much territory so they are technically behind the curve on where they are supposed to be historically. Just Hanover and Hamburg have been taken, neither Austerlitz/Pressburg nor Tilsit has yet taken place.

Presently Austria has geared up for a fight with the Turks

And the Baltic is now in a war, with Sweden and Russia on one side and Denmark on the other.

Spain won a favourable peace treaty with the Portuguese.

The French and Prussians signed a peace treaty, with Prussians losing Hamburg after a disastrous battle where they lost 40k vs 5k Frenchies.

The English attacked in Uruguay and suddenly landed in Northern France with a huge army of over 125k men under Generals Moore, Hill and others around turn 63-65.


Turn 68 saw a major frontal attack by the French on the Prussians on an Army led by the Marshal Blucher, Blucher, Blucher lost over 40k troops out of 50k while the French losses were less than 7k

Again on Turn 69, on a dug in army with fortifications card played across a river, Nappy himself led the French in a full on frontal attack and nearly destroyed a Russian army, Russian losses were nearly 40k or so, French losses 10-12k.
The update regarding the current balkans war:

Austria invaded ottoman territory in the Summer and has taken Serbia and is now pushing south in to Bulgaria. They were briefly able to take Bucharest, but had to withdraw due to supply problems. Ottoman fleets are blockading the Austrian Adriatic ports.

On the 75th and 76th Turn of the game, the English player sent this warning just as his armies entered Paris- Napoleon's regime will end soon.


But Napoleon’s favourite marshal Lannes pulled off the impossible and seems to have saved Paris for now.

Currently 80 turns are over and this is the way the situation stands on all fronts –
Prussia has lost Hamburg (when Prussia was under my control) and a part of it's army in a couple of bad battles with Nappy, but has now somewhat improved and recovered to some extent. The main concentration is in and around Berlin.

Nappy is having his hands full right now with a Gigantic invasion of Northern France by the English which is now threatening to take Paris and end the game.

Mathew's Spanish have given a pasting to the hapless Portuguese and the English have landed now to interfere in the peace treaty proposed recently.

The Austrians under Richard have conquered Belgrade and Sarajevo from what i know but the Ottomans haven't surrendered, probably planning a defense in depth or trying to wait till winter to counter attack.

The Royal navy rules the seas as usual. Russia has 3 large troop concentrations in Silesia & Saxony to protect the Prussians. The main one under Kutuzov is on the highway to Berlin, 2 other large ones under Barclay and the Tsar are near Breslau protecting Warsaw and East Prussia.

[Shri]

Attachment of the crazy battle of Glogau after a frontal assault by Nappy across the river on dug-in Russians.

Seen is the effect on Russian armies pre and post battle.

[Shri]

The overall situation of losses and NM and relative strengths can be seen.

French have suffered collosal losses barely 2 years into the game and many formations in sore need of repairs are resting in big towns.

But losses for English, Russians and Prussians are also big. Similarly, Spain and Ottos and Austrians have also lost men but not that many.

I shall be posting overall strengths of all nations as on eve of turn 80 one by one below, starting with
France, then England, then Russia, then Austria, then Spain and finally Ottomans.

[Shri]

French position, roughly 570k in service and 400k dead/wounded/captured or missing.

[Shri]

The English position. Relatively huge numbers compared to historical positions. due to Lucas being a very good player and making a lot of divisions. 440k++ troops in the field, though this includes a lot of Garrisons spread all over the world.

[Shri]

Russians with 370k+ troops

[Shri]

Austria with 340k+ troops

[Shri]

Ottos with 300k+ troops and Spain with over 500k+ troops.

Both these countries have lots of Milita and Partisans and suffer from bad leaders.

[Shri]

We are playing at the rate of 1 turn every 48 hours or so, some delays are normal due to co-ordination of 7 (currently 6 players).

The slot for Prussia is still open with us, if anyone wants to join in.

[Shri]

Overall assessment of mine at the end of 2 years -
Prussia is worse off with most of it's troops huddled in fortress Berlin.
France is worse off but not by much but it's historical timeline is way off.
Spain and Austria are doing well. Spain has chewed off a part of Portugal, Austria is planning to do the same against the Ottos are trying their best to maintain status quo.
Ottos are slightly bad but not by much.
Minors are irrelevant
Russians have lost more. Hasn't drained the Caucasus of Turks and other minors yet and is maintaining most troops in Silesia and Poland.
English have been superb. They have landed in Spain attacked there, landed in Force in France, almost took Paris a few turns ago, but timely arrival of Marshal Lannes stopped them, now they look like escaping back to the UK to regroup and land again in the next spring/summer.

I will try to keep updating this AAR once a week, ofcourse major strategies and planned troops movements cannot be revealed and henceforth onwards also we shall be behind the curve since all of us do not want our opponents knowing what we are doing.

[Pocus]

Too bad we can't have some map and battles screenshots!

[Shri]

I suddenly made the plans to make an AAR, wasn't thought of earlier.

Anyway, the first major battle after the start of the AAR, not posting details of corps.

But the 1000 guns of the English are giving a nightmare to the French.

[PJL]

I'm interested in taking over Prussia. Have only just installed WON tonight, but I am familiar with the Ageod engine (got CW1, CW2, TEAW among others).

[Shri]

I'm interested in taking over Prussia. Have only just installed WON tonight, but I am familiar with the Ageod engine (got CW1, CW2, TEAW among others).

Please mail me at shrini.85@gmail.com

Will mail you the .hst

[Shri]

Massive battles in turn 81

England wins against beleagured Gen. St. Cyr and France loses more NM, total of 14 in past 2 turns.

Davout wins 3 victories, 2 major and 1 minor against the Russians but doesn't gain any NM.

[Shri]

Wild swings of Fortune for the French on the 82nd Turn

French lose 10 NM as the whole corps of Molitor is nearly wiped out by the English.

However, in turn get 3 NM vs the English by finally retaking Cherbourg.

Also gain 6NM vs the Russian Tsarist armies in Silesia.

Overall, net loss of 1NM.

[Shri]

In the 83rd Turn, seeing Nappy busy on the right flank of the Russian front near Glogau, the one eyed Kutuzov takes the vital Fortress and Supply station of Cottbus by storm, costing the French 1 NM.

Same turn Nappy swings back and retakes Cottbus by defeating Kutuzov and gains 1 NM.

The King's German legion stack/corps of the English which was guarding the path to Cherbourg for the past 10+ turns is finally defeated by Marshal Lannes, further safeguarding the Cherbourg port and Rouen port. French gain 2 NM.

The English still retain a powerful force at Le Havre with a fleet of over 1000 guns stationed in it. The last time around, it had blasted St. Cyr and Oudinot out of the park with its crazy firepower.

[Shri]

Meanwhile in other news.

Austria has managed to take SOFIA (Bulgaria) from the Ottomans, i am trying to get the Ottomans and Austrians to post some pics of battles and maps to show the many conquests done under the leadership of Archduke Charles in the Balkans over the past year or so. Ever since the Austrians and French signed a mutually beneficial ceasefire for a year both have had a quiet Italy and Bavarian front.

[Shri]

MAJOR UPDATE

PJL - PAUL is the new Prussia.

[Shri]

I sorely wish there was a WON GOLD on the horizon. Lots of things which go bad in this can be changed and bettered.


1. Nappy taking money/WSU/EP from minors on year or bi-annual basis. Historically plunder paid a lot of money to feed. clothe and arm the French.
2. Splitting manpower into veterans and militia. Wherein Veterans :Militia ratio should be at say 1:4. Which will mean you can build lots of Fortress and Militia troops but less regulars/veterans.
3. Prisoner exchanges after signing peace treaty wherein equal numbers get exchanged, if losing side needs it's balance prisoners released it pays some gold per turn for 10 turns and gets some Veterans. Also all POWs get Veteran status.
Right now Prisoner numbers are meaningless.
4. A better way to understand Warscore etc. Currently it is too opaque and difficult.
5. Diplomatic trade deals which increase friendships between nations and give them some minor amount of gold at the cost of say some Loyalty loss in cities.

[Shri]

A battle that occurred a few turns before i took over France.

Nappy attacked dug in Russians having over 2 entrenchments across a river with lesser manpower and still won despite horrific losses.

[Shri]

Nappy punishes Kutuzov for daring to sneak in and take Fortress of Cottbus. Kutuzov escapes beyond the river but at the cost of a lot of manpower and 7 NM lost.


So, it turns out the Trachenberg plan was right all along, whenever Nappy leads troops personally French win decisively and gain NM sometimes even when Nappy doesn't have numerical superiority or is attacking across a river, when Marshals like Davout/Lannes lead, French win hardfought wins but low or no NM. When Soult leads, the Russians always escape. When folk like St. Cyr etc the French get blown away.

[DooberGuy]

I will fill in the current Austrian situation from time to time to try and support Shri's AAR. I will also post my own AAR, purely from the Austrian point of view in order to avoid confusion.

Currently Austria is locked in a war with the Ottoman empire. Our armies are nearly the same size, but the Austrians have better command and control than the Ottomans do. On the other hand the Ottomans benefit from being on the defensive in very difficult terrain with few supply sources.

In the opening phase of the war the Austrians quickly seized Belgrade and Sarejevo without much opposition. The army under the command of Archduke Charles then pressed south and took Nish against a small Ottoman army. They then pushed east to Sofia and defeated another Ottoman force in a short sharp battle and marched into the Bulgarian capitol.

Capture.JPG (32.27 KiB) Viewed 16350 times

A second Austrian army briefly occupied Bucharest, but was forced to withdraw due to supply issues.

[BlackCount]

Greetings from the Ottoman Empire.

Wanted to support Shri's AAR and also Richard's companion AAR for Austria. Sincere thanks to both. Anyone brave and energetic enough to do an AAR deserves a medal.

We just had our first victory against the evil Austrian invaders so it seemed a good time to enter on a high note. Well, considering the significance of the battle, at least entering on a non-negative note.

A little history first. I suppose the first question one might have is why would anyone in their right mind choose to play the Ottoman's in this game. Of course the obvious answer is I've never been in my right mind. I joined the game with the previous host a couple of "attempts" ago. This is actually the 3rd iteration of this multi-player game beginning over a year ago. The choice of the Ottoman's mostly was a result of me not having much time to devote to the game. My job has been nuts ever since the pandemic hit. The Ottoman's seemed a good way to be involved, not have a lot to do yet still having a nice escape from reality every couple of evenings. Also, when the Ottoman's are played by the AI, it is pretty easy for several of the human players as major powers to take a couple of chunks of the Ottoman Empire every now and then. With the AI diplomacy this nibbling has a tendency to knock the game off it's historical balance. I committed to the host to try and not allow that to happen. As such the Ottoman approach to the game is probably more akin to that of role playing rather than winning a victory. I could be wrong but cracking into the top 3 seems like a long shot for the original "sick man of Europe".

My comments will unfortunately be somewhat limited since we have very little view as to what is happening in mainland Europe since we are not at war or allied with anybody that counts. As well, not that my plans matter very much, I don't want to give too much away at least near the current turn.

The game started off very quietly for the peace loving Ottoman's. We were able to concentrate on developing our economy and army. Heaven knows both need it badly.

Things began to get a bit worrisome when Prussia joined the coalition very quickly and the first French Emperor began to get hammered on by most of Europe. Not that the Ottomans are particularly close to the Frogs. Simply, as long as they are all fighting each other, they are less likely to look in a southeasterly direction and lick their lips.

It was not surprising when the "modern" Prussian military machine of Fredrick the Great received an intense education. But as long as the English, Austrians and Russians hung together, it was not going to be an easy war for the French. It was somewhat surprising however to learn that Austria was dropping out of the coalition. Talleyrand to the rescue. Immediate unsolicited apologies from the Frogs should have been our first clue that someone was looking southeast.

It was more surprising to hear that even after Austria's exit from hostilities, the English and Russian's were continuing to give the French more than they bargained for. In fact it began to look like the game might end. Somehow the Frogs were able to pull off, at least for now, a couple of miracles. Meanwhile large numbers of white uniforms began to appear along our border. That should have been our 2nd clue that evil eyes were upon us.

A short time later there seemed to be a lot of lost Austrians on the wrong side of the border. Being the patient and friendly people we are, we attempted to point out their orienteering errors and pointed back towards the Austrian border. Apparently the dull Austrians took this to mean our border guards wished to visit their beautiful country. Obligingly they helped our soldiers across the boarder using their bayonets as guides. Oddly some of our soldiers, merely to be polite I'm sure, commented that the Austrian rations were considerably better and more plentiful that those they had recently been receiving.

Imagine our shock when the Austrians began to move further into our territory. We began to suspect that they were in fact not lost and may be up to some nefarious purpose. We are continuing to carefully observe their actions but it is starting to appear they may have designs on Ottoman territory.

In the last chapter (for now), some of our soldiers did indeed loose their way in the mountains to the west. Unbelievable in their lack of hospitality, the Austrians opened fire on these simple mountain folk. As can be seen below, Albanian mountain folk are not to be trifled with.

SS1.png (192.58 KiB) Viewed 16260 times

[Shri]

In a most anti-climatic end to the 20 turns old English invasion of Northern France, the English exited the port of La Havre, slashing and burning and pillaging everything. They have retreated to England or gone to Spain (i am not sure yet).

But one thing is sure the cowardly English didn't stand and fight.

For now Viva La France.

Almost every single town barring the port of La Havre is back in French control now. Nappy is happy with the performance of the Duc de Paris Marshal Lannes who despite losing a lot of men achieved his targets though he let the English army sail away without fighting battles, he cannot be fully blamed for that as the French navy is commanded by a drunk imbecile called Villenau, who Nappy thinks is the chief Villain to be blamed for the English landings.

[Shri]

Last turn, turn 88, after nearly 20 turns the French are in control of all towns within France.

I guess the next 4 months being winter, there won't be much activity. French are retreating to winter quarters. The others are also planning to do the same. So, we shall meet again around the 110th turn or so.

[DooberGuy]

As winter sets in the Balkans see one last flurry of activity as the Austrians assault Nikopolis, a fortification astride the Danube that the Austrians desperately need for resupply.

Turkish assault.JPG (279.21 KiB) Viewed 16122 times

[Shri]

Last i had left you guys was on turn 88, now we fast forward 20 turns of the winter months and rush to turn 109.

The Austrians are still trashing the poor hapless Ottomans. Ottos are now under a computer as the player has quit.
The English navy has destroyed the entire Ottoman fleet and created a new country of Greece with Athens as their only holding. This is a terrible loss for the French in the long run as the Ottoman fleet had a "Fleet in being" threat to the Royal Navy.



French decided that time is ripe to clear out Prussia but before that they have to deal with their old Nemesis Kutuzov who has troubled the French armies the whole of last year with probing attacks from the North eastern flank while the Tsar did the same from the South eastern frank.

So, Nappy decides he wants to clear the North eastern flank before attacking North.

In 2 consecutive battles both within the same turn, Nappy attacks personally across a river into the Dug-in forces of Kutuzov at the fortress of Kuerstein and destroys them totally, 20k Russians including Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, support and even a general are slaughtered to the last man. Kutuzov escapes on foot with some of the senior Generals into Prussia.

Nappy is thrilled

The next turn war is declared on Prussia and 3 towns - Magdeburg, Frankfurt on Oder and the Fortress of Kuerstein fall.
Saxony switches sides to the French and French gain both NM and supply in Saxon lands (which was sorely lacking till now).

[Shri]

However the antics of Napoleon and Lannes in the past one year of more when France was at the verge of losing and Paris as the verge of falling to the reverse where Nappy starts a great campaign in France is now over.

2 full corps of Suchet and Marmont are destroyed to the last man, 3 generals are dead inc. Young Kellerman and St. Hillaire. 3 other corps are badly damaged and several hits are received on Nappy's guard in the pursuit phase.

The Battle of Berlin is a disaster would be an understatement. The French have lost 140k men dead, most of their cannon and horses and 25 NM. The war is over. The game is over. That's all folks.

I would love to find a scapegoat, but the only one i would find was my own overconfidence in winning this epic battle and also the fact that my orders to march in SYNC did not occur, corps marched and reached the battle on 3 different days and destroyed all the hard fighting and marching that had occurred in the past one year.

It was a great journey while it lasted. I thoroughly enjoyed it and i hope my friends and allies and enemies also enjoyed it as did the viewers of this AAR.

[Shri]

As you can see, over 200k Frenchmen marched in and barely few thousand marched out. The problem was they fought two separate battles on subsequent days instead of one epic battle on the same day.

Anyway, i bear full responsibility and have ordered for the preparation of abdication.