Sat Oct 02, 2010 8:20 pm
At the beginning of the game, you have two armies in Königsberg : a "regular" army and a cav army.
I sent the cavalry army away (it is in Hessen now, it just helped Wutginau to take Kassel back from the Austrians - your AI can really surprise the player) so I only used the "other" army.
From the beginning of the game, I bought "troops" for this army : mostly Fort Batteries (there are 7 now) and Garrisons, plus a few other things if I felt like it).
When the Russians arrived, I put everything in the same stack (except one garrison), put the fat stack outside the city in defensive / Hold at all cost posture. I also have two small cav units (Freicorps for instance) in Elbing, Poland.
The Russians broke their teeth the first turn of their attacks. Several battles (one a day) in which they are defeated, lose on average 50% more than I do, but never retreat out of the province.
At the end of the turn after the first attack, my army is exhausted (I suppose the Russians are as well) so I put everyone inside Königsberg. So I have a lot of troops inside, including fort batteries and supplies, and I can hold a long time. Then, I just cross finger for winter to come quickly.
Russians start to siege the city, usually with the troops that drew the first blood and some fresh stacks. That's when my cav cut their line of supply by occupying Grossjagersdorff and Ragnit. "Et voilà". As soon as winter arrives, the Russian stacks melt down and I destroy them once and for all when I sortie the stack I garrisoned in Königsberg.
I did the Hold at all cost in another game, and it had exactly the same effect even though I had built less troops and I was in Hard difficulty (I won a lot of battle, reaping important NM, but the Russians stay on the province). Only last time I had then evacuated to Kolberg, allowing the Russian to take Königsberg. I then lost the game before their attack on Northern Prussia developped (Frederic was captured after a siege, so I assumed it was a defeat).
I would not have killed 100 000 Russians by winter if :
- the russians had retreated to Memel or Kurland or, possibly,
- they had protected their supply line
Note that the game I am currently playing, winter came quite early (late nov or early dec IIRC).
I can send you the savegame if you want with the archives, even though I am late June 1758 now.
Also, since you are here : I believe the decision "Fortify Memel" is devastating for the AI. They never managed to take anything beyond Munster, which I have taken back, and Memel is still in my hands (but I believe I was extremely lucky on it - and also they had to send some troops South when I sieged Frankfurt am Maim).