Hi Guys,
New EAW and was wondering if I could get some advice on opening play, pretty new to AGEOD and really don't have much of the nuances of it down, (read wiki and other things) I'm playing Russia and went with the Grand Duke Opening and the Germans have gone with the full invasion of France, Austrians went with the attack of Serbia with Russia as a priority. (Sorry forgot the names of the plans).
After 5 turns things are neutral up in Eastern Prussia,
Serbia they haven't yet managed to cross the river, with 4:1 casualties.
Ottomans are just about to get underway.
Austria they've crossed close to Warsaw but have low cohesion and think they'll be repulsed. And I've taken some of the border towns in Austria and looking relatively strong there, I'm hopeful I might make a drive through Austria down to Serbia. Western Front is stable possibly at Belgium with Luxemburg somehow still existing but morale is 82 with CP 96 and mine 104.
1) Do I need to be putting more pressure on Germany to save the Western Front?
2) Is a drive to Serbia realistic? I have got simple supply on so that won't be an issue. I just like the idea of linking with the Serbs, a drive to the capital would probably be better with more War Material production changing sides I'd guess.
3) What do you purchase with Russia? At the moment I've bought an airwing, 5ish field artillery, and 12 militia (recruited all the serbian militia + others).
I figure the Russians are low on war materials so I should recruit all the militia I can since that uses up some conscripts and war funds while saving up war materials for artillery and planes mainly, Will purchase some heavy artillery soon. Building is my main query, also I've got auto replacements on, anyone have advice for what I should do instead? I think If I did it on manual, I'd run out of war funds from constantly replacing, but perhaps should I be doing that?
I'm reluctant to play further until I know bit more about replacement/building strategy since each turn only 1 thing can be bought basically if it uses war materials.
As well annihilated 22000 militia with maybe 500 casualties which made me concerned my 12 militia were just an investment that would drive up casualties and lower my currently health National Morale..
Thanks for any tips you've got, I've read all through the forums and imagine some beginner advice on construction would be useful for a lot of people guessing through it.
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John Sedgwick
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1) Don't worry too much about Germany, France should be in no immediate danger of collapse. Austria is the weakest link, focus on her.
2) Linking up with Serbia might be a long term goal, sure. If Austria is focused on them, press hard on Galicia until you control the plains up to the Carpathians, then try to get a foothold across the mountains for a push into the Hungarian plain in 1915, that would be your best bet if that is your goal.
3) Militia are only really useful for garrison duties, not as frontline troops, but not a bad idea if you need to bulk up Serbia ASAP. For Russian purchases, I tend to focus on medium artillery, lots of replacements (I like to have a substantial surplus, expecting heavy losses), and supplies when I can afford them. Don't buy heavy artillery - use the decision to unlock fortress artillery instead. Use it first in fortresses under threat of capture in the near (but not too near!) future, but don't go overboard if your national morale gets low.
General advice: hammer Austria as much as possible before Germany sends any reinforcements east. Manpower is your biggest advantage - use wide front and probing attacks to spread your enemy thin (without spreading yourself too thin), turn their flanks and cut them off in the rear if you see an opportunity, otherwise find their weak point, determine your primary axis of advance, pool supplies and artillery and drive hard in that direction - in secondary areas, I tend to use conservative attacks or defend and retreat orders to avoid getting tied down and engaged with multiple corps, although this often results in losses with significant casualties. In other words, be flexible; you have plenty of space to trade for time if necessary, and you can afford to take many more casualties than your opponents as long as your national morale doesn't drop too low.
2) Linking up with Serbia might be a long term goal, sure. If Austria is focused on them, press hard on Galicia until you control the plains up to the Carpathians, then try to get a foothold across the mountains for a push into the Hungarian plain in 1915, that would be your best bet if that is your goal.
3) Militia are only really useful for garrison duties, not as frontline troops, but not a bad idea if you need to bulk up Serbia ASAP. For Russian purchases, I tend to focus on medium artillery, lots of replacements (I like to have a substantial surplus, expecting heavy losses), and supplies when I can afford them. Don't buy heavy artillery - use the decision to unlock fortress artillery instead. Use it first in fortresses under threat of capture in the near (but not too near!) future, but don't go overboard if your national morale gets low.
General advice: hammer Austria as much as possible before Germany sends any reinforcements east. Manpower is your biggest advantage - use wide front and probing attacks to spread your enemy thin (without spreading yourself too thin), turn their flanks and cut them off in the rear if you see an opportunity, otherwise find their weak point, determine your primary axis of advance, pool supplies and artillery and drive hard in that direction - in secondary areas, I tend to use conservative attacks or defend and retreat orders to avoid getting tied down and engaged with multiple corps, although this often results in losses with significant casualties. In other words, be flexible; you have plenty of space to trade for time if necessary, and you can afford to take many more casualties than your opponents as long as your national morale doesn't drop too low.
"I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."
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HidekiTojo
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John Sedgwick
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I like playing the EE because the field is wide open for manoeuvre warfare and the quantity-over-quality aspect presents some unique challenges and of course a quality all its own. The major drawbacks for me are the lack of diplomatic influence and limited naval options, and the fact that the AI doesn't do a very good job playing the CP, but that's hardly surprising.
Some more pointers:
Historically Russia was most interested in the Balkans and the Bosphorus, but as in real life, Germany and to a much lesser extent Austria formed the clear and present danger that demanded their immediate and full attention. But don't underestimate the Ottomans in the Caucasus - you want to use the minimum force necessary to rebuff any offensive in the mountains, but I've often been pushed back further than I had planned through my neglect of that front.
Pay attention to the effects of your warplans, particularly the areas in which armies are automatically activated during the first few turns. I wish they had a defensive option to bide your time, but of the offensive options I often pick the Polska plan because, although it concentrates rather more forces in the Polish salient than I would like, it also ensures that I can pull back the activated forces if Austria and Germany focus their efforts in the east. That said, however, I've never seen the AI attempt my nightmare scenario of a coordinated pincers on such a grand scale - if Germany selects the Moltke plan they usually drive hard for Riga and Vilna in the direction of Petrograd and Minsk, respectively, and while the Polska plan leaves those areas weakly defended early on, you usually have time to reinforce, and concentrating in Poland allows you to threaten the flanks of any northern advance, or attack Austria if Germany goes after France.
East Prussia presents a tempting target, but remember that Germany has that nasty Max Hoffman decision that can paralyze your armies and cut their cohesion in half. I've never seen the AI use this very effectively, but if you're up against a human opponent, you must factor the possibility of a crushing defeat into your plans. Order enough replacements for the worst case scenario and don't go all in without a large reserve on hand.
Hmm, I hope no future PBEM opponents are reading this, or they will find my strategy rather predictable!
I may have to consider a radically different plan, although I suppose much of it is common sense generalizations.
Some more pointers:
Historically Russia was most interested in the Balkans and the Bosphorus, but as in real life, Germany and to a much lesser extent Austria formed the clear and present danger that demanded their immediate and full attention. But don't underestimate the Ottomans in the Caucasus - you want to use the minimum force necessary to rebuff any offensive in the mountains, but I've often been pushed back further than I had planned through my neglect of that front.
Pay attention to the effects of your warplans, particularly the areas in which armies are automatically activated during the first few turns. I wish they had a defensive option to bide your time, but of the offensive options I often pick the Polska plan because, although it concentrates rather more forces in the Polish salient than I would like, it also ensures that I can pull back the activated forces if Austria and Germany focus their efforts in the east. That said, however, I've never seen the AI attempt my nightmare scenario of a coordinated pincers on such a grand scale - if Germany selects the Moltke plan they usually drive hard for Riga and Vilna in the direction of Petrograd and Minsk, respectively, and while the Polska plan leaves those areas weakly defended early on, you usually have time to reinforce, and concentrating in Poland allows you to threaten the flanks of any northern advance, or attack Austria if Germany goes after France.
East Prussia presents a tempting target, but remember that Germany has that nasty Max Hoffman decision that can paralyze your armies and cut their cohesion in half. I've never seen the AI use this very effectively, but if you're up against a human opponent, you must factor the possibility of a crushing defeat into your plans. Order enough replacements for the worst case scenario and don't go all in without a large reserve on hand.
Hmm, I hope no future PBEM opponents are reading this, or they will find my strategy rather predictable!
I may have to consider a radically different plan, although I suppose much of it is common sense generalizations."I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."
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HidekiTojo
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John Sedgwick
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Yes, as Durk indicated, the Revolution is by no means inevitable - just, you know, don't lose basically. Easy enough against the AI, but unfortunately I haven't yet had the opportunity to try it out against a human opponent.
As Merlin said, militia have their uses in the frontline as "filler" troops, just don't use them by themselves and expect them to be anything other than cannon fodder, but the corps he described above should prove quite serviceable. Again, not having faced a human opponent, I haven't felt the need to raise more divisions (at least not for the first couple years), as I've found Russia's starting army is big enough against the AI and quite hard enough to keep adequately supplied as it is without recruiting more infantry, so I've focused on medium artillery, supplies and munitions. However, given the enormous cost of supplies for the EE, I could see that being a losing bet in PBEM, and you may be better served by maximizing quantity rather than upgrading the quality of your starting force.
Also, once again, learning to trade space for time is crucial to Russia's success against any determined offensive, and cannot be stressed enough. If the enemy is attacking in force, move out of the way if you are able to do so safely, then wait for your opponent to overextend himself and outflank them from another direction if possible. To paraphrase Muhammad Ali, float like a butterfly and sting like a sledgehammer =D
As Merlin said, militia have their uses in the frontline as "filler" troops, just don't use them by themselves and expect them to be anything other than cannon fodder, but the corps he described above should prove quite serviceable. Again, not having faced a human opponent, I haven't felt the need to raise more divisions (at least not for the first couple years), as I've found Russia's starting army is big enough against the AI and quite hard enough to keep adequately supplied as it is without recruiting more infantry, so I've focused on medium artillery, supplies and munitions. However, given the enormous cost of supplies for the EE, I could see that being a losing bet in PBEM, and you may be better served by maximizing quantity rather than upgrading the quality of your starting force.
Also, once again, learning to trade space for time is crucial to Russia's success against any determined offensive, and cannot be stressed enough. If the enemy is attacking in force, move out of the way if you are able to do so safely, then wait for your opponent to overextend himself and outflank them from another direction if possible. To paraphrase Muhammad Ali, float like a butterfly and sting like a sledgehammer =D
"I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."
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John Sedgwick
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- Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2011 11:15 pm
- Location: NL, Canada
ETF wrote:How does the Hoffman event work exactly? Is the card played on one turn and then IVAN is locked down for the next turn? I'm the CP and I don't see any locked down units on Ivan's part at all? This is a PBEM.
Well this is probably too late to be helpful in your PBEM, but yes, all Russian stacks on German soil should be locked, their commanders inactive, and their cohesion reduced by 66% during the resolution of the turn on which it is played. So you should be able to play the card and plan your attacks on the same turn with those effects in mind. If you saw Russian stacks moving in German territory during the resolution for that turn, then you may have discovered a bug, but it's worked like a charm every time I've used it.
Going back to EE arty purchases - I believe it was Merlin who pointed out in another thread that light artillery does not use up munitions, so I would focus on LA rather than MA in PBEM, where building up your war industry is likely to be prohibitively expensive. But against the AI I like to splurge on munitions factories and medium artillery.
"I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."
John Sedgwick wrote:Well this is probably too late to be helpful in your PBEM, but yes, all Russian stacks on German soil should be locked, their commanders inactive, and their cohesion reduced by 66% during the resolution of the turn on which it is played. So you should be able to play the card and plan your attacks on the same turn with those effects in mind. If you saw Russian stacks moving in German territory during the resolution for that turn, then you may have discovered a bug, but it's worked like a charm every time I've used it.
This is actually a pretty touchy situation. If you're up against someone foxy, look at it like Pearl Harbor. Do you strike now? Okay, two more Russian corps, so how about now? Maybe wait for next turn? Russian players can really take advantage of this and if lucky can get away with an August objective and the consequent precious, precious 5 NM. Against the AI, just wait for Athena to blunder at least an army into Prussia and smash her.
Going back to EE arty purchases - I believe it was Merlin who pointed out in another thread that light artillery does not use up munitions, so I would focus on LA rather than MA in PBEM, where building up your war industry is likely to be prohibitively expensive. But against the AI I like to splurge on munitions factories and medium artillery.
Yup. You can play the "what if" game with MA/HA and munitions against the AI, but against a player I'd suggest the "Moar guns! Moar infantry!" approach. Especially if your opponent has figured out how to get Romania.
There are two things you should be aware of as Russian player (Against humans at least):
1. Choosing any other warplan apart from the historical one is going to slap a pretty severe NM penalty (makes sense) on the Western Entente player or yourself. In other words, it's not worth it. Additionally, the historical Plan, contrary to i.e the Polska Plan, provides you with a relatively good and flexible starting position. If you play the Polska plan, and the CP go for the Moltke Plan, you'll be busy running for your life from turn 1 on since multiple German Armies start in a position to immediately invade south into Poland and cut you off in the process.
2. If the enemy goes with the historical selection (Schlieffen/Conrad) you're going to have some kind of meaningful offensive potential. With any enemy plan that focuses on Russia as a prime target, I strongly advise the typical and proven Russian strategy of Scorched Earth. Tear up Rails, unlock fort guns and evade the German and Austrian Armies and draw them back deeper into your territory. You don't stand a chance against especially strong German formations in the beginning. If in the process you can get at least a 3:1 advantage on any enemy force and have a "skillful" commander to lead the assault, see if you can hurt them. Use cavalry corps to cut the Rail links between Galicia, Silesia, Poland and East Prussia, because if you don't, the CP will be able to use a continuous railroad to reinforce quickly, most probably within a turn or two. Once infantry tech is researched, your armies stand a slightly better chance, but beware, once the Czar is in command, it's back to running as fast as you can (if you can move at all).
1. Choosing any other warplan apart from the historical one is going to slap a pretty severe NM penalty (makes sense) on the Western Entente player or yourself. In other words, it's not worth it. Additionally, the historical Plan, contrary to i.e the Polska Plan, provides you with a relatively good and flexible starting position. If you play the Polska plan, and the CP go for the Moltke Plan, you'll be busy running for your life from turn 1 on since multiple German Armies start in a position to immediately invade south into Poland and cut you off in the process.
2. If the enemy goes with the historical selection (Schlieffen/Conrad) you're going to have some kind of meaningful offensive potential. With any enemy plan that focuses on Russia as a prime target, I strongly advise the typical and proven Russian strategy of Scorched Earth. Tear up Rails, unlock fort guns and evade the German and Austrian Armies and draw them back deeper into your territory. You don't stand a chance against especially strong German formations in the beginning. If in the process you can get at least a 3:1 advantage on any enemy force and have a "skillful" commander to lead the assault, see if you can hurt them. Use cavalry corps to cut the Rail links between Galicia, Silesia, Poland and East Prussia, because if you don't, the CP will be able to use a continuous railroad to reinforce quickly, most probably within a turn or two. Once infantry tech is researched, your armies stand a slightly better chance, but beware, once the Czar is in command, it's back to running as fast as you can (if you can move at all).
try and go with Historical WAR-PLAN as it may affect your or WE NM adversely.
Keep NM>=75 always, more important than keeping territory.
Russia can afford loss of manpower, not NM.
If NM goes below 75, 2 nasty decisions apply- TSAR takes command resulting in a bad GHQ and worse, Rasputin comes resulting in more loss of NM a used for and more chance of Rebellion.
for static fronts- 2 Inf +1 Militia can be used, more than 1 militia per Corps is not really advised unless backed by good terrain benefits. Cossacks can be used for Recon and cutting Rails when doing a desperate retreat.
Getting to Serbia is a bit too difficult unless against easy AI, so try to punish Austria using your armies in 1914 and then hold on, hope WE beats CP.
Keep NM>=75 always, more important than keeping territory.
Russia can afford loss of manpower, not NM.
If NM goes below 75, 2 nasty decisions apply- TSAR takes command resulting in a bad GHQ and worse, Rasputin comes resulting in more loss of NM a used for and more chance of Rebellion.
for static fronts- 2 Inf +1 Militia can be used, more than 1 militia per Corps is not really advised unless backed by good terrain benefits. Cossacks can be used for Recon and cutting Rails when doing a desperate retreat.
Getting to Serbia is a bit too difficult unless against easy AI, so try to punish Austria using your armies in 1914 and then hold on, hope WE beats CP.
Rascals, would you live forever? - Frederick the Great.
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