Battlefront IV - Lords of War

[Fredrik82]

looks like im the new perm for england (if you accept me )

We certainly do

[Absolut]

Turenne kick ass as always....

And when will the Turks learn its misstakes in India

By reading this it seems that my sub did a good job, thanks.

[Lurken]

And the war in the east is going badly, I had nightmares afterwards about the russian hordes storming Poland and Force-Vassalizing it.

[Ampoliros]

By reading this it seems that my sub did a good job, thanks.

Aye, short report :

After the initial analysis I found France to be in quite a weak state, besieged by an (economicaly) strong Spain and a generaly vastly superior Austria.
In this light, the french army was reorganized. (Don´t mix Cavalry with Infantry - especialy not in mountaineous terrain - use Cavalry as an independent shock-force of it´s own. And, for the love of god, kick out those stupid cannons. I disbanded them. They are next to useless before LT 35 - 41 and they slow you down).

I tried to negotiate primarily with Austria and Venice while I teched towards LT 26 (which took quite long). Austria engaged itself in an ambivalent position which sadly did not permit any real agreemen to be signed.
Hence, I turned to the OE and managed to secure cooperation with this most illustrious gentleman, Waldzwerg.

In preparation of war I constructed big forts on the spanish-french border as well as in Champagne, Paris and the venetian border.
Then I recruited about 500.000 men, waited for the french MP to regain and then dowed in concert with the OE.
Turenne blasted into Lorraine, France Comté and Luxembourgh while Condé engaged the Spaniards with 80.000 Cavalry in the lowlands, subsequently defeating and routing them several times. Spanish counterattacks in the Armanac-Bordeaux area were stalled and contained after some vicious fighting and once the WS was high enough stabhittment of Spain was commenced. Sadly Austria then intervened and from this point onwards France faced a foe of an altogether different quality. The austrian troops were of very high morale, fighting like madmen, making it very difficult to defeat them.

Luckily, Spain soon offered Lorraine and France Comté which I accepted thus ending the war. An acceptable solution.

I went strongly towards a quality - army. I would recommend you continue this policy. Also, I colonized in the area you outlined i.e. southeastafrica.

[Absolut]

Aye, short report :

After the initial analysis I found France to be in quite a weak state, besieged by an (economicaly) strong Spain and a generaly vastly superior Austria.
In this light, the french army was reorganized. (Don´t mix Cavalry with Infantry - especialy not in mountaineous terrain - use Cavalry as an independent shock-force of it´s own. And, for the love of god, kick out those stupid cannons. I disbanded them. They are next to useless before LT 35 - 41 and they slow you down).

I tried to negotiate primarily with Austria and Venice while I teched towards LT 26 (which took quite long). Austria engaged itself in an ambivalent position which sadly did not permit any real agreemen to be signed.
Hence, I turned to the OE and managed to secure cooperation with this most illustrious gentleman, Waldzwerg.

In preparation of war I constructed big forts on the spanish-french border as well as in Champagne, Paris and the venetian border.
Then I recruited about 500.000 men, waited for the french MP to regain and then dowed in concert with the OE.
Turenne blasted into Lorraine, France Comté and Luxembourgh while Condé engaged the Spaniards with 80.000 Cavalry in the lowlands, subsequently defeating and routing them several times. Spanish counterattacks in the Armanac-Bordeaux area were stalled and contained after some vicious fighting and once the WS was high enough stabhittment of Spain was commenced. Sadly Austria then intervened and from this point onwards France faced a foe of an altogether different quality. The austrian troops were of very high morale, fighting like madmen, making it very difficult to defeat them.

Luckily, Spain soon offered Lorraine and France Comté which I accepted thus ending the war. An acceptable solution.

I went strongly towards a quality - army. I would recommend you continue this policy. Also, I colonized in the area you outlined i.e. southeastafrica.

Thanks alot, you did a great job.

Ill keep the things you mentioned in mind, although I cant remember building cannons, but meh, I probably did it anyway.

I want 2% deflation for that "AAR".

[Aladar]

Venice 1632 - 1654

A quiet period for the Venetians, which did wonders to our economy. Despite being behind in most techs, we managed to increase of trade and other incomes.

Australia is fully expanded and gives us a decent base in Asia, for any further missions in this area.

Both an ecxeptional year and deflation hit us, which made us mint for 5 years in a row, again lagging us in tech. This however, made 8 new refineries possible, but still we strugle to maintain a mono in our own CoTs. England had to be embargoed for a time, but no more.

Most of our money goes into expanding the rest of our colonies, which will soon be completed.

Deflation please.

[cheech]

And the war in the east is going badly, I had nightmares afterwards about the russian hordes storming Poland and Force-Vassalizing it.

So youve changed your mind from the staemate you kept claiming

Demmands remain the same. 2 provinces including curland if you like.


To sweden,

Your defensive alliance with poland was a mistake as we have, and never had hostile intentions on you. It is not too late to pull out of the war and repair relations with us. If you do so we will not increase demmands against poland. I expect if you to wp me poland will surrender which will save much loos of life on all sides.

My armies are performing well and i reciently defeated you in the north despite your brave kings efforts in battle. You have fought well but this war serves you no purpose and is costing your nation gold you cannot spare.

I hope you will see reason and end this alliance with the polish.

To austria,

We ask that you end this pact with poland. Russia is no threat to you and your relations with them only deepens the divisions between us. I hope to continue discussions in private to find some way of resolving out issues.

To all,

This war has shown the dangers in secret alliances. Sweden and poland made a defensive pact against me but if the intention of this was to deter then why did they keep it secret. We suggest more open diplomacy from all.

Russia has always been open on our relations and policys.

[Daniel A]

Ill keep the things you mentioned in mind, although I cant remember building cannons, but meh, I probably did it anyway.

Artillery is great right from the start to the end. But not in battles on lower techs.

[Tem_Probe]

(Don´t mix Cavalry with Infantry - especialy not in mountaineous terrain - use Cavalry as an independent shock-force of it´s own.

I disagree. Every infantry force should have a small cavalry contingent - even in mountains - before LT 35. After that, its useful but accessory. And that's true even for assault armies. cavalry as an independent force of its own is useful, yeah, although I don't always need one(depends on terrain).

And, for the love of god, kick out those stupid cannons. I disbanded them. They are next to useless before LT 35 - 41 and they slow you down).

Yup, gotta give you that

[FAL]

And that's true even for assault armies.

I disagree. If you include CAV in your infantry assault armies, you only give yourself more attrition.

[Daniel A]

Yep, cavalry already present at day 1 off the assault does not have any impact on the assault. Note the difference when they arrive during the assualt.

However even if they are present on day 1 they have a value in case you are attacked either during the assault or after a failed assault and an ordinary battle takes place. If it is a plains provinces e.g. they will still give you a +1 in schock during such a battle should your opponent's army have less than half your number of cavalry.

[Lurken]

I will be gone from Stockholm (meaning communication will be iffy at best, and then only trough PMs) to monday. But I should make it to the start. If not, then I shall surrender the two provs currently under russian occupation (the two north of Courland). Because, cheech will take much more, if I'm away and not agreed to his terms. cheech is one ruthless bastard, but he can surely fight a war and win a war. Darn he is good! (Escpecially compared to me, who is a newb to warfare)

[Fredrik82]

I disagree. If you include CAV in your infantry assault armies, you only give yourself more attrition.

It depends on the situation really,
i usually, pre LT35, devide my armies in two groups, Infantary and cavalry.
It's very risky to assault a province without cavalry support, in all kind of terrains, as it give you bonus no matter what. I do however prefer to have my cavalry army ready to engage in a adjacent province.
If that aint possible, i rather take my chances to take a bit of attration.
Cause battles arent any fun if you lack cavalry yourself, especially in key terrains

[PJL]

I won't be available next sesssion (at least the start of it), so I will try and get a sub.

[FAL]

It depends on the situation really,
i usually, pre LT35, devide my armies in two groups, Infantary and cavalry.
It's very risky to assault a province without cavalry support, in all kind of terrains, as it give you bonus no matter what. I do however prefer to have my cavalry army ready to engage in a adjacent province.
If that aint possible, i rather take my chances to take a bit of attration.
Cause battles arent any fun if you lack cavalry yourself, especially in key terrains

Well, I tried this out and I found out that it's better to not have CAV in mountain provinces if you are defending after LT18, because the attrition killing your army is more important than the CAV bonus there. (before LT18 it's another matter).

< LT 18, CAV are a must for all armies
LT 18 - LT 35, CAV is still usable, especially on plains and especially with high numbers, but you can already use full infantry assault armies and defending full infantry armies for forests, rivers and mountains.
> LT 35 - LT 41, drop the CAV alltogether, use pure infantry, except for circumstances you have a high shock leader and want to defend plains (like Lombardia). I have used Prinz Eugen this way for example.
> LT 41, bring in the mass cannon-infantry armies!

[Tem_Probe]

< LT 18, CAV are a must for all armies
LT 18 - LT 35, CAV is still usable, especially on plains and especially with high numbers, but you can already use full infantry assault armies and defending full infantry armies for forests, rivers and mountains.
> LT 35 - LT 41, drop the CAV alltogether, use pure infantry, except for circumstances you have a high shock leader and want to defend plains (like Lombardia). I have used Prinz Eugen this way for example.
> LT 41, bring in the mass cannon-infantry armies!

I mostly agree with this assessment

[Tem_Probe]

I will be gone from Stockholm (meaning communication will be iffy at best, and then only trough PMs) to monday. But I should make it to the start. If not, then I shall surrender the two provs currently under russian occupation (the two north of Courland). Because, cheech will take much more, if I'm away and not agreed to his terms. cheech is one ruthless bastard, but he can surely fight a war and win a war. Darn he is good! (Escpecially compared to me, who is a newb to warfare)

Well I don't know about the terrain, it doesn't looks so bad a situation, but I can tell that cheech's psychological warfare (Read his guide on tactics) has worked on you.

[Mulliman]

If not, then I shall surrender the two provs currently under russian occupation (the two north of Courland).

This was basically what Austria agreed with Russia when they asked us how far they could go in demands before i would join. Since i thought i would be embroiled in the west and thought the war would go on for some time, this imaginary threat felt more fitting than finishing a war for survival and engaging in one less important.
So dont think that this agreement (if you come to hear of it from cheech for example, who will use it as a way of convincing you that Austria has given up on Poland) was done as a backstab on Polish honour, but instead at a time of dire straits and stress .

If Russia increases her demands however, we feel more than free to march our forces into Polish territory with the objective of gaining a White Peace with possible reparations for Poland and her friends (EDIT: took out the "alliance" word since im sure you would jump at that like a rabid dog, cheech ).

[Lurken]

Well I don't know about the terrain, it doesn't looks so bad a situation, but I can tell that cheech's psychological warfare (Read his guide on tactics) has worked on you.

He hasn't scared me, he simply beaten me enough to realize that a victory will be hard. Since he can hold the initiative, and I can only react to him.

[Mulliman]

He hasn't scared me, he simply beaten me enough to realize that a victory will be hard. Since he can hold the initiative, and I can only react to him.

There are a few ways to get better at fighting wars, aside from the trial and error of regular games, where bad fighting skills can sometimes be disastrous .

Nappy games are very educative, though they only focus on the latter part of the era. They are still good for giving you a chance at micromanagement and all that. Too bad they arent organized as much anymore.

Also, starting up a random save with another person and fight a war just for fun is great practice. This is the best way to improve IMO, since you can practically choose whatever situation you feel like and play it out.