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Sorry to be so late to the thread but I just found this AAR a few days ago and have read it to completion. I read it because I had already decided to finally start a pbem game now that the game is patched to an acceptable level and now seems solid. I bought the game over a year ago but the early bugs really deterred me from even stating a game so I just waited. I wanted to get some insight and hints on gameplay from this AAR and boy what a treasure trove. It was very enjoyable and enlightening to read the gameplay between two masters. The Swedish trap and the use of Bateux to attempt to escape it were both brilliant. The one thing that troubles me is the way that the Russian efforts against Koenigsburg played out. It just doesn't sit well with me and doesn't seem very plausible. It also essentially nullified Russia for the entire game and was simply a large source of NM for Prussia. I hope that scenario is something that is a very rare event. Aside from that the gameplay was very enjoyable to follow. I now feel that I am somewhat competent to play my first pbem game.

Thank you. You are not late. Even someone reading this in 2 years won't be late :)

As for Koenigsberg, it worked against Baris because he did not know that a determined defense would win even with a 1 : 10 ratio. Also, the AI never does. This strategy stop any Russian attack 100% of the times (or almost).
But in my new game against Loki100, I made the mistake to use the same strategy (actually, the same strategy with technical improvements), but the difference was that Loki100 knew that an head-on attack was useless and found a - very smart - and I should add unspectacular so far, to get around the issue and make my strategy a losing one. My conclusion now is that against a player that read the "Learning from Prussia" AAR or know the rules of terrain and frontage, the best move is to pull back to Kolberg as the Prussians.

...so far...
 
Wow... Just wow. This AAR was GLORIOUS. I cannot believe that I've missed it for so long. Brilliant strategic manoeuvres, unexpected developments, decisive battles and tense action. My only gripe is that since I'm not used to the map the game uses, in many cases I was quite lost when various actions were described. Lack of a HOI-style "political map mode" was a bit annoying and the fact that I was on my laptop with small screen didn't help, either :).
 
I bought the game and found your AAR a few days afterwards. Not only did you explain things well and get me more motivated to play my new purchase, you also created a very entertaining story. Good job Narwhal, and Baris who even though I was rooting against still put up a good fight.
 
I made that AAR because I thought the game was not as popular as it deserved, and hoped to attrack the attention of new players to it. I don't know if I succeeded, but then I noticed that the AAR was also a good complement to a very insufficient manual, so I am quite happy some people "learnt" a few tricks, or more, reading the AAR. That's why, like all AARer, I LOVE comments

What a great AAR which made me to start to play it and enjoy it and of course you gave us some very useful hints which I cannot find it in the manuel.
I liked Barış's cautious approaches and your determination to find a solution no matter what the situation was.
Thanks for this great AAR and I go back to my singleplayer game with brillant new ideas.

Btw, i got a question. In the beginning of the game (Pirna situation), an Austrian army tried to relieve Pirna but they've been defeated and moved towards Torgau. The city garrison was too small and I assume they surrenderd immedieately. I don't know if it is required to be in assault mode to take a city without combat (to seize it). Anyway, I guess they first took Torgau then a battle occured which was very bad for Austrians (they lost 20,000 while i lost 6,000). This was the most decisive battle for me thus far and I'm wondering what made them to get in a battle? Maybe they took the city first and they were in assault mode and they directly attacked me as i am stepping in the province? Or they took the city and waited outside then my army arrived and got in a clash?
 
What a great AAR which made me to start to play it and enjoy it and of course you gave us some very useful hints which I cannot find it in the manuel.
Btw, i got a question. In the beginning of the game (Pirna situation), an Austrian army tried to relieve Pirna but they've been defeated and moved towards Torgau. The city garrison was too small and I assume they surrenderd immedieately. I don't know if it is required to be in assault mode to take a city without combat (to seize it). Anyway, I guess they first took Torgau then a battle occured which was very bad for Austrians (they lost 20,000 while i lost 6,000). This was the most decisive battle for me thus far and I'm wondering what made them to get in a battle? Maybe they took the city first and they were in assault mode and they directly attacked me as i am stepping in the province? Or they took the city and waited outside then my army arrived and got in a clash?

bit of general comment on this. There is a small chance that a besieged city will surrender in any turn. If the defenders have full supply wagons this will reduce but not eliminate this risk. It sounds as if the Austrians at Torgau got lucky in this regard.

For the second bit would need to see more but I'd guess they could have had units in different stances which can lead to losses falling on a single corps. However, although 6,000-20,000 sounds very much in your favour its not unusual to manage a few early big wins against the Austrians. Not least the AI won't (I believe) promote von Bilberstein early, with his 4-1-4 stats, he can turn a corps into something that will make any Prussian attack pay a full price. Without him, you will tend to win big.
 
Actually IIRC as long as the besieged force has supplies in a supply wagon it won't surrender.
 
bit of general comment on this. There is a small chance that a besieged city will surrender in any turn. If the defenders have full supply wagons this will reduce but not eliminate this risk. It sounds as if the Austrians at Torgau got lucky in this regard.

For the second bit would need to see more but I'd guess they could have had units in different stances which can lead to losses falling on a single corps. However, although 6,000-20,000 sounds very much in your favour its not unusual to manage a few early big wins against the Austrians. Not least the AI won't (I believe) promote von Bilberstein early, with his 4-1-4 stats, he can turn a corps into something that will make any Prussian attack pay a full price. Without him, you will tend to win big.

torgau_muharebesi_bykzafer.jpg

Thx. This is the screenshot, as you noticed I have offensive and the enemy has defensive stance. I presume this happened like this: First they besieged defenseless Torgau and the city surrendered immediately. They didn't have "get in a structure" command so they stayed outside the fort. My army arrived and battle occured. They achieved something good by taking Torgau in the beginning of the game but not that army had 70,000 soldiers before crossing Elbe and now they have been completely annhilated. So, the game became much more easy for me.
 
View attachment 59132

Thx. This is the screenshot, as you noticed I have offensive and the enemy has defensive stance. I presume this happened like this: First they besieged defenseless Torgau and the city surrendered immediately. They didn't have "get in a structure" command so they stayed outside the fort. My army arrived and battle occured. They achieved something good by taking Torgau in the beginning of the game but not that army had 70,000 soldiers before crossing Elbe and now they have been completely annhilated. So, the game became much more easy for me.

would have to see the turn reports but it looks as if they were in an evade stance which is odd (I think the siege victory was an 'accident' in this sense). With more guns and in a proper defensive stance that should have been a bloodbath with your losses not far short of theirs. So my guess is the different parts of that Austrian force were in separate stances and possibly whichever corps had their artillery took no or little part. My guess would be half the army was with Browne in a HQ stack and took no part and the other half you pretty much wiped out. Looking at the prisoners etc I'd guess you then did a mass of damage as they retreated the field. And then being in the middle of Saxony would have seen what was left disintegrate (bad enough if you lose at Prag but at least you will get some formations back to Wien).

Can see how that was decisive, that must have been all the force that started at Prag, and its hard for the Austrians to recover early losses (the cash limit counts against them)
 
What a great AAR which made me to start to play it and enjoy it and of course you gave us some very useful hints which I cannot find it in the manuel.
I liked Barış's cautious approaches and your determination to find a solution no matter what the situation was.
Thanks for this great AAR and I go back to my singleplayer game with brillant new ideas.
Thanks. It was really a learning game also for me. And a bit innocent game to be called. But it was great experience. :)
 
Thank you. You are not late. Even someone reading this in 2 years won't be late :)
What about after 4 years, then? ;)

Thanks for the great read, Narwhal (and also Baris, for the very good fight you put up). I read this avidly after buying the game already (I just did so a few days ago) as I wanted to watch a game being played by someone with more experience than me in order to better understand the mechanics and possible strategies in the game.

Well, you helped me with this splendidly - thank you again for the excellent work you've done.
 
Still not even half way through this thread, but it's excellent. I am very new to Rise of Prussia and this type of game in general, so this is both invaluable and interesting.
Many thanks!
 
Narwhal,

Absolutely superb! I read this AAR over a few days, to my great interest and enlightenment. Reading this account of your and Baris' titanic struggle reminded me of being much younger and reading the history of the war for the first time. What an unexpected joy to have that feeling again! I was also for the first time able to overcome some of my barriers to understanding AGEOD games, and have truly enjoyed playing RoP for the first time despite struggling with it for many years.

I think I will now try to get a friend to play Civil War II with me. I would rather play RoP or ECW, of course, but it's much easier where I am to find a gaming friend interested in the Civil War ;).

Thank you again from 2017, Narwhal! I very much enjoyed this historical novella, and would to see you and Baris fight another epic war. :D
 
What about after 4 years, then? ;)

Thanks for the great read, Narwhal (and also Baris, for the very good fight you put up). I read this avidly after buying the game already (I just did so a few days ago) as I wanted to watch a game being played by someone with more experience than me in order to better understand the mechanics and possible strategies in the game.

Well, you helped me with this splendidly - thank you again for the excellent work you've done.
Try 10!

This thread (which I found while trying to figure out how to play Civil War II) inspired me to buy Rise of Prussia myself. Still racking up bodies 12 years later, Narwhal.
 
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Hello folks (@ChevalierMalFet).

Thanks for the kind words. I created my own blog where I AAR old games of various quality : https://zeitgame.net/ ; a few of the AARs are multiplayer. I found this thread because I was wondering whether I should repatriate my "good" AARs there.