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Ouch, Picolomini got pretty badly chewed up there what with all those elements lost. The fact he managed to inflict zero casualties in return isn't reassuring either.
Nice cliffhanger to end it on! :)
Same as Dewirix on Picolomini's performance. And that last screenshot is pretty scary: Prag looks halfway encircled by Prussian troops. I hope your fortunes see a sudden improvement.

sometimes the battle logs are not that clear or helpful, and what happened isn't quite what it appears. I'd detached Nostitz to screen the other side of the river (remember Prussian cavalry had just taken Pilsen and I wanted to know where they were), and when it was clear that force had gone back to Prag, ordered Nostitz to rejoin Picolomini.

Now here commences a quick recap on stances and why you have to treble check.

Picolomini had really been ordered to Tabor as I had a supply train forming up there, by this turn it was ready so I'd added it to his force and given him retreat on contact orders. Nostitz I forgot to change his stance (he had defend and retreat but fight a bit orders). So P did what he was ordered (day 2), Fred arrives, run away, no losses, the day (day 3) after Nostitz trots in to report to Picolomini only to find Fred and the Elbe army in occupation. Now he carried out his order (fight a bit) & all 2600 of his cavalrymen died when facing 20000 Prussians. Next day (4) Fred eliminates the Tabor garrison for sport, now if he had been minded he could have hunted P back to Budweis (& more beer) but instead he went back.

A turn earlier and this raid would have netted him my newly building supply train, as it was he got 9 NM and a heavy cavalry brigade. Its actually quite tricky merging units in the face of the enemy, but you really do need to recheck the stances of any small forces you have rattling around as instead they can become very vulnerable.

P comes back and plays a rather important role in what is to come, so he may lack a decent moustache but he is one of my heros.
 
This is wonderfully explained as usually, Loki100. Cannot wait to read the rest.

Next day (4) Fred eliminates the Tabor garrison for sport, now if he had been minded he could have hunted P back to Budweis (& more beer) but instead he went back.

What happened is that I ordered Frederick, one turn earlier, to move to Tabor and then back to Beneschau, just South of my depot, so I protect the depot. My objective was to anniliate Picolomini's force before you could bring it to reinforce Prag, and also get some supply trains because I lost 3 of them (one to your raid, 2 to winters because I had to destroy them as they were slowing me down). Unfortunately, in RoP,if you give orders to "go there and come back", the "AI" stops when it reaches the final destination (i.e. you cannot "patrol"), whereas in WiA it goes back and forth, and I did not know that. Thus, Frederick stopped just North of Tabor, giving you a crucial turn. I did not understand the new rule (I thought it was due to weather - remember that all those turns you described happened at a sluggish rate due to horrible weather for 2 months or so), so I redid a mistake with that order a bit later (but it was less decisive) before understanding that it would not work.

A turn earlier and this raid would have netted him my newly building supply train, as it was he got 9 NM and a heavy cavalry brigade. Its actually quite tricky merging units in the face of the enemy, but you really do need to recheck the stances of any small forces you have rattling around as instead they can become very vulnerable.

P comes back and plays a rather important role in what is to come, so he may lack a decent moustache but he is one of my heros.[/QUOTE]
 
Same as Dewirix on Picolomini's performance. And that last screenshot is pretty scary: Prag looks halfway encircled by Prussian troops. I hope your fortunes see a sudden improvement.

I beg to disagree. The situation is a lot scarier for Narwhal than for loki. With Daun on all out defense and in command of a strong army it is too late for Narwhal to crack Prague (unless loki makes some mistakes). In the meantime, his supply and retreat route is in major danger: Moustache-guy (Naszdedy?) occupying Budin may just be the first step, soon the HRE army gets unlocked and can descend into Frederic's back from Eger. And voilà it's the Prussians that are encircled and will have to struggle to reach the safety of Saxony.

Speaking of postures, loki. If I may humbly say so, yours don't seem like good choices. Mr. Moustache will indeed switch to offensive posture once he enters Budin. If you want him to get support from Daun and Luchese, those two need to be on offensive posture as well. Otherwise they won't engage even if they march to the sound of guns.

Leaving Bilberstein on offensive makes little sense. He is too far away to support Moustache at Budin. I suspect you want to keep the besieged Prussian units inside Ritschan (by the way what is in there?). But with strong enemy forces nearby, Bilberstein would be safer on defensive posture. Same as Mr. Moustache he won't get effective help from Daun and Luchese as long as they have a different posture.

My recommendation either put all 4 corps on offensive posture or none. I would tend to do the latter. Mr. Moustache will switch to offensive posture and you risk him waging a battle without help but you also reduce the risk to the other three corps that hold vital positions. It very much depends on what you suspect Narwhal to do next. Do you think he is planning more offensive actions or is he already worried about his own rear?
 
well I'm responding from hindsight (which I can't but help do), so I'll offer the logic for Nadasdy (& his superb moustache) and Von Bilberstein (& his superb defensive stats) being on attack.

I decided to gamble on a raid at Budin as its a depot I created a while back (when trying my doomed forward defense), N would lose a battle with the little Fred and Keith (but not too badly) so it would buy me useful time (if it comes off I get MC over it and another hole in the Prussian supply lines, which I'm already snipping away at with the Hussars). If that happened at Budin, then I didn't want Daun et al to intervene as that would have uncovered Prag and Narwhal is sneaky enough to do a 1-2 attack. Bilb is on offense in that turn as I was hoping for a breach in the fortified camp and then that was out the way (I need to double check but there is a brigade and maybe a supply wagon there - so worthwhile to destroy if I can). Equally again if he was attacked directly he had advantages of the rivers and Narwhal would prob assume he was on defense. And again, with the current dispositions I didn't want Prag uncovered.

I assumed that Narwhal would be aggressive to be honest, I couldn't see him pulling back to Saxony to wage a defensive war without one last go at a decisive win. His reputation is all too clear in his various AARs (& its often rewarded him handsomely), & he has to put a real dent into one of my 4 armies - either the French on the Rhine, the French on the upper Danube, Daun or the Russians - if not I think I can just build up the pressure steadily to the point where something snaps.

As of next turn, when its clear that Fred is coming back, they all go onto a defend to the last drop of blood stance, and Narwhal tries to manouver to avoid the fighting across the rivers. All very tense as its then a matter of time. Picolomini can treble his corps with all those fresh brigades, I also have the useless Kollowrat out of Narwhal's sight, but he had to assume was on the way to Prag and by mid-summer as you say the Bavarian Reichsarmee is available for either W Bohemia or Saxony.

We're still finding a few bugs/wierdness, but this campaign is proving to be an epic tussle with monumental battles, sub-campaigns of pure manouver and sieges, especially as I copy the Allies strategy of 1813 - run away where Fred is, press elsewhere. Oh and mistakes ... quite a few mistakes.

And some very sneaky stuff going on around Koenigsburg/Kalingrad
 
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Also, it is not clear from the AAR, but the whole early 1757 Bohemia campaign was in rainy weather, which made crossing directly from where most of my force to just the SOuth of Prague impossible. Else I would have attacked. At this moment, I am waiting for a moment, only one, of good weather to regroup and attacK.

================================================== =====================================
Rise of Prussia Update 1.03a
April 12, 2012
================================================== =====================================
The patch is a comprehensive patch, meaning it can be applied directly over your initial game installation setup
version.

. Latest Game Engine (120404)
. Fixed: Ledger no longer closes with <right-click>
. Fixed: Transports carrying large troop formations were pillaging ocean regions
. Fixed: ''Looping'' patrol orders that plot the starting region as the ending region now properly move
What is in bold was what I was talking about, and saved Picolomini (we played before 1.03a).
 
What is in bold was what I was talking about, and saved Picolomini (we played before 1.03a).

this affected me too, for eg the order to Nadasdy to grab Budin and my attempt to kill your starving army moving from Koenigratz both failed due to this problem - just I put it down to having made a mistake with my orders.

Next up, another small skirmish ... thanks to Narwhal for the OOB and maps that make this less Austrian centric
 
First Ritschan, 1-8 May 1757

In the pouring rain that was such a feature of the early Spring of 1757, Frederick's Elbe army swung north from Tabor towards Prag. However, badly slowed by the rains it was not till late in the evening of the 30 April that his advance guard filed across hastily constructed bridges over the Sasau and his patrols enagaged in intermittent skirmishes with Von Bilberstein's pickets. For the second time in six months, these two armies were to clash in a battle of pure desparation, especially as both sides were now cut off from their natural retreat route to Wien and back into Saxony respectively.


Opening Deployments from a captured Prussian staff officer's map


Austrian OOB


Prussian OOB

Frederick's goal was to destroy Von Bilberstein by trapping his forces between the Elbe army, the fortified camp at Ritschan together with Heinrich's and Keith's corps and Moritz's cavalry as they crossed over the river. Unfortunately, the Austrians had had ample time to prepare and started to move from Prag once it was clear that Frederick was moving north. Nadasdy's column moved down the east bank of the Moldau seeking to deter a crossing by Heinrich and Keith while Lucchese's units took up positions on the east flank of Von Bilberstein's corps. However, the Austrian position was complicated by a desire to fight with the Prussian camp behind their lines (so as to stop its relief) and that 38,000 of their 64,000 man army had to deploy to the battlefield.

The result was that when May 1 dawned, the opening phases were partly a set piece encounter (between the Elbe army and von Bilberstein) and partly a series of meeting engagements along the Moldau. For the most part, Lucchese's corp was not involved as Frederick opted for a direct attack on the Austrian centre. As with the battle of Prag numbers favoured the Prussians (some 90,000 against 65,000), but the terrain favoured the Austrians and this time they had an advantage in artillery.

The other probem was the rain that been such a feature in April teemed down making movement and fire hard for both armies. However, as his battleplan had envisaged more movement, Frederick was more hindered by the rain and found himself reduced to direct attacks where he had planned flanking manouvers.


battlemap

The consequence was a day of hammer blows traded between the two forces. Nadasdy fended off the initial attack by Keith with some ease and Von Bilberstein was able to absorb Frederick's initial attack, in particular the fortified village at Fule and the Pozarsky heights gave him considerable defensive advantages.


Prussian infantry attack, Fule

By midday, Daun had reason to be relieved, neither Keith nor Frederick had made any progress and Heinrich was struggling to cross the Moldau near Wran. However, the situation changed with stunning speed. The Prussian cavalry under Moritz had not been engaged in the morning but made a tentative charge at Petroin on the junction between Von Bilberstein and Nadasdy's forces. With his flank in some confusion, Nadasdy was unable to beat off Keith's renewed attack at Daovis and suddenly the Prussians had forced the Moldau line even as Heinrich was putting Nadasdy's opposite flank at Wran under severe pressure. Although Von Bilberstein was able to hold Fule, the Austrian flank started to give way. However, a combination of rain and the difficulty in bringing their artillery over the Moldau prevented the Keith and Heinrich from taking full advantage.

By the time the battle died down around 9pm, Nadasdy had fallen back so Okrouhle formed the center of his line. Von Bilberstein had given up ground around Petrow to keep in touch and Lucchese took over some of Von Bilberstein's positions along the Pozarsky ridge. Daun had kept his lines intact, and even managed to create a small reserve.



The butcher's bill matched the nature of the day's fighting. The Prussian infantry had often had to attack up hill straight at the Austrian guns, the Austrians had responded by holding their lines at all costs. However, some of Nadasdy's units had been badly mauled in his fighting retreat. In total, one day of fighting had claimed the lives of 12,000 Prussians and 14,000 Austrians.

Equally this time there would be no disengagement and Daun and Frederick prepared for a second day of battle.

The nature of their deployment left neither side much scope to reorganise. Men and horses, fit and injured, spent a miserable night in the rain, knowing that many would die the next day.

In the early morning, the Prussians attacked along the line. Lacking the space for finesse, Frederick opted for brute force. He would try to stretch the Austrian line, Heinrich and Keith fell upon Nadasdy, Moritz's cavalry struck the juncture between Von Bilberstein and Nadasdy while the Elbe army went in against Fule and along the Pozarsky heights.

Daun recognised that if Nadasdy was forced back again his communication line to Prag was in danger so quickly hurled his reserves in to bolster the line. Time and again, the Prussians breached the line and time and again desparate cavalry charges halted them till the Austrian guns were manhandled into position and the breach was sealed.


Nadasdy's defense of Okrouhle on the second day

In the constricted terrain around Fule, neither the Prussian infantry nor Moritz's cavalry made any real progress, but the real surprise of the day was on the Pozarsky ridge. Here Frederick's infantry attacked with elan and Lucchese's weakened corps, occupying unfamiliar ground, and over-extended, cracked.

By the end of the day, Daun's army had been forced into a horseshoe around the Prussian fortified camp. Nowhere was it broken, but all his formations were shattered by the fighting. Fortunately so were the Prussians. Another 25,000 men had fallen (13,000 Austrians and 12,000 Prussians) for no gain on the battlefield.



For five days, the two armies faced each other. Gradually both started to clear the battlefield, the wounded were treated as well as possible, the dead thrown into hastily dug pits. Daun kept his forces more or less as they were, Frederick drew Keith over to his east flank, placed the Elbe army on the Pozarsky and deployed Heinrich facing Fule. Moritz's cavalry was to screen the Austrians and stop a transfer of too many troops to Lucchese.

When the Prussians attacked again, the Austrians were down to 39,000 effectives as against 67,000. However, the direction of the final assault had been all too easy to guess and the Prussians had ammunition shortages. Equally rather than passively defend, Daun had a more aggresive plan.

The main attacks fell on Lucchese and Von Bilberstein and repeated the pattern of the earlier days. Initial Prussian gains, fierce counterattacks and an Austrian line that fell back but did not buckle.

However, Nadasdy took advantage of Moritz's relative isolation and launched a major attack on the Prussian horse. Thrown into confusion they fell back and many were drowned in the swollen rivers. Realising that Nadasdy could now reinforce the rest of the Austrian army, Frederick broke off, with another 9,000 of his men dead and almost 14,000 Austrians.



However, his decision to strike at the east flank now had major consequences. He had no choice but to retreat into Central Bohemia. 41,000 Austrians had died (Luchesse and 5 of the Brigade Commanders had been wounded) as had 33,000 Prussians and further Prussian losses had been sustained in breaking off. For the second time, the Austrian army had fought and died to defend Prag, Maria Theresa was quick to reward those responsible.



However, quite simply, nothing had been decided.

 
An excellent narrative, loki. This is really becoming a gem of an AAR. From a gameplay perspective, I am left with some questions, though.

Didn't you just order Nadasdy to Budin? How did he manage to participate in the battle at Ritschan? Was he drawn south via a march to the sound of guns before he could reach his target?

How did the postures of your stacks affect these battles? Did all engage our did Daun and Luchese sit out part of the fighting?

One piece of humble advice from my side: it's not necessary to assume offensive posture to obtain breaches. Neither is it to keep the enemy in a besieged position. Usually you will quickly get 95% MC if you besiege an enemy structure. Once that has happened, the besieged army will switch to offensive posture if it makes a sortie/tries to sneak out (it's entering an enemy controlled region) which will make them attack your siege force. There are some exceptions (inactive commanders, cavalry on passive posture may get lucky and sneak out, ...). But usually it works.

I will always defer to your superior understanding of the game. Thanks for setting me straight. :)

We are both just providing our more or less accurate comments from the sidelines. As it turns out neither of us had it right. :)
My comment was inspired by a strategy I have used several times in PBEMs, it usually works very well (wait at Prague in 56, if the enmy attacks it will be from the south to avoid the river penalty. Once he is repelled it is time to cut off his retreat). The fun part in AARs is that we get to see different strategies. And learn from the ideas of other players.

But I have to agree with loki and Narwhal, the Prague gambit has little chances of success if the Austrian player focuses on Prague and refuses to be drawn into any adventures. If that happens, it's probably smarter for the Prussian player to cut his losses and retreat.

What happened in this match may look like a series of Prussian victories but they really aren't. These are Pyrrhic victories, Narwhal won't be able to replace these losses (especially the cavalry). You need 2:1 casualty rates as a Prussian to get ahead otherwise a battle is harmful in the long run.
 
Didn't you just order Nadasdy to Budin? How did he manage to participate in the battle at Ritschan? Was he drawn south via a march to the sound of guns before he could reach his target?

How did the postures of your stacks affect these battles? Did all engage our did Daun and Luchese sit out part of the fighting?

Quick partial response:

Nadasdy the previous turn had been caught by the 'loop moves bug' that Narwhal mentioned, I'd told him to go to Budin and back, he didn't move, so this turn he was on defend at all costs with the rest of the army. Daun for some reason was slow to move to the battle, which is why Nadasdy commanded the opening two days, but the rest arrived after the first day. The inactive Lucchese on day 1 was poetic license, but it reflects the detailed battle log where Nadasdy and von Bilberstein along with Keith and Frederick did the bulk of the fighting.

As to strategies, I think there are some basically sound opening moves to all the AGEOD games, that once you learn you're as well to use, but its like chess, once the game is in play the opening gambits appear less important. I wonder if the conservative Austrian strategy opens up other Prussian gambits that have yet to be explored? I can think of raiding in force in W Bohemia as one, that would mess up Austrian recruitment for starters?
 
Thank you for the explanation. :)

As for alternate Prussian strategies: I don't see any that can decisively change the course of the game. Sure Prussia can take Koenigsgraetz, Eger or even Olmutz. But it will only put parts of their army in isolated spots.
Besides such territorial gains will soon enough be lost again. But I agree it is better than sitting around idly. Besides, one may get lucky and provoke an Austrian response.

The main reason why I am sceptic is that the real target in 1756 is the Austrian army. Prussia must attempt to decimate it at low cost. 1756 provides it with a chance to weaken one of its enemies decisively. Cities don't matter that much. Having Prague is nice because of the supplies. But the real value in taking it is that the Austrian army can be forced into a costly winter retreat.
Long-term Prague has little value. In particular it isn't easy to defend against an Austrian counteroffensive from the South.
 
Thank you for the explanation. :)

As for alternate Prussian strategies: I don't see any that can decisively change the course of the game. Sure Prussia can take Koenigsgraetz, Eger or even Olmutz. But it will only put parts of their army in isolated spots.
Besides such territorial gains will soon enough be lost again. But I agree it is better than sitting around idly. Besides, one may get lucky and provoke an Austrian response.

While it doesn't rly change the course of the game I like to follow Prague gambit 56 (if i manage to capture Prague naturally) with a fast attack against Reichs armee in 57 (usually with bout 20k troops preferably under Keith). If done correctly it should give you some easy victories (as Reich armee has abysmal leaders and is in serious need of reinforcements via depot btn's at the start of 57)
 
Before the next stage of the Prag campaign ...

a reminder to vote in the Q1 ACAs here and in the inaugaral AArthenas thread here, and, if you are so inclined you can vote in the last Crusader Kings 1 Crusadaar's chalice here (which includes some real gems and examples of creative imagination) or catch up on the HOI3 AARs you missed earlier here (which is in the prelminary voting round).
 
The Second Battle of Ritschan, 22 May 1757

After the failure of the final Prussian assault at Necham as part of the first battle of Ritschan, with his cavalry force disrupted by Nadasdy's counterattack, Frederick fell back towards Central Bohemia. His options were to either seek, again, to force Daun's battered army away from Prag or to retreat into Eastern Silesia. The latter option, would place the main Elbe army unable to intevene if the Austrians, combined with the Bavarians, struck into Saxony.



With half his army killed or incapacitated at the first battle of Ritschan, Daun was ill placed to fend off another massive Prussian assault. However, unlike Frederick he had the hope that reinforcements would soon arrive. Key to the gamble facing both sides was the location of Picolomini's corps and how fast could it join up with Daun's beleagured Army.



In the event, Frederick decided to risk one last battle, in an attempt to fatally weaken Daun before the Austrian forces from Wien were in the field. However, while the Austrian scouts were providing Daun with excellent intelligence on the Prussian deployment, Frederick was unaware of the location of two major Austrian forces, and both Picolomini and Lucchese could be moving to join Daun or even to cut off his retreat into Silesia [1].

Daun was informed late on the 20th that Frederick had broken camp and was looking to force a third battle in the bruising sequence of encounters around Prag. Quickly Nadasdy and Von Bilberstein took up positions to the east of the old battlefield and urgent couriers were sent to Picolomini to hasten overnight if at all possible. Briefly the hopes and fears of both armies rested on the Siena born nobleman.


(showing the battlelines and the key heights at the centre of the Prussian line)

Daun selected the ground for the battle with some care. His south flank was anchored on the River Sasau and he knew the main approach route had to be the road that ran to Rican. Here he concentrated Nadasdy's force with the bulk of the cavalry. Von Bilberstein was deployed in and around the village of Mnichowitz and the remnants of Lucchese's command [2] was deployed on the south of the line around Pischely, covered by the small rivers and broken ground.

Even as the Austrians prepared their positions and erected hasty fortifications, Picolomini's corp arrived. Hastily fed and billeted, Daun planned to hold them back in the hope of luring Frederick into a trap, for the first time the two armies had almost even numbers, almost 60,000 Austrians faced 64,000 Prussians.

As the morning broke, Picolomini took up positions in the reserve of Von Bilberstein and Nadasdy. Daun's plan was to lure the Prussians in, absorb their opening blow and then hit the flanks of their exhausted columns.


(Daun near Richan, supervising the early stages of the battle)

The problem was his deployment ceded the high ground around the Pecrtej and Habr heights to the Prussians. This immediately gave away the arrival of Picolomini and exposed the Austrian lines to the opening cannonade. For the first hours of the battle, the Austrians suffered heavy losses and a cavalry attack on the Prussian guns was bloodily repulsed.

However, at 11am, Frederick changed the nature of the battle ordering a concerted assault on Nadasdy's positions led by Keith. In doing so he lost the advantage, and the Prussian lines broke up in the small ditches and fields around Mnichowitz and Richan. At close range, with even numbers, the Austrians held all the advantages, and in sequence of fragmented, brutal encounters, the Prussian columns were driven back.


(Main phase of the battle as the Prussian infantry closed with the Austrian defenses)

By early afternoon, his infantry were exhausted and it was clear that any attempt to commit his cavalry would be suicide. At this, Frederick backed off, leavin 8,500 dead behind for 9,500 Austrian losses.



With the end of the second battle of Ritschan, what became known as the Prag campaign ended. Across the three major encounters, 74,000 Austrian soldiers had lost their lives as had 50,000 Prussians. However, the Austrians had effectively won, as the immediate threat to Prag was over. Equally, the next phase of the 1757 campaign was to be very different. What had been a war of set piece battles exploded into a campaign of raids, manouver and sieges.

Critically, Frederick's Elbe army was now poorly positioned to protect Saxony. Even as the battlefield fell quiet, Austrian hussars had recaptured the Prussian held depot at Budin.




[1] – Kollowrat and Charles are campaigning on the Oder, I assume Narwhal has spotted this force but doesn't know where the other 2 formations are.
[2] – Remember Lucchese was wounded at first Ritschan, but Narwhal will just know he no longer has a command in the region, I may well have sent him south to help organise the fresh forces moving from Wien.

And, again, thanks to Narwhal for supplying detials of the Prussian OOB and deployments
 
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That was a great read, love your description of the battle - very captivating. Considering you destroyed some precious, hard to replace Prussian elements in the assault, I think it was quite a good one. Prussia can't afford to fight too many of these.

On another note, I see the Prussians use a full cavalry force. In my singleplayer game I noticed that such cavalry corps most of the times attack head on in the first round of battle, even when in a province with another more balanced force. As a result the cavalry corps usually takes heavy losses, before the more balanced and bigger force joins the battle. Any way to prevent this with stances? Now I just place it next to the region where I think a big battle will take place, which will usually make the cavalry force join later when it marches to the sound of the guns. It works, but it is not ideal.
 
Another great update!

At this point Narwhal is in trouble. His casualties in this campaign are far too high and his strategic position is rather awkward (far removed from supplies or reinforcements). On the plus side, he sits nicely in the way of any Austrian reinforcements heading to Prague. But he won't be able to stay, as soon as the HRE army unlocks, he will have to retreat or risk losing Saxony/getting cut off.

While it doesn't rly change the course of the game I like to follow Prague gambit 56 (if i manage to capture Prague naturally) with a fast attack against Reichs armee in 57 (usually with bout 20k troops preferably under Keith). If done correctly it should give you some easy victories (as Reich armee has abysmal leaders and is in serious need of reinforcements via depot btn's at the start of 57)

Hehe, that is wonderfully nasty. I never thought of that.

Have you tried it against a human player, though? There are a lot of things they tend to do to get the HRE army into fighting shape:

- send excess French one-star generals (this remedies the insufficient number of brigade generals)
- send one additional two-star (usually one of the bad Austrians, this enables a second corps and without needing to rely on the incompetent Saxe-Hildburgshausen)
- build a lot of depot batallions (when the passes open I usually have the HRE army in fighting shape)

Moreover the rough ground at Nurnberg is rather advanatgous for the HRE troop mix (they lack cavalry). Against a well prepared HRE army such a raid may be more costly than expected.

Nevertheless I really like the idea. It's almost becomes unforgiveable not to try this if an Austrian player should choose to spawn the HRE reinforcements at Eger.
 
OUtstanding report, Loki100 !

The good point is that the long and difficult to write massive battles are behind you for a while. Now it will be a game of position again.

A few additional notes :

- The forces in the Prussian camp (1 unit of guns, 2 of supplies) were actually captured elements from the first serie of battles. I labelled the screenshoot ambiguously when I sent it to Loki. As they were trapped, I destroyed the guns and converted the supplies into a depot (more useful to me than to him).

- My objective on the second day was to forget Prague and attack Picolomini before he could join up with Von Daun. My forces were in a pretty solid shape, so I thought that if I could destroy him without Von Daun meddling, I could recoup my loss and eventually take Prague. Obviously, it failed spectacularly.

- Finally, while I am clearly defeated decisively, this is clearly NOT crippling for me. One has to remember that 1/3 of the losses in men are recovered in manpower. This "recovery" of manpower is useful for the Prussian, short on MP, but useless for the Austrian, for whom the limitating ressource will be money or war supplies. Furthermore, my losses were fairly well distributed, and by late 1757 most of my Prussian infantry elements were full-force again. I was more worried for the 10 000 + dead horses, which I will never recover. I still fell it now.
 
The Prussian casualties are massive. As the winter comes I would try to rebuild those lost infantries. Those fusiliers with a grenadier platoon are very good. Did you build any Garde de Corps? You could push for quality as MP is always low.
 
Bruising series of battles. And while the Prussians win consistently (do those losses have any impact on the Austrian NM?), they don't really affect the strategic situation. Which means that, considering how things could've been, the Austrians are doing fairly well.

Even considering Narwhal's comment that the manpower losses aren't too bad for him in the long run, I imagine the Prussian army right now is still badly battered and in need of rest and reinforcement. If nothing else, all those dead Austrians should buy more time for the reinforcements to arrive.
 
Before any detailed comments, thanks for all the praise, its actually fun finding a reasonably detailed map and the in-game material and coming up with a narrative beyond, ' a battle happened here'. The maps are from an 1880s Austrian military series, so my instinct is the basics (including the road nets) are pretty accurate for the time span (though I am having to choose areas that cut out any railway lines), since these are pre-motorised transport and outside the bigger cities pre-mass expansion of urbanisation.

That was a great read, love your description of the battle - very captivating. Considering you destroyed some precious, hard to replace Prussian elements in the assault, I think it was quite a good one. Prussia can't afford to fight too many of these.

On another note, I see the Prussians use a full cavalry force. In my singleplayer game I noticed that such cavalry corps most of the times attack head on in the first round of battle, even when in a province with another more balanced force. As a result the cavalry corps usually takes heavy losses, before the more balanced and bigger force joins the battle. Any way to prevent this with stances? Now I just place it next to the region where I think a big battle will take place, which will usually make the cavalry force join later when it marches to the sound of the guns. It works, but it is not ideal.

Narwhal can best answer to his logic of an all cavalry force. I tend to use mixed forces myself to spread the losses around. That Moritz force is a pain as he moves it around a lot (as will be clear in the next post), but then it is taking very expensive and hard to replace losses (as in the next post).

Hehe, that is wonderfully nasty. I never thought of that.

Have you tried it against a human player, though? There are a lot of things they tend to do to get the HRE army into fighting shape:

- send excess French one-star generals (this remedies the insufficient number of brigade generals)
- send one additional two-star (usually one of the bad Austrians, this enables a second corps and without needing to rely on the incompetent Saxe-Hildburgshausen)
- build a lot of depot batallions (when the passes open I usually have the HRE army in fighting shape)

Moreover the rough ground at Nurnberg is rather advanatgous for the HRE troop mix (they lack cavalry). Against a well prepared HRE army such a raid may be more costly than expected.

Nevertheless I really like the idea. It's almost becomes unforgiveable not to try this if an Austrian player should choose to spawn the HRE reinforcements at Eger.

That 'Bavarian' gambit looks interesting, certainly worth testing out. I took a more pragmatic view to organising the Bavarians and left all the weaker battalions to the rear, and then start using them to guard depots and captured fortresses. In my last SP game, there was a long stalemate around Nuremburg for much those reasons, its good defensive terrain for those infantry and its an option to take the French army of Germany into the region too. But if it comes off, its another threat eliminated.

Another great update!

At this point Narwhal is in trouble. His casualties in this campaign are far too high and his strategic position is rather awkward (far removed from supplies or reinforcements). On the plus side, he sits nicely in the way of any Austrian reinforcements heading to Prague. But he won't be able to stay, as soon as the HRE army unlocks, he will have to retreat or risk losing Saxony/getting cut off.
OUtstanding report, Loki100 !

The good point is that the long and difficult to write massive battles are behind you for a while. Now it will be a game of position again.

A few additional notes :

- The forces in the Prussian camp (1 unit of guns, 2 of supplies) were actually captured elements from the first serie of battles. I labelled the screenshoot ambiguously when I sent it to Loki. As they were trapped, I destroyed the guns and converted the supplies into a depot (more useful to me than to him).
- My objective on the second day was to forget Prague and attack Picolomini before he could join up with Von Daun. My forces were in a pretty solid shape, so I thought that if I could destroy him without Von Daun meddling, I could recoup my loss and eventually take Prague. Obviously, it failed spectacularly.
- Finally, while I am clearly defeated decisively, this is clearly NOT crippling for me. One has to remember that 1/3 of the losses in men are recovered in manpower. This "recovery" of manpower is useful for the Prussian, short on MP, but useless for the Austrian, for whom the limitating ressource will be money or war supplies. Furthermore, my losses were fairly well distributed, and by late 1757 most of my Prussian infantry elements were full-force again. I was more worried for the 10 000 + dead horses, which I will never recover. I still fell it now.

In my case, I have more brigades than capacity in my combat corps so I just sat down and did a monumental re-organisation, the weaker stuff was left in reserve/garrison to recover and I fed the new units into the front line formations. My goal by 1758 is to (a) survive, (b) not lose any major army and then hope that from 1759 onwards I can exert real pressure on the Prussians on at least 2 fronts.

The Prussian casualties are massive. As the winter comes I would try to rebuild those lost infantries. Those fusiliers with a grenadier platoon are very good. Did you build any Garde de Corps? You could push for quality as MP is always low.

Again Narwhal can answer for the Prussians but at this stage, I'm following a very deliberate build strategy, some of the few better Austrian units, lots of depot battalions and a lot of builds for a very specific purpose (which you'll have to wait till we've played out 1759 before I want to discuss)

Bruising series of battles. And while the Prussians win consistently (do those losses have any impact on the Austrian NM?), they don't really affect the strategic situation. Which means that, considering how things could've been, the Austrians are doing fairly well.

Even considering Narwhal's comment that the manpower losses aren't too bad for him in the long run, I imagine the Prussian army right now is still badly battered and in need of rest and reinforcement. If nothing else, all those dead Austrians should buy more time for the reinforcements to arrive.

After that lot, my NM is down at 103, so not a huge disaster, in that I'm not losing battles because of it, but its another hindrence.

Narwhal has a particular problem with the attrition/reinforcement rules we're using. You need to be on a depot to take on reinforcements, so while his army can recover organisation, it will be short of manpower till he takes a city off me, or falls back into Silesia.

I think the attribution of win/loss on the battle reports needs to be read in situation. In every case, I held the battlefield at the end and it was the Prussians that lost additional hits for breaking off. Best seen as a series of bloody draws, that suited me as I had the more limited ambitions. As long as Prag held, I won that round, regardless of the price paid.

and, as usual, a reminder to vote in the ACA awards
 
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