Battle of Metz (and other epic battles)

[The Wookiee]

Oh boy, am I having fun playing Victoria 2. This blows the expectations out of the water with a nuclear bomb. I picked Prussia for my first game, as I wanted a sort of medium-level challenge. Was I in for a surprise...

I start out slowly by not doing very much at all, getting a grip on European diplomacy and trying to counteract French and Austrian influence over Germany as best I can. Then in 1840, Austria declares war. They want hegemony over all of Germany. After a bit of a struggle I end the war with a white peace. I decide that it is time to get proactive and so declare war on Denmark. I free Holstein from their puppet masters, liberate (yes, liberate) Danish Schleswig-Holstein and plant Denmark firmly in my Sphere of Influence.

1844 rolls around and Austria is not happy. They delcare war on me again, seeking once more to establish total hegemony over Germany. This time the fighting is rough, they had a lot more infantry mobilised than previously. I eventually manage to secure a peace establishing Prussian hegemony.

It's now 1860 and I am three German minors from forming Germany. I'm missing Bavaria, Baden and Württemberg. Then BAM!, out of nowhere, France declares war on me, intent on seizing the Rheinland, Prussias second industrial heartland. France is joined in the war by Brazil, the Papal States, Sardinia-Piedmont and Switzerland. Four months and several hard-fought victories later, practically the entire French army gathers in Metz, determined to put my Alsace-Lorranian offensive to a halt.

This is the result, after 2 months of bitter fighting, with me dragging every single man in uniform over there to fight:

As you can see from the outliner though, it's not all victories and heroics. France sunk my navy mad and have landed something like 30-40 thousand troops in Pommern. The Papacy and Brazil have also sent expeditionary forces to northern Germany. I have a long and very, very difficult war ahead of me. I will not give up before every last German soldier is dead or greviously wounded, or Alsace-Lorraine is in Prussian hands. Gott mit uns!

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TL; DR This is the best Paradox game to date and I am having so much fun I can barely contain myself.

 

[Enewald]

Writen AAR about it!

 

[The Wookiee]

Writen AAR about it!

I would, but I know I'll never finish it And I have learned my lesson when it comes to starting things I will never finish. This is all you get. Well, maybe another update if I don't lose too badly and ragequit

 

[A_Dane]

Wow, over 300k dead combined? that's truly epic think im gonna try Prussia nex, seems fun since my DK campaign has failed :/

 

[LeonRupnik]

And the French general is called Petain, too. :rofl:

 

[walrus]

Wow, that's a massive battle

I think there's going to be a lot of very sad wives in France and Italy.

 

[The Wookiee]

Wow, over 300k dead combined? that's truly epic think im gonna try Prussia nex, seems fun since my DK campaign has failed :/

Truly epic indeed. You should definitely try Prussia next, the diplomacy metagame is so much fun.

And the French general is called Petain, too. :rofl:

I didn't notice until now

Wow, that's a massive battle

I think there's going to be a lot of very sad wives in France and Italy.

Not to mention the Prussian wives My army at full strength, mobilised, is 264k. My current strength is 123k. That's over half my army gone in less than four months.

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I encourage other people to post screenshots of your epic battles, if you've experienced any so far.

 

[CaptRobau]

Congratulations, you've just won the largest classical formation battle in history, in terms of casualties.

 

[Rommel22]

Have you mobilized your populace yet, or are you unable to do so?
And how well were you able to continue the war after such a battle, even though you won, you lost a practically half your fighting force.

 

[unmerged(85507)]

And the French general is called Petain, too. :rofl:

When playing the US I already noticed the names are very often a mixture of the forenames and family names of generals who really existed .

 

[The Wookiee]

Congratulations, you've just won the largest classical formation battle in history, in terms of casualties.

Not sure if this is good or bad.

Have you mobilized your populace yet, or are you unable to do so?
And how well were you able to continue the war after such a battle, even though you won, you lost a practically half your fighting force.

I am mobilised, yes. You can tell by looking at the military score icon in the upper left corner, below my prestige and industrial scores. When the military score icon is red, your country has mobilised.

I have not dared to unpause yet. I have no no idea what is going to happen next, but I think I'll retreat to Saarbrücken, defend Berlin and try to fend off any counterattacks, at least for a while. But before I do any of that, I have to go get something to eat. Don't want to starve to death playing Victoria 2, that would give Paradox bad press

 

[Enewald]

Congratulations, you've just won the largest classical formation battle in history, in terms of casualties.

Hmm...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Changping

 

[Darkrenown]

He's mobilised, you can see it from the "-" under the brigade count. If he wasn't there would be a number there saying how many brigades were in his pool.

No NGF, wookie? Going straight to full Germany?

 

[Sovetskysoyuz]

How did you win despite an overall 3:2 numerical disadvantage? Did you have a qualitative advantage over France? Were you able to reinforce more rapidly than them? Or were the dice just very kind?

 

[unmerged(18239)]

And the French general is called Petain, too. :rofl:

My thoughts exactly

 

[safferli]

He's mobilised, you can see it from the "-" under the brigade count. If he wasn't there would be a number there saying how many brigades were in his pool.

Also, the swords of the mil score are red if the country is mobilised. Neat way to see if other countries have mobilised.

 

[podcat]

How did you win despite an overall 3:2 numerical disadvantage? Did you have a qualitative advantage over France? Were you able to reinforce more rapidly than them? Or were the dice just very kind?

I'm guessing you had some tech advantage? each level of tactics can make a big difference for example, as can gas (although this is too early)

 

[unmerged(85507)]

Or he was superior concerning artillery and perhaps had a better general.

If many units are backed by artillery they can perhaps slaughter one enemy unit after the other with a quite good kill ratio.

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

How did you win despite an overall 3:2 numerical disadvantage? Did you have a qualitative advantage over France? Were you able to reinforce more rapidly than them? Or were the dice just very kind?

Most likely one or several of the following being was the case:

1. Superior leader in charge
2. Better technology. The most likely culprit would be having better leadership tech, since tactics significantly reduce casualties, but much better weapons would do the trick as well.
3. Defending in fortified province

 

[safferli]

as can gas (although this is too early)

Mr One-track-mind!

Prussia starts with a tactics level advantage, that's pretty important. Perhaps theWookie could keep up that tech advantage.