Getting to know AGEOD... ROP AAR by a beginner

[Narwhal]

Will my current game work if I install this patch? And can I check the "Give AI more time" option anytime?

I don't really want a walk in the park game, and I don't think it would be too interesting to follow for others, but then again - quite a shame if I had to call an end of this AAR .

Edit: nevermind about the Give AI more time option - I can see I can check it at anytime so I guess I can do it now for the already started game. I have to find out about the patch now...

I believe the patch would break the game - but I am not sure.

It sure would be a pity. Just carry on with the give AI more time, and try to play agressively. The old AI is still very good in defense.

 

[Sathariel]

Alright, thank you. That's what I`m gonna do - carry on playing, while giving the AI more time. The aggressiveness part shouldn't be a problem since I`m rather reckless

 

[Enewald]

Is fighting against the Czarina worth it?

 

[Sathariel]

Is fighting against the Czarina worth it?

Fighting against the Czarina is ALWAYS worth it . But to be serious: I`m not sure, it would be nice to have the Russians 'contained' within East Prussia and me controling the Konigsberg should do just that. On the second thought I could probably abandon the city and withdraw through Poland into Koslin to try to stop them there. I decided to stay in Konigsberg as it's important Prussian town and I don't want to see it in Russia's hands.

 

[Sathariel]

Turn 14 / Late March 1757

Even tho the lands were still covered in snow I figured the winter has to be almost over and not to give Austria too much time to recreate his armies, that I`ve destroyed mostly in the previous campaign, I order my troops on attack:

L = left wing, Moritz and Wedell's collumns, starting their march towards Karlsbad. Von Zieten (Z) recons for them and looks for enemies, he is on evade combat order.
M = main army. They get an order to move straight towards Prague.
K = cavalry, due to my slacking with reorganizing I leave them behind 1 turn more so they can receive their new cavalry commanders for 2 of the brigades (who are going to replace the old ones, infantry ones who I may need on another fronts).
v.S = von Schwerin, begins to move towards Troppau.
S = are Saxon units that are moving north, towards Berlin, where my recruitment center for units who will fight Sweden is. More about it in a few updates, once I finish creating the army there.

I risk a lot betting on 'Austria hasn't got that many soldiers left' card. My forces are going to be split, they march straight towards their target, ignoring the terrain and conditions.

I wrote something about Pommern and Sweden already. That's the main reason:

And my preparations in Berlin (very chaotic at the moment and will be until I gather the militias that are about to get created soon):

 

[Sathariel]

Turn 15 / Early April 1757

First of all a lot of stuff to read on the toilet:

First two screens are the Prussian answers to the war with Sweden. A lot of militia gets created in the Brandenburg area. They are locked atm, will be able to order them the next turn.

Third screen is a decision I had to make, regarding the Wessel fortess. It's my west-most city, just near France and it is surely going to be attacked soon. I decide to abandon it, to save those soldiers I have there. Keeping them there, or even reinforcing the fortess would save me some more time but I rather want those troops to join the huge army I`m preparing to face the French. But, as with Pommern, more about it once I finish organizing it (in a few turns).

In Saxony Moritz and Wedell arrive to Karslbad, I don't assault it moving straight towards Eger (where some small Austrian unit is present - shouldn't be a problem for my 2 collumns). Von Zieten ran straight into enemy army but thanks to avoid combat order he managed to do exactly that. He'll move to Karlsbad to assault it the next turn.

Freidrich's main army is moving surprisingly slow. His move towards Prague was supposed to take 16 days, 15 passed and they've moved just 1 province. I`m just gonna have to wait a bit more I guess...

Speaking of snails: von Schwerin (also surprisingly) arrived at his traget of Troppau fortess without any further delays and started the siege .

What's missing on those screens is the Cavalry collumn that I move near Koenigatz to check the situation there.

As of now, no decent or even semi-decent enemy units seen...

 

[Enewald]

Bad Swedes force poor Finns to fight in order to get Pommern. fuu fuu.

 

[Stuyvesant]

Bad Swedes force poor Finns to fight in order to get Pommern. fuu fuu.

I imagine Pommern might be a nice change of scenery from the endless lakes, saunas and winter. Oh, and the high suicide rate and exorbitant alcohol prices (or is that Norway?).

Sathariel, is your headlong plunge into Austrian territory an attempt to even things out a bit for the AI, give them an opportunity to get back at you?

 

[Sathariel]

@ Enewald: I promise to treat all the future Finns POWs fair

@ Stuyvesant: I rather considered it as a sensible, cautious strategy . To be honest I really have no clue whatsoever what kind of army can Austria AI muster over winter, so until I see one and can alter my plans accordingly, I`ll just go fully on the offensive.

 

[loki100]

its interesting seeing the difference between the game play here and in Narwhal's. You probably are being more aggressive, more 'conventional' - in that you are looking for battle. They tend to be closer to what I understand as the spirit of this era, with battle not the goal of a campaign, but instead battle being the means by which the key advantage (taking or losing towns) is achieved. Whats not obvious is whether this is a human-human as opposed to human-AI construct (ie I'd be more cautious when playing against a human player), whether both interpretations are equally good etc.

My current CK AAR is coming to a (hopefully rather climatic) end (as a teaser, does Satan establish dominion over Russia or is he reduced to arguing about who owns which pitch-fork in a small corner of a now privitised hell?) ... an Austrian RoP one does rather appeal ... not least to look at the other side to the coin you are so entertainly presenting here.

 

[Sathariel]

Turn 16

Prince of Cumberland gets activated and assumes a leadership over Army of Observation, it is still under creation but getting there.

Next turn I`m gonna reorganize the units and present them in much more accessible form, as well as add a few words about the strategy I`m going to adapt for the Western front.

Same thing I might do for Pommern theater, tho but the looks of the mess I have to sort out (and the time some furthest units have to arrive) it can possibly take 2 turns:

Seems like turn 17 will be a lot of cleaning up Delayed one as well as the French and Sweds should be on the move anytime.

The news from the only front still active and where the fighting can actualy happen were... average:

Winter made a guest appearance again, hope it's just for one turn. Friedrich, for some reason, is slower than von Schwerin was in 1756. The good news are: still no enemy army in sight and I began sieging Eger.

 

[Sathariel]

Loki, you are right, I was thinking about the same thing exactly. I`m quite sure my aggressive posture comes from 3 different factors:
- first of all I never received a proper bashing. The AI is yet to punish me for taking too many risks and as it did not happen yet , I still didn't learn my lesson (keep in mind I`m an amateur player after all)
- second reason is, as you mentioned, playing against the AI. I`m sure I would try to be more careful against a human player.
- third reason finaly is, the situation that arose. Once I started playing, I didn't really know what strategy should I adapt, I had Narwhal's AAR as a guidance AND the advise you get when choosing the campaign (it more or less tells you what a sensible thing to do (I think) is for either side). It mentioned engaging and crippling Austrian army, what is what I was trying to do. Once I managed to I`m just trying to follow the punch.

It's possible that the outdated AI, I`m playing with plays a huge factor. I`m doing what the AI is letting me do. I could patch the game and improve it but it would need for me to probably close this AAR, and I don't really want to do that.

Oh and I should add: an AAR from Austria's point of view would be great. Instead of constant wondering what and how fast can Austria recruit, what reinforcemenets does it get and when I could just find out for myself.

 

[Sathariel]

Turn 17/ Early May 1757

First of all I capture Karlsbad with von Zieten's hussars:

Then I finaly managed to find first reasonable enemy units in the area, near Prague:

30 thousand men... not bad at all, it won't be able to stop Friedrich's main army but can cause troubles on either Left (Moritz/Wedell) or Right (von Schwerin's army) wings.

Some more Austrians were quite unfortunate:

Unfortunately, due to a surprising come back of a winter the last turn:

as well as long march some units took to get into their designated position (mostly Friederich) many of my units are getting short on supply:

The situation is bad everywhere, mostly in the western part, so I order Moritz and Wedell to withdraw back towards Saxony to replenish their supplies. In the Prague I reogranized my troops: first of all Ferdinand will not lead a collumn anymore. He gets replaced by a very weak Schwedt (4-0-1) and sends into unknown direction. Schwedt's takes command of all the wounded units and withdraws towards Dresden, to replenish them AND supply wagons. Keith and Dohna's columns have enough supplies for 3-4 turns, what hopefully be enough to capture Prague and if not Schwedt should be back on time with some food and ammo.


Now, as promised, let me tell you a bit about 2 other fronts that got activated recently:

POMMERN:

That one took me a while, let me show you briefly what did I have to deal with:

A bit of a mess but reorganized into armies/corps looks much better:

The main commander of the army I`m going to use against Sweden is von Lehwaldt (L - replaced by Heinrich in Konigsberg) himself. He will stay with half of the army (with one more unit of militia joining next turn) in Berlin in case of the enemy launching a strike there. Can't let my capital fail, can I? If Sweden attacks somewhere else (Stettin or west into Hannover) he'll move forward and try to capture either Rostock or Wismar.
A corps of that army, led by Bevern (B - 5-3-6 general) will move towards Stettin, wait there for the Brummer's canons to finish creating (I`m building 2 of them in Berlin and 1 in Brandenburg) and take them to besiege and hopefuly capture Straslund. (the reason I want to wait for Brummer's is cause of their Siege Expert perk, I`m hoping it will let me capture the town easier).
Hamburg, Lubeck and Kiel I plan to capture using Hannoverian cavalry, it's going to be led by Pennavaire (5-0-0 cavalry commander).
Additionaly I`ll merge 2 units of Freikorps cavalry under von Kleist (familiar sounding name 6-4-3 Skirmisher general) and try to cause some havoc as well as scout the Swedish Pommern.

The OOB of the theater looks like this:

'+'s' mean the units haven't arrived yet, they will next turn. The 3xBrummer cannons are not full, total amount of canons in the army I counted with them being created and at full strength.

HANNOVER:

An army under Cumberland has been created. It consists of 3 corps:

First one is fully Hannoverian, under von Zastrow (4-2-3 general)
Second one is at the moment led by some minor general (Imhoff) but as soon as Ferdinand (5-4-3) arrives from Prague he'll take over. It consists of total mix-up of units: some Prussian (withdrawn from Wessel), Hannoverian, as well as Brunschwickian (probably spelt it wrong :s ). Ferdinand will make a perfect commander of this unit due to his Multinational Commander skill (lets him lead units from different nations without penalties). As soon as I can promote him, he'll take over the whole army leadership from Cumberland.
Third corps are Hessians, under their 2-star general Wutginau (3-1-1).

First 2 colums are going to move towards Munster, Hessians are going to take a positions in Lippstadt and serve as an eventual support. The army HQ under Cumberland will move to Paderborn, so by any chance he won't assume command in case of meeting the French (I want Ferdinand, eventualy Zastrow to lead).

My idea of the Western front is to engage French from the start. I can't really go to any big offensive here (as I`d get destroyed by concentrated French army). But other than Wessel, and probably Dortmund I don't want to give them any other towns.

 

[Enewald]

How do you get supplies to Prag?

 

[Sathariel]

It's all pretty much automated. If I got the whole system right: the supplies for my units in Prague arrive from Dresden. Normaly cities don't distribute the supplies so far, but (I guess) due to Dresden being fairly big it does reach Prague, especialy if there's is a nice road connecting them. The whole way from Dresden to Prague is under my control (you can see small prussian flags in all the provinces). I`m gonna spoil the next update a bit, but the next turn out of the sudden my units in Czech's capital went from almost out of supply to almost fully supplied. The only reason I can find for that is winter: probably the winter conditions halted or delayed the transfer of provisions, as well as it caused some damage (the winter damage first goes to the supply trains, as long as you have them before affecting the troops).

The 2 things that are in your control are supply wagon construction and depots. Supply wagons are exactly that: the food and ammo your army carries with them. Depots are buildings you create at a cost of 2 supply wagons. Again, if I understand the whole system right: depots are collecting the supplies from the nearby sources and distribute them forward. So, if for example Dresden was a smaller city, unable to send the supplies it produces, all the way to Prague, I could build a depot in the middle of the road connecting them. That depot would gather the supplies from Dresden and then it would distribute it towards my units in Prague. A bit of a spoiler but (since Prague apparently doesn't need it) I want to build a depot for my units besieging Eger, as the mountainous terrain and the fact of Chemnitz being much smaller city than Dresden, causes my unit to receive much less amount of supplies.

 

[Stuyvesant]

@ Stuyvesant: I rather considered it as a sensible, cautious strategy . To be honest I really have no clue whatsoever what kind of army can Austria AI muster over winter, so until I see one and can alter my plans accordingly, I`ll just go fully on the offensive.

See, I'm so defensive-minded, I'd probably never move out of Berlin if I were to play this game. So my idea of a 'headlong plunge' might differ quite radically from everybody else's interpretation.

 

[Sathariel]

Turn 18/Late May 1757

The late winter lasted just 1 turn and everything came back to normal again (also supply wise - my troops in Prague are now almost fully supplied). No need to withdrawal there then.

My scout ride to Koeniggratz ends up in small skirmirsh:

Not much more happened this turn, but the enemy (in some cases I began to doubt it exists) started to appear everywhere:

In Pommern strong Swedish corps arrived, strong enough for me to put my offensive plans on hold there and just try to defend Stettin.

In Munster the first French columns appear, not the strongest one but it's just a matter of time. Ferdinand is still on the move to assume the leadership of the corps.

Finaly in Troppau I managed to breach the fortess there, but it's not the most important thing that happened there: a strong-looking Austrian army appears:

Not sure what to do with it yet, I put von Schwerin in defensive posture to try to hold an upcoming attack...

From other places in Bohemia: the siege of Prague continues undisrupted now, with supplies flowing nicely. Moritz and Wedell are moving towards Chemnitz, I want their supply wagon and supply to fully replenish, build a depot and then go back to besieging Eger.

 

[Sathariel]

Turn 19/Early June.

The Austrian come towards Troppau and the battle starts:

Victory, but I can see I have to deal with another 30 thousand enemies now...

Speaking of the 30 thousand enemies: the previous ones (the one I`ve encountered in Prague, under the leadership of Charles de Lorraine) are on the move and it seems they're about to invade Saxony:

I hope Wedell and Moritz can stop them.
Schwedt is taking his time moving towards Dresden, if not for that he could offer them a bit of support (not much since his unit is really weak).


In Pommern Sweden is slow on their attack on Stettin:

Seeing the strength of their unit I decide to send the main army HQ, instead of Bevern's collumn as it's stronger. So von Lehwaldt moves towards Stettin, Bevern stays in Berlin. I hope to arrive there before the Swedish, they've been slow by now and I`m guessing they'll carry on snailing through the unfriendly terrain.

More French units appear and Wessel is lost:

Ferdinand moves towards Stenford (small province north of Munster) where he will prepare himself to stop an upcoming French attack.

Two peaceful turns, I was sure enjoying them, even if most of my offensive plans just got ruined without even much fighting... I can't attack Swedish in Pommern as it's going to be suicide, I can't now go back to Eger, instead I have to worry about stopping Austria from pouring into Saxony. In Troppau I`ve beaten the enemy... but for how long? Especially that I can`t really send von Schwerin any support (I move my cavalry corps towards him but it will take some time) and Austria can.
My main army carries on besieging the Prague but it will take a few turns.
In the West I can't go and try to recapture Wessel so I`m forced to stay and wait for French to come.
On top of that: the next turn my huuuge mistake costs me my first lost big battle . Stay tuned. .

 

[Enewald]

How many French is that?

 

[loki100]

this remains fascinating - I've certainly been impressed by the AI in RoP, it seems very inventive in looking for ways to make your life a misery ... & as we all know, author-misery = great aar!