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March of the Eagles Developer diary 7 - Who will lead your country?

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Johan

Johan

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“The more a general is accustomed to place heavy demands on his soldiers, the more he can depend on their response.”
Karl Von Clausewitz​

Welcome to the 7th developer diary for March of the Eagles. We've already gone over the how’s and whys of making war. Now the time has come for you to choose those that will lead you to victory. Be sure that you do so with care.
The situation calls for extensive knowledge in leadership and how to choose which of the leaders at your command will serve what purpose in the war you find yourself in.

As expected, generals are used to lead armies and admirals are used to lead navies. A leader’s traits and attributes govern how skilled he is. Attributes are constant, but new traits can be acquired and old upgraded through experience. The skill of a leader determines how good he is at performing different strategies and tactics in combat.

The commander in chief
The commander in chief of an army serves as the reserve leader, using his skill to decide when to commit troops from the reserves to a flank or withdraw troops from a flank to the reserves. The offensive and defensive capabilities of the reserve leader will also give a bonus to troops in all the fighting flanks.

The 3 attributes of leadership
Leaders have three attributes: offensive skill, defensive skill and maneuver. Paying close attention to these may be the difference between defeating an army twice your size or getting crushed.

The Offensive Attribute
The Offensive attribute gives a bonus when you are attacking an enemy. This bonus applies to any military actions that uses armed force in an aggressive manner in order to occupy territory, gain an objective on the battlefield or map, or achieve a larger strategic, operational or tactical goal. On the battlefield, offensives are largely conducted as a means to seize the initiative in a confrontation between opponents.

The Defensive Attribute
Defense is about combating attacks on your armies and territory so the Defensive trait gives a bonus to any army defending your country/provinces. The bonus does not apply until your armies are attacked.

The Maneuver Attribute
The Maneuver attribute is probably the most significant one in a long campaign. A general's maneuver score affects his army's movement speed and the rate of attrition it will suffer. Maneuver represents those tactical moves, or series of moves, that can improve or maintains an army's strategic situation in a competitive environment, or even to avoid a hard situation. In battle, Maneuver also governs how good the leader is at changing phase to his own favor in combat and is a vital attribute for those generals commanding the reserves.

How to improve your Leaders Traits
A Trait is permanent bonuses or skill that augments a general's attributes in specific ways and in certain situations. Traits can only be gained by seeing the fire of battle. Leaders are assigned to armies or naval forces and then any success that leader sees has a chance to generate a Trait for those in command. This reflects the rapid education of generals on Napoleonic battlefields as the art of war changed so quickly compared to what had gone on before. Traits are a way to further specialize generals and admirals, if you want to make the most out of your men.

Leaders in March of the Eagles
For a little bit of eye candy, each Leader in March of Eagles is represented by a unique portrait, instead of simply a generic head with a funny hat. This may help you recognize your favorites or maybe realize which of these handsome men is better off staying at home.

7.png

That’s all from me this week! :)
Hope you know have the knowledge to bring out the best in your leaders and choose the men you want to command your troops.
Next week we talk about Combat and Combat Tactics.
 
So, pretty generic then (Attach/Defence/Manoeuver), with the addition of HOI3's traits and leader portraits?
 
Hello, I have a big concern. Battles in most Paradox games does not affect much over the general outcome as the one with the most resources usually wins. Will battles finally be decisive? Unrealisticly, battles in most Paradox games can last weeks, which was never the case. Is there going to be a battle delay? Like when two armies are in the same province they will not immediately attack each other.
Will there be different stances for armies, like avoid battles and such? This part has especially been really unrealistic, as maneuver was a big part of campaigning and most leaders usually decided to wait rather than to attack or defend in bad ground or in otherwise unfavourable situation, though there of course were exceptions.

Will this be a proper wargame or just another abstracted mess?
 
Offensive/Defensive/Maneuver

Guess it's a remain from where the game's supposed to be made by AGEOD as NCII?
 
Leaders in March of the Eagles
For a little bit of eye candy, each Leader in March of Eagles is represented by a unique portrait, instead of simply a generic head with a funny hat. This may help you recognize your favorites or maybe realize which of these handsome men is better off staying at home.
Click to expand...

Will these be 'historical' pictures based on real generals of the time, or are these randomly genereated within the game as each leader is 'created'?

E
 
The most interesting historical what-if I can think of in this case is seeing what will happen if you change places between Grouchy and Ney at Waterloo. Instead of having the careful Grouchy attacking the Prussian rear at Wavre, I would like to see the dashing Michel Ney instead pursue the Prussians, while Grouchy has a command at Waterloo and maybe not charging in against Wellington's squares with the whole cavalry.
 
Searry said:
Hello, I have a big concern. Battles in most Paradox games does not affect much over the general outcome as the one with the most resources usually wins. Will battles finally be decisive? Unrealisticly, battles in most Paradox games can last weeks, which was never the case. Is there going to be a battle delay? Like when two armies are in the same province they will not immediately attack each other.
Will there be different stances for armies, like avoid battles and such? This part has especially been really unrealistic, as maneuver was a big part of campaigning and most leaders usually decided to wait rather than to attack or defend in bad ground or in otherwise unfavourable situation, though there of course were exceptions.

Will this be a proper wargame or just another abstracted mess?
Click to expand...

+1 One of my favorite books is Marlborough by Churchill. At Malplaquet, Blenheim, and the campaigns in Belgium where he took like 15 strongholds, he would always maneuver himself into optimal position before unleashing hell. I understand that it was 90 years prior, but his aggression was nearly napoleonic, and seems to suggest that the actual combat engine, while perhaps not being tactical, should have far more depth than stats +traits, perhaps even approaching that of a minigame, if not a dropdown to determine tactical intent (avoid battle, set battle, roll off between stats, etc). Also, +1 esp for weeklong battles. Maybe even during major events (battles involving a certain number of units from each side) time could be slowed down to hourly, where the battle chart is rolled out and you can make decisions during battle? Just suggestions, great dev diary as usual.
 
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Searry said:
Hello, I have a big concern. Battles in most Paradox games does not affect much over the general outcome as the one with the most resources usually wins. Will battles finally be decisive? Unrealisticly, battles in most Paradox games can last weeks, which was never the case. Is there going to be a battle delay? Like when two armies are in the same province they will not immediately attack each other.
Will there be different stances for armies, like avoid battles and such? This part has especially been really unrealistic, as maneuver was a big part of campaigning and most leaders usually decided to wait rather than to attack or defend in bad ground or in otherwise unfavourable situation, though there of course were exceptions.

Will this be a proper wargame or just another abstracted mess?
Click to expand...

The latest version of CK2 has finally managed to address this. In it, smaller armies actually have a reasonable chance to defeat larger ones, if they manage to trigger the right battle events. I would expect no less from a Paradox game where war is more at the forefront in comparison. The MotE battle system seems pretty straight ripped from CK2, with the addition of the reserve.

After all, while Napoleon was no doubt a competent civilian administrator, he is famous for brilliantly conducted campaigns, not for managing France's economy so well that its doomstacks overpowered everyone else ;)
 
Johan said:
The Offensive attribute gives a bonus when you are attacking an enemy.
(...)
Defense is about combating attacks on your armies and territory so the Defensive trait gives a bonus to any army defending your country/provinces. The bonus does not apply until your armies are attacked.
Click to expand...
Does this mean that both generals in a battle might be using their Offensive attribute?

If Defence only applies if you are the defender AND you are in one of your home provinces, there will be several situations where that doesn't apply. If I'm General Mack and my Austrian army is sitting in Ulm when Napoleon attacks me, I'm the defender, but I'm not in my own territory. Conversely, if the Prussian army under Blucher is marching on Paris and I as Napoleon counter-attack them on French soil, I'm in my own province but I'm not the one being attacked; they are. So in those situations, which attribute would i use?

***

Second question: traits. The screenshot doesn't show any examples of them on the leader list, that I could see. Are we talking about the three or four possible traits from HoI (offensive leader defensive leader, logistics wizard, trickster, etc), or the much more extensive list from CK2? Or are you using AGEOD's list of leader traits, which as I recall is even larger than CK2's?
 
Don E said:
Will these be 'historical' pictures based on real generals of the time, or are these randomly genereated within the game as each leader is 'created'?
Click to expand...
Take a look at the screenshot Johan posted, and compare the portraits of the leaders it shows to those of the actual people. :)

Though I imagine that like in HoI3, there will also be generic portraits for leaders where we don't actually have a surviving picture of them.
 
Questions:
In the picture, the 6th Corps is commanded by Michel Ney. Are the other generals Divisional Commanders?
If so, What if the Corps only has 2 Divisions?

Can you choose the generals for both Corps, Divisions and Brigades?

Do the French generals have higher maneuver ability than others? The French were famous for their double forced marches!
 
Must Lannes die in 1809, Suvorov die in 1800， or he can live longer?
Can leaders die or get maimed or be captured in battles? Or Can they die of natural cause?
Can ruler become leaders?
Can we get random leaders?
Can leaders have some traits, like CK2?
Can leaders have his special bonus when commanding artillery or cavalry?
 
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I'd imagine Suvorov isn't even in game, as he died a good while before the game started. Probably quite easy to mod him in though.
 
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