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I'm with TheExecuter on this; Freddie will have to choose, and if it's a choice between beating up on some malingering Austrians or preparing a defence against the rabid Russians, I think I know what he will choose.

As for the massive casualties, look on the bright side - witnessing such carnage (and inadvertently causing it) can't help but make you feel like one of the gods of Olympus ordering their playthings around...
 
Come and have a go then .... April 1759

so the first two weeks were a continuation of March. Trying to slip away with the French, get the Russians across Poland with a minimum of supply problems and the Austrians into the hills south of Prina.

Also my recruitment activities in Austria are slowly paying off. Here's 6 battalions slowly moving from Hungary and Croatia (so effectively another 2 brigades)





and rather welcomely not too much happened, I drive a small Prussian advance guard off at Dippolswade and put most of the Austrian-Bavarian force into defense (with hold at all costs orders) just south of Prina.

My gamble is that the hills+5 corps (so around 110,000)+Daun offsets my NM malus.



so here's France in late April. I've more or less pulled off my retreat (which is very good news), Cumberland seems enticed by Frankfurt (maybe he bought a RyanAir ticket and is confused as to where he is?), and as an act of some aggression, I'm using a cavalry brigade to hit a loan Prussian supply wagon at Dortmund.

I think I'll try a bit of this hit and run stuff, loss of a few Hussar units is not too bad and if I can gobble up supply wagons or isolated battalions it all helps in the longer term.



yep, thank you very much and now we're off back to the Rhine ...



so things are happening in the wider war, none of them good for me, Kiel will fall at some stage (I'd rather it didn't but there is nothing to do about it)

and the Austro-Prussian front has reached a stand off:



For the moment I'm content with this. I can't attack Freddie (not least I'll never get the entire army on the move at the same time), looks like he's too prudent (or scared ... I mean who has ever heard of a scared big shark?) to attack me. Till I burn off the NM malus, I'm pretty content with this.

My fear that the Prussians would attack my fortresses on the east flank haven't been realised yet. So given how bad it looked in Feb, it now seems as if:

a) France will get the chance to recover, if Cumberland is after Frankfurt at the moment he can have it;
b) a bit of a stand off between Austria and Prussia, again at the moment this is good as it means no significant Prussian forces are
c) contesting the Russian advance. Even if all I do is to take Stettin and let the cossacks play with matches, that is some gain out of the year.

Now the wee concern with (c) is that Keith has disappeared. He's either resting before sieging Koenigratz or Olmutz, asleep (after all Charles has still never become active again), or, worryingly on his way North. He'd be badly outnumbered by the Russians but they are not the best troops nor particularly well led, so he could well stall that entire attack.
 
Cumberland seems enticed by Frankfurt (maybe he bought a RyanAir ticket and is confused as to where he is?)

I believe RyanAir currently market Frankfurt as "Barcelona East".

;)
 
I believe RyanAir currently market Frankfurt as "Barcelona East".

;)

I was wondering if Loki was referring to the 'quaint' habit of budget airlines of designating a cow field 100 miles from the nearest suburb as <Any given Metropolis> Airport, so I'm glad to see my mind wasn't the only one wandering that direction. :)

Considering the rather lackluster tools at your disposal, you seem to be doing quite nicely, for the time being. My hat is off to you, good sir!
 
Something about "great minds" springs to mind...

;)

On a different note, I got RoP this weekend (thanks to this AAR for inspiring me!). I'm still at the "playing through the tutorials" stage but I LOVED this quote from the game and had to share it:

"Prussians don't eat - they march."

Genius.
 
I believe RyanAir currently market Frankfurt as "Barcelona East".;)
I was wondering if Loki was referring to the 'quaint' habit of budget airlines of designating a cow field 100 miles from the nearest suburb as <Any given Metropolis> Airport, so I'm glad to see my mind wasn't the only one wandering that direction. :)

you are of course both utterly correct, RyanAir (on top of numerous other horrors it inflicts on those desparate enough to fly with it) is notorious both for the 'cow field' somewhere vaguely near where you want to be and the use of creative titles. Their worst was re-designating part of Denmark as being in Sweden.

Now if you can cope with them, and they don't utterly freak out at the prospect of transporting ice-axes etc, some of their wierder destinations that are rubbish if you want to get to the claimed location are actually rather handy if you'd rather hang off a 4000m mountain instead.

Considering the rather lackluster tools at your disposal, you seem to be doing quite nicely, for the time being. My hat is off to you, good sir!

well one month in which I lost no battles is indeed a major turn-around. I'm keeping a very close eye on Narwhal's and Baris' activities and I think by comparison I'm still in with a chance ... in any case I'm too intrigued by the game system to give up

Something about "great minds" springs to mind...
On a different note, I got RoP this weekend (thanks to this AAR for inspiring me!). I'm still at the "playing through the tutorials" stage but I LOVED this quote from the game and had to share it:

"Prussians don't eat - they march."

Genius.

well done, I think I've also encouraged some people to buy Semper Fi so I really ought to see if I can get some sort of commission on this?

keep doing the tutorials till it really makes sense. The how to organise your army one is good as thats an important but not very intuitive part of the game. And play and replay the Saxony scenario. Since all you need to fuss over is actual movement it'll give you some idea how to 'read' the map. I played it with the Prussians till I was winning almost every time and if I lost it was because I forgot to do something. I don't think you can 'win' with the Austrians, but its still good to play a few from their side as the challenge is rather different.

for what its worth - I thought the manual was pretty good till I started playing in earnest ... It could do with covering some stuff like supply and raising new formations in much more detail.
 
Everything seems to be going quite well, or as well you could hope for really. I can only assume the Prussian units have gazed with envy at Austrian forces lounging about throughout the war and want to now give that a shot themselves, hence the current stalemate! Well, saying that I do hope Keith is lounging about somewhere rather than preparing an ambush for your Russian forces.
 
Everything seems to be going quite well, or as well you could hope for really. I can only assume the Prussian units have gazed with envy at Austrian forces lounging about throughout the war and want to now give that a shot themselves, hence the current stalemate! Well, saying that I do hope Keith is lounging about somewhere rather than preparing an ambush for your Russian forces.

I've not seen Keith for a while, so that does worry me. I think you may be right about the Prussians, sort of a case of them being dragged down to my level, but if so I reckon I control access to better quality beer stocks than they do? So by the end of the summer my army will be more drunk than the Prussians ....
 
New plans? May 1759

So, at the start of May it looks like my revised plans are going ok. The French seem safe from any more maulings and the Austrians and Prussians flick paper darts at each other across the hillsides of Northern Bohemia ...

ah maybe the Prussians felt a teensy bit annoyed?



yep, ok it was obviously just a probe and they fell back quickly, but it was a battle and I won ... my only problem as I worked out a bit later was with the reserve corps moved up I actually have too large an army in that province.

So what happened elsewhere?



Not much, Dortmund was abandoned so will fall ...



so here's the Austrian stand off, not much going on except a steady shuttle of supply wagons



here's France, still very unclear what Cumberland is up to, so I gamble on sending one quite strong corps back to Dusseldorf, a bit of hit and run on a weak isolated British-Hannoverian column may perk up the troops no end



and here's Russia. My fear up here is running out of supply and losing the whole lot. So far so good, but I do need to worry about where to winter (I know its only May but I must take that Prussian fortress)



no surprise but good to see just how weak that force is



quite busy, mainly with reinforcements and new formations, especially French as I'm trying to build the army back up

which leads us neatly to:



and my new idea. Those 3 Prussian-British-Hannoverian columns are very weak, and Cumberland has disappeared. Now while I don't want to risk a full battle with him, I don't want him off bothering the Russians either.

Looking over the French, I reckon I can put together 3 corps of not too badly mauled formations, so may send one army with the good stuff back to Dusseldorf and then get stuck into those isolated corps. If Cumberland comes back, I think I can run off and hide again, if he doesn't I might be able to do some damage on a sector I'd written off for this season.
 
Interesting looking over the various sectors. Hopefully your Russian units can take the fortress quickly enough so they can winter comfortably. The ongoing stalemate with your Austrian force seems no bad thing, hopefully it continues for now. I like the idea of using your French forces to attack those weakened units, such an attack likely to raise your troops spirits after the defeats they suffered and show the Prussians how brave and strong French soldiers are!

If Cumberland comes back, I think I can run off and hide again, if he doesn't I might be able to do some damage on a sector I'd written off for this season.

...brave, strong and quick to retreat!
 
Good lord, you took 200,000 Austrians against a force of not quite 60,000 Prussians and you just barely managed to squeak out a victory with the smallest margins? I know, I know, it wasn't meant to be a full-on battle, there were probably issues with getting the whole Austrian mob committed, etc. etc... But still, I think I've just gained a deeper appreciation of all the problems that hamstring the Austrian war effort.

Good luck beating up those British-Hannoverian forces near the Rhine: you have to start somewhere, and somewhere where neither Freddie, nor Keith or Cumberland are present sounds like a better place than most. :)
 
I'll echo Stuy's remarks - that was an awful lot of Austrians to drive off a much smaller force of Prussians! Reminds me of my old table top wargaming days of many, many, MANY moons ago when I used to use my undead hordes to wear down superior but smaller forces by sheer weight of numbers.

*lightblub*

Undead Austrians! That's the answer to your woes!

I can see it now...

"Donner und blitzen! Achtung! Achtung! Untote Österreicher! Feuer! Feuer! Aiiiiiieeeeeeee!" *

* my grasp of German may have been somewhat coloured by 1980s comics like "Battle", "Commando" and "Victor".
 
Interesting looking over the various sectors. Hopefully your Russian units can take the fortress quickly enough so they can winter comfortably. The ongoing stalemate with your Austrian force seems no bad thing, hopefully it continues for now. I like the idea of using your French forces to attack those weakened units, such an attack likely to raise your troops spirits after the defeats they suffered and show the Prussians how brave and strong French soldiers are!

...brave, strong and quick to retreat!

after the awful winter, just surviving is good & a bit of opportunism mixed with cowardice seems very appropriate

Good lord, you took 200,000 Austrians against a force of not quite 60,000 Prussians and you just barely managed to squeak out a victory with the smallest margins? I know, I know, it wasn't meant to be a full-on battle, there were probably issues with getting the whole Austrian mob committed, etc. etc... But still, I think I've just gained a deeper appreciation of all the problems that hamstring the Austrian war effort.

Good luck beating up those British-Hannoverian forces near the Rhine: you have to start somewhere, and somewhere where neither Freddie, nor Keith or Cumberland are present sounds like a better place than most. :)

I'll echo Stuy's remarks - that was an awful lot of Austrians to drive off a much smaller force of Prussians! Reminds me of my old table top wargaming days of many, many, MANY moons ago when I used to use my undead hordes to wear down superior but smaller forces by sheer weight of numbers.

*lightblub*

Undead Austrians! That's the answer to your woes!

I can see it now...

"Donner und blitzen! Achtung! Achtung! Untote Österreicher! Feuer! Feuer! Aiiiiiieeeeeeee!" *

* my grasp of German may have been somewhat coloured by 1980s comics like "Battle", "Commando" and "Victor".

Maybe it's not such a good idea to send 150.000 :eek: men at once. It's good to see that the game penalize such stacks of doom.

Great updates, keep your good work up! :)

I fear you are all overestimating the mobility of the Austrians. I'm just sat there and the Prussians sort of wander my way, prance about a bit and then retreat to Prina.

The reason for the horde is all the corps have 'move to the sound of the guns' orders, so once a fight breaks out the reserve units move up. I'm not sure this game has a stacking issue as such, it uses frontage though so I guess most of my horde is sort of hanging around in the back row hurling abuse.

If the undead in this game speak any language it'll be Swedish ... they do after all have a lot to complain about :eek:o
 
All mine, I say ... June 1759

So, I spend quite a while sorting out the French army so I have 3 corps with the units in better strength and they set off to Dusseldorf.



with the 2 new ones and the one there, The Army of France is quite strong as long as the main Hannoverian-British force doesn't appear. On which subject, Cumberland has disappeared.



this time its Freddie himself having a probe, again they must have had very cautious orders, but stalemate is good at the moment



which is more or less a good way to describe early June.

However, as you can see, quite a large Prussian corp is approaching Prag



at this stage I'm not too worried, I'll send the Bavarians back as an active force but it has a very strong garrison so I doubt they'll make much progress. I can also cut their supply lines.



Here's France, i reckon I can use 2 corps to lift the siege at Wesel, Cumberland is still no where to be seen ... and equally worrying nor is Keith



So thats Wesel relieved, prisoners taken and I also got hold of some siege guns and a supply train



all of sudden, 1759 is rather fun after all ...



Cumberland has popped up again, so maybe still after Frankfurt? All of sudden an attempt to take Munster looks feasible?



So here's the position in Austria, I think I can lift the siege of Prag with some luck in July



and the Russians move into position ... the only worry being where Keith may have got to
 
The reason for the horde is all the corps have 'move to the sound of the guns' orders, so once a fight breaks out the reserve units move up. I'm not sure this game has a stacking issue as such, it uses frontage though so I guess most of my horde is sort of hanging around in the back row hurling abuse.

The 'move to the sound of the guns' is automatic (actually it's a check that will determine wether a stack of a neighbouring province will enter the fight), you don't have to order synchronized moving for that. In the case of an offensive action it helps, of course, when all columns arrive at the same time.

But hey: Congrats to your first victories against Freddie. :)
 
A stalemate against Great White Freddie? Wow - well done you!

So does a good general really improve an army's chance of success (hence explaining your fear of GWF)?
 
A stalemate against Great White Freddie? Wow - well done you!

So does a good general really improve an army's chance of success (hence explaining your fear of GWF)?

My sense from reading this and other AARs (and reading the praise heaped on high-level generals, as well as the scorn on lowly ones) is that, yes, good generals really make a ton of difference.

Looks like good progress, but I'll guard my optimism, knowing how quickly things can turn around in this game. The absence of Prussia's star generals is troubling...
 
Careful with the Russians. In my current PBME game I managed to lose the whole Russian army to attrition before they even got to the scene :D.
 
Promising stuff. Good to see your Russian forces finally nearing their destination. Hopefully the year can continue in this current form, although I get the feeling your forces won't let you down and will be acting with customary incompetent inertia soon enough!