RoP, the White, Blue and Green version

[Stuyvesant]

Very well done, although the French method of 'leaving no stone unturned' at Frankfurt is less than optimally efficient.

I don't know how this game works, so it's only speculation, but perhaps the AI feels it's 'winning' in Bohemia (since it's holding some of your victory locations), while it's 'losing' on the Rhine (or the river Main, or whatever the area around Minden is called), and is therefore transferring some forces to the threatened west? Could that explain the troops traipsing through the Sudeten?

By the way, what does it do for you that you have fulfilled the Strategic Towns condition?

 

[TheExecuter]

Bremen...definitely go for Bremen first. If you can stop the flow of British reinforcements to Cumberland, Hannover will be that much easier to take.

 

[loki100]

Bloody French! You're doing your damdest to turn things around and all they can do is grumble! At least they're still in fight though, unlike your Scandinavian chums...

aye, at least so far I've not managed to wipe out the entire French army ...

Very well done, although the French method of 'leaving no stone unturned' at Frankfurt is less than optimally efficient.

I don't know how this game works, so it's only speculation, but perhaps the AI feels it's 'winning' in Bohemia (since it's holding some of your victory locations), while it's 'losing' on the Rhine (or the river Main, or whatever the area around Minden is called), and is therefore transferring some forces to the threatened west? Could that explain the troops traipsing through the Sudeten?

By the way, what does it do for you that you have fulfilled the Strategic Towns condition?

I'm not sure, it does look like (over the September turns) the AI is ceding the west but trying to take over Bavaria and all the forts on the northern rim of Bohemia

Strategic Towns doesn't seem to be that important - I think all it is a requirement to spread out your gains but, as at the moment, both sides can meet it at the same time, so its a bit odd.

Bremen...definitely go for Bremen first. If you can stop the flow of British reinforcements to Cumberland, Hannover will be that much easier to take.

I get greedy ... & then realise I made a mistake in not garrisoning Lippstadt, so supply is suddenly all messed up

 

[loki100]

An awful lot of marching: September 1760

On the N Rhine sector I have a problem emerging with supply (several turns later I work out its because I didn't actually garrison Lippstadt so it reverted to Prussian control), so I decide to send one corps each to Bremen and Hannover



this, with hindsight, has all the making of one of my many supply induced disasters ...



Down on the S Rhine, Cumberland et al are clearly moving east. When I finally take Frankfurt, I'm now tempted to push this French army into Bavaria to contest that region.



over in Austria, both Daun and Nadrasdy need a chance to recover, since I'm really not sure about that big Prussian stack, I decide to be cautious in any case



well there goes the winter opera programme



yes, at last, well done ...



& I gain quite a lot of goodies at Frankfurt too



so, its all to the east, those 4 French corps should be able to stop the Prussian take over in Bavaria, it looks like Bohemia 1761 will be the place to be ...



while Bohemia itself gets even more complex. Daun is having a rare nap, but I reckon Nadrasy can raid Prag on his own ... Freddie is there (he must have been wounded earlier), so the chance to wreck an important part of their army is too good to miss.



Now that was not meant to happen ... I'd hoped it would hold out for quite a while



well I've won battles with worse outcomes than that ... if I'm lucky Daun can move in for the kill next turn



& rather amazingly - I'm ahead on the NM score ....

 

[Stuyvesant]

Bravo! Well, maybe not to your losing of Lippstadt, but otherwise a fine performance. It would be quite something if you could manage to take Prag back. Which leads to (another) question: could you kill Freddie, if you managed to catch him at Prag? That would be quite the coup...

 

[loki100]

Bravo! Well, maybe not to your losing of Lippstadt, but otherwise a fine performance. It would be quite something if you could manage to take Prag back. Which leads to (another) question: could you kill Freddie, if you managed to catch him at Prag? That would be quite the coup...

I've since worked out that Lippstadt isn't my problem as I have masses of supply at Minden which bypasses that town (though I do want to retake it).

I can't retake Prag this season (its a level 3 fort) so even unhindered it'd take me well into November (with lots of luck) and I'll get caught by winter. Better to keep my forces mobile and stick to this strategy of wrecking enemy detachments. Sooner or later, its got to even up the odds.

I'm not sure what the 'death' mechanic is. I think my dead generals (as opposed to wounded) are all scripted events, but even if I wound him again, thats by far their best leader out the game for a while

 

[iain_a_wilson]

"Death mechanic" - I've got images of a grease monkey with a scythe...

 

[loki100]

Consolidation and securing the WeissBier: October 1760

Before moving onto the better bits of news, up north things are going wrong (I knew it was a mistake to stop being cautious). Worst is at Bremen where the corps is short on supply, inert and unable to retreat south in any case


(you can't enter the red zones)

oh ... and menaced by a new British formation.



down south in Bavaria, despite the early snow (which I hope will lift), I decide to try and relieve Nuremburg (I need somewhere for the post war trials), especially as it is a big decent depot so a good base to push into E Bohemia in 1761.



and in Bohemia, decide to hit the Prussians at Prag again (its a bit of a gamble as that big army may intervene), if I pull this off then the damage inflicted by Nadasdy last turn will be multiplied.



which it was, note also the prisoner tally which I think reflects on low organisation in that corps.



and overall, that works out pretty well. Taking the supply wagons really helps me and hinders them ... they'll find it very hard to push deeper into Austria without them.

By late October, I decide to let the bulk of the Austrian army have a break to recover cohesion and there is not much I can do on the N Rhine sector (I want to pulll back my advance corps but the one at Hannover is snoozing and the one at Bremen is active, but can't move due to the Military control problem)

So in Bavaria, its time to make sure the White Beer stocks are mine for the winter:



as well as a very good base to winter in. And, I'll retake Fulda and hopefully overun that small brigade there.



ok, thats a bit less off their army for 1761



& thats the beer saved. Even better, I won a battle against a bigger, if badly led, force. This must reflect the improvement in my NM over the last few months.



see, my reach is long ...



again at Fulda, I picked up a decent supply stock.

So that more or less ends the 1760 campaign season. My plan for the next 2-3 months is to consolidate where I am with the French in Bavaria. Those 4 corps are fairly formidable operating together. The Austrians will fall back to S Bohemia, N Austria, recover and look for options to do some damage. On the North Rhine, I'd like to pull back those two advanced corps and consolidate around Minden. 3-4 corps next campaigning season is quite useful.

I think the Prussians are down to 2 large armies. One is in N Bohemia (hanging around Koenigratz) and the other is the 2 corps with Cumberland. If this is right, then once 1761 gets active, I may have one force that is not matched by any Prussian army ... which offers scope to persue sieges etc in that sector.

First I have to reach the end of the year though ... from previous experience the Prussians rather like attacking me in winter.

 

[Stuyvesant]

Appreciate your reasoning for securing Nuremberg. Looking forward to the post-war resolution of things is, of course, essential.

But then, as if having the Austrians have access to Pilsen (and its kegs) is not enough, you compound the danger by putting the French in control of the Weissbier! You, sir, are tempting fate here...

Overal, your 1760 campaign has accomplished a lot, especially given how dire things looked just a little while ago. Being of a naturally pessimistic slant, I can't help but wonder if Freddie will manage to effect a rapid swing in the other direction in the upcoming winter?

 

[Narwhal]

I like what I see. I like the mad combats for the control of Bohemia, I like the combat in Bavaria, an area I never fought it in almost 10 games of RoP.

Is there twice the same General on 3rd pic of message #224 ?

Freddie is in the battles for Prag, but obviously it is Ferdinand who gets to command. Any idea why ?

BTW : you should use more arrows if you can, esp. with enemy troops I am still wondering how te Prussians arrived in the Nuremberg / Wurzburg area

 

[loki100]

Appreciate your reasoning for securing Nuremberg. Looking forward to the post-war resolution of things is, of course, essential.

But then, as if having the Austrians have access to Pilsen (and its kegs) is not enough, you compound the danger by putting the French in control of the Weissbier! You, sir, are tempting fate here...

Overal, your 1760 campaign has accomplished a lot, especially given how dire things looked just a little while ago. Being of a naturally pessimistic slant, I can't help but wonder if Freddie will manage to effect a rapid swing in the other direction in the upcoming winter?

my fear is that large Prussian army over at Koenigratz. Its obviously a lot weaker after I've hit the various smaller corps but I think its still > 70,000. With the command advantages and the troop quality, that could yet end all my ducking and diving in one brutal blow.

well I suppose that till I get Prag back the alchohol abuse levels can't be too bad ... and that locks up the Jitnice (can't do Czech letters I'm afraid) for the winter too -- well I suppose Prussians like sausages too.

but I agree with the pessimism ... all this apparent success could end in a couple of ill chosen battles and another round of supply induced disasters

I like what I see. I like the mad combats for the control of Bohemia, I like the combat in Bavaria, an area I never fought it in almost 10 games of RoP.

Is there twice the same General on 3rd pic of message #224 ?

Freddie is in the battles for Prag, but obviously it is Ferdinand who gets to command. Any idea why ?

BTW : you should use more arrows if you can, esp. with enemy troops I am still wondering how te Prussians arrived in the Nuremberg / Wurzburg area

Bohemia is like playing chicken on the autobahn ... both sides are so busy moving around that I keep on having all these unexpected meeting engagements. So far I've got lucky, in that I've managed to dance around the core Prussian army, if that luck holds I'll be able to drive their numbers down to the stage I can face it in battle, if I'm unlucky it'll swat me. At some stage I need to stop running around and try to take back Prag but I'd rather keep things mobile (all my weaker generals for activation are now doing nothing back in Wien) than risk a single major showdown for now.

Bavaria, I don't know how they got there as I wasn't really paying attention to that sector till I spotted the siege reports in the event files. I think it was after I abandoned Prag, a load of smallish (2-3 pip) Prussian units appeared all over the place and some went over the mountain chain between Bohemia (at Karlsbad-Eger, though I still hold both) & Bavaria and started sieging cities. If I'm lucky here, they'll suffer badly for supply all winter and that large French army can finish them off promptly in spring .... and then join in the chaos going on in Bohemia.

Freddie has actually had a few beatings off me, I wonder if he's lost status behind Ferdinand so that Ferdinand takes command of any joint stacks?

Yep, the bloke with the quiff? That's been confusing me utterly as he's also the one in charge with the big Prussian army & I keep on panicking that that force is on the move.

 

[iain_a_wilson]

Did I just see the phrase "French Victory" repeated twice? Wonders will never cease...

What effect do events like George II dying have? Is it purely a scripted historical event that has some kind of impact on NM?

 

[Narwhal]

Freddie has actually had a few beatings off me, I wonder if he's lost status behind Ferdinand so that Ferdinand takes command of any joint stacks?

I don't see how, as Freddie was made a 4-star general (the only one in-game) just to avoid this sort of event.
There migh be some event I don't know to trigger such a demotion, though.

 

[Stuyvesant]

Yes, schizo Heinrich does appear in two places at the same time. It must be proof of mind over matter. A Triumph of the Will, as it were (yes, that's pretty bad, but it fits with loki's Nuremberg theme ).

 

[Stoertebecker]

This must reflect the improvement in my NM over the last few months.

It seems that the whole Prussian force was led by a brigadier, so you most likely benefited from a heavy command penalty for them (plus a 3-0-0 Leadership). Also the supply situation of the Prussians should have been bad, since Erfurt and Bayreuth are just two tiny cities that cannot push a lot of supply. (You could conquer one of them with a cavarly Brigade or two to cut them off, by the way.)

And a tipp for Bremen: You can detach some Cavalry units from your force to gain military control in one of the bordering provinces. (Since Cavalry has a higher evasion value.) This way, you will be able to move there with tho whole corps later on.

And like always: great updates!

 

[loki100]

"Death mechanic" - I've got images of a grease monkey with a scythe...

or the muppet who 'repaired' (I use the word very loosely) an old car of mine and the breaks failed coming over Drumnochter after a weekend ice-climbing (fortunately I was so acclimatised to blind terror I didn't totally freak out)

Did I just see the phrase "French Victory" repeated twice? Wonders will never cease...

What effect do events like George II dying have? Is it purely a scripted historical event that has some kind of impact on NM?

I'm getting rather used to these 'victory' messages, it just happens so often these days ... if you want to see extremely bloody defeat messages, I can but recommend the Great Patriotic War.

Georgie ... yep its scripted, quite a lot of these sort of messages pop up in the events panel (the reason for the albino monk comment is that back in 1757 the King of Portugal was assasinated by a passing Jesuit)

I don't see how, as Freddie was made a 4-star general (the only one in-game) just to avoid this sort of event.
There migh be some event I don't know to trigger such a demotion, though.

Or he only has a small force with him? Not sure, but since the AI split its army up on pushing into Bohemia its had lots of small stacks and before it was very disciplined about keeping its main armies together.

Yes, schizo Heinrich does appear in two places at the same time. It must be proof of mind over matter. A Triumph of the Will, as it were (yes, that's pretty bad, but it fits with loki's Nuremberg theme ).

It sure as hell panics me in-game, I keep on thinking that behemoth over at Koenigratz is on the move, must be a small bug as he inherited the smaller force when Freddie was wounded in the battle for the lager stocks at Pilsen.

It seems that the whole Prussian force was led by a brigadier, so you most likely benefited from a heavy command penalty for them (plus a 3-0-0 Leadership). Also the supply situation of the Prussians should have been bad, since Erfurt and Bayreuth are just two tiny cities that cannot push a lot of supply. (You could conquer one of them with a cavarly Brigade or two to cut them off, by the way.)

And a tipp for Bremen: You can detach some Cavalry units from your force to gain military control in one of the bordering provinces. (Since Cavalry has a higher evasion value.) This way, you will be able to move there with tho whole corps later on.

And like always: great updates!

thank you for the cavalry tip. I wasn't even thinking that the sub-bits of a corps were more mobile than the whole but it makes sense and got me out of a total disaster at Bremen.

and, yes, looking at it, it does look like I had almost everything but numbers on my side in that battle, I still thought I was going to lose when the battle started and I realised I was outnumbered.

 

[loki100]

... and relax: November-December 1760

These 4 turns were pretty quiet, with little but finishing off marches and both armies moving to winter quarters.

Up at Bremen, the cavalry open a retreat route:



Note the brave Scotsmen in the snow with his klit ... we are either (a) tough or (b) insane



few losses as units finish their marches and I retake Bayreuth ... so we'll have Lully on the winter programme then ...



so I can fall back from Bremen and I'll abandon the siege at Hannover for now



these are the new Swiss units - 3 brigades are very welcome.

In general, this reflects the NM-EP dynamic. For most of 1760 I've been losing EP to shore up the NM. The result is I couldn't afford EP expensive options like the Swiss, & I can now speed up drawing down on general reinforcements



this was lost when I moved back to attack Prag in early Autumn (bit like Lippstadt), anyway that settles them for now



as you can see, I'm claiming more reinforcements (either for new units or to shore up the existing ones). Looks like the October Revolution is going to break out some 150 years early ... go comrades.



& really nothing happens in December (late December was even quieter)

but as a couple of overviews:



With the Swiss, I'll have 4 decent sized corps up here, so my plan is to start with Bremen, and then Hannover and then ?



It looks like the Prussians are drawing all their scattered units together around Prag and Leipzig. Cumberland is missing (I guess in a fortress for winter). I've cleared Bavaria and hold the passes into Bohemia.

Come the 1761 campaign season, I'll keep one French corps and a couple of independent brigades back in Bavaria to fend off any small scale incursions and send three into Bohemia. If I can link up with the Austrians, I can retake Prag and actually go looking for battle with that large Prussian army.

The Austrians are scattered between 2 small towns, if I need to, I think I can combine them if the Prussians try to take one out in a winter march.



Now given I played into 1760, in reality to test out the game with no idea of even surviving, that is rather surprising. I don't think its impossible that I'll end 1761 with Prag, Dresden and Hannover to add to my list of objectives.

The thing I've not worked out is how to get the Russians from Konigsberg (Kalingrad or whatever) to Colberg. When I'm finished this I may load up the 1761 scenario and see if I can work out that manouvre (I think thats a close match to what I tried in 1759), its the last thing that is really confusing me and their must be a solution.

On the Russian front, my army is down to a couple of brigades and they are all holed up in Konigsberg. A 2-star Prussian brigade is at Danzig but I think that'll be too weak to actually retake the city ... so its hopefully a stalemate up there.

One other general observation. Laying aside all the obvious mistakes, oversights etc etc, I reckon my biggest was trying to win the war in 1757-8. This is a long game and I now reckon with the Austrians, caution and taking your time with very limited operations is the way to do it. If for example, I still had the Swedes, or a portion of all those units I've lost to attrition, I think in 1761 I could just plan to swamp Prussian with lots of medium sized probes.

 

[iain_a_wilson]

Interesting point about the Russians. If you still had some Swedes to call upon I reckon that you could do a lot more than simply stalemate the Prussians in the east. I'm assuming though that the Russian troops are of a much lower quality than the Prussians?

Liked the Potemkin reference

As for the Scottish units, I'm not sure how accurate the graphic is. Following the 1745 Jacobite rebellion, the Act of Proscription was passed which prohibted - amongst other things - the wearing of Highland dress. This wasn't repealled until the 1780's (I believe).

Now, I'm not sure if this applied to military regiments or not - after all the government did have the genius idea of rounding up loads of Highlanders and forming them into regiments to throw against enemies of the Crown, and letting them retain their traditional dress IF they signed up would make a lot of sense if it was banned everywhere else. However, I'm just speculating here and could be completely wrong.

Regardless, Scottish regiments have always been completely badass, so you should worry about them

 

[Stuyvesant]

Note the brave Scotsmen in the snow with his klit ... we are either (a) tough or (b) insane

I can't decide whether my response should be: 'c) transgender' or 'Kilt! For all that's holy, kilt, not... that other word.' So I'll try to procure my cake and consume it as well.

Good update. This rhyme to the game, of campaign season followed by wintering, still throws me off, used as I am to the non-stop campaigning of Paradox games. It's interesting to see, though, how you have to abandon certain objectives and make for safe places (and how your enemy does the same). Good luck with the next campaign season!

 

[morningSIDEr]

Note the brave Scotsmen in the snow with his klit ... we are either (a) tough or (b) insane

I rather think it is due to option (c) drunk.

Loads of progress over the last few updates, you've gained a reasonably comfortable position. Quite a change from mere months ago. From what I've seen thus far RoP seems an especially bruising game when attempting to learn it, even in comparison to other Paradox titles. I think I would have suffered complete defeat long ago, thus very well done. Hopefully you can push on and make some ground towards the controlled objectives in the coming year.

Very intrigued to read of a possible Harry and Astarte V2 AAR as well. A fitting setting for them both, I think it would make for a great AAR.