Chapter 12
The Occupation of Paris, part 3
As noted earlier, the AI is very good at smelling out weakness, and with my army now leaderless, the French are preparing a dogpile.
However, since Burgundy is not in the war, I detach 1 regiment to run to Cambray, where Henry V can join the army and return! As a bonus, the regiment will get more reinforcements than it otherwise would...
February 1, 1406: Being a warmonger means it's really easy to forget to do unrelated things. In this case, I forgot to check the advisor pool 1 year after game start. Geoffrey Chaucer, my starting artist, kicks the bucket, and the only replacements are artists and navigators (colonial range is rather pointless if no one can get explorers...).
However, that reminds me to check my balance - I now have 658 ducats. I leave the Hanseatic Trade League, and create a new Center of Trade in London. This will give me a boost to colonists, taxes, and manpower, all things I need. I also can trade very easily in London, since my infamy won't reduce compete chance!
--- You cannot create a new center of trade in a province if the province trades in your own CoT, or if you are a member of a Trade League. However, owning a CoT in a right culture/religion province gives such a huge tax/manpower boost, you should strive to get one as soon as you can afford it.---
I immediately dispatch 5 merchants - since I'm not so good at trading, it will take a while to get 5 merchants placed, but autotrading will take care of that.
While I'm taking care of the economy, I spend 2 magistrates to enact Land Reform in London, giving me a further 10% Production Efficiency, Tax, and Manpower. Since CoTs give a flat modifier, the percentage modifier from this decision increases the benefit of my CoT!
February 3: Henry V made it back to Paris right as the battle started, but France's overwhelming numbers turned the tide, and we are forced to retreat. The WE loss is not helping. I'm going to need another plan...
April 22: Castille offers an alliance. Accepted. They can't help in this war (unless they declare war on their own, but since we now have cores on Burgundy, they might help there.
July 22: Since I can't barrel my way into Paris due to 36 regiments being there, I'll have to be sneaky. In this case, a landing in Labourd and Gascogne draw the French armies...
--- Loading onto ships is almost always faster than walking from province to province. You can use this to your advantage, by landing troops, waiting for the enemy to walk over and respond, then jumping back on the ships and offloading at your true target! ---
September 1: My armies have withdrawn from Labourd and Gascogne, landed in Calais with the rest of my army, and it's time to attack Paris again! Only 4000 infantry remain to stop me, and the bulk of their army has to walk all the way back to Paris from southern France!
September 14: 5:1 odds plus a 4 shock general = wipeout! --- If at any point in a battle, the odds become 10:1 or greater, the smaller army is instantly wiped out! ---
October 2: I let my morale build up, and it's time to end this war quickly before the bulk of the French army arrives again. Paris has a Level 2 fort, which for the early 15th century, is a major pain to assault.
To increase my chances of knocking down the walls, and keeping from getting driven off by the small French army in Normandie, I slow the game down and assault in 1 day increments. If after the first day I haven't killed 100+ people or done a decent chunk of morale damage, I retreat, cancel the retreat, and try again. --- Moving your army once the siege begins wipes out all siege progress (except garrison losses), including a breach in the walls, if you had the only army in the province. Otherwise, any other army that can siege will take the siege over, and you can't get the siege back. ---
October 2:
October 3: I make great progress, and continue the assault.
October 8: Halfway there, but another French army shows up in Nemours, so I stop, lest I run out of morale before the fort runs out of men or morale!
While waiting for morale to return, the French attack in January, after I've knocked the garrison down to 846 men.
Again, I wait for morale to return, and assault in March...
My new mission: Recover Normandy.
Here are my cores in France now (I started with cores in Normandy, Caux, Paris, and Picardie). This is the diplo map mode, which gives you an easy way to tell what provinces you have cores on but don't own, or what provinces you own but don't have cores on.
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Assaulting Primer:
Assaulting an enemy fort, when done right, can bring wars to a quick close, and let you redeploy armies rather than force them to stand around waiting for a siege and protecting the siege. When done wrong, you can easily lose your entire army.
* Always keep some cavalry with an assaulting army, since failing the assault runs you out of morale. Only infantry can assault!
* Unless the walls are breached or the garrison has 0 morale due to bankruptcy, don't assault without a 10:1 advantage (and at least mostly full morale). You can fudge this if you're high tech against a very low tech opponent.
* With a breach in the walls, you can win consistently with as low as 3:1 odds.
* With bankruptcy, if their morale bar is red, they have 0 morale, and you can assault with 1000 men and win.
* Military Drill, since it gives a 1 pt. morale boost, greatly helps with assaults (both defending and attacking!).
* If you click the button and your armies barely do any damage, retreat/cancel the retreat to stop the assault. No point waiting hundreds of men and your morale for nothing.
* If an enemy assaults you and fails, attack! Their infantry will have 0 morale (the AI won't stop an assault early).
* If you are several land techs behind your opponent, you are at a serious morale disadvantage. Don't assault unless you absolutely have to!