Learning from Prussia - a Rise of Prussia AAR against a real player - for beginners

[Narwhal]

Part LXXIX – Late June 1760 – Battles across Europe

June 1760 was quite full with military events.

First, in Russia, where I was on the receiving end of no less than 10 battles ! I will just show the first one and the last one :

I started with 20 000 men in 166 elements (120 men / elements) while the Russians started with 80 300 men in 571 elements (140 men / elements). By the end of June, I am down to 11 500 men in 145 elements (85 men / element !) while the Russians have 59 500 men in 561 elements (105 men / elements). This cannot last.

Here is the overall results :

Overall, the battles were individually quite in my favor in kill ratio terms, but I lost 22 elements to Russia 7 ! The second half of the battles were all stalemate, and should I have analysed back then this result I would have known I would lose.

But I thought there would be another “Miracle of Königsberg” and that I would win yet again : my troops are ordered to carry on their defense :

In the neighborhood of Berlin, Sweden as a military power lives its last days, as Ferdinand arrived just in time to attack them as they were boarding the bateaux – the worst possible situation for defense :

With 5400 dead out of 7600 Swedes, the Swedes are now officialy out of the game. I don’t know if other Swedes had the time to board, but I don’t think so, given that I have met 12 500 guys out of 20 000 and quite a lot probably starved to death. Project “ELIMINATE SWEDEN” is a complete success.

[As I was playing, I thought Sweden could not evacuate anything, but Baris seems to have said in a previous post that he could evacuate some elements].

There are still some Swedish columns on the map, but are completely powerless – out of supply, out of cohesion, out of men, out of steam. I can ignore them :

Meanwhile, as you can see, my army is regrouped – but their target is the French army !

I would have preferred to attack this turn (Hannover is breached already !) but some disease has put my army out of cohesion (look at the purple bars in Cumberland’s column) so I will have to rest one turn. I will use the opportunity to bring Ferdinand with the fray, and hope for the best for Hannover.

In other news, I am sieging Bremen, and the Swedish camp is breached !

On the Rhineland, I have taken Paderborn by assault (easy-easy).

I am now sieging Lippstadt, since I have a small source of supply, and quite a lot of wagons.

Here is a large map to see the situation :

Finally, in the South, Dresden will fall – as it is breached already :

Von Zieten and his 5 elements of hussars came to reinforce my Freikorps. Zieten will play a decisive role as well…

 

[loki100]

on balance this is moving in your favour but those losses against the Russians must be hurting & its a bit of race to raise the sieges of Hannover and Dresden (where I presume Baris can bring up supply by bateaux to skip around your interdiction?)

sad in a way to see the Swedes go ...

 

[morningSIDEr]

Good that you have knocked out Sweden but it appears as if Russia is about to truly enter the war. Your stalling tactics against them have hindered them considerably though, thus I think you'll be strong enough to defeat any Russian incursion.

 

[Stuyvesant]

Things are not looking good at Königsberg, but if loki100's AAR is anything to go by, the Russians will have the devil of a time to maintain supplies to move past the city. Is that what you expect to happen here, or was it loki's 'No move if unactivated' rule that doomed his Russian campaign and will that not happen here?

 

[hgilmer]

I have this game and have had it awhile. This AAR has seriously made me restart this game. This AAR is a great AAR and it has helped me figure out some things that I could not figure out before so that I can play the game. Some of the moves were uncannily brillaint from both sides.

 

[Narwhal]

I have this game and have had it awhile. This AAR has seriously made me restart this game. This AAR is a great AAR and it has helped me figure out some things that I could not figure out before so that I can play the game. Some of the moves were uncannily brillaint from both sides.

Thank you for the comment. I really appreciate it.

I was in Madrid this WE, but I will resume the AAR next week (hopefully).

 

[farfrael]

Great AAR, thank you
Bought ROP entirely based on the strength of this AAR. Hope I won't regret doing so

 

[loki100]

Great AAR, thank you
Bought ROP entirely based on the strength of this AAR. Hope I won't regret doing so

you won't its utterly addictive and you can, like me, use Narwhal's AAR as a learning tool for all the stuff not in the manual

 

[farfrael]

you won't its utterly addictive and you can, like me, use Narwhal's AAR as a learning tool for all the stuff not in the manual

Eh, I forgot to mention your AAR was also a strong contributing factor
Which version are you using? the 1.03 RC4 patch works fine with steam but you have to point the installer to the "common" steam folder. Installing the patch somewhere else and then manually copying the files causes issues.

 

[loki100]

Eh, I forgot to mention your AAR was also a strong contributing factor
Which version are you using? I tried the 1.03 RC4 patch but it doesn't appear to play nice with steam

I'm using the 1.07 (I think) patch, its meant to have vastly improved the AI over the earlier versions

 

[hgilmer]

Problem with steam...

Eh, I forgot to mention your AAR was also a strong contributing factor
Which version are you using? I tried the 1.03 RC4 patch but it doesn't appear to play nice with steam

I don't think unofficial patches work with STEAM. I don't think RC4 is an official patch. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, though.

 

[Kronolog]

Great AAR. I bought the game some months ago but I haven't really played it yet. However this AAR has inspired me to try it again.

 

[hgilmer]

One thing that is offputting and Narwhal touched on it - there are no intermediate scenarios. You have a pretty easy scenario and then it is the full game. It's kind of hard to make that jump from the Saxony scenario to the full game.

 

[Narwhal]

Part LXXX – Early July 1760 – Dash for Hannover
First a quick point on the Russian front.

There were 8 more battles, so I will only post the last one :

As you can guess – my situation is much better than the previous turn. It turned out that now the Russians are losing much, much more elements than me… and giving me a LOTS of NM.

Here is the Excel :

These last 15 days, I have lost 3 951 men to Russia 18 565, which is the sort of ratio I like. I lost 13 elements to Russia 84 – quite nice too. But note that if I use this basis for forecast, there will be some Russians standing when the last Prussian soldier has dropped down.

More importantly, I won 21 NM in 15 days ! Russia really has been the great issuer of NM for me in this game (54 NM not counting the two probing attacks).

Finally, staying in defense was a good decision ! Or… was it ?


In the West, the situation of Hannover gets more and more tense, at it now has a level 2 breach.

Since my troops are now rested, they are going to march on Hannover, and hopefully free it !

That’s circa 80 000 men there, Prussian, English, Hessian, Hannoverian and from Brunswick.

You can see that Wedell has breached Bremen, but Von Daun is getting closer. I have a decision to take :

- Assault the structure, and get inside as soon as possible, but losing troops in the assault (there are two well-manned brigades in the city) and taking the risk of being trapped in the city by Von Daun

- Assault, and stay outside the structure, so if Von Daun attacks I can retreat out of the region. But then I lose Bremen, making the costly assault pointless. Not an option.

- Wait in defense, hope to defeat defensively Von Daun AND THEN, next turn, assault the structure. I go for that option.

North of Berlin, the Swedish depot is taken.

Quite a few people in there – good for my NM.

I am now going to move on Wismar and take the defenseless Swedish cities.

On the Rhineland, I am now sieging Lippstadt :

As you can see, I detached a small force with guns and wagons to build a fortification in Paderborn. This will buy me time if the Austrians come back.

Finally, Dresden has fallen after a quick also (170 militiamen were defending the city…).

I don’t know which city is the next target, but in any case they are freebies for the Austrians. I just hope I can defeat the French before Austria goes too far.

 

[Narwhal]

Part LXXXI – Late July 1760 – Preparing the Battle of Hannover

As usually, I will start with a quick point on the Russian front.

Two battles only – the Russians are actually retreating.

As you can see, the Russian commander has changed. You can also see that instead of losing circa 500 men per battle, I am now losing 950… It was high time the Russians retreated.
Here is the final situation :

- The statistics

- What is left of my army

In Saxony, well, the Austrians are going on :

My hussars are doing whatever they can to cut the supply line from Prag, but it ain’t very useful has Dresden now supplies the Austrian army.


Now to the West. Here is an overview of the situation :

In A, the situation is dramatic. Von Daun attacked me… and defeated me :

The defeat is not TOO bad, given the disproportion of force. What is worse is what comes next…
Von Daun then proceeded to cut my only exit route :

Beginner’s corners : Fortress and fortified camp

Fortifications have two roles

- They protect the city, its depot / ports and all the troops inside. This is fairly obvious.

- They block the passage of enemy forces. This is less obvious.

Quick Rule : When an army is on a province with an enemy fortress or camp, this army can only move out of said province to another province on which it has military control.

This is the “quick” rule, as in reality it is more complex, as there is always a “chance to move through”. For instance, a small force with an high “evade” value is very likely to be able to move to another province even though it has no MC on it, while a large force will probably not.

There are two factors that might play a role (I don’t know)

- The degree of MC you have on the province you want to go to. Is it easier to go somewhere where you have 49% control compared to 0% ?
- The size of the garrison ?

If someone who knows that can answer (Azanagar ?), it would be great.

End of the corner

Conclusion : As Von Daun has taken the MC back of my only exit route, Von Wedell cannot move or even retreat – he is still on Bremen, his defeat made him lose his progress in term of breaching. I am sending some boats to save what can be saved, Baris’s style, but they won’t arrive before next turn. If von Daun double-back and attack Von Wedell (I believe he will), Von Wedell will be forced into more and more battles, until anniliation… and capture of all those beautiful heavy guns – which will (marginally) reinforce the French.

To give an idea on how desperate the situation is, I already started to build new engineers and siege guns in Berlin…

In B (Rhineland), the situation is good :

Lippstadt is breached, and I will try to assault it next turn, and Paderborn is fortified.

In C, Wismar is taken without combat. I am not attacking Rostock, a fortified HRE city that changed hands quite a lot so far. Stralsund will be next – and last.

Finally, the big battle is very close in D

Hannover has fallen, against a battle in which the French fought against…

… supply wagons.

But my army is one province away, and I am going to take Hannover back, whatever the cost. And I am going to make sure to punish his army by sending it BEYOND Hannover (if the fortress does not block my move) to destroy his army after its retreat.

This is the decisive battle. If I push back the French, I will take Hannover back, and then either Minden and Bremen (if Baris goes for Frederick), or all the Rhineland (if Baris protects Minden).

If, on the other hand, I am defeated, I will have to retreat to the city of Braunschweig to recover my cohesion, which will give Baris 2 turns to threaten and chase Frederick, thus ruining my sacrifice of Saxony. My situation will go from “very good” to “average”, and Baris will be able to be back in the game.

This is going to be a major battle. Thanks to the assault of Hannover, I have a perfect idea of the Austrian force : 79 000 men, 25 000 horses and 204 cannons, led by a mediocre Charles de Lorraine, 3- 1-2 commander. Von Daun told me at this point that he regretted deeply Von Daun expedition in Bremen. Von Daun took not only 20 000 men, 7500 horses and 100 (!) guns with him, but also took his skill away (4-4-6 + Infantryman skill, +10% strength bonus to ALL the infantry under his command – making the circa 70 000 infantrymen fighting like 77 000). I easily believe Von Daun column would have made his army 150% stronger...

Against this, James Keith (5-7-7) and his columns totalize 88 500 men, 23 800 horses and no less than 650 cannons. Not a significant advantage in men, but a very significant advantage in terms of guns. And a crucial advantage in term of skills.

This is a good land for cannons : it is clear terrain, their range will be useful and will clear the French ranks before the contact. My numerical advantage will be used fully.

Morale is also in my favor – mine is 140, to Austrian’s NM of 60. Without the Russian offensive, the ratio would have been about 104 to 96.
The only advantage of Austria is that they are fortified. Very well fortified in their position. This won’t be enough.

 

[Stuyvesant]

Seems like you're poised to deliver a killing blow. After all the morale-sapping defeats the Russians underwent in East Prussia, a crushing victory in Hannover would really make things look bleak for baris.

 

[Stoertebecker]

Part LXXXI – Late July 1760 – Preparing the Battle of Hannover

Beginner’s corners : Fortress and fortified camp

Fortifications have two roles

- They protect the city, its depot / ports and all the troops inside. This is fairly obvious.

- They block the passage of enemy forces. This is less obvious.

Quick Rule : When an army is on a province with an enemy fortress or camp, this army can only move out of said province to another province on which it has military control.

This is the “quick” rule, as in reality it is more complex, as there is always a “chance to move through”. For instance, a small force with an high “evade” value is very likely to be able to move to another province even though it has no MC on it, while a large force will probably not.

There are two factors that might play a role (I don’t know)

- The degree of MC you have on the province you want to go to. Is it easier to go somewhere where you have 49% control compared to 0% ?
- The size of the garrison ?

If someone who knows that can answer (Azanagar ?), it would be great.

End of the corner

Yes, MC in both, the province you're in and the province you're moving to are important. If you have MC of 100% in a destination territory, you can always move there. (I think that 89% are always sufficient.) Fortress sice plays a role too, like the combined patrol values of the Garrison.

If you have at least 100% MC either in the province of origin or in the province of destination, you can move everybody like you want. If you don't have 89% MC in the province of destination, and not 100% in the province of origin, things get complicated. I don't know the formula.

But: If you can move in such a situation is determined by the Evasion value of your forces: You will often have the situation that a stack with supply wagons cannot move into a neighbouring province, while a stack without can. Light Cav can always move, so it's a good idea to use them to open movement options for your big stacks.

 

[loki100]

seems like the Russians really have put you in a winning position by reducing Baris' NM. Tense at Hannover ... scary how a complex game can come down to a single action

 

[morningSIDEr]

Interesting stuff, largely good for you. If, or more likely, once you defeat the Lorraine your already strong position could well become insurmountable.

 

[Bruit Bleu]

I just discovered and read your AAR in a couple of hours. Very enjoyable ! A lot of tense and clever moves from both sides, it's a nice lesson of grand strategy !

You know how to incite readers to play the game...


Now I can't wait to read the next years of war !