AAR - Poland 1792 Scenario - Simple Economy

[Joram]

Not much really is going on in August 1792 because I'm primarily building up my troops. One side affect of adding these new replacements to my troops is that it is lowering some of my troops morale. The replacements are coming in with a morale of 3.95 so my unit that started off at 6.5 is losing morale having gone down to 6.27.

Also, a Russian diplomat has decided to enter my territory. Poland doesn't have any diplomats to start with so I effectively have no counter. We'll have to see if he's just passing through or is going to cause mischief. Thankfully he doesn't appear to be a particular good one (values go from 10-70 in scale) but he does have a decent espionage score which is useful for spying.

[Joram]

So after hitting the end turn, August actually produced some real intriguing developments.

First, there were a couple land battle. France won a big one in Luxembourg (and indeed wound up conquering it from Austria), but lost a small one Isle de France. Generally, people absolutely hate it when you have foreign troops marching through your capital so if France doesn't do something about that in the coming months, they can very much lose the war even if they win the majority of battles.

Also note I tried to ask Great Britain for an alliance which they promptly refused.

Note the glory benefits for the battle results. Winning side gets a positive, losing side gets a negative.

[Joram]

Now here's the other intriguing development. France actually is proposing a three-way between me, Poland and themselves. Now, I've always known the French were kinky but wouldn't have expected them to get in bed with Britain.

Before I make too many suppositions though, let's see exactly what France is proposing.

[Joram]

Going through the diplomacy advisor-> View Treaties button, you see the proposal. Here you see they've proposed a standard tri-lateral protection treaty where one will be forced to declare war on the enemies of the others in that timeframe. Again, this treaty is intriguing because if it does happen to pass, Britain and myself will have to declare war on Prussia and Austria.

Knowing that Prussia is occupying France's capital, there is also the remote chance that France could surrender before this treaty comes into affect (January). If that were to happen, then no war would be declared but I still get payment from France! Plus I have two nice allies in case I choose to pick a fight with Russia. (Yes, they would have to declare war even if I picked the fight). Hmmm. Let's see how likely that scenario is.

[Joram]

So here's the nation report which you can get through via Diplomacy->View Relations tab (which is default)->Country Details.

Highlighting France's morale I see it's 380 which is decent but not great. However, it is a long way from surrendering. In fact, France is a bit of a bear to get to surrender because Napoleon himself adds to the morale since he's such a hero. They however do not have 'nationalism' yet (like they do in later years) so it still may be possible. Decisions decisions! I'd almost prefer France to lose because I'd hate to get drawn into a war with both Austria and Prussia. I'm reasonably sure I could defeat one but not both at the same time if it were to come to it.

[Joram]

Well, I decided to throw caution to the wind and accept the treaty after I could have sworn I overheard some Austrian joke about Poles and firing squads. Insult me will they! However, the whole treaty became moot as Britain, rather unsurprisingly, decided they didn't want any part of France.

No battles were fought which must mean the Prussian army sitting in Paris and raiding the cafes for decent coffee is pretty strong.

[Joram]

One other interesting note for this turn was that France actually managed to cause a coup in Piedmont and thus instantly added two provinces to it's empire. Diplomats can be quite powerful. Sure wish I had some! The event report shows other diplomats trying to do this as well but only France so far has been successful.

Note that this causes a certain amount of unrest so they won't be contributing much for a few months.

[Joram]

Ok, so since this is just to show off different things, I've decided to take a gamble. The tri-part pact didn't work but I just noticed that Austria has left her capital wide open. I know this may likely bring down the wrath of Prussia (though not definitely), I may try to get a quick strike into Vienna and force some land concessions. If I do it quick enough, and Prussia isn't done with France yet, I may then be able to defend myself against Prussia if they choose to attack later.

Plus, Krakow is feeling kind of cramped and it would be nice to have some more room so Austria doesn't do the same trick to me!

[Joram]

Declaring war! Note, that I can't move in on the same turn I declare war this way. If I want to do that I could do a 'surprise attack' but then I believe you take a relationship hit with everyone and I don't want that. So after I declare war, I simply end the planning and hit end-turn. Also notice the new 'total war' option. If I did that, Austria would not be allowed to surrender and I would have to conquer every last province. Austria is a bit big for me to try that plus again, I would take a massive relationship hit with everyone.

edit - you can bring this popup by right clicking on any Austrian province, though I just happened to have my cursor over the capital, that's not required.

[Joram]

Nov 1792 . Ok, so the results of Octoberweren't exciting. No battles were fought which means France is definitely in trouble. Prussia continues to siege Paris and I speculate France has only two or three more months before the people force the government to surrender.

Also, on a side note, you can see snow is falling in some of the provinces. (it's grayed out a bit since I have the event window open) It in fact is falling in almost the entirety of Russia and some of my border provinces. I suppose I should have thought of the timing before I declared war because snow can interrupt my supply lines and I would take massive attrition casualties if I'm not careful.

However, what's done is done and time to plan my attack on Vienna.

[Joram]

I put a depot in Pressburg. Depots have to form a chain from a home province but also, depots have a range of one so I don't have to put one in Vienna. My main Polish army goes through Moravia (equally it could go through Pressburg if I forced it but doesn't matter in this case since no Austrian troops are around to threaten me.

Notice the red arrow crossing over to Moravia. This tells me I may not even make it to Vienna this turn as I will spend all my time crossing the mountains (I believe those would be the Tatras?).

Another couple things I do is upgrade a couple units, including adding engineers to one which triples its strength for siege calculations. Since I have a relatively small army, I want to do this to speed up the siege (though conquering the capital isn't strictly necessary, occupying is enough). I also send my cavalry army into Pressburg as a precaution. Cav doesn't help much in sieges and they can reinforce from Pressburg easily enough with the added advantage that they won't enter battle fatigued.

[Joram]

Notice my upkeep has skyrocketed as it's quite expensive to supply your troops in foreign lands. Luckily at least, I shouldn't be losing money but if it turns out that I do, I could temporarily lower my draft.

[Joram]

So after planning for November, here is the turn report. Not much happened. France is still hanging on but will be defeated soon. I'm still in the lead because of my 100gp bonus I gave myself but did take a slight hit in gps attacking Austria. You need a cassus bell for that to be free. I actually have one on Russia since they still haven't left Poland but I'm choosing to ignore them as long as I can.

[Joram]

Dec 1792 planning. As I predicted I spent all my time just getting over the mountains so I re-order the Polish army to continue on to Vienna. Since the movement arrow is green that tells me that they will make it. Also note that I will destroy that austrian supply depot but it won't affect their chain supporting their troops to France because of the one in Upper Austria.

My cav army is going to stay in Pressburg to protect against surprise events and reinforce Vienna should a battle arise.

[Joram]

Dec 1792 Results. Ok so this is very scary. Austria proposed a three-way treaty between, Britain, Russia and itself. If passed, I am in real danger of being swamped by their armies. If I can get Austria to surrender very quickly, I might be able to survive.

Spain is either asking for money or is willing to lend some. I might check it out as I want to keep some friends. I am however running in the red at the moment so we'll see how my finances are.

My army runs over the fortress in Moravia and is settling in Vienna. In other news Spain has finally conquered Genoa which it declared war on months ago and Turkey conquered Modena.

[Joram]

Ok, so it's a good thing I have an army protecting my supply lines as some troops have appeared in Austria. They could easily cut my lines. Since I left Krakow undefended, I need to split off one of my cav divisions and leave it in Krakow. I really hate to do that as I don't have many forces to split off but it's better than risking attrition.

Truth be told though the number of troops I have in Vienna is only about 4k more than it's forage value so it won't be a huge attrition hit if they do get cut off. However, if they were to have to fight a field battle, they would be fighting at a disadvantage without active supply lines.

[Joram]

Ack, investigating the loan treaty I see the terms of the Austrian treaty. It's worse than I thought! It's not a simple protection pact but a specific declaration of war against me! Now, Russia may accept because they hate me (it's the pierogi thing) but I am friends with Britain so I can hold my breath. Since it's a multi-nation pact, if Britain says no, then Russia won't declare war. Well, not as a result of the treaty at least as they can always do so on their own.

But just because you're liked, you are not guaranteed not to have to fight them. Britain may see an opportunity and accept the treaty. Now you see why declaring war was such a big gamble.

[Joram]

And scouts have indicated the main Austrian army is rushing home. I don't know how many months I have before they make it. At least 1, maybe two if I'm lucky but don't think that will be enough. On a side note, I seemed to have helped take the pressure off France, let's see if they are able to take advantage of that.

[Joram]

Results of Jan 93.
If I was a religious person, or at least a religious person in Poland, I would think Armageddon has arrived. First, the treaty between Austria, Russia, and Britain was ratified. Second, Prussia and Russia, on their own initiative, decided to declare war on me. So while Britain hasn't quite declared war on me yet (the treaty shows it will be March), it is inevitable and now both Prussia and Russia are coming after me.

Do note from the turn report that France indeed did try to take back their capital but couldn't do it which is a shame. If they succeeded, they could keep the Prussian army occupied for awhile.

Also note that a small Austrian force did enter the capital which I easily routed. But what isn't shown in this shot is the fact that I took over 10k casualties sieging the Austrian capital. They took a similar number but these are casualties I cannot afford and may have doomed my effort here.

[Joram]

And here is why it's a bad idea to attack during the winter... perversely I had taken so many siege casualties I was well below the forage limits.