Your best battle?

[ktotwf]

What has been your best battle in all the time you have played Empires in Arms?

What about your largest?

[Ursa MAior]

Unfortunately I have not had a possibility to play the boardgame, but in EU2 I beated Wellington's army in Belgium. [:D] Only problem it was 100,000 french vs 75,000 english with no prussians in sight.[;)]

[rod]

Best battle was one where i controled Denmark, and GB landed in Copenhagen whit 5corps 60 faktors, and i broke him on the 2nd day of combat whit 1 faktors left. Bye bye whole english army. As to biggest i seen a few battle whit over 300 faktors but they usely not that fun as it's normaly in the end game.

[Hoche]

ORIGINAL: rod

Best battle was one where i controled Denmark, and GB landed in Copenhagen whit 5corps 60 faktors, and i broke him on the 2nd day of combat whit 1 faktors left. Bye bye whole english army. As to biggest i seen a few battle whit over 300 faktors but they usely not that fun as it's normaly in the end game.

Ouch!!!

But it was stupid of the GB player to invade Denmark with that many factors. The battle of Copenhagen always that that frightful possibility. A smart player only attacks Copenhagen with the minimum number of factor with win. Demark only as something like 7inf and 1cav so GB only need 10 factors to succeed

[Hoche]

My best battle was with 1792 Prussia. GB and Russia decided they wanted to crush me. Normaly as Prussia I would have folded facing such a coalition. But they were noobs and I was an experienced player so I thought I would try my luck. While Suvarov was marching on Prussian controled Warsaw a British and Russian army under Fersen (Russian leader) landed in Hamburg, with about 50 factors. I had full corps and several minors. My main army was about 90 factors under the command of Burnswick (2.1.3, Hey he was my only leader). Knowing that they had a Russian leader and the noobs like to get the +1 moral for picking defend I outflanked with Brunswick. They indeed chose defend and so I got a +1 on my outflank. I rolled a 2 and they were mine. That was years ago so I don't remember exact casualties but all that was left was a single Russian cav corps. All the Brits died so he made an informal peace after the battle. I had already conquered Hanover from them and they didn't have an army to fight with. There was not much I could to stop the Russian led by Suvarov (4.5.4*). But with the complete destruction of the second prong of his invasion he decided that the destruction of Prussia wasn't worth the effort. He contented himself with the conquest of Polish Lithuania and Polesia. The he too went informal. So with a virtually leaderless Prussia I survived a British and Russian invasion with the intent of crushing me and snagged Hanover.  [:D]

[ktotwf]

Wow, who knew that Brunswick was such a good general?

[bobble]

A 1792 campaign:

I was playing with Turkey. Almost at the end of game (about 1800). Allied with France. In war against Prussia, Austria and Russia.

Hoche conquered Vienna and Napoleon was next to him, in the south zone. The composition of Hoche army was the elite of frenchmen. Napoleon was commanding some French corps and almost all Turkish and Ottoman army (Syrians, Egyptians and so on).
Suvarov attacked Vienna with a combined army of their allies with almos 100 factors. They choose "Escalated Assault". Hoche choosed "Outflank", Napoleon reinforced and made the outflank at the first attempt. At the second round, the Suvarov's army broke. Then Hoche pursued the enemy army with 73 (!) cavalry factors and destroyed almost everything behind him (rolled 6+1=7)

It was some years ago, so I can't remeber the exact number in this battle (only the cavalry charge), but you can imagine it.

Greetings,
Pablo Alonso

[hlj]

The best battle i have ever been in was as Spain. I was paid by France to be at war with Austria. After I had conqured almost all of italy from Austria, France got seccond thoughts and declared war on me.

I had only three corps led by Castanos and france came after me with 2 corps under napoleon. I was standing in some mountains in italy. I cant remember the chits but both of us broke and I was down to two corps. Next month he moved first and attacked this time with 4 corps, I think the chit was probe against esc. counter attack.

I didnt win the war against france, but it felt good breaking napoleon twice with Castanos.

The largest battle I have seen was france against prussia/austria/Russia. It wasnt fun, just bloody.

The funniest thing I have seen in EIA was the face of the player in charge of GB, when he faithfully as he did every month after an econ, asked the other players how many ships they were building and found that france had put 93 ships on bidding

[Murat]

My "best" battle was actually a loss. I was France in an 1805 and lost about 25% of my army to a 4 power army (BR/AU/PR/RU) but it convinced Spain that I was "crippled" so he joined me, forced the Channel, and we salted the fields of Britannia in the resulting unconditional to me and conditional to Spain.

[montesaurus]

One of my favorite victories was when I played France against a coaliton consisting of Ru, GB, SP, and TU. PR was my only ally. Anyway, GB had moved some corps into France with Wellington and combined with the Spanish Army. The British player figured he could always easily withdraw with Wellington if the French ever caught him in a battle. As the French I did a double turn, and concentrated enough forces on the Spanish and Brits to get a 2:1 advantage with Napoleon in charge, and Murat there as my Cavalry commander. The Brit played a withdrawl chit while the French played an accelerated assault chit. The Brit who thought it was a guaranteed withdrawl with Wellington in charge was surprised to learn that an accelerated assault reduces the chances of withdrawl. The Brit unfortunately failed his withdraw attempt and was promptly defeated. The ensuing pursuit eliminated the rest of his army, and Wellington was subsequently captured! A glorious day for France indeed!

[ktotwf]

Ouchies. Poor Wellington.

[Murat]

Execute him [:D]

[Will_L_OLD]

Best and largest was in a Grand Campaign game where I was playing Turkey. Russia controlled Romagna, Tuscany and Papacy and Turkey controlled Naples, though not Sicily. France controlled Lombardy, Piedmont and Venetia as minor free states. It was August 1808 and France decided that it was time to end his truce with us after defeating Austria and Prussia in a springtime war. Russia and Turkey had been firm allies up to this point and Turkey answered Russia's Call to Ally and declared war on France.

The majority of the Russian and Turkish armies were in Italy, well over 200 factors in all. Napoleon attacked the Russo-Turk force under Pechlivan Khan and Kushanz Ali on the Tyrhennian coast in the Papacy with a strong force, including his Guard and Artillery plus a number of below strength minor Corps, his army was not at full strength due to losses to in the earlier war with Prussia and Austria. Since we were not using the extended drop in leader ratings optional rule, the tactical ratings were 3 for Napoleon and 2 for Pechlivan Khan, die roll modifier of 0 for the attacker to -1 for the defender, the -1 was erased by Russo-Turkish cavalry superiority. The picks were Assault versus Counterattack! A +1 for the Russo-Turkish morale since Pechlivan Khan was in command.

The battle raged for three rounds of combat, neither side committed its guards and neither sides morale broke! Both armies decided to stay and continue the fight. The second day of combat went three rounds as well though I don't remember the chit picks exactly, I do recall that they were not advantageous to either side. Again, neither sides morale broke and the battle ended.

Then next turn France sued for peace and Russia and Turkey both took a conditional peace. After that peace the French admitted that he had only 17 infantry left and he was unwilling to risk his guard, cavalry and artillery. The Russo-Turks lost their entire force of feudal infantry and a fair number of Russian infantry also, the proportional losses optional rule was not being used in this game.

The Russians ended up winning this game with Turkey in second place, the alliance lasted the entire game.

[ktotwf]

How was Napoleon's Tactical Rating a three? His army was like over 12 corps?

[McGuire]

As I must admit my "best battle" was simply pure luck.
It was right after the Alliance AU/PR lost against FR in the beginning. I was playing GB.
PR was forced into a CP and AU agreed to an informal peace because the TU were coming from the east. But all three of them were weakened if not crippled.
So I grabbed as many troops as I could spare and attacked FR from behind. There was just 1 battle. I don't know the exact numbers but it should be a good estimate.
GB: 20 Inf, 5 Cav, 1 GD
FR was about twice as strong and had Napoleon.

But after 2 rounds of the battle (both 5 or 6 on my side and 1 or 2 on his) the FR army ran! But that wasn't it! Best of all: Napoleon was killed during battle!
After the next political phase AU reentered the war against FR (after I bribed the TU not to attack him) and SP saw some chance and attacked too.
It needed only two more months to have FR suing for peace!

Great day for the GB!

[ktotwf]

Ouchies. Napoleon being killed = France Screwed Hard

[Joisey]

The most fun I had was a game where we had a noob controlling Britian who played quite foolishly, defending the British home islands with Morroccans and Swedes in Portugal and the Brits in Holland. France, Spain and Russia combined to defeat the British fleet, (chiefly due to the British player's obnoxious trade practices) and Spain took out Morrocco making his garrisson troop in England vanish. Then the Russians shuttled over a couple of corps and took an undefended London. LOL!

[Will_L_OLD]

"How was Napoleon's Tactical Rating a three? His army was like over 12 corps?"

Yep, Napoleon had 14 Corps in that battle including both Piedmont Corps, Lombardy, Holland, Baden and Wurttemburg. All low in numbers (except Lombardy but it was nowhere close to full) and a drain on French morale. He probably counted on the Russo-Turks not having cavalry superiority and his picking Assault (or even Escalated Assault) was a major error because of the morale boost it gave the enemy.

Those minor forces come in handy sometimes, but when I've played France I have usually tried to limit them to seiges, attacking depot garrisons or small armies with approximately equal morale where the secondary French leaders can make a world of difference.

[Murat]

ORIGINAL: Will_L

"How was Napoleon's Tactical Rating a three? His army was like over 12 corps?"

Yep, Napoleon had 14 Corps in that battle including both Piedmont Corps, Lombardy, Holland, Baden and Wurttemburg. All low in numbers (except Lombardy but it was nowhere close to full) and a drain on French morale. He probably counted on the Russo-Turks not having cavalry superiority and his picking Assault (or even Escalated Assault) was a major error because of the morale boost it gave the enemy.

Those minor forces come in handy sometimes, but when I've played France I have usually tried to limit them to seiges, attacking depot garrisons or small armies with approximately equal morale where the secondary French leaders can make a world of difference.

That would have made him a 4.

[ktotwf]

I don't think so. His Tactical Max rating is a 6. So, at 12 he would be a 4, past 12 he would be a 3...