PBEM 109: Bad food and Bad attitudes - A British AAR

[soeren01]

Rules 2.2.5 Special units: Rifle Infantry Requires 8 levels of Barracks in a province to build it there.

[Mus]

ORIGINAL: soeren01

Rules 2.2.5 Special units: Rifle Infantry Requires 8 levels of Barracks in a province to build it there.

This conflicts with rule 7.2.3 Barracks. I will point out this contradiction to WCS and in the meanwhile build another Barracks in Anglia once my Court is finished.

This sets back my production of Rifle units for a bit longer, because I started another development until the mystery was solved.

[:-]

[Mus]

According to a player that responded in my thread, Light Infantry upgrade is a requirement for Rifle Infanty and they can be built at 7 barracks. So I will be purchasing that upgrade ASAP to find out if thats the case.

Crossing fingers.

[;)]

[Mus]

Turn 20. Feb 1794.

3 developments are completed this turn. I start a Barracks in York, a new Farm in the Scottish Highlands, and a new Bank in the lowlands as at that point I dont have enough Horses to build another Farm.

All seems quiet on the diplomatic and military fronts. No foreign action going on that I am aware of.

As planned I purchase the Light Infantry upgrade this turn. Somebody posted a screenshot showing them buildable with 7 barracks after LI upgrade was purchased, so hopefully this will allow me to produce Rifle Infantry. If it works I will start production of one in Anglia next turn.

My Hanover and Danish Corps took big casualties in winter maneuvers and are slowly being restored to full strength. These training exercises are the best way for me to increase the quality of these less experienced formations.

[:D]

At Turn 23 or 24, 2 years into the game I will post a comprehensive report on the state of world affairs with lots of screenshots.

[ShaiHulud]

I've been reading all the reports from the beginning, Mus. It is keeping my interest. I'm wondering what has happened to Turkey, Sweden, and Russia, tho. Only Russia has posted, once, in a long while.

Advice is worth what you pay for it, so here's my FREE advice. Britain's overriding goal is to prevent the dominance of the Continent by any single power. You seem fixated on other things, like the Dutch and Danish fleets, for instance. Yes, they MIGHT pose some difficulty in the wrong hands, but, giving the Lowlands to France so you could eliminate a
inferior fleet?

Prussia is struggling in a hand-to-mouth manner to meet ends and you are promoting French designs? France threatens war with Prussia, forces her to cough up two provinces, and Britain says nothing? Well, I'll be following along, seeing how it turns out.

[Mus]

Shai Halud,

You are right about the main goal being to avoid a dominant force emerging on the Continent, but wrong about some particulars, which I will go into some detail on.

I actually encouraged the deal where Prussia ceded the two Bavarian provinces West of the Rhine to France, and France ceded Wurttemburg because I didnt want Prussia and Austria to gang up on France and defeat her very badly this early in the game.

If you havent played scenarios other than 1805 its difficult to understand that France isnt the 800 lb Gorilla it is at the start of most of the other scenarios. Its borders are very contracted and its military (maneuver formations, I dont count militia) starts out with 3 small armies totaling around 100,000 men. They also start with a very small country compared to later scenarios. Savoy/Piedmont, Switzerland, West Rhine Bavaria, etc are not under French control at the start of the 1792 scenario.

Im certainly all about avoiding letting one power dominate, but the power thats mainly in my sights right now as the one to watch is Austria. Austria has taken a huge chunk of Poland and is closely allied with Prussia. These powers seem joined at the hip in this particular game and were ready to take France down.

The situation with Holland was a win win for me. I prop up France a little bit against Austria and got to destroy the Dutch Navy. Combined with my early acquisition of the Danish Navy the balance of Naval power is now heavily tilted in my favor and likely to remain that way for the entire scenario (remember this is a maximum time highest glory game). I think I could probably take on France, Spain and Russia at the same time and come out on top as long as I managed my fleets well and staggered the engagements a little. The other option was France getting Holland anyways (they were well ahead in the diplomacy game) AND full control of the 2 fleets of the Dutch Navy along with it, which I think was actually 5+ morale on all its ships, so pretty damn good. Bear in mind this is the pre revolutionary purges scenario as well, so France starts with larger and better quality fleets than in later scenarios. Its starting 1792 fleets combined with the Dutch Navy is starting to look pretty scary, and at that point France+Spain or France+Russia attacking Great Britain might result in a peace being signed... dictated at bayonet point in London.

The Holland agreement nullified that threat and provided France with a little extra economic muscle with which to stand up to Prussia/Austria.

For my situation, Great Britain is well on its way to economic dominance, and I have some awesome trading partners, in particular Turkey. Im going to continue to develop my provinces and let things on the Continent play out a little.

IF France starts to get really dangerous and aggressive, its super easy to make them the boogeyman (everyone hates the French), the real trick here is not letting them get too powerful, but letting them get powerful enough that Prussia and Austria dont beat them down early and become dominant themselves.

Anyways, glad somebody is reading, keep the comments coming.

[ShaiHulud]

I have no intention of trying to argue you out of your strategy. I just wanted you to know you were being followed, heh. Britain's position is virtually impregnable, even this early. She can well afford to be offensive, in every sense of that word. I don't mean you're doing poorly. It just seems to lack the brusqueness of the historical nation.

I'm quite experienced in the early scenarios, so, I'm suffering from no misconceptions. With a proper build strategy France can largely dispense with merchant trade (as she will be forced to do, soon enough). With the acquisition of Flanders and the Lowlands her needs for textiles is now met. She has acquired these at no cost, not even of war. Austria's grab in Poland sidetracked both her and Prussia, while gravely annoying Russia. Thus, Austria faces an undiminished France, a hemmed-in Turkey, and a pissed-off Russia.

I think Russia played wisely in refusing the Austrian offer. The additional provinces were not a gift, but, a trap that would have further mired Russia in waste for a long time.

Spain is doing as well as can be expected, really. Sweden will be stunted for a long time, now. I suppose that kind of historical..lol.

[Mus]

I dont think I have failed to offend in my other PBEM games, Im just trying to hold off on full scale military action for at least a few years. Actually as I said in a previous post in here, Im a little surprised that nobody else has started fighting yet, I guess they are all pacifists. I slapped around Sweden over Denmark, other than that no major powers have fought.

[:'(]

Agree with you regarding Russia and Poland. Austria is held down by all that territory, and Russia would be really messed up with all the added waste. Couldnt even really say why Russia would be pissed off about the situation, maybe he doesnt understand how waste works. Not sure how developed a Courts program Austria has going, if its not very well along I would expect to see them start setting up some protectorates soon. Regardless, I think Austria is more dangerous in the early scenarios. In our 1796 PBEM game Austria mopped the floor with France on several occasions early on, and thats what my allowing France to strengthen itself a bit was intended to prevent.

Anyways, glad somebody other than my enemies is reading this AAR.

[:D]

[hgilmer3]

I'm reading.  I'm thinking of starting a human vs. computer game with the same (mostly) options so I can try what you are trying.  It is hard for me to translate your moves on economy from your advanced economy rules to my simple economy rules.  I don't even know what scenario i am doing.  I think it is default (maybe 1805?  I started at war with France and Spain), but anyway, I'm playing the English and have pretty much crushed all naval opposition to the extent that none of the computer opponents challenge me in open battle navally.

This is basically my first try/ first campaign on COG:EE.  I figured England would be an easy first try.

[Mus]

The advanced economy moves Im making will basically have no correlation to the simple economy.

Also in PBEM all combat is Instant, you dont get to play any part, so the name of the game is concentration of your forces and making sure you do all you can in regards to morale, ship/division upgrades, and doctrinal upgrades to stack the deck in your favor.

[Mus]

Turn 21. Mar 1794.

Turns out that getting the Light Infantry upgrade didnt allow me to build Rifle Infantry. The person who told me that was the case was mistaken. Plan B is to build my barracks up to level 8, which will start as soon I get done with the Courts development in Anglia.

In the meantime I start production of a new Diplomat, as my textiles are really high. Would rather build something worth having than consume textiles for morale (which is already very high). Will start to build Heavy Artillery as soon as my labor is high enough, those babies take a lot of labor (more than 100).

Everything else is still pretty quiet.

[brianlala]

This AAR, not just this British one but the other ones (Prussia especially) convinced me to buy the game and I'll be following the AAR threads from this match closely. Very awesome!

On an unrelated topic: the reviews of Crown of Glory have done a horrible job describing the intricate diplomacy aspect of the game. I couldn't give a hoot about the detailed battles and it sounds like COG's detailed battles are average at best but the diplomacy options seem unrivaled...I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Keep up the good AAR work. There's a lot of us following but really what more can we add (aside from Shaihulud's interesting strategy talk).

[Mus]

ORIGINAL: brianlala

On an unrelated topic: the reviews of Crown of Glory have done a horrible job describing the intricate diplomacy aspect of the game. I couldn't give a hoot about the detailed battles and it sounds like COG's detailed battles are average at best but the diplomacy options seem unrivaled...I guess I'll find out soon enough.

I thought the reviews given thus far have been very poorly done and lacked perspective. Also the detailed battles dont come into play at all in the PBEM side of things, but the diplomatic aspects with all the major powers controlled by a human get really dynamic.

ORIGINAL: brianlala

Keep up the good AAR work. There's a lot of us following but really what more can we add (aside from Shaihulud's interesting strategy talk).

Well if anyone has any questions regarding any aspect of my strategy, details on the economy, political situation in this PBEM in particular or the game in general, feel free to ask.

This is my second PBEM as Great Britain (the other one is more than 60 turns into the game and I am in second place in Glory, my ally Prussia in 1st place), so in this one I changed up my strategy a bit, applying some of the lessons from the other game. Im focusing more on developing my economy like crazy early game, so that I can produce a high quality military more quickly, and mid/late game be able to produce lots of luxuries/textiles/spice/wine for high morale and glory bonuses. Also in the other game the party on the continent I supported from early on (Prussia) turned into a real Glory powerhouse, standing in 1st place with an insurmountable Glory lead unless I was to betray them. That isnt going to happen, disloyalty to a human ally of 5 game years is bad form. So this game I am trying to be more conservative in giving my friendship, in an effort to take 1st place in an honorable fashion. My strategy this game is to play the Continental Powers off each other for as long as possible.

I will be doing another detailed report on the overall situation turn 23 or so, two years into the game.

[Mus]

Turn 21.5

Got an answer to why I couldnt produce Rifle Infantry from Eric Babe. Turns out Rifle Infantry cant be produced until after 1800. He wasnt sure if that was published in any of the documentation or not. I havent looked yet.

Anyways, this means I will produce Light Infantry for my military instead, and once I get to after 1800 disband my 2 lowest quality infantry and replace them with Rifle Infantry as time allows.

[Mus]

Turn 22. Apr 1794

Start 2 new farms in provinces where my developments complete this turn. In 2 turns my developments in Anglia, Midlands and Wales will finish.

I hope to have enough labor soon to begin production of my first Heavy Artillery unit. I have a bunch of "labor points" put into producing the labor resource. Im making 30 labor resource a turn, am in the 70s currently, and need 120 or so to start production. Hopefully when my developments listed above as almost finished are done I wont end up below what I need to start production by virtue of beginning developments. Maybe I will put some of them on hold if it comes to one or the other.

Prussia tries to coup Brunswick, and so Brunswick comes to Great Britain for protection.

Nothing else really going on.

Next turn will do a comprehensive report of the situation in Europe 2 years into the game.

[hgilmer3]

How do you like being the British so far?  I'm starting to get a little frustrated with mine due to mobilization issues.  I was able to get Portugal as a protectorate, but does it really help because I took the units they had with me to Prussia and Austria to put them in line and now Spain has declared war on me again and I'm not sure I can get my units back in time to protect Portugal and I'm pretty sure once that happens I lose the Portuguese units.

That would be very frustrating.  I need all these units to have any chance to deal with France if I ever am in war with them again.  We were at war for years but since nothing ever really came of it besides my conquering a few provinces with no real troops in them, I offered a cease fire and they accepted with no argument.  France had a standing army at Paris of about 300K.  I am barely able to get to 240K/250K.

I'm sorry, but my game probably doesn't really have the same type of issues you must be facing.  If that is the case, just ignore my post.


How is the mobilization thing working out?  Or have you gotten far enough in to have produced all the units to the extent of your mobilization threshold?  (Note: This is with the advance of the 10% increase in mobilization).

[Mus]

I have only produced one new unit for my army so far. About half of my military is protectorate units, the Danish Corps and Hanover Corps, about 6 infantry divisions and 3 cavalry divisions between them.

Generally speaking I like being the British, although its an oddly detached way of playing the game. In a multiplayer environment you have to engage in way more diplomacy than the average nation.

[Mus]

Turn 23. May 1793

2 Years into the game

Here is the diplomatic situation:



A couple power blocks have emerged like Spain/Turkey and Austria/Prussia. I have an alliance with Sweden, but thats more to prevent a backstab than an effort to create a force to be reckoned with. My experience from other games is that Sweden is too small to bring much to the table and is always really greedy about territorial possessions because of the small size.

[Mus]

The Glory standings:





Austria and Spain are both out to pretty decent leads. They both also produce massive amounts of Glory simply by virtue of the high number of political target provinces they have.

Austria is more vulnerable to being knocked off the hill because of her central position and the powerful enemies all around her. Spain is in a more secure position, although militarily much weaker than Austria.

Prussia is gaining glory very fast. They are another nation that has a large number of very easily obtained political target provinces.

About the only advantage Great Britain has in the Glory department is that its very difficult for GB to lose a war. As far as political targets are concerned, many of GBs seem like "Legacy" goals that were assigned in original COG before the way ceding provinces works was changed. 4 points for Britanny and Normandy, 3 points for Egypt, etc. These provinces are very very difficult to obtain with the requirement that to get somebody to cede a province to you you have to own an adjacent province.

This rule was put in to prevent the old "patchwork" look that would develop to the map in original COG, but I dont think Great Britain has had its political target provinces looked at since then.

In my other PBEM game as Great Britain I found it was extremely difficult to keep up in Glory, even though I was winning numerous large naval engagements and even a few land engagements, and holding most of Great Britains target provinces. The only thing thats kept me in 2nd place thus far is the fact that I havent lost a single war, most other powers have lost at least one.

Because of the difficulty in keeping up, in this game I am being more conservative with making alliances and will wait for front runners to completely emerge before I start firming up relationships and forming coalitions against the major emerging powers.

Just as an example of the discrepency in political target province Glory, Great Britain has a hard time making more than 4-5 Glory a turn on political targets. Other powers like Austria, Prussia and Spain have no problem making double digit Glory from this source alone.

I hope to have a really developed Luxury, wine and spice production capacity in this game to help offset that, in addition to my other strategy adjustments.

[Mus]

Here is my economic situation in part:



You can see that Im still doing very well on my imports, bringing in a large amount of resources with which to build up my military and develop my economy.