The Annals of the Tsar - A Napoleonic Europe AAR

[ernieschwitz]

So, I thought I'd showcase some of the things you can do in the Napoleonic Europe scenario (Release version 101), that you can find in the scenario bank. To that end, I decided to play Russia. So I am putting myself in the Seat of the Tsar, and these are his Annals.

First things first. You need to setup the game to your liking. These are the choices I made:

At start options.jpg (136.54 KiB) Viewed 423 times

As can be seen I chose most of them. Short explanation of them:

3-Round Breather a 3 round enforced peace that will allow for setup of forces. No-one can declare war until it is over, and wars that have been selected are not begun until then.

2nd Kalmar Union is basically merging Sweden and Denmark into one Nation, the Kalmar Union, which is not historical, but more formidable than the two nations standing by themselves. They will play as the Swedes, while the Danish get absorbed into them, and no longer has a turn.

Ottoman Empire merges Turkey, Egypt and the Barbary Pirates into one Nation, just like the Kalmar Union did. This makes the Turks have a very large Empire, stretching from Turkey, down south to the map's edge, and to the west ending in the most western point of Africa on the map!

Anglo-French War - its seems just a bit strange not to pit these to against each other. If you don't they'll each benefit from trade with each other, now they won't.

Colonial Trade gives the Britain, Spain and Portugal income from their overseas colonies, when the tradeships would normally arrive. This is done by giving them PPs. There are of course ways to intercept these. They require enemy frigates to be in certain areas, where the merchant ships would ordinarily approach these countries. In games where the Barbary Pirates are in these can intercept too, but they do not have to be at war with the ships they raid.

Nation Profiles give each Nation a nation morale, a movement adjustment for land units, and some other stuff, that I won't come into right here. In any case, they mean that things are more historical.

AI War (Vic) is the setting that allows countries to declare war, using Vic's standard AI algorithm for it. So basically the one we are all used to. I made my own, but that is another story. Both can be activated together. If none are chosen, no wars will be declared by the AI.

Rnd DOW Settings means that each nation is assigned a random aggressiveness as to how much they are willing to risk when declaring war on another player. Makes that things never seem the same every time.

Those are the ones I chose. The ones I didn't choose were Greater Prussia which makes Prussia and the German states into one nation, called Greater Prussia. Russo-Turk war sets Russia and Turkey/Ottoman Empire at war.

Of course this introduction to settings would not be complete without showing you which nations are played as AI, and at what level. This is also an excellent way for me to show you how many Nations there are (14!).

Opponent settings.jpg (14.51 KiB) Viewed 423 times

That should round out the start settings. Now on to the game.

[ernieschwitz]

The first things I am greeted by is a report that I am only producing Supplies and RPs (Research Points). My University near Moscow is making those. They can be set to produce PPs (Political Points) too, but since RPs are the only way to research, it seems natural for me to let them make those. PPs can be used for a variety of things, that are not Research.

The next thing I get is a notification that The 3 round breather has been chosen, and finally I get a report that I've been granted 75 Cossacks. They arrive in Moscow, but only if I own Taganrog. I already have some, but they are nice to have more of. They have an advantage no other unit in the game has. They do not require supplies.

This is how Russia looks when I begin the turn:

Russia Small.jpg (263.31 KiB) Viewed 421 times

I made the map in the ultra zoom in mode, that you can select when you play, to make as Screenshots. I edited it to omit as much of the other countries as possible, so this is how it really looks in my Nation. As you can probably see, it is a bit muddy here and there, which will affect supply lines and movement in those areas.

The map is useful to get an idea of how large the nation really is. That is an awful lot of land to cover when at war, so I better limit where my opponents get. The nations bordering me is (from North to South): Kalmar Union, Prussia, Austria and the Ottoman Empire. My goal I've decided is to fight the Kalmar Union, while I also fight the Ottomans, and pray that the other two don't attack me.

Here is the situation at the Kalmar Union front (Finland).

Start Nordic.jpg (110.31 KiB) Viewed 421 times

As can be seen by that mighty stack in St. Petersburg, that is where my main forces are in this area.

[ernieschwitz]

St. Petersburg, is a nice city. It isn't my "Capitol", that is Moscow. This is also where the University is located. In the game, universities are always located next to the Capitol. Each nation gets One, and only one. They can be conquered though.

Here is the view in Moscow:

Start Moscow.jpg (133.49 KiB) Viewed 419 times

Not as dense a unit composition, and those icons you see are Militia. Luckily there is no need to defend this vital place, as it is very far in land.

Then we have the Front towards Prussia. I guess this is Belorus and the now Russian Baltic states. Here you can see units placed along the Militia. These are Infantry Divisions. In Riga you also see a War Fleet and a Troop transport fleet. Useful if I want to invade Sweden or Denmark I think.

Start Towards Prussia.jpg (180.49 KiB) Viewed 419 times

To the South, from here, are a few Cossacks, defending the area up against Austria. There is not much need for this defense, as the Austrians have to pass through Belorus, or Ukraine, to get something of any value. They are just guarding the road between the two. Ukraine, that is where we are going next.

Start Ukraine Area.jpg (111.34 KiB) Viewed 419 times

Here there are more units than in the Belorus, but they are more spread out. To the south lies the Ottoman Empire, bordering approximately where Romania would begin in reality. In the Crimea you see a new ship icon, that has not been presented in the above. This is a unit of Frigates. I don't expect to compete with the Ottoman navy however, so let's hope it survives a while.

Start Caucasus.jpg (85.22 KiB) Viewed 419 times

Finally there is the Area facing the Caucasus. It is a fairly large and empty area, with few troops .. Luckily the same is true for the Ottomans, that also lie to the south of here.

[ernieschwitz]

"April 6th, 1800.

- I have taken over the nation, the glorious Russian Empire, alas, not at all so glorious when looking at the books. The economy is not great, and my predecessor have borrowed from every other European nation we could think of. We stand alone if anything should happen, and might even go default. Only one option is possible, war. We must expand, and gain the wealths of others so we can pay back what we owe to the others.

- The state of our Army is not very encouraging. Too many fronts, too much space, to defend, with too few troops. I must get new troops fast, and then choose a likely place where the Glory of Russia can be restored. I have decided to reorganize, and reassign some of the nobles ("Generals") that likely are incompetent, replacing them with more talented officers. Likely the results of this will show in what promises to be a grand adventure. Maybe the World will once again see an Alexander the Great, or maybe the Grand.

- Alexander, Tsar."

Every game starts out with some planning. In this case I have begun by looking over my forces Generals. These are randomly generated at the beginning of the game, and I have no influence on which are who or how good. The names are contemporary. Some officers are real duds. I have 3 with Staff 8 or less, and only one with Staff 14. I like to measure how good they are on that parameter. Reality is more complex, but suffice to say this is fun for me.

Best and Worse.jpg (33.44 KiB) Viewed 397 times

As can be seen Isaak Chichagov has ok stats, but his staff is only 7! Yikes. He is the worst I have, the best I have is probably the one I am comparing him with Terenty Ushakov. His stats are worse, less combat (by a very thin margin) and less morale, but he can impart these stats to double as many troops!

Officer Pool.jpg (41.08 KiB) Viewed 397 times

I remove the officers in the HQs I know I won't do any fighting with. That is Moscow HQ, and Ukraine HQ. They will serve only as hubs for troops arriving from production, and such. This gives me 5 officers to start comparing with the ones I have assigned by the game. I find two that I decide to replace. The picture above shows the Officers/Generals I have available before I place any. (I get three to begin with as well, in the officer pool).

[ernieschwitz]

As I said before planning is needed. I like to standardize things a bit, while adding flavour. So my HQs are going to be assigned a Name according to size, and a appended to that the Officers name. This allows me to feel some personality and familiarity with the HQs. I could make them called 1.Russian Army etc.. but what would be the fun in that. So here is the system I am going by:

Planned Names and Sizes.jpg (51.5 KiB) Viewed 397 times

Now that is settled, I am going to redo the Troop composition of the Units. Especially I don't like using Cavalry in my Infantry divisions. Cavalry, in my mind, can be better used to hunt down stray formations and encircle. In a sense they are the Armored Cars, of this age. Artillery are the mortars of modern age, in that they cannot shoot into the next hex, and Infantry, well, you know the drill, stand in line, look pretty and prevent anyone from attacking our artillery.

I start out with the following composition of a Corps.

Start Korps.jpg (117.29 KiB) Viewed 397 times

An HQ with 15 Staff, an officer of kind, and 4 units that look like these above. 20 Infantry, 3 Cavalry and 3 Artillery.

This I remold to this kind of organization:

Small Korps.jpg (103.26 KiB) Viewed 397 times

I think this has the advantage of being an organization where everything moves at its maximum speed, and actually contains more formations. I have merged two of the Cossack units that I began with near Ukraine to do this in this case. Some of these 12 staff formations (Small Corps/Malyy Korpus) will perhaps have two Cavalry units, instead of 1 Cossack and 1 Cavalry.

Important note: Only formations bigger than 10 Power Points can actually attack and move into enemy territory. This is because it would otherwise be simply too easy to disrupt production lines... Something that was found out in playtesting with others than myself. (A Cavalry unit is 20 power points this way, when I have 10 of them).

[ernieschwitz]

Time for some choices.

After I reorganize my troops, I noticed that some do not have their full cavalry components. That should not come as a surprise, since 4 standard infantry divisions, have 12 cavalry, while my reorganization would make that 4 infantry divisions, sans cavalry, and 2 cavalry divisions, requiring 20 cavalry. So I decide to produce some cavalry, at the places that are near each HQ.

Russia, big as it is, has local HQs. There are 5: "Russia" (the Area near Moscow, and rear), "Tsar" (the Area around Novgorod), "Belarus" (the Area around Minsk), "Ukraine" (the Area around Kiev) and "Caucasus" (the Area near Taganrog). If you change which locations are producing for there HQs, you may find that they are so far away that you only get partial production or none at all, because of the distance.

Russia Produce.jpg (311.53 KiB) Viewed 370 times

I also decide to produce some Infantry in the Areas close to the Ottomans, as I expect this is where the war will break out, and I will need to be able to replace casaulties, as well as a few Militia, so some of the Infantry that is guarding key cities, can be replaced by these Militia formations.

The rest of the production I decide to be focused on Political Points. I'll need them, for the cards I want to play. These cards are the "Troop cards". They are an alternative way of making formations. You can "place" them in certain cities, usually only your Capitol, but, when it comes to Russia, they can place them in the 5 main cities in the Areas I mentioned.

Change Entry Point.jpg (53.97 KiB) Viewed 370 times

Here you can see the card, that is used to change the deployment area for the next troop card played. Not including Ships that is. Usually the cards are cheaper than producing the units yourself, but they come with the drawbacks of only being able to be deployed the places mentioned, and they enter with 0 experience (those you produce enter with 5).

I decide to buy an Infantry division, for Taganrog, which is probably the poorest, and furthest from where troops would come otherwise. This cost me my last remaining 12 PPs.

Buy Inf Div.jpg (39.97 KiB) Viewed 370 times

The cards for troops cost less once war has begun, making it even better to buy them.

WIth these preparations, I am ready to pass the turn to the AI(s).

[ernieschwitz]

"April 26th, 1800.

- The first wave of my orders have been carried out. Troops are being trained and getting ready for service, where I believe they will be of most use. There has been work carried out to increase our nations prestige and standing. Visiting The University the other day, I see they are working on something that will help us later, better methods drilling our troops and how to improve our weapons.

- Formations are moving into place along the Ottoman border, in the Ukraine, General Ushakov and General Nostitiz are responsible for that. Stronger forces are nearing the Caucasus, so we may be better able to defend it, or perhaps even start our own offensive. I have dispatched Yuri Kiselyov, along with some staff to take command there.

- Alexander, Tsar."

Turn 2 start.jpg (15.82 KiB) Viewed 355 times

Turn 2 has begun, and the above was the production message I got. 5 PPs is not a lot, rather modest, but, even though I ended last turn with 0 PPs, I now have 22 PPs. How can that be? This is because I get a PP too for every 5 Victory Points I own. Capped to a minimum of 10. This means that even if you get very small or play a very small country, you have some PPs to use.

Moscow HQ.jpg (44.16 KiB) Viewed 355 times

Some of you may have noticed that I did not really care how much Supplies I produced last turn. This is because all cities to begin with produce only supply. I have a surplus! Some 1800, supplies, in the Russia HQ alone, and all the others have excess too. So no need to worry about supplies... for now.

I adjust my production slightly from last turn. I am going to be producing more cavalry than I need the next turn if I don't. The production will be shifted into PPs. The cities in my previous post showing the production, showed some cities producing 0 PPs, those were in reality producing 0,5 PPs, so they will be producing more now. In fact, instead of 5 PPs, next turn I'll get 18 before I get those from having Victory Points.

Finally I have detected a little movement along the Ukrainian border, by the Ottomans. I have deployed my Infantry and cavalry to best go on the offensive. If he doesn't care about entrenchment (the AI usually doesn't) he will get a surprise.

Romania Front.jpg (96.91 KiB) Viewed 355 times

Ushakov's forces are to the left, and Nostitiz to the right.

[cpdeyoung]

I am watching this with interest.

Is the most recent version available on Vic's site? How do you launch the game after installing the ATZIP file?

Good luck to your Russians.

[ernieschwitz]

The version in the Scenario bank is indeed the newest version.

To play it you need to load the file: EuroNap Release v101, located in the Napoleonic Europe folder (in the atgoldscenario folder). Have fun And thanks for the interest in the scenario and AAR.

[cpdeyoung]

I am starting a game now. This will be played between turns of the big GD game.

I chose Russia to piggyback on this excellent AAR.

I did not choose the Nordic Kalmar block so my experience in the north will be different.

Chuck

[ernieschwitz]

"May 16th, 1800.

- It is with great pleasure I begin to see the fruits of our labor. Not only has troop production begun in the areas where I plan to attack the Ottomans, but we are also gaining a large amount of Prestige. Prestige we can use to buy modern troops as well as other conveniences such as supplies.

- General Ushakov's Command has been expanded, and now encompasses 5 Infantry Divisions, 1 Cavalry Division, and 2 Divisions of Cossacks. He now commands, with my grace, a full Korpus. The flank on that front will be covered by these Cossacks. General Nostitiz reports that he has sent an infantry division to the front from Ochokov, where a unit of Militia had been raised. Kiselyov is moving with great haste to the Caucasus.

- Alexander, Tsar."

As I open the turn the following information is presented to me:

Turn 3 start.jpg (23.53 KiB) Viewed 42 times

As you will notice I got an awful lot of PPs. This is because the cities I set to produce them in the above only produced 0.5 PPs a turn. I had 39, and I used 12 of them to deploy troops to the Caucasus, and another 12 to get troops in Kiev. Then I made a unit in Odessa and transferred 10 militia there, and moved the militia already there to Ochokov. Having garrisoned cities to the rear I found in earlier games was beneficial. You just never know when there will be a breakthrough.

The first two turns I also moved the Cossacks I got towards the Caucasus, and towards Ukraine. They arrived this turn. I transferred some of them further south, two hexes from Nemirov. They have pretty bad readiness, as can be seen from this snippet:

Ukraine Front turn 3.jpg (116.76 KiB) Viewed 42 times

I redistributed some of the forces there, so as to better allow for a broad frontal attack. Ushakov really has 5 infantry divisions and 3 cavalry ones, where two of them are cossacks. The cossacks don't require supplies, so, they are ideal to cross the river and head into the areas where there are no roads.

Looking at the Caucasus, I now almost have all the forces I need there, to have a Malyy Korpus (Small Corps). I believe this should be enough, for the time being, to hold off the forces of the Ottomans, should they decide to attack there. The cavalry in the picture below are cossacks. Also the Frigates have been moved into safety at Taganrog. There are 15 frigates. They are no match for the Ottoman navy, but here they are safe, because the Kerch Strait can only be crossed by Russian forces, until it is taken by someone else.

Caucasus turn 3.jpg (73.16 KiB) Viewed 42 times

[ernieschwitz]

"June 5th, 1800.

- The end of June is when I have ordered the forces of Ushakov and Nostitiz in the Ukraine to attack the Ottomans. At the same time, I expect Kiselyov to advance on the Ottoman positions, in the Caucasus. He has finally arrived there, and has sent to me a message indicating that he is exhausted but ready enough to begin by the end of June.

- Our coffers are getting filled as fast as taxation, without harsh methods of retrieval allows. A new Malyy Korpus is being formed near Kiev, by using these taxes, to attract troops to join up, for good wages. I consider them good, ..., perhaps we will need to pay out fewer wages, as they march forwards into the enemy lands. Dead men have no demands...

- Alexander, Tsar."

Turn 4 begin.jpg (31.11 KiB) Viewed 36 times

As can be seen, it is now turn 4. Everyone can declare war, but nobody has so far. Of course only the British and French, that are before me in the turn order have had the chance, so, next turn I might get some news on this. Vic's algorithm (that is built into the game) mainly encourages the AI to attack weaker enemies. The lesson, don't be weak.

turn 4 victory status.jpg (56.96 KiB) Viewed 36 times

The Victory status message, that I can get to know each turn, by playing the card above, shows I am the 4th most powerful nation. The 3 others are (in order) France, The Ottoman Empire and Austria. I hope that Austria won't declare war, but it is a possibility. France is too far away to be a worry. The Ottomans I want to go to war with...

I have an eye on several things at the moment. I want to have 15 PPs to be able to declare war, on the Ottomans, and I want to upgrade my infantry to level II when I get the chance. It requires 30 RP (research points), and I have 20. So in two turns time. I am sometimes bad at remembering to do it as soon as I can.

Turn 4 Research target.jpg (76.64 KiB) Viewed 36 times

Also coming up, I will need to look at supplies. Most of the buildup from the beginning of the game, is gone now. Moscow still has 2000 or so, and Belarus and The Area near Finland still have some, but Ukraine is down to the last of the supplies.

[ernieschwitz]

As for the fronts:

Ukraine has gotten a new General in town. His name is Ippolit Pogorelsky. He is going to be held in reserve, once his forces have been assembled. Here is a look at him, and his HQ.

Turn 4 Pogorelsky.jpg (41.52 KiB) Viewed 35 times

He has 2 Infantry Divisions and 2 Cavalry Divisions at present. One of those Cavalry divisions are Cossacks. He is missing 2 Infantry Divisions. If the Austrians declare war on me, I might need to redirect his command that direction. If not, then he will be ready next turn. Of course his troops will be a little low on readiness compared to his fellow Generals in the area.

Here is where he is, and the location of the two other commands, that are ready to begin their assault next turn.

turn 4 Ukraine front.jpg (175.11 KiB) Viewed 35 times

I took the liberty to show the Production of the Ukraine HQ at the same time. No supplies. No PPs. But notice, 3 artillery. they take 2 turns to build, so this is the next turn's probable build. Again if need be I can get troops to enter at Minsk, if the Austrians do something, and if I do, these extra artillery will allow me to make an Infantry division without changing the location of entry. You only get two of those cards, each turn, so you need to use them wisely... everything else, will enter at Moscow.

turn 4 Caucasus Front.jpg (97.8 KiB) Viewed 35 times

In the Caucasus you can see The newly formed Malyy Korpus (small corps) of Kiselyov, is heading towards the coming Ottoman front. This should protect Tiflis from being attacked, I hope.

[ernieschwitz]

War Russia Turkey Symbols.jpg (65.62 KiB) Viewed 32 times

"June 25th, 1800.

- The day has come. Russian Musket fire, Cannon blasts, and charging cavalry. Glorious! I was able to see some of the attack on the Ottoman forces from afar. A lot of smoke, and victorious forces. The Ottoman host was not able to withstand us.

- Ushakov and Nostitiz report hardly any losses. I expect we can press on very hard, and perhaps even capture the fortress city of Ismael. Perhaps the Ottoman army was ill prepared, because the Austrians declared war on them as well. Who is to say. This is a great day for Russia and for me!

- Alexander, Tsar."

Turn 5 start.jpg (36.42 KiB) Viewed 32 times

The war has come to Europe. Everyone seems to be declaring wars. Great stuff. I was lucky I guess, since the Austrians would rather face the Ottomans than me. That the Kalmar Union and France ganged up on Germany is unlucky for them. They will likely fall pretty quickly. The German States are a very thin nation, and surrounded by others that don't always play nice. I have no idea why the Italians declared war on Portugal.

I had plenty of PPs available to me this turn (59), and I was able to declare war, buy a single Infantry Division and place it in Kiev, as well as assemble one from troops I had produced myself. I was a bit worried about the amount of supplies I had in Moscow. I think I could have waited a turn before I bought some supplies, but, there was no reason not to, since I had the 20 spare PPs.

turn 5 Supplies.jpg (36.53 KiB) Viewed 32 times

I will need these extra Supplies next turn, when I research Infantry II and need to upgrade them.

[ernieschwitz]

Now to the action!

My plan is to attack across a broad front. Picking up land to the west with my cavalry, so as to not allow the Austrians to grab it before me. I will also try and see if I can beat them to the cities to the south. I would hate to have declared war on the Ottoman Empire for it only to be gobbled up in front of me by the Austrians.

This is how the front looked the moment I declared war:

turn 5 ukraine before attacks.jpg (127.55 KiB) Viewed 30 times

Notice how my HQs are no more than 3 hexes away from all my units, except the Cossacks on the extreme left (western side of the map). This will allow for two things. First of all, my HQ will provide the Maximum combat bonuses to the troops, and also the officer and staff in the HQs will gain the most possible XP, which in turn will cause them to level faster.

The biggest battle happened at the bend of the river, where you can see the unit with 55 strength points. My recon is incomplete, but here is what I saw (top right of the picture) and the battle.

Turn 5 main battle West.jpg (188.84 KiB) Viewed 30 times

As can be seen, a complete victory. Every unit was pushed back, and some that the cavalry discovered (units composed of staff) were hit as well. Below you can see the grim reality. Almost no losses, and some losses by the Ottoman opponents.

turn 5 kills losses.jpg (15.17 KiB) Viewed 30 times

[ernieschwitz]

The offensive looked something like this.

turn 5 offensive into Rom.jpg (173.52 KiB) Viewed 29 times

Again, notice that I have placed my HQs in the best possible position, to be able to provide the biggest combat bonuses, in case the units are attacked. I have tried to keep an intact line as well. Ushakov is to the west, Nostitiz to the east. I hope this means that there will be no breakthroughs. The AI however can be strong, so no guarantees.

turn 5 Ukraine Commanders.jpg (56.56 KiB) Viewed 29 times

The above picture shows how much XP (or EXP) that the officers have gained. To reach the first level they need 25 XP, or so, I believe. This means they already have achieved that. Next turn they will have new stats, maybe a card, and that is only a good thing.

As for the Caucasus front, I gained a few hexes. Nothing much to report, but it was a relief that the Ottoman Army had yet to find their way to that area. Again Lady Luck smiled my way, as there could have been troops ready to storm over the border. Tiflis seems safe.

turn 5 caucasus front.jpg (137.89 KiB) Viewed 29 times

[ernieschwitz]

"July 15th, 1800.

- Before I leave the Ukraine, to head for Minsk, and then St. Petersburg, I decided to follow Nostitiz Malyy Korpus towards Ismael. I managed to see the troops storm the walls of the city. The losses were greater than the previous ones, but it was a fortress after all. You do not build walls if they do nothing. The first Ottoman city belongs to Russia, belongs to me!

- I presented both Ushakov and Nostitiz medals for their excellent planning of the offensive, and the positive results they achieved. I told them that I expect them to be as ruthless and efficient as they had been in these opening stages of the war, for as long as possible. Ismael this month, Galatz no later than 2 months from now. We need to beat the Austrians to it.

- Across Europe more wars are breaking out. The German States have been attacked from all sides now. First France and the Kalmar Union, and now Prussia. Such a situation must not befall Russia. We will need to strike with a war of our choosing before Austria, Prussia and their Swedish/Danish friends decide we are ripe for the picking. We need to keep getting stronger.

- Alexander, Tsar."

turn 6 Start Turn.jpg (33.63 KiB) Viewed 19 times

So, the turn began, and no losses had happened. That was nice, but also a little disappointing. Some resistance would be nice, to make this not feel like a pushover. However I am fairly sure that things will turn grim at some point. Attrition does happen, and it is hard to get replacements to armies that travel a long distance from their main HQs.

Prussia decided that Germany was too delicious a target to attack, now that the French and Kalmar Union had begun plucking away at it, and Spain joins Italy's war against Portugal. I wouldn't want to be Portugal. I've tried playing them once, they are very hard to play, to just survive.

turn 6 officer leveling.jpg (138.49 KiB) Viewed 19 times

As mentioned in the last months AAR my two officers involved in fighting got levels. They gained some stats, which is nice, and staff points. Those staff points are not something you can use to command troops, rather they are staff points you use to command staff subformations, or in other words, the regular staff. Each regular staff subformation has 20 points (can command 20 power points), and thus when it says 29 staff points, it means 1 extra staff, and 9/20th of one. Confusing, I know!

Anyway, Ushakov got the aformentioned 29 staff points, and some minor stat adjustments. Nostitiz got a few more stats too, and 21 staff points, as well as a new card. That card is the Offensive plan card. He can use it on one unit, and that unit gets an attack bonus. The bonus will depend on his level, and combat ability. He has 19% chance of getting it, each turn.

[ernieschwitz]

Whenever I begin a turn, I start by looking around. First I look at the map, and see if something important has changed. It could be a breakthrough, a landing behind my lines, or...

In this case the changes were in the Cards available to me.

turn 6 policies.jpg (170.92 KiB) Viewed 17 times

These three cards are policy cards. There are four of them, but I only have three available (I expect that you will find out about the last one later). These three are Recruitment, Confiscation and Innovation. The first of these drastically increases the output of troops you can produce. Of course the troops will eat up manpower. You might also want to stop producing PPs, because their output is not increased by the production bonus. Confiscation gives you extra supplies each turn it is active. These two policies also have the downside that they give you a negative modifier for the war weariness check. The final policy (Innovation) gives you more research. The more universities you own the more you get. All three policies last 6 turns.

I decided that I would not enact any of them before the next turn. Instead I decided to buy two infantry divisions, that I placed in Taganrog, with the intent of them being a reserve in that area, forming a new corps. This left me with 12 Political Points. I could buy two more infantry divisions, but they'd be placed in Moscow. Better to wait a turn, I think, and then decide what to do with those PPs.

Maybe you might be wondering about the math in all this. If you follow along that is. Ordinarily I would pay 12 PPs per Infantry division, but..

turn 6 lower cost inf.jpg (39.92 KiB) Viewed 17 times

... the costs are lower now that I am at war., 9 political points. These new costs apply to all troop types that can be bought by cards. It represents that the war-machinery has gone into gear, and methods reserved for wartimes can be used to gather troops.

[ernieschwitz]

The advances in the Caucasus have revealed the first Ottoman unit.

turn 6 adv on caucasus.jpg (232.25 KiB) Viewed 15 times

It is a unit of Turk Levies. I expect that they are either the garrison of Trabizond or Erzufum. More troops may be behind them getting ready for me. I hope not of course. It is a gamble to send troops this way around towards Turkey. It would be much better to be able to land troops from Sea instead, but.. the Ottoman Navy is just too big.

I also forgot that each Command/HQ of the Malyy Korpus type (the Small Corps) should have 4 Infantry divisions, not 3. I will get an extra down there soon enough.

Now to the other front, Romania. Here is the position before I initiate the push forwards this turn. Ismael it turns out is garrisoned, by a Turk Infantry division. Not great.

turn 6 before off Rom.jpg (133.42 KiB) Viewed 15 times

The battle for the city was a bit costly. It ripped up one of my Infantry divisions (Nostitiz forces). It was at the bare minimum of infantry that I want for a unit to have. I attacked it with 3 infantry divisions, and a cavalry division. The rest did lose some troops, but none like that one. I transferred some troops from one division to another after the battle. They are now each with 15 infantry I, and 3 artillery. Soon I will have to have some rear area divisions.

turn 6 after off Rom.jpg (124.77 KiB) Viewed 15 times

To make sure I have enough troops going forward in that area, I have decided to move Pogorelsky's forces that way. They will replace Nostitiz forces when they need it. I expect it to be sooner rather than later. It is the way of war, after all, to lose troops.

Oh, and I remembered to research Infantry II, as well as upgrade my forces. Cost me 1500 Supplies. I now have 3500 supplies in Moscow.