Screens

[Mr. Z]

Here I'm trying to retake Vienna. My Grenzers weren't fast enough, so they didn't enter the battle, but I was able to call them as reinforcements from the adjacent province, so they have fortunately showed up.

[Mr. Z]

I lost Vienna again, and am now starting to sweat--I will have to pull some troops off the borders and send them back to the capital in order to prevent a surrender. I also realized that I didn't set a rally point for Russia--will have to go back and do that now.

Had to fight two battles in Tyrolia (due to battle limit size), and I unfortunately lost both, though they were close. Once the French artillery units show up, you are in trouble. This is the point at which it would be advantageous to start using the detailed battle map, i.e. hexwar, and so I shall begin doing so.

Fortunately I was able to smash another small French army in Carniola.

Things are going badly--my treasury is now depleted due to occupation of my capital. I need a good victory fast. Also the Ottomans have decided to invade Sardinia. Not a good omen. And I'm in last place in terms of Glory:

[Mr. Z]

Here I am setting the rally point for the Russian armies:

[Mr. Z]

I'm just going to move everything I have into Styria, and move on from there. In order to support them, I'm going to have to build a depot in Ofen. The French have plundered all my art out of Tyrolia! Very sad. Also I forgot to turn on the option to rally my garrisons to battle--it can occasionally help.

A royal rumble in Vienna! I have also rallied my garrison to battle. And now we will see a fine hexwar...

[Mr. Z]

Some good news: I have reinforcements arriving.

[Mr. Z]

Behold hexwar. It is winter. First to move are my 19th Cavalry division. Accessible hexes are in pink, with the move values I would have left for each in the lower left-hand corner. All my units begin in line formation, as you can see from the shape of the small squares There is a village in the center of the screen. Various stats and control buttons are at the bottom.

[Mr. Z]

And we are off...I have spied the French on my right flank, and have decided to try and reach the nearby village first. However, they managed to get some effective moves in after I was only able to move a cavalry unit and some infantry columns. It's my move again, and here we are beginning what will probably be a major face-off. I'm upset because my supply is lined up in a row at the bottom of the screen (you can't see the rest of the line; it trails off the screen) and I need to get them out of there. On the other hand, it will be useful to have them close at hand in the thick of the battle.

[Mr. Z]

It's not quite first blood--the French got off a few shots on one of my supply units--but I'm quite happy with this--I decided to try and screen my supply from the French infantry with my cavalry to try and give them a chance to move away without much loss, and success! Moved two cavalry units--a regular and a heavy--up to the French infantry. My regular still had some movement points left, and though it was tempting to put him in a line formation, I decided this would waste my turn, as well as waste a formation change, to boot. A good volley by the French on their turn could render him disordered and useless, or at least much less effective. Checking my morale, and the estimated French morale, I decided a cavalry charge would be a good idea, and here we see the results--326 Austrian losses to his 1969 losses! (The numbers are a little far away from the units suffering the losses because they "float up" after they are displayed...)

[Mr. Z]

However, the downside of this is, my charge attack disordered my cavalry, as you can see from the disorder of the little squares in this shot (you could also see the cavalry figure "spinning"). They are also now fatigued.

[Mr. Z]

Here, I have put one of my infantry into line formation:

[Mr. Z]

Well, things are struggling along...French have been getting some small but favorable attacks in, and here I attempted to charge an infantry unit, who then formed an emergency square. Darn! I could press the attack, but we all know how that sort of thing turns out...

[Reiryc]

So far this looks great....

However, I believe your grenzer units should have 8 buttons as opposed to 7 on their jackets. [:'(]

[Mr. Z]

More good news: I was able to form my heavy cavalry into a line, and fire upon the same French division that I charged earlier with the regular cavalry. Result: 303 losses, and they are now shaken (though not disordered--yet).

[Mr. Z]

ORIGINAL: Reiryc

So far this looks great....

However, I believe your grenzer units should have 8 buttons as opposed to 7 on their jackets. [:'(]

Heh...well, we do take all comments and criticisms seriously. And we have enjoyed seeing the level of interest in the game, as well as the level of devotion to the period's details by its fans. We are of course very interested in the period, too! And we are always looking for was to improve the game. [:)]

[Mr. Z]

Bummer.

[Mr. Z]

Well, at any rate, that's a glimpse of things for now...I'll try to post more later sometime when I have more time to go through an entire battle.

[sol_invictus]

This looks fantastic! Thanks for the preview.

Reiryc, behave![:)]

[TheHellPatrol]

[&o]This has to be the most beautiful Napoleonic strategy game i have ever seen...Wow!

[sol_invictus]

Mr. Z, are you noticing any unrealistic numbers in any countries force pool? That was a major problem with Europa Universalis; it was just to easy to raise and maintain large and unrealistic numbers of soldiers. I hope CoG has effective mechanisms in place to keep this from happening. Can't wait to get some more info.

[Hohenlohe]

[&o]Mr.Z your AAR is wonderful.I'm now more enthusiasistic about the game.
Do you know how near the release date is?I can't wait for the game.
I'm just playing imperial glory and it is buggy on my system, so i hope for a better
napoleonic game with more depth inside and CoG seems very promising.