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early reports skewed my opinion.. does the game still experience frequent ctd?

ORIGINAL: freeboy

early reports skewed my opinion.. does the game still experience frequent ctd?

Never had that happen in PBEM. It used to happen in single player due to a memory leak, but haven't seen it lately.

Warspite wrote:Dortmund a few questions:

- You mention the divisional qualities in some of the corps. Can you transfer divisions and units freely between corps?

- Why are some pictures (of divisional commanders?) the same?

- Are the leader qualities set in stone (every game the same) or is there a random element to them? e.g. could Marmont start one game with a certain set of characteristics and another game with a different set?

- Finally, why are you declaring war on Austria first? Is this forced upon you or are you free to choose whatever strategy you want?

Many thanks

Yes, you can transfer freely between corps that divisions, brigades, HQ's, supply wagons, etc. What you can see in the images are units. Some of them have the portrait of his leader and some of them not (at first, they had always the portrait, but this changed after a game patch), but all have leaders that lead the divisions. I'll clarify that in the next post, with the stats of the different units and the division composition.

Some leaders don't have a personal portrait... I think the reason is that there's no found portrait for that leader.

The leaders have always the same stats if you play with the "historical leaders" option. Otherwise the stats are random.

I'm going to declare war on Austria because if I don't do anything the russians can move their army to Austria and form a powerful army with them.

freeboy wrote:early reports skewed my opinion.. does the game still experience frequent ctd?

Like Aurelian I had not a single ctd in a PBEM game, but they solved that in a patch. The game had some issues at first, but every month they do some patches that we are adding to the game as we play.

Thanks for the comments. [;)]

SPANISH PROLOGE

This is the Spanish situation regarding objectives and force comparison at the beginning of the scenario:



There are a lot of objectives in foreign hands and very few under our control, so we must start working on this as soon as possible if we want to be a competitive power in Europe. At first we will focus in the more feasible ones, Gibraltar and North Africa, then we will see how the game progress and which opportunities we have to focus in others (Malta, Italy…).

About the force comparison, the most remarkable is the overwhelming British naval superiority . In ground forces there are not surprises, under France, Britain and Russia, but at the same level of Austria.

The Spanish national modifiers:



The bonus in assault and the siege RGD will be very useful in Gibraltar. About the naval bonuses… well, maybe they will be useful in the future, but right now the fleet will sit in their ports as long as the powerful British fleet keep blockading our shores in such force.

SPANISH GROUND FORCES:

In Madrid we have the Ejército de España and the Guardia Real



Right now I can only have one army (would like to change its name from Esercito to the correct Ejercito, but it’s not possible to change army names). It’s commanded by the good for nothing Godoy. It will stay in Madrid until another general better than him (almost anyone) reach seniority enough to replace him without VP or NM penalties.

Officers in command of these stacks:

Godoy


And the Duque del Infantado


Duque del Infantado, an average officer, and his guards will depart towards South to take part in the siege of Gibraltar.

In Toledo is Castaños with the Central Corps:



Castaños:


He is not a bad officer with some interesting traits, but with only a 3 in strategic he will be deactivated most of the time. He will go to Gibraltar with some of his units to fight in the siege and acquire some experience. The other units will remain in Toledo as mobile reserve with a less capable officer (I have some of those).

In Valencia camps the Oriental Corps with Benito San Juan in command:





Good troops with a mediocre chief, so the units will depart to Gibraltar and San Juan will take charge of the Central Corps.

In Granada is Teodoro Reding and the South Corps





A bad officer, but his trait “Swiss commander” is going to be useful as far as I have several Swiss brigades which could be combined in a division under his command without penalties.

With him there are the Marqués de la Romana and Don Juan de Kindelán





De La Romana is one of my best officers and is going to command a powerful division in Gibraltar (the guards, probably). Kindelán is also a good officer and his trait “good population administrator” will be useful in occupied regions.

The South Corps will be the core of the army for the Gibraltar siege.

In Leon are two army groups, the North Corps:





Palafox is very good in defense, but have the same problem than Castaños, only a 3 in strategic.

With him is Don Juan Caraffa



The other group is Blake’s Occidental Corps:







Palafox will go with his corps towards south, and Caraffa will go with him. Blake is an average chief, if he wouldn’t have the trait slow mover he would be in charge of the defense of the Peninsula in the north, but that trait and the low infrastructures in the area would result in that he would hardly reach any point where the British could disembark at time. He will be send to America and I will bring another officer from there, more suitable for the peninsular movement war. Until then, Trancos will form a division to protect the area as best as he can until French reinforcements arrive (a British disembark in north Spain is as dangerous for them as for me).

In North Africa there are a few Spanish regiments under command of my most talented general:





Ballesteros is by far my best man, but he has a very low seniority. As soon as I can I’ll transport him and his men to Cadiz and will give him the command of a powerful independent division in hope he gains some seniority and become a good corps leader in the near future.

Let’s go to the colonies.

In Cuba we have Salazar with a corps







It’s a strong enough force that combined with the garrison would be able to stop any British attack. The officers will depart to Spain and Blake will replace them here. Salazar will be the commander in chief in the north of Spain and Zerain, with his siege trait, will go to Gibraltar.

I’ve been tempted to send Palafox because of his defensive habilities, but I discarded it because due the British naval superiority they could surrender the fort only blockading it and I can’t afford losing a good officer in such a secondary front. By the other way, I don’t care losing Blake here.

In Santo Domingo There is a small Spanish force leaded by General Viallacampo





I know for sure that there are British attacking Haiti and this small force would not stop them. Right now, they will join the garrison and, as soon as possible, they will be evacuated to Cuba. If Britain wants Santo Domingo there is little I could do to avoid it.

In La Plata are my main forces in America:







Their chief is an average Spanish officer (a good for nothing), but Vigodet is a little more interesting general thanks to his infantryman trait. If Portugal enters in the war I don’t discard some offensive actions with this general in Brazil.

This is the summary of the Spanish ground forces (only active units, there are some powerful garrisons too). They look as a good war machine, but actually, the mediocrity of their officers and the bad shape of the units (most of them are skeletons dependent of expensive replacements to fill their ranks) it would not be possible to start any operation before spring. Until then, I’ll move officers to their new posts and will gather all the troops which will take part in the siege of Gibraltar in Cadiz.

For the Gibraltar assault, I’ll use two corps (only nominal, I’m not able to form corps yet). One with Castaños and the other with Palafox (will see the accurate composition of these corps once the units are all together in Cadiz). Also, I plan to give Ballesteros a powerful division to operate independent. May be I’ll give him a corps and put all the other more senior two star officers together in the other one (not know what to do, he is so good…).

ARMADA

The main Spanish fleet is in Cadiz with Gravina in command







This fleet is going to be blocked by Nelson, who starts in the Straight (I’m scared just seeing his stack)



There’s no way of evading or defeating Nelson (neither together with the French trapped in Cadiz with me), so I’ll stay in Cadiz and will urge to my ally to do the same. We must avoid Trafalgar at all cost.

In El Ferrol I have another fleet







Blockaded too



A smaller fleet is in Cartagena





This escuadra is not blocked by the British, but it have my worst admiral in command.

And in Cuba I have a fleet with my best sailor in command





They are not blocked, but I’m sure that the English have superiority in those waters too.

The ships will remain in port, that’s obvious. Soon or later, the British will have to resupply their fleets, then I have to take advantage of this and try to join all my fleets in one, may be then I could achieve a punctual advantage and, in a combined effort with the French, defeat the British fleets piece by piece with local superiority. For me, that place must be the Mediterranean because Britain will never send all the fleet there leaving the Channel without forces. Will be the main topic in the next conference with the Emperor.

Meanwhile, I’ll move officers. Hidalgo de Cisneros will go to Cadiz, Gravina to El Ferrol, Cordova to Cuba and Escano and Alava to Cartagena. With the sloops Sq. Peruano (in Cuba) I’ll do these movements between Spain and America because of it speed an evasion values I hope it’ll evade the British ships, but with the British officers you never know.



With my light units based in Cartagena I’ll try to blockade Gibraltar and, may be, Malta, always with orders to evade and retreat in the same moment they see a British vessel. With that I try to force the British player to divide even more his fleets to cover as much terrain as possible, so I’ll favor a scenario where a local superiority is feasible.

In Cuba, Britain must move troops all along America. I must be alert and may be catch one of these transport fleets by surprise with light escort. I’ll also send some light ships to the blockade zone to take a look there.

JANUARY 1805

First things first, from the War Ministry are ordered the formation of support units to ensure a minimum efficiency in Gibraltar siege.



A field hospital to recover cohesion in the difficult Gibraltarian terrain, an engineers unit because is mandatory for the siege RGDs and a siege artillery battery to improve our odds of making a breach in the fort.

The bad situation of the army consumes all my initial replacements in only a couple of turns







I have to focus all my economic resources for buying more because, even the great numbers they already used, my units are still very far of their 100%. Anyway, my manpower limitations limits de acquisition of the most needed infantry replacements. This is the replacement situation at the end of the month:



Thanks to my investments in new ship replacements, the Juno sq. (Cartagena) receives a new 36 gun frigate in the second week of the month



(Note to the developers: All new Spanish ships lacks of a proper name and it does less immersive the game, if help is needed to improve the Spanish ships database I’m sure that me and other Punta de Lanza forum users will be glad to contribute).

About the RGDs used, my lack of manpower made me use the 2 volunteers decisions I had in the pool the firsts



But it’s not enough and I have to use the more aggressive draft decision. I play it in Granada, where there are no production building and the 20% loyalty loose will not affect my economy



To equilibrate a little the loyalty in this region, I also use here a Develop RGD (+10% loyalty). More of this are used to develop provinces in the path North-South Spain of my troops (maybe they will travel faster and the supplies transit is also improved, because the movement of the troops is being quite painful right now) I also use them in my industrial cores (Madrid, Barcelona and Cadiz) in hope they improve their production a little if I invest in their richness.



Admiral Cisneros is promoted, losing one strategic point in the process (didn’t Spain have incompetents enough?).



About diplomacy, there are diplomatics going and coming with the Ottomans and France. To remark a little di9plomatic misunderstanding when we didn’t answered a commercial agreement treaty from France. The Emperor, God praise his patience, sent another diplomatic forgiving HM Carlos IV and not following the popular French tradition of cutting Borbon heads (poor cousin Luisito).




The number of diplomatics and the incompetence of the monarch limits my diplomatic movements a lot, my French ally will have to deal with the bulk of our alliance diplomacy. Even so, Spain will try to approach the Sultan (if only they could see us now…). If we can take him into our alliance will be a serious problem for Russia and Austria.

We had the event of Casa de Indias



Money and ship replacements, good news. I hope our American friends remain with us as long as possible.

It’s time to talk about the implementation of all the military movements plans we made in the previous report. The officers are starting to arrive to their new posts.

Salazar occupied the command of the North army and we form our first division there under general Tranco orders. They will remain in Leon until further others arrive.



Gravina arrives to El Ferrol,



Escaño and Álava take command of the Cartagena Sq. With them, I feel secure enough to load Ballesteros’ African Corps from Ceuta and bring it to Spain. The fleet arrives to Ceuta without any problem (I was afraid of a British interception with Nelson’s fleet). Now, we hope the return travel is as peaceful as this one.



In La Plata I form another division under Vigodet command



Blake take his post as Cuba garrison Commander



Now, it’s time for a recklessness action. As far as I can see, the British fleets are maintaining their pickets in front of our main ports and they not move neither divide their fleet to patrol other waters, so I’m going to form a small transport fleet under Cisneros orders and try to sneak it from Cuba to Spain with all the 3 cavalry brigades stationed there and which will be more useful in the Peninsula



If the British find this fleet, not even Neptune miracles will save it.

Global situation of our troops:

Reding is going to join Castaños (who is also commanding the guards) in a few days in Bélmez. Once together they’ll depart to Sevilla



In the center, San Juan’s Oriental Corps is slowly approaching Ciudad Real (only one day to arrive). Once there, San Juan will go to Toledo and join the troops of the Central Corps and the Oriental Corps will continue towards Cordoba.



In the North, Palafox and his men will arrive to Madrid in 7 days



In February will continue the arduous path to Cadiz of all the Spanish troops and we will be especially looking to Cisnero’s fleet adventures in the Atlantic.

February-May 11805

Well, we were with Cisneros cruising from Cuba to Santander with three cavalry brigades and surrounded by the Royal Navy. But it looks like this wasn’t exciting enough for the admiral, so he decided to enjoy a little more time in Cuba



He enjoyed it so much that he though nothing would happen if he spent a little more time. At middle of February this was Cisneros’ position



Of course, for this tranquility in a sea full of British ships we must have to be ready to pay the price



I’m sure that Rear-Admiral Strachan never though he would find a Spanish fleet in the Golfe de Gascogne that day, so he couldn’t made as much damage as he would like to do. My ships, with evade orders, were able to escape with only four ships sunk. Bad news are that one of those ships were the transports carrying the Santiago Brigade.

Anyway, for me this is good enough. Right now are more useful two cavalry brigades in the Peninsula than three in Cuba.

The cavalry will go to Sevilla, Cisneros to command the fleet in Cadiz and the remaining ships, after being repaired in Santander, will return to La Habana.



Ballesteros and his troops arrive to Spain, too, and proceed to join with the army in Belmez



It takes four months, but in May all the troops are ready in Cadiz. They are divided in two corps.

The first corps is commanded by Palafox, it have one cavalry division (Ballesteros), and three infantry divisions (Marques de la Romana with the guards, Juan de Kindelan and Tomas Zerain) with the field hospital



The second corps will be commanded by Castaños and have two infantry divisions (one of them not ready because Caraffa has been inactive for more than 5 turns). This corps also have the engineers and the siege artillery because it will go as a second wave and do the siege after Palafox defeat the British troops outside the fort.



In those months, by the time I was preparing and moving my troops, the British disembarked some small marine units in Galicia and Ceuta. I sent my only division in the North of Spain to eliminate the marines in Compostela




These units are so weak that I didn’t bother to send troops to Ceuta, they couldn’t even scratch the walls with such a small force.

They also tried to siege Santo Domingo with a strong force, but after playing the RGD scorched earth they had to retire due supply problems.

At the second half of May, Palafox is ready to march against Gibraltar with (almost) all the Spanish army. It’s a risky bet, because if a disaster happens and with my income of manpower and war supplies, rebuilding my regular army would be impossible and I’ll be out of this game since the very beginning. Anyway, I had follow a plan since the first turn towards where I'm now and I'll continue because the final prize (Gibraltar) is worthy enough.



Next update: the battle(s) and siege(?) of Gibraltar…

GIBRALTAR CAMPAING (1)

Palafox (3-4-4) arrives to Gibraltar on 18 May with 36,720 men and 112 guns. There, trenched and in high ground awaits Sir Samuel Auchmuty (3-2-3) with an small British army consisting in 16,630 men and 56 guns.

There are three battles







None of them decisive, but all Spanish victories. It makes me gain 86% of the military control of Gibraltar



The British confidence in their troops superior quality, better entrenchment and terrain (confidence not without base) didn't count with the Spanish determination (almost everything Spain can deploy is here), the superior numbers and leadership (Palafox is better than that Sir). Now I have a hold in Gibraltar and I'm not going to move any step back.

This is the current situation





Palafox is in good shape, but the British had suffered important losses. What scares me most is that Nelson has dissapear and I'm afraid he went to bring reinforcements to Gibraltar. Just in case, I play the Defensive Works RGD to consolidate my positions.



We'll see what old uncle Nelson bring to us...

But I must be pragmatic before all, so taking adventage of this temporal Royal Navy absence I join the Cartagena Squadron with my main fleet in Cadiz



It isn't something to send against any British fleet, but it's a beginning.

To be continued...

GIBRALTAR (2)

It's not until 20th June when Palafox is active again, so I order him to continue the attack against the British



It's another victory.

But, at the end of this week, the British reinforcements appears



It's a dissaster. I've lost almost all my cavalry, General Zerain is killed and now I'm in inferior numbers.



After this battle I've to think twice about all this stuff. I still can retire from Gibraltar and save the army, but if I do this everything I´ve based my war plans would be a waste. I would have to start everything again, but where?

No, I've to continue the attack. Gibraltar is the objetive and it looks like I'll have to rise the bets here. I reorganize Palafox army sending the decimated cavalry to Cadiz to recover and putting Ballesteros (former chief of the Cavalry Division) in charge of Zerain's infantry division.



Palafox's army must resist in Gibraltar and maintain all the ground gained in the first attacks at all costs.

Meantime, Castaños recives orders to march towards Gibraltar with his force in support of Palafox. With this I embark all Spanish Peninsular Regular Army into this crazy adventure.

Palafox is defeated in a first quick battle



But Castaños appears just in time



A pyrrhic victory, but we recover our superior numbers here. Thanks God, the garrison remains inside the fort unaware of these battles.

GIBRALTAR (3)

Bad news about this last battle: Ballesteros is killed. He was one of my most promising officers.

I have to rebuild again my forces. I join both armies in one commanded by Castaños and I send the most weakened brigades back to Cadiz to recover. Now I have a small command penalty for such a big stack (10%), but I must take advantage of my superiority and can't risk one stack not joining the other when attacking, so I think it's better to have everybody together.

At 9th July I restart the offensive and four battles took place









The British reinforcements (Malta army, according intel) disappears and Sir Samuel must face alone all the Spanish army. At the end, he can't avoid defeat and have to retreat inside the fortress.

At the end of the week, the field is mine with a supply train left by the British in their retreat.



Castaños begins the siege with 4 infantry divisions supported by the units built in advance for this situation with a lot of sacrifice by the scarce Spanish economy: a siege artillery regiment and another one of engineers. He's also ready for a long siege scenario with his 5 supply trains and a field hospital.



The British are strong (500 power) and confident inside their walls and Nelson has the control of the Straight and all surrounding waters



I'm afraid the British will use their sea superiority to bring reinforcements to Gibraltar, so I need to force a quick siege here or my days in Gibraltar would be counted. I use my both breach RGD (thanks to my engineers rgt.).





I sucede with both RGDs and also made another breach with my artillery, so in the second week in August I have the three breaches I need to storm the fortress (level 3 fort).

I also count with some (redundant, I know) national bonuses for assaulting





Just in case...

Now is the moment, everything looks right for Spain retaking Gibraltar at last. But I'm still wavering... A failure here means the game over for me, I'm about to risk ALL my army assaulting an impregnable fortress. I'm not usually so hesitant, but it's an all or nothing bet here.

I ask the Emperor for advice and he tells me that odds are with me, so I join all my guts and order Castaños to storm the fort...

GIBRALTAR (4)

The assault quickly turns into a slaughter of Spanish and British soldiers.



Inside the fortress is the Malta British Army (disappeared in previous battles) and the fort garrison. They are surpassed by 5 to 1, but they plant an stubborn defence. So stuborn that almost all the British are death at the end of the battle, but the British flag remains over the rock. Their bravery and better positioning are not enough to stop 58,000 Spanish.

I've lost one fivth of my army which has passed from 1,000 power to 655. This means that with Spanish economy, my army will not recover the losses of this battle in a year. But I've to continue the pressure, as far as I know, right now a British fleet may be bringing here elief expedition. I've to finish this siege now, no matter the shape of my troops, the enemy's is worst. There is no rest, I order another assault for the next turn.





4,000 more soldiers died, but now Gibraltar is Spanish again





I gain 10 NM and a lot of PVs. Also, the fort batteries and the coastal guns are mine now.

For the British this means a drop in their NM, Pvs and -10 of war score (-1 more for each turn they not control Gibraltar), so I have to plan the defense because they can take an army here whenever they want. I join the most damaged brigades in a weak division and take them inside the fort with all the captured artillery. That should work for now.



The army returns to Cadiz for the ceremony of hand over of the Spanish Army Commander in Chief. At last Castaños, now a three star general, has more seniority than Godoy and now Spain have a proper Chief for the Army (maybe not the best, but anything is better than Godoy)




This army, weak and understrengthed, has recover the proud an glory with this campaing. It has not been easy at all, 28,000 men have died and it will be months before the army is near the 100%, but for sure now they are more selfconfident and ready for any future campaing, wherever it would be...

June 1805
During the first two weeks the Grande Armee goes into Württemberg and Bavaria. Napoleon’s army always moves through non-border areas, so it will not be detected by the coalition thanks to the "fog of war".

In the third week we learned that Austria became part of the third coalition. It was a matter of time that both countries waved at war, and if Austria had not entered the war would have been France which declared. Fortunately Napoleon's army is already in position to launch an attack on the border Austrian cities, so the inexhaustible emperor sends the orders to his subordinates to invade Austria from Bavaria, while Massena does the same from Italy. So let's take a look at Napoleon and Massena’s plans...




Grande Armee

Situation in mid-June.

We do not know where the Austrian army is, except the corps in the Alpine border with Bavaria, that seem quite strong (about 12 divisions), located behind rivers and on a forest that favors them. Therefore the intention is to move towards Bohemia, an area of relatively flat terrain, to surround those bodies of Austrian army from the north and avoid exhaustion in a clash that could be quite expensive.

Ney’s 6th corps, located in Ulm (Württemberg), is launched against the small Alpine cities of Ueberlingen and Memmingen. It does so in relentless assault position, so that in theory, in only five days, he will assault the two cities in the same turn without stopping. Time is gold.
Ney get it, but so too outstanding ... both level 1 cities disappear from the map. I think this is one of the things that was corrected with the patches that have been coming out, so I do not think nowadays these cities could disappear like that. This is a problem because it may prevent the supply flow to eastern Bavaria, but you have to resign yourself... if I had known rather than raiding the cities I would have besieged them to surrender.
The last week of June, Ney pursues a couple of small austrian units that had survived in the area, though some more escape.

Lannes and his 5th corps start their journey from Regensburg (Bavaria) to Bohemia. They target the cities of Pilsen and Eger, where they can put one foot in Bohemia to go to Prague. However, this move will stop at the border mountains, and from there he’ll see if there are defending forces in Eger and Pilsen and decide what to do next. We must not stop but without being unwary.

As I don’t know if Austria knows the Napoleon's army position, I decide to keep enough units in Regensburg if the Austrian army decided to move toward it. I only move the Soult corps, to surround the Austrians if they enter into Bavaria without a previous reconaissance.

The month ends with Lannes taking Pilsen, city that surrenders without firing a single shot.


Armée d'Italie


Mid-June situation.

The army of Italy will not be so cautious. Massena orders all their bodies forward dodging Padova, which will be besieged by François de Chasseloup-Laubat commanding a force composed of an infantry division supported by siege engineers. The central corps, reinforced with more divisions from the other ones, will be the only corps that enters Treviso, while the rest will remain at a region distance to support it while defending the rear.

But the Austrians are not in Treviso. So Partoneaux assaults the city and takes it the last week of June, gaining 4 points of national morale. Meanwhile, the remaining corps are advancing unopposed toward Trieste. Venice is left behind because taking it would be costly without a port blockade.



It’s strange how little opposition has offered the Austrian army in these first two weeks of war, but it also worries me because it means that Gonzalo could have gathered his army into powerful forces that can appear when I least expect...