Matrix Games Forums

Poor Spain, so far from God, so close to France.[:D]

Mike Solli
Hi. I got this game a couple of days ago and finally got the time to look things over. I just downloaded your wonderful briefings and have a question. What are the blue boxes highlighted for? Can't figure them out.

Yeah - no legend! I coloured in some cells to identify things that are noteworthy. To put it another way, in the development area, these guide my initial allocation of labour.

I wonder if you've put together a macro economic report for all the nations?

I will - I haven't finished doing them all yet! - Watch this space.

Where are you getting the detailed province build figures Ralegh. I assume you are digging into a config file because I don't see anything this precise in the game. Mind if I asked where all of this juicy info is coming from?

Got me curious and I went looking. Data Folder. File name: EUProv2.txt

Combination of the following text files that come with the game:
master (unit type codes)
targets (political goals)
relstart (starting relationships)
players2 (nations and countries)
eu_prov2 (provinces)
start2 (initial forces, including cities)
and
commndr (leaders)

[:D]

Hmmm - addition to Tips:

On naval transport of troops:
+ if you sail into a port which you own (or is owned by an ally) and then end your (naval) movement, your troops can disembark and keep marching the following month.
+ bewary - your fleets will move much more slowly when they are laiden with troops: about 2 sea areas a month?
+ some beta users had difficulty with the interface here: think of land forces moving before naval forces (they don't, but this will help you issue orders that will actually be caried out). So:
- move the fleets into the province, end turn
- load the troops and sail out, end turn
- sail to destination sea zone and end turn
- disembark the troops
+ while on board the fleets, your troops will be foragining in a zero zone. To pay for supply, create a sea supply chain...

All 5 briefings currently available form the links on this thread have been updated to show:
- city and province names, with sort order by city
- political goals for each nation

The last three briefings will have these items too.

Ralegh Briefing - Turkey 1805

Ralegh Briefing - Russia1805

Ralegh Briefing - Sweden 1805

If you want the lot, this link gets you all 8 Briefings and the Tip Guide -
The Lot

OK - here is summary data I find interesting.

The first few columns are pretty obvious. They don't include the city garrisons.
"Max Glory" is the most glory a nation could earn from its Political Goals.
"Cities" includes provinces, conquereds, and protectorates.
"Money" is the base money produced by the provinces (unaffected by population or banks etc) - so this one isn't much use, but its something.
For the ship counts and morale, I have included all ships, not just warships.

Other amusing factoids:
+ Turkey is actually the most capable nation for producing wool+cotton+luxeries - with the second highest luxeries capability (also up there are France and Austria).
+ Turkey also produces the most food (just pipping France), equal second for horses (after Prussia, and equal with France and Austria) and the most spice+luxeries (leading Austria).
+ France has an initial population of 139 - Britian 35 and Sweden 24.
+ In a per-city sense, econonomic capaibility (adding up all the resources) France and Sweden are up the top, Britain, Prussia, Austria and Spain in the middle, and Russia and Turkey have the worst.
+ Again, in a per-city sense, current development (adding up all the levels of developable things like factories and banks), Sweden, Britain, Prussia and France are the most developed, Austria and Spain next, with Russia and Turkey last.

TIP Addition: Cavalary Charges and Reforming Cavalry

a) cavalry will always get disorganised if you charge an organised enemy - but not always if you charge a disorganised enemy - and there is an upgrade to help. I reserve my cav for charging disorganised enemies (and artillery).

b) chance to reform is influenced by upgrades, type of unit, terrain you are sitting on, turns resting since the charge, distance to nearest friendly disordered unit, and whether you are in enemy line of sight as well as a number of other factors. All of these influence the chance, none are 'binary' - so:

- move the unit out of enemy LOS, and preferably more than 5 hexes from the nearest friendly disorganised unit [I don't know but I suspect that enemy disorganised units affect this too, so I get away from them as well!]
- get into a hex of 'open' - not city, not wooded
- IMHO the chance of 10% working is about 1% - I don't even try if the button for column says 10%.
- if you move the unit at all, you might as well hit the 10% button - resting the rest of your movement points won't do anything [resting is an all-or-nothing thing]
- I may be wrong about this, but my perception is that leaders don't actually help very much with cavalry reforming after a charge, although they do help lots with units changing formation usually. Move the leaders to somewhere more interesting while the horses recover
- Just let the horses sleep at night - in the morning their chance to reform will go up HEAPS: they are used to starting work first thing in the morning.


Even with these notes, irregular cavalary with low morale usually only get one charge per day. But Lancers tend to be OK to go again after only a couple of turns.

Splended table Ralegh! Hip hip huzzah!


Eric

Some quick advice from Reg Pither about playing France in 1805 from another thread:

The main things I do to boost the economy are :

- Garrison units in cities to reduce upkeep costs
- Unless actually fighting, keep armies foraging and spread out across provinces so no costly depots need to be built
- If not at war, reduce army readiness
- Build Bank improvements as soon as possible in the most profitable provinces to get the best return on the 10% increase
- Trade any excess resources (usually wool and food, I've found) for cash, rather than other resources. Spain is always willing to help here.
- Play with the sliders on the Province control screens to maximise gold income
- Taking out a loan early in the game I've found is almost essential to help upgrade infrastructure
- I usually move my merchants and privateers in the Channel down to the Med to avoid those pesky British ships. They may make a bit less money here, but at least they'll survive
- Assuming my people are happy, nudging the tax slider up a bit is always useful
- Try asking for payments from your friends or those who are afraid of you. You never know your luck

The main thing I've found is simply, especially for the first year or so, to keep monitoring everything that is costing and making money in as much detail as possible. A bit of a chore, but any Emperor worth his salt must be prepared to work for it!

+ France has an initial population of 139 - Britian 35 and Sweden 24.

Hm, this is a little troubling--France certainly had a larger population than Britain, but it wasn't that much bigger. On the other hand, maybe this is more accurate in a sense--France had more peasants, perhaps, versus a larger middle class for Britain.

ORIGINAL: Mr. Z

+ France has an initial population of 139 - Britian 35 and Sweden 24.

Hm, this is a little troubling--France certainly had a larger population than Britain, but it wasn't that much bigger. On the other hand, maybe this is more accurate in a sense--France had more peasants, perhaps, versus a larger middle class for Britain.

France's urban population in 1800 was about 30M; Europe's total urban population (De Vries) was about 122M. Total population of England/Wales in 1800 was about 9M (Griffith). Politically France had an easier time mobilizing its population relative to Britain.


Eric

ORIGINAL: ericbabe

ORIGINAL: Mr. Z

+ France has an initial population of 139 - Britian 35 and Sweden 24.

Hm, this is a little troubling--France certainly had a larger population than Britain, but it wasn't that much bigger. On the other hand, maybe this is more accurate in a sense--France had more peasants, perhaps, versus a larger middle class for Britain.

France's urban population in 1800 was about 30M; Europe's total urban population (De Vries) was about 122M. Total population of England/Wales in 1800 was about 9M (Griffith). Politically France had an easier time mobilizing its population relative to Britain.


Eric

i agree that the populations of France and Britain seem too different

so after a dit of digging i found this

http://www.napoleon-series.org/research ... ation.html

after including Scotland + Ireland to the England + Wales figures you get a total British Isles population of roughly half that of France, compared to a third as quoted above

Also..Britain got a boost from the KGL after the conquest of Hanover

Does Ral's 139 for France include all its conquered and protectates as well?

I doubt that one should consider the Irish population much for draft purposes. They were not very eager to fight for the British crown.

[avoiding a political debate]

i have to disagree , the Irish should not be treated as lower quality troops or totally unwilling to fight for the Crown.

http://www.napoleonguide.com/books_osp_penregi1.htm

It's hard to believe but some 40 per cent of the British army during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars are believed to have been Irishmen.

http://www.irishwolfhounds.org/rangers.htm

http://www.army.mod.uk/royalirish/histo ... c_wars.htm

on the other hand
Napoleon's Irish Legion
http://www.napoleonic-alliance.com/arti ... legion.htm