Alte Garde

[Pans]

Setup for the game "Alte Garde":
RESULTS:

Nation VP Cost Name Email

Britain 22 Andreas Andreas.Johannssen@t-online.de
France 30 Patrik ligny@hotmail.com
Russia 28 chris chrisreinhardt@t-online.de
Austria 16 benza benza@live.se
Prussia 3 Olaf polarole@nexgo.de
Spain 12 brian O borneruv@yahoo.com
Turkey 3 Brian Mille brianmiller2@verizon.net


Existing war Britain - France

What we got here is a three point win for Prussia - good start for them

[Pans]

the northern front is in deep winter ... the Russians waiting for spring to come!

[Pans]

France has declared war on Prussia and has his main force in Hannover.
Hohenlohe is in Berlin with four Corps and John is waiting in Prague what will happen some way north.

[Pans]

Italy is nearly completely left for Spain ... DOW to Genoa and Papacy

[Pans]

France has his complete fleet together with the Holland fleet stacked in Le Havre. Davout and two Corps are at their guard. Nelson and the main British fleet are in blockade. The rest of the British navy is habouring close to the admirality in London waiting for the first mission to come.

[Pans]

Turkey is massing forces under Kushanz Ali with three Corps on the frontiere to Egypt ... DOW to Egypt in January 1805.

[Pans]

we are now at the beginning of movement -- naval phase 1805.
All is open and we will see whose command is fit to conquere Europe.

lets go!

[Odysseus]

This will be watched with great interest! If Prussia can survive the French onslaught, it should be in a very good position...

[Pans]

The first land move in 1805 brings the first major battle between France and Prussia at the battle for Berlin. France as the attacker choose assault against cordon. After the second round of combat the Prussian army broke and Napoleon led an allout pursue (die roll of 6). Losses on Prussian side were high - nearly all Prussian Cavalry and three Corps were eliminated. France lost nothing.

Directly after this heroic victory Napoleon proclaimed the Bulletin No 1 to his army:

Soldats! Je suis content a vous!

The conquerors of Rivoli and Marengo has showed the english oligarchy
how we will handle the nations that heeds the call of the land of the
shopkeepers. At the battle of Berlin La Grande Armée surpassed itself
and heavily defeated the sons of Frederick the Great. In this battle
every arm did their duty and the victory was never in doubt. Special
praise must go to Marshal Masséna who masterfully assaulted the
prussian extended rightwing and Marshal Soult who did the same with
their left. When Prince Murat at the head of the cavalry was sent in
pursuit the prussian army disintegrated. Much baggage, many banners
together with tens of thousand of prisoners was captured. A french
regiment of hussars even took the prussian artillerypark and all
their wet ammunition. Soldats! When you get home and earn a well
deserved rest and your neighbor get the knowledge that you fought at
the great Battle of Berlin, they will say: "There walks a brave man".

/Napoleon I, Empereur de Francais

P.s: In gameterms: With the right chit, my good luck this time,
better leaders, more numbers and also Olafs extremely bad rolls
things can surely get twisted.

All Europe is waiting to hear that one of the heros of Berlin to become Marshal of France.

[delatbabel]

I think this, and if you go and look at what is happening in CleverDevils2, illustrate an issue:  With experienced players, Prussia and Austria must unite at the beginning of the game against France.  They must also combine their armies, preferably under the leadership of Charles as their only high value leader.  They must not allow Napoleon to hit either uncombined stack on the first turn.

Prussian setup should be in Kustrin, behind the river, or Glogau.  You must set up a defensive cordon of depots containing each one factor of garrison to block Napoleon's stack move from Hanover on the first turn.  If Napoleon does come after you then combined with the Austrian corps, hit Napoleon's stack in Berlin or wherever.  If needs be then hide out in Theresienstadt until Napoleon takes a march on either Berlin or Vienna and hit from there.  Better to be attacking Napoleon than be attacked, an attacker has a better chance of outpicking the defender's chit than vice-versa, and in all cases Charles with 12 corps attacking is better than Hohenloe with 4 corps defending.

Sure, not all games pan out this way but if the first French assault is allowed to crush one of the allied armies (Prussian or Austrian) then the game is pretty much all over at that point.  The Prussian cavalry will take all game to rebuild, and given that France can now push on for an unconditional surrender from Prussia and still have forces spare to take Austria apart, France will continue to have the edge in forces and cavalry (and not to mention leaders) over the allies all game.

Like all learning experiences -- I hope people learn from this!

[borner]

The issue here seems to be that Prussia declared on minors that gave France a base o supply close enough to hit hard on the opening turn. I have seen this before, but never to such a one sided extent. Simply put, unless you know France is not going to declare on you, great care must be taken in regards to what, if any, minors you attack.