AAReport - Ralegh as Britain

Matrix Games Forums

Forums Register Login Photo Gallery Member List Search Calendars FAQ

My Profile Inbox Address Book My Subscription My Forums Log Out

AAReport - Ralegh as Britain

View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [Napoleonics] >> Crown of Glory >> After Action Report >> AAReport - Ralegh as Britain

Page: [1]

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

AAReport - Ralegh as Britain - 7/8/2005 5:17:30 PM

Ralegh

Posts: 1557
Joined: 2/1/2005
Status: offline

Wow - every game is just sooo different. I just finished playing Britain at Napoleon level.

I rushed the 2 British armies to Hannover, and then force marched them to Styria, trying to get there before Austria collapsed under the French attack. The rush naval moves meant that we allowed the French fleets near England to get out and choose not to intercept them to make sure our troops got to Europe as fast as possible. Fortunately, the French moved them out without any forces on board: otherwise we would have had to abort the invasion (or left one at home).

Nelson beat the heck out of the French fleet, and then the Spanish fleet. The Spanish fleet ended up in Majorca, and Nelson stood off Gibraltar looking at the French, and then mounted a port raid to destroy the rest of the French fleet. It was a little costly in ships, but we sank them all.

Meanwhile, the Channel fleets chased and attacked the French fleets, and then launched port raids to obliterate teh last few ships. (The French did win one naval battle, but were unlucky with the pursuit, so it was pretty much straight downhill for them.)

Meanwhile, France beat us into Styria province, but we got there the very next month, and took it back from them, with the help of a Russian army (+34 glory battle). Amazingly, at the end of that month, Austria surrendered to France, and France surrendered to Britain! I suppose between the morale loss from the naval battles, my diplomats, and then the battle in Styria they must have been pretty low. Wow. I took Britany and Normandy, and made the French remove both Napoleon and Lannes. Hehe.

I moved the navies around to focus on Spain, carrying my new corp and a couple of militia around as reinforcements, and marched the army into Italy - conquering Tuscany (at last - lots of wine!), Naples and Sicily, and occupying Calabria. Conquering Naples was awesome: they immediately built 3 British infanty divisions and 2 cav divisions - I don't really understand why, since my feudal level was zero. [I ran supply from Malta until I conquered Naples.]

At this stage, France was a couple of glory ahead of me, so I started thinking about fighting them again. They were still at war with Sweden - they had gotten a surrender from Russia, and occupied Berlin to get a surrender from Prussia, but were only under enforced peace with Prussia. I had great relations with everyone (except France) because of trade routes...

Austria declared war on France! Now was the moment. I thought about rushing back to Styria, but instead I ran a naval invasion from Sicily into Languedoc, violating French territory on my way to Normandy [I used the naval invasion because the fleets were there, and it might blindside the enemy a little more than marching up Italy would]. France issued an ultimatum, so I let them declare war on me.

At this stage, the English First Army consisted of 12 divisions (ie. the army had a corps), including 4 cav, 4 arty, 2 guards and 2 other inf. The Second army was 4 cav and 2 inf. We moved straight north for Ile de France, which we beseiged until the mass of French troops were about to hit us. Then we withdrew in Normandy, hoping they would follow - we wanted the guns of Normandy helping us, since our army was only 120,000 men or so, and the French had double that. Meanwhile, Wellington and the new units we had built back in England (2 arty and a Rifle Infantry) got shipped to Normandy and joined the army outside Paris.

We got lucky - we had three minor battles whooping French butt before the big stack arrived, and we must have stayed just long enough - we retreated to Normandy, and that very month insurrenctionists forced France to surrender to us!

The glory from the surrender pushed us over the top - end of game in April 1808.

At the end, it was
Britain 1036
Sweden 392
France 380
Austria 361
Turkey 309
Pruissia 253
Spain 176
Russia 61

Noteworthy features:
- Sweden never came out after the French - I tried a few different rally points, and tried leaving them alone, but they just stayed back and built. Probably a good strategy from them.
- Spain surrendered to me without any enemy soldiers every touching mainland Spain - I have seen Russia be forced to do that, but never before Spain.
- Exiling Napoleon and Lannes probably wasn't as helpful to my allies as taking a couple of armies on loan might have been - the Russians and Prussians were completely overwhelmed with Austria and I out of the war and Swedes refusing to come out of their mountains.
- Developing the British economy seemed very successful - I had 3 provinces building good military units full time for the last year, and we had over 2000 gold in the bank. The next set of new divisions - which I didn't get to ship over - were a guard, another corps, and 2 cav, with 3 infantry nearly built. How come so much? I had used trade to get lots of food, and built roads so the population was up lots over the start. I improved farms and factories in relevant areas (up to level 5). I don't think I built a single bank. Towards the end I was building culture (trying to improve my glory rate to win peacefully).

The tricky thing for Britain isn't getting glory or avoiding defeat - its preventing the French getting to 1000 glory first.

_____________________________

HTH
Steve/Ralegh

Post #: 1

RE: AAReport - Ralegh as Britain - 7/18/2005 3:36:31 PM

EUBanana

Posts: 4552
Joined: 9/30/2003
From: Little England
Status: offline

I always seem to be skint unless I build lots of banks as Britain.

How quickly were you managing to build roads? They are very labour intensive, and I only ever seem to be able to amass about +30 labour a turn. So if a major road building program is going on, nothing else is going on.

And as for building corps fast, you have to hoard and hoard textiles for month after month to even start building the first one...

(in reply to Ralegh)

Post #: 2

RE: AAReport - Ralegh as Britain - 7/19/2005 2:00:57 PM

Naomi

Posts: 654
Joined: 6/21/2005
From: Osaka
Status: offline

While playing Britain (mostly at Bonaparte), I chose to bring all the three fleets together in English Channel to avert an early huge loss (I didn't haste to go after them and they did make enough less-well-thought-out moves). I never went as far as trying to rescue Austria since an early opt out might not be bad for Austria and in fact Austria was doomed to surrender by some way or other. Russia was relatively persistent in its (fruitless) invasion attempts though finally having to concede defeat (usually one to two further years later). Instead, I tended to land my troops on Normandy (in the process to capture the Flench Fleet there) to bet the far-flung French were tied up in Austro-Russian encounters. My daring attempts seldom failed me and it occasionally took just a couple of turns to take Normandy. Sometimes France would choose to surrender to me even before I made my way to Paris (maybe it didn't deem losing two provinces plus adapt leaders more devastating than Britons' relentless harassment). Spain's capitulation is a matter of time, and once it happened, I would proceed to take Portugal. Usually North Africa is my next target as it is somewhat outlying (only Turkey would most likely to vie with me). A decent challenge facing Britain is indeed to go on a fast expansionist route, by which I mean to conquest as many as territories as soon as possible, to be better placed to meet waves after waves of French muscle-flexing. (It is more imperative for games lasting into 1820s with 5000gps to win). Imperalism would likely cost natural allies, but it may not necessarily mean much, say, if you are set on a two-power race with France. My latest game saw that Austria declared war on me, though I didn't finish it yet as bugs set in.

(in reply to Ralegh)

Post #: 3

RE: AAReport - Ralegh as Britain - 7/19/2005 8:30:58 PM

ericlaval32

Posts: 7
Joined: 7/14/2005
Status: offline

Hi Ralegh and thanks for all the stuff you gave to us.

I have some questions for you:

How many time takes your 2 english armies to arrive at Styria and do you take your two fleets for the transport at the first turn (if you did that, your two armies become depleted at the first turn, did you put a depot at Hanover to refresh that two armies?).

Thank you.

Eric

(in reply to Ralegh)

Post #: 4

RE: AAReport - Ralegh as Britain - 7/20/2005 3:56:29 AM

Ralegh

Posts: 1557
Joined: 2/1/2005
Status: offline

If I recall correctly:
- In month 1, the fleets sail into London, which the armies take on leaders and some extra men.
- In month 2, the armies board and the fleets sail to Hannover.
- In month 3, the units disembark.
- In month 4, with FORCED MARCH turned on, the armies race South.
- In month 5, they reach Styria.

As I recall, I ran a sea supply chain so the units would be supplied while at sea. Once they landed, I got rid of that chain, and ran a new one originating in Hannover down with them. That way reinforcements were going straight into the units. [Yes, this is an exploit. Reinforcements can be sourced from any supply source, including something like Hanover. There isn't really any concept of 'home nation' in the game, and protectorates can provide supply and reinforcement.]

Note that I did my best to empty complete divisions of militia when I was transferring men back in the first month so get rid of a few of them - partially so they wouldn't take reinforcements, and partially so I wouldn't have to pay upkeep.

_____________________________

HTH
Steve/Ralegh

(in reply to ericlaval32)

Post #: 5