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Didz -> Russian Rant. (5/15/2007 2:48:16 PM)
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I'm a bit annoyed at the minute. I've been very carefully familiarising myself with this game using the Russian faction as a test bed and so far I thought I was doing quite well.
I had managed to sort out my economy so that I was steadily building units, growing my population and developing my infra-structure, and I had managed to suss-out the supply system so that my four armies were almost free from attrition and battle ready.
The only slight concern I had was that so far my attempts at diplomacy had universally failed. Both Austria and Prussia had flatly refused to allow my troops to cross their borders despite being attacked by France and so my Army had been forced to remain on alert along the border and watch the struggle. Nevertheless the Event Log suggested that France was getting a good thrashing with a steady list of defeats and heavy losses from Austria, Prussia and Britain.
It was a bit of a surprise therefore when first Austria then Prussia surrendered, apparently without losing a significant battle. Nevertheless, I was not too concerned my army was in good shape and the surrender of Austria even allowed me to annex Gallicia to increase my production of luxuries.
The Russian Army was deployed along the border and ready to go:
1st Army (Alexander)24000 Foot, 14000 Cavalry, 3000 Art in Gallicia
2nd Army (Kutuzov) 22000 Foot, 12000 Cavalry, 3000 Art in Volhynio
3rd Army (Bagration)17000 Foot, 11000 Cavalry, 6000 Art in Lodomeria
4th Army (Platov) 46000 Foot, 9000 Cavalry in Podolia
So, basically I had 156,000 troops under arms and ready to fight, so I was reasonably confident I could put up a good show, even if the Grande Army appeared in full strength.
What actually happened next was not what I expected, which is fine, up to a point.
What actually happened was that instead of a massive French Army coming over the horizon and smashing into my troops. Three rather small French armies suddenly appeared hugging the North Prussian coastline. The leading army (6-7 dots) marched rapidly into Kovno and laid seige to my fortress whilst the other two 5-6 dots each hung back just over the Prussian border.
I was surpised but not really worried. These armies were smaller than each of mine and so it was merely a case of marching north releiving my fortress at Kovno and driving them back across the border. So, my armies marched north heading for Kovno, but following different paths to maximise their foraging capability.
The French as if anticipating the battle to come concentrated their three armies in Kovno abandoning their lines of communication and a group of POW's. My armies also concentrated across their lines of communication and liberated the POW's.
The scene was now set for the big battle, with the French outnumbered and unsupplied facing my superior army with full supply depots.
Or so I thought.
What happened next was just ridiculous. The French now without any supply line decided to march the full distance from Kovno to Moscva in one turn. Bypassing all my fortresses and detroying as much of my infrastructure as they could on the way and leaving my Army to occupy Kovno with hardly any opposition.
Again I was surprised, but I figured. they are French so what do you expect. And ordered my army to follow the line of destruction to Moscva whereupon we would teach them the importance of protecting your LOC. So, a turn or two later I am once more poised for the big battle. The French Army are now even weaker than before and are down to 3 dots each due to attrition. Platov's Cossacks get overexcited and the 4th Army engages them seperately and without support giving them a nasty bloody nose, 5,000 casualties for 2,000 losses before withdrawing voluntarily during the night to regroup for the big battle.
Then, just as I'm about to wipe the floor with these French upstarts I get a message from the Game telling my that 'Insurrectionists have forced me to surrender to the French'
WTF: My army was still intact, the French were about to go down big time and some abitary trigger has called 'time out' to save them. At least when Napoleon captured Moscow he had already beaten the Russian Army soundly a Borodino and come with a full army not a few left-overs from Bavaria, but even then the Russians didn't sue for peace just becuase he turned Moscow into a bonfire.
I quit the game in disgust, who the hell are these limp wristed insurrectionsts anyway?
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