|
Anthropoid -> RE: A few observations.... (3/24/2009 11:42:37 AM)
|
I'm also playing entirely as 1792 France on Normal Difficulty settings. Some of my experiences match yours. Specifically, the first two points, I agree with strongly. The AI does not seem to get on with it in detailed combat. For number 3, I have not had the same experience exactly; in fact, I had one naval encounter wtih Russia where they kicked my butt, and one with Britain where they royally kicked it. But in general, I have to agree: when at war with GB, she does not seem to make much use of her Fleets, and leaves them all cooped up in Hampshire. Strangely though, as soon as Russia is at war she seems to send her Black Sea Fleet out to the Med to fight.
On point four, I cannot exactly disagree, but cannot exactly agree. It is true that they rarely if ever seem to grapple. I think I've had it happen once, and in that instance they did not try to board. But the main issue here is that my human ability to smash their line of ships is so much greater, by the time they move up to boarding range, their WTF has already dropped pretty considerably, so it doesn't surprise me that they rarely grapple or try to board.
Point five: I've had almost it seems automatic wars with Britain, Sweden, Russia, and Spain in most of the 1792 games I've started (which is in itself a bit suspect), and in every instance Spain has been a bit of a pushover. In at least one instance however, I declared war on her. In another, she had got an ROP to go fight Austria or one of the Italian kingdoms and then either she or I declared war while a sizeable chunk of her army was trapped on the other side of France. Do not recall for certain, but I think she declared war on me in this instance where she had the ROP. I am pretty sure it was a treaty/alliance type of thing. This I think is what might need a wee bit of tweaking? AI nations X & Y seem all to eager to throw in an alliance with Z against Q. Then four turns later, Z, Y, and P break their treaty and ally against X. Then half a year later X, P and Z ally against Y . . . haven't played it long enough to see if this is incessant, but it seems to be prevalent in my games so far. The AI seems _very_ fickle, opportunistic and disloyal. I've made probably 6 or 8 treaties of mutual defense if not alliance, and virtually every one of these has been broken!
Maybe that it is the way it is supposed to work?
Point 6: I've seen quite a bit of variation in the French Revolution event. Out of four of five games played from 1792 to about 1794, I've seen it happen about half the time. In the most recent instance, I had not chopped off Louis head in order to not lose the 300 attitude with every major power, and in that case, I had counter revolutionaries popup in French provinces 5 or 6 times, but they were all in the ballpark of 10 to 35K and I beat them pretty handily. Maybe i need to go up to Difficult?
Point 7: have not tried that.
Point 8: DEFINITELY YES! units other than charging Cav do _very_ often get disordered in detailed combat! I would say that in any given battle I generally get about 15 to 30% of my units disordered and perhaps one to four brigades wind up routing and starting to flee if not fleeing altogether.
The thing that is always difficult to know for sure about these issues is the influence of: difficulty settings; player ability; player style. While on several points, my observations so far match yours, on others they are quite different. Other players may have a slightly different permutation of comparing and contrasting observations [:)]
quote:
ORIGINAL: ShaiHulud
1. In CoG the first advance I used to try to acquire was Impromptu Squares. Experience had shown that enemy cav were quite active in trying to drive my troops into squares.
In CoG:EE reaction fire seems to have negated that threat to a large degree. My foe's cav does a lot of running up to my line, getting blasted by reaction fire for heavy losses, and then deciding that their morale is too smashed to continue with a charge. In fact, through a great many battles I have had only two instances where cav delivered a charge and forced me into square.
2. In detailed battles, the AI is extremely dilatory when, as the attacker, it is faced with a choice between approaching my forces or attacking the various garrison units. The too slow advance has often spent the first two days approaching with infantry while their cav get blasted doing unsupported charges. Strangely, when my foe has artillery, their lassitude disappears and they quickly deal with garrison troops in their path, and move on.
3. As France, 1792,I have controlled the Channel with my Brittany and Normandy fleets for over a year without ever being challenged by the English fleet. I blockaded one fleet in Kent and the rest of the Jolly Tars are gathered adjacent, west and north, allowing me to dominate. There's should be no way this is permitted by England. They are practically begging me to land troops. They've not been involved in war prior and, so, have their entire complement of ships.
4. In naval combat, grappling, it seems, is never conducted by the AI, though they have successfully UNgrappled on occasion. Maybe it's because their morale is too low or their crews inferior in number. All I can say is that, in battles between my France and all the other nations, they have never, once, grappled a French ship.
5. I had a war with Spain, which they declared. I had but a single army of 52k to spare for that front. The Spanish attacked with equal numbers. They had several arty, which I feared, at first. However, after taking not much worse than equal losses from their attacks on my infantry, I had inflicted about 1500 losses, each, on their arty. Strangely, their strength now read as '0'! Worse, I captured them both and both were disbanded after battle for being too low in strength. Was Spain going to war with military readiness at 50%? Their other units, too, were below strength. I was playing defense, so, Spain chose to go to battle with these.
6. I love the unrest caused by the French Revolution. Scrambling to feed the nation was very enlightening for this, doubtless, was the mirror of the actual event then. The guerrillas which might occur in neighboring provinces do not seem to be prolific, however. Only one group has ever sprung up, (of 30K) in Spain.
7.In France, 1792, I thought I'd be giving the other nations a boost by starting them off with 100 or 200 glory points. Instead, it seems to inhibit them, early on, from perceiving France as a very great threat. Anyway, after trouncing Prussia and Austria pretty quickly, France is leading in Glory again and all I seem to have achieved by granting the others glory points is to insulate France from multiple enemies, early on.
8. Do units, other than charging cav, ever get disordered from combat? I have yet to see it occur, despite inflicting 1200 to 1800 losses in a single fire attack. If this has changed it negates any point in acquiring the Mixed Order advancement.
Lastly, This should not be read as negative. I waited for and am truly enjoying this game.
|
|
|
|
