RBC-15G Napoleonic Conquest - Prussia

Good to see the pace maintained, although I agree it's going to be close. We probably need to start thinking of our next target, I don't think the Ottomans (even with Istanbul and Athens, another VP location) will be enough. Russia would be the next easiest target, although we have a couple deals running. France will be much tougher to crack, at least where they have Guards. But, that does open Denmark, for 3 quick lightly-defended cities, if we can shift forces fast enough. Probably don't need to decide until after Dwip's turns, but I'd like to discuss it now, since we're not too far from the point that reinforcements won't arrive at the Ottoman front in time, and we'll need to start building up for our next opponent.

Got it. I'll play tonight.

Meanwhile, let's crunch some numbers. As I recall from I think the scenario opening screen, cities are worth 100 points per pop point, and units are 5*cost. VP locations are 25/turn. We need about 20,000 VPs to win.

Assuming we play the remaining 19 turns...

VP Locations (8): 8*25*19=3,800 (with more if we take Istanbul RSN)

Otto cities: Istanbul (1600), Kriyvyy Rih (1200), Dnepropetrovsk (900), Mostar (600), Skopje (500), Sofia (900), Thessalonika (1400), Athens (1700), Angora (1000), Cide (700), Afyan (600), Smyrna (1200) = 12,300.

Also, there are at least 13 Jans on the board right now, probably closer to 30 or 40 in all those cities. Figure 45 points per Jan (9*5), so 30 of them is 1350 more.

So if we obliterate the entire Otto empire, we get... 12,300+1,350=13650. Add the 3,800 we get in any case, and it's 17450. On the off chance I get Istanbul next turn, that's 450 more for 17,900. So in any case, we're close.

That having been said, I think I favor a quick strike on the Russians to a quick strike on the French. It sort of depends on where those hordes and hordes of Russians end up going, but as it stands, it should be a fairly simple matter for Army Group East to just keep going when it gets done with those other two Otto cities, and there are three fairly large Russian cities in range down there, one of which happens to a VP location in the bargain. Plus, the units are weaker. Not quite Jan weaker, but close enough.

OTOH, if we want to kill the French, we have to turn a bunch of guys around, march across our whole country to get there, and then assault their uberunits. Yes, most of them are probably in Spain, but. Yes, Denmark MAY get us there by itself, but I'm thinking having to march across our entire country sort of kills the idea in any case.

I'll wait until tonight to play, and see what you guys think on the subject.

I agree Russia is the easier target. Breaking the deals will hurt our rep, but I doubt we'll have any new trades in the next 19 turns... and I don't feel it's an exploit, as they were both straightforward gpt deals, we aren't getting something for nothing. Just make sure we don't have any units in their territory, so we're not guilty of a ROP-rape in spirit, even if we do have to break the ROP. Shifting forces will take too many precious turns, especially the GBs, the armies move pretty quick. I only brought up the French and Denmark because I wanted to point out all options.

So count that as a vote for Russia!

[0] Nov 1812 - The plan is to keep driving on the Ottos, meanwhile preparing to drive on the Russians. So let's be doing some of that.

(IBT) - All things considered, the whole bombarding the army with one GB thing just wasn't all that impressive. OTOH, there's a lot of Jans running around in inconvenient places right now.

[1] Jan 1813 - Or, instead of doing bad things to Istanbul, the RNG could decide to hate me, and we could miss half our bombards and lose a lot of combat, including the army losing 10hp versus a single 1hp Jan. And let's not even start with the cav vs 1hp Jans on open ground fights. Also, we could capture Kriyvyy Rih on the last hp of one of the Armies, because it lost 13 of them fighting one of those forementioned 1hp Jans.

Did I mention that 1hp Jans are completely slaughtering our guys?

(IBT) - Whatever crack the RNG is on, I want some, because after all those 1hp Jan beatdowns on our guys, suddenly unfortified cavs on flat ground are beating up on full hp Jans attacking them. What. The. Heck.

[2] March 1813 - I'd love to say we did something useful, but no. But no.

(IBT) - What? You want it to go from bad to worse? Fine. Fine. I neglect to guard a stack of arty with more than 8 or so guys, the Ottos come out of nowhere with a ton of Jans, and take out both our stack of reinforcements and a bunch of GBs, which promptly run into Istanbul. Fabulous. Just fabulous.

[3] May 1813 - At least we're building Fusiliers for no reason in Leipzig. They change to cav. And at least our troops on the other side of the Otto Empire are doing awesome. We walk into Dnepropetrovsk without even losing a guy or needing the armies.

And at least there's a random Danish musket in southern Russia for some reason.

And at least the Ottos are back to doing that 1 hp thing again. That's always good.

And at least I have to raise the seige of Istanbul and run like hell because I haven't got enough troops to keep it going and there's Ottos running all over our backfield.

At least the other two armies should save us when they get here.

And why is our Military Academy in Bucharest of all places so I can't rush armies? Argh.

(IBT) - And at least France is freaking making demands on us now.

[4] July 1813 - One of our elite cavs deserves a leader. Two full hp Otto jans attack him, and he wins with no hp loss. Then he slaughters another with no hp loss attacking up a hill. On the other hand, a conscript Sekhan of all things could knock our fully healed 20 hp army down to half hp. The RNG giveth, the RNG taketh away.

(IBT) - Apparently all those Russian troops from our territory are streaming into Sevastapol. You go ahead and do that, guys. You do that. That's great.

[5] Sept 1813 - Guys get moved. We kill some Ottos.

(IBT) - You just keep running all those guys into Sevastapol, Russia. Be my guest.

[6] Nov 1813 - Rush an Army in Bucharest. Slaughter some Ottos. Move lots of guys into position.

We ought to be ready to assault Istanbul again in a turn or so. Move all the guys up onto the hill next turn, blow it to hell the next, and go in. By the time we're done there, there ought to be a lot less Ottos in the world, and we can ship those two other armies back to the Russian front and get to work there. Hopefully. RNG permitting.

We're at 44,950 VPs.

Well that Instanbul report was depressing.
I just hope we find our GB still in that town. The loss of that stack even on a temp basis really hurts.

Got it, will play tonight. I've found a big stack (34 units!) fortified outside Cracow, were they headed for the Russian front? We can still use them in the south, I'd like to keep at least 2 stacks attacking along different avenues, so we can take some of the other cities when we get stalled with the main attack. The Ottomans may have all the VP we need, if their cities keep growing (Athens is a 20 now), but we can't afford to waste turns getting to them.

I've found a big stack (34 units!) fortified outside Cracow,

Click to expand...

Is Cracow in the northern area? I know I some fortified in the south waiting for Cavalry stack to catch up.

I suspect they were the from Dwip to build up for the Russian attack.

Unfortunately, I didn't have as much time tonight as I hoped, and then I ran into a slight problem when I did start. After two turns, bombardment has revealed that Istanbul is defended by 17! vet Janissaries, all our GBs aren't enough to knock more than 1-2hp off of them all. I've stopped for the night, so I can think this over, and look at it fresh, but if we can't weaken them better than that, we're in trouble. With only 11 turns left, we don't have time to attack elsewhere (I do have two stacks I found up north headed for some other Otto towns, should be in position before my round is up).

Inherited turn I can’t do much but shift a few troops around, most of our forces are healing. I do find (and wake) two big stacks, one of 34 units near Kosice, and another of 15 or so in former Russian territory. They can make it into action against the Ottomans within 5 turns or so, so I start them moving. I don’t think we can tangle with the Russians, they still have a ton of Guards traipsing about our lands.

IBT: Spain and Otto sign peace, some Janissaries move around. Danes and Brits are fighting at sea.

JAN: Bombarding Istanbul reveals 7+ Vet Janissaries, I’ll have to wait for the rest of the GBs to move up. Shift some more troops forward. I leave a couple Fusilers on a hill, hoping to draw some Janissaries out.
IBT: Embargo between Otto and Naples ends. A few Janissaries sortie from Sofia, two are killed but kill one Fusiler and retreat a cav.

MAR: OK, ready for the big assault on Istanbul, as I now have a ton of GBs in position. OR NOT. Bombardment reveals 17 vet Janisarries! Even all my GBs only take 1-2 hp off of each. Time to re-evaluate. Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of any brilliant strategies, I can’t really afford to wait too long with only 11 turns left. I use the armies to kill off 7 of them, trying to be careful not to lose the armies in the process (although I had one go down to 1hp and retreat, THAT was scary). He appears to have 6GBs supporting the defense (some of them look familiar… ). But I don’t want to waste our cav against the remaining defenders, still have a 4hp vet showing.
IBT One Janissary comes out to kill an exposed cav.

MAY: I decide to take a bit of a gamble, and do NOT bombard Istanbul this turn. The armies need to heal, and I’m hoping that he may throw some healthy Janissaries out into the open to attack some Fusilers I’ve parked on the hills (I know he won’t attack the army stack). Move some more cav into our siege stack. Our lagging stacks are getting closer to the front, so I pull some troops back a step from our border near Sofia. He keeps sending Janissaries out from Sofia toward our weakly defended cities, and I’d rather kill them in the open if I can.
IBT: Not much, a few more Jans move into the open, including 2 from Istanbul.

JUL: The main assault! We now have over 30GBs in place, and they begin the bombardment. He has 12 Jans that I see, but at least all are down 2hps, most 3, one is redlined. I start with the armies to knock off the 3hp ones, and lose an army in the process, but then I can start throwing cavs at the 2hp ones. I also find 3 conscript Sekhans and a Sipahi at the bottom of the stack, and lose another 3 cav in the process, but finally, Istanbul is ours!!
IBT: more troops move out from Sofia, and others moving toward Bucharest, we lose 3 Fusilers but kill 4 Jans.

SEP: Our reinforcements are at the front, and with the help of all the extra GBs, we redline and kill 7 jans near Sofia. I split our GBs to make 2 separate assault stacks at Istanbul, one moves inland, the other moves south towards Thessalonika. Armies are still healing, and we have enough cash to rush another at Bucharest.
IBT: More naval battles, but the Ottos are quiet.

NOV: Move troops and GBs into position, pick off 2 Jans on mountains near Sofia. We have 3 stacks in position to attack next turn:
Ancona-2 Armies, 4 cav, 14 GBs
Thessalonika-Army, 7 cav, 25 GB
Sofia-Army, 6 cav, 25 GB
There’s another army healing in Istanbul, and some cav healing also. The stacks from the north are already in the front lines, (we’ll be lucky to get the remaining Otto cities in the time we have left, much less Russia). New builds are streaming south as they can.

VP Status: We have 49,695 and our nearest rival (France) is at 33,160. But we only have 7 turns left. The three cities we are parked outside of would be nearly 4,000 VP, but then it will take a couple turns to position again. At least, we ought to be able to advance along multiple paths, I think they are finally running out of jans. If we can get Athens, that’s another 2,000. We may not make 60,000, but we’ll be awful close, and well ahead of anyone else.

Roster:
Justus II – Just played, and ready to retire
Lkendter – Up Now (and finish it, with only 7 left)
Dwip – Already on retirement leave

I will attempt mission impossible.

Nov, 1814 to end of game.
I still suffer riots in former Ottoman cities. I really wish they were starved down more.

The following cities were captured: Thessalonica, Angora, Sofia, Cide, Mostar, Afyan, Skopje, Smyrna,

We have the option to build battlefield medicine. I lost one of our armies.

Portugal was destroyed the last turn of the game.


Summary:
I pulled a rabbit out of my hat.


I found this message "interesting".


The final score was 60,695.


http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/RBC-15G-SEP-1815AD.zip

Awesome job, LKendter!!

Pulling it off without even getting to Athens (I was afraid that would be too far, but it looked like the most points). I was hoping, though, that once we broke through Istanbul, you might be able to make better progress on the other cities, but I wasn't sure it would be enough. Awesome, indeed, it couldn't be much closer. Thanks to the team, it was a fun challenge.