Crown of Glory: EE, an AAR from the French point of view

[Neverwonagame3]

Won't this be easy? You can launch an offensive, conquer the Palatinate, then hold ground until Prussia accepts peace.

[terjelin]

It should be easy, but I've learned one thing, Pbem is not at all the same as a game vs the AI
I feel pretty comfident that as long as I get to go to war against Preussia alone and noone interferes I should emerge victorious.
And my plan is indeed to do what you suggest, go in grab The Palatinate and then sit thight and let the war lapse on its own.

[terjelin]

Turn 15

Who said that timing is everything? No matter who, he was correct.
My advisors came running just as I was finishing the orders for my generals to issue a DoW to Preussia. It seems I miscalculated by one month
The French/Austrian enforced peace treaty ended today, that ment that issuing a DoW on Preussia would force us into another war with Austria as well. Unfortunately we cannot yet afford a war against both Preussia and Austria where they pay us their full attention.
All troops have been ordered to stay put, no DoW is issued.

[Volum]

Sorry if this has already been answered, but i read your battle AAR and you keep mentioning wtf points, what are those? The first time i was like "What the F points?"

What are the disadvantages with a cav heavy army?

[terjelin]

Originally Posted by Volum

Sorry if this has already been answered, but i read your battle AAR and you keep mentioning wtf points, what are those? The first time i was like "What the F points?"

What are the disadvantages with a cav heavy army?

Ah yes sorry about that. That AAR was written at a time when I did not think about the fact that not everyone plays the game
WTF=Will To Fight.
It is shown at the top of the screen, and is calculated based on several things, such as:
-level of highest general
-morale of troops
-strength of troops
-loss of victory locations on the tactical map
-losses taken during the battle
-time (occurs after the 1st day) for the attacker
-a small bonus to the defender
-and alot I have probably forgotten

A normal size army with a 3star general and decent troops will normally start out around 25 WTF and will usually rout at 3-4 WTF.

Terje

[terjelin]

Turn 16

Bickering with Preussia keeps on, but lately Britain has come down off the fence and expressed that they too see all land on the west side of the Rhine as French territory. Now this is a major pain to Preussia, as Britain sends money to Preussia and might stop doing so if angered.

We are still short on labor and horses, so two farms are ordered in provinces that allready produces some horses, and we also order two banks built. This means there is no room for more troops to be built this turn.

The weighing of the need of more troops vs the need to build our economy is starting to become a major struggle within French internal politics. The situation is anything but gloomy!

[Civ Khan]

Hmm... I may have to try to find this game somewhere.

[terjelin]

Originally Posted by Civ Khan

Hmm... I may have to try to find this game somewhere.

That would be on the matrixgames site I believe.
And there are far worse buys out there IMO.

Terje

[terjelin]

Turn 17

A pidgeon arrives carrying the letter seen below. Apart from that, nothing much happens this turn, we make some adjustment to all our cities to maximize production. This gives us some more food, a few more horses, some spice and some luxuries per turn.

Two farms, one barrack, one bank were built. Again on the expense of new military units. But food production is getting better now, we now produce enough food to expand our population by two points per turn. This is the same ammount of population that is used by creating an INF division, so this is good news.

Population increase is spread out amongst all our provinces, with the province with the most room for expansion growing first.

[Volum]

Why give him money? Its pretty clear he wants to avoid war, give him Wurtenberg and nothing else. He shouldnt have been on that side of the Rhine to begin with.

[terjelin]

Originally Posted by Volum

Why give him money? Its pretty clear he wants to avoid war, give him Wurtenberg and nothing else. He shouldnt have been on that side of the Rhine to begin with.

I completely agree, however 30$ is nothing. I am currently handing out 30$ to Switzerland, Russia, Turkey, Spain and Venetia every turn and still hold a profit of aprox 20. So, if 30$ extra is what he wants to save face, I'll let him.
He started out by demanding 4 provinces for those 2 provinces I demanded. After I got Britain off the fence he folded. So I'll let him get those 30$ and be happy about it.
(Paris alone nets more than 30$ per turn).

[cardgame]

This game looks pretty cool, but uh, I don't really think $50 is appropriate

Any other place to buy?

[Civ Khan]

There were 3 on eBay the other day. One for $50 and two for 20 British Pounds each.

[terjelin]

Turn 18

The deal with Preussia goes through, and the European borders are redrawn, and we gain 2 provinces for the cost of 1 protectorate province. A great deal. Ordinary provinces gives us all of its income while protectorates only gives us part of what they produce.
Horses and labour is still the main issue, and this turn it was decided to strengthen the army by ordering another INF division in Paris. Paris still produces the best troops, the only downfall is that Paris is also our main supplier of labour, and building military units steals away population in the city, which again reduces our production output...

After we ordered the INF to be built, we had just enough labour to produce one low level barrack (from level one to level two), a low leverl court (again from one to two) and a low level bank (yup, you got it, level one to level two).

[terjelin]

Originally Posted by cardgame

This game looks pretty cool, but uh, I don't really think $50 is appropriate

Any other place to buy?

Well, I find this to be a great game and spend alot of hours on it so 50$ is not something I find to be excessive.
But if you want it to a lower price I guess ebay or the like is your only bet. However to all that consider this, please be warned that there have been some issues with Polish companies selling illicit copies that do not always work (serial has been used).

Terje

[cardgame]

Is there any demos available? 'Cause like I said, it does look pretty cool

[terjelin]

Originally Posted by cardgame

Is there any demos available? 'Cause like I said, it does look pretty cool

Afraid not. Matrixgames rarely makes any demos at all I'm afraid. A new thread is started about that every now and then. Here is the latest, with replies from the matrix-team as to why not etc.

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2154527

Terje

[terjelin]

Turn 19

All of Europe is at peace. Yet in our palace in Paris we know that all the other major nations are plotting, just like us. To improve our situation further, we order the construction of a farm, a bank and two barracks. That is all our economy allows us to do for now.
And we order a new redrawn map of Europe.

[Volum]

Who do you think will end up at war first?

[terjelin]

Originally Posted by Volum

Who do you think will end up at war first?

A good question really. There are a few posibilities.

a) Turkey and Spain
-because Spain has captured too much land in N.Africa. Lands that Turkey wants.
b) France and Spain
-this will be a war on paper only. Spain has asked us to DoW a minor nation, so that Spain gets its Med Islands and we get their provinces on the mainland. This would also give Spain a free army corps.
c) Turkey and Austria
-Austria holds territory Turkey wants and vice versa
d) Turkey and Russia.
-from my private messages at the matrixgames forums, I know that neither player trusts the other
e) Sweden+Britain+France+Turkey+Russia vs Austria+Preussia
-Noone likes the Austrian conquest of Poland
f) Sweden+Britain+France+Preussia+Austria vs France
-France MUST be contained. If she is allowed to grow she becomes a fierce foe later on. And the British player really fears France as she is the only one that is anywere near capable of crossing the channel.
e) Britain vs Spain.
-Just to allow Britain to destroy the Spanish fleet so that it will not join up with the French fleet.

I would say that options a+b+e are the most likely ones to happen.
But then again all of a sudden something that seems a minor action inflames all of Europe.

Terje