Chevalier Plays AGEOD Let's Play/AAR

[Cyneheard]

I'll be looking forward to Wars of Napoleon.  Why does it take 15 minutes per turn when AGEOD doesn't have nearly as many characters and events to keep track of as in, say, Crusader Kings?

CK is real-time with pause, so it's spreading out its decisions over pulses (they don't check everything every single day), and they've used the same engine for so many games that they've optimized the back end by now. I also expect CK has very short decision trees - they're generally taking one action at a time, while this is "I need to plan 20 moves at once" and that's exponentially more complicated.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

It’s morning so I am ready for my promised daily update

Ha, I've played as far as May, 1805, and nothing significant yet. We've been reorganizing our military as best I can and recruiting a bit of reinforcements, while playing all the Seize Horses, Draft, and Requisition cards I can across the empire.

Presumably if you play as Britain you just hit "play", pay some money every few turns, turn up at the end and take the credit?

Don't get me wrong, that was the smart historical play ...

I've tinkered with Britain a bit. You have to manage the entire Royal Navy, which can be a bit of a pain, but it far outclasses anything France can throw at you. It's prior to Trafalgar, so the Franco-Spanish combined fleet can threaten a landing, but vigilance keeps the risk of this small. Instead, you subsidize the allies (there are decisions to throw money at anyone at war with France) to keep the Grande Armee busy, and then do naval descents on French satellites like Holland, Naples, or Spain to try and knock them out, scuttling back to the ships if Napoleon shows up in person.

Most of the Coalition has to play a waiting game until corps unlock in 1810, when you can start to challenge the French Empire on its own terms. Personally, I feel like Army Reform should unlock dynamically based on being defeated by the French - for example the Austrians had corps in place during the Wagram campaign in 1809 and performed quite creditably.

I'll be looking forward to Wars of Napoleon.  Why does it take 15 minutes per turn when AGEOD doesn't have nearly as many characters and events to keep track of as in, say, Crusader Kings?

Basically what Cyneheard said. AGEOD's engine has to calculate in depth, like a chess engine, to work out the best moves for its armies. It can do this in a snap in a 2-player game, like Rise of Prussia, To End All Wars, or Civil War II, but in the multipolar games like Wars of Napoleon and Pride of Nations it works out each nation individually, in turn. In the early going it's not bad turn times at all, but by the late game with thousands of units to manage the poor robot bogs down a bit.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Spring 1805: Preparations and plans

I played through June, 1805, by which point Russia, Britain, and Sicily were at war with France and I have just about completed my initial reorganization of the Austrian army.

Here's Europe as of January, 1805:



France dominates western Europe. It has annexed most of Piedmont, half the Low Countries, and the Rhineland, and made satellites of Holland, Switzerland, northern Italy, and Bavaria. It is also allied with the great power Spain. Britain holds fortresses at Malta and Gibraltar but is largely confined to its islands. Prussia has remained largely unchanged since the conquests of Frederick the Great 50 years ago, apart from the great addition of partitioned Poland. It stands aloof from British efforts to build a coalition alongside Russia and ourselves, Austria. While we still resent the loss of Silesia to Frederick, we have added the considerable Polish province of Galicia to the empire as partial compensation.

Like I said previously, no single power can stand against France right now. I have no idea how well the AI will manage to coordinate with me, so I have to assume that I'll be facing the Grand Armee largely alone. Thus, our plans will be shaped with that in mind.

We can't hope to defeat France before 1810 and our army reforms, so in the meantime I plan to organize the armed forces with a strategy of delay and attrition in mind. I don't want to pursue our objectives in the Balkans or southern Germany before the first round of fighting with France ends, so for now all we have to do is administrative work.

Economy in AGEOD games is not as in depth as a Paradox or Total War game. You are commander in chief, not prime minister, and not a god-king overseeing centuries of central economic planning. But there are a few levers to pull.

Generally, national manipulation is done either on a national scale or on a region by region basis. To manage whole-empire reforms and initiatives, you have the Military Reforms screen and the Decrees screen (for military and civil affairs, respectively). Here are our available reforms, for example:



Generally, these will improve various stats for our cavalry, our artillery, our navy (we don't have one and we're not building one, lol), etc. Civil reforms allow you to exchange money for war supplies, or engagement points, or vice-versa.

Engagement points represent your political power - making sure the right palms are greased, the proper favors exchanged in the Rathaus, the right whispers in the right ears, the right red tape cut. You can't do everything at once, and you must prioritize. Reforms generally cost 50 engagement points, and the great Army Reform to modernize our armed forces costs fully 1,000, with needful spending of money reserves as well. We generate about 12 EP per turn, and more political clout can be earned via success in the field, naturally, but by and large we'll need to begin saving for the reforms in the spring of 1808. Until then, though, about once a month I can buy a reform of my choice.

Here's what I go with through June 1, 1805:



Better artillery and logistics and I always raise fresh taxes whenever I can. Money and conscripts are my two biggest limiting factors in recruitment right now (well, and Austria's abysmal command and control, but nothing we can do about that). The taxes option can be taken once every 12 weeks or so. All told, it gives a few hundred gold, enough for another couple of brigades. The French can recruit entire divisions at a time, but the Austrian army still follows the old Seven Year's War style of the highest permanent establishment being the brigade.

Recruitment and provincial decisions are done on the map. Their effects apply only to the region they are played in, as you drag and drop a card onto the map. There are a few relevant ones, namely,

the draft:


The draft costs loyalty and development points, in return for +300 conscripts. Loyalty is best understood as how willing the populace is to acquiesce to your orders - not how popular you are. Regions of high loyalty produce quite a bit more (+150% at 100% loyalty), regions of low loyalty quite a bit less (-100% at 0% loyalty), while drafts and requisitions don't give a damn about region size, so it's best to play these on small regions that produce little for your regime.

Anyway, I get squads of brutes roaming the streets to snatch up unwary young men and drag them off into the army to better serve their Emperor. I also levy 'patriotic contributions', entirely voluntary, of course, from the various small villages of Hungary:



200 dollars apiece at a cost in loyalty and development. Development is overall how wealthy a region is, and can be improved with a card (and 50 dollars), so I try not to requisition too much from any one village lest I knock it down a development level and it produces less. But overall, requisitions and drafting cards, judiciously employed, produce far more bodies and gold for the regime than just relying on the annual tax and levy.

We also have two more, export goods:


This can be played in various sea trade zones - the Baltic, the North Sea, the Irish Sea, the Atlantic, the Eastern Med, the Western Med, the Ionian, the Adriatic, and the Black Seas are all eligible, and your trade ships will attempt to bring in about 300 dollars worth of trade (at a risk of being intercepted by enemy warships in that zone). No real downsides to spamming this decision whenever available.

Finally, seize horses:


Horses are a strategic resource in Wars of Napoleon, as it was a shortage of horses more than manpower that doomed Napoleon after the Russian campaign, and all sides struggled with finding enough mounts for their cavalry.

My recruitment is focused on horses to start, as I intend a strategy of light horse raids on French communications and depots once the war begins, so I'm making use of this decision a bit in the early going. I'll slack off once men or gold becomes more of a limiting factor and I raise my entire possible cavalry pool.

The result of all this effort sees the Austrian army organized thusly as of June 1, 1805



Seven "corps" of varying strengths, using most of the Austrian officer corps. Not a terrible match for the Grande Armee's 7 corps, except they're much better led, rather larger overall, better equipped, better trained, better coordinated, oh, and Napoleon has four more corps with his Army of Italy also pointed at me. I emphasize: We cannot beat France on the battlefield, not for a while yet.

Anyway, the army is organized thusly:

• The Army of Italy - Archduke Charles, our best (4-4-4) leader commanding, 48,000 men, 6000 cavalry, 104 guns. Our main offensive force, to be used in Italy which I judge will not have Napoleon himself present.
  
  
• The Army of Bavaria - General Mack (3-2-2) commanding, 43,500 men, 2,500 cavalry, 136 guns. This army will stand on the defensive along the upper Danube, meant to slow the advance of the Grande Armee.
  
  
• Schwarzenberg force - General Schwarzenburg (3-2-2) commanding, 12,000 men with 16 guns, supporting Charles in Italy.
  
  
• Ferdinand force - Archduke Ferdinand, nominal commander in chief of the Bavarian army, (3-1-1), commanding 12,000 men with 2,000 horses and 40 guns, supporting Mack in Bavaria.
  
  
• Johann Force - Archduke John (3-1-2) commanding, 22,700 men with 2,000 cavalry and 64 guns, supporting Mack in Bavaria.
  
  
• Reisch force - Reisch (3-1-1) leading 3,500 men, 3,000 horses, and 8 guns in support of Mack in Bavaria.
  
  
• Hiller force - not pictured, Hiller (3-1-1) leading Charles' cavalry reserve, 3,000 men and horses in Italy.
  
  
• Bohemian Reserve - Werneck (3-2-2) commanding, 5,000 men, 800 horses in Prague, in reserve.
  

In addition, we have about 8 independent cavalry brigades I intend to use for raiding operations once the war begins. Altogether, our army is about 160,000 men, 25,000 cavalry, and 360 guns, a bit of a strength increase (30,000 men) over the last 6 months - but again, Napoleon has probably 300,000 mobile troops to use against us. So, we'll try to defend using Mack, John, and Ferdinand's artillery-heavy forces, while Charles and Schwarzenburg will attempt to take the offensive in Italy if practicable, staying on the defensive if not. I might shift John's corps down to Italy to operate in that theater, though. Our cavalry will raid French depots and communications in the rear, avoiding combat - we'll draw Napoleon towards Vienna, weakening his men from the march, and giving the Russians time to come up in support. That's our best shot in the looming War of the Third Coalition.

If Napoleon hasn't declared war by the end of summer, I might take the offensive against Bavaria and attempt to make early gains. I have no idea how scripted the war is, though - historically it didn't break out until August.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Anyway, I get squads of brutes roaming the streets to snatch up unwary young men and drag them off into the army to better serve their Emperor. I also levy 'patriotic contributions', entirely voluntary, of course, from the various small villages of Hungary:

Your strategy here is making me think of my WWI reading.  Austria-Hungary had a major desertion problem in its final years, since so many conscripts were from regions that wanted independence.  Is mutiny a possibility in Wars of Napoleon?  Or many of your soldiers deserting to join France?  For a more historical question, did Austria have nearly as much internal discontent in the early 19th century as in the early 20th century?


Now I expect to see "patriotic contributions" used as a euphemism in politics, if anyone in government reads an obscure strategy game forum.

[Cyneheard]

Anyway, I get squads of brutes roaming the streets to snatch up unwary young men and drag them off into the army to better serve their Emperor. I also levy 'patriotic contributions', entirely voluntary, of course, from the various small villages of Hungary:

Your strategy here is making me think of my WWI reading.  Austria-Hungary had a major desertion problem in its final years, since so many conscripts were from regions that wanted independence.  Is mutiny a possibility in Wars of Napoleon?  Or many of your soldiers deserting to join France?  For a more historical question, did Austria have nearly as much internal discontent in the early 19th century as in the early 20th century?


Now I expect to see "patriotic contributions" used as a euphemism in politics, if anyone in government reads an obscure strategy game forum.

Re: history: They absolutely had a lot of discontent in the mid-19th century (Franz Joseph was installed after his uncle abdicated during the 1848 Revolutions, and tensions in the 1850s between Hungary and Austria led to the creation of the Austria-Hungary dual monarchy). Note that Francis is technically still Holy Roman Emperor at this point (he loses it in 1806) and had just added the title of Emperor of Austria in 1804, in addition to his title Archduke of Austria. So there's a lot of upheaval going on, but I'm not sure if, say, "Bohemian independence" was part of the picture on the ground.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Anyway, I get squads of brutes roaming the streets to snatch up unwary young men and drag them off into the army to better serve their Emperor. I also levy 'patriotic contributions', entirely voluntary, of course, from the various small villages of Hungary:

Your strategy here is making me think of my WWI reading.  Austria-Hungary had a major desertion problem in its final years, since so many conscripts were from regions that wanted independence.  Is mutiny a possibility in Wars of Napoleon?  Or many of your soldiers deserting to join France?  For a more historical question, did Austria have nearly as much internal discontent in the early 19th century as in the early 20th century?


Now I expect to see "patriotic contributions" used as a euphemism in politics, if anyone in government reads an obscure strategy game forum.

Re: history: They absolutely had a lot of discontent in the mid-19th century (Franz Joseph was installed after his uncle abdicated during the 1848 Revolutions, and tensions in the 1850s between Hungary and Austria led to the creation of the Austria-Hungary dual monarchy). Note that Francis is technically still Holy Roman Emperor at this point (he loses it in 1806) and had just added the title of Emperor of Austria in 1804, in addition to his title Archduke of Austria. So there's a lot of upheaval going on, but I'm not sure if, say, "Bohemian independence" was part of the picture on the ground.

Mutiny isn't really possible, but it can be reflected in terms of your unit's cohesion. Cohesion is capped by the national morale and is the main arbiter of combat efficiency, so soldiers deserting for various reasons is somewhat modeled. Instead, low loyalty is reflected in production - I get less gold, conscripts, war supplies, and horses from my less-loyal regions in Poland and Hungary. I've actually declared Martial Law, for example, in Krakow:



That makes the region more "loyal" by 20%, or at least more submissive. Production is neutral at 50% loyalty in a region, and increases linearly for gains in loyalty up to +150% at 100% loyalty, decreasing down to -100% at 0% loyalty. So you really want to keep your big cities like Vienna, Pest, and Krakow, with lots of gold, conscript, and WS-producing structures, as fanatical as possible, while restricting your more 'aggressive' production tactics to the smaller villages that don't produce a lot otherwise for the national effort. 

Austria in this time was fairly stable, all things considered. The HRE was a defunct entity by this point and had been for over a century (consider how little the Reichsarmee matters in Rise of Prussia), so when it's finally dissolved in 1806 no one in Austria much cares. Franz had himself declared Emperor of Austria mostly in response to Napoleon crowning himself Emperor of France last year - we can't let the Corsican upstart outrank us in the courts of Europe, can we? 

It's Napoleon and his armies who start the process that will ultimately shatter our empire in another century. The French Revolution exports more than anything else the ideal of nationalism to Europe. For the first time, people start to get the idea that states and nations ought to correspond to each other - a nation-state. Before, who your ethnicity was didn't necessary need to match up to who your prince was. The big lords would swap duchies and electorates and principalities and counties back and forth at their peace tables - Frederick returns Saxony to independence and gets the County of Glatz as compensation, the Austrians buy lower Bavaria from the Elector, etc - but the little folk didn't much pay attention. But the French are a nation in arms - La Patrie fields so much larger armies than any other state in Europe because the French people are fighting for their own country, in a way Austria, Prussia, or Russian conscripts aren't. So when the French (spoilers) roll over all of Europe from Lisbon to Moscow, they teach the Germans and the Poles and the Italians and the Czechs and the Hungarians this idea of nationalism, and you see the first movements arise, cresting in those revolutions of 1848 that the ossified monarchies in Prussia, Austria, and Russia only barely survive. But the Germans unify (under Prussian, not Austrian, leadership), the Italians unify, and the multi-ethnic Austria starts to fracture - first into Austria-Hungary and finally into the dozen states that make up the region today.

But none of that has happened yet in 1805. We still have the traditional, grudging loyalty to the Habsburgs, even as other nationalities can resent Austrians' domination of state affairs. TEAW will model our fracturing polity much more than WoN.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

June - July, 1805

Turns out the War of the Third Coalition is scripted to start in June, 1805! Oops, who knew?






The war catches me with my armies badly out of position, as Charles and Schwarzenburg's 66,000 man Army of Italy is still marching through the Alps towards their positions on the river Breuta:




My plan, as described above, is to defend the successive river lines in Italy and along the Danube, while waiting for Russian support to show up. Er, unfortunately, joining the Coalition reveals to me that the Russians are all hanging out in the bend of the Don:




If the AI refuses to help me, I might need to start manually controlling Coalition countries. We'll give it a few months yet, though. 

Anyway, I'm able to scramble into position, but within weeks in Italy Napoleon shows up:




The Emperor could be making his main effort south of the Alps, or he and Victor might force the pass at Trent and join up with the main Grande Armee along the Danube. The Army of Italy will allow that to happen - I can't really stop it, and want to cover the approaches to Venice. 

In the north the cavalry races towards France, but whether through bug or design I can't use the Plunder decisions to loot the countryside.  I'll have to figure out what's going wrong there. Meanwhile, Mack's Army of Bohemia prepares to defend behind the Inn - but with the French advancing north up the Trent pass, I worry about my rear, and retreat behind the Traun River. The Grande Armee approaches with only light cavalry skirmishing and soon the line of contact is established:




Mack, Ferdinand, and Johann face an unknown number of French under Davout and Savary, while the Emperor leads another column through the mountains to the south with Murat and Kellerman in support. I hope to bloody Savary or Davout without Napoleon present, but might be outflanked and forced to retreat again.

In Italy, Napoleon himself brushed aside Schwarzenburg in a small skirmish, and we fell back behind the Piave, but with Napoleon swinging north we may be able to attack in this theater:




So that's the first five weeks of warfare - mostly a lot of skirmishing and retreat, as I try to avoid a decisive battle with the French and losing my whole damned army. The goal for this war is to delay and escape with as little damage as possible, so we can begin to go on the offensive against lesser opponents. The situation August 1 is precarious, though, and dependent upon Napoleon's intentions - either army could be badly mauled in the next month. We might even contemplate retreating beyond Vienna, yielding the Pressburg Peace to the Emperor, but keeping the army intact.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

August 1805 - Operation Sir Robin

Victory standings start of August:


After reflection, it seems we don't have any strategic goals in this war that can be achieved by standing on a river line and trading blows with the French. Ultimately, it's a campaign that we will lose, and possibly even quickly if Napoleon intervenes. Our objective is to get out of this as quickly as possible with our army intact, probably in preparation to hit the Ottomans or Prussians next. We've managed to strengthen our army and significantly make up ground on the Ottos, Prussians, and Spanish in particular since the start of the campaign. Britain, Russia, and above all France are still a weight class above us. Accordingly, we initiate Operation Sir Robin:



Here in Italy, Charles and Schwarzberg's battlegroups (using this instead of corps, until 1810, to better capture my capabilities) are ordered to pull back through Istria and Carinthia towards Hungary. You can see Schwarzenberg is a little battered from his run in with Napoleon in July. Cavalry regiments are ordered to screen and cover the retreat.

North the Danube, Mack, Ferdinand, and John begin to fall abck down the river towards Vienna and beyond, while Davout's III Corps demonstrates the huge gap in our capabilities as he easily overwhelms Salzburg's garrison:



Meanwhile, Napoleon proves his cunning - instead of chasing after Mack's army, he reveals his plan, as the Emperor, Berthier, Davout, and Jourdan all execute a lightning march over the Alps in the latter half of August and fall upon Trieste. It seems the Emperor's plan was to catch Charles and Schwarzenburg in the rear as they defended on the north Italian plain, destroying the Army of Italy and opening the road to Vienna from the south. Instead, Napoleon's blow falls on air as the Italische Armee rapidly pulls back towards the Danube and beyond:



So, apart from isolated skirmishes through August, Operation Sir Robin ensures the survival of our army against an attempted French envelopment. I will gather my men in the whereabouts of Pest and Debrecen, hoping that Napoleon will be content to seize Vienna with the Grande Armee and dictate peace, while we keep our forces intact for the real wars to come.

Sorry, it's not very exciting - these years are much more fun from the French side as you unleash your elite troops on each hapless European power in turn.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Operation Sir Robin: September 1805 - January, 1806

Again, not a very exciting update, as I basically mimic the Russian strategy of 1812 - withdrawing into my interior to avoid battle and preserve the army, while harassing French supply lines and straining their logistics. Austria doesn't have the same strategic depth that Tsar Alexander will in 7 years, so this won't actually win the war. But as just a few battles show, we have no real shot of that anyway in 1805. We just need to keep the army as intact as possible while resigning ourselves to the loss of Tyrolia and Venice.

The end of August finds total Austrian men under arms reduced to just 290,000 total:



That includes all field and garrison troops. Field forces are about half the total, at around 140,000. The mobile forces, apart from light cavalry and partisans, are by and large pulling over the Danube and assembling near Pest.

In late September, though, Archduke John, defending the northern flank near Olmutz (familiar from the Third Silesian War 50 years ago), manages to find an isolated French division. In two battles from early September and then a follow up on September 17, 1805, he manages to isolate and then destroy it:


On Oct 1, however, Vienna falls:


National morale falls from 110 to 80, but we need to get down to 75 before the people will accept the Peace of Pressburg. I need to let Napoleon capture some more cities, but the Emperor spends most of the autumn in a plodding advance into Bohemia. Our major cities - Trieste, Linz, Innsbruck, Graz - are stormed one by one, but the French avoid pushing further down the Danube, especially (perhaps) due to my swarms of light cavalry and partisans darting around the Alps and Danube basin, raiding French convoys. By November 1 apart from a French corridor down the Danube to Vienna, and the overrunning of Northern Italy, the front ahs hardly budged at all:



The French swing north into Bohemia through November, slowly pressing up beyond Brunn and Olmutz, finally arriving on the Elbe on 1 December. Napoleon leads a corps to Prague while Vandamme leads his division to Koniggratz. It's a far cry from when we defended this ground against Frederick's Prussians:



By January 1, we have recovered our manpower to 310,000 men in total, despite losing tens of thousands in various garrisons - probably 40,000 new men are in the colors.



Total mobile forces now number:

• 66,000 men and 9,000 horse with 144 guns under Charles and Schwarzberg in the Army of Italy.
  
• 97,000 men and 6,000 horse with 318 guns under Mack with the Archdukes John, Ferdinand, and General Reisch leading task forces.
  
• 62,000 men, 8400 horse, and 360 guns in the reserve under Marshal Alvinczy and Wernick.
  

All told, we field about 225,000 mobile forces, 25,000 cavalry counting our light horse detachments, and nearly 900 guns. The army is much stronger than a year ago and all our field armies have managed to avoid serious defeats.

In 1806 I hope to fire the Peace of Pressburg and go to war with the Ottomans. Will be in touch after the winter turns.

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[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You'd think the loss of Vienna would cut your Morale more.  Is there no option to send spies to France to try to learn their tactics or something?  The early years of this game sound pretty dull if you're not playing as Napoleon.