Chevalier Plays AGEOD Let's Play/AAR

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

May 1806

The great battle of the Balkans is fought, I think - a brutal month of attritional warfare that doesn't see the front move too much, but plenty of action.




Situation at the start of the month. Belgrade and Sarajevo are ours, Bucaresti is still Wallachian but under siege. Our objectives are to capture it and then compel the Ottomans to dictate peace (and also find a way to lose enough National Morale that my people will accept the Peace of Pressburg from Napoleon!). Ottoman strength now slightly exceeds our own, but remember, this is a combat power estimate - I lose combat power as I lose cohesion from marching forward, so we can expect this number to revive. We've lost 140,000 men, mostly in 10,000-man chunks to French assaults on our city garrisons, while the Ottos have lost 34,000 casualties and a further 17,000 prisoners for about 50,000 total in two months of warfare. 




An interesting little situation arises along the Sava River near Belgrade. Archduke John's battlegroup is in Serbia besieging Sabacz fortress after Schwarzenberg was repulsed last month, but Mortier's corps with General Hillier in support has arrived on the far side of the river, in Austria proper. They might cross the river to attack John, and I contemplate withdrawing to Belgrade (probably wise since I need to hold that city for my supply lines into the Balkans anyway). But, I decide that the Sava provides a good defensive line, John is dug in, and the French shouldn't cooperate iwth the Ottomans, so I make a stand to try and get the city to surrender - Mortier might not even cross to attack. 

In the event, Hilliers does, and it turns into a bloody debacle:


...For the French. 

It turns out Hillier's 17,000 men are mostly dismounted dragoons, armed with light carbines, with no cavalry and only light artillery support. That means they have essentially no firepower and no mobility - this is no attacking force, and yet the French are so contemptuous of John's 25,000 that they fling this glorified mass of police across the Sava and try to storm his siege lines! The result is slaughter, as John's cannon scythe through the oncoming 'cavalrymen', before his infantry - blooded a bit now in two months of Balkan warfare - step up and deliver devastating volleys at close range. The French have only short-range carbines with which to reply, and the firefight is short and savage. Soon, the Frenchmen are streaming back towards the river crossings, and John unleashes his cavalry into the panicked mass. Half the French column is hacked to pieces, and many guns are taken. It's a small victory, but we have taught them to respect us a bit.

On the central front:


Nish surrenders on May 8, just before Mack's assault, and the supply lines are now open all the way to Nikopolis. I can heave a sigh of relief as the wagons start down the narrow roads towards the army's advanced positions. Mack is ordered to march with all haste to link up with Charles, facing the main Ottoman strength near the distant Danube city. Also note that the Ottomans are now cut off along the Danube, much as Browne's Austrians were along the Elbe in Bohemia 50 years ago, in 1756. 

By May 15, Hursid Pasha, the Ottoman commander, orders his massive army (which seems to be mostly cavalry) to break through Charles' lines and escape to the southeast. The result is the Battle of Lorn. On the first day, Hursid's massive army brushes against a small Austrian cavalry brigade:





They inflict severe losses on the Austrian hussars, but take about 1500 casualties of their own in a swirling cavalry brawl. Hursid panics and halts his march - giving Charles time to race to the scene with the Army of Italy. The next morning, on May 16, the battle proper is joined:









Dawn, May 16, finds Charles' army strung across the heights of Lorn, just west of Nikopolis, astride the road Hursid needs to take to escape with his army. Charles commands about 50,000 men with 6500 cavalry and 120 guns, facing nearly 60,000 Ottomans including 25,000 horsemen and 160 guns. Ottoman infantry, though, is low quality, and the age of the mounted knight, able to unseat entire armies of infantry with the force of his charge, is gone. This is an age of gunpowder, not muscle, and Charles has powder aplenty.

Ottoman attempts to storm the heights are met with storms of fire. The light Ottoman infantry work their way from tree to tree, boulder to boulder, up the slopes, but these are not shock troops - massed Austrian volleys shatter any attempts to form the Firkas into storm parties. The Ottoman commanders scream and curse and rally their men to once again march up the heights, only to be hurled back down in ruin each time. As the sun begins to sink towards the horizon, over half the Ottoman infantry has been put out of action, against only 4,000 losses for Charles. Hursid, in desperation, unleashes his cavalry corps, which races, sabers held high, up the slopes - with predictable results. The Austrians calmly form square, bayonets prickling out in all directions, while their gunners stick to the cannons until the last minute before racing for the shelter of the square. The horses wheel around and around the Austrian formations, but a horse is smarter than a man - he can't be convinced to plunge headlong into the hedgehog of steel. All the while, the men on the interior of the square load, level, and fire into the mass of horsemen ringing them. Soon, the Ottoman cavalry is tumbling back down the hill in ruins, having lost a quarter of their number in the savage combat on the heights. 

May 17 brings a renewal of the contest. Hursid Pasha is down to 35,000 men after his losses of the day before, while Charles still has 46,000 able soldiers. However, the Ottomans are able to find a small goat path on Charles' flank - not a path to an attack, but an escape. Hursid launches his horse once again the weak point of the Austrian lines. Scores of horsemen are mowed down, but then they are on the Austrians. Sabers flash, and a single Austrian brigade shatters, fleeing to the rear. A hole opens up in Charles' lines and Hursid has won his escape route:



But, unaccountably, the Pasha loses his nerve. The fighting to open the route has cost him another 5,000 men, and he panics, hunkers down. The loss of half of his army in 48 hours has shaken the Pasha to his core, and Hursid orders his men to dig in their camp and assume defensive positions in the lower foothills of Lorne. The Ottomans lose their chance to escape:




For four full days, Hursid hunkers in his camp, while Charles calmly rallies his men, closes the gap, and tightens the noose around the Ottoman army. Meanwhile, food runs low, as does forage for the horses, and the Pasha realizes he has to break out, or surrender - and he knows what his head will be worth to the Sultan if he surrenders to the ancient enemy, the Habsburgs! Coldly, calmly, he orders his men to prepare once more to break out, and on May 22, the final act of the Battle of Lorne plays out:



It is a repeat of the earlier battle, only now the Ottomans are motivated by the promises of death from their officers should they be taken prisoner. Hursid shatters his army against the rock of Charles' defense. Lorne is not a battle but a massacre, by the end:



The headlong Ottoman assaults mostly result in their men being shot to pieces, but late in the afternoon, amidst the chaos and confusion of the smokey battlefield, an Ottoman brigade manages to find a gap in the Austrian lines. The horse plunge in - and keep going, riding away to Nikopolis and safety, with any infantry who can keep up. Hursid Pasha is among them. He leaves behind 23,000 of his men. 5,000 horse and 3,000 infantry alone escape of the 60,000 men in his army at the start of May. 

A few miles to the west, the same day the Pasha's army is immolating itself, at Nikopolis, Charles' brother Ferdinand is assaulted by Ibrahim Bey's column, attempting to break through to Hursid's camp and relieve the army. Ibrahim has 18,000 men, mostly infantry, against 33,000 in Ferdinand's army. The Battle of Nikopolis, considered by some scholars to be part of the wider Battle of Lorne, is a solid Austrian victory. Again the Ottomans prove their unsuitably for offensive infantry warfare, as the better-trained Austrians with more modern tactics scatter the Bey's poorly disciplined infantry. Ibrahim presses the attack until he loses nearly a third of his army, then considers his duty done and withdraws:



A final effort to break through to Hursid Pasha comes from the south. Muktar Pasha marches rapidly up from Sophia with 36,000 men, including 10,000 cavalry, evidently intending to fall on Charles' rear at the same time Ibrahim hits his flank and Hursid breaks out of the camp. Muktar was slow on the road, however, and he doesn't reach his attack positions until May 23, a day after the other Ottoman assaults have already failed disastrously. Worse, he finds not Charles, but Mack's 45,000 men blocking the road north. General Mack, after the fall of Nish, did not rest on his laurels, but put his men straight on the road east to Nikopolis. Struggling over the high hills and through the narrow defiles, Mack brings off probably the proudest moment of his career to date, getting his men to the battlefield in time to affect the struggle.

The Ottomans fall not on the rear of an already engaged enemy but find themselves assaulting a fresh, dug-in army headlong. The results are predictable:


Muktar loses 20% of his army before deciding not to throw away lives in a clearly hopeless situation (wise, since although he doesn't know it he is now one of the only armies remaining between the Habsburg army and Constantinople), and withdraws.

Through a mixup in communications, a straggling Ottoman task force under Kushanz Ali misses its rendezvous with Muktar. Instead, they stumble into Mack's army on May 25:



Ali's battle, a skirmish compared to the preceding week, closes the battles around Lorne. In six separate engagements from May 16 - 25, the Ottomans lose nearly 70,000 soldiers, many of them irreplaceable horsemen. Hursid's survivors, along with Ibrahim, Muktar, and Kushanz, total about 60,000, in no less than 4 separate columns. Facing them are over 150,000 Austrians. Essentially, the Battle of Lorne has decided the war - assuming the French can be dealt with!

A footnote is Emperor Francis to the north fighting a tidy little battle at Bucharest against Grand Prince Ypsilanti himself, sovereign against sovereign:


Despite nearly equal numbers and a fortified position, the superior quality of Austrian troops overwhelms the Wallachians and the duchy's ancient capital falls into Francis's hands. 

Situation in the Balkans on 1 June, 1806:

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

June 1806




June is a month for consolidation after the Battle of Lorne and preparing the next stage of our campaign. The entire royal family covered itself in glory - the Emperor won his battle at Bucharest and captured the Wallachian capital, his brother Charles of course was the victor at Lorne, while Ferdinand served an important supporting role at Nikopolis and the youngest prince, John, bloodied French noses over at Schabacz. We've effectively won the fight for the frontiers and can drive on Constantinople, but I expect the Ottomans to rally stragglers, bring up fresh forces, and recruit more men so there should be a few more battles before the Mother of Cities falls. 

Ottoman losses climbed from ~50,000 men at the start of May to ~160,000 now, counting prisoners. 110,000 losses in the space of a month is no joke and even the vast reserves of the Sublime Porte will struggle to make good those numbers this year. That said, Austria's not in a lot better shape. Our losses have climbed by 30,000 men in the same timeframe, and as you can see my replacement situation is not good:




It looks like we're about 15,000 men below establishment strength and I am penniless. The French have crossed the Danube into Hungary and overrun most of Bohemia by this point, but my national morale still won't fall. I seriously miscalculated - I assumed that losing Vienna and perhaps a few Italian and Bohemian cities would trigger collapse, or failing that certainly the time the French drove to Budapest. I also thought that I wouldn't gain much morale from winning frontier battles in the Balkans and capturing a few wretched hovels, and yet here we are. The result is I am very shortly going to see damned near my entire homeland occupied and no easy way to get out of it without throwing my army at the French and losing a few major battles (and then having to rebuild from scratch). 

Make no mistake, despite the Battle of Schabacz we still cannot hope to meet the French toe to toe. For example, an Insurrection Corps forms in Hungary as the French invade and I attempt to slip it through French lines to the Balkans, where it can do some good. Instead it meets with a French corps and gets mauled:



Archduke Joseph, with two full divisions and supporting brigades, faces a small 2-division French corps under Savary, NOT the cream of the crop like Davout or Ney - and it doesn't matter. He gets brushed aside. Absent very favorable tactical circumstances, we can't meet the French yet. 

Well, nothing to be done about it. Perhaps I can knock the Ottomans out of the war before September, as noted above, and march north to attempt a liberation around the time Prussia offers its neck to the guillotine. 

I have essentially three routes for reaching Constantinople:

• [li]The southern route - From Nish south to Skopje and into Greece, then along the coast. Offers valuable city prizes like Salonika and flat terrain once out of Macedonia. But it is a bit roundabout and relies on a slender road stretch from Salonika to Skopje to Nish to Belgrade.
  [li]The central route - from Nish to Sofia and Edirne. Shortest and most direct route, but I would need to build depots between Sofia and Edirne, and cover them from marauding Ottoman cavalry.
  [li]The northern route - through Nikopolis to Silistra and down the Black Sea coast. This way is a bit roundabout, but it is in flat terrain most of the way and has a well-protected supply line, and an additional line back into Austria via Bucharest and into Transylvania.
  

In my opinion, the northern route has the best prospects, and Ferdinand and Reitsch will march east along the Danube to link up with Emperor Francis coming down from Bucharest. From there they will push down the coast for the City:



At the same time, to keep the pressure on the Ottomans, and to ease pressure on my own supply lines, Charles and Mack will together seize Sofia. Then, Charles and his veteran army, well-suited for the confined terrain beyond Sofia, will push down the central route for Edirne. We know the Ottos can't really attack my armies, so as long as he doesn't bludgeon himself against prepared defenses he should be safe enough, and has the option to retreat north over the mountains to join up with the other army if his own line gets severed. Mack will meanwhile fall back to Nish, and then make a push south through Skopje for Greece if all is well. Archduke John and General Schwarzenberg will remain in reserve. 

On June 1, Archduke Ferdinand drives off Ibrahim Bey with an artillery bombardment:



The next day, at Sofia, Mack pushes the covering Ottoman army south and east, placing the Bulgarian capital under siege:



Selim himself is in command of the Ottomans, but that doesn't stop him losing 20% of his army and the battle. Two days later, Charles arrives and wins a minor skirmish against Selim's survivors, then the Austrians settle in around Sofia to besiege the place. 

The month proceeds with minor battles and skirmishes as the Army of the Danube (my term for Francis, Reitsch, and Ferdinand's commands in the north) pushes through Ottoman border fortresses, Hursid Pasha brings his survivors across the mountains in Charles' rear, pursued by my cavalry division, and Mack begins his relocation. Hursid does manage to rally survivors in the north and forms a fairly large army at Nish, which bloodies Schwarzenberg's unlucky reserve corps on June 27:



I might need to divert Mack to chase him down, while the Army of Italy and the Army of the Danube continue the offensive.

Situation in the Balkans by July 1:



All going well. Sofia has fallen, we are close to fully securing the southern bank of the Danube, and our line from Belgrade to Nish to Sofia is relatively secure. 

Less cheery is the map of the homeland:



Fully half occupied by the French...and national morale is STILL 37 points above the surrender threshold. Why can't my people learn when to quit?

[sunrise089]

Still really enjoying these.

You often post things like "as you can see Ottoman power is equal to ours." Where are you getting the realm-wide power numbers? I see there is often a screenshot with the foreign powers listed, formatted like 299/999, but where is Austria's power shown?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Still really enjoying these.

You often post things like "as you can see Ottoman power is equal to ours." Where are you getting the realm-wide power numbers? I see there is often a screenshot with the foreign powers listed, formatted like 299/999, but where is Austria's power shown?

The objectives screen shows the power rating of the major powers in the game, split into army/navy. They're shown as percentages of your own power - so, for example, France's rating of 281/999 means they have 2.81x my land combat power and a roughly infinitely more powerful navy (my navy consists of I think 4 small brigs anchored in Ragusa, I think). 

The Ottomans were rated at 107, meaning 1.07x my power, at the start of May, and 95, ie, .95x my power, at the start of June. Remember, power is affected by cohesion, so it fluctuates quite a bit amongst units as they march, fight, rest, and recover, so it's only ever a rough estimate. So .95 power means little other than "about on par" with us.

[sunrise089]

Thank you. To clarify, does the Objectives screen show the value for Austrian power? Or just the (relative) powers of the other empires?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Thank you. To clarify, does the Objectives screen show the value for Austrian power? Or just the (relative) powers of the other empires?

Nope, just relative rating. Here's a quick breakdown of WoN's objectives screen:



In RED, you have some basic random information about the scenario - scenario length, our capital, our national morale (a potential auto-win if we ever reach 250 - I never even hit that when playing as France and occupying every other capital in Europe), our victory points (for determining victory in December, 1815), and "win progress," which shows the top two countries in VPs - if they hit a certain VP threshhold over and above everyone else, it's an auto-win (I don't know what it is, maybe 3x any other power's points?). 

In GREEN you have our objectives list, with the flags of the current owners. We need to occupy these to win instantly, otherwise the game ends on December 31, 1815, and victory points are calculated. Note that we need either a loyal city with an auto-spawned garrison, or we need about a brigade-strength garrison if in a disloyal city (like Sarajevo and Belgrade) to count as "owning" it. This rule tripped me up before. 

We need to take Milan and Turin from the Kingdom of Italy, Florence from Tuscany, and regain Vienna, Ofen, Prague, and Venice, capture Frankfurt, Zurich, Ulm, and Munich from German states, Breslau from Prussia, the listed Ottoman cities, and finally Kiev and the island of Corfu (! I better build some transport ships at some point) from Russia. 

In BLUE is the losses screen. Mostly for flavor - prisoners are garnished after victories and can be a rough measure of "how you're doing" relative to a country. You can't see your own prisoners lost. 

Finally, in ORANGE you have a few national summaries. The other great powers are listed, with their national morale (Ottomans are down to 80, France is up at 147!), their victory points, point gain, the combat power comparison, and finally their total losses. 

For seeing our own power, there is actually a History tab in the ledger, too - it shows the last 10 turns and rates your total power, your naval power, total ships, total warships, total manpower, total guns, total horses, total loyal provinces, and maybe a few other filters to tinker with. You can also see a selection of 10 of the other most relevant powers to you. I'll share some shots of it later today.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

July 1806 - Ottoman Revival

July is a chaotic mess for me. I screwed up my screenshots in the first half of the month, and in the second half got surprised by a large Ottoman counteroffensive along the Danube and from Sofia to Nish - while also dealing with heavy French pressure in Serbia. As a result, we are going to need to regroup and the chance to take Constantinople this year is in jeopardy. 



Here's the situation along the Serbo-Bulgarian border after the first week of July. Hursid Pasha has somehow revitalized his army - vast reserves of conscripts refilling his ranks - and barely a month after the Battle of Lorne he has restored his ranks to some 48,000 soldiers and falls on the hard-luck Schwarzenburg task force defending Nish. Mack, marching over the rugged Bulgarian mountains towards Skopje, is forced to divert his march north to relieve Nish, a vital supply link. Meanwhile, along the Danube, General Muktar has managed to slip past Charles and Mack with a fair-sized task force and driven off my own divisions in the area, relieving Nikopolis and throwing the northern wing into jeopardy. Finally, Ottoman raiders seize Sofia even as Charles marches out. My communications are under threat from three directions and I can't possible continue to advance through Bulgaria under these circumstances. Charles is ordered to move north to the Danube to secure his LoC and to join up with my armies there - I'll throw all my weight into the northern offensive. 

On July 9, Schwarzenburg's task force, about 12,000 men, is retreating north from Hursid's force which outnumbers him four times over. As he does so, his rear guard is menaced by Ibrahim Bey's division. Ibrahim loses another quarter of his force pressing the Austrians, but Schwarzenberg continues his retreat (note my army is on passive stance since the AI ordered it to fall back from Hursid's overwhelming numbers - hence why it continues retreating even though it is a bigger army and inflicted many times more casualties than it suffered):



However, Schwarzenberg begins to lose men to desertion and marauding Ottoman cavalry during the pursuit and the losses equalize. The next day, again Ibrahim is given a bloody nose, but he has two more of Hursid's divisions behind him and Schwarzenberg continues to retreat north towards Belgrade:


Note how much smaller Schwarzenberg's army is now, despite the light losses in the last battle - those are the pursuit hits. 

Finally, on July 14 - the anniversary of Bastille Day - the French come booming over the Danube at Belgrade and fall on John's smaller army:



John inflicts mroe losses than he suffers (lost the screenshot of the results, sorry) but is forced to retreat into the fortress. Wtih both Nish and Belgrade in enemy hands my central supply line would be cut and I'd be forced to depend entirely on the routes near Nikopolis, through Wallachia. Speaking of...the Ottomans launch a second-counter offensive in that region. Kaiser Franz is attacked by an Ottoman force three times his size near Rushuk on July 21 and retreats along the Danube:



The Bulgarian Danube front in the final week of July:


Charles has reached the Danube at Nikopolis and breached the fortress, but the Archduke is overcautious and refuses to order an assault with so many Ottoman forces at large. Reitsch, badly mauled early in July at Nikopolis by Muktar, has retreated to Sofia (which threw out its Austrian garrison and is again resisting). Emperor Francis retreated upriver from Rushuk towards the fortress of Plevna, besieged by his brother Ferdinand following the battles at Nikopolis (hence why Ferdinand was unable to reinforce Riesch when Muktar attacked from the south). The other half of my Wallachian forces are encamped around Silistra, which is still holding out. 

So, I have foolishly scattered my forces in half-a-dozen penny packets along the river, bogged down in front of the many Ottoman frontier fortresses in the area. I can't push south until the communications are secure, and Charles has gone from the front of the pack (at Sofia) to now in the rear (at Nikopolis). Clearly, I must consolidate, clear out my flanks, take these fortresses, and push south en masse. I'm no longer overconfidently pushing down all three axes, but will attempt to stabilize the Serbian front with Mack's army (and cover John and Schwarzenberg's retreat to Bulgaria, if necessary) while the remaining forces begin an attack on Constantinople along the Black Sea. 

On July 23, the pretender Bonaparte himself enters the active campaign. Napoleon arrived at Peterswarden in mid-July and took over the direction of French troops here. He arrogantly crosses the Sava underneath John's guns. Napoleon commands nearly 70,000 men (approximately the same size as the army he had at Austerlitz in our timeline), against half that many Austrians.


John fights his battle superbly, using his superior defensive terrain to bleed French assaults while avoiding being decisively engaged (I had John's stance set to Cautious as soon as I spotted Napoleon - unless he was clearly winning in the first 3 rounds of battle he would order a retreat). The result is another "victory" for le Empereur, but at the cost of 10,000 Frenchmen to only 2,500 Austrians. 

On the Bulgarian front, a new Ottoman battlegroup under Turgut Bey, 27,000 strong, falls on Francis and Ferdinand's combined forces outside Plevna. The result is a bloody, narrow Austrian victory:



But the brightest spot comes at Nikopolis on July 30. Yet another Ottoman battlegroup - two brigades of infantry and one of cavalry - stumbles into Charles' Army of Italy, and Charles reminds us why he's the best damn commander we have:



At the loss of a handful of men, Charles shreds the Ottoman army. 2/3 of it are wiped out in a storm of cannon and musketry, the survivors fleeing for the hills. It's a smashingly one-sided victory and a needed tonic after the grim setbacks of July. We can still beat the Ottomans and resoundingly so, IF we get our act together, concentrate our armies, and carefully guard our flanks. I'll regroup and advance more cautiously in August. 

Situation of both fronts at the beginning of August:

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

August 1806 - Securing the Danube

August is to be a time of consolidation and regrouping - I want to clear out these Ottoman forces and make one last effort to reach the Mother of Cities before winter. I'm really feeling the lack of corps right now, as my forces can't really support each other, and I'm so limited in command points that I can only put together two stacks (Mack and Charles) capable of handling the beefy Ottoman battlegroups on their own. 

Here is the aforementioned history screen summarizing Austrian power:




It goes back 10 weeks, just to the end of May and the beginning of June. It fluctuates a bit up and down because this is our power, which is a product of our cohesion. Actual Austrian strength is much more stable. Here's the total men under arms:




Holding steady at 340,000 men. I haven't updated my order of battle since January, but I estimate about half of that is mobile forces and half is in garrisons. 

Now, for comparison, let's look at our enemies, the Ottomans. Power first:




The Battle of Lorne is visible at the end of May, a precipitous drop. You can see while their power recovered a bit through the end of June, as they withdrew from contact, the aggressive offensive moves in July cost them a fair bit of power - on the whole the Ottos are at about 75% of their strength at the end of May. 

Now, in terms of manpower...




300,000 at the time of the Battle of Lorne, down to 216,000 now. That jives with the losses we've inflicted across the various battles, and it's fair to assume that about half the remainder, or 100,000 men, are locked up in garrisons from the Adriatic to the Euphrates. So, we can estimate that we face about 100,000 mobile Ottomans with 150,000 mobile Austrians...but we have the French breathing down our necks so I really have to work for this victory. This was meant to be the easy part! 

Note to self: in the future, just take your lumps, lose the national morale for Pressberg, and THEN declare on the Ottomans. 

Anyway, August opens with a quick victory Mack as Nish surrenders (again):



The same day, Nikopolis surrenders to Charles:



That takes care of supply in the Serbo-Bulgarian border area, at least as long as John clings to Belgrade. Now to clean up the situation along hte river, especially at Plevna where a growing number of Austrian task forces are concentrating.

In the central mountains, Ibrahim, his army reinforced to nearly 40,000 men (a significant portion of the remaining Ottoman armed forces!) savages Reisch's haggard battlegroup:



Honestly, the constant losses are really beginning to tell. My conscript pool is empty, noone is willing to volunteer (loyalty too low in my remaining home cities), and I am in need of 25,000 infantry to bring my field forces up establishment:



Still, the sieges drag on. Charles begins to march from Nikopolis on to join the main army at Plevna, his goal to defeat Ibrahim Bey's army and clear the road to Silistra, whence we can all march on Constantinople. Mack, meanwhile, moves from Nish to Sofia to regain that supply depot and hold the route out of Serbia open for John, Schwarzenberg, and other forces.

In the middle of the month, Sultan Selim III himself leads a powerful raiding battlegroup of 20,000 men against 18,000 Austrians under Archduke Joseph (a cousin of the Kaiser) at Nish, and is bloodily repulsed. 





The quality differential between our troops and the Ottomans really tells, but my men are growing tired and losing cohesion from the constant marching and fighting in the rough Balkan terrain. 

On August 21, Mack arrives at Sofia and immediately launches an assault on the Ottoman army (under our old friend Muktar Pasha) defending the approaches to the city. The Austrians move slowly and deliberately against Ottoman redoubts, assaulting each in turn, storming it, and bringing up artillery to shell the next. Mack's cautious advance results in disproportionately heavy Ottoman casualties, but regardless as the sun goes down the Austrians are forced to pull back and relinquish the day's gains:



The next day, the Grand Vizer arrives and assumes command of hte Ottoman forces, ordering immediate counterattacks to drive the Austrians away from the city. Mack in his turn is unmoved and the Porte's attack is repulsed:



The very day, though, Charles arrives at Plevna, joins up with the Austrians present, and launches a powerful assault on Ibrahim's army. The result sees 90,000 Austrians pitted against a third of their number:



Ibrahim Bey loses a third of his army but is able to cut his way to the east. Note that I had 92,000 men present on the field, but Charles only controlled about half that number due to my poor command and control - a French army would have been fully coordinated and might have bagged the entire Ottoman force here. 

Situation in the Balkans at the end of August:


We are, gradually, stabilizing the situation along the Danube and in the Serbo-Bulgarian borderlands, with almost full control of the supply routes. Our advance guards have also reached as far as Varna, on the Black Sea coast, and the Ottoman border fortresses are steadily falling, which will free up the main army to march on Constantinople. John holds Belgrade, tentatively, as the French have moved back north after their bloody assaults in July, and Davout has led a raiding force nearly to the Black Sea itself! We hope to cut off and destroy the Iron Marshal if we can - he has only about 8,000 men with him. Mack is encamped in stalemate outside Sofia, Joseph defends Nish, and the rest of the army is at Plevna. 

The ground to be covered between our advance guards and the City:



You can see the main army clustered at Plevna at the top of the screen, on the Danube, and my cavalry scouts and a few task forces at Varna. Edirne will be the last major obstacle. 

Overview on objectives:



Our losses have reached 260,000 men, the Ottomans at 220,000 plus 150,000 combined prisoners (with Wallachia). Power ratio is down to 75, but we're degrading as well - see how Spain and Prussia have pulled ahead, and France has widened the gap.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

September 1806 - Towards the Haemus

After August's regrouping, we seem to perform better in September, and the front lines are clearly contracting towards Constantinople following the summer battles along the Danube. 

Checking our intelligence data, Ottoman armed strength has fallen from 270,000 at the start of July to 190,000 here at the beginning of September:



They are losing the war of attrition, and I think the bottom will fall out soon. Right now the biggest issue I have is that their main armies are avoiding battle and hitting my isolated detachments, which bogged down the advance in July. But the Porte is bleeding men profusely and should reach the breaking point before winter. If this were Rise of Prussia, we'd be in the stage where I'm driving on Vienna for victory - but alas, this is Wars of Napoleon, and the Ottomans are only the first foe of many. 

Situation in northeast Bulgaria, the road to Constantinople:



The main army is moving on from Plevna at last towards Ibrahim's army downriver, defending the last border fortress on the Danube, while my advance guard is besieging Varna. I plan to build a depot there to supply the final push towards Edirne and the City. 

Selim's ongoing attempts to seize Nish continue, with a 'victory' over Joseph that costs him 2500 losses to Joseph's 900, and at Sofia Muktar continues to bleed his army trying to drive Mack away:



I am bringing Reitsch's battlegroup down to relieve Mack, as his cohesion is growing low despite his 2:1 edge in numbers. 

On the Black Sea coast, Warnecke begins to tighten the noose around Varna, losing about a thousand men in siege operations while inflicting 3x that many casualties on the city's 7,000 defenders, but it stubbornly holds out. 

The main army catches up to Ibrahim, who fights a delaying action and wriggles out:



I continue to whittle the army though, as a third of Ibrahim's remaining men are left behind. The 12,000 survivors pull back towards the fortress, leaving us with this situation by mid-September:



The plan here is to try and finish off Ibrahim, then deal with Davout and have the rear area entirely secured. That should prevent any nasty shocks to our supply lines as we march through the flat plains past Varna towards Constantinople, but it's not looking like I'll be able to reach the city by winter. I'm contemplating a winter campaign, weather depending. 

As the month continues, Charles continues to drive Ibrahim before him. By now the Ottoman general isn't even resisting, just fleeing south with all the men who can keep up, and we bring in thousands of deserters and stragglers:



But Varna gets up reinforcements somehow - which are also driven into the city - and still holds out through the month. 

Situation in Bulgaria by the end of the month:


Ibrahim rallies his survivors near Varna, where the lead elements of the Austrian army are arriving, most of my columns still strung out near Silistra. At Sofia, Mack has at last driven Muktar off (he joins Ibrahim at Varna), but the city garrison itself is still holding out for a few more days or weeks. The Ottomans are rallying their final defenders at Varna, it seems, which is the last real obstacle before I'm over the mountains. I think Mack - after a pause for rest and reorganization - will be able to push over the mountains near Sofia towards Edirne, where he'll join up with Charles's battlegroup. Edirne by November, and Constantinople by December? We'll try for it. 

Back along the Serbian border, I have been devising  various stratagems to try and relieve the French pressure on my base at Belgrade. One thing I do to delay France is cut their supply lines with cavalry patrols:



French control of their rear area is very poor and I have numerous hussar regiments raising hell in the Austrian countryside. Anything to slow them down and buy time. 

Victory screen at the end of September:



Ottoman losses are up to 264,000 plus 170,000 prisoners, to 283,000 Austrian losses (which includes losses to the French).  Their strength is down to 63% of ours, not bad considering they were at 105% at the beginning of the campaign in April. 

I begin sending out preliminary peace feelers to the Ottomans, but bad news: as yet I don't even have the option to demand Sarajevo or Bucharest. :/

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

October 1806 - the Siege of Varna

Two major points this month - the Ottomans fling more and more reinforcements into holding Varna, blocking the main army's advance (but abandoning most of the rest of the Balkans in the process), and Napoleon himself makes mischief in Serbia.  




Situation at the start of October in Bulgaria. Ibrahim's army is battered and on the brink of collapse at Varna, but Muktar is rallying yet another Ottoman force in the mountains west of that city. Davout is dancing around Silistra, while my army has largely secured its supply lines at last and is pushing towards Varna in force - but it is also showing the strain of constant marching and fighting for six months. My combat power is growing very low and I badly need rest and reorganization. 

For example, Davout brushes aside a few of Charles' outposts without trouble:


I just can't match the French, especially not when so well-led. If I was rested, in a good defensive position, then I can win, as I did against Napoleon earlier. But anything less than ideal circumstances sees the French stomping me. 

Better news, though, is that Sofia surrenders to Mack at last on October 5, after a six-week siege in the hills around the Bulgarian capital.



That opens Mack's road over the Haemus and a path into the rear of the defenders at Varna, if they stand long enough. Mack is ordered to push for Edirne - if I can take that before winter then at least I jump off for Constantinople in 1807, as soon as the weather clears. 

Meanwhile, at Varna, there's a sizeable engagement - not quite a full on battle - as Charles ambushes an oncoming Ottoman artillery train, marching to join Ibrahim. We lose twice as many men as the Turks, but in return the artillery is overwhelmed and we remove dozens of batteries, literally, from the Ottoman order of battle:



The low rate of cannons lost, the high amount of elements destroyed compared to casualties, suggests to me that these must have been paper formations, headed to Varna for replenishment. Now I own the "batteries" and can refill them myself with my own artillery replacements. Fully six artillery brigades and a supply train are captured:



I reorganize and send the train headed north for my depot at Silistra. 

By mid-October, while Varna still holds out, it seems Ottoman resistance is fading, and I order advance elements to make for Burgas and Edirne, the final stepping stones before we reach the City itself:



I note Hursid and Ibrahim are still leading decent battlegroups in the hills near the main roads, so I detach sizeable garrisons at each city. I want to cut their supplies and starve them over the winter, not go on a merry chase in the rough, hilly terrain. 

Meanwhile, in Serbia and Macedonia, Ottoman resistance has ceased, and Archduke Joseph breaks through onto the northern Greek plains near Salonika:



He has a little army, only about 13,000 men, but it's enough to capture these towns and open an alternate route to Constantinople. Behind him, though, is bad news. A weird bug or some rule I don't understand spawns an Ottoman garrison of 7200 right on top of my occupying cavalry  brigade at Belgrade, and I am ejected from the city. I dispatch John to march north and secure the base, where he runs right smack dab into our worst defeat of the war:








Napoleon himself slashes onto the plains around Belgrade, and for the loss of 7500 of his own men inflicts twice that many casualties on John, 2/3 of his entire army, and John's ragged survivors are sent fleeing south. I've lost my primary artery of supply probably permanently now, and depend on captured supplies and the slender thread from Transylvania through Wallachia and Silistra for my entire army. I'm not sure I can survive winter on the Bulgarian plains without the line from Hungary through Belgrade, so this si very grave news. 

Well, Varna surrenders on October 21, and the entire army is free to pour south towards Edirne:



I'll link up with Mack's column there and decide about a push for the city. 

Ludwig's task force leads the way, clearing Selim's force from near Burgas in a minor engagement:



While on the Greek front Salonika falls to Joseph:



By the end of October, intelligence estimates that the Ottomans field 148,000 men against 322,000 Austrians - a bit of a drop for us, mostly due to Napoleon, I think. Power ratio has crept up a bit, per the objectives screen:



I've fallen significantly behind Prussia and Spain, as I drive the army hard, and I'm not recruiting new formations due to a)French occupation of my potential training areas, b)loss of conscripts due to French occupation, and c)constant drain from combat losses sucking off new recruits as replacements. 

Still, the end is in sight. Constantinople will be in striking distance before the end of the year.