Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2015 21:38:24 GMT
Standard campaign:
The origins of war are often simple. Each side will have an aggressor and defender (usually in alliance with other factions.) Both sides will also have a war goal, an all-encompassing aim that each side will need to achieve in order to be seen to win the war. Achieving the war goals is not enough to obligate another player into a peace favourable to you. The other player may believe he can fight back in the future, and retreat to build their strength. On the other hand, a player might concede defeat to some of your war goals and accept the terms before the war has been fully won, thus maintaining some of their own goals. This form of peace is the most common of this period. Although you have your own war goals, capturing important individuals like your opponent's King, or another Royal family member, or occupying your enemy's capital can be enough to force the war to an end.
Most armies at this time can supply themselves via living off the land, however, supply columns will be required to provide munitions and equipment. This will automatically occur however players should remain aware that they are vulnerable. Supply lines being raided by your enemies will not supply your army and as such, your admins will confront you with events as a consequence, either on campaign or on the battlefield. Nations waging an overseas campaign will feel this pinch too, transports are needed to keep your armies supplied overseas, should they be interdicted your army will feel the consequences. The more planning you put into supplying your troops before a campaign, the less likely you are to suffer should you overstretch.
Battle:
Now, when battle is joined several factors come into play. First and most obvious is size and quality of the armies involved. A larger army has advantages that need not be expanded upon, they should be obvious. However, quality is also important. Quality is measured in both the power rating of the unit and general nature of the unit. Starting with the latter, which in many cases explains the former, the nature of the unit is implied in its description; although it mainly concerns the distinction between irregular and regular units. Militia is an irregular unit and therefore is more suited ambushes and scattered fighting in rough terrain. Therefore it stands to reason that should they be used in conventional battle, they won’t be very good! Moreover, should you choose to use siege artillery in a conventional battle, you’re going to have a bad time. This dynamic is more directly reflected in a unit’s power rating. This reflects the quality and skill of a unit and its ability to win a battle. If one unit has a higher power rating than another, naturally it is likely that it will win the dual.
One might expect, then, that the army with the higher aggregate power rating would therefore win the day. One would be mistaken. Two things have a very important part in determining the outcome of a battle. The first is military organisation. Military organisation represents that overall ability of a nation’s commanders in commanding armies in such a manner that they would win the battle, it also represents the army’s moral, its ability to fight as one force in a cohesive manner and to avoid generally embarrassing incidents. This era of warfare occurs before the advent of general staffs and organisation of large armies is still in its infancy. As such, the larger your force is, the more strain it has on your military organisation and thus the more room for things to go wrong. Player X may have a larger army than Player Y, however, Player Y could have a smaller, more professional force with a higher overall military organisation and still triumph. Why is this? Well, parts of Player X’s forces, owing to poor organisation and being too bloated a force, managed to get lost, accidentally shoot at their own men or simply arrived too late to have an effect on the battlefield.
The second and perhaps the most important factor is quality of Role Play (RP). Players who plan the use of their forces, how they play to fight a battle and what units they will use and it what manner, will naturally be rewarded. People who simply write “charge” will suffer the consequences of being slothful. Players who are crafty and have mastered the way they will use their forces will gain fruits from their labour, although it might not be enough to win a battle, it might just win you the war. Good RP takes into account all that I have said above and is ultimately realistic and imaginative.
Therefore, when thinking about how you use your forces in battle, take a page out of Voltaire’s book: “God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.”
Note: Military organisation beyond the battlefield:
Military organisation also affects events outside of battle. While armies are getting larger at this time, military organisation is still in the process of mastering these changes. Therefore, a player might have a large army but using the as one not only leaves them vulnerable elsewhere, but also makes that army clumsy and vulnerable to attrition and disease. Players may well think that splitting their army into smaller forces operating in close proximity will work and naturally this is a step in the right direction; however, things can still go wrong, people do get lost after all.
Siege:
Advances in fortifications has meant that a siege can now be a long and drawn out affair. Players can expect that once they commit to a siege, they’ll likely be there till the beginning of the next turn. Sieges can be decisive, and can even bring an end to the conflict should they be undertaken in the right place. However, there are risks. An army besieging a fortification or city will naturally be encircling the target, making them vulnerable to relief attack, pickets and good RP can always mitigate this, but there will always be this underlying vulnerability. Armies in siege stance will also be increasingly vulnerable to disease, which can play merry hell on the army’s numbers.
In conducting a siege, the besieger has several options. They could attempt a relatively immediate assault and risk large casualties for a quick end to the affairs or they could wait until their artillery has made a breach and therefore undertake a less costly assault. This is where siege artillery becomes decisive. Siege artillery can deliver a breach in the walls quicker than field guns, the addition of engineers will increase the efficiency of this process and make prepared breech assaults altogether less deadly through a boost to the military organisation of that army. Of course, a besieger can always choose to let time, starvation, intrigue and disease take its toll of the defenders and they are forced to surrender. This is the more bloodless way of conducting a siege, however, these forces will remain vulnerable to relief and remain unusable for the rest of the turn should the player want to conduct the siege.
However, a siege is a two way street. Those besieged will have options to sally forth, or wait until relief. But they are forever at the mercy of random events and as such their ability to hold these fortifications will depend greatly on the quality of troops holding it and their numbers. Large amounts of defenders is not always a good thing, such numbers increase the threats of squalor and increase demand on supplies.
Occupation:
This stance occurs on two levels: domestic and foreign. Domestic occupation can be used if a ruler feels that a region of their state is at risk of open rebellion or engaging in general unrest. More pertinently however, occupation can be used to enforce religious uniformity or to levee increased tax revenue on an otherwise reluctant population. This is where militia units come into their own. The presence of these units in such a role will increase the income leveed from an occupied area, albeit at the highhanded risk of armed resistance. Foreign occupation can be carried out by a regular army or indeed by militia forces. By occupying an enemy territory, you can gain a cut of the enemy’s income as well as increase the military organisation of the forces occupying that area.
Movement and Scouting:
The movement of large armies throughout Europe rarely goes unnoticed. You should assume an opposing army knows where you are and how you are going to approach them. You can be creative, and surprise your enemies by stealing a nights march, or taking an unusual route to get to the intended location. By scouting a potential battlefield, you can get to know the approaches and specifics of the terrain, giving you an advantage over your opponent.
Most of the time, a large battle would be avoided as neither side wants to risk a decisive engagement. Instead, armies would maneuver to try and force the opponents to move with them, opening a gap in the front and rushing through. Or dividing their forces up and luring the enemy into a confrontation they think they can win before sending reinforcements at the last moment. Using the movement of armies in this creative, chess-like, manner can be more beneficial than fighting one large scale pitched battle.
A new feature will allow you to 'track' an enemy army along a border. After giving this order, your General will aim to prevent the enemy from striding across the border without attacking your force, but he will also refrain from engaging the enemy in an offensive battle unless ordered to do so.
Ambush:
More of a method battle than a strategic action, ambush none the less deserves detailed consideration. Ambushes can be prepared as part of a battle plan or independently. As part of a battle plan, it can be a way of disrupting the enemy’s battle plans and enhancing your own. Ambushes may be set up independently if an enemy is invading your territory, ambush can be an effective form of defence or as an engagement fought before the main battle itself is joined. Depending on the size of the force you have committed to the ambush and what troops you have committed to the ambush itself. Units such as jaegers, Hessians, irregulars, Azabs and militia make the best ambushers and therefore have the bonuses in power rating to indicate this. Ambushes come with their inherent risks, an enemy could fail to fall into it, and they could use dragoons or scouts to discover the ambush and thus forcing the forces carrying out the ambush to fight a conventional battle. Ambushes can have several outcomes. A wholly successful ambush will see the enemy fall back in disorder with heavy casualties, potentially derailing their entire campaign. There is also the possibility that the ambushed can rally and force the ambusher from the field. This could either end in orderly withdrawal of the ambusher, or their defeat. The larger the force involved, the more deadly and potentially more successful the ambush. However, this also increases the risk of discovery. Naturally, those carrying out the ambush need to consider the power ratings of the units involved and the strains such actions have on army organisation, as they would in a regular battle. There are things you can do to avoid an ambush, carefully considering your movements is the first precaution. The second is to ensure that your army has a healthy smattering of dragoons, these forces, as ambushers themselves, act as your army’s eyes and counter ambushers.
The origins of war are often simple. Each side will have an aggressor and defender (usually in alliance with other factions.) Both sides will also have a war goal, an all-encompassing aim that each side will need to achieve in order to be seen to win the war. Achieving the war goals is not enough to obligate another player into a peace favourable to you. The other player may believe he can fight back in the future, and retreat to build their strength. On the other hand, a player might concede defeat to some of your war goals and accept the terms before the war has been fully won, thus maintaining some of their own goals. This form of peace is the most common of this period. Although you have your own war goals, capturing important individuals like your opponent's King, or another Royal family member, or occupying your enemy's capital can be enough to force the war to an end.
Most armies at this time can supply themselves via living off the land, however, supply columns will be required to provide munitions and equipment. This will automatically occur however players should remain aware that they are vulnerable. Supply lines being raided by your enemies will not supply your army and as such, your admins will confront you with events as a consequence, either on campaign or on the battlefield. Nations waging an overseas campaign will feel this pinch too, transports are needed to keep your armies supplied overseas, should they be interdicted your army will feel the consequences. The more planning you put into supplying your troops before a campaign, the less likely you are to suffer should you overstretch.
Battle:
Now, when battle is joined several factors come into play. First and most obvious is size and quality of the armies involved. A larger army has advantages that need not be expanded upon, they should be obvious. However, quality is also important. Quality is measured in both the power rating of the unit and general nature of the unit. Starting with the latter, which in many cases explains the former, the nature of the unit is implied in its description; although it mainly concerns the distinction between irregular and regular units. Militia is an irregular unit and therefore is more suited ambushes and scattered fighting in rough terrain. Therefore it stands to reason that should they be used in conventional battle, they won’t be very good! Moreover, should you choose to use siege artillery in a conventional battle, you’re going to have a bad time. This dynamic is more directly reflected in a unit’s power rating. This reflects the quality and skill of a unit and its ability to win a battle. If one unit has a higher power rating than another, naturally it is likely that it will win the dual.
One might expect, then, that the army with the higher aggregate power rating would therefore win the day. One would be mistaken. Two things have a very important part in determining the outcome of a battle. The first is military organisation. Military organisation represents that overall ability of a nation’s commanders in commanding armies in such a manner that they would win the battle, it also represents the army’s moral, its ability to fight as one force in a cohesive manner and to avoid generally embarrassing incidents. This era of warfare occurs before the advent of general staffs and organisation of large armies is still in its infancy. As such, the larger your force is, the more strain it has on your military organisation and thus the more room for things to go wrong. Player X may have a larger army than Player Y, however, Player Y could have a smaller, more professional force with a higher overall military organisation and still triumph. Why is this? Well, parts of Player X’s forces, owing to poor organisation and being too bloated a force, managed to get lost, accidentally shoot at their own men or simply arrived too late to have an effect on the battlefield.
The second and perhaps the most important factor is quality of Role Play (RP). Players who plan the use of their forces, how they play to fight a battle and what units they will use and it what manner, will naturally be rewarded. People who simply write “charge” will suffer the consequences of being slothful. Players who are crafty and have mastered the way they will use their forces will gain fruits from their labour, although it might not be enough to win a battle, it might just win you the war. Good RP takes into account all that I have said above and is ultimately realistic and imaginative.
Therefore, when thinking about how you use your forces in battle, take a page out of Voltaire’s book: “God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.”
Note: Military organisation beyond the battlefield:
Military organisation also affects events outside of battle. While armies are getting larger at this time, military organisation is still in the process of mastering these changes. Therefore, a player might have a large army but using the as one not only leaves them vulnerable elsewhere, but also makes that army clumsy and vulnerable to attrition and disease. Players may well think that splitting their army into smaller forces operating in close proximity will work and naturally this is a step in the right direction; however, things can still go wrong, people do get lost after all.
Siege:
Advances in fortifications has meant that a siege can now be a long and drawn out affair. Players can expect that once they commit to a siege, they’ll likely be there till the beginning of the next turn. Sieges can be decisive, and can even bring an end to the conflict should they be undertaken in the right place. However, there are risks. An army besieging a fortification or city will naturally be encircling the target, making them vulnerable to relief attack, pickets and good RP can always mitigate this, but there will always be this underlying vulnerability. Armies in siege stance will also be increasingly vulnerable to disease, which can play merry hell on the army’s numbers.
In conducting a siege, the besieger has several options. They could attempt a relatively immediate assault and risk large casualties for a quick end to the affairs or they could wait until their artillery has made a breach and therefore undertake a less costly assault. This is where siege artillery becomes decisive. Siege artillery can deliver a breach in the walls quicker than field guns, the addition of engineers will increase the efficiency of this process and make prepared breech assaults altogether less deadly through a boost to the military organisation of that army. Of course, a besieger can always choose to let time, starvation, intrigue and disease take its toll of the defenders and they are forced to surrender. This is the more bloodless way of conducting a siege, however, these forces will remain vulnerable to relief and remain unusable for the rest of the turn should the player want to conduct the siege.
However, a siege is a two way street. Those besieged will have options to sally forth, or wait until relief. But they are forever at the mercy of random events and as such their ability to hold these fortifications will depend greatly on the quality of troops holding it and their numbers. Large amounts of defenders is not always a good thing, such numbers increase the threats of squalor and increase demand on supplies.
Occupation:
This stance occurs on two levels: domestic and foreign. Domestic occupation can be used if a ruler feels that a region of their state is at risk of open rebellion or engaging in general unrest. More pertinently however, occupation can be used to enforce religious uniformity or to levee increased tax revenue on an otherwise reluctant population. This is where militia units come into their own. The presence of these units in such a role will increase the income leveed from an occupied area, albeit at the highhanded risk of armed resistance. Foreign occupation can be carried out by a regular army or indeed by militia forces. By occupying an enemy territory, you can gain a cut of the enemy’s income as well as increase the military organisation of the forces occupying that area.
Movement and Scouting:
The movement of large armies throughout Europe rarely goes unnoticed. You should assume an opposing army knows where you are and how you are going to approach them. You can be creative, and surprise your enemies by stealing a nights march, or taking an unusual route to get to the intended location. By scouting a potential battlefield, you can get to know the approaches and specifics of the terrain, giving you an advantage over your opponent.
Most of the time, a large battle would be avoided as neither side wants to risk a decisive engagement. Instead, armies would maneuver to try and force the opponents to move with them, opening a gap in the front and rushing through. Or dividing their forces up and luring the enemy into a confrontation they think they can win before sending reinforcements at the last moment. Using the movement of armies in this creative, chess-like, manner can be more beneficial than fighting one large scale pitched battle.
A new feature will allow you to 'track' an enemy army along a border. After giving this order, your General will aim to prevent the enemy from striding across the border without attacking your force, but he will also refrain from engaging the enemy in an offensive battle unless ordered to do so.
Ambush:
More of a method battle than a strategic action, ambush none the less deserves detailed consideration. Ambushes can be prepared as part of a battle plan or independently. As part of a battle plan, it can be a way of disrupting the enemy’s battle plans and enhancing your own. Ambushes may be set up independently if an enemy is invading your territory, ambush can be an effective form of defence or as an engagement fought before the main battle itself is joined. Depending on the size of the force you have committed to the ambush and what troops you have committed to the ambush itself. Units such as jaegers, Hessians, irregulars, Azabs and militia make the best ambushers and therefore have the bonuses in power rating to indicate this. Ambushes come with their inherent risks, an enemy could fail to fall into it, and they could use dragoons or scouts to discover the ambush and thus forcing the forces carrying out the ambush to fight a conventional battle. Ambushes can have several outcomes. A wholly successful ambush will see the enemy fall back in disorder with heavy casualties, potentially derailing their entire campaign. There is also the possibility that the ambushed can rally and force the ambusher from the field. This could either end in orderly withdrawal of the ambusher, or their defeat. The larger the force involved, the more deadly and potentially more successful the ambush. However, this also increases the risk of discovery. Naturally, those carrying out the ambush need to consider the power ratings of the units involved and the strains such actions have on army organisation, as they would in a regular battle. There are things you can do to avoid an ambush, carefully considering your movements is the first precaution. The second is to ensure that your army has a healthy smattering of dragoons, these forces, as ambushers themselves, act as your army’s eyes and counter ambushers.