Let Them Eat Cake solo 1792 France AAR

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Murat
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Let Them Eat Cake solo 1792 France AAR

Post by Murat »

So I broke down and upgraded to the Emperor's Edition. The tutorials are excellent and it is almost worth the $60 just to hear Palatinate mispronounced [:D]

Being partly insane and having a love for Napoleonic France and revolutionary chaos, I chose to start my first game in 1792 as France.

It is a 23 year game, advanced economy, highest glory wins, everything else standard. Sure I am wussing out playing it at the normal setting but I do not know what I am doing and I imagine the computer will not make the errors I will so, while I expect to overcome the damage I will do to myself and eventually win, I did not want to end my first game in a crushing defeat in the cold winter of 1792-3.

Only now that I am in September did I actually think of making an AAR so I will bring you up to speed with what I did for June July and August. June, 1792 is the first turn and in advanced economy one must get their finances in order.

I meticulously went through each province and worked on maximizing my returns. In any province I was building I set 20% to development to speed things up. A strong economy will feed a strong army which will feed my win. I chose to build farms in: Auverge, Franche Comte, Languedoc, Lyonnais, Poitou; banks in: Burgundy and Dauphiny and a court improvement in Orleanais since the tutorial said that level 5 courts help prevent waste. Not an issue right now since I only have 20 provinces but that 1 court will let me get 31 and no other province had 4 to start from what I saw. My economy seems to be heavily agricultural so the farms should help production and of course the banks will send me more money, which I thought I had an abundance of from reading other AARs but it never hurts to have money, especially since I then moved on to the trade screen.

I also meticulously went through my trading partners and learned that Poland, Sweden and Turkey all liked me OK along with some of the North African minor powers, Denmark, Portugal, Switzerland and one of the German states that was not worth trading with. Believing I was blessed with a money surplus I traded cash for raw materials, trading with most of the Swedish provinces, some Turkish provinces, some Polish provinces, 1 Danish province, 1 Portuguese province and 1 Swiss province. I also have the belief that trade leads to better relations and since I cannot trade with Austria/Prussia due to their agression on the poor French constitutional monarchy , I resolved to try and trade with Britain, Russia, and Spain as well. Britain it turns out wants a LOT of money to trade with me so I decided they were not worth it and allocated their trade spot to Spain so Spain had 2, Russia 1.

I finished up on the main economy screen by leaving everything where it was except draft age went 18-41 to provide the most highest morale troops (kept moving until I discovered this), training to 16 months, again for morale, and draft size to 2 to make up for the longer training and the smaller pool of cannon fodder, err...noble French recruits.

Military matters came next. After much moving around I put a merchant off the coast of Venice, one in the Irish Sea, one in the North Sea off Scotland and one off Copenhagen. This gave me the max spot in the Med, 2 of the 4 spots around England (who seems to produce the most trade value but who also had a huge fleet in the Channel so I figured they wanted that spot and I let them have the spot by Portsmouth too in the hopes they might ignore the 2 I picked since I do not want to share my spots) and Copenhagen because it was that or Stockholm and Stockholm was farther away. I moved a fleet each to the Irish Sea and the North Sea to protect my merchants in my most valuable spots. Copenhagen is doomed if any enemies show and I think the Venetians are too weak to attack me in the Med. The Med seems to be poor in trade anyway and I do not expect a lot of people to be trying for those spots. Along those lines I stripped my Med fleet of everything except 1 1st/2nd ship of the line and 17 3rds, moving everything else towards Brest, soon to be my main naval base, except for 2 frigates to guard the southern coast of France from pirates. My own pirates I moved to Normandy to await targets of opportunity away from any big fleet but in a good trade zone.

I decided that I was going to have 1 large army and 2 decoys (I start with 3 Armies and a Corps) so I moved everything except the 4 infantry without special skills to Paris, to become the Armee du Nord, renamed the Corps the Imperial Cavalry, put Montesque in charge of it with Kellerman leading the overall Armee and hoped that defeats were not a sure path to the guilloitine since DuMoriez is my only back up good leader who can lead an army. He took 2 of those infantry and went to the Armee du Centre which I promptly renamed the Sans Culottes. Its former leader is Lafayette and while, being an American, I am a huge fan of the General, he apparently is not a huge fan of this revolution because he is not really putting his skills up for use (he has low ratings). I move him and the other 2 infantry down to Provence to make up the Armee du Sud (formerly the Armee du Midi). If I get another leader I am toying with the idea of putting my best leader with the fleet and attempting to actually win the naval war so no one has to be reprimanded.

Finally I get my diplomatic action (I only have 1) and use it to ask Spain for an alliance. I can't read the chart but one really likes the other while they in turn are none to excited about the first. I am hoping it is they that really like me because despite the grumpy face I would actually like Spain, especially if we were allies. I have 3 diplomats: Talleyrand who appears to be awesom so I sned him into Germany on a Goodwill mission to make every nation around him like me more, Dumoriez who is a solid diplomat and seems well suited to pressure peace so I will use him for this purpose against Prussia to try and get them out of the war. and St. Croix who seems best at kicking other diplomat's butts so I send him over to Picardy to watch for Brits.

So that was June, 1792.
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Murat
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RE: Let Them Eat Cake solo 1792 France AAR

Post by Murat »

July comes along and I get my first report.

I managed to avoid a naval battle near Sweden (probably the Prussians) on my way to Copenhagen and no other battle.

I am met in Scottish waters by the Danish who eat up some of the trade available and in Danish waters by the Russians doing the same (I should have gone to Stockholm and they should have stayed near home where there was a perfectly good spot with only 2 less trade than Copenhagen). In the end only 2 Swedish provinces and 1 Spanish province refused trade so my plan worked and I think as long as I am friendly my relations with my neighbors will grow (as will my economy and then my army and then my neighbors should not matter).

The Spanish are insulted that I asked them for an alliance (guess they liked me less). None of my diplomats did anything productive with only Talleyrand getting to his spot.

I gain a little glory and I am in 5th place and my people become a little happier but eat up a chunk of my "spice" reserves, drink a bunch of my wine and in the festivities destroy my 30 Year War collectables.

So with that report, I start July:

Moving my forces is like herding cats. The fleets actually moved perfectly but Lafayette refused to give up his command and the land units wandered the countryside looking for someone to take to the baccanalia that apparently spontaneously took hold (see above paragraph). So I again order them to their respective locations. I spread 3 of my 4 frigates out to guard the west coast of France, unite my pirates from the Med with their northern compatriarts in Normandy and move the culled ships of the Med Fleet over to Scotland to join my main Fleet.

Moving to economics, I get a shock. It turns out that I do not have a vast surplus of money and with the trades I just committed to, I will need my merchant income to make a profit. All my merchant income. Really have to get the Prussians out of this war before they kill one. I look over my provinces and decide to save up resources to expand my docks in Brest because somewhere something (the tutorial maybe?) told me that at level 7 docks, merchant income is doubled for merchants from that area. I have no idea if any of my merchants are from Brest but if the Irish Sea one is, my money problems will be no more! since I chose my trade spots I am not leaving, I will just hope the Danish and Russians move on.

I send my diplomats to where they are supposed to be. I am now going to ask Prussia to cease hostilities (hopefully DuMoriez will assist in that) and move on to August.

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RE: Let Them Eat Cake solo 1792 France AAR

Post by Murat »

August report comes in. Prussia told me hells no. I get a little more glory, my people become a little happier because apparently the parties were still going on but they seem to be winding down as the stores of "spice", booze and things to break are running low.

St. Croix does his job and kicks out a British diplomat named Fox (he was pretty harmless, maybe should have found a better target) and Talleyrand starts making nice to the small Germn states. DuMoriez did nothing.

So for August we are greeted by 2 Austrian forces in the Austrian Netherlands and a Prussian force in Champagne but they have less dots than Paris which still has not come together to make a fighting Army. I once again order them to get ready because now it looks like we have a fight coming up. I scan the military upgrades for something I can buy and a lot looks tempting. I can only buy one I want something to make my army stronger. After much arguing with myself I finally pick Patriotism and hope I have not wasted my money since it gives .5 to morale which is nice BUT only in your home nation and in the long run I am not planning on fighting much in my home nation. Still, I figure I may be fighting here for a while since we look to be evenly matched (actually I think I am outnumbered) so take care of the present need instead of risking much for a longer term need. At least the other 2 armies are set up and I have to hope these forces to not attack the Sans Cullottes because I do not think they will survive.

I am worried now so I will ask Turkey for an alliance. they like me, I am trading with them and they would definitely put some pressure on the Austrians. It will be great if they accept and help.

Economy wise I start my docks in Brest! 6 turns from now I should have plenty of money if any of my merchants are from Brest and if they live long enough to trade. I have to do something because now the Dutch have moved into the Irish Sea so my only trading monopoly is off the coast of Venice.
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RE: Let Them Eat Cake solo 1792 France AAR

Post by Murat »

Everyone loves pictures so time for some pictures now that we are in September!

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So we won the battle, captured some Austrians, and our diplomats continue to do good work. You can see we got Patriotism and I believe it helped because I forgot to feed my troops, who were forced to forage and fought at a disadvantage. [:(]

Turkey said no to the alliance but in a nice way; we moved from 5th to 4th in glory and the French Revolution caused some unrest in all my provinces so...wait WHAT?!?!? [X(]

Unrest apparently shuts down most of your production. My people now face starvation next month and I will lose 3 population out of 79 which may not look like much but I think every population requires 100 food to grow back and they only want 106 food now. But I am only making 53. So I shift all my production to development (1 farm was built ths month, the rest are still building) and food and get it to 110. So while I am tempted to let them eat cake, I am sure bread riots would make this only worse. I place a depot in Paris so if we have to fight again at least we will be fed. Merchants will hold their ground and hope the AI moves away to more fertile ground.

All my military is finally where I wanted them back in July.

It occurs to me that I really need to find a way to pacify Britain. The trade available off their coast can offset a lot of problems and I need time and that trade to close the naval gap. I will try to put together some sort of a treaty and use my action to once again try and get Prussia out of the war.
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RE: Let Them Eat Cake solo 1792 France AAR

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On to October and the Monarchy has been abolished leading to more unrest. I only have 1 province untouched and over half of my provinces have an unrest of 5 with the next largest group being 3. I have 1 at 4 and 2 at 1 and none at 2. I was right about this being a long cold winter. At least 1 more farm finished.

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I am moving Talleyrand to a spot where he will influence Britain as well. I am going to try another alliance treaty with Turkey. Austria caught the Sans Cullottes and killed 10% of them. I am moving them to beseige a town called Waterloo and I have a good feeling about this place. I have moved the Armee du Nord into Champagne.

Economically I am still having to keep up food production. I am losing about 100 money a turn and have a reserve of around 500 so I will just barely get through the unrest if nothing else bad happens. But I think the worst is over. After all the American revolution went smoothly, why shouldn't this one? Just let Louis and Marie go retire to some chateau down in Monaco and join the salon set. Then we can all be happy and move forward for the greater glory of France!
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RE: Let Them Eat Cake solo 1792 France AAR

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So not much happened in November. 1 new bank. I felt it was a good time to show my vast military might but to fit it I had to squish it. As you can see I am trying to overwhen the garrison in Luxembourg while keeping my main army nearby until I can see where the Austrians went off to. I think I will go 1 more turn producing food and then see if I can switch back to maximizing production. Sending a treaty of alliance to Turkey. Britain really hates me so no point doing anything there, just wait for the inevitable DoW by them.

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RE: Let Them Eat Cake solo 1792 France AAR

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December 1792 has rolled around 2 new farms, 1 new bank. More incoming next month. I decided to see why I seemed to be low on my imports since I had set up 1 trade route for every province and only 3 got rejected and I am dismayed to dscover that I am down to 8 trade routes and the British are running many more. Turkey basically ended all my trade routes that I had with them and Sweden dropped a bunch. As you can see from teh picture of Southern France, a few months of disorder remain. I have decided that super fun goal #1 is to build a merchant in Brest after I get the level 7 port in 2 months. I am going to watch trade closely and try to keep my food production close to the line so I can keep generating raw materials and building towards level 3 farms and banks in all provinces.

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RE: Let Them Eat Cake solo 1792 France AAR

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January, 1793, a great new year!
Well in a very odd set of circumstances, the Danish, who are at war with the Russians (and whom you may recall were stealing my trade) decided to request a protectorate from me. I was fairly sure this would mean war with Russia but what the heck I said OK. They may have been dissuaded by my other success, my new Turkish ally! I sent the Russians a nasty note and so far no ill effects. Here is a picture of my Danish friends:

Image

In 2 months the last effects of the revolution should wear off and I can get back to my old producting self. I have continued the focus on building farms (no new build this turn but I am looking at several over the next 2), I am reaping the benefits of having gotten about 2/3 of my trade proposals passed (mostly for sheep so I can get textiles so I can get a merchant) but my people passed out in, and soiled, some of the textiles so I may have to wait longer for the all important merchant, which is OK since I am still 2 turns away from the 7th harbor level. I sent Spain a modest loan proposal last turn (give them 120 money, they pay me back at 11 a month) since I saw them ask Austria for one and it turned out Austria refused so maybe they will take mine!
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RE: Let Them Eat Cake solo 1792 France AAR

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We have now noticed that the British are asking the Spanish for a loan [&:] So we will try to throw another 120 out of treasury at the usurous rate of 25% because as you can see on the chart below, we hate England (reading acrss from my name is how they feel about me, reading down is how I feel about them). On the diplomacy front it should be noted that only Talleyrand is actually doing his job. St. Croix was shifted over to lowering Austrian morale which he is barely doing and DuMoriez has yet to make Prussia pay to stay at war. Perhaps I can get my Danish friends to help me finish off these 2 Austrian provinces on my border. The farms are finally rolling in and I have decided to try and keep producing things as long as I have the resources to and hope to get a firm economy underway without getting run over by the Allies militarily. I have moved into 3d place now, I guess thanks to Denmark.

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RE: Let Them Eat Cake solo 1792 France AAR

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And here is my plan for defeating the Austrian Netherlands before the Spring thaw. I sure hope nothing sneaks around my lines.

Dilpomacy continues on like before except the Genoans were encouraged by my defense of the Danes and asked for a protectorate too (they are at war with Spain) and I granted it and sent a threatening letter to Spain. Again, no visible ill effects. But if these little protectorates get me into a war I can be in real trouble.

This turn I put my economy into coasting mode with 20% to development and 30% to agriculture and the other sliders set for my maximization plan. Taking about an hour a month now with these AAR posts and pondering each move.

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RE: Let Them Eat Cake solo 1792 France AAR

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This is April, 1793, each one so far has been 1 month. Building is finally going well. Trade is going well but even with the 2 additional Danish merchants I am on the move a lot trying to keep up the money flow since my outlays for raw materials trades are high. I think I will let the current trade treaties lapse and try to build up a money reserve for a few rounds. My diplomats continue to perform as always, Talleyrand slowly winning people over, but somehow losing ground. Same with St. Croix trying to drag down Austrian morale and DuMoriez has never made the Prussians pay to keep the war going. Not sure if I mentioned this before but many of my tradig partners like me a lot less after we have traded. I am not sure why, I thought it would have the opposite effect but maybe some nation (looks at the British) is bribing them to hate me. Spring thaw of coursse has brought more Austrians and you can see them in the lower right corner coming to lift the seiges (which by the way never even started). I may pull back to Paris with the Sans Cullottes and the POWs from the last battle and try to draw the Austrians to the Armee du Nord. I decided to assault with the Sans Cullottes first though so we shall see how that goes.

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RE: Let Them Eat Cake solo 1792 France AAR

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May, 1793 and it is the 1 year mark! My war with Prussia has lapsed, Amsterdam has fallen, my merchant is under production and I started a cav unit. 8 months of unrest for Amsterdam but all else was looking good until I saw this page and there that black dot inside the white dot is is now a '?' but once when I looked it was Austrian like that unit the black arrow points to, but huge like the pink arrow pointing to the Spaniards. In light of this new development I have decided to encourage my ally Turkey to get into this war. He has a big square by Istanbul and a lot of open space between him and Vienna so if he agrees, the Austrians should back up allowing my to strike opportunistically. I continue to focus on building my farms and banks to level 3 and then will build up some more ports and barracks for the military advancements.

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RE: Let Them Eat Cake solo 1792 France AAR

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Well I was right, that army was huge. Over 110,000 and it caught me while I was trying to move the Sans Cullotte and the POWs back to Paris but luckily as the Armee du Nord moved in, giving me 105,000 but outside of home nation so no .5 morale bonus. They had no Artillery and only 1 Cav though so it was a victory, as can be seen below. In addition this win vaulted me into the lead so now I have a target on my head [:@] And as you can see from the very bottom, I have some good production finally going but my money is very low. I am going to stop here for the night, maybe just stop, this is a long process and way more fun in a PBEM setting because others add to it, but maybe I will pick it up for another year.

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RE: Let Them Eat Cake solo 1792 France AAR

Post by michaelincol »

Thank you, Murat. FoF player here and your entertaining while educating writing has me almost ready to follow your example and buy the game I have been putting off waiting on a patch. Very enjoyable read for me this evening, thanks again.

michael
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