Opening Moves Tutorial AAR (Prussia-1805)

[Gil R.]

With Turn 3 over I can view the results. Looks like both diplomats have had some success.

[Gil R.]

And here’s something disappointing: I lost a lot of men because my new army failed to make it all the way to Posen, instead getting stuck one province short – and in a province with insufficient foraging levels to support all those men. If I were at war this would be a significant setback, but luckily here I have enough time for those divisions to get back up to strength. Still, it’s not a good thing.

[Gil R.]

Here’s where that army got stuck. As you can see, the forage level is 40,000, and that army exceeded that by several thousand.

[Gil R.]

After this experience I decide to build some more Roads – both to aid troop movements and the economic development of West Prussia in general.

[Gil R.]

And I decide to give Liegnitz a better banking system. I’ve toggled on the production overlay, so that I could quickly see which provinces not already under development was producing the most money – and therefore would give me the best returns. Liegnitz has been producing 10 Money, so 10% of that is 1 Money, so in just two years I’ll have broken even, and after that I’ll be making more money than I would have otherwise.

[Gil R.]

Here is the City List, showing all of the provinces that are under development. In each case I’ve gone into that city’s Development Screen and adjusted the slider bars so that it would take just 5-9 turns (depending on what resources of value were being produced there).

[Gil R.]

Here’s the Overview Screen, showing where the various armies are. I must admit, with those French armies occupied fighting Austria it’s tempting to try to pick off one or two countries/provinces beyond Prussia’s western borders, but that giant French army just two turns away quickly reminds me to stick to my game plan of building up and not fighting until I’m ready to fight. The game’s a marathon rather than a sprint, after all.

[Gil R.]

After hitting “End Turn” I caught a quick glimpse of what was happening south of my borders, and took a screenshot. Poor Austria always gets hammered by the French early in the 1805 scenario. Good thing I didn’t ally with Austria and send my army down there.

[Gil R.]

Here’s the beginning of the Event Report, showing where things stand.

[Gil R.]

And here is a report showing that my diplomats had further success, but that the French have finally tossed Hardenberg out. If I were to continue playing I might send him to England to charm them, or perhaps try to charm Russia. Or I might take advantage of his espionage rating and have him try to cause some insurrections in countries controlled by France.

However, I think I’ll stop here, having played four full turns. I might continue the AAR if there are aspects of the game that people would like to see covered, but I think I’ve achieved my purpose of showing how one might approach the game.

As I mentioned above, it would be great if other experienced players might try the same thing with other nations/scenarios. Obviously, since I’ve covered a lot of the economic decision-making (and bjmorgan in his guide has covered a lot of what I skipped) it would not be necessary to rehash that so much, so such an AAR need not be as long, and could focus more on military and diplomatic decision-making. (I just realized, for example, that I did not propose a treaty to anyone.) If anyone decides to do so I’ll link to his AAR or AAR’s from this thread, so that they can easily be found.

In order to keep this thread pristine I think I'll lock it. There can always be discussion of it in another thread, but in case I continue it I'd like it to consist only of my posts.