Battles and Kingdoms Advantages.

[Florent]

Did you think about creating a button for battles or taking an existing one for resolving the battles and give some sort of advantages.

Example : The Prussian player would have a button called "Oblique Order".
When using it there would be a test depending on Fred modifier, terrain in area(doesn't work or less in plain) allowing the Prussian player to bring most of his army to fight only a part of the ennemy (one flank) in the first rounds of combat, there would be another test to see if the ennemy could react in time to realign (like the russian at Zorndorf).
In the following rounds you can test if the center intervene more or less rapidly to intervene (in Leuthen the move was more or less broken by Prussian artillery) and later in the other flank doing an external march is coming in time before a collapse. It would simulate well how 20-25000 Prussian defeated a superior army. Of course after a Leuthen-like battle a modifier would help to realign rather to be taken on flank showing that the maneuver was known.
On a pure flank like Leuthen, the Austrian flank could bring less musketry fire because they are caught during the redeployment.
If they are able to redeploy they will be Musket fire exchange with less disadvantages (but still superior Prussian infantry).

I you failed the Oblique Order option, then well you know this is the old good Frontal or standard attack.

The Russians would have a button for either defensive positions or artillery barrage to show their effectiveness in these domains.
The Austrians would have Artillery barrage.
Some searches can be made for other Kingdoms and if no distinct tactics then Blank button.
I remember Nosworthy in his "Anatomy of Victory; Battle Tactics 1689-1763"
indicating that the French Army used his first column attack in the 7 years war at small scale like KlosterKamp or Sauderhausen. I will have to reread this and verify.
What do you think ? Is this impossible to do ?
It gives some immersion for possibilities offered to Kingdoms.

[lodilefty]

Did you think about creating a button for battles or taking an existing one for resolving the battles and give some sort of advantages.

Example : The Prussian player would have a button called "Oblique Order".
When using it there would be a test depending on Fred modifier, terrain in area(doesn't work or less in plain) allowing the Prussian player to bring most of his army to fight only a part of the ennemy (one flank) in the first rounds of combat, there would be another test to see if the ennemy could react in time to realign (like the russian at Zorndorf).
In the following rounds you can test if the center intervene more or less rapidly to intervene (in Leuthen the move was more or less broken by Prussian artillery) and later in the other flank doing an external march is coming in time before a collapse. It would simulate well how 20-25000 Prussian defeated a superior army. Of course after a Leuthen-like battle a modifier would help to realign rather to be taken on flank showing that the maneuver was known.
On a pure flank like Leuthen, the Austrian flank could bring less musketry fire because they are caught during the redeployment.
If they are able to redeploy they will be Musket fire exchange with less disadvantages (but still superior Prussian infantry).

I you failed the Oblique Order option, then well you know this is the old good Frontal or standard attack.

The Russians would have a button for either defensive positions or artillery barrage to show their effectiveness in these domains.
The Austrians would have Artillery barrage.
Some searches can be made for other Kingdoms and if no distinct tactics then Blank button.
I remember Nosworthy in his "Anatomy of Victory; Battle Tactics 1689-1763"
indicating that the French Army used his first column attack in the 7 years war at small scale like KlosterKamp or Sauderhausen. I will have to reread this and verify.
What do you think ? Is this impossible to do ?
It gives some immersion for possibilities offered to Kingdoms.

This is getting into a "tactical game", but we could do some of this perhaps with Abilities or attributes.
I defer to Hok for further thoughts.

Interesting thoughts and great inputs!

[rogs]

in terms of national advantages, the austrians had a major advantage from the swarms of hussars and croats/pandours that accompanied their armies in the WAS & the SYW. according to Duffy ('The Army of Maria Theresa') Frederick himself warned his generals that they had no way of repaying the casualties inflicted by the croats in woods and mountains

the Russians defensive skill is mentioned in a post above; duffy says 'the Austrians were famous for their skill in defensive warfare' and that Frederick wrote that 'one must expect to be reduced to a war of outposts against the Austrians'. famously, the Austrians stymied Frederick in the War of the Bavarian Succession (the Potato War) using these methods.

duffy describes the 'great power of the Theresian artillery' as 'eighteenth-century Austria's great contribution to the art of war'

summing up, duffy says that while MT had generals capable of 'the most daring and unpredictable enterprises' (Browne, Lacy and Loudon), leaving aside the characteristics of individual generals, 'on the the whole' the Austrians shine 'in the choice of good positions, logistics and staff work, and in closing off the sources of the enemies subsistence'. but he says that this was not sufficient to support the strategic purpose of the Habsburgs in the SYW, which was to 'destroy Prussia's power'

despite the emphasis on the defensive and the little war, Duffy also notes there were 5 Austrian attacks in the WAS-SYW period, Chotusitz, Soor, Breslau, Hochkirch & Liegnitz.

[rogs]

some other quotes from duffy highlighting aspects of austria that might be brought out in ROP

'MT's subjects responded with a warmth that had little in common with the appalled admiration which Frederick evoked in his own peoples and armies'

'political philosophy knows no terms adequate to describe the tendencies which gradually marshalled all classes of Habsburg society behind the Theresian state'

'the sense of everyone fighting together was reinforced when MT's armies were fighting the heretical Prussians and their godless king . . . "[Loudon] all the peasants are ready to take up arms . . . a peasant war is scarcely desirable . . . but we must do what we can to sustain these good people"'

'by itself a diversity of race and language does nothing to sap . . . corporate identity in an armed force . . . [cites Napoleonic armies and WW2 Allied forces in Italy] . . . this body of evidence lends support to the Prince de Ligne's bold assertion that the [Theresian] army was 'the sole national army, although made up of several nations"'

"[Cognazo] it is a great virtue of the Austrian service that promotion is the unfailing reward of good service . . . the lowliest soldier may win his way step by step from the musket to the sash of an order, from the society of his tent companions to that of the Hofkriegsrat'

[rogs]

This is just for colour, not really related to ROP, but Duffy surveys Hungarian, German Protestant, Italian, Spanish, Lorrainer, and Netherlander contributions to the Habsburg officer corps.

My favourite, I confess due to my ancestry: "The story of the Habsburg Irish . . . altogether the Irish gave the army of Imperial Austria some 13 fieldmarshals, two presidents of the Hofkriegsrath and dozens of other generals . . . the number of junior officers ran into the hundreds. The Irish military men were themselves just one wing of an entire society uprooted from its homeland by religious discrimination. Irish civilians by the score were active in the Habsburg dominions as doctors, teachers, financiers, scholars and administrators . . . the Irish could match every . . . Radetzky von Radetz with a Maquire von Inniskillin or a Kavanagh von Ballybrack . . . the historian can become familiar with names like Neulau or Ottowart without realising he is looking at the honest Irishmen Nolan and O'Dowd . . . St Patrick's Day . . . was celebrated by . . . a banquet for . . . Irish military men and the entire court wore Irish crosses in honour of the occasion"

there was a 'street of the Irish' and a 'House of the Irish Franciscans' in Prague. Further south Irishmen congregrated in Graz and Parma.

[Sol Invictus]

Some interesting quotes. I was going to buy "The Army of Maria Theresa" but it costs so damn much.