Playing the Russians

[Erik Springelkamp]

Playing the Russians I discover once more how complex this game is and how many undocumented features there are.
So some old and new questions came up:

- Danzig: without the Danzig event, Danzig is a supply source for Russian (and Prussian?) forces that are in the region.
It is also a supply source for a depot that is built by the Russians directly to the West.
So what is the advantage of the Danzig event happening (when it isn't countered by a Prussian expenditure of EP's)?
Can Danzig then push supply up to a depot that is 3 regions away?

- Pushing supply up to depots: Does the weather affect the distance supply can be pushed between structures, other than by blocking passes?

- Redoubts (from the regional decisions) in the field. I saw that redoubts can collect supplies (found a Prussian redoubt that contained supply)
Do redoubts form a chain that can push supply then?
Is this an alternative for building depots?

- I noticed that my Russian force in winter built a redoubt all on itself: I never gave the order, yet there it was next turn?

- I ordered my Russian army to attack the next region, in mid winter, weather was bad. My order told me the move would take 12 days.
When the turn was resolved, the army was still moving, with 7 days movement left.
Now I suppose this was caused by the lowering of the cohesion during the move, but shouldn't that be calculated in advance? And is the cohesion lowered before the stack moves?
Next turn the move was still not finished, and now 24 days would remain, because my forces had no cohesion left at all: this move would evidently never finish at all: they would all die before reaching the goal.
EDIT: the reduction of cohesion is probably calculated each day of the turn?

[loki100]

- I ordered my Russian army to attack the next region, in mid winter, weather was bad. My order told me the move would take 12 days.
When the turn was resolved, the army was still moving, with 7 days movement left.
Now I suppose this was caused by the lowering of the cohesion during the move, but shouldn't that be calculated in advance? And is the cohesion lowered before the stack moves?
Next turn the move was still not finished, and now 24 days would remain, because my forces had no cohesion left at all: this move would evidently never finish at all: they would all die before reaching the goal.
EDIT: the reduction of cohesion is probably calculated each day of the turn?

yes, its incremental and recalculates as the turn progresses - you see this most starkly in WiA when you can order a fresh force to move out, get hit by winter and it slows as it moves - it will also often refuse to engage in combat later into the turn (too low cohesion)

[Erik Springelkamp]

yes, its incremental and recalculates as the turn progresses - you see this most starkly in WiA when you can order a fresh force to move out, get hit by winter and it slows as it moves - it will also often refuse to engage in combat later into the turn (too low cohesion)

The weather doesn't change during the move, I assume? The weather you see when giving orders is the weather that will be experienced during the move?
Just to be certain.

I have also been fooled for a long time by the supply situation that is shown on a stack.
When it showed fully unsupplied in a region with a supply source, I used to wait a turn to get it supplied.
But it appears that resupply happens at the start of the turn, if only you are non-moving at the start of the turn, so one can order a unit without supply to a new destination and it will arrive fully supplied.

So wouldn't it make more sense to do the supply at the end of a turn, after day 15, instead of at the start of a turn?
That way you have a better view of the real supply situation.

[loki100]

Weather will change post-orders and by the day - so you will see combat in a rainy day on and in clear in the same sequence (watch if you trigger a multi-day battle). Rarely so dramatic in RoP but in WiA it means you need to be very careful about late/early season moves. If it works out, you can get a real strategic bonus to a campaign season - get it wrong and you've just wrecked your army.

Supply I'm not sure of - what you see is the start position, but if a formation moves to supply or joins a supply wagon then you gain supply in turn, so you can move a unit away from being out of supply (one way or another)

edit: Re Danzig, as the Russians I now almost never play this card, the Prussians always will (money is not their shortage problem), so you gain nothing by playing but save some useful goodies by not playing the card.

[Erik Springelkamp]

Never knew this aspect of the weather .

I did know the Danzig option from a game theory point of view , but I am still curious what difference the outcome implies .

[Erik Springelkamp]

Another mystery (for me):

I move a Corps, in command, no command penalty, consisting of Corps commander, a Division of Light Infantry, and three supply trains to a destination.

The prediction is that it will take 17 days.

Then I order the supply trains on their own without commander, to the same destination: that takes 10 days.

And the remaining Corps will take 7 days to reach the destination.

I knew that sending units separately was faster than sending a stack with a command penalty, but I didn't know that even a fully effectively commanded stack was slower than its units on their own.

[Pat "Stonewall" Cleburne]

Another mystery (for me):

I move a Corps, in command, no command penalty, consisting of Corps commander, a Division of Light Infantry, and three supply trains to a destination.

The prediction is that it will take 17 days.

Then I order the supply trains on their own without commander, to the same destination: that takes 10 days.

And the remaining Corps will take 7 days to reach the destination.

I knew that sending units separately was faster than sending a stack with a command penalty, but I didn't know that even a fully effectively commanded stack was slower than its units on their own.

Could be inactive commander or slow mover trait. Are they taking the same path in all 3 situations?

[Erik Springelkamp]

Could be inactive commander or slow mover trait. Are they taking the same path in all 3 situations?

Commander has no traits, path is the same - straight road along the Baltic coast.

[Ebbingford]

I'm guessing it will probably be to do with the movement rates of supply, wheeled, is faster than that of the slowest infantry type in the stack.

[Erik Springelkamp]

I'm guessing it will probably be to do with the movement rates of supply, wheeled, is faster than that of the slowest infantry type in the stack.

But the corps with that infantry and without the train is even faster than the train alone, which again is faster than the combination of the whole.