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marek1978
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Strategy/engine questions

Fri Mar 08, 2013 12:22 pm

Hey, i hope i post In the right place, but i could not find general strategy / engine discussion place. Ageod games were heavily patched and manuals are not always very straightforward so I decided to ask here.

The game refers to all the Ageod games with corps/ column / army structure

What should be the right composition of main army versus corpses. As far as I understand main army does not go first to fight? So perhaps it should consist only supply artillery and cavalry? Or should it be kept as main task force with sub-corpses as subsidiaries?


Is the player penalized for keeping all his corpses in a one region? For example – if you have 100 000 soldiers in Prag – will they be squeezed there and fight worse? Or will they be penalized for consuming to much supply only?
My question aims on answering one strategy issue – is there any interest to disperse you forces around the area – as march to the sound of guns very often works not fast enough and strong blow can destroy you defense line.

( as Frederick the Great once said – who tries to defend everything defend nothing )
And it makes much more sense to keep the army in a one place – and only risk is that you will be out maneuvered

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Fri Mar 08, 2013 12:38 pm

That question really depends not only on which game, but the specifics of the command structure. Are you asking about whether or not to stack units under an army commander, or more along the lines of how many corps should an army have?

If corps command is possible, say in ACW, I try to use not less than 2 but not more than 4 or 5 corps per army. Command penalties kick in for even high ranked generals when you start grouping 6 or 7 corps into a single army.

Now if it's a smaller defensive army I might consider stacking all the units under the army commander. Say a coastal army in ACW under Johnston or Beauregard... build the army command, fit it with 2 or 3 divisions and leave it to its singular defensive task.

I'm not sure of corps penalties, but it never hurts to always have each corps fitted with at least one, preferably two supply units. That way at the very least they can operate outside of their supply zones for a bit, and at worst can function long enough to build depots and extend their side's supply reach. Any numbers on this would have to be added by game mods or devs. Dispersal of forces is ok, but it has to fit the strategic goals you have. As you said with Fred's quote, you can't be in all places all the time. Concentration of force is often just as vital, especially for outnumbered enemies who need to rally everything they have to keep from being overwhelmed. Think dispersal strategically, but concentrated tactically. A spider's fangs may be very small, but they only need to be so big because the spider casts a very large web.

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marek1978
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Fri Mar 08, 2013 1:10 pm

This is something that i get ( more or rather less judging from my latest PBEM losing )

What I don’t get is whether if you have lets say three stacks – and army command, and two subordinate corpses – and they are located in a one region – will the corpses start fight first and main army stock join latter? These means that to avoid fast defeat one should put the main bulk of his troops in to subordinates units rather then keep them inside of the army stack…..

The second issue is whether massing troops in one region brings any penalty except risking running low on supplies

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Pocus
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Mon Mar 11, 2013 2:06 pm

Hi,

Yes the best way is to give most troops to the corps (please don't use 'corpses' this mean 'dead body in English' :) ) and only give to the army stack a few units and artillery.

Massing troops, if they are all well commanded is not a problem yet. It will be in the future because of bottleneck in traffic.
Image


Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law."

Die Zieten
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Mon Mar 11, 2013 6:55 pm

Pocus wrote:
Massing troops, if they are all well commanded is not a problem yet. It will be in the future because of bottleneck in traffic.


Witth a big map that is a good addition, you really have to think how you get there first with the most men. ;)

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marek1978
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Tue Mar 12, 2013 12:21 am

Die Zieten wrote:Witth a big map that is a good addition, you really have to think how you get there first with the most men. ;)


Absolutely fantastic idea.
I am recently after reading story of the Franco Prussian and austro prussian war – in both cases Prussians were able to out maneuver their opponents as they were moving fast in divided columns using strong cavalry screen
The very same thing happened in 1806 when french won against prussia and ofcourse was an isue during 7 years war and especialy great northern war – when massing troops was possible only for a while.

Are you thinking about using this tool to create front like games?
I am bit surprises with you answer about leaving a army command as an empty stack as a lot of people do go for massing their forces in the main stack.


And sorry for the wrong using of word corpses – perhaps you should cover World War Z – then ?

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Pocus
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Tue Mar 12, 2013 10:44 am

Is the movie is good, it is yet to be released in France!

If your army stack is protected by corps, I believe the best solution is to give most combat power to corps and only artilleries and a few infantry to the army stack itself, but I'm rusty on practice.
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Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law."

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ERISS
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Tue Mar 12, 2013 11:24 am

marek1978 wrote:I am bit surprises with you answer about leaving a army command as an empty stack as a lot of people do go for massing their forces in the main stack.

You can find some explanations here:
http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?27032-Do-*not*-use-army-generals-as-stack-commanders

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loki100
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Tue Mar 12, 2013 4:26 pm

Pocus wrote:Is the movie is good, it is yet to be released in France!


I'm in it ... well I was paid 250GBP to hang around be part of the crowd when it was filmed in Glasgow, not sure if I survived the edit process though
AJE The Hero, The Traitor and The Barbarian
PoN Manufacturing Italy; A clear bright sun
RoP The Mightiest Empires Fall
WIA Burning down the Houses; Wars in America; The Tea Wars

wosung
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Tue Mar 12, 2013 5:13 pm

Never heard about it. Had to Wiki it. Brad Pitt and Matthew Fox? Epic World conflict & Zombies?! Sounds interesting.

This part really made my day:

"In an October 2006 interview with Eatmybrains.com, Brooks discussed the cultural influences on the novel. He claimed inspiration from The Good War by Studs Terkel. Brooks stated: "[Terkel's book is] an oral history of World War II. I read when I was a teenager and it's sat with me ever since. When I sat down to write World War Z, I wanted it to be in the vein of an oral history."[1]"

A fine book it is.

Best regards

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marek1978
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Tue Mar 12, 2013 9:05 pm

I can recommend you a fantastic audio book – World War Z read by Alan Alda and John Torturo
Great for biking or long car drive but frankly speaking its bit cheap at some points and it is definitely not Mann or Dostoyevsky literature.

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