Crown of Glory:
Europe in the Age of Napoleon
Introduction:
- Hi – my name is Steve, but I play these games under the name Ralegh. I was
a beta tester for Western Civilization, and helped the Matrix beta team look
at COG. During that process I wrote a lot of guidance on what game concepts
meant, and explaining things in different ways: these became the infamous
Ralegh Guides. The feedback from the beta team was that the Ralegh Guides
really helped them get on top of game concepts – so some of the guides have
been included with the manual, and here are some more! This tip guide has
been extended to include stuff posted to the BB up to Aug 2005. I have not,
however, taken out tips that might have made it into the 1.2 manual.
- I am just a player too – not the designer of the game. I hope I haven’t
made any mistakes, and if you find any I would be delighted to hear about
them. Also delighted to get any other tips or ideas people have – I haunt
the matrix forum at http:/www.matrixgames.com/forums/tt.asp%3Fforumid%3D197
as well as the beta forum, where work is continuing for the next release of
the game.
- I have some credibility to be giving game advice: I have won COG
at its hardest level of difficulty with every nation several times through
during the betas and release versions, of the game. I mainly play the 1805
(or standard) Campaign, so if anything doesn’t apply to the campaign you are
interested in, well, tough. (I do also like the 1792 game so there is some
specific stuff about that in here).
- I am Australian, and we spell things a little differently to some
of you – get over it.
- Anybody want to play a PBEM game? I am looking forward to playing
with people!
The Ralegh Tip Guides.
1
1. Divisions,
Corps and Armies. 2
2. Divisional
Strength and Readiness. 2
3. Effects
of National Morale. 2
4. Privateers
and Merchants. 3
5. The proper
use of militia. 3
6. Economy
for Dummies. 3
7. Tips about
Cash. 4
8. Finally
a few notes on trade. 5
9. Anatomy
of an economy out of control (or 'how supply killed my economy')
5
10. Working
with AI Allies. 6
11. Extra Tips
(from the manual) 6
12. Notes on
Quick Combat: 7
13. Notes on
Naval Combat: 7
14. Reinforcing.
8
15. Pursuit
and Retreat 8
16. Ralegh's
Rapid Guide to HexWar 8
17. HEXWAR
EXAMPLE. 11
18. Ralegh's
tips on starting a new game. 12
19. On naval
transport of troops: 13
20. Ralegh
on the Briefing Docs. 13
21. Ralegh
on Cavalry Charges and Reforming Cavalry. 14
22. Notes on
the Power Settings. 15
23. Ralegh
on Textiles. 15
24. Ralegh
on Provinces. 16
1.1.
In COG, divisions are the units
that you build, and which move and fight. Divisions can be joined in a corps.
Corps and divisions can be joined in Armies. Each Army can hold up to 8 "units"
- either divisions or corps - plus leaders. Each corps can hold up to 6 divisions
plus leaders. However, an army can only hold a maximum of 18 divisions, no matter
how arranged in corps [except France, who is 20]. (Cities can hold divisions
to their number of walls, and fleets can hold 10 ships, except for Britain who can hold 12.)
1.2.
The Corps System upgrade
allows one more division per corps, and the French have a native advantage allowing
7 divisions per corps and 20 divisions in an army. (So in 1805, the French can
put 8 divisions in a corps!)
1.3.
What impact does the arrangement
into corps have?
1.3.1.
Units in the same army benefit
from the army commander's bonuses - units in corps/armies in the same stack
(even if in the same combat) don't benefit from that army commander's bonuses.
1.3.2.
A division could have a divisional
commander, a corps commander, and an army commander, and benefit from all three
sets of bonuses! - More leaders is good!
1.3.3.
There is a combat bonus for units
from the same corps actually fighting together - since that is how they trained.
And they move together.
1.3.4.
Corps provide a reinforcement
bonus – units in a corps reinforce detailed battles at twice the normal rate.
1.3.5.
Most countries don't start with
corps. Get some corps FAST so you can organize your main force intelligently.
2.1.
Maximum 'health' for a division
is 1 x readiness, so normally 1.0. But if you dropped readiness to 60%, their
maximum strength would be 0.6. Units at the max of readiness won't accept any
more troops from the reinforcement pool. (Artillery normal maximum is .3, which
increases with particular upgrades.)
2.2.
Units below their maximum strength
receive a share of the reinforcements going out that month. Their share will
depend on whether it is in home, friendly, or enemy territory. Units must be
in-supply to receive reinforcements, though remember that units garrisoned inside
of a city are always considered to be in-supply. (I might be superstitious,
but I swear that units in the capital city get refilled faster!)
3.1.
Modifies production of resources
in each province controlled by the nation, ranging between 90% and 110% of regular
production
3.2.
Raises or lowers the morale of
units in the field by -.5 to +.5
3.3.
If the nation is at war, when
national morale is below -750, the nation has a 25% chance each month to surrender
spontaneously to one of its current enemies. I think that enemy has to have
troops in the nation.
3.4.
Riot: When national morale is
below -750, one or more provinces controlled by the nation may riot, destroying
one area of development in the province. The presence of a nation’s corps or
army in a province will prevent rioting from occurring.
3.5.
Insurrection: If a nation’s national
morale falls below -750, there is a 25% chance each month that one or more of
the nation’s provinces will stage an insurrection, either liberating itself
and becoming an independent country, or joining a foreign power. Only conquered
provinces can undergo an insurrection. The presence of a nation’s corps or army
in a province will prevent an insurrection from occurring.
3.6.
High NML gains you glory and low
NML costs you glory
3.7.
NML affects interest rates
3.8.
If AI NML drops under -350, they
clear the rally location set for them.
3.9.
NML contributes to the creation
of rebels (called insurrectionists in the game, I think)
4.1.
Privateers attack trade passing
through the sea zone they are in - any trade they capture is automatically put
on your stockpile. (ie. not about money - about wool or spice etc)
4.2.
You can use privateers to attack
merchants (to deprive the other nation of the sea zone) or other privateers.
4.3.
Merchants generate cash based
mainly on
4.3.1.
The levels of docks surrounding
the sea zone they are in (so trade near England is normally quite valuable) and
4.3.2.
The presence of other merchants
(as a real example, in the Adriatic Sea a single Turkish merchant was getting
125, when a US merchant came into the sea area too the Turkish income dropped
to 37) - I think this is partially competition driving prices down and partially
them getting some...
4.3.3.
The presence of privateers - CAUTION:
even your own privateers will wreck trade in the sea area
4.4.
NOTE: If your enemy has merchants,
you can attack them with fleets and privateers, or shadow them with your own
merchants to cripple the income they are generating.
4.5.
Many people get confused about the cash flow
from merchants. The amount you see on the strategic map isn't what you get -
it is the 'gross' amount. The 'net' amount will be affected by things like your
feudal level, waste etc. It will be a lot less. Be reassured though – you gain
money. (Although merchants do cost upkeep, so…)
4.6.
If you want to play the economic
powerhouse Britain from many other games, get those merchants to work, and don’t let
anybody sink them. Otherwise, you’re just relatively rich, not enormously wealthy.
5.1.
When things get desperate, people
often send out militia into battle - I prefer to put the militia into garrison.
Similarly, when I am taking territory, I would prefer to have a militia division
handy to be the garrison, rather than detaching an elite combat unit.
5.2.
Set Militia to move to a corps
or army which is full, and they will follow it around like a puppy until you
have a city for them garrison - just make sure you cancel the 'follow me' command.
5.3.
Want to USE those militia? - Move
men from the militia unit into an infantry unit in the same province using the
Military Adviser screen. I often 'top up' key units manually rather than waiting
for reinforcements to trickle in.
5.4.
NBB: Morale doesn’t matter in
siege combat – militia are as good as guards either on the inside or the outside
of a siege. I quite like to have a stack of siegers – see the section on sieging.
6.1.
The most important impact on your
economy is your feudal level. With a higher feudal level, you get more levies
and raise some feudal dues, but less productivity from the population (including
taxes) and less income from merchants.
6.2.
NB: For countries with a high
feudal level trying to raise money through merchants is very difficult. Changing
your feudal level has a short term impact on national morale (- can be 275 per
month for several months!), but may be worth it! It is interesting to try to
play with a very high feudal level...
6.3.
Income from provinces is based
on provincial stats – it’s either wealthy or it ain’t. Banks tweak at the edges,
but the big impact is tax rate. Don’t be afraid to become a high-taxing nation:
the real ones all had to. Just deal with the negative effects that high taxes
have on your national morale. One caution: you don’t get income from provinces
with 3 enemy divisions in them, and half income if blockaded – do it to them,
and don’t let them do it to you.
6.4.
Production of goods in a province
is based on the province's underlying capability (made a little visible through
the highly misleading 'best resources' notation, but better seen from the Ralegh
Briefing for your country or Ralegh’s Consolidated Province List), the population
working on that resource, and any impact from provincial improvements. Population
working on a resource is based the labour allocation to that category. This
means that a high population province without 'iron' as a 'best resource', for
example, might produce more iron than a province that has the speciality but
a very small population. However, if there isn't much iron to be mined, even
a very large population won't produce much.
6.5.
HOWEVER, note that production
is a probability estimate: actual production will vary based on random factors,
and on national morale (which factors production by .9 through to 1.1).
6.6.
The best way to see production
is the production report - which reflects actual production from last month,
not attempted production for next month. Note that things like waste, presence
of enemy units, and probability impact have all affected your plans, so it is
a bit different from what you were trying to do.
6.7.
What resources do I want? Generally,
this depends on what units you want to build; whether you want to boost national
morale (and glory) with luxuries; and your food plan. Generally (unless I am
trying for a population boom), I want enough food for perhaps one pop growth.
I always want luxuries. The rest varies.
6.8.
OK - so what does Ralegh do?
6.8.1.
Horses and wine are produced by
farmers, and I always want both, so any province with a speciality in either
gets maximum farming (and I build more farms there). Cotton and textiles are
reasonably rare, so provinces specializing in these I usually max in textiles
(wool is pretty common). Luxury specialists I usually maximize on luxuries.
Then I will allocate a bit to things like iron and timber to build up enough
of a pool for any building desires I might have (artillery for example, or building
barracks). I will then allocate the remaining provinces to (a) extra food production
if I need it from the ones with some level of farms (b) labour production from
the ones with factories (c) and provinces still left I will allocate to luxuries
(or anything I am very short on).
6.8.2.
Every month I will open the production
screen to make sure there wont be any starvation or more excess pop caused than
I want - periodically (once a game year?) I will scroll through adjusting production
for new priorities.
6.8.3.
Anyone working on textiles can
work on 2 wool and 1 cotton simultaneously at no cost to me. So get some cotton
into that stockpile!
7.1.
Divisions, while in a city, require
only half upkeep cost; since upkeep is much higher for cavalry and artillery
it's very good to transfer these to cities when at peace. More importantly,
though, diplomats, armies and corps are quite expensive for upkeep…
7.2.
Trade away embargoes on countries
you don't intend to trade with - France valued this in my latest game (as Turkey and needing some cash, I sold France me embargoing Sweden, Prussia, Britain and Spain - none of them would trade with me anyway! Besides, I was cash poor,
and couldn't afford to pay the upkeep on trade routes to them.) Also trade away
you respecting the neutrality of places you don’t care about – some of the other
players/AI might care.
7.3.
During a prolonged peace, put
your worst units (militia/irregulars) into an army or corps, and lend it out.
As Turkey, I rented the "Foreign Legion" (morale 1.3) to France, Sweden and Prussia at different points - and also rented most of them the "Syrian
Foreleg" (the crappy Syrian irregular cavalry corps). I have also rented
my fleet to France, Sweden and Britain at different points. This saves you paying some of the expenses on
these units during the peace, in addition to whatever you can raise for them.
7.4.
What do I trade for? Sometimes
alliances. Sometimes to get their overseas colonies (I love colonies - money
every month!). Sometimes for cash. Once I got France to promise to defend me for a year!
7.5.
Similarly, the AI will sometimes
pay decent amounts for a promise not to attack them for 3 years.
7.6.
The difference between the stockpile
numbers in the income report and the bottom of the screen is that the income
report gives you the gross immediately after production whereas the bottom of
the screen reflects the net after all your consumptions and expenses.
8.1.
Britain gets no wine - none at all - and very little horses. They have great
textiles, money, and iron. Other countries have other shortfalls - trade is
a way to try to give some of the stuff you make easily to get things that are
harder for you to produce.
8.2.
Beware however: the person who
establishes a trade routes pays CASH each month to maintain the route, and the
amount depends on the length of the route - it is easily possible to trade yourself
into bankruptcy.
8.3.
Also look out for privateers -
they steal resources as they are travelling the trade route. Dispatch your privateers
to chase them away.
8.4.
Trade does seem to improve your
relationship with the other power, though, and may sometimes be worth it for
that reason alone.
8.5.
[Rather than trading for resources
you want, get them by conquest: before taking a province from an enemy who surrenders
to you, use the "Show Production" setting on the map to see the top
4 products made by each of their provinces - and take one which produces things
you want.]
8.6.
Your trade adviser is a junior
merchant banker. He figures out whether a trade is roughly worthwhile in equivalency
terms - but has no clue whether it is DESIRABLE. Do you want the stuff it offers?
Are you willing to part with the stuff you would be trading away?
8.7.
To prevent silly trade offers
wasting your time use the SET POLICY screen to identify what goods you want
to trade for, and what goods you are willing to trade away, and turn on the
Trade Adviser. Then you can do the more complex stuff manually, without being
bothered by silly proposals from people who should know better.
9.1.
Let’s assume you gather lots of
troops into one area to build a mega-army, and you build a depot to supply them.
To supply them, your commissary will draw down on your cash and food reserves
- until one is exhausted. Remaining units will forage automatically. Typically
this means all cash will be expended and a heck of a lot of food.
9.2.
In the next month, several units
of population will starve - they were going to be eating the food that went
out to supply the army! That will reduce your tax income, and probably your
food production (some of them were farmers), and reduce your national morale
(which may reduce your productivity). That means there will be less money and
food to spend on supply... Your overall economy will continue to shrink until
there is so little excess cash being produced that your food production is adequate
to maintain the population AND provide whatever supply you are paying for. In
the worst case, this won't happen until national morale has collapsed and you
are forced to surrender to all enemies.
9.3.
NOTE: supply costs are highest
in enemy territory; medium in friendly territory; and lowest in your own territory.
Supplying an invading army is very difficult. Supplying units at home will make
sure that there aren't any forage losses there absorbing the reinforcements
- if you can't spread them out enough to forage-without-loss.
9.4.
What should I try?
o
Try setting an invading army to
forage, BUT STILL BUILD THE SUPPLY CHAIN. That way reinforcements will refill
the units for the forage losses. THAT IS HOW NAPOLEAN CONQUERED EUROPE.
o
If you are going to pay for supply,
produce lots of excess food, and watch what actually happens in your economy.
9.5.
Oh - and to recover an economy
that is out of control, make excess food so you can build the population back
up. But I'd start a new game.
10.1.
SETTING RALLY LOCATIONS ON THE
STRATEGIC MAP
10.1.1.
Set rally locations EARLY
·
Allies will respond to the rally
location commands you give them - but it takes a while:
·
Firstly, they don't even know
about the rally location until after the current movement phase ends - because
the messenger doesn't reach them until they have already given their orders
for the current turn.
·
Secondly, they have to move units
there.
10.1.2.
Clear or move rally locations
·
Your allies will continue to obey
the rally location instruction long after it became irrelevant - either move
it, or clear it so they can make their own decisions. Especially remember to
do this if you go to peace with the enemy - your ally will still be obeying
the rally instruction (if they can).
10.1.3.
They won't obey rally locations
which are at sea.
10.1.4.
The best rally locations in my
view are:
·
the enemy capital
·
in the obvious path the enemy
must take to get to your capital (ie. as Sweden I had Russia rally at Malmo, preventing the French getting in)
·
an area from which you can call
them into battle as reinforcements (ie. neighbouring lots of areas where you
expect battles to occur)
10.2.
DETAILED COMBAT
10.2.1.
Your supply caissons can supply
allied units - look for any that need it.
10.2.2.
The AI generals will take your
positions into account when manoeuvring - including protecting your disordered
units etc. I have had situations where I created a partial line, and the AI
slotted onto the right flank just as I wanted them to!
10.2.3.
You don't share visibility information
in detailed combat (reflecting the poor-by-modern-standards cooperation that
is the best possible in the period), so you might want to send a unit (or a
partial unit created with the split command) to keep an eye on their part of
the battlefield.
10.3.
C: GENERAL
10.3.1.
You can make good treaties with
allies - access and shared depots don't make much sense since that is something
they get for being your ally. I like protection and mutual defence pacts, though!
10.3.2.
If you want to conserve your allies
troops, consider putting depots down to help them if they will be moving through
an area where you can do this easily and they cannot. They still pay for the
supply – you just pay for the depots (which are expensive).
10.3.3.
You can set rally locations for
allies even when you are not at war with the people they are fighting - they
will ignore such orders if they are in territory they are not allowed to access.
You could, for example, rally them in your territory where (perhaps) their enemy
won’t follow them. The reverse is true too - if you are at war but your ally
is not, you could rally their forces to the appropriate border before you make
a treaty to get them to attack...
11.1.
Blockading an enemy port prevents
it trading, and also reduces its normal monetary income by 50%
11.2.
Diplomats legal ratings affect
the number of victory points you get in a surrender: more legal points means
more surrender conditions!
11.3.
Depots cost nothing to build,
but lots to maintain. They cost twice as much in neutral or enemy territory
(but not in allied territory). Supply costs are: 1 money and one food per division
(an extra food for infantry, who march on their stomachs). That goes up by .5
money if in enemy territory, and by 2 money for divisions in excess of 20 divisions
in an area.
11.4.
In quick combat, infantry with
fewer than 4000 men and ships with less than 5 strength have to take morale
checks even without getting hit! - Don't take them into the combat with you.
(For infantry, you can transfer some strength around to avoid this!)
11.5.
Resting only helps in hexwar if
the division skips its whole turn - even rotating in place is enough to prevent
you getting the benefit.
11.6.
Don't automatically think having
units up on a height is a good thing:
·
Units on a height don't exert
a zone of control to neighbouring hexes down (and vice-versa)
·
Artillery do much less damage
when firing from a height - grazing fire does lots more damage. However, infantry
do MORE damage from up on a height.
·
So: consider having screened artillery
down at ground level if damage is more important than the flexibility of choosing
its target. [Note: damage to their morale and hence most of the chance to disorder
them is not affected.]
11.7.
Bad weather HALVES Money, Food,
Labour, Horses, Spice and Wine.
11.8.
The level of roads affects the
labour cost of all increases over its level (see 7.4.3)
12.1.
If you're up against a lot of
artillery, try putting a few infantry in the charge rank. Keeping cavalry in
the Defend zone is usually a good idea, but they are also good for charging.
Keep artillery in the attack zone, though they can also defend.
12.2.
If you're up against a large force,
think about it as a battle line--with a centre, a right flank, and a left flank.
Pick one flank to attack with, and the other to defend--or try to go up the
middle. With a smaller force, keep them clustered close together, usually near
the top or bottom of the screen, since that helps reduce the number of simultaneous
enemy divisions you can fight.
12.3.
Be sure to bring in a couple of
generals if at all possible, as otherwise rallying will be much harder.
12.4.
If you have any 'poor' units with
you, make sure they are in defend BEHIND someone else - that way they shouldn't
take any hits until towards the end of the battle.
12.5.
To withdraw from Quick Combat,
leave all your units in the routed area and press DONE. The enemy may get a
pursuit, but at least you are out of there.
12.6.
CRITICAL: Infantry/Cavalry Divisions
with less than 4000 men will have to morale check every round even without taking
damage - that means they are very likely to break and break early in the battle.
Reorganise your men to have some fuller divisions to actually stay and fight!