Crown of Glory:
Europe in the Age of Napoleon

The Ralegh Tip Guides

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!

13.1.       This is a type of quick combat, so review those notes too.

13.2.       Naval combat is strongly affected by naval modifiers - for example, in 1805 Spain NEEDS to significantly outnumber Britain to win a naval battle, AND have the wind gauge. [The Americans are pretty good too.]

13.3.       Wind gauge is VERY important - if you went into the battle at all concerned and the enemy got the wind gauge, WITHDRAW.

13.4.       Frigates defend you when you withdraw, and conduct the pursuit if you win - great!

13.5.       Any ships you capture are used to bring your naval divisions up to full strength - any excess is lost. The only way to get a new naval division it to build one. Your naval divisions also slowly 'heal' while in port, based on the level of port development - again, to full strength only,

13.6.       Britain is awesome in 1805 - the only way I could beat them was to massively reduce their numbers in the first battle (which I lost), and then outnumber them by lots in the second (or third) battle, when I managed to win. I got lucky with a good pursuit when I won the battle, which refilled my naval divisions - it’s lovely when it all works for you.

14.1.       Corps and armies in the same area are automatically part of a battle. Reinforcing happens in two situations:

14.1.1.       Participation by troops inside a city and

14.1.2.       Reinforcing from a neighbouring area.

14.2.       In both cases, if you choose to do it, it is automatically successful.

14.3.       Factoids:

14.3.1.       At the end of the combat, troops from a city go back into the city IF YOU WIN. If you lose, they retreat with the rest of the stack, leaving the city gates open for the other side. For this reason I would NEVER EVER EVER use the city garrison.

14.3.2.       Reinforcing from a neighbouring area moves the units into the area of the combat (ie. They don't go back) which may let someone walk through where they were. Be careful - exuberant reinforcing can wreak your neatly made strategic plans, either allowing some other battle to not occur or people to slip by you.

14.3.3.       Morale in COG is on a unit-by-unit basis, so "gamesmanship tactics" of some games of having low morale troops reinforce a high morale force have no impact. If you must have lots of low morale troops in a battle, consider hiding them away in a corner of the board - they will help your force not rout...

14.3.4.       Reinforcing leaders in quick combat don't get their pictures drawn on the screen, but do affect the battle (as do leaders over the first three).

14.3.5.       In detailed combat, a reinforcing unit (corps or army) can be called once per day of battle. Reinforcing divisions from that unit arrive at the rate of 1/turn for an army, 2/turn for a corps. The divisions start arriving on the turn after reinforcements are called and cannot move the first turn they arrive (additionally, they arrive fatigued and with a small loss from their optimal morale; artillery arrive tangled and must spend another turn untangling.)

14.3.6.       QC reinforcements have to make a check: if succeed they are placed in the player's defence area, if fail they are placed in the rout area (and may be rallied into battle as any other unit that starts in the rout area).

15.1.       After quick combat there is a chance for pursuit -- 50% the loser slips away without pursuit, 50% of having pursuit. In pursuit, pursuing cavalry make a check to see if they score a hit; retreating cavalry make a check to see if they block a hit. "Hits" are then randomly distributed among retreating units and cause on average 1,000 casualties.

15.2.       In naval combats, frigates cause/block hits.

15.3.       In detailed combat you get 3 turns to do as much damage as you can, while they don't fight back (exception: particularly high morale units might still be able to attack - watch for cavalry and guards).

15.4.       In COG, units can only retreat one area. They MAY violate the border of a non-allied major power in retreat, but can't retreat into the sea. So if you can put a division in the areas surrounding a main stack, and then defeat the stack, they all surrender! [A solitary division counts to prevent retreat - it doesn't have to be a corps/army - go Cossacks!] This is the fastest way to force someone to the surrender table!

16.1.       The manual tells you how - here is some WHAT and some WHY.

16.2.       The role of infantry is to fix the enemy in place. Either infantry fire attacks or artillery can be used to disrupt their formation. A charge - infantry will do, but cavalry is best - does the actual killing.

16.2.1.       Try not to charge an enemy until after their formation is disrupted - sometimes you have to, but it is less efficient.

16.2.2.       Ideally, establish an infantry wall, in line formation, and have the enemy come to you (in column!). Have the artillery firing over their heads (from a mound or hill). When the enemy are in disorder, have the cavalry charge them (then the cavalry comes back where it is safe to let the horses recover from the trauma).

16.2.3.       Infantry can be used as a poor man’s artillery with fire attacks, and can be used as a poor man’s cavalry with charge attacks. Cavalry can't do the job of artillery (if a cavalry charge is used to disrupt an enemy formation, you probably won't get any more use from that cavalry division for quite a while), and artillery isn't much good at the job of cavalry (disordered troops are harder for the artillery to hit than nice neat lines).

16.3.       You do the least damage if you fire at their fronts - you do the most if you fire at their backs. You do the least damage firing behind yourself, and the most firing forwards. So ideally, fire to your front up their rear!

16.3.1.       Corollary: fire into their flanks in preference to head on.

16.3.2.       Don't charge them head on - that’s what they trained for. Charge them from the flanks or rear.

16.4.       Column formation is for moving. Line formation is for firing and charging. You can move in line, and you can charge in column - it’s just not what they are for. However, far better to fire and charge in line than to stand around in disorder. Assess your chances of the formation change, and the threat of the enemy taking advantage of some disorder, and decide. [Hint: resting a turn may improve your chances. Moving out of enemy zone of control helps too.]

16.4.1.       During the pursuit phase, forget line: you need the movement capability to catch up with them and charge. And charge. And charge.

16.4.2.       Please don’t give me a detailed discussion of the historical “attack column” and why it was so effective for French charges. I’ve heard the story. WCS say ‘maybe in a sequel.’ Similarly, I understand that artillery were really limbered or unlimbered, and that limbered artillery weren’t much good in a fight. But this is a division. Think of it as an abstraction.

16.5.       Fresh troops do the most damage. Non-fatigued troops do well. Fatigued troops do poorly. Disordered troops can't attack. Routed troops are done for.

16.5.1.       Rest your forces: you usually do more damage attacking every second round and resting every second round rather than firing every round!

16.5.2.       The morale and fatigue recovery (and 'rallying') improve with a general: move your general to the division who needs him the most. This is a far more important use of generals than their combat bonus.

16.6.       Your strategic goal in the battle is to kill as many enemy soldiers as possible. Every soldier who dies won't be fighting you in the next battle or the next war. (And to take over their artillery so you can use it henceforth.) Your tactical goal is to win the battle, which is about manipulating MORALE.

16.6.1.       Try to have a safe haven where you can move units with low morale (or currently in disorder) so they can recover without being further attacked.

16.6.2.       Pick the enemies lowest morale units, and focus on them: it only takes a few units breaking for a ripple effect to cascade through the enemy. Concentrate your fire.

16.6.3.       The enemy will be trying to have a rest and recovery area too. If you can sneak some units in there to make sure those units are routed rather than resting to come back in the battle, that is a great thing to do. (Hint: reinforcements can be particularly good at this.)

16.6.4.       Attacking units which are already routed is only done for the strategic goal: for the tactical goal you would let them run away and focus on the next unit to break.

16.7.       Units in supply do oodles more damage than units out of supply (although charging is still OK out of supply). Keep your guys supplied.

16.7.1.       Ideally, have a depot in the area before the combat occurs - that will make sure you get lots of caissons.

16.7.2.       If you don't get many caissons, (a) take some of his [a really good charge will take them over and you can use them for the rest of the battle]; (b) ending your turn in a village or fort gets you some supply - if you are resting to recover morale/fatigue, why not do it in a village?

16.7.3.       The enemy know how important supply is - if they get a chance, they will rout your supply caissons. Protect them! (They can make great bait!)

16.8.       Sometimes you should give them a target. Let them fire at a particular unit. Have that division send out skirmishers if possible to reduce the damage they take. And don't have them fire back: they need to rest to recover the morale they are loosing. And make sure you pull them out if their morale starts to go or they get in disorder - they aren't there to sacrifice themselves: they are there to make the enemy waste their ammo while you are doing horrible things to them!

16.9.       The enemy will use cavalry to get you out of line formation and into emergency squares. That is not a tactic I use. You can try to use it if you like. I often find that the first phase of the battle is me waiting out the enemy cavalry: they normally exhaust themselves before their infantry get into close combat. When I want my cavalry is when there are lots of disordered units around: I save my cavalry for that. [Historically, French generals used their cavalry the way I do. Prussians tended to behave more the way the AI does.]

16.10.   Ordered units cannot move through disordered units. Disordered units CAN move through other disordered units.

16.11.   The aim is to get an enemy unit into disorder and then charge through it (multiple times!) - Just shooting at a unit might kill 23-390 men: with a charge, 363 up to 42,000 are possibilities I have seen (with 1000-3000 being 'normal'). [The 42,000 was a fresh heavy cavalry unit in line formation charging the rear of an out-of-supply routed infantry division which was standing on ice. And no, there weren't that many of them.]

16.11.1.   Don't usually charge a unit that is not in disorder (unless its morale is broken) - sometimes it is worth it as a tactic to try to put them into disorder...

16.11.2.   How else to get them into disorder? - Artillery bombardment is the very best (this is what artillery is for - the casualties they inflict is quite secondary)

·         firing into a unit from different directions can put them into disorder

·         try to cut them off from supply and use up their ammo

16.11.3.   NOTE: don't do what historical generals did and have units pair off attacking each other. Do what Napoleon taught the French army to do: concentrate fire on a few units, and drive them from the field of battle, then switch your aim to other units (but keep your fire concentrated)

16.12.   Warning: if you charge with a unit, it may end up itself disordered. Enemy units may then try to take advantage. The AI is GOOD at doing this - if you charge forward with a cavalry to get that enticing artillery unit on his frontline, your cavalry wont be coming back!

16.13.   If a unit is in disorder, pull it away from the frontline - a) so it can't be charged and (b) because being out of the zoc of enemy units helps you getting back into formation. Get used to the idea that units need to be pulled back and rested to get them back into order - otherwise, the enemy will chew you up.

16.14.   For this reason, don't pack the line of combat with units - you need space to pull some units out and push other units forward. Cramping yourself will create a situation where the frontline disordered units can't be pulled back, and hence will stay there till they (and your army most likely) rout.

16.15.   The way the rules work, when a unit is routed all units on its side within 6 hexes take a morale loss of .5. Units that have morale less than the unit that was routed take an additional loss of .5. So if you manage to rout an enemy guard unit, all the other units in the area take a loss of 1 morale. So sometimes it is worth charging a unit a few times even if it puts several of your units in disorder -- but whether it's worth it or not to do this really depends on the situation.

16.16.   In detailed combat, morale is unit by unit, but the "your troops are beginning to panic" is calculated by looking at the total number of troops that are have broken morale -- if you have more broken units than ordered units (disordered units with >0 morale don't count either way) then your side begins to panic. That message causes a significant morale loss to all your units - often enough to kick you over the edge.

16.17.   If you have 3x as many broken than ordered then you are forced to retreat.

16.18.   Having low morale units in reserve can make all the difference (by reserve, I mean not engaged in combat and far enough away not to be affected by it). However many low morale units can become a liability if the enemy can find them and turn the lot of them.

16.19.   When a hexwar battle starts, your units will be strung out near one side of the map, and the enemy strung out on the other side. The degree of 'stringing out' is based on

·         your corps/army structure - units in the same corps will be grouped etc

·         Your leadership - better leaders mean you are closer together.

16.20.   You will be quit near the enemy. CAUTION. A favourite tactic is for enemy cavalry to charge your artillery or supply caissons in the very first turn. Your priority in the first turn or two should be to get the artillery screened, and the supply caissons behind your lines / surrounded by friendlies.

16.21.   By the way, if you try charging an enemy artillery or supply caisson in the first moments, they will usually surround your cavalry unit, and it won't be coming back until it is routed. You can consider doing that to them: just make sure you are making a decision about the ground the battle is fought on, not just reacting to them.

16.22.   Sometimes you won't be able to see any enemy units at the very start - I would use tentative cavalry advances (ie. use half their movement points, leaving some for running away) to identify where the enemy are exactly. NBB: they will be sort of in a mirror position to your own on the map, not out in a corner or anything.

16.23.   Kill opposing generals by doing lots of damage to their corps – charge into it, fire point blank with artillery – whatever. And don’t leave Napoleon in a corps that is taking enemy charges – he’ll die, and then you’ll be very sorry! Remember: generals are far more important for their impact on rallying than for their effect on the combat itself – move them around.

17.1.       I've been asked about the line of battle in hex war - here is an example, with some comments. (I am the Swedes, facing the French)

17.2.       Note how I am using the terrain:

17.2.1.       The water/city provides a nice protection for my left flank.

17.2.2.       I have artillery on the heights where they can fire over the heads of the infantry. They are MUCH less effective at killing people this way, but they can choose their targets with ease, and are still pretty good at disrupting enemy formations. It’s a compromise. [In other battles I would have the arty on the flat, and inf on the hills.]

17.3.       Infantry and some arty are in line formation to do the max damage

17.4.       I deployed half my cavalry to protect my right flank - the other half were used in early charges (The French were silly enough to have militia that were close to me at the start try to get into line formation - they disordered, so I finished them off - they are routing to the NW now.) Those cavalry are well to the rear, resting.

17.5.       My supply caissons are protected

17.6.       There is no hex the enemy can reach from which they could possibly charge my artillery which is not also bordered by an infantry unit (which prevents any such charge: this is called screening). Supply caissons can be screened too.

17.7.       If I had guards with this army (sob), they would be centrally located, to boost as many units as possible. Possibly in reserve.

17.8.       What next -

17.8.1.       Having the infantry right up next to each other isn't really necessary (well, it prevents cavalry from threading through the line, but the enemy cavalry is nearly done): I will stretch the infantry line to the East, allowing the cavalry to be used as enemy units disorder. Ideally the cavalry should be just behind the front line, waiting for a chance.

17.8.2.       I'll watch the baddies: several corps are moving NW rather than engaging with me - I might swing my line around to run North South to bring those corps into the range of my guns… We will see.

Here are 10 steps I execute at the very first turn of a game, no matter which country I am.

18.1.       OPTIONS: On the options page, turn off "always use quick combat" - then you can choose detailed combat when there are more than 30,000 mean on each side. I would also turn off "reinforce from city" - but this is a tactical suggestion.

18.2.       ECONOMY: On the economy screen, change recruiting to optimise morale - I set it to 21-40 year olds and 20 months of training. That will increase morale of reinforcements to 4.70. Increase draft size to maximum. Increase tax rate to 20% for now. (Do NOT play with your feudal setting - this has big ramifications and you need to be ready for it.)

18.3.       PRODUCTION: Go through the province details, setting each province to maximum production of something they are very good at, and put all the rest on something else you need. The default settings of a little from everywhere are silly. Make sure when you finish that you are producing MORE food than you need and will accumulate resources for your building program (both to your cities, and new units). Identify any resources you make lots of (and hence would be willing to trade away), and any you would be willing to trade for.  [Note that horses, wine, textiles, iron, spices and luxuries are all scarce for some countries - if you can produce some extra to use for trade, do so!]

18.4.       POLICY: Go to the Set Policy screen, and adjust the trading defaults (whether you control this manually or with the adviser, set this screen - it will save you time and effort!). For example, Prussia might be willing to export horses, iron, wool, and spices and want to import money, luxuries, and wine.

18.5.       TRADE: If you are trading manually, try to make some trade offers. Caution: trade routes you propose cost you a little money to maintain (the amount varies with distance, and is less if both ends are ports): if money is a big problem, don't propose any. If you can afford it, set up at least one trade route with each neighbour - it will improve your relationship.

18.6.       TREATY: Make your first treaty proposal - you can make one a month, and you should make a treaty with every country you are not at war with over the first months of the game: think of it as establishing relations.

18.7.       UNITS: Now lets consider our military units:

18.7.1.       No country in the game starts with an optimum assignment of divisions corps/armies. In this first turn, let’s try to get things on a better footing. Only France starts the game with corps (and 5 neutral minors, btw), so they can get many more units into an army than anyone else - which lets their leaders have a bigger effect and assures the units don't get split up. An ideal force should be about half infantry and a quarter each artillery and cavalry: your force mix probably won't be in these proportions, but this gives you an idea how I would split things up, and what units I would be building.

18.7.2.       If you have choice of which units to use, consider their morale and use the better ones.

18.7.3.       Change EVERY army and corps from "use supply" to "forage". Now you can cautiously allow paid supply in rare circumstances. (Still build supply depots at key areas - they get you supply caissons in combat and preferential reinforcements.) You will take some foraging losses, but hopefully reinforcements will keep topping up the units.

18.7.4.       Most countries forces start partially depleted (as if readiness was only just turned up to 100%). Consider transferring men from poor morale units into high morale units of the same type (ie. pumping militia into infantry). If you want the poor morale unit to get reinforced, make sure you leave 2000 men in it. If you would rather be rid of the division for good, take all the men!

18.7.5.       CAUTION: Do not go into quick combat with infantry/cavalry divisions under 4000 men - they will rout without doing much for you. Transfer troops!

18.7.6.       If you have spare army/corps counters, fill one with whatever you have left over, and use it to siege things. (I often call this the 'militia army').

18.8.       DIPLOMATS: Make sure you move your diplomats - if nothing else, have them work on charming a neighbour, or pressure peace on an enemy.

18.9.       NAVAL: Consider your naval units: every nation starts with at least one merchant and a privateer - you want the merchant in a high paying sea area, and the privateer(s) in a different sea area where there is either an enemy trade route, or somebody else's merchant. Get them going.

18.10.   ADVISERS: Last check - did you turn on all the advisers you want? They really help when learning the game. Beware that they development adviser may rearrange all the province labour allocation we set, and the economy adviser may change the economy settings - I would always turn at least these two off. 

19.1.       If you sail into a port which you own (or is owned by an ally) and then end your (naval) movement, your troops can disembark and keep marching the following month.

19.2.       Be wary - your fleets will move much more slowly when they are laiden with troops: about 2 sea areas a month?

19.3.       Some beta users had difficulty with the interface here: think of land forces moving before naval forces (they don't, but this will help you issue orders that will actually be carried out). So:

·         move the fleets into the province, end turn

·         load the troops and sail out, end turn

·         sail to destination sea zone and end turn

·         disembark the troops

19.4.       While on board the fleets, your troops will be foraging in a zero-forage zone. To pay for supply, create a sea supply chain...

20.1.       OK - here is summary data I find interesting.

20.1.1.       The first few columns are pretty obvious. They don't include the city garrisons.

20.1.2.       "Max Glory" is the most glory a nation could earn from its Political Goals.

20.1.3.       "Cities" includes provinces, conquered provinces, and protectorates.

20.1.4.       "Money" is the base money produced by the provinces (unaffected by population or banks etc) - so this one isn't much use, but its something.

20.1.5.       For the ship counts and morale, I have included all ships, not just warships.

20.2.       Other amusing factoids:

20.2.1.       Turkey is actually the most capable nation for producing wool+cotton+luxeries - with the second highest luxeries capability (also up there are France and Austria).

20.2.2.       Turkey also produces the most food (just pipping France), equal second for horses (after Prussia, and equal with France and Austria) and the most spice+luxeries (leading Austria).

20.2.3.       France has an initial population of 139 - Britian 35 and Sweden 24.

20.2.4.       In a per-city sense, economic capability (adding up all the resources) France and Sweden are up the top, Britain, Prussia, Austria and Spain in the middle, and Russia and Turkey have the worst.

20.2.5.       Again, in a per-city sense, current development (adding up all the levels of developable things like factories and banks), Sweden, Britain, Prussia and France are the most developed, Austria and Spain next, with Russia and Turkey last. For the 1805 (default) scenario:

21.1.       Cavalry will always get disorganised if you charge an organised enemy - but not always if you charge a disorganised enemy - and there is an upgrade to help. I reserve my cavalry for charging disorganised enemies (and artillery).

21.2.       The chance to reform is influenced by upgrades, type of unit, terrain you are sitting on, turns resting since the charge, distance to nearest friendly disordered unit, and whether you are in enemy line of sight as well as a number of other factors. All of these influence the chance, none are 'binary' - so:

21.2.1.       Move the unit out of enemy line-of-sight, and preferably more than 5 hexes from the nearest friendly disorganised unit [I don't know but I suspect that enemy disorganised units affect this too, so I get away from them as well!]

21.2.2.       Get into a hex of 'open' terrain - not city, not wooded

21.2.3.       In my opinion, the chance of 10% working is about 1% - I don't even try if the button for column says 10%.

21.2.4.       If you move the unit at all, you might as well hit the 10% button - resting the rest of your movement points won't do anything [resting is an all-or-nothing thing].

21.2.5.       I may be wrong about this, but my perception is that leaders don't actually help very much with cavalry reforming after a charge, although they do help lots with units changing formation usually. Move the leaders to somewhere more interesting while the horses recover

21.2.6.       Just let the horses sleep at night - in the morning their chance to reform will go up HEAPS: they are used to starting work first thing in the morning.

21.3.       Even with these notes, irregular cavalry with low morale usually only get one charge per day. But Lancers tend to be OK to go again after only a couple of turns.

22.1.       Some notes from Alaric_31, whose research gives some indicative numbers of how the economy changes with different difficulty and power settings. (Power also impacts starting forces.) [Using France in 1805 - standard scenario]

Minimum Difficulty (Easiest) and Maximum Power (+3) give a tax income of 1289$.
Minimum Difficulty (Easiest) and Lowest Power (-3) give a tax income of 407$.

Maximum Difficulty (Bonaparte) and Lowest Power (-3) give a Tax income of 297$. Maximum Difficulty (Bonaparte) and Maximum Power (+3) give a tax income of 959$.

It affects resource production as well, but this settings by the designers give a great variety of difficulty levels -- a very good thing, I think. People that go to bankrupt can try tweaking these settings for a more easy play.

23.1.       The manual is confusing on this - partly because it seems to give us extra information we don't get for other goods, and partly because it just ain't clear.

23.2.       Each province has independent values for the production of wool, cotton and textiles. Wool values are 0, 1 or 2 (except for Flanders which is a 4). Cotton is much scarcer, mainly being produced in North Africa (some 1s and 2s, and a 6 and 8 in Egypt). Textile capability is well spread, with half the provinces a 1 and half a 2 - everyone can produce Textiles - (plus Picardy is a 3).

23.3.       The more labour you allocate to "textiles", the more of each of these is produced. Labour allocated to other areas does not help at all. Provinces that do not put any people to work on textiles do not produce textiles.

23.4.       Note that the total population of the province has a very large effect on textile production (as opposed to some others where it is a smaller effect).

23.5.       Wool and cotton are affected by FARMS; Textiles are affected by FACTORIES.

23.6.       Some provinces produce textiles, but do not produce much if any wool or cotton (for example, Krakow and Normandy are both 0 0 2 provinces). If lots of people work on textiles in these provinces, they will be drawing down on the national stockpile of these products to produce the textiles. This is more likely to happen in provinces with lots of factories and few farms.

23.7.       Your workers will work simultaneously on 2 wool and 1 cotton if there are any available, at no extra charge. So try to have both available to maximize the textiles being produced.

23.8.       Finally:

23.8.1.       Textiles suffer more from waste than anything else - the 80% loss rate cuts in much earlier. That means you need to work harder to get 'em. [I often do lots of manually trading to collect extra textiles.]

23.8.2.       Textiles have a special barrier: textiles produced that would put your stockpile over 100 are consumed by the population (increasing your national morale) for no benefit to you. If your textiles get over about 80, spend them [unless you are saving up for something that costs 100]. Better to have the build order sitting in a queue than to lose textiles to the darn populace! [Its actually 100 + this month’s production, which is why you will see higher numbers.]

24.1.       In COG 1.1 there are a few province weirdness (well, they seem weird to me) [note: under the hood anything that can have troops of its own is called a player, and any territory on the map is called a province - a player that can have a human is called a nation]

24.2.       There are two multi-province players who are named after a subordinate province - Batavia (of Batavian army fame) has its capital in Friedland, and Morocco has its capital in Oran. To conquer or liberate etc go for the regional capital, not the province that just happens to have the same name as the player.

24.3.       Several players have a different name to their province (besides the ones referred to above):
-- Tripoli becomes Tripolitania
-- Venetia becomes Veneto
-- Zealand becomes Denmark
-- Lower Egypt becomes Egypt
-- Krakow becomes Poland in 1792 (and Krakow the rest of the time)
-- Pest becomes Hungary
-- Banka becomes Algeria
-- Damascus becomes Syria
In these cases, the player name and the province name can be thought of as interchangeable.

24.4.       Berg and Sicily, while they can be players in their own right, start as subordinate provinces of other players. That can mean that ceding or liberating the larger player will detach them. Similarly, Poland in 1792 starts with half a down subordinate players: you can separate them.