Baptism of fire #2

Well guys,

it has been the utmost honour to play as CinC in tonights fight - I am still stunned about how the battle developed...

I must say I am utterly astonished by the performance of my commanders in the field - you all outdid yourself!!!


nevertheless it is traditional that the AAR - or the AAB (after action briefing) is used to discuss what happened - and since it was my first time as CinC - and we didn't get to discuss my mistakes in TS anymore I would like to open up this topic for all those that took part to take a stab at me and call me a noob

my personal impressions are as follows:

I had a very easy job to do - the situation was very simple and all I had to do was to ensure that we would all arrive on the field together - which we did....
Kevin may have complained about his troops being exhausted - if it was true or not - no matter - I may have kicked off the assault a bit too early - 15 mins later would not have hurt (we did need every minute later though...) - but I think the overall attack plan was sound...

once we got towards the enemy our center division got engaged heavily and our northern division got there just a bit too late to keep one of the center brigades from routing... from that point onwards we were just fighting for survival - although we may have won by points - the position we were in - just to the very ending, where it was rectified - was a very bad one... I tried to get our two wings to converge on each other - and to reform a uninterrupted line - but the enemy was just too strong...



so - what could I have done better? - too many messages? too few? - unclear orders? impossible orders?

fire away and have at me

Replay of the battle.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4zzxoosola61qrv/Blenheim_Replay.rar?dl=0

The .rep file of course goes in your saved games/replays folder.

The .csv and .jpg go in the folder where you have installed Kevin's replay viewer. Suggest you keep a backup of the original .csv in there.

CinC wrote:fire away and have at me

No problem.

Well done in commanding that bunch of misfits, we survived. I'm not sure we would have been able to completely defeat the French, but we did get the better of the fight. Watching the replay, I think we commenced the battle too soon. Our flank divisions were not really in position. The result was more of a meeting engagement. I blame Martin. His impetuosity got us all in trouble. Of course it is the CinC's responsibility to rein-in his more bellicose commanders. Unless it was the CinC that ordered the attack in the first place. The only person who will give you more trouble than Martin is the other Martin. He is beyond all redemption I'm afraid. Must be something about that name.

For the record, the AI had 9% more troops than us, but of poorer quality. The combination of the two produced almost perfectly matched armies.

I completely agree - we should have waited a bit with the attack... I kept both other Divisions in the loop as to your progress and kept telling them to not engage decisively until you were in a position to deliver the coup de grace... but by the time you were in position to engage the fight was on anyway

as I mentioned in the messages: the plan was to pin the enemy with two division frontally and then have Kevin turn their southern flank....

the beautiful thing about the whole battle is that the way it developed happened so many times in real life:

1) Although they were ordered to do so I am unsure on how intensively the northern and the centre division communicated with each other - very common back in those days
2) the northern division wandered off a bit too far to the north and lost contact with the centre - this ensuring the demise of ej's brigade - some commanders there may have been too cautious in the beginning...
3) Kevin's Division down south had no cavalry and was thus unable to really go up against the position he was facing...


really quite realistic! - I loved it

SJ and I were out doing some drills with the troops and this guy named Field Marshal (*&(*@#&$(*#@&$()#@*&#)(%^*&#($*&#@($*&!()*&$#@($&(#* von stupoop, told us to attack the frogs in the field.

We had a rather exciting time until we ran out of ammo, that was a first. Only to find out later the FM knew that this was going to be the case without informing his troops.




Good Job Roland!

didn't want to make it too easy for you, otherwise it would not have been ANY challenge  - we were only beating up on poor AI pixeltroops anyway...  


edith says: besides - the wench you sent over - which you classified as the "prettiest around" was rather disappointing after all.., couldn't even get my morale back up after the slaughter on the field...

didn't want to make it too easy for you, otherwise it would not have been ANY challenge

They were doing pretty well from what I observed. You kept sending me messages to move north and help poor Digby. One note was even tear stained. I almost sent you one of my embroidered hankies.

indeed - the amount of tears involved will tell you all about the battle.... that must have been right when SJ's Brigade withdrew from the field and left Digby alone - who actually arrived to help out SJ in the first place

I told you that her name was Helga Half Calf, you could have said no! I never heard a thing from you after that.

well I simply expected one of my trusted (now not so much any more) Divisional commanders to be able to acquire a higher class of wench

"Help poor Digby"? What is this fiction? Duels have been fought over less sir! I'll quote the 101st airborne at Bastogne - "we never needed rescuing".

As for the early attack, it was well past time for luncheon sir, and your division was late, sir, late! We cannot have the men's mealtimes disrupted in this unfashionable manner and we therefore made our attack as ordered.

See I told you Digby was in charge and did not like your orders Roland!

I'll deal with those uncooperative and over impulsive commanders soon enough - a trip to the eastern front usually fixes those things... a few weeks in Siberia and all is back to "Yes, Sir - as you wish, Sir - Aye, Sir - of course, Sir, can I do anything else to help you, Sir...!"