MAKING AN ARMY

How on earth to get started...

BEFORE YOU START:

Register for the Forum at http://murat.ca/phpBB3/index.php Creation of a user name there is not directly related to creation of a character in game. The forum is a great tool for communication and coordination between players but is not a requirement to play. You will eventually be granted access to appropriate alliance boards once you have your character in game created.

APPLICATION INFORMATION

When you first submit your request to join campaign, you will submit the following information to malcolm_mccallum@hotmail.com

Nation -The nation you wish to play (currently Austria, Ottoman, Prussia, Russia, Netherlands, Britain or France). You can check out the various nations from the Europe page http://www.murat.ca/Navigation/europe.php

Character -The historic figure you wish to play (on the main Campaign page you will see the list of player characters already in game). A list of all current character available for each nation can be found on the various nations pages. More can be added as desired/requested.

Name & Email -your real name and the email that you want Campaign administrative emails sent to.

Wing -The name of the Army Wing that you wish to command.

Starting Depot-The city or fortress in your home nation (or province of your home nation) that you wish to start in. A depot will be created here if there is not already one. (Depots are national assets)

A Username and Password

Spies-Which 3 cities you wish spies to be in and how many divisions they must see before they return with news. These spies will begin the game in place. Spies can be added later but will require 3-5 days to get into position. Because spies will also take 3-5 days to report back when they get information, start spies in cities that are at least 5 days away from your depot.

Proxy-Which player you wish to have as your proxy (if none it is assumed no proxy). This player will get your miniature battle information.

So you can see from the above that before you even apply to start in the campaign you will need to have a fairly basic understanding of the strategic situation and your place in the world. Your army will be raised entirely at your depot.

YOU"RE IN!

When your character has been made and you can log in, you'll be on the Main Page. First, check out the news in your 'language' of choice. This might give you some important situation updates.

The Europe page is also worth checking out to see who is allied and enemy and what has been conquered.

The next place that you'll likely want to go to is your headquarters (HQ) . Select a map that will show the city that your HQ is in and from there start to get a sense of the strategic situation.

Your allies will be listed in the bottom left corner, showing the assigned Center of Communications for each of their wings and corps. It may also show the distance (in days) that a courier travelling from your Center of Communication to their Center of Communication would take. You won't yet have a center of Communication (CoC) and you'll want to assign one to your wing after you've read through the Logistics Primer. Still, if your allies have been keeping their Centers of Communications up to date, this can provide useful clues on the locations of your allied contingents.

 Look at the lines of communications that your nation has already established and, once you've read through the Logistics Primer, you may find yourself needing to build some more lines of communications. Keep in mind that lines of communications will cost points to maintain.

If you were to hold a parade now, , you'd likely see nothing more than your HQ and some artillery. Maybe there is a garrison here with you and some allied units but you don't have an army.

LET'S BUILD AN ARMY

On many pages you'll see your points total written as 120/200 (for example). The first number is points spent and after the slash is total points allowed. In the example, the player would have 80 points left to spend.

Sadly, you will see that already you have spent some points. Each HQ division costs 4 points + the cost of the commander. Each depot you build costs 10 points. Each spy you have active costs 3 points. At the bottom of the mechanics page , you can see a breakdown of where you points are spent.

While building an army, you'll be flipping between pages linked from the Logistics Navigation page.

There is a daily limit on each depot as to how many combat divisions may be raised there each day. This is based on the forage value of the province.

The first step would be to build a combat division or two. These can be of the type infantry, cavalry, or mixed and can be of quality regular, veteran, elite, or conscript (some nations may not have all options). You'll need to assign a division name and all division names must be unique (though you cannot see a list of all current divisions so this may result in some hidden blocked names). The abbreviations are just for labels for miniature games. Note that the Corps drop-down menu only lists your Wing as available to build into at this point.

When you create the division, it will appear on your list of units on the right. It has been built on your depot and is ready to fight. It will be at Fresh condition level. You will also see that your points spent number has increased.

Create a few more divisions as you like. DO NOT SPEND ALL OF YOUR POINTS. Indeed, I'd recommend not spending more than half of your points at this stage, perhaps even less. If, while building your army, you make a mistake you have two options:

RENAME UNITS: units can be renamed freely under the same conditions for uniqueness. There is a separate page for renaming.
DELETE UNITS: units that are at their depot may be deleted and points immediately returned for them. BUT... every time you delete a unit, you add three days to the date when the depot that they were deleted at may be destroyed. This normally might not be an issue but if you allow a depot to be captured, your point total will be permanently reduced by 10 points. You will want the ability to destroy a depot before it is captured.

CORPS

Corps (or columns) provide a couple of advantages. When you build a Corps, it automatically creates a Corps HQ division. On the tabletop, a Corps HQ provide artillery and Corps commanders which can be a huge bonus. In the campaign, a Corps HQ cannot fight on its own in the campaign and will always retreat if attacked.

In the campaign system, they allow you a bit of convenience when issuing orders such that you can order multiple divisions to move together by issuing corps orders. It isn't any quicker to do this and sometimes might result in a slight delay as orders to divisions travel first to Corps HQ and then are sent to lower units but it can be handy.

Corps will also generate reports every few days, letting you know where their lower divisions are located and what their conditions might be. Also, a Corps has a distinct Center of Communications that might be easier for Couriers to find. If you disperse your army all around Europe and don't use Corps you will have a harder time keeping all of your divisions in communication. With a Corps, if you can reach the Corps CoC with a courier it can then find the Corps HQ and then find the division that is the target.

Once you have a Corps or Two, when you create combat divisions you can build them as part of a Corps. You can also transfer divisions between corps at anytime (though it doesn't move them, only changing lines of command).

Your Wing is functionally a Corps.

POINTS

 There are plenty of important things to spend points on besides divisions and corps so, again, I urge players to not spend above 75% of their points initially. Even that is high. The game concept is that logistics, intelligence, replacements, headquarters, and combat divisions all come from the same point pool. Investing too many points in troops will make a large army that has no logistics flexibility. Some things that you spend points on can be cancelled and have the points returned instantly (such as spies) but those things usually require time before they come into effect. Other things, like combat divisions, can be created instantly but can be much more difficult to disband to get the points back for. Divisions, for example, can only be dispersed if they are on their functioning depot. If you advance a large army deep into enemy territory and find yourself running out of points to spend on extending your lines of communication, you may find yourself entirely without options.