Jimmer
Posts: 1968
Joined: 12/5/2007 Status: offline
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Marshall, In the board version, it was required that both nations became part of the free state. Also, the practical reason for adding property would be so that the money and manpower gets doubled. For example, I'm Russia in my current game, and Sweden (9/5) plus Finland (3/1?), as conquereds, adds up to $12/6 (3 Infantry and $3), as a conquered. But, as a free state, it would add up to 24/12 (6 Infantry and $6). Sweden without Finland would be $18/10 Swedish plus $3/1 Russian. So, as Russia, I'm losing a half-troop by not including Finland. Certain strategic considerations need to come into play here, though. Not all nations are quite as clearcut as adding Finland to a free Sweden. Denmark and Naples have only 2.0 morale troops, for example. But, in all three cases, they add a navy, which can't be bad. Poland is another one, but this one has more considerations. First, Poland's infantry are better than Prussia's, Russia's, or Austria's, so it seems more of a no-brainer to add more provinces to Poland, so one gets as many of them as possible. However, it's not that clear in Poland's case, because it only has a limited supply of corps in which the factors are useful. Now, the Poland corps could be carried around the map, dropping factors into cities to raise their morale in the case of sieges. But, that's a lot of work (read: money). One can wind up with WAY to many Polish factors on the map after a not-very-long period of time. The Poland case also brings up a question that needs to be thought about for the other minors (even the ones with only one district): "Am I going to have piles of this free state's infantry that I can't use?" Or, "Will I lose money in the long run because I run out of places to put cavalry, so I can't spend all of their money?" This is a very real question for many nations. For ones that can be combined (Confederation of the Rhine, Kingdom of Italy, and Ottoman Empire), this tends to be a non-issue. But, for Hesse and Bavaria, the limit really matters. One will have to have some wars in which to use up those troops, or the long-term payback isn't quite as rosy.
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