Ralegh
Posts: 1557
Joined: 2/1/2005
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I have just won as France at Napoleon level, in my ongoing process of trying to do this as each country. Here is a brief outline, rather than a full AAR. [Rehearsing for PBEM, I played quick combats only for parts of this game!]
We tried to work with the Spanish fleet to kill Nelson's Fleet. This was less than successfull - in fact, Nelson removed any threat from our seapower for the rest of the game. Happily, however, the remnants of the French fleets escaped into the Med, and were able to be of use to me by blockading ports etc. [The Spanish took Gibraltar, and we left in control of the Med.]
The French armies decended on Austria and beat them senseless, and beseiged Styria. Insurrectionists eventually forces the Austrians to surrender to me, and I took Carnolia, and forced them to liberate Illyria and Venetia. Fortunately for me, the Russians took such server morale damage in the battles that they were forced to surrender too - I took Sevastapol, and forced them to declare war on Britain. [They didn't do it, breaking the treaty clause!]
My diplomats decended on force on Hesse, and explained the virtues of being a Frecnh protectorate to them - they saw the light, and diplomats moved on to Thuringa, which stubbornly resisted them for the rest of the game.
Meanwhile, the British invaded France, and were met by Napolean commanding the Grand Armee - I had left them in reserve! Over the next couple of months we captured 11 divisions of British troops. I gave Poitou and Langedoc to Spain, to encourage them to keep some units in France - it didn't really work out, but those provinces aren't worth glory to France and are the worst of the lot, so I figured I was better off without them anyway.
I conquered Hannover, and sold it to Prussia for alliance, non aggression, and access rights.
Napoleon then led his army, supported by a second army, in an invasion of Sweden. We got the capital, and insurrectionists forced them to surrender. I required Sweden to declare war on Britain, and to declare war on French enemies for a year, and be my ally for a year.
Although I kept refusing to give Austria access (they wanted to invade my Spanish ally with whom they were still at war), my forcing Sweden into an alliance had the side effect of letting their armies through to fight Spain. A steady stream of Swedish units could be seen marching across France. I was a little concerned about my Spanish ally, so I lent him the other Grand Armee under Lannes. Suprisingly, that army spent the next year sitting in Gibraltar (which he had taken some time before) - he managed to beat off the Swedes using Spanish troops. Perhaps the AI wanted the experience for them!
[One side benefit - that means Spain was paying not only the supply but also the upkeep costs of the army, 2 corps, and 18 or so divisions - nice saving for my economy since i didn't need them.]
I used a treaty to get Turkey to liberate Lower Egypt, and managed to ship a full corps down there, commanded by Davout and Massena - I figured I should use good generals, since they would be so badly outnumbered. (We were temporarily allied with the Turks for awhile, and used their port in West Egypt to go in and out.) I loved the battle - I had recently been taking the Massed Artillery upgrades, and I saw a single artillery volley do 8000 casulties [in detailed combat]. Wow. The Egyptians had been kind enough to face me with everything they had, so the capital was empty. I dropped off an infantry division, and got shipped back to Italy.
At this stage I was getting 15 glory per month for target provinces, 6 glory for culture, 2 glory for being an empire, and 1 or 2 glory for luxery consumption - so 25 per month.
About this point "All of Europe became alarmed at the rise of France." Prussia, Turkey, Austria, and Russia all broke their alliances with me, making me think we might have a nice big 'lets get France' party. (My good friends Spain, and Sweden who had a treaty to defend me did not break their alliances.) From what little I could see, Prussia, Austria and Russia all seemed to be concentrating forces - I had the chance to issue some ultimatums about tresspassing troops, but decided that discretion was the better part of valour. I was a little concerned at this point - still 2 more months before I get Lannes and that quarter of my army back - and then they'll have to march from Gibraltar... Oh well - nothing I can do about it.
Austria declared war on me, and I decended upon them with 2 very large armies. (One was in reserve near Paris, and one on loan to the Spain.) I wanted to knock them out of the war as fast as possible, before I had to run home to defend Paris against all the others. There were some enormous battles - to give you some idea of what the next 3 months looked like, here is the glory impact of the battles (funnily enough, 2 each month):
Aug 1807 +40 -10
Sep 1807 +44 + 8
Oct 1807 +1 - 8
Both the big battles were in Styria province. Then they surrendered, giving me another 120 glory, and pushing me over the top. (I didn't get to play Nov 1807.)
All told, a very enjoyable game, even if I wasn't able to do anything about the British. It was quite a short game, and the only battles in France were against the British expeditionary forces. I suppose I was lucky Austria declared war at the end - they gave me the last 200 glory I needed in only 3 months, preventing the others from ganging up on me effectively. Spain came second on 330, then Prussia on 280 and Britain on 250.
Of interest: Portugal was still neutral at the end of the game, as were Corsica, Cyrenaica, Galicia, Sardinia, Thuringa (now at 900 for France), Triplolitania, Tunisia and Wallachia.
Note: I logged several bugs during the game - the most annoying was that when first Russia and then Sweden dishonoured the defense treaties I forced upon them [I made them swear to defend me from my enemies for 12 months, and they wouldn't declare war on Britain] - I lost 4 glory each each month! Sob.
3 down (AARs on Prussia and Spain are on the main thread) - 5 to go. Next: hmm, the worst showing this game was probably the British Army - I might see what I can do with them next!
_____________________________
HTH
Steve/Ralegh
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