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Ralegh -> Ralegh Guide: Tips (11/8/2007 11:16:12 PM)
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Hi - my game name is Ralegh, and I am a beta tester on the EIANW project. Some of you may be familiar with the guides I put together with the help of other beta testers and the developers for Crown of Glory when I beta-tested that game. Ralegh Guides are not part of the game - they are by a player to help other players (although I do have access to more information than makes it into the manual). The game manual tells you about WHAT you can do, and even HOW to do it. Ralegh Guides are mainly about WHY you would want to, although we sometimes dip into game mechanics to explain how things work.
In conjunction with the Ralegh guides, I will provide a series of AARs, of me winning the game as each different nation at the top level of difficulty.
The first Ralegh Guide for EIANW is below, and has 33 tips about playing the game.
Paragraphs are numbered to assist you in asking questions/etc in this thread - which will be welcome, and will be responded to. Periodically I might roll up all the changes and publish a new version.
SETUP
S1. The game starts in January, so there are 2 months of winter: will you be conducting operations in winter, which is expensive for supply, or in what players often call "winter quarters" where units can forage for free. In your home nation, and thinking of corps with 3 movement points,
- a 4 zone can take 1 corps
- a 5 zone can take 2 corps
- a 6 zone can take an unlimited number, since the modifier for corps being present peaks at 2.
S2. Very soon after the start of the game you want to have a 1 factor garrison in every red city you control: that will slow down any invader a little bit, giving you a chance to manoeuvre. Ideally that factor should be a militia, but you might need to place infantry at first and swap them out later.
S3. Never ever put fleets in a port that doesn't have a garrison (not a corps - a garrison): the harbour guns don't fire to defend the port if there is no one there.
S4. There is a strategy choice: put all your fleets in one place or spread them out? If you spread them, you can put pressure on your enemies number of fleet counters, not just their number of ships - this can be very useful (and even quite a small fleet getting free might be able to cause a "cascade"). As Russia, I usually put all my fleets either in St Petersburg, or in Corfu - the Black Sea is only useful against Turkey. I like to start the French fleets in Amsterdam, with the Holland fleets or spread them all out!
S5. Don't forget to place depots: they are free at the start, so place lots. You can remove ones you don't need before the eco phase so you don't have to pay maintenance on them. I ALWAYS start a depot in the city where the fleets start. That makes sea supply an option in case I should ever want it.
S6. As France, always have a corps within range of Dover: if the British ever don't have the channel blocked, whip over into England - even the worst French corps will have a good chance of taking the country!
S7. As GB, don't setup the whole fleet in Gibraltar: how will you blockade Sweden if France gets control of them? Look out for those pesky minors - they only have to EITHER free the French fleet OR push your fleet from the channel and the consequences can be dire.
S8. Save your setup - you'll want to use it as a starting point in a future game.
POLITICAL PHASE
P1. If you declare war on a minor, ALWAYS move someone into it, or the war will lapse. So when defending a minor, try to push the invaders back out: if they have nothing in the country at the end of the month, the war will lapse.
P2. Why use minor diplomacy? So you KNOW that you will be in control of a minor if someone else attacks it. Minor diplomacy can work with an investment of 0$.
P3. Why try to ally with other (computer controlled) countries? So you can ask them for money of course! You can also ask for access through their country, and lend units. (You can't request supply from the AI, which is a shame.) ALWAYS:
a) offer alliances to major powers you don't intend to attack for awhile AND
b) ask your allies for cash (double click anywhere on the map to open the diplomatic negotiations window)
P4. Why lend a unit to an ally? So the unit can move in their turn: this is the only way to achieve that in EIANW. Note also that such a unit could be used against an enemy you are not at war with (example: while remaining neutral, Spain lends all her fleets to France, who uses them against the British)
P5. Why downgrade a minor? I got Dalmatia as a free state because the Austrians declared war on it. However, they did not move in, so the war lapsed. I downgraded it to conquered so I would get the money and manpower! (If you downgrade a minor-with-corps it goes all the way to neutral: this only works for the ones without corps.)
REINFORCEMENT PHASE
R1. Major powers can add factors to corps in supply (well, within one area of a valid depot, but not over invasion supply), and into cities in controlled territory. To put reinforcing factors into a city under an invading corps, transfer factors from the corps to the city, and reinforce into the corps.
R2. Minors can only add factors to corps in their home country or within an area of a valid depot which is part of a supply chain from their home country - so getting reinforcements to minor corps is much harder. If their purpose is to take casualties, you will have to send them home to get topped up. Think it through: I often chooe to take all casulties from th major power, since they are so much easier to reinforce.
R3. If the game seems to not want to do what you want, right click to clear the current selection and try again. Sometimes it can get a little confused.
NAVAL PHASE
N1. If you see enemy fleets in a harbour without a garrison there, do a port raid: the port guns won't be able to fire! [Note: a corps doesn't count: it has to be a GARRISON.]
N2. Make sure you set the desired fleet "orders" for interceptions - even when you are in a blockade box.
N3. A corps cannot be split across multiple fleet counters. One fleet can carry multiple corps.
N4. You can put a depot on transports or heavy fleets, but not on light fleets.
N5. Any type of fleet counter is adequate for sea supply (so I usually leave a single factor light fleet in a port all game for that purpose).
LAND PHASE
L1. Always plan your supply first - whether you are paying or foraging, know what you want to do.
L2. If any corps in a stack uses its movement points to affect a forage roll, then no corps in the stack will be permitted to move into the city to besiege it. This commonly happens when a cavalry corps can forage for free - if you use the "auto forage all corps" button, they will use unused movement points. Instead, forage those corps by hand: then you can choose not to use the unused movement points.
L3. You CAN move a corps into a hostile city, thus establishing a siege, and then forage it. In this circumstance, the game will not let you use your unused movement points. The game will then allow that corps to assault the city.
L4. Human players often use "screening" and "decoy" corps that only have one factor in them. Since no one else knows they are so weak, they can give an advantage - and they can prevent the enemy making certain moves.
L5. Rules on Conquest seem to have been omitted from the manual, although they are alluded to a couple of times. Conquest happens at the end of the month, and is based on un-besieged occupation of the capital. That occupation does NOT have to be a garrison, although there must be either a garrison or a corps in the area of the capital.
L6. If you conquer Finland and then Sweden, and later free Sweden, Finland will remain a conquered belonging to you, and cannot ever be transferred to Swedish control. If you conquer Sweden and Finland comes along because it is a minor province of Sweden, and then free Sweden, Finland goes with it. The same applies to the other multi province minors (Denmark/Norway, Naples/Sicily).
L7. You need to keep a corps in a minor until it is conquered - just putting a garrison in the capital is not enough. If there is a garrison, the corps can be in another area of the minor.
ECO PHASE
E1. ALWAYS use economic manipulation - adjusting how you use it to suit your needs from time to time.
E2. Whether you waste money or waste manpower is a decision for each nation: but don't try to use up everything.
E3. Don't forget to build factors for the minors you are controlling.
E4. Why create Poland? Morale 4 infantry, and they get the money and manpower values of the provinces DOUBLED. Maybe a tricky timing decision for Prussia, but easy for anyone else.
E5. If you create Poland or the Confederation of the Rhine (or any other multi-province minor) and later get additional provinces that could be part of it, there is no way to add them.
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