British invasions of mainland France

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British invasions of mainland France - 3/18/2016 4:42:56 PM

TC2712

Posts: 12
Joined: 12/24/2010
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Any else find it tedious to play whack a mole against British troop stacks rampaging through France (and forcing all your dispersed naval squadrons have to leave port and be killed in the channel).

Particularly annoying as if they are two provinces ahead of your pursuing army you can never catch them?

Anyway this can be stopped? Not against the AI doing things a historically but this is going a bit far!

< Message edited by TC271 -- 3/18/2016 4:43:46 PM >

Post #: 1

RE: British invasions of mainland France - 3/18/2016 5:14:22 PM

Tamas

Posts: 985
Joined: 1/7/2001
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Best way is to use two stacks so they have no hope of reaching another coastal region to raid.

In fact it might be going a bit overboard at times, so we will look into tweaking it.

(in reply to TC2712)

Post #: 2

RE: British invasions of mainland France - 3/18/2016 5:42:01 PM

TC2712

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Joined: 12/24/2010
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In both my games the British AI has landed a 15ish strong stack in France - using two stacks to defend against that with enough strength to be confident of winning an offensive battle means 40 units held back in the defence of France which IMO is not viable when at war with Austria and Russia

(in reply to Tamas)

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RE: British invasions of mainland France - 3/18/2016 5:55:09 PM

Aurelian

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Joined: 2/26/2007
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quote:

ORIGINAL: TC271

In both my games the British AI has landed a 15ish strong stack in France - using two stacks to defend against that with enough strength to be confident of winning an offensive battle means 40 units held back in the defence of France which IMO is not viable when at war with Austria and Russia

Even worse when Prussia and Spain join in.

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(in reply to TC2712)

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RE: British invasions of mainland France - 3/18/2016 5:56:08 PM

gdrover

Posts: 215
Joined: 12/4/2008
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It is indeed a bit a-historical, but historically the British opted to limit their involvment on the Continent to very peripheral raids to protect their army. This resulted in the repeated defeat of their allies and the domination of the continent by the French.
We chose to program the AI to be a bit more aggressive to make sure that the player didn't have a totally free hand to move their armies east. It may feel historically different, but it makes for a much more challenging game and an interesting 'what if'.

The solution to the challenge is to form a solid 'Army of France' that can defeat the British force. This is usually not too tough as the early war British forces are not well led or upgraded yet. This may mean that they disrupt a port or two (hint: hide your main fleet in Spain in 1805), but if you can destroy their army, you'll be free from this threat for quite a while while they slowly rebuild their land forces.

Note: retreating armies cannot retreat to a region with an enemy force (even one unit). If you want to herd their army and trap it, you can use blocking forces for that. It's not always easy, but when accomplished, it's very satisfying.

One last note: If you want to deter them from even landing in France, you can form up two decent armies near or in the major ports. The AI will often assess the threast fo defeat and land somewhere else like Sweden or Sicily. Also, a nuisance raid of your own to Portugal, Egypt or Ireland (not always possible depending on the scenario) will draw them there instead.

(in reply to TC2712)

Post #: 5

RE: British invasions of mainland France - 3/18/2016 11:46:46 PM

alaric318

Posts: 366
Joined: 10/7/2003
Status: offline

reserve forced march cards for those invasions, i always try to have 2x napoleon genius and 2x forced march cards as a strategic reserve

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(in reply to gdrover)

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RE: British invasions of mainland France - 3/19/2016 3:16:07 PM

optimistical

Posts: 2
Joined: 3/19/2016
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How do you manage to get the French fleets down to Spain? When I tried to move the Holland fleet (first fleet I've tried to move) they get blasted by the Brits and forced back into port. Is there any trick to gathering the French fleets to get them into a Spanish port?

(in reply to gdrover)

Post #: 7

RE: British invasions of mainland France - 3/19/2016 6:20:15 PM

gdrover

Posts: 215
Joined: 12/4/2008
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I was actually talking about the main French fleet that starts the game at sea in the Mediterranean (1805 scenario).

French fleets that are blockaded in ports, are essentially locked up.
Except that a fleet that is blockaded in a Spanish port will get a free pass and arrive safely in a French port after Spain changes from 'friendly neutral' to 'neutral'. This may off a window of opportunity for a larger French fleet to break out of jail, or wait until it can be supplemented by new squadrons during the reinforcement phase.

The ultimate move is to use a 'Storms' card hit the British blockading fleet, sortie out to sea to defeat the remaining squadrons...Now you have a French Fleet that has broken out of jail and can free other smaller fleets trapped in port. Repeating this process can actually create a large French fleet that can, at the very least, act as an offset to the main British Channel Fleet, essentially blocking the British from getting to Spain or the Med, and allow the French to invade Ireland or Egypt.

A second 'Storms' card, if played at the right time on the British Channel Fleet, can actually unlock Great Britain and allow a cross-channel invasion.

Meanwhile, protect your fleets with a strong home army to prevent or defeat British landings.

Good Luck!

(in reply to optimistical)

Post #: 8