Strategy advice?

[Often]

Hey all.

Apparently I really suck at this game. I booted up the 1805 campaign and lost 5 battles in a row and spent all my time retreating from STUPID enemies that just seemed to win every battle no matter what. What are some good opening moves?

Also, it's a bit frustrating that I can't seem to find in game who belongs to what flag. Maybe on the diplomacy screen the flag of the countries can be displayed next to the country name.

*edit* Ignore the second question. I'm apparently too dumb to click on the enemy armies to see where they're from. Leaving it there to show you exactly how stupid I am and how much help I need! :)

[Sgt. Steiner]

FROM Sheytanaslan:

Hmm, in this case it was the 1805 scenario I believe. Tips would be, move Nappy towards Vienna. Consolidate the forces in Italy to face Austria there. Move to consolidate all of the smaller armies in Northern Germany and pull them to Holland or Belgium. Use force march if available to move that small army in central italy to consolidate with the unit in the north. You should be able to defeat the Austrians with this force. Once you win the war with Austria move Nappy to the coast port zone.
Naval, there is a combined spanish french fleet in the Med. Move it to southern french port. In bordeaux port if possible check to see blockade size if you have superior numbers attack english fleet. Ideally you should sink some or better take prizes. Build more ships, they should appear in those 2 western ports. Idea is to build up that navy, so you can gain superiority in the adjacent sea zone.
The english should send their fleet except for the channel blockade to the med to go after that fleet there, and will send a army to flush them out of port.
By this point you should have enough ships in Bordeaux to enter the channel, and not spark a battle right away, there is 2 additional ships there, combine the fleet, defeat the english channel fleet.
The way is now open to London.
Send Nappy with the best troops he has, the Guards, heavy cav, and the heavy artliiery. Defeat the garrison in london. A milita army or home guard, will spawn to attack you as well, hold london. Should be easy enough. I did it with 7 units.
Anyway that game isnt over, I am 2 years into the campaign and now have all of the rest of the map to mess with and no England :}
Diplo for me in this case was trying to keep prussia out of the war, which I was able to do. I played a dismember austria card, and then used the bribe card to give it to prussia. That bought me the points/time to keep prussia out and deny russia a way in to engage me. One smaller russian army did get west while I was at war with Austria and made it to one of the minor nations in germany but it was then trapped after peace with austria, and Nappy smashed it on his way to the channel.
Last edited by Sheytanaslan; 1 hour ago

[Kminek]

I would not spend too much effort as a new player trying to pull off the invasion of England, especially in the 1805 or later scenarios.

In 1805 you should try and repeat Napoleon's historical feat: the quick knocking out of Austria.

You are guaranteed to start with at least one Forced March card in your hand (could even have a Strategic Movement one which is even better). Use it to get Napoleon to Vienna as soon as possible.

In Italy you can either try and gather up your forces for a hard-fought battle against the main Austrian force that will be trying to wipe you out there, or you can retreat and lure it in deep so it won't have time to get back to Vienna.

You only need to hold Vienna for one turn to knock Austria out. That will prevent Russia from reaching you (while Prussia is neutral) for a while at least so you will be able to choose your next target.

Speaking of Prussia, one reason to hurry with the knocking out of Austria is that assuming a lucky card draw for the Brits, they could have the chance to influence the Prussians into the war early.
Conquering Austria gives you 4 PP which can delay that, or at the very least can avoid you facing 3 great powers' armies at once.


As for next targets after Austria: if you can't pull off the naval trick described int he previous post, a lot depends on the kind of event cards you hold. There is one that lets you neutralise (conquer) Prussia, another does the same with Spain. If you hold one of these, I would prepare for a war witht he respective power so you can play it.
If you don't have either of those yet, I'd probably still look at slapping Prussia around for good measure: it nets you Victory Points, it eliminates units from them while they are still at their weakest, and can neutralise them for a year.

Tbere is of course the chance to walk freely through humbled Austria and try to invade Russia during that one year that you have free access to Austrian territory, but that's really inviting misfortune...


Once I tried the following: I used an event card to take Istria from Austria, establishing a direct land link with the Ottomans, then played the event card that had the Ottomans declare war on Russia... my plan was to lead a French invasion through Ottoman lands.
It didn't work out due to a number of factors (two of them are called Spanish partisans and Brits) but it shows you that there are several options you can pursue.

[Often]

Thanks for the thoughts. That gives me an idea on where to start and a framework of what to do. That should give me some direction. I'll probably try to retreat a bit and lure the Austrians out so Nappy can crush Vienna.

[Concerned West Virginia Resident]

Keep in mind that bum rushing Vienna as historical will cause Austria to have a very strong army when it returns, made from that big army in Italy you ignored. It's not unreasonable for Napoleon to come down to deal with that army first and then hit the Austrians next year, leaving them only the respawned force and some recruits when they return.