18th Century Blizkrieg:
Opening invasion moves for the proud and mighty Kingdom of Prussia.
I found an excellent way of using the opening alliances in central Europe to Prussia's advantage. It works quite well, actually. A quick look at the alliances of nations near you, you see Hannover is allied with Great Britain (an eventual ally and trade partner), Saxony and Courland are protectorates of Poland-Lithuania, Poland-Lithuania is allied to Russia, and Bavaria and Wurttemberg are allies of Austria. That leaves Westphalia, who is allied to exactly who you want them to be allied to - Hannover, Wurttemburg, and Bavaria. By declaring war on Westphalia, you can avoid a major conflict while consolidating control over all of Germany in a single turn by following my instructions.
Warning: this is for military, not economic, purposes only, and as such do not blame me if your economy goes down the drain from excessive military investment and you run out of money fast. Prussia's worst enemy is itself - don't train any more troops than you need. To be a good general saves you money: the fewer the troops you need the less money war will cost you. That's the only economic advice I'm giving you. You're on your own in that department. :P
First two turns, churn out 6 line infantry in Königsberg and a few in Brandenburg as well (optional). Build whatever you want, just be careful not to spend too much. I also made an alliance and trade agreement with Courland, and trade agreements with Maratha, GB, and UP, as well as all the surrounding nations I could trade with.
Around turn three invade Saxony, call allies to help. Send your weaker army in East Prussia to Gdynia (should be an easy fight) and send your stronger army with the general and the new 6 line infantry to take Poland. Make peace+trade agreement+alliance with Poland, and give them Poland back in exchange. Sometimes you have to scratch the alliance out of the agreement, no biggie. Send your army that invaded Poland to the town in between Gdynia and Königsberg (from there it can join defense with either Gdynia or Königsberg in the event of an invasion).
Spend four to five turns building as many line infantry as possible each turn in Brandenburg and Saxony. Once you feel like you have enough troops, send them to the furthest west point possible in Saxony and hit end turn. Split up your forces into 4 fairly even armies. Invade Westphalia with one of the armies. Notice their allies - every German state and no major states. Invade Wurttemburg, Bavaria and Hannover - you should be at war with them if you selected "call allies to help."
Wait... you mean we get all of Germany without going to war with anyone outside of Germany? ITS A MIRACLE!
Destroy schools where you need to in order to prevent uprisings, and hopefully you've researched carbines now to train dragoons for policing purposes. Eventually, once the populations settle down, send your troops with experience to the east where Poland and Austria will eventually declare war in the next few turns, while disbanding any extra unneeded units. It's worth saving the money, trust me. Those soldiers are not cheap, even with that badass 68 year old Military Secretary that makes your troops 10% cheaper, plus your King's 10% bonus. They still cost a lot of money - just 5 units is 1k gold a turn. That can cost more than the province they're sitting on.
Anyway, hope this helps. I eventually kept good relations with Courland, even though we were at war. I prefer to keep them as a buffer with Sweden, since keeping an army stationed their is impractical from an economical standpoint. For the most part, I finished off Poland-Lithuania and Austria quite easily with all the money I was making, and eventually I came to dominate all of mainland Europe, besides Russia and the Ottomans, who assisted me in taking down Austria and Spain.
Afterthoughts...
- keep an army stationed in Cologne, UP is extremely aggressive toward Prussia for some reason. I sent an army with 5 line infantry and a cannon to capture Amsterdam to shut them up after they declared war. Why such a small army, you may ask? Well I feel like sending statements sometimes, and I wanted them to know that it doesn't matter how much they outnumber me, Prussia is better. Or I am better. Or both. Or I just like to ramble.
- keep an eye on France. While they didn't declare war on me and I invaded them in my campaign, they kept an army stationed in Alsace-Lorraine 24-7, which was constantly worrying me. I didn't have the funds at the time to station an army in Wurttemburg and they could have easily wreaked havoc in my western territories. Luckily, Britain had them preoccupied with a naval war. If they aren't at war by the time you've taken all of Germany, I'd advise keeping an army in Wurttemburg and fortifying the town. It's probably worth not losing the town in the long run.
- Use your protestant missionary in East Prussia to his full effect. He's fairly young and has high attributes, so he can convert Bavarians, Cologners and Wurttembergers at about 3% per turn. If you station small armies in Cologne and Wurttemberg, focus on converting Bavaria first. Bavaria is your most valuable German state outside of your starting two territories.
- Alliances: What if Westphalia forged a new alliance, or cancelled theirs with another German state? In my experiences, this has only happened twice, and it's typically the Dutch who they ally with. Seeing as the UP almost always invades me a couple turns after I capture Cologne, This may seem like a blessing in disguise because you are more prepared to take them down. Often they can surprise you and on more than one occasion they have successfully captured Rhineland from me (but not for long). If they forge an alliance with any other nation, especially Spain, France, or worst of all Great Britain... well, then you have yourself a pickle. Upon capturing all the German provinces, you will spend a great deal of money to keep the population under control and your troops replenished and resupplied. A war with a major nation and worse, a trade partner, can all but cripple your economy early on. 10 turns later in the game, it's not such a big deal once you've saved up. That is, if you like to save up (I do).
- Russia... what to do, what to do? Russia is a sleeping giant in every one of my Prussia campaigns, so I've never had to worry about them. If ever you find yourself in a war with them, make sure you have plenty of cavalry to outrun them on the campaign map and keep them busy, because it will be hard to fund an army to fight them if you are at war with any number of other European nations. I always save Mother Russia for last. It's like my nightcap after a hard day's work pillaging Europe. I get to indulge my remaining resources in it's utter destruction. Vodka anyone?
Opening invasion moves for the proud and mighty Kingdom of Prussia.
I found an excellent way of using the opening alliances in central Europe to Prussia's advantage. It works quite well, actually. A quick look at the alliances of nations near you, you see Hannover is allied with Great Britain (an eventual ally and trade partner), Saxony and Courland are protectorates of Poland-Lithuania, Poland-Lithuania is allied to Russia, and Bavaria and Wurttemberg are allies of Austria. That leaves Westphalia, who is allied to exactly who you want them to be allied to - Hannover, Wurttemburg, and Bavaria. By declaring war on Westphalia, you can avoid a major conflict while consolidating control over all of Germany in a single turn by following my instructions.
Warning: this is for military, not economic, purposes only, and as such do not blame me if your economy goes down the drain from excessive military investment and you run out of money fast. Prussia's worst enemy is itself - don't train any more troops than you need. To be a good general saves you money: the fewer the troops you need the less money war will cost you. That's the only economic advice I'm giving you. You're on your own in that department. :P
First two turns, churn out 6 line infantry in Königsberg and a few in Brandenburg as well (optional). Build whatever you want, just be careful not to spend too much. I also made an alliance and trade agreement with Courland, and trade agreements with Maratha, GB, and UP, as well as all the surrounding nations I could trade with.
Around turn three invade Saxony, call allies to help. Send your weaker army in East Prussia to Gdynia (should be an easy fight) and send your stronger army with the general and the new 6 line infantry to take Poland. Make peace+trade agreement+alliance with Poland, and give them Poland back in exchange. Sometimes you have to scratch the alliance out of the agreement, no biggie. Send your army that invaded Poland to the town in between Gdynia and Königsberg (from there it can join defense with either Gdynia or Königsberg in the event of an invasion).
Spend four to five turns building as many line infantry as possible each turn in Brandenburg and Saxony. Once you feel like you have enough troops, send them to the furthest west point possible in Saxony and hit end turn. Split up your forces into 4 fairly even armies. Invade Westphalia with one of the armies. Notice their allies - every German state and no major states. Invade Wurttemburg, Bavaria and Hannover - you should be at war with them if you selected "call allies to help."
Wait... you mean we get all of Germany without going to war with anyone outside of Germany? ITS A MIRACLE!
Destroy schools where you need to in order to prevent uprisings, and hopefully you've researched carbines now to train dragoons for policing purposes. Eventually, once the populations settle down, send your troops with experience to the east where Poland and Austria will eventually declare war in the next few turns, while disbanding any extra unneeded units. It's worth saving the money, trust me. Those soldiers are not cheap, even with that badass 68 year old Military Secretary that makes your troops 10% cheaper, plus your King's 10% bonus. They still cost a lot of money - just 5 units is 1k gold a turn. That can cost more than the province they're sitting on.
Anyway, hope this helps. I eventually kept good relations with Courland, even though we were at war. I prefer to keep them as a buffer with Sweden, since keeping an army stationed their is impractical from an economical standpoint. For the most part, I finished off Poland-Lithuania and Austria quite easily with all the money I was making, and eventually I came to dominate all of mainland Europe, besides Russia and the Ottomans, who assisted me in taking down Austria and Spain.
Afterthoughts...
- keep an army stationed in Cologne, UP is extremely aggressive toward Prussia for some reason. I sent an army with 5 line infantry and a cannon to capture Amsterdam to shut them up after they declared war. Why such a small army, you may ask? Well I feel like sending statements sometimes, and I wanted them to know that it doesn't matter how much they outnumber me, Prussia is better. Or I am better. Or both. Or I just like to ramble.
- keep an eye on France. While they didn't declare war on me and I invaded them in my campaign, they kept an army stationed in Alsace-Lorraine 24-7, which was constantly worrying me. I didn't have the funds at the time to station an army in Wurttemburg and they could have easily wreaked havoc in my western territories. Luckily, Britain had them preoccupied with a naval war. If they aren't at war by the time you've taken all of Germany, I'd advise keeping an army in Wurttemburg and fortifying the town. It's probably worth not losing the town in the long run.
- Use your protestant missionary in East Prussia to his full effect. He's fairly young and has high attributes, so he can convert Bavarians, Cologners and Wurttembergers at about 3% per turn. If you station small armies in Cologne and Wurttemberg, focus on converting Bavaria first. Bavaria is your most valuable German state outside of your starting two territories.
- Alliances: What if Westphalia forged a new alliance, or cancelled theirs with another German state? In my experiences, this has only happened twice, and it's typically the Dutch who they ally with. Seeing as the UP almost always invades me a couple turns after I capture Cologne, This may seem like a blessing in disguise because you are more prepared to take them down. Often they can surprise you and on more than one occasion they have successfully captured Rhineland from me (but not for long). If they forge an alliance with any other nation, especially Spain, France, or worst of all Great Britain... well, then you have yourself a pickle. Upon capturing all the German provinces, you will spend a great deal of money to keep the population under control and your troops replenished and resupplied. A war with a major nation and worse, a trade partner, can all but cripple your economy early on. 10 turns later in the game, it's not such a big deal once you've saved up. That is, if you like to save up (I do).
- Russia... what to do, what to do? Russia is a sleeping giant in every one of my Prussia campaigns, so I've never had to worry about them. If ever you find yourself in a war with them, make sure you have plenty of cavalry to outrun them on the campaign map and keep them busy, because it will be hard to fund an army to fight them if you are at war with any number of other European nations. I always save Mother Russia for last. It's like my nightcap after a hard day's work pillaging Europe. I get to indulge my remaining resources in it's utter destruction. Vodka anyone?
[This message has been edited by tkwarrior17 (edited 01-23-2010 @ 01:56 PM).]