Guide to Prussia
The prussian campaign can be very interesting so let me introduce some basics if you want to lead German nation/nations to glory
1) The Kingdom of the middle...
The Kingdom of Prussia is in an interesting position in the year 1805. Almost the whole Europe, divided into two coalitions, is at war. The French Empire, with its followers, has a bit stronger position on land, because there is a loong way from Moscow to Vienna and Habsburgs have to stand almost alone against Napoleon armies and his German and Italian allies. On the other hand, due to the strength of the British fleet, the seas seem to belong to the Coalition (although french and spanish navy combined can be quite a formidable opponent for Nelson&co., if used properly).
The main question for you as a ruler of Prussia is if you eventually decide to join the Coalition or to become Napoleon's friend and ally. The third option, to defeat them all, is of course also in questionand might appear inevitable later...
At the start you are not allied to anyone. I would consider it advantageous because you can choose an ally of your own liking. I wouldn't be hasty though because once you become a part of some coalition, it may influence the further development of your kingdom. You don't want to be dragged into a war before you are ready to fight it, do you?
2) Government and infrastructure
Your king is not an incarnation of Otto the Great nor Friedrich Barbarossa, but he gives you a minor positive bonus and no negative ones, so he is a good starting point. You want to make only few changes in your goverment, your main goal is to get a minister or two with a trait "Bon vivant" or at least "jug head". As far as you are an absolute monarchy, nobility will be always loyal to you but to increase loyalty of lower class is very important. It will save you a lot of money and problems (because you don't have to keep so many troops in cities according to public order and you don't have to face rebellions immediatelly after you conquer a new province). Later in the game you will get some further bonuses for public order (partially from civil and industrial techs and partially from buildings you can build in your capital - meaning Humboldt University and The Supreme Court) but to have a "plebs-beloved" minister in your goverment is always useful...
To build infrastracture of your empire is a crucial thing. It is easier than in ETW (fewer options, easier choices). At the start you want to build roads, markets (not supply depots - you can convert your Banks/markets into them later in the game after you have sufficient income already), manufactures/factories in towns and tax offices and theaters in your regional capitols. The priorities of investments should be - build more less advanced buildings with lower costs than one or two expensive buildings. Invest all money you have, there is no need to keep cash "in reserve", because if you really really need it, you can always cancel a building...
3) Your army
Prussian army has one precious unit in its roster. The Prussian fusilliers. They are amazing marksmen (accurancy 55, reload 60) and have range 100 (they are light infantry). They have one major and one minor weakness. In vanilla game they can't form square so you must be aware of enemy cavalry. I would definitely recommend to mod the game in this particular thing - most of light infantry (I don't mean skirmishers like rifles, jager a.s.o.) were able to form a square during Napoleonic wars (especially french chasseurs - legere inf, british light foot, grenzers and prussian fusiliers).
The second thing is - you don't want to start melee fights with them. They are marksmen, not HtH warriors.
If you use them properly (ideally in pairs - two units will easily break any attack of a single cavalry or infantry) they can and will win battles for you. Best formation is two ranks deep, because all soldiers can fire in any terrain in a double-line formation).
The rest of your infantry is quite ok. You have two excellent rifle regiments of Silesian schutzen at the start (you can possess only two) and prussian jagers are a bit better than other jager units in Europe. Line infantry is comparable with french - a bit better accurancy but lower charge. So no big deal actually - you can use some, but in general I would prefer combination Fusilliers and Grenadiers (or Swiss inf and Grenadiers, if you play with AUM mod). Prus-fus will give you fire advantage and grenadiers can be used in melee fights if necessairy. Guards are great of course but you will get them later and only 4 regiments can be trained.
TBH, prussian cavalry and artillery sucks. It is nice to have one cuirassiers and three dragoon regiments at the start, but they are way inferior to austrian and worse than russian. Of course, they are no match for french cavalry at all. After your cavalry gains experience they will be more useful but still nothing to celebrate. Once I sent my 5 chevrons hussars to attack portuguese cavalry (one of the most lousy horse unit in Europe). Both units charged, I let them fight till the end to see results (playing H/H). Eventually my hussars broke and ran. The Portuguese did receive almost the same casualties, but pff, c'mon
If you use your cavalry wisely (mainly for destroying enemy artillery and hunting routing units), sure it can present great results but don't rely on them too much (especially on H/H and VH/VH). One or two curassiers still should be a part of your army and I perhaps would prefer Lancers to hussars, because they both suck in close combat, but lancers do have great charge bonus at least.
Prussian artillery belongs to the worst in Europe. Sad but true. Again - austrian are a bit better, russian are much better and french are on a completelly different level. BUT! - Prussians do have howitzers, they do have horse artillery and they do have 12-pounders. And as it has been said in many threads already, if you use your guns well they can be a desicive, battle-winning part of your army. You will probably suck in long-range firefights against enemy arty (so be ready to use your light cavalry to wipe them out), but to brake and defeat a firm line of prus-fus, cannister-loaded 12-pounders and guided-missiles-howitzers is almost a mission impossible, if you use frontal attack. I usually pick 3x12pounders, 2xhowitzers and 1xhorse for my armies... It worked great so far.
4) First steps and early conquest
How to start - it is totally subjective question in all TW games IMHO. Somebody likes to blitz, somebody prefers role-playing game, somebody just sits there and observes the world
Firstly, I disbanded all not usefull units (all Landwehr; most line-inf, I kept just two or three; the army in Cleves a.s.o.). It will save you a lot of cash you need for development of your infrastracture and unless you plan to blitz the world, you really need only marginal army at the start. Keep more advanced units though! (cuirassiers, Silesians, some jagers, prus-fus, horse arty, you may keep dragoons as well).
On turn 1 I would recommend to conquer Mecklenburg. You can use an army stationed in Berlin, there is no need to wait for further reinfocements. Mecklenburg will provide you additional trade port, so you can have 3 more trade partners! Don't forget to convert the encampment to a tax office (theater is also a possible option but I would go for a tax office at the beginning).
Good choice is IMHO to trade Cleves with French for techs and money. It will also rise the amount of trade exchange between you and The French Empire. You start with only one college (I strongly recommend to build/convert the other one in Krakow in Poland), so to get some techs at the start is very useful. I would trade techs you got from France with GB and Austria and as you lack money you may sell your techs to other nations, prefer those you trade with (to let them develop their infrastracture which will increase their wealth and the trade exchange with you at the same time).
To keep Cleves means to keep an army there and it rises a possibility of war with Napoleon, so consider it.
Do not hesitate to build merchant ships on turn 1! Send them later to african coast trade nodes (Ivory, spices and sugar are most preferred). Ok, it is a long way from Baltic sea to Gibraltar but it will pay up thousand times later. Trade is yet again very important part of your economics as in ETW, so don't underestimate it. The only drawback later is that you need to protect your trade routes and trade nodes, so to develop a strong navy is inevitable later in the game.
Saxony is a point nr.2 on your list. There is additional intelectual centre there and if you conquer Saxony you will be able to trade with Bavaria. You have two options. To conquer it ASAP (it is possible to do it on turn 1 with an army from Stettin, reinforced by units from Silesia) or you can wait cca 5 turns to let them build basic infrastructure (thus saving your money and trading with them meanwhile).
After you liberate Saxony, your territory is very compact and will provide you a lot of money after you develop infrastracture to maximum.
If you don't want to start a war against major nations at that time (it would be wise to wait for better units, greater income and some navy force), next possible target (as far as it is not allied to anyone else and possess valuable regions) is Denmark. Another port, another intelectual centre, dockyard in Norway. As far as Danish navy will be probably superior to yours (and could be a real threat to your trade ships in southern seas) it would be wise to defeat them in a single turn. 1940 example is worth following
Upgrade the dockyard in Norway and start to build die Hochseeflotte (unlike before WWI, the British won't mind). The best ship you have is 86-gun 2nd rate. Well, it is damn slow, with firepower not superior to 3rd rate, but it can take much more damage, so it is suitable to be your admiral-ship. The core of your fleet shall be 74-gun 3rd rates...
Be aware of events happening around trade nodes! Sometimes the AI ships, occupying trade nodes, will sail away for 1 turn to gather with reinfocements. Be always ready to seize the said trade node immediatelly...
After you conquer Denmark you could be ready to fight the superpowers already. You have the best research, biggest income, Hochseeflotte under construction, guards and cuirassiers on the way. It's your call.
I decided rather to leave them some space to develop more and went for Mediterranean. Portugal is a great region to conquer (your trade ships are on a trade node in one or few turns) and further I plan to conquer Sardinia (with another dockyard), may be Papal states and finally Ottomans. It's nothing personal, I know we are friends, but you know - I can squish Austria like an orange afterwards.
I will add some more thoughts and tips later but I hope this helps for now...
HAIL TO THE PRUS-FUS!!!
Appendix - general tips:
1) movement - If you move your armies or agents across Europe, try to lead them through towns and capitols on roads. If you just click on a final destination, the army/agent will move around all towns on the route thus losing many movement points. If you lead the army yourself through the towns and cities you will be able to march much further...
2) buildings - if you have only one building slot in a region, I would recommend to build a tax office (and upgrades). It is a bit more beneficial than a theatre. The exeption might be if you play as Ottomans, because of the public order.
3) terrain - in a battle try to use terrain to your advantage. For example: if enemy has strong artillery you can put your units behind a hill - enemy projectiles will fly over your soldiers' heads. If you need to advance and want to avoid casualties from artillery fire, pick a unit (aka cannonfodder :-) and move it quickly to some covered postion. Enemy artillery will concentrate its fire on this unit and you can advance with the rest of your army. Just be careful with your elite units (guards a.s.o.) - AI prefers to shoot at them if possible. You can use this to your advantage though: Once enemy army was far superior to mine in artillery - I decided to put my guards into a village (within range of enemy guns), so they attracted enemy fire. They received no casualties (being covered behind buildings) and my undisturbed cannons could destroy their opponents easily.
4) flanking enemy dug-in artilery - if you fight against dug-in enemy (or if you try to capture a city), his artilery will be most probably in a fortified position. It is very hard to destroy them with your own guns in such case but it gives you a nice opportunity. While they are unable to turn nor move, you can move your infantry or cavalry around to their flank or behind enemy pieces and shoot them/kill them in melee.
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. Look forward to reading further additions to this...
Originally Posted by fourganger
