Empire Realism Campaign Reports

[JaM]

Hi Guys (whoever is reading this). Wanted to share my latest experience with ETW and latest ER mod (which will be released very soon). So far i can say this is probably the best campaign play i had since i play this game (about 460 hours of game time)

" Ok, so as usual, started to play as British, H/H. First priority was starting the economy as always. Immediately i signed trade agreements with several small countries, and few large ones - Mughals, Persians, Ottomans.. In North America i have dealt with Pirate fleet near Cuba, then started to build expeditionary force to clear pirate dens. In the north i was attacked by Hurons and after 2 years they were able to overrun my positions and i lost my first battle (i had few Hessian battalions with militia and pikemens, but got jumped by large Huron force (2x more men than i had) and they used interesting tactics against me with cavalry attacking first with close support native mobs and peppered me with arrows from all sides.. i was forced to form squares but even then there was very little chance and my units routed one after another...)

after capturing pirate islands i planned to send my experienced units to attack Hurons,but instead i got message my ally Portugal got attacked by Marathas in India so to help them out i have send few frigates to block their ports to slow them down a bit. Because they captured Goa, i decided to send my new army to india commanded by duke of Marlborough (who was bored in London for some time) after few turns my army landed in the south part of India and rapidly captured Cyrenaica. Problem was that everytime i destryed Maratha army, another came next turn so i ended in the fort with understrength army and Marathas ravaging the unprotected towns... but of course more time i had, more Sepoys joined so after some time i was able to protect the province from raiding force.

In the meantime France decided to attack my vassal in America, so i sent my expeditionary force from Bahamas to help the 13th Provinces and my help come just in time as they lost few of them to Iroquois(french Ally). My counter attack put them into dissaray and i have stabilized the border. much interesting was naval war with France, as i blockaded their ports in the channel, so they sent few fleets to lift the blockade (unsuccessfully). Channel Fleet blockaded trade port and second fleet was positioned near Normandy so it effectively intercepted any french ships coming from their military port. To make things more interesting i sent few frigates into Mediteranean to blockade Toulon - plus i needed some ships to force Barbary pirates off my trade lines. When i thought everything is handled i got attacked by Sweden (another French Ally) so i had to dispatch my channel fleet (3x74gun ships and one 86gun admiral SOL) and destroy Swede fleet (not a big deal as they had just one 74 gun SOL and few 50 runners)

In about 1715 situation started to complicate in India due to Misore declaring war and marching two full stacks armies (mostly horse archers,pikemen and melee infantry) into Cyrenaica joining Marathas. To delay them somehow until i deal with Marathas, i send few new East Indies company Brigades against them. (mostly fresh troops with inexperienced general) so i ended up defeated by them with remains running for fort. Luckilly for me Mysore forces started again with destruction of my provincial towns and port so i had some time to regroup, and attack them again with more experienced British troops,while Company army protected the province capital from Marathas. second battle was completly different as my 3-4 chevron infantry was able to stop enemy cavalry and pikemen by concentrated firepower (combined with canisters and new superweapon - howitzers). After few turns Mysore accepted nonconditional peace so i was able to send two armies north to Bengal.

To my surprise also France asked for peace, and because i wanted to finish up with Marathas i accepted. After i captured Bengal, Mughals (until i got involved in India they had just 3 provinces left) asked for military alliance which cut the Marathas in two. Another complete surprise came later when Spain declared a War, and next turn they started to occupy island after island in Carribean with full stack army backed up by fleet of 5x 74gun SOL,few 50gun SOL and Frigates - something i was not able to handle with my forces in American theater... To make them pay for this, i send my second Fleet to Spanish coast and blockaded their trade port (poor Portugal decided to not be my ally in the end so i didn't care about them and they got swallowed) and that must hurt them a lot (they recieved cca 5000 every turn from that port)

Now i'm preparing to withdraw my British Troops from India (Sepoys and Company Infantry should handle those matters fine by now) and attack where Spain expect it least.. Mediteranean - lots of my trade is comming from there, and having a naval base at Sardinia would be quite interesting option. I'm eager to see when Spanish fleet returns from Caribean to protect the European lands... "



All in all, it is very interesting game with nice historical reality touch (ofcourse there are still things that are different like for example Prussia occupy Dutch etc.. but not major imersion breaking things like Maratha invasion in Europe or America i've seen so many times with Vanilla...