We Were Marchin' Through...Austria

[Samurai Doc]

Maybe I've just been reading too much Liddell Hart lately, but I'm feeling pretty proud after the opening of my new Prussian campaign.

Prussia is one of my favorite factions to play as. I don't have to really bother with a navy, since I'm aquatically incompetent. Today, I started a new H/H campaign and immediately set to work on stashing as much money away as possible. I opened trade relations with as many factions as possible and built of the infrastructure. I created a few more line infantry units assembled all my non-militia units outside of Berlin by shipping over the ones from East Prussia.

As I anticipated, Austria declared war within about 5 turns. I generally settle right into a slugfest with the Imperial Army once the wars starts. As was to be expected, they had every unit of value dug in heavily at Silesia. My knee-jerk reaction has always been to settle in for a siege and fight to the last man. I was confident again this time that I would be successful, though at the cost of most of my troops.

But I decided on a different course of action. I gave the Austrians the illusion that I was heading for Silesia, so they naturally hoarded their reinforcements behind the ring of forts there. Instead of attacking though, I diverted my entire army and captured the relatively defenseless city of Prague with minor casualties. I was in no mood to hold onto the city though. So I burned down every farm, factory, mine, government building, and barracks in the region. I immediately withdrew from the destroyed city and placed my army on the road between Berlin and Silesia.

Once again, I menaced the still-crammed-with-troops fort, but changed direction again. A small Austrian army from the south was being sent to retake the devastated city of Prague, and I met it en-route to the city. The hopelessly outnumbered force was crushed in the ensuing battle, and I miraculously only lost a few dozen men (mostly due to friendly fire).

Now, with almost all Austrian forces concentrated in Silesia, the whole of the Empire was thrown wide open. I immediately invaded the heartland, this time threatening Vienna. I might have had the numbers to take the capital, but I once again passed up on a big battle. Instead, I walked right into Pressburg without firing a shot. They surrendered. The terrified Austrians were now huddled in the capital awaiting for me to besiege it. Instead, I burned everything in the town including the potentially pesky defensive forts and kept moving on south, abandoning the city. Next, I turned my attention to Croatia, which also fell without a fight.

I gave Zagreb the same treatment as I did Prague and abandoned the city. With a unit of cavalry, I raided Austria's port on the sea and then started back north. I debated laying siege to the capital this time, but I wasn't about to ruin my magnificent army and face rebellions for years to come. However, I did hammer a hodgepodge Austrian force that was rushing its way to defend the capital. After this defeat, the Austrians way up north finally got wise. The army holed up in Silesia finally got wise and set siege to Berlin. I wasn't too worried as I had left adequate troops and had forts ringing the city. The Imperial force wasn't big enough to take the city, but they were prepared to simply starve me out. Not good. I might not win if I sallied out.

The situation was humorous though. Both sides were at the enemy's capital. The Austrians were laying siege to mine, and I had just demolished all the forces still standing outside their's. I swung around with my troops and took Pressburg again without a battle. Then, the hapless town of Prague that I still owned had a rebellion start in the region. On the same turn, the Bavarians invaded and took Prague, leaving them and the Bohemian rebels to duke it out. I cared not in the least since the town was worthless anyway.

Pondering what to do as the paralyzed Austrians remained inside Vienna, I came up with a diplomatic solution. The Ottomans, who had just declared war on me, were the answer. I gifted to them the cities of Zagreb and Pressburg and threw in socket bayonets just for the hell of it. This meant that the Austrians now had the belligerent Ottomans right on their doorstep. It also freed up my grand army, which strategically retreated to just south of Berlin. The Austrian army besieging my capital was cooked now, and after a short battle, I finally annihilated the Imperial force that I had for many years dodged.

So now here I am several years into the war with Austria. I have the original two territories that I started with, but I also have a magnificent, crack army with researched artillery and soon, fire-by-rank. The treasury is also substantial. After my Epaminondas-like march through it, the Austrian Empire has been utterly dismantled, at the cost of only about 150 casualties, and what remains of the Empire is surrounded by hostile Turks and Poles. Silesia, now with drastically fewer defenders is next on my hit list as my army is just outside of the city there.

So what to do now? After I capture Silesia, I'm tempted to broker a peace with the Austrians, and leave them be with what little they have left. I'd really like to turn my veteran army on the belligerent Bavarians to the southwest, take back Prague, and move into the German states. The Poles seem pretty docile as we are allies and I have adequate defenses to the East. Creating a unified Germany seems to be the best bet right now, with Austria as my irrelevant neighbor.

[S-te-Fan]

Get NTW

[Samurai Doc]

Get NTW

I did. Unfortunately, my good computer has no internet connection as of right now. Left the dang ethernet cord at school. Might as well unify Germany in the meantime though.

[british_general]

Let's attack India for the hell of it! Indians also have noob fleets and you can go through melee units real quick

[Saint Nicholas]

Sounds like a really fun and fast paced campaign you've had so far. I would try and make Austria your protectorate if you can. Deal their army a crushing blow and lay siege to their capital but don't take it. Force them to bow to your supreme power! I've never had a protectorate in Empire, do they function the same way vassals and protectorates in Medieval II and Rome did?

[Samurai Doc]

Well it looks like my German Unification is going to have to be put on the back burner. I was only a few turns away from invading Austria again to finish them off for good, but war has broken out all over the place.

The surprise declaration of war by the British has split northern and eastern Europe into two major camps.

The Eastern Alliance:

-Prussia (me)
-Courland
-Poland
-Russia*

*Russia is allied with Poland right now and also locked in a war with Sweden, so I consider them my ally despite not having a formal treaty with them.

The Northern Entente:

-Great Britain
-Sweden

Britain and Sweden are putting all their effort into knocking me out first. The Brits landed a full stack outside of East Prussia and their overpowering navy is anchored just offshore. Nobody in my alliance even has a navy outside of a few rinky-dink ships of mine. The Swedes are pushing further south, attempting to get at Berlin. They steamrolled Denmark and are occupying Copenhagen right now.

Obviously, I need to take care of the British Expeditionary Force first.

Then after that, I have a few options I'm considering....

1) Sweden first. Since I can hardly invade Britain, I could settle for kicking the Swedes off the continent and besieging Copenhagen. This would at least give me a little breathing room between my capital and the Swedes, and also give me a route to messing with the Swedish economy. Perhaps I could even pull off taking Norway or going on another long march through the countryside like I did in Austria.

2) Anticipating a major blockade by the British, I'm going to be desperate for a trade port. I might bite the bullet and besiege Vienna in order to have a safe port on the Mediterranean. The North Sea is simply not going to be safe with the Brits and Swedes around.

3) Overland Campaign. With open borders with Poland and Courland, I could conceivable move east and throw the Swedes off by taking Latvia or Lithuania, or whatever that Swedish city is. From there, I could probably strike Finland and severely damage the Swedish economy.

I really don't see how I'm going to be able to end the war with the British. I better really start gifting them stuff or making big payments. But whatever happens, this is the most exciting campaign I've had so far.

[Wingate]

I too try to keep BH Liddell Hart in mind. One could argue that using strategy against the AI rather than bludgeoning is somewhat unfair, but if the odds are stacked against the player it adds fun.

GB is my least favorite opponent but my view is skewed since I always go heavily into trade and a navy to support and protect it and prefer more land-oriented opponents - have not done Prussia for that reason.

Having a multi-lateral balance of power across the globe makes ETW interesting on the level of grand strategy (NTW with two sides probably not).

[Samurai Doc]

Well I played a little bit earlier and had an extremely successful year as Prussia. First, I destroyed the British invasion force outside of East Prussia. My much more numerous and better researched artillery (namely cannister shot) annihilated the Redcoat infantry. As I expected, the British responded by blockading my only trade port. So with the British invasion threat out of the picture for a while, I shifted troops westward.

My ally Poland had really been handing it to the Bavarians who still occupied Prague. So, I outmaneuvered what remained of the Bavarians and took the city without hardly losing anyone. That same turn, Austria finally accepted a peace treaty.

So now, Austria is effectively out of the war and humbled by both my invasions and the Polish ones. The British can do nothing but blockade me, which has hurt my economy, but not terribly so. The Bavarians have been pushed all the way back to their capital, which I'm heading for next. That leaves just the Swedes as my primary enemy right now, who currently aren't showing any signs of wanting to move.

My hope now is to deal with the Bavarians quickly, perhaps burn down the whole city and give it to Hannover, and then move all my troops north to finally square off against Sweden.