Requesting Tips for the French Campaign

After lengthy (4-5 years) campaigning as the British and Russians, I'm now familiar enough with the game to give the French a try. I'm hoping for some good suggestions by my forum mates to help with this. My inclination is to not focus on anything naval, except perhaps merchants, until my economy is well established and I can realistically take on the the Royal Naval.

In the meantime, and when I can afford, I will make 3 field armies, north/central/south...with initial objectives of Belgium/Holland - defend central - Italy.

Any ideas so I don;t have to restart it a few turns in would be appreciated.

Thanks.

what difficulty are you planning on?

If VH/VH, then you will need some ships as GB will block your ports and eventually land armies in northern france....

Spain and Portugal are both passive, so you probably will see no movement down there (unless GB in gibraltar manage to take out spain). If you want to be a bit aggressive to GB, i would say take gibraltar and with your allies spain nearby, you should be able to get their assistance.

Destroy off Navy! it cost you more than 2000$ per turn!, go after Austria's Gold producing states! You start with 4 Generals, 1 northern France, 3 Blitz Aus fast, give Nap 12lb cannon and all the good stuff use him to take out enemy full stack. other general attack southern Italy, last general station behind put down rebellion. I won by this strategy.

For the harder difficulties, there's two real solutions.

A.) Take out GB first. Personally, I think this is the easiest and most predictable option. Withdraw all your armies from the east, sneak them across the channel...and kill BG . Personally, I would leave England as the last region, as it is difficult to keep from rebelling. Once GB is out, fill the trade ports up while moving your armies back to the east.

B.) Blitz Austria. On the harder difficulties you will have Prussia, Russia, GB, the Ottomans, and Austria and the non-protectorate German states on you 24/7. When you make pushes, try to play the battles and not lose many troops. Also make you sure completely take out each nation...that was my error my first game - I thought Austria/Prussia was broken with 2-3 minor regions and without their capitals. With the money AI bonuses on VH they'll come back with 2 full stacks invading your land in no time. Wipe them out for good when you invade. Ideally, knock Austria out of the game before Prussia gets heavily involved. It is when you have Austrian, Prussian, Russia, Ottoman and GB all sending 2 stacks at you at the same time things become rough.

In regards to Austria, I found it easier to attack through northern Italy. My attempts to move north of Carinthia was met with harsh resistance. From Vienna it is easy to head north and split Prussia in half, and creating Poland can serve as a temporary buffer between Russia. In my game, Saxony has actually proven more of a threat than Prussia, so be wary of any smaller Germanic states that may be hostile to you.

Great Britain will also land troops near Caen and sometimes in Brittany, so it is useful to keep at least one army at full strength in that area. If you wish to build a navy powerful enough to counter the British and prevent their landings and naval blockade, it will take some time, and the naval upkeep might hinder your armies fighting Austria and Prussia.

Im doing Napoleon GC atm....

-Sent Napoleon to Ireland. Then moved to Scotland.
-Rest of army defends lands.
-Build up merchant ships and send to north african trade nodes.
-Economize.
-Help allies when possible, they make good buffer states =).

My general plan is to conquer the british isles (excepting Ireland), once Great Britain is dealt with move on to central europe =)
Also, i wont conquer england till i send a second army to help napoleon =P.