A Most Unlikely Ally

A Most Unlikely Ally


I've done this on 2 campaigns now as France. I rush naval tech and upgrade the Marseilles ship yard to dry dock asap. Send my Atlantic flotilla to merge with the Mediterranean one. Invest right away in 3 more 122 gun SOLs then take on and sink Nelson and what are usually 2 additional British ancillary fleets.


Invade and liberate Ireland which Britain (AI) usually leaves virtually undefended, march on Edinburgh and cap it as a French territory.


Next turn after, Britain begged for a Peace Treaty which I was happy to oblige if they would break their alliance with Austria, Sweden and Russia; embargo the same and sign a trade agreement, a military alliance and give me military access as well as a few industrial and naval techs they were ahead of me on.


They shockingly agreed (with a powerful urge to wash) and in spite of remaining hostile and unfriendly through the remainder of the campaign never did renig on the alliance.

Wow i thought they would have the english AI set up to well hate you to the death as france But nice work on masterfull stroke a powerfull ally they would be (specially boosting your naval tech .)

They did hate me throughout. Never did get them to sweeten up in diplomatic encounters but they never did break the alliance.

I also gave Ireland all my tech and any spare money I had from time to time because inspite of them being a protectorate, Britain Remained at war with them untill 1810 when they decieded they wernt worth the trouble anymore.

I did maintain 2 full stacks in Scotland as insurance and a deterant as I was commited to Irelands independence and would have re declared war had they made a seriouse threat to them.

Interesting play but doesn't it leave you vulnerable on land in Europe? In my campaign, I concentrated on building economy first, then fighting off Russians and what's not (luckily for me, Austria sued for peace before I took Vienna, in fact, we remained at peace and traded until the end of the game), then land expansion bit-by-bit and only by the late-mid game I've turned my sights to GB

I've built up my fleet, harassing British trade lanes and taking out its trade fleets, while one of my three land armies was fighting occasional british invasions - they used Nelson to transport troops! Then I've built a stack of troops which landed in Ireland while Nelson was chasing my main fleet which was ravaging British trade fleets up there in North Atlantic (captured their ships and used them for myself, lol). By that time, Ireland was undefended, so was Scotland, I took'em out in a couple of turns, making them my protectorates, and only then I've invaded Wales, Gibraltar (with a spare stack) and finally, England proper, making it my protectorate as well lol All with a single stack of units

I never got a peace offering =P. Course i didnt destroy any GB fleets either. I just made sloops and rushed napoleon to ireland, then scotland, and then and now waiting for a second army to be made so i can conquer england.
H/H w/Dogmeats TYRANT full combat mod.

Funny how this would've been impossible in ETW but we're seeing more and more of these stories. I really like how the CAI is much more reasonable in this game, beat them up a little bit and they start coming to the table, with pretty generous terms sometimes.

Is it only me that has to put up with 2/3 full stacks right outside London...

ing AI...

I tried the direct rout my first campaign and opted for this tact. My first rout was as you suggest, a direct assault on London. Taking London wasn't the hard part. Pacifying it was more difficult than Moscow and when it inevitably rebelled, the two full stacks spawned were all regulars with 4 chevron bar experience.

The rush of London scenario would work better in late game as there is more civic building development to curb their enthusiasm so to speak, and overall mood-modifying techs would be further developed.

I prefer Napoleons original plan A which was to have the Spanish fleet sail up to the channel and Irish sea to successfully challenge the English for control of the waters then an invasion of Britain early in the campaign. Of course the Spanish will not oblige so I plan the Mediterranean break out I mentioned in the first post.

Its not difficult to plan; unfortunately some of the game scripting is very predictable.

There is a fairly consistent time frame from the bigging of the French Campaign and the issuance of the "Fall of Austria" mission until the switch of Prussia from Neutrality to Belligerence toward France.
Just enough time to build up a little more defense for Bernadotte in Hanover; a turn 1 priority and to march 2 of the 3 beginning stacks to Munich to defend Bavaria or better yet to terry one turn and let it fall then capture it for myself. Then I rush the Tyrol to give a rout to reinforce the south or visa versa.

The Northern Italian Allys are scripted pretty well to be of use. The do a Good Job of defending the south as well as Innsbruck from the marauding Russian stack the game sends in early on and have twice in a row now captured and held Venice without assistance.

On the other hand, Spain unlike Northern Italy, seems to be scripted to be as useless an ally to France in game as they were historically. In every campaign to date, they have done NOTHING! They even leave Gibraltar unassailed with no English defenders. Interestingly enough, this is not the same case if the human player is Britain, they will advance on Gibraltar and take an active part in the campaign.

Nice im yet to play as the French i have only done Italy, Egypt and GB in the Coalition Campaign, what difficulty were you playing on?

In a MP campaign against a buddy I play as France and him as Russia. On turn 0 I got Prussia to accept alliance and go to war with Russia. I am certain my buddy by now would have eliminated me as France because he is a much better player, but the Prussian war has hurt him good.