British Peninsular Campaign

What's a good way to keep your income up while still managing to liberate all of the Spanish provinces? I find the that the guerillas really weigh down your funds.

I played my first campaign last night on M/M. I chose to keep all the coastal provinces and liberated all the interior. Money was decent. But then again, it was M/M.

Originally Posted by nquincy

I played my first campaign last night on M/M. I chose to keep all the coastal provinces and liberated all the interior. Money was decent. But then again, it was M/M.

Portugal start to hold a bit of a grudge against you though if you hold regions on the West Coast of the Peninsular.

But I want to liberate all of Spain, so only Gib and northern Portugal should be mine.

Try to build trade ships and control the trade nodes. It should help with the income.
In my camaign Wellington has died I hope he comes back xD

Originally Posted by Sir Zimbo

Try to build trade ships and control the trade nodes. It should help with the income.
In my camaign Wellington has died I hope he comes back xD

Sorry dude but he is gone.

I think more supply ports increase your troop replenishment rate too so maybe you should hold onto some other those coastal regions and give it back later on.

If you need more money I would disband all of the Portuguese troops. It takes so damn long for them to get replacement men I've relegated them to garrison duty.

Originally Posted by Chewie

Sorry dude but he is gone.

I think more supply ports increase your troop replenishment rate too so maybe you should hold onto some other those coastal regions and give it back later on.

Wait, can I still get the Duke of Victory medal? And I thought the only way to give provinces back to Spain was by liberation.

You should try the French side on VH!

There is unrest in almost all regions, and you have no money to make things better. If I spend nothing, I can only manage a surplus of about 500 F a turn, - all income goes to town watch (3.000 a turn) just to keep them from rioting.

Why are we here in this godforsaken country?... :-)

Originally Posted by PhallosMaximus

You should try the French side on VH!

There is unrest in almost all regions, and you have no money to make things better. If I spend nothing, I can only manage a surplus of about 500 F a turn, - all income goes to town watch (3.000 a turn) just to keep them from rioting.

Why are we here in this godforsaken country?... :-)

I'm playing the French on VH campaign and I'm a little disappointed at how easy it was to keep unrest down. I kept taxes for the middle classes at "3," but lowered them for the lower classes to "2." I then clicked exempt from taxes for all regions that were still showing red. In order to make up the shortfall in funds, I disbanded 3-4 cavalry units. Voila! No unrest. No bankruptcy. Eventually, I was making good money as I built up my economic infrastructure in my northernmost towns which would be my economic engine. I'm now making 5000-6000 a turn and have five full armies. (I could probably make a lot more money if I started stuffing the two trade nodes that I control with trade ships which has been completely left alone by the CAI.) I've been able to build "Pro-French sentiment to plus 60% in almost everyone of my towns. It's been WAY too easy! So instead of being starved for funds and trying to tamp down revolts in my rear areas, I'm able to solely concentrate on destroying Spanish and British field armies. If only King Joseph, Massena, Soult, Marmont, Victor, and Jourdan had it so easy and straightforward.

The "exempt from taxes" option is too overpowered. If you don't want a revolt then turn off taxes for that province. Easy peasy. However, it wasn't taxes that caused massive unrest throughout Spain, but a combination of nationalism and religious fervor. Thus, "anti-French sentiment" should have a much bigger impact that it does. Further, growing "pro-French sentiment" should be painfully slow- not the +5% per turn that a French proponent agent creates by his presence.

Plus there should have been some "events" to show that the Penisula was just one theatre of a wider war. Events siphoning funds, troop and generals away due to problems in Russia and Germany would have been a nice way to keep the French player on his toes. Right now, the only events I'm receiving are gifts of cash that I really don't need.

Finally, the fact that NTW doesn't factor in supply lines and logistics really does the Penisular War a disservice. I know CA doesn't want to complicate things for the casual gamers that make up their economic bread-and-butter, but I truly wish that NTW featured some sort of functional logistics system. Back in the 80's, I played a PC strategy game called "The Ancient Art of War." In a way it was something of the great-granddaddy of the TW series: you would maneuver "armies" on a campaign map and then zoom into tactical battles. Here was a game that came out twenty plus years ago and in almost every way was more simplistic than any game of the TW series, but it had a logistics system. If you moved your armies then their condition would suffer. If your armies were cut off from a food supplying resource such as a town or fort then their supplies would suffer. The combination of low supplies and low condition meant that armies would be at a severe disadvantage in a battle. It was a very simple system, but it was understandable and it worked. NTW could really use something like it.

How do you liberate the regions anyway? Just hand them over?



Because that isn't a very good strategy. The French then have a short turn or two that they can take it over without resistance.

additional lump sums from his majesty during the campaign on m/m. 5k and 7.5k by 1812 winter.

Yes, I know that the French army you have from the start is too big for your economy, but I play with a houserule that I can't disband a perfectly fine regiment. Only through losses in combat can I combine regiments and get my costs down.

My challenge is to be agressive with my army (and loose some units), and try to make ends meet with my weak economy.

I have always made houserules for my TW games in order to make them more realistic and challenging.

Cheers,

Originally Posted by PhallosMaximus

I have always made houserules for my TW games in order to make them more realistic and challenging.

Cheers,

Same here. In my Spanish campaign I don't let myself attack for a few months (no rushing). The Spanish army is still getting organized when the campaign starts and they are still a bid timid to lash out at French holdings on their own. After a few victories though the confidence grows and I begin offensive campaigns. Makes the game a bit more challenging and makes it a bit more realistic.

But what about a British strategy?

I would play through it a couple of times before trying to give it all back to Spain.

Money is too tight and you need the costal regions for ships and money.

I suppose you could do a naval landing in France and work backwards and have lots of money but that is the only way I see it now.

Originally Posted by MKeogh

Back in the 80's, I played a PC strategy game called "The Ancient Art of War." In a way it was something of the great-granddaddy of the TW series: you would maneuver "armies" on a campaign map and then zoom into tactical battles. Here was a game that came out twenty plus years ago and in almost every way was more simplistic than any game of the TW series, but it had a logistics system. If you moved your armies then their condition would suffer. If your armies were cut off from a food supplying resource such as a town or fort then their supplies would suffer. The combination of low supplies and low condition meant that armies would be at a severe disadvantage in a battle. It was a very simple system, but it was understandable and it worked. NTW could really use something like it.

Incredible… I thought that was the only one to play that game!!! And I agree with all that you wrote about the logistic issue.

The attrition, that was one of the innovations in NTW, already was something often used in another wargames. I remember one “hard”game, the Norm Koger's The Operational Art of War. It had some interesting features, like attrition or the supply/logistics issues, or the proficiency of the units and the armies.

The attack capability of a nations army has to do more with the capacity to maintain the efficiency of that army in campaign that with its huge numbers, that are in the other hand are a nightmare to logistics. The logistics should be an interesting feature in Total War Series, even if it was an optional feature so the casual players could just turn it off.

Allthough the supply, upkeep and attrition system in NTW is pretty basic, it's a step in the right direction.

In earlier TW games you only paid upkeep for the troops you actually had, so if your unit was down to 50%, you only paid 50% upkeep. In NTW you pay full upkeep even if your unit only have 10 soldiers, and then you have to wait for the unit to be filled by new recruits.

So if your economy is tight, you are tempted to disband or combine your under-strenghted units, - a good challenge for the player I think.

Cheers,

I have a similar problem, but it's the spanish who have no money. They have a couple of large armies sitting doing nothing except forcing me to take long detours round a river and they don't seem to be able to afford to garrison their cities that I either liberate or that rebel to the spanish so the french just take them back. I can't spare money to gift to them, how can I help them out?

how much does it cost to build forts because i can never build them

I played through it and managed to give everything possible to Spain. I did have to disband units, even some that were just given to me in the same turn, and I don't think I built more than just a few in the whole game.

Money is very tight and the worst part is that it doesn't give you the blasted achievement anyway...