Austria...impossible

Seriously, even with cheating I can't defeat the French!

H/H campaign with Austria, I started off with 300.000 florins and I gave the French 300.000 as well. I developed nicely first five turns, built up my farms everything but from the 5th turn everything started going downhill.

Napoleon raced over to Innsbruck and I kept it with the last two units, half decimated. German Fusiliers are no match for the Fusiliers of the Line of the French. Maybe Hungarian Fusiliers manage to stand up but not for long in a one-v-one battle. The only good plus of the Austrians is the Hungarian Hussars which are cheap and pack a nasty punch against other light cavalry in the beginning. After you manage to have something of those German Fusiliers with two or three chevrons experience you can expect to slightly overwhelm the French but otherwise forget it. My whole game so far until turn 30 has been defending my towns and expanding wherever I could, mainly south and east.

Ottomans were easy mincemeat, Italy as well. I barely managed to wrestle Bavaria out of French grasp but for the past 6 turns I've been going siege after siege. Luckily Innsbruck is near to provide with fresh troops.

Any hope for me to win this? I'm creeping up to the redline because the economy is not that useful to support so many troops, and Im basically relying on merchantmen to provide trade income. So far so good but I have no defence and if they sink I can't replace my fleets.

Powerful units later on for Austria? Tactics? How to deal with Russia and Prussia?

There is another thread that offers very sage advice -- no cheating .. the key is to set up Italy and Barvaria as protectorates by turn 2 and then go South. It sounds like you occupied, which engages you into Napy's plan

Try M/M?

M/M ... [ sneers ]

Erebrus has some nice miniguides for several factions, including Austria here:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=388993

After about a dozen attempts at VH/VH I have managed to survive into 1808 for the first time.

The one thing I've learned is that there is little point trying to hold on to Innsbruck, Venice and Prague as these will inevitably fall - so build nothing there.

You are probably best forming two full stack armies - one to march into Bavaria and the other to conquer the Turks.

Everywhere else needs to be garrisoned with Landwehr.

If you besiege Munich in Turn 1 you'll automatically take it in turn 2, liberate, not occupy it and then hand them Innsbruck (don't have the Bavarians declare war on France as they'll quickly be destroyed - while as neutrals they will operate as a buffer for at least a while).

It may also be worthwhile giving the Russians Venice as they might then move Kutuzov's stack there and actually defend it (in my current campaign they conquered all of Italy down to Rome which made a big difference) .

Withdraw your western stack to Vienna and hold it.

Meanwhile conquer all the Turkish provinces with the eastern stack (Jassy should fall to the Russians) - occupy these and don't liberate as you'll need the income etc to compensate for your losses in the west.

Then fight defensively while building trade ships (the 4 easternmost trade nodes are relatively safe once the Turks are gone - Malta and anything west of that are problematic), economic upgrades and tech.

These should let you bribe the Prussians, Hessians, Saxons etc into attacking the French and their allies which means they won't be able to send endless full stacks against Vienna.

Also build forts as soon as you can - this means that 5 line infantry + armed citizens do have a good chance of surviving a full stack's attacks (unless they starve you out).

With a lot of luck and by fighting out every battle (never autocalc with the crappy Austrians) you may just avoid annihilation for long enough to build up several decent stacks and move against the French again.

In my current campaign I even managed to survive the early loss of Vienna as I'd taken Istanbul which works well as an alternative capital and eventually I was able to win Vienna back.

Having said this last time I saved Vienna was under siege again for about the 8th or 9th time so final victory is far from assured....

Oh and trade techs and trade agreements like mad in turn 1 - swap for the British techs first and then sell techs to everyone you are not at war with - I managed to raise about 12,000 gold that way which made a huge difference as I could start off my economic and road improvements immediately and recruit loads of landwehr to hold my cities.

Plus you also have to watch taxes and garrisons very closely as the Austrian peasants will revolt at the drop of a hat.