Gibraltar, A blessing or a curse?

So, I'd like your guys opinions on Gibraltar. In my British campaign I am conducting now, I gave Gibraltar as a gift to Spain, in return for some technology. I found that in my previous campaigns as Great Britain, it was a drain on resources and a pain to defend. Gifting it to Spanish has freed up my economy, and paved the way for a Anglo-Spanish alliance.

So, what do you think of Gibraltar; blessing or a curse?

I don't try to defend Gibraltar early on, so usually Spain takes it. Doesn't mean I won't come back later though, it's just it's not my priority personally.

In the game, Gibraltar is of little importance and so is the port of Suez in the French-Egyptian campaign. I think if you're into maintaining historical accuracy or your fortunate, then you can keep Gibraltar as a port region to just pirate the strait to the Mediterranean continuously. After a while, this does aid your treasury if you have enough enemies, but then again, it's a pain in the arse to defend! I did give it as a gift to my protectorate, Catalonia when they eventually took Spain because I saw no use for it anymore!

I find Gibraltar important if I'm playing a mod where access agreements with Portugal are hard to obtain. I usually find some sort of safe haven is needed in the region if I have expansion aspirations in the region. If I get the access agreement, then I don't bother defending it.

I generally just abandon it in the early game. If it was anything like how defensible it was in real life I'd keep it but as it is it just seems to take more effort to hold on to than to just take it later.

In my Prussian campaigns I sometimes capture it to use it as a naval base for Mediterranean ops. Sucks that I have to do that because if CA had done their jobs properly they would have made it so that military access meant I could use allied / friendly ports to replenish my naval forces.

Political Tomfoolery, bah!

All depends on what you can haggle for it old bean, if the fish are biting, one must put the line in the water...and all that.

I have only played Her Gentlelady's Kingdom once in a campaign, and the cessation of Gibraltar was enough to get Spain to break her alliance with France and join the Coalition, great Scott!

No matter what eye the monocle is on, the little region is a bally blessing, either you hold what's yours and give those French Blighters the boot from the Mediterranean, or you give it away and have your cake, and I dare say eat it too!

I do my best to keep it.
I like having a base to raid the trade in the area but mainly for history's sake

Spain took it from me early in the game in my Great Britain campaign, and I made no effort to defend it. I was focused on my economy and assembling an invasion force to attack France and the Batavian Republic in the North. I needed my navy to guard my trade ships northwest of Britain to keep the money flowing and to keep enemy ships out of the English Channel, so I couldn't spare a fleet to take an army all the way down there. It was ok though, I got it back soon enough.

i invaded the north of france, and the french sent all thier forces to defend the north so i sent my garrison from gibralter to the south and took south of france

I've found Gibraltar to not only be easily defensible but a Huge! cash cow as well, and I never play the British without keeping it.

How to defend it:
- At the start of the game, take most of your forces (especially your four 6 pounder cannons), embark them and have Nelson blast a path to the straights for you.
- Build a small star fort in Gibraltar ASAP.
- Build a commercial trading port in Gibraltar ASAP.
- Transport and/or build a garrison force of 1-2 Generals, 10 line infantry, 2-3 light dragoons, the cannons you brought from England and a few auxiliaries.
- Build a couple of militia and have them fortify the two bridges into Spain.
- Build 2-3 howitzer cannons and transport them south ASAP.
- Avoid garrisoning Gibraltar with units which can't be built there, because after a battle your regular line infantry and standard light dragoons can be replenished quickly while other units will only regenerate very slowly.

The result of this is:
- The fortified militia on the river will gain you at least a turn to prepare your forces if Spain or France moves against you by land.
- And most of the time (if you've built a star fort), the enemy forces will simply spend a few turns camping out in your territory examining the formidable defenses before moving on.
- If they do assault you, place your howitzers inside your fort (their high trajectory allows you to fire over the walls). Overrun their arty with your cavalry and then let their infantry batter themselves against your thick walls while you blast their flanks with the 6 pounders.

Employ the strategy of "Attack from the Defense":
- Occasionally send a militia unit to occupy a nearby Spanish town or port.
- Have a strong mixed army hidden along the most likely route the relieving enemy force will take to recapture their property.
- The resulting ambushes allows your army to overwhelm much larger forces and level the playing field by continuously bleeding the Spanish.

Why bother going through all this effort:
- The commercial port allows you a safe haven for your naval forces to plunder the rich Mediterranean trade routes and wall off the French and Spanish fleets from the Atlantic Ocean.
- And Most Importantly! It lets you build 2 merchant ships at a time which quickly becomes 10's of thousands of pounds as your merchant fleets turn African ivory and tea in a Kings ransom of hard cash every turn.

Gibraltar is a pretty decent port since it's in between the ivory sources and ivory is the most valuable trade resource in game. In my GB campaign i just defend it for a couple of turns enough to build my indiamen and get the ivory trade spot before surrendering it to the spanish.

Gibraltar is like the most important MINOR region in the game. It controls the whole mediteraenian.

Being quite poor at naval battles, I'm too afraid to send any ships to carry reinforcements to Gibraltar until I can build more battleships, so I always lose it to Spain.

Hi there.
When I play as GB I usually sell Gibraltar to the Spanish, for peace and what ever they are willing to pay for it. Later on, I will take action to reclaim it. whether it be diplomatic or military means depends on how "stuborn" Spain is.
M. Jessen

Thanks guys for the comments , specially to RaZor HeaD, I'll keep that in mind when I do my next GB campaign.

As it happens, I'm in 1808 now and Portugal still has Gibraltar, whereas I hold Palma, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily.
AH, the joys of ruling the world

Oh and Rougeman, very nice

thank you