How do you beat the italian campaign?

Ive tried it over and over, but I can't seem to end the campaign in time How do you beat this blasted campaign?

Originally Posted by Wilfried

Ive tried it over and over, but I can't seem to end the campaign in time How do you beat this blasted campaign?

First of all, before you open a new thread, you should first read the guide ...

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=371253

dont sack settlements, cause then they will revolt once you move on.

Ok, first off ... read the stickied guide, it's got some good advice. But I'll tell you how I did it. And just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I did it again using the same methods.

Always Remember:
1 - Don't Risk Napoleon's life in Combat
2 - But you should try to use him (Napoleon) as the major general in all engagements -- especially if you're going to auto-resolve the conflict.
3 - Aggression is key. After spending a turn or two between attacks to replenish and move up reinforcements, make sure you keep pressing the attacks.
4 - After taking Turin and looting it, don't loot any more cities when you capture them, only peacefully occupy them. I'll explain this part of the strategy below.
5 - Most of your funds are better spent on repairing the government buildings of captured cities and recruiting more troops. Spending money on new buildings is mostly a waste of both money and precious time.


STAGE ONE: Turin
When you first start, you'll have Napoleon slightly to the west of Nice with a medium sized force, and another general between Nice and Coni to the north. There is also a small Austrian force further west from Napoleon. Your immediate goal is to conquer Coni and decimate the forces there. Use both Napoleon and the forces between Coni and Nice. IGNORE the Austrian force by just moving Napoleon past them.

As far as your starting funds, use them to recruit a few more light cavalry units and line infantry units in Nice. You really don't need to spend money on roads or buildings because you need to end up taking Turin within the first 8 turns, preferably sooner.

You should be able to conquer Coni during the second turn. With the forces you have mustered, you can easily force a surrender--DO NOT DO THIS! You can auto-resolve if you want, but you need to actually attack because if you don't kill these Sardinians now, you'll just face them again in a few turns when you try to take on Turin. And taking Turin is hard enough without giving them additional troops.

When you do conquer Coni, go ahead and loot the city. You're going to be waiting a few turns here anyway while you bring up more recruits from Nice, allow your main force to replenish, etc. You can also recruit a few wimpy militia with the funds, they'll help you hold onto Coni when you press your main forces north towards Turin.

Be sure to Leave at least one of your Generals three or four troops back in Nice until the small Austrian force to the west decides what the heck they're going to do. On one game, they attacked Nice, on another, they moved north towards Coni and I decimated them there. Either way, make sure when they make the mistake of attacking, you wipe them out so you won't have to bother with them later on.

By turn six, you should have taken care of the annoying Austrians and be ready to attack Turin with a full-stack plus (and still have some militia or wounded troops to leave behind so Coni doesn't get any bright ideas about "le revolution").

When attacking Turin, if you somehow miraculously outnumber them by such a huge force you can force a surrender ... do so. Otherwise, do battle and win. Using a strategy of targeting their forces with your artillery to encourage a charge from them is probably the most likely to succeed. If you can manage to find a nice area to force their charge to be boxed in by hills or something, that's even better. You can even use your cavalry to infuriate them into charging your lines.


STAGE TWO: From Milan to Modena
Now that you've taken Turin and Sardina is in your pocket, your three territories are basically perfectly buffered from a counterattack. Your powerbase is secure. And for some reason, the Western Austrian territories are all but undefended. Take one turn to recover and replenish, but then start moving on Milan. The reason is, most of these cities are hardly defended at all.

Keep spending your cash on line infantry, light cavalry, and a spattering of militia (for keeping the populace cowering in respectful fear). And keep moving them westward behind your main force (led by Napoleon).

The best strategy I've found for this stage is basically hopping from one city to another, taking a turn or two after each capture to replenish and move more troops forward. Once you conquer Milan, DO NOT LOOT IT! It will be a lot easier from this point on to just peacefully occupy these Austrian cities ... plus the lower classes will absolutely delight in becoming part of the new French Republic. You're going to eventually get a mission to take the fortress at Mantua. But wait until you've captured all those other western Austrian territories.

Only when you've got them all, you can take on the fortress at Mantua. Both times I faced it, it was only guarded by a 3/4ths stack, and the battle itself was actually rather simple. In fact, the second time, I managed to lose less than 75 troops total and utterly decimated the Austrians.

The last decision you need to make in this stage is whether to pay the cash to repair the fortress walls. Personally, as I planned on keeping Venice quite happy on both times through this Italian Campaign, I had no reason to pay the hefty sum to repair the walls, instead using the cash to train more troops.


STAGE THREE: Kill the Pope
Both times, after I conquered Modena, the Papacy decided they were upset. First time through, they declared war on Venice who was allied with Sardina who was in turn allied with me as my protectorate. The second time through the campaign, they instead declared war on Sardina which again drew me into the war.

Now, if you've already gotten the 20-turn warning, you don't have to bother with the Papacy. But if you've got 20 turns or more to go, it's definitely worth the trouble of conquering these two measly cities.

You'll quickly find out why it's worth it when you conquer Bologna and get offered a mission to conquer Ancona ... with a very sizeable gold reward. The gold is definitely worth the side-trip. Plus it's just nice to give that meddling Pope a piece of your mind.

Taking the two cities really shouldn't be a problem compared to the battles you've already faced, but there is one other thing you should do during this time -- make a deal with Venice for Military Access. You can go ahead and offer them military access as well, in both of my games, they didn't turn on me, and in fact I managed to get them from Unfriendly to Indifferent in one by taking out a moderately sized Papacy army that was besieging Brecia. How it got all the way up there to the north I have no idea.

The best time to make the deal with Venice for Military Access is right after you get the 20-turn warning. Make a deal for 20-turns of co-Military Access. They'll probably counter and ask you for some gold ... go ahead and pay it. If you're quick and do this BEFORE you conquer Ancona, they'll only ask for about 500 gold. On my first playthrough though, I made the deal AFTER Ancona and the sizeable gold reward, and Venice had the gall to demand 3000 gold ... which I reluctantly had to pay. It's worth it though, because at this point, you meet all the victory conditions except actually taking your main objective: Klagenfurt


STAGE FOUR: Klagenfurt
When I was finished with the Papacy, I had about 15-19 turns left, so I used about 5-7 turns to consolidate two large stacks of troops in Mantua, then marched them both straight through to Klagenfurt. The first time through, I was simply overjoyed to only find a single stack at Klagenfurt, I just auto-resolved the battle and happily finished.

The second time, I reveled in the battle and had fun beating the pants off of Austria.


I hope this helps!

I just finished the campaign on hard/hard. It was more challenging then expected and I did get a bit under time pressure. I did build up the economy and roads on the way because early on I didn´t feel the need for a huge militia army that would eat up all my tax income. I peacefully occupied all settlements thinking it would help me in the end game when I would have to be able to build troops quickly. Focused to just building quality troops sacking just wasn´t necessary. I only had to deal with one front early on so enough to try to keep one army with high quality troops going with zero garrison when not replenishing instead of having to deal with crappy militia. Didn´t upgrade everything instanty but when things heated up I had cobbled roads everywhere and I was never short on money. The roads let me enhance my position just fast enough for the Venice and then Papal attacks. I also had that Luca region or what it was attacking me but with them I could negotiate a peace treaty.

For me it was pretty straight forward until having to take Venice. They put up a bit of a fight. Took Venice and then they declared peace. When deliberating Venice Sardini my protectorate back stabbed me and Papal states declared war the next turn. I then decided I would try to defend my borders so had to start producing militia troops together with the high quality troops. I contemplated just let them break havoc while I marched for Klagenfurt but decided to play safe when I couldn´t get peace treaty through diplomacy plus bribes. Expected Papal States to be more of a threat so tried to counter their moves. Got a bit of a stale mate where they got some of my hardly defended provinces and me counter with taking the province they left unchecked while rallying troops so I could beat their stack. Ended up that I finally fought them off and got Bologna in some rally tough battles which could go either way. At the same time I marched and took Sardinia which was much easier as expected. This did slow me down a bit and I got a bit under pressure when they mentioned only 20 turns left. Cobbled roads but it still take many turns to get my full stacked army from west to east. I decided not dabble with Venice and take the long road to Klagenfurt. Full stack at that Venice province which I was afraid would slow me down to much and why make life harder then necessary.

I had an army built up to take Ancora but I didn´t dare to take a full effort on that one. I didn´t really care for taking that region either since I didn´t need the money at all at that point. Papals last stack was still quite powerful I just let them besiege Bologna hoping to get the bonus of defending it but he just left his troops there for three turns.

Marched for Klagenfurt with Napoleon and a backup army. I leap frogged them hoping to avoid some nasty surprises having to fight dual stacks. But somehow while doing so still I got an ambush with no reinforcements! Can I do that or is it just scripted? I had to fight with Napoleon in the middle with the enemy lined up on both sides. I was about 300 men short or something and new there was not a chance in hell that would work. Things go so insanely fast assumed it would be absolutely pointless trying to line up so I just tried to swamp the artillery side with all my infantry going melee and just trying to move Napoleon to a place where he could be relatively safe. Unlimbered the cannons on the spot assuming the AI would try to swamp it. Had some hope it could hold the army on the other side from attacking my back untill I could start to form some form of turtle defence in some corner or something.

But not even close. Has anybody managed to win that ambush battle even with a full stack on hard? Would be curious how on earth that could happen

Luckily I did have my backup army and managed to get enough kills even if I couldn´t save Napoleon to kill off the army. At that point less then 8 turns left october or something but there wasn´t really any opposition left. Just 8 units of armed citizenry which was no match for my army with two cannons, 2 horse units and about 50/50 militia/line infantry. I could have just besieged them and getting the Pope mission as well but wouldn´t bother.

I think I played quite efficiently. Maybe I could have ignored the Sardini war altogether. They didn´t seem all to aggressive just took my stable building and sent some smallish stacks I could defeat early on.. Despite my work on the infrastructure it did take quite long to transport troops from the west coast to the eastern front. However without those I would have to settle with even more militia crap and honestly I couldn´t do with one less cannon in the end game :p. Ignoring Sardini I could get my backup unit and march for Klagenfurt way earlier. Also had I totally disgarded the papal mission that would allow me to march three full armies earlier. However the regions they where after felt much more important to defend so that would been a risky move maybe only giving me one run at Klagenfurt. Except from that I should probably have distroyed magistrates to build more barracks so I wouldn´t have to deal with so much militia in the end. Many turns I had the money for better troops but had to settle to build twice as much militia troops instead. Maybe better with 2x militia instead of 1 line infantry but booring and harder to manage with these insectoid move speeds. And then you get those battles where they route before they start fighting all of them at once. Great when the enemy militia does so not so fun when it´s yours lol.

As for generals could have done better with keeping them alive. I killed of two hunting down routing enemies. One got a sheep shot. Killed one unit in the general staff and of course it was the general. They know what to go for. The other time I looked away and had the horse units find the only stake barrier out there. All 24 just vanished was like voodoo. Napoleon died in that ambush. You can´t surrender during ambushes it appears so you have to route the general unit for him to flee. So just russian roulette how that would go. Expensive to recruit generals but I could afford them every time it was necessary. Seem to be more crucial for auto resolve then in actual battle though. It´s so easy to kill them off just running in the back lines trying to get in range for that rally function when things heat up and it really could make a difference.

I would have liked to see larger general units so you actually can have some use of them in battle instead of hanging back not trying to get shot and not activelly helping that much as other cavallery units do.

Originally Posted by Wilfried

Ive tried it over and over, but I can't seem to end the campaign in time How do you beat this blasted campaign?

I just took over the minimal amount of regions then bought millitary access across Italy and took the last required territory and won.

I just finished this campaign on Hard. At first I was playing it as normally do taking provinces slowly with Napoleon and building up forces until I recieved the message about 20 turns left. At that time I only have maybe 4 cities including the starting one and only 1 stack under Napoleon plus the starting army under Massena (hasn't moved at all).

Rushed straight to Klagenfurt fighting which ever army blocking my path. Luckily all these armies are not full stack so I can defeat them easily with minimal loses. Reached Klagenfur exactly on the last turn and can't afford to siege even a turn so the only option is to attack. Need to reload about 3 times the battle before I finally win (and get that achievement).