From: farrell@canoe.cis.ohio-state.edu (christopher k farrell)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Empires in Arms
Date: 13 Oct 92 15:29:12 GMT
Article-I.D.: cis.1992Oct13.152912.9042
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept. of Computer and Info. Science

In article <A2QRBMTK@cc.swarthmore.edu> hirai@cc.swarthmore.edu (Eiji Hirai) writes:
>> 1) Suck up to one of the major powers (either one will do, but don't change
>> sides!)
>
>Yes.  The first alternative is to ally with Britain.  This ensures that
>Britain won't immediately destroy your fleets.  Your ships are your key to
>survival.  Make lots of them.  If you're in a campaign game, it's worth it.
>Every ship counts.

	Except that building ships will ensure a hostile Britain and no
subsidies or trade.  Now, you may not care if France is sending you money,
but think ... what do you need those ships for?  An invasion of Britain or a
naval war with France.  Any other nation you can smash easily with your at-
start navy.  If you ally with Britain they will take care of the French navy
for you; if you are allied with France you probably aren't particularly
keen on seeing an invasion of Britain.  I'll explain later.

>The other alternative is France.  This is a more natural alliance and may be
>easier to manage.
>
>One alternative is to create an alliance with France and Russia to totally
>demolish British naval superiority.  In a campaign game, Britain can easily
>win by demolishing French fleets at the start of the game, then ensuring
>that no coalition against her can match her fleet strength.  Usually,
>crippling France's fleets is enough.  Then, no one can land in England nor
>can they hope to attack any North African nations that Britain should
>conquer.  Britain can spend the rest of her time buying Political Status
>(through +2 Economic Manipulation) with all her money and cruising to an easy
>victory.
>
>You (and other players as well) want to avoid this at all costs.
>
>Achieving naval superiority should be your Golden Prize.  You should always
>try to achieve it if you can.  If you do, you'll be kicking major butt.

	Think for a moment.  What will happen if Great Britain falls?  You will
fall, perhaps not next, but certainly at some point, maybe a couple of times.
You are caught between France and Britain, and if one of them falls the other
will have his way with you.  Of the two, Great Britain is more likely to be
trustworthy simply because he cannot easily overrun you.  Wellington and three
(or more) corps can easily save you from the French if they are engaged
elsewhere at the same time, never mind British subsidies and trade.  If all
that goes, you are at the complete mercy of France.  Think very, very carefully
before agreeing to invade Britain.  For both Spain and Russia, invading Britain
is a VERY risky proposition since it will eliminate a MAJOR source of support
in the war with France.  If Britain goes down the tubes, France should win
handily.


>Also, you should definitely try to create the Ottoman Empire.  Assuming (1)
>Britain is allied with you or (2) Britain has been crushed navally, you
>should have no problems fending off the weak Turkish navy and creating the
>Ottoman Empire.  In fact, you should seriously think about regularly
>attacking Turkey to get the Political Status points.  By destroying the
>Turkish fleets, the Turkish army cannot go anywhere.  Any Turkish corps in
>North Africa will starve before they can even think of defending themselves
>against your corps.

	When Hell freezes over.  Beating on Turkey for political status is a
fine idea, but trying to create the Ottoman empire is folly.  If Britain is
crushed navaly, it will be France, not you, who creates the Ottoman Empire
(if anyone does).  They can easily gain naval superiority over your pitiful
economy, building over 10-15 ships an interphase (with conquered minors added
in).  If Britain is not, this will bring you in conflict with Britain, who
wants many of those high-manpower African states, and whose subsidies and trade
you cannot do without, and who you cannot beat in a fair fight (and will lose
your precious navy in the process).  You may be able to beat Turkey, but
deprive them of all of Africa?  Don't forget you can trace supply for a city
in a conquered minor, so once the minor falls, it's cities are supply sources,
so naval supply is unnecessary.  They will bury you in fudal corps once you get
to Egypt.  The Ottoman Empire is a delusion.  You may be able to get much of
Norht Africa (and certainly Morroco, Algeria, and probably Tunisia), but the
whole of the Ottoman Empire should be impossible (unless you are playing with
idiots).

>Unless you're attacking Britain on your first turn, methodically plan your
>conquest of the African minors.  You're on a tight schedule.  Declare war
>and conquer as many as is possible with your corps and fleets each month.
>The goal is to declare war on the minors and conquer them before Turkey
>does.  You may get lucky and get all the necessary minors without declaring
>war on Turkey if Turkey is bumbling or is busy with a war with someone
>else.  Even if you're forced to declare war against Turkey, you want to have
>your minor capitals garrisoned with your Spanish troops rather than by his
>when the war starts.  If you declare war on Turkey, crush his navy.  It'll
>be smooth sailing after that.

	Assuming NO other players in North Africa.  Expect Britain to declare
war on at least Tripolitania and probably Cyrenecia as well on turn one.  Stick
to Algeria and Tunisia.  Even Russia may want (and be able to get) African
states, and France will certainly be interested in some of the large cavalry
corps, never mind the status he can gain from sending Davout and a couple of
corps to blow the hell out of the Turks.

>In fact, it's to Spain's advantage to crush Turkey's fleets.  Threaten
>Turkey.  Get some informal concessions out of him/her (like Turkey agreeing
>to leave certain African minors alone for Spain to conquer), then declare war
>on him a month later. :-)

	Crush his fleets.  Beat on his army for political status.  Try to take
and hold territory and die more deaths than you can replace.

>> If France invades you
>
>You *want* France to invade you. (Ok, that was an overstatement.) As
>Napoleon found out and as your French player will find out, Spain is the
>Vietnam of the Napoloenic age.  It's sure folly to invade Spain.  France
>will drain most of her money and manpower if she tries to occupy all the
>provincial capitals of Spain.  I've heard of this happen and France becomes
>too tempting a target for Prussia, Austria (and anyone else for that matter)
>when most of the French forces are trying to stay alive when your guerillas
>are cutting off supply lines right and left.

	Argh!!!  Consider this a FLAME.  This is one of the stupidest comments
I've ever heard of EIA.  If France invades you without being engaged
HEAVILY elsewhere, you will loose.  He may not be able to FORCE you to 
surrender, but he can so destroy your nation if you don't that you will never
again be a force in the game.  You will loose political status, income, 
possibly your navy, and your army.  Most importantly, you will loose spades of
political staus.  If Napoleon comes knocking, SURRENDER IMMEDIATELY, and try
for a conditional peace.  Unless he is quite heavily engaged elsewhere (and
even then you may ask yourself if you can possible come out ahead).  Don't
be surprised if France demands unconditional surrender.  You may have to
accept it; he probably won't destroy your navy unless you were so foolish as
to crush Britain's Navy first.  You have a vested interest in keeping the
Royal Navy afloat, allied with Britain or not.

	Don't forget, you are not France.  You aren't even Austria.  You can
afford to surrender once or twice and STILL WIN!  Handily, if you have been
pounding the Turks every so often.

>Say to France:  "If you invade me, I will never sue for peace.  You will
>have to occupy all my provincial capitals before you can get peace treaty
>out of me.  Now, do you really want that to happen?"  (If France says yes,
>then you're playing with an idiot and there's no use in pursuing a rational
>argument anymore).

	France may not care whether you sue for peace or not.  If you don't, 
and you allied against Britain, your Navy will eventually be destroyed, your
entire minor holdings taken, and your army eliminated, your political status
in the fiasco zone, your income very small, and your army totally guerrillas
if Britain is unavailable.  By thrashing your small army, France can more
than make up the Political status lost by declaration, never mind stripping you
of your minors.

	If you want to win, surrender.  If you want to play a part in the
game surrender.  It is logically in your best interest.

	The only case where this might not be true is if France is in Russia
at the same time and if Britain commits his entire army to the peninsula (as
happened historically).  Then you can make a good fight of it.

>"I don't bother you and you don't bother me.  Besides, how can you hope to
>match Britain's fleets without my fleets to help you?"

        As I mentioned, think VERY, VERY carefully before committing to the
destruction of the Royal Navy.  Who will save you from Napoleon if not the
British (and who will save you from the British, if not Napoleon)?  You are
walking a tightrope as Spain, and excessively agressive action, other than
against Turkey, is foolish.  The only sure thing is if France can be destroyed.
Then you can do all kinds of fun things in Italy and North Africa, since
Britain can probably be convinced to go for the greener fields of Europe.

>One last note:  don't forget the Spanish Gold Convoy.
>
>If you ever conquer Rome, be sure to bring the Pope to Madrid and revive the
>Spanish Inquisition! :-)
>
>Some points that I haven't even covered:  how to take southern Italy,
>whether to declare war with Russia and navally isolate southern Italy, etc.
>BTW, if the French player is competent, he/she should own northern Italy and
>you probably won't be able to do anything about it.

	If the French player is competant he will control ALL of Italy
eventually.  If you are competant you won't go irritating Russia!

	Spain is a facinating country to play; it ranks high on my list of
preferences.  But it is very tough to play, and you can loose very badly if
you try to be agressive.

						Chris



-- 


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