Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 12:44:58 -0400 
From: Mustafa Unlu <mustafa+@CMU.EDU>
Subject: EIA: The Importance of Being British


The recent posts indicated an apparent difference in the way people
approach to the British problem.

However, Chris Farrell's and other people's views are not that
different. The underlying theme is the same: Britain is one of the
'strongest' countries.

This is why players in Chris' group bid *big* points for GB.

In other groups, GB doesn't get bid for that highly probably due to
ignorance (most I have seen is 18. Once it went for 11). 
In those games when GB has been taken relatively cheaply, they need to
do even less to place themselves in the lead and then do Fortress
Britannia. So, there is an incentive for other naval powers to 'do
something' about this.


Both situations arise from the inherent strengths of Britain. These
are (IMHO) in order:

1) Absolute mastery of seas guaranteed in about 2-4 years of game time
if no counter alliance is formed. There are ways of accomplishing
this.
	a. Build enough ships to be able to run the forts of Brest,
	Toulon, Cadiz and St Petersburg and still 'win' the battle.
	This is easier with the new naval rules. Using the additional
	modifiers I posted earlier makes it a little less easy.

	b. If FR/SP/RU are not wary about their garrisons, land a
	small BEF at the port, take it, force out the fleet and
	cause massive embarassment to your foe. This usually comes to
	the loss of 4-6 PP (as much as a surrender) since after the
	loss of the blockade battle, the victim will have to scuttle
	their fleet, thus doubling the PP loss.

	c. Beat up on them if they put to sea. This won't happen often
	if you play with competent players.

Thus, GB will inevitably be the sole and only queen of the seas. 


2) They will *not* be outbuilt as far as ships are concerned. 
They can have a max of 210 ships, compared to 120 for FR/RU and 90 (?) for
SP because they get 7 fleets and the others het 4/4/3 respectively. (I
might be wrong about the Spanish number, I am writing this off the top
of my head). They have Nelson and other favorable modifiers. In fact,
one might make the case that the system favors the British Navy too
much. But that's another debate.

3) They have a small, high morale army, which can be invested in
expeditions overseas at little risk. See someone else's post about
this, which explained this pretty well. It basically ensures high PP
gain for risking to lose at most 1-2 PP per battle. The most obvious
ally for this is Turkey. 
 
4) They can subtract from the VP of other powers that they are at war
with. This might not be considered a great advantage, but it is a
nuisance and could make or mend some of the smaller powers' chances
for victory. PR/SP/TR will not be gaining a heap per quarter. In fact,
their strategy will be planned on not gaining too many VP's. Any
subtractions from this will thus have a greater effect than the effect
on GB's own VP subtraction. See below.

5) I don't know whether this ever happened/can happen, but if *nobody*
has won by game's end, then GB will win. It seems improbable, but it
could be a factor in a game where people will be bidding high for
countries with high chances to win. So GB don't have to reach their
own total as long as they make sure nobody reaches theirs. They can
subtract from the one country (if there is one) that does have a
chance and thus end up as the winner.


Now, if players in your group don't bid highly for GB/FR/RUS, then the
other naval powers have a problem.

This is why in the last game we played we formed a pre-war alliance
(not declared until game start of course) of Russia/France/Spain. I
was Spain, and I gladly joined in. Of course, France had to be
checked. He was made to realise that he was gaining the most from the
death of the Royal Navy. It was agreed beforehand that:

1) GB's territory was going to be preserved. We were only going to
even out the 'ship situation'.
2) No separate peace would be accepted.
3) Russia would get Denmark.
4) Spain would get Corfu. (I don't know why I insisted on this, I must
like strange, far away bases. :-)
5) France would pay Russia and Spain a monetary sum for their
involvement. (I don't remember how much exactly)
6) France would not DoW on any major power for a year.
7) This treaty would be kept secret until GB surrendered.

I think it was a fairly good deal. We managed to get together the bulk
of our navies. Trafalgar was fought somewhere in the Med. GB picked
Linear Defense!!! We rolled well and the Royal Navy was down to 40
ships.

He surrendered soon thereafter. Then, Russia DoW'd on France and
this is where we left the game. *Sigh*

Oh btw, we *always* play with the rule that says GB and France have to
start at war and cannot make an informal peace and have to sue for
unconditional peace. It's a must.


M.

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