Great Britain tips

[Jimmer]

Greetings. This is the first in a series of "tips" notes I intend to write. I plan on writing them for each major power,
using knowledge I gained from playing the boardgame, but applied to the computer version. I hope to create a separate thread for each nation. If I get ambitious, I'll create a thread for general game tips as well (tips that apply to all powers).

[center]I would ask that only tips be placed here, not debates or thanks or whatever. If you have a problem with or like a tip, write the author a PM and convince them, and they can edit their entry. That should keep the length of these to a minimum.
Tips that don't agree with other tips, however, are perfectly fine. Everyone is free to post their tips here.[/center]

"Greed is good." That's a paraphrase of the plot for the movie "Wall Street".

"Greed is good." A paraphrase of the thinking patterns for any good player playing Great Britain in this game.

GB is financially very well off. However, GB's army is not exactly what one would call powerful. GB's starting land factors

number a mighty 25, if memory serves. Occasionally, that number can be exceeded by the deaths from one roll of the die in one of Nappy's battles.

Her troops are stubborn, though, rarely giving up on a fight. Until they are all dead, that is. And this, folks, is my first tip: NEVER go into battle on the enemy's terms. Wellington and 3 corps are no match for Napoleon with his 6 corps. If Wellington foregoes cavalry, he can bring as many as a whopping 42 factors into that combat. Napoleon will have 143. Having high morale will have one effect: The Brits can last long enough to get wiped out or decimated. Getting extra rounds to fight is not a benefit if it means dying.

That high morale DOES have benefits, however. Loan a corps to the Austrians and/or the Prussians (after Blucher arrives, that is). Their decent leaders plus the extra morale boost a British corps will give could turn a losing battle into a winning one. If Turkey is friendly and Russia is not, consider loaning them a corps, too.

British land factors are also good at killing off the initial factors of minor free states. However, make sure you are out of range of France's army, or else you might see yourself losing them to France. Any island is safe. Denmark is safe. All of North Africa is safe. However, watch out for the Turks and Spaniards in Africa. The next tip will explain how you deal with them (i.e. naval power -- Great Britain's REAL strength).

[Jimmer]

Ships. What would the world be without ships? It's like asking "What would the world be, without Captain Hook?" (Captain James A. Hook, in the movie "Hook").

Indeed. And, as Britain, you want to somewhat approximate the lifestyle and attitude of Captain Hook, too.

You have one and only one goal in the early game: Get rid of other people's ships, and get more of your own.
It's somewhat easy early on to get more ships, but you have to be careful. Declare war on Denmark, for instance. However, know that France is very likely to gain control of the Danes. Therefore, you need to be ready to tackle them when they come.

There are five minor nations that have their own fleets: Denmark, Holland, Naples, Portugal, Sweden. Holland starts the game being French, so don't even think of them as a minor country. They are French. Treat them as you would any other fleets of the usurper: Blockade them until you can deal with them in a more fitting manner.

The other four nations with fleets are somewhat difficult. Sweden is going to be claimed by Russia. Portugal by Spain. You could take Naples, but with the fleet belonging to the land power in the computer rules, it doesn't do you much good (Napoleon will just take it back from you). Your goal for each of these (if you aren't good enough diplomatically -- or financially -- to twist the arm of the power that wants them) is to destroy them. There are many ways to try to accomplish this. I'll outline some below.

Denmark should be yours. If anybody wants to debate the point, hold off on aggressive action until you have a leader (1806). You don't have the force to go after them in the early game. But, retain a long memory. You can conquer Denmark from just about any force that cares to garrison it, and you can prevent anybody from getting to the island, if you are at war. It's just a matter of time.

And, this brings up a side point: BE PATIENT! Those fleets WILL eventually die or become yours. Do not rush things, lest you bite off more than you can chew. It's a long game.

In the next tip, I'll speak to blockading (especially at the beginning of the game), and how to fight naval wars.

[Jimmer]

"Rule, Britannia! Britannia rules the waves!" (A song that SHOULD be their national anthem, at least for the purposes of EiA.)

Your fleets are your backbone. Lose them, and you are done for. Unless, of course, you took more with you than you lost. Your dead ships can be replaced. Theirs cannot be, at least not as easily. Only GB has the financial strength to rebuild a navy.

So, kill, kill, kill. As long as you win the majority of the battles, you gain political points AND a larger edge in fleet strengths.

Now, this brings up a point: Naval battles are HUGE dice-rolling contests. Even GB can expect to lose some. So, start the game with corps counters in both Malta and Gibralter. If you happen to lose a couple of naval battles early, you don't want to lose those conquered minors to instability.

Anyhow, pick your battles carefully. You have huge advantages in naval combats:

-  More ships
-  Better odds of getting Wind guage (especially with Nelson)
-  Better odds of intercepting (with Nelson)
-  Better die rolls (you always get at least a +1, unless you are fighting with no heavy ships)

Try to avoid battles where you have no heavy ships. This is VERY important. The "no heavy ships" negative modifier cancels out your British bonus, and, if the other person DOES have heavies, they GAIN a +1! Ideally, you should have at least slightly more than 2/3 of the opponent's heavy ship total. If he has 2, have at least 2. If he has 3-4, have at least 3. If he has 10, have at least 7.

Be careful that you do not fight a battle where you have no light ships. Even though this wouldn't give you a bonus or penalty (by itself), light ships are "soak-off factors". They should die first, because they cost less and take less time to build. If possible, always go into combat with at least a small number of "cheapies".

There's one other bit of gaming dealing with sea battles: The ability to do a "last move, then first move". This is not nearly as effective in EiANW as it was in EiA, because the computer always seems to retreat your ships to a port for you. But, if a situation occurs where some ships get left at sea, and if you have a free armada that can attack them, do so by changing your move order to "before the bad guys" for a turn. This is called "Kicking them when they are down." It's good British policy to kick your opponents while they are down. Unless, of course, they take the cowards way out and surrender.

Next post: Blockading, especially of France in the early game.

[Jimmer]

There is something in this game that nobody besides Great Britain gives much thought to: Finding optimal blockading positions.

At the very start of the game, Britain sets up last. As Britain, you will want to set up your fleets in the port blockade boxes outside of every French fleet that is in port. And, you want to do so with sufficient force to dissuade the French from leaving.

Well, at least, leaving with land units.

A fleet without any land units in that port is nowhere near as dangerous. So, the first rule of blockading is that you can "almost" ignore fleets that do not have a corps counter sitting in the same port with them. I say "almost" because you must take them into account if they are sufficiently large that they could bust a DIFFERENT fleet out of port, and THAT fleet DOES have a corps counter.

If France knows what he is doing, he will place a corps counter in every port that has fleets. This will force you to blockade all of them with an effective force. However, most of those corps counters will have exactly 1 factor in them. They are a ruse. The problem is, you don't know which ones.

The second worry about fleets without corps is whether they have the strength to kick your fleet out of the English Channel AND France has a corps counter within range of the crossing arrow (five spaces -- France is QUITE willing to force march, if it gets him into England).

One thing you can do to mitigate against this is put a corps counter (that can win the battle) on the British shore opposite Lille. Make him pay if he crosses the Channel.

Anyhow, with those side-issues taken care of, let's get on to blockading strategies.

The first strategy actually has nothing to do with France: Make peace with your potential opponents at sea. This would be Russia and Spain. Either power, if they go to war with you, can turn the tide in your struggle for world naval domination. Turkey is only a distant threat, because her ships cannot reach your shores.

With Russia and Spain, bribe them, sweet talk them, do whatever you have to, but keep them off your back for the first two years (until your new ships start coming on line). Or, until you have faced the French in battle, and made their fleet more tolerably-sized (i.e. even smaller than it was, as compared to your own strength).

At the start of the game, you 1.68+ times the number of ships France does. This is an important number, because this is the maximum number of ships you can afford to blockade with. You can do the calculations a number of ways, but, in the end, you MUST have at least 1 factor left over for the Channel.

The way I calculate it is by taking the number of French ships in port, and then multiply this by the factor 1.68. If France has 10 ships, the most I can blockade with is 16. If France has 2, my max should be 3. If you do this in every port, you'll have something close to the right number blockading each one.

(This paragraph is correct. However, it is not what the rules actually specify. So, it is possible that this paragraph will have to be changed, if Matrix determines that the way the computer treats this is a bug (that blockader wins all ties). I suspect, though, that the way the computer does it is correct, and it is the manual that needs clarification.)
Something that works in your favor here is that large battles are more consistent (in the long run) than small battles. In a battle between 3 vs. 2 ships, there are a large number of dice roll combinations that result in zero ships being lost. In blockade interceptions, though, you win all ties. This is a good thing. But, in a battle with 30 vs. 20 (exactly the same ratio of forces), the dice tables are much more "all over the map", with many of them having you winning by a huge margin. This is a better thing, in the long run (more kills). In the short run, however, it potentially grants your enemy some chances he otherwise would not have had.

Example: In this example, no side has zero heavies, and no side has 1.5 times the other fleet's number of heavies. Therefore, the die roll mods are +1 for GB and 0 for the other. Different situations require different numbers, but this shows how the thinking process goes:

France sets up with 6 separate navies, each consisting of one heavy fleet and one light fleet, with his extra French light fleet helping the Dutch in Amsterdam. The numbers in his fleets are: 5+18 (Holland), 8, 10, 11, 12, and 15. GB should blockade with no more than 38 (Holland), 13, 16, 18, 20, and 25, respectively. This will leave GB with a mighty three ships to defend the channel and carry out her nefarious plans around the world. That's cutting it a little close.

So, what you do is figure out how many ships you can shave off of each potential battle, without appreciably reducing the odds of victory. The lowest percentage loss GB can inflict is 10%, and it comes off before the enemy rolls the dice. On a roll of 1, 4 ships would be lost to the attacker, leaving only 19. However, if GB only has 35, the minimum number of kills is ALSO 4 (3.5 rounds up to 4). The other ratios change things, but that's not what you are concerned about, mainly. With bigger rolls, you almost always win. It's only those 1s, and sometimes 2s and 3s that cause trouble for you.

So what are the odds of a 19-factor armada doing more than 4 damage? Opponent requires a 6. A 5 produces 20% loss, which is 4. You win ties, so that means you can only lose on a 6. A 1 then 6 roll pair is not very common. So, you can probably afford a few less ships in your stack.

Earlier, I mentioned 35 as having the same number of kills as 38, IF the roll is a 1. But, what about a 2 or 3 (the other bad numbers for you)? Well, 15% of 38 is 5.7, or 6 factors. 37 ships will kill the same number, but 35-36 will kill one less.
This is all integer arithmetic. And, it seems quite tedious. But, trust me, if you don't do the math, France will for you. At great cost to you, no doubt.

I like to place my odds of losing at 1 in 9 or better. There are enough British ships to do this, and still leave a navy for other tasks.

[Jimmer]

Never take away someone's American trade until your dominance of the sea is absolute. It costs you $2.5 (average) immediately, plus $2.5 per turn (average) for the rest of the game.
 
Oh, yes, you can stop the war, but that costs 5 PP, a HUGE cost to pay. If you've been manipulating, you've been paying $18 per turn to keep ONE PP, Five is HUGE.
 
It's just too risky for the returns until you dominate the sea.
 
Once you have dominance of the seas (i.e. you have more ships under your command than everybody else combined), so you can grab tasty nuggets at will, then you might WANT war with the US, since your enemies lose more (combined) than you do during a war. But, think it through carefully.

[wayne91@comcast.net]

[font="times new roman"]Is there any reason for Britain to assign ships to Piracy?  Trade is between Major Powers and Britain.  Piracy would seem to be targeted against British/Major Power trade.  However, there is also American trade, so perhaps British privateers are minimizing American/Major Power trade.  I can see why Britain would assign ships to Anti-Piracy, but not Piracy.[/font]

[gwheelock]

Actually; several possible reasons :
 
1) Stopping trade with a power hurts both him AND Britain; the Brits may want
to punish someone (say Turkey) for being a French ally without losing their own money.
 
2) To create confusion & dissention in a wavering ally by casting the blame on the French.
 

[delatbabel]

One power that GB has which is often estimated is the ability to rapidly claim PPs by beating other powers' fleets, especially with Nelson on board.

Each time a land battle is fought, it's +0.5PP for the winning side for each corps on the losing side. Each time a fleet battle is fought, it's +1 PP per fleet for the winning side. With Nelson that's an extra +1, and so Nelson can easily rack up a quick 3 PPs for beating only two small enemy fleets -- usually no major task for Nelson and his crew (even with a single larger fleet). Where there are minor fleets at sea with major power fleets and Britain uses its naval movement option, it can be devastating.

Try this tactic -- if at any time you see two enemy fleets stacked together, especially different nationalities (Holland and France for example) attack them with just enough force to ensure that you beat them, but not enough force to ensure that they are destroyed. After losing the battle the fleets will either have to retreat to a port or an adjacent sea area. In the next turn, modify your move preference so that you move before the power that owns those fleets (e.g. first) and then hit them again -- this time with enough force to wipe them out. The net gain for GB will be +6PP -- two each for each battle, and another one for each battle for Nelson.

With a large enough force or in a port with a small number of naval guns (e.g. one of the african ports) this can also be quite effective. Blockading a French and a Turkish fleet together in Marseilles I managed to net about 12 PPs by hitting them with smaller and smaller attacking forces until they were eventually wiped out. Sure, the naval guns did some damage to my fleets but I used sufficient force to ensure that I "won" each naval battle but until the enemy fleets were down to 1 ship each I didn't try to eliminate them, just continued to cut them out. The only alternative for the French was to sally out of the port and hand me the wind gauge in the blockade box -- remember any fleet attacking a port automatically gets the wind gauge after the port guns are fired.

In general, don't discount port attacks, especially in the middle game when you have assured naval superiority. It can be expensive in terms of ships, but you have the money and can rebuild your fleet faster than anyone else can, and can afford to have ships coming off the production line regularly throughout the game. If you have to sacrifice 70 ships in port attacks to wipe out the French navy of 50 ships, remember that once the French navy is gone it is probably gone for good, whereas rebuilding your 70 ships can be done in a few game years (and you'd only do this when you had maybe 180 ships on the map anyway, leaving you with 110 ships or so in reserve).

Always have a corps handy to drop onto an enemy port with blockaded fleets to cause them to exit the port and try to run the blockade. This is the fastest way to destroy enemy fleets -- if the enemy fleet exiting the port loses the blockade battle it is entirely scuttled, costing the enemy valuable ships big time. Even if this costs you the corps as it gets overrun on the following turn, it's a good investment. Taking out 40 French or Dutch ships by a quick siege of Brest or Amsterdam (remember that Amsterdam is not a fort, the relatively powerful Dutch fleet is holed up there, and the Dutch army is very weak compared to yours) will cost France $400 to rebuild those ships. If you lose a 10 factor corps doing that, the cost to you is $30, and you have money to spare (although the manpower wastage bites hard if you keep doing this and not making the break in rolls). Most importantly, if you have destroyed the Dutch fleet with an attack on Amsterdam, you have freed up all of your blockading fleets to go on duty elsewhere.

Build up your transport fleet early so that it is able to carry your largest corps. Preferably 2 or 3 corps. Although it's short range, being able to drop 3 corps anywhere from La Rochelle to Norway is incredibly useful, and nothing has quite the carrying capacity of the transport fleet. Similarly, always take the opportunity to destroy and/or capture enemy transport fleets (especially the French one) even at the cost of losing a corps.

Always be buying and building ships, never loan all of your money or use it all for infantry and/or expensive cavalry. You need to gain that level of complete naval superiority quickly, and 18 months is a long time to wait for those ships of the line.