Bid and Country preferences

[RayKinStL]

Being new and all, I just wanted to get a feel for everyone. So if you feel like responded, but do you normally put in as bids for different countries when starting a new game? Do you have a favorite or least favorite country?

Me personally, I can't remember the bid process too well, and since I am only playing the computer right now to reacquiant myself, I haven't explored all the rules of that process yet. I do remember on the board game I used to bid fairly high for GB. My first game ever I was GB and got such a good feel for the sea that all the land movement of a country like France scared me. I didn't mind Russia or Turkey as well, but trying to play Austria or Prussia was a scary proposition being new to heavy land combat and having France on my doorstep all game.

So let me know how you like to play the game!

Ray

[MarshallEllis]

Ray:
 
I personally like playing Turkey. This may sound insane but a few things to note that I like about her:
 
Pros:
 
1. Decent navy for a 3rd world country.
2. Far enough away from the massive land battles of Europe.
3. The med should be easy pickings for you at first.
4. You can usually get her for a VERY low bid.
5. Feudals make great zombie forces (They regenerate every year in December Merry Xmas Turkey)!
 
Cons:
 
1. Always broke.
2. You won't win alot of large field battles.
 
How I play:
 
If you can secure an alliance with Russia and France while France is at war with Austria then you can really gain some Austrian turf!
 
Almost NEVER make Russia mad.
 
Be careful of a Russo-Austrian alliance. This usually means bad news for you!
 
Save the navy. Almost never attack another navy because you will never have enough money to rebuild what you lose.
 
Always beg France for money. Every little bit helps.
 
Try to sneak Naples/Italy under your wing. The timing for this is usually when Prussia/Austria/Russia/Gbr and France are chasing each other all over Northen Europe. They probably won't have the forces or time to prevent you from doing so.
 
 
Anyway, my 2 cents. Now back to the kbd. Good luck...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[KenClark]

I have won a couple EiA games as Turkey, and have played it many times.

Marshall's hints are good although I have a few more:

(1) You need to min-max your morale to win battles.

Your optimal attacking battle condition is when you attack with a large regular army and can reinforce in all the feudals. At the start of the game, if you don't have the Ottoman Empire, you will want to attack with the 3 regular infantry corps, and likely a feudal cav a fedual Inf and the Imperial cav. Do this with Ali (2.3.3) or if you have to the Grand Vizier (1.2.4). Have your big stack of feudals ready to reinforce with another six corps or so (the other 2 feudal cav and 4 feudal infantry). If you pick the right chit and roll well, and succed you will decimate any army, especially with pursuit. If you get the Ottoman (a strategic imperative), your stack of doom is the 3 regular infantry corps, the Syrians (full of cav) 1 Egyptian and a feudal cav (for loss taking). If you reinforce your entire feudal army in the second round with this setup things can get very ugly for the defender...

Defending, don't forget that you can run away onto Constantinople, which is the only important area in Turkey. If you are fighting Russia, they have to build a long supply chain to get there. Save a few feudals for attacking the supply lines after Russia has gotten to Rumelia or so. One glorious game I had the Russians get 2 spaces from Contantinople and I forced them to retreat to get to their supply line 3 times. Naval invasions onto their supply heads sometimes work well.

To win battles at Constantinople, the optimal strategy is to have a full city garrison and a 10-factor supply depot garrison. Position your regular army (high-morale) on Constantinople with your feudals ready to reinforce. If you lose the battle, make sure to take your casualties on the depot garrison first. Then, in your turn, do a limited field battle by sortieing the garrison (20+ troops at 3.0 morale) and attacking with your regular army. This will considerably boost up your morale.

(2) Money is always a problem.

Beg for money all the time. If you get the Ottomans keep all their money in December. Be frugal.

Stand down the Jannisaries in peace time into city garrisons. Put all your cav in the Imperial Cav and stand down the Nizami Cedid as well. If you think battle is likely then make sure to buy your corps counters (but this won't save you any money). Spread out your corps for foraging in the 4-areas in the northern provinces if you have them in peacetime (or at peace with Russia). Stand down all your feudals or all the unnecessary ones at any rate. Merge your fleets into as few fleets as you can. Maintenance is your enemy.

[MarshallEllis]

Good advice, KenClark!
 
Spoken like a great Grand Vizier!

[delatbabel]

I like playing Prussia, Austria, Britain, or Russia, in approximately that order. This is because I hate Frenchmen and enjoy kicking Napoleon. The real reason is because I enjoy a challenge and I like to be in the center of the action. I am not so keen on playing Spain or Turkey, and France seems either too easy or too hard depending on who you're playing with.

[DCWhitworth]

I like playing France. But you have to be prepared to be in the thick of it and also face the almost cliched 'Grand Alliance' - which usually turns out to be less grand than they had imagined There's nothing more satisfying that facing a big alliance and beating them.

I don't know why so many people don't like playing France, after all, don't you want to play the best ?

On the other hand the psycological pressure can be quite intense. You have to live on the edge as France.

I also like Turkey. Most of the reasons for this are mentioned above. You'll usually manage to have a quiet time at the start of 1805. Also the Matrix version of the game has given quite significant advantages to Turkey with the minor country diplomacy. Work hard on making the North African states your allies and you'll probably find that the first time someone declares war on you, you can create the Ottoman Empire. Frankly as Turkey, if you have the Ottoman empire you're almost half way to winning.

Spain I don't like. I find them rather boring, indeed I think their best strategy is to be boring. I once played a game as Spain and never picked a battle chit and when the game ended I was winning.

GB and France usually seem to attract high bids. Russian a bit less, Austria somewhere in the middle and Spain, Turkey and Prussia near the lower end.

[Thresh]

I like Austria myself, although the best game I played, from both a "Joy of game" and "Challenge" was an old FtF game where I was France.

Todd

[borner]

Much depends on your experience. Avoid GB and France until you have some games under your belt, and understand how things work, both in terms of combat, but nation-to-nation relations.
 
Russia is my favorite to play. You can pick when and where you get involved in the main battles, but beware of being too heavy handed and getting the Gremans and GB to turn on you after the first war with Nappy.
 
Like Marshall, I enjoy Turkey, but as others have said, every dollar is more valuable to you than any other country. You will never have enough. YOu generally need friendly relations with France. As the origional rulebook says, you and he are natural allies. Remind him that you have extra manpower, and he has the money to turn it into infantry.
 
 
Spain is a good nation to play for a rookie. Both GB and France need to keep you friendly, so if you do not get too demanding, you are almost assured of a peaceful first few years. If you decide to jump one way or the other, there is an experienced player there - usually - to help you along.