What I think of the game & Has anybody managed to beat the last scenario in Emperor difficulty?

[coocoodas]

A bit of what I think of this game:

I've logged 146 hours into this game.

Frankly, I both love and hate Victory&Glroy: Napoleon. There are things that feels unfair for the player and too random which frustrates the hell out of me, but the game has this authentic feel of a board game that makes it play like one, making it super addictive. I must have rage-deleted and reinstalled this game more than 15 times, no joke lol.

This game wasn't all that much fun when it was released. I regretted buying it at a full price because it felt too easy and the AIs were stupid. 1.01 patch improvements added huge replayable potential for me at least.

Has anyone achieved the feat on the title? (1813: defending the empire) Frankly, speaking from my 150 hours of experience with this game, I think it's impossible.

Before 1.01 patch I managed it in my first try because AIs were so dumb. Now I can't do it in emperor difficulty; doing it on general is hard enough.

It has a lot to do with complaints I have about the game. Unfairness & randomness.

There are 3 forage cards and 5 attrition in Spain & Russia cards, which feel too many and too much if you are not lucky. Once, a forage card wiped out every cavalry I had on map as soon as I started 1813 scenario, making the game unwinnable at that point. In emperor difficulty AI gets a card every turn, meaning you could be scrapping a few surviving units from your full stack in a few turns.

Besides, AI retreating mechanics suck so much. You have no idea(you can guess) where the AI will retreat to once they are defeated, which means that in the last scenario you can't leave Madrid or Berlin because even if you manage to defeat an AI, they often retreat to an adjacent province and takes over Berlin/Madrid next turn. I know they retreat to the closest ally capital but it's often arbitrary, and in Spain where they retreat, they can attack Madrid in their turn anyway.

It forces you to divide your already small force further(which is not feasible) or simply stay put defending the capitals, at which point AI will bypass your army and attack Paris or your ports.

I absolutely hated this mechanics and British army landing somewhere at random and wiping my small stacks out. Thank goodness they don't land on empty ports and snipe ships, if that were the case I would have not even bothered playing the game at all.

This game would have been so much more enjoyable if...

1. my defeated army retreated towards Paris instead of enemy capital

2. enemy's retreat route is displayed before battle

3. clear rules/restrictions regarding British army amphibious landing.

4. an army that retreats retreats to a province that is NOT adjacent to where the attacker camee from. (because AI dodging a battle and taking over Berlin or Madrid next turn is utterly enraging and stupid.)

5. foraging/attrition cards are less random and there are limits to the number of unis being wiped out. Losing every single one of your elite cavalry that you preserved so carefully through battles in some dome dice luck is really really bad. Or the cards should determine the strengths to be wiped out(total of 10 for ex) and we should pick units to meet that strength.



Anyways, anyone succeeded the last scenario emperor difficulty?

I haven't succeeded but I've come close a couple of times(without save&loading). Here's my tips.


1. This is not a must, but it's a good idea to attack Wellington using Suchet the first turn with forced march. Take attrition because it's better than fighting reformed British army. If you got a new general card use that to move the secondary army of 8 regiments(this should be reinforced with other cards such as skirmishes) to attack retreated wellington/another british stack south of spain. if you are lucky, you can win the Peninsula campaign on day 1.

2. don't bother creating superstack for Napoleon. distribute cards on other armies since they will need it more. Your main army will melt with foraging cards anyway. Napoleon can win battles wiht 25 units regardless of quality.

3. Don't ever pursuit in presence of enemy cavalry. If you lose units that way, you can't win. You gotta win battles after battles with barely a loss. foraging will still damanage you severely.

4. Send Davout to spain and Napoleon to Germany in turn 1. I've tried many variations of these two generals but this works the best. Use german reinforcement and Eugene to fend Berlin for 1 turn.

5. everytime British army leaves spain and there are more than 8 regiments of revolts, take them out in major battles; try to send small, strong force so that they run a way. meanwhile don't go into Russia. Try to bait/destroy Russian army repeatedly in Warsaw, and use a small detachment to assault Vien when Austrian army is close to Paris to defeat them with your main army.

6. most importantly, pray that luck be on your side. I would say it's still impossible to win but in one miraculous playthorugh I managed to defeat GB and only lost by few score.

[Symple]

Thank you for this post. You have actually been so much more successful than I have been. I have hoped this might become a two player pbem game as it has much potential for play if both sides are human controlled.

[Sheist]

I would like to say I could comment, but I avoid the upper levels precisely because I hate hate hate the Attrition/Foraging cards. I lose my mind when I get them thrown at me when I have been extra-careful not to lose units in battle. You spend time and upgrade cards getting the perfect army-destroying force, only to watch it get whacked! The cards are more-easily avoidable on the lower levels (Spain and Russia still can get conquered), as they are more-predictable.

Once, however, the poor Ottoman army was invading Russia for me and got hit by the Attrition in Russia card... but only 1 measly soldier succumbed! Every time it hits a French army, it wants to steal 4-5 units! Not cool...

[Petiloup]

Beating the last scenario at Emperor level isn't an easy feat.

I have tried a few times and most of the time the French army is in a meat grinder till it's overwhelmed.

The only time I managed to hold and win was when I got the Early Class card at the start of the game.

So I go a few more ships, beat the first and second English fleets, got a few ships captured and with that managed to destroy all British fleets but the one in the English channel.

It prevents the British army to move around and like this I managed to keep Spain and destroy the British army in it.

After that was just about winning battle after battles with Napoleon while keeping Berlin till you can get into Vienna safely.

Once you are stable then it's all about not loosing wars.

[Petiloup]

Just did again the last scenario and in fact you have the Early Class card at the start.

The card I got was mutiny in the Royal Navy which gave me 6 fleet in Brest [with the Early Class card] against 4 British one. If you win that one then you can beat the Royal Navy.

A trick after that is to leave 1 Navy in Brest and move the rest near Spain. Every turn the Royal Navy comes with a few fleets to blockade Brest, fleets that you can then destroy piecemeal.

Now on the land my first move is to attack Andalusia from Catalonia during the first turn [Winter Turn]. There is no attrition from moving from Catalonia to Andalusia.

Winning that battle then the armies in Andalusia are destroyed, seems they can't retreat.

After that I try to move the army from Naples to Spain and with the Forced march card to surround Wellington army with 1 unit and then attack with the main army from Madrid.

If you win then Wellington army is destroyed as it can't retreat.

A trick is to move 1 region with an army of two in Forced march [or Strategic Move then you can use an army of 3 units] and then from the first region you move in, leave 1 unit, move with the rest to the next region, and with a Strategic move, leave another unit in the second region and move the last unit to the Third region. If like that you can surround an army with other Leader/Army then if the army you attacked needs to retreat it is instead totally destroyed.

You can imagine doing that to an army of 20-30 units and it makes life much more easier in one go.

Once Wellington army destroyed then move the Spain army to Paris to help defend France and keep Napoleon in Berlin.

Keep attacking when you can [attention to the possible retreat of the enemy near Berlin or Paris if you attack out of it, that's too much of a risk] and then you might just win after a while.

The goal is really to win battle after battle with a minimal of losses and pursue with cavalry only when you don't risk your own cavalry.

Somehow time is on the side of the French as each year you can get a few cavalry/artillery unit and once you have 2 strong armies then it's possible to win.

[Petiloup]

The only way I manage to beat this scenario is by being attacking in Spain.

First move during first turn [Winter] is to attack Andalusia from Catalonia [no winter attrition]. Way to win even though heavily outnumbered [with the partisan joining] is to screen the British cavalry with your artillery and position your cavalry in the middle. I usually leave a weak flank with only 2 unit to let him attack there. The AI will attack somewhere so let him do and wait till he uses it's activation points and you have a few left yourself. Then move the cavalry to the side he is attacking as well as 1 infantry, force a unit to square and destroy it [well at least try] then keep firing. If the cavalry is disrupter then keep using it to force him to go on square. If not wait in case he is attacking on another side and see. The trick here is really to wait and see the option while reinforcing weakest points. As the AI is all infantry and partisan is attacking power can decrease fast.

If it works then that British army is destroyed and left Wellington. He will not move as it's winter. Then you can reinforce Madrid. Another risky option is to attack him as well from Madrid and see the attrition. If reasonable then the British is still at value 1 with the infantry as not yet Military reformed and you can make quite a bit of damage again with square and artillery.

Then the next turn you can move back to Madrid with the 2 armies or finish Wellington. If that works then Spain is secured but leave a reasonable army there like 3 Artillery and 2-3 cavalry at least with the rest as a mix of French and other infantries.

In Prussia it depends what kind of cards you get. If you get the Bribe card then you should give Warsaw to the Austrian. That makes it enter the war later and that gives only 1 entry point to the Russian to Prussia. It also moves the army of 7 units back to Russia so it delays it's arrival.

If you have the Ottoman card the use it and use that Moldovia army to move in the back of the Russian in Warsaw once it's safe.

With or without those cards the goal is to be able to attack Russian army while cutting it's retreat path everywhere. Then if you win the battle which with Napoleon is most likely then all the army is destroyed as it can't retreat. You might lose a leader and 1 unit if another army is close and ready to attack but it's worth trading that for 20+ units destroyed in one blow.

With the Bribe card as above then just move like 12-13 units in Berlin and the first Russian army of 10 is going to move south most likely. You can achieve that by raisin 2 German unit in Hanover and move them to Berlin on the first March-April turn. Then you can also move the army from Bavaria at force march and pick unit on the way to move them close to Berlin. Those units can move only one space but you just pick them, move one space, drop them and your army can move another space, pick another army, drop it and move the last space. Very useful.

With the Ottoman then it's just about waiting till all Russian armies are near Berlin and move to Warsaw then block the rest of the retreats and destroy them.

If the Ottoman is attacked then I'm usually putting 2 INF, 2 CAV per space and then force 1 INF to square destroy it [or try] then another one and so on till the Ottoman is beaten or win [unlikely if the Russian army is big enough with CAV/ART] but it can destroy quite a bit of Russian INF and make the French task much easier.

If really try to keep the Force march and the Strategic move till I can surround an army and destroy it fully with Napoleon. That gives you a big chance to win the scenario.

At last if you get the card Storm/Mutiny/US War and have enough fleet then you can also try to take control of the seas. The idea is to put the enemy fleets to "D" so you can capture the ships when the British fleets are retreating which happens after 2 turn if the are outnumbered unless in the Channel. Then you move back near Portugal, leave 1 ship in France and the British should bring another fleet of 2-3 ships to blockade, destroy it the turn after and repeat till you have a chance to challenge the British in the Channel. Don't be cocky as the AI can sometime take the Channel fleet to finish you of if you don't have enough ship. To avoid that you can move to the Mediterranean sea and destroy the British fleets there. That's far enough from the Channel. You can also destroy the Russian fleet in the Black sea and all this might give you quite a bit of captured ships.

The scenario is not long enough to have a shot at invading England but it can prevent the AI to move British armies to Spain and use those troops to help to beat the Russian/Austrian.

The Partisans would not move to Madrid but don't forget the British army in Sicilia.

That's about it, it's really the only challenging scenario to win.