Switzerland instead of belgium

[hottegetthoff]

Has anyone tried going through swiss instead of belgium? When i did it, it wasn't as bad as i expected, but i reckon that a player could counter this much better than AI. Once it capitulated, with enough units you can quite easily endanger italy and the flank of french forces.
This is where i hit a speedbump in my playthrough, as the Entente still declared (like with east first strategy) on belgium, then netherlands, which stretched me thin, and played warplan into AI advantage of quantity of the units. I dragged on for many turns, defending in netherlands, but it was impossible to win at this point.
Sorry for no precise ingame dates, i tried this long ago. What do you think about the viability of this option?

[eightroomofelixir]

Wouldn't the mountainous terrain and fortifications made Switzerland hard to conquer?

[FOARP]

ORIGINAL: eightroomofelixir

Wouldn't the mountainous terrain and fortifications made Switzerland hard to conquer?

It’s an old topic of discussion, but there is a school of thought that the toughness of Switzerland is over-hyped. Actually, checking through, though some construction dates back to the 1880’s, most of the Swiss “national redoubt” fortifications we’re built post-WW1.

[hottegetthoff]

Yeah, in To End All Wars which is even more detailed Swiss is very easy to conquer actually there are no forts, the main problem is the supply and time it takes to move through. Im currently testing it in SC, the forts and movement make it harder.

[eightroomofelixir]

ORIGINAL: FOARP
It’s an old topic of discussion, but there is a school of thought that the toughness of Switzerland is over-hyped. Actually, checking through, though some construction dates back to the 1880’s, most of the Swiss “national redoubt” fortifications we’re built post-WW1.

I was actually speaking about the in-game situation when refer to the mountainous terrain (hexes) and (on-map) fortifications.
National Redoubt in real life is worth of debating, but these features as in game can provide considerable entrenchments and defense bonuses. Maybe throw at least two upgraded Artillery units into Switzerland will help; it is worth investing if breaking through Switzerland can ensure a French collapse in the south/Italian collapse in the west.