September ‘05
I used Ralegh’s excellent guide to configure my economy. It really does make a difference when you change your labor from being spread out to simply focusing on one or two commodities in each province. In many provinces, there is labor allocated by the default scheme which does not even produce any commodities with the labor allocated. Why have some percentage of your manpower assigned to Iron in a province but still have the Iron output be zero? So thanks to Ralegh for pointing this out. I also re-configure my draft and crank up my tax rate as high as possible. France will need the money.
My strategy for the first few months is clear: defeat Russia and Austria as quickly as possible through large battles. At the same time, I can’t afford to let Britain sneak in the back door. My solution is to bring the Army of Italy and the Italian Corps up from the south, and I Corps and II Corps down from the Low Countries to converge on Ile de France. The Batavian Army will wait in Batavia in case my British opponent decides to invade there. Likewise, VII Corps will wait in Brittany where it can be reinforced from Ile de France once all my forces have converged. The troops in Flanders will all head south.
I re-assign my units until I have a more even distribution of unit types in each corps. This is more important for games with tactical battles, but I need all of my corps to be self-sufficient in case they get separated. So I dismantle the famous French “Reserve Cavalry” and “Reserve Artillery” corps in favor of this:
I am going to try and keep my corps somewhat spread out this turn (although that is difficult since there are really only a couple provinces – Baden and Württemburg – to move to) to limit foraging losses. Next turn I think I will have to place a depot in Würettemburg to keep my army fed.
I send my privateers into the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic, and a merchant fleet into the Balearic Sea. I am going to wait and see what happens with British naval movements before I commit any of my French fleets.
I think as a beginning player it is easy to forget about your diplomats, but this is a serious mistake. As France I have four to start. Talleyrand will go straight to England to Pressure Peace and hopefully cost my opponent lots of money (60 gold to maintain a state of war). He has the highest combination of Influence and Legal (70 + 50) and thus is the best candidate for this mission. Caulaincourt has the next best Influence (50) and thus is being sent to Prussia to try and improve relations with that country. Jerome and Fouché will travel through Austria, Jerome on his way to Turkey, and Fouché, with his low Influence but high Espionage, to remain in Austria and try to locate the Russian armies.
