4 star generals

[jkBluesman]

The 4 star generals are the nation's leaders and monarchs. In the 19th century if Napoleon had been taken prisoner or killed in battle France would have had to surrender and most other nations would too if their sovereign would have been catched or killed. But why do nations continue fighting in this game when their leader is captured?
In the standard scenario it is almost impossible to make Russia surrender as France.

[AvalonHillfan]

Not true! What difficulty level are you playing at? At normal, I just set up a massive alliance with Spain and Turkey (and between Spain and Turkey) with a few treaties, using "respect neutrality of" clauses. Roll through Austria, defeat Prussia, take the land bridge to Sweden, and soon you're at Russia's back door. (In the future, an option to eliminate land movement across Denmark and into Sweden might be a good idea, but it's nice to have the bridge there for the game, even though it's not too realistic).

Similarly, given that the detailed combat can capriciously kill leaders, you want to have a nation fight on if its main leader is lost.

[jkBluesman]

Yeah, but you have to smash Sweden as you are at war with them. If you do not change the level of glory needed to win, you will have won the game after defeating three major powers. The Ottomans may of course attack Russia, but without the help of a decent military trained ally they will loose soon against Russia (France wins time by this of course).

[AvalonHillfan]

Too true, you have to set the glory levels high. I set a very high glory limit or Max glory after Max time (I forget) and obtained a massive empire. Wanted to see what would happen, and how big I could grow.