Matrix Games Forums

Hello!

I have finally gotten around to actually try this game seriously. I have started a Standard Scenario as France but I am having some troubles recreating Napoleon's Danube Campaign. While this might arguably be one of his greatest campaigns it does however annoy me a bit that I see France crumble within three or four months. The scenario unfolds like this:

I put the two armies in Flanders on Forced March down to Switzerland (since the Austrians almost always launch a strike into that province). I gather the forces in France around Paris (except two corps conducting a siege in Hannover) and join the two armies in Italy in one province (if I have understood it correctly the forces in Naples are stuck at the moment unless I want to violate the neutrality of the Papacy). Then the scenario plays out almost the same every time I try it.

Early strike from Austria is easily beaten back. I mass my forces into Tyrol and win a major battle or two (forces around 200k on each side). However before I can really take advantage of this the Russians join up in force and suddenly I am getting attacked by around 300k forces against maybe 150k left in my armies and if I am lucky I can win one more battle but sooner or later I lose and then the pursuit makes sure I don't have more than 75k - 100k factors left and it's all down hill from here.

In the meantime the British have landed forces of around 75k factors in Northern France against my 30k - 40k forces and I usually lose those battles. What am I doing wrong here? My main problem is the situation in Austria since we always seem to get stuck trading blows in the border provinces instead of me managing to attack the forces one at a time and crush them. I haven't used Detailed Combat yet, will that help me enough to make the battles decisive? I have tried to use the Support move with forces to avoid situations when I attack with just parts of the armies I want to move but sometimes that doesn't really work like I hope. I have seen numerous advices that I should use forage for the forces but when I look on the Turn Summary it seems like I am losing a lot of men due to forage losses. Is this really wise?

In short can someone give some practical pointers which helps me survive this early scare?

Thanks in advance.

/Eskil

First of all you should play detailed combat. You will be able to inflict higher casualties on the AI, capture more units and loose less men.
Forage is good to keep costs down and limit the number of depots. Use depots for big armies and units you want to receive supply.
Do not lay siege to Hanover, it is not worth it. Rather use two corps to counter the British invasion in the Bretagne. If you crush them while landing they will not be able to retreat but surrender.