Matrix Games Forums

Posted at Ageod as well but hoping that this game can find a home here as well so duplicating the post
Now I know peoples experience of WON is limited as of yet but would be great to see some nation guides out there to help players get a good start in life. It's hard to go from caring for the kids one minute to emperor of the French in 1805 faced with a multitude of choices and dilemmas with only a less than gronad understanding of history to go on. I'm sure it's the same for the Czar of Russia pulled from his office desk or the emperor of Prussia who contemplates his diplomacy options whilst driving along. I'm not talking step by step walk throughs but something just to get people going in the right direction. Unfortunately we are not all as gifted as the Corsican Ogre and there is much to do to keep the Grand Armee well oiled and moving to it's mastery of Europe.

No need to re-invent the wheel.  The War Room forums for Empire in Arms and Crown of Glory: Emperor's Edition both have fairly generic strategy guides and nation tips.   Select All Topics to go back past 365 days to see some of the older posts.  These discussions will help new players get a general sense of WHAT they should be doing and what not to be doing for each individual major power. 
 
It would be helpful to see similar discussions for this game with more specific guidance regarding HOW to do these things within the WON game mechanics.

Thanks thats good stuff

Playing as France Jan 1805. (based on my PBEM so far.)

Try not to move *any* ground units unless it's to get to a depot. Moving during the harsh weather hurts. (IMHO, no nation should be moving.)

Stock up on the replacement points. Seriously.

Annex Hannover. Bernadotte and Lefebvre will be enough. You need to do this as it's a requirement for other decrees up to and including the creation of the Grand Empire.
(In single player, Hannover is already French controlled, but not annexed. I move the leader who starts there to the capital and annex it.)
Make sure, as far as possible, that every Corps/Army has the proper HQ, as well as a hospital/pioneer/engineer.

You have MTSG. I try to use this, http://napoleonbonapartethstrategist.we ... carre.html , advancing or retreating. Each wing, the advance guard, and the reserve are in their own region. Thanks to MTSG, two of the formations will support the third. (subject to the dice gods of course.)

As for the fleet, I don't bother with it unless I see an opening. No need to give England EP and VP.

some general comments on Austria - but I think a lot of this also applies to most of the other secondary (Austria, Russia, Prussia and Spain) nations.

First - don't race to build new formations, unless you have identified a real gap in your OOB. You can't have too many replacements as this allows you to recover from battle quickly and its always better to fill out the gaps in existing units before the losses trigger the destruction of complete elements (which are usually more expensive and always more tricky to replace);

Second - look long and hard at your objective list. Don't get obsessed with fighting Perfidious Albion or the Corsican Ogre (leave that to the 'C-O' or 'P-A'). Sooner or later as a European power you will need to fight France but let others do the initial work (this is why the game captures the coalition mindset so well);

With Austria:

a) all things being equal you start at war with France and you will probably lose. You have a real early decision about your army in Italy. Its relatively good and relatively well led. Redeployed to Austria it might delay your defeat and allow you to escape with limited warscore. But it might be lost.

So left in Italy, you may win a few battles with it and its a force in being for later. I've found that to be the most serious early game decision.

b) in terms of military reforms, I'd say this is where to spend your EPs etc. The sooner you get the army of 1809 the better.

c) After the Emperor has finished with you, its time to recover (you may need to buy new units now) and think about your target list. I've gone for the Ottomans and its a fruitful use of your time. The other interesting option is to join in against Prussia - you want Silesia back, its time to avenge the injustices of the eighteenth century. In this case make sure you have a high warscore but only use a small portion - this matters as this will ease on-ongoing relations with Prussia but if you use up all the warscore they are not going to like you very much when you do need an alliance

d) I'd stay mates with Russia

e) chatting up the German minors is a good focus for diplomacy

With Russia, you are probably going to be at war with France for a while but its a war that you can limit. You have more serious business to prosecute with the Ottomans. At some stage the French player has to come after you. So here you should have diplomatic credit with the 2 big German states so see if you can build an alliance (this is one reason to back them in the early game even if you do so in a limited way). Other than that, use the geography of Russia against them.

You can also leave all of Austria open and mass a 6000 power army at Vienna.

Much like when you play Civil War II you put *everything* in the east. Which is why I don't play it PBEM any more