Good Times: The Prussian Years

[Dogfish]

I've been pretty vocal about some of the flaws that Empire has. Until last night I hadn't played since Saturday (but had logged up 40+ hours of gameplay between release and then). I did enjoy the RtI campaign, until the 4th Chapter. But I finished that, and started a new Grand Campaign as Britain... in short, I think some of the naval problems, naval transport in particular, left a very large sour taste in my mouth about the game in general because of how much those features affected the factions I had used through that point (US, GB).

Last night I decided to start a Prussian campaign, even on N/N instead of my usual VH/VH. I'm really enjoying it. Having such a land-centric faction as Prussia with so many other factions in the immediate vicinity lends itself to a vastly different game experience. 2 years into the game I was at war with Austria, Poland-Lithuania, Sweden, Courland, Bavaria, and a few other minor factions. Austria and Poland are now half the size they were previously, and none of the minor factions exist (except Hannover, which is my sole ally, and unfortunately also my next victim in my near-term quest to unify all the Germanic states).

My gentlemen are dueling every turn. My rakes are spying, killing, or dying every turn. Much territory has changed hands. I led a heroic defense of East Prussia against a twice as large group of Polish soldiers while my main Eastern force was occupied with the assault of Warsaw. Constant skirmishing on their flanks by my two units of line infantry, and lots of feints by my 4 groups of armed citizenry plus one unit of miltia eventually wore down the (numerically, at least) superior Polish to the point that my two line infantry were able to crash their flanks with bayonets affixed, sending them routing to the east.

After 10 years of expansion on multiple fronts I made peace with everyone so that I can solidify my winnings and leverage that newfound capacity for a bigger push in the near future.

It's the winter of 1711 now, I was planning on a few more years of building up my war machine, but Spain just declared war on Austria, causing a schism amongst the Catholic nations. I may have to exploit this divide and let loose the warriors of Prussia for another campaign earlier than I had originally anticipated, pushing south to the shores of the Mediterrean and beyond.

I can't wait to get home from work and play this thing all damn night.

[Bob the Insane]

I am agreement there...

I have a British Campaign almost complete (1780), which was quite a lot of fun but not as challenging as it should be really. Once I ruled the waves my ability to transport troops means I can attack overseas without consequence.

I have just started a Austrian campaign and that is exciting. Prussia and Venice declare war by the second turn, and Prussia has been quite aggressive (this is N/N). Also the Austrian position is awkward, you are catholic but start with some regions dominated by Protestant and Othordox. Plus you have the large Ottoman Empire just over the border. You have only one coastal region and no trade ports so even with trading money is tight. I could only put a field army together by streamlining garrisons.

I drove off the initial Prussian assault but my counter thrust went seriously wrong when my new army was counter attacked by a small stack of defenders backed up by a full stack line army as reinforcements. After the setup on the field the Prussian reinforcements arrived almost on top of my right flank (nasty random start locations for reinforcments). My army was decimated and half of my artillery lost but I did manage to cause a lot of Prussan casualties before withdrawing.

The land link between Austria and Prussia is narrow and I used most of my valuable funds to place a fort and man it with garrision militia, stripping the defences of the interior.

I had to hold the fort from multiple assaults before I could rebuild the field army. The Prussians had made the mistake of garrisoning the nearest town to my fort (their border) with a half stack of line infantry. This was just outside reinforcment range of their main force and I was able to attack and defeat this force in detail with my rebuilt army. Now my assault on Berlin was resisted by just over half a stack of line infantry suplimented by civial militia. Last event so far is the taking of Berlin. There are some Prussian troops still in new territory and the workers have been striking and rioting.

The Ottomans are trying to spread Islam into Austria, and Venice still needs to be dealt with...

[Hooahguy]

sorry for my ignorance, but what is N/N? i thought it was E/E, M/M, H/H, and VH/VH...

[NimitsTexan]

Normal/Normal = Medium/Medium

[Fisherking]

sorry for my ignorance, but what is N/N? i thought it was E/E, M/M, H/H, and VH/VH...

N= normal =M=medium.

Its all the same.

[Melvish]

yes Prussia is a very entertaining nation to play with and was the first faction i tried. Unfortunaly a save game corruption had killed all hope to continue it back before the patch. After that i've tried France and UK but last night i went back to start a anew with Prussia, with all i learned it is a very different game this time, alliance with Russia hold still and no war with Poland (yet). I've annexed Cortland and liberated Denmark from Sweden(in return of Iceland, i felt compelled to return the province to the rightful owner because they are my ally and it is not like i didn't get anything in return: land + tech)
I'm stealing tech, dueling and sabotaging like it going out of style. I've just secured an alliance with Austria so the war with Poland will begin soon.

[Bob the Insane]

Maybe it is only in the Custom Battles but have they not renamed them to Easy, Normal, Hard and Expert?

I didn't really pay attention on stating the campaign, I just accepted the defaults...

I imagine it all means the same thing and is a bit of a homage to STW (and MTW?) IIRC...