A Swedish Campaign report

[Jack Lusted]

A Swedish Campaign report

As you guys have seen quite a few videos of battles, I thought I’d post about a recent Swedish campaign I played so you guys get more of an idea about how the campaign game plays.

The start

Early on I decide I must help build my military power. So I focus my research onto military technology, build extra schools to allow the research of more items at once, and begin to build up an army in Estonia near Riga. This will allow me to fight the Russians if they decide to start a war, or to expand into the nearby Duchy of Courland...

WAR!

...which I invade after gifting the Russians a bit of cash to keep them happy for a bit. After a tough fight I secure the region, but almost immediately the Prussians approach me asking for the province in exchange for some technologies and more importantly an alliance. Eager for allies I accept, and the tech allows me to upgrade my farms to increase my income as well as keeping my population fed.

Preparations...

With my economy secured and a strong ally in Prussia, I turn my eyes towards my Scandinavian neighbours Denmark. Determined to take Denmark out in one glorious invasion, I begin to prepare three armies ready to take Iceland, Norway and Denmark.

...and Problems

But these big armies rapidly begin to drain my income. My research focus switches onto techs that will improve my income from workshops and farms, and I cancel a trade agreement with France in order to free up a trade route so I can sign a new trade agreement with the Marathas which proves much more profitable.

Revolution!

All the focusing on techs and building schools has had an unfortunate side effect, the people are not happy. They are clamouring for reform, and so I endeavour to spark a revolution myself. Raising taxes soon leads to one, and I side with the rebels in order to turn Sweden into a republic. After a hard fought battle for Stockholm, victory is mine and the old order is removed. The public is now happy with the more enlightened Republic government type.

With the revolution over, I focus once again on preparations to invade Denmark.

The First Strike

But Denmark declare war first, marching armies through my lands and damaging my buildings. Damaged schools means no more research, and damaged farms leads to unhappiness as the population is less well fed. So I march an army out to deal with these raiding forces and I initiate my own invasion plans.

One army lands on Iceland after a long trip away from trade routes to avoid detection where it quickly takes the region. But my main invasion army fares less well. Marching close to Copenhagen, my almost 2000 men find themselves facing over 4500 Danish troops. In a hard fought battle barely 500 of my men survive after fleeing the field having been beaten decisively.

And this is where my campaign report ends. Sweden has transformed into a Republic, improved its economy and military and is now engaged in a long and costly war with Denmark with wins and losses on both sides. I hope this has help give you an idea of what playing the early stages of an Empire: Total War campaign is like.

Feel free to ask questions about this campaign and I'll try and answer as many as I can.

[Polemists]

So when you mention trade with the Marathas does that mean a trade theatre or just a old fashion trade rights?

Just curious how the trade theatres work.

[Merak]

what difficulty was you playing at? (i understand if you can not answer the question)

[Kalle]

Hi Jack!

If you brake this report down not only in phases of your focus in the game but also in turns and years how many turns of playing and years in the game does this report constitute?

Are there any famous commanders available for your armies?

Charles XII would most likely never tolerate a loss of power (im guessing he is the king of Sweden when the game starts), afterall he embodies the era of absolutism in Swedish history, being able to rule the coutry for years from Turkey for instance. In this report it seems revolution is sparked easily and is the natural step to take. Is this so?

Also you focus on military technology as a first step. My guess would have been that Sweden allready had a headstart in military technology but without proper play this headstart would soon be eaten up by more popoulus and resource rich neighbours. Am I making the wrong assumption?

Best regards
Kalle

[Jack Lusted]

So when you mention trade with the Marathas does that mean a trade theatre or just a old fashion trade rights?

Old fashioned trade rights. I did not have a fleet in a trade theatre.

what difficulty was you playing at? (i understand if you can not answer the question)

Normal for campaign and battle.

If you brake this report down not only in phases of your focus in the game but also in turns and years how many turns of playing and years in the game does this report constitute?

It ends in 1720 so about 42 turns in.

Are there any famous commanders available for your armies?

I do not know enough about historical Swedish commanders to say.

Charles XII would most likely never tolerate a loss of power (im guessing he is the king of Sweden when the game starts), afterall he embodies the era of absolutism in Swedish history, being able to rule the coutry for years from Turkey for instance. In this report it seems revolution is sparked easily and is the natural step to take. Is this so?

It was the natural result of the path I chose in terms of techs, you can research in a way that does not build much clamour for reform.

Also you focus on military technology as a first step. My guess would have been that Sweden allready had a headstart in military technology but without proper play this headstart would soon be eaten up by more popoulus and resource rich neighbours. Am I making the wrong assumption?

If you focus on building schools in your slots you can keep up a quick research pace.

[oldgiffer]

Ask your prussian allies to help beat up the danes? :P

Btw, thanks for the insight to how the game works... looking so much forward to this game!

[Fisherking]

I hope this is just the first in a long line of reports!

I take it that either there are a limited number of trade agreements or France was hostile to Marathas.

These are all fascinating twists which will make every new campaign a new adventure.

Thanks so much Jack

[Megalos]

Could you enlighten me a little with the mechanics of trade in Empire? Are we limited (without techs) to the ammount of trade routes we can sustain? Could you tell us a little more about trade theatres and how they work?

Disclaimer: Any views or opinions expressed here are those of the poster and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Creative Assembly or SEGA.

I your opinion how close are we to the demo? very close, very very close, or very very very close? (please ignore this if it's easier! :P )


Thanks for this snippet btw!

[Polemists]

Any naval skirmishes or have you largely ignored your navy except for moving about armies?

Have you seen the AI do any interesting formations mid battle? (You don't have to name them if you can't just a yes or no would be good)


Is the building scale similiar to the last? Aka: Build a small building, then a medium version, then a large (Farm, Improved Farm, Irrigation, etc)

Thanks Jack, we apprecaite it

[Jack Lusted]

I take it that either there are a limited number of trade agreements or France was hostile to Marathas.

Number of trade agreements you have is linked to number/level of ports. Towards the end of that report I had built 2 more ports so I was going round asking more factions for Trade Agreements.

Any naval skirmishes or have you largely ignored your navy except for moving about armies?

Pretty much at the moment, was building up a fleet towards then end as the Danes had a bigger navy than me.

Is the building scale similiar to the last? Aka: Build a small building, then a medium version, then a large (Farm, Improved Farm, Irrigation, etc)

Yes.

[Polemists]

After a hard fought battle for Stockholm, victory is mine and the old order is removed.

So when you choose to side with the rebels, does that just mean you are kicked out and given a rebel army and forced to take the capital?

Or does this work like RTW BI did where a variety of generals side with the loyalist and a variety side with the new regime?

Because it sounds like you just took one city, but as it is early game you have not had many cities.

[Jack Lusted]

So when you choose to side with the rebels, does that just mean you are kicked out and given a rebel army and forced to take the capital?

Or does this work like RTW BI did where a variety of generals side with the loyalist and a variety side with the new regime?

Because it sounds like you just took one city, but as it is early game you have not had many cities.

Revolutions take place in your home region only. If you side with the rebels you get an army spawned for you and have have to take the capital in order to win.

[Razor]

Hi there Jack,

I was wondering. What if you'd conquer Normway or Denmark as Sweden and only after that turn into a republic. Would this trigger liberal/nationalistic uprisings in Denmark and Norway? Or simply put: will Denmark and Norway (re-)emerge as a faction in such situations?

Also, will you be able to indirectly cause a revolution by destroying you enemy's infastructure/farms etc. which will cause unhappiness among the people who have nothing to eat and blame their government for it?

And I have a question concerning Austria (if I may...): will it tend to fall apart if it has turned into a republic? This because of the serious tensions between nationalities within Austria which would cause a serious dilemma for Austria between modernizing (which will cause tensions and ultimately/ most possibly a revolution) and unity (but risking falling behind in technology)

Thank you in advance! Great initiative btw!

[Kalle]

Thanks for the quick answers!

Is it possible for you to tell us something about the composition of the armies and navies you have used and seen in the campaign? The more detail the better :)

Kalle

[Polemists]

Yes thanks for all the answers jack

If you side with the rebels you get an army spawned for you and have have to take the capital in order to win.

So does this army vary based on how angry the people are and your technology or is it a standard army?

[SpencerH]

I'm currently playing the LtC campaign that convinced me to stop wasting my time with M2TW (not the fault of LtC which was an improvement over the standard version IMO). What strikes me playing it some 1.5 years later is the complete lack of diplomatic AI. When I started replaying the campaign I was at war with France, Denmark, Scotland, and Spain. I eliminated the Danes but I am still at war with France, Scotland, and Spain but now the HRE has attacked me. There is no way to discuss anything with the AI factions and, as a result, the game is pathetically repetitive.

I'm very interested to know how this aspect of ETW has been improved.

[pevergreen]

Can you actually name units? If so, will these names appear on the battlefield?

Is experience for units done the same way as previous games? If you retrain a depleted unit, at what experience will the new troops be at? Basically, how is unit experience handled? (And is it the same for ships)

[Markas]

Nice. Damn now I want to get time off work to go to the CA thing.

[Monk]

Woah! Nice post jack!

What a great time to be browsing while bored in class.

[Gaius Terentius Varro]

Sounds just like EU3 tbh. If you can't beat them copy them..

[Ituralde]

Thanks a lot for that report. It sounded very interesting and was a good read. I really appreciate your effort to put it together.

Mh, don't really know about questions, but one part intrigues me. Would you say that giving Prussia a province in return for an alliance has proven to be worthwile?

I ask, because these kind of things always sound fantastic in a report/AAR, but oftentimes there would not be a real necessity for these things gameplay wise. It's often done for flavour/roleplaying purposes and seldom because the game would have gotten very hard with out it.

Cheers!

Ituralde

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Sounds just like EU3 tbh. If you can't beat them copy them..

That's a little unfair. At a very high level, many games sound the same. Heck, you could say "Sounds just like chess to be honest." Jack made a move, then the computer made a move, etc, with both short and long-term planning. The differences come in to the mechanics, some of which we're fairly familiar with (we know what combat looks like, and a 4.5k vs 2k battle is not too hard to imagine given the qualifying "soundly defeated") and some aspects that would take a long time to explain (mechanically) but aren't all that major - for example, trading a province probably works a lot like previous TW titles.

[Chloe]

A great report, thanks very much for it Jack Lusted!

[zerathule]

This is an excellent post Jack :)
I have a few questions for you :
- When you changed to a republic, did you take a serious relation hit with all surrounding monarchy ? Did they all took a "stability hit" when it occured (higher unrest) due to the exemple their people have ? Was it the reason Denmark attacked you ?
- Can you now face a counter-revolution from the inside ? (revolt again with monarchists this time). or could opposing monarchy invade you and ask you to surrender in exchange for a change of government ?
- When you say you recruit an army next to Riga, does it mean you had to have a settlement there ? does this confirm the "fears" from fans saying that if you dont have multiple provinces you cant recruit multiple armies at the same time ?

Thankf for any answers Jack :)

[Greyblades]

but almost immediately the Prussians approach me asking for the province in exchange for some technologies and more importantly an alliance.

Am i the only one thinking this is realy promising AI wise?

[Merak]

is there a way to see were the AI countrys have focusted there research on?

(on a sidenote you forgot the disclaimer in the yuku forum post)

[USS Providence 1972]

Thanks, I'm considering playing with Sweden initially also and this provides some insight into Sweden and the overall game.

I understand you can raid trade routes, did you engage in any of that?


I'm also curious about becoming a republic. Can you research democracy instead of having a revolution? Once you become a republic are there elections? If so what happens if the prime minister loses an election?

[Nelson]

Have you had occasion to build a fort yet, Jack? I’m curious how forts might affect campaigns.

[Barkhorn1x]

Good info. Jack.


Some questions:

- What specific technologies did you research - and did you gain a battlefield advantage from them?
- Did you send too big a force to Iceland in hindsight? That being responsible for you being outnumbered by the Danes? - OR -
- From a quantity vs quality standpoint, were your troops of higher quality than the Danes and is that why you were outnumbered?

Thanks.

[Razor]

This is an excellent post Jack :)
I have a few questions for you :
- When you changed to a republic, did you take a serious relation hit with all surrounding monarchy ? Did they all took a "stability hit" when it occured (higher unrest) due to the exemple their people have ? Was it the reason Denmark attacked you ?
- Can you now face a counter-revolution from the inside ? (revolt again with monarchists this time). or could opposing monarchy invade you and ask you to surrender in exchange for a change of government ?
- When you say you recruit an army next to Riga, does it mean you had to have a settlement there ? does this confirm the "fears" from fans saying that if you dont have multiple provinces you cant recruit multiple armies at the same time ?

Thankf for any answers Jack :)

Good questions.