Ralegh Guide: Tips

Empires in Arms is the computer version of Australian Design Group classic board game. Empires in Arms is a seven player game of grand strategy set during the Napoleonic period of 1805-1815. The unit scale is corps level with full diplomatic options

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Ralegh
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Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by Ralegh »

Hi - my game name is Ralegh, and I am a beta tester on the EIANW project. Some of you may be familiar with the guides I put together with the help of other beta testers and the developers for Crown of Glory when I beta-tested that game. Ralegh Guides are not part of the game - they are by a player to help other players (although I do have access to more information than makes it into the manual). The game manual tells you about WHAT you can do, and even HOW to do it. Ralegh Guides are mainly about WHY you would want to, although we sometimes dip into game mechanics to explain how things work.

In conjunction with the Ralegh guides, I will provide a series of AARs, of me winning the game as each different nation at the top level of difficulty.

The first Ralegh Guide for EIANW is below, and has 33 tips about playing the game.

Paragraphs are numbered to assist you in asking questions/etc in this thread - which will be welcome, and will be responded to. Periodically I might roll up all the changes and publish a new version.


SETUP
S1. The game starts in January, so there are 2 months of winter: will you be conducting operations in winter, which is expensive for supply, or in what players often call "winter quarters" where units can forage for free. In your home nation, and thinking of corps with 3 movement points,
- a 4 zone can take 1 corps
- a 5 zone can take 2 corps
- a 6 zone can take an unlimited number, since the modifier for corps being present peaks at 2.

S2. Very soon after the start of the game you want to have a 1 factor garrison in every red city you control: that will slow down any invader a little bit, giving you a chance to manoeuvre. Ideally that factor should be a militia, but you might need to place infantry at first and swap them out later.

S3. Never ever put fleets in a port that doesn't have a garrison (not a corps - a garrison): the harbour guns don't fire to defend the port if there is no one there.

S4. There is a strategy choice: put all your fleets in one place or spread them out? If you spread them, you can put pressure on your enemies number of fleet counters, not just their number of ships - this can be very useful (and even quite a small fleet getting free might be able to cause a "cascade"). As Russia, I usually put all my fleets either in St Petersburg, or in Corfu - the Black Sea is only useful against Turkey. I like to start the French fleets in Amsterdam, with the Holland fleets or spread them all out!

S5. Don't forget to place depots: they are free at the start, so place lots. You can remove ones you don't need before the eco phase so you don't have to pay maintenance on them. I ALWAYS start a depot in the city where the fleets start. That makes sea supply an option in case I should ever want it.

S6. As France, always have a corps within range of Dover: if the British ever don't have the channel blocked, whip over into England - even the worst French corps will have a good chance of taking the country!

S7. As GB, don't setup the whole fleet in Gibraltar: how will you blockade Sweden if France gets control of them? Look out for those pesky minors - they only have to EITHER free the French fleet OR push your fleet from the channel and the consequences can be dire.

S8. Save your setup - you'll want to use it as a starting point in a future game.


POLITICAL PHASE
P1. If you declare war on a minor, ALWAYS move someone into it, or the war will lapse. So when defending a minor, try to push the invaders back out: if they have nothing in the country at the end of the month, the war will lapse.

P2. Why use minor diplomacy? So you KNOW that you will be in control of a minor if someone else attacks it. Minor diplomacy can work with an investment of 0$.

P3. Why try to ally with other (computer controlled) countries? So you can ask them for money of course! You can also ask for access through their country, and lend units. (You can't request supply from the AI, which is a shame.) ALWAYS:
a) offer alliances to major powers you don't intend to attack for awhile AND
b) ask your allies for cash (double click anywhere on the map to open the diplomatic negotiations window)

P4. Why lend a unit to an ally? So the unit can move in their turn: this is the only way to achieve that in EIANW. Note also that such a unit could be used against an enemy you are not at war with (example: while remaining neutral, Spain lends all her fleets to France, who uses them against the British)

P5. Why downgrade a minor? I got Dalmatia as a free state because the Austrians declared war on it. However, they did not move in, so the war lapsed. I downgraded it to conquered so I would get the money and manpower! (If you downgrade a minor-with-corps it goes all the way to neutral: this only works for the ones without corps.)


REINFORCEMENT PHASE
R1. Major powers can add factors to corps in supply (well, within one area of a valid depot, but not over invasion supply), and into cities in controlled territory. To put reinforcing factors into a city under an invading corps, transfer factors from the corps to the city, and reinforce into the corps.

R2. Minors can only add factors to corps in their home country or within an area of a valid depot which is part of a supply chain from their home country - so getting reinforcements to minor corps is much harder. If their purpose is to take casualties, you will have to send them home to get topped up. Think it through: I often chooe to take all casulties from th major power, since they are so much easier to reinforce.

R3. If the game seems to not want to do what you want, right click to clear the current selection and try again. Sometimes it can get a little confused.


NAVAL PHASE
N1. If you see enemy fleets in a harbour without a garrison there, do a port raid: the port guns won't be able to fire! [Note: a corps doesn't count: it has to be a GARRISON.]

N2. Make sure you set the desired fleet "orders" for interceptions - even when you are in a blockade box.

N3. A corps cannot be split across multiple fleet counters. One fleet can carry multiple corps.

N4. You can put a depot on transports or heavy fleets, but not on light fleets.

N5. Any type of fleet counter is adequate for sea supply (so I usually leave a single factor light fleet in a port all game for that purpose).


LAND PHASE
L1. Always plan your supply first - whether you are paying or foraging, know what you want to do.

L2. If any corps in a stack uses its movement points to affect a forage roll, then no corps in the stack will be permitted to move into the city to besiege it. This commonly happens when a cavalry corps can forage for free - if you use the "auto forage all corps" button, they will use unused movement points. Instead, forage those corps by hand: then you can choose not to use the unused movement points.

L3. You CAN move a corps into a hostile city, thus establishing a siege, and then forage it. In this circumstance, the game will not let you use your unused movement points. The game will then allow that corps to assault the city.

L4. Human players often use "screening" and "decoy" corps that only have one factor in them. Since no one else knows they are so weak, they can give an advantage - and they can prevent the enemy making certain moves.

L5. Rules on Conquest seem to have been omitted from the manual, although they are alluded to a couple of times. Conquest happens at the end of the month, and is based on un-besieged occupation of the capital. That occupation does NOT have to be a garrison, although there must be either a garrison or a corps in the area of the capital.

L6. If you conquer Finland and then Sweden, and later free Sweden, Finland will remain a conquered belonging to you, and cannot ever be transferred to Swedish control. If you conquer Sweden and Finland comes along because it is a minor province of Sweden, and then free Sweden, Finland goes with it. The same applies to the other multi province minors (Denmark/Norway, Naples/Sicily).

L7. You need to keep a corps in a minor until it is conquered - just putting a garrison in the capital is not enough. If there is a garrison, the corps can be in another area of the minor.


ECO PHASE
E1. ALWAYS use economic manipulation - adjusting how you use it to suit your needs from time to time.

E2. Whether you waste money or waste manpower is a decision for each nation: but don't try to use up everything.

E3. Don't forget to build factors for the minors you are controlling.

E4. Why create Poland? Morale 4 infantry, and they get the money and manpower values of the provinces DOUBLED. Maybe a tricky timing decision for Prussia, but easy for anyone else.

E5. If you create Poland or the Confederation of the Rhine (or any other multi-province minor) and later get additional provinces that could be part of it, there is no way to add them.
HTH
Steve/Ralegh
Don60420
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by Don60420 »

Bless you Ralegh. You did yeoman service with your Crown of Glory guides. Thank you for doing the same in regard to Empire in Arms.
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Norden_slith
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by Norden_slith »

E2. Whether you waste money or waste manpower is a decision for each nation: but don't try to use up everything.

[&:]

Waste money? Are you talking about minors exclusively here?

Norden
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ess1
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by ess1 »

Many thanks for this.
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cdbeck
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by cdbeck »

Are you not allowed to do screenshots? [;)]

Thanks Ralegh, good to see you back in action again!

SoM
"Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet!"
(Kill them all. God will know his own.)

-- Arnaud-Armaury, the Albigensian Crusade
StCyr
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by StCyr »

E5. If you create Poland or the Confederation of the Rhine (or any other multi-province minor) and later get additional provinces that could be part of it, there is no way to add them.

are you positive about this ?
because in EiA you HAVE to add them - and indeed this seems the only logical way to me ...
alaric318
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by alaric318 »

looks as a excellent tutorial for starting a play on the game, thanks for make all the work to be capable of make available this help tutorial,
 
best regards,
 
alarick
There is no plan of battle that survives the contact with the enemy.
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Ralegh
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by Ralegh »

Norden - beginning players try to spend all available manpower regardless of which nation they are playing, and this is often a mistake.
 
StCyr - yep, I'm positive. I suppose its a 'limitation' - important to be aware of.
 
All - I am working on som AAR with screenshots, and even some video snippets - watch this space!
HTH
Steve/Ralegh
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Irish Guards
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by Irish Guards »

Are Spain and France allied at the begining of the game in Jan 1805 .... [&:]
IDG
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JavaJoe
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by JavaJoe »

ORIGINAL: Irish Guards

Are Spain and France allied at the begining of the game in Jan 1805 .... [&:]
IDG

Alliances are in control of the players and how they see fit.
Vice President Jersey Association Of Gamers
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Norden_slith
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by Norden_slith »

ORIGINAL: Ralegh

Norden - beginning players try to spend all available manpower regardless of which nation they are playing, and this is often a mistake.

StCyr - yep, I'm positive. I suppose its a 'limitation' - important to be aware of.

All - I am working on som AAR with screenshots, and even some video snippets - watch this space!



I found your post odd (= I probably misunderstood [:)] )

If youre talking about major powers, you can allways spend all manpower, using militia (well, except Turkey) and SAVE remaining money.

If your talking about minors, they should use as much as possible, as they cannot save money. Hence I assumed you were talking about minors.

Unless things are changed in this version ofc.


Great news about screenshots!

regards,
Norden
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Ralegh
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by Ralegh »

You are of course correct. I meant to say something like "spend on non-militia factors".
HTH
Steve/Ralegh
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by MPHopcroft1 »

Ralegh,

I nolticed in the AAR that you were able, as England, to make a significant incrusion into France in 1805 and give napoleon an enormous setback. If I am the French player, how do I prevent the English AI from performing a similar feat while leaving myself free to work on Austira and Prussia?
"Any asset that would cost you the war if lost is no longer an asset, but a liability." -- Me

"No plan survives the battlefield" -- old Army saw.

"Without Love, I'd have no Anger. I wouldn't believe in Righteousness" -- Bernie Taupin
timothy_stone
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by timothy_stone »

ORIGINAL: MPHopcroft

Ralegh,

I nolticed in the AAR that you were able, as England, to make a significant incrusion into France in 1805 and give napoleon an enormous setback. If I am the French player, how do I prevent the English AI from performing a similar feat while leaving myself free to work on Austira and Prussia?
(Good Lord, i think it's been a decade since i actually posted here...)

So I'll make it a long one. : )

MPHopcroft, one or two french corps lurking in the area are usually enough to keep the british at bay.
If you drop Davout (4.5.2) on them, you will have a dice-mod advantage (Britain does not receive wellington until later on as a reinforcement, and Moore is a 3.4.2 if i remember correctly)

If the british land they risk getting caught in the field without a city to retreat into, which puts them at risk of either getting the entire army annihilated (and it will take GB a long time to replace that army in the early stages of the game), or even worse it is possible for them to get hit repeatedly for pp.s (political points, the things that help you actually win the game) by a French player who repeatedly attacks them with *small* corps aiming at defeating them in the field, but not wiping them out.

The brits then get stuck with the choice of NOT putting down any leader (and thus giving up a +1/-1 dice mod against davout, and giving the french a 75% or better chance of winning the battles), OR they have to put down Moore to try to win a battle - but then the french player double-moves (last then first) and brings a strong force --- i.e 5-1 odds or better, at which the most likely outcome will be that the british army is vaporized (even with bad chit picks and mediocre dice).

That would result in the british losing Moore for the rest of the game (barring a peace between FR and GB, which is quite rare with experienced players.

Even if the brits have a city to retreat into, they usually have to withstand 2 siege attempts (the turn they retreat into it, then the next turn - *unless* the fleet is already waiting in that city to whisk them away)- and 2 sieges from a couple of full FR corps can wipe the brits out easily (on the 5-1 table you usually get 10 or 15% casualties, so 3 rounds is usually 35% or worse - even with 1 FR corps that's 7 dead.)

So, the risks to the Brits (losing the army, and possibly losing either lots of pp.s or Moore)
is usually not worth it -

UNLESS you have a chance to trap the FR fleet in port and totally destroy it by blockading then taking the city (in the original rules, if the fleet then fails to run the blockade they are totally destroyed - i don't know if the computer will do that).

Any GB player i know would happily lost teh entire BEF and moore and a basket of pp.s to vaporize the Fr fleet in the first few turns. GB immediately turns into the undisputed master of the seas, which it is NOT if 70% of its fleets are tied down keeping the FR at home

Most experienced FR players will spread their fleets out in an effort to (A) avoid such a fate, as losing the BEF to smash 10-15 ships is not as worth it, and (B) force the Brits to use up more fleet counters and ships to maintain the blockade (weakening them against RUS/SP) and keeping the naval situation more balanced.

FR does not want the GB to be undisputed masters of the seas (no one does), unless FR wants to be able to paint them as being the greater threat to win the game (which only works with a full set of players, the AI won't appreciate the subtlety...)

Some fr players put all their eggs in one basket thinking it will be easier to defend one spot rather than 5 (including the dutch), which is true - but when wellington appears it's an even fight unless you leave a large force permantly in range of the ships, and even then 50-50 is not good odds when it's the entire fleet ($600 and a year to replace) at stake.

p.s. I have discussed only the more likely Port raid. A GB attack on Paris is usually nonsense, because the entire Grand Armee is usually within 8 areas of Paris, and the double-move will bring them home to annihilate whatever is sent there. A spoiler corps sent by GB can be worth it just to tease the FR into sending a substantial force back to paris (helps the germans if they are at war), but you're losing men/pp.s for it, so the germans better be appreciative

p.p.s. it is really great to see that this game might finally arrive, it has been a *LONG* time! And it is a fantastic game, though i warn those of you who have not played, if you are playing a full 7-man game, in most cases diplomacy (talking to the other players) will have a much greater impact on winning/losing than the mechanics of what is happening on the board.

p.p.p.s. Vive l'Empereur!!!
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Ralegh
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by Ralegh »

What Tim said.  Seriously.
 
As France I would have 1 corps (usually 15 inf and 3 cav) ready to either defend the fleet bases, or charge across the crossing arrow it that opportunity arose.  When the British have more factors, I would usually make it 2 corps.
 
My initial invasion was intended to take the port, and perhaps annoy them in the german minors to support Prussia - I fully expected to lose the entire force and some PP. Having taken the initial port - and yes the Fr fleet was forced to scuttle when they couldn't break the blockade - the plan changed: now I was trying to take Amsterdam and get rid of those fleets too. I sent a corps to Paris, solely meant to distract them from defending Amsterdam - I expected th corps there to die. However, I got very lucky: I not only got over the walls, I also survived that month's French counter attack, and was able to parlay that position into a surrender.
HTH
Steve/Ralegh
Odysseus
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by Odysseus »

ORIGINAL: Ralegh

I got very lucky: I not only got over the walls, I also survived that month's French counter attack, and was able to parlay that position into a surrender.

Yes, I was wondering about that bit in the AAR - my spontaneous reaction was that a French player would hardly had accepted such a surrender (though I am impressed that the AI is capable enough to do so) but rather would have ridden out the storm even with the economic cost, pounded your Paris force to smithereens the next turn and then gone on to reclaim Amsterdam. But that would have depended on what other forces where available close by, how close the Prussians where and the political price to pay for not having Paris during an Economic phase (have seen it happen)....

Oh, can't wait for this game of awesomeness - 7 players all connected by the webb, oh, sweetness!
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yammahoper
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by yammahoper »

I do not think the initial release is LANable.  One player only, with PBEM as an option.  The Multiplayer version is in the future.
 
Someone please correct me if I am wrong[8D]
 
yamma
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Odysseus
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by Odysseus »

I'm quite quite content with 7 players connected via the web by ways of play by e-mail...It is probably a lot easier to coordinate...
timothy_stone
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by timothy_stone »

ORIGINAL: Ralegh

P4. Why lend a unit to an ally? So the unit can move in their turn: this is the only way to achieve that in EIANW. Note also that such a unit could be used against an enemy you are not at war with (example: while remaining neutral, Spain lends all her fleets to France, who uses them against the British)

can you please clarify this?
Do all loaned corps/fleets act as if they are of the same nationality as the nation loaned to?
(do the spanish fleets above act french in that they can actually attack GB ships?)
(and would SP loaned (to FR) corps be allowed to attack GB corps while SP was at peace with GB)

Or do they remain SP but just move around at FR's orders?
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RE: Ralegh Guide: Tips

Post by Naomi »

The Spaniards could use a donning of red coats and acquire a semblance of Anglo manners without having to pay the cost of harassing the Gauls. [:'(]

Ral might mean that, there is no such thing as declaration (e.g. shouting right before the movement phase) of concerted movements with another nation's military units in the PC game's case, and the way of achieving the effect is by lending your unit(s) to that nation you wanna move at the same order. But, as in COG, that unit on lease might do whatever is your wont.
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