Spanish Empire easy and fast 1861 Conquest victory guide

After finishing the British campaign and getting their tech upgrades, I thought it was time to get the last 1861 conquest achievement (win conquest with 5 specific nations), mainly to get the free extra Canvas Tent. Saw Spain was yellow, but after attempting it my own way, it was quite easy.

I took an approach with Spain that proved very effective, achieving fast victory without requiring high unit techs or super strong gens (used 2 free ones (Stonewall and Max Looff) + Ivanov & Hotzendorf)

This consists on taking advantage of the hard-coding for french troops, which is by far the biggest problem when playing with Crown on this conquest (French will crush all S. America)

Bear in mind these things:

• Turn order is (sometimes proves handy to know): Spanish>British>Mexican>Venezuela>Cuban>N American>S American>Canadian>French>Peru>Iroquois>Colombia
• Like it happens if you play French (3 war ships and 2 troops coming from east), Spanish (3 war ships and 2 troops appearing right by Peru capital) or United States (H Machine Gunner, Armored Car and Carronade appearing below Iroquois capital and going straight for it), coded "reinforcements" (your 5 ships in this case) will never spawn.
• French will get a general morale raise on their turn 10. However you should capture their capital by turn 11, so it will negate this bonus entirely and still give the devastating double morale drop
• French will get their 5 ships reinforcements by turn 11, but they are coded to come to S. America, so don't worry about defending your capital, and they do take a few turns to arrive. Another 5 ships will spawn on their turn 17, this time very close to their capital, so beware them.
• Napoleon will spawn on this city rather than the Galapagos on the first turn. This is very good, as ships do extra damage to him (while very little to Tochu's Old Guard), but you may receive some more counterattacks.

Well, knowing that, here comes the guide:



On turn 1, upgrade your tier 2 city and build university or Military Academy (preferably the former, but if you struggle to capture Havana fast, get the latter and use twice Blast). Doing this will also lower the resource penalty for overpopulation (as you're less overpopulated). Bribe once UK so that it will join in 4 turns jointly with Canada.
All troops for both islands must rush to defeat Cubans, that should be done by turn 6 (7 at most if very unlucky), do not disembark Duke of Tetuan, rush straight to enemy capital as ship, else he will be slowed. Your Atlantic fleet must go straight to the French colony in S. America.
The non-hero ship should only move one tile on this first turn, as he will be in range of the Cuban ship (which will charge on you), get the 20% extra resistance and your heroic ship will be on range to attack it next turn. If you move more forward, the heroic ship will not reach. Light art will also reach and finish the Cuban ship.



When you capture Havana, send your troops to the Yucatan peninsula, as if sent North they will be chased by American ships and they will have higher value flanking Mexico. Do not leave any troop on the Caribbean islands as there is no danger for them, both French troops there are coded to go S. America, so will the Atlantic reinforcements


French will join shortly, be sure to have your troops settled like this next image (stables captured by artillery and cavalry at one tile from factory). Leave a path for the ship to leave (as its coded to go west), blocking it will only result on it attacking you every turn. The upper ship on the picture will be moved to the right to be above my heroic battleship, but the other will remain there to lower morale within Capital


In two turn attacks, you should have taken down the French capital and capture it. Have enough resources to build anything (preferably light art) on the factory, this will avoid it being captured by enemy when moving cavalry to city


This here is key, as not only you will prevent French from spawning strong units on S. America that will take the Continent but also avoid their landings and heavily harm their devastating initial high morale charge on Venezuela. After losing their capital, they will ignore it, and continue the charge on Venezuela (but with low morale), attack them all you can before the first wave of reinforcements arrive. Take advantage of neutral Dutch troops to cause the third demoralization (and therefore confusion) of as many troops you can.

Gather up some resources and make a heavy cav for some other gen to speed up clearing French.

IMO, doing this, this should be easily a green campaign, or even purple. When you kill some more french troops, as you took their capital, bribing for surrender will be an option. With you pressuring Mexico and the United States being pressured by 3 nations, its just a matter of few turns. Just beware the second wave of reinforcements so that you dont lose the French capital (I just spammed weak infantry till I had enough resources to bribe the French), after this, the real auto-able is on. You can win this under 30 turns, depending on how fast United States fall. Give resources to them whenever you have spare ones, but once you land on Mexico, pressure should be sharply reduced, as they will swap focus to you.

Tried to execute this 3 times and all worked similarly, so I think it should be easy to execute. You only need to be lucky on getting cavalry reset on French capital if your ships and art didnt manage to clear it)

--Napoleon Bonaparte does not approve this guide (nephew gets taken advantage of and his short lifespan only gives him 1 turn to attack, RIP)