Post by John Marston on Jun 19, 2021 6:54:54 GMT
Pros and Cons
+ Baltic Sea isolates Sweden from enemies with serious Generals
+ Poland, Rhine, and to some extent the Ottomans and France are great meatshields
+ Dobeln on triple Guards
- Baltic Sea must be crossed. Like Britain, you end up spending money on transports.
- Your economy is trash.
- Sure, Dobeln is nice, but Cronstedt sucks.
Requirements
● One strong Admiral (naval General) - I used Kate
● One strong Infantry General (86+ health, decent stars and skills) - I used Victoria (You can use Maria. Moreover, this conquest is not suitable for a speedrunning conquest)
● At least one other decent General - I used Sophia
Note that I used additional Generals (Isabela and Lan), but these were not at all necessary. They just made it go a little faster.
Phase 1: Crossing the Baltic
The crossing operation is divided into three. In the spirit of whimsy, I will call them Ikea, Nokia, and Meatball. However, do not be mistaken! This is a carefully choreographed dance.
Nokia
Use the light artillery from Helsinki to cross the sea to Reval right off the bat. The Russiansleave it undefended. The Russians will, however, send a Frigate to bully it, so send your Frigate from Stockholm (with your Admiral), and the privateer from outside Turku, to fight it.
Leave the port outside Turku vacant at the end of turn 2. The Russkies will steal it, and be destroyed by your coastal fort (you will then take it with your light infantry). This frees you up to send your ships to take the port outside St. Petersburg.
Why take that out-of-the-way port, you may ask? Well, it's a surprise tool that will help us later.
Ikea
Dobeln should set sail right away from Stockholm, and, as shown in the map, land in modern-day Latvia. He will take the little level-1 city, then convene with the light infantry (the one that took the port back from the Russians in Operation Nokia) to take Riga. After Riga comes its stable, and that's a nice little foot in the door in Russia.
Meatball
This is the trickiest of the three, because you must do it slowly. DO NOT MOVE FAST. You start by having the Frigate from Karlskrona kill the Prussian Rocket, and then privateer outside Danzig, but you don't send your militia and single light cavalry across yet.
Once your Admiral has finished outside St. Petersburg, she (or he) comes here. Only once she's arrived, and only if Blucher and Scharnhorst are elsewhere, do you land your troops into Danzig. Yorck will come
Phase 2: Consolidating Gains
Central Russia
After Riga, Dobeln's team takes Vilnius. Deploy Generals at this phase (especially Artillery if you have a good one, at Vilnius) so you can fight Kutuzov effectively. Then take Minsk. After that, send a few units (your General(s)) west, and Dobeln with regular units towards Smolensk.
Danzig & Prussia
Build line infantry in Danzig, and use your navy's firepower, to defend your beachhead from Yorck, until you can afford a double Machine Gun. Put your Infantry General on it, and then start pushing out. Since Poland and Prussia usually end up roughly stalemated, you should be able to roll back Prussia, but if Poland fell, then liberate it first. In any case, you will ultimately end up taking Berlin.
St. Petersburg
Send Cronstedt and one cheap infantry by sea, but not to St. Petersburg. Instead, land them north of it (remember that port? We cleared it out so these can land), then, going by sea on Lake Ladoga (the little bit of sea northeast of St. Petersburg) take Tver.
The reason you take Tver first is threefold:
1. It gives you a base to spam infantry from.
2. It gives you more time to build siege artillery (2-3) in Helsinki and bring these by sea to the north. Cronstedt alone is lame and won't kill Alexander.
3. Russia spams a lot of militia from Tver. Taking it would destroy their spam.
Phase 3: Winning
Dobeln pushes southwards through Russia to Turkey. Your infantry General and the naval forceshandle the northwest quadrant of the map, namely Britain. Your other General (the one you deployed against Kutuzov in Vilnius/Minsk) handles Vienna and then Spain. Regular units mop up eastern Austria and Sardinia. If you have a 3rd land General (total of 4 Generals) send 2 to Austria/Spain and one to Britain. If you have a 4th land General (total of 5) send 2 each to Austria/Spain and Britain.
Debrief
I thought Phase 1 was a blast, Phase 2 was neat, and Phase 3 was the typical end-of-conquest cleanup operation. Overall, a nice conquest. With my endgame team, 63 turns.
Credits - Jean-Luc Picard
+ Baltic Sea isolates Sweden from enemies with serious Generals
+ Poland, Rhine, and to some extent the Ottomans and France are great meatshields
+ Dobeln on triple Guards
- Baltic Sea must be crossed. Like Britain, you end up spending money on transports.
- Your economy is trash.
- Sure, Dobeln is nice, but Cronstedt sucks.
Requirements
● One strong Admiral (naval General) - I used Kate
● One strong Infantry General (86+ health, decent stars and skills) - I used Victoria (You can use Maria. Moreover, this conquest is not suitable for a speedrunning conquest)
● At least one other decent General - I used Sophia
Note that I used additional Generals (Isabela and Lan), but these were not at all necessary. They just made it go a little faster.
Phase 1: Crossing the Baltic
The crossing operation is divided into three. In the spirit of whimsy, I will call them Ikea, Nokia, and Meatball. However, do not be mistaken! This is a carefully choreographed dance.
Nokia
Use the light artillery from Helsinki to cross the sea to Reval right off the bat. The Russiansleave it undefended. The Russians will, however, send a Frigate to bully it, so send your Frigate from Stockholm (with your Admiral), and the privateer from outside Turku, to fight it.
Leave the port outside Turku vacant at the end of turn 2. The Russkies will steal it, and be destroyed by your coastal fort (you will then take it with your light infantry). This frees you up to send your ships to take the port outside St. Petersburg.
Why take that out-of-the-way port, you may ask? Well, it's a surprise tool that will help us later.
Ikea
Dobeln should set sail right away from Stockholm, and, as shown in the map, land in modern-day Latvia. He will take the little level-1 city, then convene with the light infantry (the one that took the port back from the Russians in Operation Nokia) to take Riga. After Riga comes its stable, and that's a nice little foot in the door in Russia.
Meatball
This is the trickiest of the three, because you must do it slowly. DO NOT MOVE FAST. You start by having the Frigate from Karlskrona kill the Prussian Rocket, and then privateer outside Danzig, but you don't send your militia and single light cavalry across yet.
Once your Admiral has finished outside St. Petersburg, she (or he) comes here. Only once she's arrived, and only if Blucher and Scharnhorst are elsewhere, do you land your troops into Danzig. Yorck will come
Phase 2: Consolidating Gains
Central Russia
After Riga, Dobeln's team takes Vilnius. Deploy Generals at this phase (especially Artillery if you have a good one, at Vilnius) so you can fight Kutuzov effectively. Then take Minsk. After that, send a few units (your General(s)) west, and Dobeln with regular units towards Smolensk.
Danzig & Prussia
Build line infantry in Danzig, and use your navy's firepower, to defend your beachhead from Yorck, until you can afford a double Machine Gun. Put your Infantry General on it, and then start pushing out. Since Poland and Prussia usually end up roughly stalemated, you should be able to roll back Prussia, but if Poland fell, then liberate it first. In any case, you will ultimately end up taking Berlin.
St. Petersburg
Send Cronstedt and one cheap infantry by sea, but not to St. Petersburg. Instead, land them north of it (remember that port? We cleared it out so these can land), then, going by sea on Lake Ladoga (the little bit of sea northeast of St. Petersburg) take Tver.
The reason you take Tver first is threefold:
1. It gives you a base to spam infantry from.
2. It gives you more time to build siege artillery (2-3) in Helsinki and bring these by sea to the north. Cronstedt alone is lame and won't kill Alexander.
3. Russia spams a lot of militia from Tver. Taking it would destroy their spam.
Phase 3: Winning
Dobeln pushes southwards through Russia to Turkey. Your infantry General and the naval forceshandle the northwest quadrant of the map, namely Britain. Your other General (the one you deployed against Kutuzov in Vilnius/Minsk) handles Vienna and then Spain. Regular units mop up eastern Austria and Sardinia. If you have a 3rd land General (total of 4 Generals) send 2 to Austria/Spain and one to Britain. If you have a 4th land General (total of 5) send 2 each to Austria/Spain and Britain.
Debrief
I thought Phase 1 was a blast, Phase 2 was neat, and Phase 3 was the typical end-of-conquest cleanup operation. Overall, a nice conquest. With my endgame team, 63 turns.
Credits - Jean-Luc Picard
