First of all, it needs to be asked: are you doing a lot of S/L? If not, then you’re doing it “wrong”. There is only so much that you can do tactically to improve speed without favorable number generation. Don’t be fooled, to achieve the real low turn-counts you’re seeing on these boards and therefore Lan and Victoria, then you’ll have to S/L quite a bit.
Remember: If you’re not cheating, then you’re not trying hard enough. As far as tactics, I would change yours as follows.
After you farm her for rank and survivability, use your recently unlocked Isabela in Italy, on the double-heavy artillery near that country.
- With geography, she can “jump” around quite a bit in in north Italy.
- She can also head east to take out the 3x garrison and fort, west of Italy. Otherwise the mountainous terrain in this area can be a sticking point (as you probably know).
- And also take the port in Marseille. Marseille has different configurations in different scenarios, and the 3-hex version in HRE 1798 is the most difficult. With your rush-cavalry you can take out the fort and factory, but to also take the port is probably a step to far.
- She can defeat Napoleon and Marmont 1v1,
assuming she’s been farmed a bit. For point of reference, the rating for Napoleon in this conquest is 110/6.
- She should initially be accompanied by the default infantry for occupying purposes, and then generate an accompanying cavalry, if needed, after taking the fort in Italy.
Use Lusignan, Deroy AND CHARLES against Ottoman. Lusignan is underappreciated but Charles is really effective against Ottoman.
- While Lusignan and Deroy (alone) make their way south on the eastern front, Charles heads south into Ottoman from Vienna, first taking out the Ottoman fort and double-HA (which is a tough out). Place him adjacent to both units to speed things up. He’ll come out just fine, but he also has 5 training stars if needed.
- Then he can take out Selim, near Belgrade, joined by the cavalry (from Vienna) and the heavy artillery that you receive around Buda-Pest (and possibly Rosenberg – see below).
- Charles has the movement stars to take on the mountainous terrain south of Belgrade and the objectives in that area (accompanied by the aforementioned cavalry)
- Also Charles, Lusignan, Deroy can take out both the fortress near Ottoman and Pasha fast enough to prevent turn-draining buildup within Turkey itself.
Use Sophia in France on the double-siege artillery near Hotze. Siege is the unit she was born to be on, even more so than HA, and it’s no accident that the 2SA unit is present at game-start.
- After defeating Dumouriez with the Austrian forces in the West, Sophia must occupy the hex that is 2-south of the fort in western France. From there she bombards Moreau (who won’t move under bombardment) – while receiving counter-fire in the AI turn from Claude and the French fort two-hexes to the north. This situation is a bit of an "easter egg" in the scenario to help speed things along.
Note: This is also a key to fast play, that when moving powerful artillery generals they must be positioned to receive the greatest amount of counter fire from opposing artillery, forts, ships, etc. as possible, during the AI turn.- After taking out the French forces in eastern France, Sophia should bombard Paris.
- After occupying Paris, I don’t recommend sending Sophia northeast toward Brest (the French) port. I recommend sending her southeast to deal with the fortresses in southwest France, the Spanish port, and possibly all the way into Northwest Spain to handle the fortifications there. If you help the British cross by easing channel bombardment (with Klenau), then they should be able to take care of northwest France for you, and the geographical features of northwest France are time-consuming to get to and get out of.
Because August I doesn’t shoot or move well, he can stay in eastern France and keep an eye on Desaix. If Desaix comes north, he can eventually be worn down with August I and troops spawned from Weilburg/captured French factory.
Klenau has minimal impact on post-Paris cleanup, so my recommendation is to send him north,
while your bombarding Paris, to:
- Take out the coastal fort and French 2HA by the channel – this helps your British allies bring more troops cross-channel intact; thereby helping your post-Paris cleanup.
- Take Amsterdam (if it looks like it will be easy at that point). British admiral Hood can screw things up for you by killing the near-dead troops in Amsterdam during the AI turn, thereby spawning new Dutch troops for your turn. However Amsterdam is obviously a desirable conquest from an economic standpoint.
- Help Hotze in Denmark. Hotze can only take of Denmark, on his own, about 30% of the time, depending on how effective the Swedes are.
I don’t use Rosenberg in Poland, instead, I have him:
- Provide assistance in Ottoman OR
- Provide assistance in Denmark
I don’t use generals in Poland. Russia will engage Poland as quickly or slowly as you do, so you must at least make a show of attacking the units around Dombrowski (while avoiding engaging him directly) with your light cav/light artillery/militia. Do not bombard Dombrowski directly. This is like a gnat to him and if you persist in that, then he’ll come south to swat it.
Depending on how strong Lasalle is, you may want to use him as your western rusher, instead of Murat. He obviously is fast and is also one of only 5 cavalry generals in the game with the strike/surprise combo, which make them the best people-killers. So you’ll want to weigh that effectiveness vs. Murat’s better fort-smashing ability in getting through France/Spain.
If you do the above, then I recommend Horse Artillery or Oak Wheel (for Sophia) and Potent Gunpowder (for Isabela/Sophia), in addition to your preferred cavalry items that you listed.
Lastly, I don’t know if you've been counting on creating supply-induced morale loss in France and Spain, but don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t happen – you can still do the conquest in 30ish turns without creating zombie units.
