RBC15I - Napoleonic Europe - Sweden (DG)

Well, opening strategy should be the same as the other smaller Civs - build the FP in a nice second ring city, stay out of alliances, develop our outlying cities, build up and strike.



No, wait: We cannot build the FP so far. We have no second ring, to be honest, we don't even have a first ring . To tell the truth, we don't have cities, we have one city and 3 towns.



But we still have our powerful army, at least compared to the Netherlands. We're average against the Danes, and weak against such powerhouses like France, Britain and Portugal ...

Sweden was a major military power during 17th and 18th century, economically strong, and a leading science nation in the 19th century. Why the designers of this conquest decided to have them as backwards as the Russians are, while a declining Civ like Portugal gets Banks and Universities everywhere, is something I fail to understand. But then, they also completely ignored Bavaria (and Baden /Wurtemberg)...

Anyway, this is a fun and balanced conquest, so I'll stop complaining.

I did help us a bit:
We have a Bank (and, for realism sake, a Coastal Fortress) in Stockholm. We are also SEA additionally to COM/MIL. And we start with 2 Workers.

Here's the biq, unzip it into the conquests folder.
Sweden

RBC 15I Sweden
Demigod, c3c 1.22

Roster
Doc Tsiolkovski
grs
Grimjack
*open*

6 turns (1 year) per player.

Now onto the serious discussion:

The Military Advisor is an idiot. In fact, there is a Civ that has less ground units than cities, and it's our arch-enemy Russia. Their 5 Northern cities start with a total of 4 Muskets, a Cannon, a Troop Transport and a Frigate (which could be the biggest problem). IMHO the absolute only chance we have is attacking Russia extremely early, and taking everything down to Stariya Russia. We need to sell about everything we have to get something like a strike force, but I'd think we can use our entire military there, without any homeland defences.

Only other option would be a limited war with Denmark to get Oslo, wait until they offer peace, ship everything over to Copenhagen, get that before the French can reach our forces, and make peace with Denmark (and subsequently France). Problem here is that France will make us the best initial deal for Furs, while Russia hasn't anything to offer. Nevertheless, I think we need to do that campain around turn 20.

I checked it, and we can get Horses, 2 Luxes, about 200gp when we sell our 2 Furs (we have another one unconnected) and our only Iron. When we rush 3 Cannons, a Troop Transport and 3 or 4 Cavs within the first 5 turns, we should have a chance. Otherwise, we're either dead meat, or can watch how the big guys divide Europe among them.

Hello,

First, i am french, so
1° i have a poor english
2° i have a french version of civ3, i do not know if it coud match.

But i like the crazy idea of playing smalls countries. If you agree and if your save can match with my version of civilisations, it would be a pleasure for me to try your game.

Checking in.
I do not think we can afford to build up, since we do not have anything to build with.
Therefore I like the plan of hitting Russia. They are likely to build up muskets fast though, so we need to do it early. Then we could build up some forces to go after Denmark/France.

Also, make no mistake, we cannot win this without taking out Napoleon. He will amass VPs much faster than we do, no matter what we do with the Russians.

So, long term plans could be Russia->Denmark->Prussia->France, and then back to Russia for some fast VPS.

On the other hand, it could likely be Russia->Ooops they just landed a couple of cavalry outside Stockholm

Grimjack

@Grimjack - welcome.
Agree with your analysis; it isn't always necessary to fight France (when Napoleon stays at peace with Spain, they won't make that much VPs), but we surely have to keep an eye on him

@senturus:
If you can load the scenario file, the saves will run as well. Check it out.
None of us is a native speaker, so a perfect English is not at all needed, but - you are aware that this is a pretty challenging game? What level are you comfortable with?
I'd say Deity (or at least lots of DG) military victories and familiarity with this conquest are must haves.

Signing in. Well, the first thing we need is definetly horses to have a decent attacker. I agree with selling our other lux and resources. Do we even have a need for iron or can't we sell that too?

My only experience with this scenario is the Ottomans open SG. From that I can tell that Russia will have a lot of their native defenders later on, which will make it very hard to hit them with the very poor unit choice we have. So I agree on hitting them soon too. I would also think about attacking Prussia, since they seem weeker to me too (and they have horses near our borders). Most important we will need to have a look at the MAs the AI will sign on the first turn to not get under a dogpile.

grs, I have no doubt about your playing abilities. I was refering to senturus.

Re: Iron
The resource requirements are a bit surprising here:
Musketman, Troop Transport - none
Cannons, Frigates - Iron + Saltpeter (unfortunately, no Trebs; Cats)
Cavs - Horse + Saltpeter (Knights+Horses as usual)
Musket Infantry - Saltpeter

I need to sell our Iron, but will start 3 Cannons before, of course.

Re: Horses
The next native source of Horses is at Hamburg, I sure have an eye on them. But I think we're better of when we hit the Danes first, and launch a war against Prussia from Copenhagen. Alternatively, we can get a RoP with Denmark. The downside here is: We'll have a hard time to defend Hamburg against France when we want to fight the Danes later.
So my plan is (assuming the AI doesn't surprise us):
Russia until we can get peace.
Danes exactly at turn 20 (when our deal with France expires), peace ASAP.
Then Prussia when we can.

Everything considered, I won't play.

I think I have the level to play this challenging game, I am not a master of standard Conquest, but I know this scenario very well, as I am playing it with prussian in a french Pbem, in addition to some solo games with english and russians. But, the snag is that, for a so much difficult scenario, the "barrier of the langage" will be too hight : I ll have too much difficult to explain my choices, what I did, understand perfectly the others players intentions, and so on. But if you could leave your further saves here, I'd be glad to see them.

I have always liked to control smalls civilizations, fight for surviving (?), try to make the better with smalls armies.

I have always liked to control smalls civilizations,

Click to expand...

So do I. That was an aspect much better covered in Civ2 scenarioes IMHO; the conquests are designed for the leading Civs.

Btw, if your interested on the smaller Civs in Middle Ages and AoD, pm me; I have made scenarios for them, all of which were played as SGs here.

RBC 13 I Sweden

Since this one is decided during the 1st 15 turns, we can just start it now while waiting for another player.

Turn 0: Jan., 1800AD
Things look grim…at least, we are breaking even at 5.5.0.
What do we have to expect from Russia? They have no Troop Transport in the Baltic Se, so we’re pretty safe from landings. They make about 35gpt at 10.0.0. The only Cossack they start with is far in the S. A musket is 35sp for a DG AI; St. Petersburg makes about 15spt, so I don’t thin we’ll face more than 3 there, and not more than 2 anywhere else.

Try to get as much cash as possible. Start with selling the Courthouse and the Library (we’re never going to invest a single beaker) in Stockholm; 40gp, and saves some maintenance.
At least, we have the basic improvements everywhere, except that we, oddly enough, only have 2 Harbors. But that isn’t that bad, I want regular TTs anyway, and it saves a bit gpt.

On to Diplomacy. We need Horses, and 2 Luxuries. Well, and cash.
Furs to Ottomans for Horses, Dyes and 86gp.
Furs to France for 263gp.
The only Civ that is weaker than us are Netherlands, but renegotiating peace isn’t worth a single gp. We could get a bit for a RoP, but I’d think we will get more once we are a little bigger.
Start 3 Cannons. Sell Iron to KoN for their 200gp and Wines.
Lend 454gp from Britain for 30gpt – we need the cash NOW.
We now have 1243gp, +7gpt.

The good thing is, we can short-rush Cavs via Libraries, and Cannons via Harbors (though this won’t work now, since we’ll sell our Iron).

Hit enter.
IBT:
Prussia and Spain sign MPP.

Turn 1: Mar., 1800AD
Load 3 Muskets and a Cannon aboard our TT, and position to unload next turn.
Rush a Cav via Library and 3 Cannons, 610gp left. A 2 turn Cav in Stockholm cost 264gp…
Max for Food and Commerce.
IBT:
Prussia and Denmark sign MA against KoN.
Stockholm Cav->Library, Norsundet Cannon->Library, Husqvarna Cannon->TT, Kristianstad Cannon->Musketman.

Turn 2: May, 1800AD
Russia has 76gp, Iron and Furs. Shouldn’t be enough to sign in anyone against us. Declare.
Land 3 Muskets and a Cannon next to Helsinki. TT back to Norsundet, picks up another Cannon and our Cav. Disembark on the same tile.
IBT:
Dutch Frigate sinks Privateer.

Turn 3: Jul., 1800AD
Russia rushed a Vet Musket in Helsinki; better there than elsewhere.
Cav takes out Vet Musket, Elite 3/5 now.
2 Cannons hit, and a Musket of ours kill the 1/3 Russian one while promoting to Vet.
Helsinki is ours, and immediately renamed in Helsingfors. 3 resistors, but comes with Barracks, Market, Granary and Courthouse .

As expected, the Russian Baltic Fleet (1 Frigate) shows up.

Rush Cav via Library in Stockholm.
IBT:
Britain wants MA against Denmark, decline
The Russain Frigates goes to Talinn; hm, don’t like that, could mean there’s a TT waiting for escort.
Stockholm Cav->Library

Turn 4: Sept., 1800AD
Healing, reinforcing.
IBT:
Spain and France sign MA abainst Portugal
Great, the only Russian Cossack shows up near Helsinki.

Turn 5: Nov., 1800AD
Bombard the Cossack and kill it with our Elite Cav…phew, win at 1/5. Glad I didn’t use the Vet, would have meant fighting Russia in GA.
Our 3rd Furs are connected.
Rush the next Cav in Stockholm.
IBT:
Prussia declares on Portugal.
Austria wants to swap TM, sure, why not?
Resistance in Helsingfors ends.
Next Cossack shows up 

Turn 6: Jan., 1801AD
Cannon misses Cossack, but Vet Cav kills him, 4/5 Elite.
Approach St. Petersburg.

We *must* get St. Petersburg.
We very much need Novgorod and Stariya Russia as well (IIRC, we need 8 cities for the FP, and Novgorod makes an excellent choice, being the most productive Russian city).
If things go great, Talinn and Yaroslavl. Otherwise, peace ASAP.

The Save

Roster
Doc Tsiolkovski - just played
grs - up
Grimjack
*open*

6 turns (1 year) per player - please end with the completed January turn.

Thats a tough beginning, and well executed turns. We need to be absolutely ruthless about grabbing now, since we cannot build up forces.

Good trick of using the moneylenders in Britain. It is worth it if it keeps them off our back for the foreseeable future.

Grimjack

Good start! Took it and will play tomorrow night.

PreTurn: I don't see a need for a second TT now, so I shortrush cav in Huskvarna

IBT: Prussia and Russia sign a trade embargo vs us. Kill a Russian Cossack.

Mar 1801: We bombard St. Pete (2/2); it has at least 2 vet and 1 reg musket.

IBT: --

May 1801: We bombard St. Pete again (4/4); it has at least 3 vet and 1 reg musket. We kill 3 muskets with cavs.

IBT: Russian cossack kills our musket and is now wounded in St.Pete.

Jul 1801: Bombard St. Pete (3/4); it has 2 muskets and a cossack - all yellow. We kill 2 muskets with cavs, lose a cav and a musket vs the 2 hp cossack and finally kill him with our last musket. St. Pete is ours and with it 36 gold, a canon and a dead GL from Russia. Cathy gives 140 gold for peace and we take that as I have seen a Jaeger in Novgorod. We now have another furs source we can trade away, but only the small countries are interested. We can get 2gpt + 9 gold from Portugal and take it (they would not even offer a worker for it!).

IBT: --

Sep 1801: We ferry our troops back and now start a second TT.

IBT: Ottomans want ROP, MPP and 2gtp - no.

Nov 1801: --

IBT: Prussia want ROP and MA vs Potugal - no.

Jan 1802: --

I have set Stockholm to growth to get it to size 12 asap. Norrsundet needs a aqueduct and we should get it now. St. Pete is on starvation - I was not 100% sure on this as flip risk is zero and we will not attack Russia for some time. You may want to switch it to worker (sorry I was one turn late to see that).

Good luck, we will need it.

Our military:

Completely agree with peace after triggering the Russian GA (which might not be bad, they won't get much from it).
What's the new Russian Capital, btw?

And culture flips are turned off here, risk is zero.

Over to Grimjack.

Yes, cultural flips are off and cultural borders of the cities always stay the same (the won't inflate after capturing). But that was not what I meant. I was not sure of starving down the pop in the Russian cities as they can't flip.

The will get very unhappy once we attack Russia again, but other than that they are as good as our native pop would be.

I have it, and will see what I can accomplish tomorrow. Good going on the russians. Splendid start.

Jan 1802, RBC15I The sneaky swedes.


Jan 1802 I have eight turns before I can go to war against the French. ( Ongoing deals. )

I fall for the temptation to draw off a trading deal, as I can smell a twofer. I will be careful though, and not pay gpt to the french block. If we go according to the plan Russia->Denmark->Prussia->Russia, Spain and Britain looks like good targets for large GPT payments from us. Possibly Russia as well, to give them something to lose should they declare on us.

We also have empty cities, so I will try to not get into negative gpt.

I send 65 gpt and 16 gold to Russia for Naval Tactics
Naval Tactics, 3 gpt and 21 gold gets us Nationalism from the Napoletans. Now we can mobilize, which ought to be quite important with out limited shield output.
( Well, we could mobilize once we get to war. )

Time to get our money back. I will not sell Nationalism though, as I would hope to fight Denmark without that tech.

Portugal gives us worker, 7 gpt and 29 gold. ( We have gone more than 10 % of scenario length, so I took the liberty of interpretation and decided in a scenarion 96 turns long, the standard 50 turns before worker buys would be only ten. If you think I cheated, then return the workers. )

Spain gives us 9 gpt, 25 gold and another worker.
Ottoman empire gives us Iron, 63 gold and another worker
Denmark gives us 11 gpt and 105 gold. ( Another interpretation of mine, shared by people in games I played before. We do not need to honor deals where they pay us, so we can cancel this deal without having cheated. )
For pity sake, I sell Naval tactics to Netherlands for 42 gold.

I put St Petersburgs workers to work, and it is not as corrupted as I had feared.
Stockholm remains on a growth diet, until size 12. Chances are the extra citizen nees to be specialist, but that is another two gpt.

We are in desperate need of more workers. I will shave workers out of Kristiansstad once it finishes the Troop transport. We have cows that are unimproved.

IBT: Kristianstad TroopTransport->Worker. The Danes clear out a forest, letting us get a first turn hit against Oslo if we want to go there without artillery support. ( Not recommended, since Oslo is on a hill. )

Mar 1802 I rush a musket in Helsinki. I am really not a fan of leaving cities empty. Especially when we cannot rush cavalry there to repel and 'sneak' landings.

IBT: Portugese wants an alliance against the Danes, and I decline. Russia goes to war against Netherlands. For some reason, Stockholm happy at size 11 last turn decide to riot this turn. My apologies people. Lots of people declare on the russians. They must have had troops near the Dutch.
Kristianstad worker->Musket ( we will need a few of those. I am aware we need one more troop transport as well. ) Helsingfors loses a fish as it loses a cultural battle against Tallin. It is set on worker.

May 1802: 10 % lux tax is 8 gpt. I rather spend the money into the void, than strengthening a rival of ours.

IBT: :goggle: The russians destroy the Netherlands. They had forces here indeed.

Jul 1802: I fortify a load of troops on the border to Oslo, and start to move transports to what I believe to be a pickup point. The plan seem to hinge around Denmark lacking a fleet, and that may be right, if they have sent it out to the british ships.
Stockholm is size 12, so I put it on a low gold high shields diet. This city could really benefit from hospitols. ( As could the rest of our cities. We have lots of space to put citizens into. )

Norrsundet at size six cannot grow, so it also gets the low gold, high shield treatment.
Advance tactics is known by Russia and France. I make a couple of bucks selling world map around.

IBT: Helsingfors completed worker, starts cannon

Nov 1802: I hate to use up all money, but I rush the Aqueduct in Norrsundet anyway. As usual, there are lots of opportunity to fiddle with our citizens to get them to produce that extra gpt or spt.

IBT: Ottoman goes to war against Portugal. ( Prompted by they russian advisors. ) Norrsundet Aqueduct->Harbor. I discover we have a danish musketman outside the screen to our north. Wonder what he hopes to accomplish against the russians ?

Jan 1803: We have a road coming soon underneath our army. We have two more turns on our deal the the French/Danish, and we ought to be able to quickly snag Oslo, especially considering they have moved out one musket. Be aware of said musket though, so he doesn't pillage anything.

At the time we declare, make sure you have the northern musket under control, as at present norrsundet is empty, and needs a defender.

I think we can get money enough for another twofer in a couple of turns, so be on the lookout. Advanced tactics and Code civil are the two most important ones now.

Good luck, we still need it.
Grimjack

Good trading! I agree on the worker issue.