Swedish Empire - Napoleonic Europe Redux

[Chalito]

Game Report/ Story based on this Napoleon Redux scenario, https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/scenario-napoleonic-europe-redux.90551/ which I have now heavily modified with C3X. It contains most the Bebro changes, but not the Bebro graphics though!
In addition, I’ve made several military techs non-tradable, plus delayed military alliances to expand the game to like 135 turns. Added a bunch more cities and even created some more small Civs. Due to the way the map was created I had to take liberties on some city locations, specifically the Caucasus that had to be squeezed in and distorted quite a bit.
For AI fair-play, I’m going to try not to rush-build any Units, will limit myself to a max Arty stack of 5, unless I see the AI using more. As always, all captured arty is sent back to the capital, or just destroyed.

Emperor Level, let’s begin!

July 1798
Military
3 Workers
14 Musketmen 2-4-1
13 Civil Militia 0-4 ( immobile)
2 Cannon
1 Coastal Battery ( immobile)

1 Frigate 3-2-8
1 Troop Transport 1-3-9 (Invisible) (Note; All navy ships see invisible)

Population: 920,000 8th
Land: 19,600 sq ml 8th

So I have 0 cavalry units and my cavalry unit is the Karabinier 5-3-1, and Sweden unfortunately doesn’t get an upgraded cavalry unit later on like the other nations either. But anyway, as a human my weapon of choice needs to be the Cannons and eventually the Grand Batteries! I will get the best weapon Grenadier unit 6-6-1 later on.

Now for the map, Norway looks like easy pickings, and with it Denmark, but I’ll save that for later, along with the Prussian coastline. I can take that territory at the time of my choosing. What I want first is to go after our eternal enemy Russia, before they start building more units and become a bigger threat to Finland. They are also a threat to Sweden as I left a land bridge up north for the AI to attack without needing to do amphibious landings. The Great Northern War shall begin again and with it the rise of the Swedish Empire!!

First order of business is sending all units that are not immobile to Finland, then start producing Workers, Karabiniers and Cannons in preparation for the invasion of Russia.

1798 Oct
Helsinki now has 2 Cannon, 9 Musketmen, 1 Civil Militia units and a Frigate in port.
Awaiting newly created units from Sweden to transfer over across the Baltic.

IBT - The English have been heavily bombarding all Danish cities from the sea.


1799 May
IBT - The French have eliminated the Dutch. Tot ziens Nederlander!


1799 July
I have 1 luxury resource, so I’m forced to move the happiness slider to 10% as some rioting has begun. I bet it was a Russian propaganda campaign!


1799 Nov
Nationalism discovered, I will upgrade a select few Musketmen to Musket Infantry in Helsinki.

IBT - Austria declared war on the Russians, YUSSSSSSSSSSS!!! This will force them to move units way south, which I can take advantage of!


1799 Dec
I have 3 Karabinier units now and building 6 more. Once I get at least 8 in Helsinki, I’m going after the Russians!! Should be around 6 more turns or so. The plan below was drawn up at the start, but it still holds today. First we take Vyborg and immediately push in St. Petersburg, which will cause the capital to shift somewhere south hopefully. This will allow us to then spread to Petrozavodsk, Arkhangelsk, Talinn and beyond!!!

1800 June
23 turns are complete, the next 15 turns will be 2 months each. This will keep switching like that every +/-23 and 15 turns.

 

[Chalito]

The Russian War

1800 August
Military
9 Workers
9 Karabiniers 5-3-2
5 Musket Infantry 3-5-1
9 Musketmen 2-4-1
13 Civil Militia 0-4 ( immobile)
7 Cannon
1 Coastal Battery ( immobile)

1 Frigate 3-2-8
1 Troop Transport 1-3-9 (Invisible) (Note; All navy ships see invisible)

Population: 2,446,000 8th
Land: 22,000 sq ml 8th

Europe:
Stavanger has fallen to the Brits. This is not good, I wanted all of Norway for myself and now I’ll have to fight the Brits to get it. I’ve seen their massive fleet bombarding the Danes on every turn, so that will be a bit painful with the PTW style bombardment enabled. The French have now moved on to Italy and have the whole area north of Rome conquered.

Unfortunately, the Russians have done very well against the Austrians. They’ve taken Lublin, Lwow, Tarnopol and Stanislau, UGH!! Hopefully we will do better than them.

Okay so 26 out of my total of 46 military units are now in Helsinki. It’s time to go! We demand the Code Civil tech from the Russkies, they refused and we have declare WAR!!! 5 Canon, 5 Musket Infantry and 9 Karabinier units cross the border and get into attack position outside of Vyborg!!!! As suspected, they already have the 4-5-1 Jaeger units.

IBT – Damn Prussians taking advantage of the situation, extorted 47 Gold and the Territory Map from us. We will deal with you later!


1800 Oct
Took out the Vyborg city walls but not much else with our Cannons. I’m going to hold the Karabiniers back one more turn, for maximum success.

IBT – Gulp!, a veteran Russian Cossack unit lands just north of Norrkoping!! Second gulp!, another Cossack landed south of Visby!
Way down south the Russkies have taken Krakow from the Austrians too.


1800 Dec
I have a Canon unit very near Norrkoping and I take 2HP off the Russian unit. But can’t get reinforcements to Norrkoping in time for the IBT turn. Praying the lone Civil Militia unit can fight them off!

In Visby, I have 2 units fortified and I upgrade the Musketmen unit to Musket Infantry. More confident this one will hold.

Battle of Vyborg; We send in the Karabiniers! 2 units were lost, but we eliminated 4 Russian units and captured the city! There are some Russian Cossacks in the area though that will need to be dealt with before advancing on St Petersburg.

IBT – Battle of Visby; Our Musket Infantry did not survive the Cossack attack, but the Russian unit is down to 1 HP, I think our Civil Militia unit can hold on. Likely won’t even attack anymore.

Battle of Norrkoping; it was a disaster! The Civil Militia could not hold off the Russian Cossack and the town was lost.


1801 Feb
So all I have in the Norrkoping area is 1 Canon and 2 Musketmen. The Cossack still has 3 HP, so I’m just moving my Canon up to try to reduce it some more. However, I’ve got a Musket Infantry unit coming in from Stockholm, a Karabinier from Huskvana and a Cannon from Uppsala that will soon be created.

In the east I have moved 5 Cannon units with their escorts into attack position on St Petersburg!

IBT – French eliminated the Papal States! Addio Stato Pontifico!
Russian Cossack in Vyborg was picked up and sailed away.


1801 Apr
Siege of Sank Petersburg has begun! Hitting them with my Cannons and Frigate. Karabiniers should be fully healthy and ready to go on the next turn.

IBT - A Musket Infantry unit lost outside of St Petersburg and noticed like 4 Veteran Cossacks moving into the city! I will need to start attacking now! Another Cossacks lands in Visby, it’s a goner for sure now!


1801 June
Battle of St. Petersburg; Cannons did a very good job on softening the defenders and our Karabiniers eliminated 6 Jaeger units while only losing 1. But now we’re low on HP and I know there are at least 3 Civil Militia units there because all capital cities have that, plus 3 or 4 more Cossacks. Don’t want to send in the Musket Infantry with their attack of 3, as they are my only defenders protecting the Cannons. Plus, I don’t think I have enough to capture the city on this turn.

Norrkoping; 1 veteran Jaeger unit is killed, the AI rush-build it in the town for sure. The Cossack is fully healed now, but I’ve got 1 Karabinier, 2 Cannon, 3 Musketmen and 1 Musket infantry units surrounding the city.

IBT - Tunis declared war on Ottomans, the whole Maghreb is soon to follow.
Lost 1 Musket Infantry, but killed 1 Cossack in St Petersburg. As expected Visby has fallen to the Russians!
Russians have taken Kosice in the war against the Austrians.


1801 Aug
The Cannons provided no damage to the enemy units in St Petersburg. I have only 2 Musket Infantry in the area, so I send 2 more units in to protect the Cannons. Sending all Karabiniers back to Vyborg for rest and recovery.
Ugh, there is another veteran Jaeger unit in Norrkoping! I said I wouldn’t build-rush any units, but if I had any Gold I would at this point, since the AI is clearly doing it!

IBT - Major Cossack attack on our siege force outside of St Petersburg. I am bleeding out here and more and more Russian units are pouring into St Petersburg. My lone Transport Ship was sunk off the coast of Norrkoping along with the civilian Worker unit I had rescued from Visby. That’s a non-combatant!!! An absolute crime against humanity!


1801 Oct
Well I’ve got a depleted force in St Petersburg and I need to send them all back to Vyborg before they get wiped off completely! The dream of capturing the Russian capital is over for now. I need to hold on to Vyborg! This will also free up some Karabiniers to go back to Sweden and begun offensive operations in Norrkoping and Visby.

IBT - Disaster!!! All 3 Musket Infantry units were eliminated on the way back to Vyborg and all 5 Cannon units were lost.


1801 Dec –
Well the Canons are just across the border and I can capture them back, but it’s still a question of can I secure them back on the next turn. There are 6 Cossack units in the area and I only have 3 Musket Infantry to protect the Canons and Vyborg! I have 6 Karabiniers (5 Elite!) and I will have to use them all to deplete the Cossacks as much as possible. Can’t spare any of them to go back to Sweden, ugh!

I take my Canons back and noticed the forest tile east of Vyborg was empty, that’s a mistake I can pound on to get a bit of defensive bonus. YUSSSSS, all of my Karabiniers were victorious, 2 Cossacks escaped but I was able to get a Great Military Leader out of it too! I quickly make Bernadotte into an Army unit with 2 Musket Infantry and send them east to protect the Cannons, leaving Vyborg defended only by 5 Karabiniers and their defense value of 3!

I’ve finally destroyed the Barracks of Norrkoping, should be able to degrade the Russians here easier now.


IBT – Oh no, a terrible blunder I’ve done! I hadn’t noticed that in the previous turn the Russians had landed 3 Cossacks on the west coast between Gothenburg and Huskvarna!!! With only weak Civil Militia units there, both cities fell to the Russians! Kristianstad is now being threatened and I have no faith the Civil Militia will be able to hold them out there! What a cluster!!!!! I’m either not paying good enough attention, or these units are sneaking in without the game showing them because the Transport Ship is Invisible. I did do this to force the human player to build a Navy, so I guess that’s working.

Look at the British Navy going to town on the Danes too!

1802 Feb –
I just start pillaging as many roads as I can and then contact the Russkies about peace. We agree to hand over 134 Gold pieces (we only have 137 total) plus an additional 7 Gold per turn, for 20 turns. We have been humbled and humiliated, but thankfully I have at least been able to save Kristianstad and about 4 Worker units. We gained 1 town, but lost 4!

Post Russian War thoughts; I had to take the risk of leaving Sweden mostly empty to go on the offensive, so no regrets, just should’ve paid more attention to the Russian amphibious landings! Gotta scan all the land for those intruders, since I can;t see their ships without any of my own. In the east I should have attacked St Peterburg in April of 1801, the very first chance I had, instead of waiting an extra turn for the Cannons to do some damage. That 1 turn allowed the Russians to move in more units, then in May I didn’t have enough to finish them off. I do think I was very close though!! I chose not to mobilize so I could finish some Banks and that is just not right when going up against an enemy with 4 times your cities. I will be sure to mobilize the whole population when the next Russian War happens, and it will happen!! But for now, time to rebuild and prepare for the conquest of Norway.

IBT - Austria and Russia sign a Peace Treaty. Well good for them!

 

[Chalito]

1802 June –
Russia declares war on Ottomans! They just can’t get enough can they.
Oh and I just realized I lost my only source of Iron in Huskvarna so I can’t build any more Cannons! Nonetheless the juicy target of Oslo has the resource so not that worried. I’ve got enough Cannons now to take it.


1803 Feb –
I pay Fur, 324 Gold and 21 Gold per turn to Württemberg for the Code Civil tech. I desperately need this and willing to pay the steep price!

IBT - Russians demand a Territory Map as tribute. Okay you bastards, you can have it, but we have a loooong memory.


1803 Apr –
Ottomans sign peace with the Maghreb, hopefully they can now concentrate on the Russians!


1803 May –
Bayern declared war on Austrians!


1803 June –
The Russians are already on a rampage against the Ottomans! They’ve taken Chișinău, Sulina plus Batumi, Trabzon and Ezerum. Damn!!!

IBT - The first sign of a Military Alliance being signed, everything is about to go ape Shiite! Württemberg signs an alliance with Britain against the French. After this I will only mention war declarations between the big boys, as it usually gets crazy with all of these smaller nations.


1803 June –
The time for the conquest of Norway is approaching and I start moving troops into position, should be ready for attack in a few turns.

1803 Sep -
Military
8 Workers
10 Karabiniers 5-3-2
11 Musket Infantry 3-5-1
2 Musketmen 2-4-1
9 Civil Militia 0-4 ( immobile)
8 Cannon
1 Coastal Battery ( immobile)
1 Army

0 Frigate 3-2-8
1 Troop Transport 1-3-9 (Invisible) (Note; All navy ships see invisible)

Population: 3,041,000 8th
Land: 18,200 11th

The Danish War

Advance Tactics discovered, 16 more turns to my new infantry unit, the Grenadier 6-6-1!
But the time is now to head over to Oslo! I offer the Danes the chance for peace if they just hand over their 2 cities in Norway, but they refuse. Fine, war it shall be! 5 Cannons, 3 Musket Infantry and 8 Karabiniers (4 Elite) units cross into Danish territory. I’m counting on the Brits to have them pinned down already to make this a quick and easy one!

1803 Oct
French eliminate Portuguese. Adeus Portuguese! We are also now at war with the French Coalition, but I feel pretty safe from them!

1803 Nov
Finally arrived to the grassland tile southeast of Oslo in attack position.

1803 Dec
Battle of Oslo; we kill 2 enemy units while losing only 1 Karabinier and the city is taken!! I can’t believe there were only 2 Danish units guarding the city!! There are still a number of Danish Hussars wandering around north of Sweden, but we are prepared for them if they choose to attack. I decide to just move quick this time and immediately send 5 Karabiniers to attack Bergen with no Cannon and Musket Infantry support!

IBT – Lose 1 Musket Infantry in Oslo.


1804 Jan
Decide to move 3 Cannons and 1 Karabinier units from Helsinki to Sweden to provide support against any Danish counter in Sweden, where they have some units. Hussar unit killed near Oslo. Over near Bergen we see some Brit units hanging around, along with some depleted Danish units. This should be easy!

1804 Feb
In the hills south of Bergen, we killed a Danish Musket Infantry unit, but lost a Karabiner unit ourselves. Nonetheless, we now have 4 Karabiner units in attack position of Bergen. 2 more enemy Hussars killed near Uppsala and Oslo.

IBT – We see the city of Bergen get absolutely pounded by the British war ships!


1804 Mar
Battle of Bergen; 2 Musket Infantry are killed and the victorious Swedish military marches into the city to proclaim it as our most western most city. I am done with Norway, not including the British-held Stavenger and contact the Danes to see if they want peace for a certain amount of Gold. They do, but instead of Gold, they are willing to give up Skagen in northern Denmark. Well, I will always take territory over everything else and now we have land in Denmark!

Post Danish War thoughts: Well this was much easier than I though it would be, the Brits mush have been given hell this whole time. With only 1 Transport Ship, I never even thought about going to Denmark, but now I think I could’ve had some success there. Nonetheless, my concentration has always been on the Russians. I’ve gotta wipe them out of Sweden forever!

 

[Chalito]

A Time of Swedish Peace

1804 April
Austrians eliminated the Bavarians!

1804 May
French eliminate Wurttemberg!

1804 July
Ottomans declare war on Austrians!
Russia declared war on Cisalpines! Important because they are allies with the French!

1805 June
Military Logistics tech discovered, the age of the powerful Grenadier unit has arrived!!!
Russians have taken Varna and Edrine from the Ottomans, the path to Istanbul is wide open- to them now!
Prussia declares war on France!
France has eliminated the Sardinians!

1805 Aug
Russia declared war on France!!!

1805 Oct
France declared war on Spain! Spain declares war on the Ottomans. I don’t think the French will be able to handle so many enemies at once, we’ll see.

1806 June
Russia and Ottomans sign a Peace Treaty, Istanbul remains in Ottoman hands.

1806 Dec
France and Prussia sign a Peace Treaty and the French took a hammering! Prussia took Kiel, Rotterdam and both former Wurttemberg cities from France! Saxony took Amsterdam. France however is making progress against the Kingdom of Naples in Italy. The Danes have been further ripped apart by the Brits, Prussians and Russians!

1807 May
Russia eliminates the Danes, taking Viborg and Copenhagen. They have 2 Danish cities, which will complicate things in Skagan once we go to war again, ugh!

1897 Dec
Spain and France sign a Peace Treaty. France took Pamplona, but lost all of Portugal, except for Lisbon to the Spanish!


1808 Jan
Military
8 Workers
7 Grenadiers 6-6-1
7 Karabiniers 5-3-2
23 Musket Infantry 3-5-1
13 Civil Militia 0-4 ( immobile)
7 Cannon
1 Coastal Battery ( immobile)
1 Army

2 Ship of the Line 2nd Rate 4-3-8
3 Troop Transport 1-3-9 (Invisible) (Note; All navy ships see invisible)

Population: 4,220,000 8th
Land: 24,900 11th

VP: 4,280 points. Way behind the leaders France 47,690 and second place Russia 43,315. Obviously not going to win this one on points.

Now I know what you’re thinking, it’s been 4 years since the Danish War ended and I still haven’t gone after the Russians again! Well, apparently the Grenadiers are pretty expensive! So it’s taking me a while to build up enough of these guys. Plus, the war with Russia will be fought on 3 fronts, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. I need enough units to defend all of these territories as well! I feel a little like General George B. McClellan, but we are not ready yet!!


1808 Feb
Russia demands 100 Gold and Territory Map. GRARRRRRRRR!!!! We give in, but it’s only a matter of time now. The tables will turn and they will be paying us 500 Gold, per turn!

1808 Mar
Russia declares war on the Ottomans. The Ottomans are really not one of the big powers at this point.
Russia and France sign a peace treaty. The Austrians have now taken over Istanbul! Ottoman capital is now Lefkosa in Cyprus. The only European holding they have is Athens now.

1808 Apr
France declares war on the Austrians and Prussians! Hardcore!
Britain declares war on Ottomans. The Brits also have captured a beachhead in Boulougne!!

1808 Aug
Spain declares war on France!

1808 Nov
Grand Battery tech achieved! Okay, that’s it I’m getting my units into position now, going to upgrade my Cannons and I’m going all out for the Russkies!
France and Austria sign a Peace Treaty.

 

[Chalito]

1809 Jan
Russia signs a peace treaty with the Ottomans.

1809 Apr
Prussia declares war on the Ottomans.

1809 June
It’s been 7 years since the humiliating end of the First Russian War, but we have been building up and preparing for this moment ever since, it’s payback time Russia!!
We contact their embassy and politely ask them to return Visby, which is rightfully ours and they responded quite rudely, fine. Next we demanded they remove their ships from our territorial waters, as we will never sign a ROP with them and they declared war on us! Mobilization enacted, Let’s goooooooooo!!!

The Second Russian War
I’ve decided not to concentrate my forces on a single SOD, but rather spread them around and hit the Russians from all directions! As the old saying goes, “always divide your forces in the face of a larger enemy”, or something like that.

Order of Battle
St. Petersburg siege and Fixing Operation:
1 Army (3 Musket Infantry)
1 Musket Infantry
1 Grenadier
5 Grand Batteries
This group is to advance to the tile just outside St. Petersburg to fix the Russians in place at their capital. I know it will be heavily fortified, so no need to send units on a suicide mission to attack. My only concern is the Army unit being part of the stack, I don’t know if the AI will actually attack these units because of it. If so, then for the next game, I’ll only load 2 units into the Army. I think if the Russians have an Army unit themselves they will attack though. Let’s see how many City Improvements I can take out.

Vyborg Reserve Force:
1 Cannon
2 Grenadier
1 Musket Infantry
4 Karabinier
This group is fortified in Vyborg, just in case things go bad in St Petersburg and the Russians breakthrough the siege.

Norrkoping Front and Main Thrust
7 Grenadier
2 Musket Infantry
5 Grand Battery
This is my largest attack group, everything is to begin in Norrkoping! From here I can send units to Huskvarna and Goteburg as needed.


Huskvarna Thrust
5 Grenadier
4 Musket Infantry
3 Grand Battery
Not as many arty units in this group, but I’m hoping they can manage. In any case, the units from Norrkoping can quickly move into position here if necessary.


Goteborg Probe attack:
5 Karabiner
1 Musket Infantry
So I can actually attack with my Karabiniers on this turn and with no time to prepare I’m hoping the Russkies get surprised! No arty, minimal defense, this is just a probing ‘let’s see what happens’ attack!


Skagen Defense Line - Future Danish Front
3 Musket Infantry
5 Grand Battery
3 Ship of the Line 2nd Rate
Well, I desperately need an alliance with either the Prussians or the British to hold on to my piece of Denmark. But if I can’t get any alliance, this guys will have to fight off the Russians coming from the south of Denmark.

If all goes well, the second phase is to take the 2 Russian cities in Denmark. Now our former town of Visby which sits in the Baltic Sea would appear to be a likely target, but nope. I’m going to bypass this town completely and make a shock amphibious landing next to Riga! Visby was a very low production town, so I don’t really need it and I can always ask for it at the end of the war, through the Peace Treaty negotiations.

Negotiations with the Prussians were a success! We got our alliance against the Russians, at a cost of 35 GPT and 300 Gold up front. Expensive, but will be worth it!
Was able to get an alliance with the Ottomans too. Only cost me Furs and Iron. These guys are very weak now, but they can serve as a distraction to the Russians.
The Brits on the other hand refused an alliance at any cost!!! Grrrrrrr!! I’ve left 4 defenders in Norway, just in case they try to start something too.

Battle of Goteborg: The Karabiniers swooped in and killed 2 Jaegers units, with no losses and Goteborg is captured!!! I didn’t know what to expect in the town, but apparently half of the citizens still considered themselves Swedish!

Now due to this success, I decide to send another probing attack to Petrozavodsk from the Vyborg defense force, 4 Karabiniers and 1 Grenadier sent over the border. I can’t reach the city to attack in this turn, so that could be a problem and maybe a mistake! But you risk nothing, you win nothing as that other old saying goes.

IBT – There is a lot of Russian naval bombardment, they have clearly invested heavily in their navy, as there are a ton enemy ships out there! On the other hand, there is limited land unit movement that I can see. Definitely caught them with their pants down!


1809 Aug
Battle of Petrozavodsk: We are able to kill 3 Jaegers units, while losing only 1 Karabinier unit, but I can still see a fully healed Russian Cavalry unit, plus I know there is at least another Civil Militia unit here too. I will try to attack this city again, but I’m afraid the surprise is over and they’ve already reinforced this one, plus my probing force is too small to capture and hold now!!


Battle of Norrkoping: The Arty units hit nothing!! This city was defended by 2 outdated Regular Russian Musketmen units, which would seem like a cakewalk, but unfortunately it was a bit more costly than I would have liked. We lost 2 Veteran Grenadier units, but still able to capture the city! Here 75% of the population considered themselves Russian! UGH!


Battle of Huskvarna: So here we went up against the very first Russian Guard unit with 6-6-1 stats that can match our Grenadiers! Another hard fought battle where we lost 2 Veteran Grenadier units, but killed a Guard and Jaeger unit to take over the city! This city never lost its Swedish identity as a full 4/5 of the town remained loyal to Sweden through the whole occupation!

And with that the Russians have been kicked out of Sweden!!! Not counting the 3 stranded Jaeger units that will have to be mopped up.

I’m going to try and get the cities in Denmark now before the Prussians get there. But looking at the Baltic Sea, there is no way I can reach Riga, since our ships will have to end a turn in the water. We will get annihilated by the Russian Navy. I will have to take Visby after all, by force. I don’t mind actually, especially now that I know there are still Swedish citizens in all of these occupied territories.

My naval units are hiding in port, but in Skagen we can hit the Russian ships with our Grand Batteries and then attack. We were able to sink a Russian Ship off the Line off the Skagen coast like this.

IBT – Another Jaeger unit killed in Sweden.

A Grenadier unit was lost in Petrozavodsk, it lost a battle against an advanced Russian Cavalry unit. Not able to see their stats as they moved right back into the city. But I now remember that Sweden doesn’t get an advance Cavalry unit and I’m a bit worried, if the Russkies start producing more of these.


1809 Oct
I’ve decided to pull back from Petrozavodsk with my injured Karabiniers, it wasn’t my intention to take this city anyway, but just to probe and see if it was possible, it is not! And now I need to get back to Vyborg. I plan on setting up my defenses here and just slaughter as many Russkies as they come.

The Siege of St Petersburg continues and there have been no attempts to attack my units. I’m thinking it’s the Army unit that is scaring the AI away. That’s a shame, I will insert only 2 units in the Army next time and see if that encourages them.

Another Jaeger unit is killed near Norrkoping, 1 more to go!

Loading up my units and sailing to Skagen to open up the Danish front!!

I’m forced to pay the Brits 86 Gold for a RoP, extortionists!

IBT – Now I was able to see the Russian advance Cavalry unit it is the Cuirassier with a 7-3-1 stat. The Russians landed one of these outside of Helsinki. Definitely can’t see them land from the sea due to invisible ships, so need to scan all territory to be sure they’ve not snuck in anywhere!


1809 Dec
Battle of Vejle: Russian Musketmen and Guard units are killed and the city is ours!! No sign of Prussian units anywhere in Denmark! It seems this was a bit of a phony war happening. Surely, they must be throwing it down in the east though. In any case the path is clear for me to take Copenhagen as well!!!

The Russian Cuirassier is killed near Helsinki. Easy pickings when they have no defensive cover.

IBT – Another Cuirassier lands near Helsinki, this is a bad strategy for Russia.


1810 Feb
The last Jaeger unit in the Swedish mainland is killed. The stench is finally washing away, long live the glorious Empire of Sweden!!!
The other Russian Cuirassier unit is killed near Helsinki.
War rioting has commenced in a few towns! Hmmmmm, I though Monarchy had no WW. I’ll need to check the .bic file.

IBT – There is a ton of Russian naval activity, as they have now begun bombarding Sweden proper.
Ohh, and Russia declares war on France! Unfortunately, France is still at war with Prussia, so they won’t be meeting in the field anytime soon.

What an absolute success we have had!!!!!!

 

[Chalito]

1810 Apr
Battle of Copenhagen: 2 Jaeger and 1 Musketmen units are killed with only 1 Karabiner unit lost, 2 other Karabinier units were able to retreat with red-lined HP, the city is still in Russian hands, but we’re wearing them down.
The Barracks were finally destroyed in St Petersburg! It’s very weird, but in St Petersburg we were exclusively hitting the units only and not able to take out any of the City Improvements. Where in the other places, where I really need to reduce the enemy units, I keep destroying the infrastructure instead. Maybe something to do with it being the capital, who knows.

IBT- Prussia sings a Peace Treaty with France! Oh good, maybe now the French can get at the Russians.
Norrkoping hit my massive Russian naval bombardment from the sea!
Russians eliminated the Saxony. Goodbye in Saxon language here.


1810 June
4 Grenadiers and 3 Grand Batteries land north of Visby on the Gotland Island! It's go time!
I established an embassy in Persia for 260 Gold to get them in an alliance and they refuse! Complete waste of Gold grrrrrrr!!!
Battle of Copenhagen; Russian Musketmen and Jaeger units are killed along with an unknown number of Navy ships and the City is ours!!!! I’m pretty sure I took a whole bunch of navy ships down!

IBT – A Russian Cuirassier unit lands outside of Helsinki. I can see Russian units moving towards the German front. They’ve taken Dresden and Breslau in the south, so there is a big wide front line between them, after all the Austrian territory they captured. Heavy Russian bombardment of units that landed north of Visby! There is a big Naval presence here!

Just taking a moment to look at France slowly disappearing from the European Map. I guess it was inevitable, they cannot fight everyone at the same time!

1810 Aug
Battle of Visby; Battery bombardment on Visby takes out the Harbor and Barracks but little damage to units. But we’re not hesitating and launch the attack. We lose 2 Grenadiers units immediately and decide to call of charge. UGH! We bring in in another batch of 2 Grenadiers from Norrkoping to finish off the Russians on the next turn.
2 Ship of the Lines are sunk near Copenhagen! The Grand Batteries are wearing out the Russian Navy.
With Sweden all safe now, we send 4 Grenadiers to Uppsala, which will then go on to Finland. Might give Petrozavodsk another go, or just launch an assault on St Petersburg!!! We’ll see what happens.

IBT - Austria declares war on France.
My units in Visby continue to get hit hard by Russian Navy. There are a lot of ships in there. I will not be able to attack Visby on the next turn.


1810 Oct
1 Grand Battery, 1 Grenadier, 2 Musket Infantry and 4 Karabinier units all get sent to the Visby. We’re getting bogged down on the island and we have more Russian territory left to conquer! Time to put an end to this!

IBT - It’s happened, the Brits signed an alliance with Russia and declare war! Thankfully it was after most of their turn had ended. They move LifeGuard 7-7-1 and Grand Battery units towards Oslo. And there are already 2 Redcoats in Finland that we will have to deal with.


1810 Dec
Now I’ve gotta think this through, but I at least have a chance to make Denmark a contiguous territory and so Viborg is priority #1. And around the same time, I think I should have enough units to reach Stavanger and finally complete the conquest of Norway. But it’s a much tougher task against the Lifeguard units whose stats are better than anything I have!!
This also has triggered war with Naples, Hanover and Mamluks. None of them area cause for concern but they lead to alliances with Prussians, which will be really bad!!!
And to add to this, mass rioting is now breaking out throughout Sweden!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRR
Massive naval victory in the Baltic against the Russians, as we were able to take out 3 Transport ships and who knows how many units in there versus the loss of 1 Ship of the Line 2nd Rate!!!!

Battle of Visby
With an overwhelming force now, 2 Jaeger units are killed, plus a ton of Navy ships, with no losses and the city is ours!!! A ton of ships were destroyed here I think. The whole little town unfortunately identifies as Russian sadly. In any case, I finally have my launch point to Riga, but that will have to take a backseat to the Brits for now!!


IBT - Brit Cavalry killed in Vejle.
Spain declares war on Prussia.
Tripoli declares war on us, meh.
Persians declare war on Prussia, they are allies with the Russians! Of course they would be!

 

[Chalito]

1811 Feb
I start sending the Grenadier units whom were on their way to Finland, over to Oslo to defend against the Brits, but also to then move onto to Stavenger and complete the conquest of Norway. A force of Karabiners is also gathering in Skagen for the coming assault on Viborg.

IBT – Russian Cuirassier and Guard units land in Visby.


1811 Apr
Brit Lifeguard killed in Oslo, we’re ready to go and start moving out to Stavenger with our Grenadiers! I’ve got 5 Grand Batteries now outside of Viborg, pounding away at the town.


IBT – Tripoli got the Spanish to declare war on us, hope it doesn’t get too crazy now. Brits declare war with Prussia. Russian attack fails in Visby, we have 3 Grand Batteries there that pounded them. But another Russian Cuirassier lands here. I’m now just defending against the Russians as I wait for the conclusion to the British war.
A whopping British Armada of 35 Ship of the Line, 12 Ship-of-the-Line 2nd Rate, 3 Frigates and 2 Troop Transport units arrive to Denmark’s shores!!!! Oh Lawd, please make them go away!


1811 May
Battle of Viborg;
Can’t damage any enemy units in Viborg with our Batteries, but I’m sending in the forces now anyway! I need to end this war asap! 2 Lifeguards killed and the city is taken, much easier than I thought!! The whole of Denmark is now under Swedish control!
Russian Cuirassier kicked out of Visby along with Transport that brought it.
The Russian front is completely static now, but the Batteries in St Petersburg been reduced that city down to 3 with a whole bunch of City Improvements destroyed! This is how you siege!


1811 June
Lifeguard unit killed in Norway on the way to Stavanger. We’ve got 5 Grand Battery and 5 Grenadier units on the long walk.


IBT - Brit units land behind our forces on the Norwegian border.


1811 Aug
British Lifeguard unit is killed and the “radar tower” near Stavanger is destroyed. We are now in attack position, but the march has been tough and I only have 3 healthy Grenadier units I can use to attack!


IBT – The whole British Armada has started to leave, woo hoo!!! However, more British units make landfall at the Norwegian border! Russian Cuirassier lands in Visby, which is still heavily defended by us with 3 Grand Batteries. We’ll make quick work of that one!


1811 Oct
There’s a total of 5 Brit Lifeguards and 2 Grand Battery units on the Norway border close to Oslo. I’ve got 4 Grenadier, 3 Battery and 1 Karabinier units confronting them.


St. Petersburg is now size 1 city. If I start just redlining the units in there, I think I will have enough Karabiniers in the area to attack. They only have 1 ship in there hitting back, they are not building arty units at all.


IBT - Lifeguard unit killed near Oslo! But more British units are landing in Norway. I’ve lost the initiative and Oslo is about to get overwhelmed very soon!! The road to Oslo has been pillaged. The Brits have truly bogged me down here in Norway! The Brits traveling from Finland are now close to Uppsala as well.
Unfortunately, the British Armada returned back to Denmark and completely destroyed every City Improvement in Copenhagen, DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN!!!! Russian Cuirassier lands near Norrkoping, yeah they aren’t going to last long there.


1811 Nov
Lifeguard killed near Orebo, but a Karabinier unit was lost near Oslo!


Battle of Stavanger;
The Batteries did a very poor job of softening the defense, we lost a Grenadier unit and I decide it’s not worth it with only 2 healthy units left to attack, as I need to protect my Batteries. Surely this town is more defended than Viborg was. I’m done, I’m moving out before the Brits advance closer to Oslo!

The Brits are everywhere!!!

IBT – The British navy has now moved on to destroy everything in Skagen!!! THE HUMANITY!!! They can do this to any coastal town they want!!! 2 charging Household Cavs killed in Norway.
Prussia and Russia sign peace treaty. Konigsberg was taken! And that was that for Prussia. Here we go, we’re going to get the full concentration of the Russians now!


1811 Dec
So I decide to talk to Hanover, can’t believe they still exist and sign Peace Treaty with the whole British coalition. Whew, we re saved from the British Navy! Time to concentrate on the Russians which will now have some more freed up units!

Post British War thoughts: That was a ridiculous strong Navy they have! I got Viborg, but the road to Stavanger was very long and by the time I got there I had too many Brit units making landfall in a bunch of places. The time delay was a result of the long battle in Visby that still continues. But now that Russia is no longer fighting the Prussians. I need to end this sideshow and prepare for the coming battles against eternal enemy. I’m going to Riga and I’ve got 4 TT to fill up, so I’ll be able to get 16 units in there.


IBT - 4 Russian guard units land in Visby!! But this is my rally point for the attack on Riga and I’ve got a bunch of units here already!! 3 Russian Guard units advance on Vyborg from Petrozavodsk, that’s my kill zone.
France and Spain sign a Peace Treaty.


1812 Jan
Military
8 Workers
21 Grenadiers 6-6-1
11 Karabiniers 5-3-2
33 Musket Infantry 3-5-1
9 Civil Militia 0-4 ( immobile)
24 Grand Batteries
1 Coastal Battery ( immobile)
1 Army

2 Ship of the Line 1st Rate 5-4-8
3 Ship of the Line 2nd Rate 4-3-8
6 Troop Transport 1-3-9 (Invisible) (Note; All navy ships see invisible)

Population: 4,413,000 12th
Land: 36,300 7th

Little Sweden no more!!!

I start making preparations for Riga and send out my ships to bombard the roads around Talinn to make it more difficult to reinforce Riga when it’s under assault. Riga is still connected on the south end, which I cannot reach by my ships, so this might be for naught.


IBT - 2 Russian Guard units killed in the enemy attack on Visby, I did lose 1 Musket Infantry in the defense of our island. Russians land another Guard and Cuirassier units to reinforce their position on the island. The Russian force in Finland seems heading to Tampere.


1812 Feb
I’ve got a big force in Visby now, with lots of Batteries and I decided to launch a counter to vanquish the Russians out of here once and for all. A Cuirassier and 3 Guard units were all killed with 0 losses in Visby!!

IBT - Bunch of Spanish ships arrive for their part of the war.


1812 Mar
I pay the Spanish 240 Gold to sign Peace and get rid of these pests, I need full concentration on Russia!!! I don’t want a repeat of the British naval bombardments.

IBT – Russian Guard killed near Tampere.


1812 Apr
IBT – A Russian Guard killed attacking Vyborg. Another 4 Guards make landfall outside of Helsinki. There are only 3 Batteries covering all of Finland, but I’m also bringing more units that were fighting the Brits to Finland to reinforce. We’re on the defensive in Finland, as I’ve concentrated our offense to Visby and the upcoming surprise attack on Riga.


1812 May
IBT – A Grenadier unit is lost in Helsinki.

 

[Chalito]

1812 June
2 Cuirassier units are killed near Turku, another Guard unit killed near Helsinki.
The Flotilla is finally ready to go to Riga!!!! The road from Tallin has been bombarded really good, that they won’t be reinforcing from that direction. Reconnaissance has shown quite a bit of Russian Guard units heading north to what I assume is the Finland battlefield. Assuming they’re coming from their Prussian War and hopefully there aren’t too many down south anymore.

Order of Battle
9 Grenadiers
6 Grand Batteries
1 Karabinier
1 Ship of the Line
2 Ship of the Line 2nd Rate
4 Troop Transports

We take perilous trip across the Baltic Sea and make landfall onto Russia . on the southwest Grassland tile, to be on the correct offensive side of the Daugava River, which is the bad side of the river for our defense. Yes, unfortunately all of the Forests around Riga have been cut down and thus no defense bonus for us, if we have to fight them off right away! Note, that the map is incorrect in this aspect, as Riga should be northwest of the river, not southwest. I’ll need to remember to change that!

IBT – I’m forced to pay 35 Gold and map to Austria as tribute. Blood thirsty savages!
3 more Russian Guard units land near Helsinki. They’re all over Finland now, but I don’t think I’m in danger, plenty of Batteries to defend.


Battle of the Riga Fields:
So there our units stood on the defenseless grasslands out in the open, waiting for the Russian response and it would be fierce response indeed!! Wave after wave of Russian Guard units kept coming, it felt as if they were going to run out of soldiers. Mane miracles occurred, as I really thought our force was going to disappear entirely, along with our most valuable asset, the 6 Batteries! But in the end, we held on to our little piece of Russian in that grassy field across the river from Riga. 4 Grenadier units fought bravely, but succumbed to the Russian arms, the heroes shall forever be remembered. But the Russian toll was even greater as 7 Guard units were cut down in the fields.


1812 July
We had gotten to within eye view of Riga, so close and yet very far away from entering! All units left standing were badly injured! I’m talking 1 or 2 HP left on everyone, no choice but to get on the ships and go back home. One of those ships unfortunately traveled empty home. We are actually very lucky to only lose 4 units here, we would have lost every battle if the Russians had sent more units to finish us off.
Well, with that behind us, there is only 1 more year/ 12 turns to go. So now no more misdirection plays, just going to get the biggest SOD I can muster and march straight to St. Petersburg and beyond!
In Finland the fight rages on, but this is a killing zone for the Russians. 3 more Guard units are killed, while only losing 1 Karabinier.


Aug 1812
IBT - 3 Guard and Cuirasser units land near Uppsala.


Sep 1812
2 Guard units killed near Vyborg. Units are now pouring into Vyborg for the assault on the Russian capital.
The Persians declare war on us!! Lets see what you got!
Blast the Russians in Uppsala with our Batteries and kill the Cuirassier unit, threat neutralized.


IBT – Injured Russian Guard units head north of Uppsala to recover. Not even going to bother to chase them.


Oct 1812
Algiers Regency Troop Transport destroyed in the Baltic. Man, those dudes traveled a long way!


IBT – And a successful landing by the Algerians near Turku as 7 units are seen disembarking.
Further east, a ton of Russian units are seen making their way into Finland from Petrozavodsk. There are a total of 21 units, likely veterans of their Prussian War. We’ve previously moved a ton of units of our won in to Finland for the battle of St. Petersburg, so none of this is worrying at all for us. We’ll kill them all on the fields.


1812 Nov
The time is now for long awaited assault on the Russian capital, which by now has been absolutely destroyed by our Batteries. A size 1 population with no City Improvements, but their Palace.
Battle of St. Petersburg:
Order of Battle
1 Army (3 Musket Infantry)
15 Grand Battery (Yes excessive, and totally against my fair-play rules! But I’ve only got a few turns left!)
9 Grenadier
7 Karabinier
2 Musket infantry


And after that beautiful pounding of the enemy with my massive Battery stack, we advanced with our full force and completely massacred them!
9 Russian units killed in St Petersburg to 0 losses for us! WOO HOO!! The new capital is now Krakow, interesting choice, but I guess this was the biggest city now.


IBT – The feeble response in St. Petersburg cost us a Karabiner, but we still killed another Cuirassier.


1812 Dec
Finished wiping the 7 Algerian units from Finland!

Next up: Novgorod’

IBT - 4 Persian units arrive at St Petersburg, well they travel quick!
8 Russian units make landfall near Turku. 4 approach Vyborg and 6 approach Tampere. A further 10 units are right behind them!

 

[Chalito]

1812 Jan
Make quick work of the Persians, but Finland is starting to be a concern for me. Begin to consolidating all units in Finland, there are lots of injured units from fighting the Algerians, with no time to recover.


IBT – Major attacks by the Russians throughout!
Tampere:
2 Guard units killed with no losses!
Turku:
2 Grenadier and 1 Musket Infantry units lost defending Turku. 1 Cuirassier and 2 Russian Guard units killed.
Vyborg:
The killing zone swallowed up 4 Russian Guard units as they attempted to attack.


1812 Feb
2 injured Cuirassier units are cut down Turku.
I think Finland is now a bit more settled, they need way more troops than that to take any of our cities. And with that, we send a SOD of 9 Grenadiers and 8 Batteries south, deeper into Russia in the Novgorod direction. It’s a bit far though and it will take 3 turns to finally be able to attack! I’ve got a reserve of Karabiners that will join them later.


IBT
A big assault on Tampere now, as we lose 1 Grenadier and 3 Musket Infantry units. 5 Russian Guard units were killed in their attack on the town.
We’ve met some resistance on the road to Novgorod, resulting in the loss of a Grenadier unit, while killing a Cuirassier.
The bigger news is that a large Russian force has now approached St. Petersburg on all sides. The city is essentially surrounded now.


1812 March
In total there are 21 Russian Guard units just outside of St Petersburg ready to attack it. And my 7 Karabinier units which should already be joining the Novgorod force can’t meet up with them. I decide to move in my 3 Musket Infantry Army unit into the city as an experiment, to see if the AI will still attack it. But also, because we really need that Army unit there!


The march to Novgorod continues taking out a Russian Guard unit that was in our way. Unfortunately our Grenadier is now on red HP and won’t be able to participate in the assault on the city when the time comes.


Back in Finland, 4 Guard units are killed outside of Tampere!


IBT – The 3 Guard units I let go in Sweden are fully healed and they start heading south to Uppsala again.
Huge disappointment as the Russians pull back from St Petersburg. I was eagerly awaiting their massive force to come in and see what happens. Maybe it’s because it’s a defensive Army, or the 3 units in there really scared them, but I’ll have to limit myself to a 2-unit Army in future games to avoid this.


Apr 1812
With the Russian pullback, I’m now able to get my Karabinier into position to attack Novgorod, with the rest of the Grenadiers. At long last, we are at the gates of Novgorod! There is a Radar Tower on the far end of the city, which we cannot reach, so it’s going to be a bit bloody I’m afraid.
Back in Finland, the last remaining 2 Guard units are killed near Turku and the Battle of Finland is a stunning victory!!!


IBT - Russians split advance in 2 directions, going past St. Petersburg and then through Petrozavodsk. 2 more turns to go, I’m just going to ignore these to finish the game.


1813 May
Bombardment of Novgorod doesn’t do much damage, so I will give myself 1 more turn to bombard the city before assaulting.


1813 June
Battle of Novgorod:
This is it, the last turn of the game before the peace arrives. So not holding anything back I storm the city with everything I have at my disposal. It did not go well for us unfortunately. We lost 2 Karabiners and 4 Grenadier units in the assault, plus the rest of our units are badly injured and about to take a beating by the AI in between the turns. We only managed to kill 4 Russian Guard units and they appear to have a whole bunch more!


IBT
T’was a bloodbath as I lost 4 more Grenadier and 2 Karabinier units. Obviously, I wouldn’t have sent them on a suicide mission if it was not the last turn. But I had to take my shot at Novgorod!

1813 July
The game is complete and Peace is achieved, the Napoleonic War is no more! There shall never be another conflict on the European continent, forever!!!



Post Second Russian War thoughts:

I would have liked to fight them one-on-one, but if I didn’t get the Prussians on my side, I likely would have had to fight them too, as there just isn’t a chance to fight one-on-one in this scenario. And we gave it to the Russians pretty good throughout, had to pause a bit because of the treacherous Brits. The fixing operation in St. Petersburg worked wonderfully, leveled that city, but unfortunately I now realize that it was the Army unit that prevented the Russians from doing anything here. The swift capture of Sweden and even Denmark was better than I could’ve predicted. I probably should have planned to take Petrozavodsk in the initial assault, with just a few more units. The path to Arkhangelsk would have been open then to capture pretty easily. The surprise attack on Riga was an utter failure and should not have taken place. I would have probably needed 12 more Grenadier units for a successful campaign here to capture and hold. The SOD through St. Petersburg was the right way to go, just go straight through the heart of Russia like a powerful battering ram. I made it all the way to Novgorod and feel confident I would have taken it if I had more turns left. All in all, I feel I was victorious in the Second Russian War!

The Ottomans disappeared an France was on it's way too!

Military
8 Workers
11 Grenadiers 6-6-1
6 Karabiniers 5-3-2

3 Musketmen 2-4-1
43 Musket Infantry 3-5-1
9 Civil Militia 0-4 ( immobile)
30 Grand Batteries
1 Coastal Battery ( immobile)
1 Army

3 Ship of the Line 1st Rate 5-4-8
6 Troop Transport 1-3-9 (Invisible) (Note; All navy ships see invisible)

Population: 5,422,000 11th
Land: 37,500 7th


My final numbers, keep in mind I sacrificed a bunch of units in Novgorod at the end, which I ordinarily wouldn’t have.

Changes to make"
Remove the Radar Stations, change the river location around Riga. Start Sweden with more City Improvements, as they were not a backward civ at this time. Put the Balkans (Greeks) and Serbs in alliance with Russia and also have them produce Hidden Nationality guerrillas for them, to be a nuisance to everybody. Revise Sulina city name to be Bessarabia. I realize it should be Izmail, but I like the name Bessarabia better!

 

[vmxa]

Just seeing that map is kind of exciting. I have to remind myself of how much work it takes to play a map of that size.