L'empereur
System:Nintendo
By Michael Penick
email:
[email protected]
I. Intro
II. Controls
III. Scenarios
IV. City Phase
A. Commands
B. Stats
1. Gold
2. Food
3. Materials
4. Population
5. Health
V. Generals
VI. National Phase
A. Commands
B. Trade
C. Treaties
D. Hostility
E. War Expenditures
F. Taxing and Supply bases
VII. War
A. Units
B. Creating Units
1. Infantry
2. Cavalry
3. Artillery
C. Combat
Last Section: GENERAL STRATEGIES
I. INTRO- This is probably my all-time favorite game for the old 8-
bit system. I have always been a big fan of Koei games, but this one
is the best in my opinion. The level of detail makes it really fun.
It may be perplexing at first, but you get the hang of it after a
while. If you have played Koei games before, you know that their
instruction booklets aren't that helpful, for this game, I had none.
There aren't many games for nintendo involving wars in Europe, most
take place in China or Japan. I also like it because it is the first
game I have played about Napoleon, a truly great general and
strategist. Who knows, if he wasn't defeated, all of europe might be
speaking French right now(a little cheese with that wine?). I have
wanted to do this for ages and this is my first walkthrough, so be
gentle. This is intended for people with some working knowledge of the
game. If I were to explain too much more in detail this would take
forever. Oh, and I will just reference the cities by number. So you
can look at the map. Any comments are appreciated, or if you need
advice just put L'empereur in the message heading when you email, or I
will think it is another offer to increase my 'size' or get a new
mortgage on my house and not read it.
II. CONTROLS- hmmm, pretty obvious. you have button A and you have
button B. A will select the option you move the cursor to, B usually
goes back and will change the view to the map during the city phase.
Pressing the select button during the city phase will allow you to
change speed(lower is faster), save, view battles, and turn off
animation. Note that you cannot save during the National Phase.
III. SCENARIOS There are only slight differences between them. It is
always the same map, just different countries will own different
cities, and you will have different allies or enemies from the
beginning. Note that in each scenario, Frances' economy is pretty bad
with regards to materials, and Paris (28) always has a ton of people in
need. To beat this game, take control of ALL cities, not just
defeating all enemies. No city can be blank. Lose by having no French
cities, Napoleon getting captured or dying
1. (1796)In the first, Napoleon is merely a commander of the city (31)
and has limited power. He can't move himself unless he attacks. You
must request anything you want but don't hold your breath. France has
only its own cities. You will have MANY nations declaring war on you
within the first or second year. The fact that you cannot move or do
anything diplomatic makes this scenario the most challenging. Only
advantage I can see is that since this stage starts earlier, France has
more time to recover economically. Especially in regards to materials.
Conquer enough cities and you will be promoted. This means you get the
powers you start off with in scenario 2.
2. (1798)The second one is 2 years later and you can move!!! You start
out in (27), and have the same power as in the first as you must
request things and cannot move other generals unless you take them with
you. These first 2 stages are great to get your feet wet, but can be
frustrating since France will not really work that great to achieve a
victory and you will find yourself with not enough generals where you
need them. Since you get 1 command each month, a year can go by pretty
fast. France also has more territories. Conquer enough cities and you
will be asked to return to Paris and be promoted, giving you power
during the National Phase. Best stage for beginners
3. (1802)The third stage is 4 years later and you have the power to do
it all, move, set supply cities, tax, ally, declare war...the works.
You still command 1 city during the 'normal months', but have more
responsibility over France during command months. You start out in
Paris(28). The National Phase is March-June-September- and December.
Remember that. Conquer enough cities and you will be asked to return
to Paris and crowned emperor of France. Also only stage when not at
war with England
4. (1806) Vive l'empereur! you are now big daddy of France and are in
Paris (28). You have the same abilities as in the third stage, with
the only difference is your relatives now join you in commanding
cities. This means if Lucien, Joseph, Eugene, Louis, or Jerome(joins
later) is in a city, you take control just as Napoleon would do.
Problem is that these guys rarely have an ability that is a 'B', so
they aren't that great. If one of them moves to the city Napoleon is
in, well, Napoleon controls the city and he is just another general.
France does have more cities. You start off with the most generals in
this stage(good thing) but have less time(bad thing). While there is
no 'set' time limit, your officers will get old and die leaving cities
empty.
IV. CITY PHASE- The map of Europe is divided into 46 cities each
owned by a country. The exception is in the first scenario(1796) for
city 37 but Naples quickly takes it over. How well a city does depends
on the generals in that city. First off, when you press B you will see
a ton of numbers that may confuse you, I will explain these in a sec.
A. Commands: Here are the commands you can make in a city as it
appears on your screen.
INVADE SEND
REST
ARMY GIVE
VIEW
INVEST TAX
SUMMARY
SUPPLY REQUEST MAP
Invade lets you attack a city either by land or by sea(take a look as
Sea Control)
Army- lets you recruit, buy horses, arrange your troops, give a
speech(morale), train, or reward(increase loyalty). Note that you may
recruit once per year beginning in March. You may recruit any month
you wish, but if you forget, you many not recruit twice a year.
Invest- lets you invest in either, commerce, Agriculture, Industry, or
Medical(hospital).Use General with an A in Finance, or A in BLD for
hospitals
Supply lets you change supply of food or materials to the city from low
to high(doesn't take up a turn)
Send- lets you send officers, and/or goods to another city. You can
also send to the national treasury to be used during the National
Phase.
Give- lets you give food or materials to the people to increase
sufficiency.
Tax- tax the people even more. I never use this on cities I plan on
keeping. It will give you gold and food but will greatly lower the
cities stats, more so than it makes it worthwhile to do it.
Request- No, not total request live, but a way to get gold, food,
materials, artillery, ships, officers, or tax exemption for the
government. This only works in first 2 scenarios, and rarely then.
Rest- Easy, means you are done. Since commanders always get
experience from doing things, I rarely rest.
View- view anything from sea control, cities, to nations. takes up a
turn
Summary sums up countries hostility and relations toward France, your
military, and other things, may or may not take up a turn depending if
you are looking at France, or another country.
Map. View the map
B. CITY STATS
This screen can be confusing. Let me help. The gold colored 'nugget'
thing with an F(for Franc) is dum-da-dum! Gold. The amount of food in
a city is represented by the loaf of bread. The red scroll or piece of
cloth, is materials in the city. The hammer is the industry level.
The scale is the commerce level. The wheat stalk is the agriculture
level(represented in a fraction, some cities have higher abilities than
others). The bread inside the box is food sufficiency. The red scroll
inside the box is material sufficiency. The people represent the
population the building with a small flag is how many hospitals you
have in the city. The red cross flag is the medical condition and the
ships are ships.
Higher is better for all the stats. If you see a plus or a minus, it
means the food or materials will go up or down by that amount next
month.
1..GOLD- You need it, you want it, you absolutely must have it.
Without gold you cannot do too much. You need gold to invest, buy
horses, reward generals, and invade another city, among other things.
Gold is taken in by the city once every 4 months, meaning once every
command phase. If you press B when on the city phase you can see how
much you get. It depends on the commerce level of that city, which
varies greatly. Commerce is represented by the icon of the 'scales'.
The higher number, the more gold you get quarterly. You also get gold
in January. This is a tax on the populace and the more people in the
city, the more gold you get in January
2. FOOD- "LET THEM EAT CAKE!" as Marie Antionette once said.
But seriously, you gotta give your people food. Food is taken in by
the cities in September. The amount you get depends on your
Agriculture level. This is a fraction, so different cities can have a
higher maximum than other cities. For example (29) can have 100 max,
compare that to Denmark whose total of all cites doesn't equal that.
Food is eaten and distributed periodically during the year. You can
adjust how much food is eaten by changing the 'supply' of the food to
low. Note that if you have tons of food, but low food sufficiency the
people may strike. I usually keep the food suff. above 55 or 60. You
can give food to the city to increase sufficiency. Use a general with
a high supply ability.
3. MATERIALS What the hell are these things?? Well no matter,
you have to have them. I believe materials are taken in the month of
the command phase, meaning quarterly. Materials are strictly for the
cities population. They serve no purpose for your troops as food does.
The amount of materials you get quarterly depends on Industry level.
It is good to have materials a little higher than the population.
Since Industry maxes out at 100(you wont get it that high anyway) and
the population is in the thousands let me explain. Lets say the
population of a city is 5000, well, you want the industry level at
least to be 51 but better to be at 53 or higher to help keep material
sufficiency above 50. You can get away with less of course and you
will have to in the beginning of each scenario. Also note that in
coastal cities, industry level affects how many boats you can build.
higher is better. You can give materials to the city to increase
sufficiency, use a general with a high supply. Unlike with food, you
can set the level of Materials at high supply and still sufficiency can
drop. I guess this was designed so cities could send those materials
to the national budget to distribute. But, it makes no sense to me to
have 'extra' materials each quarter when suff. isn't high. I would
rather not have any materials increase until the cities sufficiency is
high enough. A city with low industry and high population will still
produce materials that you must give back to keep people happy. So a
supply base will still give up materials in May and November even
though the people don't have enough :(
4. POPULATION- To me this is one of the main challenges of the
game. In later years of the game population keeps going up meaning
more food is required and more materials are needed. I will talk about
how to control this in the 'strategies' section. Keep your agriculture
level(the fraction with the wheat symbol) above the city pop as with
materials. I explain how do do this above. If you don't keep
sufficiency above 50 for each food and materials, chances are the city
will STRIKE. Note that nothing is guaranteed, I have had cities with
material suff. at 30 and not had a strike, it just makes you lucky as
hell if you get it that low and no strike. Translation: lower suff.
for food and materials increases odds of a strike. Strikes decrease
amount of materials you get until the number is no longer red(meaning
the strike is done). I have been to Europe and I can tell you that
they go on strikes quite often, as you will see in this game.
Population increases around the beginning of the year. Strikes happen
the month before command months. So if you are low in suff. give food
or materials in April, July, Oct., Jan. Yes high population means big
bucks in Jan. but more mouths to feed.
HEALTH- This is determined by how many hospitals you have. I
have played this game MANY times and have rarely invested in hospitals.
if you keep materials and food high enough, health improves as well in
the long run, and this is a long run game. Occasionally a city gets a
disease which takes about 10 men from each general(rare) or a plague
hits and takes even more(very rare).
RECAP-Amount of food in a city can range from 0 to 9999,
Agriculture level is a fraction dictated by that particular city.
Industy can go up to 100 but dont waste that much money on it, keep
just a bit above population. I hate to use an economics term, but the
rate of return isn't that great the more you invest.
V. GENERALS
Your army is made up of generals. Some weak, some strong. Ranking is
from A to D with A being best. Some generals are better at war, while
others are better at city affairs such as investing or supplying, while
there are some that can do a little of both. Napoleon for example is
an A in infantry but a C in cavalry, so hmmmm would you want to make
him a cavalry unit??? nope. Tallyrand is an A in Finance and a D in
infantry so you wouldnt want him fighting on the front lines, but would
want to use him to invest.
LEAD- leadership ability, meaning how good he is at preventing
troops from going
into disarray. Also makes a better commander of a city I think.
Affects maximum
mobility during combat
INF- Skills at infantry units. A is best D sucks. affects
mobility if given troops
CAV- Skills as a cavalry unit. A is best. affects mobility if
given horses
ART- Skills as a artillery(cannon) unit. affects mobility if
given cannons
POL- Political skill, useful in trading, or negotiating treaties
FIN- Finance skills, useful for investing in your cities
SUP- Supply skills, useful for giving food or materials to a
city or transporting
goods from one city to another
LOY- Officer loyalty. Officers can defect when loyalty gets below
40, but again
can be at 27 and nothing happens. low loyalty increases odds of
defection and
disobeying order not to attack a city when they ask
BLD- Affects building hospitals(waste of money) or building
bridges over rivers during combat
EXP- Experience, when it gets to 100 a stat will increase 1
letter in one of the above(except loyalty)
AGE- old officers die. They all die in January for some reason.
New officers arrive in
March
Don't make it harder that it actually is. If you have a general with
an A in infantry and he is commanding regular infantry, it makes no
difference if he is a D in cavalry or artillery. Also, a high BLD
helps infantry in building bridges. Leadership, however, is important
for ALL categories. ****Note: A country is only as good as its
generals, so make sure yours stay loyal. Reward them. Generals with
low loyalty can defect in MAY in NOVEMBER. Reward them. It is also
interesting to note that certain generals loyalties' lower faster than
others. This is where Koei did its homework. These were generals that
weren't very loyal in real life, some even did defect or betray France.
But still, keep your A and B generals happy, C and D generals are still
important as they are the ones you will leave behind in the city. It
sucks leaving a B INF general behind so always take some crappy
generals to garrison newly conquered cities. I try hard not to lose
ANY generals
VI. THE NATIONAL PHASE- Politics are very useful in this game. You
can interact with other countries during the command months. This is
where you make important decisions that affect the country as a whole.
EACH CITY GETS ONE TURN.. If you send goods from (29) to (30) you cant
build ships at (29) but you can still send goods from (30) to anywhere.
Use this as a supply train if you need to get goods from one end of the
map to the other. NOTE: Officers sent this month can be moved once,
BUT can then move again during the City Phase of that same month.
Sometimes city commanders will requests to you. This is basically free
advice. If they ask for officers, that means if you are at war with a
country and a city adjacent to an enemy city only has 1, then put more
in that city. It lets you know where you are lacking if you forget
something.
A. COMMANDS- the screen will have these commands available
FOREIGN SEND
REST
ARMY DEPLOY
VIEW
GIVE PERSON
SUMMARY
TRADE COMMAND
(LEFT:2)
Foreign- lets you ally, become a friend, exchange prisoners, stop
trade, or declare war.
Army- lets you set how many cannons to build(war expenditures) or
recruit captured enemy generals
Give- give food or materials divided equally among each French city.
Trade- Import or Export food or materials.
***********NOTE: You may only select 2 of the above 4 commands per
turn. You may select the same 2 if you wish.
Send- Move officers, ships, or goods from ANY French to another.
Deploy- Send newly built cannons to a city, order a city to build
ships, or have a city scrap ships.
Person- Appoint a new commander of a city, dispatch a reserve officer
to a city, or take an officer out of a city and put him in reserve.
You can then put that same officer in any city that still has a turn,
but he has no troops.
Command- Make a city a supply base, or tax, or both
Rest- Done
View- same as city phase, but doesn't take a turn
Summary- Same as city phase but doesn't take a turn* Use the above 2
rather than taking a month away during the city phase
B. TRADE- You can trade to get food or materials from a country
that has them or you can sell if your sufficiency is high enough. It
has to be at least 51 for the whole country to sell no matter how many
materials you may have. Food seems to be of less value than materials.
Materials are almost an even trade Always use an A general in POL to
trade with if you can.(I usually keep Tallyrand with me) Trading
decreases hostility with that country. If they approach you and you
decline to trade, their hostility will increase. Just be reasonable,
don't sell for too cheap unless you really need the cash or you want to
lower hostility. Lower hostility means you can sell for more, or buy
for less. Using an A general in POL gets you at least 1
retry(sometimes more) if they decline your offer and you can input a
slightly higher amount when buying. You can make countries stop trade
with others, but it only works for countries that are just friends with
each other, and this makes hostility go up for all parties involved,
countries don't like being 'told' to stop trade with someone. This is
known as a trade blockade. Success of getting a trade blockade depends
on hostility level of the country you approach. NOTE: you can trade a
maximum of 2 times each quarter so try to make them count or you just
wasted a move.
C. TREATIES- There are four stages of diplomatic relations: War,
Neutral, Friendly, and Ally.
War- You can declare. You unfortunately cannot refuse someone's
declaration of war. Be careful, I rarely declare war as it raises ALL
countries hostility toward you that are allied or friendly with that
country. The exception is that it lowers hostilities for other
countries at war with that one. Confused??? ok, say I want to declare
war on England. First off Napoleon can never do it himself, he has to
use another general, so if you decide to do it, have an A in POL with
you in the city. England is at war with Spain and say allied with all
the others. Well, hostility increases a lot for everyone(more so for
England) but lowers only for Spain. It also lowers your troops morale,
AND lowers some officers loyalty. So, don't do it too often, best to
let them declare war on you. Use if short on time and can take out
country easily in a few months. You can only declare war on countries
not allied with, if you declare war on a 'friend' hostilities go way up
for all countries as this is very much frowned upon. Use only on
neutral countries for best results. Only after war is declared can you
attack or be attacked. NOTE: No country will declare war on you
unless you are back to a neutral status. Never, ever has a country
stopped trade with me AND declared war during the same month. This
gives you a little time. Also, some countries will usually ally
current enemies before declaring war on you, which can take even more
time. Makes sense, who wants 3 or 4 enemies? Countries usually
declare war at 70 hostility or greater
Neutral- Pretty basic, you cant invade or be attacked by that country,
nor can u trade. Only these countries can you propose or accept a
friendship treaty with. You can even skip the friendship phase and go
straight to an alliance.
Friendship- You can propose or accept. This allows you to actively
trade with a country. Some countries you are friends with never offer
to trade or even have anything to trade. If you accept a friendship
treaty, you reduce hostility with that one nation, if you decline you
increase hostility. If you propose to that country, you decrease
hostility for ALL countries not at war with that one if they accept.
Countries will usually stop trade with you above 50 hostility,
reverting back to neutral. They usually ask to be friends at 40 or
below hostility
Alliance- You can accept , or propose to any country not already
allied with. Yes even those you are at war with and neutral countries.
Alliances are referred to as 3-year non-aggression pacts when coming
from other countries. If you accept, their hostility towards France
decreases and nothing happens to other countries. But, if you propose
the alliance and it is accepted, any country not at war with that
country will decrease its hostility. Example. Sweden proposes a
treaty to me and is allied or friends or neutral with all other
countries except England. I accept. The only thing that happens is
that Swedish hostility toward France goes down. That's all. BUT, if I
propose the alliance under in the same situation and it is accepted,
ALL countries' hostility toward France go down except for England which
goes up. Use this to your advantage to lower hostilities. If France is
at war and that country offers alliance only that countries hostility
goes down if I accept, oh, you also get some cash. If I propose, I
must shell out cash(not good) but other countries not at war with that
one decrease hostility. THIS LASTS ONLY ONE YEAR. Sometimes not even
that long. If you accept or propose a 'cease fire' on December(a
command month) the alliance ends that very month! and in March, you
are back to friends, stupid huh? but, still can buy you some
time(good) or take up time(bad). See, after every alliance is over,
you become 'just friends', kind of like with my ex-girlfriends. But as
with my ex's, hostility will go up over time. So, a country may have
100 hostility in Dec as your ally, but in March they will not declare
war, just stop trade with you, reverting back to neutral status. The
next command month(June) they will likely declare war. Basically, if
an alliance ends they won't declare war until at least 6 months later.
To be able to attack in June, speed things up by stopping trade with
them first(if you can), which will increase their hostility and make
them more likely to declare war, just be ready for it. TIP, use
alliances to establish borders. if you are allied for 3 years with
Austria, you don't need to keep more than one general in cities
connected to them unless another warring country is adjacent. I focus
on killing one country first then move on. Too many battle fronts
means defeat(talk to the Germans about that one) Countries will
usually propose an alliance at 20 hostility or lower.
D. HOSTILITY- I have mentioned this quite a bit. Lower
Hostility makes it easier to trade at prices you propose and negotiate
treaties. Also makes it more likely a country will approach you to
trade or sign a treaty. High hostility makes trade harder,increases
liklihood of a country stopping trade, and eventually declaring war on
you. All hostility is toward France, so you will never see Swedish
hostility towards Bavaria. The higher the hostility, the less likely
that country will accept an alliance, or friendship. This also means
the sell goods at a higher price, and are more likely to stop trade
with you, and eventually declare war on you. Hostility goes up 10 (or
8)each quarter unless you interact with a country, then it goes up or
down, depending. England's hostility goes up about 12 each quarter
unless they propose a trade. This is because they simply don't like
the French.(just like in real life if you ask any Brit) You can lower
hostility with a treaty or with trade. Raise it by refusing to trade,
stopping trade, trade blockades, or declaring war
E. WAR EXPENDITURES- This is how much you want to spend on
cannons each quarter. Cannons cost 50 each to produce so setting it at
800 for example would give you 16 next quarter if you had at least 800
gold left. I usually "set it and forget it!" because it takes up a
command. I keep it low and let it build up over time, as I watch my
cannons closely in combat so I usually don't have to replace them.
Artillery must be deployed to a city before being assigned to a general
F. TAXING AND SUPPLY BASES- You can make any city pay an extra
tax(you already get money from them in January I think) or become a
supply base. Taxing a city means that you take HALF of a city's
revenue quarterly(from the commerce level), which then goes to the
national budget. Also, you take even more money in January from the
cities' population tax. Making a city a supply base takes extra food
and materials in November, as well as extra materials only in May.
This is where you want to think a bit. There are three ways to
handle taxing. Tax all cities, tax none, or tax some. Taxing all will
result in more cash quarterly and a ton of gold in March, but your
cities won't invest much making them really needy. When I tax all
cities, I use the gold and invest back in certain cities. This method
takes more time and attention to detail, but you can accomplish more
with the combined gold of all cities rather than wait years to build up
gold in one city. This method is not for beginners.
You could tax none, that way your city commanders invest on their
own. But some commanders of cities have a C in Finance which sucks. I
never invest with anything less than a B, usually use an A(tallyrand).
They also might buy horses or waste money on hospitals, but slowly, the
city will improve.
Or, you could mix and match depending on the commerce level of
that city. Low levels aren't worth taxing and hurt the city even more.
Supply bases will only give up food to the national budget if they
have more than they need. If a city has 2000 troops, 1500 reserves and
a population of 5000, then don't expect any food to go to the budget.
It can be tricky because some cities(like 29 and 30) have high
agriculture, but low materials, and making them supply bases takes both
food AND materials. That is why I usually invest in those cities
first.
G. INVESTING- Remember when I said gold was important? When you
start any scenario, your cities are all lacking in industry(except in
Italy). The only way to change this is to invest. I rarely invest in
anything with less than 4000. The more you spend, along with higher
finance level of general investing, the more it raises the current
level. There is always a minimum investment allowed and it depends on
the current level. For example, in (29) the agriculture is so high,
investing would be a waste of money(that whole rate of return thingy),
but investing in materials would be a good idea there.***NOTE: one
thing that really sucks is that some levels of a city go down in
February!!! I don't know why, but industry, agriculture, and commerce
can fall a little. So that makes the problem of improving cities
constant, if you leave one alone for too long sufficiency may plummet.
I like to get sufficiency of materials at 55 without having to
constantly give materials, higher than 55% costs too much
"I love the smell of Napalm in the morning"
VII. WAR- Can't we all just get along?? NO, Nations were built with
blood and bodies. You can't ask for territory, so you will have to
fight to take over a city(unless they ask for protection, as I'll
explain later). Generals go to war. You want to send a balanced army
to invade your enemies. You will always do better if you lead the army
yourself, that way you don't lose units you don't want to. If a
general asks to invade and you say yes(or he disobeys when you say no)
the comp auto-calculates and you might lose valuable artillery (not to
mention the whole battle) when you shouldn't have. Let a general
invade on his own if the odds are in your favor (you outnumber them)or
in the interest of time. A commander of a city can also invade with
generals other than himself. You can send who you want into battle,
but you will not be in control. Do this rarely, because if you watch
enough battles, you will see how the comp thinks. ***********TIP:
comps will attack enemies until their unit is dead. This is usually
bad. Why would a unit with 50 be attacking an enemy unit with 180 when
I have other of my units at 200 but cant get to the enemy because the
unit with 50 is in the way??? They will do this, sometimes it makes
the battles last too long and you lose. They also don't avoid cannon
range as much as they should. Finally, if there is only one space all
around an enemy, your comp controlled general will go to the first
space and just keep attacking, not moving forward to surround the enemy
which is what you always want to do. Use at your own risk.
MORALE- The troops willingness to fight, low morale increases odds of
going into disarray.
TRAINING- The troops readiness to fight, affects amount of damage done
and received. Also affects mobility.*****if training is at 98 or high
A. UNITS- all units 200 max
INFANTRY- Your basic unit, that can be formed from reserves alone.
Can build bridges or destroy them. Average mobility.
CAVALRY- Mounted horse units. Can charge units. High mobility. Must
buy horses
ARTILLERY- Cannons. Long range attacker. Low mobility. Must build
cannons
It takes 5 men to use 1 cannon, so you need 40 cannons to make a unit
200 strong.
B. CREATING UNITS- You need reserves first and foremost. You
can recruit troops starting in March and only once per year. If you do
not recruit troops 1 year, it will NOT carry over. Do not forget this.
Yes, you can wait until Feb. and then again in March, but why? If you
are low on food recruit in September, but aim for March if you can,
make it a habit. Recruiting takes food and gold, and I usually recruit
all I can.
1. Infantry- Reserves become infantry when you assign them to a
general. they have 0 morale and 0 training once assigned. . WITH ALL
TYPES OF UNITS, THE MORE TROOPS, THE MERRIER.
2. Cavalry- If you want cavalry you have to buy horses, and they
arent cheap. What I do is gather all Cav units in one city and assign
them 0 troops which puts all their horses and men in reserves. 1 horse
+ 1 man = 1 cavalry unit. Having 5 generals with 20 horses each is
stupid, give all 200 to 1(preferably officer Murat) I don't use horses
too often because of the price of horses and it takes 1 month up just
to buy them. You only get 12 months a year. Also, when you lose
horses in battle, you have to buy them again in the city you just took
over if you want to be at full strength, thereby taking another month
away. Buy horses under ARMY in the city phase.
3. Artillery- To get Artillery, first you must build cannons.
Do so during the command phase under invest in war materials. Input
any amount allowed and it takes that much money away each month if you
have it. It costs 50 to build 1 cannon so use em wisely. If you set
production at 800 you will see 16 cannons next command phase if you had
800 in your budget. Now all you need is to assign them to a general.
40 cannons need 200 men to create a 200 artillery unit. You must
deploy artillery to a city during command phase, or take from another
artillery unit by rearranging your units. Always put cannons on high
ground if you can, that way they can shoot over forests.
*****TIP!!!! if you are creating an army that will have all three
types, a great way to save time is to assign all generals 200 infantry
units. Then give them speeches and training from a general with an A
in INF, do not worry that the unit will later be a cavalry or cannon.
Get training high then buy horses, and have artillery deployed to the
city. then assign the troops how you want them. This way training
goes up much faster than setting the units first. Why? because not
many generals are an A in all categories, so even if Napoleon was
training the troops, the cavalry units wouldn't get as much training as
the cannons and infantry.
Ok.War is just as important as politics in this game, so I will help
you get it right. When you invade, you have 30 days to kill all
enemies or occupy their bases. If you are attacked, you have 30 days
to kill all enemies or keep you bases occupied. You will lose any
battle if you run out of food. You also will need a few hundred gold
to attack. if you dont have enough gold, you can only send so many
generals in. First off, send good generals into battle, dont tend in D
or C generals unless you have to and even then, send as few of them as
you can. Here is the deal. The better a general is, the more damage
he does and less damage he takes. EX. Davout is an A in INF but a B
in ART. Since there aren't too many A generals, keep him as infantry
even though a B in ART is still pretty good. Give the generals
whatever units they are best at.
C. MOBILITY The best unit can get 15 mobility. To get this, the
general must have high training and high morale and have high
leadership, as well as whatever type of unit he commands. EXAMPLE
Soult can only get 14 mobility when morale and training are at 100 for
he has A in Infantry but only B in Leadership(which is still pretty
good) if morale and training are less, mobility is less. NOTE that
this is if he is given infantry to command. Napoleon can get a maximum
of 15 if he is given cannons or infantry because he is an A in both.
See the trend? Each letter decrease (from A) in Leadership OR whatever
troops are assigned that general decreases maximum possible mobility by
1. Massena has an A in INF but a C in LDR. so he would have 13 max
mobility when given infantry units. the lowest mobility gets is 10.
This refers to generals with very low moral and training, or crappy
generals (C or D).
D. COMBAT
"You gotta fight! For your right!...to paaaaaarty!!! sorry, I'm a
beastie boys fan
Now that you know how to create units, and that you should always use
better generals for attacking, let's begin. First off I can't stress
how important Artillery is in this game. It can make or break the
battle. Having artillery will greatly reduce the amount of your troops
that die. You can hit enemies from afar and bring them to disarray.
Enemies on bases take considerably much less damage as those on any
other type of terrain, so I shoot the ones not on bases first usually.
I bring at least 1 cannon unit, 2 is better but 4 is too much I think.
You only get to take 10 generals to battle with as many reserves as you
have troops so choose generals carefully.
**************Mike's cannon fodder strategy**********
This move has won me many battles. First I get on high ground if
available with my cannons and then aim at the enemy. This usually
causes the enemies to move out of your range. If they don't, blast em!
If they do, here is what I do. When they have cleared away from the
bases, I blast the generals that are still on them for a while. Then I
aim my artillery in the direction the other generals would come when
rushing to the base(you may not need to change direction at all). When
they do, blast them. Why does this work????? Simple, as soon as you
move one of your generals next to one of theirs that is on a base(you
don't even have to attack if you don't want to)the other enemy officers
quickly move in to help, some will try to go around your cannon range
if they can. This is why 2 or 3 cannons is the best, that way you can
cover every direction! And since the generals they leave on the base
are usually the better ones (A's or B's) that's why I say blast them
for a while first so the unit you move next to it won't take much
damage if it is attacked. Also if you move that unit away from the
enemy base, the enemies back off again so you can keep doing it!
**Cannons usually repel units in their range/Moving next to a unit
that's on a base attracts them. Also, you could try keeping your
artillery direction facing AWAY from the enemies until you get to your
target location. Then, when all cannons are in place aim at the enemy,
covering as many directions as you can to get a hit. This way the
enemies won't move until they are in your range and you can hit a few
before the run away. Oh yeah, don't forget to leave some troops in
front of your cannons, in case they try to attack.
That should be a huge help. Here is another tip, attacking a unit that
is in disarray is awesome, you kill many more troops this way. cannons
are great to get a unit in disarray just keep blasting them, sometimes
morale can be high and a unit will still go in disarray if shot at
enough times. I use this on enemy A generals who stay on a base.
That's why sometimes 1 cannon isn't enough, some generals can take a
beating and still whoop your ass if you attack them. Even general
Kutosov of Russia won't last long on a base with 3 cannons pummeling
him.
While my cannons go for units not on a base first(does more damage) If
none available, focus on the enemy leader(his name will be a light
shade of green when you click on him) if you attack other units and
put them is disarray, he can make them recover, he can also raise
morale and he can also give them more reserves(your leader can do
these things as well). But as soon as he is gone another remaining
general will become leader, target him next
Since time is usually of the essence when attacking, attack with best
generals or one with most troops first. If Napoleon has 85 troops and
Moreau has 200, use Moreau even though he is a B and Napoleon is an A.
I usually like to keep the troops somewhat evenly distributed, meaning
if there are 3 spaces next to an enemy, and one of my generals has 190,
one has 185 and the other 150, I pull the 150 out if i have a
replacement with more men. Remember the more troops you lose, the more
reserves you will have to put in to bring that unit back to full
strength and it will greatly reduce your morale and training. That
makes it take more months to get back to a decent fighting level
I don't use cavalry much but they can help. The best reason for them
besides their mobility is the ability to charge. This works wonders on
units in disarray. The cavalry unit will keep attacking the unit when
you charge until it is dead, you are dead, or you go into disarray.
This can be a huge timesaver since even enemies with 50 men on a base
can take a while to finally kill off. Many battles have gone on until
the 28th or 29th of the month. It sucks losing a battle when they have
5 men left, but time is up. Charging enemy units that aren't in
disarray is a bad idea
********TIP If you have a B or A Artillery general give them the
cannons of course, Also get their training to at least 98. But won't
that take too long??? It might, but it makes a huge difference with
artillery. You will get to shoot 4 times instead of the usual 3!!!!! 4
times! (only for A or B in ART)Think about if you have 3 artillery at
98 training, that's 12 shots per day!!
Caution: While cannons rock, they can be deadly....to you. They can
miss and hit any space adjacent to the one you are targeting, even your
troops. Yes, even spaces that were out of your range, or behind
trees(I don't get that either) Somehow, it seems that if one of your
generals is next to an enemy and you target the enemy with your
cannons, misses will usually hit your guy. Some sort of Murphy's Law I
guess. Keep the training and morale high, that helps 'em hit the
target better, and don't shoot when your troops are next to the enemy
unless absolutely necessary. That is why I always use them to soften
the enemy up first, THEN move in for the kill.
Shooting a unit on a bridge can destroy the bridge and the unit, or at
least kill a ton of men when the bridge collapses. That's good to
know, especially if you are the unit on the bridge(see above about when
not to shoot)
Bad weather affects mobility and gun range.
Comp won't attack city unless it has more troops
VIII. SEA CONTROL
What's long, hard, and full of seamen? A submarine you pervert.
Anywho, what does sea control mean? Sea control means who has the most
ships in that ocean. There are four of them. Look at coastal cities
on the map, cities that are the same color share an ocean. You could
have only 1 city on that ocean, and if it is the most, then control is
yours. Having sea control lets you transport from city to city, which
can be a big help if you want to move generals around. Deploy ships
during the National phase for 100 each. The number you can build
depends on the industry level in that city. The more cities you have
on that ocean with higher industry levels, the faster you can obtain
sea control. If an enemy(one you are at war with) has sea control,
they can attack you. You also cannot send officers or goods by sea.
You can however send ships from coastal city to the next coastal city
but will lose half you ships so don't do it. 100 each ain't cheap.
A. ADMIRAL NELSON This Brit can make your life a living hell if
you didn't save anytime recently!! He can appear in 2 different coasts
the same month! When you see his name when attempting to attack
Britain or sail in British seas(at times of war) You will lose most if
not all of your ships and soldiers on them. Bummer. That's the bad
news. The good news is that guess he dies around 1808 or so because if
you encounter him later in the game, he dies(although he still wrecks
all your ships and troops). He is not a general and therefore will NOT
die until you encounter him at sea. So my trick is to wait until later
in the game and when I have sea control, attack with 1 ship and a unit
of 100 men or less. By the way, each ship holds 100 men. If late
enough in the game he will die and you only lost 1 ship! Save before
sea battles or all battles for that matter.
GENERAL STRATEGIES:
I usually save the month before the national phase as you can't save
during it. Another month to save is at the end of February because,
the next month you get more generals which are very important for
attacking and defending cities. See, each March the generals you MAY
get aren't written in stone. So if I don't like em, I reset and do it
again. Don't do this until you have conquered every city of 1 nation.
Even if you have beaten all Prussian cities except one, any generals
who left to their home city will rejoin Prussia most likely in March.
Take over the whole country. Also, wait at least 2 years because it is
extremely rare to get reserves from a country you just took over.
Toward the end of the game I settle for at least 2 'B' generals(or an
A) in any combat ability, or at least 4 defending generals(C or D)
Don't ever count on allies sending reinforcements. They usually don't
send any. Do count on your enemies receiving reinforcements if an
allied city is next to them. Plan accordingly. Don't put your cannons
at the top of the screen undefended when and enemies ally is above the
city you are attacking. That is where the enemies will appear and it
sucks to have your artillery destroyed. Look at the map and find out
what direction they will come from on the battle screen
Population control. No, its not like that song by Prince with a
similar title. In the beginning of the scenarios you need troops,
toward the end, you have too many reserves which take up food(bad
thing). One method I use is when attacking England later in the game,
take as many reserves as possible so some die in sea combat. Also not
investing in hospitals can help
Forget Paris. Since Paris has soooooooo many French people in it, you
can count on running out of food and materials faster than you can say
'eau de toillette'. You can also count on more strikes than when
Cincinati is up to bat. Since you will only have a little extra food
and materials from your limited supply cities, you could give it all to
Paris and it still wouldn't be enough. Give your goods to other cities
and forget Paris(28) Don't keep troops in Paris as after enough
strikes, and low enough sufficiency, there will be rebellion in the
city!! yay, this decreases population! as well as industry levels, but
oh well, paris would take too much money to improve. Later in the game
when I want to trade off materials I give some to Paris to get it back
on its feet. You can't trade a good unless you have at least 51
sufficiency for ALL your cities. Having 100% in (6) doesn't do much as
it has such a small population. But, with Paris, I still give them
just enough food to recruit troops in march then quickly move my guys
out. Try this if that city is taking too many resources.
Lower Hostility means better prices when trading. If you get an
alliance with Russia, you can buy or sell food to them and rip them
off. You have to get hostility at 20 or lower and use an A in
POL(tallyrand) and come away like a bandit. Buy for as little as you
can, and sell at even or above prices. Materials work almost the same
way. Russia will be the other country that produces a lot of food.
Another tip on investing- It is better to invest in cities with lower
stats(20's or lower) rather than spend thousands on investing on , lets
say industry with a level of 40. I usually pump up my lower populated
cities and make them supply bases and send goods to my major cites
(28), (38), (9) during the National phase
*********Here is a trick!!!! on the second scenario, you can move to
Paris and will be asked to go on an expedition. Say yes and keep
saying yes on the screen until you find a rosetta stone. Then you take
over Paris, meaning you advance to the next level. Its a great way to
get more control earlier in the game. This may take 3 months, or a
looooot longer. Some dude from a message board on gamefaqs told me
that one, but I forgot his name to give the credit, so don't thank me.
Also, some countries may ask for protection at the beginning of
January. This means you take control of that city and the leader of
that country becomes the only officer left there. This happens if
hostility is ultra-low(15 or less) and if they don't have many troops
left. They must also only have 1 city left, even countries that had
many cities to start out with.
Countries of Note
Russia- lots of food there. MANY good generals. Later in years, they
have several good artillery units which means a tough battle. Learn
from Napoleon and Hitler, not to attack in winter. Your cannons will
barely move and have horrible range. So will theirs so attack only if
they have more/better artillery. Since Russia is your toughest country
to beat(my opinion) I save them for second to last and trade as much as
I can to get money. When you are in a Russian city you will be raided
by the cossack army in the months preceding the National Phase. Not
always and not all cities, but mostly, very mostly. This reduces your
troops and takes food and gold(Bad, Bad, and Bad), so I attack at the
beginning of those months to limit this(attack in Feb, May, Aug. and
Nov) you will only be attacked if you are in the cities at the
BEGINNING of those months. cities (14) and (17) are tough to beat.
Another reason I save them for last is that it is very difficult to
improve Russia. Even after you beat them, if you try to send gold or
supplies to a Russian city, you will likely be raided by cossacks,
greatly reducing the amount that actually ends up in the city.
ENGLAND Surrounded by water (except for (43)) so you cant get there.
They have a TON of ships so you won't be able to touch them until you
have build up a navy and defeated Admiral Nelson(see Sea Control).
Here is the best way to attack. Take control of cities 6, 9, and 26
and have at least 200 ships total. Increase industry to help this.
When you have 200 or more ships, put 100 in the city you want to attack
from and do it. Even though England has the same amount of ships, you
will win if you have sea control. Note that this means all your units
will be at about 140 strong when they land, while their units are
unaffected (thats cheap in my opinion). My favorite way of beating
them is saving them for last. Since Russia is gone and no longer
selling them food, they will starve. London has a ton of people who
are hungry, but English cities have absolutely horrible maximum
agriculture, no wonder they trade so much. I attack (2) first then
work my may down and end with London. Attacking right before Sept. is
the best way to ensure starving people. If there is no food at all,
they you don't even go into combat no matter how many troops are there.
Nice. Now that you have England's mainland, take over Dublin which for
some reason hasn't built up its ships or Agriculture. On the third
scenario, it is possible to ally England from the beginning, and if you
agree to most of their trade proposals their hostility goes down and
then, you can make some serious cash off them. Later in years, they
won't trade however badly they might need food
SPAIN-Has same problem as Russia with raids on cities, as well as raids
if you send goods to conquered Spanish cities. This makes it difficult
to send supplies there and improve them, so no rush in attacking. When
Spanish cities are rebelling, this means that those cities get extra
reserves, so don't take too long do defeat Spain!
FINAL THOUGHTS My only flaw with this game is that the computer
doesn't really play to win. They just try to slow you down. Yes, they
may take over a few cities, but not really that much unless you get
involved. Russia could do a lot more damage tp Prussia and Austria,
but whenever a country is losing they ally, unless its you. I can
rarely get a cease fire or it costs too much money to be worthwhile.
If anyone from Koei reads this REMAKE THIS GAME!!! but let the player
choose which country.
hope you enjoyed reading this
okay, im tired now. i still have some tips that i cant even remember
now, so if you are having problems about a particular subject, email me
and i might remember.
legal stuff
copyright blah, blah, I wrote this, blah blah, don't use without
permission, blah blah blah, just ask, blah.
