L'empereur System:Nintendo By Michael Penick email: michael_penick@hotmail.com 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.