Avalanche Press

Of all the games I’ve worked on, Soldier Kings is my personal favorite. Soldier Kings, and its sequels Soldier Emperor and Soldier Raj (with more to come!), bring to the forefront all the factors a game must have to make it a true historical simulation. The bigger a conflict gets, the greater the impact that factors like money, politics, communications, and random chance have on the outcome. Because these factors are just as important in Soldier Kings as military maneuver, playing the game is radically different depending on which Major Power one is playing. This, plus the fact that up to eight can play, offers players a huge amount of variety and replayability.

Today, I begin a series of articles analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each Major Power in Soldier Kings, and how the aforementioned factors determine how one can play a Power to best advantage. I begin with Merry Olde England.

Britain: For the King Who Has Everything

Britain’s Soldier King. George II commanded victorious British forces at Dettingen in 1743, the only modern reigning British monarch to lead troops in battle.

In Soldier Kings, Britain starts off in the most powerful position. England is loaded with cash, and its prosperous global empire holds the promise of much more where that came from. This is both a blessing and a curse. Britain has the resources to fund numerous military campaigns, alliances and new armies and fleets, but those resources can be cut off in an instant if Britain doesn’t have enough fleets in the right locations to collect from its overseas holdings. A few well-placed enemy fleets can spell disaster for an over-extended British player.

Major-Power Alliances

In the first Diplomacy Phase, everyone who’s not barred from allying with Britain will come running for favors and alliances. This means Britain must be careful to make the most prudent alliances possible. The best British allies, in debatable order of merit, are Prussia, Holland and Russia.

• Prussia: You got what they need, and they got what you need! Prussia is poor — that’s why Frederick started all this trouble. They’ve got the best armies in the world, but very little money to pay them or finance their campaigns. Prussia also has no fleets, so it can’t rely on conquering sugar islands for cash. Prussia must conquer rich territory quickly so it can get enough money by the next Winter turn to build more armies and attack the rich lands to the south while fending off Russia. Unfortunately, the nearest rich-and-vulnerable territory to Prussia is British Hanover. Britain must dangle enough gold before Prussia to satisfy its short-term needs in exchange for the promise not to take Hanover. Instead, it can offer Hanover as a staging area for attacking the even-richer Austrian Netherlands (or maybe Holland). Not only does this free Britain from having to guard Hanover (allowing its armies to perform much more important duties overseas), it gives her a powerful ally on the Continent to oppose France. The more silver Britain can pour into the barrels in Frederick’s palace basement, the less she has to worry about French armies being available to oppose her overseas or invade Britain.

• Holland: Holland can be very annoying. It looks weak, but that’s deceptive. With the right allies to help it guard its homeland, it can concentrate on using its fleets to take rich overseas territories which the big empires don’t have the forces to guard. And who has lots of overseas territory? You guessed it. Unless Britain wants to spend the first few turns concentrating on squashing Holland (exposing herself to other back-door opportunists), she should make a Dutch alliance so the two countries can help each other to guard overseas interests. In exchange for an army and a bit of manpower from Britain, Holland can guard herself at home while robbing France and Spain overseas. This should make Britain happy, as long as Holland doesn’t get too happy too fast. Holland needs only 10 VP to win, so Britain should try to keep forces near its Dutch friends in case a quick backstab becomes necessary.

• Russia: Russia is a starving giant with an unfriendly dragon over on the next hill. She has more manpower than she could ever need, but she’s dirt poor and surrounded by more poverty. The only rich target in striking range is Prussian Silesia. Since Poland is in the way, she must ally with Poland or spend money fighting the Poles before she can even get to Silesia (where she’ll have to deal with Frederick’s iron-hard men). Russia must have cash fast, so if Britain can’t swing an alliance with Prussia, Russia is the next-best choice for help on the Continent. Britain can offer plenty of Resources that Russia can put into building lots of armies. Britain can then offer Russia a fleet to transport its armies from St. Petersburg to Hanover. This once again gives Britain protection there while giving the Russians a base for a two-front war on Prussia. Britain can ask Russia for Manpower up front and auxiliaries later, which the Russians can give without breaking stride. In this case, Britain should ally with Holland too so that Russia has an incentive not to turn and take Holland, gaining a quick 4 VP against its 10 VP victory threshold.

Minor Country Alliances

When attempting a minor-country alliance, Britain should ally with anything that can threaten France and Spain. Unfortunately, Sardinia and Venice are both Catholic, so there are penalties on Britain’s alliance roll with them. Portugal is the best anti-Spanish prospect, and Denmark is also good because its fleets can take over the duty of ferrying Russians or Prussians. But Britain’s best ally isn’t allied-with — it’s hired. If Britain does not draw the “Swiss Mercenaries” card, then every Diplomacy phase it should try to find out if another player is holding that card. Britain should then offer to pay handsomely for it, because the Swiss are a dagger that Britain can use to threaten France’s heart and pin down French armies that could otherwise be sent overseas.

Continental Strategy

Britain should keep its armies off the continent as much as possible. It should use allies to guard Hanover and threaten France and Spain. Britain must have as many armies as possible to take ship and go overseas, defending its rich, vulnerable possessions there. It should keep building armies as often as possible for this purpose.

Overseas Strategy

Moving armies by sea is the key to British victory.

This is the key to Britain’s success. Britain has money to burn at start, but this will not last long unless it can keep collecting Resources (and Manpower) from each of its overseas colonies every Winter turn. To do this, Britain must have an unblockaded fleet in, or in a sea area adjacent to, each of its overseas colonies in the Winter turn.

If France, Spain and/or Holland unite to oppose Britain with their sea power, Britain can quickly find itself cash-poor. Britain only gets 17 Resources per Winter turn from its European possessions. After paying maintenance and repair for its units, 17 Resources is just barely enough to build a couple of new units and still have the money to let them fight (to say nothing of maintaining them later). At that rate, with all the territory Britain has to cover worldwide, its empire will shrink fast due to a lack of defenders. And then there’s the issue of faithless, backstabbing allies. (“Romance without finance . . . ain’t got a chance!”)

It is well that Britain’s fleets have high defensive values, because Britain can’t afford to lose any of them. Britain shouldn’t be too aggressive with its fleets. With five of them at start, it needs a couple on the Europe map to ferry allied forces to hotspots while protecting the home islands from invasion. That leaves three fleets to guard the rest of the world and bring home the gold. With India, North America and the Carribbean to cover, Britain is stretched as thinly as possible. She must therefore build more fleets on the very first turn of the game so that she can replace any losses and get fleets to the other side of the globe ASAP.

Event Card Strategy

Your fleets will need a good leader, too.

Britain needs as many Minor Country Allies as possible so she doesn’t have to spend lots of money building armies. A Minor Country Ally is a source of free units every Spring turn, so Britain should keep a cash reserve earmarked to pay for bonuses to alliance rolls. Britain should also be willing during the Diplomacy phase to pay other players for “Minor Country Alliance” cards, as well as “Pitt Takes Power,” “Caught at Anchor” (you don't want France or Spain to have that one), “La Grande Societe” (hold it till France has more than one army there), “Pirates,” “Indian Revolt,” “Sepoys,” and of course “Swiss Mercenaries.”

Conclusion

I hope I’ve helped new and experienced players gain some insight into how to play Britain in Soldier Kings. Stay tuned for the next Major Power!