Strategy in Soldier Kings
Part 6: Summer - Winter, 1758
By Doug McNair
October 2007

Frederick the Great’s conquest of Vienna causes general panic on the Continent and strains alliances to the breaking point in today’s episode of my Soldier Kings replay. With the peace treaty that Prussia and Austria signed at the end of Spring 1758, Empress Maria Theresa can rebuild her shattered armies while turning her attention to the marauding Turks, and Frederick’s armies can now head east toward Russia or west toward the Holy Roman Empire as he chooses. And with only three VPs remaining between Frederick and victory, other nations may have to change plans abruptly to stop Frederick from winning, or try to snatch a come-from-behind victory for themselves.

TURN TEN: SUMMER, 1758
Purchase Phase: Spain receives the 2-1 fleet she purchased last year, and places it in Galicia. Nobody buys any new units because most of them bought armies last turn which will become available next turn. Everyone repairs the units they need to, which brings money and manpower totals down to:

Nation................. Money ..................Manpower
Austria ......................12 ..............................11
Britain .......................14................................ 6
France....................... 25 .............................10
Holland......................10 ..............................11
Prussia ......................10 ................................8
Russia ..........................1 ...............................7
Spain ...........................8 .............................16
Turkey .........................3 .............................34

Initiative Phase: Frederick once again adds +2 to his initiative dieroll, and this time it finally works. The initiative order comes out:

Prussia/Holland/Turkey/France/Austria/Britain/Russia/Spain

Action Phases: PRUSSIA announces she’s going first (rather than letting her allies move at the same time as her) and sends her weaker armies to guard her borders, except for an elite 4-3 army that moves west to guard Saxony. Prince Henry moves northwest to Mecklenburg with a 2-1 army, and then Frederick and Schwerin charge east and attack the armies of Russia in St. Petersburg and White Russia. First Schwerin spends 2 Money for an Assault on St. Petersburg, and the 6-dice-to-6 attack scores two hits to one on the first round, reducing both 1-1 Russian armies and sending them retreating to Moscow. Schwerin spends another 2 Money for unlimited assault rounds, and takes St. Petersburg for Prussia after a long, valiant Russian defense. He then plays a Prisoner Exchange card on Russia, and both Prussia and Russia gain 2 Manpower.

Then Frederick spends 2 Money for an Assault against Apraxin’s 3-2 army in White Russia, but Russia plays an Irregulars card and cuts Frederick’s attack strength in half. That brings the assault down to 5-dice-to-6, and neither side scores enough hits to damage the other. But with the conquest of St. Petersburg, Prussia now has 16 VPs – enough to win the game if she can hold them until the end of the year.

Then HOLLAND follows Prussia’s lead and takes her action phase on her own . . . and does what Holland does best, backstabbing Britain by sending her fleets in South London and the Eastern Atlantic to Hannover and besieging it along with the Swedish armies there. Hannover is weakly fortified and Holland’s one free siege round conquers Hannover for the Prince. Then the Prince himself and another Swedish army spend 1 Money for a one-round Probe against the 2-1 Spanish army in the Austrian Netherlands, scoring one hit and sending the Spaniards south to Paris. Then Orange spends 2 Money for an unlimited siege of the Austrian Netherlands and takes it after three rounds.

Finally, the Dutch fleet in the South China Sea sails from Brunei to the Celebes and takes a free siege round there, but scores no hits. It could have sailed west to attack British India, but that would have put it within range of Admiral Hawke at Madagascar, who could obliterate the Dutch East Indies Fleet with ease.

TURKEY goes next, and Muhsinzade Pasha realizes that with the Northern Alliance fragmenting, somebody is likely going to win this year. The only way it can be Turkey is if Turkish armies get onto the Boot of Italy fast. So the Turkish fleet in Constantinople sails for Croatia, and Admiral Emo in Venice rolls a 6 + 3 = 9 and just barely fails to intercept it. The fleet picks up Muhsinzade Pasha and his 3-2 army in Croatia and sails out again, and Emo in Venice rolls a 4 + 3 = 7 for another failed interception. The fleet sails around the Boot to land in Austrian Tuscany, drops off Muhsinzade Pasha and his army, and then moves back out to the Western Med to avoid being blockaded in Tuscany by Emo. The remaining Turkish armies deploy as best they can to defend Turkey’s interior, and then Muhsinzade Pasha spends 1 Money to besiege Tuscany for two rounds. He scores two hits on the second round, taking it for the Sultan, and that gives him a land route north to the VP gold mines of Lombardy and Piedmont.

Then FRANCE sends Admiral Galissoniere’s invasion fleet into the British Central Islands again, spending 4 Money for an unlimited Invasion to avoid the fiasco of last turn’s failed Assault. This time she scores a hit on the first round, destroying the brave but doomed British 2-1 army defending the islands. She then spends 2 Money for unlimited siege rounds and takes the islands for France. That gives her a net gain of 10 VPs in the Caribbean – halfway to victory.

Then General d’Estrees orders the Catholic League armies in Ile de France and Swabia to march north and attack the armies of the now-shattered Northern Alliance . . . but the Spanish, Swiss and Sardinian armies refuse to move. TREACHERY! The Catholic League shatters as d’Estrees and his 2-1 army attack the two Spanish armies that just turned coat in Paris. D’estrees spends 2 Money for an Assault but scores just one hit, sending one Spanish army east to join General Alvarez in Swabia.

AUSTRIA must now divert forces away from her planned drive on Constantinople to deal with the Turkish invasion of Tuscany. Admiral Emo heads into the Western Mediterranean and tries to intercept the Turkish fleet there, but once again fails. He then heads back to Croatia to help with the siege. Then General Brown takes his elite 4-3 army plus the Venetian and Wurttemburger armies out of Vienna (which the Austrians and their allies have to leave anyway due to its cession to Prussia), through Venice and Lombardy and down to Tuscany to attack the Turks. Brown spends 2 Money for an 8-dice-to-7 Assault, but on the first round the Turks score two hits to one, sending the Wurttemburger and Venetian armies retreating north to Lombardy while Brown does no damage to the tough Turkish 3-2 army. The second round is at 6-dice-to-7, and neither side does enough damage to hurt the other.

Across the Adriatic, an Austrian army and a Bavarian army move into Croatia and besiege it along with Admiral Emo’s Venetian fleet. The Austrians spend 1 Money for two siege rounds along with their allies, and do one hit on the first round while taking one. Emo’s fleet evacuates the Bavarian army that took the step loss out to the Eastern Med. Neither side hits on the second round.

Then to the northeast, two Austrian armies move from Hungary down to Transylvania while the Polish army that conquered Moldavia moves west to assist them against the Turks. The Austrians spend 2 Money for an Assault along with the Poles, and they score one hit to none on the first round, forcing the Turks back to Bulgaria. The Austrians then spend another 1 Money for a two siege rounds and retake Transylvania on the first round.

Finally the remaining Polish armies attack the Turkish army occupying Volhynia. But the Poles score no hits on either round of the Assault while the Turks score one hit on defense, forcing the Polish 1-1 army to retreat to Polesia. The Turks keep Volhynia, so with the conquest and successful defense of Tuscany and with the Russians and Prussians squabbling over White Russia, the Turks still have 8 VPs even after losing Transylvania.

BRITAIN is now bereft of fleets at home and wide open to an invasion from Spain, so she plays a New Leader card and brings in Admiral Rodney in the Bahamas, and sends him plus the two fleets there eastward to the home islands. Galissioniere rolls terribly and fails to intercept them, and the two fleets put into Southern England. Admiral Hawke heads back home as quick as he can but can only make it to the Central Atlantic, and then Prince Ferdinand takes his elite 4-3 army north from Hesse (leaving the 1-1 army to maintain the siege there) and spends 4 Money on an unlimited Invasion of Hannover, hoping to kick his erstwhile Dutch and Swedish allies out of there so he has a sea route back to Britain. The 6-dice-to-10 attack comes off magnificently, scoring three hits to one and forcing the Dutch and Swedish fleets down the coast to Holland. The remaining Swedish armies have little chance of inflicting the 3 hits necessary to harm Ferdinand’s army, so they retreat west to Holland as well. Ferdinand spends 1 Money for two siege rounds and takes Hannover back
for Britain.

RUSSIA has to hold what little ground she has left until her new armies arrive next turn, so SPAIN takes the last action of the turn and surprises Britain by not invading, but instead sending her fleets and armies from Galicia down the Iberian coast to Gibraltar and then out to the Western Med to invade unguarded Provence. Spain spends 1 Money for two siege rounds and takes Provence on the second round, though the French defenders fight bravely and score two hits on the invaders, sending two fleets out to sea. Then General Alvarez leads the Spanish, Swiss and Sardinian armies against Paris, which is defended only by General d’Estrees and one French 2-1 army. Spain spends 2 Money for a two-round Assault along with her allies, and France plays a Booty-Taking card to reduce the strength of the stronger Swiss army from 3 to 2. But that still gives Spain and her allies an 11-dice-to-7 attack, and they score four hits on the first round, wiping out d’Estrees’ army and capturing d’Estrees himself, whose armies only do one hit that is dutifully taken by a Swiss army that retreats to Swabia. Spain then spends 1 Money to besiege Paris for two rounds along with her allies, and both sides score two hits on the first round (which the Sardinians absorb and retreat to Swabia) and Spain scores one hit to none on the second round. Paris holds out, just barely, but France is now down to two armies and no general, and is in grave danger of being overrun.

Nobody surrenders. France would like to, but if she did Spain would take Haiti plus the Leeward and Windward Islands as territorial concessions. That’s worth 17 VPs – way more than enough for Spain to win the game. So France fights on, hoping that the armies she gets next turn can stave off disaster.

TURN ELEVEN – FALL, 1758
Purchase Phase: All the armies purchased in the spring flood the board, with Turkey’s three new armies going in Greece and Bosnia, Russia’s two new armies going in Moscow and Ukraine, Austria’s new army going in Lombardy, Prussia’s new army going in Mecklenburg with Prince Henry, France’s two new armies going in Burgundy (to keep the Spanish armies in Paris and Provence apart), Spain’s new army going in Catalonia, and the new Dutch army going in Holland. Nobody can afford to buy new fleets or armies, but Britain repairs the East India Company fleet so it can try to prevent the Dutch East Indies fleet and army from invading British India. Spain repairs one of her fleets in the Western Mediterranean, and the Dutch repair two of their fleets. Minor countries repair one unit each.

Initiative Phase: Frederick has conquered 16 VPs worth of territory which is enough to win the game next turn, so he opts to subtract 2 from his initiative roll so he can react to anyone who reconquers territory from him. The initiative order comes out:

Spain/Britain/Russia/Austria/France/Holland/Prussia/Turkey

Action Phases: SPAIN hits the new French armies in Burgundy from the north and south simultaneously, sending the Spanish 3-2 army up from Provence and the Swiss 3-2 army down from Paris. Spain pays 2 Money for an Assault, and on the first round the 6-dice-to-6 attack reduces the weaker French 1-1 army and sends it west to Vendee, but on the second round the Spanish-Swiss army only scores one hit and fails to dislodge the French 3-2 army in Burgundy. Then Spain spends her last money on a 2-round siege of Paris, and takes it.

BRITAIN sends the East India Company fleet to blockade the Dutch fleet and army in the Celebes (which will keep the Dutch from conquering any British Indian territory if they fail to break out, and will also cut off all money and manpower from the Dutch East Indies). With the Spanish having already committed to conquering France, the only naval threat in Europe the British have to worry about is the Dutch navy and its Swedish allies. So Admiral Hawke sails in from the Central Atlantic and blockades Holland, bottling up the entire Dutch-Swedish navy. Then Admiral Rodney heads west from Southern England to the Western Atlantic with a 1-1 fleet to hopefully reap New World gold next turn. Then a British 2-1 fleet from Southern England moves up the coast to pick up Cumberland and his 2-1 army and crosses the North Sea to besiege Prussian-controlled Denmark, while Prince Ferdinand and the elite British 4-3 army in Hannover strike eastward to attack Prince Henry of Prussia in Mecklenburg (thus forever shattering the last remnants of the Northern Alliance). Britain spends 2 Money on a 2-round assault against Henry, and two of the best armies in Europe clash in a brilliant but bloody engagement, with the British scoring two hits on six dice but the Prussians scoring three hits on nine dice! Henry’s stronger 3-2 army takes a step loss and flees southeast to Magdeburg, but Ferdinand’s 4-3 army (having never faced a real opponent before) takes three hits and a step loss, and must flee to Hannover. Henry holds the line in Mecklenburg, and when Cumberland spends 2 Money for an unlimited siege of Denmark, the Prussian garrison scores one hit to none on the first siege round, driving the British fleet out to sea with shore battery fire. On the second round neither side hits, but on the third round both sides score one hit and the British army must retreat south to Hannover, and the Prussians roll a 10 + 2 (for two British step losses) = 10, and kill Cumberland. Scottish exiles rejoice as all Prussian lines hold, and the British are weakened on the Continent.

RUSSIA sends her two 3-2 armies up to St. Petersburg along with General Apraxin, while sending the rest of her armies to White Russia and Ukraine to defend them against the Prussians and Turks. Apraxin spends Russia’s last 1 Money on a Probe in hopes of retaking the city from General Schwerin. But each side scores just one hit and nobody takes damage. Prussian lines hold once again.

EMPRESS MARIA TERESA OF AUSTRIA’s ploy of surrendering Vienna and thus putting Frederick one turn away from victory has had the desired effect of shattering the Northern Alliance. Britain, Holland and Prussia are now at each other’s throats, but Britain and Russia’s failed attacks on the Prussian Empire’s eastern and western borders leaves Frederick still in control of 16 VPs worth of conquered territory. He will win unless Austria does something drastic, so she does, breaking her two-turn-old peace treaty with Prussia and sending General Browne north to retake Vienna. The other Austrian, Bavarian, Polish, Venetian and Wurttemburger armies attack the Turks to keep them from snatching an automatic victory by doing something crazy with their final action phase of the turn. Admiral Emo takes the Venetian fleet around the Boot, easily evades the Turkish fleet’s interception attempt in the Western Mediterranean, and lands a Bavarian army in Tuscany to assist the Austrian, Venetian and Wurttemburger armies attacking Muhsinzade Pasha’s 3-2 Turkish army. Austria spends 2 Money on an Assault along with her allies, and the 10-dice-to-7 attack scores two hits on the first round, driving Muhsinzade Pasha’s army east to the Papal States, while the Turks score just one hit to send the Wurttemburger army north to Lombardy. Then Austria spends 1 Money for a two-round siege of Tuscany, but she didn’t need to – she scores two hits on the first round and retakes Tuscany from the Turks.

Over by the Black Sea, Austria spends 2 Money to assault the Turkish armies holding Bulgaria along with her Polish allies. The-5-dice-to-5 attack scores one hit to none on the first round, eliminating a reduced, weak Turkish army, and the second-round attack scores two hits, eliminating the remaining Turkish 2-1 army while taking none in return. The Austrians save their money and let the Poles besiege Bulgaria for two rounds on their own, but they don’t score any hits. Farther north in Volhynia, the two other Polish armies assault the Turkish army there for two rounds, and this time the Poles find the weakness in the Turkish defenses and score two hits on the second round, wiping out the Turkish 1-1 army while the Turks do one hit to drive off the Polish 1-1 army. The remaining Polish 2-1 army takes two siege rounds but scores zero hits to one on the first round, and is driven off by the Turkish garrison. Volhynia remains in Turkish hands, but the road to Constantinople is wide open! The Austrian army in Croatia then takes a free siege round against the Turkish fortifications there but neither side does any damage. Finally, General Browne spends Austria’s last 2 Money for an unlimited siege of Vienna. At 6-dice-to-4 the Prussians have nearly no hope of driving off Browne’s elite 4-3 army, and Brown wears them down and takes the city back to the typically jaded welcome of its citizens.

FRANCE sends Admiral Galissioniere to destroy all of her enemies in the New World. First he goes north to try and intercept Admiral Rodney off the New England coast, and he succeeds with a modified roll of 12! Rodney has little chance against Galissioniere and needs to be in a position to bring home some Money for Britain, so after one round of combat in which the French fail to hit him he flees for Boston. Galissoniere can’t afford to blockade him there – he’s got to head back to the Caribbean to reap French gold this winter - so he heads back south and attacks the pirates who’ve been pillaging Haiti. He catches the pirates drunk on their ill-gotten gains and wipes them out with 3 hits on 5 dice. The Caribbean is now at the mercy of France.

Back on the Continent, France doesn’t have the army strength to kick the combined Spanish, Swiss and Sardinian armies out of Paris, so she attacks the weak Spanish 1-1 army holding Provence instead along with its naval support. France has plenty of money left and spends 4 on an all-out Invasion. Each side scores one hit on the first round (with a fleet and an army from each side retreating), but Spain scores 2 hits to one on the second round, driving off the French 3-2 army while the Spanish 1-1 army flees east to Piedmont. Provence remains in Spanish hands.

THE DUTCH EAST INDIES FLEET embarks an army and sails out to break the British East India Company’s blockade of the Celebes. The Dutch outgun the British 2-dice-to-1, but both fleets take just one hit to damage. Battle rages for four rounds, but finally the Dutch do one hit and drive off John Company’s ships, and they make for British Madras. They land the army and spend 1 Money on a two-round siege, and Madras’ one fortification point falls to Holland.

Back on the other side of the world, the Dutch and Swedish fleets have no chance of breaking out of Holland against Admiral Hawke’s blockade, but they don’t need to. With Britain, France and Spain having moved already, the Prince of Orange leaves a Swedish army to garrison the Austrian Netherlands and then marches two Dutch armies and two Swedish armies into Hannover to attack the weakened elite army of Prince Ferdinand (which will still be very tough to crack at a strength of 3-3). The Dutch accountants have managed the Prince of Orange’s war chest very precisely, and he spends his last 4 Money on an unlimited Invasion of Hannover. The 11-dice-to-7 attack scores two hits to none on the first round (wiping out a British 1-1 army), two hits to one on the second round (forcing a Swedish army to flee back to Holland) and two hits to one on the third round (sending a Dutch 2-1 army back to Holland). After that several rounds go by with nobody scoring enough hits to harm the other, but finally the Redcoats score two hits and force a Swedish 3-2 army to retreat to Holland. That forces Orange to retreat as well with his last undamaged army (he can’t afford to risk damaging it because he has no money left to maintain it over the winter). British lines hold, and Holland will not get the 10 VPs worth of conquered territory she needs to win the game.

Which leaves PRUSSIA in a position to win, IF she can conquer just two VPs' worth of territory to compensate for the loss of Vienna. It’s not a problem. Prince Henry orders the 4-3 army in Saxony to meet him in Hesse (which the British have kept under siege with a 1-1 army), and spends 2 Money on an Assault that wipes out the British army on the second round. He then spends 1 Money on a two-round siege that takes out Hesse’s remaining 2 fortifications and conquers it for Prussia. Then, just for form’s sake, Frederick moves north to join Schwerin at St. Petersburg and spends his last 1 Money on a Probe to try and eject Apraxin’s armies from there. The 13-dice-to-7 attack does 3 hits to 2, ejecting one of Apraxin’s armies but leaving the other in place, while Schwerin’s 3-2 army has to retreat to East Prussia. But Prussia remains in control of St. Petersburg, so with that, Warsaw, Bohemia, Saxony, Hesse and Denmark and no Prussian home areas under enemy control, she has the 15 VPs worth of conquered territory to win the game.

Unless TURKEY can pull off some kind of miracle. Muhsinzade Pasha sends his three armies in Bosnia up to Transylvania for a free siege round, but they score just one hit and don’t conquer it. Then the Turkish fleet sails east to Greece, picks up the Turkish army there and sails it up to Venice while Muhsinzade Pasha and his reduced army move up there from the Papal States to try and kick out the reduced but still strong Bavarian 3-2 army guarding it. He has only 2 Money remaining, but he spends them both on an Assault and prays very hard. On the first round the 6-dice-to-5 attack scores one hit per side, which doesn’t shake the Bavarians but sends a weak Turkish army down the coast to the Papal States. Neither side scores any hits on the second round.

And the war is over. Nobody has any cards that will prevent Frederick from claiming 15 VPs and the game in the Victory Phase of Winter, 1758, so the final standings are:

So ironically, Frederick owes his victory to his former ally Britain, who held out in Hannover against the Prince of Orange’s invasion from the west and kept Orange from snatching a one-point edge on Frederick by grabbing Hannover’s three VPs. Galissioniere’s brilliant victory in the Caribbean in 1757 doomed Britain’s chances unless the war lasted for several more years, but Spain’s treachery in Europe stopped France from exploiting that victory and conquering the rest of the New World. Turkey had several brilliant military victories and overall made a valiant go of it, but in the end couldn’t stand up to Austria’s more powerful armies and numerous allies. But Austria and Russia’s failure to crush Prussia in the Fall of 1756 and Russia’s consequent implosion that winter sealed the doom of the eastern Empresses, and it was just a matter of time from that point on as to whether Prussia would win with a European victory or whether France, Spain or Holland would win with a few rich conquests overseas. Prussia’s elite armies won-out, and much of Europe will be speaking German for the rest of the Eighteenth Century.

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