Strategy in ‘Soldier Emperor’
Fall and Winter 1803
By Doug McNair
August 2006

The saga of Napoleon continues today in Episode 3 of As the Emperor Turns, my turn-by-turn strategic analysis of our Soldier Emperor game.

When last we left our heroes, Prussia had saved her western provinces by surrendering to France and offering two of her best armies to Napoleon as Auxiliaries. This will give her time to rebuild her battered army and deal with General Bagration of Russia, who is regrouping in Austrian Galicia while a Russian 3/2 army fends off Prussians bent on relieving the Russian siege of Posen.

Spain has taken massive losses in an unsuccessful attack on Gibraltar, but lured the British Gibraltar Squadron away eastward with falsified orders and then sailed east herself to conquer Constantinople and bottle up the British in the Black Sea. Turkey has repelled an Austrian attempt to take Dubrovnik, but must now pull back from that, abandon the blockade of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Turkish Amasia, and try to retake Constantinople.

The armies of France and the newly-created Kingdom of Italy have just conquered Austria’s western province of Venezia, plus the Papal States in Italy and Baden in Germany. Admiral Jervis has made numerous attempts to land British forces in France, but all have been repelled by remarkably adept French coastal defense forces.

The final campaign season of 1803 begins . . .

Fall 1803

In the Purchase Phase, everyone repairs all their units, with Prussia catching a lucky break since France has to pay to repair the two Prussian Auxiliaries, leaving Prussia with 1 Money remaining. Nobody builds new units, since they’ll need all their remaining Money to pay maintenance on their existing ones.

But all reinforcements purchased in the Spring arrive. Spain receives two new armies, which deploy with the Armada in Galicia to renew the threat to the British Isles, hopefully forcing Admiral Jervis to remain on-station in the Eastern Atlantic. Britain receives two new armies which deploy in London to await the King’s pleasure. Turkey and Austria both receive three new armies—a good thing, since both powers desperately need to deal with foreign invasions (especially Austria). And finally, The Old Guard reports for duty with two other French armies, and Napoleon’s ranks grow for the final offensive of the year.

Napoleon wants to attack first this turn, crush Austrian resistance before it can begin, and take more territory in Germany and Italy before anyone can block him. He elects to give a +2 bonus to his initiative roll, and the Initiative order ends up:

France, Turkey, Prussia, Britain, Spain, Russia, Austria

(Napoleon awards a ribbon to his Chief of Logistics.)

France

Marshall Davout moves down the Italian boot to besiege Naples, whose one starting unit, a fleet, can’t stop him but nevertheless accepts an alliance offer from the Russians in Corfu. Two 2/1 French armies move south from Piedmonte through Spanish Etruria to guard the Papal States from an amphibious invasion by the Turks in Dubrovnik. Then the Old Guard and a supporting 2/1 army move east from Piedmonte to attack Austrian Tirol, and Napoleon uses his full movement allowance of 3 to take himself and two 3/2 armies on a rapid redeployment westward from Hanover, south through France, and east to join the Old Guard in Tirol.

But just as Napoleon is crossing from Lorraine to Piedmonte, Austria plays Early/Late Snows and makes the Alps impassable. This causes much consternation to Nappy, who has to alter his path due-east to move through French-controlled Baden and attack neutral Bayern instead (with the 4/2 and 3/2 French armies in Baden moving east to join him).

Bayern’s army musters, and nobody bets a kopek on them, so the die-roll gives the alliance to Turkey. The Army of Italy and their French advisors would love to press the attack farther eastward into Austrian Croatia, but Napoleon’s diversion northward has left their north flank vulnerable, so they stay in Venezia.

Finally, he moves all the Prussian Auxiliaries into Mecklenburg on the north German coast to besiege it for France and guard against a British or Russian seaborne invasion from the north.

Napoleon spends 1 Money for a Probe on Bayern, and the attack at 17 dice to five (with every 5 and 6 hitting) wipes out Bayern’s army with only one hit in return (it does no damage to Napoleon’s 3/2 and 4/2 armies). The Old Guard’s attack on Austrian Tirol is far weaker than expected sans Napoleon, but they press on and spend 1 Money for a Probe at 7 dice to 12. The Grognards score a STUNNING victory for Napoleon, inflicting 4 hits on 7 dice and forcing two Austrian 2/2 armies to flee eastward to Wien, leaving only a weak 2/1 army in Tirol. The appropriately stunned Austrians score only one hit, forcing the 2/1 army with the Old Guard to retreat to Piedmonte.

Then the sieges begin—all of them one round for free since even the Emperor is running low on money at this point. Kleves finally falls to the French 3/2 army that’s been besieging it since Spring, and Napoleon easily conquers Bayern. But the Prussians score no hits in Mecklenburg, while Davout scores only one hit on the defenses at Naples, whose one fleet can do nothing for now but will be a help when Naples’ army shows up in the Spring.

Turkey

Turkey is sure at this point that Austria and Russia will be focusing their attention westward toward Napoleon and Prussia. She pulls forces from her northern and western fronts to get some revenge for the Crusades by attacking the Spanish in Constantinople AND sailing across the Tyrrhenian Sea from Dubrovnik to invade the Papal States. Russia’s ally Naples can’t bear the thought, but her fleet fails to intercept the Turks.

Turkey’s other fleet abandons the blockade of the Russians in Amasia to support the relief of Constantinople. Turkey pays 3 Money for an Assault on Constantinople, but then Spain plays Trap! and attacks first with nine dice, hitting on a 5 or 6. SHE SCORES FIVE HITS, ejecting the Turkish fleet and the weaker Turkish army. The Turks have only a 3/2 army left, and their attack scores only 1 hit (not enough to harm the 3/2 and 2/2 Spanish army and fleet there). The remaining Turkish army retreats north to Wallachia.

Doubly fired up by this defeat at the hands of the Infidels, the invaders of the Vatican pile in with an Assault at five dice to seven. They score two hits on the first round, flipping both weak 2/1 French armies guarding the captive Pope, and forcing them to retreat south (with the Pope) to join Davout in Naples. They score no hits on the Turks, who spend another Money to besiege the Papal palaces for two rounds. They score exactly three hits, cutting off Davout’s armies in Naples and taking the Vatican for Allah! But the Swiss Guards score a parting victory, doing two hits on two dice on the second round and forcing the Turkish fleet back out to the Tyrrhenian.

Prussia

Hohenlohe has 1 Money left to his name, so he spends it wisely by putting all his forces on his eastern border and hitting the Russian 3/2 army in Posen with a Probe. But he only rolls 1 hit on 11 dice, so the Russians hold their ground.

Britain

Admiral Jervis considers his options carefully. The south of France is lightly guarded, but if he were to invade there, Napoleon could pull back from Bayern and attack him with ease. Holland is not much better guarded, but his record against the Dutch coastal defenses is poor, and once again Napoleon could get to him with ease. He needs to give the Spanish a reason to pull their fleet out of Constantinople so the duped British fleet can leave the Black Sea . . . but invading Spanish Etruria would do nothing to hurt Napoleon, Britain’s main enemy.

The Turkish conquest of the Papal States has left Marshal Davout cut off in Naples at the south end of the Italian boot, with no fortifications to protect him (his siege didn’t succeed) and no fleets to retreat with. He’s a sitting duck, so Jervis attacks him. Nobody in the Med that could intercept him is powerful enough to take him on, so they stay in port as he sales into Napoli.

The two fleets and army in Gascoigne pull out to the Eastern Atlantic to follow him into the Med, and the French and Spanish fleets in the coastal ports fail to intercept them. They join Jervis’ attack, while the British and Swedish invasion forces in the North Sea drop off their armies in Britain, with the fleets taking up stations in the North Sea and Eastern Atlantic to guard against Spanish invasion.

Ol’ Moneybags the King pays 5 Money for an all-out invasion of Naples at 22 dice to 12. Davout prays for a miracle (strange from a Napoleonic officer holding the Pope captive), but actually has a Miracle! card in his hand, which lets one of his 1/1 reduced-strength armies kill any British army if it rolls a 6. But it rolls a 2.

Jervis scores four hits on the first round, destroying three out of the four French armies there since they can’t retreat. The French score only one hit, driving a single weak British 2/1 fleet back out to the Med. The second round goes off at 20 dice to seven and scores only two hits, but that’s all it needs. Davout’s last army, a precious 4/2, takes a step loss and dies due to lack of a retreat route, and Davout is captured in the rubble and sent to prison on Malta. Davout’s army does a step loss to a 2/1 British army, which retreats out to sea on a British fleet, but the British don’t miss a beat and go right in to continue the siege of Naples where Davout left off. They spend 1 Money for two siege rounds, but take it on the first.

Spain

Spain laughs secretly at the sudden misfortune of her imperious French ally, and then sails out to invade Britain. With Jervis in the Med, British interceptor fleets have a much lower chance of catching the Spanish, but they do anyway. The British and Swedish fleet in the Eastern Atlantic gets the wind gauge of the Spanish but scores no hits. The Spanish score two hits, damaging the 2/2 Swedish fleet and forcing it to retreat to the North Atlantic.

The lone British 2/1 fleet remaining there channels Sir Francis Drake and rolls boxcars, flipping the 2/2 Spanish fleet and the 2/2 army it’s carrying, forcing them back to Galicia. But Drake the Younger’s fleet is also hit, and it flips and retreats to the North Atlantic as well.

The Armada now contains only a 2/1 fleet and a 2/1 army, but Spanish honor demands they press on. They choose to invade Ireland, which has weak fortifications and is defended by a single 2/2 British army. The attack is at four dice to three, and the Spaniards spend five of their New World gold on an all-out invasion. There are no hits on the first round, but on the second round the Irish score one hit and force the Spanish army to re-embark and retreat to the North Atlantic.

Having failed to invade Britain, two Spanish armies cross the Pyrenees into Languedoc and Provence in France, telling the border guards that they’re heading east to Spanish Etruria to stop the British from marching up the boot into France. The guards let them pass.

Russia

Russia still has numerical superiority over Prussia and would love to boot Hohenlohe out of Posen and East Prussia before the winter, but she only has 5 Money left. Bagration can’t afford to launch a massive, costly offensive that would leave so many Russian armies damaged that he can’t afford to maintain them all. That would cause massive desertions over the winter. But if Russia’s ally Austria is going to have any chance of repelling Napoleon, she has to be able to move forces west, and the only way she can do that is if Hohenlohe vacates Posen on Austrian Hungary’s north flank.

So . . . Bagration leads his armies west from Austrian Galicia into Posen for a 3-Money Assault, betting everything on the fact that Prussia is broke and can’t afford to take any damage at all. If Hohenlohe retreats before battle, the siege of Posen will succeed and the Austrians will be freed up to move.

Meanwhile, the newly unblockaded Russian Black Sea Fleet leaves Turkish Amasia and picks up a Russian 3/2 army in Georgia, ferrying it to the Crimea where it disembarks and marches to Moldavia to increase the threat level against the Turks (the fleet then goes out to sea to avoid further blockading). The Russian 2/2 army stays in Georgia to defend the Caucasus against Turkish invaders.

Finally, Russian fleets and armies from Finland and Courland set sail and invade Swedish Scania, hoping to pick up some victory points and money and manpower for next year.

General Hohenlohe is fully aware of Bagration’s reasons for invading with the last of his cash: All damaged Prussian armies will die over the winter. Bagration can attack at 16 dice to 13, and two of Hohenlohe’s four armies have a defense strength of 1. Prussia’s four land areas only produce 9 Money per year, and she’ll need all of that just to repair the eight armies currently under her control after they take step losses due to lack of winter maintenance.

Another surrender is looking like Hohenlohe’s only option right now, but to have something to surrender to Russia he has to keep hold of Posen. So he stays and fights, which wasn’t a great idea. Bagration does five hits on the first round to Hohenlohe’s two, flipping (and therefore ultimately killing) two of Hohenlohe’s 3/2 armies plus a 2/1 army, leaving him with just a full-strength 2/1 army that retreats to Berlin with the soon-to-be-starving remnants of his other armies.

One 2/2 Russian army takes a step loss and retreats to Austrian Galicia, and then Bagration spends one of his remaining 2 Money to make a two-round siege of Posen so he doesn’t get stranded in hostile territory in the winter. He’s lucky he did . . . he scores only two hits on 28 dice, and since Posen’s fortifications already had one hit on them from last turn’s siege, he just barely breaks into the food stores before winter sets in. But the siege of Scania only scores one hit and takes one in return, so a Russian fleet may sink into the ice up there (but the soldiers will be OK eating stolen Lutefisk).

Austria

Finally, Charles of Austria at the head of an army in Croatia really wants Venezia back, and he has the money to take a shot at it, especially now that Prussia is imploding to the north. So he goes into Venezia with all he’s got, spreading forces out behind him to protect Croatia from the Turks to the southeast and Napoleon and the Old Guard to the northwest. He pays 3 Money for an Assault and goes in at 12 dice to 10. His first round attack scores only one hit, ejecting the 2/1 Italian army and sending it to Piedmonte. The Franco-Italian forces score three hits in return, ejecting two Austrian armies and sending Charles back to Croatia. There are no Austrian sieges.

Prussia

In the peace phase, Prussia surrenders to Russia, ceding East Prussia in exchange for a promise to let the Prussian troops there eat the local food supplies before they leave in the Spring (thus not suffering Winter Attrition). The Russians accept, and the Prussians once again cheer (though not very loudly) when they roll a 5, meaning Russia can’t attack them for five campaign turns.

Winter 1803

It’s going to be a long, cold winter for many who spent all their Money fighting the enemy and who now have little or nothing to get them through till next year. Almost all sieges have been resolved and nobody was caught out in enemy territory (Bagration sighs with relief by the fire), so nobody takes step losses in the Winter Attrition Phase.

But in the Maintenance Phase, things get ugly fast. Prussia is broke and can’t maintain any of her armies, so they all take step losses (except the Auxiliaries she lent to the French). The three half-strength armies that gave their all defending Posen dissolve, leaving the Prussians with Hohenlohe and one army in Berlin, and four armies in East Prussia that will soon be marching west.

Russia is also all but out of money, but her armies are in much better shape. She spends her one remaining Money plus 1 Manpower to maintain the army that took damage at the battle for Posen, and then all her other units take step-losses, with the fleet that was damaged at the unsuccessful siege of Swedish Scania breaking up in the pack ice.

Turkey has 4 Money left, so she maintains her three damaged units and the army in the Papal States. All the rest of her units take step losses, but she ends by playing Illegal Recruitment and stealing 1 Manpower from Austria.

Austria also has 4 Money left, and since she has four damaged units she maintains those. All other Austrian units take step losses.

Spain has plenty of New World gold left, but she’s down to only 7 Manpower. Still, that’s enough to maintain the majority of her forces, so only five of her units take step losses.

France is down to only 7 Money, and she’s not going to pay to keep the Prussian Auxiliaries fed when there’s good French cooking to be had at home. So the two Prussian Auxiliaries take step losses after all, and 14 out of 21 French units take step losses. Napoleon will have to rely on his territorial gains this year to bring in the gold (and the soldiers) for next year.

Finally, Britain still is King of Cash but has only 9 Manpower remaining. Six out of 15 British units take step losses.

Victory Phase

No conquered territories were vacated due to Winter Attrition or lack of Maintenance, so all territorial gains for the year remain in effect. At the end of the year 1803, here are the Victory Point totals and who’s in the lead (or not):

Money and Manpower Phase

Nobody got anywhere near their Automatic Victory threshold, so the game continues into 1804, and with the gathering-in of the fall harvest the powers get to collect Money and Manpower from the territories they now own.

But even during harvest time, event card play changes things. Turkey plays Population Explosion on Russia, giving the already overpopulated Eastern Colussus even more mouths to feed. Russia gets 6 extra Manpower but 6 less Money this year. Austria retaliates for this nefarious Malthusian attack on her ally by playing Debase Currency on Turkey, giving her a 25% bonus to her Money production this year but a 25% penalty every year after that. Then, to compensate for Turkey’s short-term good fortune, Austria plays Abundant Harvest on herself, giving her an extra 8 Money this turn.

Going into 1804, everyone’s Money and Manpower totals will be:

Outlook for 1804

Austria and Russia are poor, but will have to bank on Prussia’s near-retirement from the war to let Bagration blaze westward through Saxony and hit Napoleon’s north flank at Bayern.

Britain’s destruction of Davout’s army at Naples leaves Admiral Jervis the most powerful force in the Mediterranean, and what he does next will likely drive the actions of many Powers in 1804. Jervis could conquer all of Italy with ease, but that won’t help Britain win unless France is held to less than 20 victory points. Napoleon still has more armies than anyone else and plenty of Money and Manpower to back them up, so Jervis has to hope Archduke Charles of Austria and General Bagration of Russia can stop Napoleon’s eastward advance before he gobbles-up defenseless Prussia and the rest of Germany.

Spain and Turkey are the wild cards in all this—both have an automatic victory threshold of just 12 points. Spain is a third of the way there, but with Jervis loose in the Med it’s highly unlikely that she’ll be able to ferry any more troops to gobble-up defenseless Turkish territory. Conquering Portugal and Morocco would win her the game, as would an overland march through France and Etruria to take back the Papal States from the Infidels (Catholic powers like Spain get double VPs for reconquering the Vatican). But the British heretics are already right next door to the Vatican, so they’ll be there long before Spain. And France will likely turn her attention to Spain long before her weak armed forces can conquer all of Portugal and Morocco.

Finally, Turkey has done very well for herself with rich conquests in the Balkans and Italy, and has a well-stocked war chest for 1804. But, the small size of her army relative to her expansive territory is letting Russia, Austria and Spain pick her apart at the edges. Unless she can stop that process, she’s not going to make any headway.

What will the world look like after the spring of 1804? Can Prussia survive? Will the pope embrace the Five Pillars? Has Brenda stolen Jax’s heart? And what of poor Davout in prison? Tune in next time and find out!

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