Strategy in ‘Soldier Emperor’
Summer 1805
By Doug McNair
September 2006

The Napoleonic Wars heat up in the summer of 1805 with today’s installment of As the Emperor Turns, our season-by-season replay of Soldier Emperor. As the spring campaign season drew to a close, Austria and Prussia had struck back hard against Napoleon, with British cash fueling their drive westward. Half of Napoleon’s conquests in Germany had fallen to Blücher, while Charles of Austria had taken Piedmonte in southeastern France and cut off three damaged French armies in Spanish Etruria.

But Britain herself saw no gains, having fallen prey to French blockades and a massive naval mutiny. Spain conquered Portugal and Epirus on the Balkan coast, but lost Constantinople to the tenacious Turks. And Russia finally decided her troops had better things to do than be cannon fodder. She sat back and let Charles and Blücher have their go at the Napoleon, while sending Generals Bagration and Benningsen south to start driving the Turks into the Mediterranean before they recover from near economic collapse.

Purchase Phase

Spain gets the two fleets she purchased last year and places them at Etruria. Then everyone repairs their damaged units. This leaves France with only 5 Money remaining. It will be all Napoleon can do to try to extract the Old Guard and his other armies from Etruria, then hunker down and hope for the best. Russia isn’t in much better shape — she has 12 Money, and that puts a significant damper on her plans to conquer Turkey. But then Spain throws her Minor Country Alliance card down in front of Russia, points to Russia’s ally Naples, and rubs her fingers together. Russia gets this “I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a Neapolitan hero sandwich today” message loud and clear, and nods.

Initiative Phase

Napoleon must get the jump on his enemies so he can hit them and strengthen his defensive lines before they move. So, he adds +2 to his initiative roll . . . but to little avail. The initiative order comes out: Prussia, Austria, France, Russia, Britain, Spain, Turkey.

BLÜCHER has no intention of letting Russia keep control of East Prussia and Posen, but the Peace of East Prussia runs until the Fall, so he sees no reason to let the Russians off the hook early when Hohenlohe can hit the French in Holland without worrying about his back. The rebuilt Danish fleet starts by taking on the 2/1 French fleet blockading it. After several rounds the Danes damage the French fleet and eject it, and then the Danish fleet moves out to support the Prussian attack on Holland.

The French 3/2 fleet blockading the Midlands doesn’t get wind of it and can’t intercept, and Hohenlohe’s forces move west to hit Holland while Blücher moves west to hit Kleves, leaving armies behind to guard his rear at Magdeburg and Hessen. Each attack goes in at Assault strength, and Hohenlohe’s is 12 dice to 9. The Prussians do five hits to two on the first round, destroying one French army and forcing the other to retreat to Calais (the Danish fleet dutifully takes the step loss for the Prussians). Then Blücher’s attack on Kleves goes in at eight dice to nine. Neither side does any hits on the first round, and on the second round Blücher does one hit but takes two. He and his damaged army retreat to Hessen, while the damaged French army retreats south to Lorraine to try to bolster the Italians there against the expected onslaught from Charles of Austria.

Hohenlohe besieges Holland for free and gets three hits on 10 dice, while the French defenses score one hit and eject a Prussian army. Two more hits and Holland will be Prussia’s.

CHARLES OF AUSTRIA confers with Admiral Jervis by messenger boat. He can certainly march over the mountains and take Lorraine, but he can’t hold it against Napoleon and Murat charging west from Bayern. And with a mountain route to his rear he couldn’t retreat and would be destroyed. So, rather than push farther into France, would Jervis like to assist Charles in crushing the cut-off French and Spanish armies in Etruria? Jervis would, and his fleets and Charles’ armies all pile into Etruria, while Austrian forces fill in behind Charles to protect his rear. Jervis plays Caught at Anchor for good measure, and the newly-minted Spanish fleets are caught in a hail of cannonfire before their seams are even caulked. Both of the allies pay 5 Money for an all-out Invasion, which goes in at 37 dice to 20.

On the first round both sides score four hits, with the Italian army dutifully dying and a Spanish fleet taking damage but escaping out to sea, and one British fleet and one Austrian army taking losses and retreating. The second round is at 28 dice to 15, and the Allies do five hits to one. Another Spanish fleet takes damage and escapes, taking a half-strength Spanish army with it. Then a French 3/2 army dies, leaving the Old Guard alone to fight yet another desperate battle. One British fleet takes a step loss and retreats.

With no more ships to catch at anchor, the British fleets now attack at normal strength, and the combat strength for the third round is 18 dice to eight. The Allies score four hits, wiping out the Old Guard, but it makes a valiant last stand and scores 3 hits, driving out one more British fleet and Charles’ last army. This leaves Jervis alone in Etruria, and he pays 1 Money for two siege rounds. The first does two hits, but so does the Spanish garrison, driving out one of the last British fleets. The second round does three more hits to none for the Spanish, and Etruria falls to Britain. The British conquest of the boot of Italy is now complete.

NAPOLEON has some very tough choices to make. He’s in an outstanding defensive position in Bayern, but if he stays there Blücher will just move into Baden directly to his rear and cut off his only retreat route. So he has to retreat, and while he’d like to leave some troops in Bayern to slow the Russians down, he can’t afford to lose anymore units due to the disaster in Etruria. So, he pulls his entire army back to Baden, leaves Murat there with two armies to block the Russians and Prussians, and then charges north to relieve the Prussian siege of Holland. Meanwhile, troops filter down from Lorraine to Provence to protect against an invasion of the south French coast, and French fleets go back on blockade duty at the Midlands and Wales to keep the British from launching more invasions this turn.

Napoleon has to conserve cash so that he can repair his damaged armies and keep them alive over the winter, so he pays 1 Money for a Probe at Holland, which goes in at 11 dice to eight, with Napoleon hitting on a 5 or 6. Napoleon does four hits while the Prussians do only one, and while that’s enough to eject a Prussian and a Danish army, one Prussian 3/2 army remains, so the siege of Holland is not lifted.

MOTHER RUSSIA smiles warmly, proud that her children made the right decision for a change and didn’t attack Napoleon head-on. The Russian armies in Bohemia and Saxony advance westward to take Bayern now that Napoleon has vacated it. Two Russian armies remain in Saxony to guard against Prussian perfidy, and then Bagration decides to do an end-run on Ahmed, taking his three armies southeast from Hungary through Transylvania and Wallachia, and then west to hit the two Turkish armies in Serbia.

Then Russia picks up the fleet and army at Naples and says where to? Spain says Turkish-held Dubrovnik, and they sail out. Jervis opts not to intercept them since he has to stay in Etruria to guard against a Spanish counter-invasion, but the four damaged British fleets make an interception attempt. They fail, and the Spanish-Neapolitan invasion of Dubrovnik will go in at Assault strength. With Jervis keeping close by his conquest, the Russian Black Sea Fleet heads out to the Western Mediterranean and attempts to intercept the weakened British fleets that were ejected from Etruria during the invasion. It succeeds, and with no damage done on the first round the vulnerable British fleets retreat to the safety of Gibraltar.

Bagration pays 3 Money for an Assault on Serbia, but Turkey plays Trap! and gets to roll first, hitting on a 5 or 6. She does three hits, enough to eject one Russian army back to Wallachia. Then Bagration attacks with seven dice and scores three hits, damaging both Turkish armies and sending them down to Macedonia. Turkey smirkingly plays Recruit Prisoners as a parting gesture, getting 1 Manpower, but then the Spanish-Neapolitan invasion of Dubrovnik goes in at Assault strength, nine dice to four. It scores only one hit on the first round, not enough to hurt the Turks, who do two hits in return and eject both Neapolitan units.

But on the second round the Spanish do two hits to none for the Turks, and since the only land routes out of Dubrovnik are mountain routes, the Turkish army can’t retreat and it dies. The Spanish spend 3 Money for unlimited siege rounds, and take it after three rounds. Then Bagration spends 1 Money to besiege Serbia for two Rounds, but fails to do any hits. But finally, the Russian armies in Bayern spend 1 Money for two siege rounds there, and they take it in just one. Russia then plays Rhine Confederation, creating the armies of Bayern and Saxony, thus bolstering her strength in both places.

BRITAIN is becoming very concerned. Her conquest of Spanish Etruria has not kept Spain from conquering more territory. Spain is still just 1 VP shy of Automatic Victory, and Russia is on such a roll that if she’s not stopped soon she may ride down Victory Lane alongside her ally Spain. Jervis and his fleets are done for the turn, and the rest of the British fleets, plus the allied Swedish fleets, are all blockaded.

Britain has no choice but to try and break the blockades, and to that end she plays New Leader, hoping to draw Lord Nelson. SHE DOES! The band strikes up Rule Britannia as he sails out of Wales, leading two British and a Portuguese fleet against the one 3/2 French fleet blockading them. Nelson gets the wind gauge and attacks with 10 dice, doing two hits and driving the French away. He then puts into Scotland, picks up a British 3/2 army there, and heads south to invade Lisbon so his Portuguese allies can rise again to help invade Spain (and act as cannon fodder against the Guerrillas).

Meanwhile, the Swedish fleet at Scania attempts to break the Russian blockade there. They drive off the weaker Russian 2/1 fleet, and then after several rounds the remaining two fleets both roll boxcars simultaneously! The Swedes return to Scania, but the Russians have to retreat as well. The blockade is broken, but the Swedes can’t do anything about it.

Nelson and the Portuguese invade Lisbon at Assault strength, 13 dice to six. Unfortunately, Nelson does no damage the first round while the Spanish drive away the Portuguese fleet with a step loss. The second round is at 11 dice to six, and this time Nelson does three hits, driving the Spanish army out to Estremadura. He then spends 1 Money to besiege it for two rounds and takes it, giving it back to the Portuguese.

SPAIN is concerned about the British invasion of Portugal, but she won’t be in a position to do anything about it until next turn, when the armies she bought in the spring will arrive. And if she doesn’t win this year, she can always pay her Russian ally to build lots more armies, then bring them west to wreak havoc on the Brits. But in the meantime, she takes her damaged fleets and army into Epirus to guard it against the Turks, and saves her money for later conquests.

AHMED OF TURKEY is surrounded in Bosnia — Austrians to the north and west, Russians to the east, Spaniards to the south. He has no chance to break out of the trap, so Kuschanz Ali and Pechlivan in Constantinople will have to break him out. The two damaged Turkish armies in Macedonia move east to Constantinople, and then the two Turkish generals take their armies west through Macedonia and north to hit Bagration in Serbia. They spend 3 Money on an Assault, which goes in at nine dice to seven (Bagration did not take Serbia, so he doesn’t get the fortification bonus). Unfortunately, the Turks do only one hit on each round — not enough to hurt Bagration’s armies. Bagration does two hits on the second round, flipping a Turkish 3/2 army and forcing the Turks to retreat back to Macedonia.

IN THE PEACE PHASE, TURKEY SURRENDERS TO RUSSIA. Turkey offers Bosnia to Russia . . . a convenient choice, since that would allow Ahmed to withdraw from there peaceably, and would also require Bagration to withdraw from Serbia. But Bagration says no — he’d rather have Serbia, and if Ahmed wants to leave Bosnia he can pass through Serbia peaceably on his way back to Macedonia. If not, well, that’s his problem. Serbia goes over to Russian control, and the turn ends with Russia just two points behind Spain in the race for Automatic Victory . . .

. . . just in time for the Peace of East Prussia to expire. With the Rhine Confederation on her side, Russia will be able to invade anybody she wants to in Central Europe. Will it be Prussia? Can Blücher do anything about it? And what of the Swedes, now that the Russian blockade of Scania is broken? Can Britain’s allies Prussia and Sweden stop Russian expansion before it’s too late? Will Alexis ever come out of her coma?

And what of Charles of Austria? Can he cross the Alps and get the jump on Napoleon to take Lorraine? Or will he too decide that British money is more important than Russian manpower, and try to eclipse Prussia in Britain’s eyes by heading for Moscow? Who is the father of Elizabeth’s baby? And what of poor Napoleon? Will the Allies fall to fighting amongst themselves, thus giving him a chance to regroup, rebuild, and restock his war chest before conquering Europe again? Tune in next time and find out!

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