Strategy in ‘Soldier Emperor’
Summer 1804
By Doug McNair
September 2006

The Napoleonic Wars continue in today’s episode of As the Emperor Turns. As summer 1804 begins, Prussia is trying to rebuild after suffering major defeats at the hands of France and Russia, while Turkey has just experienced a coup d’etat which will put her economy into a depression for the rest of the year. Napoleon’s offensive against Austria, and Charles and Bagration’s offensives against Napoleon, have all gone nowhere, with much money and blood spilt on all sides.

The only real gains were scored by Britain, which took the Papal States from Turkey and cleared the Turkish Navy from the Tyrrhenian to become the dominant naval power in the Med. She’s poised to keep marching up the boot of Italy and threaten France from the south if she can avoid getting bogged down in proxy wars with Russia in Sweden and Naples (the latter of which still controls Sicily).

The wild card is Spain, which has held onto Constantinople and is now in a position to exploit Turkey’s sudden weakness, with the help of her new ally Egypt. Russia is also in a position to make gains against Turkey, but she has to keep the majority of her armies on the western front to deal with Napoleon. She will also be low on Money after repairing all the armies that took damage in the failed attack on Napoleon and Murat, so it’s unclear whether she will have the resources available to attack Turkey and still maintain her armies over the winter.

Purchase Phase: Everyone repairs their damaged armies, but Turkey and Austria have to leave a few unrepaired to conserve cash. When repairs are done, only Britain and Spain (beneficiaries of overseas colonial income) have reasonably-stocked warchests, so the other powers will have to be quite creative to make substantial gains this year.

Initiative Phase: Napoleon decides he’s better off switching to defensive mode this turn, and will focus on conquering German territory that he bypassed in his eastward advance in 1803. So, he opts to reduce his Initiative roll by 2 so he can react to other powers’ movements, and the initiative order ends up:

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

TURKEY has only 3 Money to her name, thanks to Austria’s orchestration of the Sultan’s overthrow in the Spring. She’s also in danger of losing the Black Sea province of Wallachia to either Russia or Spain, and that would make retaking Constantinople all-but-impossible. Ahmed would like to attack northward from Bosnia and take weakly-held Hungary, but that would leave him an open route eastward to Russia, so Bagration would just come down from the north and smash Ahmed’s army for his trouble.

Turkey opts to try once again to take Constantinople. Pechlivan sends one army to guard Wallachia while he and two armies go south through Macedonia to hit Constantinople from the west. Kuschanz Ali comes south from Wallachia with one army to hit Constantinople from the north, and the Turkish Black Sea Fleet joins in as well. Turkey spends all 3 of her Money on an Assault, which starts at 12 dice to 11. Turkey scores three hits on the first round to Spain’s two. The Egyptian army gets ejected southward to Smyrna, and the Spanish fleet gets ejected out to the Mediterranean. The Turkish Black Sea Fleet also takes a loss and returns to the Black Sea, and the second round goes off at 10 dice to seven. However, Turkey only scores one hit, which is not enough to damage the 3/2 Spanish army holding out in the city. The Turks lose one damaged army to a Spanish hit, and the two Turkish leaders and their remaining armies retreat to Macedonia, having failed once again to take back their capital.

PRUSSIA is penniless, but she sees no reason not to improve that situation by moving west and besieging defenseless Mecklenburg for free. Saxony would be a richer target, but Napoleon and Bagration will be fighting each other there shortly, and Honhenlohe does not want to interfere with them killing each other off. Prussia plays “New Leader” and gets Blücher, and he moves west to Mecklenburg and scores two hits on the fortifications there, taking it for Prussia with no damage in return. Then, as a parting gesture, he plays Minor Country Alliance and attempts an alliance with Denmark, getting a +5 intimidation bonus since he has 5 armies on Denmark’s border.

France does not want to see a resurgent Prussia anytime soon, so she applies her –2 intimidation bonus for the army and fleet she has in Hannover. But Britain does want to see Prussia return and act as a check on both France and Russia. So Britain applies her +1 intimidation bonus for her North Sea Fleet and +2 for the Swedish fleet and army in the Baltic, and then throws in a 3 Money bribe for good measure. The total modifier is 5-2+1+2+3 = 9. Prussia can’t help but roll a 10 or more, and successfully allies with Denmark, whose army and fleet appear in their home land area.

NAPOLEON decides that if the Prussians are getting all uppity, there may as well be fewer of them by the time the Peace expires. So he moves the two Prussian auxiliaries from Magdeburg east to Saxony, telling them to besiege it and take it for Napoleon, then hold it against Bagration’s advance. He’ll pay for the siege, then let the Russians spend their remaining money attacking the Prussians and taking Saxony.

He then moves three armies north from Baden to besiege defenseless Hessen, moves the Old Guard south from Piedemonte to protect Spanish Etruria from a northward British advance, and asks Spain to reciprocate by moving an army to Provence to protect the south French coast. Spain agrees. Then, Napoleon does a long march west from Bayern to Lorraine, south to Piedmonte, and east to hit Austrian Tirol.

Tirol is held by only two 2/1 Austrian armies, but it has massive fortifications. Napoleon spends 1 Money for a Probe, thinking he can get two hits on his 11 dice and thus eject the Austrians. But Austria plays a Reserves card, bringing in a 3/2 army from Wien that attacks at double-strength. The attack is at 11 dice to 16, and Napoleon rolls only one 6 and no 5s, so he gets one hit and doesn’t take Tyrol. Austria does two hits in return, damaging one of Napoleon’s armies and sending him back to Piedmonte to guard the Mediterranean coast against the British. France then spends 1 Money to besiege Hessen and 3 Money to besiege Saxony. Both fall to France, though Saxony won’t stay that way very long . . .

ADMIRAL JERVIS OF BRITAIN seems to be attracting attention now. Napoleon himself is getting ready to dip his toe in the Italian boot, and Russia’s ally Naples will force Jervis to spread out his armies to protect his rear if he doesn’t deal with them shortly. So, Jervis goes gunning for the Neapolitan fleet to keep it from picking up the Neapolitan army in Sicily. Meanwhile, the British invade Spanish Etruria by land and sea. Their hope is to take it and hold it until next year, when Britain can hopefully ally with Austria and finance a massive, simultaneous attack on France from the south and east. Finally, Britain’s Swedish allies Assault the Russian expeditionary force that took Swedish Scandia.

Jervis successfully intercepts the Neapolitan fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean and gets the wind gauge of them. He and his two 3/2 fleets attack with 8 dice and score one hit, damaging the Neapolitan fleet and forcing it to retreat to the Western Mediterranean. Then the attack on Spanish Etruria goes in, with the British spending 3 Money for an Assault. The British score no hits on the first round while the French score one and eject a British fleet.

In the second round the British score two hits, which is still not enough to hurt the Old Guard. The Guard replies by scoring two hits of their own, ejecting another British fleet out to the Med and sending the remaining British armies packing down to the Papal States to avoid being caught in the open by Napoleon. Finally, the Swedish assault on the Russians at Scania ejects both Russian fleets from the province and leaves one Russian army there. The Swedes retreat to Stockholm to consolidate their forces.

With Turkey out of Money, AUSTRIA suddenly has nothing to fear from the east and can focus her few remaining resources westward. So, Charles leaves one weak army behind to protect Croatia and attacks the Franco-Italian army holding Venezia to the west. Charles spends 3 Money on an Assault, but then France plays the Burned Bridges card, cutting off part of the Austrian army from the attack and thus halving the Austrian attack strength. Not content to see her ally’s attack get blunted that way, Russia plays “Troop Revolt” on the French army in Tirol, forcing it to take a step loss and retreat to Piedmonte to join Napoleon. The halved Austrian attack goes in at eight dice to five, and does two hits on the second round, ejecting the Italian army from Venezia with no damage to Austria. Charles then besieges Venezia for one round for free, but scores only two hits — not quite enough to take it back.

SPAIN is also in an excellent position to exploit Turkey’s cashless situation, so she sends her Egyptian ally to hold Constantinople while her own army and fleet besiege defenseless Smyrna. Spain spends 3 Money for unlimited siege rounds and takes it. She also moves an army out of Provence and down to Spanish Etruria to protect it from the British.

Finally, RUSSIA attacks the Turks in Wallachia, with the two Russian 3/2 armies attacking south from Moldavia with help from the Black Sea Fleet. Meanwhile, Bagration takes his stack of 11 armies west from Posen to attack the two Prussian Auxiliaries that just took Saxony for France. The Turks stand and fight, but the Prussians see no reason to stay there and die for Napoleon.

Prussia violates her peace treaty with France, and the two Prussian armies in Saxony revert to Prussian control. They bow to the Russians and open the gate for them, retreating to Magdeburg so the Russians can besiege Saxony for free.

With the siege of Saxony all but assured, the Russians spend their money attacking the Turks. They spend 3 Money for an Assault at eight dice to four, but the only side that takes any damage is the Russians, whose Black Sea Fleet takes a step loss and retreats. The Turks breathe a sigh of relief, as one hit to their army would have killed it later due to lack of winter maintenance.

Bagration besieges Saxony for free with 28 dice . . . and just barely does the three hits necessary to take it for the Tsar.

At the end of summer 1804, Marshall Murat in Bayern is sending all of his dispatch riders south, informing Napoleon of the Prussian treachery and urging him to come very quickly, lest Paris play host to the Tsar next year. The Old Guard’s brave stand in Etruria gives Napoleon the freedom to go north and deal with Bagration, so the fate of two empires will likely be sealed in Bayern before long.

Charles of Austria is down to just 2 Money, so while he’d like to pin Napoleon down in Piedmonte and give Bagration an easy time against Murat, it will be all he can do to repair his armies and keep besieging Venezia. Bagration is also low on money, but Russians starve well, so he’ll likely attack the French once more before winter even if it causes lots of losses due to lack of winter maintenance. The Turks will be receiving some new armies next turn, and that’s the only thing that will stop Spain from gobbling up more defenseless Turkish territory.

Britain suffered her first setback in the Med at the hands of the Old Guard, but she’s willing to bide her time now that the weather is cooling and 1805 is just around the corner. When Major Power alliances become unrestricted, Austria and Prussia will receive offers of massive cash subsidies in exchange for an all-out effort to crush Napoleon.

How will Britain keep Russia from exploiting France’s fall to win the game? Is Nicholas falling for Emily all over again? Will Spain conquer Turkey and win before Paris falls? Tune in next time and find out!

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