Jason Pipes - Sep 3, 2009 2:41 pm (30217.) "You smash the entire area, you kill anything that has more than two legs." - Lt Rasczak Played The Napoleonic Wars last night at Endgame in Oakland, CA with Rich Renner, Joe Oppenheimer, John Gibbons and myself. I took France, Joe took Austria and Russia, John took Prussia initially as a neutral, and Rich took England. I started things off by taking an army into Italy and capturing Naples and adding my first key, and then playing a + card to bring Napoleon forward towards Austria and to rearrange my armies in that sector for a more credible threat. Unlike many games of TNW I didn't launch a massive blitzkrieg on Austria, opting instead for a more protracted, conservative, somewhat defensive tempo focused on taking keys that were ripe for the picking versus heading straight for Vienna. England kicked things off by going on a naval campaign which was very successful, sinking two French and a Spanish fleet. England also focused on Spain in addition to their naval campaign, and it turned out to be very successful. Initially Spain kicked England out and beat back reinforcements Rich tried to land. Spain even killed Sir John Moore and a small army Rich landed as another reinforcement when they decided to attempt to evade north to Corunna. The evasion failed and they stood to fight and were wiped out. But the English were persistent and landed again, this time far in the south and well after Spain had blown all it's cards. By some handy card play from his Allied players England managed to grow a leader and a unit and march them towards Madrid, eventually taking the city as well as Badajoz, but not before the last remaining army in Spain managed to capture Lisbon (sieges can be rolled for regardless of cards in hand). No matter, it was clear that Spain was going to fall, and fall it did on the first turn of the game. England knocked out my only ally! This was the focus of the English for the first turn, and it went very well for them indeed. In the meantime Prussia was standing by as things developed, waiting to throw their weight behind whomever looked to need it the most but spent a lot of time helping Joe and Rich with suggestions and considerations. In the East Russia moved forces forward while Austria decided to move on Milan since the only French army in that immediate area was in the south now holding Naples. My French blocking force at Milan evaded and Joe took his first key. As a reaction another French army moved down from north of the Alps and struck Joe's army at Milan, which in turn caused Joe to have his army at Tyrol intercept. They made it into the battle but this was a key move because if they failed it might leave the vital duchy mountain pass open for the French. The battle was a success, though a fairly bloodless one as we forced Joe back in otherwise desultory fighting. It was worth it as France took Milan back and secured the southern axis from Austrian advance and moved forces to occupy Tyrol. Soon France ran out of cards even though the Allies still had a few left, allowing Austria and Russia to build, bring forces forward, and concentrate at Vienna while preparing for what was assumed to be a very large battle in the next few impulses. With France at zero cards I opted to spend a resource and bought a card. Turned out to be 4 CPs worth which I used to flag Linz. Napoleon had moved their earlier when making a rash advance on Vienna and did not flag the space initially opting instead to try for a quick knock out blow that had presented itself. As it was the Austrian/Russian force their turned back my French. The lost battle and resulting attrition only killed 4 units, but it was a rebuke. With spending a resource and drawing card I was able to flag Linz and then moved on Salzburg, actually winning a small battle there and ending my first turn in control of yet another key! Turn 2 began. Joe played a handy card insuring that preemption was not possible as long as the Allies controlled 7 sea zones. This frustrated the French considerably as they had something like 9 cards. I had given up on the naval strategy and opted to focus on the mainland exclusively. With no preemption the turn started with Austria and I had to wait sometime to play my first card which was a powerful one, allowing me to draw one card from England and another from the draw pile. The card I drew from England was a stunning card (making them very upset no doubt), revolt in Ireland giving France near total control of Ireland and it's single key located there. I played the card on my next turn adding a third key to my total, and to add salt to the Allies wounds I played the + card The Emperor Commands that gave me another automatic key, bringing my total to 4 thus far. In addition to knocking out Spain in the first turn the Allies also effectively brought in Sweden (for England) and Turkey (for Austria). The English continued their naval strategy while amassing an army in Spain to eventually move on the south of France. Russia and Austria built up their forces while Prussia began to gravitate towards the French camp. With Spain knocked out, the seas controlled by the Allies, and a few minor battles lost by France it looked as if the French were doing worse than they were (we held 4 keys at that point but effectively made the Prussians think we were doing worse causing them to lean towards the French diplomatically). At this point Joe and Rich had to leave and John and I opted to continue the remainder of turn 2 to play things out. John took over England, Austria Russia, Sweden, and Turkey while I took over the Prussians and continued with the French. The focus for the remainder of the turn was for France to beat back an Austrian push on Munich (which the Prussians came down from Berlin to assist with, securing the key and protecting that flank), and to advance Napoleon from Salzburg to Dalmatia cutting off the Austrian force at Venice. John opted to intercept into Dalmatia and made it, but on doing so left Venice completely open. France won the resulting battle and Austria with Turkish forces retreated to Zagreb. This allowed me to move into Venice and secure my 5th key. An invasion of the French coast by a minor British force caused a small nuisance but was quickly wiped out, though another force popped up to the north at Antwerp shortly thereafter. The English are nothing if not persistent. With the turn winding down things settled in with the Russians securing their rear area and the Baltic region from Prussian threats and the French preparing to move on Zagreb and possibly Prague, gobbling up two more keys. The turn ended before either advance could be started, but with the end of turn two France was up 5 keys allowing for a pretty conclusive victory if one were to be called at that point. All in all a great game as TNW often is!