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unmerged(90)

Marshall Ombre
Feb 13, 2000
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France 1700 scenario. Difficulty hard, AI aggressiv

The time is 1700 Anno Domini.

How is the world ? wonders the Bon Roy Louis on the 1st of January. Well as far as French knowledge goes this looks like this :
France is bordered on the North by Spanish Low countries, in the east by Lorraine and some German minors, Switzerland, Savoie in the South-East and Spain in the South. We have mighty Austria, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Turkey just waiting for the first misplaced word to go to war against each other in Northern/Central/Southern Europe.
What about the new world ?
In North America, France has got some colonies and trade post in Canada, with Québec a 3000 pop city. We also have a level 4 colony in Bayou (Louisiana). The English have colonised the East Coast. The Spaniards are in Florida.
In the Caribbean, we have two Isles à sucre (Guadeloupe and Martinique) and two third of Haiti, with a city in Les Cayes. Holland has 3 or 4 isles, Spain has the rest of it.
Central America is Spanish. Period.
South America is split between Spain and Portugal, with a French trade post near actual Guyana.
In the Americas, there is still a lot of room for colonisation and competition will be fierce.
In the Atlantic Ocean, St Helena and the Malouines have not yet been colonised.
In Africa, France has a trade post in Senegal. Portugal has some trade posts too and an English colony is established in Cape Town.
The Indian Ocean is French in its western part (Trade post in south Madagascar, Colonies in Réunion and Mahé), Dutch colony in Bourbon. It’s English in its central part (Ceylan) then Dutch in its eastern part as we reach the East Indies.
France has a level 4 colony in Pondicherry. South India is Dutch, whereas the East coast is English and the West coast is half Portuguese, half English. We haven’t discovered much more at that time…
On the Trade level, France has interests in numerous COTs, to begin with two in France (Paris and Vendée). The Bombay COT is indecently rich but under English control. Same thing for the Manhattan COT but this one gets a lot of its riches from French trade posts in North America.
The King is fairly surprised by its economic infrastructure. There are absolutely no improvement in any city (no manufactories, no Bailiffs, etc.) [I like to think it’s an error in the scenario set up ?]. His armies are potent. In France, two 50k armies are present. In the colonies however, the French military presence is nearly inexistent. The French navy is just mighty and the King can rely on numerous generals and admirals.
What about the diplomatic situation ? Believe it or not, the Royaume is allied with England, Netherlands and Saxonny. Spain is allied with Lorraine, Scotland…
Now it is time to think of a strategy. I am upset by the infrastructure situation. I must improve it and it will be my priority. Now, I must choose between a European or a colonial strategy as I won’t be able to pursue both. There are a lot of opportunities in North America, and I will try to develop there. As we are allied with England (despite bad relations), I can count on some years of peace there to strengthen my positions.
A summary of what happened.
I began to improve infrastructure, putting nearly everything I have in it. After 30 years, most provinces will have seneschals etc. Then I began building manufactories. I eventually ended with one fine arts academy, three breweries, two naval equipment manufactories, two weapon manufactories (one gained through an event) and three goods manufactories. These improvement where critical to improve France’s revenues, as the trade war did not go to my advantage.
For trade, my objective was to maintain monopolies in my two national COTs and have 5 merchants in other COTs that mattered (Genoa, Manhattan, Bombay, Central America). I succeeded with Genoa. Rapidly, I was kicked out of the Central American COT by Spain. By 1750 I was kicked out of Bombay by English. By 1760, I had very hard time maintaining a presence in Manhattan. Moreover, as sending merchants to foreign-controlled COT far away from France costs a lot, I could not invest as much as I would have wanted due to my infrastructure investments.
On the colonial level, I took two good decisions at start : make Pondicherry a full size colony and prevent the English from spreading inland in North America by creating a continuous line of trade posts from Détroit to Louisiane. Three colonists to Pondicherry and the colony succeeds in incorporating the local population : I now have a stronghold in India (over 10.000 pop).
But what’s this ? Spanish armies marching right in Bayou and annexing it ? Sacrebleu, I had forgotten the Tordesillas treaty, still active. This means I have to protect all my American possessions south of Louisiane from Spanish attacks ! The time troops from France reach this destination, my trade post in Guyana is annexed. The treaty eventually becomes void with the Edict of Tolerance with happened in the middle of the century. During all that time, Spain continuously attacked my possessions. Moreover it allowed Spain to recover immediately territories I had gained from it in peace resolution, as I wasn’t able to garrison them quickly enough.
Wars occurred. As I wanted to strengthen France first, I decided not to attack anyone at the beginning, feeling surely enough that my enemies would come to me sooner or later. Well sooner…
Overtime, I got DoWed five or six times by Spain, thrice by England and once by Russia. My alliances with England could not be reconducted when it expired so I built an alliance with Netherlands, Bavaria, Tuscany and Iroquois and proposed Royal marriage to every one that would accept it (Austria did I was glad of it).
All Spanish wars were either draw or lost in Europe but won in the Americas. How come ? Without investing in my armies at first, I was no match against the Spanish hordes, except for the first war when I could besiege Luxembourg and Aragon. However, this cities were too fortified for an assault and the siege would last long and I hate long wars. My chance was to have a strong navy in the Caribbean, therefore preventing Spanish troops to land in my isles. On the continent, my strategy was always the same : find out unfortified provinces, walk over them (taking control of them without a fight), let Spanish troops besiege some of my fortified province and strike them when they are exhausted. With this run and sting tactics, I was able to control large portions of Spanish America, therefore eventually forcing a good peace for me. With time, I could reinforce the Americas and this game was much easier to play than during the first war when I had only a 8k army in North America… However, as I was eager to get back to peace, I accepted any peace proposed (mine were often refused) and got provinces on the Pacific ocean that I could not reinforce before a small detachment of Spaniard took them back using Tordesillas (it happened on the Pacific, in Bayou and in Haiti). On Haiti, I was once reduced to one province, with its city besieged before rescuing it and eventually annexing the wo other provinces by the end of the game.
The other Spanish wars were hard in Europe. Their allies (mainly Lorraine) coming to their help while mine often dishonnoured the alliance except the trustworthy Dutch. Without rebuilding my strengths there, I could just sit and watch the Spaniards besiege cities in South France and Artois with their Lorraine allies while my brave Dutch allied sent rescue armies to me. Artois fell twice. My strategy to strike at Spaniards besieging my cities worked fine save once were all my armies (including their leaders) were utterly destroyed leaving no single French soldier in France (gulp). I tried to besiege Lorraine but was never successful. The Dutch besieged Spanish low countries’ provinces with regularity but got nothing (I was aware to give them money after peace with Spain was signed at my advantage).
I gained no single province in Europe and lost none during the century but took a nice piece of the Spanish cake in America (From California to Savannah). However, during each war, the bloody Iberians managed to torch some or many of my undefended trade posts. The worse was the second war, when an expeditionary force of 1k went from Texas up to the lakes flaming everything (nearly 10 posts) before a troop from Québec could stop them. Naturaly, I did the same thing to every Spanish trade post I happened to pass by.
One painful moment was during a Spanish war. Russia declared war on me, along with its Danish ally. Why? This remains a mystery. It had been at war against Spain, destroying trade post in Florida and establishing its own there. This was the only place where French and Russian territories met. I burnt the trading post, and having nothing more to do, asked for a white peace. Russia always refused! Time after time and war exhaustion began to hit France, revolts began to occur and Spain eventually declared war on me once again. I lost control over Québec and another North American city, Guadeloupe, Réunion, Artois, Champagne… The only positive point was that these rebel armies hindered Spanish moves and engaged the Spaniards, especially in Artois.
I was desperate to conclude peace asap. I succeeded in signing a separate peace with Denmark. Then Spain eventually asked for peace but Russia still would not want to agree to a peace treaty. I was helped by the Poles and their allies who had the bright idea to declare war on Russia. Soon after, Russia agreed to a white peace. I could then rebuild troops and dispatch them in the colonies to retake control over my provinces… The strong army send to America stayed there and was the backbone of the future campaign there.
The English campaigns were different as their was no war in Europe except once and everything happened in North America. I have to thank my Iroquois allies to have fixed the English armies while my numerically inferior troops invaded undefended English settlements. As usual, trade posts were burning (mine, because England had only colonies). I eventually managed to get some provinces from England (Massachusetts and some in the south). The last campaign was successful, once again thanks to other powers declaring war against England and having them offer me three provinces to stop hostilities while they had superior troops and leaders.
On the colonial level, I established trade post on the western coast of Africa, two more colonies in India (Madras and Cochin) and in the Pacific (Hawai, Tahiti, Fidji and Australia save Tasmania) and reached California.
So how does it all end?
In Europe, status quo for France, England, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal. On the other hand, Austria has become the major player, annexing Bohemia, Wurttemberg lots of Polish provinces and even Swedish ones. Bavaria was totally landlocked within Austria. I believe my alliance with them in the second half of the century saved their neck. Russia also had a nice piece of the Polish cake.
In North America, France is the winner, although I could not annex Manhattan and its COT. England had 13 provinces from Manhattan to Carolina, one trade post on the Hudson bay near one Russian, and one colony in Newfoundland, 2 on the West coast, along with 4 Russian settlements.
In Central America and Caribbean, Spain had lost provinces to France, Russia (Barbados, Mosquitos, Caracas, Cuyuni) and Holland. Haiti was wholly French.
South America was left much unchanged save for a Prussian colony.
The western coast of Africa was French and Swedish (2 colonies, one post), the eastern coast Turkish and Omanese. The coasts of India were Anglo-Franco-Hollando-Portuguese while the inland was one powerful Mogol Empire.
In the Pacific, The Dutch had a nice East Indies possession, up to Manilla, whereas the English were in Papu, in Tasmania and in New Zealand (France in Australia).
France won with 1870 Vp before Russia 1578, Spain 1233, England 1197, Austria 1114.
This was: military 248 (3rd), Economy 1011 (1st), Diplomacy 292 (1st), Missions 318 (1st).
Economy, as always, was the key to success.
 
By the way, today's my birthday so this is my gift to you :)
 
Congratulations and happy birthday!

We should be giving you presents instead of the other way around. :)

Btw, I loved your strategy of cutting the English off from the West...
 
Btw, I loved your strategy of cutting the English off from the West...

Actually, that is very similar to the strategy that the French took. They had the claim to the huge Mississippi River valley and started building (or taking) forts along the line. Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is one of the more famous since it was the flashpoint of the French and Indian War and the first military experience of a young inexperienced militia officer called George Washington.
 
Yann -
Bon Anniversaire!

A fun and fast AAR... my favorite line was 'leaving no single French soldier in France (gulp)' talk about understatement! At least all your investment in infrastructure paid off in the end as you won with victory points. Congratulations, and thanks for summary.
 
Happy birthday!

Very interesting to see how EU diverges from history at a later point in time. I don't suppose you could tell me how powerful Prussia was on the continent by 1792? Also, exactly where was their South American colony?

I hope you had fun annexing all those Puritans. And shame on you for making Sap speak French ;).
 
Prussia: I didn't pay much attention to it. They didn't seem very impressive though, between Austria and Russia with a bit of Poland and Sweden.
Their South American colony was on the Atlantic coast but where, I don't remember?
They also had a trade post in Africa.

And yes, I think this was going to be a world where French would be spoken in North America as a whole, which would have been much better indeed :D (at least for us French...) and perhaps the Aussie would have been less painful towards New Caledonia, our nice little nuclear tests in Tahiti and it would have been easier to blow civil ships in New Zealand's harbours anyway...

(there it is, if I am not going to be torched for all this... :) )
 
Originally posted by yndenwal:
By the way, today's my birthday so this is my gift to you :)

Happy birthday! I know I am late, but I have not found a moment to read this topic until now.

Incidentally, how come Spain was so powerful in AD 1700? I had the idea that the reign of Charles II, the last of the Spanish Hapsburgs, was absolutely catastrophic and left the country in a very poor state, right before the War of the Spanish Succession.

Once again, happy birthday! And yes, we should send you gifts; not the other way round.

Kind regards.

Martin
 
ANemic Pickman:
You can leave troops in any trade post or colony but these provinces just can supply very few men. So if you put too big an army in a trade post or small colony, the attrition will reduce it very rapidly until it reaches a size the province can supply.

Martin:
Spain was not so powerful in 1700. The first war against them was a draw and it was already 1710 or something like that so they had time to rebuild their strength. Afterwards, they concentrated on Europe and I didn't so giving them the advantage I wrote about.
One point is to say that during the century, Spain had no single ducats to fortify important colonial provinces, therefore allowing me to run them over. On the other hand, all my colonial cities were fortified (although not very strongly). I could as well have fortified nothing and used the money to raise troops instead...