Empires - Napoleonic Wars

[Veqryn]

empires - for TripleA

empires

This game is similar in rules, if not in look, to Axis and Allies Revised.  
For example, the basic infantry of the game is called “Fusiliers” and is a 1att/2def/1mov/3cost unit
Transport rules, dice rolling rules, factory rules, everything is basically just like Revised, just with different units and a totally different map.

Basically, to play first you need to go download TripleA:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/triplea/files/

Then, you need to download the map.  How to do this?
Open up a copy of TripleA (run the game), then in the Menu, you will see an option called: “Download Maps”   <- click that
A Dialog Box appears, asking for a URL/Link to download the maps from.  Copy and Put this link to that box, then press ok:
http://sites.google.com/site/tripleaerniebommel/home/mods/TripleA_Quality_Mods_EB.xml
Now scroll through there, approximately half way down is “Napoleonic_Empires”  <- click and install that one
(if that doesn’t work, you can always download it manually from: http://www.mediafire.com/file/gnzmztd3wmj/Napoleonic_Empires.zip )

Great, you have the map now, join the online lobby or play a game over lan/email/hotseat/againstAI.

The original game and map was created by LSSAH.  Since he has disappeared, I’ve converted it up to the current triplea engine.
I have adopted the map, and it is currently on version 3.6, and has been balanced very nicely.

Suggestions are welcome,
Though the game is very close to being fully balanced as it is right now, so I won’t be making any radical changes.  
http://n2.nabble.com/Empires-Napoleonic-Wars-tp4696030p4696030.html

For more information on how to use TripleA, visit:
http://n2.nabble.com/Download-Maps-Links-Hosting-Games-General-Information-tp4074312p4074312.html
or
http://sites.google.com/site/tripleaerniebommel/
or
http://triplea.sourceforge.net/mywiki/Forum

thx,
veqryn

GAME NOTES:

The empires of europe are at war.

The upstart French republic has followed in the footsteps of their American compatriots across the sea
and cast off the trappings of monarchy.
Can this new light in europe survive against a host of squabbling adversaries?
Or will it fall victim to its own aspirations for empire…
Will the russians be forced to sing La Marseillaise?
Will the English see the Guillotine raised in Piccadilly?
Or will the rule of the monarchs be insured by the restoration of Louis XVIII to the Parisian throne?

CANALS:
Oresund (Holstein,Sjaelland)(SZ10,SZ11)
Kerch Straight (Crimea,Astrakahn)(SZ97,SZ101)
Strait of Messina (Sicily,Calabria)(SZ70,SZ71)
Bosphorus (Constantinople,Kiutayeh)(SZ84,SZ92)(connects Turkey, Balkans by land)
Neva River (Karelia,Ingria)(SZ2,SZ3)
Optional Canal: Andalusia (Gibralter) must be controlled to move between SZ53-54
Optional Andalusia (Gibraltar) rules: Gibraltar does not touch any land, therefor no units can enter it by land, and no units may exit it onto land.  Must be invaded by ship.

UNITS and Rules:
Battleships DO NOT REPAIR at end of turn.
The number of Bombardments allowed is restricted to the number of units making an amphibious assault, however bombardments still kill units without the unit getting to return fire.
Encampments are permanent, and can be captured.
Generals can move and raise troops in the territory they occupy, if you owned that territory at the beginning of your turn.
Generals and Encampments are Factories, meaning they follow all normal factory rules.  They can be purchased and placed anywhere you owned at beginning of turn, they can produce anywhere you owned at beginning of turn, and they can be captured
Barques (green transports) are not allowed to capture convoy zones. Do not use them to do so. The game engine allows them to, but this is a bug in the engine. They are not supposed to be able to capture convoy zones.
Capturing a Convoy Zone denies the enemy their income, but does not provide you with any income, and can only be done during your Combat Move, not your non-combat move, and not during another players turn.
Optional Rule 1: Captured Generals are executed (deleted through edit mode)
Optional Rule 2: Captured Encampments are burned to the ground (deleted)
Optional Rule 3: Barques can capture convoy zones.

Historical Alliances:
Nation… Allies
1.United Kingdom… AUS PRU RUS OTT
2.France… SPN SWD
3.Kingdom of Prussia… RUS SWD AUS UK
4.Ottoman Empire… UK AUS SPN
5.Russia… PRU AUS UK
6.Sweden… FRA SPN PRU
7.Spain… OTT FRA SWD
8.Austrian Empire… UK OTT PRU RUS

Actual Alliances in this game:
UnitedKingdom … Coalition
KingdomOfPrussia … Coalition
Russia … Coalition
AustrianEmpire … Coalition

France … Carolingians
Spain … Carolingians
OttomanEmpire … Carolingians
Sweden … Carolingians

Unit List:
attack/defense/movement/cost … special
0/2/0/3 Mortella Tower
0/4/0/6 Fortress
1/2/1/4 Fusiliers . Supportable
1/3/1/5 Chasseurs . Supportable
3/2/1/6 Grenadiers . Supportable
2/2/1/6 Marines . Amphibious Assault +1 Attack, TransportCost: 1
1/1/1/4 Howitzer . Gives Support (+1 attack)
2/1/1/5 Artillery . Gives Support (+1 attack)
5/1/1/7 Mortars . Gives Support (+1 attack)
1/1/2/5 Horse Artillery . Blitz, Gives Support (+1 attack)
1/1/2/4 Hussars . Blitz
2/2/2/6 Dragoons . Blitz, Supportable
3/2/2/7 Cuirassiers . Blitz, Supportable
4/3/2/9 Marshal . Blitz, Supportable
4/3/3/9 Marshal of France . Blitz, Supportable, French only
0/1/2/8 Barque . Transport Capacity: 3
1/1/2/6 Cutter . Gives Support (+1 attack)
1/2/2/8 Brigantine . Supportable, TCapacity: 1
2/1/2/9 Corvette . First Strike, Can Retreat (Is Sub), TCapacity: 1
3/2/2/12 Frigate . Nullifies All Enemy First Strike, Supportable, Bombard, TC: 1
4/4/2/20 Battleship . 2 Hit Points (doesn’t repair), Supportable, Bombard, TC: 1
0/0/0/14 Encampment . Can Produce Units, Can be Captured
0/0/1/18 General . Can Produce Units on Territory you owned at beginning of turn, Can be Captured, Can be Transported, TCost=3

Infantry type units have TransportCost=2, while Cavalry type units have TCost=3
(Exceptions: Marines have TCost=1 (can fit on any boat), Marshals have TCost=2)
Corvettes are treated as submarines, and Frigates as destroyers.  Assuming no enemy Frigates in the battle, Corvettes can retreat separately from the main force during offense, and can retreat when on the defense to any adjacent friendly/empty sea zone.

STRATEGY HELP and OPENING MOVES

On Units:
Barques are the Green-Bottom boats, and they are the Transports of this game.
Fusiliers and Howitzers are the most efficient units to buy.  If bought in pairs, they are essentially 3att/3def/1mov/8cost with 2 hit points (Hitpoints matter alot!).
Cutters and Brigantines/Corvettes are the most efficient naval units to buy.  If bought in pairs, they are essentially 3att/3def/2mov/14cost with 2 hit points, (or 4/2/2/15 if cutter + corvette, assuming you have ships for the cutter to support).

As France:
You have many options and no required opening moves.
Obviously you should take Flanders, Cologne, and Provence.
Option 1) Go Heavy into Germany and NorthWestern Europe
Option 2) Go Heavy into Italy
Option 3) Atlantic Fleet builds
Option 4) Med Fleet builds
Option 5) Take Egypt and Optionally build an encampment or general down there.
Option 6) Send the Egypt fleet back towards Italy (or up to black sea)
Generally speaking you can probably do 2-3 out of those 6, as trying to do more would spread you too thin.

As England:
You have the most options and no required opening moves.
Try to kill the remains of the english channel french fleet.
You can use the frigate near ireland for shore bombardments into ireland (with the marine), and even help with the northumberland marine too.
Your Majorica fleet can kill the spanish fleet if the french did not support it, and otherwise you can take corsica, sardinia, valencia, or tunisia with the marines there, or you can head for the french convoy zone and steal it.
Your other med fleet can go towards the french med fleet, or try to link up with the majorica fleet, or head to Candia (crete).  You can also build an encampment in either Candia or Majorica, though Candia can usually last longer, and can be used to pressure the ottomons.
England should try to have more fleet than the spanish at all times.
It is generally a good idea to help the Prussians push Sweden out of Jutland.  After that, you can turn your attention to northern france, northwestern europe, or invade norway and sweden.
Get the Swedish and French convoy zones near England as soon as you can.

As Spain:
Take Oporto.
Position Units and choose your build in order to take Andalusia (Gibraltar) and Lisbon on the second turn.
Your general can head for Valencia and build fleet, or La Mancha and build units this turn.
Usually not a good idea to threaten England in the Atlantic the first turn.
You also need to send some guys into North Africa, and can do so on the first turn depending, but at least by the third turn.  Your goal should be to eventually be getting +10 pu’s a turn out of africa.
Option 1) Attempt to rid the Med of the UK
Option 2) Begin a Naval building war against the UK in the atlantic
Option 3) Build all land, sending to either northern france or italy.

As Prussia:
Take Mecklenburg.
You can choose to attack Moldovia if you want.
Generally speaking your goal should be to push Sweden out of Holstein, while keeping the French OR Swedish in check.
Option 1) Go 100% navy.  Assuming Jutland and Finland fall by turn 3, you can win against Sweden’s Navy on turn 6, even if Sweden goes 100% navy also.
Option 2) Go a little navy to start, to hold on to your convoy zone for a few turns, then switch to 100% land.
Option 3) Go 100% land.  You will have to garrison Prussia and your north.  Can pay off quickly if France can be stopped from advancing.

As Sweden:
Consolidate your fleet in SZ9 and move General to Ostra Gotaland.
You should attack St. Petersburg with everything that can make it in Finland and Karelia.  You should retreat to Karelia after 1 round.  You should not win in St. Petersburg.
You can build 1 Battleship and 1 Cutter first turn.
If Prussia builds 100% navy, your choices are 1) to keep up and build 100% navy also, hoping french can pressure prussia, or 2) send your fleet to sz11 or build extremely defensive fleet, or just save your money for multiple turns
If Prussia does not go navy, you should still build navy first turn, but after that you can build a barque or two and begin reinforcing jutland, finland, and invading all the coastal areas around you.  Perhaps even drop off a general somewhere to build on the mainland.

As Austria:
Do not forget to move your troops in Hollande (and each turn after that until they get where you want them to go).
Take Bavaria.
You can also take 1 Ottomon territory this turn most likely.
Build cheap units as fodder.
Sit back and build, perpare for french assault eventually.  Play check with French forces.
You can also swing into Italy when the time is right and the French are not prepared to prevent you taking Rome.
Pressuring Ottomons can be done but is risky, as if you get too far away from Vienna the French might decided to take it from you.

As The Ottomons:
Retreat northern forces closer to Constantinople.
Move Brigantine in SZ93 closer to Russian Convoy, take russian convoy on turn 2 with brig.
You use your marines against an enemy in moldovia, or you can move them to use turn 2 or 3 in the med against the neutrals.
If you pick up your general with the barque and drop him off in Sinop, you can build a cavalry there and use it against Armenia.
You can attack Edessa first turn, but if you lose any guys taking Armenia turn 2 gets more painful.  Might be worth waiting and moving all troops closer to Armenia turn 1 without attacking.
Overall, your goal is take significant money out of the middle east, while holding off Russian hordes, Austrian adventuring, and the occasional UK amphibious assault.
Survive long enough while taking neutrals and you become a threat who can push back, but at the beginning you mostly just try to survive.  
If Austria does not send much against you, or Sweden forces Russia to head north, you can go on an early offensive, but don’t get in over your head.
You can also send all your navy to the med and challenge the UK for supremecy there.

As Russia:
Your job is to push Sweden out of Finland, and Push the Ottomons out of Armenia, while threatening and holding down any Ottomons near Constantinople that way they do not pressure Austria.  You can also send a few spare troops to defend Prussia and Austrian capitols.
Pretty simple, you want to send at least 20 units north… then send everything else south.
If Prussia is not going navy, you will need to send a unit north every turn just to build up a defense up there in case sweden attacks.
Otherwise, send everything you build south every turn.
You can also send a general south and build Navy.  After you take the two neutrals there, your navy can exit the harbor and take back your convoy zone.  The navy builds often force the Ottomons to keep up in navy, which is not something they can easily do.

[Imperious Leader]

interesting…

[Guest]

This game looks awesome. Thanks for the info Veqryn. I will surely check this one out.

[Veqryn]

version 2.9 has been released, i’ve updated the links,
this map is getting more fun by the day, and it is pretty well balanced now,
each nation has multiple viable strategies, and each is quite fun to play in its own way,

go check it out!

[dinosaur]

This looks very good.  I wish I had time to look into it.  I can see lots of “supportable” units, which I think helps give the game a combined arms look using a variety of units.

[Veqryn]

version 3.0
changed some names around,
and added 2 new units: Howitzer and Marshal of France.
Howitzer takes over Mortars stats (1/1/1/3 supporting), and Mortars becomes a 5/1/1/7 supporting unit (not a great buy, but good if you general is right next to the battles and you need offense now and can not wait for a bunch of howitzers to make it all the way from your capitol.
Marshal of France is a French only unit, 4/3/3/9 unit, that can blitz and can be supported.  You won’t see many of these, but france does begin with one.

playtesting has found the game to be very balanced as of 2.9, and 3.0 only refines that even more.

have fun

[Veqryn]

version 3.2 is up

new art mostly, and some minor tweaking

[Veqryn]

3.5 is up

[Guest]

@Veqryn:

3.5 is up

What changes have been made?

[Veqryn]

armenia is easier for ottomons to conquer on second turn (turned the hard hitting defensive chasseur into a easy to kill hussar)
russia now begins with 1 more transport-ship (barque) in the north (can be moved through the neva river if russia takes karelia from the swedes)
and prussia has 1 less static defense (tower) in their capitol
and corvettes are no longer supportable (should not effect much, there are 3 other units that are supportable still)(having a supportable sub generated too many rules-related questions, as to whether the support got first strike or not)
candia/crete has a little more static defenses (someone found a breaking ottomon play that could capture it turn 2 regardless)

so far the split on games is about 50/50, but we need more people testing and coming up with new strategies.  there is plenty of room to find them

[Veqryn]

2 months of play-testing on 3.5 have basically confirmed that the game in really well balanced and pretty dang fun.

still, there is always room for improvement.

3.6 is now up,
here are the changes:

Added 2 Russian Barques and 2 Cutters to SZ2 (remember there is a canal to sz3).
Changed Fusiliers to Chasseurs in Finland.
Removed 2 Spanish Fusiliers, upped Spanish starting IPCs by 7 (to 30) so that they can now choose to purchase new ground units, or instead spend the money on fleet.
Added 1 Tower to Gibraltar, and reduced Gibraltar territory IPCs by 1 (to 2).
Made convoys worth more: each of sz28 uk, sz38 france, sz50 france, sz61 france, sz73 uk Upped by 2 (to 6), and sz46 spain upped by 8 (to 12).  This change is balanced out by having some uncontested land worth less for the three nations involved.
Change in Prices for units: Battleship cost 1 more (21).
Upped Prussian and Swedish starting IPCs by 1 (to 27) so they still purchase a BB + Cutter on turn 1.
Added victory cities victory conditions (12, 13, and 14 vc to win).

What effect do the changes have?
Basically, Russia now has the option of going anti-sweden instead of anti-ottomon.
And UK can now go anti-spain with much more effect due to the spanish convoy being worth more (and hence for spain to lose it would be roughly equivalent to UK taking swedish or french land territory).
And the Med is slightly more important with 4 (2x2) additional IPCs in convoy money down there.

Have fun!
VEQRYN

edit:

I also created a free-for-all (FFA) version.
Which could be more historical (or less historical) depending on the alliances people make.

[Panzer2C]

I would like to play this as a board game with my gaming group.  Are you willing to share this game with me?  Can you give me the map file as a pdf file?  I would also need the rules as either a Word or pdf file.