Ah, Napoleon: Total War. Same thing as Empire, just in the Napoleonic ages. And there is only one theatre, Europe, which has trade zones, which work just like the ones in Empire found in the trade theaters, all along the edges of the map. Simple, right?
Since I couldn’t play as France in Europe, yet, I chose to play as the British.
The British, as always, has a very good position. You own all of Ireland, Scotland, and England, as well as Gibraltar, at the bottom of Spain. From this position, you can either launch an invasion of Spain via Gibraltar, an invasion of France, or just sail around with your navy.
Right off the bat, I went to all my ships, except the trade ships, and put in large, beautiful letters, HMS, in front of the name.
Then I actually looked at the ships. My Royal Navy looked a sight. I couldn’t believe my eyes. In Admiral Harashio Nelson’s fleet was the Admiral’s flagship. Oh, hell yes. HMS Rose, a 122-gun ship-of-the-line. Beauty ain’t it, mate? It was about a quarter-stack navy, and when I put it together with another quarter-stack, it provided a pretty good armored escort for the trade ships I was sending down from the trade zones up north, which had two trade ships each. Another ship caught my eye. Looking past all the first and second rates, was a third rate named HMS Dragon. I loved it, and I don’t know why (excuse me, while I kiss the sky!) {props to whoever can tell me where that is from}.
The next couple of turns I battled against the Batavian Republic, the French, and the Spanish navy’s in four epic battles, for control over the trade zones to the east of Spain. Two excellent victories. One decent victory, with a few mistakes, but little losses. One, against the Spanish Armada, was disastrous, with a huge amount of losses. The last one, the disastrous one, played out like this...
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Battle Report
The Battle of the Straight of Gibraltar;
The last decent Spanish navy, a 13-14 ship stack, was rumbling around near the Strait of Gibraltar, destroying my trade ships. Nelson’s Royal Fleet was close enough to intercept it, but he was outnumbered, and since I didn’t have a spy in their navy, I couldn’t see that I wasn’t actually outmatched. So I was sent down a few more trade and warships from England to try to box them in. A few turns later, when I was one turn away from a complete box-in-then-attack situation, they attacked Nelson’s fleet. At first, I almost screamed. Then when I saw that their navy consisted of mainly trade ships, so I calmed down, and begun the battle.
I formed a long line, hoping to defend against their attack, but when started the battle, I moved my ships into two columns, HMS Rose leading Barboard Column (on the left), and a fourth rate leading the Styrboard Column (on the right), thinking this would be easier. But, here is the problem that I noticed right when the combat began. When you start a naval battle, your ships are in order from strongest to weakest, and when I formed my columns, I just split the line in half. If you don’t understand, heres the simple version. My Styrboard Column, is extremely weak. Basically, my Styrboard Column is completely screwed.
When I noticed this, I quickly swung around my Barboard Column to try to intercept the Spaniards, but it was too late. By the time Nelson and his column got in to help out, about three quarters of my Styrboard column was at the bottom of the ocean, one routing, and another still fighting. Although weak, my Styrboard column did very well, sinking at least three.
I won the battle, but the amount of ships I lost was completely, totally unacceptable.
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With all naval powers destroyed, I had complete control of the all the trade zones west of mainland Europe. Now, my thoughts shifted to land...
"Not all treasure's silver and gold, mate".
"Hakuna Matata".
"Till dods för Karl Gustav!"
"Ja jag vill liva, jag vill dö i norden!"
92% of teens have moved on to rap. If you are part of the 8% who still listen to real music, copy and paste this into your sig
[This message has been edited by Dewsquad (edited 09-10-2010 @ 01:27 AM).]