Imperialism - Recovery of France Scenario

[robinp]

OK, folks, I downloaded those saves and continued on for a bit. My army managed several British provinces (getting lots of metals) before the Russians got Newcastle and Scotland. Need population/productivity growth at home.

Inspired me to start the scenario from the beginning, calling the saves "FranceRecoverMyWay". We'll see if I can do even better. It is labelled as "Hard", of course. Two or three trade consulates very early. Serious fruit shortage calls for a river port in the east, then ports in south-east and south-west for timber and iron. Second Engineer and a Forester early while making the army respectable enough to deter attacks.

In case any readers haven't noticed: I've started a wiki - http://imperialism.wikia.com - for this game and its sequel. Please join me.

[robinp]

Reporting failure.
Verrucosus must have been extremely lucky. Finding his own iron and coal deposits early, let alone any in a conquered Netherlands province. My first run found GB declaring war in Fall 1821, and their blockades and sinkings meant that I could no longer sell or buy more than a tiny fraction of what I wanted to, if any. Very soon got bank foreclosure and no chance of seriously building resistance.

Second run, GB waited till Spring 1822; hardly better. I had given up on the idea of a second Engineer - not enough money for earlier ports.

I didn't wait to see if GB really could invade, though a guess (based on reported ship numbers and the proportional difference in total military strength) suggested that their army was no match for mine and they kept withdrawing once my troops reached their beachheads. GB's industry graph showed that they would catch up with my army soon enough. Others would have if they didn't.

Colon was right. Virtually unwinnable, despite one or two successes reported by others. Should have been graded "NOI" rather than "Hard"?

I'll write it up on the wiki, quoting bits of this thread. Anyone who doesn't want his words of wisdom displayed outside Apolyton, come to the wiki and tell me.

[themosmitsos]

Aaaaaaaaaall right, now I'm gonna RUIN this game for EVERYBODY [kinda :P], but I know tricks cuz I just like it & play it on & off for a LONG time as a distraction while I do work on the pc ....
what I want in return is someone to contact this guy for me
http ://apolyton.net/member.php/59-Allard-HS
[his post http ://apolyton.net/showthread.php/9970-A-new-scenario-for-Imperialism-I ]
and get him to email me the imperialism scenarios he's created at themosmitsos5 @yahoo.com cuz I'm not allowed to contact him as a new member & I'm just not gonna bother to make 20 posts LOL I'd rather just do this & hope someone reciprocates, especially since I'm letting you all know he's made CUSTOM imperialism scenario [u can play Netherlands as a great power apparently(he's dutch)]. Btw, EXCELLENT Allard!
or if anybody else has coded a custom scenario great powers game that'd be COOL cuz I've gotten so good at this game I can win with ANYBODY, ANYWHERE. So I'm bored. Help PLEASE!

How to win as France, from real victory to balls-out cheating, and you can use these principles with any nation:
[caps = emphasis in my usage ]

without saves/retries
Firstly, diplomacy: If you pester the other powers excluding GB on *every*turn* from the outset, prior to GB declaring war you may in fact be allied with all other nations, and some at least by the time that whore the queen does declare war. When GB declares war on you, if ONE other nation joins you--especially among Russia-Prussia-Austria--those nations never break their OWN alliances among each other just to avoid joining your war. This will keep GB distracted & gives you a CHANCE. Doesnt always work. Inconsistent.

Secondly, when you are at war, offering a peace treaty to the enemy lessens the chance they will intercept your mechants, especially if you havent traded for a while. So, in a a very difficult waρ scenario I stock up clothing/furniture & sell every so often stockpiled-style to avoid interception. Of course, after a while, GB or other nations may run a perpetual blockade on you and then you're **** out of luck--οr if you're abusive with it(offering peace treaty on every turn) it lessens the impact.

Thirdly: BALLS OUT ATTACK GB FIRST. I dont mean what I read above. I mean on the ... 3rd, 4th turn. GB has a HUGE navy, but ZERO army. You build TWO frigates, ONE more heavy artillery and GO AFTER THEM. I send the frigates to Scotland on the 3rd/4th turn & have already declared war as I dispatched them. I make a beachhead & send in ALL my army [two heavy artillery can only be sent at this point]. You WILL take Scotland. While this is happening build two more heavy infantry. You now have 2each heavy infantry, light infantry, heavy artillery. ROCK AND ROLL. Send the infantry units into Scotland on 5th turn. 6th turn take the next province south-Newcastle. This is key. Next turn, take Yorkshire. GB is DEAD. Turn after turn I go after their provinces & roll the army south. They DONT have military to threaten you at this stage and you are depriving them of the resouces they need to build them, why? Navy = expensive. You take Yorkshire & Newcastle they're DoA & cant recover before you've encirlced London. At this point they're only relevant as a trading power & if you dont build up either a navy to decimate them or a larger army to take London & just let them be London only [encircled] they become a threat after 10yrs as a trading power, having rebuilt. Also, if you dont take London you run a risk of OTHER powers declaring war on you to balance you out cuz now as BOTH France & GB in terms of resources, in 15yrs NOBODY with be able to **** with you.

Legal, ethical cheat: Your problem as France or ANY nation in great power scenarios or random map scenarios on impossible setting is not that you cant trade if alot of people declare war on you. It's that you need MONEY to stay viable until you can start punching back. In fact, as France, you have higher lumber capacity and can crank out more ships of the line than GB once you get production rolling, and only have a coal problem once Ironclads come into play. You know what's money? GEMS :P They are in Morocco's Marakesch [best cuz gems/iron combo], North Africa's Tunisia [--best minor nation to go after, also has coal/gold combo in Biskra and Gold in Tunis AND OIL in the capitol for later!] and in the Eastern Desert Sahara in Egypt. I build two frigates and declare war on ALL THREE SIMULTANEOUSLY [lessens diplo negativity, not that it's good] &send them to marakesh. Invade, develop gems as your FIRST resource =$1,000/turn. If you do this IMMEDIATELY and while building the port and the mine you invade tunisia, you'll do ALL THIS BEFORE GB declares war! [or just about]. Quickly, you've got $2,000/turn coming in. You DONT need to trade, you can develop you resources & trade JUDICIOUSLY and in bulk [when you can escort] and keep it going like this until you choose how to attack her. Do somethin QUICKLY though. It's a France scenario, ie, post-Napoleonic. Other nations are SCARED of France and DONT wanna see her resurge. You MUST either sack London QUICK, or get the gems & then build up normally but again QUICKLY cuz if not everybody else declares war on you, and maybe STILL will.

Simple basic rule notes:
I ALWAYS prefer DIRECT rail connections to capitol vs ports where possible.
If/when great powers attack me, the FIRST ONE I **** is Sardinia. GET THAT COAL in Savoy, and maybe the steel in Genoa too ! Need it later. Now ... if you have strength and balls[but let's face it if they declared war on you, you dont have strength but whatever] go after Westphalia & the Ruhr valley vs Prussia! Best long term move even more than Sardinia [which I like cuz I can connect to capital directly] is Benghazi et al [the three provinces] of the ****ing Turk ********ers next to Egypt: coal + oil = PREMIUM
Second, no matter HOW/WHAT strategy I employ as France, I WILL take ALL of Belgium ASAP cuz I need the coal.
Third: As France, other than gems, first thing I build to collect resources is depot in Anjou [3 fruit 3 timber-GB navy=blockade=food probs] and second a port in Brittany [one timber two wool--pumps out lumber fastest(hamlet to village or whatever it's called)].

Cheat-cheats, all accidentally discovered ...
Simple cheat:
Production →→ Mining, wool. cotton, lumber, food: Note each of these can be improved x3. First for $100, second for $1,000, third for $5,000. ONCE YOU HAVE THE TECH TO IMPROVE TO THE *SECOND* LEVEL [$1,000] which in scenarios you do even in 1815 for mining [MOST important] first make sure for any of these resources you have TWO specialists, ie two miners for mining for ex, two farmers for food/cotton, etc.
Nowwwwwwwwwwwwww ....... PAY ATTN
Put a miner on a mine to build the first mine: cost $100. When he finishes, click him & move him to an adjacent square [not developing anything] and click the SECOND miner onto the mine to build the second mine: cost: $1,000. NOWWWWWWWWW .... **WHILE** SECOND MINER IS BUILDING MINE, *IN*THE*SAME*TURN* again *IN*THE*SAME*TURN* again *IN*THE*SAME*TURN* click the original miner. It says redeploying. Click CANCEL ORDERS. BABOOM SHAKALAKA he's back on the mine. Click develop mine: cost $1,000. You are now building the second AND third level mine, and for $4,000 cheaper but MUCH MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY, 30yrs before the tech is available to you )))))))))))))))))) HAVE FUN! Found this accidentally, & it solved my lack of coal frustration problem. Now, also, if you do this after the second level of development once you've obtained the third level tech, ie to create a FOURTH [non-existent in game] level, weird **** starts to happen. Forests to level four will SOMETIMES produce coal! Mines to level four sometimes crash the game. Never spent enough time on this part to see what's what, too inconsistent, was happy having 3mines when AI had two :P

The cheat like a MOTHER****ER cheat:
The queen is a WHORE and so is anybody else declaring war on you, ESPECIALLY the Turks. Computer cheats, it KNOWS where you have strong army the ****ing BASTARD, it NEVER attacks there. Sooooooooooooooooooo .... PAY ATTN. Dont worry about anybody attacking you ANYWHERE, stay defenseless. GAME HAS A BUG[but it's intentional, occasionally AI compensates]. You are attacked in a province, click CANCEL to select how to deploy units yourself and then on the right click END DEPLOYMENT button [ie, you've supposedly deployed]. Screen pops up again, do you wish AI to deploy units for you? Click CANCEL a SECOND TIME and then END DEPLOYMENT a SECOND TIME too. PRESTO! VICTORY! 100% of the time, no battle, no damage, NO bull****. Rule is, defending province HAS to have at least ONE conscript, and this will NOT work if you are being attacked where you've built a fortess [or a capitol] ooooooooooooor if the AI wises up [rarely] & sends in a sapper [it WILL the ****ing BASTARD though].

how you like them nipples? SO **** GB. Do the Gems & when they attack they can SUCK MY BALLS TOO

Now, if AllardHS reads this, or anyone else that can code & would bother to do what I believe are MINOR mods which I'm just not a programmer & cant do, here's what I'd like to see & think would be cool, ideas, cuz we're all fans of the game:
I'd like to see a "super-resource rich" scenario where ... all nations, have ALOT of GEM/coal and GEM/iron and gold deposits. For ex, I'd LOOOOOOOOOOOVE to play as Prussia [MY fav to play and also the most frustrating as an AI opponent cuz it NEVER develops the Ruhr & those resources are just wasted] and have say 7 gem/iron deposits and 10 gem/coal deposits and idk, another 10 gold deposits, so that I could play a BALLS OUT WAR scenario, ie, just declare war on EVERYBODY from first turn, including minor nations. Additionally for ex, if some minor nations like Switzerland were just FULL of Gems and Gold. Maybe if there was a little more oil too.
The other thing I'd like to see is the map of 1882, exactly, as the map of the 1820 of Recovery of France scenario especially if it included the Gems/resources thing, so war and money production would be nearly independent of trade until you got really developed, and even then, while the money would be less important, the level of steel would NOT be. I'd like this scenario cuz THEN I'd like to play VS Prussia cuz they'd be SO STRONG!
The other thing is if I could play ALL nations, simultaneously, schizo-style, myself vs my other selves
Finally, as a Hellene, I'd really love it if somebody could do AllardHS's Netherlands thing so I could play Ellas [Greece] as a Great Power with Gems & coal/iron!
And if all minor nations could be "unlocked" and played as great powers that would be suuuuuuuuuuper cool, again, especially if layered with more gem/steel producing resources on the **ENTIRE** map. Moreover, the whole map needs more coal, I know it's lacking to create conflict, like oil is lacking but I'd just like to play the balls-out war scenario.
Afterthought: Could u even create a button or two that could be for ex "extra resources" & "extra gems" so one could select which or both, or would that mean re-writing the game? Idk. But I'm not looking for any great power to have tons of gems & steel & everybody else not, I mean give everybody gems/steel so total-war scenario could be played as any nation, even minor nations.
Of course, the one nation that should have more than anybody if I get my way is Greece, please make a note of that
So that's the info I can trade for my request[s], I hope someone reciprocates, and if not, enjoy my tricks for fun.

Ciao
themosmitsos5 @yahoo.com

ps: 5+yrs late not ... tooooo late for a 15yr old game right? Shhh, dont tell nobody I still play it

[themosmitsos]

I just posted something on the Imperialism thread, can you help?

[themosmitsos]

I just posted somthing on Imperialism can you help?

[themosmitsos]

I just posted a lengthy reply to your Imperialism Recovery of France query, it's only five years late Can you help *me* ?

[robinp]

Now that themosmitsos has found how easy it is to edit the Imperialism Game Wiki, I hope he can repeat most of the above brilliant essay in smaller chunks on its forums or other pages so that people can more easily comment on specific parts of it. See http://imperialism.wikia.com/wiki/Re...of_France_1820 and http://imperialism.wikia.com/wiki/Cheats_%28Imp1%29 and http://imperialism.wikia.com/wiki/Game_development - and those are just examples

[themosmitsos]

@Robin Patterson

I appreciate your attempt to help, but the links you provided dont have anywhere I can DOWLOAD the new scenarios, like Spain for ex.
Can you provide me with links to DOWLOAD those new scenarios where Spain, Netherlands, are great powers, and any others that may have been written?
Or perhaps you can email them to me at themosmitsos5 @yahoo.com
PLEASE?
THANK YOU!

wait, I just found them, they're working!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's just the two, correct? The Pan-Germanism Scenario & the ANCIENT GREECE SCENARIO?! DDDDDDD Special order delivery!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU SO MUCH!

[themosmitsos]

@Robin Patterson

Ancient Greece scenario has a bug & keeps freezing on me in 1954. Is it just me? Happened twice. Have only played as Sparta. It's COOL!
Tried the other scenario, not as good as the Greece one, but very very interesting!

[robinp]

1954!!! I haven't reached that point yet. Can't you manage to win before then?

And yes, I've put links from the wiki to places where one could download other scenarios. Example at http://imperialism.wikia.com/wiki/Ottoman_Empire_1820

[robinp]

Having now dug more deeply into the literature, I think I know which scenario is really what themosmitsos was looking for. It is indeed Netherlands as a great power. I've given it a page on the wiki with a copy of one player's AAR and my response to that, with a picture of how I am getting on in 1821 with half of France already and expecting to get another 4 or 5 provinces. The page includes a link to where you can download the zip file and try to do better than I'm doing. Shouldn't be hard. But it could be hard to win because GB is still comfortably ahead on most of the charts.

http://imperialism.wikia.com/wiki/Resurrection_of_Holland_1815

[ane13sk]

Hi all


After "only" 7 years of inactivity, I'd like to provide some further update on this
I had a crave to play a bit again, and came across this forum which we might just as well define as deep web.
So, I used to be pretty good back in the days, and I thought I could pull this out.

First couple of runs, I tried the Belgium assimilation / "deep" economy development strategy.
Did not turn out too well, and we all know why. The perfidious Albion will declare war to you, and I find it quite invariably (tested a few times) being Summer 1821, so, as we all know, really early.

Then, I turned to the strategy suggested by themosmitsos (which I will name: be quick or be dead). Not the cheats part, I dont do that, just the strategic stuff: be aggressive and attack first.
And I have to say, it works like a charm.

So, I will provide some key points , provided that I'm still playing the scenario and I am in 1835 now (definitely a winnable one), so this will roughly cover the first 15 years of game.
I have backed-up some saves for later use (and if anybody does not believe haha) but basically:

1) Build 2 Frigates, as themosmitsos suggested, ASAP.
2) Develop an Engineer and a Forester. I think this works better than 2 Engineers, especially because I suggest to start province development from Anjou (then Lorraine)
3) You can either wait for Britain to declare war to you or attack first, it doesn't change much. Just load up some cash while you still can as that blockade is definitely gonna happen
4) Establish a beachhead and starting from Scotland, take the 4 northern provinces.
5) After Anjou, develop the mine in Lorraine so that you can use that ore in combination with English Coal (Britain might block the sea route for some turns, but not all)
6) Focus on economy, but keep developing your army roughly at par with other powers, to prevent them from ganging up. War with England is easy, as they give up soon the idea of invading you.
7) Develop a couple of S-O-L, in conjunction with the 2 Frigates, these will help you do the necessary trade to keep you afloat. Send them in & out the British channel to divert the British warships.
8) One major power (not Britain) can be kept friendly and selling you useful intermediates. I occasionally bought stuff to accelerate army development & training
9) Slowly (but not too slow) conquer the provinces down to London. You must eventually take the British out so if you can kill some of their reinforcement units in the process, it will help.
10) 1831, I am nearby London: after scouting, I focus on army development to get whatever extra unit I need to take them down.
11) 1833, I take down London and war is over. However, there is still a big problem. All others power are currently allied and you are diplomatically isolated.
12) 1835, I declare war on Sardinia. Global mess ensues, but I get what I want, the maxi-coalition breaks as Russia, Prussia, OE go at war with Austria instead of me.

The last point is important. I guess there might be changes here according to which power will be friendly and selling stuff to you (having tested a few times, it is not always Russia as it was in my final successful attempt. it could be Austria, or the Turks) but you must break your isolation by taking initiative. Once again, my thanks to themosmitsos for the idea. If you let the British live, or just passively focus on development, in the end somebody will declare war at you, all the others will jump in and then it will be HARD to defend all borders. Even your economy in the long-run is in better shape (we know human players have an advantage over the AI in this) you will have a hell defending from everyone. A slip, a successful beachhead into France and game is essentially over.

Here you go, hope you enjoyed the tips and brought back to you some will to win the "invincible" scenario of Imperialism WITHOUT CHEATING or taking the known shortcut of the surprise attack on London! (by the way, that was also the only way I knew to win this scenario back in the days).

GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN!