Age of Steel Guide Pair: 1861

To compensate for screwing up this weekend, I present two guides now.

America 1861

Using a true-to-history strategy, we can actually win this one really fast. I got 24 turns, with underdeveloped generals used in a subprime way, and without trying to rush.

History Lesson: The Anaconda Plan

In the beginning of the Civil War, the Union's Commanding General, Winfield Scott, proposed a plan to defeat the Confederacy.
In his plan, an elite Union force was to land in New Orleans and push up the Mississippi River, while the US Navy blockaded the Rebs. For political reasons, Lincoln added in an attack directly to Virginia. Ultimately, the Union's victory followed this rough plan.

How I did it:

I put Sophia on the Heavy Cavalry outside of New Orleans, and Maria on MGs I built in Philadelphia. I then used Scott and Maria to march down the Eastern seaboard (aided by the superior Union Navy), while Grant marched to Nashville, and then pushed south.
Sophia's task force was the interesting one. I landed them in West Florida, then marched into New Orleans while the Privateer drew the Confederate battleship away. After New Orleans, she pushed into the Deep South, and participated in the serial obliteration of the South.
One general of note is Robert E. Lee. I spammed forts and artillery to get rid of 'im, and it was not easy.

Confederacy 1861

This one was tougher, but at the same time dumber. I used Grant on Cavalry to seize small towns in the West, while spamming artillery from occupied St. Louis to kill his Doppelganger. Lee, Sophia  on Siege Art, and a pile of units Zerg Rushed the Eastern Seaboard, and Kate on an Ironclad wreaked havoc on the Union's blockade. It wasn't fun, but it was won.

Unrelated note: I'm told Savary's specs are weird. This will be fixed in the next update, which will also contain changes to Tavern generals.

Legacy Guide #1: France 1798 in EW4

This is a trilogy of guides I wrote on a gaming forum back in 2015 and 2016. I've long since left that place (for reasons too long to explain now), but the guides survived.

France 1798 under 40: The Normal One

This is geared towards securing Isabela, the French artillery princess (who is, by the way, an absolute beast). It's quite easy to do, if you follow along

Prerequisites and Background
1. Princesses are free generals. You unlock them by winning a conquest in the right continent, fast enough, and with enough resources

2. Isabella is France's princess. She is second only to Moreau IMO, although many will say she is better than him. She unlocks in about 45 turns, with tons of food and gold, and over 2000 metal/industry. You WANT her unless you bought Moreau, and maybe even then.


3. France is an easy country to conquest, especially in 1798 (10 gens, buffed economy, access to fronts but only one immediately assaulted). The only problem is that it takes years to cross Russia.

What you'll need:

1. Fairly good Cav Gen (I had Sebastiani (3*, surprise, 98 hp, 5 regen)). You need him with high HP and Regen.

2. Good Art gens (Sophia ( 3* art, explosive, 98 hp, 5 regen)) and Jourdan (3*, explosive+ballistics, hp 64, regen 2)

3. Snare Drum

4. Warhorse

5. Tent (recommend the +6, but +4 ought to do)

6. Willingness to switch Items aggressively

Instructions

Invasion of England

Generals: Massena, Jourdan, and an art. Gen with high HP.

Deploy your Arti gen (will be referred to as Sophia, since that’s who I used)  to the heavy art on the shore, move her, Jourdan, and Massena to the port on your side of the channel. Send Massena across 1st, have him hit the coastal fort next to Southampton. Next turn, he lands there. Fight with common sense until you reach Liverpool, then: 

send Sophia to Sweden, even if Dobeln died

send Jourdan with 1-2 other units to Ireland

Massena will take Scotland. Also, you will have to build battleships by round 15 to kill Hood and aid Massena

North Italian Campaign

General: Napoleon

Take Napoleon and the Line inf in the town, kill Klenau with Napoleon, advance to the Austrian troops near the fort, kill the Troops, leave the fort alone

Peninsular War

Generals: NONE

Send the Troops near Clermont by sea to Northwest Spain, steal a city there. Send the light inf in Bordeaux to steal Zaragoza and the stable near Madrid, build up troops, attack Porto when Spain’s assault is depleted, steal Madrid if you can (Spanish General will leave it eventually) attack Beresford last (round 30-ish), Huarte (Spanish Admiral (Navy General)) will help with the Battleship. Once Portugal is done, feel free to turn Spain Neutral

Italian Seas Campaign

General: Marmont

Take Marmont, the grenadiers near Marseilles, and the Line inf at sea to Sardinia; Kill Amadeo III, take Caligari, recruit troops, send damaged troops to kill fort and others to Sicily; Repeat Process from Sardinia in Sicily; Advance to Naples, repeat process (Italians will hold Naples off, might help you). Don’t go too fast on this front, or Nelson might come. Otherwise, The Ottomans will kill him by round 20.

DON’T SEND NAPOLEON!!! This front is a waste of his talents.

Battle of Weilburg

Generals: Dumouriez, Moreau, Desaix, and your Cavalry general (I will refer to him as Sebastiani since I used him)

Send the starting troops in the area (Dumouriez, Moreau, Desaix and regular forces to Weilburg, deploy your general to double guard cavalry in Weilburg ASAP, take surrounding cities, kill August 

Bavarian Campaign

Generals: Sebastiani, Desaix

Advance from Weilburg, kill Davidovich, take Munich, destroy the little fort, leave the big one be, advance to join Napoleon

Assault on North Germany

Generals: Dumouriez, Moreau, your other Art. Gen (I used Jourdan, so I’ll refer to him)

Take Brunswick, recruit double heavy art, dispatch Jourdan to it, IGNORE THE FORT, send Moreau through Brunn to Vienna,send Dumouriez and Jourdan to Oldenburg, kill Wilhelm III and Hotze. Dispatch a few troop to help Denmark fight Sweden.

Siege of Vienna

Generals: Sebastiani, Desaix, Napoleon, Moreau

Sebastiani, Napoleon, and Desaix attack Archduke C. immediately, Moreau joins after Brunn falls. Secure the light grey fort, advance on Budapest, then Lviv. When you near Lviv, send Moreau up North

Fall of Prussia

Generals: Jourdan, Dumouriez

Have Jourdan pummel Berlin while Dumouriez takes the factory and stable immediately east of it. Once Berlin is empty, send Dumouriez in; destroy the fort; advance on Danzig full force

Swedish Campaign:

Generals: Sophia

If Dobeln is alive, send Sophia to kill him and the regular troops to Stockholm. If he is dead, support the Danes everywhere. Use common sense

The Dagger

General: Sebastiani

This is the move that makes Isabella attainable, so pay attention: Send Sebastiani from Lviv to Kiev, fight the spammed Cavalry sent by Russia; upgrade Kiev; build Guards and Grenadiers; Send most of said inf. with Sebastiani to Moscow, take Moscow

Liberation of Poland

Generals: Napoleon, Moreau, Dumouriez, Jourdan

These guys are gonna fight a bunch of Generals, and a ton of Cheap troops. Kill Suvorov and Bagration first, then the rest. Finally, take the cities and destroy forts

Transylvanian Campaign

Generals: Desaix, Marmont(?)

There will be HRE/Russian forces around Clujnapoca, send Desaix (and Marmont if he’s done) to kill them, then have Marmont and Desaix advance and kill everything South of Kiev. 

Invasion of Russia

Generals: Napoleon, Sebastiani, Jourdan, Moreau, Dumouriez, Sophia(?)

Pretty obvious: send your generals into Russian strongholds, kill Russians, move on, no high priority targets here

Mop-up

Generals: None

This one is starting at round 25. Send Grenadiers to destroy all leftover forts in former Prussia/HRE/British Territory.

A Glossary of EW4 Terminology

Hello, my fellow Simians,

While copying my legacy (read: old) guides, I realized how much jargon I use. There are two solutions to that:
1. Don't use jargon and write things out
2. Make a dictionary of jargon
Evidently, I chose the latter, so here it goes

1. S&L: Saving right before a key fight, and reloading/redoing it until you get an outcome that satisfies you
2. Rushing: Doing conquest really fast to get princesses. This is considered a key part of completing the game by most.
3. Art: Shorthand for Artillery, aka cannons
4. Gen: Shorthand for Generals, aka those dudes you buy with medals or emblems and put on troops to make them stronk
5. Princess: Like generals, but you earn them by winning conquests fast. 5 of the 8 are beasts
6. Medals: The money you earn for killing enemies and winning campaign maps.
7. Emblems: The money you buy with actual Dollars/Euros/RMB/Yuan/Pounds. I will not encourage you to buy them, but it can be helpful.
8. Cav: Short for Cavalry, aka Horses
9. Inf: Short for Infantry, aka little men
10. Skills: those thingies at the top-right corner of the general's info card
11. Farming: Doing repetitive tasks to boost various specs