How to make UK and France join the fray?

[Smitzer52]

So I have been playing around with the game for a while now (well not that long...). And I still didn´t get the "perfect" game. (although it could probably happen only against a human player)

I beat the game as Union and CSA in a main scenario, but I never really played more then 50 turns (did exploit sudden death here a lot)

I really wanted to play as Union and have a full campaign feel till 65´, exploiting all the options. Now the AI is only good to a certain level I know that and since I dislike AI cheating on higher difficulties and giving it a huge bonuses just doesn´t do it for me, I thought getting UK and France join CSA would make for a longer and bloodier struggle.

So what are the options if you really wanna go against everyone? I know about Trent affair and Mexico+ some decisions randomly lower or higher the entry bar. What I need is a guarantee it will happen. How much will it help if I put Foreign intervention on easy in settings? Can you spam some action to make it go higher?

Thx for input.

[DrPostman]

Try playing on Lieutenant level with foreign entry set to easy, and take as
many of the options as you can to influence entry in the Government section
of the ledger.

[Merlin]

Try playing on Lieutenant level with foreign entry set to easy, and take as
many of the options as you can to influence entry in the Government section
of the ledger.

Precisely.

Otherwise, normal play pretty much requires the blockade to fail, embargo to succeed, Trent Affair to escalate, and the Confederacy to maintain both NM and VP leads until you can reasonably expect to get foreign help through concessions.

[Captain_Orso]

Or if you don't want to fiddle with settings, options and luck, you could simply add an event which fires once and puts FI at 100.

[Smitzer52]

Yeah going on Lieutenant and easy FI donne it easy. I was at war with UK after trent affair, but even without it, it would not take long. Didn´t even need to reload.

[Michael Hopcroft]

What happens in game when Britain and/or France intervenes. Do they send warships to contest the Union blockade? Troops to aid the Confederacy? Is this aid likely to be enough to tip the balance of the war against the Union?

In the real world, intervention seems unlikely. The closest France came is using the distraction of the war (which prevented implementation of the Monroe Doctrine) to seize Mexico for one of Napoleon III's relatives. It did not end well for the French, who eventually suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the outraged Mexicans. As for Britain, much as they needed Southern cotton they had qualms about the Confederacy (Longstreet comments in the novel The Killer Angels that the British wouldn't help unless slavery was abolished).

[Captain_Orso]

The French and especially British navies wreak havoc with the Union navy unless you've been building up nearly from the start.

Unless the South is building up a navy--which it really can't afford and isn't historical--the Union doesn't really need any more steam or sailing frigates to do what it has to do. Transports I build to put into shipping for income and some brigs for scouting and sometimes to carry sundry small units to some part of the coast.

I have to say the only time I've ever had FI I triggered it with an event I wrote myself because the South was at their knees mid-63 and I didn't want to quit the game, so I gave the Confederacy 50 more NM and FI.

For a year the French and British navies ruled the waves, but since my armies were pretty much built up I could pull a couple of fat corps to put up into Norther New England and on the Canadian boarder making two new armies and increasing their sizes a little so that each had a corps of its own. The rest of my money went into building up the navy which took the better part of a year. But then the tides turned and Britain and France got clobbered badly.

I was a bit disappointed with the land situation. It was not much of a challenge. British troop quality is good and leadership is not bad, but they cannot create new corps and I have to question their strategy. They sent a fat corps of the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) on a march down from Moncton, New Brunswick to Bangor, Maine where they halted where I confronted them with one of my Northern armies. After some doing I drove them back from there. Bangor has no meaning strategically at all. I think sacking Boston would have been much better. They would have had a large harbor and it would have been costly for the Union as long as they held it, but Bangor???

Another smaller BEF corps dropped down from Montreal into New York State. It took Fort Montgomery and then Plattsburgh on the coast of Lake Champlain where I caught them and then drove them back. After some hard fighting I drove them off to the east and took Montreal and then Quebec.

One division sized force sent a brigade into Detroit and then Toledo. I could only counter with a couple of brigades at first, but then railed Rickets with his division and a second division under his command--because he has strategic 4 and can operate okay independently with 2 division--up from West Virgina up to Michigan and took back Toledo and Detroit and drove the Brits across the Detroit River to Amherstburg. I let one division guard Detroit while Ricket's divisions went up to Port Huron and across to drop down behind the Brits, where I eventually drove them out and back with some hard fighting. Then I send one small corps from Northern New York through Buffalo from the other direction and trapped them in London where they were besieged and wiped out.

When I started thinking about invading England I quit, because... well, it's not fantasy football you know .

[Smitzer52]

Well the intervention is much as Captain Orso said. Although my experience varied a bit.

It was a great game. Was defending against CSA till 63´ and it wasn´t at all easy, especially in the western theatre. For some reason CSA has trouble attacking in the east. Game ended in 64´

I deliberately started FI in the end of 61´by a Trent affair (no apology here) and was preparing for it by building armored frigates and ironclads + sending some brigades to border with Canada in advance.

The naval side of the game improves a lot. UK and France have strong navy (warships, armored frigates) and as union I had to concetrate all my forces in the atlantic, towards key battles where I wiped out mostly British and lately French navies. Suprisingly french navy is a bigger pain then RN, I blame it on lack of decent admirals. If you bring overwhelming force you can defeat them quick, but giving up blockade is neccesary. Must say the AI never tried naval invasion of Boston or New York that would be epic.

On the land side, France is a no factor there, and Britain usually goes from Brunswick towards New York state, wasting time sieging forts and not moving quick enough. They do protect Canada quite well, using railways and forts to slow me down, but yes no idea why they try to go for Monctron...through forests,blizzard and snow right from the start. Also they don´t protect Montreal (major railroad junction+ depot) well enough and after that it´s just matter of time till London, Quebec, Ottawa falls. I liked the lvl. 2 forts, was quite a fight to get those and had to wait them out. Still they give a tough fight and can shift forces from the east so it slows you down and you either have to commit there or against CSA. Took me 3 years and few months to defeat CSA and push UK entirely form americas and carribean + wiping any navy alliance had.

Overall:

cons: -morale gains from naval battles to high, taking montreal and quebec should do more damage then sinking ships of the strongest navy on the planet. I could get to 140 morale very quickly.
-naval side of the game improves for union, but france and uk have problem attacking and commiting their navy, they guard the european side of Atlantic and using small stacks often.
-UK should attack coast of US in force...boston,rhode island etc.. seriously I would not been able to stop them if they did...they choose to go though wilderness instead
pros:
-challenge for UNION against the AI can´t get better I think. (without AI having to many bonuses)
-CSA is actually very dangerous in such a scenario and really pushes in the West
-Balanced forces in terms of land and navy...and a slow industrial grind of the Union, love this game for such an option.

It was a blast.