CONQUEST & CONTROL

Nations

There are three factions in the game: French, Allied, and Neutral. Allied basically means everyone allied to Britain who is the cornerstone of the war against France. When Britain and France go to peace, all of Europe goes to peace. Each state will be aligned to one of these three factions at all times.

If French or Allied forces enter a neutral nation, that nation immediately declares war and joins the opposing faction.

Nations share national resources (lines of communications, depots, replacements etc). Allies do not.

Take a look at the European Page to get an overview of the alliances and provinces http://www.murat.ca/Navigation/europe.php

There are six major powers that have slightly different rules about them. These are the Major Powers: France, Britain, Austria, Russian, Ottoman, and Prussia.

Note that players can raise troops from allied nations that are not major powers and that these will appear in the capitals of those nations.

Provinces

Some states may be provinces of larger nations or those states might themselves form a larger nation (such as the the several Italian states forming a Kingdom of Italy). When this happens, those provinces always have the same alliance as their nation and the provinces are considered to be part of the greater nation. So if Piedmont is  a province of France, the troops raised there will be French troops, not Italians or Piedmontese. While Piedmont is independent (not a province), the troops would be Piedmontese.

Provinces cannot be created or removed from that status over the course of a campaign. The creation of a province might be a campaign goal that is negotiated as part of surrender terms at the end of a campaign.

Control of Cities

Every city belongs to a nation. Every city has a control status. If a single alliance has forces in a city then the city is controlled by that alliance. If two warring factions have forces in a city then it is contested. Couriers will not move through enemy controlled cities.

If a city is unoccupied, it will normally be controlled by the alliance that currently controls the nation that the city is in. So if you were to ride a cavalry division through enemy territory, the place where the division was would be under your control but everything behind you would soon revert back to enemy control.

The exception to this is that if a city in a nation was previously controlled by the enemy and they still have adjacent units to that city, they retain control of the empty city. This enables you to put out perhaps a string of garrisons with two empty cities between them as you advance deep into enemy territory and still be able to maintain a functioning line of communication.

Be aware though that if an enemy unit afterwards wander across your line and retakes control of a city, you cannot re-assert control until you move a unit uncontested into that city. Cossacks and Guerrillas will mess up one's lines of communications.

Conquest

Each state has a capital and the capital can be seen on the European map. When the enemy alliance has successfully placed a garrison in a capital, it immediately conquers that nation. All of the units of that nation are instantly destroyed (unless it is a major power). Most importantly though, when you conquer a nation, the default for control of all the cities in that nation is now the conqueror's alliance. Taking a capital makes it much easier to keep lines of communications running through that nation.

Additional bonus: The player that places a conquering garrison in an enemy capital gets +10 points added to his allowable army points. He retains these 10 points until his alliance loses control of that nation. 

Major Powers

When the capital of a Major Power is 'conquered', the province would be conquered as normal but no forces are removed. Instead, all players of the conquered power lose 50 points and the conquering player gains 5 PPs.

Sea Zone Control

Sea Zones are controlled by whichever side has the most combat squadrons in it. Ties go to the Allies.