The Dawn of Prussia

Between a rock and a hard place

When I was deciding what nation to begin a new campaign with, I chose Prussia because I had only played as them once before, and it looked like a challenge. A quick overview of the campaign map shows us that Prussia's starting position is tenuous at best.  Their two small territories, those of Brandenburg and East Prussia do not even share a common border but are separated by the Polish owned corridor of West Prussia.  This meant little room for expansion, that is, without war.  Good thing they're Prussian, war is their business.  The messy entanglement of overlapping alliances and protectorates meant that all of eastern Europe might be at war if any individual attacked another. Saxony was a client of Poland-Lithuania; Poland was allied with Russia and Denmark.  I had trade agreements with Poland-Lithuania, Austria, and Great Britain.


I was going to have to watch where I stepped; if I attempted to quickly pick off Saxony, I was sure to be at war with Poland.  If I went to war with Poland to try and unite my two Provinces, I was risking possible war with both Russia and Denmark.  Yikes.  I decided to concentrate on building up my infrastructure and my military, all the while researching new military technology.  No need.  Over my first turn Poland promptly declared war on me. The hairball of alliances went down the line, somehow resulting in both Austria and myself at war with Poland.  Denmark and Russian didn't want anything to do with the reckless Polish war, and broke their alliances with her over it.  My mind made up for me, I pondered strategy.

 A defensive war is apt to betray us into too frequent detachment. Those
generals who have had but little experience attempt to protect every point,
while those who are better acquainted with their profession, having only
the capital object in view, guard against a decisive blow, and acquiesce in
small misfortunes to avoid greater.   -- Frederick the Great

When in doubt, attack!

Wise words from one of history's greatest military leaders, and they couldn't be more appropriate seeing as they came from the man who faced nearly the same predicament that I was in at the moment.  I decided --hey, what the hell-- to attack Saxony now.  They would never be as weak as they were at this moment, and Polish forces were far too distant to be of any assistance.  They had no friends besides the one I was already at war with, and the longer I waited, the greater the possibility of Austria snatching the province before I did.  Poland also was weak at Gdansk, and if they wanted to reinforce the city, they would have to have to come up the west bank of Vistula or threaten Königsberg by swinging far to the east.

My strategy was to take both cities before the enemy could reinforce or know what hit them.  This went off well in the west.  I fought a small force outside of the city, defeating them and driving their pickets inside the city.  I paused for a turn to refit my men and bring up a few more guns before assaulting the city.  Their small army was a composed for the most part of militia and armed populace, --able bodied men pressed into service out of desperation-- and they didn't have much fight in them.  Without much of a scuffle I had driven them from the field, and secured Dresden for the crown. Their commander, apparently unable to live with the defeat, charged my line with his bodyguard and was cut down at point blank range. The populace didn't even throw up much of a fuss over a foreign power destroying their sovereignty and setting up shop in their capital. Grand. I intended to shift this army to the eastern front as soon as I could.  My western and southern borders were now secure, and I actually had a rear that I didn't have to worry about.  I could now concentrate solely on either making Poland realize that they should sue for peace, or making them wish they had.

 

On the Eastern front, things didn't go as well.  A small force soon appeared, threatening Königsberg, and I chose to deal with it instead of getting the attack on Gdansk moving.  Either it was a purposeful diversion on the part of the Polish AI, or a stupid mistake of my own; but it resulted in the Polish stealing a march on me and sneaking reinforcements into Gdansk.  I soon counter-marched back to the city to my west, and besieged it, but with a significant amount of regulars inside the city, it wasn't going to fall like Dresden.  It soon appeared as if I was going to have to rush the walls as well, the Polish were gathering forces along my Eastern border and might attack towards Königsberg at any moment.  I had to wrap this up quickly and prepare to defend my open flank.  Once again, the Polish commander took the initiative while I was taking my sweet time coming to a decision and attacked out from the city.

It was a foolish decision on their part.  I had superior artillery and managed to perform a classic double envelopment, rolling up both of their flanks simultaneously.  The remnant stragglers of the army scattered themselves across the countryside, leaving Gdansk open before me.  With the fall of the city, I had earned a breather.  The West pacified for the the moment, I was planning on shifting everything I had east.  I had to further plan if I was going to drive straight for Warsaw, or pick apart the Polish empire from the periphery.  Decisions, decisions...