Hopefully I'll get an answer or an "Ahhh that's a shame" for this but here's what happened in my first (and probably massively flawed) game.

Basically I was the Coalition and we started the first turn in the first phase with diplomacy (is this correct even though you only get from stage 3 of the Campaign turns in the first year?)

France drew one of the cards allowing him to swap Austria to neutral (and therefore byebye my Austrian forces) and then had the card to allow him to pick up a card from the discard. He didn't play the card again that round but in the following year he neutralised Russia.

In the first year I guessed that neither Austria or Prussia would appreciate Russian forces marching through them (Neutrality violation) and none of the Russian forces were strong enough to make a dent in central Europe from their starting positions.

Meanwhile there was no British Navy and a card was played to prevent British reinforcements in that first turn.
Generally I was scuppered.

Second turn the Russians are neutralised with the card, still no British navy and the French had invaded Austria, causing the Austrians to rebel briefly but Napoleon's huge army battered them left right and centre.

Finally by the time Navy came out and I could get some actual British troops into Europe it was too late. A dribble of British forces put up great resistance in Spain but eventually Wellington was defeated and imprisoned.


The question is, does any of this sound like we played it WRONGLY (rather than myself playing badly, but then I couldn't see how I could tactically perform with no good cards and hardly any forces).

In 1808 the British forces were ran into the sea in Portugal and the mainland slumped to French rule. I didn't have a chance after that first round combination of Austria neutralised, that card picked up again, and the British troops sent to fight in the USA.