Wrong control given after "liberating" an enemy province

[unmerged(25926)]

GC, playing Prussia, Belgium is an ally, Prussia owns Luxumburg:

Ten days before the Spanish Succession Question event I moved a large stack of corps into Arlon, Belgium so that I could shorten my drive on Paris by starting from Belgian soil. BUT, whenever I "liberated" a French province using any Prussian forces that started the war in Belgium it became Belgian controlled instead of Prussian controlled.

Since virtually my entire offensive force started from Belgium I had no choice except to use it to take Paris which meant Paris was Belgian controlled and thus the Three Hurrahs would not trigger.

Well, Belgium finally concluded a separate peace on April 6, 1871 (only after I "liberated" most of northern France for Belgium) thereby putting Paris back into French control which I immediately started to besiege because von Moltke was already standing on it.

I can think of at least one exploit: you could grow a small ally into a real powerful one by:
1) Stationing your troops on the ally's territory
2) Declare war on a mutual enemy
3) Use your troops to gain control (for your ally) of many provinces
4) Wait for your ally to conclude a separate peace gaining many provinces due to the high war score you've given him
5) Conclude the war yourself

Sort of what actually happened in my game because Belgium ended up getting Cambrai, Charlene-Meziers and Verdun while Prussia got the usual 3 Alsace-Lorraine provinces.

I'm starting another game so I'll see if it happens again.

-Puddler

Vic 1.03
1.7 GHz Pentium M
1 GB RAM
Win XP Professional

 

[Sir Garnet]

I deal with this all the time. I have seen that my ally gets the province I conquered if the only land communications from the conquered province are through his controlled territory. It doesn't matter if the troops come in through his territory, uncontrolled enemy territory, or by sea.

I've fooled them though by going deeper into enemy territory by sea or marching through in order to take a province not adjoining any allied provinces.

And yes, you could strengthen an ally this way. To give you a famous example, Rommel was involved in gaining ground for weak allies in both world wars.

Sir Garnet

 

[unmerged(25926)]

Ahhhh. Probably WaD, then. So next time if I start from Belgium I'll have to rush ahead with a large cav/dragoon (per your idea) to quickly seize a province that is 2 provinces away (so that there is one French controlled province in-between). The advance force would be out of supply temporarily - but not for long. The smaller Belgian army will still be trying to subdue the skipped province but I would time the main Prussian infantry force to jump in and help them take it quickly (but only after I was sure the advance force would accomplish its task first).

Should work fine in SP game where the French forces in N. France are pretty thin in 1870 (at least they were thin in the one game I've played so far). Looked like the French were all off fighting in Italy or overseas.

Thanks a bunch!

 

[Sir Garnet]

WAD, indeed. TY and good luck. Maybe keeping your massed forces away from the border provinces will lull the French into a faux sense of securite.

Sir Garnet

 

[Darkrenown]

You could just tell belgium not to join the war, then you could attack from their land and you would control what you liberated.

 

[unmerged(25926)]

You could just tell Belgium not to join the war, then you could attack from their land and you would control what you liberated.

True. Though if you have more than one ally its an all or nothing deal to bring them in or not. Also, not sure, but sometimes they are just feeling frisky and join in without asking. (Maybe that's only great powers, because I didn't have to ask Russia - they just DOW'd France without me asking and brought their ally Greece along with them).