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Humbly reporting to YOUR IMPERIAL MAJESTY. Around midnight [February 8-9th], Japanese torpedo boats undertook a sudden attack on our squadron at Port Arthur base. The battleships Retvizan and Tsarevich and the cruiser Pallada have been ruptured; the degree of damage is being determined.
The Sun Rises
Japan’s greatest advantage lays in the preparations it has made before declaring war. Lessons learned from the war against China, and extensive training since, have provided Japanese units with a significant advantage in experience, while generous recruitment of local civilians in China and Korea will provide Japan with a generally favourable supply situation and regular intelligence updates.
These units, the 2nd and 12th Divisions, as well as General Kuroki’s headquarters, while sufficient to ensure the capitulation of the Korean government, represent merely the forward detachments for the Japanese land campaign. The rest of the Imperial Army begins the campaign still stationed on the Home Islands, and it will be up to you to manage their deployment in Korea and Manchuria, a task that will require you to navigate shortages of transport ships, frozen harbours (at least until the ice melts), and the constant threat of Russian cruisers.
A Race Against Time
Russia too can scarcely afford delay. While in the long run the strength of the Russian Army in the Far East will grow to eclipse that of the Japanese, initially the Manchurian garrisons under Generals Zasulich and Kuropatkin will face an overwhelming advance, and merely 200 miles separate the Yalu River from Port Arthur, a distance the Japanese covered in just two months in 1894.
Do You See the Torpedo Boats?
Or will it be the greatest reinforcement of all that determines the outcome of the war?
“The Empire’s fate depends upon the outcome of this battle. Let everyone do his best”
South America’s today. In the 1860s, many of these borders were unmarked and heavily disputed.
By May 1866, the point at which this campaign begins, the Paraguayan War was eighteen months old. Most of Lopez’ professional army had been destroyed or captured, and whatever unlikely prospect he might have had to convincingly win the war by marching on Buenos Aires had long passed. What remained was a small, badly outgunned force (while the Brazilians had modern rifles, Lopez’ men were equipped mostly with Brown Bess muskets dating back to the previous century), but one whose determination bordered on the fanatic.
Paraguay therefore possesses several advantages despite their desperate position. Most notably, Paraguayan infantry can build fortifications (and do this much more quickly than engineers in other campaigns), and doing so is frequently a matter of survival in face of a greatly superior foe. The geography of the area also greatly favours the defensive, as it is filled with endless swamps, lagoons and smaller streams, each of which can be utilised to make a stronger position. Furthermore, as the region has never been mapped, the Paraguayans know the geography of the land far better than their opponents, which we have represented by giving their infantry an additional hex of spotting range.
The Triple Alliance – Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay – make up for this with a very powerful advantage of their own: all Allied infantry receive a minimum supply of 3, making it impossible for them to be cut off and destroyed for lack of supply. Historically, Paraguay’s power projection capabilities by this point in the war had become virtually non-existent, and their armies too small (and themselves too poorly supplied), to enforce an effective encirclement. On a map where each hex represents less than half a kilometre, the Allies will be able to fight wherever they can get their forces.
In order to achieve victory in this war, you will need to take full advantage of your side’s unique abilities, while preventing your opponent from doing the same.
1879 Ghosts of the Pacific
For two sides so evenly matched then, why did Chile win almost every engagement in this war, and eventually occupy Lima in 1881?
A more concise answer to the question of Chile’s victory can be given in one word: Independencia. This was the name of one of Peru’s two ironclads (or four, if we count two ageing monitors), which ran aground a mere three months after the beginning of the war, depriving Peru of perhaps its most valuable naval asset. As the loss of this ship was the result of a dreadful accident and keeping Independencia in the fight gives a more balanced experience, unmarked reefs will play no part in the campaign. It is therefore likely that the duels between Independencia and Huascar on the Peruvian side, and Blanco Encalada and Almirante Cochrane on the Chilean, will play a key part in your strategy – at least initially.
The War of the Pacific also marked the effective battlefield debut for two innovations that played a major role in warfare during the following decades. The first is the torpedo boat, which although smaller and less well armoured than an ironclad, is a fast vessel capable of dealing significant damage to enemy ships (something the Russian Navy would learn to its great cost 25 years later), as well as being ideal for enforcing a blockade of South America’s long Pacific coast. The other is the modern landing craft, first used at Pisagua in November 1879: if transporting supplies across the Atacama is merely extremely difficult, marching an army overland will be doubly so, while amphibious operations will give you even more ways to haunt your opponents.
Conclusion
Wars in North America
Or at the very least, reinforcements will be scarce. Compared with the Civil War, the armies of the Mexican War are tiny: Scott’s army for the capture of Mexico City was just 20,000 strong, or about as many men who were killed or wounded at the Battle of Antietam alone. Even fewer of these soldiers are professionals, with years of training and experience. These Regular units will be your most valuable asset in battle, but they will also be irreplaceable if lost, so how and when you commit them to battle may well prove the difference between victory and defeat.
Fortunately, you will not be solely reliant on the Regulars to win the day, and volunteer Brigades will be available for purchase to bolster your ranks, although they come at the cost of lower combat effectiveness. Before they can challenge Zachary Taylor or Santa Anna in battle however, they will first have to overcome perhaps the most important challenge in this campaign: the sheer distance between your objectives. 
One of the more interesting stories I came across while researching this conflict relates to an industrial innovation not typically associated with warfare, namely the steam-powered printing press. Invented in 1843, it allowed literature to be published in quantities that would have previously seemed unthinkable.
1898 Remember the Maine
Outside of Havana and a few isolated garrisons, the remainder of Spain’s colonial possessions were no longer controlled by the Spanish crown, but by native partisans determined to secure the independence of their nations. These partisans had been actively fighting Spain since 1895 with growing success, and by 1898 it was the rebels who effectively controlled most of Cuba and the Philippines. 
Although the Spanish colonial garrisons had been hardened by years of partisan warfare, the US Army has improved little since 1865, still relying on volunteers who are eager to fight but poorly trained. The logistics system that would bring them to Cuba was shambolic, with multiple units being assigned to the same transport, and supply distribution reached the point of scandal, as low-quality “embalmed beef” added food poisoning to the soldiers’ woes. The American medical system was equally abysmal, a recipe for disaster in yellow fever-ridden Cuba. Adding to Washington’s problems is Kaiser Wilhelm II, who desires Spain’s overseas possessions for himself.
More than ever, this means that carefully planning your campaigns ahead of time will be vital to your eventual victory. For the American side to win, they must capture three of five objectives: Manila, San Juan in Puerto Rico, and Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago in Cuba. Amphibious invasions targeting Guam and the Canary Islands can further reduce Spain’s Fighting Spirit. 
Spain meanwhile must decide how much effort to spend on suppressing the partisans versus preparing for the eventual American invasions. While spreading the Spanish army across the colonies allows it to greatly reduce (though never eliminate) partisan uprisings, and increase the amount of MPPs that the colonies send back to Madrid, you risk leaving too few forces guarding the coast against the likes of Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders.
1863 The Eagle and the Empire
While this campaign has already been represented as a possibility in our American Civil War campaigns, the requirement of French intervention in the war means that players have thus far only been able to play it for the few turns between intervention and a likely Confederate victory. Given how interesting the history of this war was, we felt it was worthy of a full campaign!
Not only has Lee just triumphed at Chancellorsville and is preparing to strike towards Gettysburg, but in Mexico General Forey has won an equally important victory by concluding the Siege of Puebla, leaving little to resist an advance on Mexico City itself. Meanwhile, Grant has outflanked the fortress of Vicksburg and is preparing to lay siege to the last Confederate position on the Mississippi River. 
The arrival of the French Navy will also force you to rethink the war at sea. Not only will Napoleon’s ironclads – perhaps the finest warships of their day – severely complicate the enforcement of the Union blockade (at least until the Union can acquire more ironclads of its own), but they also allow the French player to deploy a large expeditionary force to North America. 
This well-trained force is equipped with the finest weapons available, and will be sure to make a difference wherever it is sent: perhaps you will open a second front in Mexico to split Juarez’ overstretched forces? Maybe you will send them to reinforce Lee or relieve Pemberton at Vicksburg? You may even wish to consider a daring attack along the Union’s coast, with an invasion unmatched in its ambition and its potential glory...
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