This is the third article in a series I will present each of the five powers of Baltic Empires in turn. This time I will cover Prussia, the clear underdog among the powers during this period (1558-1721), and certainly not the Prussia from later eras that wargamers may be more familiar with.
Prussia, or more correctly Prussia-Brandenburg, starts the game with only 2 Provinces that aren´t even geographically linked, and is nominally a vassal of the king of Poland. They would historically remain so for the first half of the game, but Prussia increasingly pursued an independent policy that saw it gradually grow in size, power, and influence.
This vassal status is represented in Baltic Empires by a special rule that effectively ties Poland and Prussia together as forced allies until Prussia (and only Prussia) decides to end it, and until this happens their big brother is effectively (but sometimes unwillingly) standing guard over Prussia´s scattered provinces. Strictly compared to history, Prussia-Brandenburg is greatly boosted in the starting setup, as it would be unbalanced and not much fun for them to start out in an extreme underdog position, where many turns would be spent doing practically nothing. To add further fun to the Prussian position they get increased control over independent units, which also nicely represents that they, more than any other power in the game, shared the same goals as both the minor powers within, and the major powers at the edges of, the region: to maintain the balance of power in the Baltic.
Prussia´s historical track record of good administrators, centralized power, and their openness to foreigners is represented by having a very low cost for Dramatis Personae cards, Cities and Workshops. Its authoritarian centralized rule is shown by both its starting Provinces being under Royal Control at the start of the game, as well as having a very low cost for imposing Royal Control over new Provinces. Prussia is also the only power that has no penalty for religious differences. This all allow Prussia to punch far above its weight in terms of economy and get the most out of lands that are not otherwise overly rich in money, population, or natural resources – just like in history.
As befits the underdog in an asymmetric game, Prussia´s National Ambition is by far the least ambitious: Control of Königsberg, your capital, and the conquest of nearby Pomerania is enough to win you the game, if you have also filled all the Dramatis Personae slots in your Court. As you can see above, however, you do need to expand a little bit more than that to fulfill the pre-conditions for filling up your Court, but you have great flexibility as to how to achieve this. In addition to their lenient National Ambition, Prussia even has an extra victory condition that allow them to win the game simply by outlasting the clock and preventing any of the other powers from winning by the end of the game, as long as you have managed to maintain control of your starting provinces and throw off your vassal status.
Playing Prussia in Baltic Empires is a bit like playing the Papacy in Here I Stand, and it is definitely the most asymmetric of the five powers in the game. At first sight you are smaller, weaker, and less interesting to play, but as I hope to have shown in this article, looks are very much deceiving! Prussia is the ideal power for the manipulative player type who loves wielding indirect influence and revels in the many options for diplomacy and deal making that are possible for an opportunistic power who has a finger in the game across the board.
The value of your ability to place an independent unit in any independent area, and your ability to ally with an independent unit for free is hard to overstate. Most of the time this ability might not be directly useful for you, as Prussia´s outlook and ambitions are local and limited, but you will quickly find out that it is a matter of great interest for the other powers what the independents do. This allows you to offer your services to the highest bidder or to put the weight of the independents on the scales of the wider power struggle to rein in the leader. As your economy and army is small, all the Thalers and offers of military support you can secure from the others will greatly ease your path to victory.
Previous Articles:
Victory Conditions in Baltic Empires
The Sequence of Play in Baltic Empires
Dramatis Personae Cards in Baltic Empires
The Powers of Baltic Empires — Sweden
The Powers of Baltic Empires — Russia
Author: Brian Asklev
Good write-up about Prussia. I did not know that Prussia had historically been a vassal to the king of Poland. Please keep in mind that a country, like Prussia, is not plural, but singular, so it can’t have a plural pronoun like ‘they’.
Is Prussia able to throw off its vassal status on the final turn? Is there any way for Poland to respond to that, since the hegemony phase appears to be the last part of the turn?