Recaps

Joseph maneuvered France into a war that let it support Austria in Silesia while pursuing its own interests in the Southern Netherlands. As French forces marched into Luxembourg, the Royal Guard Legion and horse artillery struck Blücher’s divided army, leaving the Netherlands infantry under devastating fire.

• Queen Mary pressed Joseph to choose a bride, while Joseph argued that France came first and delayed a marriage decision.
• Napoleon proved himself during the Royal Guard Legion’s assessments, and Joseph sent the Legion toward Verdun to train with improved horse artillery.
• Joseph Bonaparte helped secure the Seine-Rhine River Trade Agreement, while Talleyrand won Austria’s agreement to French military assistance against Prussia.
• Joseph persuaded France’s ministers to delay a formal alliance with Austria and prepare to enter the Southern Netherlands conflict on French terms.
• Joseph promoted modern looms and investment protections in Lyon, while Prussia prepared for war and France sent aid to Mysore.
• Wurmser’s vanguard suffered a setback near Liegnitz, while Blücher advanced through Luxembourg and Joseph redirected French troops there.
• The Royal Guard Legion and French cavalry helped Leo’s smaller force withstand Prussian attacks, then Joseph led the French army to confront Blücher’s divided column.
• French horse artillery devastated the Netherlands infantry at the mountain pass, as Major Hilde led cavalry toward the guns.

Joseph used French victories and political maneuvering to expand France’s influence in the Southern Netherlands while plotting to occupy Brussels and acquiring Luxembourg’s ironworks. In Mysore, Salah’s schemes drove Tipu Sultan toward war with Britain, while Alexandra faced hostility from aristocratic girls at her painting lesson and exhibition.

• Joseph defeated the Netherlands troops and helped bring about the surrender of Blücher’s encircled Prussian force, while Napoleon earned a promotion and medal for his artillery work.
• Joseph paid Onck to withdraw the Southern Netherlands Army and kept him in Parliament to divide the rebels, while Austria and Hanover prepared further reinforcements.
• Salah and Sheikh Khan spread anti-British rumors, provoked mass arrests, and arranged the poisoning of prisoners, leading Tipu Sultan to exile Jahan Zeb.
• After Salah and Lafayette persuaded Tipu that Britain was preparing for war, Tipu’s ministers approved an attack on Britain and Lafayette offered to lead Mysore’s army.
• Joseph agreed to assist Leo against Blücher but planned for French troops to bypass Liège and occupy Brussels, while Leopold II warned that Austria needed more troops and a decisive advance.
• Joseph bought more than ten Luxembourg iron mines and arranged for French steel plants to be built nearby.
• Alexandra impressed Greuze with her portrait of Joanna, then stood up to Marissa’s mockery and refused to enter the Lorraine-Chateau Exhibition.
• After Marissa challenged Alexandra to submit a painting, the exhibition organizer removed Clarice’s and Marissa’s works, and the two girls arrived to find their room empty.

Joseph used the Royal Guard Legion to weaken the Hanoverian forces while managing Russian diplomacy, British intrigue, and France’s unresolved land reforms. After returning to Paris, he developed bulletproof inserts and recruited Lavoisier to pursue cheaper Soda Ash and Coal Tar chemistry.

• Clarice and Marissa discovered that termites had damaged their exhibition paintings, while Stroganov told Queen Mary that Catherine II wanted France and Russia to divide European territories.
• Joseph marched the Royal Guard Legion through the Southern Netherlands, maneuvered Karl II’s forces out of position, and defeated Hanoverian troops near Antwerp before the front settled into a stalemate south of Brussels.
• Joseph sought Austrian troops and explored a Russian partnership while revising Brienne’s peasant land-redemption plan to make it more affordable.
• Wellesley learned that Mysore had captured Kannur with French assistance, then worked with Van der Noot to exploit tensions between French nobles and peasants while Britain withheld troops from Brussels.
• Joseph welcomed Andre Davout at Namur and then met Queen Mary, explaining his Russian and British strategies before insisting he wanted a fiancée who was not a close relative.
• Joseph and Louis XVI tested layered Bulletproof Inserts and ordered limited production because Casein Glue was scarce and expensive.
• Joseph recognized that Casein Glue could turn wood waste into Synthetic Board and asked Lavoisier to develop production on a larger scale.
• Joseph recalled the ammonia-recycling method for making Soda Ash, then assigned Lavoisier to lead Coal Tar experiments while keeping Soda Ash production the priority.

Joseph crushed the unrest over land redemption by exposing foreign meddling and winning nobles over to agricultural investment and military service. As France’s diplomatic conflict with Britain widened, the story shifted to the war in India and the approaching Moroccan attack on Tunis, where Ney’s troops arrived amid the fighting.

• Joseph exposed the Committee of Freedom Allies’ role in stirring the peasant unrest, and the farmers turned against Saint-Just and the foreign agents.
• Joseph announced a land redemption plan based on eight years of land output and persuaded nobles to invest in agricultural companies or seek new fiefs through military service.
• Talleyrand’s accusations that Britain had backed the French revolt spread through European courts, forcing Wellesley to retreat from his plans in the Southern Netherlands.
• Lafayette used Maori-built Pa to slow Cornwallis’s advance through Mangalore while Tipu Sultan moved into Travancore and then toward Carnatic.
• Joseph planned to use Gas Streetlights to promote Paris and his products, and Queen Mary persuaded him to perform in her birthday play.
• Victor Moreau formed a noble cavalry regiment as Ney’s commoner troops marched toward Tamirai, while Said led Moroccan forces toward Bizerte.
• Ney rushed to aid the Tunisian defenders at Tamirai, and his soldiers appeared as the Moroccans began driving the defenders back.