• Power: England
• Group: Northern openings
• When: Spring 1901
• Target SC: Norway
• Aggressive towards: Germany, Russia
• Orders: F Edi-NWG, F Lon-NTH, A Lpl-Edi

The Churchill Opening is one of two Northern openings that make sense. It is aimed at capturing Norway and, from there, either attacking Russia or Germany, unless it is part of a sneaky attack on France and England is simply setting up a Northern Triple alliance with Russia and Germany.

The Northern Openings

Both Northern openings – the Churchill and the Jorvik – feature England’s fleets heading to the Norwegian Sea and the North Sea. The differentiation is where the army goes: Edinburgh or Yorkshire.

The immediate threat therefore comes from France: Will France order F Bre-ENG? If so, then you’re left with the dilemma of whether to protect London or gamble on France not ordering F ENG-Lon in Fall 1901.

The advantages of a Northern opening is that you have the chance, guaranteed from just one of two sets of orders (see the post on the Jorvik Opening for this), to capture Norway. And capturing Norway is all that the Northern openings are really about.

The Churchill Opening

As you can see, the Churchill Opening sees England move A Lpl-Edi. From here Norway can be captured by using either fleet, or by convoying A(Edi) to Norway. However, in the scenario above, Russia has ordered their army from Moscow to St Petersburg and can order A Stp-Nwy in Fall 1901. For England, this means you have to use both fleets to capture Norway.

The benefit of using the Churchill Opening over the Jorvik Opening is that England can convoy through either sea. Had A Lpl-Yor been ordered in S01, it could only be convoyed to Norway using F(NTH).

This makes the Churchill look like the better of the two Northern openings on the grounds that it is the more flexible. If you choose, in F01, to order F NWG C Edi-Nwy, then F(NTH) can move to Skagerrak, Denmark, Heligoland Bight, Holland, Belgium or the English Channel… or back to London if you’re sweating F ENG-Lon from France. Honestly, F NTH-Lon is a waste of time. If France has moved into the Channel and you’ve used the Churchill Opening, you may as well hope France is really looking to move to Belgium and do something productive with F(NTH) instead. The chances are that France is hoping you defend London because they’d rather have you finish 1901 with a fleet in London as long as it’s not a new build.

The other option for convoying your army to Norway is F NTH C Edi-Nwy. This leaves you with some freedom to move elsewhere and, given that you’ve started this way, this means F NWG-BAR. If you get into Norway, this gives you quite a decent position:

Here, France played nice and ordered F ENG S Bur-Bel after all. Germany ordered F Den-Swe and bounced with Russia’s F GOB-Swe. Russia ordered A Stp-Fin, giving them two units bordering Sweden in 1902.

You, though, have two units bordering St Petersburg: A(Nwy) and F(BAR). This means Russia has to decide whether to defend St Petersburg from you (probably) or take Sweden. They might have been better ordering F GOB-BAL to threaten Kiel, Berlin (normally Germany would have moved A(Ber) out and it would be in either Kiel or Holland) or Denmark. However, maybe Russia got a hint that you’d move to the Barents Sea!

Norway is not the only fruit!

Of course, with the Churchill Opening, you don’t have to convoy your army to Norway. You could order F NWG-Nwy and convoy your army, through the North Sea, to Belgium, Holland or Denmark. This changes the focus of your attack.

What we’ve discussed above – convoying your army to Norway – suggests an attack on Russia. Not necessarily, of course, but Russia would much rather see a fleet in Norway than an army… and certainly doesn’t want the scenario where England has a fleet in the Barents Sea after F01! However, if you’re attacking Russia, getting an army in Norway is usually the best way to go.

Convoying A(Edi) to Belgium is probably the best alternative option. Holland is likely to be occupied by a German unit. If Germany orders F Kie-Hol in S01, then they’re probably trying for Belgium, too. France will also have their greedy little eyes on Belgium. It’s unusual for France to open F Bre-ENG with the intention of supporting A Bur-Bel in F01, or even simply ordering F ENG-Bel. However, it’s possible… and they may well have forced an army into Burgundy, anyway.

It is, however, possible that you can persuade France or Germany to support you into Belgium and, if they’re open to that, they’ll be open to you taking Belgium with your army. It may, though, be better to take Belgium with F(NTH); if Belgium is successfully attacked by France or Germany (or both, working together!) in 1902, your army is unlikely to be left anywhere to retreat. A fleet is better if you’re wanting to have a chance of a successful retreat. Again, this is, perhaps, a less likely scenario: if France or Germany have supported you into Belgium, why would they suddenly abandon you? It often makes more sense to continue with the established alliance through the Early Game.

Let’s assume, then, that the agreement to support you into Belgium sticks. What then? Well, you are in a good position to attack either France or Germany, with the support of the other power, from here. Given that you have a fleet in Norway (assuming Russia hasn’t prevented it by ordering A Stp-Nwy) you’re likely to also be able to work with Russia. And this means that Germany is the better target. You and France attack from the west, while you and Russia attack from the north and east.

The Downsides of the Churchill Opening

I’ve already discussed one of these above: the Channel is left free for the French fleet to move in. I’m not going to say much on this but, if you put together a couple of points from what I’ve said above, France is more likely to try for London if they find you’ve used the Churchill Opening and they’re floating about the Channel. As I’ve said, F NTH-Lon can defend London from F ENG-Lon, but it’s a waste. You could even try F NTH C Edi-Lon!

The other downside, with regard to France, is that – tactically – France is the better choice of target in the Early Game. France is the biggest single threat to England, and it doesn’t have to be from F Bre-ENG. F Bre-MAO, even if France is aiming to take both Spain and Portugal and not attack you from the start, allows France to build a fleet in Brest. Suddenly, you’re facing two French fleets and you have little chance to defend against a French attack through the North Atlantic Ocean, Irish Sea or English Channel.

This threat can be mitigated by building a fleet in Liverpool but you’ll also need to move a fleet back towards France as well. One fleet in the seas to the west of England isn’t much use on its own. Your short- to mid-term survival is threatened by France.

In fact, given how strong France can become pretty early on in the game, leaving France to grow, even with an Anglo-French alliance, could well be storing-up trouble for later in the game. I’m not a big fan of “England should always attack France” in the Early Game, as some writers suggest, but it’s something that you need to factor into your plans. France can be a great ally to England, but you’ve always got to be looking over your shoulder.

Using the Churchill Opening also pretty much commits you to convoying your army away from England. Why else move it to Edinburgh? You may use the more unusual tactic of convoying somewhere other than Norway but still A Lpl-Edi serves no purpose other than convoying the army. Unlike the Jorvik Opening, where the army moves to Yorkshire, there’s no defensive option for the army.

Russia’s perception of the Churchill Opening also needs to be considered. Once you’ve gone with A Lpl-Edi, Russia has to seriously consider that you’re planning to convoy to Norway. The Churchill Opening is a serious threat to Russia if this is the case. It becomes more difficult to persuade Russia that you want to work with them if you use this opening. Of course, if Russia has ordered A Mos-Stp in S01, this isn’t something you need to worry about: Russia is much more likely to try A Stp-Nwy than anything else.

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POSTS IN THIS SERIES

• England’s Opening Moves – Introduction
• Churchill Opening
• Jorvik Opening
• Leith Opening
• Ouse Opening
• Severn Opening
• Grampian Opening
• Pennine Opening
• Snowdonia Opening
• Western Opening
• Yorkshire Pudding Opening