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May – June 1760 - Heading to the frontline

In May, I am very surprise to see Montcalm actually leaving his office in downtown Montréal and actually leading the attack of the Fort de l’Isle-aux-Noix…

Stanwixsavestheday.jpg


… to no avail. That was close, though, and the fort won’t survive another assault.
Stanwix is sent to Forbes to report on the attack : )

Meanwhile, Forbes is going North :

Mainfront-5.jpg


If I could catch Montcalm when he is at l’Isle-aux-Noix, that would be… a good surprise. As you can see, I also send more troops to l’Isle-aux-Noix.
Also note the orange lines, actually Indian scouts starting from much more in the South. They are going to be important.

In other news, I meet a new Indian leader, intercepted while he is scouting my defense in Depot Niagara :

POntiac.jpg


Pontiac is one of the best leader of the game – he actually led the last war the Indian won against the colonial. You can play the outstanding mod made by Hobbes about this war.

Finally, Amherst is on his merry way.

ETA.jpg


In june, well, I am getting closer to my targets :

As expected, the Fort de L’Isle-aux-Noix was taken by the French after a furious assault :

Sad.jpg


I have respect for Claude de Contrecoeur, who led many dangerous battles for the French – but where is Montcalm ? Why did he refuse to led his troops in the assault ? Well, Montcalm went back to the comfort of Montréal. I guess he cannot live without his croissants for more than a couple weeks.

I have been a bit delayed in my offensive, so I am not quite arrived yet :

Stillmain-1.jpg


My main army is one day away from the next province, though.

My fleet with Amherst force arrived :

25days.jpg


It looks like it takes only 25 days to land and reach Albany on foot – so why not do it. Actually, as I will discover next turn, this “calculation” do not take into account, when you are landing, your trait malus, in this case slow-mover…

Finally, remember that I sent Roger’s Rangers and a siege gun away after taking Détroit ?

Well, they almost reached the sea :

AtLast-1.jpg
 
Even though you were kicked out of Isle aux Noix, you seem to have overwhelming force on your side (I mean, I see Forbes alone has 763 power... that seems likely to be about as much as Loki's forces combined - and then there are the other units, and the Indian scouts roaming left and right through Canada...). Looks like the overall situation will soon be rectified in Britain's favor.
 
If Montcalm could stop you at Mont Royal, your two army will suffer martyr due to logistical problems while trying to retreat. With a defensive genius like him, it's not impossible.
 
Even though you were kicked out of Isle aux Noix, you seem to have overwhelming force on your side (I mean, I see Forbes alone has 763 power... that seems likely to be about as much as Loki's forces combined - and then there are the other units, and the Indian scouts roaming left and right through Canada...). Looks like the overall situation will soon be rectified in Britain's favor.

well yes and no ... the problem is with the front now so constricted, Narwhal can't bring his force to bear (supply mainly but CP as well), on the other hand, as we'll see, even if I get in behind him, he has reserves to burn (bad pun in this AAR but you know what I mean?)

If Montcalm could stop you at Mont Royal, your two army will suffer martyr due to logistical problems while trying to retreat. With a defensive genius like him, it's not impossible.

That more or less is what I try to manouvre for, either force an attack on Mont Royal or try and set up Montcalm in a province that Narwhal has to move through. If I can destroy one more column, then things shift back in my favour (ok its a big if)
 
May 1760: Moving in for the kill (the only question is who's death is at hand?)

So, I attack Isle de Noix and frustratingly a few English survive, a frustration made worse as I lose a couple of elements in the retreat (this goes back to my problem with lack of actual reinforcing over winter - I have a lot of elements down to the last few men so suffer a lot of losses for limited actual casualties all year)



and at Niagara, I think Narwhal must have build a special fence with detectors as I can't slip any Indians past the fort. It looks like he's just got normal regulars there, so its all a bit suspicious. Predictably of course, there is an attempt to kill my leader - well Narwhal has already confessed he was afraid of him so we have to see this as deliberate



don't we?



Now overall, I have a reasonable force just to the north of Isle de Noix so I'll finish that off next turn in any case. Montcalm can go back to Mont Royal for a well deserved Croissant and some reinforcements.

I'm relying on that snowy mountain province to block or slow Narwhal's invasion. And also, he's not the only one sending out scouts.



and in the south, the raiding party moves deeper looking for strategically valuable, lightly defended, imflamable targets ... in fact any structure in the region shown is on the list
 
and in the south, the raiding party moves deeper looking for strategically valuable, lightly defended, imflamable targets ... in fact any structure in the region shown is on the list

<Quaking in my boots>

This is getting to be a little too close for comfort... :p

Anyway, when you tell it like that, your situation doesn't look too bad. And I did forget about the supply situation when factoring in the British juggernaut, so that mitigates things a bit, too. Still, lots of things have to line up for you to pull out a success at this stage - I guess it depends largely on how you frame 'success'. :)
 
July 1760 – A unique opportunity

This might be one of the most decisive turn of the game, surprisingly.

In the North, my scout do their job outstandingly.
Here is what I see during the enemy moves :

Circa day 15 :
Interturn.jpg


Day 30 :
Interturn2.jpg


Yes, a lot of supplies, and some guns, moving from the Québec to Montréal. With my Indians ready to intercept.

Given that tremendous opportunity, and because Montcalm is too well fortified in Montréal, I decide to use my back-up plan-I-never-told-you-about…
Take Trois-Rivières, and split New France in two, so I can concentrate on either Quebec or Montréal while it is impossible for the French to move units from one side to the other.

Surprise.jpg


With all this supplies I can capture, it will be even better than expected when I thought about it as a "backup-plan", as I will be able to build a depot in Trois-Rivieres.
The plan is just to send everything I have to Trois-Rivières. Forbes will assault the position as soon as he arrives. The troops landed in l'Isle-aux-Noix will arrive before him, maybe cleaning the area from small skirmish party (which would engage Forbes's army and make it lose cohesion) and will at worse be full cohesion for next turn. There is little chance I meet Montcalm on the way, so Trois-Rivieres should be mine.
Largest risk will be a Montcalm attack next turn. After that, I will be fortified and rested enough. We will see – this stalemate cannot last forever if I want a total victory.
If it works however, the “active” game will be more or less finished for Loki100 – he will have no other things to do than to wait for my force to attack since he won't be able to move out of Montréal anymore.

I have my finger crossed.

Forbes will be on his own, because Amherst force is delayed :

LordHowe.jpg


Edit : The caption should say "slower", not "smaller".
Yep, it is late, and at a place where I cannot even transport it by bateaux. However, Lord Howe will take command, so from now on the stack will at least move fast.

At least I am sending some reinforcements from Albany :

MOREMORE.jpg


They will be transported by boat on the Champlain, so they should arrive in Trois-Rivieres in 3 months, maybe four.

Meanwhile, I make sure the last Indian criminal is out of operation next to Detroit :

TheLastofthePottawatomi.jpg


And I am sending an heavy scouting force on Frontenac, which I suspect is lightly defended.

Ontario-1.jpg


Note that there will be a battle for the control of the Ontario.

Finally, the Cherokees finally show up in the South :

South-6.jpg


More random looting and burning on the way. I guess you cannot stop the French from being French.

Finally, as a bonus for Stuyvesant, I did some montage showing the front from Canada to South Carolina in one screenshoot. Given its size, I prefer you to open it by clicking HERE. Edit : The Southernmost city is Charleston - it is a bit blurry but I cannot do better.
 
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June 1760 - setting some traps

This is one of those turns where, as will be clear from the selection of screenshots, our take on the game, likely moves and so on were ... well rather different.

Anyway let me fill in a few gaps for you. Narwhal, with his obsession with stealing my croissant stocks, rather forget to mention this defeat



So he reinforced it from last turn, only to see the whole force swept into the icy waters of Lake Champlain. I'll burn before leaving - at the moment its no gain to me and that will block off another reinforcement/supply route for his forces.

As you can see, Montcalm is reinforcing at Mont Royal (supply is easier in the summer) and my supply wagons are shuttling up to Trois Rivieres to improve things further.



So here's how I saw the situation. From my scouting there are gaps in Narwhal's supply lines so the force that will burn down Isle de Noix will then put itself in a position to take advantage. It will be (my guess) at least one turn before the main English army is near Mont Royal so I can leave Montcalm for now and then see if I can block off the English advance.



at Quebec, a bucolic scene is to be found, the fleet is sailing around looking for any evidence of the English, the garrison converts from militia to regular and sends some spare guns to help Montcalm (you can probably guess where this is going?)



down south, the Cherokees have spotted their first target, but I'm not strong enough to risk an attack if its too well defended, so we'll have a look first & attack in July.



and this shows my replacement situation - remember that in WiA replacements replace lost elements, not as in RoP, casualties within elements. Anyway one small mistake I made was in ordering up quite a few militia repls - a mistake as by now most of my original militia are regulars. I should have saved the EP for lake flotillas and supply wagons etc (actually those additional guns I've ordered a few times were a mistake too - maybe).

So will the great Croissant theft occur or will my interdiction of his supply wagons lead to another failed invasion of Canada in 1760?
 
Narwhal, thanks for the map. It shows me how far the South is from New York (and particular the Upstate New York-Canada border, where the main action is). It also neatly shows the importance of the Hudson River and Lake Champlain as a highway of sorts into the heart of Canada.

loki, since you yourself refer to the event as 'The Great Croissant Theft' (as opposed to something like 'The Croissant Raid That Almost Was'), I strongly suspect that Narwhal is successful in thieving your supply wagons. And those guns from Quebec too, by the sound of it. :)
 
August 1760 – A New France divided !

My Indians had a lot of fun, and at the signal all the Indians started to try to bring as many supplies as possible to see who won :

Some overzealous Indians that wanted to bring something big at home :

Chewedtoobig.jpg


Good try, folks ! I like the way you are thinking !

[In game term, they only engaged a small part of that army as 89% of the French force was and stayed in the structure – basically the Indians attacked stragglers]

Some of them played a little too much :

Goodtry.jpg


After a few days, let’s see who won :

Completeloser.jpg


Mohicans – good effort, but only the supplies you bring home count for the points.

Losers.jpg


The Cayugas got 3 points for 3 elements, but then they lost 1 points for letting the supplies behind…

Winners.jpg


The Onondagas are our clear winners with 4 supply elements and 4 gun elements. That’s no less than 8 points for the Onondaga team ! Good job, Onondaga !

So overall, that’s 7 supply elements captured and 5 destroyed, and 4 gun elements captured !

Of course, the ice on the cake is Trois-Rivières itself :

Assault-1.jpg


The bateaux were not captured but destroyed.

Lyttelton, who was in the area, was killed by some French war party.

Lytelton.jpg


I thought it was a murder, but why would the French kill Lyttelton ? Makes no sense.

In any case :

Memoryof-1.jpg


There are some more combat :

The Cherokees attack some place I never heard about :

Cheraw.jpg


Unsurprisingly, they failed.

And the French boats are chased from the Western part of the Ontario :

Niagaramouthbattle.jpg


So here is the global situation :

I own Trois-Rivières :

Ahahaha.jpg


It is full defense ! At all cost. If I hold one turn, I win the game…

I am also building 2 depots at the same time (on two different stacks), so my troops can get some Croissants and Chocolatine.

On the Ontario, I pursuit the French fleet, while I will reach Frontenac next turn :

Ontario-2.jpg


My reinforcements are coming as fast as they can, i.e. not so fast :

Reinforce.jpg


And finally, I am going to have some fleet battles on the Saint Laurent so Loki100 believes I am going to land :

Distraction.jpg
 
except if Montcalm can completly trash this army.
 
The suspense!! :eek:

indeed ... and also the extent of over-claiming ... hah

Well, that looks like a deathblow...

nah, wee bittie scratch to be honest

except if Montcalm can completly trash this army.

exactly, I can now crush him from both sides - one successful blow and his army is off to the wilderness to bother the bears - the result is an awful lot of posturing and threats and very little action

so lets see:
 
July 1760 - criminality & cake theft

Ok, I'll have to slightly reconfigure this post as Narwhal has got ahead of himself in his desire to enjoy his triumphant move. He's shown the July turn outcomes (ie the stuff that so far we would have linked to august if that makes sense).

Anyway, June ended with another English crime against a defenceless village:



and lets take a calm look at the main sector:



Several key bits - a small mostly harmless force has landed where Isle de Noix smoulders (not fussed about them), my force that did the smouldering is now over at La Presentation and well placed to hit Narwhals communication and supply lines. And there is that huge mob with Forbes.

Now here I made a small misjudgement - I forgot that you can be 1-2 days from leaving a province and thus assumed they could get no further than Jolette with all those supply wagons - I semi expected a raid towards Trois Rivieres but my logic was I could set up a good enough garrison at Mont Royal and then use Montcalm to block their exit ... & that apart from those annoying Indians, I had a turn to bring all the supply wagons up.

So lets see:



well thats one less group of 'annoying Indians' (@tm)



ok, thats a problem, especially the losses when retreating - I need to find something very weak now as I can't even overcome a small militia based garrison



& the loss of the bateaux is a bit frustrating but I still have naval superiority on Ontario



speaking of things Naval, the English fleet is finally spotted well away from Quebec, so not much of a threat in 1760?



and more 'annoying Indians' (@tm) attack the baguette columns ... and are easily beaten off - no one comes between the French army and its croissant stocks



this looks like it was the mob who'd be touring the burnt down ruins of Isle de Noix, tried to grab my supplies Now its not the clearest of outcomes (the report says stalemate, the text a rout), but its clear that rather than let France's finest patisseries fall into English hands they were destroyed ... a blow but not really that important as fresh stocks are on the way.



right ... ok ... not much to see here, the English moved much faster than I'd expected (had I thought of this I'd have sent Montcalm to Trois Rivieres and left a decent garrison in Montreal) and overwhelmed my poor local militia guarding the remaining supplies.

Now ... lots to think about. The big misjudgement was the speed of the English move, but its still a bit of a stand off. They can't split up or my mobile forces at either Mont Royal or Quebec could take Trois Rivieres, I can't really move away from either city as I risk losing it behind me.
 
Can the English reach Quebec by sea? In that case, you really need to keep a decent garrison there. So, use your Montreal troops agains Trois Rivieres? But then the English mob coming from New York would threaten Montreal... Despite your positive spin on events, I am still concerned about your overall viability in this situation.

But nice job burning your own supply wagons. I keep waiting for some Rurikovich-style 'raid your own baggage train' event. :)
 
But nice job burning your own supply wagons. I keep waiting for some Rurikovich-style 'raid your own baggage train' event. :)

I fear that with Tufto's enduringly excellent AAR, there is a danger the Rurikovich's will be reinvented as some ultra-competent ruling family ... well I can always lower the tone when CK2 comes out

Can the English reach Quebec by sea? In that case, you really need to keep a decent garrison there. So, use your Montreal troops agains Trois Rivieres? But then the English mob coming from New York would threaten Montreal... Despite your positive spin on events, I am still concerned about your overall viability in this situation.

well the result is to make the next sequence of moves/options play much more like RoP - you don't have many options but its a rock/scissors/paper set of dilemnas for us both - pick right and I can redeem the situation, pick wrong & its goodnight Vienna (or Mont Royal). Spin aside, Narwhal has the better situation but its not dominant ... we have a lot of moves still to report till the end is reached
 
Small aparté : In the first page, you link to the English "July" turn, whereas I am in August. Your last(French) turn is July AND August, I think.

We will see how it turns up :)