Wars in America: A 'how-to' AAR

November 1761 – Winter won’t save the French

In November 1761, Montcalm does not try to resist James Murray move on Montréal. There is no battle and we are now two armies in Montréal. I suppose Loki100 used the opportunity to recover some strength, which is a good move since we are in November and I have only one unit of supply wagons in Montréal.



As you can see, Lord Howe and Roger, the “fast team”, are going to bring some supplies to Trois-Rivières and then back. With winter coming in, I will chow through my 4 units of supply (in Québec) much faster than before. The supply wagons are going to be heavily escorted, because the way is not safe : the French attacked Trois-Rivières from the irritating Saint Francis Fort :



This is a good move from Loki100, as he intercepted the forces just outside the structure that were going to the “hospital” but did not try to “assault” the structure (98% of my force were inside and did not engage). Finish off the wounded – how French of you Loki.
Still, this is irritating and now Loki has seen it is possible, he might as well try again. As long as Saint Francis stands, I will have to escort my convoy.

Finally, in the South, Guillaume Plantavit’s situation worsens due to the winter setting in.



I suppose those bateaux are going to try to pick him up, so my lake schooners will intercept them.

I think Montcalm and Pyrrhus can swap war stories, if they ever meet in the afterlife. Two French victories, at a cost of 3,500 men (and 33 elements - yikes), that sounds like textbook Pyrrhic to me.

Still, it's nice to see some victories in the ledger on the French side. Even if the balance of things hasn't moved much.

Oh, they'll win. The French always win in the end...

In real life, they didn't. Québécois are still paying the price of their defeat...

There has been plenty of brilliant banter throughout this AAR but I thought these lines especially good;

Narwhal said:

It is not unknown, for fresh bodies, to have nervous "reflexes" that can simulate life. That's the situation of France. Or at least that's what my commanders explained in their letters to the High Command in London.

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Troubling times for France, the end seems to be nearing. Even in victory France is suffering considerable losses. I think there is a twist or two, and likely a fire or two, left in this tale yet though.

December 1761 – Beat me once, shame on me ! Beat me twice, err… ALSO shame one me

In front of Montréal, once again my troops engaged Montcalm’s forces at 5 : 4. My troops are well fed, well lead and in good state, while the French are, you know, French. But surprisingly :




My troops retreat in Joliette, and also :




I guess running away in the snow in skirts is not good for health…
But still, that means I lost 6 elements out of 85 while the French lost 14 out of 61… I like this sort of trade !

That’s why I will try it AGAIN :


Another attack. If Montcalm want to trade 14 more elements, be my guest.

Meanwhile, on the Ontario, my fleet intercept the enemy bateaux while they were carrying troops away :



I landed 7 hits in their retreat, so might have sunk one ship or two, and thus what was inside, as they were full (else, Loki100 would have carried away more troops, as I know Plantavit’s force was larger). A good day for England.

January 1762 – Decisive stalemate !

In January, despite the cold, people are very eager to come to finish off the French :



Yep, that’s in Joliette. In the middle of nowhere, people in kilts come to fight for me. Scottish are tough as nails.
Anyway, I am moving in to Montréal, and I have several surprises :



First, there is a lot more French than expected. I killed 1 700 out of 4 300, so I expected to meet circa 2 700 men in 47 elements. Poor me ; I meet 5100 men in 53 elements. I know there are circa 200 French per element, so I understand 1200 additional men (at best) – but those 1 200 extra soldiers I have no idea where they come from. Probably massive reinforcements due to high supply output now that many elements are destroyed.

Second surprised : the Chevalier de Levis is in command. I suppose the French command was appalled at the last two “victories” of Montcalm and decided to replace him in command [In game term, Montcalm lost seniority battle after battle until his seniority was below Levis’]. It is good news for me, as Levis has one less in strategic rating (4 vs 5), the same defensive rating, and a string of very good bonus not useful in the circumstances, while Montcalm had the all-powerful Entrencher trait.

Last surprise : not only was I now destroyed because I was 3 against 5 in attack, but the “Stalemate” was decisive as the French retreated… to Caughanawas, an Indian village south of Montréal. Montréal is now defenseless :



I am expected an “all-out” assault by Montcalm or Levis next turn, so I stay in defense, because I don’t want to be either attacked while in assault posture, or trapped in Montréal while Montcalm can take back Joliette and siege my from there (or “free” Québec).

Still, a small force of highlanders will assault the position and enter the structure, so even if Murray is chased (unlikely), the French will have to lose one more turn assaulting their capital.

Speaking of which :



The power of the French army decreased slightly… are they starting to run out of food ?

The victory is only a few weeks away !

this retreat of Levis is ridiculous and completly unlogical from a realistic point of view...

The steady loss of French elements must really be hurting loki by now, so yes, these battles are definitely a good trade-off for you.

The retreat-upon-stalemate from Montreal is counter-intuitive. With your in-depth knowledge of the game, can you explain why the French would've abandoned their superior position in Montreal after a mere stalemate?

Narwhal said:

Yep, that’s in Joliette. In the middle of nowhere, people in kilts come to fight for me. Scottish are tough as nails.

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I think it is rather that even being in the middle of nowhere is a considerable improvement compared to most areas of Scotland, thus they are happy to be there!

The French seem to be putting up a good defence although the retreat infront of Montreal is baffling.

General_Hoth said:

this retreat of Levis is ridiculous and completly unlogical from a realistic point of view...

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I just opened Loki's French file to see what happened, and I believe Loki100 made the mistake of giving a PASSIVE order to Levis for some reason, maybe to recover cohesion and receive reinforcements more quickly, because he thought I would not attack ?




Thus, the retreat is logical given the order Loki100 gave. Any other order would have been an English defeat I think.

I did some test to see what would have happened in the case of a "determined defense" by Levis :



As you can see, the French with that defensive order would have recovered less hits (750 less men), but would have won decisively !

Oh god, please, Montcalm must do something!

February 1762 – Unexpected guest

February goes surprisingly well.
Montréal is taken by the small assault force :



Good news ! Unfortunately, Forbes died.

This is weird, because I did not assign him to the assault force. No leaders were - they could not decide who should enter the city first... As for Forbes, he was going to inspect the forlorn hope, but unluckily he arrived late, just as the assault begun. He was therefore, in complete confusion, pushed straight to and through the walls of Montréal, even though he tried as much as possible to claw his way back to his unit, facing Montcalm in a muddy trench. He happened to have a flag with him at this moment for some reason and decided to put it somewhere so he could claw more efficientely. As he did not want to lose His Majesty Flag, nor wanted people to tramp it, he energically sticked the flag in the ground, just next to the City Hotel (he wanted to remember the place). That's what he claimed anyway.
He was found mysteriously dead in the officer’s mess shortly thereafter. None of the 3 other officers have seen anything and they all claimed he was killed during the assault, when he entangled in his own laces.

In any case :



In Quebec, the French are eating their last chocolatines :



And also note that I am going to assault that irritating French fort next to Trois-Rivières.

So really I am going to win any…



…time.



So, what does this nice, er, “surprise” changes ?

I have one more objective to take :



Which happens to be, if you know your American geography, not EXACTLY close to Montréal :



Why does the Spanish entrance in the war add Nouvelle-Orléans and not Havana as an objective is beyond me.

So I have two solutions :
- Either I wait for an hurricane to take the city, or,
- I send a force.
Happily enough, look at what just spawned in the Caribeans :



That, er, “Cuba Expedition” is going straight to Nouvelle Orléans. You might notice there is no leader in this force. I don’t really see the Cabinet sending such a force without commander, so it is probably a developer overlook – most French players don’t go that far, so not enough people complained to change this. In any case, I am going to remediate to the situation by sending all those untrusty leaders I have guarding backward forts :



This should be enough, hopefully.

Adds maybe another turn or two to the game? The tide is still going against loki - but at least we might still get to see his attempt to burn down New York.

On a more serious note: how long will it take you to get a leader down the New Orleans? And do you really need one? I guess it depends on what the French have down there, but I don't remember loki ever bragging about the mighty French garrison Down South.

loki100 said:

The patisseries of Mont Royal are sacked by hungry Scotsmen looking for their macaroni pies from Greggs (yes, dear reader, Scotland now sells macaroni pies ... and we wonder about a few localised public health problems)

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I could just go for a sausage and bean pie from Greggs right now...

I'm rather intrigued by this Spanish force, hopefully they can prolong things for a wee while yet. At least until France has had a chance to start a few more 'barbecues' anyway.

in my memory, they have 2 batalions, canons and a bit of supplies?