July 1758 – The Southern Front is closed !
The outstanding news in the South is Cornw… sorry… Jean-Daniel Dumas’s surrender at Savannah :
I also captured a French transport, the "Flotte du Golfe". Small fleet, eh, as it was only 1 ship strong.
Loki100 told me he had ordered his troops to sortie, but we did not investigate immediately then. Then, I thought that supposedly, the “siege” effect is resolved after the “sortie”, so there was something abnormal. I investigated (with Loki100 authorization) and found out that Loki100 had given the wrong order : a “sortie” order.
When you want to break the siege from the city under siege, you need to use that ATTACK or ASSAULT stance and drag and drop the unit OUTSIDE the city.
You must
not
- Use the “sortie” order, which will be converted in a “enter structure” order as soon as you drag’n’ drop the unit outside
- If there are locked units in the stack, it MAY (I am not sure) for the unit, and thus the stack, inside, thus cancelling your attempt.
Using the “sortie” order allows a force inside a structure to attack the besiegers WHEN the forces besieged are themselves attacked by an “external” force, thus allowing some sort of (very efficient) cooperation
If you use the “sortie” order but there is no relieving force to coordinate with, the force to which you gave the “sortie” order will wait… and wait… and wait until the end of the turn.
Long later, we redid the turn to see what would have happened if Loki had not mixed up those orders (which, granted, are unclear), and the result was that my force was chased away with significant losses (elements).
In any case, in our game, I “closed” the Southern Front.
Overall, I believe Loki100 failed to significantly alter my strategy with his opening of the second front, except maybe in early 1757 when my forces were not numerous on the whole map. Here is the forces I committed to the South :
The rest were “local” forces I would not have brought North, and 8 ships.
8 elements of regular, 4 elements of guns and 4 elements of supply – not insignificant, but small - and 1 element of cavalry which was useless in the North. Much less than what Loki100 committed (like 20 elements of Indians, 10 elements of light, 4 to 8 elements of regulars and 3 or 4 leaders)… and lost.
On the Champlain, Fort Saint Frederick is under attack – but hold out against 3 assaults :
I am going to counter-attack and chase the exhausted French :
The number you see in the info-box is the maximum and “current” power of the enemy forces (the one I detect, and remember it is an estimation). Basically, the French are exhausted with about 20 total power.
My Great Works are going well :
- Fort Niagara should be built next turn :
- And the new Fort Leboeuf in two turns :
Finally, let’s have a look at Louisbourg. Amherst will be able to hold 2 more turns :
He is still in offensive stance, because I don’t have enough MC YET to block the supply inflows. I think I need about 80% (by experience with the endgame).
So here is my strategy in the area :
As you can see, I am going to send some wagons back to Halifax to get some supply. You only need one turn : if you give a “boarding” order, the boat won’t move until the boarding is done. Same with landing.
I keep a force to Cap Breton to have an exit route to there in case things turn ugly.
