Wars in America: A 'how-to' AAR

Narwhal said:

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

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ah, that explains it ... sorry I still get mixed up. Ok I'll stick with my own version to the end of 1760 then revert to normal. In other words the next post will be both my orders for August & the events.

ANO1453 said:

#peeks to see if France is winning

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definitely, its more than safe to come out from behind the sofa. My cunning plan to lure the English into obesity with all my carefully prepared patiseries is on track ... if needed I'll open a branch of Greggs in Trois Rivieres (a reference that will mean little to anyone who lives outside Scotland) then they will move very slowly ... if at all

August 1760 - matters nautical and an emerging problem

In the tradition of failing Empires across time and across the globe, I ignored the wee problem of the English army in Trois Rivieres in the selection of screenshots I took for August. Suffice to say, I'm trying to strengthen Montcalm by reinforcing (the reason will be clear in this post) and still looking to snip his communication lines.



So around Champlain, I'm going for Fort St Frederic again. Now its a gamble although the designated corps is fairly strong:



For two reasons - one is that powerful English force at Fort William, the other is my units are increasingly fragile - a few losses means lost elements from now on. The result is I can't risk moving there, recover org and attack, so need to strike off the march.

Now while my forces move into position, the war went to sea (so to speak)



that was my fleet guarding the entrance to the St Laurence, not too worried but it really delays any English landings at Quebec this year. Note Narwhal just can't stop trying to kill my officers ..



this defeat on Ontario was a bit more a worry. The fleet needs to go to port to re-equip so the English rule the lake (for now). Again its late in the campaign season so I'm not too worried despite the presence of 'annoying Indians' (@tm) at Frontenac.

And our brave lads complete their march, attack and ...



fail badly, 25% losses, lots of elements lost in the battle and in the retreat and a NM point, was far worse than I expected. For 1761 I need to think of a new way to get behind the British lines.

Morrell8 said:

Militia replacements aren't a problem for you right?

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In numbers no .. but actually accessing them is a problem as especially in winter, I now struggle with supply ... which leads neatly to

General_Hoth said:

Ouchhh...How is working the reinforcing of depleted element? I don't think I fully understand it in my own games.

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while I'm sure someone else can explain the detail the basic concept is straightforward. To both absorb replacements (ie replace a destroyed element) and to rebuild an element you need to be in a province that has more supply than is being consumed. I believe that being inside a structure is better, being in the most passive mode helps (though that maybe a RoP rule), but thats the basic. Now, I'm just about nursing my armies over winter without them falling apart, so I really struggle to bring in repls etc.

I'm doing a SP play as France, and being a lot more disciplined about resting units (ok I'm in mid-57 so its not that difficult at the moment), but rarely have any sustained supply problems and mostly my run down units regenerate. So a lot of my problems at the moment are my own fault. You can see from Narwhal's posts just how much care he takes around resting units and regaining strength.

Which leads me to:

Stuyvesant said:

Ouch! Kindly explain to me how, when you have a 4-1 manpower superiority, as well as a leader (which they don't have), you get beaten - and so badly. Is it because most of your forces appear to be militia? Is it because the fort gives the English such a bonus? I would not have thought this would've happened...

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Anazagar said:

He moved 28 days in assault posture which leads to a big coheshion loss (which decreases the combat performance significantly) plus he was attacing in a structure without artillery (so no range advantage). Also his regular troops were depleated and most of those 4k came probably for the militia elements (in comparison most of the british were colonial regulars).

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Stuyvesant said:

That explains it rather comprehensively. Thanks!

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Exactly ... now I can claim I had a good reason (ie that large force down around Albany) and that if I turned up and waited I ran the risk of being driven off in any case - so it was a gamble. But given the relative strength of the forces a bad one. We'll see a lot from now on where I need to snatch at half chances I engineer rather than take my time - some is inevitable and some is still not really adapting to the play style the AGEOD engine requires

Sept-Oct 1760

As you can probably imagine, there is less and less variety of events going on, so at least for my reports I may start conflating months on a regular basis.

Anyway September was actually rather jolly, if I ignored the sound of the English scoffing all those croissants ...

first my wandering Cherokees found something smaller than them -



and became the proud owners of Dismal Swamp ... which is near to New York (honest)

and up on Lake Ontario, I whacked one of those groups of 'annoying indians' (@tm), which was quite satisfying



and as we move into Autumn its maybe time to face up to some version of reality:



Note that huge English horde no longer have supply wagons - I was briefly quite optimistic but realised they've mostly been converted to depots, so I guess my guests intend to stay the winter.

Note I also still have forces around Fort St Frederic as I disengage (I need to split up quite a lot over winter to make the best use of supply)



and there we have, its almost christmas, but do the English stop even for a day from trying to kill my officers ... at least they aren't very good shots.

By the way, I am not forgetting this. But for once, the French were honest and covered it at length :

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hah ... except I didn't come from Mont Royal at all ... hah ... and you dismiss my strategic masterpiece in seizing control of Dismal Swamp

Sir Garnet said:

Are there any secrets to "idées imprudentes pour la protection contre l'incendie" techniques (aka "scorched earth" in English) other than using evade movement (so raiding) and remembering to click the special order to destroy any destructible structure at just the right time to prevent enemy from capturing it (i.e., when it seems likely)?

___________________________
Save the kittens, burn the rest!
(Pardon my French)

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Featauril said:

"unprudent ideas for the protection against fire" translates to "scorched earth" now?

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Sir Garnet said:

That is how the English describe an unfortunate series of coincidences involving French & Indian fire safety practices.

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well, I still burn anything I can, but I fear that scorched earth is no longer a barrier now the English have decided to treat New France like they do some sections of Languedoc ...

so I'm afraid Canada's kittens will have to look out for themselves (I'm typing this while 2 of mine are having a fight/mutual groom/headbutt of my typing hand - so I'm not that sympathetic!)

Stuyvesant said:

Well, with a name like the Dismal Swamp, it must be a wonderful place to make a home, right...

Couple of decent holding actions by the French, but overall the British seem to be the ones driving things (I guess holding Trois Rivieres like a dagger into Canada does that).

Some of those French commanders have names that defy credibility, length-wise. No wonder they aren't very good generals: who could order them around in the heat of battle? Before you've rattled off all their names/titles, half your regiment would've been decimated.

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yes, I can imagine there were a lot of orders written as "oi, you", esp in the days before hotkeys etc

my strategy in the short term is to stablilise a bad situation, I still have the potential for action from Quebec and Mont Royal - except that co-ordinating an attack is hard in RoP and near impossible in WiA

Nov-Dec 1760 - in which the English forget its winter

Well traditionally, not much happens in these turns, but Narwhal seems to have other ideas

while I'm moving away from Fort St Frederic it becomes very clear there are an awful lot of English there - in particular far too many to last the winter in what is a supply poor spot:



well December brings clarity ... maybe:



so my guess is that huge army is off to join their Croissant stealing chums, but they just might go for Mont Royal, so I'm nice and ready (and unusually have lots of supply)

{as an edit/comment here - looking at the image again - I should have left a smallish garrison in Mont Royal and moved Montcalm to block the route to Trois Rivieres - having read this AAR I now realise that corps with Lord Howe is in no way capable of fighting}

just to be sure about supply, extra stocks are ordered up:



which ends 1760.

Well I've not lost yet, I still hold the 2 big cities and Quebec in particular is brimful of supplies so unless Narwhal can sustain a winter siege I think that will hold for quite a while. And Montcalm still has a powerful army, and I can still hit south of Lake Ontario. So there is scope to do some damage, but I obviously really need to take any half chances that come my way ... which leads us into 1761