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Burning down the Houses: The War of 1812

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Had Loki built a depot in Niagara, he could have wiped my forces just at the end of winter - which I had managed horribly - and then marched on Montréal. My plans would have been in shambles.

In our rematch, Loki100 made sure his forces were ready and more then ready. This also allowed him (like I did this game) to do some operations in winter. Let's just say he won the rematch ;)

Cracking stuff, leaving everything wonderfully poised for the final. Narwhal's daring raid upon Washington looks promising, but for the many disease which seem to be currently afflicting his troops. loki's attack into Canada looks most promising also. Hopefully both forces have a sufficient quantity of matches.
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Turns out the name (chosen by Loki at the end of 1812 in game term) fit pretty well :)
 
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On the 1st of March, 1814

To the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Lord Liverpool

Your Excellency,

No difficulty to report, so I will be quick :

In the North, we are sieging more enemy positions :

Agameofsiege.jpg


In New Orléans, the enemy forces have landed behind us, which means we are now outnumbered. Luckily, it was their time to be hit by swamp weather. We need to strike NOW ! When most of them are not able to fight !

Landing-5.jpg


Unfortunately, unconfirmed reports tell me that Sir George Prevost, who misteriously diseappeared from Détroit, has been seen near Nouvelles-Orléans ? Is he going to work for the Americans ? Given his behaviour so far, it is the most likely reason !

I have no news of the situation in Vincennes :

VincennesSTILLhold.jpg


Finally, we plan to destroy the last bastion before Washington :

assault-1.jpg


As a final note, the news we have from Europe are very confusing. A few months ago, we learned that Napoleon was defeated, and now we have news he is actually still on the trone. We want information here, not rumors.

Nappy.jpg



Respectfully,

Sir Isaac Brock
 
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Narwhal said:
I would just say he is learning. In our rematch, Loki100 made a master offensive and then pursuit in winter ; it sure was costly for me, but it was even more so for me. He told me he got the trick from me :)
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I certainly don't doubt the wisdom of an unexpected winter offensive in the game :): I was merely referring to the real-life scenario of someone willingly moving into Canada from a more southern place during the winter. I lived in Minnesota for a few years and the winters are brutal. Canada, even around Toronto, must be much the same, except for even more snow, due to the lake-effect snow storms.

Anyway, back to the topic of the game. I'm looking forward to your attempt to do some drastic 'urban renewal' in Washington DC. Sure, your troops are weakened, but there can't be that much left to oppose them, right? :)

EDIT: That's what I get for walking away from the computer after opening the thread: things get added without me noticing and I'm still blathering on about last week's news. ;) Oh well, not a whole lot of new developments in the last turn (except George Provost acting suspiciously suspicious), but overall the British remain tightly in control of the situation. I look forward to that assault on Annapolis and then... Burn, baby, burn!
 
Stuyvesant said:
I certainly don't doubt the wisdom of an unexpected winter offensive in the game :): I was merely referring to the real-life scenario of someone willingly moving into Canada from a more southern place during the winter. I lived in Minnesota for a few years and the winters are brutal. Canada, even around Toronto, must be much the same, except for even more snow, due to the lake-effect snow storms.

Anyway, back to the topic of the game. I'm looking forward to your attempt to do some drastic 'urban renewal' in Washington DC. Sure, your troops are weakened, but there can't be that much left to oppose them, right? :)

EDIT: That's what I get for walking away from the computer after opening the thread: things get added without me noticing and I'm still blathering on about last week's news. ;) Oh well, not a whole lot of new developments in the last turn (except George Provost acting suspiciously suspicious), but overall the British remain tightly in control of the situation. I look forward to that assault on Annapolis and then... Burn, baby, burn!
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Well as in the next post, having finally had the sense to put one of my northern armies in good supply over winter, Dearborn is quite the threat, the only remaining issue is where he goes to get his share of all the glory coming my way in the next 3-4 turns?
 
February 1815, America on the edge of victory

The English besieged Annapolis but offered no real threat to Washington



So the American plan in the south was put into operaton, as Decatur brought Jackson's troops back to St Philip



The English at New Orleans were surrounded, ready for destruction

And in the north, Dearborn's army was fully supplied



Oh and Bonaparte decided to help out



The stage was set for a complete and total victory ....
 
loki100 said:
The stage was set for a complete and total victory ....
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Too true... Pity it isn't going to be yours, isn't it? ;)

Still, I admire your bellicose posture. If the Americans can't feasibly win the war, at least they can burn and loot their way across the Canadian countryside, making sure that US-Canadian relations will remain stained for decades to come. :p
 
Stuyvesant said:
Too true... Pity it isn't going to be yours, isn't it? ;)

Still, I admire your bellicose posture. If the Americans can't feasibly win the war, at least they can burn and loot their way across the Canadian countryside, making sure that US-Canadian relations will remain stained for decades to come. :p
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you weren't meant to spot that, yep victory is at hand, but it ain't America's. But yes if in doubt, invade a harmless neighbouring country seems a good strategy
 
March 1815, America achieves a total victory

In the north, Dearborn struck at Kingston as a key step to capturing Montreal



and in the South, the strong US force holding New Orleans



was ordered to sortie out as Jackson struck



and in the West another British attempt to take Vincennes failed



While in the South, Decatur ran into the Royal Navy



And American pressure mounted at New Orleans



Victory was so close



Oh



Errgh






Oh and the last fort in the Mohawk fell too



Still, victory was at hand

 
Well, at least Decatur had the decency to get himself wounded. While every single other American soul perished... Also, pardon my lack of geographical knowledge of the game (or, perhaps more importantly, exactly what areas you hold in the game), but I do know that Pensacola is in Florida, and Florida is still British at this point... At least in Real Life history. So yes, I would say there's a strong suspicion surrounding Decatur. He's a double agent, a mole(it doesn't help that I just watched Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy this past Monday)!

Watching your last-ditch offensive at New Orleans fail (and fail utterly) was almost painful. I mean, you weren't going to win at this stage anymore, but that defeat turns a loss on points into a true knockout.
 
New Orleans is so hard to attack...surprised that you went for Mobile and let the British in.

Ah well.

I've just finished a dozen playthrough's of the short New Orleans scenario as the British...trying to break into the damn city.

All failures.

I must be a rookie.

:D
 
TheExecuter said:
New Orleans is so hard to attack...surprised that you went for Mobile and let the British in.

Ah well.

I've just finished a dozen playthrough's of the short New Orleans scenario as the British...trying to break into the damn city.

All failures.

I must be a rookie.

:D
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No, that has little to do with experience. New Orleans is a tough nut to crack. The short scenarios in AGEOD games often tend to be unbalanced/unwinnable for one side. Good balance as well as the major fun is to be found in the major campaigns.
 
TheExecuter said:
New Orleans is so hard to attack...surprised that you went for Mobile and let the British in.

Ah well.

I've just finished a dozen playthrough's of the short New Orleans scenario as the British...trying to break into the damn city.

All failures.

I must be a rookie.

:D
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If the American doesn't do something silly like send 1/3 of the force off to Mobile, then its actually designed to stalemate there. The problem is combat frontage and the defensive bonus for the swamps. Your best chance with the British is if the Americans do get the 'disease' event and you don't. Then strike.

But in general the short scenarios are often badly unbalanced as Bornego says. They are good though for testing out strategies or working out solutions to a particular problem. You can try some more creative stuff that if it fails, well its not too important but could really spoil a long campaign game. I'm doing something similar at the moment using one of the later start dates for RoP as I want to test out the supply viability of an option (& don't want to lose 2-3 corps to supply in a real game if I can avoid it)
 
My co-author is risking Wien at the moment, so I'll let him take up the tale before I put in any more posts, but rest assured there is still the successful Montreal shopping trip to be reported :ninja:

Stuyvesant said:
Well, at least Decatur had the decency to get himself wounded. While every single other American soul perished... Also, pardon my lack of geographical knowledge of the game (or, perhaps more importantly, exactly what areas you hold in the game), but I do know that Pensacola is in Florida, and Florida is still British at this point... At least in Real Life history. So yes, I would say there's a strong suspicion surrounding Decatur. He's a double agent, a mole(it doesn't help that I just watched Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy this past Monday)!

Watching your last-ditch offensive at New Orleans fail (and fail utterly) was almost painful. I mean, you weren't going to win at this stage anymore, but that defeat turns a loss on points into a true knockout.
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Hah, my American history (or at least having spent most of the last 6 months looking at the WiA map) is better than yours .... at this stage Florida was Spanish. What I don't know is when it ceased to be. Its a pity that Director kept a 'Special Providence' to the Vicky timeframe as I'm learning so much about 19C US history from it.

But yes, I think we have to assume that the senior levels of the USN were in reality double agents all along & those sucesses in the Atlantic were done to make it appear as if they were on the right side.

If, as in response above, you stick with all that force at New Orleans, say 80% outside, 20% as a garrison (& keep the garrison in defense), its almost impossible for the English to take. The only way is if the Americans get the disease event (so lots of loss of org) & the English don't you have a chance. In the replay, I struck with a lot of force and ended up with a very bloody nose.

But we have spotted a very gamey solution for the English, if the Atlantic force turns up early enough ...

Fadi_Efendi said:
New Orleans gone! Where is Pierre Lafitte when you need him?
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Oh he's there, you get a wierd and wonderful collection of pirate and freed slave battalions along with the regulars that Jackson appears with

now said:
New Orleans... just wow.
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aye, that was a bit foolish, probably the only really bad set of moves I made all game :sad:

JackTheRipper21 said:
I dont think Andrew Jackson will get his presidency either.
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On the other hand, that IS a bonus, so its worth the utter defeat to prevent that happening with all the consequences ;)
 
loki100 said:
Hah, my American history (or at least having spent most of the last 6 months looking at the WiA map) is better than yours ....
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Hey, I just live here, doesn't mean I know the history. :p I could also throw in a snide reference that we talking about Florida here, but I'll desist, not being from around here. It's impolite to insults one's host. Even if they're three states over.

Anyway, a quick trot to Wikipedia (my most trustworthy site for facts if Facebook does not instantly provide) shows me that Florida was Spanish the last time from 1784 to 1821.
 
Fadi_Efendi said:
New Orleans gone! Where is Pierre Lafitte when you need him?
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Pierre Lafitte is in game, and while his stats are ooutstanding, the fact that he is a NAVAL leader arriving just when the English have a massive fleet makes him more or less useless. His troops are outstanding, though, they hit almost as hard as regulars.


loki100 said:
If the American doesn't do something silly like send 1/3 of the force off to Mobile, then its actually designed to stalemate there. The problem is combat frontage and the defensive bonus for the swamps. Your best chance with the British is if the Americans do get the 'disease' event and you don't. Then strike.
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That's exactly what I did. The disease event is extremely common in the swamps - once every 2 or 3 turns.
In the rematch, I kept New Orléans the same way - waiting for a disease to strike.
If you are lucky as the English, you can have the Cheesepeake expedition before the defenses of New Orléans are mustered. In which case, rerout said expedition to New Orléans - et voilà. Of course, there will be no one to burn Washington. Except the New Orléans expedition, maybe.
 
On the 1st of April, 1814

To the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Lord Liverpool

Your Excellency,

We have important news from the colonies, where the situation has known dramatic changes.

Fort Niagara has surrendered to our forces, but little did we know that there were only an handful of men protecting it.

Most of the American army had boarded some bateaux and landed right in Kingston, just after having defeated Yeo's force that had scrambled to intercept them :

Yeofailure.jpg


Here is the current situation :

Surprise-1.jpg



More bad news - our starving enemies in Vincennes attempted a desperate sortie, and our not-less starving troops were routed :

Close.jpg

FailureatVincennes.jpg


De Rottenburg forces are now on retreat. For 10 men that left, only one will go back.

The Naturals pledged to avenge us, and another major expedition is planned, to destroy the remaint of the Vincennes's garrison :

Newattemps.jpg


We are also sending troops to support Kingston. By foot, as we lost control of the lake :

MoveNorth.jpg



While all these news are poor (except the fall of Niagara), let me tell you of what happened in New Orléans.

Sir Georges Prevost, the 2nd of March, joined our forces in New Orléans, immediately took command (with no authority to do so, I should add), and I must admit his agressiveness, for once, was useful. He attacked immediately William Caroll's forces before it joined up with Andrew Jackson. The American forces were immediately routed after less than one hour of combat - very few losses on both sides.

Prevostvictory.jpg


Prevost then organised a defensive position waited for Jackson's forces, who was marching on New Orléans. Jackson's forces were smashed :

Prevostvictory2.jpg

Prevostvictory3.jpg


The enemy in New Orléans, lead by that old French scoundrel Jean Lafitte, tried to use Jackson's diversion to sortie. Prevost, much to my surprised, used this opportunity to trap them out of the city, and destroy them :

Lafitteturn.jpg



With all the enemy commanders defeated one after the other by his force of less than 3500 (against more than 10 000 in total), Prevost could claim the prize - New Orléans - and thus partly erased his frivoleous behavior in the Lakes campaign.

NOisBrith.jpg


Finally, I send with this message two more bills from our good friend Decatur. The first one for this action :

Navalbattle.jpg


The second for some wound he received from one of his men when he ordered his fleet aground. The rascal was hung.

Please find a cottage for Decatur just next to Isaac Hull's. Those two should be good friends.


Once the situation in Kingston will be solved, we will have a decisive victory,

Yours in victory,

Sir Isaac Brock
 
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