Burning down the Houses: The War of 1812

November 1812

Despite the return of winter, the US forces around Lake Champlain were unusually active. The force at Isle de Noix had already built a small depot and the bateaux were sent across the ice-free lake to build this up. The goal was to sustain this force and offer a direct threat to Montreal in the next campaign season. In the meantime Ganonoque was burnt and the US forces blocking the land route from Mont Royal to Kingston took up defensive positions.



However, along the Mohawk, the chance to retake Stanwix while the English were busy at Sackett was missed as Wadsworth had decided that now it was cold outside it was best to stay in bed. The English had no such scruples and carried on knocking down Sackett.



In the meantime in the west, Hull had fallen back northwards after his defeat at Detroit. He was ordered to move (leisurely) south, Fortunately, despite heavily outnumbering the garrison, the English seemed to adopt American work rates and decide to take it easy.



With all these problems mounting, the Americans turned to Henri for help. He organised some help ... though it seems that the help came with strings.

Morrell8 said:

What do Epidemics do?

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Narwhal said:

Your armies, where the epidemics spreads out, lose almost all its cohesion and gets several hits (dead people). It usually destroy your plans if it was one of your "mobile" army. It never lasts much.

Exception : Armies in swamps get hit by epidemic every other turn or so. It will be VERY important in our end game, as there will be some campaign in Louisiana and, well, I won't say more for now.

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I must say, I seemed to get a lot in this game. Now it may be chance, it maybe the result of my chosen advisors or ....

Stuyvesant said:

About time something went up in flames, I say.

Those epidemics, they sound more like the style of 'Astride' than 'Henri'. Ah well, extra troops are always handy - even if they're busy overflowing the latrines.

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It depends on where the reinforcements are coming from? Don't worry plenty of N America will be burned and looted before we finish - I think your adopted town is spared but not much else is still standing.

morningSIDEr said:

Curse my not having noticed this until now! Great to see another AAR from you both especially as it is filled with the same banter, mind games and enjoyable play which made WiA: A How to AAR such an enjoyable read. Very good stuff in this thus far from both sides, the scenario seems very interesting. I also get the feeling Henri and Astride are ever so slightly familiar...

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This is a quite brilliant scenario. We played this in about 3 weeks (helped that at times we were both around and could run the winter turns in particular at some speed), its well balanced and both sides get to do things and have periods of relative dominance. It helps though to take very careful account of the full VP conditions - which I overlooked till it was almost too late.

You gain VPs from holding key towns (a per turn accrual) & for a long time I was ahead on this and by destroying enemy units. I overlooked this and was a bit too keen to cling on to places a bit too long (thinking this was giving me VPs), so when my garrison was destroyed, I took quite a hit.

Bornego said:

Why is your force at Isle aux Noix in assault posture? It doesn't seem like a good idea if you want to defend a place.

Keep up the great work. It really is a treat to get to see both sides in a multi-player AAR.

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Its one of two mistakes with AGEOD I keep on making. I still don't double check and/or really think through stances. As you'll see in the next post, I corrected that, it was a legacy of the original landing & I think I was briefly thinking about trying to grab one of the two neighbouring towns as well. The other is not sending units to where they can heal properly. The result is that by 1814, I have a strong but very brittle army left.

I'll do my side of updates to the end of this winter then wait for Narwhal to catch up. He's away so there will be a short hiatus (unless he can post from where he is). But 1813 was a hoot. We in effect ended it having completely traded places.

December 1812

Champlain

Here the American forces set themselves up for a well earned rest. The depot at Isle de Noix was expanded to level 2 and the US forces between Montreal and Kingston took up winter quarters.

Even so it was clear that the English might attempt a winter offensive in order to steal all this nice food.



Ontario

To the south, the English forces at Sackett's Harbour braved the winter cold to continue their siege.



However, the town surrendered without a fight in early December, giving the English a strong position in the south-centre of Lake Ontario.

The West

This litany of disaster continued in the west, things continued to go wrong. Detroit fell



And Hull's army trying to evade the English, suffered badly from the cold. Like all American generals, he took the view that in winter the place to be was a nice warm fort.

Stuyvesant said:

Wait, you surrendered in the region 'Famine'? And what is this madness of the British trying to steal American food? I mean, in your earlier match-up I could see the attraction of croissants and assorted patisseries, but American food? I don't even know what constitutes American food at that time, except for turkey for Thanksgiving (and that bird, in my humble opinion, is somewhat over-rated in the taste department)...

Anyway, I'm rambling. Sounds like December was not kind to you, if your greatest success amounts to 'I snuck some supply wagons past British scouts'...

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Well you have to take your victories where you can ... & after my recent acts around Lake Eire sneaking away unharmed looks pretty competent. As to the food situation, I can only suspect the British have handed their catering over to Greggs ... if so it does actually still make sense that they want someone else's

morningSIDEr said:

Which is entirely the right attitude! America is executing this war in the best possible way, her officers acting as gentlemen and taking their time. There is no point in rushing a good war, you want to savour it as Hull has been with his frequent liquid lunches and so forth.

A pretty bruising turn it seems but it is still far too early to see who has an advantage at present.

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1813 is tense and ends up being pivotal after the advantage switches a few times. Due to American inertia, the English (I think) have the advantage in 1812, in 1813 this flips (not least I get a lot of fresh units) and in 1815 the English have huge reinforcements - so the goal for the Americans is to ensure that they can't use that late advantage decisively. I'm not sure about 1814, as in this game it was dominated by the consequences of the 1813 campaigns.

now said:

Dang, the Brits are *that* close to striking a killing blow.

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Its a good position that Narwhal has ... but my force at the north end of Lake Champlain is quite a problem for him. If I snag Montreal I win. So he needs to keep a lot of his army back to deal with that threat and I can then operate more freely elsewhere.

2Coats said:

Im pleased to inform all readers of this magnificent AAR, that it has been awarded AARtist of the Month for Jan 2012....

Congrats guys! Most warranted! Now beat these Yanks... will you already!

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Thank you ... but I do think we gain from such a superb atmospheric in-game map. And, well certain key and iconic cities across N America (both Canadian and American) will be burnt and looted before we're finished.

Stuyvesant said:

Hear, hear! I say! And more hearty exclamations of that ilk.

Or, in plain English: congratulations! Well-deserved for some very informative maps with great combinations of imagery and explanatory text.

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Again many thanks, but the base game map is so atmospheric.

January-February 1813 (America slumbers)

(as usual with the winter turns, not too much happened, so I'll conflate these two)

January 1813

For the Americans, this period of the war saw little action or inclination to do anything. In the West, Hull continued his retreat, evading English scouts who would obviously have found it hard to spot a fox in a field of chickens.



A letter from Henri to Astride (who for some reason had joined Napoleon in Russia) seems to capture the mood of the times.



Fortunately the US Navy had more ambitious plans, setting out to raid English shipping off New England and on the main Atlantic crossings.



And the English seemed a lot more determined to move around in the snow. Must have been the result of all those strange Public Schools and cold showers? Fortunately, the tuck-shop was easily defended:



February 1813

Against this background of general inertia and ill-disguised unwillingness to risk cold fingers, at least one US commander stood out. Wilkinson was convinced that winter would end in March and thus ordered his forces to Stanwix with the goal of regaining the initiative while the English were still in their winter quarters.



However, it was at sea that the Americans were unusually both active and effective.



However, Hull continued to exemplify the American spirit in those difficult days. With food in sight he was in no mood to waste time fighting the English, reaching shelter at the end of the month.



And just in time for Spring, a number of fresh American units arrived. Perhaps 1813 might see the war carried forward with a little bit more commitment?



... or would they?

ah, that explains where that new force came from ...