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So what's up with the, erm, 'edited' report of the Battle of La Colle? More units destroyed during the retreat phase, or something else? Or merely a rather clumsy attempt by the British commander to rewrite history?
 
What edited report ? No ! No ! I, John Prevost, attacked THOUSANDS of American soldiers with only an handful of men, and killed most of them. Yes Sir !
 
What edited report ? No ! No ! I, John Prevost, attacked THOUSANDS of American soldiers with only an handful of men, and killed most of them. Yes Sir !

Yes, the report doesn't look in the least bit tampered with!

Good stuff all round, winter turns are usually quiet but there was a decent amount of activity here with the Battle of La Colle and some naval action.
 
So what's up with the, erm, 'edited' report of the Battle of La Colle? More units destroyed during the retreat phase, or something else? Or merely a rather clumsy attempt by the British commander to rewrite history?
What edited report ? No ! No ! I, John Prevost, attacked THOUSANDS of American soldiers with only an handful of men, and killed most of them. Yes Sir !

Hah, its not the last battle report on that front John Prevost (presume no relation to John Prescott?) ends up having to amend ... & I'm waiting for the explanation of the actions of the most inept group of scouts in the history of warfare

Yes, the report doesn't look in the least bit tampered with!

Good stuff all round, winter turns are usually quiet but there was a decent amount of activity here with the Battle of La Colle and some naval action.

You need to be careful in winter but the game is too short to just go and hide. Esp at the start and the end, the English have to really force the pace, and to a lesser extent the Americans do in the middle phase. If you don't some sort of stalemate is almost inevitable.
 
March 1813, America awakes ... and then has a small nap

After the winter victory and a well earned nap, Dearborn received orders to increase the pressure on Mont Royal, in the first instance by taking up a position outside St John. A number of battalions that had been held back over winter moved up to reinforce his corps.



A rare letter from Astride to Henri perhaps offers some insight into this rather aggressive American move:



In the West, Hull fell back to guard the road to Vincennes and hopefully allow his forces to recover before the English worked out where he'd run off too



On Lake Ontario, the Americans won the first of many victories, it was suspected the English were doing something sneaky while the American generals took this last chance for a long lunch before the campaign season started.



These fears were realised when indeed an English army landed at Fort Niagara. Fortunately they arrived just before lunch and the irate Americans drove them back so they could return to a proper leisurely meal.



Equally at sea, the American navy remained unusually active, catching and sinking more British merchant ships



At this stage it was clear the Americans had sufficient reinforcements, the challenge was in convincing them to join the units actually anywhere near the British.

 
These fears were realised when indeed an English army landed at Fort Niagara. Fortunately they arrived just before lunch and the irate Americans drove them back so they could return to a proper leisurely meal.

Leisurely meal, eh? ;) I thought this was fast food country.

On a more serious note, could you elaborate what you overlooked about victory conditions?
 
Leisurely meal, eh? ;) I thought this was fast food country.

On a more serious note, could you elaborate what you overlooked about victory conditions?

I forgot that lost elements = VPs and was playing on the basis that it was all driven by the accumulation of VPs from cities (I think I'd misread a critical post in the 1812 AAR on the AGEOD forums). The result is I defended a couple of towns with more commitment than was sensible - in part to cling on to them for a few turns and in part to buy some time. Of course when they fall, I lost far more VPs than I'd gained by keeping them for another turn or so. It also means that my weakened units by mid-1814 (I never really sorted out getting damaged units back to supoly to heal up) generated a mass of VPs for Narwhal in every battle as even a few losses started to cost me elements.
 
I forgot that lost elements = VPs and was playing on the basis that it was all driven by the accumulation of VPs from cities (I think I'd misread a critical post in the 1812 AAR on the AGEOD forums). The result is I defended a couple of towns with more commitment than was sensible - in part to cling on to them for a few turns and in part to buy some time. Of course when they fall, I lost far more VPs than I'd gained by keeping them for another turn or so. It also means that my weakened units by mid-1814 (I never really sorted out getting damaged units back to supoly to heal up) generated a mass of VPs for Narwhal in every battle as even a few losses started to cost me elements.

It sounds as though things went in Narwhal's favour as the game progressed then. At least America is emerging victorious at present, gallantly fighting off the Brits so she can live to eat lunch another day!
 
On the 1st of April, 1813


To Our King, George III of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
From Sir John Prevost, by your grace Governor General of Canada and Commander-in-Chief of the English forces in the America,

My King,

Once again, the foolish behaviour of Sir Isaac Brock put our dominance in this war at risk. His patrol searched for the "invisible" column up to Fort Niagara, where he was promptly defeated :

FortNiagarabattle.jpg


Meanwhile, there was a lake battle in front of Fort Niagara. Of course, we had the upper hand, despite claims of the contrary :

LostBattle.jpg


Finally, I must tell you that the American army moved closer to Montréal.

Here is the situation for the last month :

AmericanandEnglishmoves.jpg


As you can see, I am confident enough in the situation that I will not be involved in the defense of Montréal myself.

My king, over the last campaigning season, our situation has significantly improved.

Here is the situation in june 1812, at the beginning of this war [Military control map] :

June1812situation.jpg


Here is the situation at the end of february - my last reliable information are from that date :

February1812situation.jpg


As you can see, except for a neglectable progress on the Champlain, our control of the Great Lakes is much better : they have lost their only depot on the Erié, and except for Niagara, the Ontario is ours as well !

Let me tell Your Majesty about my plan for the coming year.

I believe the war will be neither solved by us taking Albany, nor my the American taking Montréal - God forbids. Thus, the war will be won on what I would call "Negotiation", or "victory" points.

Points-1.jpg


As you can imagine, time is playing for them to an extent. For this reason, my plan articulates around two axis :

- First, destroy or at least chase the army near Montréal
- Then, seize two strategical points very reachable which will give us an advantage :

Masterplan-1.jpg


As you can see, I am confident I can chase Dearborn's force near Montréal - I will give more information later. Once I have a firm control on the Champlain, going as much South as Plattsburg or even Fort Ticonderoga. This should take a few months. Then, I will transfer a very significant part of our forces to Oswego. Meanwhile, Oswego and the surrounding area will have to stand on its own for a while - that's why I took personal command there.

Once the Champlain is safe, our troops will land in Oswego either to seize Niagara or Albany, defending on the situation.

Meanwhile, on the Erié, I ordered my troops to be in defense. There is probably no significant enemy troops left - they have no depot to recover - so our troops should be able to keep their position and thus our "bargaining" position.

[OOC : That plan was actually rather bad, since once I took the Champlain I could have just as well pushed to Albany, but I wrapped my mind around making some use of Oswego...]


I have just receive the reinforcements you sent, for this reason here is my strategy to push away the enemy near Montréal. Basically, regroup, and attack !

STEast.jpg


New good Subject to your crown came to me to bring me their support in that strategy. Not only by words, but by blood :

NewtroopsinMontreal.jpg


As for me, I will defend the Oswego area :

STCenter.jpg



I gave a few more orders, but they are not where the decisions will be made :

STDepot.jpg


STWest.jpg



My King, 1813 will see the victory of your arms, and 1814 will be the year when the Americans will come to you to sue for peace !

Small points on bateaux

As you will see, there will be a lots of naval battle in which sometimes I lose, sometimes Loki loses, even though the forces are quite similar. This is - I believe - mostly due to bateaux. Yes, bateaux, the weakest ship ; the one that cannot attack ; but also the most numerous.

It turns out that bateaux have 0 in attack, but 4 in defense. This means that in attack, a bateau counts for nothing. Zilch. Nada :

BateauxWontdefend.jpg


BUT in defense, when your fleet is defending, the bateaux has 4. It is weak, true, but remember the fleets are more or less equal AND most ships are bateaux. They make the difference.

Schooners, have 8 in offense, twice the strenght of a bateaux. Due to the other stats of bateaux and schooner, I believe a schooner is worth an infinite number attacking bateaux, but 3 - 4 defending ones.

Schooner.jpg
 
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The bateaux issue is something that became increasingly important ... once we realised the impact, if possible we were both trying to be the fleet on the defense, but I was also the one trying to aggressively control Ontario so had at times to take an offensive stance ... yet another of the wonderful rock/scissors/paper style dilemnas this game produces so often
 
Can't argue with a couple of victories - though dear 'Astride' seems more than happy to do so. :)

Sounds like a fairly uneventful turn.

aye its a bit of the 'calm before the storm' - in April and May we both get a lot of new units and things get hot (& very confusing) quite quickly

It sounds as though things went in Narwhal's favour as the game progressed then. At least America is emerging victorious at present, gallantly fighting off the Brits so she can live to eat lunch another day!

There's a flow to the game. Due to American inactivity, the British will dominate 1812, due to the reinforcements, the Americans will dominate 1813, I'm not sure about 1814 but I guess its pretty even (ie I've only our game to go on), 1815 def favours the British again, but whether that is enough for victory depends on the dynamics of 1813-4.

Super update.

His majesty will be pleased! Hurrah!

I guess you had to close shaves but overall the strategic position is still in your favour.

I fear his majesty is being a tad misled ...
 
April 1813, preparing to crush the British

The Champlain Campaign

Although the conventional histories describe this as part of the battles around the Champlain in truth, in this phase, it should be seen as a campaign aimed indirectly at Montreal.



The main forces were Dearborn's corp besieging St John and the collection of English units in Mont Royal. At this stage they were well matched.



This was to the American's advantage as it prevented those English forces being deployed elsewhere in the Ontario region while, as we will see, a second American army was mustering at Albany and intending to march north. With two corps, Dearborn would be well placed to invest Mont Royal or to force the English to allocate substantial forces to its defense.

In the meantime around Presentation, a series of small skirmishes took place



while another 2 battalions moved to invest Kingston. This action should be seen as part of the wider Ontario campaign where the Americans planned to use their domination of the Lake to strike where-ever the English were weakest and at the same time regain control of the Mohawk valley.

The Ontario Campaign


Key to this campaign was Perry's large flotilla and this was to be expanded as the year went on:



In the meantime American spies reporting on the strength of the various English garrisons around the lake:



The only problem with this plan was that one of the main strike units (Rensselaer's corp) was suffering from a lack of supply and a lack of reinforcements. However, with care this unit should be able to take Eire at the least.



Related to the Ontario campaign was the planned actions to clear the Mohawk valley. Fresh forces were available and some units that had been damaged in 1812 were able to recover at Albany. Finally fresh units would move up the Hudson once the ice broke. In combination this would be enough to regain the Mohawk, take the initiative onto the Canadian side of the lake and send a fresh army to assist Dearborn.

War on the Mohawk





To this force should be added the units recruited at New York over the winter. These would deploy up the Hudson to Albany and then march to assist Dearborn.



War in the West

Meanwhile in the West fresh units were also available. Broadly there were two strategic options. One was to operate to the west of Lake Eire, at the least defend the route to Vincennes and at the best to try to retake Detroit. The alternative was to reinforce Rensselaer's weakened force and try to take York.



In the event it was decided to leave Hull's badly weakened force on the defense on the approaches to Cincinatti and send Harrison and a collection of individual battalions to operate with Rensselaer. If this campaign worked then Detroit would be isolated and could be retaken at any stage.



The War at Sea

At sea, the campaign against British shipping was continued with American squadrons being rotated to and from the Atlantic so as to remain as fresh as possible.



Finally, even more reinforcements were on the way and optimism remained high, even if Napoleon was making a mess of his part of the war.



 
Ah, it's been a long day, my brain is dulled and I have just read both of your competing strategies. They both seem so reasonable, so sensible... And yet I full well know that neither one will come off to perfection. Still, how will the year unfold and which strategy will turn out to be the more successful one? I truly have no idea...
 
Narwal, go see your inbox
 
As Stuyvesant says, both plans seem sensible and more than capable of working for either side. It seems likely Narwhal will be able to push back loki from Montreal, due to the large force he is gathering, but beyond that I'm not too sure. Looking forward to seeing how things pan out anyway, and the inevitable spin on things which follows!
 
So, Loki, that 4 depleted units were all that were left from Detroit ? Did you lose any elements ? Could you restore them before the end of the game.

Also, I don't understand why the units earmarked for Fort Stanwix are so exhausted.


Ah, it's been a long day, my brain is dulled and I have just read both of your competing strategies. They both seem so reasonable, so sensible... And yet

I full well know that neither one will come off to perfection. Still, how will the year unfold and which strategy will turn out to be the more successful one? I truly have no idea...



As Stuyvesant says, both plans seem sensible and more than capable of working for either side. It seems likely Narwhal will be able to push back loki from Montreal, due to the large force he is gathering, but beyond that I'm not too sure. Looking forward to seeing how things pan out anyway, and the inevitable spin on things which follows!
Thank you for following up the AAR :)

Actually, retrospectively, I believe my objectives were sensible, but that whole - win on the Champlain, then moves from Oswego made no sense. In any case, in 1813 (contrarly to 1812 and 1814), circumstances more than a general plan prompted my actions.