The War Will Not Be Civilized - A French and Indian War double AAR

I love your AGEOD AARs Narwal! Looking forward to this one!

great to see this ... shall read to learn what I should really have done

Good luck to you both! Wait, that can't really work, since you're opponents...

Will tag along, be interesting to see how different this plays out from your match-up against loki.

So, my first AAR, and with the master! First of all, let me apologise for my bad english, i will do my best. And I don,t have any graphic style, so, let's try. As you will see, i'm from Quebec, so I will be defending my ancestor's homes...No quarter will be given to any red coats approching them! As an historian, i will also try to give some real life insight of this often overlooked war.

I will NOT play a gamey strategy, that would be boring and unfair as I played this scenario very often. I will play it trying to roleplay a bit, representing the strategic conflict between Gouverneur Général Vaudreuil and Marquis de Montcalm during the war and adapting to the varying success or defeat in the campaign

Que la partie commence!

This is a very interesting campaign! I've played one as the French and it was one of the best ones there is.

New France at the onset of the war

Montréal, May 1755

Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil was looking outside the windows of his mansion in Montréal. News were reaching him of growing tension in Europe but he was more worried of the news of growing english menace on the Belle Rivière, in the Ohio valley. Washington and his colonial force has been forced to surrender last year, but it was only a matter of time before the english came back in force. New England had to expand or, given due time, la Nouvelle-France would become too powerful for them.

He has sent a great convoy to Fort Duquesne, the most important piece of real estate in all North America some weeks ago. 100 canoes, filled with guns, powder, food and gifts for his indians allies. Without them, there could be no victory in America. He was convinced that the victor would be the first power to truly integrate the indian nations in his Empire and, par Dieu, it will be France! He also sent full power the the commander of Fort Duquesne, Jean Daniel Dumas, to mobilise his force, in case the english tried something. He also sent Pierre Pécaudy de Contrecoeur and his canadians raiders from Fort Niagara to reinforce Duquesne and take command of the force if the english were to attack. New France was a giant, but his feet were weak. Vaudreuil stared at the map, trying to find a way to protect his king's colony and his people. And, with the report he was receiving from Acadie, the people will really need to be protected.




Historian's corner


What important to understand was that, in 1755, New France controled much of North America. But between la Nouvelle Orléans, in Louisiana, and Québec, there was no more than 100 000 frenchs settlers. In the small strech of coast controled by the english, more than 10 time the number of english settler's were craving for place to expand. Guerrila tactics (la petite guerre) invented by the french and indians at this time protected the small communities of french settlers for 50 years against an overwhelmingly more powerful ennemies. The movie "The Patriot" with Mel Gibson make reference to this while speaking of the past of the hero. New France was thriving in 1755, growing ever more rapidly, the french trying to compensate for their delay in colonisation by an intensive colonisation policy and the integration of native in the colony with protected right and an equal status with the settlers. It's not for nothing that the natives revolted during the Pontiac's war to bring the french back. Let's hope they will not need to do that in this AAR! The first shot of the war were fired by colonial infantry led by the then unknown colonel Georges Washington. This whole affair is still debated today. Latest historian's work are presently hotly contested in the USA because it shown Washington in a rather bad light. Let's just say that he led his troop in the Ohio Valley to contest it to the french. He then ambushed a peace parley directed by a certain Jumonville and killed him and much of his escort. The french reacted by sending his brother, Louis Coulon de Villiers, who forced Washington's forces to surrender at fort Necessity (the only time an american president surrendered in history). He was given the choice of either being prosecuted for murder or surrender and sign a paper admitting his alleged crime. He after denied having signed this, as the paper was in french. Still a debate now. What is important in this " Affaire Jumonville" is well resumed by Horace Walpole: «*The volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of America set the world on fire.*» . The english now prepared to take their revenge and are busy organising the Braddock's expedition. (Assassin's Creed III someone?)


Now, let's look at the theaters of war.


First of all, Canada. Just a quick term explanation here. Canada in 1755 was the name of one of the province of Nouvelle France, approximativly the modern Province de Québec. His inhabitants were called the Canadiens, a name the french canadian will keep until the 1960's, when the english began to call themselves Canadians and the old Canadiens begun to call themselves the Québécois. Funny fact, Canada's national Anthem, the Ô Canada, was originaly a french canadian nationalist and separatist song. So, Canada is the hearth of New-France, his breadbasket and his principal link with the Mère Patrie, France. Québec, second biggest fortress in America his the capital. Trois Rivière and Montréal are the other great cities. Montréal is the economic center of the fur trade commerce that finance the colony. It will also serve as the base of operation during the war. Nearly 75% of french population live in Canada, so all my actions will tend to protect it.


Now, l'Acadie. The first french colony, the richest one too, half occupied by the english in the aftermath of the last european war. With the majority of the Acadiens under english domination, the remnants of Acadie are undefendable. But the english seems to have real bad intentions for them, so you will see some action there. Saint Jean is the last city under my control, defended in the north by Fort Beauséjour (also known as Grand Pré, from a small village near it that will become a symbol in some weeks, if history follow it's course). The great fortress of Louisbourg, the biggest in North America, defend the access to the Saint Laurent and Québec. His commander, the Chevalier de Drucourt, has a powerful garrison to his command, with order to defend the fortress at all cost.



Now, the Grands Lacs. The region near lake Ontario and Lake Erié, comprising modern day Ontario around Fort Frontenac, Fort Niagara and Fort Détroit, three of my most important post. Colonisation and trade hub, they are defended by scattered french and canadian troop and many indians tribes. They are the link between Duquesne and Canada and will need to be holded if victory is to be acheived.


Now, la Belle Rivière, the Ohio Valley. This is the casus belli for the english. They WANT it badly. It's their natural zone of expansion and it must be frustrating of being massacred by french and indian each time they try. Let's continue this tradition shall we? The control of Fort Duquesne assure the French of a great number of their indian allies. It's imperative that Fort Duquesne is holded if we want to stand a chance against the british.

Let the war begin.

nice overview ... am looking to you to put my incompetence into the shade ... remember though Narwhal just loves killing your officers

Nice overviews and thanks for the history corner, I confess I am completely ignorant about this conflict and North American history in general so I found it quite interesting, specially since it's from the French perspective.

loki100 said:

nice overview ... am looking to you to put my incompetence into the shade ... remember though Narwhal just loves killing your officers

Click to expand...

I shall have your revenge! You were not incompetent, you had a galant resistance! "Tout est perdu, for l'honneur" All is lost but honor

General_Hoth, very nice overview. You've explained your strategic situation (essentially, overstretched and underpowered relative to the English/American colonials) and given some interesting background on the conflict.

It sounds like you have some excellent defensive positions, but will you have enough troops to hold them all, or will Narwhal be able to defeat them one by one? I look forward to seeing how it all unfolds.

I can't have enought troop to defend it all. however, my job is to make sure I can delay some of the attacks to allow me to shift some troops from one front to another...As said by Frederick the great: "trying to defend everything is like defending nothing"

Looks like you'll both have a tough fight on your hands.

Good luck, I'll be following with interest.

at least you got to Cumberland unmolested, so that should secure that critical fort, suspect you maybe a wee bit optimistic over Duquesne though?

loki100 said:

at least you got to Cumberland unmolested, so that should secure that critical fort, suspect you maybe a wee bit optimistic over Duquesne though?

Click to expand...

Oh yes, he would reach the fort. That was exactly the point

General_Hoth said:

Oh yes, he would reach the fort. That was exactly the point

Click to expand...

and you now intend to snip apart his supply lines?

I see one of Narwhal's ships is called the 'Friendship'. I look forward to many displays of that fine amity between English and French in this game.

Not a great start with that bloody battle, Narwhal, but perhaps your usual aggression will pay off better in the Cumberland/Duquesne area? General_Hoth doesn't seem to think so, but we'll see...