July 1757 – Attack on the Champlain
In july 1757, I have accurate information on the enemy whereabouts :
- Montcalm is in Montréal with most of his army :
- Frontenac has significant defense :
So my main trust will be along the Champlain.
But how comes I can scout the French without much troubles ?
Beginner’s corner - Hide, Detection and Evade
You might have noticed that in the South, I am like struck by invisible armies. This is explained by the “Hide” factor of units.
Each element has 2 value that are going to interest us :
- Its Hide value
- Its Detect value.
As you undoubtfully noticed, I am lying a little. A unit actually has “Detect Land” and “Detect Sea”, but we will just focus on Detect Land – Detect Sea works mostly the same way, but well, on sea.
HIDE
Hide obviously tells you how sneaky an army is. The higher the hide value, the better. The hide value of an army is equal to the
lowesthide value of the stack (no point being all sneaky if you have militiamen partying all night next to you), to which a few modifiers will be applied :
+1 if the force if the force is small. Small is define as being an army either less than 4 units strong or less than 4 command point worth. [The manual says AND/OR – I did not bother to check if it is true]
+1 if the force is in “passive” mode (green icon). Does not stack with the small force bonus above.
+1 in covered terrain (marshes, woodlands, mountain, …)
+1 if the weather is bad.
- 1 if the unit is large (more than 9 units strong or more than 9 command points worth). According to the manual, an army could thus be both large and small. I don’t know how it works in details in reality.
Let’s check this if you will :
A few more important points :
An army who is in a province with a structure (allied or not) and
not in passive mode has a hide value of 1 (which is the minimum).
For instance, my Indians in Montréal – I just did not know the “Hide is 1 if structure” rule when I played :
Also note that the hide value in the tooltip does not update automatically. A new “hide” is generated each turn. It is normal – this allows you to know what you opponent is seeing when playing his turn.
DETECT
Detect Land /sea allows you to know the maximum level of hide an army can see on its own province.
The Detect Land / Sea of an army is the MAXIMUM Detect you can find in the stack – regardless of the number of elements.
Generally speaking, detect is 2 for guns, 3 for “regular”, 4 for Cavalry and Scouts, 5 for Indians.
There is no other bonus (except leader traits).
Here are a few examples :
A territory with no army you control (51% military control or more) has 2 in Detect. You can add 2 to this if (Independence War campaign only) the region is loyal to you. Hostile regions neighbouring a province you control have its Detection – 1.
And then ?
If the Detection Value is Equal or more than your opponent Hide, you spot him. Else, you don’t. Nothing random here.
But your Indians in Montréal have 1 in Hide Value, so probably they are spotted ?
Actually, it is a fact. My mistake.
Why is there no battle ?
My Indians have the “evade” order, which works very strangely. I cannot be too specific.
What I can say is that :
- With the “evade” order, your unit can enter a zone with 100% enemy military control without switching automatically to the “Offense” mode – so no battle forced upon you if your opponent is defensive
- Even if your opponent is defensive, they are some chance – depending on the terrain, the size (and “evade/patrol” value) of both force, on the weather – that your opponent cannot corner you in combat.
That’s what happening up there. As Loki kept most of it force IN Montréal, only a small part may be actively looking for me – and I evade them.
End of the Beginner’s Corner
So, we were at the point were I understood that there were no defense on the Champlain. Consequently, I am going to do an attack :
That new leader’s face you see heading for Oswego is (Robert) Rogers, in direct command of his ranger. And Rogers is quite simply one of the very best leaders of Wars in America :
Actually, in my opinion, he is a little TOO good. First because if you lose him, you lose quite a few options due to his unique capacity to make from a regular force an ersatz of a regular force. Secondly because historically, by inexperience and bad luck, Rogers’Ranger track-record in the FIW was quite unimpressive. Remember though that I was lucky with the “light randomization of leader stats”. I remember the “not-randomized” Rogers to have stats more like 6-4-4.
I also received a few other reinforcements in New York :
Those two leaders are really good :
Georges Augustus Howe Lord Howe is the brother of the famous Lord Howe of the Revolutionnary War, hero of Barbara Tuchman’s book
The First Salute. Historically, he also was a little the Duncan Idaho of the French and Indian War : he is the outstanding guy of whom everyone talks about less than one year after his arrival, and then when you are like “I like this guy”, he dies killed on the frontline even though he would have been more useful a few yards behind.
Anyay, this nice little party is going to go to Albany, who where it will then attack along the Champlain :
On the Ontario, my Indians, led by the Cherokees, suffered an humiliating defeat.
Never trust a Cherokee. At this point, I notice the command malus due to the Cherokee leader and decide that the Cherokee are needed for urgent tasks as far as possible from my Indians – in Duquesne for instance.
Note that even if I wanted to try a surprise landing, I would have to get rid of this ship in the middle of the lake (which I am going to try).
In Duquesne, well, my elite force is not going to lose any time and will directly assault the enemy fort 30 days of marching of there.
(The “assault on arrival” order was stupid, but luckily my troops had no time to carry it out. )
I am FINALLY going to assault Saint-Jean :
In the South, I am going to chase some more savages from my land :
And my cavalry takes its sweet time bringing some Detect Land to the South :