September 1758 – French successes
I am a bit late due to various issues, but I will try to do as if you never read Loki100’s AAR.
September is an horrible, horrible month for me. French gets a major victory by ambushing my forces just in Front of Niagara :
12 elements destroyed and 1400 dead people is an extremely bad news… The two national morale points lost is bad news as well. Note that the forces outside the Fort were destroyed first, and then the French tried to assault the Fort and were stopped by Lord Howe.
Lord Howe managed to turn this into a victory when reporting to his superiors – and get a promotion (next turn).
Having a two-star leader with the fast mover trait is outstanding. He will command whole stacks and make them move fast !
Along the Champlain, I finally meet Montcalm… for the worst :
Luckily enough, I kind of expected this and gave cautious orders. Still my situation is extremely bad. Lawrence retreated, but he is now unactivated, and can be catch again and forced into battle by Montcalm again. This calls for an urgent retreat to Saint Frederick.
I lost 1 National Morale Point. This ain’t good either. But what exactly is National Morale ?
Beginner’s Corner : National Morale
National Morale is an indicator on how confident your troops are in the victory.
It can increase the following ways :
- If you win a battle
- If you destroy enemy elements
- If you kill enemy leaders
- If you take a city
In this case, the enemy national morale is lowered symmetrically
You can also win (or lose) national morale by event (very rare in WiA) and you can lose National Morale if you promote someone “over the head” or another leader, if that leader has an high politics rating.
National Morale has major effects :
- It increases (decreases) the maximum cohesion of ALL your elements by 1% per 2 points of difference between your NM ansd 100. This can be
very significant. See my Rise of Prussia AAR
- It increases (decreases) the supply production by 1% in all structures per 2 points of difference between your NM and 100. Mostly insignificant.
In some cases, a very low / high National Morale (I think it is “as low as 0” or “as high as 200” means an automatic defeat / victory in the game. I never saw that happens in WiA, though, but it is possible.
Here is a chart of Loki’s and my NM since the beginning of the game :
As you can see, NM does not move much. I closed the gap quickly at the beginning by taking Duquesne and Fort Beauséjour, and then on it became quite stable. This tends to be the case in WiA – it is VERY different in the other AGEOD games.
End of the corner
Now to Louisbourg :
My fleet is still bombarding the enemy defenses. Not much effect for either side.
My fleet is still on good health, so I will carry on :
I carry on my strategy with the supply wagons, but I am a bit worried :
As you can see, there is a weak point, between Halifax and Louisbourg. If a French fleet sneaks in, it can intercept and sink my transports – and I need most of my fleet to blockade, as I don’t want to run the risk of a blockade runner bringing fresh supplies.
This is a new worry, because I just noticed a new French fleet way South :
We will see what direction it takes next turn.
Last turn, I forget to mention my project for Plaisance, a French town and port North of Louisbourg. It is small, but I happened to have a lot more militias in boston than I can train with Washington – and since I know these militias will disappear in December, I decided to do something with them :
Take the town of Plaisance ! My transport just sneaked past Louisbourg (where they are probably more worried by the 10 or so ships-of-the-line with all those men to whom we promised free holydays in a place which name bring images or sea, sun and surf : Plaisance. I mean,
Plaisance. How more French could that name be.
It is also the last French port in the North besides Quebec and Louisbourg
My other actions for the turn are about bringing troops to my fort :
In Fort Henri Bouquet :
In Depot Niagara – I am afraid of losing it AGAIN.