In the war with France, the same pattern continued -- we were outnumbered on land, and quite helpless with regard to offensive moves against most of their territory. But at sea we held the advantage, though not an overwhelming one.
A fleet of French cruisers caught an ironclad fleet off Arabia, and we were forced to withdraw them quickly, or risk losing some or all of them. They sheltered in Oman.
Around the world, we were probing for French vulnerabilities. In the French colony of Pondicherry, in India, we found they had an unassailable garrison. We scouted the Gold Coast of Africa, and found large armies guarding their colonies there, and occupying the Dutch enclave there.
At al-Ahsa, in Arabia, the French had advanced upon our first siege line, where we had moved into their desert. We'd thought, "Who would have massive armies in Arabia? And besides, haven't we advanced in technology enough to compete now?" These thoughts were foolish, and we would soon be pushed out.
Of course, our thought was to get out of one or both of our wars, as quickly as possible. Primarily because of our blockades -- our naval superiority -- the French had a negative warscore against us. But not enough so to convince them to give up their war -- they knew they had the upper hand overall.
The Ottoman war was going very much in our favor, of course. But we had asked for alot -- had significant wargoals -- and so we were not yet to the point where we could demand what we needed from them to avoid embarrassment. Still, I did not consider this a mistake -- we would have our demands met, eventually. I was convinced of it.
There were, in fact, areas where we could make small territorial gains against the French, even if Arabia seemed a tough nut. The Belearic Islands off the coast of Spain were ungarrisoned, and so we landed there. Immediately, we separated off other troops to go occupy other islands, such as Corsica.
We also targeted the small island off the coast of Madagascar they called Bourbon, just as in the last war. The French garrison there was small, and we hoped we might prevail.
Though we were pushed back, out of Arabia, the battle was not so one sided as to make us fear greatly. To the north, we defeated the Turks at Mendeli, in a decisive battle which gained much warscore.
Edessa and Salonika, in Balkan Macedonia, were two of the battles which still raged fiercely against the Ottomans. They outnumbered us, but they were taking higher casualties. It was only a matter of time. But how much? Our occupations were going slowly, because the Ottomans had enough armies to tie our forces down, preventing sieges from proceeding. We finally moved on to siege the Turkish capital at Istanbul. The battle at Ankara still smoldered.
At sea, we were really wearing the French transports off Gabes down, and would soon see some sink.
Utrecht proved a disaster, as you might have expected. It was also badly managed by us, in that we should have retreated before being forced to -- that would have allowed us to retreat to safety, rather than into the hands of another French army.
Could we win in battle against the French? It seemed hopeless, but then.... Perhaps we had just faced bad odds at Utrecht, and that was not the seal of our fate.
The French met us in the Omani deserts, and again we were taking significant casualties. But with reinforcements nearby, we felt all was not lost. We, perhaps, could wear them down.
The French also moved against us from the other direction, out of Arabia. Into Palestine they surged, and began taking provinces. This was not good. We brought troops in from Irak to try to build up a defensive line at Amman, or perhaps Jerusalem. Where could we stop them, we wondered?
We also discovered the light bulb -- a major development! This would allow us to build electric gears, which were desperately needed for our high-tech ventures (including telephones, I think).
Not until late October were both battles in Macedonia decided in our favor. Both were utter slaughters for the Turks. But they had served the purpose of keeping our armies distracted, and preventing provinces from falling to occupation. Now we could finish off their armies and begin to occupy, but our need to finish this war was dire!
It seemed we had built up enough victories to force them to the peace table, but they seemed obstinate, still.
Keep plugging, I said. Keep wearing down their armies. Keep gaining control over their lands. It was now only a matter of weeks, and then...