AGEOD Forums

Hei to everybody!

I've now had several attempts with the rebs in the 1775 Grand Campaign and been kicked around by the Brits and evil AI

The Americans are in serious trouble (as in historically) come 1776 with huge British reinforcements (I've played this campaign as the Brits and it's quite easy to stay bottled up in Boston waiting for the additional armies to come to help).

In my recent game as the Yanks I've managed to trap and beat both the Boston Army and the REF by Feb. 76 thus freeing New England. Then I expected Cornwallis to invade South Carolina or land in Tory occupied Savannah (Savannah landings have never happened in my games). But the Cornwallis force sailed north to New York and landed there when I was happily reorganising my forces (The main army resting & healing up in Boston, Wayne's and Greene's divisions resting in Hartford and New Bedford respectively) and at the same time Leslie's HUGE force appeared at the same spot as Cornwallis and in the same time!!!!. This came as a nasty surprise as I was truckin' captured artillery and supply units to build a fort at West or Stony Point and depots to Richmond and New York.

While I've tried the shorter scenarios I've noticed some additional forts on the map, esp. in the Northern Campaign of 76 and Saratoga: The Brits have Ft Roberts at Isle Noix and the Yanks have forts at West Point & Peekskill. Now, do these forts make an appearance in the main campaign like the 3 forts (Carillon, Edward & William Henry)in full FIW campaign? These forts would help their respective owners alot.

Any thoughts, ideas and especially tips for facing the British onslaught would be appreciated.

No tips at all? Anyone?

Well, I took the "bull" by the horns and cornered the 3 Brit armies in Manhattan (armies of Cornwallis, Leslie & his Hessian contingent = 3) as they sieged New York City. In NYC I had Gates with 2 militia and lots of supply, Washy with the main army and Greene's Division blocked entry/escape to Connecticut, Morgan's Division was rushed north from Virginia to block New Jersey and Arnold's hastily organised Brigade moved down from Albany with fresh militia to block British escape into northern New York.

After 4 battles with high losses to both sides (all Brit victories) the British megastack retreated to Peekskill and was surrounded there. My siege lasted 4 months and then the huge britstack vanished into the thin air.

AI could have survived if she would have assaulted NYC almost immediately, instead her being passive with the siege I could move the yanks to intervene and so the revolution was saved.

My earlier question still stands: Do additional forts appear in the main 1775 campaign?

While I now have played more into 1777 I took notice that I'll get some arty from a French agency as reinforcements and with the captured arty from the Brits I'm more than capable build additional forts.

And thus I would like to know if those additional guns are for just this ie. to be able to build forts?

Btw. I'm having a blast with this game and I've enjoyed this while trying to defend the colonies or New France.

I have not seen any "free" forts in the 75' campaign myself.

no there is no additional free forts.

If you still have trouble with the american, you can evacuate the south and block incoming Brits for this area in the center area, while trying to gain the upper hand in New England. But the most important things is to be patient, you can't really match the Brits early.

Also try to use your militias to their best, they are somehow expandable.

Run. Run. Keep running.

At least until 78.

I've been able to win on hard, but I suspect that's about to change with 1.06.

The key to the game is getting French and Spanish help as quickly as possible. That means that you need to try and maintain 1 or more strategic cities in each Region. If the British have an entire region, it's 15% less chance of French intervention. Letting the British get 2 regions may be irreversibly fatal.

I leave the Deep South to it's fate. Only options are to siege outlying positions and try and prevent the British from having every city. Even with Cornwallis and a few reinforcements, they don't have enough men to adequately garrison everywhere. Provided you don't get caught by Tarleton or other roving bands, you can usually win a city back, and force the British to find another regular unit to garrison it with (that all takes them time, and you'll be somewhere else doing the same.

Having said that, my current game saw Cornwallis land in New York. The Deep South is entirely mine, and the north is a death trap, so your mileage may vary.

The South Central tend to be quiet in my games until late. There are too many cities for the British to do anything about you, and they tend to not have enough troops to take more than a couple anyway, provided you keep Howe and the Germans up north.

Middle States
I used to work near Morristown and visited the Contintental site several times. Until playing though, I often wondered what the hell Washington was doing out there The British tend to march through, so I find Easton to be a perfect depot site and place to keep the army intact. From there you can hit detachments trying to take Wyoming, retake Phillie+Manhattan, and run back to Easton. You can tie 2 British armies up in this region if you're lucky.

North New England and Canada
For me, the key to every campaign in the game is Albany. If you can hold Albany then the British have logistical problems, can't ever unite Burgoyne with the Germans or Howe/Clinton, and can't move out of New England. That keeps South Central safe, and allows Washington to maneuver the Middle States.

Albany is well protected, if you hold Dayton, then the British can't use it for supply. Holding (and retaking whenever empty) Battlebro and Pittsfield will prevent the New England force from being able to walk in. With it's depot and horrendously short campaign season, Albany should never fall.

After Albany, I try and hold Norwich. It's a nightmare for the British to take, and when they move their army north, you can send some raids south into Southern New England:

I don't know if there's a rule, but it seems that Boston triggers many more colonial militias and Continentals to form. If the British army is off hunting you in the Middle States, and stalled in the North, then a capable force can retake Boston, Newport and Hartford. The British tend to react angrily to these moves, so be prepared to run, and don't disperse. Better to abandon every city but Boston than garrison and allow the Brits to siege you one by one.

Provided you avoid battle, don't get unlucky and run into 20,000 Germans, and prevent the Brits from holding a region, by 78 or 79 you'll be strong enough to start threatening them and fighting pitched battles. When the French arrive, it's fairly straightforward to maneuver and fight, or better still, trap the British in sieges. You still need to be careful as British quality will still see off all but much larger American armies.

Other things I do:

Depots:
When you are going on the offensive, then it's faster than lugging supply wagons around with every army. A select few can supply the whole of New England and Virginia.

Leaders:
After the yearly disbands, send plenty of 1 star leaders off to likely recruiting centres. A regiment suffers a 50% penalty without an officer, and they tend to arrive in clumps. Campaigning season is short, and you need to concentrate those forces as quickly as possible.

Washington:
GW is a skirmisher, but if his forces outnumber a British army, he'll fight it even if the quality differential results in the complete destruction of your army. Don't group too many units under his command, and he'll instead look to retreat from every battle, typically with no loss. I lost a game very early when GW stood and fought. Our "victory" destroyed the entire army and barely scratched the Brits.

Indians:
They can be a pain in the ass, and sometimes supplement small British regulars. Although it's a brutal tactic, I try and exterminate them from the outset. Morgan's rifles, or Marblehead are good independent leaders and their 1 unit is generally enough to assault any Indian village. After you burn it to the ground, they don't come back next year.

West Point/Manhattan
I don't like tying up precious artillery in a fort, so I don't tend to make one. I've been able to defend the Hudson with hit and run sieges after the Brits move on. But, this might be impacted by 1.06. If the British are more efficient at rolling up 1 unit defended towns, then it may be necessary to fortify and hold with a garrison. WP is harder to take logistically, though Manhattan is surrounded by empty areas and is also a challenge. It will be interesting to see how these areas are handled with the new patch

Charisma
One of the goals is to gain more units each year. That can be accelerated by not suffering disbandments, charasmatic leaders can help keep the army together, thus grow faster with the next season's recruitment. Washington and Arnold are good for the large armies, but don't neglect small detachments. Try to get all your charasmatic leaders employed somewhere. Keeping an extra 2-3 regiments per year may not seem like much, but by '80 it makes your force overwhelming.

Leaders
Pulaski should go wherever the cavalry is, Kosciusko whereever you want to siege (or hold.) Sad irony, that two of the most congested stretches of road on earth are named after these fellows

Use other leaders where their attributes help. After playing the British for a while, it's nice to have decent leaders, and they can make a small but significant contribution. Fast Mover is very useful, especially for ferrying troops or supplies between armies. It only takes 1 fast mover to get the bonus, so lump them with larger forces when needed.

Command Limit
More than anything else, once I started to pay attention to command limit I had success. Everything from speed of movement to combat is affected. I'd rather have fewer troops than exceed the command limit. With American leaders there should be no excuse to let any group exceed command for too long. Much more a problem with the British, as it forces people like Burgoyne and his slow moving subordinate on you for the entire game!

wow, what a nice post, I can make in-game hints with that!, its like all pieces of a puzzle were fitting perfectly

Woah! Excellent post, Dinsdale!!

I agree with you on most points. I tend to form the regional departments and assign leaders, regiments and supply by priorities/needs. So far New England and Georgia & Carolinas are the most urgent ones.

One of my strategies is to take out Norfolk, VA as quickly as possible in order to deny British landing there.

Yes, Albany is the key for the survival in New England. Losing Albany hurts more than losing NYC. I tend to take Ticonderoga to trigger the Canadian regimental uppgrade and to protect Knox's guns but I dare not to venture further north.

I've mostly tried to keep Charleston, SC garrisoned but if Cornwallis tries open southern front I'm thinking about abandoning it and hold Camden/ Charlotte instead. This should be easier if the tories in Norfolk are eliminated.

A good point on Washy. I have seemed to handle him well as I try to "grow" a solid experienced core group of regular regiments with him. Too bad that I seem to get unlucky and lose several regulars come January even with Charismatic leaders commanding them. Usually the 1st Dragoons.

I usually leave the Indians alone, they otherwise provide really good scouts for the enemy. The Brits could really use them.

Still some very good tips, Thanks!

Pocus wrote:its like all pieces of a puzzle were fitting perfectly

That's the beauty of the 75 campaign, each theatre has an affect on the next, and within each theatre, each town affects the next. There's a series of old boardgames, with a smaller scale, which plays very similarly: Avalon Hill's Struggle Of Nations, and the 1814 and 1815 campaigns. There might even be one for Italy 1796. All about maneuver and threats, rather than a series of battles.

-----

Ardie wrote:One of my strategies is to take out Norfolk, VA as quickly as possible in order to deny British landing there.

I never seem to have enough units to hold Norfolk, though I imagine games are shaped by the towns you hold: thus where reinfocements and the new intake of regiments appear.

Yes, Albany is the key for the survival in New England. Losing Albany hurts more than losing NYC. I tend to take Ticonderoga to trigger the Canadian regimental uppgrade and to protect Knox's guns but I dare not to venture further north.

Agree. One thing I forgot to write, was not to invade Canada. It's not worth the losses, and it's impossible to face Burgoyne when he arrives and hold anything.

I've mostly tried to keep Charleston, SC garrisoned but if Cornwallis tries open southern front I'm thinking about abandoning it and hold Camden/ Charlotte instead. This should be easier if the tories in Norfolk are eliminated.

The bastard usually lands at Charleston when I play. Though the last one, he never made it to the South. Charleston seems like a great place to hold as 2-3 regiments show up there each year, instead of having them scattered all over the place.

Still some very good tips, Thanks!

You're welcome! But, after playing a little 1.06 over the weekend, I think many of them are now invalid.

I had my ass handed to me on hard. The British assaulted and destroyed a significant force in Albany, took Stanwick and Dayton Forts, and crushed Washington in New Jersey. They managed to combine Burgoyne with the New England force and march south. Fortunately I crushed Cornwallis, otherwise almost the entire British army would have been flooding south into Virginia, and I had just enough men to keep Clinton and the Germans distracted.

At one point, the northern "front" was Washington, and a bunch of refugees in the wilderness outside Wilkes-Barre. Eventually the French, and moving reinforcements up from the South each year helped retake parts of the North, but the game ended in a virtual points tie.

I've never really assaulted forts before, but watching the British make mincemeat of them all, and ordering a successful assault on the West Indies, I'm wondering if Jagger is correct in http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=682 that forts may be a little underpowered. I did fortify West Point, it held against a 4 regiment attack, and Pittsburgh held off a similar sized force, but any large army was able to take a fort without much in the way of losses.

Perhaps there needs to be a cap on the number of regiments which can take part in any assault. But on the other hand, during the Peninsular War, Almeida, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz and San Sebastian all fell very quickly, and would probably be considered level 2 or level 3 forts in the game context. I would prefer the assaulting force to at least take more losses though.

Another thing I noticed was a much more aggresive British AI towards any armies they located. They would break off sieges and ignore towns if they had a crack at hitting any significant formation.

I played about 18 months on 1.05, but I think that starting the game on 1.06 would have resulted in a British win. It's a breath of fresh air to face an AI which plays such a strong game.

Yea I noticed the 1.06 AI seems to bring a wave of death down upon my poor Rebels. Though I hold Boston for a few years after the French retook it, it proceeded to capture everything in NE and then proceeded towards Phily and hammered everything there after I updated to 1.06. There was no stopping it. The AI eventually formed a Death Star stack and I stayed away. Best I could do was double back and take some NE back which I did. The AI then gave up on heading further south and now chasing me around in NE again.

Staying in one region longer than one turn is a kiss of death as the AI heads right at you it seems. Especially if you are in a strategic city. Forgot holding out in a fort. Run like hell. I already had Washy's army get slaughtered once because I stayed in one place too long.

Seems you have to just get out of the way and then hit it where it is not. There are lots of lone Brit units around and you can even catch some artillery/supply on occasion.

You have to watch as sometime the Death Star will jump five regions and pounce on you and Washy. Goes to my Washy stack like flies on ....

But all this is allowing my other army to retake the south in 1782. Capturing endless supply (need a way to destroy it please!) Spanish got totally wiped out though as I got a little cocky with them and that damn AI took New Orleans and all of Florida back. The AI is irritating in a good way!

good good, I was anxious to see if the AI changes were for the best.

Forts have been strengthened a bit, but I think I have a bug on them, that would allow too much men assaulting them at the same time. I will double check this, as it don't happens each time.

Theorically, each battleground (terrain, fort, beach, any place where you can die...) has a limit on how many units can fight at the same time. Plains are great to deploy big armies, but wilderness is the realm of irregular.

Forts seem at occasion to disrespect some of the limitations, thus it can explains the problem.

Destroying supplies, etc.: we are thinking about this, it would be a nice addition yes.

Ok. I do call the AI now as "evil bitch", the mean-spirited, crony mother-in-law of all bad karma

The forts are meant to be as a strongpoint and/or to significantly slow the enemy down. So far as I just installed 1.06 I've had no fort sieges but the AI (forever cursed she must be) takes towns in 2 turns. I have to change my strategy again!!

Agree. One thing I forgot to write, was not to invade Canada. It's not worth the losses, and it's impossible to face Burgoyne when he arrives and hold anything.

Who wants to hold anything ? Burn it all to the ground and get the hell out.

First thing I do any 75 campaign - send Arnold and all Albany reinforcements straight to Montreal, storm the place, burn down the Depot, exterminate the Indian village, destroy every fort in the nearby regions, then march back south to Albany, throw a big party for the loyal and erstwhile commander, then send him down South so his charismatic ass can rally the militia. Meanwhile, a smaller force takes Oswego, heads down to Ft. Niagra to show the lobsterbacks what time it is, then marches back to Albany for the grand reunion, burning down anything that can be burned in between.