Well, it's
September 1862 and Great Britain has managed to prevail. But to be honest, this war is almost won in circa 1,5 year with a great deal of forces' relocation from the home islands to Canada, as well as some really important naval victories the moment the conflict started in 1861. As I said in the beginning, I used the organization of the Defence Scheme No. 1 in hindsight, preparing myself for the upcoming conflict. As if the UK had somehow its ear on the Buchanan administration and knew that things were going to escalate soon...
Anyway, the Pacific Command, the Quebec Command, and the Maritime Command were all successful in reaching their goals, the Prairie and the Great Lakes ones not so much, as after some initial successes the US forces managed to push me back. Another thing I should have better considered was that you cannot simply prevail by defeating field armies:
you should have enough men to administer the regions after taking them! Otherwise, and I learned it the hard way, they are prone to insurrection and formation of partisans and militias which can really sting the supply lines and force a retreat.
The Prairie Command was utterly beaten back and I even lost Winnipeg and Regina, only now managing to mount forces to eventually take them back. Thankfully, they are only "territories" (ie sparsely populated protectorates, in game terms).
The Western campaign was relatively straightforward, especially after I brought massive light cavalry reinforcements for both the California invasion as well as helping the difficult Rocky Mountains counterattacks. There is still work to be done here, as I hope I can reach the Prairies after the winter of 1862 unless the USA gives in to my terms.
The Eastern campaign was in the beginning much more difficult as I had to face competent US Generals together with Indian leaders who made quite nasty counterattacks. But methodically, with very well trained troops (Canadian Corps but also bringing a Guards Corps and heavy artillery from the home islands) I managed to take Boston, then NY and Philadelphia, until I dashed to DC to really cripple the US morale.
Retaking Detroit and Minnesota also helped destroy the American will to fight.
At a certain point I thought all was for nothing as the Confederate States lost their capital, but it was retaken soon by the CSA itself, as I helped with landing troops in the Southern States. I am now considering my terms, as I don't want to have a perennial war with the USA.
