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So, it is March 1861. Playing as the Great Britain and its Colonies, I am about to do a hat trick of epic proportions by mimicking the Defence Scheme No. 1 of some 60 years later.





USA pre-Civil War in my game has been rather aggressive, waging several wars against Mexico (liberating Yucatan) and Spain. So as GBR I roleplayed that my Dominion of Canada might be challenged next. So I made a defensive alliance with Mexico. As the Defence Scheme No. 1 dictates: I created 5 standing armies on the Canadian-US Border, from West to East:

- Pacific Command
- Prairie Command
- Great Lakes Command
- Quebec Command
- Maritime Command







Now that that the Civil War has started in earnest and the powerful US armies are occupied, I will invade. Am pleased that the war also starts when finally the snow is melting, so I can move my armies in a relatively swift invasion. In the seas GBR will obviously try to blockade both sides of Continental USA.

I'd like to see or hear how this all goes! I haven't played PoN, but it's on my list to check out.

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.

Finally, after a couple more weeks the needed war score is reached. I could in theory continue the conflict, but I really want to end this war as most or my regular troops are in the United States and Canada instead of the various hotspots on earth. Great Britain has been lucky that France is occupied in a war against Spain, Prussia against Schleswig-Holstein and Netherlands, and Austria against the Ottomans among others. This was the perfect opportunity for GBR to invade the USA. Russia has been quite weak in the Great Game as well.

Anyway, these are the terms as I am sending them...


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I think I am quite lenient, I even leave a couple of war score points without attribution. So... the territories of Dakota and Montana will pass to Great Britain (Canada). I was thinking for going for Idaho as well, but Indians (Nez Perce in game) are really pestering that region. Some spare points will be used for 3 years of very lenient reparations.

I kind of feel bad that I "abandon" my ally of fortune, the Confederate States, to fight now the USA on their own, but they had a lost cause since the beginning, I think.

PS. If you notice, there is still a bug regarding the colonial areas of Montana and Idaho which do not correspond to the geographic-administrative ones in game.


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Sometimes I love to hate the AI. It did NOT agree on my terms so the war drags now well into 1863. And although I seized most of the critical objective towns of the USA, they war score is now lower than before to get Dakota and Montana. So my only hope is the counteroffers the AI every second turn, which are usually stupid combinations of territories further South.



Northwestern Canada is an inhospitable place according to the British cartographers. I need to get some land South of the 49th parallel in order to thrive and also better control the expanding USA.




The good thing, perhaps, with this protracting war, I might have messed the ability of the USA to wage offensive wars for decades to come. I wonder if I can manage to end the conflict sometime before 1864-65 in order to let them reunite by defeating the CSA which also made progress.

I don't know if it was a bug or not, but it was impossible to make the warscore rise enough and even if I had enough points the USA was never agreeing to my terms. By the end of 1863 I had conquered every possible objective and strategic town the US had. The Southern ones were automatically given to the CSA which was ok. The USA in the game had in the end 0 national morale, which made all battles very easy to be won.



The war continued until early 1864 and the 38th Congress, until finally, in a lucky strike, the USA sent to me terms to peace which included the two territories I desired (I settled for Montana and Idaho, as Dakota was too expensive), as well as a year's worth of reparations.



The Confederate States managed to get huge chunks of land and although I think the USA will prevail, they will keep them occupied well into the 60s. All in all, the new colonies add up well to an already huge empire. I still have however negative influence points there...





Some thoughts about the AGE engine and its portrayal of this potential conflict will follow in another post. I am curious to see if the USA will long term accept this arrangement or try to reverse it. One thing I am planning to do better than them: pacify the Nez Perce...

No idea if this is a bug of the engine or not, but the USA made peace with the CSA after I made peace with the USA myself. Strangely enough, when I look at the treaties screen there is no "armistice" so, given that both countries hold objective towns of the other, I expect them to commence hostilities any time soon.

It would be very interesting to see how this pans out in the long term... but definitely the USA like this is crippled, having lost almost one third of its territory to CSA, the GBR, and some uncontrolled Native Americans in between. I need to cancel my defensive alliance with the CSA and Mexico as I don't want to be drawn to another war with the USA...

With so many conflicting territories, I think the USA under Abraham Lincoln (with his high "Imperalism") will soon declare war again, but at least I think I have crippled their fighting ability for at least a decade, meaning I can easily seize all Pacific assets that could be future US colonies and territories, including Hawaii (and possibly Alaska from Russia).

Nicely done. Excellent read. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, an interesting war.