Fleet born Assault advice

[lordlau1]

Need some guidance folks...

If I send a fleet with an army....and land it in a foreign country....does it get it's supply from the fleet? Or from the city I take? Do I need to then build a depot in the first taken city before I advance?

And if it loses a battle, can it retreat to it's fleet?

thanks,

[loki100]

be very (I do mean very) careful about naval landings. If you lose (and you face a large malus in combat) you can't retreat and your entire stack will be destroyed. So best is to make sure the planned invasion province is empty if you can.

If you have an offshore fleet and your army has supply wagons you can send the wagons out to the fleet - they will then replenish and you can return them to the army. This isn't limitless but most fleets will carry far more supply than they need for their own regular consumption. So you can use this to supply an army that has no access to a port.

If you capture a port, yes, I'd build a depot. It helps with pulling in supply and it helps to stockpile it for later need.

[Captain_Orso]

You do not need to shuffle supplies with supply units. Leave the supply unit(s) with your invasion force. As long as a fleet, with transports and supplies, is in an adjacent coastal region you will draw supplies from those transports.

If you have no other supply source and the city does not already have a depot, it would probably be very advisable to build one.

[lordlau1]

Ok, so if I land in an unoccupied region, start warfare in adjacent regions...what happens when you lose? Just normal retreat...then I manually get back on my fleet?

[RebelYell]

Ok, so if I land in an unoccupied region, start warfare in adjacent regions...what happens when you lose? Just normal retreat...then I manually get back on my fleet?

You would most likely die.

[loki100]

Ok, so if I land in an unoccupied region, start warfare in adjacent regions...what happens when you lose? Just normal retreat...then I manually get back on my fleet?

remember that you can only retreat to provinces where you have some military control, so if you only own one province and are forced to retreat then as RebelYell says 'you would most likely die'. At the very best, you will try to retreat (losing a lot of cohesion), fail, be attacked, take losses and more cohesion etc.

You can order a move back to your ships, but if you are attacked it will be cancelled.

Remember this was an era where a naval landing was by rowing boats usually landing on open beaches, its a high risk action and not really the best way to move into contested territory

[Captain_Orso]

Oh my goodness you guys, you're going to put lordlau1 into a depression

On the first turn your invasion force lands in region A. Because you have--more than likely--0 MC (Military Control) in region A when you land there, your invasion force will change to OP (Offensive Posture)--when entering a region where you have <5 MC the moving force automatically changes to OP and gains 5 MC; a minimum of 5 MC will be maintained for as long as you force is in the region--, and it will start gaining additional MC. How much depends on the total police value of your force.

On the second turn your land force marches into region B, while the invasion fleet remains in the coastal region adjacent to A. Because you again enter a region where you have 0 MC your force will change to OP. If there is an enemy stack in region B, your invasion force will attempt to find and attack the enemy stack(s). If you lose the battle and must retreat out of region B the game will calculate into which region your force will be retreated, even if it won't be able to reach it by the end of the turn.

The retreat rules favor certain factors for determining toward which region your retreat will be. One of the greatest factors--if you were moving when the battle occurred--is the region from which you entered the battle region will be highly favored. Since we are talking about an invasion, and you only have MC in one region nearby, other factors influencing retreat are not of interest to us--eg. friendly depot, friendly city, friendly forces. So if you retreat, it will be back into region A.

If you don't retreat--your force remains in region B--, but you want to break off the invasion, in the next turn you can change your posture to PP (Passive Posture)--or even DP (Defensive Posture)--, and plot a march back into region A by Drag-n-Dropping them into A, and then onto your transports.

If you did retreat after the battle, it can only be into region A, because you cannot retreat into a region where you have 0 MC, and there is only one region where you have any MC nearby; region A. The turn after the battle, you simply Drag-n-Drop™ your force onto the transports--embarking from the shore takes 5 days IIRC--and sail away into the sunset.

The bad things about invading into a region with an enemy field force, or being caught while embarking, is that your force fights with a great disadvantage. Never land in a region with an enemy field force, unless your force has a huge size advantage, and you are willing to take some punches, before overwhelming the enemy. If there is only a small garrison inside a city, or even a fort--they are not in the field--you should have no worries, unless upon seeing your invasion fleet arrive the garrison goes into the field so as to fight your invasion force while it lands on the beaches.