Acre of Snow Questions

[Jamescott]

I have reviewed the forum for answers and information, but I still have some specific questions. Hopefully some of the veteran players can offer some insight:

1. Military Options - I see there are various options available throughout each turn. What I'm struggling with is when I "train militia" or "train elite units" how do I know when and where these new units will appear? It seems random. Also, when it says I "try to train elite units" at the beginning of each turn, do I presume correctly my attempt failed?

2. Replacements - Are the replacement elements put into units in random order based on criteria on page page 50 of the manual? Is it possible for me to control which units receive replacements first?

3. Leaders - I could be wrong here, but a couple of times it seems as though a specific leader has completely disappeared. For example, I marched Shirley up into Oswego. On one turn, Shirley was there. Next turn he was gone and only the Col (forgot his name) was remaining. I didn't see anything in the notes that explained why. I also lost Braddock randomly once when seiging Fort Dusquene (sorry for bad spelling). Have I missed something here or is this WAD?

Finally, anyone care to offer some advice from the British perspective? Thus far, the French have swarmed all over the map destroying my forts. My first few attempts I simply chased the French around. Seems like this is a bad strategy. Any insight would be appreciated.

[arsan]

Hi!
Some answers...
1. The options you ask about are used to buy replacements, not new units IIRC. So they will not appear on map, but on the replacement screen. The tooltip you get over the option picture will give you all the details.
The "try to train elite" means that options has a 75% chance of giving you a regular replacements and a 25% of giving you an elite replacement (check the tooltip). So you "try" to get elites, but fail to 75% of the time

2. Yes, there is randomization in this. To some degree you can try o influence who gets this putting the units in passive and in places where they can get replacements (bug towns, depots...) but you can't choose who will get them. The boss at home (king, minister of war...) takes the decisions here
I guess you are specially frustrated by you regular replacement bing spent/wasted on provincial units, aren't you?? For this i recommend trying last Lodilefty's interim update
http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=15904
He has fixed the problem by creating separate subfaction (Colonials) and adding provincial replacements.

3. IIRC Braddock is removed from command by event... Probably Shirley is removed too. Haven't you saw a clickable (red) event message line on the log about this events?? I think there are some. At least for Braddock

Some advice for the british:
Bid your time and don't take risks on the first years of the war. Try to keep your forts and towns but don't venture much into enemy territory.
On teh wilderness french are very dangerous ans fast moving as they has excellent and numerous irregular units and leaders.
Triying to chase french irregular units is pretty frustrating as you regulars and provincials are not up to the task. But they can protect a fort pretty good!
Fight defensively at the beginning, trying to protect your bases as best as you can (Albany ad his surrounding forts are usually a hot spot. Try to keep Albany in your hands... or at least make Montcalm pat for it!)
After some years into the campaign (1758-59) you will start to get more and more reinforcement until your force became much more powerful than the French. Then it's time to start a methodical offensive, step by step, fort by fort and fortified town by fortified town to strangle the French and get on range of their main bases at Montreal and Quebec.
The terrain, the winter and the supply problems will be as bad an enemy as the French, so you have to plan things to not get your forces surprised by winter, lack of food or French ambushes

Cheers!

[Jamescott]

Very helpful information...thank you!

As for overall strategy, how does an experienced player allocate the reinforcements in 58-59? Should I add them to existing armies, or create new ones?

Next, are there any guidelines regarding the grouping of militia, provincials and regulars? Or are there any "combined arms" benefits by mixing force composition? I've been trying to keep them separated by type - all regulars in one force, provincials in the other, etc.

Finally, what about combining the different indian units together? Is there any kind of impact, either positive or negative?


Thanks again for the help. I greatly appreciate it!

[arsan]

Hi!

No with the last official patch, you can mix provincials, militia and regulars as you want to, as in history. No special penalties or bonus. Of course, adding some regulars in any stack will stiff the militias and provincials.
Don't get misguided by the provincials uniforms. They are basically militia and very weak until they become better after upgrading to trained provincials. Don't count with them for much unless they heavily outnumber the enemy or are defending in a strong position (a fort, behind river...). Instead, your redcoats and specially the highlanders are probably the strongest units, slightly better than French regulars. Even if they are not made to fight Indians in the wilderness, they pack quite a punch and are not easy to defeat.
If you use the last interim patch you will need to take more care, as now you command two different subfactions, Colonial and British: colonial troops will penalize British leaders CP and British troops will penalize colonial leaders. So if you mix colonial and regular troops, take care to also have mixed leaders on your armies.

Indians can also be used with other Indian without problem. But if you want to mix them with some "white" irregular troops you will need to have an angloindian commander on the stack or the CP cost will have penalties.
I tend to not mix much Indians and irregulars with regular troops, as that will negate the great mobility advantage of Indians and irregulars.
This way you will have two different kind of stacks: fast moving irregular raiding and scouting parties and ponderous regular troops stack that will pack quite a punch but will have to drag supply carts and guns around.

In any case, adding an irregular to a big regular army can be nice as they will increase the detection rating of the stack acting as scouts. That way you won't miss that sneaky French irregulars on the wilderness

Regarding the reinforcements, well, it depends of the situation, what you have on the field and where you want to use them: on the main front aroudn the Canadian frontier, down in Virginia mountains to take Fort Duquesne, maybe mounting some big scale naval invasion on Louiseburg to open the way for the St Lawrence gulf... you have many options

Cheers

[Jamescott]

Hi!

No with the last official patch, you can mix provincials, militia and regulars as you want to, as in history. No special penalties or bonus. Of course, adding some regulars in any stack will stiff the militias and provincials.
Don't get misguided by the provincials uniforms. They are basically militia and very weak until they become better after upgrading to trained provincials. Don't count with them for much unless they heavily outnumber the enemy or are defending in a strong position (a fort, behind river...). Instead, your redcoats and specially the highlanders are probably the strongest units, slightly better than French regulars. Even if they are not made to fight Indians in the wilderness, they pack quite a punch and are not easy to defeat.
If you use the last interim patch you will need to take more care, as now you command two different subfactions, Colonial and British: colonial troops will penalize British leaders CP and British troops will penalize colonial leaders. So if you mix colonial and regular troops, take care to also have mixed leaders on your armies.

Indians can also be used with other Indian without problem. But if you want to mix them with some "white" irregular troops you will need to have an angloindian commander on the stack or the CP cost will have penalties.
I tend to not mix much Indians and irregulars with regular troops, as that will negate the great mobility advantage of Indians and irregulars.
This way you will have two different kind of stacks: fast moving irregular raiding and scouting parties and ponderous regular troops stack that will pack quite a punch but will have to drag supply carts and guns around.

In any case, adding an irregular to a big regular army can be nice as they will increase the detection rating of the stack acting as scouts. That way you won't miss that sneaky French irregulars on the wilderness

Regarding the reinforcements, well, it depends of the situation, what you have on the field and where you want to use them: on the main front aroudn the Canadian frontier, down in Virginia mountains to take Fort Duquesne, maybe mounting some big scale naval invasion on Louiseburg to open the way for the St Lawrence gulf... you have many options

Cheers

Wouldn't you know it...I looked at the Provincials uniform and thought they were solid troops. Obviously I'm not the first!

Thanks again for the information. I'm going to keep asking questions as long as you don't mind helping. The information you have provided has gone a long way towards increasing my enjoyment. I appreciate it!

[Jamescott]

I think I'm starting to better understand the game now that I've played for a couple of days. However, I have some more questions:

1. Sea Lanes - what exactly are the purposes of the sea lanes to England, Europe etc? Is there value in moving merchant ships to and from? Should I have warships patrolling in these areas?

2. Should I combine naval units like the scouts with warships? Or should they be kept separate?

Thanks!

[arsan]

Hi!

The sea boxes are useful to gain EP points.
How they work depends of the scenario. IIRC on the French and Indian wars both sides have some merchant fleets there than give EP points each turn just by staying there. This represents the importance of controlling the commercial sea lanes.
You can defend your own merchant fleets and raid enemy merchant fleets with warships.
On the Independence war scenarios things are a little different. British have merchant fleets than bring EP and USA has raiders (corsairs) that give EPs by staying on the boxes each turn raiding British fleets.
The more boxes you cover with merchants and raiders the more EP per turn you will get.

2- You can do as you like. Its nice to have some small ships in a combat fleet as IIRC they have better detection values that can help the whole fleet. In any case you will notice that some Ship of the line units already have a frigate element in them.
Or you can create faster small ships fleets to raid merchants, scout, escort transports... as you see fit!

Cheers!

[Jamescott]

Played for a bit this weekend. I've quickly learned the devestation of marching troops anywhere near the mountains in the fall/winter. Also, how important those supply routes are.

Anyway, one question regarding Fort Louisberg (sorry if I butchered the spelling). My last game I played through 58. I received the Amherst Assault Force, combined it with a portion of Mockton's Army in Nova Scotia, and then landed on the Louisberg coast. I think I had around 5,000 troops. I was shocked when during the ensuing battle to be attacking 22,000 Frenchmen? I realize some of that number included warships in the harbor, but man, how should the British player handle this particular situation? Do I need to blockade the harbor well before I assault to try and keep reinforcments from landing? Maybe I should just ignore this fort completely? Any insight would be welcomed.

Otherwise, during this same game, the AI did a nice job in keeping me occupied on western New York. Then a huge force led by Montcalm appeared out of nowhere to attack through northern Mass. The AI took Cambridge and a few more cities. It was a matter of time before Boston would have fallen.

I'm going to have to restart but first I need some tips.

[arsan]

Hi!
Interesting game!
Wow!! 22.000 French! Let's hope most of them are sailors!
Its probable, as ships have very big crews. A Ship of the line may have between 700 and 900 men (each element!) so...
In any case, if the AI maintains a medium/big army OUTSIDE Louisbourg you will have problems debarking there as you will have to fight "at the beaches" with pretty big penalties for amphibious assault.
Before you can siege you will have to defeat or destroy any force the enemy may have outside. If you are lucky and the AI keeps his forces inside the fort you will be able to lay siege and force them to attack you making a sally... but don't count on it
Your ships blockading the port will help you on the siege, as they will impede the enemy getting some supply (25% of the normal supply level of the region) through an unblocked port.

On a very similar situation what i did was unload in the adjacent region on the island (Cap Breton) and create a depot and later a fort there, to have a safe base from where to attack Louisbourg and a supply source for your army. It will also protect your army form weather if winter sets in before you take Louisbourg (and probably it will )
If you need to bring a very big army to defeat the drench army guarding Louisbourg you can create a level 2 depot there to increase supply and/or on winter time remove the part of the army you cannot keep fed there to Halifax and bring them to the island back on spring for another go at the French.
I think i needed 2 years (with a winter intermission) to finally subdue the defending French army and siege, breach and take the city
But it was on a previous patch when Louisburg was a bigger city and had a fortress. Now it should be easier as the French has less supply production there and only a fort (hope you are playing with 1.06!)

Regarding Montcalm force... hehe, yes the Ai like to try backdoor approaches
From Quebec or St Francis areas you can get to northern New England across the mountains. The terrain is rough but irregulars can make it in 1 or 2 turns and regular armies in 3 turns or so. If you don't keep and eye on that region and some garrisons on the area she can give you a good surprise
Of course, you can do the same to her taking the same route on the opposite direction
I think that route was the one Benedict Arnold and some USA militias used to try a surprise attack on Quebec 1775

Cheers!

[Jamescott]

On a very similar situation what i did was unload in the adjacent region on the island (Cap Breton) and create a depot and later a fort there, to have a safe base from where to attack Louisbourg and a supply source for your army. It will also protect your army form weather if winter sets in before you take Louisbourg (and probably it will )

If you need to bring a very big army to defeat the drench army guarding Louisbourg you can create a level 2 depot there to increase supply and/or on winter time remove the part of the army you cannot keep fed there to Halifax and bring them to the island back on spring for another go at the French.
I think i needed 2 years (with a winter intermission) to finally subdue the defending French army and siege, breach and take the city

Good stuff. I'm still a bit confused about when/where/how to build forts and depots. I didn't think I would be able to build one where you mention. I'll give it a try because I believe weather will certainly become a factor if the garrison is at 22,000. Thanks!