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Egg Bub
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Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2012 11:57 am
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How to wage a successful campaign in Burma

Sat Aug 25, 2012 9:39 pm

It is 1852 and I (Britain) am at war with Burma. I would like to regain MC in regions where the the Burmese have been - Arakan, Pegu - however, the "Burma Field Force" is never activated because one of the commander's attributes means that he can only lead a tiny force. As the Burmese have a reasonably large army, it would seem unlikely that one colonial brigade OR a cavalry brigade would be enough.

This war happens at the very beginning of the GC so many people will have experienced it. None of the tips in the manual seem to be of much use for solving this particular problem. Has anyone beaten the Burmese in a pitched battle and if so how?

Thanks in advance.

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Kensai
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Sun Aug 26, 2012 9:43 am

Why don't you bring an Indian expedition force?
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Egg Bub
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Location: Scotland

Sun Aug 26, 2012 9:51 am

I have already tried this, but unfortunately it failed. The problem is that the Burmese army is too tough for expeditionary forces, but when I use a larger field army the attrition is murderous - 72 days to enter region from an adjacent one. Having looked at another thread it would seem that the best course of action is to wait until the scripted peace event fires.

Thanks anyway.

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Le Ricain
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Sun Aug 26, 2012 12:46 pm

My GC game with GBR is a bit more advanced than yours. I am in 1893. However, I started the game with vers 1.02 and I do not believe the issue with Burma has changed dramatically. If it has, I am sure I am will be corrected.

Why are you fighting in Burma? The terrain is terrible. You conquer Burma through the colonial process, not the military process. You get MC of Rangoon, which is the colonial capital, and start developing to build CP's up. Build an anchorage and railroad (you will need the rice). If Burma declares war, ignore them, but keep a large garrison in Rangoon. Play your merchant chits in the remaining Burmese provinces. Some merchants will be killed due enemy forces, but Burmese troops are few and the killed merchants chits can be replayed. You should be able to capture the Burmse coastal provinces as these are accessible by sea. If the weather ever breaks to allow a force to travel to a neighbouring provonce, you should do it. Eventually, you will have enough CP's to declare a protecterate, even if you are still at war. The big change now is that the MC of Burmses provinces not actually under their military control start to shift in your favour by 5 MC's per turn. Merchant chits will get you to 35% CP and once you obtain military control, you can play forts, roads and school chits to get you over the 40% CP average required for colonial status. Eventually, you will be able to play the colony chit and the Burmese forces become your forces and can be used to garrison key provinces. You can do this wihtout actually moving any troops out of Rangoon.
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James D Burns
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Location: Salida, CA

Sun Aug 26, 2012 12:58 pm

I won this war in my current British game, but it was a very long process. Basically you need to build up a depot in Rangoon and another one in a province on the north edge of Burma (can’t recall name). I personally built the two depots up to level 3, but you might get away with level 2 if you keep your army sizes down. Later I built another depot in Mandalay once it was under my control.

Once you’ve got good supply links, you can start moving bigger armies into Burma that have a chance of survival. My forces generally consisted of a supply wagon, 3-4 Indian colonial brigades (2 inf and 1 art element each) and one Indian mixed brigade (1 inf and 1 cav element each). An army this size was able to defeat the largest Burmese stacks (largest single stack I saw was the king, his was about 100 CP but he usually attacked with other stacks as well, so 150+ CP attacks were common) but at the same time kept supply requirements from getting too extreme.

As I advanced, I built up each area with a mission, trade depot and fort so I could move a brigade or two in for defense behind my lines without requiring any supply draw from my depots. I would then advance and build up the next region and so on.

This was a slow tedious process, but eventually I controlled enough of Burma that I was allowed to play protectorate status on it and soon after it became my protectorate, Burma surrendered to me paying a small reparation. After that colony status was easy to achieve and the Burmese faction also signed a defensive agreement with me soon after that, so Burma is now firmly in my camp, though I got no troops as they apparently all disbanded after the peace deal was signed.

I suppose had I continued to fight them and eventually played colony status while still at war I may have inherited some troops, but national morale was in the low 80s after 5+ years of war, so I was happy to end things and start my recovery. I should note that the option to win Rangoon in a peace deal vanished after protectorate status was signed, so if that option is your war goal then don’t play any protectorate cards on Burma.

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Egg Bub
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Location: Scotland

Mon Aug 27, 2012 2:58 pm

Thanks for the quick replies. I reckon I don't have the money for a protracted war so I'll be settling down in Rangoon for the moment. Also - minor question - will I get reinforcement chits for Burmese troops if I declare a formal colony?

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James D Burns
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Location: Salida, CA

Mon Aug 27, 2012 3:14 pm

Nope, any inherited colonial troops you get when you declare a colony are one-shot wonders. No replacements available for any of them, so once they get heavily damaged they’re all used up. You may one day get a Burmese force pool similar to your Canadian or Scottish force pools as a scripted event or something, I don’t know as I haven’t played that far with Britain yet.

But even if you did get a Burma force pool for British use, I doubt the replacement chits would work on the inherited units as they are technically part of the Burma force pool I think and are treated similar to captured guns/wagons in that regard.

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