Re: Great Britain
My experience as GB on VH/H
1. Early (1700 - 1703) on I decided North America will be a purely defensive theater; as my main trouble was France, i had to look for ways to undermine them:
a) Disbanded troops in rupert's land, although built a military governor house to enable faster recruiting
b) Completeley ignored the mission from 13 colonies. At the time I was thinking to start the mission from the war with france and continue towards the indians later on
c) Ignored the Carribean and the pirates; sent my NA flee to brazillian (mistake) and african theaters together with several indianmen.
d) Started recruiting in Britain to form a full stack together with my existing armies
2. As France had several full stacks on the continent, i decided against attacking it directly; rather, I went for the "belly of the beast" in southern europe (1706 - 1713).
a) I landed an expeditionary force to capture Rome, Venice and Genoa; luckily Savoyan idiots attacked me so they became wormfood as well. Note: the battles were tough and I ad to change my general due to "too many casualties in battle" or sth like that trait he developed. Nonetheless, Italy was mine
b) I spent all the cash i could scramble on upgrading my economy, until
c) the Hurons declared war on me, so I started recruiting in Rupert's Land to form a force of 5 Hessians and three militias. While the main Huron armies were further away I managed to destroy two smaller forces and defed my towns in Ruperts land.
d) Due to investments into NA (should have given the Ruperts land up, i think) I could not fund the war against france; moreover, I was heavily spending economy. Moved my expeditionay force from Italy to Barbary states and destroyed them. Built church schools and left them there.
e) captured the Huron settlement in the great lakes and Tripolitania at about the same time; my stack in NA was decetly mixed and already experienced. moved it back to ruperts land, built a sloop and took them to take the last huron settlement. had my nastiest battle there - a bunch of indians managed to slip past me (i slipped past them while they were hidden), so they destroyed my artillery and charged the rear of my line. crappy stuff, but the line infantry held and general had his share of battle
3) Spain declared war on portugal (my ally) and was joined by France (doh!). I faced a choice of getting into a war I was not ready for or, if I broke the alliance with Portugal, get Portugal destroyed and Spanish getting stronger (making the French-Spanish alliance stronger). I joined the war against the Spanish and the French; Austrians broke the alliance and didn't declare on the french (1712-1714).
a) My italian force capture Milan from the spanish and i started to recruit land troops in italy and navy in Britain.
b) Blockaded the French capital port while spanis and french navies were trying to get back from North america
c) built 1 sloop to blockade the french port in the south; the idiot french sent a FULL STACK against it and wasted like 3 turns to get to it from the atlantic.
d) gave a nice big cash boost to portugal to help them in the war and offered peace to spain two turns later. they accepted.
e) started marching my NA force from Ruperts land to Quebec and Monreal.
4. The strategic objectives all achieved, being one-on-one with the french, their economy blockaded and having 2 armies (the veteran expeditionary force and the freshly recruited italians) i though I have decent chances defeating the frence and taking over their colonial holdings (1712-1720)
a) attacked Strasbourg from italy. Had a nasty battle at the star fort bear strabourg, but grapeshot and my veteran troops ruled the day. my fresh troops started marching on paris to deter the french from counteratacking strasbourg
b) while my veterans were healing wounds in strasbourg my new recruits got attacked by full stack of french line infantry and lots of cannons. luckily, found a decent spot for the cannons and managed to defeat the french (with many casualties on both sides).
c) the french navy got to my blockading force, so I had to eithe fight the battle half stack against full stack.. or run. I ran, of course, who cares about their navy when they are losing on land
d) My NA stack reached and captured Monreal. A nice battle there, lots of harrasing with the indian musket cavalry and beautiful bayonet charge by several most veteran troups.
d) In Europe with my veterans healed and some horse artillery added to the stack, I attacked Paris. The battle was rather easy, and I took the city. Suddenly, France is no more.
5. Destruction of the french caused United Stated to appear, as well as some little nation calling themselves Quebec. All Europe became horribly pissed and Paris public order was... well...horrible even without taxing that unruly bunch (1720-1728)
a) NA stack attacked quebec, autoresolved as the forces were far from equal. took the city and started marching towards maine and boston (previuosly french, currently - US)
b) started buildign my economy in GB and in NA with every spare coin I had, giving state gifts to Austrians, Swedes and Russians to avoid another big war in Europe.
c) built several church schools in france and north africa to get them all to be protestant
d) destroyed United States, marched my NA stack to georgia and captured it. now waiting to recruit some more troups and will be moving southwars (to cherokee - held florida) and later on to cherokee territory
6. Strenghtening position in Europea and North America. Teching like mad
e) got Poland Lithuania and Wuttenberg (idiots!) declare war on me. Sent one force to capture Gdansk and another to keep Wuttenberg from taking Strasbourg.
f) had one of the most exciting battles against 2 times the forces I had agains wuttenberg. kicked their tails, althoug it was a very costly victory; capture wuttenberg afterwards, though
g) took Gdansk, traded it to swedes for some tech, gave several state gifts around europe and got war declared by Bavaria. luckily, one of the last gifts I gave was to the Austrians, so the Austrians decided to fight Bavara on my side. Their first stack got beat, the second one is several turns away, hope they will get beat as well and I will capture Bavaria with the minimum involvement in the fighting.
e) most of the time I spend managing the economy, research and building. Got 5 univeristies for reasearch, moving through the tech tree really fast and turning my mind toeards india and the seas.
7. Plans
a) leave 2 stacks in continental europe (1 in france, another one in Italy). Be friendly with everyone, but have a punch just in case.
b) get another stack in Quebec or Boston in NA. To be on the safe side there as well.
c) the remaining money (after construction) is spent on the navy and preparing 2 stacks for the invation of india.
Comments on campaign:
- this is my first campaign, so I was unaware about the value trade brings. next time would use the naval advantage to its utmost
- I am still behind the spanish in prestige and military numbers; they have a better navy, but they ARE really stretched thin
- despite not using the trade up to its most, still have more income than I can spend if I don't recruit
Comments on tactics:
-strategic offence, tactical defence with grapeshot cannons along my infantry line.
-2 grenadier units cleaning up the massed enemies where the cannons cannot reach
- screw square formation; well timed fire will devastate cavalry charges
- melee poorer quality infantry with your line troops. while militia can shoot, they cannot stand the bayonet
- anchor flanks to houses and impassable terrain.. otherwise, yes, do use the square sometimes
- DISABLE fire at will for your cannons!!!
- do retreat veterans from battles to avoid losing them. better lose the battle than the troops!
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