Well, I'm back.
To those of you following the AAR, and especially the kind commenters, my apologies. Over the last month I've managed to lose major time to holidays, travel, sickness, very busy work and even an extended loss of internet service (snapped cable: 20 minutes to fix, 5 days to get them to come do it). It's been kind of ridiculous, going down the checklist of common best-laid-plan-disruptors. Frankly, I suspect a conspiracy: why don't THEY want you to know what happens in this campaign?
Returning to the action...
September 1780
A few hits are inflicted on Mobile. I sneak my natives to Nouvelle Orleans to recuperate. Ezpeleta, leaving behind a militia that drives command cost too high, marches against Dartmouth, as I want to capture whatever ships are there if at all possible.
Surprisingly, Campbell advances against Galvez. He only fails to engage due to time running out during the month on his intended move.
October 1780
In a clumsy stab at my (mis?)perceptions about some game mechanics, I’m sending half of my ships to Lake Pontchartrain. I’m wondering if having vessels blocking the harbor exit helps to capture the ships at Dartmouth when I take it. Ezpeleta will wait to assault Dartmouth till they’re in place. As long as they’re leaving and rendering the blockade too weak, I’ll send back Galvez’s depleted wagons on the remaining ships to restock at Nouvelle Orleans. The game seemed to dislike these commands; the travel time would appear as 3003 days to the lake, then the move would disappear. I eventually got it entered, so hopefully it works. Galvez himself will pray fervently that Campbell doesn’t think better of his attack at the last minute.
And, hitting next turn, I find that... Campbell went for it, good for him! Well, not good as such…
Very gratifying to land a blow on the major British force in the area.
Other than that, movements get rather confusing. I initially spot a British militia force that appears to separate from Campbell and move west of Mobile; they reappear at month’s end north of Dartmouth headed for Manchac. British-allied natives quickly appear and disappear at Mobile.
Sea movements are even worse. A British light warship Dover appears in the Mississippi Delta, then disappears; Nouvelle Orleans serves it up 16 hits. A British transport squadron, possibly fleeing Mobile, shows up in the Delta then sails up the Mississippi to Manchac. The NO guns give them 21 hits.
Dartmouth doesn’t wait for Ezpeleta to attack, they surrender. Unfortunately, this means the I Fleet stationed there sails out Lake Pontchartrain.
Something goes wrong with my load of Galvez’s wagons to ships, they’re left behind. I’m guessing either Campbell’s attack, British transport passing through the Bay, or some error on my part is to blame. On the other hand, I’ve somehow captured Mobile’s coastal guns. That's very surprising and I'm not sure it's quite right, immobile guns falling to me outside the fort. They weren’t in the fort proper? Or just a bug?
This is the situation as the dust starts to settle partway through the month, though as I recall my vessels didn’t actually make it into Lake Pontchartrain, perhaps having to do with those weird transit times I was seeing when planning the move.
November 1780
It seems all that’s left garrisoning Mobile are Indian Allies at 31 power. Campbell is down to a regiment of Foot, one of Royal Americans, and some Marylanders and supplies. I’d love to chase after him but lack military control to move. I’d love to storm Mobile at now better than 10:1, but I’m wondering about the impact of a level 2 fort.
In the west, I send Ezpeleta past Manchac to Baton Rouge.
I’d like him to pound on that British force headed to the town, then garrison the actual objective and recover a bit. The depleted wagons are sent back to NO. If the Brits wind up retaking Dartmouth maybe their boats will move back into harbor and I’ll get another chance at them. Speaking of which, I realize they’re trapped in the Lake and can’t go straight to the Delta due to my holding NO. My bateaux resupply in the city, my transports go back to Mobile Bay evasive.
Now that Galvez has that lovely coastal artillery I’m going to wait a month to see if a breach develops. Probably over-cautious again.
But then there’s this…
You may recall that I last showed this screen in the June 1780 entry and mentioned it contained a nasty problem that was escaping my notice. I think you were all being polite not pointing out how obvious and basic my oversight was. Had to do with those curious little red and black flags for Natchez and Baton Rouge... the puzzling points lead Britain has in light of how well the war's been going...
Ohhhhh yeeaahhhhhh. That whole thing about occupying disloyal regions with regular units to get victory points. No unit, or militia only, means it's effectively unoccupied, no points.
Huh. That is rather a problem.
Well, I'd been away from AGEOD games for a while, longer from WIA, and anyway the majority of my play in WIA was FIW where loyalty isn't a concern. When I dabbled in Revolution scenarios I treated Loyalty as something to figure out later. Still, this is embarrassing. I've occupied, ha, actually no, I've
conquered those locations for a while now, and the whole time the VPs have been washing into the Mississippi and floating off to rot in a bayou somewhere because I forgot about this. It's a short scenario, not that much time to correct the error. I start to get the creeping feeling I may, through own-error, lose this thus-far easy scenario.
Okay. Deep breath, rub the stinging palm print on my forehead. I need to fix this.
December 1780
Bah. The British got into Manchac before Ezpeleta could attack, he proceeded to Baton Rouge. No breaches at Mobile either. At least the transports arrived safely.
I set Galvez to a conservative assault. I hate to do it, but I separate out the coastal guns because I'm worried their locked status could prevent his attack. Since Galvez is about to run out of food, I send 3 wagons back to NO via transport. I send the 2 recovered bateaux from NO to Mobile Bay to offer supply (another function I’ve always been hazy on, can never tell if transports are supplying adjacent land units or not).
Ezpeleta is also low on supply. He holds Baton Rouge because, you know, it turns out that's important. Yeesh.
Hit next turn...
I wonder if this scenario is getting me with the program or teaching me bad habits I’ll regret later. Galvez handily defeats the handful of natives at Mobile. I'm definitely being too nervous about assaults.
My transports take off again without the wagons, which I see in replay begin to load. I must be mis-remembering this function badly.
Campbell takes off north, then shows up again at Fort Panmure bound for Manchac. Apparently he wants to regroup: to fight along the Mississippi, or to transport back east?