French Intervention in Mexico

[Gen. Monkey-Bear]

Has anyone commanded during the French intervention in Mexico? I want to see how this event works but it takes a long time to reach those years in my game!

If so, please share your experience (how much did it rely on scripted events, was it a challenge, how did it end, etc. . . )

[Random]

Has anyone commanded during the French intervention in Mexico? I want to see how this event works but it takes a long time to reach those years in my game!

If so, please share your experience (how much did it rely on scripted events, was it a challenge, how did it end, etc. . . )

Nobody stopped by to help, eh?

Well I tried the Mexican adventure as France and it did not end too well. The CB fired OK and having a strong economy, lots of Colonial troops and a big navy helped make the decision for intervention easier.

Before declaring war, did some infrastructure improvements at Martinique (I think that's Frances Caribbean possession as I recall) and forward based my (expendable) wooden steam battleships and several transport fleets there. Launched an invasion at Vera Cruz, the Army defeated the Mexican land forces in two turns or so but before that happened the fortifications essentially annihilated my wooden ships supporting the Army. After that, consolidated and marched into the interior eventually capturing Mexico City but taking hits from weather and terrain and the occasional foray into neighbouring areas along the route.

This was the extent of my expeditionary forces ability, expanding further brought over-reach while Mexican counter-moves and PON style guerrilla war continuously ate resources without territorial or political gains. Bad weather attrited my Fleet which proved expensive to keep on station and now composed of expensive early ironclads and a steady stream of losses incurred by the land forces hurt the treasury. The intermittent war dragged on and on with me unwilling to reinforce the theatre due to threats of war in Europe, national morale suffering and the whole thing turning into a big hole for supply, money and manpower.

Eventually accrued enough of a war-score to get a non-negative peace which created a rebel state on the Yucatan Peninsula. Hardly worth the lives and treasure expended but some of my land units gathered valuable experience that later came in handy in Africa. I too learned some solid lessons about expeditionary warfare, supply and the vulnerability of wooden ships vs. pre-industrial fortifications in PON.

All in all it was an excellent primer in mid-19th Century Imperial over-stretch in the PON universe and all for nought in the end.

Not sure if the event is working as intended, getting in was easy as was disengaging after the war score (mostly for capturing Mexico City) accumulated and there were no consequences of my flagrant violation of the Munroe Doctrine from the United States.

-C

[Gen. Monkey-Bear]

Hmm sounds pretty accurate compared to real life. Regarding the United States, did you withdraw before or after the end of the American Civil War? Because after it ended in real life, the U.S. gave some significant support to Mexico . . . this should be the case in the game too ideally.

By the way, thanks for responding.

[Random]

Hmm sounds pretty accurate compared to real life. Regarding the United States, did you withdraw before or after the end of the American Civil War? Because after it ended in real life, the U.S. gave some significant support to Mexico . . . this should be the case in the game too ideally.

By the way, thanks for responding.

The initial invasion was after the Civil War ended with victory for the North, which came towards the end of 1863 but I cannot recall the date. The CB fired repeatedly and after the first time I had time to improve Martinique, build additional transports and land units between the time I decided to invade and actually launching the expeditionary force. I was fully expecting American intervention at some point but my relations with the USA stayed strong and trade both ways remained lucrative. In total the expeditionary campaign lasted perhaps two or three-years, maybe a bit less. Capturing Mexico City was a cake-walk for the French Army but I lacked the forces to expand further and then the war stagnated.

Discovered that I had to ship supply wagons to Vera Cruz and micro-manage the supply for the expeditionary force otherwise suffered major attrition but I expect that's working as designed. Keeping the fleet on station in the Caribbean proved expensive as repairing the frequent storm damage caused a constant movement of ships to and from Brest.

I doubt all the event related scripts are working as desired though.

Other games have kept me away from PON of late.

-C

[Gen. Monkey-Bear]

So I guess only one person has played this . . . well thanks anyway. I will keep looking into it.

[Jim-NC]

I had started the war, but the game crashed, so I never finished it. I declared war as soon as the event fired, then realized I had no troops nearby. I sent 1 corps (I thought the Mexicans would be a cake walk). I captured Vera Cruz, but then they started to besiege me, and actually kicked my corps out, I had to send a back up corps, and then the 2 corps re-took Vera Cruz, and stopped several Mexican attacks (at that point it crashed, so I never took any other territory).

[Sir Garnet]

French glory does not come cheap.

The indirect way to establish a client state in this game is to pummel them silly with high warscore, then make a peace that leaves much of that mass of warscore unused. This gives you a diplomatic asset - good relations with the country that can lead them to agree to commercial, defense and other treaties (whether you want to think of this as gratitude or a regime change as part of the peace for AAR purpsoes).

My old French campaign did not get to this point before version change, but did spend years fighting in Russia - nowardays I wouild have scripted a reasonable result years earlier in Single Player. I hope there is an Emperor Maximilian leader file and event in there.