Strategic Movement (Naval)

[lenin]

That was my point. UK in 1803 is f****d. Any alternative views?

[Hard Sarge]

well overall, just play the game, even if you lose the battle, you can still shatter the French fleet, once you can mass parts of it, you can't win every battle

I won my first battle and then lost the battler were I had the edge, just plain got out shot, but I will say, battle ended and both Fleets were - WTF, so it was a close battle

[Mus]

Lenin, Im sure you are practicing for our PBEM game thats starting up, so heres my take on it.

Hard Sarge is absolutely right.  No need to have two large fleets down on the Iberian Peninsula.  France has Villawhatevers fleet down there, but he can be left for a turn or two.  Move Nelsons Fleet to the western half of the Bay of Biscay.  Move Keith up to the water area west of the channel and bring your Fleet blockading Brest to the English Channel WHILE AVOIDING BATTLE.  This is still an iffy thing and that group might get taken out.  Reinforce the squadron blockading the Dutch Navy. In this way you still have Brest blockaded further out but on 2 sides and have a chance not to have the Brest blockading squadron demolished for not much gain.

With instant combat the key thing is to minimize damage until you can concentrate your ships into 3-4 fleets of 32 ships and then put the leftovers into a reserve fleet and park that in Anglia.

If the French Fleet in Brest actually loaded up troops and landed them in Ireland or England I would be shocked.  For one thing very few troops are close enough to load and move in the one turn it takes you to reorganize your defenses more intelligently (and the way needed for good instant combat outcomes... concentrated) and IF THEY DID it would be VII Corps with a couple odds and ends... easily crushed by the small but elite force that the UK has on hand.

Hope this helps. 

PS I ran this a couple times for 2-3 turns and it worked well vs AI. Crushed Dutch Navy, Brest fleet and Villawhatevers fleet. Got a little dinged up in the process but at the end the French navy was toast and I would have still been able to go manhandle Spain while maintaining a decent defense in the channel against France if they tried to concentrate their remains and land a force large enough to be dangerous.

Of course the AI kinda strikes with what it has at hand very quickly. A smart human French player will likely sit with its fleets in port and try to get Spain and Denmark into the conflict before moving. This makes it even more important that you focus on force preservation and concentration.

[Hard Sarge]

oops, had a 3-4 hour power failure last night (figures my one day off, get up and the power goes out ten minutes later)

well started that game back up, thought I had saved the opening move, but looks like it is turn 2

the french Fleet from Breast got out, ran into my small 4th raters fleet (I got a chance to intercept with Keith so took it, but that pulled Keith away from the where that battle took place)

I basicly took my chances and ran away, but the Fleet from the south, even though they won vs Nelson, were chopped up bad and are headed to Breast, and ran into a honests nest

[Hard Sarge]

well that was disappointing, got one ship and the rest ran away, wasn't able to close in and pound them as I had hoped, again got becalmed

the Breast Fleets sailed though the Channel and into the North Sea, thinking they are trying to free the Dutch Fleet, of course I was waiting for the Dutch Fleet, so, while I got numbers, I kind of on the small side

so got to be fancy on this one, I have already marked my targets for this battle

[Hard Sarge]

Wing Gage and attacker is random and all, but I am in a bad streak now, about the last ten major battles I have been the attacker and have had the wind in my face, just need to start making my luck rolls !

this one could be interesting, if I can pull off the win, the Breast Fleet should run and join the Dutch Fleet in port, making my job much easier

a weaker Fleet to block Breast and some more power to block the northern Port

[Hard Sarge]

working out well, tacking and getting closer and keeping this a broadside to broadside battle

[Hard Sarge]

as I said, I got my targets marked, there are 6 Frigates in the front line, going to hammer on them, and pick at what else I get a good shot at

[Hard Sarge]

get a good volly in and one of the Frigates goes up in a nice boom, the French take a good morale hit

[Hard Sarge]

plus another of the Frigates just stuck

[Hard Sarge]

in return, the French exploded one of my 4th rates !!!

but I had closed the range, and was able to keep pounding, the ships that broke the line and turned into me, got hammered

the French run for port, now all 3 French fleets are trapped

[Hard Sarge]

But, that is not the point I was trying to show, this is, this is how England fights a war

[Hard Sarge]

and

[Hard Sarge]

now, the French fleets are bottled up, I have free fleets and I also got decent small Raiding groups of troops, I can now land were ever I want, if I want

once the Land war begins in errest, it can get interesting

[lenin]

Hard Sarge, you are a hero!

By the way, how do you get those reports in your AAR's that show the morale etc of the opposing sides? Not found that yet.

[Hard Sarge]

under the diplo screen, view relations

[Hard Sarge]

might not want to follow my advice though, this looks bad

(in the end, I took or sank every French ship, but I pretty much got slaughtered elsewhere (I too agressive)