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September 1781

We survived the British counterattack and held on to the town. Unfortunately, the British destroyed so much of the SC/GA force that I don’t have enough to hem them in and achieve my own little Yorktown. Gates will start down from Hillsboro to try and block their retreat. But this only works if the Loyalists try to retake the city again. If they retreat straight away to Charleston I will be too late.

October 1781

As expected, the Loyalists were able to escape before Gates even got close to cutting off their retreat. The battle of Savannah was certainly a welcome victory, but I’m afraid it was not decisive. The Redcoats that got away will be faced again when I drive on Charleston.

To avenge the loss of Savannah, the Redcoats unleashed their fury on Baltimore and took it with a frontal sea assault. It is late in the campaigning season and not really enough time to deal with this until next year.

November 1781

The British pushed further into Maryland and captured Alexandria, VA. To prevent further loss of terrain in the middle colonies I’ll need to beef up the Port defenses. I’ll do that with French forces. We may even try to retake Alexandria in the Spring.

December 1781

The fall of New Rochelle this month heralded the loss of the last of my New England ports. There is no longer any point in maintaining a front. I’ll put some strong garrisons in the major cities and retreat everything else to Albany (I plan on making a surprise attack on Ticonderoga in the Spring). The New England campaign is over.

January 1782

It’s the dead of Winter and all is quiet.

Here’s the current situation. We are currently +15 VPs. The sudden death victory conditions are now in effect. First side to reach +25 wins. I’ve already captured almost all of the “easy” (inland) objectives. I can get a few more points out of the southern campaign, but it won’t be enough since Charleston is way too strong for me to even attempt an assault. My army is numerous but in a weakened state, with the average Continental rgt at only 60% strength. Most of the militia have already been spent. I still have Virginia and Rhode Island, but that doesn’t really help. The VA militia is being held in reserve for if/when the British move on Philadelphia. And RI is occupied by British forces so it wouldn’t do me any good to call up their militia. Besides, I’m done with New England.

The British have an even tougher path to victory. First, they have to heavily garrison all the major cities. If I take a place like New York even temporarily now, it is over. But they also have to put together enough force to capture more coastal cities. The French fleet is in control of the southern waters. So the only ripe fruit left for the picking is in the middle colonies (Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia). That happens to be where the Continentals are strongest, and they’ve just been reinforced with several Foot Regiments of French soldiers.

So the odds are in my favor at the moment. But I still think it is more likely than not that this will end in a stalemate.

February 1782

A group of Loyalists was seen poking around in the woods south of Ticonderoga. Normally I wouldn’t concern myself with such a small threat. But we are mustering a decent sized force at Ft. George and don’t want to be discovered. So a few militia and Indian scouts were sent out to deal with them.

Otherwise a quiet turn.

March 1782

We decided to call off our attack on Ticonderoga. Indian scouts reported two Loyalist, two Hessian, and one Foot regiment. That is a force at least equal to our own. And if we fail we risk losing Albany. Better to play it safe. The expedition moving up from Ft. George will be recalled. Instead, we’ll send a smaller force against Niagara.

April 1782

The British bombarded Richmond, probably in preparation for a landing. I am as well defended there as anywhere so if the British can make further progress into the middle colonies, it may be all over for me.

So, it would appear that not only did my victory at Savannah not change the course of the war, but I fear it prompted the British into such action as to guarantee that neither side will prevail.

May 1782

Yep, the British captured Richmond. And they appeared to do it without too much trouble. A few rounds of cannon fire from ships in the harbor, and the Patriot defenders just melted away as soon as the Redcoats hit the shore.

If the British capture of Richmond was in response to our victory at Savannah, then we had a response of our own. Gates was finally prodded to lead his army into action at New Bern, NC. Rochambeau arrived by sea to repeat the successful formula we used at Savannah. Only this time we didn’t waste time nipping at the outer defenses. We went straight for the objective. Gates made repeated attacks on the landward side of the defenses, drawing off Redcoat units in Tactical Reserve status. Our naval armada then arrived and took the port by storm.

Unfortunately the turn ended early, before I could tidy up the defenses and dig everyone in.

Bold move.

June 1782

Patriot Victory! The war is over!

Much to my surprise, the game has ended in a sudden death American victory. Here’s what happened. Last turn, unknown to me, Ian had selected a Theater Option to bring in another Foot Brigade as reinforcements. As previously discussed, these extra reinforcements cost victory points due to the geo-political ramifications of withdrawing troops from other theaters to put down a rebellion. This VP penalty, combined with the 3 VPs I got from the capture of New Bern the previous turn, was enough to meet the SDV conditions (+25 after Jan 1782). It was a lucky turn of events for me (no pun intended). If the timing had been different, Ian would have had a couple more turns to bring my victory level back down, and the game might have ended in a draw 3 years from now.

This match was as close as it gets. We won the war, but we didn’t outfight the enemy. And up until the last year, had not even won a single major battle. My strategy from the outset was to wear the British down. And even though we were pummeled mercilessly in every major engagement, the British were indeed tiring. That was evidenced by the need for them to strip troops from other parts of the Empire.

Hats off to Ian for a well played game.

Excellent!

Great AAR!

ORIGINAL: Zovs

Excellent!

Great AAR!

Thanks

Damn, that was unexpected.

ORIGINAL: Raindem

June 1782

Patriot Victory! The war is over!

Much to my surprise, the game has ended in a sudden death American victory. Here’s what happened. Last turn, unknown to me, Ian had selected a Theater Option to bring in another Foot Brigade as reinforcements. As previously discussed, these extra reinforcements cost victory points due to the geo-political ramifications of withdrawing troops from other theaters to put down a rebellion. This VP penalty, combined with the 3 VPs I got from the capture of New Bern the previous turn, was enough to meet the SDV conditions (+25 after Jan 1782). It was a lucky turn of events for me (no pun intended). If the timing had been different, Ian would have had a couple more turns to bring my victory level back down, and the game might have ended in a draw 3 years from now.

This match was as close as it gets. We won the war, but we didn’t outfight the enemy. And up until the last year, had not even won a single major battle. My strategy from the outset was to wear the British down. And even though we were pummeled mercilessly in every major engagement, the British were indeed tiring. That was evidenced by the need for them to strip troops from other parts of the Empire.

Hats off to Ian for a well played game.

Well played Curt a very close run thing, I thought I had another turn or two before you attacked New Bearn but the Continentals got on with it. Like you said I think the war would have gone on until the end I didn't have enough troops to hold what I had and assault Philadelphia which would have been a massive prize and swung the game in my direction.
Thanks for the game I had lots of fun and would highly recommend it to other players who want something a bit different and although the map is huge a turn doesn't take very long as there arnt really too many units.

Ian

I just read the end to this. A fitting AAR for the 4th of July!

Thanks for insights in a rather unusual TOAW-scenario!