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As a new player, so new I won't even be able to INSTALL the game for a week (until my real PC comes back), I have a really basic question about the game: are there British strategies that actually give you a chance to win the war, or is the situation utterly untenable for them and it's only a matter of time before the Yanks get their act together and force you to pull out?

It seems to me that the historical task entrusted to the British player is one that was inherently impossible using entirely military means. I don't think there's a diplomatic game in BofA, but it seems that swallowing your pride and bargaining with the Americans may be the only viable way to retain the colonies (finding a way to give them something that will satisfy their demand for self-government while retaining their ties to the Crown). Unfortunately, British arrogance prevented this sort of result historically (to the frustration of American conservatives like John Dickinson, who earnestly continued to seek a way to peace and compromise even as the guns blazed and the armies marched).

How hard will it be to figure out how to win a war that a sensible government would never have even fought?

Re Hints & Tips, BoA manual, v.1.09 (paraphrased):

As the Brits, don't disperse your (best) troops and always attack large rebel armies, using your fleet for more mobility. Use irregulars to "wreck havoc" in rear areas.

But after patch 1.12/1.12a, BoA supply rules were strictly enforced such that you really can't keep a large Brit force on the move for any appreciable length of time w/o troop attrition, esp. in unfriendly territory. As for the Colonials, they usu. fare better w/supplies, but don't venture into Canada, esp. in the dead of winter.

Historically, the only real plan the Brits had in N. America was cutting off the rebels along the Ohio River Valley. But dragging all those supplies thru dense forests was hard on the Red Coats, and the Royal Navy was obviously no help here.

If the Colonial player doesn't do anything foolish, supplies and the arrival of the French will eventually turn the tide and win the game on points.

As of the last patch, there is no diplomacey in this game, but I'm not sure what BoA Gold has in mind.

I think you mean the Hudson valley.

Anyway I disagree about the British not having plans. After 1779 they adopted a plan that had a plausible chance of working (rolling up the colonies one at a time from the south). By 1780 Georgia and South Carolina were both basically secured and loyalists were doing most of the garrison work. The problem was that by this time the British forces weren't really large enough to finish the war, and of course Greene did a spectacular job of undoing all their hard work in the deep south.

Heck the other British plan, which was to wait for Washington to run out of money and men, wasn't completely hopeless either. Still I do think they had a tough job ahead of them, and they certainly weren't helped by the quality of their generals in the first 3 years.

Yes, I meant Hudson; my bad.

The Brit plan was to cut New England -- esp. Boston, MA, the heart of the rebellion -- off from the rest of the colonies ( I guess we were a bad example to the others). You can certainly try that in BoA, but when the French and their fleet appear off Rhode Island, the situation will change.

Waiting for Washington to run ot of money? More like waiting for France to stop financing him, even if it eventually bankrupts the French and they get their own revolution.

What goes around, comes around; every nation that had a bone to pick w/the Brits -- France, Spain, the Netheralnds -- helped us achive independence.

ORIGINAL: MPHopcroft
... How hard will it be to figure out how to win a war that a sensible government would never have even fought?

Apparently it isn't that hard; playing as the Brits during the entire Revoluton, I just won on victory points -- about 3500 to 1500 -- vs. the Colonial AI, which was set to normal w/extended processing time.

I'm sure luck had something to do w/it, but I simply pressed the AI from both the North and South, capturing and holding as many strategic sites as I could. Establishing forts/depots at these sites gave me better defense and supply for any reinforcements, and the extra territory/battles won apparently delayed the French entry into the conflict, which also helped.

Still, the AI was a spoiler; it nested a large army into a key southern city, which proved impossible to seige, so I couldn't win the game early and had to go the distance. I noticed the AI also employed this tactic as the Brits.