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« on: September 23, 2013, 09:03:41 pm »
So because i'm bored I'd like to recap the war from the British perspective so if any onlookers are watching they can see what happened.
I was concerned over the growth of the Mamelukes (fivex) in my absence, the fact that they westernised combined with their growth into India and Africa I set about trying to find a suitable ally. Spain (DreXav) was thinking much of the same thing, only magnified by the fact of the two countries sharing borders. So we struck a deal, I would get Corsica for joining the alliance. Since I had an abundance of stability at the time, which I thought was quite weird, I decided to launch the attack. I called France (Azthor) and Spain into the war, expecting Spain to join and possibly France.
France however had a different mind. I think it was a lack of communication that lead to him panicking over our aggression. Although France and I were on cordial terms the same couldn't be said for him and Spain. While I don't know exactly what Spain would have done if he had won, my plan was simply to get at least an equal foot hold in the gulf of Aden, though I wouldn't have said no if Cyprus was offered to me. France having no way of knowing this likely felt it was in his best interest to stop the colonial powers from preying on nations. France then flexed its diplomatic might threatening an all out war if we didn't immediately white peace. As Great Britain I wasn't very worried about this, as I had a fleet large enough to blockade France, and Spain had a massive cash reserve in case things went awry. On top of all that Russia (Twiggie), was worried about the unimpeded growth of France and avowed to join Britain and Spain if France came into the war. Both things happened and we were soon at war with Russia, Spain, GB versus the Mamelukes and France.
It was at this moment that we made our fatal flaw. At least in the British eyes. We had dropped our diplomatic game, as I was not prepared for an actual all out war. French diplomats scurried all over Europe and formed an alliance with the Hansa (Isdar) and Italy (Tarran). We were fairly sure that Italy would likely join France, the best I had hoped for was that they would stay out of the war and solely contribute in war subsidies. The Hansa was the real shock, for they had remained largely quiet the entire game. We had assumed in error that he would stay the same throughout this war as well. Then it came down to numbers, the French contributed two large armies, which joined the Hansa one and proceeded to smash the Russian army. At this point we were concerned. When I had originally seen the armies move to Russia I had thought that they would get routed quickly and then the Russians would come poring over Europe devouring everything in their path. This was not to be, as not only did the Russians lose key battles but they quickly exhausted their supply of manpower. The French suffered no attrition whatsoever thus we were unable to severely damage the French reserves.
The war over the Spanish French border went differently. We possessed a slight numerical advantage, and a few minor battles were fought in which we would both lose ten thousand or so and then limp back to our borders. The problem was that we were quickly losing any hope of resupplying them. We had the money to do it for sure, we just lacked the men to equip. It was then the session ended. We knew we had to plan and we had to have a strategy capable of beating them. The Russian Front which was supposed to be a massive manpower drain turned into a war in which we needed to damage France so badly that he would be forced to pull them back and defend France proper. It was here again that Isdar was the key point in the war. I could neither get men to the Russian front without having to fight through his units nor could I hope to occupy northern France with a small regiment without threat of harassment. We were less concerned about Italy. Although they could produce a army equivalent to mine it was largely restricted to our theatre of operations and was viewed as more of a side show then an actual strategic threat.
This is when we brought our brains together and devised a plan. The most important of which was to get the Ottomans (Chosrau) onto our side. With his troops we would once again have a numerical advantage over our enemies. We also knew that we had to be quick and decisive. Although from the British perspective they were an ally of the Mamelukes we believed that they would want much the same as the Russians did which was to simply slow down the BBB. Although the British favoured a defensive stance until the Ottomans could strike in the North and free the Russians we were eventually convinced that to do so would only slow our demise. The French manpower pool was too great a threat to try to whittle down piece meal. We needed to wipe out the French Armies and lay a carpet siege ensuring no new ones could be formed. Spanish gold was able to sustain us and hire new batches of mercenaries who would be essential to this task. Our goal was simple and clear. Take out the French as fast as we possibly could.
The Mamelukes at this point were an afterthought. The Royal Navy had ensured that their ships were to be bound into port and thus could not threaten us on the continent. The game began with a problem though. I was quite busy doing yard work outside with my dad and my nation was to be left largely unattended. Luckily enough for me the game didn't progress much, some months could last 30 minutes or more. So with our plan set in motion we then set out. The Russians with Spanish gold had recruited a new army whilst the British and Spanish set to work at besieging the port province of Roussillion. This was advantageous for us, as although we were suffering attrition to the French's full defensive idea set, their entire trade fleet was sheltering in the province. This forced the French to fight on our terms and with less men. Before they arrived the province fell forcing his fleet out to face the combined Royal Navy and Spanish Armada. It was a massacre on sea and it gave us a bit more hope that perhaps we could pull this off. Instead the battle occurred in Toulouse, in which the British and Spanish managed to win and force the French and Italians to retreat to their own countries.
This is another place we went wrong. I was away from the computer and unable to attach to the Spanish troops. Spain divided up its forces with one chasing the Italians and the other the French. We caught up to the retreating French army in Paris, again managing to defeat them and send them to Antwerpen. I had a new batch of mercenaries ready and they set sail for Antwerpen hoping to provide the anvil to the thunderous hammer which was the pursuing army. Their are two things i'd like to mention about the game now. The first is, troops making an amphibious landing into enemy territories takes far far longer then you think they will. Although I had set them in motion at least a month before the French were due, they still had a month to go before the French army made it there. The second is this. If you try to attach to an army that is a few days in its move ahead of you your army will stop moving once it leaves the province and become frozen. These two factors would have been bad enough as it was. The Italians were also there though, using forced march they were able to evade their pursuers and beat a hard march to help defend France. After a loss fighting in the French province of Brabant our armies retreated to Liege where both Spain and Britain threw in the white towel and disbanded the armies, to keep our war exhaustion as low as possible.
The war up north was not going well either. Our all or nothing plan against France meant that the main Turkish force had moved to Italy to help with the sieges. Around the same time we won our battle in Toulouse the main Russian force engaged the French. Another victory and the Russians moved to chase down their beleaguered foes. Around the same time that we lost our fight in Brabant the Russians re-engaged the French. What was assumed to be another French defeat turned into a Russian rout. The Turkish forces who were previously about to overrun Italy were then posed with a difficult question. This delay allowed the French and Italians to regroup and march into Rome in which the remaining Spanish army and the main Turkish army were frantically trying to force his navy into the open seas. The French and Italians managed to push them off, saving their capital and stack wiping both the Turkish and the Spanish. At this point we paused and peace talks began. Although neither Spain, Britain nor the Ottomans had a single enemy troop on our lands we could tell the writing was on the wall. At this point fighting for us was more of a matter of getting favourable peace terms then anything else. In the British eyes after the first few battles in Russia we were aiming for that point. With that in mind a conference of Windsor was held in which the British honourably surrendered to the Mamelukes and Europe fell back into a gentle peace.
So is there any other viewpoint that i'm missing or am I wrong entirely?
What makes me really confused is that in the stat screen at the end the game called this war "The minor war of British Aggression" one of the largest understatements I've seen so far this year.
