I just finished the game.......
i lost, but it was the greatest game i have ever played in any civilization game. It was reminicent of civilization III with my twenty cities, and two giant armies and thier allies fighting in an epic struggle to survive......
I had about twenty five military units by the the time of the revolution. My allies (the indians) had about forty units altogether too, with the king who had around five hundred troops. they first sailed to the west indies as those cities had populations of fifteen each (they were my economic centers for sugar and mining). they captured those easily enough because i didn't have a navy large enough to counter attack. they eventually sailed troops to New Orleans with a population of twelve. New Oleans was my second largest city after Quebec(Pop at 14) that was left in my hands and i used it to trade my industrial goods to the indians situated in modern day brazil. i moved my army down south to protect it while my allies took up positions near quebec and chicago(actual location at pop of 8). I defeated two waves of kings troops near New Orleans when the kings troops surprised and killed my army of seven units in south america (had two mining cities of pop 4 each there to facilitate my missionaries in south america) by attacking and capturing both cities.
By this point though i was confident that i could still win because i had never wasted my small but growing navy of three ship o the lines in quebec. but royal forces landed in montreal (pop 5) two squares from quebec and started to march on quebec. My troops had their hands full with an earlier wave assualting new orleans, but my indian allies crushed the kings forces after ten turns of intensive fighting, with quebec coming near collapse from lack of food (king sent another wave to surround the city and starve it out). i was still in the war, although my indian allies had lost half of their entire forces.
To compound my bad fortune, i had figured that the increased liberty bell production would increase my resource production but i didn't realize that my borders would soon increase to such a size that my borders would begin to destroy my indian allies settlements (when i owned enough territory around their cities they ceded them to me and they were destroyed ?!). because my allies lost a lot of their cities to my borders i lost out on a huge amount of population growth to support my troops. I had previously used my missions in brazil to acquire new civilians (had three missions there), but they were cut off from new france because of the king's blockade. by about 1750, i still had new france in my possession but i only had an army of fifteen units left, my native allies no longer had the manpower to effectively help me like in the defense of quebec, and i could no longer rely on converted natives to increase my cities populations, and i had no one to trade with ( dutch resided somewhere in the south america, spanish in southern brazil, and a single english settlement on eastern seabord.)
I knew that new orleans was only a crucial city because i had used it to trade with the west indies and south america, but now that both were conquered, new orleans did not have as much strategic value, so i pulled my forces north to chicago. New Orleans fell the next turn to the king's forces. chicago was the most strategic city at this point, it had an armory, magazine stash, blacksmith, stall for horses and ranch, as well as a dockyard, and it was positioned between my settlements in the north and the west and east. It held all my guns and horses and i used three wagons to transport war supplies to parts of new france that were under attack, converted soldiers from cities, and counterattacked the kings forces, and for a while it worked.......
A fresh force of royalists from new orleans moved up the mississippi, taking two more settlements and attacked chicago, while i was dealing with a previous wave of soldiers near quebec. next turn chicago fell, and i lost roughly twelve hundred guns, eight hundred horses, and all my wagons (about four, made a new one in quebec and brought it there a turn earlier). i quickly counterattacked in new orleans to threaten their supply lines, and after taking out one soldier i recaptured the city. and to my surprise I KILLED TWO SHIPS OF THE KING'S NAVY!!!! The king pulled his forces back from chicago and postitioned them in a fort i founded along the mississippi, and i moved my infantry and cannons next to the city while moving my dragoons to chicago and retaking it with minimal losses. after a lengthy siege, bombarding, and querrilla warfare, i ousted the royalists from the fort.
By this point though i had exhausted my entire population for soldiers. i could no longer produce enough weapons for new soldiers, i had no horses, and no citizens to convert into soldiers. at this point quebec was my largest city with five people. the king's forces moved into the chicago region again, captured the city after taking out ten of my units. I pulled my last five units out to quebec to await the final onslaught. I felt like the confederates in the civil war. I wonder if this is how Robert E. Lee felt?
In the next ten turns the rest of new france fell to the king's forces except for montreal, quebec, and a city called ontario (mining town with a pop of two, and one soldier guarding it). the royalists captured montreal next, which was a major blow because i had built the city as a food producing giant to keep up steady growth in quebec. without montreal the rest of quebec starved. i pulled all of my citizens and soldeir from ontario and awaited the king's forces in quebec. his ships pulled up to the city, and i sent out my three ship o the lines to meet them. I killed one, but then lost the rest of m ships. Their forces took up position along a hill and bombarded the city to bits. with ten turns remaining before the end of the game, they captured my last city.
The three things i learned from this is to ****** territorial growth with indian settlements because the indians can become a major asset in any war, as well as don't waste the resources building a navy because the king will always beat you there, and finally, don't leave all your resources in a single city because if it is captured, it can be your down fall. If anyone from reading this can give any more suggestions on how to have better handled the situation especially with the early stages of the war when i could count on my indian allies to help out, give suggestions. Also, is it beneficial to rely on the indians in a defensive war, or should i have pretended as if they didn't exist and instead spread my forces out? I don't know. It's hard to rely on the indians for any military strategy.....
