From: "EMDE,BRION (HP-FtCollins,ex1)" Subject: Quebeck 1759 Game Report Hi folks, I've never posted to this list before. I've got two game reports for Quebec 1759 that might be of interest. Game Report - Quebec 1759, February 19, 1999 Brion - French Rich - English This was Rich's first time playing Quebec 1759 and Brion's third. The French spread their defensive strength out among the four areas vulnerable to British amphibious assault, with a greater emphasis on the St. Charles zone, because of its proximity to the Plains of Abraham, the ultimate British objective. The weakest French zone was the Montmorency zone, the farthest zone from Abraham, which contained a lot of blanks. The Levis zone, the key to an English upriver strategy, was defended with Quebec and Montreal militia. Rich and Brion had been discussing the possible wisdom of using lower-strength English units to probe the French defenses, but Rich's first move was a full-strength amphibious assault on Levis by British regulars. The assault succeeded, the surviving defenders retreated to Etchemin, an upriver zone where they might be retreated amphibiously if required. The British reinforced the victorious units in Levis as the rate of four per turn until he had most of his troops in that zone. At this point the British attacked Etchemin, winning that zone handily and triggering the loss of yet another Quebec militia unit. Only two French defenders remain to be retreated to Cap Rouge to protect the French supply line from Montreal. The British sailed up-river and then assaulted Cap Rouge, taking the critical supply line. French attempts to dislodge the British beachhead failed, causing the loss of a Montreal militia per turn. By turn twelve, when the British amphibious assault on Abraham occured, the French situation was hopeless and the British were declared the winner. ------------- Game Report - Quebec 1759, February 21, 1999 Brion - English Rich - French This was Rich's second time playing Quebec 1759 and Brion's fourth. It was Brion's first game playing the English. The French defense was concentrated at St. Charles, because of its proximity to Abraham, the ultimate British objective. The Levis zone appeared strong. The British strategy was to make a 'feint in force' in an attempt to confuse the French defenders. To that end British regulars made a successful amphibious assault on the lightly defended Montmorency, revealing several blanks. The French retreated the Montmorency surivors to Beauport. The British started reinforcing Montmorency with a mix of real units and blanks, saving four regulars on the Ile d'Orleans for an eventual amphibious assault on Levis. The British long term strategy was to bring troops from Montmorency to Levis after a beachhead there was established. The French, overawed by the strengh of the British buildup in Monmorency, abandoned Beauport for safety in numbers at St. Charles, which now contained all the French units on the north shore. The British, attempting to mask the fact that they were not as strong in Montmorency as implied by the number of units present, moved to Beauport in force, unopposed. The turning point for the English came on the next turn with the planned assault on Levis. The crafty French player ordered an attack on the British force in Beauport with the full force in St. Charles, revealing the British deception. The British suffered large attrition before retreating to Montmorency. The simultaneous assault of Levis succeeded, establishing a beachhead on the south shore. The British reinforced Levis from Montmorency and pushed upriver, inflicting the French with the desertion of Quebec militia. Two British ships were then moved upriver and Cap Rouge was successfully assaulted while the French consolidated their defense at Abraham. Two British units were stranded in Montmorency as two more ships were moved upriver, a mistake that would become decisive. Dauntless, the British bled the French dry of Montreal militia through occupation of the critical Cap Rouge supply zone. At the point the French player realized that the two British units stranded in Montmorency represented the possibility of an attritional victory (< 20 CV of British units in the game). The French player then abandoned Abraham in turn twelve in pursuit of the stranded units. Oblivious to his danger, the English player blithely occupied Abraham in an amphibious move just as the French were delivering the coup de grace to the stranded regulars in Montmorency. A quick count of British strength showed 19CV occupying Abraham, resulting in a French victory. In retrospect, if the British had realized the depth of his plight he could have moved two ships back to the lower river to allow an amphibious retreat of the critical stranded units. If one of them had survived the ensuing pursuit fire the British probably would still have lost the game due to extreme attrition. Even though I (Brion) lost the game, this game ranks among the absolute best times that I've ever spent wargaming. The freedom of maneuver available to the English, once they have established beachheads, are very powerful and intoxicating. The excitement of the battles was palpable. After an admittedly few playings I believe that Quebec 1759 is a deceptively deep game, with many possible strategies available for both sides. Thanks for reading!, Brion Emde Last played: Quebec 1759, Rommel in the Desert, Eagles Quatre Bras From: "EMDE,BRION (HP-FtCollins,ex1)" Subject: RE: Quebec 1759 Game Report Hi Brad, > The second game certainly seemed to be very creative in its strategy. I think that the block game system encourages player to take risks, because of the lack of knowledge about the strength of the opponent forces and limited time. The blank pieces in the Quebec 1759 game add to the uncertainty because zones can look evenly defended but in reality the defense can vary widely. In my first game of Quebec 1759 the initial British amphibious assaults, required to start the game, resulted in horrendous British losses. This was because the British player assaulted the best defended zones. Four crack 4CV British units, the maximum that could be moved by available shipping during an amphibious assault, were chewed up in the initial double-fire defensive volley and later chewed up again in the amphibious rout with double pursuit fire. The game was finished by turn six due to British attrition. That game led to the idea of using the weaker British pieces to probe the French defenses. But the weaker forces that would be used are the only ones that can counter Indian guerrilla attacks by the French, so shouldn't be squandered. And there isn't enough time anyway to mess around probing, we need results. All of these factors are racing around in the mind of the player. > I have played New France 1760 and own but have not > yet played Montcalm & Wolfe. Have you ever played either of > these games. No, I have not played either of these games. Quebec 1759 is the first game I've played or known of the battle. There is a song though, called 'Brave Wolfe' that I have a recording of. It describes what seems like a naval battle: The very first broadside we gave to them we wounded a hundred and fifty men "Well done me lads," General Wolfe did say "Brave men of honor, brave men of honor, Old England, she shall win the day" the very first broadside they gave to us they wounded our General in his right breast and from his breast precious blood did flow like any fountain, like any fountain and all of his men were filled with woe Has anyone ever heard or heard of this song? Is it about the battle of Quebec, where a General Wolfe of the English did indeed get killed? > What is the geographic area covered in Quebec 1759? > It sounds as though it is just the Fleuve St. Laurent and > surrounding area. That's correct. There are Montreal militia and a militia unit from Trois Riviers (further upstream?) in the French unit mix along with Quebec militia, but these units are subject to forced removal by determined British play, which can make the French army decay like a sand castle at high tide. There are 2 river areas: Bason is the lower St. Laurence to the east Ste. Laurent is the upper part of the river, to the west. Troops cannot be transported by ship from one river area to another. They can be moved amphibiously to and from zones bordering the river area where ships are located. So the British troops must make an amphibious landfall, then move upriver on foot. The ships sail upriver in a separate turn and are then available for more amphibious activities. There are 10 land zones: There are three zones on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River: Isle d'Orleans is the island where the English all start the game, it is in the Bason river zone. Levis is west of Ile d'Orleans, on the Bason river area and connects by land to Etchemin, which borders on the Ste. Laurent river area. There are seven zones on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River: Montmorency is the furthest eastern zone and borders on the Bason river area. Beauport is the next zone to the west and also borders on the Bason river area. St. Charles, and the St. Charles river west of Beauport, border on the Bason river area and connects to the Plains of Abraham. Abraham is behind and to the west of Quebec city and is the British objective in the game. It borders the Ste. Laurent river area. Sillery is west of Abraham and borders the Ste. Laurent river area. Cap Rouge is the extreme western zone and borders the Ste. Laurent river area. St. Foy is a landlocked area between Cap Rouge and Abraham. Thanks for asking, Brion From: "EMDE,BRION (HP-FtCollins,ex1)" Subject: More Quebec 1759 Game Reports Hi Folks, I have a couple more Quebec 1759 game reports for those that may possibly be interested. I continue to find that each game turns out differently, despite the common wisdom that the game is too simple to provide much strategic depth. Game Report - Quebec 1759, March 1, 1999 Brion - French Rich - English This was Rich's fourth time playing Quebec 1759 and Brion's sixth. As you may have noticed in previous reports, Rich and I play competetively, but not in a cutthroat way. If a game goes very wrong early, the disadvantaged player will concede and we'll just start over, hopefully having learned something. The French plan was to really beef up the defense of Levis, which guards the route upriver to Cap Rouge, the supply center for the Montreal Militia units. This was in response to the previous (unreported) game, sadly forshortened, where the British successfully assaulted the lightly defended Levis and moved upriver in record time to starve the Montrealers out the game. The French rashly put all of his regular troops in Levis, providing a surprise to the English when their expected amphibious assault failed miserably, forcing an amphibious retreat with the attendent pursuit fire. Undaunted, the English, wisely realizing that the strength of Levis meant that the some other vital area was weakly defended, shifted his attention to St. Charles, the linchpin to the Plains of Abraham. Although St. Charles was heavily defended, the militia units there were unprepared for the ferocity of the English assault and were forced to retreat to Abraham. The French, still hoping to stave off an expected assault of Levis by the English, kept the troops in Levis too long and they were cut off when two English ships moved upriver. This allowed only two French regulars to reinforce Abraham, leaving two more full strength units on the south side of the river. These units were stranded totally when the English moved the remaining two ships upriver on the following turn. The English then made an amphibious assault across the St. Charles river to Abraham, wresting the vital zone from the French. The losses sustained in the ensuing combat meant that the French no longer had any hope of recovering Abraham, resulting in an English victory. Game Report - Quebec 1759, March 4, 1999 Brion - English Rich - French This was Rich's fifth time playing Quebec 1759 and Brion's seventh. The English general, seeing the success of the previous campaign by his predecessor, vowed to repeat the English triumph over the French. He saw the heavily defended Levis zone and with visions of a costly repulse in mind, decided to assault the lightly defended Montmorency, the furthest zone from the Plains of Abraham on the lower river area. The assault succeeded and the English heavily reinforced Montmorency in the succeeding turn. The English still had hopes for an assault on Levis, to attempt to conquer territory (to cause the loss of Quebec militia) and to reach the Cap Rouge zone (to cause the attrition of Montreal militia from lack of supply). The assault on Levis was attempted on the turn following the French movement of defenders upriver to the Etchemin zone. The French were apparently concerned that troops not be stranded on the south shore of the river by an English naval move. The English assault on Levis succeeded, but the following turn the French, in a surprise move, brought reinforcements from Abraham to Etchemin by amphibious movement on the upper river, then brought the augmented force downriver to Levis, forcing a costly amphibious retreat by the English. Simultaneously, the Engish wrested Beauport from the French with their force on the north shore. At this point the English found that their exploits had been costly in terms of the strength of the force remaining to them. With five turns to go in the game the English could only lose seven more strength points before an automatic attrition victory would be attained by the French. Unfortunately the French realized this too and by turn fourteen the English, in control of the Plains of Abraham, had been reduced to nineteen strength points, resulting in a French victory. I still have not yet beaten Rich in this game after five attempts. I don't claim to be a great general but I do love to play wargames. I am confident that one of these games I will beat him. Until then I will hope..... Thanks for reading, drop my a line if you don't like these reports, or more importantly, if you do! Brion Emde brion_emde@am.exch.hp.com From: "EMDE,BRION (HP-FtCollins,ex1)" Subject: Latest Quebec 1759 Game Report Game Report - Quebec 1759, March 7, 1999 Brion - French Rich - English This was Rich's sixth time playing Quebec 1759 and Brion's eighth. The French initial setup stressed the defense of the St. Charles zone, adjacent to the Plains of Abraham. All of the French regulars were placed in this zone, leaving the defense of the other zones to the Quebec and Montreal militias. The Montmorency zone was again left the least defended, with three militia providing company to three blanks. The Beauport zone, between Montmorency and St. Charles, had four militia defenders with two blanks. The Levis zone, on the south side of the river contained six militia defenders and the Indian guerrilla fighters. The initial English amphibious attack, consisting of four units of four-strength regulars, was aimed squarely at the heart of the French defense, St. Charles. The six French regular army defenders there dealt handily with the English invaders causing an amphibious rout, with doubled pursuit fire. The stunned English attackers limped back to the Ile d'Orleans many strength points lighter than on their arrival. The next area targeted for English invasion was Levis. Once again the English bet the farm, sending four more English regulars units against the militia units on the south side of the river. The gallant townsmen battled fiercely, forcing an English amphibious retreat, with single pursuit fire. The English now had cause to worry. The English general then attempted to split the French forces on the north side of the river into two by attacking Beauport. This attack succeeded, giving hope to the English and causing a disturbance in the force for the French. The French commander, still cautious of an invasion to Levis, but not wishing to leave units stranded on the south side of the river, moved three units upriver to Etchemin, leaving three militia and the Indians in Levis. At the same time the English were reinforcing their beachhead in Beauport. The French commander ordered the three units in Etchemin to Abraham, but was too late, as two English ships moved upriver, leaving an English unit still on the Ile d'Orleans but reducing the available French amphibious capacity to two units. The following turn the English moved two more ships upriver, stranding the remaining French militia on the south shore of the Ste. Laurent! The English, still needing to face the undiminished defenders of St. Charles in order to win, chose instead to attack the two defenders still remaining in Montmorency after the desertion of Quebec militia caused by General Wolfe's orders that the crops of any farm in newly captured zones would be burned if the men folk were in the militia instead of tending their fields. The doomed militia in Montmorency fought bravely though, inflicting crucial damage to the English before dispersing. The French general, seeing victory within reach, ordered his troops from St. Charles to Beauport to meet the English on their return from Montmorency. The ensuing battle proved that the English had already fallen below their minimum strength of twenty, resulting in a victory for the French. Quebec 1759 is very much a guessing game. The initial English attack will be against one of four zones. If the French can defend the likely target(s) strongly they can inflict large losses on the English that will be hard to recover from. The use of blanks enhances the ability to deceive. Now that Rich and I have played this game many times it will become more important to add this mental element into our play. Thanks for reading, Brion Emde Last Played: Victory, Quebec 1759, Napoleon brion_emde@am.exch.hp.com From: "EMDE,BRION (HP-FtCollins,ex1)" Subject: Another Quebec 1759 Game Report Game Report - Quebec 1759, March 17, 1999 Tim - French Brion - English This was Tim's third time playing Quebec 1759 and Brion's ninth. The four French-held zones bordering the Bason were evenly defended, with a larger number of units in St. Charles, blocking the direct approach to the Plains of Abraham. The Indian scouting move by the French exposed two blanks on the Ile d'Orleans. The English, eager to try out a strategy discussed in an earlier report, sent four two-strength and three strength units, one to each invasion zone, in an attempt to unmask the true French strength. We had some uncertainty about the exposure of blanks during a skirmish, which occur when there are fewer than three units on either/both sides and the three-column battle deployment is not used. We decided that any blanks present in a skirmish could remain in the zone if accompanied by surviving friendly skirmishers. Three units of the four-unit English expeditionary force were wiped out in combat or in amphibious retreat pursuit fire, a loss of eight strength points. The ruling on the exposure of blanks in a skirmish limited the usefulness of the probing units in light of this loss. The English now committed to a full amphibious assault on Levis, the linchpin of an upriver strategy. The ensuing combat resulted in a rout of the French militia defenders, who retreated upriver to Etchemin. While the English reinforced Levis, the French, seeing the possibility of becoming outflanked, moved units from St. Charles to Abraham. Two English ships moved upriver in an attempt to limit the mobility of the three remaining defenders of Etchemin, two of which managed to move to Cap Rouge, the terminus of the Montreal supply line, on the north side of the river. When all English units were concentrated in Levis, the remaining two ships were then moved upriver. The French were still busy trying to concentrate their troops who had been initially posted to Montmorency and Beauport in Abraham. The English assault on Etchemin was a formality. The French had the mass of their troops in Abraham now, with two defenders in Cap Rouge. The English moved four units to Sillery and had a meeting engagement with troops force marching from Abraham. The amphibious assault on Sillery prevailed however, giving the English their second beachhead of the Quebec campaign. The French had now lost three Quebec militia from the English seizure of territory. The English then marched on Cap Rouge, attempting to starve the French army of its Montreal militia component. This assault was successful, with the surviving defenders retreating to St. Foy, an area that had not been used in my eight previous games. Most of the Montreal militia units had already been eliminated during the fighting on the south side of the river, limiting the usefulness of the occupation of Cap Rouge. The French reinforced St. Foy while the English brought the rest of their force across the river from Etchemin. Time was now growing short, it then being turn twelve of sixteen. The English had only twenty-nine strength points, with a major battle left to fight. The Battle of St. Foy was the largest of the game and resulted in a French rout. The defenders regrouped in Abraham and were again assaulted by the determined English. The twenty-four-strength English force occupied the Plains of Abraham on turn thirteen, forcing the beaten defenders to retreat to Sillery, no longer having the strength to resist. ---- As I read this the next morning it seems that the French, with maybe ten or eleven strength points remaining, should have kept coming at the English in Abraham 'to the last man' instead of resigning in turn thirteen. Tim was under some time pressure and things looked hopeless at the time. A determined French attack could possibly have caused the five point reduction in strength to the English needed for a French victory.