From: "Paul O'Connor" Liberty Replay 1775 Hot on the heels of our Hammer of the Scots PBEM game, Bob Moriarity and I elect to begin a game of Columbiaıs Liberty. Weıre playing via ACTS, using Hammer cards as proxies for Liberty. There are an identical number of cards in both decks, and the games have the same number of turns, so its pretty trivial to convert the Hammer module to our needs. Iıve played Liberty once, while this is Bobıs first game. I am the British. From prior experience, I surmise the primary British objective is to kill American blocks, so my plan for 1775 will be to hunt for single blocks where they present themselves, and of course to bring in reinforcements from the mother country. I wanted to rope-a-dope Bob into moving first (so I could move against a single one of his blocks, with no opportunity for the Americans to countermarch), but we both open with "1" cards, so I spend my move occupying Savannah with the loyalist block that begins in Augusta. The colonials spend a couple cards raising troops in Charleston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York ­ then I get to go last in a turn, and so am able to pounce on a lone American militia block in Newark. Bob elects to fight and his Milita unit is captured without a loss. The British return to Boston. On the final turn I move downriver from Quebec to build up a force of three blocks in Montreal, where they can spend the winter and be positioned to hit Fort Ticonderoga next year. I also occupy Fort Pitt with Shawnee Indians. 1776 I draw a pretty good hand of movement cards for the year (3/2/2/1/1), but no supply. I open with my "3" and draw Cornwallis, Dragoons, and Jaegers, so Iıve suddenly got a pretty potent force sitting in the Atlantic box. Not sure what to do this turn. I could mass my troops in Boston, and then hit the rebels head-on, but the Americans are massed there as well, and I suspect Iım better seeking a mis-match. I can continue my march down Lake Champlain and take Fort Ticonderoga. I can land this new force in Alexandria, and then march on Baltimore and Philadelphia. It will be curious to see what Bob has in mind. Bob continues to build up his troops, so we chase Gates out of Ticonderoga, and land Cornwallis with two blocks in Wilmington, North Carolina. The Cherokee take Ninety-Six while Cornwallis force-marches into Charleston without loss. We hope to capture a couple rebel blocks and then winter in warm Charleston, basking in the prospect of the southern half of the map securely in control of the Crown. The British lose three steps, but kill both American blocks in Charleston with a devestating volley in the second round of combat (rolled six dice, and the largest of them game up "2"). And Charleston may be the high point for me in this war, because while mucking around in the south, I lost track of what was happening up north, and those damn colonials jumped me with eight blocks of militia in Boston, with winter coming and nowhere to retreat Š so it is to be a bitter battle of annihilation in old Beantown, with the fate of the war hanging in the balance. And all the moral fibre and Continental drill in the world cannot rescue me from poor strategy and sheer weight of numbers, as my entire force is marched off to the prisoner box. I capture Wilmington and Albany but itıs going to be an uphill fight considering the losses I suffered this year. We end 1776 on 20 VP. 1777 Looking at the glass as half-full, we do control the South, even after that disaster in Boston. So, Iıll reinforce my strength, and try to march on the middle part of the map late this year or early next. Iıll keep three blocks in Ticonderoga to either bait the Americans into a Canadian offensive, or to force the colonials to keep a garrison in Boston. The Americans offer to trade Grant for Arnold ­ Iıll take it. Storms in the north ensure all I can do in the first part of the year is draw some reinforcements, and move blocks out of the south and into the Atlantic box. This will position me to land in Norfolk and then march north. If I could draw a fleet, Iıd invade straight into New Brunswick or Alexandria Š 1778 The year ends with the Brits on 20 VP and in control of the south, but the damn French come in, so this is going to be a tough haul. I open 1778 with a pretty good hand ­ a Move-3 lets me get the last of my blocks into the Atlantic box (so I now have another fleet), and Iıll have a supply card for either restoring steps or getting a fleet back out of the prisoner box later in the move. I have Cornwallis and three blocks in Norfolk ready to march up the Chesapeake, and I have a strong force in Fort Ticonderoga to keep an eye on the Yankee concentration outside Boston. Iıd like to land in Alexandria and put pressure on Baltimore and Philadelphia this year ­ weıll see if the weather cooperates. I need ten more VP to win ­ if I can hold on to what I have, and then roll up the Chesapeake as far as Philadelphia, then Iıll win without having to attack in Boston again. I land in Alexandria, but storms keep me from marching on Baltimore as quick as Iıd like. By the time I get there Iım up against the end of the year and staring a tough rebel force (including a French fleet) right in the eye. With two rebs marching from Philadelphia in reserve I have little choice but to fire a desultory volley or two and then retreat with my tail between my legs. Didnıt even manage a volley before I had to flee ­ the weather really screwed my campaign plans for 1778. 1779 The year 1779 dawns with the British on 23 VP and still concentrating on Baltimore and Philadelphia to attain victory. Iıve mustered a fleet and a block of regulars (burning a supply card to recover the fleet), and positioned them in the Atlantic box ­ Iıd like to land them in New Brunswick, north of Philadelphia, and then march on my objectives from both sides. Iım maintaining a pinning force at Fort Ticonderoga to keep the Rebels honest in the Boston area, but I moved one of my Hessians from Montreal back up to Quebec with an eye toward moving it to the Atlantic box to join my naval invasion in the next move or two. Weıll see if the weather cooperates ­ or if Bob gives into his aggressive nature and launches a campaign to knock me off balance. If he doesnıt seize the initiative I might be able to grind him down a city at a time between now and 1783. Bob isnıt giving me any obvious openings, so I decide to take a little gamble and invade Boston with three blocks against two defenders (the New Brunswick plan is too risky, as Bob has reinforced in both Baltimore and New York). If it turns out there is a fleet there, I could be in trouble, but if I can get ashore in any kind of force at all I can replenish with a supply card and probably hold on against colonials that will have to force march if they want to hit me next move. The invasion is a decisive victory. We kill a militia and a lesser French block at the cost of a single step. I follow up with a supply card, with my Move-3 available for the last march of the year. I used my supply card to force a prisoner exchange. Bob ends the year with two supply cards in a row. Because we suffered lighter-than-expected casulaties in attacking Boston, and because Bobıs cards havenıt let him react to the invasion of Boston, the door is open for a risky end-of-season attack on the Colonials. If I fail, I could lose two blocks to the prisoner box. But if I succeed, weıll win the war. So Š we go for it. A fleet and Grant attack Hartford out of Boston (and Grant loses a potentially critical step from force marching). We also attack Norwich with two blocks out of Fort Ticonderoga. Itıs going to come down to the dice. Both fights are stand-up 2-on-2 fights. Iıll have a slight edge in troop quality, but the Americans will have first fire, and theyıll win merely by not losing. The prudent move would have been to wait until 1780 for this campaign, I suppose Š but the Americans will be able to bring in three blocks to my one next year, and this opportunity may not come again. So we hazard all on a winter attack! Turns out that I completely screwed up the end of my move. My board was out of synch with my opponent, and we attacked into the teeth of three blocks in Albany. Bob kindly afforded me a mulligan, but my revised move was little better ­ I attacked Norwich from Ticonderoga, and got my nose bloodied. Worse yet, with my leader getting hurt in the attack I ended up losing a block to attrition when we fell back to Ticonderoga. 1780 I open 1780 with little chance of a lighting strike to win the war. Iıll bring in my last remaining block (Leader Howe), replenish the Ft. Ticonderoga garrison with a supply card, and then see what develops. My only hope at this point is that Bob will get aggressive and break himself on one of my garrisions. If he decides to turtle on me, he should be able ride out the rest of the war. Bob hurls five blocks against Boston, with Washington in command; he obviously plans to win this war with aggressive action, as I had hoped. I had managed to rebuild my blocks in Boston with my sole supply card of 1780, and the boys donıt let me down, employing their new bullets and recruits to best effect with a devestating first volley that strikes home six times out of eleven. But the Rebels stay at it, scoring three hits in return and commiting two blocks from the reserve, so rather than hold Boston for itıs own sake at the cost of heavy losses, we retreat by sea to the Atlantic box for a rendezvous with the Howe leader block already there. This suddenly gives us a sizeable force with which to do any number of things at sea, such as raid the West Indies or link up with Cornwallis, who has stalled in Alexandria. I decide to attempt the piecemeal destruction of the French fleet ­ if I can attain naval superiority for the last couple years of the war, I might be able to eek out a win. We open the campaign with an invasion of the French West Indies ­ this will see my entire fleet against a single French fleet, and a weak garrison Š taking that port will be worth three victory points, and theyıre points that will be hard for the rebels to take back if I can keep control of the seas. And suddenly Š the war is over? My fleets sunk the French at anchor in the West Indies, and my reduced strength Hessians cleared the islands of Froggies (just barely) on the last round of combat, putting us on 26 VP. But with the last card, Bob revealed his FOURTH supply card of the year ­ meaning that once again, he canıt move anything, and is powerless to prevent my fleets from landing unopposed at Hartford and New Brunswick, scoring five more VP to ensure British victory at 31 VP at yearıs end. Kind of an anticlimatic way to end the war Š Summary There weren't a lot of large battles in the game, but that was true of the war as well. I can only think of four major campaigns off the top of my head (Saratoga, Yorktown, Princeton/New Jersey, and the war in Georgia ... throw in the Canadian adventure too, I guess). I played it pretty safe this game, fighting only when I thought there was a significant chance of victory, and as the British seem to control the tempo in this game, that might have had something to do with the low rate of engagement. The lessons I take away from this game are that losses are more important than territorial gains, at least initially. I was really sweating it out after a quarter of my army was captured up North ... I just didn't have enough blocks on hand to both garrison everything I needed to hold, and fight the French at the same time (who came in early, the rats). Around about 1778 I hit on the idea of alternating punches to the north and the south, threatening Boston and Philadelphia by turns, but my disatrous attack on Albany last turn and the bounce on my attack into Philly put the skids to those ambitions. I was lucky to take Boston with so few losses, and even luckier that I could repulse the American counterattack with such a violent volley. It was only in this last impulse that I realized the possibilites opened up by having my fleet all in one place ... it meant that I could take (and hold) the West Indies at relatively little risk to myself, and had the war continued another year, my plan was going to be to aggressively hunt down and sink French fleet blocks. It was my extreme good fortune to swap to a naval strategy right when America that awful hand, which saw my period of maximum mobility paired with Americaıs period of greatest immobility. I was skeptical of being able to pull it out in the last turns of the war. America formed a pretty strong defensive perimeter and I didn't have the strength to grind it down (as I tried to do in Philadelphia) or hold onto anything that I could steal around the edges (as witness my rapid withdrawal from Boston). America had the advantage of interior lines and the only way I was going to win was to pull a fast on one the last card of a year (which is what happened in the end). Liberty is another winner from Columbia, perhaps unjustly overlooked in the long shadow cast by its cousin, Hammer of the Scots. Thereıs lots of room for deception, and the assymentrical strategies required of the two sides ensure there will be times when both players have the desperate certainty that they are losing. The game offers historical feel and situations with a relatively light rules load, and the small unit density makes it an excellent game to play by email. I hope to play again soon. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support. _______________________________________________ Consim-l mailing list Consim-l@mailman.halisp.net http://mailman.halisp.net/mailman/listinfo/consim-l