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Bozimus has risen to the highest echelons, such as they are, of the French colonial presence in North America.
(Sniff)
Speaking as his royal highness’s personal adviser on the American colonies, I say that I’m sure we can mark off an area for the French and their accomplices somewhere north of New England. FAR north.
In the meantime we have settled Baltimore, and are looking for more sites further inland...
English swine, your personality is like your food...bland and repetitive! :P
Piracy?!?! O foul cur! Vagabond! O pestilence upon the bounding main!
I dare say this rogue captain is spent, for the fortnight at least, so I have put some coin into the palms of the local tribesmen, in case these French attempt similar games by land, especially since I have now settled Albany...
Albany, she is a fine town. The ladies of the night will have a difficult time trying to determine if the numerous coins in your pockets are worth encountering the lice infesting your wigs!
Egad! Mine opponent has set up a military formation in reserve! I had not thought drunken Burgundians capable of martial organization. I may have to update my plans. It's not easy, colonizing the new world. I have to juggle settlements, fend off pirates, scrye french intentions, and all the while find a way to pay for everything!
"Find a way to pay for everything" le Rouge Manteau squeaks!?! If you did not covet others' colonies you would not need such vast sums of money!
The French have seized Halifax! A bold and cynical escalation - this French “colonel” is no provincial neophyte.
I debated challenging his encampment with one of my own, in the cold brackish bays of Ft Beausajour, but that would stretch my supply lines and complicate my movement. I opted instead for further investment in protection and southern commerce. For now...
Barbarians have attacked! The french have moved from seaborne piracy to land assault! Well, not much more than a picket line, really, and they were blocked by my common local goon squads. But STILL! I am OUTRAGED!
Unfortunately the wheels of this colonial engine are slow to turn. I have attempted to fortify the frontier to some extent, but a retaliatory strike will have to wait for some time. Pemaquid may be little more than a circle of huts right now, but it is WAY too close to Boston to let this insult go unnoticed...
Reginald! Fix me up with a warm bath! We DO have hot water in New York, yes??
The English, in their perversely consistent way, continue to entrench like a stubborn tick on your favorite hound. Their supplies are endless while my blessed fickle mother country abandons me for unknown reasons...
I have undertaken a bit of a gambit. The King's Gambit, let us call it. I allowed the french infestation to spread across the entire Newfoundland peninsula, and deep along both banks of the St Lawrence, mostly unchallenged. We've had a few minor clashes - in the most recent, I sent some hired natives to probe the defenses at Oswego, along Lake Erie. They were repulsed, of course, but it helped trim his options for a fortnight.
In return, I have been able to avoid building a large military, and thereby have avoided spending months tending my bank accounts. We have stout defenses, to be sure, but have not maintained the aggressive military posture customary at this time in history. I have also expanded my settlements inland. Indeed, in a lucky alignment of the stars of colonial commerce, I was able to roll a settler caravan out past Cumberland, to the strategic Fort Duquesne - something previously thought utterly unreachable by my predecessors.
But as time advances and our lines firm up, I run the risk of being edged out. The French might squeak out a dominant colonial position. In spite of my spreading civilisation and my fattening towns and counties, le francais may just give us a bloody nose (and end my bloody career!)
Then again, it might just work. Perhaps, months from now, I will look my continental opponent in the eye, claim his sword, and tell him Les jeux sont faits...
I must doff my tricorn hat to the English leader. As much as it pains me, I must admit that he is both a capable and audacious strategist.
The glove has been thrown! My natives were next to useless, no matter how many times I pointed them at the timbered walls of Oswego. But finally my first troop of proper English Rangers finished training and found their way around that infernal hardpoint. I had pushed my settlements out into the weeds of Fort Duquesne, and indeed further on to Fort Venango. I heard reports that during clear sunsets, one could catch reflections off the glimmery waves of Erie.
My green rangers snuck along the shores of that great water and found the surprisingly large encampments around Niagara. In honesty, I must credit the french, for I had not thought it possible that such a proper town could be founded so far west, so early in our shared history. It was so large, that my daring raid only managed to knock them back a few months. A broken cistern here, a burned bakery there, we managed to score a hit, but still they linger, and now so close to one of my precious frontier holdfasts.
I sent a priest into the north, to see about recruiting away some of the natives they'd been shanghai-ing of late, but he only managed to garner a few field reports on french troop movements. Time is no friend to either of us, but space is no foe. It is nigh impossible to predict what will happen tomorrow...
Congratulations to the English! He played superbly and out maneuvered me at every turn! Well fought, monsieur!
There was fire, from both musket and longbow. But, fortunately, never a shot was fired by the siege cannons the french had shipped over, at terrible cost, from the continent. Such a thunder would not shake the American colonies until the war of 1812. But that is another game...
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Great game Boz! I tried a tactic for the brits that would normally risk getting Boston sacked -- I went with a settlement strategy instead of a military one. This perhaps encouraged you to do the same, which can work for the French, and for a time it looked like you might pull it off. You made 2 newbie mistakes, though, and I failed to warn you about them - a most unsportsmanlike conduct on my part, for which I only forgive myself because I tried a risky gambit myself.
Newbies have a strong tendency to view aFAoS as a game of territory and control, but all the actions are tied up in the deck. If you don't manage and groom your deck, you will eventually find your hand so full of useless junk that your tempo slows to a crawl. You have to do some combination of:
- Home Support (to grab new cards)
- Intendant (to grab a spent card back)
- Governor (to remove dud cards)
- Reserve (to bank specific cards)
You did some of this, but above all of these should be caution and consideration before taking insignificant territory to begin with. Particularly for the french. You gain very little by making many small encampments, unless you are trying to run out the supply of villages/towns for a sprint to game-end. You benefit from having a smaller deck and cycling through cards quickly.
The other general mistake was failing to leverage the native Americans, who work better with the french. If you deploy them early and often, it knocks the brits off balance. In our game, I was highly vulnerable to this, because we had so many settlements within 2 spaces of each other, but your focus on territory and guns allowed me time to fortify the border (which blocks natives).
You played very well, and held the lead in points for a good portion of the game. Clearly you're a good strategist, and would likely now be much more of a threat in a 2nd game. Which I'd be HAPPY TO PLAY if you're up for it. Same sides, swap sides, or play with the "random rules generator (which enacts 3 randomly-selected variants - 1 to benefit each side, and one that is "neutral") to inject some chaos.
I am a medium-level player - there are veterans who eat guys like me for continental breakfast at this game.