The Wargamer

The briefing

“My Hopeful Valiant Lieutenant! During this short campaign, you can learn the basic devices of the art of war by the help of which you can get along in the 1700’s of America. You can test your mark of genius on a fictional southern military operation. Every eye is fastened on you. Movable troops are located only in the South. The situation you find yourself in is dreamlike: the Americans are strong, and they are many: the British are weak so there is no danger ahead. Finally, a good piece of advice: watch the instructions at the bottom of the screen.”

This brief After Action Report follows through one of the Tutorial campaigns of For Liberty! As can be expected from a tutorial setup, the situation the player is facing is purely fictional, and a walkover by all means. But it also providing a great overview of various game features in one condensed form, from the strategic map to the tactical battlefield, and therefore makes for an intriguing read nevertheless. The demo that can be downloaded from www.battlefront.com includes a similar, but more challenging tutorial mission.

Since the tutorial is open-ended (it stops at some point where the player is able to decide if he wants to continue or wants to switch to a real campaign), so is this AAR. Just mentioning it in case you’re expecting a “grande finale” at the conclusion of this AAR to not be disappointed.

The AAR

The tutorial mission plays on the southermost portion of the North American map in the game. The weather is good (as can be seen by the three “sun” icons on the minimap near the left upper edge of the screen. The situation is just like the briefing describes – strong American forces are holding the towns and the British are scattered throughout the strategic map with weak forces, ready to be overrun.

Following the tutorial suggestions and hints, we order Pickens army in Orangeburg to fortify its position. A small icon on the left hand interface shows that it will take six weeks before the fortifications of the town are completed.

In the port town of Charlestown, two Armies are located – Colonel Charles Armand with the 1st Partison Corps Cavalry, the 4th North Carolina Militia, and the 1st Artillery Company, and a Militia unit under Marion with the 3rd South Carolina Milita, 1st North Carolina Milita and the 2nd Artillery Company. The tutorial suggests to detach the 4rh NC Milita from Armand and attach it to Marion, which is what we do.

Next, Marion is ordered to board a sea transport, again following the suggestions of the tutorial, and to land north of the port town of Savannah near the southern tip of the map.

The transport time is shown as two weeks.

The remaining men under Armand are in the meantime ordered to pillage Charles Town. Since the town is under American control, doing so costs 2 Zeal points, but the added gold and supplies can sometimes make a difference in tight situations.

Further north, Davidson with 400 infantry is ordered to take over the completely undefended Georgetown. We promptly do so and gain one influence point for the strategic campaign.

At the southermost tip of the map, Sumter and Saint-Simon have encircled Ft. St. Augustine, which is under british control and defended by British units under Prevost. The tutorial suggest to siege and bombard the Fort, which we promptly do. Changing the stance of the two american units to “Siege”, a padlock appears on the Fort, showing that it is now cut off from outside supplies. Starving a fortified position like this is a good tactic if you have time, but it can take months before you see any results. Since both Sumter and Saint-Simon have heavy artillery at their disposal, both units are ordered to bombard the enemy fort, reducing the fortification level by two points. A few more weeks of such shelling and the enemy might either give up or be ripe for an assault long before its starved.