Bayou Forche

[kjchan]

Um wow.  Its the first side mission that kind of opened my eyes a little bit.  That fort's a tough nut to crack even at 2.5:1 odds.  Should I even bother with this?  My first attempt ended in a helluva lot of broken bodies on my side.

[Andre Bolkonsky]

Welcome to Arkansas. 

 

[kjchan]

So did you bother to do it?

 

[The Soldier]

I generally move my entire starting force through the west forest (hugging the map edge so the enemy doesn't spot our movements), cannons included.  I recommend 20pdr Parrotts for this job, by the way.  Array your men and guns across the north crossing, blow the defenders out, rinse and repeat for when you cross the river and face the main defenses.

Any other forces that come up from the south as reinforcements on the other island are pointless, crossing the river there is suicide.  Just leave them right there to make the enemy think about some things.

[maniacalpenny]

I pounded the fortifications with 7 batteries of 20lber parrots until it got dark. I then marched 3 brigades directly to the point routing what remaining enemies were in my way with rifle and concentrated artillery fire, took about 400 casualties, and took the point and finished the battle, inflicting around 6000 total.

[kjchan]

1 hour ago, maniacalpenny said:

I pounded the fortifications with 7 batteries of 20lber parrots until it got dark. I then marched 3 brigades directly to the point routing what remaining enemies were in my way with rifle and concentrated artillery fire, took about 400 casualties, and took the point and finished the battle, inflicting around 6000 total.

About what range were you at in the Parrott's range capability?  About medium?  Or max?

[maniacalpenny]

Medium. I was deployed right behind the river crossing to the west of the fortifications. I deployed some infantry to the north of the artillery to screen it, and detached skirmishers to give me some vision. The enemy artillery present on this map are fairly short range and mostly deployed behind the fortifications, far out of range so they are no threat to your batteries. There is one battery just north of the fortifications that may be in range, but if you can get vision with skirmishers following the river on the left you can easily annihilate battery with your own massed 20lb parrotts. Truth be told, the damage against fortified infantry is still low even in case shot range for the Parrotts. However, you have a significant amount of time after the timer ends to finish the mission, and the concentrated fire can absolutely rout the enemy. Once the enemy is routed, you can inflict high casualties on them and throughout the battle can mostly destroy the two brigades guarding the south-west part of the fortifications. This allows your infantry to bypass what would have been the most costly part of the assault, and most of the fighting they must do is routing unfortified brigades that walk up to them and exchanging fire with enemies that are fortified in the opposite direction.

 

My reinforcements from the south just sat there and did nothing for the entire battle. I had some 24lb howitzers use up all their ammo shooting a random entrenched brigade just to rack up a few more casualties. In retrospect, it would be best to bring as much artillery as possible and just let them shoot anything they can, even after running out of ammo. It would cause some casualties and more importantly give some additional experience and firearms skill.

 

As for the minimum number of batteries required for this strategy: I'm not sure. But they must be able to break entrenched infantry with concentrated fire, and need to have long enough range to do it without exposing themselves too much. I think it is possible to deploy some artillery over the river if you are very careful, so that might make shorter range cannon viable. However 20lb parrots are probably the best for this purpose and they are quite powerful at these "medium" ranges that allow them to shoot case shot, where most artillery would be relegated to solid shot, and have great access to hit the retreating and returning brigades which is when they can inflict the most casualties.

[kjchan]

5 hours ago, maniacalpenny said:

As for the minimum number of batteries required for this strategy: I'm not sure. 

6 batteries of 20 lbs Parrotts.  Thanks for the tip!

[Mr. Mercanto]

I demonstrate on the far left, keeping the Rebel force tied down there with artillery, given that I cannot move artillery across the center ford. I start by attacking with my left, and once I take the forest, I attack the Rebel fortification from the forest. I thin move my best troops across the ford, and keep them as far from the fort, along the shoreline. Then, I consolidate my force, and join it in the assault on the fort. When possible, I fire at one entrenched brigade with three or more brigades at once, until it breaks. Failing this, I essay a bayonet charge with one brigade while firing with the others. 

The key is to attack them brigade by brigade. Converge multiple brigades on singular entrenched enemies; once they break, exploit it. 

Its tough, but doable. Attack carefully, charge when necessary, and never engage their whole force, attack them piece by piece.

[NikolaKaleKonj]

    When I played it for the first time,I simply knew that frontal assault would have been suicidal,so I only placed one brigade close enough to the river to delay them together with all artilery if they try to attack me,and I koncentrated on the flanks,first routed enemy skirmishers with my detached ones and one unit with sharps rifles on enemy's right over the river,than anoyed the entrenched enemy brigade over the river there until my 4 brigades arived to overwhelm them and crosed the river with 2 brigades in one and other 2 in second eshelon.I also used mu cavalry there to counter the one enemy had while I was advancing on to the fort.Meanwhile,on my right,I masked my 3 brigades with detached skirmishers and moped my way to the east of the fort,where my forces converged.While my cavalry and skirmishers  kept their cavalry at bay,my brigades attacked the fort from north and east,enemy brigades there routed and all I had to do was simply mop them up.Only thing though is that enemy then vent in direction of that lone brigade,which kept them at bay,and luckily,battle ended before something bad happened.