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#91

Tabletop AARs / Re: Back to Quatre Bras

Last post by MengJiao - August 14, 2023, 08:08:55 PM

Wellington and co...as seen from about 9,000 feet over the Bois de Bossu:You cannot view this attachment.

#92

Tabletop AARs / Back to Quatre Bras

Last post by MengJiao - August 12, 2023, 04:45:25 PM

So, this is sort of the comfort food of war games -- Napoleonics and familiar ones at thatYou cannot view this attachment.

#93

Digital Gaming AARs / Re: All the colors of the RAIN...

Last post by nelmsm - August 01, 2023, 10:48:46 PM

This has been a great read.  I'll be looking forward to you picking it back up some day.

#94

Digital Gaming AARs / Re: All the colors of the RAIN...

Last post by JasonPratt - August 01, 2023, 07:37:29 AM

Oooo, Drachinfel! Will be back for that after work!

#95

Digital Gaming AARs / Re: All the colors of the RAIN...

Last post by W8taminute - July 31, 2023, 01:36:59 PM

You put a lot of time into both the game and writing up this excellent AAR.  Great entertainment for us!

Thank you. 

#96

Digital Gaming AARs / Re: All the colors of the RAIN...

Last post by Tripoli - July 31, 2023, 12:05:41 PM

Great job! Both the writing and the playing!

Thank you.  I've always enjoyed the "Rule the Waves" and "Steam and Iron" series. 
On a slightly related topic, in case anyone is interested is whether they should buy the game, here's a pretty good Youtube highlighting the way the game plays by Drachinifel.  For those who do not know who Drachinifel is, he is one of the more knowledgeable and popular Youtubers on general naval issues
 

#97

Digital Gaming AARs / Re: All the colors of the RAIN...

Last post by bobarossa - July 30, 2023, 10:05:50 AM

Great job! Both the writing and the playing!

#98

Digital Gaming AARs / Re: All the colors of the RAIN...

Last post by Tripoli - July 29, 2023, 09:37:43 AM

Well done Grand Admiral Tripoli!    Any plans for higher office next Election Season?

I'm probably going to do a post-war wrap up and then take a brief break from this AAR, as I have some CMO and Combat Mission AARs to write up.  But I will return to this one.

#99

Digital Gaming AARs / Re: All the colors of the RAIN...

Last post by Sir Slash - July 29, 2023, 09:09:18 AM

Well done Grand Admiral Tripoli!    Any plans for higher office next Election Season?

[End of the War]

#100

Digital Gaming AARs / Re: All the colors of the RAIN...

Last post by Tripoli - July 28, 2023, 09:33:09 PM

End of the War

For almost two years, only a small number of the French leadership knew the war was lost.  The capture of their colonies in Vietnam and the Caribbean deprived France of the ability to significantly threaten any critical American territory or interest.   Consequentially, France had little leverage for either a military or political resolution of the war.  But the May 1906 alliance with Spain virtually guaranteed France's defeat.  The Spanish alliance gave the US bases on both the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts from which it could blockade metropolitan France.  The alliance also gave the moderately sized Spanish and American navy maritime superiority in French home waters with the US navy, was adequate to cut off French overseas commerce.  The subsequent entry into the war by Russia ins February 1907 made France's defeat inevitable.

The economic losses and subsequent unrest in the French cities began in September 1906.  But the blockade's stranglehold, combined with repeated losses at sea began to swell the ranks of the protestors in the streets, and the opposition in the halls of government.    But what most greatly invigorated the opposition was the government's intransigence in seeking a negotiated settlement.  The first feelers for a negotiated settlement with only minor territorial losses was rebuffed in September 1906.  Subsequent attempts fared no better, as each moderate settlement offer was rejected by the government, oblivious to the economic suffering of the middle and lower classes and unable to fathom that the French navy incapacity to take effective offensive action.

The street protests of September 1906 were the first hint of popular dissatisfaction with the war.  However, these were scattered and disorganized and the French government discounted the brewing dissatisfaction that they signaled.  Further supporting the French hard line was the generous American response, which gave the government the mistaken hope that the Americans were eager for peace on any terms, and that continued war might see a regaining of their SE Asian and Caribbean colonies.

While the American president wanted peace, the refusal of the French government to accept their weak position became increasingly irritating.  The French refusal accept repeated offers for a peace treaty on generous terms, combined with a series of naval victories and solid public support resulted in a hardening of the American negotiating position.   Reports beginning in the spring of 1907 of increasing number and size of anti-war demonstrations and strikes throughout France further supported the administration's new approach of relying on the blockade and increasing French public discontent to end the war.

The nation-wide strike of August 1907 broke the hold the French hard-liners had on war policy.  While cynics scoffed it was difficult to tell the economic difference between a typical August vacation season in France and a work stoppage, the strike of August 1907 was different.  The call for the strike began with the 29 July return to Brest harbor of the damaged FS JULES FERRY the same day she had left on her raiding mission.  Her return, with the news of the sinking of her sister ship the MARSELLAISE was proof to the French dockworkers that the Republic no longer controlled the seas within eyesight of France itself.  This news galvanized the anti-war movement, and a nation-wide strike was quickly called.   By the end of August, the disruptions in rail traffic exacerbated the blockade, reducing French imports and exports to and from its continental neighbors reaching market.  By the beginning of September, the French government bowed to the inevitable, and sought to end the war.

The American demands now were more stringent than earlier.  Eager to establish a global presence, the Americans kept the territories captured in SE Asia and the Caribbean (Image 1, in orange).  More importantly, the US demanded and received control over the French colonies in the middle Congo, Djibouti and the New Hebrides, allowing for American naval forcers to almost completely span the globe with bases  (Image 1, in red).   Like the British, America now had an empire on which the sun never set. 

Image 1 End of the War