AWI Battle. Playtesting The Rules

 

Regular wargaming partner Chris Charlton came over recently for another game of AWI. Our group has played this quite a few times over the last 12 months and the home brew rules seem to be coming along nicely, although still firmly in the playtesting stage.

The scenario revolved around a meeting engagement in which a British force of 3 brigades (commanded by me) was attempting to pounce on what it thought was an isolated American force, only to see fresh troops arriving on the battlefield to reinforce it. 

The British had a brigade of good quality regulars (2 battalions), supported by a solid brigade of Hessians  (3 battalions, including one of grenadiers, a jager company and a section of Hessian artillery) and an advance guard made up of British Legion infantry, a loyalist battalion with a company of poor quality loyalist skirmishers and a high quality company of British light infantry. The American force was made up of two regular brigades and a small brigade of rifle armed skirmishers under Morgan himself. The forces were of a similar size, with the British enjoying a slight edge in quality, albeit they were doing most of the attacking.

Here we see an overview of the battlefield with the advance guard moving over the ford, with the British regulars close behind. The Hessians who were mainly deployed for action are on the far side.

The ford provided a fairly easy passage, although deploying from the line of march was to prove difficult in the face of some lively firing from the American rifles in the woods. The militia skirmishers were routed in pretty short order, although the British lights were made of sterner stuff.

Chris surprised me by advancing his best unit; a strong composite light infantry regiment towards my advancing Hessian line - obviously keen to get to grips! As you can see, their fire was having some effect. In the rules a unit can take a certain number of hits before a base of figures is removed (6 for an A Class unit, down to 2 for the very shakiest militia types). The Leib regiment shown here was C Class, so could take 4 hits before losing a base, so nearly there. This would provoke a morale test

The Leib Regiment, supported by von Bose sweeps majestically forward.

Another shot of the loyalist brigade approaching the ford.

And here they are again deploying (slowly) for action. By this time a brigade of Continentals has arrived to support the rifles and things are hotting up for the British. 

Here come the British regulars, which I felt would be needed to deal with the enemy troops now deploying in front of me.

The American light infantry were clearly unconcerned by the approach of the Hessians, pictured here just prior to their advance.

More of Morgan's pesky rifles moving up in support.

A Continental regiment moves up to support the rest of its brigade.

From behind the Hessian lines.

A note arrives for General Morgan informing him that the British are coming - better late than never! His rifles are giving the British light infantry a hard time and inflicting considerable casualties on the British Legion.

Whilst the Light Bobs keep the rifles occupied, the already damaged British Legion gets some much needed support from the leading unit of British regulars, which deploys into line in fine style and advances without a care in the world on the American regiment to its front, which is already pouring fire into the hard-pressed Legion.

Risking a bayonet charge, things go their way. Shrugging off the closing fire they rout the rebels after a short, sharp encounter, encouraged by their brigadier. They would go on to do the same to a supporting enemy regiment in the following turn, albeit at some cost. The Legion, who had offered some supporting fire are now hanging back, feeling they have done their bit.

Meanwhile the other loyalist regiment has managed to deploy and is adding its firepower to the battle, having persuaded Morgan's rifles to vacate the wood with a well executed bayonet charge. Things are starting to look promising on this side of the field.

Encouraged by their brigadier another Continental regiment attempts to stem the tide, whilst the rifles, who are close to losing a base themselves, attempt to reform. The cotton wool ball denotes that they are currently unloaded.

In the end, the British were able to drive back the units facing them, although at heavy cost and it was doubtful that they would be able to do much more. On the British left, the Hessians were struggling to hold on, those damned light infantry fighting particularly well. Unfortunately our correspondent didn't cover this side of the action in any great detail, although it was largely a (losing) firefight.

In the end a great game with each side holding the advantage on their right flank, but struggling badly on the left. As packing up time arrived, we felt that a hard-fought draw was an appropriate verdict.

The rules work on a multiple activation system whereby each unit (or brigade if they are all doing the same thing) has a number of attempts (between 3 and 5) to move, manoeuvre, load and fire etc each turn. The more complicated the action, the harder it is to succeed; so for example moving straight ahead with no deviation is accomplished on a throw of 2+, to wheel requires a 3+, to move to a flank or reform needs a 4+ and so on. Things are slightly harder in difficult terrain such as woods. You declare what each unit or group will do in that turn, but if the first option fails, you have to carry on until you are successful, so often you don't achieve everything you might want, so forward planning and risk assessment are a big part of the game. Getting too close to the enemy in the wrong formation can be a problem - changing formation needs a 4+. One of my British regulars (my best unit) got on the flank of the American light infantry regiment with its first action whilst still in march column, subsequently failing 3 times to form into line and charge, which I had every expectation of doing. Instead they milled around under close range canister and rifle fire - not good!! 

The rules still need a bit more playtesting, but we have found that they give an enjoyable and often nail biting game as you can never be certain how much, or little your units will achieve.

Anyway this is the first in what I hope will be a more regular offering of AARs - something I always enjoy reading on other people's blogs. Hope you found it of interest.

Napoleonic French Chasseurs a Cheval

 

Following on from the initial 2 light units (see 24 February 2024 post), I thought I had better add another unit of chasseurs - the workhorse of the French light cavalry arm. Once again these are from the excellent Perry plastics box, which allows enough variety for a real campaign look. These chaps are from the 10th Regiment, which with the 9th Hussars and 4th Chasseurs, represents a pretty strong light cavalry division of around 1,800 men.

I still have enough figures in the pile for another 4 units, one of which will probably be hussars and another a regiment of Neapolitan chasseurs a cheval, so still a long way to go.

Another Present to Myself!

 

Following on from my earlier post on 18 March about the buildings I commissioned from TM Terrain. Here is the church and a couple of redoubts that I collected at Partizan for my Napoleonic and growing 7YW collections. As you can see from the photos below, the church has a detachable graveyard, in case I need to keep the footprint down. As usual David has done a fantastic job, not just on the design, but the detail; really, really pleased. Along with the 8 houses and barns he has already done for me, this should give me enough for several villages. At some stage I might look at getting a few larger houses for the posher side of town and perhaps a walled farm, but these will certainly keep me going for a while.

I really can't recommend TM Terrain highly enough, not just the quality of the finished product but the service is top notch too. I was kept constantly updated on progress with WIP photos and checks to make sure it was what I had in mind. No, I am not on commission - just saying! Hopefully you will agree he has done a fine job. Had some of them on the table for a Russo-Swedish GNW game a week or two ago and they looked great.

I have been working pretty heavily on my terrain boards as well and with some nice drop on terrain to go with them, I feel as though I am finally getting somewhere terrain-wise. When I can find the time, I would like to start doing some AARs to show everything together: figures, boards and drop on terrain.

Anyway, hope you like them.

Partizan: Another Great Day Out.

 

Short of a wedding or a funeral there are two days in the year that I always keep free: those for Partizan I and II. I always have a sore throat the following day as I am not used to talking so much, but I see people at this show, that I don't get to see during the rest of the year. This time was certainly no different and in between a great deal of chatting I also got to see the usual collection of excellent display games that this particular show always offers. 

Rather than go through even the highlights, which would take a long time, I thought I would concentrate on one of the offerings. It wasn't to be honest a game at all, but it was one of the loveliest examples of painting and terrain making excellence that I have ever seen. Not only that but the figures were not commercially available but are the result of an incredible amount of design, conversion and animation. For those of you who haven't guessed already, I am of course talking about Bill Gaskin's beautiful Seven Years War display. And a display is what it was; nothing moved all day and it certainly wasn't a wargame, but it was a great example of what, an admittedly ridiculously talented person can do given time and effort. I also looked at a large number of very impressive games at the show and enjoyed the evident pleasure that the players were getting from playing them. It is fun to go back to games throughout the day and see what progress, if any, the attacking side has made and this is wargaming at its best for me, even as an observer. Bill's game though sent me home both inspired and determined to improve my own skills whether as a painter or terrain maker. It was particularly the case with this game, as I am in the early stages of a very large and ambitious Seven Years War project myself.

This is why I think that such displays, even though not really a wargame, can be so valuable. Over the years my own ability to put on the kind of aesthetically pleasing games that I aspire to has been helped massively by such people as Bill, Colin Rumford, the Perrys and many, many others. As a mark of my appreciation here are some of the photos I took on the day. Enjoy!

So there we are. My own collection will be commercially available figures with little or no conversion but I can hopefully imbue them with a bit of Gaskin magic, even if it is only the basing!!