Battle of Monday’s Lane, a War of 1812 game using Valour and Fortitude

John and Mike were here yesterday for another game using Valour and Fortitude, this time set during the War of 1812. I had drawn up a pair of army sheets using the template that can be found on the Perry website so after a cup of coffee and a catch up we began. John took the Americans and Mike and I the British and Canadians. The game objectives were to control Monday’s Lane by holding the two road junctions, and to defeat the enemy and send them packing back from whence they came of course.

The British deployed first, with the advance guard brigade consisting of the Glengarry Light Infantry, detachments of the Canadian Voltigeurs, a troop of HM 19th Light Dragoons and a 5.5” howitzer, on the left flank. They were also accompanied by a band of First Nation warriors including a company of Caldwell’s Rangers. The three other brigades were thinly spread across the rest of the table ready to advance. John’s Americans arrived with the Kentucky ‘brigade’ on his right, Scott’s brigade of regulars to their left, then a brigade of militia and anther brigade of US regulars. On the American left were a troop of US Dragoons, detachments of US Riflemen and a composite troop of militia cavalry. The Americans outnumbered the British somewhat, but the latter were largely better troops (famous last words). The American commander was also classed as cautious which made it sleigh harder for his brigades to activate.

I was too involved in the game to take many photos or even take note of what was happening in as much detail as when I umpire so I hope the photographs and brief narrative are easy enough to follow.

The American right flank.

The US militia brigade advance through the woods while a brigade of regulars head for the fence-lined lane.

My First Nations advance towards the Kentucky troops. They are accompanied by a detachment of Caldwell’s Rangers and an officer of the Indian Department (in the red coat).

Scott’s brigade advancing towards the road.  

Facing Scott’s brigade was my brigade, made up of a battalion each of Royal Marines and the West India Regiment, a battalion of Sedentary Militia and HM 1st Foot, supported by a section of Rockets manned by the Royal Marine Artillery.

This is the second US regular brigade as they reached the lane..

The First Nations warriors charged the Kentuckians in the woods.

My First Nations had charged the dismounted Kentucky riflemen in the woods but lost the melee and were routed, due to some unlucky dice rolling on my part of course! My light dragoons were also forced to retire after a brush with another unit of Kentucky Mounted Rifles.

By Rockets Red Glare. They actually hit the enemy once and scared our side several times!

Victorious Kentucky Mounted Rifles 

In the centre HM 49th were routed after a deadly exchange of musketry with two US regular battalions and a section guns. This made a big hole in the line but we survived failing the Fortitude test.

Our right was making good progress in their advance on the Americans although HM 100th just over the bridge would break under the fire of the US Riflemen and an 18-pdr gun just visible on the road..

The composite troop of militia, including the Boston Hussars, the 7th New York in the front and two others I can’t remember at the moment.

My left hand brigade had to take a Fortitude test when the First Nations ran, and three shaken units also routed, including the Glengarry Light Infantry shown here. Only a lone detachment of Canadian Voltigeurs remained. Thankfully the Kentucky brigade refused to advance for the remainder of the game.

The centre brigades of both armies were crumbling under intense musket fire. 

Another British regular battalion takes to its heels.

There are no more pictures sadly, but we decided that with two brigades almost annihilated, my remaining brigade pretty much all shaken, and a large hole in the centre of the line, the British conceded defeat and withdrew.

I have to say the rules worked well for this war. With troops capable of decent musketry and riflemen on both sides it was quite a ‘bloody’ affair, but it was also a decisive end to the game. The penny packets of artillery worked well, as they were not too deadly but they did whittle down their targets over time which was annoying and seemed about right. I’m warming to this set, but although they would undeniably work, I would still prefer something like General d’Armee for a big European-set game with multiple players. 

It was overall a good way to spend a very wet Saturday. Next week it will be Rome vs Successors if all goes to plan.

War of 1812 playtest of 'Soldiers of Napoleon'

British/Canadians on the left, Americans on the right.

OK, so no sign of Napoleon or his soldiers on the table but I saw these rules at Partizan and thought they looked promising, or different.  I don't need another seat of Napoleonic rules as I'm confused enough as it is with those I already play, but, I thought, these are card driven, which is always fun (for the umpire at least hahahaha!).

De Mueron's Regt on the British right.

Something smallish (what? will never happen!) was called for so rather than using my French Revolutionary Wars armies (sans Napoleon of course) I opted for the War of 1812 collection. It didn't take long to classify most of the different troop types in line with SoN, although some such as Native Americans and the various skirmish types and the mounted riflemen were tricky. As it was a multi-player game each of the players would command a single brigade (as it turned out a couple had two brigades). 

I had an embryonic 1812 collection for a few years but have been seriously collecting and gaming the War of 1812 ever since Covid lockdown #1 and find it a fascinating conflict, so I was keen to see if SoN gave me something that Black Powder didn't. (I like BP and Gen D’Armee but as I'm a rules butterfly I'm too often prone to pick up others to try out).  

It was a fictional encounter battle somewhere around the Lake Erie with the Americans trying once again to conduct a special operation and liberate the oppressed Canadians from their despotic British rulers.

Richard, Shaun and Nigel were the Anglo Canadians while John, Neil and Conrad were the American invaders. Apart from throwing back the Yankees the vital (?) bridges and road junctions were nominated as objectives. To accommodate the rule about off table artillery fire I said that there was a fort and a gunboat on the lake that would do the job if the card was played. The photos are a mixture of mine and Richard’s and have become hopelessly mixed up and out of order so apologies if this is confusing. [you should have been there to see what real confusion looked like during the game]. I've not captioned all the photos as they speak for themselves really.

The British unlimber a gun to cover the bridge and main road.

In their centre the British set up their Royal Marine  rocket section which  despite a tremendous display of pyrotechnics failed to hit anything the whole game.

The British centre.

The US troops quickly occupied the farmstead in the centre.

Glengarry LI advancing.

Suffice to say it turned into a bit of a bloodbath. The British pushed through the American centre, driving back or destroying several regiments of US  regulars, but loosing heavily in the process. There was little action on the British left and on the right they stormed the farm occupied by Neil's troops, but although driving the garrison off were repulsed. When I tallied up the VP's the Americans had a clear advantage so that and the tabletop objectives resulted in a small victory for their forces.

How were the rules? The mechanics worked fine and I shall happily play them again (in a European context perhaps) but despite the card driven nature of the game (which I really like) the jury is out until then. My only observations were an absence of ranges on the QRS (minor), the short movement distances for infantry, and doubts as to whether the rules can be readily and easily adapted for the big multi-player games that I run here at the Burrow. I accept that they're aimed at the later Napoleonic period (which does actually cover the War of 1812) and  I suspect one-on-one games on a 6' x 4' table rather than my monstrosity which meant that the two main battle lines took several turns to get into range of each other.  Overall, 7/10 for now.