The Battle of Guilford Courthouse

As planned we refought Guilford Courthouse today. John, Rob and Paul (Stevenson) made the trip up to my place. We used Black Powder, which all of us are very familiar with and enjoy as a good, playable ruleset. We played down the length of my 10' x 6' table. Paul and Rob were the rebels and John and I took the British. I got to be Cornwallis, and took Webster's brigade (23rd and 33rd foot plus the Guards light companies and a 6pdr) and O'Hara's brigade of a battalion of Guards and the Guards grenadiers. John had Fraser's brigade of the 71st foot, the other Guards battalion, the Hessian von Bose regiment and the Hessian Jager. He also had Tarleton's British Legion cavalry and a 3pdr. I provided the tea but otherwise it was self-catering. The British figures are almost all Perry, with the exception of a very few Foundry and some of the British Legion are Old Glory. Rob and Paul took a brigade in each of the rebel lines. The first line were 2 brigades of pretty poor militia who I classed as wavering and unreliable and reduced their stamina by 1, supported by some rifle-armed skirmishers and two small units of cavalry. The cavalry were ok quality troops in the rules.The second line were 6 regiments of better militia in 2 brigades, but I still made them unreliable. (unreliable just means you can only activate them on a throw less than their commander's factor). The last line were all Continentals. Two brigades totalling 6 battalions plus a gun. Only the Continentals had first fire. The rebel figures are a mixture of Perry, Foundry and some Old Glory 2nd generation.

We agreed that we would ignore the normal rule where if half of an army's brigades are broken the game is over, otherwise if the British did get through the first two lines they would win automatically. As stated in yesterday's post, all movement except within the fenced off areas was 6" a move (but you could move up to three moves as per the normal rules), and visibility was reduced to 12". This movement restriction applied to all units and commanders, who had to throw to see if and how far they moved, but not to skirmishers. Cavalry would be disordered on a throw of a 6 on a D6, per 6" moved. The wooded area also had an effect on saving rolls and shooting. The rebels were free to reinforce their lines rather than just having them sit and wait.

John and I agreed to take it steady and get stuck in with the bayonet where practical, as well as trying to rally off morale points as often as possible. Move one went well. Not. John failed his command roll but I managed to get up to the fenceline across from the first rebel line and opened fire with the 23rd and 33rd regiments, but without much effect.

The rebel first line were not very good at all (i.e. they were pants) but they could still shoot. The British took some damage from their first volley but bayonet charges quickly saw a couple of rebel regiments off. Eventually, and after a very hard fight, the remains of the rebel first line was destroyed, but only after it had withdrawn into the woods to draw the British on and allow the second line to advance. Their supporting artillery were shot down where they stood as they were unable to escape. The first line's attached cavalry and skirmishers were rendered useless as a striking force now that both brigades were broken, but they were still prove to be a nuisance taking pot shots at the British from the cover of the woods.

The British had no respite though as the second rebel line was a tougher nut to crack. A few of John's units (the Hessian von Bose regiment and the71st foot) had become shaken so he had to pause to rally them, and I was leap frogging my brigades to enable morale points to be diced for and removed. I was too absorbed in my part of the action against Rob to see what was happening on John's flank, but it looked very intense. John's Hessian jager were broken after they were charged and unable to evade. In turn, the British Legion cavalry charged at least once, I lost track, and broke a rebel regiment but were unable to exploit their win. The fight over on John's flank broke down into a series of close range musketry duels and short sharp melees. Paul's second line was finally broken, but by then his Continental brigade had advanced to the edge of the woods and was holding John's advance up. The Continentals poured musketry into John's Guards battalion, which was shaken and eventually broke.

Meanwhile my brigades had got well into the woods and were engaging Rob's second line. A couple more bayonet charges successfully shattered Rob's brigade but not before my combined grenadiers had been charged in the flank. Had they not been 'steady' and 'crack' they would have broken, and in the next turn their opponents were themselves charged. After a couple of furious rounds of melee the rebels broke.

A turn of so later we decided to call it a day as we'd been playing for longer than the real battle lasted (about four and a half hours including lunch and tea breaks). The first two rebel lines had been shattered, and the British were still in a strong position (on my flank at least) but the thought of facing the third line of largely unscathed Continentals was not a pleasant one. I think the British would have been able to take on the third line once they'd rallied off as many morale points as possible, but it would have been touch and go facing six almost fresh Continental regiments.

The game was a huge success and very enjoyable if rather knackering, peppered with the usual amazingly bad command rolls and some tremendous saving throws, usually at critical moments in the game. The British were happy to have got what might have been classed as a winning draw out of it (although had we been playing the victory condition rules to the letter, the rebel army would have collapsed once their second line was broken. Either way, it was assumed that the rebels would retire under the cover of darkness leaving the British in possession of the battlefield. The photos (which could have been better but at least give an impression of the confusion fighting through the woods) show the British progress attacking the rebel lines and fighting through the wooded area. I just about had enough trees! Oh, and I know the Guards didn't carry flags in the war but they look good.

Guilford Courthouse tomorrow

If all goes to plan and we don't get washed away by the rain its a refight of Guilford Courthouse tomorrow. I've just finished setting up the table and laying out the figures so I thought a few pictures would be appropriate. From the top we have the British army advancing towards the three successive Rebel lines. Apart from the areas enclosed by the fencing the rest of the table is classed as wooded/broken terrain. Movement for all troops will be reduced to 6" and all troops will count as being an unclear target for shooting. The area is impassable to artillery and cavalry will have a chance of being disordered as well as onloy being able to move just 6".

The first rebel line are pretty poor militia, rated as unreliable and wavering with reduced dice for stamina and melee. The second line are better militia so are just unreliable. The third line are 'out of the book' Continentals. Only the latter have first fire. The \British will be crack, steady, first fire and ferocious charge. The Guards are also elite 4+. I suspect that the British will loose most of their one off advantages in driving off the first line. We shall see. Normal victory conditions will apply.

ECW Pike & Shotte game

I had my initiation to Warlord Games' pike and Shotte rules this week. Went down to John's for a 15mm ECW game. I played the Roundheads while Rob tookm command of the Royalists. The Roundheads were more numerous but half of their infantry were untested so would have to take a morale test each time they received any casualties. I had a brigade of horse off table which would arrive randomly at some point in the game. Little did I know that so did the Royalists!

The Royalists deployed most of their army in one half of the table, so my plan was to hold their centre while outflanking them with my superior numbers of foot and horse. Great plan.....but as usual my troops took some moving as I was throwing really bad command dice, and the advance went in piecemeal. At least I made some progress with my Ironsides on the left but as the Royalists facing them withdrew I was never going to catch them. Early in teh game I decided to try and activate my off-table cavalry. I threw the required score and they appeared on the Royalist baseline! Great I thought.....not, as there were two brigades of Royalsit horse within striking distance, and on their next turn they charged into my statioary cavalry. My cuirassier unbit drove off their attackers but the one of the other units was driven off immediately and the other followed the next move. The cuirassiers lasted little longer and soon my whole bridge jhad been bundled back off the table, pursued by two regiments of Royalist horse. The only advantage I had gained was that all the Royalist horse was now carrying 1 if not 2 casualty points, so if I could get my fresh horse into contact......

Meanwhile my centre was buckling under the pressure from the entire Royalist foot while my other battalia of foot was struggling to swing round on the enemy flank. The Royalist reserve horse appeared on my right flank but thankfully Rob then forgot all about them for the rest of the game as he was contrating on dealing with my centre. The next couple of turns brought the battle to a close. The infantry in the centre closed to push of pike, my untried units didn't do very well and my good foor were being hammered. On the left, my Ironsides blundered so instead of launching a deadly charge into the Royalist rear, they decided to retire!!!!! On my right the horse and dragoons were making slow progress and my centre was about to give way, so after an enjoyable couple of hours I threw in the towel. John declared it to be a winning draw in favour of the Royalists, which was very kind. As usual, my plan hadn't survived the first throw of the dice, but I think the Royalists struggled, albeit successfully, to crush my centre before my flanks could engage.

Verdict - good game. Good rules that produced a fast and enjoyable game. I even got the hang of a 'regiment' of foot actually being 3 units for command purposes in the game. The figures were as ever very nicely painted by John and I should not have had that second Tunnocks chocolate marshmallow teacake!

Blast from the past - The Flashing Blade

I picked this DVD up recently, having been an avid fan of the series back in the late 1960s first broadcast on the BBC in around 1968/9 and I remember being glued to the TV each week. I watched every episode laast week and while the acting is somewhat OTT it was enjoyable to watch with much slapping of thighs, swordplay and suchlike.

I've not had much opportunity for gaming or even painting over the summer for various reasons, although I have managed to glue together all my new Thirty Years War Warlord plastic figures, and have made a start on some Imperial Cuirassiers and Swedish Horse. I hope to get them finished by the close of the weekend.

Off to John's this evening to play an ECW game using Pike and Shotte which will be my first exposure to the rules.

New project for 2012

Well, (almost) all of my AWI and Seven Years War stragglers are now painted so I decided that with half term coming up the time was right to consider another project. Has to be 28mm as I only have terrain and building in that scale and ideally something that won't get too out of hand like my previous projects. I did consider doing the 1st Carlist War - nice figures, interesting and colourful uniforms, and suitably different to my other stuff but having proced up two armies plus suitable buildings I decided that it was going to be a costly exercise. I came to the same conclusion about the Crimean War, again in 28mm although the factor that knocked it off the top of the list was the prospect of painting more redcoats again! I've been rambling on about doing the Thiirty Years War for a couple of years, so I sent off for a box of Imperial infantry to see what they're like. It took me about an evening to assemble the figures (+/- an hour or so as I really can't remember and the task of cutting and sticking plastic figures together had to be supported by a few glasses of chilled Chablis). Despite the wine, the figures all went together without mishap and I have primed them using Warlord Games' red spray which has covered them a treat. Inspired by my glueing skills I have now ordered an Imperialist starter army and the same for the Swedes. I'm looking forward to making a start on the first unit later this week by which time the other stuff will have arrived, I hope. I missed Triples due to a bad back and too much practical parenting going on - daughter stressed out doing AS exams, otherwise I might have bought the troops there. Durham Wargames group have their show in a couple of weeks time so I might be tempted to drop in, but as the show is almost devoid of games (two in total which is a little short sighted and appears to be cash driven) I very much doubt it. The only trader I'd be interested in would be Dave Thomas so I could rummage through his scraps box for suitable casualty figures. A wargames show without games (or just two) is like a pub without beer, a museum with no exhibits and just a souvenir shop, or, ....er, I digress.

Branywine III - the final chapter

 

John came up yesterday to conclude our Brandywine extravaganza by refighting von Knyphausen's attack across the river. We'd previously fought Cornwallis' flank attack (see earlier posts) resulting in a British victory and the death of George Washington. This time we had the British with the objective of attacking the rebels deployed across the river, pinning them in place whilst Cormwallis' attack was going in further along the flank.

 

The rebels had 5 brigades, deployed facing the two fords that were the only crossing points. Three of their guns were dug in, and one brigade was on the British side of the river. We were using Black Powder again, but this time the British were straight out of the book as they were representing normal line troops and loyalists. I used what I had in terms of units as although I do have an extensive collection I don't have all the exact units for the battle. That explains why the Guards made another appearence and why the Queens Rangers riflemen were on the table pretending to be Ferguson's Rifles.

 

The game started with the rebels making a few changes to their deplaoyment and trying to get the exposed brigade back across the river. The British advance guard failed to appear but two infantry brigades did manage to get onto the table and begin deploying at the river. I kept a couple of battalions in column as I realised the only way to get across the fords was to hope for a very low command throw that'd allow me three moves. Great plans etc. My Highland brigade, the reserve artillery and finally the advance guard made it onto the table the following move and we spent several moves shooting bits of each other. During the course of the next few moves both sides took some heavy casualties and were hindered by a constant series of 6's that resulted in many units being stuck in disorder for significant chunks of the game. Casualties mounted and the rebels lost two units of skirmishers while Fergusons Rifles broke and the Queen's Rangers blundered, thankfully backwards! Boths ides suffered from some really bad command dice but also some fortuitous  saving rolls. I also forgot to bring on my Hessian brigade which was to prove a big mistake, but as they were not engaged in the real battle perhaps that was just fate getting in the way?

 

Around move 8 one rebel brigade had to be removed from play as it had received orderes to retire and support their comrades fending off Cornwallis. This left the rebel left flank in a weakened state, but sadly my brigade facing them was in no position to move. Also, the previous move I had plucked up the courage to send my highland brigade across the river. sadly, the 1/71st got stuck in column before they could get fully across the river and as they were disordered were unable to move. I did get a couple of units across but they were caught in a murderous crossfire and suffered heavily. On the far right I had pushed a battalion plus the 16th Light dragoons across the other ford, but the infantry were again held up in disorder and the cavalry had to retire as the rest of their brigade had been broken. Back on the left, another of my brigades became 'spent' as two battalions had broken, the Highland battalion stuck in the river in diosorder finally broke and the other two Highland battalions were likely to follow them  as they were facing more than twice their number of rebels, supported by artillery. There was no little likelyhood of the British being able to force the crossings. Saying that, the rebel line was quite battered with more than their fair share of disordered and shaken units, and the centre was looking quite flakey. Unfortunately the British had run out of steam....and men!

 

At around move 18 we called it a day, having fought for a little over 2 hours. It had been bloody and attritional, incredibly frustrating due to some poor command throws and lots of disordered units, but it had also been a challengin and enjoyable game. In terms of this game, the rebels had clearly beaten the British, who had failed to cross the river in any strength (and stay there), but taken with the outcome of the other game, it was an overall British victory as the rebels had been pinned and were in danger of having their flank rolled up by Cornwallis who we reckoned was almost at the table edge. Black Powder worked very well again.

 

Next time? Guilford Courthouse I hope.