Monongahela 1755 revisited, Post of Honour

We played another game of the 1755 Battle of the Monongahela using Keith Flint’s simple Seven Years War rules, which now have the title “Post of Honour”. The development of these rules are cracking along and we should try them in a game set in Europe one of these days. Rick and Ken commanded the French & Indians while I played General Braddock. A single red marker indicates weakened status, a yellow marker shows a unit in bad morale retreat, and two red markers shows a routed unit, about to be removed from the table after sowing dismay among friends. Cotton smoke shows who has fired. Scenario is here Monongahela 1755 scenario

I wanted to see how the game played with the latest update on the rules and also my variant rules for the Indians; allowing them to charge weakened enemy line infantry. The starting deployment below shows Braddock’s redcoats marching towards Fort Duquesne (relieved at having forded the Monongahela without ambush) colliding with Beaujeu’s French & Indians, who were heading toward the ford to lay an ambush.

Immediately Gage’s advance guard was beset by swarms of enemy, as in the actual battle. His command was made up of the grenadiers and those extra grenadiers Braddock had decreed, hence the “grenadiers” label. I treated them as line.

The “grenadiers" suffered heavy losses to Indian fire and collapsed when charged, spreading disorder.

French Troops de la Marine charged the guns. The gunners fired and hid behind the grenadiers, who fell back under heavy fire. I ruled the gunners fled the field.

And on the 5^th turn it all came undone.

Eagle’s view of the table at game end.

We played 5 turns in a little under 2 hours. The British suffered 47 hits (many of them from seeing friends retreat/rout) while the French & Indians took 11 hits. A couple of their units were on the verge of becoming weakened, but none crossed the line. It was time for dinner, and some wine.

I’m pleased with the results. The advanced guard was shot up badly, disordering the main force coming up as in the actual battle. The rule for Indians checking morale when hit by artillery was moot. The French kept to the center and the Indians rarely got within visibility of the road-bound guns. Perhaps allowing the Indians to charge was going overboard. This seems to have made them the “grenadiers of the woods”. I’ve seen a similar effect for Morgan’s Rifles in an earlier set of rules. The Indians went through weakened units like a hot knife through butter.

I’m thinking that the Indians waited until the enemy army’s morale broke before they charged. Without this rule the British army might have held on for another turn or two before folding. I can also think of ways to prolong the game further for the Brits. The scenario is heavily balanced against the redcoats, as it should be. They lost nearly 1,000 of their 1,400 troops against a claimed 100 of the enemy on that fatal day. One difference: all the mounted British officers were hit that day, along with the French commander. We lost none. I might have to increase the chances of officer casualties for this scenario, given the fighting was all at close range.

Scenarios set later in the war wouldn’t be so unbalanced since the British started acquiring light infantry of their own; light infantry companies, Roger’s Rangers, the 80^th Foot, etc. Also the line infantry learned to take some shelter among the trees, though this made them stationary until rallied back into close order.

We will be testing my scenario for Gaines Mill 1862 via Bloody Big Battles in a couple weeks, and perhaps then return to the French & Indian War – or even the Seven Years War in Europe.