Camden, 1780 Redux

We played my in-process Camden scenario again Saturday, with a few tweaks to simplify the game. Rules are the in-process AWI mods to the Bloody Big Battle rules. I took the part of Horatio Gates, commanding all the militia and a couple fragile Continental units. Carl played De Kalb (who is rated as a hero) with two Continental "brigades", one of veteran Maryland and Delaware troops. Andrew was Cornwallis, commanding Webster’s right flank brigade of aggressive, veteran troops and the reserve of the 71^st Highlanders and Tarleton’s dragoons. The Rebel militia starts the game disrupted due to the order for them to attack the redcoats having been very poorly received. Per  usual BBB, Gates didn't rate being represented since he was so uninspiring at this battle. 

Purists will note that Tarleton’s horse are actually British Light Dragoons. All I can say is the manufacturer (Frying Pan & Blanket) didn’t make Tarleton’s lads. There are other substitutions, though the 23^rd, 33^rd and 71^st and some American units are all proper. Yes, the 23^rd are wearing their bearskin hats in the deep South summer. They’re my toys. If I hit the lottery, I’ll do the set over in 15mm with Blue Moon figures. The odds are about the same as being hit by lightning while attacked by a shark.

Webster (Andrew) charged, being met by my truly wimpy defensive fire dice. The 23^rd Foot defeated the Virginia militia opposing them and then exploited and beat the light infantry. The caption on the photo below is incomplete. The 33^rd charged and shoved the other Virginia militia back. Rawdon (Jay) on the Crown left fell back, razzed by Cornwallis (Andrew). Jay had played De Kalb in the previous game and had a healthy respect for veteran Continentals led by a hero.

The Light Infantry rallied and returned to trade fire with the regulars. The North Carolina militia advanced, pouring withering into the 71^st, getting two hits and going low on ammo. The British grasshopper guns silenced their American counterparts. Armand’s dragoons went on a long loop around the British right and seem to have got lost for a couple turns after that. The North Carolina militia, low on ammo, charged the shot-up 71^st and managed to get a tie. Each side lost a stand. Any unit reduced to a single stand is removed, and so the 71^st disappeared, leaving a gaping hole in the British center.  

(That's not VA militia below, that's the beat-up Light Infantry)

Tarleton charged, riding down the silenced light guns. The 33^rd charged, defeating the Virginia militia before them. The 23^rd stalled, engaged in an indecisive firefight with the militia opposite them. Rawdon’s troops formed an inverted V shape, with field guns at the apex. It was designed to get flanking fire on at least one of the enemy units that advanced into it. It worked.

Both North Carolina militia units got decent movement rolls and advanced into the gap in the British lines. One flanked Tarleton and the other flanked Rawdon’s force. Effective fire decimated the dragoons. Rawdon took hits too.

The 33^rd foot beat the remains of the Virginia militia facing them and chased them off the table. They exploited into the American baggage, looted it and then set it afire. Armand’s dragoons awaked from their slumber, tentatively threatening the rear of the 23^rd, who were still engaged in a desultory firefight with the thoroughly trashed Light Infantry. On the other flank, the trained 2^nd Maryland brigade dissolved under fire. The veteran 1^st was about to go under too. But Rawdon’s Irish Volunteers were spent, hiding behind the Loyalist North Carolina militia, who melted away under flanking fire. Since there’s no breaking point on these armies, it looked like we could go on to the last man standing. We’d played four turns in a tad over two hours. And decided to call it a game. There had been a bit of trash-talking. Entertaining but slow.

My revised, simplified victory conditions had each stand a spent unit started with count one victory point to the enemy, two if the unit was removed from the table. So a 5-base spent unit would count 5 points, 10 if off the table. Yes, militia counted the same as veterans. Obviously, room for improvement here. The British won 57 points to 29, a substantial victory, almost decisive (2-1). If the hole hadn’t been exploited it would likely have been decisive. Or if Tarleton’s dragoons hadn’t been taking selfies or whatever they doing around the captured guns. On the one hand, the British beat the Yanks handily, which is what I figure should be the result of this battle given the historical deployment on the veteran British right facing the large but unsteady Rebel left. I still think the militia was too resilient. The thinking cap needs to be put on again. That’s it for Fencible games for a while as I head up north with my wife for a month. Any further posts in that time, if any, will be historical pondering but no after-action-reports. May all your wars be little ones. Stay away from the real ones.

Crossfire AAR, Small Threat to the Flank

The Victrix 12mm 1/144 figures got to see the elephant Saturday. Carl commanded the Soviets on the defense and I took the Germans. Last time we played this my attack stalled and the clock wound down.

 

He deployed his first and second platoon hidden, and his understrength third platoon in view. My first two platoons faced his, my third faced their opposite number. Among the rules mistakes:  we played that an anti-tank shot that hit and didn’t kill the target kept the initiative. Wrong, but it didn’t make a big difference. Likewise, I forgot that tanks in woods, field and rough terrain lose their +3 close combat bonus. As will be seen, it didn’t matter either. I can easily find the pertinent rules after the game is over, rarely during the game.

 

First I sent my PZ III with the main group out on my left flank. A Soviet squad in a house opened up with an AT rifle and rolled boxcars. Forgetting that’s an automatic kill, I checked the charts. It was indeed a hit and a kill. I suggested the shot had gone through a view slit, Carl said Hans didn’t close the hatch after coming back from a toilet break.

 

Fire was traded across the valley. I used up all 4 heavy artillery fire missions and couldn’t get more than a pin on the enemy machine gun. The 50mm mortar did better dropping smoke in front of the MG. After the game I noticed how big the heavy smoke screen is. Next time…

Carl was advancing the clock every initiative to start, until suddenly his dice went cold. The clock stuck at 5:30 for almost the rest of the game. A smokescreen from the 75mm kept the 3^rd Soviet Platoon out of the picture and my 2^nd platoon advanced, ending up mostly pinned but with almost all the Soviets going no-fire. Perhaps guns jammed, ammo ran out, solders decided to take a smoke break, whatever. The one squad from my 1^st platoon able to move advanced and was pinned, drawing some more no-fire results in the process. With all facing me in the center no-fire, I pulled my unengaged 3^rd platoon back, sent it around the rear to my left and across the river. All three squads and their Platoon Commander (sergeant Steiner?) hit the first farmhouse and cleaned out the enemy machine gun. They advanced up the hill and attacked the T-26, which had the benefit of the +3 close combat modifier in error. The first roll was a tie. Steiner, atop the tank, had trouble getting the hatch open. He won the re-roll and shoved a grenade into the hatch. Scratch one T-26. 

 

Cheering, the platoon cleaned out the 50mm mortar and charged up to the objective house. A die roll of 1 looked bad, but the Soviets matched it; the house fell in a rain of grenades. Steiner moved to his right and caught the first squad of the enemy 2^nd platoon, wiping it out. On a tear, he then assaulted the 2nd squad. We both thought the game was just about over. I rolled a 1. Proletarian hero Maxim brained Steiner with the butt of his submachinegun and proceeded to shoot the rest of the platoon. Carl asked if they were all dead. Ah, yes. 

 

Both sides were pretty badly shot up. My PZ IV traded fire with the enemy T-34 76 for a while, both sides failing to get a kill. Then my dice heated up; the suppressed machinegun rallied and hosed down the Soviet 2^nd platoon, killing both squads, including Maxim. His Hero of the Soviet Union award was posthumous. But his next of kin would be able to cut in at the head of the food lines in later years.

 

The game took 2 hours, 20 minutes to play. Both of us found Steiner’s mad dash highly entertaining, all in one initiative.  Losses on each side were over 50%. I am aware that shifting a platoon from one flank to the other would be highly unlikely in a real combat situation.

 

Next game in a couple weeks will be set in 1780 South Carolina via the time travel portal.

NY-NJ Earthquake

 The strongest earthquake in this region in 140 years (says the NY Times), 4.8 struck this morning.

We will rebuild.

Victrix 12mm (1/144) Soviet Infantry Based for Crossfire And now the Germans

 

 

Here are some Victrix Soviet infantry intended for Crossfire, replacing my current 1/72 Crossfire East Front set.

Two companies plus machine guns, mortars and forward observers are painted and based. Yes, I know Soviet platoons had 4 squads each. These lads are experienced, have been in combat. After all,  Audie Murphy was commanding a company of 18 men when he won the Medal of Honor. Often actual units didn’t make the full TO&E. Another company is painted but I didn’t order enough bases from Wargames Accessories. 

When my two companies of Nazi bastids (In the words of a friend’s late father. He was captured in the Bulge, as one of the 106^th Division.) are based I’ll order more bases. The Germans have three companies painted, like the Soviets and have the same logistical issue. The chaps are about half an inch tall. They have some T-34/76s with them. They are in a column of companies. The casualties will go back in column of platoons if things don’t go too badly.

And now, two Companies of Germans with support weapons and some Pz IV tanks.

Camden 1780, Bloody Revolutionary Battles

Bloody Revolutionary Battles is an in-process modification of Bloody Big Battles. Since it doesn’t involve learning a new set of rules and since I happen to have British, Hessian and Continental forces in 20mm (Frying Pan and Blanket Miniatures) I decided to use the 1780 Battle of Camden to test-drive the modifications. It is a battle I often use to test AWI rules. With the historical deployment, the British should win. Continentals are in italics.

 

For the first time since the plague, we managed to have 4 Fencibles present. After lunch we started the game. Jay and Bill opted for the Continentals, Jay as De Kalb and Bill as Gates, commanding the mob of militia and Armand’s Legion. I was Cornwallis and Carl was Lord Rawdon, facing De Kalb. What with Gates and De Kalb on the field, it was revealed who those avenues in Brooklyn are named after.

 

The first turn got off to a bad start when two of my three veteran infantry watched the 33^rd Foot attack by themselves. But the 33^rd (Howe’s own) went straight in, sending sent their raw foes back spent. Since we were playing the modifications, we resolved each event separately. Each turn required about 30 minutes. It would have gone a lot faster with 4 players if each opposing pair had resolved things while the other pair did. In time…

Basically, my right flank did severe damage to the unruly mob opposed to us while De Kalb whipped up on our left. Aided by a first-turn lucky hit on our field artillery, De Kalb kept attacking, sometimes halted by fire, other times closing and beating up loyalist regulars and militia alike.

Mistakes we made: Rawdon should have stayed on the defense. Tarleton’s dragoons should have left the enemy Light Infantry alone and have found happier work amid the spent militia.

 

The in-process mods hinder militia with numerous negative modifiers. One I thought was a tad much was treating them as a dense target. So I left that off my scenario. I figured raw, fragile troops who fired ragged volleys had enough trouble, especially since all trained or veteran troops fired devastating volleys. The raw troops indeed were in trouble when charged by their betters. I had the Continental militia start the game disrupted. In the actual battle a misguided order for them to attack the British regulars led to confusion, which set the stage for their rout.

 

We played 5 turns in 160 minutes. Practice should get that done faster. Both armies were trying to rout the enemy, since they had collided the night before while trying to steal a march on each other. The victory conditions were based on casualties caused, and looting the enemy baggage train. The photographer (me) screwed up midway through the third turn, focusing on minor stuff, missing anything of value. And no close ups, a pity since some of these guys are my better painting.

 

Dice went both ways, low runs followed by high ones. Once I attacked one of Bill’s units. Our house rule is attackers roll first on assaults. I rolled a one. Everyone whooped and figured Bill’s rabble would show me. He rolled a one, which occasioned more merriment. His rabble fled.

 

By the end of the fifth turn Rawdon’s wing had collapsed, save for the damaged field artillery. The Virginia militia had collapsed and the North Carolina militia were looking to follow them. Both baggage trains were close to being overrun. We called the game at that point. The British total of losses was just over the Continental total. Though later, as I put the troops away, I saw a couple Rebel figures had ended up in the British pile. Can’t really blame Carl, since I didn’t have enough figures to do everything right. Hessians were posing as Loyalists and the Rebels have every color uniform under the sun. Carl isn’t an American Revolution uniform maven. I think at this point I’m the only one in the club who has this illness. I should keep track of the losses in future battles.

 

Everybody liked the game, even Bill who had the thankless task of commanding the rabble. It was agreed that if the British veterans had decided to attack in unison on the first turn that the Crown forces would have done better.

 

I think of one possible further addition to the rules, or at least scenario special rules: during the movement roll, -1 for each friendly spent unit of the same grade within 6”. This will make mass collapses more infectious. There is already a -2 for spent units of a higher grade.

 

I had placed a number of very small units on the table, in part because I wanted to field the Delawares. I have more painted (in 1780 gear) than needed for this game. But really small units should be amalgamated with larger units, since they are so fragile in these rules. The British had 4 such units: British Legion Foot, the two tiny battalions of the 71^st Highlanders, and the Light Infantry companies. The only tiny unit on the other side was the Delawares. I should just suck it up and brigade them with the 1^st Maryland Brigade, since that is how they fought. It would reduce the number of units, simplifying and speeding up the game. The 71^st should just be one battalion, merge the Light Infantry into the 33^rd and 23rd, the Legion Foot into the Irish Volunteers or Hamilton’s North Carolina regiment, since all were  Loyalist regulars.

 

Next time...