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...