Camden solo test with Valour & Fortitude, no mods

After coming up with (untested) AWI period modifications for V&F, I decided to run a solo test game with RAW (rules as written), no mods. I intend to run a face-to-face game this coming Saturday adding in a few of my mods. Camden is my go-to test game for the American Revolution. Horatio Gates’ historical deployment should lead to a British victory, barring foolish mistakes. I once binned a set I was designing when the militia easily routed the British early in the game. 

 

I have most of the correct units for this, except not quite enough militia. Some Rhode Island Continentals are mixed with some Loyalist militia, and British Light Dragoons stand in for Tarleton’s horse. They’re closer than my mounted militia in rifle smocks. The 1^st Maryland Brigade (a battalion-sized unit) is rated as state troops since they were newly raised. The Continental Light Infantry is down-rated to state troops and Armand’s horse are down-rated to militia since both had been roughly handled in the preceding nighttime clash with Tarleton that saw Porterfield, the Light Infantry CO, killed.

 

V&F are true fast play rules. Many make that claim, few deliver. Valour tests are unit morale tests. Fail one, the unit is gone. Fortitude tests are brigade level morale tests, fail and bad things happen. But none of the latter were triggered in this game, in part because all the actual brigades (i.e., De Kalb’s division) are fairly small. V&F has card play, with cards giving special events of varying importance. I didn’t use them as I find it one detail too far when playing solo. It’s enough to take photos and note how much time elapsed. I think you should be able to follow the action entirely from the photos below. As always, click on any for a larger image. 

I first had Tarleton's Dragoons beat the NC Militia and force them back. Checking the rules, I saw the Militia should rout. The headstrong Dragoons then had to charge into the American camp, 

I’m not going to use all of my suggested mods in the next game, just a few. I noted that militia really can’t maneuver well at all, a good thing. Firing, melee and Valour modifiers are all adding or subtracting dice, with 4+ being a success. Activation and Fortitude modifiers are to the number needed on the single die rolled. I got a little confused before the game on this. Organizing a force using the points system, the only artillery I would get is light. If you aren’t planning to sit off and bombard, having artillery that can fire canister and move in the same turn is priceless. Perhaps there should be a limitation on how much movement they have. Perhaps there is and I haven’t noticed it. Wouldn’t be the first time.

 

Being a solo game, it was broken up by lunch and several visits to the building laundry room. Playing 9 turns in ~142  minutes is quite good. The last-man-standing thing is partially a product of my scenario. It needs a couple tweaks. But the game rocked along just fine.