Monday 1 March 2021

AWI : Ambush at Brook’s Farm or A long way to Boston

Our third and final game in this mini campaign representing the earliest skirmishes in the American War of Independence. Having been given a bloody nose at South Bridge the British troops are formed into column for the long march back to Boston. Perhaps if they can get home intact the debacle at Concord will be forgotten and reputations maintained ?

The scenario was again written by Jonathan so check out his blog for the details. In simple turns the British must get across the table and will get extra points for units that escape the Colonials are intent on making this as hard as possible and will arrive from random directions. The British are tired it has been a long day . The ambush is set for close to Brook’s Farm where the road crosses a small fordable river.

As the British column, led by two combined units of grenadiers march slowly past the farm they are under close observation, the trees, woods and river make this an ideal location for ambush.
Tired the redcoats keep marching, just keen to get back to their barracks in Boston. Then up ahead the road looks blocked in the trees, their officer sends light troops off to each side of the main column
Suddenly shots ring out from the ploughed field killing several of the light infantry, The trap is well and truly sprung !
You would think they would have learnt their lesson but again the British underestimate the tenacity of the locals
Redcoats exchange fire with militia in the field who are eventually driven back
British skirmishers are sent forward to help clear the woods on the side of the road.
More militia start to fire from by the river at the leading grenadier unit, were they well aimed or lucky shots which ever several grenadiers fall
Despite this they attempt to charge home with their bayonets but they are too fatigued and fail to charge home, then up pop more militia across the river as well !
One good volley from the redcoats by the farm cause the first unit of militia to flee.
Some of the redcoats are so tired they fail several rally tests and slowly pull back rather than pushing forward
And then another volley crashes into the grenadiers across the bridge 
This is desperate fighting the British are regrouping and still have enough troops to push through
But there will be less grenadiers tonight back in Boston as the leading unit is wiped out 😢
The second unit is stuck by the bridge unable to make progress under fire
Even though the skirmishers in the long grass fail repeatedly to activate the militia by the road pour in effective volleys, things are desperate for the British when they roll a double six activation, this allows a random event and they roll up reinforcements and the newly mustered 17th Foot arrive to save the column. After some debate we randomise their location and they arrive from Boston, even better. The American commanding officer lets out an audible groan......
The 17th Foot arrive hotfoot to save the day 👍
Caught from behind, but unbelievably the poorly trained colonials calmly turn and fire two volleys into the new troops. They roll two ridiculously low morale checks and turn and run !!!!!! An audible groan from the British commander if he gets back to Boston alive there will be hell to pay !
The colonials are in charge now and although pushed back they continue to fight hard.
The British skirmishers attempt to pin down the colonials over the river
The rest of the British force is still trying to force a way across the bridge
Forced back and now running out of numbers they start to shift their advance to the left where the woods are more open
The skirmishers are across the river and fight a fierce  battle with American riflemen
The British try once again to cross the river
But they are now heavily out numbered
and finally the only unit across the river is the dwindling final group of grenadiers. As they slink off into the woods they are exhausted, it is not clear whether they make it back to Boston or not, the only certain thing is they are no longer an effective fighting force.

The Colonials then after a very slow start win out in this third battle, this was both tough and very hard fought on both sides, it appeared to be going the way of the British, who then lost heart, then cheered at the reinforcements only to see them run without firing a shot. Well played the Americans !

An excellent series of battles which really gave us a little flavour of these early skirmishes. Next up Breeds Hill ! What could possibly go wrong redcoats marching uphill into a hail of fire and gunshot.

Thanks for looking👍

39 comments:

  1. Matt, this game was great fun! Well, perhaps more so for the Colonials. You tell the tale very well and with little British propaganda. Excellent photos too! I have yet to go through my screenshots captured during the game. I may have gotten excited and forgotten to take snapshots for a turn or two. We will see.

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    1. Indeed a good game, let’s see if I keep my impartial stance at bunker hill, just remember it is meant to be a British victory of sorts ! Easy to get excited when another regiment of the King’s finest turns and runs off into the woods !🤬

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  2. An excellent looking game and scenario once again, so hats off to you both for a very enjoyable mini-campaign. The British reinforcements looked likely to save the day, only for the curse of newly painted units to strike! C'est la guerre I suppose;)

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    1. Thanks Steve an enjoyable little series and who knows where it will lead. As to the reinforcements, they arrived just as the British were starting to struggle so immediately made us both think they would be a battle winner, only for them to fail their test and retreat back off the table not a shot fired !

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  3. What a splendid looking and sounding game, not so splendid for the British though. One of suspects there will be an awful row back in Boston.

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    1. Thanks Phil might be a little quiet in the barracks tonight as the stragglers make their way home !

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    2. Quite a few less Brits in the mess hall tonight.

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  4. A lovely looking game with a goodly amount of to and fro, some cruel dice (depending upon which side you are playing at the time) and a very engaging narrative. As an aside, looking over the three games, do you think the rules generally serve Grenadiers Vs militia engagements well?

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    1. Norm, the musket ball does not discriminate.

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    2. Thanks Norm, in terms of your question and Jon can chip in I think I would give them an 8 out of 10 specifically on the grenadiers vs militia. Clearly the improved morale of the grenadiers mean they will stay longer in the battle, the challenge here being we classed the colonials as veterans as well as they had gained confidence from their previous battles during the day, that and perhaps some whiskey ? The issue I have with the grenadiers is whilst they are excellent in combat they are slow and realistically only have a charge range of 8/9 “ in the face of stern defence, which is what they were up against they really can’t get to grips with anything. Added to that as shock troops their firing range is only limited. The secret of course is not to stick them at the front to take the initial fire with lesser troops and then throw them in but that wouldn’t really be correct as they are the shock troops of the period. Their test will come marching up bunker hill and as the British general I just mustn’t worry about losing them. The rules in my opinion are pretty balanced perhaps slightly over egging skirmishers but that is no bad thing in smaller games.

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    3. Matt, I agree with every point you make about Grenadiers vs Militia. The shorter range of the grenadier is definitely a handicap against the longer range of the line infantry. Perhaps this shorter musket range is to encourage assaults rather than engaging in stand-up firefights? Grenadiers, on average, will activate more frequently than militia. In this battle, the Americans had a devil of a time getting their troops to respond. Grenadiers are much more likely to pass morale tests than the militia.

      When you first suggested Rebels and Patriots, I thought the number of dice for skirmishers firing must be a typo upon reading the rules. I figured skirmishers would fire with half dice just as they do for fighting. I find skirmishers very powerful in the rules. As an example, look at the success the American riflemen experienced in this contest.

      As seen at the Barrett Farm battle, if grenadiers can close against militia quickly in hand-to-hand combat, the punch is landed before the militia see it coming.

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    4. Thanks, I have just noted from Jonathan’s blog that the Militia were vets, so that will be playing into the outcome anyway. regardless, the games are running into a nice and interesting series - Bunker Hill, here we come.

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    5. Norm, keep in mind that VET status only improves a unit’s probability to activate and pass morale checks. There is no effect on firing or fighting (melee).

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  5. Very, very cool, Matt. Your previous post made me pull out and read my Black Powder Rebellion supplement this morning.

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    1. Excellent Dean...I have the supplement too, it is one of the best I have lots of detail and inspirational pictures.

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  6. No wonder we lost America with that sort of performance against a bunch of civilians! Grand AAR there and pictures as always, thanks!

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    1. If our objective was to stamp out the rebelling before it started we have unfortunately failed and may have encouraged the locals even more. Those civilians were pretty tenacious !

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  7. Very cool! Reminds me of Concord and Lexington with the British just trying to go home. 😀

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    1. Thanks Stew hopefully you saw the earlier two battles in the trilogy 😀

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  8. Great game- great AAR- and great table!
    Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Thanks John and thanks for taking the time to comment 😀

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  9. That looked like a lot of fun. The newly arrived British reinforcements turning tail and running away must have been quite galling though.

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    1. Thanks...fun indeed, of course it would have been marginally unfair for the critics to get the reinforcements no matter how much they needed them 😀 thanks for taking the time to comment 👍

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  10. Cracking looking game Matt and a great series of encounters.
    Regards
    Stuart

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    1. Thanks Stuart , more to come in the future 👍

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  11. Lovely looking game, if unfortunate result!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain yes an unfortunate outcome........luckily the British have some fight left in them and the many dead redcoats will be repurposed into a new fighting force !

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    2. I sense a very strong anti-American bias in these comments.

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  12. Oh dear, it is as I feared....this is going to be a VERY LONG war.....! Lovely looking game and I tremble in anticipation of what Jon is going to do with the Breeds Hill scenario.....maybe you can design some secret passages through the earthworks in your newer post!

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    1. Thanks Keith...at this rate it might not be that long at all ! Luckily I am writing the Breeds Hill scenario so I have equipped all of the British with modern assault rifles and grenades they will be driven upto the earthworks in APC’s where they can finish the rebels off. Oh dear in my dreams, instead we will form nice neat lines standing shoulder to shoulder and then march slowly and carefully into the hail of musket fire.....whoever thought that was a good idea should be shot.

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  13. Great AAR, up to your usual standard, thanks for posting it!

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  14. Thanks, this is all very inspiring. Using the images that 'Palouse' posts as a reference, I've been trying to obtain similar views but without success. Could I ask for detais of the webcam you use?

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  15. Thanks, this is all very inspiring. Using the images that 'Palouse' posts as a reference, I've been trying to obtain similar views but without success. Could I ask for detais of the webcam you use?

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    1. Brian thanks for taking the time to look. As the host for these remote games the majority of shots Jon (Palouse) has taken are screen shots. At my host end for these smaller games I am using my iPad to both connect to zoom and act as camera. It is a new one an iPad Pro second generation. The only exception are the screen shots Jon took of the bunker hill game which at my end were using an iPhone 6 as a separate feed into zoom. Hope that helps.....I am not an IT technical whizz of any sort, have looked at separate cameras etc but the iPad just seems to work adequately, sharper and closer focus would be good and was definitely needed for the larger game.

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    2. Thanks Matt, I'd not thought of using a tablet. Mine's a Samsung but should work similar way with zoom. I'll give it a try. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your games.

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