The Battle of Bennington August 1777 : American War Independence

This weekend saw a return to our ongoing AWI campaign. We have reached 1777 and the battle of Bennington. Despite its fairly small size perhaps only involving 3000 troops in total it is considered something of a turning point in the War. As such there is quite a bit of information on the battle on line and some beautiful illustrations of the battle.

Here the Hessian defenders in the Redoubt come under hand to hand conflict.

A period sketch of the battlefield which is quite confusing

and another more simple interpretation. For our game using Rebels and Patriots the battle is ideal with a wide range of troops and units on both sides. 

Our setup, I had roughly worked out the points for the two forces giving the American attackers a bit of an advantage about 20% more. The river is crossable but would hamper line infantry, not skirmishers. In the end I gave the Americans only one commander General Stark and with the wide deployment this was likely to give some activation challenges. The Hessian reserves would arrive on a reducing D6 roll with some randomness on their exact location on the flank. As the whole area is wooded and with a fairly large battle I removed the cover bonus for troops in the woods, but those in the earthworks and skirmishers would still get a cover bonus. One final bonus for the Rebels Warners’ command would be allowed to move D6 onto the table at the start.

Allied Canadians manning the earthworks at the bridge, the rest of the Allied force on the road or in the redoubt.

Stark advances across the bridge

The Canadians return fire and the Americans are initially thrown back

Dismounted Dragoons in the redoubt have little to do, but the cannon opens up and starts to weaken the attack by Nichols’ command

Who are advancing through the woods

Initially the Americans suffer multiple activation fails but the Allies can’t quite break the attack

Still the Americans advance

Warner is now across the river and the Allies are desperately hoping their reserves  will arrive soon

Both sides have Native troops supporting them and they end up in hand to hand combat in the woods

The attack from the right has been disrupted so the troops spread into the field

The Americans are mainly across the river now and Warner is advancing along the road

There has been a fierce fight at the redoubt with the Americans thrown back but now Stark is pushing across the bridge

Finally the Hessian reserves arrive, but the Americans fire two dramatic volleys throwing them immediately back

A second round of combat at the bridge and the Canadians finally break, allowing the Americans into the earthworks

Baum is now faced with the choice pull back to the redoubt or charge with his Grenadiers to retake the earthworks by the bridge ? No choice at all really in they go, the initial combat goes their way and they retake the works, but the grenadiers overrun and follow up, and in the second round of combat Baum is killed ! Ouch a really bad roll by me !

Baum dead in the earthworks 🙁

The Americans are starting to get the upper hand now

and numbers are starting to count as the Americans close in on the redoubt

More Americans moving over the bridge

With the reserves driven off by Warners’ units on the road the battle is up for the Hessians. An American win…..

A fun and difficult battle the sign of a good scenario is when both commanders think they are losing all the time and it certainly felt like that for both sides here, even if the result eventually went with the larger American force after the Hessian reserves were driven back in one turn.

A couple of painted units this week, other stuff hasn’t been finished yet….

Early war BEF mortar which has been in the queue for a while

and a Psyker for my Tallarn force.

That’s it for now, I’m off to London for a few days so no gaming for a bit

Thanks as always for checking in Matt

American Assault : Sicily 1943 : Bolt Action

Two games to share this week. In the dungeon a return to Sicily. George came for a game this morning to break up our ongoing Chain of Command Campaign, a slightly modified breakthrough scenario. The Americans are pushing inland from Gela. They have a mix of Paratroopers and GI’s with heavy support in terms of Machine Guns and an M7. The Germans are slightly outnumbered but are dug in behind a dry river bed and a small village. The Americans will arrive in two waves. The Germans also have some reserves (that’s if they turn up !)

The setup, Americans assaulting from the left with the target to break through the green line.

The first wave of American paratroopers advance on their right flank towards the village, the Germans have located a machine gun in the Bunker close to the bridge, this covers the bridge and river bed but the Paratroopers are looking to outflank it.

The Germans take a bit of punishment during an effective ‘pre-assault’ bombardment

Already the Americans are surging forward and the Germans fail several key activations

Some reserves do arrive for the Germans but it is clear the Americans are focusing on their right 

A unit of Germans Fallschirmjager move into cover the village, but are hit by an American mortar.

The bunker has now been taken out but the paratroopers still need to close to the village.

The focus of the battle is now around the village 

and they are surging forward. If only the German reserves would arrive ! (I should say that to this point it was pretty clear who the dice gods were supporting in this battle. Apart from the M7 which can’t hit anything the americans can hardly miss, it was painful at times for the Germans who take a pasting. The German reserves failing three attempts to arrive)

Now thin on the ground the Germans even need to throw their commander forward to plug the gaps

Close to collapse now the Germans are holding on by a thread, finally they do start to fight back killing a number of American troops by the bridge.

The rest of the GI’s are pushing along the river bed under the bridge, but they aren’t going to be needed

Finally the German reserves arrive but it is too late and after six turns the Germans are down to three remaining units. It has cost the Americans but a decisive win in the end. A fun battle despite the result and played in good spirit. I designed the game/scenario to be unbalanced but hadn’t counted on the dice gods who helped the Americans more than they really needed, without this help it might have been very tight.

At the weekend I was invited down to join the Lancaster Club with one of their BIG Napoleonic battles. I would be providing a couple of British Brigades and a cavalry brigade. Foolishly my Allied commanders voted me to Lead our British allied force, first mistake. Anyway it was a great day gaming, huge battle with many lovely Napoleonic figures on show. The details of the scenario/battle are unfortunately lost to my memory. Basically the french would be attacking, the allies holding three ruined farms would then try to get enough troops to throw the French back. Here are a few photos to show the spectacle 🙂

The table after the first French move as they arrive on the table

My British holding the centre, as is my usual foolishly approach my light cavalry immediately charged across the battlefield to take on some french cannons which they did and then spent much of the rest of the battle floating about.

Being in the centre holding a key objective is bad as that is where the french Guard tend to be !!!!

The french do their best to adavance across the table

At the very far end a tough fight to control the farm house takes much of the day to resolve

The British have Russian allies or is it the other way round ? And we have loads of heavy cavalry who move towards the flank of the French guard

My British fail to activate at the wrong moment and get caught moving up in column !

George ‘Napoleon’ looking content in his throne

The guard assault columns crash into the British we lose a brigade, but my second line holds just about and finally the tide starts to turn. The guard are eventually thrown back. The ultimate result was a draw with 40 VP each side so we diced off and I lost 😂 a great day with lots of banter and I will hopefully get invited back soon.

Finally I sneeked out for a walk on Tuesday, which whilst breezy was a fine day for walking. The prominent hill is Whiteless Pike

And later in the day the view west across the Lake District.

I seem to be keeping busy and hopefully another game Sunday 

Thanks as always for checking in

Matt