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