Battle of Paoli September 1777 : plus lots of other stuff

I seem to be busy on other stuff so posting less often which means a bumper catch-up this week.

First up the next instalment of our AWI campaign, after the battle of the clouds General Wayne has pulled back his force. They are encamped in a wooded area close to the Warren Tavern in Chester county. The British under General Grey carry out a night attack. Historically this was a chaotic engagement in which the British were accused of carrying out some brutal murders of surrendering troops, giving rise to the name of the battle the Massacre of Paoli.

This map gives the overall position of the British advance

A more fun period map of the engagement

Our scenario once again for R&P starts at the point when the British have driven off the Northern pickets, so the alarm has been raised and the Americans have formed up to escape. The American still have three pickets to the south as shown. The Americans must try and get 50% or more of their army off the table to the left. All ranges reduced to 12” as it is dark. Part form their skirmishers and light troops the British, will have to stop and load as they went into the combat with unloaded muskets to avoid alarming the Americans. The British are veterans and aggressive as they have their bayonets already fixed . The cannon blocking the exit in the fence must be activated on a reducing D6 to open the gap (this blockage occurred historically causing some of the American confusion). To give some variety the British will arrive randomly from the three location shown rather than all in the centre.

The alarm raised in the camp as the meridians prepare to exit left ?

The British flood on and their light infantry chose to open fire, other infantry moves forward to assault the stragglers in the camp

Some of the american pickets are brought back to try and hold the British advance, the cannon is starting to move after turn 3, but some of the Americans in the rear are now isolated

Three units of american infantry find themselves separated in the camp, they are brutally dealt with in hand to hand combat.

The camp now nearly clear but the rest of the Americans are being chased out of the camp.

Unfortunately for the British their commander General Grey advances from the Tavern and makes slow progress, with his troops unable to shoot he advances only for them to be surprised by and temporarily thrown back by some American pickets.

Having despatched the last units in the camp the chase continues but now the Americans have the advantage as the British don’t have time to load their muskets

Hot foot the Americans make their escape

The final British shots ring out into the darkness but the Americans have managed to escape with about 2/3 of their force. So ultimately a win for the Americans given the victory conditions we had set. A fun battle and As always the battle felt close and tense right up to the last couple of turns and there was certainly no guarantee the American would get enough troops off the table. The British failed a couple of key activations and it didn’t help with two units coming on around the tavern which was too far away to impact the battle. 

I have been painting and prepping lots of stuff but the only finished unit is the last ! Of my french Curassiers, these were a slightly mixed group left over, some of which needed repainting but the unit has come out ok, I think I need a French cavalry parade ?

Other games in the last week or so, I met anther wargamer through George who invited me down for an ECW game, a beautiful collection. Using his house rules we played through the Battle of Adwalton Moor.

Beautiful collection of ECW in 28mm but. Tough battle for the Parliamentarians who are heavily outnumbered.

We did make a good fist of it though and nearly chased off the Royalist infantry, we’re just planning a return trip up to the dungeon, and I have a few possible ideas to adapt our KoW rules?

Last weekend we had our annual shopping trip to York wargame show ‘Vapnartak’, actually I didn’t want to buy much as I have a lot in the various lead and plastic piles already but the bring and buy is always fun. The show was noticeable reduced in terms of traders with quite a few spaces and a further reduction in games on display. But there were plenty of punters and it was busy right up to when we left around 14:00

What looks like random stuff but all super bargains from the B&B. Yes I now have a Tirpitz to make in 1/350 scale it is over twice the length of the destroyer I blogged a couple of months ago !!!! The only disappointment was the green American truck which I thought was a WW2 artillery transporter, but on closer inspection when I got it home it turns out it is probably an M8 artillery tractor from around 1950, so too much of a stretch to squeeze it into Sicily. If anyone can think of a use let me know. It came with the two halftracks for next to nothing anyway. The packets contain 1/3000 WW1 ships and I have been putting together a small force for. Few games later in the year.

Finally for this post this morning I was down to George’s to continue (finish) or early war French campaign. Once again a beautiful table setup, one of the most complex battlefields in the campaign book. Germans on the attack again, loads of cover. George I’m sure will cover the battle in more detail.

The Germans took their time deploying in cover in the woods and moving up to take the station, after some exchange of fire on the German left the french started to pull back.

But Gaston a local Nazi sympathiser was behind them and started taking pot shots with his shotgun ! Whilst the french tried to deal with him.

The German panzer IV got lucky hitting the french tank as it rumbled down the road. The tanks actually exchanged several shots but it was the Germans who rolled lucky and got the decisive hit. Actually I was pretty lucky the whole battle with multiple double turns and loads of 5/6’s when I needed them. At this point the french decide the battle was up and the Germans would inevitably break through to win the campaign.

A great campaign with several difficult battles for both sides, perhaps the Germans have the edge but then they are attacking most of the time which is generally harder, looking forward to our next campaign ?

So certainly keeping busy and likely an ACW battle on Saturday, and I now have the Tirpitz to make 😂

Thanks as always for taking the time to check what I’ve been upto.

Matt ❤️