After a hiatus we returned to our AWI campaign this week with the second part of Germantown. Keen followers may remember we played the Battle for the Chew house as a separate skirmish. Given the size of Germantown and the restrictions of remote gaming and R&P rules this battle focussed just on the main American assault by Sullivan and Wayne. Fog played a part in the battle so visibility was reduced but gradually increased.
With our experience of the rules and given the forces are fairly equal without the addition of reserves (I would like to play a bigger version of Germantown some time when I have enough forces painted up) I gave the Americans a number of advantages. The British would take time to activate as they were caught in camp, some of the Americans would have first fire, we reduced the movement restrictions over fences and gave the Americans two commanders improving their morale. They also had a numerical superiority in artillery 4 to 2 which normally doesn’t make much of a difference !
The church and town square of Germantown, the British lights are running back from the initial contact with the American attack around the Chew House
Sullivan advances on the American right
The British are disorganised and in camp, their left wing is particularly slow to activate
The American right advances quickly over the fences dragging their artillery with them, but at this stage the fog is still limiting visibility
On the American left Wayne’s troops push into the woods
The fog lifts slightly and both side immediately start to open up, the American cannons are now in a good central position whilst the British have failed to activate and move their guns in the square !
On the British right they are in a strong position and concentrate fire into the woods, no rebels are coming through that route
But on the American right the tables are reversed and supported by their artillery who can now see the enemy the British are struggling
The British have finally worked to the danger and rush to form a defensive line
The American pounding away ! It’s bloody work this day
The central cannons prove really effective
The British do have some luck when two double six activation bring on reinforcement, would you believe it two units of grenadiers !
The British right is holding well
In desperation the British light cavalry charges across the table to try and take out one of the American cannons, dramatic maybe but ultimately a failure 👎
The British pull back slightly to regroup but the Americans just keep pushing forward
It’s already looking like a bad day for the British so in a desperate charge the grenadier rush forward to attempt to drive the rebels back
The battle breaks down into a series of bloody fire fights….but the Americans are gradually winning the day
The British guns having been pulled back are now firing but it is too late to impact the outcome
The British are gradually being driven back and they need to call it a day giving Germantown and their camp to the Americans.
A fun game although it did turn into a bit of a slugfest with little chance for manoeuvre. I probably gave the Rebels slightly too many advantages, but they failed very few activations (apart from their skirmishers) and the cannons were devastating as they were able to concentrate their fire. As mentioned I plan to run a larger Germantown scenario when I can paint up a couple more units as I think it makes a fine battle with reinforcements arriving for both sides.
The wily British deploy in the woods and capture one of my JOP
Despite my abundance of tanks the Germans make a complete hash of things, giving the British a good win. We discussed at some length some of the problems with CoC and the games it seems to generate. The rules which I do like seem to have many devotees but I question why none of them seem to discuss the problems we seem to encounter ?
Several problems I would identify, firstly it rarely gives close games I would estimate on average out of 10 games only 2or 3 would be close. The rules can excessively punish a mistake, which I would liken to chess where a single blunder and you may as well pack in. This encourages very cautious gaming. Don’t get me wrong I actually like the rules and love much of the detail that has gone into them. But I can’t get over thinking there is something not quite right either in the rules or perhaps the scenarios?
The game above was a good example. The game ended after about 3 hours of play I didn’t count but would estimate about 8- 10 turns per side. Both sides had deployed less than half their force, in fact only two squads on each side actually got involved and my PzIV which actually had no effect. the German morale by some unluckily rolling had dropped to 3 the British remained on 10, I think the Germans had actually only lost one Machine gun team and about 4 Riflemen, but because I had two junior leaders wounded, one senior leader wounded and then killed and lost a JOP the game was over. Hard to square this really as the campaign we are playing would now suggest the Germans get an additional 4 points and having discussed this we both feel if the Germans played in a different way they would effectively be unstoppable so we are skipping this scenario and moving to the next one. All of this reminds me why a do quite like Bolt Action !
Anyway enough cogitation , thanks for checking I have another game to post from Saturday when I get a chance.
Thanks
MAtt ❤️
Your layout for Germantown is superb Matt. It looks a good game and the American artillery proved its worth in the game
ReplyDeleteGood idea to split Germantown into small actions, the table looks gorgeous. I have not played CoC, it seems harder to wrap your head around than I would want (says the man trying to get back into Advanced Squad Leader!), but your point about a well played and popular system not getting some obvious critique is well made. I wonder if it is a marmite thing and if you love it, then you just love it!
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