Battle of Freeman’s Farm September 1777 : AWI

I have had my eye on this battle for a while due to an excellent scenario written up in Wargames Soldiers & Strategy back in December 2009. The game is played out by the Perry’s et al and I assume it was around the time the Black Powder supplement came out but perhaps didn’t make the supplement ? Anyway this wasn’t a remote game with Jon as part of our campaign so we’ll probably see a refight of the battle later on in the year. The magazine article gives the background to the battle and useful OB’s.

This map not from the article gives a sense of wider battle

British Commanded by Gen John Burgoyne

Hamilton’s Brigade : 9th, 20th, 21st, 62nd Foot with an artillery piece and a small group of pickets

Fraser’s Brigade : a mixture of Grenadiers, light infantry the 24th Foot Native Americans and sharpshooters

Von Breymann’s Brigade : Hessian Grenadiers, Infantry and Jägers.

Americans Commanded by Gen Benedict Arnold

Morgan’s Brigade : Riflemen and Dearborns Light Infantry

Pool’s Brigade : 5 regiments of Regulars plus 2 units of Militia

Learned’s Brigade : 4 Regiments of Regulars.

For our battle the British regulars are classed as veterans so have improved discipline. The Americans have slightly more sharpshooters and to balance the leadership bonus Benedict Arnold provides a 2+ bonus. We made a few other minor tweaks. Historically the British had a 4th Brigade on a flanking March, but it seems this unbalances the scenario significantly and as soon as they arrived on the American right flank they started to pull out. So we didn’t represent this formation perhaps they were lost in the woods ?

The map from the magazine, according to the article they play on a 12 x 6 table. As I would be fighting with slightly smaller units and given the available space this was reduced to about 6 x 5.

The map converted to this the initial deployments. Two British brigades on the table on the left. Only Morgan’s small Brigade in and around Freemans Farm. The remaining two large American brigades would enter from the right on the designated roads. The stream provided cover but no significant penalty on movement. We would be using Rebels and Patriots as I am too lazy to change at the moment, the main change is all regular infantry units were increased in size to 16 men, this would significantly increase their resilience and better utilise my collection. (I even had some figures left in their boxes !)

On to the action

Frasers mixed brigade moving up on the right through the light woods

Hamiltons brigade marching forward in column towards the stream, their pockets have been thrown out in front

Morgan’s sharpshooters an and around the farm

A view down the British advance

Pool’s brigade enters behind the Coulter Farm but immediately suffers some poor activations.

British light infantry have made it to the bridge and Fraser’s light troops are spreading out.

The Americans open up as the first volley rings out from the farm

The Germans have started to arrive behind Fraser’s brigade

Now I should say at this stage both sides suffered a significant number of both failed activations and also a laughable number of double one’s a case t the British Grenadiers possibly the crash troops on the table managed to roll THREE double ones on their own ! so before they even got into the battle they had lost half their ammunition, and been forced to retreat in confusion. This was only a temporary state for them but it bought the Americans some time to deploy.

Von Breymann’s Brigade gets disorganised by the failed activations

In the distance Hamilton is now pushing over the far bridge and across the stream

…and still the Americans are struggling to deploy

Finally something resembling a defensive line is taking shape along the road

Things now hotting up all along the line, the Americans being forced to fire before being fully formed up, I should say at this stage the Native Americans had rolled a double 1 forcing them to wildly charge forward into the American around the Coulter farm, they caused chaos before they could be beaten back.

Mid point in the battle and both sides are poring out volleys, in the distance the British choose to tactically withdraw back across the stream

But the British are pushing forward on their right and have now managed to get a cannon onto the bridge

With two cannons now operating the American line is starting to thin out ! Especially on their left flank

Another shot showing the slightly twisting of the British line. They sense the Americans are weaker on their left ?

Finally the grenadiers have been thrown forward across the bridge but they are assault by volley fire from all sides. Despite this some of the American units are starting the break

The deciding factor is the arrival of Von Breymann’s Brigade how have now pushed across the stream and also managed to unlimber their artillery which had been stuck behind in the mud somewhere.

Sensing the time is right the British renew their advance on the left as well

This proves too much for some units who are broken and start to pull back

At this point we call the battle for the British as a minor victory they have done enough and the Americans are really not strong enough anywhere to hold the advance back and the British still have the numbers.

But it has been a tough fight and the British have taken a lot of casualties to force the Americans back from the farm. The rules worked well although the increased size of the units  made them significantly more resilient, without this we may have reached a more decisive conclusion earlier ? A real joy to get most of the collection out on the table in one battle. It has demonstrated that I do need to paint some Americans next as I have more British at the moment.

Now the trend set by others continues so here is a shot of my unadulterated painting table !

It is a very small portable table, so that if necessary it can be moved for larger battles but it remains pretty much in place all the time. The storage to the right is where I keep my part painted figures and work in progress. I’m quite comfortable with the clutter 😀

Next up I ordered these sheets for some Mediterranean terrain projects I am working on, for Sicily and Spain

Finally thanks go out to Phil who managed to find a sprue of spare US marines who can now be enrolled into my American force bringing them upto strength.

Thanks all as usual for checking in

Some terrain pictures in the next few days and then hopefully a first run out for the Americans ….what could possibly go wrong with a completely new untested force ?

Matt😀

This weeks painting update 😀

Some more painting activity this week as well as a trip to Vapnartak.

First up a second mortar team for the Americans. This was of eBay at a reasonable price and nice as it is different to the other version they do adding some variety, incredibly simple to paint.

I also had a few more GI’s donated by Phil (thank you Phil) so I have painted them too, obviously to match my previous sets. Frustratingly whilst I hunted the show at the weekend I wasn’t able to find another American sprue 😢 that leaves me I think 3 figures short of my basic CoC platoon. I am loath to buy a whole box although that may ultimately be where I need to go providing lots of reinforcements ? I have been reading around and am quite obsessed with the invasion of Sicily at the moment, partly as we are visiting the island on holiday later in the year. It may well be this is where my American force sees most action. This does mean I am also thinking a lot about Mediterranean terrain, more on that over the next few weeks.

One follow up from last weeks desert battle, we were discussing what I could use the spare Valentine bits for ? I can’t find any evidence they were used for transport but they were used to carry 25lbrs as the Bishop. Steve took a couple of sprues away and came up with these very respectable conversions ?

Vapnartak at the weekend, Norm has already given a great run down of the show, and I didn’t take any pictures of games. I really enjoy the show but focus very much on the shopping/trading. A chance to spend a whole day absorbed in this wonderful hobby perhaps get a few bargains etc etc….above a collection of what I picked up. If you look closely I picked up a painted French unit. A bit of bargaining and they were mine 😀

They needed rebasing but I cracked on with this over the last two evenings. They are really well painted and fit nicely with my other peninsular French. This has led me to consider how, when and how much I am prepared to buy painted figures. It is certainly a Good way to boost the project at this fairly early stage, but I am contrary to what you might think, desperately bad at spending money 😀

Thanks as always hopefully another battle tomorrow

Matt 😀

Somewhere in the Western Desert WW2

After discussing the potential for a WW2 Western Desert project at the back end of last year myself and Steve were in a position to field our developing forces this Friday for the first time. 

First up I took a quick snap of the British force so far, not so much to add to this, possibly some Matilda’s and some infantry. I already have the anti-tank guns and carriers to build and paint. For a first battle we picked a simple encounter scenario without worrying too much about the balance of the forces. This meant some of the British had to sit out this first battle as they currently out number the Italians. We are also developing the rules we want to use most likely Bolt action based, but we came up with a number of ideas for future games.

We gave the British a minefield, both sides would have two objectives close to the enemy baseline.

The British right flank

The Italians effectively have two armoured platoons, supported but some 88’s and antitank guns

The British 25lbrs open up at long range against the 88’s.

Italians drive down the British right and immediately knock out the leading valentine

On the left the Honeys get into hull down position

On the right two Italian vehicles have been immobilised but two Valentines are already burning

Two Grants have been ordered to close the gap but another Valentine is now brewed up !

Fierce fighting over the high ground

But the Italians on the left are getting out gunned

Just as the Italians are about the break through on the British right an activation blunder drives them back 👍

The British now make a bid for the objective but still have to cope with the remaining 88 !

Eventually the British squeak a minor victory

But all across the desert tanks are burning……

A fun first run out and we have some good ideas for the rules we want. Looking forward to completing the force and playing them on a larger table where they have more space to manoeuvre. We’ll be looking out for a few bits at York over the weekend 👍

Thanks as always for checking in

Matt

The Valentines are done 👍

Whilst painting Polish infantry and Napoleonic British I diverted to get the remaining Tanks in my Western Desert army completed.

Here they are Five Valentines, plastic soldier company, these much easier than the Honeys so perhaps it was just them. Slightly different markings just to allow identification on the table. I built them all as MkIII’s

These were a Christmas present for the project, at first I struggled thinking they weren’t used in the desert but I then found photo evidence of them used by the Hussars as recon and command vehicles, with the odd open topped cupola ?.  I’ve run out of desert rat decals so mixed this up a bit. Most likely they will provide command vehicles.

That means I only have the Lloyd Carriers and the 6lbrs left to build and paint. With the replacement box now arrived I have quite a few choices. The box set does allow some variation in guns so that helps, and I think I can pull together 6 Lloyds in total with perhaps a couple of wrecked vehicles for terrain or objectives ? No rush for this though at this stage. The only thing I am then considering is some infantry to round out the force. I’ll post a parade photo in the next couple of days.

Smolensk

Some of you will have read George’s AAR for our second Smolensk campaign battle. He has covered the brave German defensive action very adequately. Just a couple of shots of his lovely eastern front terrain setup, a pleasure to fight over.

One of the benefits in the campaign is the Russian infantry resets each battle, with lots of support points I mixed things up from last time. A BT5/7 really so I could try out tanks in CoC, another mortar, the sniper really because I know she gets under the Germans skin ! HMG this was a revelation 

With a flank attack and the Russians coming from the two blue arrows, the Germans were pinned into the woods in the corner, my objective in the patrol phase (not so hard really) was to keep the Germans out of the buildings and give my guys as much cover as possible from the German LMG’s. I have marked the locations of our jump off points.

As George has covered in his report the Germans failed to get their force on the table quickly enough, this meant the Russians were able to really concentrate heavy fire from mortars, the BT5 and three infantry squads on the isolated Germans artillery. This was a lot of fire which very gradually pinned and eventually forced the gun to pull back. Unfortunately with the attached leaders this proved decisive for German morale 

The HMG was a revelation and really hammered the German infantry in the woods.

Another shot of the lovely battlefield.

With continuing problem with my leg I haven’t been out walking so sadly few shots of the local environment, however, when up in Scotland last week I camped in the van close to this Loch and had this lovely morning view 👍

Finally it is Vapnartak this weekend over in York and we will be travelling over. A chance to catch up on wargaming stuff hopefully get some bargains and of course buy loads of stuff I REALLY NEED !

Anybody out in the blogosphere who is attending and fancies catching up, over a cup of tea, putting a face to a name etc let me know more than happy to say hello 👍 discuss projects etc…

Matt 😀