Another AWI test game.

I'm gradually getting there with the C&C adaptions for the American War of Independence. Inspired by Chris (take a look at his excellent 40mm version here), I have adapted many of his ideas while staying true to Commands and Colors Napoleonic rather than Battle Cry in terms of basic game mechanics. I have stripped out the essentially Napoleonic parts of the game (no square rules for example), and tweaked troop types etc while retaining the movement and firing rates (so far at least), and allowing the use of 'combined arms' combat which is basically an infantry attack supported by artillery fire. What I'm trying to achieve is a good fast fun game that has the correct feel of an AWI battle. 'Loose files and American scramble' is a phrase that has always stuck in my mind as representing a typical fight of extended lines of infantry in loose order taking place in broken terrain.

Once I have pulled everything together I'll post it here, but meantime a few more adaptions that I tried in a test game yesterday.

Militia - are cheap in terms of numbers. They turn out to fight with patriotic zeal but lack training in delivering volleys of musketry, and are unwilling to stand and fight hand to hand against British Regulars trained in the use of the bayonet. When they first encounter (are attacked) by non militia troops they take a control test - 1battle dice with a 'hit' (infantry symbol) resulting in a figure loss and a 'flag' symbol causing the unit to fall back 2 hexes. They also take this test if a General is killed in an adjacent hex. Militia are 4 block units but are lost on the loss of the 3rd block. Finally the loss of a militia unit only represents a HALF of a VP and militia units may not be ordered under a 'bayonet charge' card.

Rifle armed troops - have a range of 3 hexes. If they move within 3 hex range of an unattached command figure they get a free 'marksman' shot of 2 battle dice, with 2 crossed swords killing the general for 1 VP. So far this is only for those sneaky American riflemen who were quite prepared to take down a lone General, an action shunned by our Gentlemanly British troops!

Elite troops - Clearly I have too many classes of Elite troops so need to simplify my charts. I'm not sure about which American units to class as elite? I'm considering making a couple of Continental line units up to elite in order to gain some balance overall. As the training levels in the American forces increased they became more than a match for British regulars, in my game yesterday the fight between regular line troops and Continental line troops was well balanced and felt just about right, while on the British right flank where the Guards and Grenadiers were deployed against a strong militia brigade the inevitable rout occurred as they came on in a a fairly deep formation on a narrow front and pierced the centre of the militia line causing panic.

Cavalry - at the moment are a bit redundant in my games! A bit of scouting or probing flanks has been it so far and I have yet to try a charge against - for example - a unit that is falling back with some losses. More testing required here yet.

Test battle - I placed everything on the board yesterday, I think 17 units of infantry per side, plus cavalry and artillery, it looked pretty crowded but the overall deployment had a reasonable AWI look and feel to it I thought. I followed Chris' idea and dealt a basic hand of 5 cards plus 3 additional cards selected from 6, for a total of 8 cards each. This really allowed the action to flow. I decided against writing the game up as I wanted to play at typical C&C speed so as to get right into the action, but I have captioned some of the pictures taken during the game. At one point the game was interrupted by Gibbo the cat who decided to rest himself on the edge of the board and had to be physically removed after a stretch of his paws sent several figures sliding across the board!

Some AWI inspiration - I really enjoyed watching the 7 hour History Channel documentary again this week, for some reason part 1 on Lexington and Concord has not been included here, but it is available on youtube. It's a great watch and a very inspiring documentary of it's type.

'Mini AWI blog - this is a fantastic blog that I was following a couple of years back. The tone is scholarly and very detailed so I have been reading back through. The author researches deeply before setting up each battle which is not fought as a conventional wargame but rather used to illustrate the developing stages of the narrative. Highly recommended.

A Miniature History of The American Revolution.

100 Followers! - Welcome to Phil who is the 100th follower of this humble blog. I hope you all continue to find something of interest here even though there is not much of a Napoleonic nature going on currently.

Finally - my batteries slightly recharged I'll be resuming work on some 20mm ECW horse tomorrow before getting back into John's ACW lead pile. I'm somewhat behind but the break has done me good. The 15mm AWI's are pretty well done now, just a few odd units to add.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

The initial set up.

The British 8 card command hand.

The American left flank - a brigade of militia supported by dragoons and infantry.

Hessians formed at the British centre.

American right flank - continental line troops with riflemen to their front.

The fight is on!

Dragoons shaking their swords at each other!

This militia unit took 3 retreat flags in a single throw but the General rallied them - somewhat crowded on that hex.

British elites surge forward, driving back the militia.

Gibbo joins the game on the American right flank.

American casualties off board.

End of the game.

First time out for these new Peter Pig 17th dragoons - excellent figures.

The  fast and simple pack away post game - this is another thing that appeals to me!

I used my old 'small' card deck as they look less 'Napoleonic' with plain white backs.