A Second Game of British Grenadier

On Saturday 28th March we got together for our second game of BG at the club. After the last game we’d decided to scale down the size of units. The 36-40 fig units were proving just too powerful, especially the militia. So I painted up another couple of American brigade commanders and we put together a force of 4 American brigades v. 3 British. Again, the Americans were on the defensive and as this time we had 5 players we opted for a bigger table setup. Ian had not brought his roads so these were just laid out with fences, and annoyingly I had failed to pack my markers while battling with a three year old just before leaving!

So here is the opening setup:

The Americans again deployed along the fence lines. You can see the militia brigade to the right with the New York and Maryland Continental behind. Along side the militia were the Virginia Continentals and to the left, set back, were Lee’s Legion and the massed American cavalry.

The British marched on table in column. On the left, the elite brigade of Lights and Grenadiers head for the small town, Tarleton and his Legion, with the 42nd and some South Carolina militia advanced to threaten and tie up the militia, The remaining brigade was off marching round the left flank.

On the right the militia and Continentals await developments:

The British forge ahead on the left and center…

…while on the right the Legion cavalry and militia pause to decide how to deal with the militia in the farm and riflemen in the woods.

Meanwhile, on the left the British elites surge towards the town:

Finally, on the far left after a worrying delay, the British flank attack appears:

The 71st, von Bose, 17th Dragoons, DeLancey’s and Jaegers march towards the American lines.

The elites finally begin to deploy on the edge of the town, ready to push the flank of the Virginians:

Who, realising the threat await orders from the CinC. These don’t arrive so the brigade commanders tries to use his initiative. Unfortunately the troops are spooked and begin to retire as the Grenadiers surge forward and the 42nd deploy and advance:

But next turn the CinC restores order and the Continentals form a new line along the next fences and begin to pour fire into the advancing 42nd causing much disruption and a few casualties:

On the far left as the British flank march slows through woods the American cavalry and Lee’s Legion move to the counterattack:

And only the 71st and Jaegers are ready to face the threat:

As can be seen from the overview, the American lines still look formidable but the elites have yet to engage:

Scrambling across the fences the 42nd struggle and the Grenadiers begin to take casualties as the massed Virginians pour a devastating fire into them.

On the far left the flank attack finally emerges from the woods to be faced by large numbers of American cavalry bearing down on them:

As more of the elites deploy to the attack the 42nd are finally forces to retreat under heavy fire and the CinC watches their attack falter:

And back on the right, having driven the militia from the farm, the South Carolina militia trade ineffectual shots with the riflemen as the Legion cavalry continue to threaten and take fire from the main militia line. Only the small Light Infantry contingent causing some casualties.

And yet again….we ran out of time. Things were not looking good for the British. The flank attack was about to face its own attack before fully deployed. The elites, although yet to fully engage were struggling over the fences and taking heavy fire before being able to dress ranks for an assault. The Virginians were still steady and the New York and Maryland brigade was about to re-deploy and bring overwhelming odds against the British attack. Maybe we should have added the last couple of Line units I had to the British OOB, maybe the fences had too adverse an affect on the elites attack.

We still felt that the larger units, we had a couple of Continentals at 28 figures were too powerful under the rules. Looking at the scenarios we saw that most units were in the range 16-24 and we’re beginning to think this is the size the rules work best under. Although if you take an average roll of 7 then 2×20 fig units will cause 2×2 casualties and a 40 fig unit will cause 4. However, if you drop down to poor rolls e.g 3 then those 2×20 will have no effect and the 40 will cause 3 casualties!

Next game, as has been suggested elsewhere, will be one of the scenarios. Not sure which yet. Either way, everyone enjoyed the game and felt that another outing for the rules was due.

Cheers

Andy