Second AWI Playtest

Tonight we had a second playtest of Steve's AWI rules.

Not a good day at the office for my Continentals.

The British had brigades, on their left 3 battalions of Hessians needed to take and hold the ford supported by Jaegers already over the ford. In the centre 2 battalions of British regulars supported by a battalion of Tory militia and a field gun, on the right three more battalion of British regulars with a large unit of light infantry.

Facing them I had a 4 battalion brigade of continentals in the centre but off table. To my right a brigade of 2 continental battalions supported by a small battalion of Lees Legion and a unit of rifle skirmishers. on my left the same again with an additional support of a light gun.

Similar numbers of troops with the British having the advantage of quality.

A portion of my troops were off table and I wasnt exactly sure when they would be joining me so I needed to consider holding ground whilst they arrived. My objective was to stop the Hessians securing the ford and the British driving in my left.

My right hand brigade, whilst on table was in march order near the edge so need to try beat the Hessians to the ford.

The Jaegers started already deployed across the ford and in cover. As skirmishers in cover need a 6 to score a hit but have an advantage to hit themselves, coupled with rifles, these were extremely difficult customers.

The British advanced quickly from the centre and their right with the field gun deploying to the front.

I had a light gun and started forming my own line to counter the British, unfortunately with one brigade of my best troops off table I was spread very thin especially on my left facing the British regulars (Getting my excuses in early here).

My right brigade formed a line with rifle skirmishers on the extreme right and advanced on the ford.

Chris pushed his light infantry forward early, they have a movement bonus being less restricted by terrain and quickly began an unequal duel with my riflemen.

The British regulars in the centre advanced quickly and whilst the gun got an early shot in the crew took 3 turns to re-load it which would be a recuring theme. 

Perhaps worth mentioning for those who have not read a previous game report on these rules. Each unit once activated has between 3 and 5 actions. A quick dice roll decides if the units in a brigade have more or less than their standard 4 actions. Moving, firing and re-loading are all actions and whilst firing does not need to be rolled for every other action needs to, a 3 required for most actions but the harder the action the higher the roll required.  Hence 3 attempts to re-load a cannon, Chris kept rollign a 2. 

My third brigade now enters the fray and deploys on table but will be pushed to arrive in time to stop the advancing British over running the Continentals on my left.

Meanwhile the Jaegers begin to score casualties on my right hand brigade.

Chris rolls well for his Hessians and they have 5 actions marching with 4 and deploying into line the first two battalions are immediatley over the ford and in position to hold it whilst the rest of the Germans deploy into line over the river in support.

My two battalions deploy to fire upon the Jaegers and the fight is on for the ford.

My Lees Legion infantry charge and scatter the Jaegers but are held by the Hessian Musketeers.

Getting lucky my centre brigade moves forward 5 times to occupy the centre of the line and face point where the Hessians and British meet.

Finally I am in position to hold back the British charge up the centre.

Unfortunately for me, hit by the gun and the British my unit loses two full bases and goes dis-ordered. Not a great start

Anpther volley and another basee removed, this time I fail morale and retreat in dis-order.

The British advance to take advantage of the gap in my lines whilst I scramble about to plug it with other troops needed elsewhere.

Wheeling my right hand unit I must pull back my whole line or be rolled up, the Hessians, already having the better of the firefight at their end are releived of pressure.

The last vestiges of my centre fold under another volley, however the British are at least now open to flanking fire from my continentals.

I wheel another unit in leaving my left under strength and the Light infantry battalion is already inflicting casualties on it.

 

Meanwhile on the left the British flank both of my units and decimate them with volley fire before charging the left hand unit and breaking it. My left now consists of one mauled battalion, a few riflemen and a light gun facing an almost untouched brigade of British regulars.

I am down to 4 weak battalions facing 9 battalions of Kings troops mostly untouched. Its been a bit of a wash out for the Americans who must retreat and fight another day.

Charged from the flank another unit of Continentals breaks. With both flanks gone and British objectives achieved its a washout for the Rebels. (Sorry this image was out of order and I couldnt change it back)

Again the rules worked really well. skirmishers are very powerful, so large units of skirmishing infantry need to be treated with caution, other than that really enjoyable game.

More to come I am sure, thanks for popping in.

Completed Based 1919-20 Poles

Finished units coming fairly quickly now and I have more Poles.

First completed is this French 75mm field gun crewed by Poles in French Horizon Blue.

This is the third field gun for my force with 5 planned currently. The gun is Empress with a Woodbine gunner, a Battlehonours officer and 2 Spanish Civil War gunners I cant remember the manufacturer.

Helmets are Woodbine, the peaked cap is Studio Siberia and peakless cap is a clipped down redoubt ACW head.

My fourth battalion of Poles is a;sp complete. Greater Poland troops in ex Imperial German kit and Polish jackets and caps. 

All four of these are from the excellent Great War Range.

These guys all Renegade figures with  Studio Siberia head swap in the middle.

Again mainly Renegade with a couple of head swaps, the end figure on the right is Copplestone.

The Command figures here are Great War along with the figure with trench broom on the left hand base and there are a couple of Studio Siberia head swaps mixed in with these guys too. Rest are Renegade.

Finally, just to prove its not all about the inter war projects, here's a couple of 40mm Paris Municipal Guard I painted as well. More of these soon I am sure.

Both 40mm Perry's the right hand figures is a Spanish fusilier with the addition of a French Shako. This unit is planned to be fairly untidy and Campaigny.

Thanks for stopping by.

Fourth Sikh Wars playtest

In our last Sikh Wars game we used card activation which worked quite well, we decided to add in some slight modifications to game play and use the cards again.

I got quite caught up in the game and the rule amends so only took a few photos I am afraid. We also only played for about an hour and a half as we chatted about the rules and reminded ourselves of the basics.

It proved to be an interesting little game giving me some ideas to finalise the rules.

Steve takes the Sikhs with 4 brigades totalling 9 foot and 3 horse.

I have the Company troops 3 brigades totalling 8 foot and 2 horse, whilst Steve has slightly more than me the British quality should more than make up for it.

We each have 3 guns.

For initiative we each roll 2 D6 the difference is the number of cards we draw and the highest roll decides who goes first with their drawn cards, all cards are drawn until finished then the next player goes. 

There are cards that activate the Company troops and separate cards for British only so the British get extra opportunities to re-load and move making them more flexible and powerful. 

Steve wins by four but elects to let me go first, I get a reload which is of no use as I havent fired and I am out of range, an artillery move card which is great, followed by an artillery reload card so open fire inflicting a couple of casualties to start proceedings. Last card is British movement, each of my brigades has 2 British and 2 Indian battalions, the cavalry both being British or Queens regiments, the Queens troops all take a full move forward.

Troops get 3 actions which can be move, limber/un-limber change formation etc. The foot all move three actions in line at 4 inches each, the horse move two actions of 8 inches as they arrive in column (Line is 6 inches) and they then form line for their third action.

Steve is out next also with a re-load he cant use, followed by an uncontrolled advance card, this forces his tribal brigades to test to see if they can control their fiery warriors, on a  1 or 2 they will attack the nearest enemy.

The tribal foot are kept under control but the horse throw caution to the window and charge forward 3 full actions not quite reaching the leading British cavalry.

The Sikhs get movement cards but Steve is happy to hold his position and let me come to him.

Company movement and all my troops now move forward with the Indians moving forward to try fill the gaps between the British units and also form a small reserve behind them.

The artillery move card allows me to man handle forward to support the infantry.

The cards are originally designed for Seven Years War, if we are happy I will create some Sikh Wars specific ones on my own.

Cavalry Movement allows my Lancers to charge the Tribal horse. The Tribal horse must test to stand, one unit passes the other legs it, retiring one full move dis-ordered.

So whilst my Lancers charge the front two units of Tribal cavalry the melee must wait for a Combat resolution card. The player who pulls this first will get the charge bonus.

Fortunately I get the Combat resolution card first. We each get one D6 per base, I then get an extra three D6 for the difference in quality and another for my charge bonus, lastly I get a bonus for lance. The British then have 10 dice needing 6 for a casualty, the Sikhs have 5.  

Steve gets one casualty on the lancers, I score 3 on the tribal horse, thats an immediate break test for losing a base.

They are level two so have two dice needing a 5 or 6 to stand. However they loose one for loser of melee and another for 25% casualties. This would take them to zero but unit always get one dice, but need a 6 if they have fallen below 1. Steve rolls again for the response to failing morale and the unit is forced back two full moves (6 actions) and dis-ordered having rolled a 3.

My Lancers are pretty done in so rally behind the Light Dragoons who press forward and meet the next unit of irregular Sikh horse.

The main forces are still quite far away but a flurry of movement cards soon has us at close quarters.

I move into firing range and get a re-load card firing a volley, Steve fires his guns in return, I get another movement card for all my troops so fire a further volley, taking both guns down to virtually nothing and one battalion of Sikhs retires after failing a morale test. I use my move card to charge 4 units of foot, one doesnt quite reach, with the others I hit two battalions and the guns.

Steve uses his loaded infantry to volley me on the way in. 

When the melee resolution card comes out we get mixed results, the Sikh guns are overwhelmed and the gunners die to a man defending their guns. My next British unit does well against the Sikh foot but they stand as does the next unit against a native battalion. These units are locked until the netx melee resolution card. Steves Sikhs get a move card volley my end unit of British and then charge them. Another melee resolution card comes out and whilst the first melee is a British win the next two and narrow losses and the British fail their morale and fall back.  

Its still all to play for the Sikhs have had all of their cavalry and haf of their regular foot driven back or routed and lost all of their guns, the British meanwhile have had two battalions badly mauled and thrown back. Either side is able to win here but the British have the edge in both quality and numbers left on table, 

The game has been a great sucess and as soon as I get home I start looking at designing Sikh appropriate cards, few more games to finalise things but we are definately on the right track.

Stay tuned for more udates but in the meantime thanks for stopping by.